Adventure Log, Session 7 The Old Orc Temple, Part 4
General Summary
Elitheris, Taid, and Eykit were in what seemed to be a kitchen and dining area. There were cabinets and shelves with ingredients, like salt, flour, spices, and the like. There were barrels, one with pickles, one with salted pork, one with ale, another with cider, and yet another with fresh water. They ate their fill. Then they headed out to explore and secure the area.
There was a hallway that circled the floor. There were doors on the west and east hallways. The doors were not original to the building, but added later, relatively recently. They checked the western side first. Eykit listened at the door, to see if he could hear anyone inside the room beyond the door. He heard nothing, although part of that could have been the constant drumming and screaming coming from beneath the floor. Opening the door, they find bedrooms.
The bedrooms are all similar, in form at least. Beds, dressers, nightstands, chests of clothes and blankets. One room had alchemical apparatus, along with four fire college spell books, written in Mekiitagi, and a large burn mark in the corner. Another had a fighting dummy, with cuts and slashes in the critical areas. One was an utter, disgusting mess. One looked barely slept in. Two of the rooms looked like some kind of barracks, with bunk beds.
But all were empty. The presumption was that they were all downstairs, making all of that racket.
Rooms 1-10 seemed to be bedrooms. Room 12 is the kitchen/dining area; 11 is the meeting room; 13 seemed to be the high priest's quarters.
And still the drums beat, and the chanting echoed, punctuated by horrible screaming at regular intervals.
They also found two much larger rooms, in the center of the level. The first was what appeared to be a conference room, with a large table with a dozen chairs set around it. The other was a much larger bedroom, with a sitting area in the front, separated by a screen partition. This room seemed to be the head priest’s room, judging by the decorated robes they found in a chest, and the fully stocked (but used) liquor cabinet.
Like the rest of the bedrooms, it was unoccupied.
They found the stairway down in the center of the southern hallway. It lead some thirty feet down to a lower level. Mr. Wiggles didn’t like it, and was growling. Eykit, being the sneaky one, crept down the stairs until he could peek into the room below. As he made his way down the stone stairs, the smell of the lower level hit his nostrils. It smelled like a combination of blood, sweat, unwashed bodies, filth, and some kind of acrid tang that they couldn’t identify. The noise of the drumming and chanting was fairly loud, although now they could hear something else, as well: sobbing, moaning, and plaintive cries for help.
The room was a large, twenty by forty foot space, with only a sofa, coffee table, and pair of chairs occupying the space. Oh, and the two guards, sitting on the sofa with their feet up on the coffee table, nursing mugs of ale. They faced the stairs, so anyone coming down would be instantly noticed.
Room 6 is the landing, with the sofa along the short wall between the doorways to the hallway. Rows of cells line the hallway.
Eykit crept back up the stairs as quietly as possible to tell the others what he saw. They deliberated, and Taid spent the time to cast Mystic Mist at the top of the stairway. It would provide a place for them to retreat to, should that become necessary.
After a bit of strategizing, they figured out a plan. Elitheris stood, bow and arrows ready, at the top of the stairs, with Eykit beside her. Taid stood in front of them both. He tossed an empty mug down the stairs, trying to attract the attention of the two guards below.
“What the…” the Human guard said, rising from the sofa. “What are those guys up there up to?”
The Human Protector, just before he caught an arrow with his face.
The Orc beside him rose as well.
The Human walked over to the mug, looking up the stairs. All he saw was fog at the top of the stairs. “What the fuck is that?” he said, incredulously. Elitheris loosed her arrow, and it hit him in the chest, striking his linothorax armor with a dull thud. It failed to go through both his linothorax and gambeson, and he pulled it out angrily as he shouted, “We’re under attack!”
But his slight hesitation before diving out of the way was his undoing, as Elitheris launched another arrow, this time hitting him in the face, snapping his head back, and causing him to topple backwards. He didn’t get up again.
“Fuck! Jeff!” the Orc said, turning to one of the openings to the hallway. He popped his head into the hallway, and yelled, “We’re being attacked!”
Answering his summons, reinforcements responded. But it would take time for them to show up. In the meantime, the three of them had come down the stairs. The Orc guard was peering at them from cover, at the opening to the hallway. But there was enough of him to see for Elitheris to shoot an arrow at him, punching an arrow through his left forearm and making him drop his spear as he pulled back behind cover. She moved along the base of the stairway, trying to get an angle on him that would allow her to shoot him again.
Mr. Wiggles barked, then charged down the stairs, following Elitheris. He ran at the Orcish guard, biting at the guard’s groin armor. His teeth failed to get past the gambeson, but it was enough to distract the guard. The guard had pulled out his axe, and used it on Mr. Wiggles. It was a powerful hit, and Mr. Wiggles yelped in pain and fear. The dog, badly wounded, turned and ran up the stairs.
He shouted in rage as he charged the archer. He got close enough to strike at Elitheris, but she was already moving, heading to go back up the stairs. The axe whistled above her as she dove into a forward roll, evading the attack.
Taid stepped in with his halberd, cleaving into his other arm, crippling it, sending the axe sailing into the couch cushions. The Orc retreated, running out of the room towards the west.
Eykit moved to the eastern side of the room, and peeked around the corner into the hallway. Two guards were running from the east. He snapped his head to the west: two guards came from there, too. They only had a few seconds before the reinforcements showed up. And the reinforcements had missile weapons. The three retreated back up the stairs, into the fog.
They could hear the guards in the room below discussing what to do about the intruders. There was talk about attacking, but that quickly got voted down. “As long as they don’t interfere with the ceremony, it won’t be a problem. The Servitor can deal with them.” There were other words, but they couldn’t be heard over the drumming and screaming. Not to mention that the ruckus alerted the prisoners, who were now clamoring for help and rescue.
Eykit again crept down the stairs, to see what the guards were doing. It had been a few minutes, without them making an appearance at the base of the stairs. Eykit saw the Goblin with the crossbow and the Human with the bow using the eastern doorway for cover, with their weapons aimed at the stairway. Anyone coming down those stairs would be shot at. One Orc was with the two archers; the other covered the western opening. They were camped, waiting for the intruders to come down.
It was time for more spells. Taid cast an area of Darkness at the base of the stairs, to give some cover. Eykit was the first one to go down the stairs into the darkness; seeing a flash of movement, the Goblin fired his crossbow, but his bolt missed, bouncing off of the back wall, the broken pieces clattering down the stairs. Elitheris moved next, also heading towards the area of darkness. The Human archer loosed his arrow, but he, too, missed. The stairs and stairwell providing enough cover to make the shot difficult. He and his Goblin buddy reloaded.
Taid came down, moving into the darkness. He began casting Flash. An arrow zinged past them, missing all three of them; the Human archer was firing blindly into the field of darkness, hoping to hit something. The Goblin raised the crossbow, but just before he could shoot the Flash went off.
Taid had told his companions to close their eyes, so they weren’t affected. But in the oil-lamp dimness of the room, the Flash of light blazed like a sun. The two Orcs managed to blink in time; but the Human and Goblin were not so lucky. They were blinded, the two Orcs only had their vision obscured by spots and discomfort. Elitheris loosed an arrow at the blinded Goblin. The bodkin point went through his helmet and into his brain. But he wasn’t dead, and only reeled back, blinded, in pain, with a 32” arrow sticking out of his forehead. The two blinded archers were retreating, out of the line of fire.
Eykit threw a knife at the Orc guard at the eastern opening, but it thudded off of his mail shirt. So did an arrow from Elitheris. Taid swung his halberd, connecting with the Orc’s chest, cleaving through links and layered cloth alike, opening a huge gash in the Orc’s chest. He falls over, crumpling to the ground. Taid turns his attention to the other Orc, who is charging into combat.
Elitheris loosed another arrow at the Goblin, hitting him in the face, sending him stumbling back a few steps before falling unconscious, two arrows coming out of his head like the antenna of some great insect.
The Human archer was recovering from the blindness, his eyes working, although his vision was obscured by spots and after-images.
Elitheris looses an arrow into the Human guard’s chest. He starts drawing an arrow, but a her second shot hits him in the hand, so he can’t draw an arrow out of his quiver. He pulls his sword, and he attacks Elitheris, missing. She is retreating, keeping distance, in order to keep loosing arrows. She cripples his arm, and he drops the sword before succumbing to his wounds and falling over.
Meanwhile, Taid and Eykit were fighting the other Orc guard. Armed with a spear, he was coming after Taid.
Eykit hits him with a thrown knife to the face, but while damaging, it only made the Orc mad.
Taid hacked at the Orc’s leg with his halberd, giving the Orc a deep wound, but not a crippling one.
Wobbling only a little, he struck back at the Dwarf, missing, since Taid had cast a Blur spell on himself, making him very hard to hit, especially since the Orc can’t see too well due to the Flash spell.
Then Taid got a hit on the Orc’s arm, crippling it. The Orc had to use a single hand to spear the fuzzy Dwarf.
Eykit got into hand to hand melee, stabbing the Orc in the chest, and drawing a bit of blood, following up with a strike to the groin, again drawing a bit of blood.
But it gave Taid a chance to really hack at the Orc’s non-crippled arm, cutting it off below the elbow. The Orc screamed, then fell over, finally succumbing to his wounds.
The fight basically over, they moved the bodies out of the hallway and into the room. While doing this, they noticed that the first Orc guard, who had retreated minutes before with a pair of crippled arms, was at the far western end of the hallway, watching them. They could see him gesticulating to someone around the far corner. So Elitheris shot an arrow at him, hitting him in the chest with a needle bodkin point. He ducked back around the corner, out of sight.
They looked into the cells nearby. Some were empty. But many were occupied by prisoners. They were maltreated, malnourished, emaciated, bruised, cut, scraped, and whipped. Some were seated on the floor, rocking. Some seemed catatonic. What little the group was able to get out of them were things like “save us!”, “Are you here to rescue us?” and “help me, they are killing us!”
They haven’t looted the “Bedroom Floor”. They only checked the bodies for coins and keys, although no keys were found. None of the guards had keys to the cell doors. Someone else must have them.
The drumming, chanting, and screaming continues.
There was a hallway that circled the floor. There were doors on the west and east hallways. The doors were not original to the building, but added later, relatively recently. They checked the western side first. Eykit listened at the door, to see if he could hear anyone inside the room beyond the door. He heard nothing, although part of that could have been the constant drumming and screaming coming from beneath the floor. Opening the door, they find bedrooms.
The bedrooms are all similar, in form at least. Beds, dressers, nightstands, chests of clothes and blankets. One room had alchemical apparatus, along with four fire college spell books, written in Mekiitagi, and a large burn mark in the corner. Another had a fighting dummy, with cuts and slashes in the critical areas. One was an utter, disgusting mess. One looked barely slept in. Two of the rooms looked like some kind of barracks, with bunk beds.
But all were empty. The presumption was that they were all downstairs, making all of that racket.
And still the drums beat, and the chanting echoed, punctuated by horrible screaming at regular intervals.
They also found two much larger rooms, in the center of the level. The first was what appeared to be a conference room, with a large table with a dozen chairs set around it. The other was a much larger bedroom, with a sitting area in the front, separated by a screen partition. This room seemed to be the head priest’s room, judging by the decorated robes they found in a chest, and the fully stocked (but used) liquor cabinet.
Like the rest of the bedrooms, it was unoccupied.
They found the stairway down in the center of the southern hallway. It lead some thirty feet down to a lower level. Mr. Wiggles didn’t like it, and was growling. Eykit, being the sneaky one, crept down the stairs until he could peek into the room below. As he made his way down the stone stairs, the smell of the lower level hit his nostrils. It smelled like a combination of blood, sweat, unwashed bodies, filth, and some kind of acrid tang that they couldn’t identify. The noise of the drumming and chanting was fairly loud, although now they could hear something else, as well: sobbing, moaning, and plaintive cries for help.
The room was a large, twenty by forty foot space, with only a sofa, coffee table, and pair of chairs occupying the space. Oh, and the two guards, sitting on the sofa with their feet up on the coffee table, nursing mugs of ale. They faced the stairs, so anyone coming down would be instantly noticed.
Eykit crept back up the stairs as quietly as possible to tell the others what he saw. They deliberated, and Taid spent the time to cast Mystic Mist at the top of the stairway. It would provide a place for them to retreat to, should that become necessary.
After a bit of strategizing, they figured out a plan. Elitheris stood, bow and arrows ready, at the top of the stairs, with Eykit beside her. Taid stood in front of them both. He tossed an empty mug down the stairs, trying to attract the attention of the two guards below.
“What the…” the Human guard said, rising from the sofa. “What are those guys up there up to?”
The Orc beside him rose as well.
The Human walked over to the mug, looking up the stairs. All he saw was fog at the top of the stairs. “What the fuck is that?” he said, incredulously. Elitheris loosed her arrow, and it hit him in the chest, striking his linothorax armor with a dull thud. It failed to go through both his linothorax and gambeson, and he pulled it out angrily as he shouted, “We’re under attack!”
But his slight hesitation before diving out of the way was his undoing, as Elitheris launched another arrow, this time hitting him in the face, snapping his head back, and causing him to topple backwards. He didn’t get up again.
Answering his summons, reinforcements responded. But it would take time for them to show up. In the meantime, the three of them had come down the stairs. The Orc guard was peering at them from cover, at the opening to the hallway. But there was enough of him to see for Elitheris to shoot an arrow at him, punching an arrow through his left forearm and making him drop his spear as he pulled back behind cover. She moved along the base of the stairway, trying to get an angle on him that would allow her to shoot him again.
Mr. Wiggles barked, then charged down the stairs, following Elitheris. He ran at the Orcish guard, biting at the guard’s groin armor. His teeth failed to get past the gambeson, but it was enough to distract the guard. The guard had pulled out his axe, and used it on Mr. Wiggles. It was a powerful hit, and Mr. Wiggles yelped in pain and fear. The dog, badly wounded, turned and ran up the stairs.
He shouted in rage as he charged the archer. He got close enough to strike at Elitheris, but she was already moving, heading to go back up the stairs. The axe whistled above her as she dove into a forward roll, evading the attack.
Taid stepped in with his halberd, cleaving into his other arm, crippling it, sending the axe sailing into the couch cushions. The Orc retreated, running out of the room towards the west.
Eykit moved to the eastern side of the room, and peeked around the corner into the hallway. Two guards were running from the east. He snapped his head to the west: two guards came from there, too. They only had a few seconds before the reinforcements showed up. And the reinforcements had missile weapons. The three retreated back up the stairs, into the fog.
They could hear the guards in the room below discussing what to do about the intruders. There was talk about attacking, but that quickly got voted down. “As long as they don’t interfere with the ceremony, it won’t be a problem. The Servitor can deal with them.” There were other words, but they couldn’t be heard over the drumming and screaming. Not to mention that the ruckus alerted the prisoners, who were now clamoring for help and rescue.
Eykit again crept down the stairs, to see what the guards were doing. It had been a few minutes, without them making an appearance at the base of the stairs. Eykit saw the Goblin with the crossbow and the Human with the bow using the eastern doorway for cover, with their weapons aimed at the stairway. Anyone coming down those stairs would be shot at. One Orc was with the two archers; the other covered the western opening. They were camped, waiting for the intruders to come down.
It was time for more spells. Taid cast an area of Darkness at the base of the stairs, to give some cover. Eykit was the first one to go down the stairs into the darkness; seeing a flash of movement, the Goblin fired his crossbow, but his bolt missed, bouncing off of the back wall, the broken pieces clattering down the stairs. Elitheris moved next, also heading towards the area of darkness. The Human archer loosed his arrow, but he, too, missed. The stairs and stairwell providing enough cover to make the shot difficult. He and his Goblin buddy reloaded.
Taid had told his companions to close their eyes, so they weren’t affected. But in the oil-lamp dimness of the room, the Flash of light blazed like a sun. The two Orcs managed to blink in time; but the Human and Goblin were not so lucky. They were blinded, the two Orcs only had their vision obscured by spots and discomfort. Elitheris loosed an arrow at the blinded Goblin. The bodkin point went through his helmet and into his brain. But he wasn’t dead, and only reeled back, blinded, in pain, with a 32” arrow sticking out of his forehead. The two blinded archers were retreating, out of the line of fire.
Eykit threw a knife at the Orc guard at the eastern opening, but it thudded off of his mail shirt. So did an arrow from Elitheris. Taid swung his halberd, connecting with the Orc’s chest, cleaving through links and layered cloth alike, opening a huge gash in the Orc’s chest. He falls over, crumpling to the ground. Taid turns his attention to the other Orc, who is charging into combat.
Elitheris loosed another arrow at the Goblin, hitting him in the face, sending him stumbling back a few steps before falling unconscious, two arrows coming out of his head like the antenna of some great insect.
The Human archer was recovering from the blindness, his eyes working, although his vision was obscured by spots and after-images.
Elitheris looses an arrow into the Human guard’s chest. He starts drawing an arrow, but a her second shot hits him in the hand, so he can’t draw an arrow out of his quiver. He pulls his sword, and he attacks Elitheris, missing. She is retreating, keeping distance, in order to keep loosing arrows. She cripples his arm, and he drops the sword before succumbing to his wounds and falling over.
Meanwhile, Taid and Eykit were fighting the other Orc guard. Armed with a spear, he was coming after Taid.
Eykit hits him with a thrown knife to the face, but while damaging, it only made the Orc mad.
Taid hacked at the Orc’s leg with his halberd, giving the Orc a deep wound, but not a crippling one.
Wobbling only a little, he struck back at the Dwarf, missing, since Taid had cast a Blur spell on himself, making him very hard to hit, especially since the Orc can’t see too well due to the Flash spell.
Then Taid got a hit on the Orc’s arm, crippling it. The Orc had to use a single hand to spear the fuzzy Dwarf.
Eykit got into hand to hand melee, stabbing the Orc in the chest, and drawing a bit of blood, following up with a strike to the groin, again drawing a bit of blood.
But it gave Taid a chance to really hack at the Orc’s non-crippled arm, cutting it off below the elbow. The Orc screamed, then fell over, finally succumbing to his wounds.
The fight basically over, they moved the bodies out of the hallway and into the room. While doing this, they noticed that the first Orc guard, who had retreated minutes before with a pair of crippled arms, was at the far western end of the hallway, watching them. They could see him gesticulating to someone around the far corner. So Elitheris shot an arrow at him, hitting him in the chest with a needle bodkin point. He ducked back around the corner, out of sight.
They looked into the cells nearby. Some were empty. But many were occupied by prisoners. They were maltreated, malnourished, emaciated, bruised, cut, scraped, and whipped. Some were seated on the floor, rocking. Some seemed catatonic. What little the group was able to get out of them were things like “save us!”, “Are you here to rescue us?” and “help me, they are killing us!”
They haven’t looted the “Bedroom Floor”. They only checked the bodies for coins and keys, although no keys were found. None of the guards had keys to the cell doors. Someone else must have them.
The drumming, chanting, and screaming continues.
Rewards Granted
Some pocket change, 3 CPs. Any other loot they have basically left untouched in the rooms above, with the exception of a nice belt with a golden belt buckle.
Character(s) interacted with
Temple Protectors. Prisoners.
Report Date
17 Jan 2022
Primary Location
Secondary Location
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