14 - Arriving at Thunder Circle
After resting we decided to head out in the morning of the 15th of Eleint for Falcon's hunting lodge, heading through the woods on a gloomy day. Approaching the hunting lodge Debeid and I were able to smell the traces of a fire on the air.
As we approached we saw that the lodge had been set to fire, and we found the head of Falcon on a pike out front. I followed Peter and Sahar into the compound to look for survivors. The main building was burned down, though the stone building survived. While no horses were left at the lodge there was a new cart that wasn't there before.
While Peter and Sahar moved towards one of the buildings I decided to investigate the cart, to see if anyone was hiding near by, or if there was any clue as to the attackers to be sure that it was the Orcs we tried to be diplomatic with. After hearing a clunk in the kitchen Tivran, Sahar and myself decided to investigate. We had opened the doors at the same time, surprising a terrified halfling, who seeing an Aasimar, a fellow Halfling, and a Drow instead of Orcs called out a thanks to Sheela Peryoyl. She appeared to be shaken, but otherwise unharmed. Apparently she'd been hiding in the cellar under the kitchen for three days with Pel.
I worked with Peter to bury the bodies, before we sent the Pel and Rylienne on their way to Phandalin.
After that it was time for us to move on towards the Circle of Thunder, which was only a few miles from the hunting lodge. There was an old dead tree in a clearing on the way to the circle, with creepy dolls at it's base. Sahar and Debeid approached to destroy the dolls, which caused roots to shoot from the ground at them.
Traveling on from there we saw uneven ground rising to a ridge, with several hulking orcs ascending a similar ridge across from us, separated from us by a sixty-foot-wide, ten-foot-deep gully. The orcs unleash terrible battle cries as they are joined by a humanoid with elongated claws.
The orcs began to flow across the gully at us, tossing javelins before the fight broke out in full. The fight was fairly brief, but left us a bit bloodied.
During the last bit of the approach to a ninety foot tall hill ominous storm clouds formed overhead. As we crept up we saw a ritual being performed at the summit. Catching them by surprise Peter attacked one, as Debeid cast spike growth under them, and I dropped a ball of darkness over their heads.
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