Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Rel's Faded Glory Campaign (Thank You Old One!)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 918" data-attributes="member: 99"><p>[BA Not-So-Chance Encounter[/B]</p><p></p><p>A couple more days passed and they found themselves well inside the lands of the Nervii. Most of the villages they encountered were abandoned and they spotted several groups of refugees who were headed southwards. Not a single dead body was spotted in any of the villages they passed. Nor were there any freshly dug graves. These sights caused the party to look at each other with resignation.</p><p></p><p>As they made camp one evening a raven was spotted in a tree nearby. Speaks with Stone had been seeking an owl whom he might befriend in order to gain some information about the area. He supposed that a raven would do. He cast a spell of animal friendship on the bird but it took flight, apparently having resisted the spell. Speaks shook his head in frustration and took his turn at watch.</p><p></p><p>The next day, they spotted another raven perched on a branch that took flight as they drew near. Krase was becoming a bit worried by this phenomenon but was assured by the others in the party that such birds were common anywhere there had been battle. They continued on their way.</p><p></p><p>That afternoon they crossed into a glacial valley that was broad and flat and strewn with huge boulders. Far off in the distance they could see the upthrust spire of what must be The Stone Tooth. They guessed it to be around two days distant.</p><p></p><p>As they made their way among the boulders and trees of the glacial valley, Ilrath saw movement among the rocks and called out a cry of warning. A raven flew from the top of a nearby rock formation. Moments later, an outlandishly dressed orcish bowman stepped from behind a nearby boulder and fired a shot that glanced off Krase's armor. He wore a suit of studded leather armor but had little else in the way of clothing. He was adorned with a variety of brightly colored feathers that could have come from no bird indigenous to the area. Time to speculate on ornithology later, the party decided.</p><p></p><p>Ilrath spotted a brilliant yellow headdress just on the other side of a narrow space between a pair of boulders. He figured there was a good chance that beneath it was an orcish head that needed cleaving in twain. He hustled over and took a hack at the lightly armored orc but the narrow space between the tall boulders provided cover to the enemy and he missed.</p><p></p><p>An orcish warrior, also dressed in many colorful feathers - and a chain shirt, charged from cover and attacked Krase with his halberd, lightly wounding him. Another moved to pin Ilrath into the narrow crevice where he fought the orc in the headdress but missed the barbarian with his warhammer. The orc wearing the outlandish headgear raised a fairly innocent looking stick at Ilrath and loudly cried "Asharak!" at which point a jet of flame spurted forth engulfing Ilrath and blistering his skin.</p><p></p><p>Krase cut at the orc wielding the halberd an inflicted a serious wound with one of his short swords. Speaks with Stone pointed at the archer behind the boulder and gave Arc the order to attack as he stepped behind the warrior fighting Krase, flanking him with his long spear. With his attention divided between the Ranger and the Druid, the orc let his guard down and took a fatal thrust from the long spear.</p><p></p><p>Rhys had loaded his crossbow and taken a moment to cast his magical armor spell.</p><p></p><p>The orcish archer fired a point blank shot at the wolf that bore down on him but only scored a grazing wound.</p><p></p><p>Ilrath swung again through the narrow space between the boulders, this time scoring a hit on the orcish shaman but not one powerful enough to fell him. In turn, the shaman again raised his wand and shouted "Asharak!" once again, a word that would ever be burned (hehe) into Ilrath's memory. Another gout of flame washed over Ilrath and while he still stood, his beard would be weeks in recovering.</p><p></p><p>The warrior behind Ilrath took another swing with his warhammer but it bounced ineffectually off of the armor the barbarian wore.</p><p></p><p>A moment later, Krase moved in behind the warrior who was now a flankee instead of a flanker. A couple of cuts with his short swords left the orc standing but wounded.</p><p></p><p>Speaks with Stone moved over to attack the archer with his long spear but in an effort to avoid hitting Arc, he missed his target.</p><p></p><p>Rhys stepped forward and fired a shot at the warrior standing between Ilrath and Krase but his bolt missed the orc and shattered on the boulder behind him.</p><p></p><p>Seeing that the tide was rapidly turning against his team, the archer turned and fled at top speed with both Arc and Speaks taking parting shots at him but missing.</p><p></p><p>Ilrath, sorely wounded and afraid of another flame attack from the shaman stepped away from the crevice and hacked down the warrior behind him. This reprieve was welcome to the shaman who took a moment to heal the worst of his wounds. But his relief was to be short lived as Krase charged around to the other side of the boulder and delivered a vicious stab with his right hand blade.</p><p></p><p>Rhys reloaded his crossbow again but found himself with not a target in sight. He moved around the opposite boulder from the one that Krase had just attacked the shaman, seeking to possibly flank the shaman. Speaks and Arc took off in pursuit of the archer with Arc outdistancing the Druid as he quickly closed the distance on the fleeing orc.</p><p></p><p>Ilrath stepped back to the narrow opening and took another swing at the shaman but again the rocks hampered his swing and he missed. Hoping to induce the Ranger to back off, the shaman used his wand against him this time. Krase was scorched and angry but still had plenty of fight left in him. He drove forward and scored hits with both blades, sending the shaman to his eternal rest.</p><p></p><p>Just then, Rhys rounded the other boulder only to find that again he had no target. He raced off in the direction he had seen Speaks and Arc run.</p><p></p><p>Deciding that it was impossible to outrun the wolf, the last remaining orc drew his scimitar and hacked at Arc, scoring a minor hit on the wolf. But Arc leapt on him viciously dealing a nasty bite to the foul tasting orc. Speaks continued to race to catch up with his wolf friend and their quarry. Again the orc sliced at the wolf, but this time his aim was off and he swung wide. Arc attacked low in an attempt to knock the orc to the ground where he could be more properly mauled to death but the orc danced free of his jaws. Unfortunately for him, Speaks with Stone came charging in with his spear and used it to remind him not to fool with mother nature. The orc slid to the ground where Arc promptly ripped his throat out.</p><p></p><p>As Speaks and Arc stood over the slain orc, Rhys came running up, panting.</p><p></p><p>"Damn! I'm just a couple seconds too late to kill anybody today!"</p><p></p><p>He and Speaks took a minute to rummage through the belongings of the orc and drag him under some bushes. They discovered that he carried a sack of meat that looked all too human. Rhys also noted that the studded leather armor the orc wore seemed exceptionally well made. He however had no intentions of wearing the armor of a stinking orc. They returned to the scene of the ambush.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, after recovering from the initial shock of his burns, Ilrath noted the fine chain shirts the orcish warriors wore. He set about stripping one of the suits off the body and trying it on for size. Clearly he had fewer issues with looting the orcs of armor than Rhys did.</p><p></p><p>Krase had made a startling discovery. The orcish shaman wore an amulet that was almost identical to one that his grandfather (not the dwarven one) had left him and which he carried in his pack along with his grandfather's journal. He asked Rhys to examine the newfound amulet and tell him what he could about it, but he didn't reveal to the rest of the party that he carried a similar one.</p><p></p><p>Rhys was only too happy to assist in the looting of the orcs and quickly laid claim to the wand the shaman had used. As he had a fairly good idea of what it did and had heard the command word several times during the fighting, he saw no need to identify it further at the moment. His spell of magical detection also uncovered a pair of scrolls in a tube on the shaman's belt that turned out to be healing magic.</p><p></p><p>Krase opted to eschew the chain shirt handed to him by Ilrath. But he was interested when Rhys mentioned the high quality studded leather the archer wore. He decided to recover it before they continued northwards. As they left the scene of the ambush, a raven could be seen winging its way to the northwest.</p><p></p><p><strong>NEXT: On to the Stone Tooth</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rel, post: 918, member: 99"] [BA Not-So-Chance Encounter[/B] A couple more days passed and they found themselves well inside the lands of the Nervii. Most of the villages they encountered were abandoned and they spotted several groups of refugees who were headed southwards. Not a single dead body was spotted in any of the villages they passed. Nor were there any freshly dug graves. These sights caused the party to look at each other with resignation. As they made camp one evening a raven was spotted in a tree nearby. Speaks with Stone had been seeking an owl whom he might befriend in order to gain some information about the area. He supposed that a raven would do. He cast a spell of animal friendship on the bird but it took flight, apparently having resisted the spell. Speaks shook his head in frustration and took his turn at watch. The next day, they spotted another raven perched on a branch that took flight as they drew near. Krase was becoming a bit worried by this phenomenon but was assured by the others in the party that such birds were common anywhere there had been battle. They continued on their way. That afternoon they crossed into a glacial valley that was broad and flat and strewn with huge boulders. Far off in the distance they could see the upthrust spire of what must be The Stone Tooth. They guessed it to be around two days distant. As they made their way among the boulders and trees of the glacial valley, Ilrath saw movement among the rocks and called out a cry of warning. A raven flew from the top of a nearby rock formation. Moments later, an outlandishly dressed orcish bowman stepped from behind a nearby boulder and fired a shot that glanced off Krase's armor. He wore a suit of studded leather armor but had little else in the way of clothing. He was adorned with a variety of brightly colored feathers that could have come from no bird indigenous to the area. Time to speculate on ornithology later, the party decided. Ilrath spotted a brilliant yellow headdress just on the other side of a narrow space between a pair of boulders. He figured there was a good chance that beneath it was an orcish head that needed cleaving in twain. He hustled over and took a hack at the lightly armored orc but the narrow space between the tall boulders provided cover to the enemy and he missed. An orcish warrior, also dressed in many colorful feathers - and a chain shirt, charged from cover and attacked Krase with his halberd, lightly wounding him. Another moved to pin Ilrath into the narrow crevice where he fought the orc in the headdress but missed the barbarian with his warhammer. The orc wearing the outlandish headgear raised a fairly innocent looking stick at Ilrath and loudly cried "Asharak!" at which point a jet of flame spurted forth engulfing Ilrath and blistering his skin. Krase cut at the orc wielding the halberd an inflicted a serious wound with one of his short swords. Speaks with Stone pointed at the archer behind the boulder and gave Arc the order to attack as he stepped behind the warrior fighting Krase, flanking him with his long spear. With his attention divided between the Ranger and the Druid, the orc let his guard down and took a fatal thrust from the long spear. Rhys had loaded his crossbow and taken a moment to cast his magical armor spell. The orcish archer fired a point blank shot at the wolf that bore down on him but only scored a grazing wound. Ilrath swung again through the narrow space between the boulders, this time scoring a hit on the orcish shaman but not one powerful enough to fell him. In turn, the shaman again raised his wand and shouted "Asharak!" once again, a word that would ever be burned (hehe) into Ilrath's memory. Another gout of flame washed over Ilrath and while he still stood, his beard would be weeks in recovering. The warrior behind Ilrath took another swing with his warhammer but it bounced ineffectually off of the armor the barbarian wore. A moment later, Krase moved in behind the warrior who was now a flankee instead of a flanker. A couple of cuts with his short swords left the orc standing but wounded. Speaks with Stone moved over to attack the archer with his long spear but in an effort to avoid hitting Arc, he missed his target. Rhys stepped forward and fired a shot at the warrior standing between Ilrath and Krase but his bolt missed the orc and shattered on the boulder behind him. Seeing that the tide was rapidly turning against his team, the archer turned and fled at top speed with both Arc and Speaks taking parting shots at him but missing. Ilrath, sorely wounded and afraid of another flame attack from the shaman stepped away from the crevice and hacked down the warrior behind him. This reprieve was welcome to the shaman who took a moment to heal the worst of his wounds. But his relief was to be short lived as Krase charged around to the other side of the boulder and delivered a vicious stab with his right hand blade. Rhys reloaded his crossbow again but found himself with not a target in sight. He moved around the opposite boulder from the one that Krase had just attacked the shaman, seeking to possibly flank the shaman. Speaks and Arc took off in pursuit of the archer with Arc outdistancing the Druid as he quickly closed the distance on the fleeing orc. Ilrath stepped back to the narrow opening and took another swing at the shaman but again the rocks hampered his swing and he missed. Hoping to induce the Ranger to back off, the shaman used his wand against him this time. Krase was scorched and angry but still had plenty of fight left in him. He drove forward and scored hits with both blades, sending the shaman to his eternal rest. Just then, Rhys rounded the other boulder only to find that again he had no target. He raced off in the direction he had seen Speaks and Arc run. Deciding that it was impossible to outrun the wolf, the last remaining orc drew his scimitar and hacked at Arc, scoring a minor hit on the wolf. But Arc leapt on him viciously dealing a nasty bite to the foul tasting orc. Speaks continued to race to catch up with his wolf friend and their quarry. Again the orc sliced at the wolf, but this time his aim was off and he swung wide. Arc attacked low in an attempt to knock the orc to the ground where he could be more properly mauled to death but the orc danced free of his jaws. Unfortunately for him, Speaks with Stone came charging in with his spear and used it to remind him not to fool with mother nature. The orc slid to the ground where Arc promptly ripped his throat out. As Speaks and Arc stood over the slain orc, Rhys came running up, panting. "Damn! I'm just a couple seconds too late to kill anybody today!" He and Speaks took a minute to rummage through the belongings of the orc and drag him under some bushes. They discovered that he carried a sack of meat that looked all too human. Rhys also noted that the studded leather armor the orc wore seemed exceptionally well made. He however had no intentions of wearing the armor of a stinking orc. They returned to the scene of the ambush. Meanwhile, after recovering from the initial shock of his burns, Ilrath noted the fine chain shirts the orcish warriors wore. He set about stripping one of the suits off the body and trying it on for size. Clearly he had fewer issues with looting the orcs of armor than Rhys did. Krase had made a startling discovery. The orcish shaman wore an amulet that was almost identical to one that his grandfather (not the dwarven one) had left him and which he carried in his pack along with his grandfather's journal. He asked Rhys to examine the newfound amulet and tell him what he could about it, but he didn't reveal to the rest of the party that he carried a similar one. Rhys was only too happy to assist in the looting of the orcs and quickly laid claim to the wand the shaman had used. As he had a fairly good idea of what it did and had heard the command word several times during the fighting, he saw no need to identify it further at the moment. His spell of magical detection also uncovered a pair of scrolls in a tube on the shaman's belt that turned out to be healing magic. Krase opted to eschew the chain shirt handed to him by Ilrath. But he was interested when Rhys mentioned the high quality studded leather the archer wore. He decided to recover it before they continued northwards. As they left the scene of the ambush, a raven could be seen winging its way to the northwest. [B]NEXT: On to the Stone Tooth[/B] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Rel's Faded Glory Campaign (Thank You Old One!)
Top