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Rel's Faded Glory Campaign (Thank You Old One!)
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<blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 931" data-attributes="member: 99"><p>The moment of peace was short lived however. Far at the other end of the archer gallery from the room the majority of the party occupied, Rhys began screaming. Nobody in the rest of the party knew what he was screaming about and, oddly enough, neither did he. He only knew that he was suddenly filled with the most overwhelming fear he had ever experienced. He ran from his post by the secret door back through the guard room and down the archer gallery as fast as his feet would carry him.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the party members had meanwhile spread out throughout the large room the bulk of the battle had taken place in. Ilrath was closest to the stairs when they heard the terrified cries of Rhys and he moved as quickly as his fatigued body would allow toward the main entrance. Rhys dashed passed Ilrath with his face a mask of terror. Krase stopped to ask Rhys what caused his fear and, receiving no coherent answer, went after Ilrath again.</p><p></p><p>Ilrath arrived at the secret door and had time to peer beyond to where a pair of orcs were just beginning to crawl their way across the single strand of rope that remained of the bridge. That was all he saw, however because he became very sleepy all of a sudden and took a nap right in the secret doorway.</p><p></p><p>Moments later, Krase arrived in the doorway and found the orcs on the rope across the pit. One of the orcs was very nearly across and another was halfway. Krase took careful aim and fired an arrow, not at either of the orcs but at the bridge rope itself. Miraculously he struck the rope and all but severed it, the weight of the orcs snapping the remaining fibers a split second later. (Note: This was the first time we had used the "damage to inanimate objects" rules and looking all this up was starting to break up the flow of the combat. Then Krase's character said, "I'm just going to shoot. If it doesn't work, fine, but that's what I'm doing." He rolled a natural 20 and did 8 points of damage to the rope. It was one of the highlights of the campaign so far.)</p><p></p><p>The orc who was midway across the rope tried to hold on but he was slammed against the far side of the pit and plunged to his death. The orc who was nearly across however managed to grab the ledge and hang on. Krase yelled back over his shoulder, "They're coming this way!" and fired at the orc who was clambering up onto the ledge, missing.</p><p></p><p>As that orc got to his feet, the orcs on the other side of the pit yelled something at him and he turned and fled out the front door. Krase quickly ran to one of the arrowslits to fire a parting shot at him but failed to spot him in the dim light of the crevasse. Afraid that the orcs would find another way across the pit, he ran back to the secret door.</p><p></p><p>At the other end of the archer gallery, in the orcish barracks, Speaks with stone heard footsteps retreating in the hallway that Ulfe had run down. He stepped through to investigate and heard a click sound. Spinning around, he got a face full of greenish gas that emanated from the mouth of a dwarven statue. He suddenly felt the strength fade from his limbs and he quickly retreated back into the barracks and warned Rhys of this danger.</p><p></p><p>Krase had returned to the secret door and observed that the orcs had once again taken cover behind the pillars and showed no signs of attempting another crossing of the, now bridgeless, pit. Krase took the opportunity to wake Ilrath from his slumber just as Speaks arrived behind him. Krase explained that he had had to shoot the bridge down and Ilrath and Speaks were both privately impressed by his marksmanship. Speaks explained that Rhys was back in the room they had fought the big battle in trying to find a way to jam the door shut. Krase departed to help him while Ilrath and Speaks stayed behind to try and find a way to secure the secret door against intrusion by any other orcs that somehow crossed the pit.</p><p></p><p>Krase entered the large barracks room and saw Rhys trying to jam a javelin through the door handle. He approached from behind just as Rhys had withdrawn a small hammer from his pack to pound the javelin securely in place. Suddenly, the javelin splintered as the door was ripped open by Ulfe who promptly swung his axe at Rhys, missing by the smallest of margins. Ulfe alone would have been enough for Rhys to run from but seeing that he had a trio of other orcs behind him put the matter far beyond question and Rhys ran back to the stairway at the other end of the room. At least this time he was certain what it was he was terrified of.</p><p></p><p>Krase was quick to arrive at the same decision and dashed back to the stairs which were now blocked by Rhys. Krase, secure in his masculinity, was screaming not unlike a little girl as he repeated, "Down the stairs! Down the stairs!" over and over again in an attempt to hasten Rhys.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile Speaks had decided to explore the secret door opposite of the one they had been defending. He was afraid that it might offer another route deeper into the mountain that the orcs could attack from. Instead he found that it was a dead end and was returning back to the ledge.</p><p></p><p>Ilrath had heard the sound of the door crashing open and had once again returned to the area of the barracks stairway, arriving just in time to block the path of Rhys.</p><p></p><p>The orcs that were with Ulfe rushed past him and raced across the barracks arranging themselves across the top of the stairway in such a fashion that all three could attack Krase at their next opportunity. Ulfe moved in behind them.</p><p></p><p>Rhys saw an opportunity to strike at the lot of them at once. Instead of obeying Krase's litany of begging him to descend the stairway as fast as possible, Rhys edged in behind him. In one fluid motion, he drew forth the wand he had taken from the orcish adept, pulled aside Krase's long cape and thrust the wand beneath the ranger's legs yelling, "Asharak!"</p><p></p><p>The screams of Krase and the orcs blended into one as a huge gout of flame shot forth from the ranger's crotch to engulf all four of the orcs who had arranged themselves in a neat 10 foot radius. One of the orcs could no longer take the pressure and ran in fear. Pushing down his fear and humiliation, Krase struck at another orc that was within reach but his aim was ruined by the Rhys who, after all, was pressed right up against him and had a hand between his legs.</p><p></p><p>Ulfe stepped into the opening left by the fleeing orc and bore down on the ranger who found himself unable to move very well due to the aforementioned compromising position. Krase took a blow from the great axe, but it was not nearly the equal of the one he had seen Ilrath receive earlier.</p><p></p><p>Seeing that he was missing all the fun, Ilrath ascended the stairs to directly behind the cramped (and intimate) area occupied by Rhys and Krase. Seeing that little has changed from a tactical standpoint apart from the flight of the one orc, Rhys sees no reason not to shout, "Asharak!" again and engulf the three remaining orcs in flames. This time, the fires overcome the two lackeys and Ulfe once again remains alone.</p><p></p><p>Having had just about enough homo-erotic fun with his friend Rhys, and wanting to put some distance between his groin area and the magical flame-thrower his friend was wielding, Krase steped over the bodies of the orcs and slashed at Ulfe. One of his blades found a way through Ulfe's armor and wounded him again.</p><p></p><p>Ulfe slashed again at Krase but missed. Ilrath bulled his way past Rhys and took a swing at Ulfe but the wall at the top of the stairs prevented him from connecting. With the room once again crowded with his friends, Rhys reluctantly put away his wand and loaded his crossbow. Krase stepped part way around Ulfe to allow Ilrath to come fully into the room and drove in again with his blades and once again one found its way through.</p><p></p><p>Again Ulfe struck at Krase and again missed but Krase wondered how long his luck could hold out. Ilrath stepped fully into the room and swung his mighty axe but his luck was no better than that of Ulfe. Then Rhys slid past Ilrath and moved to position himself so that he could get a clear shot at the enormous orc. His bolt flew true and struck Ulfe sending him to the ground at last.</p><p></p><p>In a rather odd turn of events, Krase leapt atop Ulfe and immediately began trying to keep him from dying. Ilrath and Rhys looked askance at each other but figured that perhaps Krase wanted to question the orc. Unfortunately for Krase he was unable to staunch the flow of blood and Ulfe took any secrets he had with him to the grave. But Krase did happen to notice that Ulfe was wearing another of the mysterious amulets like that given to him by his grandfather.</p><p></p><p>While these events were unfolding, Speaks with Stone has been having an unusual encounter of his own back in the pit room. As he emerged from the secret door that lead to the arrowslit looking into the antechamber, he noticed a curious sight. Crawling across the ceiling in a fashion very similar to the way his own party had been, was an orc dressed in simple leather armor.</p><p></p><p>Speaks moved out onto the middle of the ledge and sent his recently acquired owl companion to attack. The owl moved in and clawed at the orc, scratching him. The orc, who was presently unarmed crawled as quickly as he could toward the exit, suffering a jab from the druid's long spear in the process as well as continued harassment from the owl. He managed to finally crawl back out to the crevasse and start up the wall.</p><p></p><p>Once clear of the low ceilinged antechamber and out of reach of the druid (or so he thought), he drew a dagger and slashed savagely at the owl, wounding it slightly. But in doing so, he did not notice that Speaks had dropped his long spear and drawn his cudgel, climbing the wall to within reach of the orc. The orc turned in time to slash at the druid as the owl flew away to safety. Speaks smote him with nature's own might and finally tipped the orc into unconsciousness, which sent him crashing 20 feet to the ground below.</p><p></p><p>Speaks swiftly descended to the ground below and hustled back to where he heard the dying sounds of combat. He did not notice the body of the orc he had just slain begin to smolder and smoke. (Note: The shaman hadn't found anywhere to use his flasks of alchemists fire and when he fell one of them cracked.)</p><p></p><p>Rhys passed Speaks in the archers gallery where he informed him of the demise of Ulfe. Speaks mentioned his encounter with the orcish spellcaster and Rhys went to inspect the body hoping to find some more magical booty. What he found was instead a conflagration as the body of the orcish adept was consumed by the alchemists fire. All that had escaped was a few bone fragments and the dagger that had fallen nearby.</p><p></p><p>The group gathered together and congratulated themselves on a hard won battle. For the moment at least, no more orcs were attacking them.</p><p></p><p><strong>NEXT: Information and Exploration</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rel, post: 931, member: 99"] The moment of peace was short lived however. Far at the other end of the archer gallery from the room the majority of the party occupied, Rhys began screaming. Nobody in the rest of the party knew what he was screaming about and, oddly enough, neither did he. He only knew that he was suddenly filled with the most overwhelming fear he had ever experienced. He ran from his post by the secret door back through the guard room and down the archer gallery as fast as his feet would carry him. The rest of the party members had meanwhile spread out throughout the large room the bulk of the battle had taken place in. Ilrath was closest to the stairs when they heard the terrified cries of Rhys and he moved as quickly as his fatigued body would allow toward the main entrance. Rhys dashed passed Ilrath with his face a mask of terror. Krase stopped to ask Rhys what caused his fear and, receiving no coherent answer, went after Ilrath again. Ilrath arrived at the secret door and had time to peer beyond to where a pair of orcs were just beginning to crawl their way across the single strand of rope that remained of the bridge. That was all he saw, however because he became very sleepy all of a sudden and took a nap right in the secret doorway. Moments later, Krase arrived in the doorway and found the orcs on the rope across the pit. One of the orcs was very nearly across and another was halfway. Krase took careful aim and fired an arrow, not at either of the orcs but at the bridge rope itself. Miraculously he struck the rope and all but severed it, the weight of the orcs snapping the remaining fibers a split second later. (Note: This was the first time we had used the "damage to inanimate objects" rules and looking all this up was starting to break up the flow of the combat. Then Krase's character said, "I'm just going to shoot. If it doesn't work, fine, but that's what I'm doing." He rolled a natural 20 and did 8 points of damage to the rope. It was one of the highlights of the campaign so far.) The orc who was midway across the rope tried to hold on but he was slammed against the far side of the pit and plunged to his death. The orc who was nearly across however managed to grab the ledge and hang on. Krase yelled back over his shoulder, "They're coming this way!" and fired at the orc who was clambering up onto the ledge, missing. As that orc got to his feet, the orcs on the other side of the pit yelled something at him and he turned and fled out the front door. Krase quickly ran to one of the arrowslits to fire a parting shot at him but failed to spot him in the dim light of the crevasse. Afraid that the orcs would find another way across the pit, he ran back to the secret door. At the other end of the archer gallery, in the orcish barracks, Speaks with stone heard footsteps retreating in the hallway that Ulfe had run down. He stepped through to investigate and heard a click sound. Spinning around, he got a face full of greenish gas that emanated from the mouth of a dwarven statue. He suddenly felt the strength fade from his limbs and he quickly retreated back into the barracks and warned Rhys of this danger. Krase had returned to the secret door and observed that the orcs had once again taken cover behind the pillars and showed no signs of attempting another crossing of the, now bridgeless, pit. Krase took the opportunity to wake Ilrath from his slumber just as Speaks arrived behind him. Krase explained that he had had to shoot the bridge down and Ilrath and Speaks were both privately impressed by his marksmanship. Speaks explained that Rhys was back in the room they had fought the big battle in trying to find a way to jam the door shut. Krase departed to help him while Ilrath and Speaks stayed behind to try and find a way to secure the secret door against intrusion by any other orcs that somehow crossed the pit. Krase entered the large barracks room and saw Rhys trying to jam a javelin through the door handle. He approached from behind just as Rhys had withdrawn a small hammer from his pack to pound the javelin securely in place. Suddenly, the javelin splintered as the door was ripped open by Ulfe who promptly swung his axe at Rhys, missing by the smallest of margins. Ulfe alone would have been enough for Rhys to run from but seeing that he had a trio of other orcs behind him put the matter far beyond question and Rhys ran back to the stairway at the other end of the room. At least this time he was certain what it was he was terrified of. Krase was quick to arrive at the same decision and dashed back to the stairs which were now blocked by Rhys. Krase, secure in his masculinity, was screaming not unlike a little girl as he repeated, "Down the stairs! Down the stairs!" over and over again in an attempt to hasten Rhys. Meanwhile Speaks had decided to explore the secret door opposite of the one they had been defending. He was afraid that it might offer another route deeper into the mountain that the orcs could attack from. Instead he found that it was a dead end and was returning back to the ledge. Ilrath had heard the sound of the door crashing open and had once again returned to the area of the barracks stairway, arriving just in time to block the path of Rhys. The orcs that were with Ulfe rushed past him and raced across the barracks arranging themselves across the top of the stairway in such a fashion that all three could attack Krase at their next opportunity. Ulfe moved in behind them. Rhys saw an opportunity to strike at the lot of them at once. Instead of obeying Krase's litany of begging him to descend the stairway as fast as possible, Rhys edged in behind him. In one fluid motion, he drew forth the wand he had taken from the orcish adept, pulled aside Krase's long cape and thrust the wand beneath the ranger's legs yelling, "Asharak!" The screams of Krase and the orcs blended into one as a huge gout of flame shot forth from the ranger's crotch to engulf all four of the orcs who had arranged themselves in a neat 10 foot radius. One of the orcs could no longer take the pressure and ran in fear. Pushing down his fear and humiliation, Krase struck at another orc that was within reach but his aim was ruined by the Rhys who, after all, was pressed right up against him and had a hand between his legs. Ulfe stepped into the opening left by the fleeing orc and bore down on the ranger who found himself unable to move very well due to the aforementioned compromising position. Krase took a blow from the great axe, but it was not nearly the equal of the one he had seen Ilrath receive earlier. Seeing that he was missing all the fun, Ilrath ascended the stairs to directly behind the cramped (and intimate) area occupied by Rhys and Krase. Seeing that little has changed from a tactical standpoint apart from the flight of the one orc, Rhys sees no reason not to shout, "Asharak!" again and engulf the three remaining orcs in flames. This time, the fires overcome the two lackeys and Ulfe once again remains alone. Having had just about enough homo-erotic fun with his friend Rhys, and wanting to put some distance between his groin area and the magical flame-thrower his friend was wielding, Krase steped over the bodies of the orcs and slashed at Ulfe. One of his blades found a way through Ulfe's armor and wounded him again. Ulfe slashed again at Krase but missed. Ilrath bulled his way past Rhys and took a swing at Ulfe but the wall at the top of the stairs prevented him from connecting. With the room once again crowded with his friends, Rhys reluctantly put away his wand and loaded his crossbow. Krase stepped part way around Ulfe to allow Ilrath to come fully into the room and drove in again with his blades and once again one found its way through. Again Ulfe struck at Krase and again missed but Krase wondered how long his luck could hold out. Ilrath stepped fully into the room and swung his mighty axe but his luck was no better than that of Ulfe. Then Rhys slid past Ilrath and moved to position himself so that he could get a clear shot at the enormous orc. His bolt flew true and struck Ulfe sending him to the ground at last. In a rather odd turn of events, Krase leapt atop Ulfe and immediately began trying to keep him from dying. Ilrath and Rhys looked askance at each other but figured that perhaps Krase wanted to question the orc. Unfortunately for Krase he was unable to staunch the flow of blood and Ulfe took any secrets he had with him to the grave. But Krase did happen to notice that Ulfe was wearing another of the mysterious amulets like that given to him by his grandfather. While these events were unfolding, Speaks with Stone has been having an unusual encounter of his own back in the pit room. As he emerged from the secret door that lead to the arrowslit looking into the antechamber, he noticed a curious sight. Crawling across the ceiling in a fashion very similar to the way his own party had been, was an orc dressed in simple leather armor. Speaks moved out onto the middle of the ledge and sent his recently acquired owl companion to attack. The owl moved in and clawed at the orc, scratching him. The orc, who was presently unarmed crawled as quickly as he could toward the exit, suffering a jab from the druid's long spear in the process as well as continued harassment from the owl. He managed to finally crawl back out to the crevasse and start up the wall. Once clear of the low ceilinged antechamber and out of reach of the druid (or so he thought), he drew a dagger and slashed savagely at the owl, wounding it slightly. But in doing so, he did not notice that Speaks had dropped his long spear and drawn his cudgel, climbing the wall to within reach of the orc. The orc turned in time to slash at the druid as the owl flew away to safety. Speaks smote him with nature's own might and finally tipped the orc into unconsciousness, which sent him crashing 20 feet to the ground below. Speaks swiftly descended to the ground below and hustled back to where he heard the dying sounds of combat. He did not notice the body of the orc he had just slain begin to smolder and smoke. (Note: The shaman hadn't found anywhere to use his flasks of alchemists fire and when he fell one of them cracked.) Rhys passed Speaks in the archers gallery where he informed him of the demise of Ulfe. Speaks mentioned his encounter with the orcish spellcaster and Rhys went to inspect the body hoping to find some more magical booty. What he found was instead a conflagration as the body of the orcish adept was consumed by the alchemists fire. All that had escaped was a few bone fragments and the dagger that had fallen nearby. The group gathered together and congratulated themselves on a hard won battle. For the moment at least, no more orcs were attacking them. [B]NEXT: Information and Exploration[/B] [/QUOTE]
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