Day 37 - Ready'reat 591 CY
Where to start?
Currently, I am resting in a warm cavern with the nobles, supplied by the half-orc ranger that I mentioned in my last entry. We have been moving swiftly as we all fear persuit, though we have yet to see any signs of such.
I arrived at the orc citadel I estimate on the night of Day 35. My companion refused to accompany me inside the edifice, so I had to sneak inside alone. I believe that this tale will be one of use to budding apprentices as it shows an exemplary application of the magical arts, so I will detal my tactics in full.
The first problem was surmounting the wall. Though there was a substantial army camped at the base of the small peak, they were easily avoided by climbing the opposite side of the mountain. Waiting until nightfall, I then cast a rudimentry flight spell and an invisibility spell upon myself and flew to the second story of the keep, over the heads of the guards.
The citadel was still undergoing repairs, several great rents had been torn in the defenses sometime in the distant past. A tall structure, it nonetheless only had two levels, the uppermost more in the way of battlements, defenses and storage for the guards. I infiltrated the main building through a door on the southernmost side on the second level, the guards unable to hear me with the pounding of the rain.
Inside, I immediately prayed for the Goddess's divine guidance in the location of traps and secret doors. My Goddess heard my plea and I proceeded down to the first floor. As luck would have it, I came to a dining room that was both empty and sported a secret door. Thank Wee Jas, it could have taken me years to find that door without her blessings!
Behind the secret door were stairs going down. Descending, I came to an octagonal room with heavy doors to the east and a stairwell on the west, with a pit in the centre that evidently piearced the lower levels of the dungeon as well. I ignored the guards and wasted no time in flying down the shaft.
Spells are so much like timers. I swear I could feel a metronome ticking away the seconds in the background. As such, I was determined to make quick descisions based on my objectives. 1. Find the nobles. 2. Ascertain the orcish forces in the immediate viscinity. 3. Free the noble. 4. Create enough disruption in the enemy chain of command that we can escape. My studies had indicated to me that orc hordes can only act as a cohesive force with a strong leader at their heads. As a race, they are otherwise incapable of functioning, quickly devolving to more primitive habits.
I remember one author suggesting that elves and orcs were a related species. If I also remember correctly, he was rendered down into fertilizer for an enormous oak tree... yet I digress.
The pit did piearce the lower levels of the dungeon and I flew down to the lowest level, bypassing the rest of the guards and traps. It was a gamble, the nobles may have been held on a higher level, yet I was counting on what I knew of Orc psychology that they would sequester their treasures a deep into the earth as practically possible.
The chamber I arrived at was dominated by a pool, fed by a waterfall that rained down from above. Large Orcish guards in ornate platemail armour stood at the two double doors in the north and west, while another passage descended into the darkness of a natural cavern to the east. behind me was the stairwell that went back up into the citadel.
Fortunately, the double doors to the north were rusted ajar behind the guards. I was able to fly over their heads and through the doors without fuss. Beyond were several natural caverns, one of which served as a guard's barracks. Beyond them I found an Orcish witch brewing some form of warpaint, attended by an Orc male stripped down to the waist as he waited for the paint to be applied.
I identified the paint as one of the foul concoctions used in rituals sacred to Gruumish, chief of the Orc Pantheon. Doubly worried for the nobles, I hastened through the witch's den only to discover them bound and gagged in the next room, not to mention much the worse for wear.
Noting my objectives, I ignored them for the moment and checked the next room. There was a very, very large Orc, who I surmised to be the warlord, preparing for some unholy ritual sacrifice on an altar to their God. No points to guess who was going to be sacrificed.
I returned to the nobles and made my presence known as quietly as possible, singling out their Wizardess as the quickest thinker and the most used to dealing with magic. Invisible people can be most disconcerting. While we were talking, the orc warrior from the witch's room walked through into the altar chamber, which was a tense moment for all of us. He passed without comment, so I gave my wand of minor healing to the band's cleric and bade him heal his companions, manacled though they all were.
I then proceeded into the witch's room and strangled her with my garrote. Once she was unconscious, I slit her throat for good measure.
The next order of business was covering our escape, not to mention finding a key for the nobles. I figured that the chief or one of his men would have it, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone.
Or, rather, ten orcs with one ball of fire.
Only the Warlord survived my initial assault, at which point I summoned the power of my Goddess, reaching into his chest with the power of my will alone and crushing his heart in my fist. One of the darker spells in me repertoire, I admit, though fully justified in this instance. I came across the prayer in a necromantic tome during my studies with the Boneheart while I was working undercover during the war. They named the spell 'The Clutch of Orcus', though I have re-named my version to 'Grasp of the Ruby Goddess' as the power does indeed come from my deity rather than a chaotic Demon Prince that mocks the beauty of her dark gifts.
Visible again, I was dependant on the spell to finish off the powerful Warlord, not to mention my desperation to silence his calls for assistance. We were locked in a battle of wills for almost two minutes, by my approximation, before his charred and smoking heart appeared in my hand. The job done, I decapitated the corpse and searched the bodies, discovering the key to the noble's chains on one of the other guards.
Freeing the nobles, we set about ransacking the place together. With their equipment and wounds fully restored, I took the lead holding the Warlord's head and hammer aloft to make an impression on any Orcs we encountered. And an impresion I did make, the warriors dispaired and fled the citadel to a man.
We climbed down from the battlements using my rope and ran as fast as we could back towards civilization, the Orc hordes already beginning to plunge into chaos behind us. Still we fear persuit, so I have pressed us all into moving as fast as our legs will carry us through the wilderness. It will be another week's hard journey home but I cannot fault my companion's eagerness to return to their own soft beds.
I can't wait to return to my well-deserved reward. Last night I had strange dreams of a bespeckled ducks swimming through a vault full of gold coins... perhaps these last few weeks have been more harrowing than I initially thought.
