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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 5642435" data-attributes="member: 5675">Continuing on towards Gallows Fend in the company of the group of knights we ride our horses towards the fort. When we arrive at the fort we can see it sitting atop of a 100 foot cliff with a winding path leading to the front gate. On either side there are cliffs that rise for another 100 feet either side of the castle. A river runs around the back making this a very defendable position. We are met by Duke Gallow who assigns us quarters and a servant. He explains that we can't stay in the fort as it is overcrowded already and says we are to stay outside the grounds. He says he will summon us tommorrow morning for a meeting in the war room. We decide that it is probably best to have an early night as it seems there is a limited night life as the locals don't seem to drink that much.The next day we ard woken from our slumbers by our servant at the crack of dawn. He informs us that Duke Gallow has summoned us for an information exchange. We have a quick breakfast and head up to the castle where we are directed to the war room. Inside this room there is a scale map of the terrain with little models representing the different factions. On walkways surrounding the map there are men with long poles moving the figures around as they receive information of there movements. Standing at the back of the room there are a group of clerics. They are concentrating very hard. One of them opens his eyes and walks over to one of the men with the poles and whispers something in his ear. The other man nods and uses his pole to move some of the figures around. The cleric goes back to his group and begins concentrating again. Across the top of the map there is a walkway where Duke Gallow stands. He is holding one of the long poles and gesticulates with it wildly while trying to explain the situation he is in. He explains that the king is making a terrible mistake, his fortress has stood up to a great many attacks and they need to concentrate on the forming Ragesian army. He points aggresivly to the corner of the map where a group of servants are starting to lay out the Ragesian army. There are a lot of figures and an entire cupboard stands full at the rear of the room. It has a sign on it that reads Ragesian Contingent. He continues by saying that he can't act directly against the King himself but he needs some allies to help him, Lord Megadon and Lady Timor (not to sure about this please correct if wrong). There is a fort that they have lost contact with and he needs us to go and bring back any of the soldiers there if they are still alive and if not take some Ragesian prisoners (again not to sure please correct). He asks us to ride to this fort as a smaller group of travellers will be noticed less than if he sent out a small contigent of his own men. We agree to this and saddle up our warhorses and ride as fast as we can to our destination.The way is a hard ride as it is snowing and there are large snow drifts all around. Kain takes control of the group of us by explaining the best ways to avoid frost bite and gives us tips on how to endure the cold. During our hard ride Urien points out what he thinks is a better route but unfortunatly leads us into a huge snow drift. We have to dig deep to endure the cold and some of us are starting to show the early signs of frost bite. As our ride progresses we pass by several forts where we are able to have a little rest before riding out again. When we arrive at the fortress it is a similer layout to the castle at Gallows Fend. With a windy path leading up to the main gate there is difficult terrain all around. Trying to sneak in a little closer on foot we are quickly spotted by the sounds of Uriens plate armour and huge sheild. A voice calls down and shouts in giant "halt, who goes there". Thinking quickly Ruby shouts back in giant "we are friends, we have come from Bresk with information from the spy network". Her voice falters a little and she turn to her companions and whispers, "I don't think they believed me, we have to do something quick. Urien takes the lead and moves quickly along the path followed by Ruby. Kain and Lembit try to scrabble through the difficult terrrain while Silus moves quickly up the path ( I forget what Nick did here, please amend). Then we see two half orcs on the top of the fortress produce crossbows and begin to pepper us with shots. Some of these shots found their targets and hit quite hard. Looking up towards the fortress we can see a pair of green wing tips which we assume belongs to a Wyvern. Kain gets to the top of the hill first and engages in melee closly followed by Urien and Lembit. As this is happening the thing that we thought was a Wyvern takes to the skys mounted by a half orc knight begins to attack us. Ruby takes aim with her bow and launches an arrow at the Wyvern sticking it into its flesh. The mount roars in pain, more from irritation and the rider narrows his eyes and goads his mount into attack her. The creature charges forwards with it legs outstretched ready for a grab. Ruby has just enough time to think that this must be what a mouse feels like when it is attacked by an owl. She is scopped up and tosses back down the hill and lands in the snow prone. Seeing this happen Silus launches a spell at the Wyvern doing hidious amounts of damage killing it. The rider manages to avoid being squashed by his mount and rolls away from its prostrate body. The fight continues with Urien using the magic in his boots to walk up the wall where he begins to attack the half orcs on the roof. Kain follows by climbing up the battlements. The rest of the group pepper the enemies that they could see with ranged attacks.We all managed to get to the top of the tower where we were able to catch our breath for a few minutes. There are two locked trapdoors in the roof. Kain walks over to one of them,checking it for traps he confirms that it is locked. He produces a set of lockpicks from his pocket he begins to try to pick the lock. He fails miserably and turns round to look at us. With a shrug a reaches into his pocket for his magical skeleton key and inserts it into the lock. A second later the door opens and we can see some steps leading down into the building.We file down the stairs and Kain opens the door as quietly as he can. On the other side we are met with three half orc soldiers and an inquisitor. Kain and Urien charge in and engage in melee while Ruby, Lembit and Silus hang back to attack with ranged spells. A group of half orc soldiers led by a larger leader burst in from one of the side rooms and ran out throught the other door and over the roof in an attempt to flank us. Seeing a chance to use some blood magic, Lembit legs it back up the stairs and covers the group of half orcs in a blood pulse. When they realise that they cannot continue their charge without sustaining massive damage they stand still and curse in giant. Running back down the stairs laughing to himself, He gets ready to engage the enemy. Ruby runs up to the door locking it from the inside. The other half orcs shout up saying that the door has been locked. We manage to defeat the fighters but the inquisitor and one of the leaders manage to escape through the door leading to the roof. Lembit chases after him and sees them escaping over the wall on a rope. Ruby runs up up the stairs and aims at the rope with her bow. Kain runs up the stairs and is able to cut the rope with his dagger. We hear a shreik as they fall to the ground. With shouts of "take them alive", Kain scrambles over the wall and attacks the half orc leader in melee and knocks him out. Ruby continues to take pot shots at the inquisitor and somehow manages to knock her unconscious. We exit the tower to inspect our hostages, but when it comes to the inquisitor we lift her mask from her face to find that it has been melted off and she is dead. We still have two prisoners, so we remove any dangerous things from them and tie them together for interrogation when we reach Gallows Fend. Ruby volunteers to start any interrogation early as she still has the inquisitor torture implements from the fight in the underground crypt. Her suggestion is quickly knocked back by Urien the paladin. Searching through the bodies gives us a hude reward in gold. Ripping the claws from the inquisitor gives us a +2 spiked gauntlet and the half orc that was riding the Wyvern was carrying a +1 battle axe. Ruby packs these items into the growing treasure sack and finds a superior crossbow hidden under some rags which turns out to be a shrieking crossbow. Tails twitching with excitement she heads outside to test out her new toy.</blockquote>

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