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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1456946" data-attributes="member: 9626">They really should be using more attentive guards.About two hours after the flight passed overheard, the party neared a clearing.  Even from a distance, it looked inhabited, so Flix and Rudyard approached carefully, while the rest of the party withdrew, ready for danger.  They came upon a small camp, that we clearly set up very recently, possibly even by the riders of the creatures from earlier that day.  A tall but rickety watchtower stood in the middle of the encampment, with about twenty or so tents scattered haphazardly around it.  A hyena-headed humanoid was at the top of the tower, watching the clearing for danger.  Luckily, it didn’t look like it noticed the two heroes just yet, so they cautiously withdrew to report the situation.  Once back with the rest of the party, they collectively planned their next move.  “With twenty tents that are as big as you say they are, they could easily have forty or more troops there!”    Tsine shook his head.  “If these are the same people that were with those fliers a few hours ago, they couldn’t have that many.  They’d never fit on the mounts.”    “We could just try to sneak around the camp,” Tal offered.    The others grumbled about that idea.  “Even if we sneak past undetected, if these are the same creatures, they have access to flight.  We have to take them down now before they can rest and get the rest of the way to the shrine.  And if they’re another group, we can get information about the fliers.”    The others agreed, though Tsine pointed out again that he won’t interrogate any more orcs.  The group came to a plan, and Flix and Rudyard quietly snuck back to the area of the camp.  There, they both fired at the gnoll before they could be spotted.  Flix dagger went wide, but Rudyard’s arrow flew true, giving the creature a nasty gash in his harm.  However, he was still alive, and before the two of them could finish the job, he howled at the top of his lungs, immediately alerting the entire camp!  Realizing that the time for stealth is over, Quercus flew in from above, while Tsine, Raz, and Tal rode in.  Rudyard followed them into camp, while Flix danced around the perimeter, ready to ambush whoever came out.    They didn’t have to wait long.  Out of various tents, three orcs, a lizard woman, a hobgoblin, and a wolf stepped out to meet the invaders, while the gnoll fired one shot at Quercus, and then started climbing down the tower’s ladder to engage the enemy in melee.  However, he didn’t make it.  Another arrow hit punctured him, and he lost his grip on the ladder, falling to the earth headfirst and with a sickening crunch.  One of the orcs didn’t fair any better, for he was sandwiched between Tsine and Flix’s attacks, and was gutted from behind with an expert shot by Flix.  Another orc was killed by Raz’s arrow and Tal’s magic, while Quercus went to engage the hobgoblin.  However, the remaining enemies demonstrated that they weren’t so easy to defeat.  The hobgoblin immediately erupted into a screaming rage, and hammered Quercus with a vicious blow from his great axe.  Quercus’ blood flowed freely, but he was able to take advantage of his enemy’s reckless behavior, and slashed him across the chest with his greatsword.  Only anger help the creature on his feet, and a volley of magical orbs launched by Tsine finished the job.  Meanwhile, the reptilian woman began to chant in a guttural, but strangely natural tongue, and her pet wolf’s teeth and claws suddenly extended.  It rushed at Flix, but the little one was able to roll out of the way of the bite, and then reverse with a thrust of his own short sword.  Rudyard went to help the fellow scout, while Tal focused on the final orc, who was dressed in lighter armor and was much faster than his fellows, and Raz tried to attack the lizard woman, only to repeatedly fail to penetrate her surprisingly thick armor.  She made it even harder immediately after this point, when she summoned a thick fog around her, making it almost impossible to see where she was exactly.  Soon, the tide totally turned against the humanoids, as Rudyard distracted the wolf long enough for Flix to pierce the animal’s heart, while Quercus and Tsine joined Tal in dispatching the final orc.  Realizing she was outnumbered six to one, the lizard woman sighed with regret, and dropped her weapon.    While Flix and Rudyard searched the camp for valuables, Tal and Raz checked the fallen enemies for survivors, and Tsine and Quercus interrogated their prisoner.  Tal noticed that one of the armored orcs still drew breath, but realized that he couldn’t tell Tsine this.  He helped bind the creature’s wounds, while singing a song of renewal softly to speed the healing process.  The lizard woman, meanwhile, began her story.  Her name was Setisth, and she was part of one of the many humanoid tribes that serve the orcs as second-class citizens of their empire at best, slaves at worst.  However, she will not betray them, for she believes in the truth of their religion and doesn’t think any other force can truly rule this empire besides them.  She will, however, explain about their mission here.  Apparently, an orc cleric of some renown has come down with a strange affliction, which is literally spread over his body, taking it over!  The orcs learned of this shrine, and also that it refuses none who come to it in need, even orcs.  Desperate to save their leader, a group of his followers left to find this shrine, and potentially heal him, or at least bring him back to life if the disease claims him.  However, those left in the camp are just the rear guard.  The rest of the force already left to find the temple.  After hearing this, the party freed her, but told her to remain in the camp, and not follow the party or try to help her comrades.  She agreed, and almost thanked them for their humane treatment of one of their own, but was silenced when Tal but his finger to his lips while standing behind Tsine.  Meanwhile, Flix found a small cache of treasure hidden in one of the tents, so after distributing the wealth, the party set off in a hurry.    The second day had no other interruptions, and their journey on the third day was mostly quiet.  The only exception was when they heard a large creature flying overhead once early in the morning, before True Light began, and then again in the afternoon, well after True Light.  Between the darkness and the foliage, the party couldn’t really see what the creature was, but they knew it was flying towards the enemy camp in the morning, and then back in the direction of their destination the second time.      That night held a few other surprises, and few of them were pleasant.  Again, it was Quercus’s watch when all the fun began.  As he studied the woods around them, trying to keep an eye out for hidden enemies, he suddenly heard singing, like that of a beautiful woman.  After taking a few moments to try and discern where the music his coming from, he silently roused his party members, and then approached the music.  However, he only was able to go about fifty feet when the singing stopped, and that same female voice quietly said, “It begins.”  He then heard the sound of wings flapping, and saw a hideous walking corpse and a field of living darkness in the shape of a man heading towards the camp, and he realized he had bigger things to worry about at the moment!    OOC Notes:  This adventure has quite a bit of foreshadowing, as that song from the last recap would indicate.  The singing woman and the disease afflicting the orcs are also future plot points.  By the way, all the characters are fourth level, or at least ECL 4 at this point.  Quercus is a cleric 2, Rudyard a ranger 2, Tsine a Wizard 3/Fighter 1 I believe, Tal a Bard 2/Sorceror 2, Flix a Rogue 4, and Raz a Fighter 4.</blockquote>

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