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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1316285" data-attributes="member: 1210">Orcish AmbushOur heroes are following a trail that leads up to, and along the perimeter of, the lake.  The day is brisk but not cold, with gusting winds that flap cloaks in the wind and blow hair in the halflings’ eyes.  As the party descends the far side of another rolling hill in the trail, they come to a fallen tree that blocks their way.  Foolishly thinking nothing of it, they start to circumvent the block-Howling and roaring, a quartet of orcs pops up from behind a nearby cluster of bushes.  A great battle cry rises from all of them, and they brandish weapons- axe, falchion and spears.  Their faces are painted with crude red paint.  Each of the four of them outmasses each of our heroes probably four-to-one.Before they can even move Martini’s bow sings twice and one of the spear wielders staggers and drops, his throat sprouting a feathered branch.Trinia springs forward, pulling her dagger free of its sheath, but she can’t keep up with her new wolf.  The wolf lunges, growling and snarling, and its teeth latch onto an orcish leg.  The orc gives a shout of dismay and then, as the wolf twists her powerful neck, the orc is pulled down to the ground with a loud crash and a scream of pain.  With a roar, both of the orcs that are standing hew at the canine and in a moment it is down in a pool of blood.But another wolf is springing forth, this one followed closely by Captain Cavedwarf and his immense club and Airhead Ed.  Another feathered shaft zings out and drops the orc with the axe, and Martini cries out triumphantly.  The orc who was dragged down by the wolf is struggling to rise to his feet, using his spear to help lever his armored form up.  His last companion (and brother) slashes wildly with his falchion at the circle of enemies that’s closing like a noose on them.  There’s a cry of pain and Ed falls back, stumbling down on one knee and clutching at her side.  With a snarl, Captain Cavedwarf’s wolf springs forward.  The falchion wielder screams and tries to step away, but Cavedwarf is waiting for him.  He gives out a bellowing battle-cry- “CAPTAIN CAAAAVE-DWAAARF!!!!!”- and swings his greatclub.  The orcish head seems to explode into hundreds of small fragments of blood, brain and skull!  The final orc, staggering back with his spear, gives a final despairing cry as the springing wolf finds his throat.There’s a pained groan from Ed.  She gasps in pain as Cavedwarf tends her wounds while Trinia rushes to the fallen wolf.  “No!” she cries.  Weeping at her wolf’s poor state- for she looks nigh-dead- the druidess immediately casts her healing spells, trying to save her companion.  Fortunately she succeeds, and the wolf’s eyes crack open with a whine as the terrible wounds upon her start to knit.Ed cries as Cavedwarf works on her wounds; the dwarf doesn’t say anything about it, but his people certainly wouldn’t cry over such a small thing!  Halflings- no wonder they always need the help of bigger folk.  Martini, meanwhile, searches the orcish bodies, turning up a few coins and kicking through their smelly possessions for anything else worth taking.Soon our heroes are on their way again, Ed sniffling as they move.  “Orcs,” mutters Cavedwarf dourly.  “I hate orcs.”The rest of the party pretty much agrees, after that sudden ambush, that orcs don’t seem to be nice.  Fortunately, there seem to be no other orcs in the area, or at least no other ones laying in ambush for our heroes, so making the mistaken assumption that all is safe, our heroes continue their search for the hut of the old druid and the weapon Hamstring.  If they realized that they were being stalked by the shattered remnants of the disembodied psyche that almost killed them all they might have shown more caution.  But then again, if they had realized when they had first encountered Blaze and Broadsword that they would eventually be stalked by such unusual adversaries, our heroes probably would have killed them when they had the chance.Next Time: The party meets with the old druid!  Will he give up the weapon?  And why not? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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