Session #66
“We have to get out of here,” Dorn said, stepping away from the tunnel entrance, and looking at the others with desperation.
“Nut wit-out Beort!” Kazrack said. The dwarf moved to Ratchis. “Duh ya wunt meh tuh ‘old er uncles?”
“There are orcs coming?” Ratchis asked, sitting up to get his breath and pulling Gunthar back up for air as well.
“Down! Down! He’s barely holding on by a pube just out of reach!” Gunthar spat, his face and hair were a smeared brown mess and his eyes were burning bright red with irritation.
“Imago Crearé Majorus! Martin chanted, and a wall of flame shot up at the far entrance. The orcs howled in anger. “That should give you some time!”
Ratchis nodded and shoved Gunthar back in the hole, and Kazrack grabbed onto the half-orc’s legs. Ratchis was now in the hole near his ankles headfirst.
Screams echoed out of the tunnel Martin had sent the Thoqqua down.
“Beh ready fer those uks!” Kazrack commanded, drool bubbling over onto his beard. “Dun! Ull have tuh gud meh.”
Bones leapt from Dorn’s shoulder and atop of one the tall partially sunken rocks that made this maze of filth. He hopped deftly from rock to rock to get a good vantage of the orcs. He wedged the torch between two of the stones and drew his short bow.
“Aah!” Martin cried, as one of the forgotten orc babies had caught up to him and began to chew on his calf.
As he tried to kick it away they all heard raised orcish voices from behind the wall of fire. They seemed to be chanting in time, but above the chant was one desperate voice say “Nagh! Nagh! Nagh! Naaaaaaagh!” (1)
“Oh my corns and bunions!” Bones swore, watching the action from his perch. “Those crazy orcs are throwing themselves through the fire.”
The orc on the other side of the room, sat up dazed, spitting and shaking his head, before making his woozy way to his feet. Now safely on the other side of the fire, he mocked his companions as cowards.
The orcs wasted no time to throw another through, followed by one that leapt of his own volition.
“They are gonna start coming this way,” Bones warned.
“Duh ‘est uh you have tuh ock eh enneneh un pick dem oshf uz dem come truh,” Kazrack mumbled vehemently.
“Uh… what?” Flora asked, bewildered. “Which way do we go?”
“Yuh ned tuh brin duh shire-urm buck, Mutton!” Kazrack craned his neck to look at the green-robed mage.
“Uh, I need to keep the fire wall up, unless you want them to all come through at once,” Martin shot back, guessing at what Kazrack had said.
The three orcs that had made it through so far began to make their way towards the party, stopping occasionally to listen for splashing and voices. They kept close to the tall stones, often out of view of Bones.
The halfling crouched down, disappearing into the crease of two stones, as he spied two pass him moving from right to left, he spilled out a pouch of coins.
“Come and get me! Come and get some shinies!” Bones taunted, and the two orcs turned around. One sheathed his thick bronze blade and drew his bow, while the other tried to retrieve the coins.
Meanwhile the third orc had gone snuck past on the right and came around a large stone to appear beside Kazrack. The blade came down on the hollering dwarf. The blade struck heavily, but its cutting side was turned by the dwarf’s chain shirt. He slid to the left, splashing into the muck and felt Ratchi’s feet slipping through his gauntlets.
“Can’t…lit…Borth…dun…” he struggled, but to no avail. Ratchis slipped all the way down into the hole.
Ratchis felt himself slip a couple of feet, and instinctively drove his legs and arms into the sides of the hole to keep from slipping freely. The sides of the wall, crumbled beneath his great grip, and he had to continually re-adjust to keep from going. He could feel Gunthar scrambling desperately beneath him, clutching at his cloak and arm.
Dorn jerked out of shock and fired his crossbow at the orc that was about to cleave the scrambling Kazrack in twain. The orc fell with a grunt and a splash, thick green blood floating atop the curdling sewage. Kazrack immediately leapt back to the hole and threw his arm down to grab hold of Ratchis.
Bones leapt back towards the others atop the tall rocks, as he felt the nip of an orc arrow. The two orcs came around the stone and one fell upon Kazrack with his sword; once again the dwarf was wounded and had to withdraw. Ratchis cursed as he felt the dwarf’s grip loosen, and even more slid into his mouth.
Dorn fired his crossbow again, but though he missed, it caused the orc on Kazrack to hesitate. The dwarf grabbed a spear of the dropped orc and shoved into the hole, butt first for Ratchis to grab on to. He looked up in time to see the orc swing down on him again, but he was barely able to avoid the blow, when Flora fired her bow point blank at the orc, sending his blow astray. The arrow, however, still managed to miss.
“Argh!” Martin cried more from frustration than pain. One of the orc young managed to catch up to him again and this time the tiny sharp teeth made him lose his concentration. “I lost it! The wall of fire is going to come down momentarily.”
The orc by Kazrack turned to it left and charged at Dorn. The bushy haired warrior, swung around to get out of the way, but felt the heavy blade smack his shoulder. The orc that had collected some of Bones’ spilled money came around the stone, arrow ready to shoot Kazrack, but a bolt from Martin send it floating face down in the sewage.
Gunthar managed to climb out of the draining hole, using Ratchis as a makeshift rope, and then he and Kazrack dragged the half-orc onto the chamber floor. The three of them lay there prone for a moment, bubbling in filth as they took deep breaths to get their strength back.
“There are more coming around behind me the other way!” Bones warned. One came around the corner and met death on the end of arrow flying from Flora’s bow, while the one going after Dorn dropped with one of Martin’s quarrels in its back.
“Hush orc babies! Flora cooed, and the orc infants fell into a slumber sinking into filth to drown. One of the approaching orcs took advantage of her distraction and forced her back with a whip of his blade across her face, bringing up a welt, another orc came around to support his companion.
“You will all drown in your own blood and filth this day!” Ratchis bellowed in orcish, and he cut the head from the orc attacking Flora.
“Beorth is gone,” Gunthar said, leaping to feet as well, trying to wipe his mouth the back of his hand, which was as filth-covered as the rest of him. “I’m gonna kill every last one of these pig-f*ckin’ pigs!” Gunthar’s sword had not stopped ringing from being drawn when it he pulld it back out of the gut of the dying orc that had just come around the corner.
Readying his flail, Kazrack put his back to one of the rocks and checked around the corner the orcs had come from.
He looked back and shook his head to indicate he saw no more orcs coming at the moment.
A handful of more orcs came around from the other side of the collection of stones in the center and with an arcane word, Martin the Green made them drop off to sleep as well. However, at that same moment he became engulfed in a mantle of green and black fire that threw tall shadows on the black rocks around him.
“Not again…”
“Mutton!” Kazrack began to step towards his companion, when another orc came around from the way that had been clear a moment before and let loose a javelin that struck him squarely in the back; only armor kept Kazrack from being skewered.
Gunthar hurried around the corner to support Kazrack, but as the dwarf turned suddenly to defend himself, he slipped in the muck under foot and went down.
“Get off your lard-ass, stumpy!” Gunthar chided.
Ratchis took some time to heal Bones (who had come back), while Flora used a song to close some of her own wounds. Martin and Dorn moved to follow Gunthar and Kazrack through the tall stones.
These four had made it to the other side of nursery chamber. They could see there were a total of three raised tunnel entrances like the one Martin had sent the thoqqua down on each side of the chamber. The stone on this side had sunken further, and many could be seen over, or easily squatted behind. The illusory wall of fire was done and the black-faced orc with splayed nostril, eyes like burning coals and broad shoulders made misshapen with bone spurs bellowed commands in orcish to his troop. They wore the gray scale mail of the other orcs they had faced so far, but it seemed in better shape, and their swords were not as badly dinged and beaten. He held a thick haft in both hands, each end holding a fan-shaped axe blade notched in several places, but still sharp enough.
Gunthar and Kazrack looked on from around ether side of a particularly large rock.
“Looks like a 2-for-1 pork special down at the market,” Gunthar smiled. Two orcs began to lead the way for their companion by way of the large rock and Kazrack was startled to find his guard down. He barely blocked the blade, and felt the weight of the blow send tremors down his arm.
“Come here, pork-chop!” Gunthar said, stepping out and cutting out the kidneys of one with his long sword.
“Yuh uhz nuh ope! We uhz uh duck demon from ‘ill un ur side!” Kazrack said, joining the fray to keep the orcs from advancing any further, hoping to intimidate them into hesitating or even retreating.
“What’s going on?” asked Martin, his mantle of fire looming tall in the chamber, sending glints of green light to reflect on the moisture beading up on the ceiling and down the running trickles of waste pouring down cracks in the rocks. He came around to view the open area. An orc toddler covered in fine gray hair came splashing at the mage. It had large open festering sores on his fat cheeks and chest. It let out a shriek that was instantly cut off as a bolt from Dorn’s crossbow went through its neck.
Ratchis ran through the narrow path between stones over where Gunthar and Kazrack had killed some orcs before moving on, to find that Bones had already snuck over there and was taking what valuables he could from them.
The halfling looked up at Ratchis and an expression of having been caught on his usually fresh face, now worn with dirt and fear, changed to a smile. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll cut you all in on the spoils.”
“Good, we’ll need it,” Ratchis said, and moved on. Flora followed close behind.
“More orcs over here!” Gunthar said, moving to the left side of the room where six orcs were trying to cut off the group by sneaking past some tall stones. “Here piggy! Piggy! Piggy!”
An orc shoved another frightened female at the Neergaardian. She shrieked and swung a club half-heartedly, her face looked freshly beaten and bloody. Gunthar cut her down and moved on to the one that did the pushing, and in a moment it was dead in the muck as well.
“Full buck, Gunter!” Kazrack called. There was another half dozen orc streaming off the platform, and coming in his direction and he could not keep them all from advancing.
One made it around the rock, and stabbed at Martin.
Martin cried out, his robes tearing where the blade hit his upraised forearm, but it was the shriek of the orc that was most startling. The green and black flames around Martin shot up the blade and seared the orc’s arm. It fell over, its arm distended and curling back where the flame has scorched it.
Ratchis healed Kazrack with a spell, as he came into the melee, and then thinking better of entering quite yet, stepped back and asked Nephthys for Bull’s Strength for himself, as well. Flora stepped out from behind a rock and screeched. Two orcs fell over, bleeding from the ears, while the others managed to cover their ears with their closed fists enough to resist the sound burst.
Ratchis took advantage of the distraction to break through the orc line and call to the leader who leapt off the raised stone lip of the other entrance.
“Come and face me leader of scum!” Ratchis challenged, as he spun around cleaving into the head of an orc, while leaning back to avoid the swing of another one causing it to slip in the muck and fall prone. It clambered quickly back on to its hands and feet, but a bolt from Dorn sent it back down.
The orcs lined up behind the tall rocks on the left hand side of the top of the room, unable to go further because Gunthar clogged the way in heated combat with a particularly fat orc wielding a morningstar and a shield, popped up and all chucked javelins at Ratchis, but he cut them out of the air with a roar.
Another fat orc with a shield and a morningstar came roaring out from behind a rock. Kazrack turned and slammed the head of his flail in the thing’s face. Ratchis swung right and cut the legs out from under it and followed up with a downward chop to the face. He was barely able to bring his sword up in time to deflect a blow of the leader’s double ace. Knocked out of alignment, the heavy haft cracked against Ratchis’ collarbone and then smacked him one the side of the head as it was brutishly pulled back.
The orc snorted and spat a big yellow and green hawker in Ratchis’ face. The half-orc searched it out with his tongue and swallowed it with a smile, and the fell into a frantic melee.
Gunthar finally finished his own fat orc and cut into the line behind it with glee. The orcs withdrew and tried to come around the tall rocks from the other side, meeting arrow fire from Flora, Bones, and Dorn.
Dorn looked back at Martin with a smile that quickly became look of horror. Martin’s eyes were rolled back into his head and he had his arms outstretched and a large black book clutched to his chest.
“Ash nisarg eh sem necros porsh,” he chanted, and suddenly five of the dead orcs began to climb to their feet, their bodies twisted and rigid.
“Kill them all!” Martin the Green commanded.
“Ratchis! Zombies!” Dorn warned as the shambling dead stagger forward and slammed their former companions with their undead strength.
“MARTIN!” Ratchis roared. “GET RID OF THESE FOUL CREATURES NOW!”
The orcs seemed equally mortified. One shrieked and let off attacking Kazrack to go after one of the zombies, but Ratchis and Kazrack ignored them, concentrating blows on the plate-armored orc leader. The orc captain winced as his armor crunched beneath one of Kazrack’s blows, but he was successful at keeping Ratchis’ repeated blows at bay.
“Manus il spectro! Martin chanted, and a translucent hand appeared before him, and sent it after one of the orcs; that one shrieked as well.
Three orcs seeking to flee the zombies, decide the best way to go was through Kazrack. They rushed him, sword up raised, but the dwarf side-stepped and knocked one blade into another to send them both off line. The last blade fell just short of his barrel chest. Kazrack swung his flail over his head and brought it around for a skull-crushing blow, but it clipped one of the nearby stones and the dwarf stumbled into the approaching Gunthar. The flat of the Neergaardian’s longsword slapped him in the face and he fell back stunned. (2)
Gunthar jerked back so hard trying to avoid killing Kazrack, that he fell backward onto his ass. (3)
“Stumpy!”
“Martin!” Ratchis roared again.
“Huh? Wha…?” Martin shook his head, and saw he was holding the Book of Black Circles in his hands. “Oh no!”
He quickly put the book back in his pack. The spectral hand dissipated before it touched anyone, and the mantle of green and black flame faded, but the zombies kept grabbing at their former kin.
“Where’d the zombies come from?” Martin asked as he re-loaded his crossbow, not meeting anyone’s eye.
Gunthar pushed himself up to his knees, and was about to shove himself to his feet, when one of the broad-bladed orc swords came down on the side of his head. He dropped both his swords and fell back down clutching the side of his face as hot blood streamed out between his fingers.
“My ear!” Gunthar cried. “Where the f*ck is my ear!”
Bones, who had managed to sneak all the way around the orcs in the dark, let loose an arrow that dropped the orc that was now chopping at the crawling Gunthar.
Ratchis strained his one eye to see where Kazrack was in the muck and left his defenses open, suffering deep chop to the hip from the orc leaders war-axe. The Friar of Nephthys stumbled, but blocked the follow-up blow and slammed the orc’s helmet off as re-payment. The orc’s face was swelling with bruises, and he had several cuts on his arm.
“Ow!” Dorn accidentally hit the trigger on his crossbow before raising it to fire and shot himself in the foot. (4)
Again, Ratchis was distracted, and he had to struggle to keep another orc from flanking him, allowing the leader another solid hit.
Ratchis roared again, and ignored he new orc, chopping at the orc leader with great ferocity. He cut through its forearm and into its face and then chopped it twice more as it fell.
The approaching orc hesitated as Ratchis turned back to him face him, but fell from one of Bones’ arrows to the neck before he could decide to fight or fly.
Two of the zombies was no longer animate, one had just bee chopped down by an orc that looked up to see the rest of his companions had been killed by either the party or the orcs. He turned to flee, but another of the zombie orcs smashed him in the face with both fists, knocking him into one of the tall stones. It slid down it length leaving a smear of blood and did not get back up.
The other zombie turned and surprised Ratchis by slamming him in the gut just as hard. The half-orc coughed blood and fell over, unconscious.
“Ratchis!” Martin cried and dropping his crossbow drew a dagger and charged at the zombie. The orc zombie put up its hand and the dagger pierced the palm to no apparent effect. The undead thing swung at Martin, who hopped back. Dorn hobbled over and chopped one of its arms off, and as it wobbled off balance he cut open its neck and send it crashing into the muck.
Kazrack got up and smashed the last zombie, and then stopped to wring the sewage out of his beard.
Martin and Flora moved to tend to Ratchis’ wounds.
“Where’s my f*ckin’ ear?” Gunthar said again, splashing back towards the other, still looking down with the glowing short sword.
“Huh?” Kazrack cupped his ear towards the warrior mockingly.
Gunthar stood straight up with a snarl none had seen on his face even during his most desperate fight “I said, ‘Where’s my f*ckin’ ear!’” He punched Kazrack full on in the face.
The dwarf stumbled back, but was immediately in a fighting pose. “Nuh ish nut uh tahm,” he said.
“Ah, forget it! Who can understand what Stumpy says anyway? I should be happy I can’t hear him anyway,” he said, dismissing the dwarf. He winced as he picked at the torn place where his ear had been. “It’s just that now I have a bad side.”
“This is a bad place to stay,” Martin said. “We have to move Ratchis somehow.”
Kazrack nodded and knelt beside his friend. He proceeded to attempt to cast healing spell afer healing spell, but every single one failed. (5)
“Leave it to me,” Flora said, and sat in the muck with Ratchis’ head in her lap and began to softly sing to him. A few moments later, he stirred, coughing and then wincing in pain.
“Who died?” he croaked.
“You almost did,” Flora replied. “Now please do me a favor and lead us out of here.”
Ratchis slowly got to his feet, and turned to Martin. “Why did you raise those orcs?”
“I am losing my battle with the Book,” Martin sighed.
“Does that ever happen when you are not casting a spell?”
“Only the time that Beorth said he awoke with my standing over him.”
“From now on don’t cast any spells, unless it is absolutely necessary,” Ratchis decided.
Martin paused, and the nodded.
“Yeah!” Gunthar walked over, he was combing his hair down over his missing ear. “I don’t hold with the making of the undead. That’s just not right.”
Ratchis began to dole out healing, while the others prepared their things for leaving the room.
Gunthar was last.
“And lastly, great Nephthys, fill this wayward soul with your healing light,” Ratchis intoned.
“Yeah, fill me up like I fill up the lovely ladies,” Gunthar smirked.
Ratchis snarled at him.
“You will not mock the power of my goddess,” Ratchis barked.
“Oh yeah? What are you gonna do, deprive me of my freedom? I think she’d like that even less than some bawdy jokes at her expense, not that statues of her are hard on the eyes, but I’m sure a big boy like you know exactly what I’m taking about, right? Rowr.”
“If you continue to speak of my goddess, or any of the gods in this fashion I will withhold the healing and benefits of Nephthys from you,” Ratchis threatened.
“End Uh ‘ill uz well,” Kazrack spoke as slowly as he could. “Fur Uh dun tink you respect muh Lords n’ Leddy, eeder.”
Gunthar laughed.
“You do as your conscience dictates, holy boys,” Gunthar smiled. “I’m sure you’ll do the right thing, unless you are only pay lip service to the service of Good, only licking its boot like a good dog during the day, so you can widdle out your territory at night. Bah!”
Kazrack’s hands tightened into fists.
“Let’s move on,” Ratchis said. “It is only Bes that has kept more orcs from arriving.”
---------------------------
They marched for another three hours. Twice more they heard drums, but no more orcs came. Eventually, on the brink of exhaustion (and Ratchis already there), they climbed into a narrow shelf-like crack high up on one wall of the wedge-shaped tunnel they now traveled through.
Martin used a prestidigitation spell to clean everyone off.
As the others made camp, Kazrack brought Martin aside and spoke very slowly.
“Uh wunt you tuh know Uh dun hold any uf this book stuff aginst you,” the dwarf managed. “Uh believe you cun overcome this.”
“Thank you, Kazrack,” Martin replied. The dwarf clamped a big hand on the mage’s shoulder and squeezed.
“Uh ‘ill udd you tuh my pears,” Kazrack said.
Ratchis walked over.
“Do you think Beorth is dead?” Martin asked them.
“That filth and water has to go somewhere,” Ratchis said. “Didn’t the map say something about an underground river?”
Martin pulled out the map and looked, and then nodded. “So we are going to go look for him?”
“No,” Ratchis replied. “We have no way of tracking him. We have to just have faith that he was washed far from any orcs and will find his way to the surface and Nikar, eventually.
Balem, the 5th of Ter – 565 H.E.
Three days later found them still deep underground. The cold black stone had given way to warmer softer rock, and they passed several passages that had caved in with thick black mud. After long hours of marching, Ratchis would find them the most out of the way spot he could find, and they hid and slept. Once they heard orcs pass by very close, but they were not discovered.
The path Ratchis led them along did seem to slowly rise over time. Kazrack would breathe in deeply and announce how deep they all were a few times a day and the average kept going down by about sixty feet per day.
There was a lot less sign of these tunnels ever having been worked. In fact, something about them nagged at him because it did not seem like it was made by flowing water.
Up ahead, the tunnel turned severely to the left.
“Thut’s et!” Kazrack exclaimed. “Diz tunnas dug buh bih insuhs!”
“What?” Ratchis asked.
“Bih Insuhs! Insucks! Insucks!”
“I think he is saying ‘big insects’,” Martin said.
“More spiders?” Bones asked.
“Actually spiders are not categorized as insects at all,” Martin replied.
Everyone began to make for the end of the tunnel. As they approached the top of the turn, they could see that the tunnel dropped as nearly as quickly as it turned, making a corkscrew path. Down and down they went, as the tunnel narrowed to a mere twenty feet wide compared to the tunnel above that had led to it.
In the distance they heard a repeated rhythmic bursts of clickity-clack! Clickety-Clack!
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Notes
(1) Translation: “No! No! No! Noooooooo!”
(2) DM’s Note: Kazrack fumbled. He was required to make a Reflex save (DC 15) or fall and be stunned for 1d4 rounds.
(3) DM’s Note: Gunthar fumbled. He failed a simple Reflex save (DC 12) or fall.
(4) DM’s Note: Dorn fumbled and got the “Hit Self – Full damage” result.
(5) DM’s Note: Kazrack has an 85% chance of spell failure with spells with verbal components because of his shattered jaw.
