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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Damon Griffin" data-source="post: 2645719" data-attributes="member: 3568">Paladin's Journal - entry 6Wulfgrim and Tayla left their ponies to be stabled and cared for in Blasingdell along with our borrowed horses, and we went on foot from there with our pack mules.  It was a three day walk, and on the way while Felix was off hunting we ran afoul first of a stampede of small animals, which Lance and Wulfgrim and I turned away by jumping up in their path and banging weapons on our shields.  We soon found out who had been behind that mischief:  the imp creature we'd met in the tomb of the dragon priest.  He was invisible again, but between him laughing and bouncing around on tree branches, and my being able to sense his evil aura, we had a fair idea of where he was, and this time, we killed him.  Daddy always used to say if you let an enemy live, it'll come back and bite you in the ass, and that sometimes seemed kind of ruthless to me, but damn if he wasn't right this time, just ask Braford.  Sharwyn cast her colorful spray spell again and had the imp blinded and stunned, so he wasn't much bother to deal with when someone could chance to hit him, and Braford finished him off with Shatterspike. The next night Tayla heard a large group of folks marching, circling around our camp, so we woke up our group and went to check on it, and found that band of goblins we'd run out of the citadel before.  After we'd chased them into the deeper underground, they'd been run out of there by some tougher group, and were on their way to the Stone Tooth to look into that for a new home.  I let them know we had no more quarrel with them, but were also headed there, with a mind to set up the place for some dwarfs to move it.  They grumbled a lot but said they didn't want no dwarfs for neighbors and weren't up to another fight just now, and changed course to go farther up into the mountains.On the third day out we could see the Stone Tooth and spent some hours circling around it at a distance, getting a general idea of the layout.  We saw rising smoke but couldn't see exactly where it was coming from.  The next morning we divided into four groups and scouted out the mountain.  Winter and Lance found the natural stone chimney that was the source of the smoke; Gerik, Braford and Wulfgrim found the orc tunnel used to get into the Glittery Home before, as well as bear tracks and other tracks that Felix said was the footprints of a troglodyte; Sharwyn, Tayla and me found two sets of shallow caves, either of which might make a suitable base camp for our stay here.  Felix and Jack kept watch on the mules and set up our camp for that evening, out of casual sight of the main entrance and the orc tunnel.  Winter wanted to try to set the orcs up to attack the troglodytes or the other way around, each bunch thinking the other one had attacked them first, but Wulfgrim and I said we can't have anything to do with that.  I saw Winter talking to Garik and Lance a few minutes later, and I couldn't hear what was said, but I saw Lance and Garik shaking their heads no, so I got a suspicion what was going on there.We talked about what we would do in the morning, whether we'd enter the mountain straight off and if so, would we go by the old orc tunnel or the chimney, and decided the chimney was worth a closer look.  Also, if we could catch a small group of orcs outside the mountain, it'd be that many we didn't have to deal with inside and we could find out from them how the inside was laid out, who else was in there and so on.  So in the morning, Winter, Gerik, Braford and Wulfgrim went to check out the chimney; Boo went in first and they figured about how long the chimney was from the time it took him to go down.  There wasn't no good place to tie off a rope, and they didn't want to make noise driving spikes in at the top of the chimney, so they got a sturdy log and used it to anchor 150' of knotted rope to the opening, then Gerik went in for a better look.  He said the chimney ought to work so long as we left shields and packs behind.I took Sharywn, Tayla and Lance and we scouted for a likely ambush spot.  We found one not too far from the base of the mountain where the main trail comes out.  The door into the gate level was more than six hundred feet away, we reckoned, so we didn't worry too much about noise carrying that far.  We worked out that Gerik and Winter would hide and watch at one end of the trail, and Sharwyn and Braford at the other, with the rest of us in between to spring out and catch the orcs when we got a signal they was coming from one side or the other.Gerik and Felix worked out some signals we could leave by setting out rocks on the ground, and Felix would fly over in a hawk form and know what we were doing.  He said he'd leave directly, and be back around dusk every couple of days to check the signal.  He left us some berries he said were good, and said eating one of them would make a person feel like he'd had a whole days worth of food.  I didn't try one, because I like berries just fine but I don't think I'd want three whole meals' worth in a day.  Some of the others agreed they were filling enough, though.No one got much rest or any sleep during the day; and we were up all that night (except Winter, who fell asleep) waiting for goblins.  About three hours into our wait we heard a ruckus and Tayla slipped off to look, and come back and said it was just a moose.  An hour later, Gerik got stepped on by a bear!  He was hiding under a leaf pile and the bear smelled his rations, but he ended up just taking the bag and going off, leaving Gerik a bit shaky but not hurt.  He didn't scream out when he was nose to nose with the bear, but then that sort of thing can dry a fellow's throat out pretty quick.  Finally just before dawn, we got a light signal from Sharwyn, and a minute later Wulfgrim said he could see four orcs and what was maybe two halflings being led along on leashes.  We let them pass by us and Wulfgrim threw a Sound Burst spell that came near to killing all four orcs on the spot.  I had to lay hands on two of 'em just so we'd have enough prisoners to question, and even with that one of the four died.  Lance hid his body off the trail a ways under some rocks and leaves, and we all went back to our camp with the orcs and halflings.   Braford tried to intimidate the orcs into talking, but they wasn't very impressed; Wulfgrim and I didn't do no better.  Then I tried being diplomatic, and pointed out how we was lawfully empowered to execute the lot of them on the spot, but would be willing to let go whichever one of them gave us the best information.  Then we separated them and each one being sure the others was going to spill everything, they all three told us everything they could think of.  Orcs don't seem to be much for making maps, and they didn't all agree on some of the details, but we got enough out of them to suit us.  In the end there wasn't much to choose between them for whose information was best, and I said they could all be on their way once we'd finished our business inside the mountain.We rested and ate through the rest of the day and night, with watches, because even manacled and gagged (except when we fed 'em) you just need to be careful around orcs and such types.  A couple of deer came by to investigate the oat and alfalfa mule feed while Tayla and I were on watch, and she bagged one which we left hanging to drip overnight.  We found out later that a bear came by while we're gone the next day, attracted by the deer carcass or just looking for a winter place in the cave, and Jack scared him off by irritating the mules into braying loudly inside the cave.About dawn Wulfgrim, Winter and Sharwyn memorized new spells, Gerik set our signal to "Trouble, we went thataway" and we all hiked up to the chimney where Gerik went down first, with a wet cloak to drop onto the banked fire.  We came down one at a time after he gave us the all clear and regrouped in the kitchen, then Wulfgrim scouted ahead and found no one nearby.We found some large double doors, which our directions said should lead to a rope bridge that joined the main gate to the rest of the fortress, and wedged them shut so no one could come at us that way.  Then we went off in the other direction, through a couple of empty caverns and a store room, until Wulfgrim found a secret door.  The information we had said the orcs' shaman, an evil cleric, would be back there with her helpers.  We busted in on them and surprised them in bed for the day, and made pretty short work of the head cleric before taking her acolytes prisoner.  Wulfgrim took one injury and the shaman had tried to cast some kind of spell on us but it seems it didn't take.  We questioned the acolytes and I decided they wasn't to be considered combatants (for all that they had been using maces to defend themselves just then), and wouldn't be killed.  We tied them to their beds and said we'd be back for them and they wouldn't be hurt any further. They told us about stirges in the next room, which their shaman kept on hand to help block off one way down to the next level.  We decided to leave that for now, and finish what we came to do.  Searching the room we got some silver and three flasks that Tayla said were alchemists' fire, and found a number of dwarf skulls hanging on ropes from the ceiling.  I am somewhat troubled by the way this all happened, killing an old woman in her bed and all.  "They're only orcs" don't cut any ice, they're still people of a sort.  They are evil, and the old woman not just evil but blasphemous.  That sort you just got to get rid of, it's no good sending them off to work their blasphemy someplace else.  And we did just surprise them, good tactics, nothing bad like using poison or murdering them while they still slept.  Even so I will be doing a lot of praying tonight and I want to talk to the priests about it when we get back to the monastery.Next we slipped down the hallways and came to the room of Great Ulfe, the ogre that led these bandits, and his wolves:  Wulfgrim cast another Sound Burst, and Shawyn threw her Colorful Spray spell, and Tayla used magic to grease up this huge axe the ogre had laying there.  The wolves were knocked out and Ulfe was stunned, and we lay into all three of them and killed all three before any of them had a chance to come at us.  Sharwyn cracked one wolf's head open with her staff.  That Sound Burst spell gets the job done, no doubt, but it also let all the other orcs know we were there, and four of them came running down the hall after us.  We killed all four of them without any of us taking injury, and then Sharwyn spotted someone peeking out at us from what would be the quarters of Yarrick, Ulfe's second in command, and his men.  We took a quick look at our map and decided to relocate in hopes of surprising them from another direction, but that didn't work out.  We ended up being attacked from two directions near the doors we had wedged shut before, and although we did well here, it wasn't without taking some hard knocks ourselves.  The orcs seemed to think Wulfgrim was our leader and picked on him some, but even so Braford and Winter got hit hardest.  Sharwyn shot and killed one orc that was coming at Braford after Braford was hurt bad.  Winter used a Light spell so we could see to shoot at the orcs, and Tayla greased up the floor so four of them fell when they tried to run at us.  We looked around to see we hadn't missed anybody, and saw no one, but Wulfgrim heard two orcs on guard outside the gate.  He tried to trick them into coming inside, but one of them caught on and they ran off as soon as they realized their bunch wasn't in charge of the inside any more.  We found out the rope bridge had been cut, so Lance and me went back around the long way to where we left the acolytes and got them, while everyone else started searching the place, and as soon as we got the new captives out to our cave and manacled, we changed the signal for Felix to say "All clear, bring up the dwarves" and went back in and helped with the rest of the search and with carrying things out.  Sharwyn walked along the hallways detecting magic, and found a bit hidden in Yarrack's room.  Wulfgrim had me walk through the whole place trying to detect evil, but none turned up.  He also removed all the unholy symbols in Burdug's room and collected the dwarf skulls to prepare them for proper burial. The orcs had left some secret doors open in their hurry to get at us, but we didn't find any more than that.  The cavern with the well was full of crates and boxes with food, blankets, tools and assorted hardware the dwarfs will no doubt be glad of.  The well has a bucket with a very long chain and pulls up good-quality water, if it does taste somewhat of limestone.Sharwyn, Gerik and Winter also managed to organize a small tub and some hot water so we could all get cleaned up a bit, and rinse the worst of the dirt and soot out of our clothes.  Gerik is still worried about what his aunt will say when she sees his ruined cloak -- made dirty and sooty and then dumped on a banked fire.Altogether we found 2390 sp, 954 gp, 300gp worth of gems, one magic rapier, 4 longbows, 16 heavy flails, 6 javelins, 2 light maces, a masterwork hand ax, three throwing axes, Ulfe's extra large scale mail and his huge greataxe, Yarrick's scale mail, and a large steel shield.  Some of the weapons were made by dwarves.  There was three flasks of alchemist's fire and a potion bottle with some kind of mark burnt into the cork stopper, a dot with eight lines coming from it, like a sun, plus another unmarked magic potion and a vial of holy water, and the key to the prison cell that Yarrick had.    In the evening we had a fine meal, with the deer from the day before.  We got about 40 pounds of meat plus the edible organs, and Gerik and the two halflings had a great time talking about which parts to roast, and which parts to stew or pan fry or dry for jerky.  We fed the five orcs too, because it'd be cruel to send the orcs off without even a meal, and winter coming on.  The acolytes wasn't in a talking mood, and seemed nervous about the looks they was getting from the male orcs, but the ones we'd caught in the ambush didn't mind answering more questions.  Jack said he'd talked to them while we were gone and convinced them we'd be a lot nicer to them if they played fair and didn't threaten people around here again.  Over dinner I remembered the orcs had mentioned a trap on a statue inside the mountain, and we'd seen one statue and heard about another, but I couldn't recall they'd said anything about what kind of trap it was, so I asked.  They said the statue by Yarrack's room will open its mouth and pour poison gas on you if you step on the wrong tile (a square of granite right in front of it). They said the dwarves put that poison gas there, and the ghosts downstairs still have it.  Some poison gases make you weak and some make you throw up, which also makes you weak.  They said we ought to use halflings to test traps, and Lance made sure they knew what we thought of that idea.  I told the orcs they should leave as soon as may be after dark, and could take with them warm clothes, food, knives and bows for hunting, but no weapons of war, and no loot or unholy symbols.  I also let them know two of their fellows had run off from the main gate earlier.  If any of them was seen in the area again they was fair game to be shot on sight.After dinner Gerik and Wulfgrim went back inside the fortress to see about that gas trap on the statue, and tripped it.  Wulfgrim wasn't affected, but Gerik got a faceful of gas.  It started him hacking and coughing.  He managed to keep his dinner down, but after a while he started coughing up some nasty looking green stuff, and whenever he tried to eat or drink something to get the taste out of his mouth, he said it tasted like a dirty copper pot.  He was pretty weak for the rest of the night, but next morning Wulfgrim cast a little restoration spell on him and he was right as rain after that.   Then Wulfgrim finished healing up me and the others that was still hurt from the day before.   I have to say I am pleased with the way everyone did on this mission.  About half of us never got hurt at all, our spells worked better than we could have hoped and best of all we all worked together instead of everyone haring off and doing whatever they wanted.  I was worried about Sharwyn but she did just fine.  She has not even started fretting about how she looks yet, though we are all flithy with dirt and soot from hiding in ambush and later coming down the chimney.  It may be harder next time to convince her to wear the chain shirt (which she calls "that heavy, noisy thing") because she only got poked at once the whole time we were inside the mountain, and she says it missed her by a mile.  But if she gets stubborn I'll remind her how Braford was nearly killed in one blow from a nasty looking flail, and Winter too, and I guess she'll bear up under the extra weight.  She and Braford both gained a lot from this experience.  Now we are waiting for the dwarves to come, and talking about how we want to go about clearing the next level of the fortress, whether we go to the old orc tunnel where the trogs are, or past the stirges to use the main inside gate.   This gate level won't be big enough for the two hundred dwarfs that need to live here, so we got to get on to the next level as quick as we can.</blockquote>

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