NEXT: Assault on the Mountain Door
They made their way back up the path until they were just out of sight of the orcs lookout post. There, Speaks with Stone cast a spell on Ilrath to give his skin the resiliency of an old oak tree. He then picked up a small rock from the path and cast a spell of illumination on it. Krase tucked this stone into his jerkin so that he could later pull it out on short notice. Rhys used his magic to grant each member of the party the ability to cling to the cliff walls like spiders. Unfortunately this required direct contact with the stone and each member of the party had to remove his boots and gloves. Needless to say, the group was anxious to get on with the attack so that they could once again have warm feet.
Speaks gave Arc the command to guard the path until he whistled for him. Then the party began to climb up and over the ridge of stone that separated the path from the crevasse. They moved as far into the crack in the mountain as possible in order to remain concealed from view of the arrowslits on the opposite wall. Once down inside the crevasse, they split up. Speaks with Stone climbed along the wall that contained the arrowslits until he was above them, remaining very quiet in order not to alert the two orcs who stood guard as they were now in view. The rest of the group crept inside using their spider climbing ability to remain on the ceiling.
Speaks positioned himself just above the outermost arrowslit and waited tensely. He was hiding right out in the open and had to count on the fact that the orcs probably weren't used to seeing a druid clinging to the side of the mountain.
Inside, the rest of the group noticed that there were another pair of arrowslits on opposite walls of the antechamber room. They crept quietly across the ceiling and into the alcove where the door was, carefully crawling through the partially open door and into the chamber beyond. In the faint light of the morning that managed to penetrate this far into the cavern they could just barely see that the rope-bridge extended around 30 feet to the other side of the pit. Beyond that, all was darkness.
They crept further across the ceiling trying not to look down into the gaping blackness of the pit. Just as they were above the opposite side of the pit, a voice called out from the darkness in a guttural language that Rhys recognized as orcish. They heard the thrum of bowstrings and the clattering of arrows off the ceiling around them.
Krase quickly dropped the light stone on the ground and then leapt to the ground himself. As he did so, he activated the amulet and sent a message to Speaks who still clung to the cliff face outside. The message was, "Go!". Rhys and Ilrath quickly followed Krase's lead, leaping to the ground and stepping forward to engage their enemies. A moment later Krase drew his short swords and stepped forward to attack one of the pair of orcs they could now see on the ledge. The orc died with a single thrust of his gladius. Ilrath quickly closed with the other bow-wielding orc and laid him low with a devastating cut from his great axe.
Meanwhile outside, Speaks crept forward the last few inches until he could see inside the arrowslit. He then unleashed a fiery sphere inside the archery gallery and sent it rolling along the interior toward a group of orcs gathered in a guard room. The orc panicked at this entirely unexpected turn of events and ran screaming into a nearby hallway where the sphere quickly caught up and burned one to death.
The other three orcish guards who had been manning the arrowslits hastily opened a secret door that opened onto the ledge opposite of where the other party members had been fighting. Speaks was rapidly loosing sight of them and sent the ball rolling out the door where it burned another orc, knocking him down the pit.
All of this commotion had, of course, alerted the two orcs on guard duty outside. The quickly ran over and noticed the druid clinging to the wall, peering through the arrowslits and probably causing the screams of fear and pain they could hear from inside. Unfortunately for them, they were not armed with any missile weapons and were unable to strike directly at the druid. They quickly decided to go inside to offer whatever help they could.
With his flaming sphere expired, Speaks saw that the orcish guards were about to go inside. Not knowing what the status of his friends inside was, he decided that he should prevent those orcs from coming to the aid of their fellows. He whistled for Arc and moved down the wall to flat ground where he could engage the orcs with his long spear. Seeing that they now had a reachable target, the orcs doubled back and attacked the druid.
Back inside, the rest of the party was engaged in a very one-sided ranged battle with the orcs who had escaped the onslaught of the flaming sphere. The party had discovered that the side of the pit they were on benefited from a pair of large, floor to ceiling natural stone pillars that offered them excellent cover while the orcs on the opposite ledge had no such advantage.
Ilrath hurled a hand axe in the initial moments but then moved back to guard the pair of doors that lay at the rear of the chamber, lest the party be assaulted from behind. Krase had switched from his swords to his short bow and Rhys was effectively firing away with his crossbow. In moments, one of the two orcs was down.
Just then another secret door opened opposite of the first one and yet another orc scurried out onto the ledge with longbow in hand. He was quickly downed and the last surviving orc looked briefly back at the secret door where the flaming sphere had come from. He decided that while there might be another deadly ball of fire waiting in there for him, to stand and fight on the ledge against ranged attackers with good cover was certain death. He ran for the passage to the archery gallery.
Seeing that the enemy was on the run, Ilrath gave chase by climbing along the wall of the chamber using his recently granted spider climbing ability. Krase and Rhys were not far behind and elected to use the ceiling and walls, eschewing the possibly unsafe rope bridge.
Outside, Speaks downed one of the two orcs he faced with his first spear thrust. The other one was proving difficult, however. Even though Arc had arrived and attacked the orc from his flank, both of their attacks were seeming surprisingly inept. Fortunately for them, the orc seemed to be having similar problems. (Note: For four consecutive rounds, Speaks, Arc and the orc rolled nothing above a 6 on any of their attacks).
Ilrath had raced down the archer gallery in pursuit of the orc. At the end he found a small room with an open door that contained a stairway leading further up into the mountain. Unfortunately it was quite dark in the stairway and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to fight effectively in such darkness. He stayed in the dim light afforded by the arrowslits and yelled out, "Need Light!". To the credit of the rest of the party, none of them offered an anachronistic product known as "Bud Light".
Krase and Rhys both skidded to a halt in their tracks at Ilrath's plea and then gazed across the chasm to where the light stone provided by Speaks lay where Krase had dropped it. Rhys immediately began scrambling across the rope bridge after it, reaching it moments later and tossing it across the pit to Krase. Krase raced down the archery gallery to where Ilrath was already engaging an orc with other beginning to pour down the stairway toward him.
Ilrath began to down one orc after another while his armor and bark-like skin protected him from most of the damage being sent his way by the opposition. Krase was frustrated at his inability to engage the orcs on the narrow stairway until he realized that the elevation would allow him to fire at those at the top of the stairs with his bow.
An orc near the top of the stairs noticed this and feeling that turnabout was only fair launched a javelin down the stairwell at Ilrath. Unfortunately for him, the javelin merely sunk into the back of the orc Ilrath was currently fighting, killing him. No further attempts were made to throw javelins down the stairs.
Ilrath, thanks to the help from the orc, had fought his way to the base of the stairs and found himself face to face with one of the veteran fighters among the orcs. This orc wielded a large steel shield that warded off blow after blow from Ilrath's great axe while his finely crafted handaxe found its way through his defenses a couple of times. Finally, Ilrath brought his axe down so precisely and with such force that it crumpled the veteran orc to the ground in a single blow. Atop the stairs, the other orcs nervously waited for the barbarian.
Rhys had meanwhile stationed himself at the secret door that lead to the guard room and archer gallery to keep watch on their rear. Before he positioned himself there, he cut through the guide ropes of the bridge to make crossing it a very dangerous proposition. Sure enough, a group of orcs soon entered the opposite side of the chamber through the double doors there. Although Rhys couldn't see far enough into the darkness there to attack effectively without the light stone, he did manage to keep the orcs pinned down by shooting any that stepped to the front of the ledge.
Finally having dispatched the last orc guard outside, Speaks took a moment to heal himself and then ran inside. Rhys heard him approach and got his attention, directing him to where Ilrath and Krase were fighting at the other end of the archer gallery. Speaks hurried off in that direction along with Arc while Rhys noticed that the orcs seemed to have retreated from the opposite ledge, back further into the complex.
They soon reappeared however, in the room that Ilrath and Krase were assaulting, bolstering the forces there. Ilrath made the top of the stairs to find himself surrounded by half a dozen or more orcs. He cleaved through a pair of them and stepped into the room. Krase who had put his bow away again, was now able to attack across the threshold of the stairway at one of the orcs that flanked Ilrath. They began to gain a measure of confidence when they heard a deep voice bellow, "Who dares challenge the Great Ulfe!?" Of course they weren't too shaken since they couldn't speak orcish and had no idea who Ulfe was in any event. Still, it was said with authority and the fact that the voice appeared attached to an enormous, barrel chested orc with a great axe in one hand and a pair of wolves on chains in the other did much to get Ulfe's message across in the universal language of fear.
Ulfe cried havoc and unleashed the wolves of war as he charged in with his great axe. Krase managed to down the orc that he had been cutting at around the corner of the stairwell and timidly stepped into the room to face the wrath of this mighty orc. Ilrath in the mean time managed to cleave through another of the orcish defenders and cut deeply into one of Ulfe's wolves. Fortunately for him, Speaks with Stone was just arriving at the bottom of the staircase and didn't see this brutal assault on nature's beauty.
Krase launched a series of cuts at Ulfe that were unable to penetrate his mighty armor while Ilrath managed to kill the last of the other orcs in the room and finish off one of the wolves. He then turned on Ulfe as Speaks with Stone entered the room and began to entreat the remaining wolf to attack it's master.
Ignoring the puny and ineffectual human wielding the pair of overgrown butter knives, Ulfe rounded on Ilrath and dealt him a devastating blow from his greataxe that could easily have felled anyone else in the party. Drawing on his inner rage, Ilrath swung back with fury and scored a minor wound on the giant orc. With Ulfe distracted, Krase managed to land one of his blades as well, scoring mild cut on his axe-wielding adversary.
Speaks with Stone was unable to convince Ulfe's pet to turn against him and decided that if somebody has to commit a sin against nature, it might as well be the druid. He sicced Arc on the other wolf and moved into position with his long spear. Moments later, Ilrath saved him the trouble by cleaving through the wolf and scoring another wound on the mighty Ulfe.
Ulfe was not quite as stupid as he looked and seeing that the last of his allies was down and that although heavily wounded, his opponents were still fighting hard, he decided to beat a hasty retreat, risking whatever attacks they might launch as a result. The party failed to connect on any of the several swings they directed at the fleeing Ulfe and he made it into the hallway beyond the door on the other end of the room.
Ilrath was too exhausted from his primal rage to give chase and none of the rest of the party felt much like fighting the mighty Ulfe at the moment either. Speaks used a bit more of his healing magic on Ilrath and for just a moment, they were able to breathe easy.
The moment of peace was short lived however. Far at the other end of the archer gallery from the room the majority of the party occupied, Rhys began screaming. Nobody in the rest of the party knew what he was screaming about and, oddly enough, neither did he. He only knew that he was suddenly filled with the most overwhelming fear he had ever experienced. He ran from his post by the secret door back through the guard room and down the archer gallery as fast as his feet would carry him.
The rest of the party members had meanwhile spread out throughout the large room the bulk of the battle had taken place in. Ilrath was closest to the stairs when they heard the terrified cries of Rhys and he moved as quickly as his fatigued body would allow toward the main entrance. Rhys dashed passed Ilrath with his face a mask of terror. Krase stopped to ask Rhys what caused his fear and, receiving no coherent answer, went after Ilrath again.
Ilrath arrived at the secret door and had time to peer beyond to where a pair of orcs were just beginning to crawl their way across the single strand of rope that remained of the bridge. That was all he saw, however because he became very sleepy all of a sudden and took a nap right in the secret doorway.
Moments later, Krase arrived in the doorway and found the orcs on the rope across the pit. One of the orcs was very nearly across and another was halfway. Krase took careful aim and fired an arrow, not at either of the orcs but at the bridge rope itself. Miraculously he struck the rope and all but severed it, the weight of the orcs snapping the remaining fibers a split second later. (Note: This was the first time we had used the "damage to inanimate objects" rules and looking all this up was starting to break up the flow of the combat. Then Krase's character said, "I'm just going to shoot. If it doesn't work, fine, but that's what I'm doing." He rolled a natural 20 and did 8 points of damage to the rope. It was one of the highlights of the campaign so far.)
The orc who was midway across the rope tried to hold on but he was slammed against the far side of the pit and plunged to his death. The orc who was nearly across however managed to grab the ledge and hang on. Krase yelled back over his shoulder, "They're coming this way!" and fired at the orc who was clambering up onto the ledge, missing.
As that orc got to his feet, the orcs on the other side of the pit yelled something at him and he turned and fled out the front door. Krase quickly ran to one of the arrowslits to fire a parting shot at him but failed to spot him in the dim light of the crevasse. Afraid that the orcs would find another way across the pit, he ran back to the secret door.
At the other end of the archer gallery, in the orcish barracks, Speaks with stone heard footsteps retreating in the hallway that Ulfe had run down. He stepped through to investigate and heard a click sound. Spinning around, he got a face full of greenish gas that emanated from the mouth of a dwarven statue. He suddenly felt the strength fade from his limbs and he quickly retreated back into the barracks and warned Rhys of this danger.
Krase had returned to the secret door and observed that the orcs had once again taken cover behind the pillars and showed no signs of attempting another crossing of the, now bridgeless, pit. Krase took the opportunity to wake Ilrath from his slumber just as Speaks arrived behind him. Krase explained that he had had to shoot the bridge down and Ilrath and Speaks were both privately impressed by his marksmanship. Speaks explained that Rhys was back in the room they had fought the big battle in trying to find a way to jam the door shut. Krase departed to help him while Ilrath and Speaks stayed behind to try and find a way to secure the secret door against intrusion by any other orcs that somehow crossed the pit.
Krase entered the large barracks room and saw Rhys trying to jam a javelin through the door handle. He approached from behind just as Rhys had withdrawn a small hammer from his pack to pound the javelin securely in place. Suddenly, the javelin splintered as the door was ripped open by Ulfe who promptly swung his axe at Rhys, missing by the smallest of margins. Ulfe alone would have been enough for Rhys to run from but seeing that he had a trio of other orcs behind him put the matter far beyond question and Rhys ran back to the stairway at the other end of the room. At least this time he was certain what it was he was terrified of.
Krase was quick to arrive at the same decision and dashed back to the stairs which were now blocked by Rhys. Krase, secure in his masculinity, was screaming not unlike a little girl as he repeated, "Down the stairs! Down the stairs!" over and over again in an attempt to hasten Rhys.
Meanwhile Speaks had decided to explore the secret door opposite of the one they had been defending. He was afraid that it might offer another route deeper into the mountain that the orcs could attack from. Instead he found that it was a dead end and was returning back to the ledge.
Ilrath had heard the sound of the door crashing open and had once again returned to the area of the barracks stairway, arriving just in time to block the path of Rhys.
The orcs that were with Ulfe rushed past him and raced across the barracks arranging themselves across the top of the stairway in such a fashion that all three could attack Krase at their next opportunity. Ulfe moved in behind them.
Rhys saw an opportunity to strike at the lot of them at once. Instead of obeying Krase's litany of begging him to descend the stairway as fast as possible, Rhys edged in behind him. In one fluid motion, he drew forth the wand he had taken from the orcish adept, pulled aside Krase's long cape and thrust the wand beneath the ranger's legs yelling, "Asharak!"
The screams of Krase and the orcs blended into one as a huge gout of flame shot forth from the ranger's crotch to engulf all four of the orcs who had arranged themselves in a neat 10 foot radius. One of the orcs could no longer take the pressure and ran in fear. Pushing down his fear and humiliation, Krase struck at another orc that was within reach but his aim was ruined by the Rhys who, after all, was pressed right up against him and had a hand between his legs.
Ulfe stepped into the opening left by the fleeing orc and bore down on the ranger who found himself unable to move very well due to the aforementioned compromising position. Krase took a blow from the great axe, but it was not nearly the equal of the one he had seen Ilrath receive earlier.
Seeing that he was missing all the fun, Ilrath ascended the stairs to directly behind the cramped (and intimate) area occupied by Rhys and Krase. Seeing that little has changed from a tactical standpoint apart from the flight of the one orc, Rhys sees no reason not to shout, "Asharak!" again and engulf the three remaining orcs in flames. This time, the fires overcome the two lackeys and Ulfe once again remains alone.
Having had just about enough homo-erotic fun with his friend Rhys, and wanting to put some distance between his groin area and the magical flame-thrower his friend was wielding, Krase steped over the bodies of the orcs and slashed at Ulfe. One of his blades found a way through Ulfe's armor and wounded him again.
Ulfe slashed again at Krase but missed. Ilrath bulled his way past Rhys and took a swing at Ulfe but the wall at the top of the stairs prevented him from connecting. With the room once again crowded with his friends, Rhys reluctantly put away his wand and loaded his crossbow. Krase stepped part way around Ulfe to allow Ilrath to come fully into the room and drove in again with his blades and once again one found its way through.
Again Ulfe struck at Krase and again missed but Krase wondered how long his luck could hold out. Ilrath stepped fully into the room and swung his mighty axe but his luck was no better than that of Ulfe. Then Rhys slid past Ilrath and moved to position himself so that he could get a clear shot at the enormous orc. His bolt flew true and struck Ulfe sending him to the ground at last.
In a rather odd turn of events, Krase leapt atop Ulfe and immediately began trying to keep him from dying. Ilrath and Rhys looked askance at each other but figured that perhaps Krase wanted to question the orc. Unfortunately for Krase he was unable to staunch the flow of blood and Ulfe took any secrets he had with him to the grave. But Krase did happen to notice that Ulfe was wearing another of the mysterious amulets like that given to him by his grandfather.
While these events were unfolding, Speaks with Stone has been having an unusual encounter of his own back in the pit room. As he emerged from the secret door that lead to the arrowslit looking into the antechamber, he noticed a curious sight. Crawling across the ceiling in a fashion very similar to the way his own party had been, was an orc dressed in simple leather armor.
Speaks moved out onto the middle of the ledge and sent his recently acquired owl companion to attack. The owl moved in and clawed at the orc, scratching him. The orc, who was presently unarmed crawled as quickly as he could toward the exit, suffering a jab from the druid's long spear in the process as well as continued harassment from the owl. He managed to finally crawl back out to the crevasse and start up the wall.
Once clear of the low ceilinged antechamber and out of reach of the druid (or so he thought), he drew a dagger and slashed savagely at the owl, wounding it slightly. But in doing so, he did not notice that Speaks had dropped his long spear and drawn his cudgel, climbing the wall to within reach of the orc. The orc turned in time to slash at the druid as the owl flew away to safety. Speaks smote him with nature's own might and finally tipped the orc into unconsciousness, which sent him crashing 20 feet to the ground below.
Speaks swiftly descended to the ground below and hustled back to where he heard the dying sounds of combat. He did not notice the body of the orc he had just slain begin to smolder and smoke. (Note: The shaman hadn't found anywhere to use his flasks of alchemists fire and when he fell one of them cracked.)
Rhys passed Speaks in the archers gallery where he informed him of the demise of Ulfe. Speaks mentioned his encounter with the orcish spellcaster and Rhys went to inspect the body hoping to find some more magical booty. What he found was instead a conflagration as the body of the orcish adept was consumed by the alchemists fire. All that had escaped was a few bone fragments and the dagger that had fallen nearby.
The group gathered together and congratulated themselves on a hard won battle. For the moment at least, no more orcs were attacking them.
NEXT: Information and Exploration
