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Message: <blockquote data-quote="seasong" data-source="post: 498709" data-attributes="member: 5137">Sorry about all of the "continued" bits. We ran this as one part of the campaign arc, but the telling is getting a bit long.The Battle of Eastpass, pt IV, continuedNear the bottom of the mountain, some eight thousand soldiers, about a tenth of which were barely adults. A quarter mile upslope, the safety of the narrow pass. All around, the swirling chaos of a thousand Bunahken orcs.In theory, eight thousand soldiers should be able to take on less than a quarter their number, even if the enemy is bigger and stronger. In practice, it was a rout, and a slaughter.Youths and adults both gave up any pretense at fighting, and attempted to flee up the mountain to safety, as seven foot plus humanoids, armed with chitin-tipped spears, stabbed and slashed and stomped.Halfway up-mountain, Greppa could see Captain Agina's standard drop, and could hear her clear, cold voice cutting through the thin mountain air."TO ME! RETREAT TO ME!"As many soldiers as could grouped around her. Some had retained their shields, most had not. Drawing her sword, Captain Agina began the messy business of carving a path through the few orcs that had made it so high, back to safety.Greppa ran, but a small group of orcs interposed themselves between Greppa and his mud bearers. They pushed their spears to his neck, and watched his hands carefully, but did not kill him outright.Greppa wisely refrained from rash moves, and kept his eyes open. The orcs tied his hands and gagged his mouth.What he saw was disheartening. The orcs were not even trying to kill anyone anymore. They were cutting them off from the line of retreat, forcing surrenders, then tying them up.Greppa saw Merideth attempt to run around them, and an orc easily three times her mass body tackled her. He saw Athan, trying to hold off three orcs with a broken spear, desparately keeping them away from a fallen soldier. One got around behind him, and swung the butt of its spear to the back of Athan's head. He went down bonelessly. The injured soldier, they killed out of hand.After that, perhaps half of the force that had gone down the mountain made it back up. Most of the rest were captured and tied.The slaves were marched into the forest, where the orc forces encamped.</blockquote>

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