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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rhael" data-source="post: 442493" data-attributes="member: 5269">Player's Perspective (013)Party UpdateRhael (Human Ranger/Cleric), Reikon (Elven Rogue/Illusionist) Terjon (Human Paladin), Warramayl (Human Monk), Mareth (Elf Fighter), Taklinn(Dwarven Fighter), Chade (Human Cleric of St Cuthbert)Divide and conquer… well, not reallyI found it hard to believe that it had come to this – an ideological disagreement about loot.Mareth was attempting to be the go-between, trying to broker a deal that would keep the party together.  Trying to find a compromise situation.  From my point of view (and that of Terjon), there was to be no compromise – they either took the items or they didn’t.  They could relent now and we could continue on our quest and live up to our deal with Longstride and rid the forest of the orcs or we could part ways now before anyone got hurt.Many arguments were thrown up by all parties.  Warramayl sided with Reikon and Chade, citing the reason that if the sword would help us on our quest then we should take it.  Taklinn sided with Terj and myself, possibly because he thought it was right.  After what felt like hours, Reikon and Chade finally returned to the crypt, Warramayl went with them, but said he would stay outside the crypt.  We decided that we would wait for himReikon and Chade returned soon after, the rest of us had packed our gear and were ready to leave, the make-up of the group yet to be decided.  Reikon had the magnificent sword in it’s scabbard, strapped to his waist and Chade was struggling under the weight of the chest.  Warramayl following along behind.“I see you went through with it.”  I remarked to Reikon.“Of course.”  He sneered.  Chade was chuckling to himself, looking like he wanted to throw the gold in the air and be showered with coins.“Then you are lost to me.”  I said, sadly.  “I had hoped that you would think of what our friendship has meant over the years and it would win out.  Alas…”  My voice trailed off.“Is there nothing that can be done to rectify this?”  Mareth asked desperately.  “We are weaker if we divide.  No sword that I know of can make up for this.”I was willing to offer no compromise and shook my head, defiantly.  Terjon spoke up.“If they return what they have taken, I will accept them again.”  I was shocked at first, but after a short period of contemplation I saw his reasoning.  What sort of cleric of Hieroneous would I be if I could not offer my friends a chance at forgiveness?“Fine.” I looked at Reikon and Chade.  I saw men who had been my friends for a long time, rather than the two I was ready to call ‘thief’ and never speak to again.  “I prayed that you two could respect the wishes of Terjon and myself.  This crypt is a monument, consecrated in the name of the god to whom we have devoted our lives to the service of.  If we had happened across a tomb of one of St Cuthbert’s favoured, Chade’s will would hold sway.”  I looked at Chade, specifically.  My statement seemed to have a significant effect on him – he looked down at the gold, then up to the heavens.  He set the gold on the ground and took out his holy symbol.  Warramayl also seemed to be thinking seriously about his position, and moved to stand near Terjon and myself.  “If it were elven artefacts in question, we would look to Reikon and Mareth to make the decisions.”  Reikon was unmoved.“No, Rhael.  This sword is mine now.”I shook my head slowly, genuinely disappointed.  I walked slowly over to the elf, he stood tall and put his hand on the hilt of his new sword, obviously expecting me to try to hurt him.  I extended my hand, he looked at it quizzically but eventually took it.“I wish to bid you farewell as a friend, Reikon.  I will overlook the sword at your waist as you leave my company.  However, next time we meet you will be my enemy.”Reikon nodded silently, walked to his horse and lead it out of the encampment.Chade was on his knees, tears in his eyes, holding the holy symbol of St Cuthbert in his hands.“Rhael!”  He sobbed slightly.  Please forgive me.  Please return the gold to the crypt.  I have shamed myself and my god and… my friends.”  The cleric got to his feet and, avoiding all attempts to wish him farewell, walked hurriedly off towards the east – away from Taureth.  I hoped that he would find peace, somewhere.When Chade was out of sight I sought out Longstride to assure him that regardless of the split in the party, the remaining group would, of course, honour our previous obligations.With a pall of sadness hanging over the party, despite our recent success in locating the Sphere of Haedros, we bade Longstride farewell and headed back to Taureth.  Now we could concentrate on ridding this forest of the orcs that defiled it by their mere presence, let alone their destruction of trees and other wildlife.Another uneventful trip later…We made it back to Taureth, well after dark but without incident, giving the orc encampment a wide berth.  We needed to restock our supplies, but there would be time for that later, right now I think we all just wanted to get some rest.  We all went straight to our beds back in the Drum and Sword.The next morning Mareth and I set off to see if we could find some diamonds for Longstride, Taklinn decided he wanted to try to find a magical weapon at the various markets, Terjon went off to give away however much of his hard-earned wealth as he could and Warramayl just went wandering – we directed him to pick up the requisite supplies while he was gone.  We arranged to meet back at the inn at sundown.Eight Uneventful hours later…We were sitting around our table discussing the results of our day.  Taklinn had got lucky and found a magical longsword.  Mareth and I had managed to source two diamonds of the quality required by the centaur chieftain from the gemsmiths in the town – and requested notification if they come across any more.  Terj had successfully gifted his way down to his last few gold pieces and Warramayl had picked up the supplies we needed.  All in all… an expensive day.We had just finished our dinner of roast meat and potatoes when our table was approached by a large, wild looking man with a greatsword strapped to his back– obviously a barbarian – and a short, wiry and shifty-looking man dressed in loose-fitting, black clothing – probably a rogue.  Since we had become semi-famous at this inn and most of the regulars knew us well we did get people approaching us occasionally.  We all stood in unison, hands straying to our various weapons just out of habit.  Neither of the two men had done anything that bespoke hostility, but at this point they stopped – a few feet away from us and the small man came forward.“Is this Rhael and his companions?”  He was looking at me.“It is.”  I replied.  “Who is it that addresses us?”“My name is Shadow,”  Replied the smaller man.  “rogue by trade and my burly companion here,” he gestured grandly toward the larger man, “is Hejkan, warrior and cleric of Kord.”  The barbarian inclined his head slight in acknowledgement and greeting.  “We have sought you out because we wish to offer our services to the group.“Well then, that’s a happy coincidence.” I responded.  “Because two of our members have just departed from our company and we are a little short of manpower at present.”They sat down at our table and we attempted to explain our mission, just to make sure that they were up for trying to save the world.  I also explain our obligation to the centaur chieftain with respect to the orcs – Hejkan appeared very keen to start hacking into some orcs at the earliest possible convenience – and my ambition to join the Knights of the Chalice and the requirement I had for some enchanted full-plate.  After even this short time with them, I got the feeling that Shadow made most of the conversation in their odd pairing and it became clear what their individual motivations were.  Shadow was apparently consumed with the collection of loot and Hejkan revered strength, both of character and body.  I knew of Kord, the God of Strength and it all made sense.  It wasn’t long before he was arm-wrestling with Taklinn – which he won.  Despite him being primarily a cleric I admit I looked forward to seeing him in combat, it could a fearsome sight.It was obvious that some of our number were getting ready for a long night at ye olde tavern getting ye olde smashed, it was at this point I reminded everyone that tomorrow morning we would be heading back into the Hoardeep to see what we could do about the orcs camped in the forest.  The others agreed it would not be a good idea to be really hung-over so curtailed their interest in frivolity, for now.Soon after we all hit the hay, looking forward to killing some orcs.Out damn Orcs!On the way to the orc encampment we started working on our plan – strangely having not really thought about it up to this point.  A few ideas were thrown around, but the one we settled on, the safest, so far as we could tell, considering that there were quite possibly fifty or so orcs and only seven of us was a ranged bombardment of any movement we saw from a vantage point inside the forest.The closest we could get to the walls of the walled encampment, while remaining in the cover of the forest was about a hundred and fifty feet.  We found a good spot and began our stakeout.  Mareth, Shadow, Taklinn and I all had our bows at the ready, waiting for movement around the guard towers or the low wall.After around an hour there was some movement, obviously the changing of the guard.  We began loosing arrows at whatever target we could see.  Two orcs went down and the other two in the vicinity dropped behind the wall.  We shot a few more arrows into the wall and then stopped.This went on for some time, for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon.  After killing at least ten or so of their number, the gates of the fort opened.  We waited, not knowing what to expect.  After a few moments there was a cacophony of noise and what we could only guess was the entire population of the encampment poured out the gate and ran in our direction.  Women and children included, followed by the warriors.  The four of us loosed a few more arrows at some of the larger targets before I said:“Run!”  With the orcs only a hundred feet from our position, we turned and fled deeper into the forest.  Somehow we managed to stay roughly together and around ten minutes later we stopped to see if we were still being pursued.  “You guys wait here.”  I said quietly.  “Shadow and I will head back a short distance to make sure that they’ve stopped chasing us.”  I motioned to the rogue and we headed off, with a good fifty feet between us, back the way we had come.  I felt in my element, this was what I was trained for, but I was amazed at how quiet Shadow was being, even outside the urban environments that he had been trained for.  I had no doubt that Shadow would be a useful addition to the group.We retraced our steps for about five hundred yards and saw no sign of the orcs.  Out of habit I made the birdcall that Reikon and I had used during our scouting – forgetting that Shadow and I had not discussed signals.  It took some work but I managed to get his attention and signal for him to head back to the group.  We head back to where the others were and on the way I told him of the signals that I used with Reikon for our scouting.  It would take a while for him to learn them properly, but he had started well.After regrouping with the others we decided that we may as well make the walk back to Taureth now and return the next day as the light was fading in the forest and we all knew that orcs were far more comfortable in darkness than we were.We had a good night’s rest, restocked our arrow supply and returned to the same spot as the day before.  Once again it took a few hours but eventually movement was spotted and two more orcs were dead from arrow-fire.  Two more fell in the next hour before the gates opened once again.  Expecting an onslaught similar to the previous day’s we readied ourselves to flee.  We were surprised when two orcs emerged from the open gate, carrying a dirty white piece of linen we could only assume was a flag of truce.  They walked fifty of the hundred and fifty feet to our position and were obviously trying to find us amongst the foliage.  One was wearing the same blue facepaint as another orc we had met on the trail earlier and carried a huge two-handed axe, the other was dressed in half-plate and was armed with a longsword.“Two!”  The one in plate yelled, holding up two fingers.“Let’s go, Terj.”  I said and tapped the paladin on the shoulder.  “Cover us.”  I said to Taklinn, Mareth and Shadow.“I don’t trust them.”  Mareth said, tersely.“Neither do I, but we should try to find out what they want.”I made sure my sword was loose in it’s scabbard and that my shield was firmly in place before I stepped out of the forest a short distance to the left of our position with Terj at my side.We advanced roughly half the distance from us to them and stopped.“Half-way!”  I yelled across the last fifty feet.  The two orcs conversed briefly and nodded.  We all advanced slowly and mistrustfully toward the mid-point on the field.“Why you shoot us?” The larger, plate-clad orc said when we got closer.  Obviously it’s common was not all that elegant.“Because we want you out of this forest.”  I replied.  “You defile this area by your mere presence and we will continue to shoot your men until you leave this place.”Obviously they had pre-planned this and the two orcs quickly drew their weapons and attacked.Only a fraction of a second after their first aggressive move the first arrow thudded into the ground near the larger orc.  Good old Mareth!  Terj and I drew our swords and the fight was joined.  I found myself fighting the shorter orc with the face paint and greataxe and he was giving me a run for my coin, it was all I could do to avoid his massively powerful swings and I only managed to a minimal amount of damage to him in return.  I made the mistake of looking over my shoulder at one point to see what my companions were doing.  Hejkan, Warramayl and Taklinn were charging to our position and it was at about this time when I felt a brief and sharp pain in my side and I found myself falling, my blood gushing from a new hole in my scalemail.  I saw Warramayl leap over me to attack the orc with the blue facepaint before I blacked out.It can’t have been much later when I felt the touch of a divine hand and Hejkan was pulling me to my feet.  Taklinn, Warramayl and Terjon were still fighting the two orcs, but both were looking a little tired.  I was still feeling a little groggy so I stayed back and watched Hejkan wade in as well.  Taklinn took down the blue-faced orc and the other turned and fled.  A few arrows thunked into the turf behind him as he ran into the encampment but he made it without further injury and the gates were closed.  Terjon had grabbed Warramayl just as he was preparing for a one-man assault on the gates.“Back to the forest.”  I said wearily and we all turned and headed back to our position, casting a few glances back at the orc fortress.We began our stakeout again, and Hejkan tended to my wounds and then Terjon’s and Warramayl’s, I threw in a few of my own healing spells and we were all looking decidedly healthy again.  We saw no activity for the rest of the day – obviously the orcs were keeping their heads down.We returned the next day to a very similar situation, except that we saw no movement whatsoever for about four hours.After a brief discussion of the relative merits of the various courses of action open to us we finally decided to check out the fortress first hand.We advanced slowly across the distance to the fenceline and scaled the wooden structure with ease.  We checked the guard towers and found them empty before heading for the large building in the centre of the encampment.  It consisted of two rooms, both of which were filthy, but uninhabited.We decided that perhaps the orcs had retreated into the cave system that their wall encompassed and ventured inside to attempt to verify that theory.  We went as deep as we had gone before, being careful to avoid the area where we came across our almost deadly meeting with the pair of manticores.  We found no sight of the orcs and figured that perhaps we could ask the duergar dwarves that we met earlier.  Of course two of our number which had not previously been seen by the dwarves would have to go, so Taklinn and Hejkan were elected.We waited at the end of the corridor leading to the duergar home, straining our ears to listen for trouble.  A few minutes later they returned, Taklinn telling us that we owe him fifty gold.“They say that the orcs did come in here but after they killed a few and some of the other denizens took some others out they left in a fair hurry.”“Excellent news.”  I said.  I didn’t entirely trust the duergar, but I figured they would hold little love for orcs and where money was concerned they were more likely than not to provide correct information.  “Let’s head to Longstride and let him know.”We made it to the centaur village without incident and sought out the chief.  “Greetings to you once again, Rhael.”  Longstride said as we approached.“And to you, Longstride.”  I replied.“What brings you back?”  The centaur asked.“I believe that we have completed the task we agreed to take on for you, Longstride.”  I answered.  I told him of our ranged attacks on the orc encampment and our finding the entire place deserted.  “ I know not where they went, Longstride, but as far as we can tell they do not appear to be in the vicinity.”“Yes.  The information provided by my scouts is the same.  I trust your judgement in this, Rhael and you may consider your task completed.  We appreciate you and your group’s efforts in this and invite you to a celebratory meal here tonight.”We gratefully accepted the invitation, of course.  I took that opportunity to introduce Shadow and Hejkan and got Longstride to expand our knowledge of the area.  He told us of some of the other paths through the woods and of the location of that wizard’s tower that we had heard of earlier.  After some discussion about what may lie there, we decided to check it out the next day.</blockquote>

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