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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1269576" data-attributes="member: 15470">Issue #1: The Laughing Ogre, Episode 7The moon is not yet up when we start out. We stop a hundred yards away from the tower, where Paks and Fergus lie down hiding behind some rocks. The remaining four go up to the tower, wending our way through the stones. As we sneak up to the tower, we find that the fallen stones have left a few good-sized openings through which we can see in.  Through the opening we can see two men dicing on the floor. Light is provided by a small lantern, and we also see a cart, a pile of hay, and two horses. We also see a spiral staircase, built along the wall of the tower. One of the men is the one we met at the door the day before. Apparently, he is having bad luck, as he exclaims “Oh, damn it!”His partner puts out his hand and says “Pay up, you loser.”Chuck whispers, “This crack is big enough for me to shoot an arrow through.”Stone puts his hand on Chuck’s shoulder, and shakes his head. “Wait and watch,” he says.The bandits are dicing, cursing, swapping gold around. They start talking about our visit, and how suspicious it was. The bandit we met says that some guy named “Skelf” was really mad that they didn't just “waste us immediately.” After a few minutes, we also hear them talk about their job. They think it's pretty cushy, hanging out here in the tower, but they don’t like having to go the marsh to load the boats. Miriel whispers, “I think we should inform the others. I’ll go.” Chuck and Stone make eye contact, and Chuck nods, once, in approval. Miriel slips quietly away, rejoins Paks and Fergus, and tells them everything that was heard. Fergus whispers, “I still think it’s a bad idea to go in. I think we have fulfilled our commission.”Paks shakes her head. “Smuggling is wrong,” she says, “and if these guys have orders to kill anyone who comes around, then that leaves them as a threat to the general populace.”Fergus argues, “Our commitment was to investigate the tower, not to go in and kill someone.” Before any resolution is reached, a commotion erupts at the tower. The party at the tower is sitting watching, when someone slips on a rock. The two men inside hear, and draw their crossbows, preparing to go outside and check out the noise.  Stone rushes around to the front door, and draws his knife, while Chuck draws his bow and fires through the crack in the wall. His shot hits and wounds one of the bandits, who calls for reinforcements through the open trap door in the middle of the floor.  Goldpetal runs around the tower toward the door. From afar, Paks, Miriel, and Fergus begin running towards the tower.Stone meets one of the bandits at the door. Without breaking stride, he swings his right fist, and with a single punch, he knocks the bandit down and unconscious. Chuck fires again, and his arrow hits, just grazing the wounded bandit, who jumps down the trap door. Just that quickly, the tower is ours. Stone hoists a bale of hay and uses it to block the trap door. Goldpetal goes to the horses, which are disturbed by the scent of blood and sound very frightened, to calm them. Chuck steps through the door, around the fallen bandit, to check out the wagon. The other three reach the tower, and go inside to find out what happened within. They find their three friends, uninjured, standing over the body of the bandit Stone punched. Miriel kneels next to the bandit, searching his throat for a pulse with her finger. “He’s dead,” she says, with a shake of her head. Chuck looks in the wagon, but there is nothing there. He loots the corpse, finding 6 gold and 18 silver pieces. He also finds some shabby equipment: a longsword, a dagger, and a crossbow. Chuck takes the cheaply-made dagger. Stone takes off the corpse’s boots. Suddenly, three arrows come in from one of the opening in the wall! The first shot narrowly misses Stone, but Goldpetal and Miriel are both hit in the chest.  As we turn to react to this threat, a huge, muscular half-orc with a bastard sword appears at the front door. He yells a wordless battle cry, and attacks Paks. His first cut with the large sword misses, and Paks drops her bow. In a panicked response, she draws her long sword, but her swing is wild. He knocks the sword from her hand, and it tumbles, skidding into the middle of the room. Paks falls at his feet. From another opening, a crossbow is firing. One bolt hits Stone and he falls to the ground, bleeding profusely. Another hits Goldpetal, and it becomes clear that the ruined tower has become a killing ground for us, with the half-orc stopping the door, and all the archers firing from the effective blinds of the ruined tower walls.Paks begins scrambling backwards, away from the half-orc, drawing her short sword. Fergus draws his sword and steps between her and the burly attacker. Chuck lets loose a shot with his bow. The arrow buries itself in the half-orc’s shoulder, but he fights on, with Chuck’s arrow sticking out of him. Fergus swings his great sword two-handed, but misses. Behind the fighters, Goldpetal picks up Paks’ sword and starts carrying it back to her. Miriel goes over to Stone and lays her hands on him. “Madriel,” she prays, “Heal this man.” The goddess, working through Miriel’s hands, heals the half-orc back into consciousness. At the doorway, the half-orc hits Fergus with the bastard sword. The clansman is hurt, but he grits his teeth and stays on his feet. Paks clambers back to her feet and attacks. She gets in a good cut across his chest, but the half-orc just snarls at her.  Chuck misses with his bow. The arrow fire continues to pour in. One arrow hits Miriel, who slumps unconscious to the floor. Goldpetal drops Paks’ sword and rushes to Miriel’s side. He staunches the bleeding with a makeshift bandage, stabilizing her. At the door, the half-orc hits Chuck, who, with bow drawn instead of sword, can only poorly defend himself. Paks steps around to flank the half-orc, but he has a great advantage in reach, and he wounds her. Paks slashes him in return. Stone stands up, a bit woozy, and looks around; an arrow misses him. Another arrow hits the prone Miriel, catching her in the main artery of her right thigh. Blood spurts from her leg as she begins to bleed to death. A third arrow hits Goldpetal, who collapses unconscious, slumped over Miriel’s body. He is also bleeding, and their blood pools beneath them. Just when things look their bleakest, Chuck puts an arrow right through the eye of the half-orc, and the burly warrior collapses in the doorway.  Stone grabs the wagon, trying to pull it over himself and the unconscious bodies, successfully shielding Goldpetal. Paks runs behind the cover of the wagon, and performs first aid on Goldpetal. She binds his wounds, and he seems much better, no longer bleeding, but still unconscious. Chuck steps outside with his bow ready, and Fergus right on his heels. Chuck heads around the near side of the tower, while Fergus runs around the back of the tower, staying out of sight of the bandits. Stone shoves Miriel behind the wagon. Paks goes to bandage Miriel, and sees that the wounds are very deep. Paks tries to bind Miriel’s thigh, but she is bleeding profusely, and blood quickly soaks through the bandage and onto her hands. In desperation, Paks prays aloud, “Madriel, save your priestess!” She tries to echo the words she has heard Miriel use. She tries to hold the wound shut with her hand, and under her touch, the bleeding subsides and stops. Miraculously, not only is Miriel stabilized, but she wakes up, blinking and disoriented. As Chuck and Fergus meet on the bandits’ side of the tower, Chuck sees three archers running away into the cover of darkness. “They’re getting away,” he says with a sigh. He and Fergus watch the bandits until they are out of sight, and then return to the tower.  Back inside the tower, Paks turns to Stone. “Thanks for providing cover,” she says, gesturing at the overturned wagon.“You’re welcome,” he says. He takes another bale of hay and blocks the largest aperture in the wall, where the collapse of the tower had left a large gap between the remaining stones.By the time Stone has finished, Chuck and Fergus have reached the doorway. Fergus enters the tower. Chuck guards the door, looting the corpse at the door. Miriel prays over the fallen elf, and through her hands Madriel heals Goldpetal back to consciousness.Chuck finds forty pieces of gold, five silver, seven copper, a ring, some dice, and the bastard sword. As Chuck picks up the sword, he sees that it’s very nicely balanced, and a fine weapon. “Paks,” he says. “Check this out.” He offers it to her, hilt-first, and she takes the sword. “Oh, very nice,” Paks says, moving it slowly through a few mock blows. It takes her two hands to wield it. She holds the blade out in front of her, lifting it near her eye to check its edge. “That’s quite well made.”“Keep it,” Chuck tells her.Miriel suggests, “I think we should go. Most of us are wounded, and I’m too exhausted to heal anybody else if those guys come back.”.</blockquote>

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