Session 5 Summary
The party currently consists of the following people:
The Player Characters
Winlock – orc/dwarf barbarian, wearing new heavy chainmail armor taken from a dead orc captain
William – the party's wizard, wielding his spells and also holding the Normidian stun staff
Belkor – the human swordsmen now wielding twin scimitars taken from the dead orc captain
Listig – the elven thief/archer wielding the "tracking arrow"
The Non Player Characters
Dathelar – militant priest of Imarus, a good healer, a fair fighter
Ishara – "Sister of Sorrath" – an excellent healer, but a pacifist non-combatant
Ryllis – elven archer
Halimir – elven archer
Kafarr – a veteran mercenary
Poldo – a common militia man
When we last left the party, they had just lured out and ambushed a squad from the enemy's east war camp. The party was now walking back to the watch tower where their four sarlang mounts were tied up.
It was a long walk – more than two miles through very dense swamp terrain. As they made their way back, it began to rain. Once they were retrieved the sarlangs, they turned around and started heading toward the war camp, but they followed a wide circuitous route so that they would be approaching the war camp from the far side. As they travelled the rain gradually increased.
Because their ambush had been witnessed by one of the harness wearing "spy creatures", they assumed the war camp to be on full alert and expecting an attack. However, by the time the party reached the war camp, stealth was no longer a major concern. The rain had turned into a full raging storm. Wind swirled, rain hammered and lightning flashed. The occasional clap of thunder deafened them. The party decided that this was an unanticipated blessing. The guards would be hard pressed to see the attack coming with this storm. The sounds of fighting would be drowned out by rain and thunder.
The party stealthily reconnoitered the war camp. The war camp was making use of an old Traxxian ruin. It was a rectangular stone building with walls extending out to encompass a rectangular courtyard. Surrounding the building and walls was a moat, about 5 meters across.
The walls were about 3 meters tall, but they were old. Both wall and building has crumbling gaps, large enough to walk through. There was also a wooden bridge across the moat on one side leading to the courtyard. There were stairs leading up to the roof of the building (littered with the rubble from a collapsed second store). There was also a stair case leading down into the ground, to a subterranean level.
Click here to see a map of the ruin - [www.khoras.net\CampaignGraphics\EastWarCamp.jpg (http://www.khoras.net\campaigngraphics\eastwarcamp.jpg)].
It looked like the camp was more guarded now, as expected. When the party had previously reconnoitered this place, there had been a couple of saurians on guard duty in the courtyard and two undead skeletons on the roof of the building keeping an unwavering gaze on the tree line.
Now, however, there were five skeletons, one at each corner of the wall gazing outward in all four directions and one roaming the roof. There were also three boglings (bullywug type creatures) in the courtyard. Although the boglings were small and equipped with primitive tridents and armor, they were keeping a watchful eye on the bridge and the ground beyond.
The party tied up the sarlang steeds in the forest, out of sight from the war camp and had a quick meeting to discuss strategy. They decided on a three pronged, direct assault. Two groups would advance, one from the front and one from the side. Mark, using the magic boots, would leap in once combat was engaged.
Covered by the sound of the storm, the two groups charged the camp from the trees.
The first group was led by Winlock, the barbarian, who was wearing his new armor, and in a frenzied battle rage. Behind him was William, Kafarr, Ryllis, Dathelar and Ishara. The latter two, the healers, had orders to find a safe corner and stay out of combat until healing was needed. This group charged across the wooden bridge and rushed the main entrance into the courtyard.
The boglings saw the first group coming. They held their ground and croaked for help. By the time the party had crossed the bridge, a couple of orcs had come out of the building and joined the boglings. The two groups clashed at the entrance to the courtyard, swords swinging. All five skeletons reacted as well, leaving their guard positions to join the fight in the courtyard.
Meanwhile, the second group rushed in, leapt across the moat and charged through the gap in the wall. Poldo, landed awkwardly on the far edge, his foot slipped in the mud, and he fell backwards into the moat. William saw Poldo fall and managed to dash across the courtyard, dodging combat as he went, in an attempt to help Poldo out of the moat.
Amidst the fighting in the courtyard, there came a giant rat to join in the fray (this was a pet of the orcs). Also, a goblin in shiny chain armor came out from the building and joined in. He was wielding an axe and was moving very fast. Undoubtedly, some magic gave him extreme speed. In the blink of an eye, this goblin had crossed the courtyard, entered the fight and began swinging his axe with blinding speed.
Most of the combat was taking place in the courtyard. There was a crowd of sword swinging combatants clustered just inside the courtyard at one end the wooden bridge. Belkor saw an opportunity. He had previously activated the magic gauntlet and was holding a fireball in his hand, ready to throw. He activated the boots, made a tremendous leap from the outskirts and landed in the courtyard. He then threw the fireball into the crowd.
The fireball detonated and a cloud of yellow orange fire engulfed everyone. It was fairly well placed sweeping over orcs, skeletons and boglings. However, both Winlock and Kafarr were engulfed as well. Kafarr died instantly and his body was blown back into the moat. Winlock was badly burned, but managed stayed on his feet and kept fighting.
The low rumble of the fireball happened in between thunderclaps. The noise of the fireball itself was unlikely to alert anyone below (in the subterranean level below the ruins).
The fireball killed most of the enemy combatants, several of whom had already been wounded. Four of the five skeletons, the giant rat, both orcs and all three boglings died in the fiery blast. Only one skeleton and the accelerated goblin survived.
Meanwhile, William was at the edge of the moat on the far side of the courtyard, at the wall gap, trying to pull Poldo out of the moat. The moat was filled with some kind of putrid green slime that bubbled and stank. Now that William was leaning over it, he was getting a face full of the fumes, which burned his nostrils and stung his eyes. William was sure it was acidic and was using a spectral hand spell to help get Poldo out without burning himself. The spectral hand wasn't strong enough to lift Poldo out entirely, but it might be able to get him to the surface so that William could grab hold of something.
Ryllis was stabbed by the skeleton and the elven archer collapsed from the wound. The party turned their attention to the undead thing and beat it to pieces. Listig rushed to the aid of Ryllis and administered first aid. This left the goblin as the only enemy still standing.
The goblin looked around and saw that all of his comrades had been killed quite suddenly. But he also saw that Ishara, was standing to the side of the wooden bridge at the edge of the moat and there was no one between him and her. The goblin recognized her as a Sister of Sorrath, a healer. Counting on his superior speed, he rushed her and attacked savagely. His axe swung several times in a blur before anyone could reach them. Ishara fell back into the moat. Her limp body disappeared into the bubbling acidic slime.
The party charged the goblin. The goblin considered fleeing (as he was now vastly outnumbered), but saw another opportunity. William, leaning over the edge of the moat, was struggling to pull something out. He was precariously balanced and vulnerable. Counting on his superior speed again, the goblin raced toward his target intent on shoving the wizard into the moat.
As the goblin rushed the mage, he flew past Belkor. The swordsman, however, got in a lucky shot (an attack of opportunity) and managed to slash the goblin as he went by. The scimitar struck hard and cut deep. The surprised goblin stumbled and fell face forward and slide on his belly for a good 15 feet, leaving a smear of blood in the muddy courtyard. He did not get back up.
Unaware of the foiled attack, William continued his work and a moment later, successfully pulled Poldo out of the moat and into the courtyard. Poldo was covered in acidic slime. Unfortunately, he was already dead.
The battle was over and there were no more enemies, for the moment. The party quickly did a head count and tended to wounds. The courtyard was filled with mud and dead bodies. Ishara and Kafarr were pulled out of the moat and checked, but both of them were dead. As they checked bodies, they noticed that the goblin was bleeding... he was still alive! They tended to his wounds to stop the bleeding and tied him up. They had a prisoner.
William searched the bodies for magic. The only things that glowed were two potions on the belt of the goblin. They were slender vials with a blue liquid inside. They were identical, right down to a small handwritten label which had something scrawled in goblin. No one in the party could read it. The party assumed that the potions were either speed or healing. Belkor took one and Winlock the other.
The party knew that the building itself had only two chambers and likely not many enemies. The bulk of the enemies were probably below in the underground level. Half the party did a quick search of the building while the other half stayed in the courtyard and kept on eye on the stairs leading down.
In the first chamber, they found three small cages, each with a prisoner. A giant rat was in the corner, lazily gnawing on a human femur. As soon as they entered, the thing turned its attention away from the bone and attacked, but was quickly killed. In the second chamber, they found a number of barrels, crates and one large cage with three prisoners, all women. Hiding behind the crates was an orc. Upon discovery, he attacked, but he was dispatched as easily as the rat.
The party searched all of the dead enemy combatants, but none of them had a key of any kind. So, Listig picked the locks on the cells. Before long, the prisoners were freed from the cages and the party questioned them. All of them were from local villages at the edge of the swamp that had been attacked in previous weeks. They said that there was a large subterranean level with several chambers and more prisoners held below.
The party stripped weapons and armor from the dead orcs and skeletons and armed and equipped the newly liberated villagers as best as they could. None of the villagers had any fighting skill at all, but still, a sword in an untrained hand is better than an untrained hand with nothing.
The party then dragged all the enemy bodies to the edge of the moat and unceremoniously dumped them into the bubbling green sludge. They tossed the goblin (still tied up) into one of the cells and locked it.
At this moment, a single bogling came trudging up the stairs and into the muddy courtyard. He was as surprised as the party. Clearly, this little bogling had not expected to find a group of hardened human warriors standing in the courtyard. He turned to flee, but was quickly cut down.
Based on the bogling's startled reaction, the party deduced that those below were unaware that the fight in the courtyard had taken place. The party decided to use this to their advantage and take some time to rest, heal and regain some strength before going down stairs. They weren't sure what was going on down in the lower level or how many enemies might be down there. They kept a close watch on the stairs, lest anyone else come up.
After some time, a small group of undead (one skeleton and three zombies) walked up the stairs and attacked the group. During the battle, the party noticed an orc peaking up from the stair well, watching the battle. As soon as he was noticed, the orc fled back down the stairs... presumably to report to someone down there. No doubt, the undead had been merely a distraction so that the orc could observe and make note of who was attacking.
Stealth was now gone. The enemy below knew they were up here. Of that, there was no doubt.
The party decided to let the spell casters continue resting to regain some magical strength. If more enemies did come up the stairs, they would rather face them here in the courtyard, with the opportunity to escape, rather than venture down in the dark while tired.
While the party rested, Listig decided to venture down the stairs stealthily and see if he could learn something of the enemy below. He went very carefully, slow and quiet. The stairs made two turns as they descended and then opened up into a large main corridor with other smaller corridors branching off from it. In the main corridor was a large stone statue set in an alcove. It depicted an armored warrior and it seemed very old. Other than the statue and a couple of flickering torches, the large corridor was empty.
Listig could hear voices faintly and ventured down one of the smaller corridors a little way to try to hear better. He soon overhead orcish voices that seemed to be arguing in anger. Several voices were speaking at once. He heard words like "overrun" and "reinforcements" and "attack". The voices were cut short when a strong angry female voice silenced the others... "You will hold the East War Camp", it said. "You will not retreat. You will not surrender. You will HOLD until reinforcements get to you". A deep male orc voice responded "But that is hours away and-".
"YOU WILL HOLD YOUR GROUND!" screamed the female voice. "YOU WILL HOLD THE EAST CAMP!"
Listig snuck about a bit, not venturing far from the stairs. He heard a snatch of conversation here, footsteps there. He got the impression that there were several people down here, mostly orcish, at least six of them, but possible more. He then returned to the party above and reported what he had heard.
The party continued to wait in the courtyard until the spell casters were recovered. The fighters continue to watch the stairs closely and were ready for combat, but no one came up from the underground chambers. After awhile, William declared that he had rested enough and was ready with fresh spells. [This was a short rest, a one hour rest].
The villagers were ordered to stay up in the courtyard. With that, the party descended the stairs. Winlock and Belkor took the lead. Listig and William came second. Dathelar the priest and the two elven archers came last.
They entered the large corridor with the statue and listened, but heard nothing. As Belkor began to go down a side corridor, they heard an orcish voice yell out a single word of command and suddenly enemy combatants were pouring in from every side corridor. The party was surrounded. There were orcs, but also several humans. All were heavily armed and armored. The party was slightly outnumbered... 11 to 7.
Stomping up a side corridor and pushing through the orcs came a massive creature. When it came into the light, the party saw it was some sort of ogre zombie. It stood eight feet tall and its rotting flesh still bulged with muscles. It went straight for Winlock and began beating on him.
The combat was fierce and chaotic. With more than a dozen people fighting in the main corridor, it was a crowded affair. Furthermore, Belkor was separated from the group and fighting three enemies by himself. Swords and axes rang against shields and armor. Bowstrings twanged and arrows flew. Both William and Dathelar used several spells. The big ogre zombie and Winlock fought face to face, trading savage blows back and forth.
It wasn't long before the players realized they were outmatched. The orc soldiers were skilled, the ogre zombie was incredibly tough and the humans fighting alongside the orcs were good as well. All of the player characters were bleeding and bruised. As the situation started to become desperate, three of them decided to use whatever magic they had.
Both Winlock and Belkor decided (independently) to quaff the vial of blue liquid that they had taken from the belt of the speedy goblin. They each had one potion. They hoped that it was this very potion that had made the goblin so deadly fast. Luckily they were right. A surge of power swept through each of their bodies and both become hasted. Their attacks came now in a blur. Belkor was able to not only hold his own against three swordsmen, but stab two of them. Winlock's war hammer lashed out with renewed energy and smashed the big zombine over and over... first an arm, then its ribcage and finally a knee, sending the huge bloated thing, crashing to the ground.
At almost the same time, William backed up down a side corridor and pulled out the Normidian stun staff. Before him was a perfect opportunity. Four enemy combatants in the crowded main corridor were all in a line. William aimed the staff at them and twisted the handle.
The crystal tip of the staff unleashed a blindingly bright beam of energy that blasted down the corridor as a deafening boom reverberated in the corridor. Everyone in the corridor was knocked down. Several scrambled back to their feet and resumed fighting, but the four that had been struck by the beam remained down and motionless. This sudden swing in numbers, combined with the acceleration of Winlock and Belkor turned the tide of the battle. A big orc in plate mail armor came swinging a huge sword at Winlock and the two of them traded blows. But Winlock's greater strength and speed was too much for the orc and soon the warhammer smashed into the side of the orc's head, caving it in.
The last orc, a lanky archer, promptly dropped his bow and surrendered.
The party checked the four that had been hit by the staff. All four were alive, but stunned and senseless. Three of them were human, one was an orc. Belkor stabbed the orc in the heart. The three stunned humans and the orc that had surrendered were taken up to ground level and thrown into one of the cells.
A quick search of the bodies found that the big orc in the plate armor had two keys on a ring.
The party asked the captured orc (at sword point) how long until reinforcements would arrive. He told them that the witch and her minions were based in the ruined city of Doth deeper in the swamp. Reinforcements would be coming from there. It would take them at least ten hours and that's assuming they sent a small group on sarlang steeds. Possibly nine hours if they drove the steeds to the point of utter exhaustion. A large force would have to come on foot and would take at least two full days.
Knowing that they had a several hours, the party began a thorough search of the entire lower level. The lower level was larger than they had expected. No one knew what these ancient crumbling chambers might have been two thousand years ago... but the orcs were now using them as barracks, a kitchen, a training hall, private quarters and a temple (apparently devoted to the witch Sakutha).
In the temple they came across an orc shaman who was praying to a statue of Sakutha. The shaman did not fight or resist, seeming to know it was futile. He was outnumbered 7 to 1. He simply went on praying to the statue in the temple and ignored the players. The party killed him.
[DM Note: Yes, an orc shaman, alone, outnumbered, unarmed and apparently surrendering. Did they capture him and question him? No... they rammed a blade through his heart... Might that shaman have had useful information? Could he have filled them in on the witch and her plans? Did he have crucial satellite uplink codes? We'll never know...]
Another interesting thing they came across in the temple was sitting in the far corner. It was a stone archway, built of bricks fashioned from a strange stone. Each brick bore a magical glyph. There were dozens of these stones. It appears as if someone was building the stone arch, but it was only partially complete. William studied the glyphs and realized that they had something to do with teleportation. A teleportation gate? Perhaps... but again, incomplete. Along with the archway were dozens of loose bricks and several scrolls with magical writing, hand written notes and diagrams. There were also a number of stone cutting tools.
The rest of the lower level had a few surprises too. They found two separate chambers that had prison cells built in and a large number of villagers were imprisoned there. The party opened the cell doors using one of the keys taken from the big orc and freed the villagers. There were a total of thirteen of them.
These people, they questioned. At length. Luckily, the villagers actually were able to tell them quite a bit from their experiences here. It seems this facility was a sort of "prisoner processing facility". Prisoners were divided into groups. Most were tested for fighting ability. Anyone with fighting ability was taken, by caravan, deeper into the swamp to the ruined Traxxian city of Doth. Beautiful young women were also taken as was anyone with very useful skills (stone masons, blacksmiths, etc). These villagers had all been captured in previous raids. For whatever reason, they had not been taken to Doth, but were left here. Some were old and feeble, others had no useful skills.
In a storage room, they came across a teenage human girl (about 17 years old) who was gagged and bound and had been knocked unconscious. When the party wiped the blood off her face and woke her up, they recognized her! It was the younger daughter of farmer Ulrich, who had (several sessions ago) asked the players to find his two daughters (and had shown them a portrait of both daughters). Well, they found one of them. Apparently, one of the orcs had taken her into the storage room for some privacy and had been intent on raping her, but his plans were interrupted by the arrival of the players.
The party continued the search and came across several smaller rooms that were being used as private quarters by some of the higher ranking orcs. They found a few treasures and baubles. They also found a conference room filled with maps and scrolls and books. One particularly large map on the table depicted the entire swamp, along with various glyphs and orcish runes. Luckily, Winlock can read orcish. He translated. The map showed the locations of watch towers, war camps, prisoner camps and so forth. The map also showed the location of the ruined city of Doth (where the witch has established her base).
There was one other interesting thing on the map, on the northwest edge of the swamp, near the foothills of the Sentinel Mountains, there was something that translated as "Tomb of Great Power".
Alas, this is where we ended Session 6. It would have been nice to keep going, but it was getting late. So, we ended with the players still conducting a thorough search of the lower level. William is searching with a "detect magic" spell, they are gathering up anything that looks valuable and they are collecting weapons and armor (with which they plan to arm the villagers).
Session 7 begins right here, with them searching and gathering.
So, quick recap of this session...
The party successfully invaded and took over this entire camp. They lost three NPCs in the process. The party has freed 20 villagers. They have also captured 5 enemies (3 humans, 1 orc and 1 goblin). Reinforcements have been dispatched from Doth and those reinforcements are probably 6 to 7 hours away.