Session IV - To Shaman's Crown (2001-05-22)
The whole orc camp had gathered around the area of the chieftain's hut in anticipation for the fight between Hrun and their own champion, Broc. Hrun entered the ad hoc arena and started picking his teeth with his greatsword, obviously trying to impress the Black Sword orcs.
After a few minutes Broc walked through the crowds. He was an ogre! He banged his massive battleaxe on his shield, showing he was not afraid of a tiny little orc like Hrun.
Hrun seemed to have some sense to him, because he did not charge Broc outright. Instead, he slowly closed in, staying out of Broc's long reach. Broc commented Hrun for his cautious tactics, then took a quick step forward and landed two vicious blows in rapid succession before Hrun could react. Hrun was still standing, but obviously shocked of the fury of Broc's attack. Two ordinary men would have been killed by such an assault.
Hrun, seeing that he would win nothing by being cautious, gathered all his strength for a blow that would really hurt. His muscles on muscles rippled as he swung his greatsword in long arc. It contacted with Broc shield with a loud enough bang to carry several miles, and left a large dent on the shield. Broc's response was a bash with the shield, which left Hrun standing there for a few seconds with glazed eyes. Broc said Hrun was strong but foolish, and walked away. Hrun tried to still do something, but fell like a tree, unconscious.
The villagers murmured in disappointment. The whole fight had lasted about ten seconds from the first blow to the last. Obviously everybody thought the loud mouthed Broken Fist orc would have given more of a challenge to Broc. Now Black Sword orcs knew what "Broken" Fist meant.
Drik was pondering whether it would be ok to go and heal Hrun or if it would be considered inappropriate. Finally he decided to go and help. Some Black Sworc orcs come and took the still unconcious Hrun to rest in one of their huts.
Drik and Radagast noticed there were other humans in the crowd as well. Two men approached them. They introduced themselves as Bardia and Aeric. They said they were bringing message of a new vision from Father Boris. The vision they described had Alayn strapped into an altar, and while they described the place, Ulf recognized it. It was called Shaman's Crown, a hill with standing stones in the Iron Claw orc territory. It was west from the Black Sword camp.
Drik decided to go and see how Hrun was doing, and everybody else followed him. Drik woke Hrun up. "I'll promise to heal you if you promise not to do anything stupid," he said. It took some time trying to come up with an explanation of what is stupid and what is not. Ulf was obviously getting enough of Hrun's stupidity - or maybe he was just enjoying taunting Hrun when the poor sod couldn't even understand all the hidden insults Ulf was letting out. But the hint of Hrun's mother sleeping around seemed to light Hrun's fury, and he and Ulf got into a fist fight. While Drik was throwing his hands up in the air in disgust and preparing Hold Person spell, almost everyone else was couraging Hrun and Ulf to really have a whack at each other.
It would have been a clear case for Hrun if he would have been well, but as he was just starting to recover from some nasty hits it only took a few moments before Ulf had beaten him back into uncosciousness. Ulf had had a few hits his way as well, and could probably show a black eye after a few hours. After the fight Ulf asked if Drik's god could grant him a spell that he could use to boost Hruns intelligence. Drik replied : "My God is a great guy but not a miracle worker."
The party learned that there was one Black Sword orc who had actually been to Shaman's Crown about five years ago. They seemed to regard him as madman. Nevertheless, the party was introduced to a very small orc named Shamp, who said he could guide them to Shaman's Crown. It would be five to six days journey.
Radagast and Drik bartered some of the extra weapons they were carrying for some rope, rations and a longbow for Drik. Drik also sold a dagger to Krag, who bought it for his son who was getting to be the age where he would need to learn how to use it. Krag also asked Drik to bless him, which Drik did.
The first day of the journey was uneventful, Aeric shooting fowl to get some food and practice his aim with the bow, while Hrun and Bardia were foraging.
On the second day they came to a large stone cairn, which marked the edge of the Iron Claw territory. They decided to camp on Back Sword ground and carry on the next day.
Radagast was taking the first watch. Based on previous experiences with Radagast's ability to see or hear anything it was perhaps not a good idea to have him on watch alone, although since it was the first watch not everybody were as sound asleed as otherwise. When Radagast finally heard something it was almost too late. "Who goes there," he yelled, making Ulf jump up in an instant. They saw ten creatures just a stone throw away from their camp. Iron Claw orcs with three ogres in lead!
Ulf took a shot with his bow, wounding one of the ogres. Radagast also took a shot with his crossbow, but missed. As the orcs closed in, Aeric managed to hit one of the orcs with his bow. Drik cast Spiritual Hammer to fight one of the orcs. Hrun decapitated one of the Iron Claw orcs with one hit. As usual, one might add. Aeric had selected a pretty well-defendable camp site so they had some cover from a couple of large boulders and a fallen tree.
Ulf was hit badly, but still continued to fight. Bardia got a shot at one of the ogres with his bow, and Ulf actually finished one of the orcs. Radagast cast Mage Armor in preparation for melee. Aeric, who had finally managed to climb on top of one of the boulders, rapidly shot two arrows towards one of the ogres, getting one good hit but missing the other. Ulf got hit again, and fell.
Drik had an opening and healed Ulf, who got back to his feet. Radagast came to Drik's side to protect him from the other orcs while Drik needed to cast his healing magic. Radagast managed to get a good hit against his opponent, but it did not even slow the orc down. Aeric again loosed two arrows at the ogre, but inflicted only small flesh wounds. Ulf was really unlucky, got hit and collapsed again. Radagast managed to hit once, keeping the orcs away from Drik who healed Ulf. Ulf was not looking like he would be of much use to anyone at that point.
Hrun again send one orc to meet his maker. Aeric kept on raining arrows on the ogre, and finally Hrun finished him off. Aeric had had some tricky moments on the boulder when the ogre tried to take a swing at him.
Drik tried to cast Hold Person at one of the orcs, but it did not seem to have any effect. After a few more frantic hits and misses the Iron Claws had had enough, and fleed. Hrun thought nothing of it, and charged after his opponent. Clean kill... as usual. Shamp also charged after his opponent, and plunged his nasty rapier right through the fleeing orcs heart. It stopped dead cold. Radagast cast Magic Missile at one of the feeling orcs, but it was not enough. Radagast was starting to feel like he should try something else since Magic Missile seemed to do no good anywhere.
While Bardia lighted fires on the ogres' heads (some people have weird habits) Hrun kept on chasing the remaining orc in his sight. The result was pretty much expected: one less Iron Claw orc.
Drik healed Ulf some more while the others collected the booty from the dead enemies. Drik also packed up his tent (Drik was the only one with a tent). They moved a bit further away from the border and the dead, and spent the rest of the night peacefully.
Around noon the next day, well into Iron Claw territory, they heard some strange howling. Hrun said it was a nasty wolf that breathed fire. Everybody agreed that they should try and avoid those critters. Nobody paid any attention to Ulf's suggestion to sacrifice the humies to avoid trouble. Radagast thought he should keep a closer look on his apprentice. Luckily they did not encounter anything else unusual during the day. Even the night was peacefull, only problem being heavy snowfall which left of some unexperienced campers like Radagast feeling miserable. "Next time I'll get a tent even if it means I am going to get trapped inside," he thought miserable.
The next day got them upon a place with several cairns made of skulls. They identified both human and orc skulls. There were spears with some kind flags on top of each cairn. Hrun chopped down one of the "flagpoles".
Finally the hill that was named Shaman's Crown was in sight. A couple of miles away all they could see were the standing stones and maybe another block of stone at the top. Shamp and Bardia went to take a closer look. They saw a path leading to the entrance of the cave.
The party divided, Shamp, Bardia and Aeric taking a longer route trying to stay hidden. They would arrive at the scene undetected and give some support with their bows. The rest approached via the path.
When Radagast, Drik, Hrun and Ulf were still a few hundred yards away from the entrace, they spotted some movement. There was somebody on guard, and they might have seen them. Drik suggested that Ulf and Hrun go closer, get the defenders charge and follow them. Drik and Radagast would then surprise the pursuing enemy.
When Hrun and Ulf got to within 100 feet of the cave they were greeted with a hale of arrows. Ten, to be exact. Luckily Hrun and Ulf were taking good use of the terrain, so the volley of arrows was mostly harmless. They tried to take a few shots at the defenders but it was useless; everybody had too much cover. Hrun took a fast dash forward to within 60 feet of the entrance, and Ulf started circling, trying to get out from the defenders' line of sight.
Hrun tried to get the Iron Claw orcs to come out of the cave and fight in the open. Hrun: "Come down here and fight like orcs!" The defenders responded: "Why don't you come up here and we'll show you how orcs fight?" Unfortunately Hrun did just that!
Hrun charged with spear in hand. The ten orcs at the cave entrace all had a clean shot at him. Five arrows hit Hrun, but he still kept on coming, and stabbed his spear through one of the orcs. That did not kill the orc, though. Now the defenders smirked that they would show how orcs would fight, dropping their bows and trying to gang up on Hrun. Hrun killed one of the approching orcs with his spear, then retreated. The orcs followed.
Ulf's comment on the new pincushion outfit of Hrun was simply: "Orcs fight dirty."
Ulf had gotten close enough to shoot, and hit one of the orcs. The one that Hrun originally had wounded with the spear charge was left at the cave entrance, and tried to shoot Ulf. He missed, and Ulf's charge ended the defenders life. Ulf spotted two additional figures at the cave entrace, at least one of them in full armor. A cleric and a wizard perhaps?
Hrun was in a pretty bad shape as he was fleeing from the eight orcs hot on his tail. He was faster than them, and Drik kept on shouting to outrun them and then come to Drik so he could heal Hrun. Either Hrun did not hear, or he thought retreat was not honorable. He stopped briefly, set his spear and the next thing he noticed there was a dead orc impaled in it. Now he was in a really bad predicament, though, surrounded by seven orcs, and Hrun almost one feet in the grave. He did a final desperate retreat, getting hit once but still barely conscious, running towards Drik and Radagast who tried to hit the pursuing orcs with their bows.
The situation looked grim. Hrun was still almost 200 feet from Drik and Radagast, just about to collapse, the orcs just a few steps behind him. Ulf was at the cave entrace wondering what to do next. Shamp, Aeric and Bardia were about 800 feet away, hopelessly late, but running as fast as they could to try and save the day.