Session V - Sacrifice (2001-05-29)

Hrun managed to reach Drik well ahead of the pursuing orcs, and Drik immediately cast his best healing spell on him. Hrun was feeling much better. Radagast hit one of the orcs with his crossbow, but there mere scratch did not slow the orc down. Hrun, now again back to himself, set his spear for the charging orcs. One of them obliged him and skewered himself to the spear. Before the orcs could close in for their attack, Hrun showed the spear through another orcs heart.

Ulf tried to shoot one of the figures at the cave entrace, but missed. Next thing he noticed was he could not move a muscle - someone had cast a spell on him!

Radagast moved next to Hrun, and dropped one of the orcs. Drik also cast Spiritual hammer to attack the orcs next to Hrun, dealing a small blow to one of them. That did not help Hrun, however, as the orcs got their hits in an he fell to the ground. Radagast managed to would another orc. Drik closed in and healed Hrun again. Hrun was quikcly on his feet again, and just to proof his worth killed one more orc in one blow. "Hrun never die, you suck!" he shouted.

The orc cleric at the cave entrace shouted for the orcs to retreat. There were three standing orcs, one dragging an unconscious companion. Radagast shot the retreating orcs, wounding one. Drik tried to cast his Hold Person on one of the orcs, but the orc seemed to shrug off the effects of the spell. Hrun charged after the feeling orcs, and killed one.

The orc cleric had clearly noticed that Hrun was the most capable warrior of all that were attacking the Shaman's Crown temple, and tried to cast Blindness on the barbarian warrior. Hrun felt his vision dimming for a second, but it passed without harm.

Radagast followed Hrun's charge, killing one orc with a slash of his longsword. The orcs were still pulling back, so Hrun again charged after them. He hit, but did not kill his opponent. Two more orcs had come out of the cave and joined the battle. They hit Hrun, downing him. Hrun was hurt bad, his barbarian rage was just ending and Drik was too far away to help (he protecting helpless Ulf, and trying to figure out how to get the holding spell broken). Just a little bit of more restraint with the charging might have saved Hrun. But, that was not in his character. Still, Hrun got a true warrior death.

The orc cleric finally joined the melee. He cast a healing spell on one of his unconscious warriors. The spell holding Ulf immobile finally ended. He immediately charged the orc cleric, dealing a good blow on him. Radagast got lucky with his crossbow, and shot his arrow right through the eye of one orc, who dropped immediately.

The cleric, seeing that his situation was getting hopeless, shouted for the one remaining figure in the cave to run for reinforcements. And orc sprinted out from the cave. He was wearing no armor. Seeing that it could be the success of the mission at stake, everyone who could take a shot at the fleeing figure tried their best. The bunch of three scouts had finally arrived at the scene. Bardia was first to score a hit, but it was just a scratch. Aeric shot his customary two arrow shot-or-death at the orc, but only one of his arrow hit and the orc was still running. Bardia and Aeric both got one more hit on the orc before he was out of range, but he still got on running. There was no time to waste here!

Radagast had joined the melee, and immediately got hit but not too seriously. Ulf also got hit. At this point there were three orc warriors fighting with their cleric leader. Drik, with his long bow, tried to shoot at the far away messenger but failed miserably (one reason was probably that he did not really know how to use a long bow, which he only realized in the heat of the battle). One of the orcs tried to hit Drik's bow to break it, but the bow held.

Ulf and Radagast were both getting getting a serious beating from their opponents. Radagast was starting to panic and called for help! Shamp came to rescue with his bow, and Drik also charged to help. Aeric and Bardia helped Ulf. A few more frantic seconds of desperate fight saw last of the orcs falling dead to the ground. The last one was already running away when Shamp's arrow got him and ended his run.

Bardia and Aeric entered the cave for a quick search, while the rest stayed to guard in case the reinforcements arrived. What they could do was unclear, for Radagast and Drik were almost out of spells, and Ulf, Drik and Radagast were badly wounded and tired of the fighting. They also looted the dead orcs, and got Hrun's greatsword.

Bardia and Aeric found a small network of caves under the Shaman's Crown. They rescued Alayn and two orc prisoners. Bardia found a chest, which he searched. There were only ceremonial instruments, but he took one anyway as a souvenir. Alayn was the weakest of the prisoners, so Drik cast his last healing spell on him. Then they took off. They already heard orc hunting horns in the distance, but closing.

The party decided to head for human territory first, since it was about equal distance away compared to the Black Sword camp. Trying to stay hidden, the party followed a gully away from the temple, but after a couple of hours it was clear the gully was veering away from their destination. The party climbed out of the gully to head back towards Gloom.

Bardia was scouting foward when he noticed orcs following their trail into the gully they had just gotten out of. They were maybe two hours behind of them. The rangers decided to start covering the party's track to confuse the orcs.

In preparation for the night the party split up, Bardia going alone one way leaving false tracks while Aeric was covering the tracks of the others.

The main party had a peaceful night, although they could hear the orc hunting horns. There were several bands searching for them, and they were scattered all around them. Bardia had a few close calls with orcs, one band even having a brief visual contact with him. Eventually he managed to find a secluded spot where he slept for a couple of hours before trying to find his friends. Even though he backtracked to the place where he was pretty sure the party had moved through he spent a long time trying to find the tracks. Aeric was doing a good job. Eventually he located the rest just before they were getting up.

Drik had a strange stream, more like a vision, during the night. There was a carriage, inside of which there was a golden egg laying on a cushion. The carriage was entering a city. There was danger! He told about his dream to the others in the morning, and everybody decided it would be worth trying to locate the city and the egg. But first things first.

This time Bardia figured it would be best if he scouted in the lead, and Aeric cover their tracks, while they all stayed together. Soon after starting up Bardia stumbled into a scene of a boar feeding her piglets. But this was no ordinary boar. It was the size of a horse, and even the piglets were man-sized. Bardia figured it would be best to try and get around the beast without troubling it too much, even though someone from the party wanted fresh meat. Bardia seemed to have a knack with animals for as he slowly moved away and mumbled something soothing the boars were content to let the humans and orcs move away. More than one in the party sighed in relief.

Next thing Bardia noticed were dark clouds gathering above them. He figured there would be snow. Drik pointed out that the previous snowstorms had been really severe, so it might be best to make camp. Radagast was allready missing Hrun, because he asked Bardia if he could do an orcglu. Well, he couldn't, but he had something almost as good - his tent. Bardia spread his tent level, about three feet from the ground, so there was room for several people under it. Drik also set up his tent. The weather was turning blisteringly cold. Radagast, one of the rescued orcs and surprisingly enough, Bardia were getting frostbitten. After two hours of heavy snowing the sky cleared and they could see there were three feet of fresh snow on the ground. They decided it would be best to stay at the location for the night. They were well camouflaged by the snow already, and if they moved their tracks would be easy to follow.

During the night they still heard the orc horns around. In the morning Bardia took a tour around the campsite and saw orc tracks. Lots of them. He estimated 100 orcs had passed their camp about 100 feet away. Sometimes luck was on their side.

Around noon they saw a big flying creature heading northward, towards lord Bjoric's land. The rangers thought it was a manticore, which matched what Cador's sheriff had told Drik and Radagast. Bardia also spotted orcs following their tracks. He could count eight figures, but they were still over five miles away so he could not be sure.

After traveling a few more hours it was clear the orcs were gaining on them. The party decided to look for a place to ambush their followers. They placed Ulf and the rescued orc prisoners hidden behind some rocks in a small valley, while the rest of the party was hiding higher up ready with their bows. Drik placed his caltrops in the middle of the valley in the hopes some orc would step on them and would have to slow down. The plan was for Radagast and Drik to be ready with their spells to get the persons with horns or other signaling deviced while the rest would rain arrows on them.

The orcs were finally coming into view. There were two dogs in the lead, which were obviously following the party's scent trail. Even though the plan was originally to wait until the whole orc band was withing the small valley and attack then with spells and bows and surpise attacks from the rear by Ulf and his tribe mates, Alayn pointed out that they would be loosing the benefit of the bows' range if they waited for that long.

Before thinking much further, Drik took aim with the bow he did not really know how to use and let loose an arrow towards one of the dogs. Amazingly he hit, and killed the dog! Since there was nothing to loose for the rest to stay hidden, Bardia and Shamp also let their arrows fly towards the other dog. Both hit, and the dog died. At least that raiding party would have trouble following them now.

Ulf, who was supposed to wait until the orcs had passed and attack from behind, stepped out from the cover and shot at the orc leader with his bow. The orcs dug behind cover, yelling "Ambush!". One of the orcs disappeared in a circle of darkness. The situation was in a stalemate. Everybody was too well covered, which made it impossible to hit anything with a bow. And there was too much open ground for anyone to try and charge in fear of bows. The orcs had the upper hand though, and they were signaling for backup!

Bardia got an idea, though. He waved the unholy symbol he had stolen at Shaman's Crown, taunting the orcs to attack, and finally threw the piece towards the nearest Iron Claw orcs. That really seemed to enrage the three nearest orcs, who immediately charged Bardia. Bardia got hit once. More orcs were moving forward, and Radagast cast Sleep at one group moving from cover to cover. Two orcs fell asleep in the middle of attack.

The orc leader was engaged with Ulf. Ulf got a nasty hit, but immediately gave back an equally massive hit. Radagast cast mage Armor and moved to help Bardia. Drik managed to cast Hold person at one of the orcs attacking Bardia. Shamp was also at Bardia's side ready to help, as well as the two rescued orcs.

Meanwhile Ulf wasted the orc leader, and managed to shrug off a Hold Person spell. Apparently the orc that disappeared in the darkness was a cleric. Alayn had abandoned his position behind cover, and tried to help Ulf in melee without much success. Drik also closed in and healed Ulf.

Radagast finally moved in to melee, and immediately killed one orc. Bardia perfomed coup de grace against the held orc. The orcs saw they were no match to the party and retreated, grabbing one of their sleeping fellows with them. Radagast offed the remaining sleeper, and then he also joined his group making a hasty retreat. It was time to split before more orcs would arrive. With luck there might be no more dogs and they might loose the Iron Claw orcs again.

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