(G542 18/11/2023 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AP) YI13

 (G542 18/11/2023 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AP) YI13

[Yag Island was now where many people were starting to congregate. New faces such as Sparkledingle, Griffolk and Fangornio, my friends and family, Lavinia, Sylvia, Jiggles and Irritator, and new arrivals of old faces like Fenrir, Reinward and Giselle. Recently, Fenrir, Corhim and Dak have set off for adventure, starting in Kingsholm. The local guard commander has given them a quest to go and deal with some orc bandits.]

DAY 617 (10th Uktar) (November) cont ...

It was still just lunch time, and after a quick meal they decided to go out and take a look at the Thar. Mia had told them 'they are not hard to find, just follow the trail of destruction.'

They started with Fenrir (flying and invisible) scouting east. In only about two miles he saw a burning camp on the horizon, and some more smoke beyond that. He went back to tell the others.

They asked for horses and Mia quickly provided them. Sparkledingle shared a saddle with Dak while Fen and Giselle had horses of their own.

The burning camp was only an hour's ride away. From a safe distance they looked it over. It looked like a nomadic half-orc campsite. There were burnt tents and dead bodies lying around the remains of it.

They dismounted and walked in. They heard the crying of a baby, and noticed that two of the orcs were still alive, a male and a female.

They found the baby and healed the adults. Fenrir then had a look around the camp.

There were signs of battle of course, but also the scorch marks associated with Eldritch Blasts. There were also ground patterns that suggested a downward blast, from a spell like Flamestrike.

Corhim had a look around for treasure, but the place had been well looted.

They used a Cure Moderate Wounds potion to get the female back on her feet. She was fearful and only spoke orcish. She told them 'they came at dawn, from the sky, then others came from the land'. Her name was Parrenut and she pointed east to show where the attackers had come from.

The gave her the baby to look after and some food and water then headed east.

There was a trail of twenty or so horses, so it was easy enough to follow, but they did loose it amongst a rocky area. The Thar is a wild, desolate and windswept  moor of heather and hummocks of tough grass, but every so often there is an area of exposed rock. The only shelter in this area came from the occasional large piles of rocks, overgrown with moss and reeds, that often had caves in them.

With the trail lost, Fenrir took to the sky again. There were no clouds but he could see nothing except miles and miles of the Thar. They decided to simply ride east and see what they found.

Eventually they came to a fortified homestead that had had its gate breached and was now not much more than a burnt out shell. As they approached Fenrir and Dak both spotted riders coming in from the north. There were about 12 of them and they were about a mile away.

They were orcs and looked like bandits, but Fenrir opted to stay put.

'Hello!' he called out.

'Who are you?' asked the leader.

'The names Thunderstaff. I'm out here investigation a rampaging horde of arseholes.

Let me know if you see any of them!'

He didn't even let them get a chance to reply to his witty repartee and simply blew the leaders head off with an Eldritch Blast.

'Uh oh!' cried another one. 'Leg it lads!'

As they galloped off Fenrir blew the legs off one of their horses. The rider fell but was picked up by one of the others. Fenrir then blew the legs off that horse too and both of the orcs fell to the ground.

Both were injured so Fenrir flew over to where they were cowering.

'So lets try this again,' he said smugly. 'Who are you?'

'We're just simple travellers your majesty! We get lost or what? And then all my cheese ran away! Honest, we was just passing on the way to grandma's house!'

Fenrir did his best but they were pretty incoherent. He did learn the names of the leaders - Blackrag, Demon Harry, The Lady and Mad Git McMad.

'Take us to your camp or Dak will rip you limb from limb!' he threatened.

The orcs were happy to do so, but since they both had broken legs they had to be put on a horse with their hands tied.

They came to a large pile or rocks and boulders, the size of a cathedral.

'Don't attack the camp directly your majesty!' warned the orcs helpfully.

'You'll come a cropper!'

As they observed the rocks the orcs warned again. 'They will have seen us coming! They will be planning their defences!'

Sparkledingle and Fenrir talked about using combinations of Stinking Cloud and Gust of Wind to gas them out into the open, but they had no idea how extensive the caves were inside.

'Caves go in quite far, your lordships!' cackled the orcs when asked.

There was one obvious entrance at the front, but there could have been others. The orc prisoners didn't know.

There were only a couple of hours of daylight left so Fenrir decided just to go for it. He flew into the air and started blasting away at the rocks from the sky. Not much happened until from somewhere below and Eldritch

Blast was shot back at him. Fenrir got a glimpse of someone popping back down into a hole somewhere in the rocks.

Fenrir blasted away at the heather that grew around the rocks, setting fires here and there. From a safe distance Corhim and Dak watched as clouds of smoke, but also steam, started rising from the rocky spires.

Fenrir returned. They tied up the orcs then secured their horses further back. Then Fenrir used a sort of rolling Wall of Flame to protect them all the way to the entrance.

As they went inside, the orcs attack. At first a wave of angry, but not very dangerous orc warrior attacked, supported by a cave troll. 

Fenrir swept the orcs aside with Cones of Eldritch Power. Then the warlock, the one  called Demon Harry, started shooting back.

Corhim cast Glitterdust that caused some confusion and Dak split the troll near down the middle with a massive stroke of his falchion.

As they pushed further into the caves, the warlock was joined by a cleric, this was The Lady, who cast Flamestrike, which hit Fenrir. Most of it bounced off.

Corhim next cast Stinking Cloud on a new wave of orc warriors that made them all vomit. Dak charged at them, straight into the cloud, and started vomiting as well. It was all rather chaotic.

The two orc barbarians entered the fray. Demon Harry retreated into the back of the caves. Fenrir cast cone after cone of Eldritch Power, pushing the orcs back, killing the warriors and wounding the barbarians. This was one of the most challenging fights Fenrir had had in a while, but even so they were slowly gaining ground inside the cave, so-much-so that predicting that all was lost The Lady cast Word of Recall and vanished.

Corhim cast Grease on the two big barbarians and Fenrir managed to land a Painful Slumber of Ages on the Mad Git. Dak killed Blackrag then went over to the sleeping Mad Git and chopped his head off.

The battle won, they searched the caves. The area where the orc bandits had been living was as filthy as you can imagine, but they had left most of their treasure behind.

There were also three old orcs, three females and five youngsters. They cowered and begged for mercy. There were also five slaves, who were all very happy to have been rescued.