Session 3

We met for our 3rd session on September 23. Present to play were Lisa (playing Sydney Swann, human swashbuckler), Phil (Finn Longstride, halfling cleric),  Bonnie (Grizena Hemmingsworth, half-ogre barbarian), Caleb (Powder, wizard), Barry (Reggie, ogre monk), Kevin (Clint Carver, butcher and warrior), and Adam (as Ash, shadow elf ninja). Mike had to work, so he asked Lisa to play his character, Humphrey Hemmingsworth, human holy warrior.

The party, tired, camps in the small room near the entrance to the Irontooth Orcs' cave. First, they lay the bodies on the orcs they've killed in the hall leading to the larger room, where they fought the tribe. They stack broken furniture on top of the bodies to raise the barricade to chest level. Retiring to their own room, they post watches, with Powder and Clint up first, to be followed by Grizena and Humphrey, then Sydney and Reggie.

Clint and Powder are bored. After a while, Powder casts continual light on a piece of wood from the barricade and tosses it into the larger room where they fought earlier. He and Clint see that the prisoners they had left tied in the room are gone. While they are looking, Ash steps up to Powder and casually says, “hey, was that you guys fighting earlier?”

Powder and Clint are distracted from their missing prisoners for a moment, as they question Ash. Clint is suspicious, drawing his cleaver. Powder keeps a little more calm, but asks some pointed questions. Ash explains that he had told Reggie and Powder to run and hide. Not checking to see that he was understood, he had run ahead to pick a hiding place, only afterward realizing that they were not with him. He explains that in returning, he was slowed down by some goblins, then went to a nearby castle and rented lodgings. He came looking for everyone, and found them here.

Ash examines where the prisoners had been, and reports that small footprints and fibers from the ropes suggest that the children freed the prisoners. The three keep up the rest of the shift, opting to let the others rest.

The 2^nd watch passes uneventfully. During the 3^rd watch, Reggie sees many orcs moving around outside. He sees them carrying barrels, and wonders if, perhaps, they have brought something to drink. The orcs climb to a spot above the cave entrance. Several then reappear, headed back the way they'd come. Reggie decides that he needs to tell someone smarter what is happening. He rushes into the cave and awakens Finn. Sydney sees the ogre run past him, and wonders what is going on. He hears the ogre shaking Finn awake, saying something about many barrels. Finn is irritable at this, and tries to get more information from him. Sydney sees fluid pouring down the entrance tunnel, and rushes in to wake everyone up, suspecting that something very dangerous is about to happen.

Reggie goes back to the entrance tunnel and tastes the fluid, which he finds unpleasant. Finn goes to the intersection of the tunnels , where he recognizes the fluid as lamp oil. Sydney and Humphrey dash past him and out of the cave, and Finn tells Reggie not to drink the lamp fluid. Grizena and Ash begin trying to dismantle the barricade. Powder rubs his eyes, thinking. Clint, uncertain what to do in all the confusion, seizes the cold meat from the skewer and begins to eat nervously.

Finn tries to draw some coordinated action from the chaos. He calls Grizena up to see what is happening outside. Ash shouts that he'll look for another way out, and vaults the barricade.

Outside, Sydney and Humphrey are ordered to stop by an orc holding a torch. He is flanked by two more orcs with torches, and backed by about 4 dozen orcs with bows and spears. Humphrey mutters to Sydney, “I think we are trapped.” Sydney agrees. The two turn and dive for the cave entrance, narrowly missed by a salvo of arrows.

Reggie heads back to the room and throws everything into his pack. Clint has made some serious progress on the leftover leg of lamb. Finn, Humphrey, Grizena, and Sydney retreat back down the hallway, where Finn begins to pray. Powder shouts out a plan- if someone will ignite the oil on his mark, he'll use magic to blow the fire outward. Sydney clambers over the barricade and turns to help those crossing behind him. Grizena comes next. Clint drops his kebab, gets out a fire starting kit, and lights some kindling.

Reggie comes to watch, and see what help he can offer. Powder tells Clint to wait until he is across the barricade to light the oil. Reggie helpfully lifts Clint on to the barricade over the fat butcher's protests. He isn't accustomed to being carried around. Finn finishes his prayer, and climbs the barricade. With Humphrey covering the retreat, everyone clambers over. Humphrey is making the crossing, himself, when some orcs begin shooting arrows from the end of the tunnel. Two catch him, one in the thigh and one in the torso. He keeps climbing and is soon past the barricade.

“Now,” says Powder quietly. Clint tosses the burning debris back into the passageway, where it ignites the oil. Powder casts his spell. A howling wind blows the barricade, bodies and all, back down toward the entrance tunnel. The fire blasts up toward the entrance and outward, taking the archers with it. The wind continues to blow, gentling stirring the clothes and hair of those standing near the hall. Inside the hall, dust and fire and oil are swept powerfully away and out the entrance of the cave.

Ash calls for the others to join him. He has found two doors, one with a hook trap that leads to a store room, another to a dark room with a large rug. Sydney and Grizena enter the room, checking under the rug for traps. Grizena inadvertently flips a bed over as she pulls on the rug. Finn finds some cooking gear, from which he selects a pan and a utility knife, while Sydney finds some winter clothes, which he discards. His eye is caught by a tapestry that hangs on the far wall, though. It depicts naked women dancing in a forest. Thinking that this might be valuable, he pulls it dwn, revealing a hole large enough to step through.

Everyone regroups in the room as Ash goes through the hole. Finn and Humphrey attend to Humphrey's wounds. Ash explores the room beyond the tapestry, finding a table with an unlit candle, a small table holding more candles in a stack, and a alcove in the farthest corner. He lights the candle and examines the sand on the floor, finding tracks leading the way he's come as well as from the alcove.

Eventually, Ash discovers the mechanism for operating a secret door. Leading everyone through, they make their way cautiously down a dark, narrow hallway. Ash find a room to the right, peeks in, and continues. The hall turns to the left, and opens into a wider hall, littered with leaves and twigs. At the end, Ash sees an exit, and beyond, the rain falling. He falls back to report. The party checks the side room, discovering low tables and cushions. On some, old meals have been abandoned. Ash finds and pockets some dice. The party quickly presses on, and sends Ash forward again. He silently steps over the litter in the hall, and emerges from the cave behind two orcs. They look off to the south, in the direction of the other cave mouth. Ash cuts the throat of one guard, then uses his body as a shield while the second orc attacks. He severs the second orc's leg, then cuts his throat, too late to stop a scream.

The party decides to climb the valley wall and escape into the woods. They're pursued for some time, but eventually leave the orcs behind. They only find the road when they are standing on it, it is so choked with grass. Everyone starts hiking for the keep.

A few hours after the sunrise, the party arrives at Broder Keep. The guards recognize Ash, and address him as Tyrol. They tell the others the rules of the fortress, and admit them. The corporal of the gate tells Ash that he can send the quartermaster to talk to them about buying up whatever weapons they wish to sell, and dispatches a soldier to fetch him. The weary band walks past a stable, a general store, some small cottages, and a smith. There are a few fortified buildings as well, but everyone is too tired to look around much, having fought the night before, and fled the orcs since the early morning hours. They turn a corner into a courtyard, where a fountain splashes in front of an inn. Sydney stops at the fountain and tries to call Maki, but the kappa does not appear.

The party enters the common room of the inn, where the owner, Bravol, begins to ask if they can afford to pay for rooms. Reggie dumps his pack full of weapons and coins on a table. Bravol retreats, telling them to take a moment to rest, and that he will show them all to their individual rooms when they're ready. The party sits heavily at the table, and begins to sort and count the loot they've gathered.