Turn 12 -- Orcs, Orcs, Everywhere

Dain, Kersath and Druckner have been on watch now for about 45 minutes, perhaps an hour away from sunrise. The evening has passed uneventfully (as usual) and you are all getting a sense of comfort being out in the open here in the lands of Haranshire. Other than your initial ambush, you have had no problems whatsoever.

Dain is enjoying a smoke from his pipe and reading from his spellbook by the dying embers of the fire while Kersath and Druckner sit together discussing some of the lands of Faerun that they have travelled in. Druckner sits sharpening his battle-axe as Kersath tells some story about adventuring in the land of Thay when one of the wolves that guards Oleanne awakens with his nose to the air and begins to growl very deeply.

Druckner turns away from the fire to view the surrounding trees, hoping to find some movement with his infravision as Kersath stands and draws his swords. Dain closes his spellbook and scans the trees cautiously moving closer to the sleeping form of Beleg. As Druckner sees several shapes moving among the trees surrounding the camp he moves to grab his crossbow. At this time, a volley of arrows comes flying from the trees aimed at the three men on guard. One arrow strikes above Druckner's hand as it grabs the crossbow while another miraculously strikes the string on it snapping it. An arrow flies by Kersath's head but he is not as fortunate with the next. It strikes him in his left shoulder driving in deep (6hp). Another arrow thuds in the dirt next to one of the sleeping wolves while the last strikes the wolf that growled in his eye killing it instantly. Druckner drops the useless crossbow and grabs his battle-axe that was in his lap yelling "WAKE UP!! ATTACK!!", alerting the sleeping party to the raid.

Roused from your peaceful slumber by the yelling dwarf, you all react instantly with weapons drawn hoping to survey the scene and evaluate the situation. The camp that you awaken to is one of utter chaos. The camp is overrun by a force of orcs. They are all over the camp and every party member is engaged. Battle plans and tactics that have become instinct are almost lost in the confusion of the battle. The only thought is defense and survival!

Zir'zool is quickly engaged by two ugly long-toothed orcs with spears and long swords as she rises from the ground. She is able to avoid the thrust from the first orc with the spear, but the second one slices her left arm as she deflects the blow an instant too late (2hp). "S'hue!" (Orcs!) she yells as she readies her counter-attack.

In the center of the camp, Oleanne, Kuiper, Ortho and Talimar all defend themselves against the orcs attacking each of them as they attempt to get their bearings. Brother Randor and Gnore are not as fortunate as they are each hit by a glancing blow from the orcs attacking them as they rise to fight (1hp). Beleg is quickly engaged by two of the larger orcs as his massive form rises from his tent. The largest of these orcs points to Talimar and Dain and yells in orcish "Get those two! Kill the rest!"

As the party has now shaken off the effects of sleep and muscle, instinct and courage overcome each of you the combat has settled and individual battles are on-going throughout the camp. Kuiper is struck a hard blow from the spear of an advancing orc but he returns the favour and his sword slices through a part of the orcs chest. Druckner, Ortho and Beleg avoid blows from their assailants but you see one of the orcs bring his battle-axe down in a vicious blow on the head of the remaining wolf, killing it as well. With a menacing battle cry an orc cowardly comes at Talimar from behind. Given half a second to turn, Talimar plunges his sword into the leg of the oncoming orc but the battle-axe still falls with a vicious blow to the shoulder of Talimar who falls to the ground unconscious. Kersath and Beleg both receive minor wounds (1hp) as the lucky sword or spear from an attacking orc sneaks through their defence. Over the din of battle those near Dain hear him speaking a few words you cannot understand and then you see his hand glow a bright blue colour as a wicked smile crosses his face. Thinking he has an easy target one of the orcs advances on Dain. Apparently wanting to take him alive, the orc grabs Dain by his robe. Big mistake! Dain touches the hideous face of the orc with his now-glowing hand and a terrible scream erupts from the orc and it falls to the ground releasing Dain. Rasmussen and Kre are also deeply engaged in fierce combat with the orcs after being unable to slip away and come on them unaware.

"Let the Hand of Tyr judge you vile vermin!" yells Brother Randor as his warhammer lands a blow to the head of one of the attacking orcs, dazing it.

Zir'zool deflects a thrust from the spear of an orc and yells, "Behind you Randor!" as she sees an orc about to thrust his spear into the back of Randor. In that instant, seeing that Randor would not be quick enough to turn and defend himself, Zir'zool throws one of her short swords at the orc, hitting it full in the chest and knocking it to the ground dead. But now, with her back turned, another orcs grabs her from behind by her hair and with a wicked grin on its ugly face draws its jagged-edge sword across her throat. Zir'zool's lifeless body falls to the ground as the murderous orc moves on.

With a bone-chilling yell of rage, Beleg swings his mighty bastard sword two-handed down on to the chest of the leader of the orcs, slicing deep into his chest and carrying through to fully cleave the orc in half! The other orcs who see this falter for a second but with superior numbers decide to continue the attack without their leader. Oleanne and Randor dodge ineffectual blows from the orcs but Druckner (4hp) and Kre (3hp) are both hit as they now face two attackers.

"Chakka cor!" (roughly translated 'Dwarf/Axemen forward') yells Ortho as he launches into an attack with his battle-axe. He lands a mighty blow on the skull of the nearest orc, opening up a large hole to let what little brain the creature had fall to the ground as it falls. He turns to look for another victim and sees across the camp Rasmussen take a blow (4hp) off his left leg from the spear of a cowardly orc as it stays out of the halflings range. Kuiper is unable to avoid a blow from another sword but his sword snakes out to strike the orc across its abdomen, spilling its innards to the cold ground. Fighting off a blow from the axe of one of his attackers, Kre swings Coldheart to try and deal with the attacker but another one lands a blow from behind to the young half-elf knocking him to the ground unconscious.

As the battle continues, you begin to hear the familiar curses from Gnore WitherCourage as he moves through the camp looking for orcs to kill. Not for the first time, Brother Randor makes a mental note to talk to Gnore about his language during the course of combat. For the moment though, filled with bloodlust for the evil orcs, Gnore swings his bastard sword at an orc that crossed his path but misses wildly. As he steps aside though, Gnore swings at another orc that tried to join his companion in the battle with Gnore and is greeted by a wicked blow to its head by the cursing dwarf. Another orc moves to take the place of the fallen one and lands a glancing blow from its spear to the dwarf (1hp).

Inspired by the skill of Gnore, Druckner takes heart and lands a monstrous blow to the neck of an orc, sending the head flying across the camp to land a few yards away from him. With a hearty smile and a laugh, Druckner moves to find another enemy to vanquish. Fully engaged in fierce combat with two orcs, Brother Randor lands a blow from his warhammer to the skull of one of them, crushing it and then turning to strike the other one on his sword arm, forcing the creature to drop its weapon. Undaunted, the orc attempts to grab Randor and bite him, but the priest of Tyr brings his mighty warhammer down to snap the back of the creatures neck. Across the camp, Kersath deflects a wild swing from the frantic orc confronting him and uses the creatures overbalanced attack to side-step it and then run him through with his sword. The point protruding from the chest of the orc as its face drops with a look of surprise at its quick death.

With a yell of "Glory to Ironrock!", Ortho swings his mighty axe once again with the same result as last time, another orc falls to the ground dead. Beleg moves to help defend Dain from the orc that had been struck earlier by the spell but he misses as the orc ducks another blow from Dain as well. Having moved to assist Rasmussen in the battle with his orc, Kuiper misses the orc with his sword but having turned the beast around, Ras is now able to plunge his short sword into the back of the creature, killing it. As the orc falls to the ground at his feet, Kuiper is knocked to the ground from behind by another orc as it tries to claw his face off with its hands. Kuiper reaches up though and plunges his dagger through the bottom of the creatures skull and into its feeble brain.

The lady Oleanne slips in a pile of blood from one of the decapitated orcs and falls to the ground. One of the two remaining orcs advances on her and lands a blow to her head with the flat of his sword, knocking the lady out. Seeing this, Gnore yells a string of curses at the orc as it runs across the camp swinging his mighty bastard sword as he runs. Undaunted, the orc moves forward to meet the dwarf's challenge. The two meet around the campfire. Both swords meet with a thunderous crash but Gnore's bastard sword breaks the orcs in half and continues on to cleave the orcs chest open.

Dain falls back away from the orc attacking him as Beleg has now moved up to confront the beast. Realising that he is the remaining orc alive and seeing the bloodlust in the huge warriors eyes, the orc mounts a furious attack in the hope of somehow surviving. Beleg easily deflects every blow from the orc as he expertly wields the mighty bastard sword with two hands. Finally having enough of the orc, Beleg knocks the orcs sword aside and rounds on the creature with a monstrous blow, severing the orcs head from its body in such a fashion that many an executioner would be proud.

As the battle comes to an end, the scene before you is again one of total chaos. The fire is scattered from the combat and smouldering embers lie here and there. In total there are 16 dead orcs (including the leader) lying around the camp. Gnore moves among them all to make sure that they are all dead, cursing the entire time as the rage from the battle still consumes him. Brother Randor is kneeling before the still form of Zir'zool saying a quiet prayer to Tyr for her soul. This sight fills everyone with a deep sense of loss as it strikes home that you have lost a comrade today. After saying his prayer, Randor turns his attention to those that he can help. Kre, Talimar, and Oleanne are lying unconscious and have deep wounds that need tending. The only ones not harmed in the combat were Ortho and Dain, everyone else having some type of wound that needs tending.

Dawn is breaking over the treetops as the party tries to recover from the combat.

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