I will apologize in advance for the perhaps hurried and somewhat confused
nature of this account, but I have only a short time in which to write it,
for soon I must get back to the orc compound and see how things set there.
Our party is so badly mauled, that we needed to retire back to our camp,
least we collapse.
	Bob and I are nigh unto useless.  Merlaine tells us we have concussions,
that our brains have been scrambled so badly it will take them several days
to settle down again.  My hands are clumsy, but can at least still wield a
battle axe, although they no longer posses the subtlety needed for the bow
or the great axe.  Poor Bob, the only weapon he can still handle is a
dagger so badly do his hands tremble.  I hope our brains unscramble soon!
	 And Vedrosh, well, he lies near his things, suffering from some contagion
of the blood; Merlaine knows not what it is, nor if she can cure it.
Things do not look good for Vedrosh.  But for now, we have eaten a hot
meal, and Merlaine has made us all drink some truly disgusting black
hoarhound tea, which does I'll admit, give some comfort and energy.  I have
pounded my helmet back into a shape that at least fits over my head again,
although I will have to have a professional armorer repair it at the first
opportunity, and Bob as well needs his armor repaired.  But enough
dithering,I have but an hour or so in which to jot this account, then it is
back to the front.  So I shall start by discussing events of several days
before...

	We spent much of the day discussing what to do, and how to do it.  In the
end, fearing that the orcs, or most likely their masters, had some secret
or hidden sign or code within the message itself, we decided against
creating a false map, and elected instead to give the orcs the real map,
with its information unaltered.  The only way we could be at peace with
that decision, was that I had summoned Tshegi again, and we had penned a
note to the priest of Twin Oaks, warning him of the orcs attack.. the
minute we were sure our ruse had worked, we would fill in the details and
send the message off with Tshegi, who, once I summoned him, agreed to do
the task.  With his speed, and ability to fly over mountains, the journey
that would take the orcs a week or more, would take him only a day.  We
hope that the message reached the town in time for them to summon help or
prepare their defenses.

	Shali agreed to do the deed.  We pondered for many a long hour on what
means we could use to get her out quickly should things go awry, and none
could we find.  In the end, it was decided that Shali's wits alone would
get her in, and out of this spot.  And so, as the sun set and the gloaming
turned the sky purple and blue and red, with great trepidation in our
hearts we watched Shali walk up to the concealed orcish guard platform,
carrying nothing but her main gauche and the scroll.  We watched as she
waved the scroll at the orc, who blew a blast on his horn, and then waited,
with drawn bow aimed at Shali's heart, while one of the commanding orcs
came out and spoke with Shali.
	Our greatest fear had been that none of the orcs spoke common, for none of
us speak the orcish tongue.  As it turned out, the commanders spoke common,
although not well.  They did speak it well enough to understand the pass
phrase that Shali gave them, and respond with the appropriate counter
phrase, which Shali answered.  And so Shali went, escorted by the commander
and his henchmen, into the orcish compound.  We watched as they escorted
her through the gate, and up to the door in the cliff, and then the
commander had his men wait outside as Shali and he entered the doorway,
closing the door tight behind them.
	That hour was one of the longest I have ever experienced.  I had thought
that only Mountain warriors possessed the courage to do a deed like walk
alone into a nest of orcs, but Shali had proved me wrong, and so I was
desperate to see her safely out.
After over an hour, the door opened, and Shali emerged, flanked by two of
the mail-clad commanders.  With a triumphant roar the commanders raised
their fists, and the gathered horde answered with their own roar and
upraised fists.  Shali, for her part, yelled and raised her fists as high
as any of them. Then the gates were lowered and Shali allowed to leave.  We
were all anxious to hear the tale of what had transpired, and so once she
was out of sight of the orcish camp, we bombarded her with questions, which
she only answered once she was safely back in our main camp and had a glass
of good dark ale in her.
	Shali told of how she was escorted into the lair of the chief orc, a truly
huge and disfigured creature known as Bloodancer.  She told how Bloodancer
examined the map she gave and then summoned his pet Dire wolf, and had it
carry the map off to the people that Bloodancer referred to as "the old
men" or "the merchants".  Then followed a period of time, while they waited
for "the old men" to respond, that Shali was forced to sit and drink with
Blooddancer and his commanders.  All the while, they regaled her with
stories of their victories, speaking in the most casual terms of utterly
horrible things.  It turns out that Bloodancer fancies him self a
"Priestkiller", which is a position of high esteem amongst the orcs.  He
has a string of seven skulls, from seven priests, all with their holy
symbols draped over their skull, to prove his claim.  He told Shali that
his favorite way of killing a human is by crushing its skull between his
hands. And from what Shali says of his strength, this is no idle boast.
	 The wine they drank was looted from several villages, as were the
bloodstained carpets that lined the floor, and the fine meat they roasted,
and the goblets they drank from. During that talking, the second test came.
After the wine had made several rounds, Bloodancer leaned over to Shali
and said "The orcish legions and Kathor make good Allies, do they not,"
And he said it in Kathoran!   Shali answered him in Kathoran, which seemed
to please Bloodancer immensely, and the wine flowed even more freely.
Shali told us that she feels sure that if she had not been able to answer
Bloodancer in Kathoran, she would have been killed on the spot.
	 After an hour, the Dire wolf came back with the answer.  The "merchants"
had decided that the target was a good one, and agreed that it should be
raided.  The orcs were even allowed to keep the towns horses, which sent
Bloodancer thinking out loud of how much farther, and how much swifter he
and his orcs could raid with Ishtaran trained cavalry horses.  Shali was
escorted to the gates and allowed to leave, with her she had the
"merchants" payment of two gems.  The gems are topaz, and should fetch 3 to
4 hundred gold shillings each in a sizable town.
	For their part, the orcs were ecstatic.  They passed out numerous wine
skins, as well as already packed marching rations, weapons, and hundreds of
iron shackles.  Within two hours, the orcish army was ready to march, which
is damn impressive time, even by Mountain warrior standards.
	It was with great joy in our hearts that we watched a full 60 orcs march
away, in a damn fine military formation, with good discipline and a horrid
song on their lips.  As I and Shali expected, they have left a guarding
force.  We estimate it at some 20 in number.  Far better odds than a mere 5
hours ago.  We wrote down the number of orcs, their estimated time of
arrival, and direction from which they would attack, and sent it off with
Tshegi.  I hope the message arrived.
	So, now it was our turn.  We waited one full evening and day, for we did
not want the orcish main force too close if it turned out that they had
some secret signal system which could summon the departed orcs back.  When
night fell on the second eve after the orcs departure, we put our plan into
effect.
	Bob and Merlaine cast walking unseen spells upon us all, and Brianna then
made sure the anyone without the natural talent of witchsight received the
benefit of her witchsight spell.  Thus, we were able to see each other and
converse, while the orcs would, with luck, not notice us at all, until it
was too late.  Alas, Vasquez had come down with the wretched wasting
sickness, and could not fight this battle with us.
	Since this promised to develop into a hairy fur ball of a fight, I armed
differently for it than for others.  I did not carry with me the backpack
that each party member carries with them, which contains a waterskin, weeks
rations, flint and tinder and some simple tools in case they should get
separated from the party for any length of time.  I also removed half the
arrows I carried with me.  This allowed me more space for weapons.  I
decided to carry my great axe into real battle for the first time.  Also, I
elected to carry not my usual two, but four battle axes... to use as
throwing weapons mainly was my hope.  I sure am glad of Merlaine's spell!
Armed and armored thus, I sound like a tinkers shop rolling down a canyon
as I walk!
	We left Shali's dogs guarding Vasquez, and ported up to our forward
observation rune.  There I picked up a log we had earlier found which was
long enough for our purpose.  I had shaved a bit off one length of the log,
so now it was passably flat one one side.  This I carried up to the orcish
trench.  The orcs had left six sentries, two patrolling each wall, and two
by the gate.  We gently set the log down so that it spanned the orcish
trench, and then, timing out crossings carefully so that all guards backs
were turned, we crossed one by one.  Once across, we had to immediately
crawl under the razor-jacks which lined the opposite side of the trench.
Once through them, we took up our prearranged positions.
	All of us but Brianna surrounded the orcs sleeping in one of the tents, (
the sleeping orcs occupied two large tents) while Brianna took up a
position which gave her good bowshots at all the guards.  We all readied
our weapons, and Shali and Merlaine readied their saps.  At a signal, the
battle began.
	Shali and Merlaine simultaneously struck an orc with their saps.  This
rendered the two orcs unconscious instantly,but also voided the walking
unseen spells which had served them so well until now.  The sleeping orcs
did not seem to notice the attack, as both Shali and Merlaine were very
quiet, and so they raised their saps and struck again, knocking out two
more orcs.  This time however, one of the orcs spasmed as its temple was
struck, its hand struck a goblet which fell to the ground.  This sound
caused one of the guards to look in the direction of the tents, and cry out
the alarm at what he saw.  He cried even louder as Brianna fired her bow,
and buried an arrow deep into the post less than an inch from his head.
	We all knew what to do.  The minute the alarm sounded, our raised weapons
came down upon the sleeping orcs we were standing over.  Most killed their
orcs in a single blow.  However, I underestimated the arc of my new great
axe, and it became tangled in the rope and leather of the tent, almost
bringing the entire tent down with the force of its swing.  I cursed and
flung the weapon aside. The orc I had been about to strike, let out a yell
and jumped up, it was all I could do to prepare one of my battle axes
before he had bola and scimitar out and was hacking away at me.
	For a time the battle went well,  my opponent was not very skilled with
either of his weapons, although he did succeed in entangling Merlaine with
his bola, and me and Vedrosh had to occupy him while she freed herself.
Bob was running around firing his short bow into orcs.  Brianna brought her
Elven bow into play, and I must admit, it is a truly awesome weapon when
used well.  Shaft after shaft she sunk into the orcs and rarely did she
miss.  We had just about finished off the few orcs from this tent that had
survived our initial attack.  Then I glanced over, and saw the orcs that
had occupied the other tent making their way toward us at a dead run, armed
with scimitars and large round shields.  There was near a dozen of them it
seemed, and the door in the cliff opened, and out strode one commander and
Bloodancer himself.  Shali, acting quickly threw up a circular wall of
thorns around the commander, as Bloodancer kept himself surrounded by
warriors and  Shali's walls can only encompass one being.
	I knew that if this wall of warriors was allowed to crash into our forces
as we were, we were done for.  So I abandoned my current opponent, trusting
Merlaine and Vedrosh could finish him off, and positioned myself so that
the onrushing orcs would have to run through low tents strewn with ropes
and cots and chests and bodies, or through me, to get at our party.
	My heart was alive with joy!  For this time it was we who were striking
hard and swift from the darkness, and it was our enemies who were surprised
and roused from a sound sleep by the sounds of battle in their camp!  So
often of late, it seem it has been the other way around.
	The  onrushing orcs for their part, chose to go through me, and formed up
a shield wall as they ran  A neat trick that!  They obviously intended to
bowl right over me and keep going. I took a defensive stance and waited.  I
did not have long to wait until they crashed into me with shields thrust
forward.  I had anticipated this and my balance held.  What I did not
anticipate was the orc on the left, who instead of shieldrushing me as the
others had, swung high at me with his scimitar.  By the time I saw the blow
coming, it was too late.
	I felt the massive blow, and heard the shrieking of steel cutting steel,
and then felt the awful grating of metal against bone, my bone!  My vision
blurred and my knees began to buckle.  All was blackness but for a little
tunnel of light, through which I could see grinning orcs, and off somewhere
in the vague distance I heard Shali's voice say " So this is it then, were
all going to die."
	That brought me out of the blackness.  I was the wall that kept the orcs
at bay, I could not crumble, could not fail. I could not allow my
companions to die.  Shaking off the stunning blow I raised my axe just in
time to ward off a series of blows by the orcs.  Then I regained my feet
and began to fight a battle of attrition.  I parried and evaded their cuts
and thrusts, and only when they swung too wide did I allow myself the
luxury of a riposte and attack.
	The orcs behind the ones besetting me, realizing what was going on,went
around me and my three opponents and set upon my companions.  Soon, it was
Merlaine, Shali and I, our back to each other, fighting off a half dozen of
these fierce warriors.  While Bob and Brianna continued to sink arrow after
arrow into our opponents, and I knew Vedrosh was hard  pressed, for
javelins stopped appearing in orcs near me.  I figured he had cast all his
javelins, for a goodly number of them were stuck in orcs about the area,
one shaft went all the way through an orc to emerge from the creatures
back, when it had gone in the front!  ( I later learned, that he had jumped
up onto the catwalk, having to shake off an orc clinging to his legs in the
process, and there been shield-rushed by an orc which had gained the
platform.  Thusly smashed, Vedrosh was pushed off the catwalk and nearly
onto the razorjacks!, so he had a few problems of his own, as did we all).
	Merlaine held her own ferociously.  I saw her level a blow so mighty at an
orc that it near gutted him like a fish, so that once all his entrails had
spilled out on the ground, you could see the white of his backbone showing
through the blood.  And she had the feral grin she gets in a heated combat.
I often wonder how she can love combat so much, when every death near her
makes her a little more ill.  Yet she lays too with her scimitar with a
gusto not often seen even in seasoned warriors.  I forget who it was who
first said, "Go not to the Elves for council, for they will say both yes
and no."  But they were right, and in this regard Merlaine is most
assuredly Elvish, being as she is a battle loving healer.
	  Shali was doing her thing, which was evading and confusing her enemies
blades with the many fancy twirls and feints of her main gouche.  Fighting
her is like fighting a swarm of bees, much buzzing of blades and exchanging
of fast blows, yet when all is done, it is your arms that have been scored
on many a time, and her never touched.
	The battle with myself and the three warriors besetting me was drawing to
a close.  Every now and then their blades would find their mark, but my
armor, damaged by the first horrendous blow tho it was, still turned aside
most of their blades.  And every now and then they would swing wide and I
would see and opening too good to resist, and I rarely missed.  They being
clad only in leather, suffered more from my blows than I did from theirs.
After what seemed an eternity, I had slain two of them.  The blood running
from my scalp into my boots proved a great distraction, as it sometimes ran
over my eyes.  And also, I knew my wound was bad, for my hands did not
respond as well as they had, and my feet seemed enclosed in clay so slow
were they to move.  I would hear Shali's voice now and again raised in a
casting, usually a wall of thorns, which kept the worst of the arrows from
us.
	Vedrosh had somehow managed to fall into the orcish moat, and I heard
Brianna yell that Vedrosh was running away!  I did not have time to deal
with the matter, and neither did Shali, so I bellowed at Vedrosh to come
back and fight.  I do not know if he ever turned around or not, Brianna
says he did, and I trust her perception of things.  But one thing is sure,
he never made it out of the moat.
	Just as I was about to finish the last of my opponents, he made a
half-hearted feint at me and withdrew.  At first I thought I had scared
him, for he may have mistaken my bellowing at Vedrosh to be aimed at him.
I know I'd be worried if an opponent had suffered a serious head wound, and
then killed two companions of mine, and then started yelling at me to
fight, when I was already doing my best to kill him.
	But the orc was not running from my fierceness, but just obeying the
shouted orders of Bloodancer.  It would seem as if Bloodancer, having taken
stock of the situation, had rounded up the remaining warriors and archers
and formed a phalanx around himself.  Shali too shouted a command, and it
was to get down, now!  I threw myself to the ground just as the archers
fired into our position, even though they had to fire through their own
tents to do it.  We all took cover as the arrows started screaming through
the air above our heads, and thudding into cots, or the corpses of orcs
that we crouched behind.  Several volleys we let them fire, all but
Brianna, who was still walking Unseen around the walls firing away with
that bow of hers, but Shali's walls of thorns were now hindering her shots
almost as much as they hindered the orcs aim.
	Just then we heard a most welcome sound, it was Vasquez!  She had
recovered from the sickness that had overtaken her, and ridden at  top
speed to aid us.  She was even now standing outside the orcish compound,
and letting us know that she could not enter unless the gate were lowered.
	Shali  realized the course the battle must now take at about the same time
Bloodancer did.  Most of his troops were slain, and we were badly injured.
He had to get  back through the door in the cliff, so he could summon
reinforcements.  The "merchants" he had talked of earlier were no doubt
well armed and provisioned, and we still had seen no more sign of that Dire
wolf.
	Bloodancer and his phalanx of archers started heading toward the door just
as we all stood and started surging toward them, weapons in hand.  We were
sore wounded and weak, where as they were near untouched.  Just as we came
in position to achieve the door, all but one of the orcs were through it,
and the door slammed shut in our faces and we heard within the sliding of
the stout bean which barred the portal.
	I knew we had to get that door open again as fast as we could, and the one
orc remaining outside of it looked fresh and eager for the fight, so I
lofted an axe and the blade sank deep into his chest.  Stunned as he was,
he was an easy target for Shali's blackjack, and with but a couple blows to
the head, the orc sank to the ground.  I then set to the door with my
remaining axe.  I knew it would take some time to break down the door thus,
but I could see no other alternative.  Shali ran to cut the ropes holding
the gate and let Vasquez in.
	Merlaine went to check on Vedrosh, and found that he had ended up at the
bottom of the foul orcish moat, wounded and lying in the offal unconscious.
As rescuing him would take more time than we had, she headed back towards
the door.
	The door was a stout one, and took many blows of my axe to come down, but
come down it did.  By the time I had chopped my way through it, Shali had
cut the ropes and brought the bridge down, and Vasquez was well on her way
up to the door.  Brianna cast witchsight on her, as well as a Walking
Unseen spell.  Then, with a last glance over my shoulder to make sure we
were all in readiness, I heaved my axe and brought down the door.
	The orcs of course, were waiting for us.  As the door came down, I saw
they had upturned the benches and furnishing of the chamber, using chairs,
chests, barrels and tapestries to construct a rude barrier and the
remaining archers were hiding behind that, bows at the ready.  To the side
were the remaining warriors, and behind them was Bloodancer himself and his
pet Dire wolf.  The instant the door fell, the archers unleashed their
arrows.  Even though they could not see any of us to fire at, they knew
enough to fire through the doorway.  Two of their arrows flew by me, but a
third found its mark, burying itself deep in my side.  Then the pain flared
again, and the blackness which had threatened to overcome me earlier could
no longer be held at bay.  I had an impression of falling, and then looking
up at the stars, and then there was blackness.

	I regained consciousness, seeing Merlaine's face over mine, and Bob beside
me with his herbs and poultices.  Upon asking how the battle had gone, I
was told that Shali had used walls of thorns to cut off the orcs retreat
further into the cave, While Bob had launched spears and darts at the
archers, and gotten a volley of arrows in return. Then Vasquez had launched
a bolt of fire into their barrier of wood and carpet furnishings, igniting
it; after which Shali had used yet another wall of thorns to seal off the
entrance, so now, presumably the orcs were trapped in their own cavern,
burning to death.
	Since we are all so exhausted, Shali had to use a spell she loathes to
use, and drained a bit of energy from one of the unconscious orcs, and then
transferred that energy to Bob, which allowed him to do his healing.
Within half an hour, we were somewhat patched back together.  The screams
and yelling from behind Shali's wall of thorns had stopped, and Merlaine
told us with a grin that she had not felt a death nearby for several
minutes now.  We looked around, with a bit of a sense of awe and wonder.
Against all expectation, the compound was ours!

	We did have some loose ends to clean up, and so we decided to deal with
the first one of those, which was the chain-mail clad orc that Shali had
trapped within her circular wall of thorns.  For we did not want the spell
vanishing and releasing him at an inopportune moment.
	I voiced the idea that perhaps we should try to control this orc, as he is
one of the commanders, he might have valuable information.  All were agreed
that it was worth a try, and so the instant Shali cast the counterspell
that brought her wall of thorns down, Brianna, Bob, Vasquez and I leapt
upon him and bore him to the ground.
No fool he, this tough old orc had prepared his shield and was using it to
evade, while he had a cestus on either fist.  He hit me once, so hard I
could feel the blow through my armor!  Now I was impressed.  Obviously the
orc was not, for he grabbed Bob's head in one hand and slammed it into the
ground with a force that made me wince inside to see.  He then tossed Bob's
limp body out of the area.   We decided that this had not been the
brightest of ideas, and drew out our heavy weapons in order to better
pierce his chain armor.
	The battle was short, for tough as he was, this orcish warrior could not
long stand against five people surrounding him and hewing away with axe and
sword.  Brianna scored a deep puncture on his arm with her spear, and we
could see from the huge amounts of blood that his end was near, as he was
stunned and going into shock.  Then, in a burst of inspiration ( or
stupidity, I know not which, but I prefer to think it inspiration) I
grabbed my Control entity runseticks which I had been going to use on him
earlier.  These I shoved down the padding beneath his armor and then stood
back.
	He was deep in shock, and Shali had to apply a piece of Green amber to his
wound so as he would not bleed to death, but he did pass out from blood
loss.  So, we had to heal him..(us, healing and enemy, and an orc no less!
What is this world coming too!?)  before we could find out if my spell had
worked.
	When the orc came too, he was badly confused, and a confused orc is an
angry orc.  He looked as if he was about to try to rip us all apart with
his bare hands.  I quickly told him that his compound had been attacked,
all his warriors slaughtered, but that luckily, Shali and her companions (
us) were nearby and came to his aid, managing to drive off the attackers
and save him.  This orc looked very baffled, but the remembered that it was
Shali who had delivered the map, and since she was on their side, and I was
with her, I must be on their side.  My Control Entity runes had worked!  So
it was that this orc ( whose name is To-Gurrick..which I am told means
Bonecrusher) is now my fast friend.   I'd rather have a diseased camel as a
companion.  To-gurrick and I went over the encampments supplies, while my
companions quietly slaughtered the 5 orcs that we had captured rather than
killed.  Keeping To-gurrick from seeing them was a bit of a trick, but some
of Shali's walls were still up from the battle, so that helped.
	After a time of talking with To-gurrick, we decided that we had to retire
to our main camp, for that was where all Merlaine's healing herbs were, and
her crystal balls, with which she could examine the area of the sealed off
cave, to determine if the orcs within were really dead, or had managed to
escape through some passage unknown to us.  We left To-gurrick in charge of
the compound, for we intended to be gone only a short time.  Shali put up
another wall of thorns at the entrance to the cave, so now we have a few
hours in which to rest and repair ourselves.

	Now I see my companions gathering up their things and buckling on armor
once again, so it is time to put down pen and parchment and take up the axe
and shield.  With any luck, the compound will still be our when we return
to it.

	I will take a moment however, to address an error.  The reader will
perhaps notice a discrepancy between this date I write now and the one I
penned in the last entry.  I tell you that that previous date is an error.
Either blood or water ( I cannot tell which) has smeared the bottom of the
page, making unclear the date.  It is, to the best of Brianna's and my
reckoning, the morning of the eighth day of Juno, and not the 26th.

				                             By My Less Than Steady Hand,
            			                  Hours Before Sunrise on This 8th Day Juno
				                             The Year of Our Lady 540.


						                                                 Drashak Khea Milari