Sound an Alarm

Present: Myrtle [Andrew], Bear [Ian], Debbie [Steven], Dexter [Jamie], Oliver [Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Chris], Tu [Shane], and Gillard [Kevin]. Full house.

Sound an alarm! Sound an alarm!

Your silver trumpets sound.

And call the brave and only brave,

And only brave around

Myrtle Rust's diary:

Peering out the windows of the kitchen into the rain-soaked courtyard, just before dawn, we had seen the band of orcs return - with our horses' carcasses and all our camping gear. Even my poor palfrey "Lady", and my precious lamp-black stove.

Myrtle's palfrey
(now deceased)

As it was nearly day-break, the orcs hid away in their barracks - not that they needed to in this weather. Overcast is safe for orcs. Only direct REAL's light burns them.

 

In the palisaded courtyard area was the mansion itself (where we were), stables, and two barracks. One for the orcs and their wolf-spawn, and one for the humans.

We had cleaned out most of this mansion, and the witches' tower. There was just a set of stairs going down from the kitchen. This stairway stank of rotting meat.

"Oh dear, ghouls perhaps?" I said.

Oliver shook his head; his boline knife was not vibrating. 

So, we headed down there. It was a torture chamber complete with various machines, accoutrements of pain, and lots of blood. The most recent blood was a few days' old, but that wasn't where the stink was from. It came from a side passage off the main chamber. 

That passage went a short distance, and then turned and passed behind the back wall of the chamber. The charnel reek from here was eye-watering. But to enter that passage, one had to step over a channel in the floor which was filled with a thick black liquid. Our greatest minds could not identify it, so we did some experiments; it burned like acid and ignited like lamp-oil. 

Oliver took a tiny drop off to one side and ignited it. He returned with singed eyebrows.

So we collected some functional samples: 12 vials' worth. These would be good weapons.

Reeking passage

Bear and Gillard went down the reeking passage, but they only got a few steps before they both came rushing back, faces white as sheets, utterly terrified. So, we decided it was safer to let sleeping ghouls (or whatever) lie, and not explore any more down that dreadful passage. 

Oliver's knife was still not vibrating. Maybe it was worse than ghouls, then.

Outside it went light - morning. It was a thick overcast day, and was still raining heavily; still safe weather for orcs.

Three men approached the kitchen - presumably the breakfast squad - one in armour and two not. As it was day, I supposed that the undead - that we had bested - would normally make themselves scarce. Or maybe the men breakfasted with zombies?

Bear, Tu, Dexter and Gillard squatted down behind the table. I hid in the corner. Everyone else hid in the lounge. 

The guards were completely surprised, and the fight was short, but they still inflicted damage on Dexter and Bear. The last guy screamed and screamed, but I cast a Silence on the room which shut him up. 

Myrtle sleeps

I now had only one spell left, so I cast it, a Cure, on Dexter, then went upstairs to one of the empty bedrooms to recharge. Oliver came too, with Gillard to guard us. Oliver and I went to sleep. We figured the other witch guards would send someone else to check on the breakfast squad, and our fighters might be able to pick them off, in dribs and drabs, before a big force arrived. Maybe Oliver and I would get some rest to get some spells. Maybe. [ Priest spells recharge with 15 minutes of Calm, then 15 mins per spell-level; for Myrtle it is 5 first and 3 second, so that is exactly three hours. Wizards eat grapes which recharges them, then they need the Calm and 5 mins per page; spells tend to be D4+1 pages per spell-level; Oliver's full charge is about 4 hours. If you get interrupted early, you get whatever you learned first.  ]

40 minutes passed. Scuttle snuck out into the wet compound and made his way, hidden, to the human barracks. He sneaked inside and saw four guards finishing putting on their armour. They never saw him, but headed to the kitchen - presumably to demand why they had yet to have their breakfast. These four were all armoured, and determined. So much for "dribs and drabs".

Painting of "the woman"
(maybe a portal)

So, Oliver, Gillard and I were in the bedroom; Ouzo and Tu were in the sitting room guarding the magical painting of the woman (they were worried the painting was a portal); Bear, blind Debbie and Dexter guarded the kitchen; Scuttle was outside.

Those four guards came into the kitchen and saw the mess from the slaughtered kitchen squad (we had neglected to clean up the blood and bodies, left arrows in the walls, broken crockery and overturned tables). Bear pulled back to the lounge doorway as the guards engaged. He just parried, just to delay them. Two headed for him, one took another door to outflank, and one ran outside. Dexter shot off to alert us all.

Tu ran down stairs to help Bear, but just then, Ouzo heard a door close in the witches' tower (next to sitting room), then footsteps (two of) running down the spiral stairs. We thought we had cleared that entire area out, so this was a worrying development.  Ouzo followed the noises down the spiral stairs to the sub-basement, and then through the tunnel towards the island in the lake. He heard the voices of two women. Rather than risk being noticed, he returned.

The guard who ran outside, ran past Scuttle lurking there. Scuttle tried to back-stab him and failed. The guard swiped at Scuttle and briefly chased him. But the guard was more focussed on rousing the whole place, so he carried on his mission - with some raucous shouts: "Intruders! Alarm! Alarm!"

Uncle Tom Cobley 
and his dire wolf

More guards emerged from the barracks. And some rushed to the orc barracks and got them up too: 18 orcs, 2 wargs, and 1 dire wolf and orc leader. Add this to four more human guards from the palisade, all the guards' dogs, and Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

Gillard woke Oliver and me, and we rushed down stairs, just as Bear was dropped, unconscious [ with a critical ]. He was about to get his throat cut, but Tu shot the guard. I rushed to Bear.

In the short rest, I had managed to recover two (first) spells only. And Bear's damage needed a 2nd level heal. But I did have two magical cigars. So I lit one and blew the smoke in Bear's face. Not only did that fix the cracked skull, but it totally healed him. And everyone else in the room. (Luckily, all the guards were dead at this stage, otherwise they would have been healed too!).

With the huge forces amassing outside, we decided it was now too dangerous to stay in the mansion, so we rushed back to the tower, down to the sub basement, and then back through the tunnel to the island. Vingt et un smiled upon us, and we didn't meet the witches, and we made it to the entrance cave where the tunnel emerges on the island.

I sent Scuttle out to reconnoitre the Malechai altar, hidden. He returned very soon reporting that a human had just been sacrificed by three witches. He also pointed out that there is a trapdoor next to the altar (which we obviously missed last time). 

In the sky, there were four gargoyles circling. We had not seen these before; a step up from the wyverns? They obvious spotted us, or spotted Scuttle, and two of them landed next to the cave entrance, and went into statue form. Gargoyles can watch in statue form, but are impervious like this.

At the same time, the orc force had sallied down the tunnel behind us. No retreat that way.

Expecting this, we had set up a Heath Robinson trap with the oil in the tunnel, but due to lack of time and competence, it wasn't very successful when it went off.

The orcs milled around at the base of the steep stairs which opened to our cave. And shot arrows up at us.

Unsure what to do, we had two options: head to the altar and try to fight the witches and gargoyles, or stay in the cave to fight the orcs and guards. So we voted formally: 

• "Stay in cave": Myrtle, Oliver, Bear, Gillard. 
• "Go to altar": Dexter, Tu, Ouzo, Debbie. 

Oliver's boline "fit to burst"

Dead heat ! (Scuttle was marmalading at this time, so he got no vote). To break the impasse, Tu changed his vote to Stay.

Oliver’s boline knife was now vibrating fit to burst. It was also very very black. He guessed this happened when the sacrifice took place, maybe. In fact, he had a strong compulsion to head directly to the altar. Bear was assigned to chaperone him. Each time Oliver felt like wandering outside, Bear would condescendingly turn him around and usher him back - like a good chaperone.

Dexter is a ranger and rangers get some sneaky skills in forest areas, so he decided to sneak to the altar himself. Five minutes later he returned. The altar was deserted - no sign of the witches, but he did find the trapdoor. He tried it - locked. He didn't want to stay out of cover too long, in case he got spotted from the air.

Down the orc tunnel came a mocking retort: "Surrender Oliver and we let you all live and leave. Stay and die."

We of course declined their generous offer.

Then, how we laughed when the orcs started to hurl flasks of the acid-oil up the stairs into our very cave. This put paid to the "stay" vote, as the acid-oil did not burn very cleanly, and it was hard to breathe in the acrid smoke. So we had to leave.

Outside, the two statue gargoyles animated, and engaged. It was a tough battle and we did prevail - with injuries, but then the second two gargoyles landed.

We cannot get out. The end comes. 

Drums, drums in the deep.

They are coming....