Final Encounter

Present: Myrtle [Andrew], Bear [Ian], Oliver [Jeff], Scuttle [Chris], Tu [Shane], and Gillard [Kevin]. 

Marmalading: Debbie [Steven] and Ouzo [Darryl].

Well, here we are, Dexter and myself, safe in the little hamlet of Hymer Saddle. We have no idea where the rest of the group ended up. Could be dead, eaten, in orc bellies. Could be slaves to the orcs, or impregnated by them [dark spawn can impregnate any creature, a la Alien]. Could be in the Saucy crater for all we know.

But let's take a step back...

We were in a corridor battle with some tough fighters who had struck from invisibility. The battle had used half my power, healing those who were damaged. During this fight, Oliver had found a secret door. Since the time we were in this complex, he was flipping from being possessed by his evil knife and sometimes not. At this very moment, the knife was stronger and he shot down a secret side passage, with Ouzo and Scuttle in hot pursuit. 

At my feet, Dexter suddenly woke up from his marmalade dreams. He was blind! I suspect this was a side-effect of Cellar (his cat) being killed. Well, no problem. I now had the Cure Blindness spell, so  ten seconds of casting, and he was right as rain.

As we could hear a group of orcs approaching (from the barracks we found earlier), and the last fellow had been dropped, I signalled to the rest of the group and we all took off after Oliver, down the secret side passage. Debbie had dropped with marmalade and was out of reach, so we left her to the orcs.

"Looks like honkey's back on the menu, boys!"

Down the secret passage, we stepped over the newly marmalading bodies of Ouzo and Scuttle, and entered a large Malechai shrine chamber, complete with an obsidian altar. There was a woman's body lying on it; I recognized her as Malechai witch Odette Pearson. Standing by the altar was Haley Price herself with a wicked dagger, and off to one side a third witch that I did not recognize.

This all took half a second, because in that time Oliver, boline in hand, pulsing black, stabbed it into Haley. I heard Tu next to me get off an arrow which hit the side witch.

Hayley screamed and then ... there was a mighty explosion.

"Oh no, not again," moaned Tu, who caught a massive chunk of the blast.

Bear copped a lot too, as did Dexter. And they all dropped like dead men. I was shaded by Tu and Bear so barely caught a zephyr. Surprisingly, Oliver, standing right next to the source, was unaffected - apart from being turned entirely black. Hayley and the other two were totally minced.

Tankard and Gillard were behind us down the passage, conducting a fighting retreat from the orcs who had just arrived. So they didn't cop any of the blast. And Ouzo and Scuttle were protected by marmalade.

So, I set to curing. Bear was brought up, which used most of my powers. Tu was too injured to even attempt, so the last of my Vingt et Un "resources" was spent on Dexter... and they fell short - not lucky today. I was now completely out of spells. What was worse, I could not get a link in this whole complex [ priests need to get a "link" to their gods to recharge spells ].

Bear ran down the passage to help Gillard and Tankard, just as Gillard fell. While he did this, I searched the bodies of the four near me and found our last heal potion on Scuttle. This was enough to at least rouse Dexter. 

Tankard and axe

Bear and Tankard managed to push the orcs back to the secret door, and slam it. And then the two could both hold it closed with their combined strengths.

Oliver found a secret door in the altar room. This led to a secret witch bedroom, so we searched that.

The orcs thumped and banged on the Tankard/Bear door for a while. Then it went ominously silent.

Scuttle began to stir, and then sat up [ Chris had arrived late ].

Tankard was very sick, so needed curing. Oliver had found a belt of small potions in the secret bedroom. One was a healing potion, so he claimed. He gave it to Tankard, who promptly collapsed. Was this the "evil Oliver"?

No time to wonder. There was another secret exit from the bedroom. It went to the magical room with shallow water (we passed this on the way in), so this was a viable escape path.

We made a plan to get me outside, to somewhere safe, where I could link up to 21 and recharge.

So, we all gingerly crossed the shallow water - only ankle deep but it reeked of magic. We all got across, except for Bear, who was carrying the unconscious Tankard; he suddenly sank into the water with no trace. He was shouting and we could hear him. It sounded like he was in the room, but nary a sign. He said he was in a dark deep pit.

Scuttle could hear the orcs down another passage (I guess they had circled around). So, we continued with the plan to get me recharged and, leaving Bear safe in the water room "pit", rushed outside. We found a rocky outcrop in the central canyon area, so hid the unconscious Ouzo, Gillard and Tu there. 

Scuttle sprinkled with
invisibility powder

Scuttle sprinkled the invisibility powder on himself, and used noises and taunting to lead the orcs outside, away from our "camp" and up the ravine (past the gargoyle sentinels). The hope was that the orcs would stay away long enough for me to get some spells.

 Scuttle reported back after about 25 minutes that the orcs were well away, at least for an hour.

Scuttle and Dexter kept watch over me while I recharged. I managed 90 minutes, which is about half. Oliver used this time to get some spells back too. 

The orcs were returning, so I quickly used all my spells to heal Gillard and Tu, bringing them both up. Then we all returned inside.

The orcs headed past the water room and off deeper into the caves. Maybe back to their barracks.

The material component 
of a Spider Climb spell.
This must be eaten whole, alive.

Returning to the water room, Oliver thumped on the floor with the staff he found in the witch's bedroom, and dropped through the water "floor" into the pit. It was three Olivers deep so his Armour spell saved him from the fall, and sure enough, Bear and Tankard were here. So, with a judicious Spider Climb on Bear and some rope, all three got out.

Tankard was carrying four healing potions himself! ("Where did these come from?" "Why did he not drink them himself earlier?" "Why didn't we search him earlier?"  "Did they just ... appear?") so we gave him two to get him up.

Tankard, straight away, attempted to attack Oliver for poisoning him, but a Charm Person sorted that. More evil behaviour by Oliver?

I needed to return outside again to fully recharge, so the plan was that I would take Dexter and Tankard as guards, and head back to our original camp (where the Price warhorses, gear, et al were). Oliver would need to help us get up the cliff wall with some more Spider Climb spells. 

Tankard loses his last two
potions

But Tankard didn’t make it to the top of the climb and fell, taking a massive amount of damage (which would have killed two normal men), but he survived. The fall smashed his last two potions too ...so Oliver claimed.

Oliver fetched Bear and they carried him back inside to the altar room.

So, Dexter led me to our camp. I was expecting the orcs and wolves to have found and ransacked it, but no. It was fine. The warhorses were fine.

During the night we heard a large party of orcs and wolves travelling about, but they didn't find us.

So, fully charged now, we headed back to the canyon cliff edge, planning to meet Oliver one hour after light, who would Feather Fall us down the cliffs. But no. The canyon floor area there was deserted, but there were signs of disturbance, and fresh barricades had been built in the tunnel entrance. We assumed orc trouble in the tunnels had prevented Oliver from getting out. Or maybe, with no healing, they were all dead.

We returned to the spot several times during that day, but nothing had changed.

We stayed one more night in the camp. There were more patrols during the night, and they were ominously getting closer. In the morning we checked the canyon edge, and no sign of anyone. 

Rather than risk another night, we headed klibwards back to Hymer Saddle. So here we are...

Myrtle Rust

Afterword:

"Looks like half-elf's back on the menu, boys!"

Unbeknown to Myrtle & Dexter, the orc activity had got more intense in the caves. The orcs had been reinforced and were breaking in past the secret doors to the shrine area. During one bout of exploring, the rest of the party (sans Debbie) came across another teleporting picture. They ended up back in Toluene.

What happened to Debbie? Maybe half-elf flesh was back on the menu after all, and the orcs had a good time eating marmalade-flavoured bard? 

This is the end of this campaign.