Jysson pounces of of his hiding spot and rushes forward, swinging his flail.
The orc awkwardly makes eye contact with Jax a split second before Jysson brains him from behind. Surely one orc won't be missed?
Molok moves forward to where the orc remains are located, and slams his maul into the corpse once, with feeling. He then stands impassively as the other gather around
”The orc wanted the giant to roll the gate. More will come soon looking for the orc and giant. If we’re going, we should go. If we’re staying, we should get ready for company.” Urth suggests in a loud whisper.
|
We can explore this cave, search this area first then leave. It is not like they will come looking for the giants and the orc within the next minute. They might not even come looking for these three until another three hours from now. Though they could be in this cave, they also might not be. As Jax with a deep but not loud voice makes a point that we probably got some time.
"Well if we are here to disrupt these things, why don't we just continue in? If we can clear this out we can make it somewhat defensible for later. Right?" Dymm is very unsure of his own words. Mostly waiting for others to make a decision.
Following the directions of the others, whether they're sure or not, Jysson heads into the cave to see what's there and what he can do to cause havoc amongst the giants.
Dymm sneaks forward to get a better look.
Molok also moves deeper into the complex but knows enough to keep back from those sneaking. His heavy maul held tightly in his hands is at the ready to slam into any more creatures they may encounter.
Jax, that particular passage seems to lead out to a small camp surrounded by sheep pens. However, it also leads deeper into the dam structure.
Pindleton drinks a potion and then scans the outside, looking for anyone near the sheep pens. ”Want me to let some of the animals loose as a distraction while we head in deeper?”
Urth follows Molok giving the stealthy ones wide berth.
With a grin "Should I blow them up? Might get their attention."
With a grin "Should I blow them up? Might get their attention."
"I was thinking something more subtle. If they know there is an attack, they might alert others. If they can't find us, that would be a good distraction. However, if they can find us, well..." Pindleton lets that trail off.
"What if we instead managed to get the animals loose - maybe a little opening of the gate, a little startling the herd. Just try to get as many occupied and distracted, hopefully without trying to hunt down and squish invaders." Pindleton shrugs, "But I'm certainly not opposed to a more direct blowing them up, of course."
Jax uses an ancient draconic anagram to hack into the orc psyche, twisting here, tugging there...until like picking a lock they drop their weapons and fall....1, 2, 3...
One of them remains standing and turns at the sound of the spell shouting, in orcish "Intruders!" the flaps on the tents are pushed back quickly to reveal 5 more orcs, 1 inside each tent...
Round 1:
Jax, Pindleton <--UP
Orcs
Other PCs
Urth shakes his head at the alarm. If only they had coordinated, Urth could have slept any of the unslept orcs. He hopes the half-elf lives to learn the lesson.
”No worries, friends! We know this dance pretty well, too!” Pindleton lets an arrow fly from his trusty bow at the lone orc still awake from the original group.
The wounded orc grips the arrow shaft piercing his upper thigh with a snarling grimace, before shouting in orcish to 2 orc nearest the gate "The gong, you snowflakes. You three, blood barrier!"
4 of the orcs charge at you aggressively, rapidly closing distance and blocking your exit from the cavern mouth. The other two bolt rapidly towards the boulder gate.
"Well our cover is blown.. I am going for it."
Looking at his group, "I know.. its a bit loud.. We are bound to be found sooner or later.."
Dymm smoothly ionizes the air into a searing plasma, magically manipulating Toril's magnetic field to contain it in a tight, perfectly spherical death globule. Flipping the polarity quickly accelerates the sphere in a straight line, cruising into the Iceshield camp.
On contact, the sleeping orcs are torn apart instantly . The tents also suffer irreparable damage to their old dry hides, which combust and are thrown like laundry over the sheep's palisade.
If those fires continue, its likely to set the whole thing ablaze.
One of the orcs doesn't even see the fireball approach from behind. He gets disintegrated instantly as his run-buddy elbow shoves him into the path of fire like a shield, absorbing most of the explosion. He still stands, beating his chest momentarily before resuming his escape, barely caring that most of his armor is alight.
The narrow wooden palisade corridor is set ablaze.
The sheep, terrified, huddle to the west rapidly protecting their wool.
The orc's sloppy phalanx shatters under the hot pressure wave, whipping their burning limbs across the cold cavern stone. The orc already wounded by Pindleton does a ridiculous orc tumble out of the way, but lands on the arrow shaft which gets shoved into his face.
Jysson pulls out his longbow while moving into a position to see the running orc.
Pindleton activates his boots and flies to the opening to the cave opening, trying to get at least a little elevation to see over the huts.
He aims his bow, steadying his shot at the running orc, and hopes for the best.
The flaming Iceshield warrior tumbles across the grassy rocks as Jysson and Pindleton's arrows penetrate its vital organs.
Molok walks up to the two sleeping orcs and, swinging his maul up, slams the weapon into the creature's skulls.
Seeing the orcs drop, Jysson books it to the sheep pen gates and starts opening them. The first one he goes to is the one on fire.
Once there, he tries to coral the sheep out of the pen and away from the entire encampment.
I exit the cave and lean against the wall watching for anything that approaches.
I pull my wand of magic missile out and get ready to use it at its max distance.
"I assume they are going to come to us.. Probably should not leave sheep guy here."
Jax, Jysson says, his breathing heavy with running and work, Can you open some of the other pens? There's a lot of them. We can grab the animals after the battle, but we're in a rush now.
Molok moves back to the cave entrance and watches the tunnels for any movement.
The sheep are very reluctant to escape through the burning corridor to the south, and instead tend to move north to the cavern entrance. However, Jysson's skill with animals is calming and corrects their course.
Once the gates are open, they actually move surprisingly fast for such tiny hooves.
Just as the last sheep are escape you hear a *dongggg* sound like from a huge gong. A cacophonous, vaguely feminine voice bellows "Dinner time! Me want fooood!!!" from somewhere inside the longhouse.
Jysson whispers to anyone near him, Don't let it near the flames. The last fire giant we fought nearly killed me. I don't want to deal with another one.
There is no immediate swarm around your current location, however, if you pause for a moment you do notice certain activities/sounds such as:
-a giant rolling a boulder to close the longhouse door
-some kind of humanoid, likely an orc, climbing a ladder rapidly to the east
-pigs squealing inside the cavern to the east
Jysson finds a place to hide, keeping his bow ready for an orc or giant to come into the area so he can take them out.
After the last orc dies, Urth exhales and nods amazed at the long shots and killing efficacy of his companions. His confidence surges as he believes that he would not be left for dead like the last time he faced giants.
When the gong sounds, he finds his companions very spread out. Too spread out. He moves to put his back against the wall of the cavern ready with his sword and shield. He conjures an image of a sheep further inside the cavern just standing there near the small tunnel.
He looks around to the companions near him and loudly whispers, "by Volkur's beard, what's the rukking plan?"
"If we got a minute I can create a little hut, like before, could act like a little bunker.... Or we run.."