Delia lets out a heavy sigh when the giant finally falls, terribly concerned for Jace who, like her, seems to barely be standing due to the extensive wounds they had suffered. At Adir's pleas, Delia draws the healing wand and rushes over to Tuzak, tapping him with the wand.
Once the giant sloth regains consciousness, she smiles and nods to Adir. "He's okay." She stands and looks back at the house for a moment. "That orc is dead, he tried to take off my head before he was brought down. I agree, we should quickly recover and then head into that hole. What do we do about the catapult? Should we destroy it, or use it against the orcs?"
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Leira looks at the catapult as Delia raises the question "You are right. I do not think we have the time to use it, therefore I vote to destroy or at least disable it"
The girl looks around the corpses trying to locate some healing potions with the help of a detect magic spell.
If there is no luck, she will still need some healing, perhaps from the few charges remaining in the wand.
Dundin noticed that grenades and other valuable alchemical weapons were used against them. He loots the orcs for any valuables while the others heal, putting all of value in a central pile first.
Your group takes a few minutes to catch your breath and recover from the fight, taking cover within the nearby building, appearing to have been a small cabin. Adir is dismayed to find the owner, Garul Dunn and his daughter Aleya both inside, dead. The druid remembers teaching the girl to fish in the pond last spring, helping her father stack cordwood for winter two seasons ago. The scene is enough to make most of you gag. Bitter words are not enough for the orcs who perpetrated the crimes committed within that cabin.
The bodies have been hacked and torn into pieces by orcish teeth and blades. The family's blood, bile and other fluids were used to smear orcish obscenities upon the walls and floors. Furniture and furnishing have been looted and desecrated, making the scene somewhat difficult to stomach. A quick search of the nearby potter's shop mirrors the carnage therein, more villagers lost to the Twisted Nails/Twisted Heart raiders.
Outside, Dundin and Brampton made quick work searching the fallen orc butchers. Aside from normal and mundane orcish armaments typical of their kind, they stumbled upon a few other, interesting items. They stacked the gear by the catapult before calling the others to investigate.
Upon regrouping the band finds a small but fully functional alchemist’s lab leaning against the catapult, it's table holding three bags of flash powder, six fuse grenades, two pellet grenades (one cold iron, one adamantine), and a newly fashioned tangleburn bag. Looted from the bodies the pair recovered two potions of cure light wounds, four vials of acid, two bags of caltrops, five gourds of alchemist’s fire, six smelly smoke sticks, three leaky tanglefoot bags, three composite shortbows (+3 Str), each with a full quiver, and assorted coins valued at 72gp in total, minted not with the seal of Belkzen but instead stamped with the bust of Jannos Sharpes, the lord of Freedom Town. The last thing the pair shows the others is a small stick of polished briarwood, the tip set with a blue quartz crystal.
With the sun just starting to peek over the distant horizon, word has spread amongst the invaders that Crusher, and their artillery forces, and the upper city strike teams have all been vanquished. Much of the fight seems to have left the attackers, their courage faltering. Thanks in a great part to your efforts the orc raid has effectively been halted. The Twisted Nail orcs abandon their posts and flee back into the Belkzen wilderness. Those few remaining troops, all bearing the Twisted Heart insignia, form up into small pockets and continue their efforts against the town, moving house by house to further the slaughter. What remains of the militia quickly moves to counter these bands and soon exterminate the last vestiges of the enemy horde.
As you wearily look across the Hopespring pond to the dark black tunnel opened by the cave giant into the underside of Bloodmarch Hill you hear the sounds of riders approaching. Newly promoted Captain Kurst Grath rides up, looking like yourselves very battered, bloodied and exhausted. He and his few guards inform you Trunauan guards from the high tower above saw a lone humanoid accompanied by wolves dash into the tunnel almost immediately after the giant opened it, followed shortly thereafter by another unidentified humanoid figure. Seeing that your band is nearly spent, he pauses a moment, a bit reluctant. His mind reaches a decision and he shakes his head, resolved, and looks you in the eyes, asking I know it is much to ask, and we have no right to request it, but please, good friends, are you willing to commit one more task for us, for Trunau. Will you enter the tunnel here, can you secure whatever’s inside, and if possible either apprehend or flush out whoever’s lurking therein? I and my men will stand guard outside the tunnel entrance here, to make sure no one else enters, and to hold the line against any who flee your blades.
After stacking the bodies and the helping the party to recover, Leira helps on identifying the objects while the others heal.
As Kurst arrives with his raiders, Leira looks up, his grim expression changing to a merrier one "You survived Kurst... so... is Trunau secure now? Have you seen my family?"
She is saving the polished stick of briarwood within her sleeves while she listens the report "You do not have to ask twice, some of us have already decided to go in and search what is there. We are certainly worn out and injured, but we cannot rest until all this is solved"
The young sorcerer looks around to the group, and nodding, prepares to follow her valiant companions into the tunnels.
At the approach of Captain Garth, Brampton comes to attention and waits while he listens to his superior speak. When he is done he steps up and says, "Sir, I was ordered to help reinforce the second gate. I arrived and found Sgt Omast under siege. We killed and repealed the invaders there and then moved into Lower Trunau to see what could be done. We dispatched the giant and his orc handlers. With your permission I would like to accompany this group before I return to my unit in upper Trunau."
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Seeing the three shortbows, Songan manages his felinoid instinct to claim one immediately, instead waiting to receive their instructions from Kurst. The man's reluctance to ask them to finish the job on encourages the catfolk forward...Kurst knows what has happened, or at least a great deal more than must in Trunau, and he knows what part they have played in its defense. His reticence only makes Songan that much more eager to see the job done.
"I'm not going to leave the job half-done. It would be a pleasure to see this through to its end and finally put an end to this ugly business before the rebuilding starts."
"Captain, I don't want to seem greedy for asking this, but...one of these shortbows we found with the orcs would be a great exchange for my current weapon. May I take one? I'm sure the other things we will divide up as well, but a bow of this quality is valuable and I want to make sure that it's alright with you before I claim one."
Delia shakes with rage upon seeing the horrible carnage wrought upon the innocent townsfolk, her friends and neighbors. "I'm going to kill every single one of these foul creatures and mount their heads upon the palisades!" She screams, her voice cracking and hoarse from all the foul smoke they have inhaled over this night's fight.
Delia nods to Captain Grath as he dismounts are approaches, running one hand over Jace's head and scratching him behind the ear. "Kurst, you needn't even ask. As Leira said, I believe we had already made the decision to clear out this tunnel." She approaches him and claps a closed fist to her chest in a manner of saluting. "You have done well this night, Captain. You have done your brother proud. If we should perish within this hole..." She pauses and sighs heavily at the realization that could likely be an outcome. "Make sure my mother and brother know what happened and that I died defending our home from these monsters."
Adir kneels down with his arm around Tuzak's neck. He buries his face in the giant sloth's fur, trying to block out the carnage that surrounds the group. "Maybe you should stay here. The last couple of days have been rough on you," he says to Tuzak, his voice muffled by Tuzak's fur. The sloth whines, as if in protest, and after a long moment, Adir nods in assent.
He looks up as the riders approach, and listens to the Captain. He nods in agreement with Leira and Delia's responses, not having much to add.
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Brampton looks over the pile of gear and picks out a fuse grenade and a smoke stick to add to his gear along with the two bags of caltrops.
Brampton hears Songan's request for one of the orcish bows and picks one up to test its pull. He turns to Songan and politely says to him, "Mr. Songan, these bows are made for those with great strength. Using one of these could throw off your aim."
Brampton then puts his crossbow and bolts on the pile of gear and adds the shortbow and arrows to his gear.
Dundin takes a composite longbow and finds the pull perfect. He takes an adamantine fuse grenade, a clw potion, and a pellet grenade.
"Can we wait to rest to regain spells1? I am fine, but much magic has been used by others."
Leira nods "I agree, I am totally exhausted, but look the devastation around Dundin, what else that guy with the wolves is after?" she shakes her head "I fear there is no rest for us here, that people will not stop to rest before attempting to finish with our community"
Kurst thanks your group again for everything you have done thus far. He readily gives Brampton permission to accompany you into the tunnel and assures you that Any goods or gear you recover from the orcs are yours by rights of combat. Trunau owes you that and much more for all you have done tonight.
Looking to Dundin the militia captain shakes his head slowly. I am sorry to ask this of you Master Dwarf, but time is urgent. If the orcs are poisoning the wellspring then Trunau will be lost, even should we win the battle today. I would spare you the time if we had it, but like you we are all weary and near the end of our resources. I will send for any able bodied persons to help you if you wish, but I do not know how long that will take.
Delia shakes her head at Dundin's suggestion. "We do not have time to rest. We must root out these fiends and deal with them. We cannot linger any longer. Let us gather our supplies and go."
Dundin shrugs and replies: "I do not question anyone's personal courage. But whoever is behind this could be in there. From a tactical perspective there may not be much difference between an hour or ten hours, but those that entered have not been engaged yet while we have been quite busy. Nevertheless, if we are overmatched, the casualties will probably be Brampton or I. We have signed on to protect the town and our charges."
After scratching his head Dundin digs in to the equipment a bit more, taking some smokesticks and more alchemical items.
"Since I suspect spells are depleted, use of smoke to maximize our advantage in close quarters is probably advisable."
Dundin accepts a healing wand charge or drinks the last clw potion in the pile after making sure everyone else has had a chance to heal themselves. After healing, Dundin grabs the masterwork two handed axe he has become quite fond of and carries a smoke stick ready in the other hand. He sets off into the cave.
Before entering the tunnel Brampton pulls a small vial of red liquid from his belt pouch. He tilts his head back and puts one drop of the liquid in each eye. "Damn that stings." He blinks several times and squeezes his eyes shut. The others can see tears running down his cheeks. He finally opens his eyes and they can see that his eyes now seem to have a yellow glow to them.
He hands the vile to Leira and says,"This is called Nightdrops. It lets you see better in dark places with little light."
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I don't have many unused spells remaining myself, but I think we should finish this now. There's no telling what else might happen if we wait as long as it would take to get a full rest in."[/b] Songan says, making his own opinion known to the others.
When Brampton offers the eyedrops, Songan turns them away, his feline heritage granting him the same visual acuity...without the need for the painful stinging!
"I would offer that when we encounter hostiles, if there is a chance for me to use my Charm Person spell, it would be a great deal more effective for me to use it first. It's practically useless against an enemy we've already engaged."
Leira kindly pass the drops to Delia "There is something weird about it. Since some days ago when my magic started to unfold, it seems I can see in the dark for some reason "
Getting ready the girl picks up some alchemicals and heads towards the cave following Dunedin's lead "At least this stick we found will maintain me useful even without rest" her voice disappears as she holds the wand at his right hand.
Dundin concentrates before entering, and he has a tough hide as most giants he has studied and pledged to destroy. Dundin also seems to neglect the care he normally takes to keep himself in good physical condition, and his toughness has suffered in his all consuming desire to find more giants.
Dundin takes point, taking care to move quietly and observe all signs around him. In his haste he is being quite noisy. He stops and looks for tracks, as an hour is not long, and hopes to find something of the intruders.
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Unless indicated otherwise I will assume the movement order is as follows:
Dundin (E) and Brampton (W) in the first rank
Leira (E) and Songan (W) are in the second rank
Jace (L) and Delia (W) are in the third rank
Adir (L) and Tuzak (W) are in the fourth rank
Who is using Darkvision, or Low Light Vision, or an alternate light source?
Leira observes the interior of the cave thanks to her darkvision, but she whispers "Pssssh! Songan, perhaps you can place a light spell on Brampton's weapon so he can free from the torch one of his hands"
After about ten to twelve feet of jagged and broken stone you find a much older tunnel running down beneath Trunau. The rough hewn tunnel burrows south beneath Bloodmarch Hill for approximately 150 feet to a cave opening. The worksmanship is clearly not of human or dwarvish make, most likely orcish, or perhaps hill giants. It may be these caves predate the peoples of Trunau, belonging instead to the orcs and giants from which these lands were won so many years ago. Could it be the giants and orcs of the Twisted Hearts dug this tunnel, and to what ends? What now do the raiders want hidden deep below the town above? Whatever it may be the tunnel stands open once more, the stone seal broken by the cave giant Crusher.
From the looks of the steps a small number of creatures have managed to find their way down here over the years. Water from the Hopespring originally carved these caverns and continues to flow through the tomb to this day, but beneath Bloodmarch Hill, the water seems fetid and tainted. An odor of dankness, mustiness and mold permeates the air. The area consists of a series of connected caverns over two levels separated by 20 feet of elevation sloping downwards. The entrance tunnel from the Hopespring leads to the upper level, while the lower level is flooded to a depth of 1 to 2 feet. The ceilings are roughly 15 to 20 feet high in the caverns’ upper levels, and all areas in the caverns are in darkness.
As you reach the first landing dusty gossamer cobwebs hang from the ceiling, and a damp moistness from the Hopespring’s waterfall outside fades away behind you, replaced by the foul air of the caverns. Chunks of rubble lie scattered on the floor amid piles of dirt. Dundin finds tracks for the wolves, a booted humanoid, and a pair of clawed, bestial feet which remind him of the troll you fought beneath the Plague House.
The wolf tracks traipse off down each tunnel, returning from the east and west but not the south.
The humanoid tracks roam around this chamber, along the walls, across the center, then out via the south tunnel.
The "troll" tracks lead off south as well, almost in a straight line from the entryway in which you stand.
Brampton declines the offer of the light spell.
"I can drop the torch if I need both hands and still have enough light to see. If we need darkness I can stick it back in my pack. The trouble is that they can see the light coming but there is nothing we can do about that."
Delia looks around in awe at the strange caves beneath Trunau. "What are these caves? I cannot believe we have been here all this time and never about them..." When they spot the tracks and the splitting of the enemies. "Clearly the south is where we need to go. Whatever is to the east and west was not important to our enemies. They are our mission. We can check these other branches after we kill them. Though I do wonder what exactly they seek in these caves..."
Dundin heads straight in. Following the 'south' trail.
Leira nods following her friend "It has always been that easy for you to find me and or the other children while we played hide-and-seek. You are an expert tracker Delia, if you think it is south, I am with you to the south"
She readies the magic missiles wand in one hand while leaving the other free to cast spells.
Dundin activates his wand before continuing. His blade gets heavier.
Brampton continues to move forward. As he sees the cave starting to open up he stops and covers the torch to see if there is any light from ahead.
As your group begins to cross the first cavern, Dundin draws his wand to apply it to his weapon. Brampton walks alongside, one hand on his polearm, the other holding his torch overhead. The remaining group follows along behind, feeling the strange closeness and cloying mustiness all around.
From out of the darkness to the east a massive wave of rats, much like the diseased and shadowy rats faced below the Plague House rush towards them, the creatures gray and wispy, clawing along eerily quiet, their mouths chitter and gnash in hushed whispers and squeals. The mass wells up and swarms Dundin and Leira, the ghost shapes sapping at their energies.
Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Brampton, Dundin, Songan, Tuzak, Shadow Rat Swarm
Second Group: Delia, Jace, Leira
Staggered:
Prone:
Burning:
Entangled:
Fatigued:
is up, 48 hour timer counting
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Songan's eyes widen as the shadowy rats swarm over his friends, and realizes with horror that he isn't carrying any weapons capable of harming the incorporeal creatures. However...someone in their group is.
"Leira! Lemme borrow that wand you found!"
Assuming she is amenable to the idea, Songan will then use said wand to cast Magic Missile against the rats.
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Knowing now that neither he nor Tuzak can injure the ghostly swarm, Adir will make a stand to the south, guarding against the orcs backtracking to them should they hear the battle.
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Dundin moves out of the swarm, drawing an alchemists fire as he retreats.
Dundin moves out of the swarm, drawing an alchemists fire as he retreats.
He has no idea how to hit ghost rats.
Brampton watches as the rats swarm over his companions. Knowing that his weapon can't do much against them he backs up and pulls an Alchemist Fire from his pack.
"How do we kill these?"
Dundin did not suffer a physical attack per se, but he was covered in climbing, wispy shadow rats, their presence causing weakness and lethargy. His strength seemed to drain away as they chittered and crawled around and over him, their claws like little icy knives prickling at his skin, numbing him and gripping at his core, freezing him like being dunked in an icy quenching tub, to borrow a dwarvish notion.
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Seeing the rats moving against the party, Songan acts on pure instinct, releasing his bow string against the rats. To his dismay, the missile passes straight through them!
Assuming his longsword will meet similar failure, he turns his attention to the others calling out to Leira to see if she I would be able to share her wand of magic missile with him and making his way over to her if she agrees.
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Dundin retreats, his inner core shaken by the power of the rats attacks. The massive small beasts moved over him, and his big axe seemed useless against the clattering teeth of the horde. Killing one seemed so pointless. Fire would warm them and him up, fire would counter the cold.
Dunding staggered out of the swarm shaking and trembling. "They are soooo cold. Don't let them get your inner fire. I feel weaker and colder!!"
As Dundin moves back from the chill of the creatures, they continue their advance, heedless to the dangers your group may represent. The horde surges up and around Leira, spreading to Songan, Delia, and Jace as well. The rats seem to take some perverse thrill in biting and clawing at the warcat despite their teeth and nails delivering no true physical wounds.
Delia
Delia
Jace
Jace
Leira
Leira
Songan
Songan
The darkness seems to grow deeper around the edges of the chambers as the rats feed off of the heroes, gaining strength with every bit of warmth and joy they steel from your band.
Initiatives
First Group: Adir, Brampton, Dundin, Songan, Tuzak, Shadow Rat Swarm
Second Group: Delia, Jace, Leira
Staggered:
Prone:
Burning:
Entangled:
Fatigued:
is up, 48 hour timer counting
Leira shouts as she fights against the ghostly rats swarming her around "Quickly! Spread! we have to spread"
After lending her magic missiles wand to Songan, she moves out of the swarm and retrieves an alchemist fire to fight against this foe.