The orcs bellow and show their tusks before charging at the party, falchion blades flashing through the air.
Charge on Setesh: for
Charge on Tarik: for
Action Tracker - Round 3: Jaru, 2 x Orcs, Tarik, Setesh, Noor
Round 3:
Setesh looks faintly bemused as the Orc fails to penetrate his thick hide, and then attempts to shred it.
Seeing Setesh's magical form dismember one of the orcs, Noor continues to try to bring the tent down on the orc leader.
Tarik cries out as the orc's falchion slices through his shoulder. Gritting his teeth in immense pain, he nevertheless mutters the words to a spell, keeping his sword between him and his opponent.
Tarik curses loudly as he fails to perform the correct gestures. "Better a lost spell than my hand!" He shouts as he dodges another wild blow from the orc. He grabs a scroll from his case as he parries a blow.
Setesh's flashing claws make short work of the two orcs while Noor collapses half the tent in on itself. You hear some frustrated grunts coming from within.
Initiative:
A large orc with pronounced tusks emerges from the large tent. He is wearing finely made armor and his hands bear metal claws. He roars bestially in challenge before standing ready at the tent's entrance.
Action Tracker - Round 4: Clawed Orc Jaru, Tarik, Setesh, Noor
Jaru reloads and fires at Claud Orc.
Light crossbow
damage
Round 4:
Setesh acknowledges the threat posed by the large Orc with a dip of his head, and swiftly downs a Shield extract, before gingerly approaching him.
Jaru's crossbow bolt deflects off the orc's armor.
Action Tracker - Round 4: Clawed Orc, Jaru, Tarik, Setesh, Noor
Noor will continue to bring down the tent with deft slashes of her sword at the supports as she circles the structure.
Tarik sees Setesh move in, and wishes he could follow. "Let's finish dealing with you, shall we ugly?" Tarik puts both his hands on his blade, and slashes his blade viciously at the orc's belly.
Setesh mutters something offensive about the orc's parentage and you can see him seethe with rage.
Noor brings down the rest of the tent, and by the disgruntled sounds within you gauge that you've trapped three or four orcs inside.
The armored orc with vicious blades charges at Setesh, slashing his claws with more power than finesse at the feral half-elf...
Charging Slash: for
Tarik holds his strike until the orc charges Setesh, but is unable to find flesh with his blade.
Action Tracker - Round 5: Clawed Orc, Jaru, Tarik, Setesh, Noor
Jaru grins as he touches his holy symbol and calls upon Nethys to paralyze their foe.
Will save:
The orc's movements slow as Jaru's incantation takes hold upon him, making him look as though he is pushing through a pool of treacle. A look of indignant rage is affixed to his face when all ability to move is stripped from his body.
Action Tracker - Round 5: Clawed Orc, Jaru, Tarik, Setesh, Noor
Round 5:
Grinning from ear to ear, Setesh coup-de-grace's the paralysed Orc.
Setesh distends his jaw and sinks razor sharp teeth into the orc's neck and tears his throat out. Unable to cry out the orc slides off Setesh's form to the ground.
The orcs within the tent finally struggle free - you see two unarmed females and two more warriors that see their leader dead and give a pause, frantically looking between one another to see if they fight or flee.
Action Tracker - Round 5: De-Clawed Orc, Jaru, Tarik, Setesh, Noor
"You gave no mercy to those in the mine. Expect none here, Bandits!"
Noor will attack one of the males, bringing her blade down on something finally after just cutting ropes.
Noor's flashing blade opens a gaping wound in the orc's chest and he drops to the floor in death throes.
Action Tracker - Clean-up: Jaru, Tarik (x2), Setesh, Noor, Orcs
The three remaining orcs look as though the fight is out of them, and make to flee.
"Run faster!" Jaru yells as he takes a shot at the fleeing orcs.
Light crossbow
damage
Shrugging, Setesh charges after the fleeing male...
The party cuts down the remaining orcs even as they attempt to flee and the camp grows still and quiet.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Tarik sheaths his sword and begins looking over his shoulder. "I think I can see bone down here. Jaru, I don't suppose you'd be willing to spare the healing touch of our lord Nethys for me? I don't think sand and orc blood make for good poultice material."
once the orcs are dispatched Jaru invokes a bit of healing magic.
channel
channel
Tarik breathes a sigh of relief as the power of Nethys heals him. "Thank you much, friend Jaru. It is as though the orc never hit me at all."
Jaru grins, "Thank the power of magic. It can bind your wounds or bind your limbs. Did you see that spell I cast?! It left the orc still as a tree ready to be chopped down in an instant. Ha ha!"
Jaru is evidently quite excited about his new spell selection.
Setesh begins a thorough search of the campsite.
"Speaking of magic..." Jaru passes a hand before his eyes with a murmured spell and gazes about.
Searching the campsite Setesh easily finds a large array of trade goods strewn about - picks, shovels, metal tooling and such. They are of good make and you believe they are likely stolen from the Pahmet dwarves.
The armor he wears is well made: MW Breastplate
In his pockets you find two small vials, and a piece of hide with a symbol upon it.
The majority of the weapons and armor used by the orcs is of relatively poor make. Scrounging through campsites and pockets you gather about 80gp worth of valuables.
Getting within the large tent to assay contents takes a little longer as you must first roll back the collapsed roof.
Several drinking skulls made from gnoll remains.
A shaggy wolf-fur coat that is of better make than most of the belongings.
A slender longsword that does not look like it belongs in an orc camp, well made and balanced.
Further assorted valuables worth another 250gp.
"Hmmm, the wolf-fur and a drinking skull appear to hold dweomers in addition to the sword. I wonder what they could be?"
Noor will go back and help bring up the camels during the looting.
"I would like to get the mining equipment back to the Dwarves. They lost so much, I would at least like to give them their livelihood back."
Setesh attempts to identify the contents of the two vials...
Setesh regards the items that have been accumulated.
"Well, I think we should return everything that obviously belongs to the Dwarves to them, but as for the rest of what the Orcs possessed, does anyone wish to claim anything?"
One of the vials is filled with three doeses of refined pesh.
The second contains two doses of giant scorpion venom.
"Would anyone mind if I made use of this blade? It is certainly of fantastic make. I could put it to good use."
"I have no problem with you using the sword."
Bas'rac arrives with the camel and assists in rigging a litter so that the dwarven tools can be more easily moved.
Jaru looks over the magic items and the encampment dismissively. "Interesting items, but crude. I have no need of them. Shall we return to the dwarves? I'd as soon let these swine lay where they died."
Noor will examine the breastplate. "This one is a bit finer made than mine. I will try it on...but first..." She takes a hand full of sand and pours it into the inside of the armor then finds a rag and scrubs the inside thoroughly. She then goes into an orc tent and comes out a few minutes later wearing the new armor. "It fits a bit better than the one I bought in Sothis...it was hard to get a proper fit with that man and his roaming hands."
Looking at the other gear, "Setesh, you should wear the coat. What with your..." and she flexes her fingers makes clawing motions and while trying to make biting gestures too, ends up laughing. A very unusual sound coming from her, but it seems the stress of the past day has broken a bit.
Setesh shakes his head.
"Callous swine they have been, but all sentient creatures deserve some sort of burial; I would rather not risk them being raised as undead. I see two choices: A quick burial in the sand, or piling them up for a funeral pyre."
He then smiles apologetically, and shakes his head in response to Noor's suggestion.
"I agree that it would probably be thematically appropriate, but my elixirs already render me insensate to heat and cold; it would probably be best if someone else wore the coat."
Jaru paws through the fur to make sure it is free of vermin and puts it on. "I'm sure I look like a savage, but might as well put it to use. Setesh, this skull performs a bit of alchemy that might be of interest to you. Why don't you hold on to it? We wouldn't want you to feel left out."
Setesh gives a wry smile.
"Although it may be hard to believe, given the nature of the elixirs that I regularly pump myself full of, even I have limits; I am not particularly keen to drink from a Gnoll's skull, no matter how magical the liquid that it produces...
...Don't worry, though; I most certainly do not feel left out. As long as we benefit as a group from what we discover, that increases our chances of survival, and therefore makes it more likely that we will eventually manage to find our way into the Vault."
"Let's briefly detour back to the Dwarves, to drop-off those things which rightfully belong to them, and then continue on our way to the next vault..."
Gathering up the supplies takes a large part of the day, but you manage to put some distance between you and the camp before it is time to rest. Making your way back to the dwarven mine you approach the cleft in the ground where the entrance lies.
At the lack of welcome, Bas'rac suggests "Perhaps one or more of us should descend to alert the dwarves of our return?"
Tarik volunteers his services as a crier and proceeds forth to the entrance. Calling out he says "Hello! We have returned with what is yours. The orcs will trouble you no more, dear friends."