An open-air market is usually held atop the flat rocks of the Barterstones, but the stalls and shops have been destroyed in the orc raid, and the stones now shield an orc siege engine. The orcs manning it have wreaked quite a bit of havoc on lower Trunau with their bombardments.
Someone needs to stop that siege engine!
Kragmyr yelled in surprise and pain as the beacon exploded. ”Ancestors above! Damned urks! Fookin’ wretches will taste me hammer for this.”
Preoccupied with his thoughts on the houses, Thozar is blindsided by the resulting explosion. MY BEARD, MY BEARD, MY BEARD! His head ringing, he pats his carefully braided beard to ensure it isn't alight. "Brothers, how fair you? What in the blazes happened?"
As his focus returns, he catches sight of the siege engine. "GODS BE DAMNED! We have to take that thing out now!" he cries as he heads off towards it.
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"Well it needs lighting so lets do it and..."
BOOM!!!
"What in the hells was that! This stuff can't have been left by the townsfolk. Bloody orcs must have set up a bomb!"
Once he's recovered from the shock he hears Thozar exclaim about the siege engine.
"Well i guess we'll have to teach these orcs thats not how you throw rocks around! Lets go!"
"They've got cover" Ulark says as his nose stills stings from the smell of burning hair. "But a quick flank around should take it. Show the toothers stones always work for us dwarves first and fore!"
Being fairly far back, Kragmyr rushes up as quickly as he can.
"Let's take them by surprise Ulark!" Thozar whispers as he pushes forward around the other side of the rocks.
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Geniunely shocked at his subtle movements, Ulark is almost as surprised as the orcs when he approaches so close before they notice him.
Almost.
Moving forwards as the invaders grunt in alert, the dwarf charges forwards to cut down the closest sieger.
"For Trunau!!"
for
Torith moves forward and gathers some earth to throw. He exerts himself a little as he hurls a lump of rock at the furthest orc.
Torith yells at the orcs.
Bursting out of cover Kragmyr ran to the nearest orc, eager to add another kill to his tally.
Thozar has a prime view of the last moments of life for the pitiful orc. A wicked barrage of stones and earth pummel the orc within an inch of it's life, followed by Kragmyr's mighty axe cleaving him apart. "THAT'S THE STRENGTH OF THE EARTH! THE STRENGTH OF THE DWARVES! HOORAH HOORAH! HOORAH!" he hoots and hollers.
Eager to add to the orc's destruction, he chucks an orb of acid at the orc closest to Ulark.
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Blue is quite dead, and green is close - standing with fatal wounds.
With his fellows, Gundar charges the orcs' position, axe held high.
Thuradin takes the full brunt of the explosion as it lifts him off his feet and tosses him to the ground. Fortunately the impact extinguishes any of the embers that may have been burning upon him. Getting to his feet he brushes himself off and inspects the damage. Noticing his singed hair and beard he mutters "Someone is going to die for this."
Thuradin approaches the market square with the others as quietly as he can until the orcs see them and raise the alarm. All pretext at stealth abandoned, he rushes the red orc manning the catapult.
The red orc tries to grab Thuradin, but can manage to hold on to the slippery dwarf.
Green pulls out a tanglefoot bag. (But since he is staggered, can't throw it this round).
Kragmyr takes a swing at the green orc, but his lack of true training (and his exhaustion) finally shows, as the blow goes wide.
Thuradin ducks under the clumsy attempt to grab him by the orc and swings his axe into it's exposed midsection.
As the injured orc moves to pull out a trick, Ulark swings again to ensure he never uses it.
for
The erratn chop misses its mark and chips against the rock. Holding back a curse, the warrior takes a step towards the rocks to get a solid wall at his back.
Torith moves up past the group as he tries to get a clear shot at the orc nearest to him.
He gathers up some more rock and flings it at the orc while trying not to hit Thuradin on the way past.
Thuradin involuntarily flinches as the unexpected spray of gravel whizzes past. He turns to give Torith a "Seriously" look as the rocks flay the orc in front of him.
Gundar swings his axe at the orc with the tanglefoot bag, aiming to render his throwing arm useless even if he still stands at the end of it...
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After witnessing the devastation unleashed on his buddy, the green orc decides his only remaining option is to become a kamakazee. He jumps in the bucket and kicks the lever, launching himself into the air and over the wall.
He is quite dead.
While the orcs are gone, this catapult is probably still a potential problem.
Kragmyr watches in bewilderment as the orc flies into the town, before turning to the catapult...
As Kragmyr disables the war machine, the remaining fighters of Trunau cheer from the walls!
Suddenly, one calls out. "Lower Trunau is under attack by a new foe: a giant!"
You are ushered back to where you were just all blown up.
The stench of blood and smoke hangs thick in the air. In the darkness, the crackling of fires mingles with the war cries of orc raiders and the screams of townsfolk. The Hopespring beacon burns brightly, illuminating the pool at the bottom of the Hopespring’s waterfall as well as a rough hole gouged into the side of Bloodmarch Hill.
"Cor! Where'd they find a giant?" Ulark says as they hustle back to the town proper.
Rounding a corner to find the creature and two more orcs wading through the waterfall's pond towards them, the warrior blinks. That hole always been in there? And what in Heaven's that thing with 'em?"
Kragmyr says ”If we kill that, the rest of the scum should flee.” He ignores the question though, for he knows not the answer.
The two orc beast tamers are holding chains that attack to the giant's legs. Two others are holding the chains attached to his torso, and seem to be guiding him.
Cave Giants: Combining the features of ogres and feral orcs, cave giants are the embodiment of primitive brutality.
Average Height: 9–11 feet
Average Weight: 900–1,100 pounds
Favored Weapons: Battleaxes, clubs
Favored Companions: Giant frilled lizards, monitor lizards, orcs, troglodytes
Cave giants would measure close to a dozen feet tall if they ever rose from their perpetual stoops. Their skin tones range from slate gray to a dark mossy green. Cave giants have manes of bristly black or gray hair that run from their heads down their backs. Their faces resemble those of orcs taken to monstrous extremes and framed with elephantine tusks. Cave giants clothe themselves in hides decorated with bones. As their name suggests, cave giants live in rocky underground tunnels and caverns, rarely approaching the surface during the day. They keep giant lizards as smaller humanoids keep dogs, but they are cruel and neglectful masters. Cave giants survive as hunter-gatherers, subsisting on subterranean animals and plants, yet they’re intensely envious of the innovations and yields other races produce. Lacking both talent and patience necessary for creation or cultivation, they take what they desire by raiding other races or by enslaving them. Cave giants especially prize metal weapons, as they’re always at war, either with their own kind or with other races. Though not particularly religious, cave giants pay homage to the god of earthquakes and eruptions. Their priests are mostly barbarians and rangers, though a few divine spellcasters exist. The latter are often devoted to grand but futile schemes, such as freeing the Rough Beast or blotting out the hated sun.
Gundar watches approvingly as Kragmyr deftly dismantles the war machine. It's a proper dwarf what knows his way around a siege engine. Pity I never learned such.
And he hears the call of 'giant,' and his blood goes cold. How did I miss such a foe marshaling against us? How could I have failed so completely?
His mentor, the elf Silverleaf, had hated the giantkind. He's fought them for decades. Gundar had never seen one, much less fought one - Silverleaf and his allies had chased them out of their territory years before Gundar had come to stay with the elf. But he'd heard the stories of their evil, their greed, their sadism for the smaller races. Felaan had told him, and taught him. And he'd taught him the Giant-tongue - just in case.
Gundar calls out. "Ho, you bloated worm carcass! Orc-slave, are we? Too weak to forge your own way? No worries, the mighty defenders of Trunau will end your misery soon!"
"Surrounded by Dwarves, the Orc decided to end his ended his own life rather than fight on. It was suicide by catapult. Hey Kragmyr, add that one to your tales! says Torith. He lets out a hearty belly laugh, clearly amused by a comment he thought was quite witty.
Torith's face drains of all colour, though it's quite hard to tell with so much facial hair covering it up. After a moment of shock he recovers and his face changes to a look of determination and hatred that no-one has seen on him before.
Torith follows the group in complete silence as they head back to the area around the Hopespring, though the earth under his feet seems to rumble as if sharing the anger welling up from inside the dwarf.
The red and yellow orcs move forward, pulling on their chains, and wade into the water, which is about 2' deep in the light blue squares, and 4' deep in the dark blue.
Thuradin moves as fast as his dwarven legs will take him to the water's edge.
Kragmyr runs towards the giant, and as he does so, he begins chanting:
"Of battle I tell, | there was bent
Defending the king | before crown fell;
There was carnage when thou | didst avenge thy kin,
And blood flowed fast | on the blade of the axe."
But how will thou know | that now our kin,
giant-slain, | we have well avenged?
Many there are | of the sons of slag
Who fight still | our lofty race."
Not far was I | from the lord of the clan,
Yester morn, | when crown did break;
From giant club | of ruin born,
Speak of the fight | in slaughter-runes.
"On the crow-field once| I see thee well,
When in the blood-stained | axe thy hold
Prove your worth | in place of words;
Time is it, brothers | vengeance to have."
"Grieve not, kinsmen | the battle is gained,
The fighter can shun not his fate."
Truth be told, he was exhausted. This had been a full fledged battle. He had not the strength left in him to lend any magic to his words. But still, they came now to fight a cave giant. There was a good chance that they wouldn't all make it out of this alive. It was only fitting that he give it his all. He chanted as loudly as he could, adding the right inflection and pausing at all the right moments. There, facing his death, Kragmyr was determined that his last words would be ones worth saying.
Gundar moves forward, unslinging his crossbow for what felt the hundredth time that terrible day. He sights at one of the slaver orcs. While a rampaging giant free from their restraint might not be a thing, it was likely better than a giant directed by them. And why does it submit to their control anyway? Ah, Felaan, I should have listened more closely to your tales of them...
The handlers see Belir, and try to direct the giant that way.
Thozar rushes to towards the water as fast as he can. Seeing the giant, his eyes grow wide. I've tracked orcs and these beasts for quite a while, but fighting them has never been within my power. "To arms, this is it dwarves! A battle we were born and bred to win!"
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Torith strides around the building with anger burning in his eyes.
He walks past Thozar and barely pays him any attention, clearly focused on facing the giant ahead of him.
Ulark's view is obscured for a moment as he moves aorund one of the few remaining mostly-untouched houses of Trunau. By the time he's on the other side, the warrior sees the troll and his orcs advancing - and Belir out on his own on the rock.
Forge keep your fire burning, you brave 'n crazy fool. Ulark mutters a silent prayer as he hurries forwards, his muscles aching and armor chafing as the weight of the day begins to weigh down on him.
The only motivation you sense is a need to destroy.
Orcs make their way forward.
Thuradin moves into the water, wading out to stand next to Belir. Standing next to the drop off into deeper water he too shouts insults at the giant, calling into question it's parentage "Din mamma var en hamster och din far luktade av äldre bär"
"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries"