Order
Mit'l
Kelgan
Crom (incapacitated)
5' step back
"Die abomination!"
The spear hits, but the creature resists half of the piercing damage. It steps up to slam Mit'l.
A pair of strong arms slams the cleric hard.
ORDER
Mit'l
Kelgan
Crom (0hp)
zombie hurt
The zombie having stepped out of arm's reach, Kelgan spends his last healing spell on Horster.
Mit'l steps in close to the zombie, pulling his dagger and slashing it across its throat.
"It is time for this to be done ..."
Holding together, the undead abomination lunges again at Mit'l. He follows with a clumsy blow
One more zombie
Mit'l continues to miss with the dagger, but Kelgan connects and brings the zombie to the ground in pieces. The battle is over for now, with one out and the other slowed by massive injury.
As you are taking a quick respite from your two minutes of extreme exertion, you here some movement by the entrance. The two orc sentries peek their head into check on you.
"Youz doin some fightin in there?"
The second orc adds.
"The fighting stopped for a bit. We wanted see if the walkers were going to be coming out."
Crom curses, "Kelgan, heal me so that I can kill these fools!"
"I have one potion and one spell ... who will be most effective in recovering Morgan? I am just hanging on, but I think we need more of us up."
Crom nods at Mit'l, "Heal Horster first and get him back on his feet. Heal me after if there is anything left."
Crom lowers his voice, "If we're going to have any hope of recovering the others, we'll have to enlist the aid of these stinking orcs. Otherwise, we will have to rest if we're going to do it ourselves, which we don't have time for. What do you think?"
Kelgan huddles close with Mit'L and Crom, so his words will not carry to the orcs.
"Unfortunately, Crom, I think you are right. But we should try to get these Orcs involved right away, rather than have them go back and reveal our weakness to their tribe. Let us appeal to their greed - offer them something right now that they need no share with their tribe and chieftain."
Nice ... Horster is on his feet.
If it makes sense to boost Crom ... let me know if someone jumps in with another suggestion.
Not so nice
"What have we got to offer them ... I am all for paying these two off right now. Offer them a half now, half after we have Morgan deal?"
Horster blinks once, then again. A dull pain surges through his jaw and he feels the back of his throat go dry. Realising where he is, he pushes himself up, picking up his rapier with a bruised hand.
Crom stands back up, "Thank you Mit'l. Concerning the orcs, let's offer them half of the spoils on the condition that we move now. Let's play it like we have it under control and we're throwing these two a bone by allowing them to come along."
You talk about parleying with the orc sentries. You did notice they are dressed in crude studded leather armor and had javelins and clubs.
Crom nods at Horster, "I'm just going to start a fight if I start talking to those walking dung heaps. Tell 'em we'll cut 'em in on the loot, but they got to move with us now or we keep the gold. Tell 'em we already killed the walkers and we're just mopping up."
8/17
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Horster feels the warmth of Mit'l's magic relieve some of his stiffness. He never did like talking to orcs, but from all the others present, he was the one who would most likely get a full sentence out before punches were thrown. Making sure that the orcs see that he meant no harm, Horster approaches them and says, "If you want a cut of the loot, we could do with a couple more pairs of hands. You two in?" Short and simple, that's the way he looked and that's the way he'd speak.
After the healing, Horster moves out and sees that one orc has remained after the minute of delay. The other orc has moved over to the former minotaur cave. The orc that remains says: "I gotta ask the chief, but we want in."
Given the mass migration of the orcs, it is a short trip of less than a minute to their new cave. He runs to the cave you remember as the former home of the minotaur and considerable upgrade from the squalor of the orc cave.
It is apparent that you will be getting plenty of help as the chief himself seems to be coming to visit with about six of his tribe and the two scouts.
The chief seems to be distracted: "What is it you want? We are in the middle of moving."
"We've just made it out of a helluva scrap. A couple of necromancers have got some of our friends and we need to get them out before they're turned into zombies. Judging by their thralls, looks like they've had a go at some o' your boys too. Help us put an end to it and you're welcome to a fair share of the loot with a large chunk of peace thrown in."
"We could just offer to help them move ...", Mit'l whispers.
The chief looks around and says: "Well tell us what you found. Did you even make it to their big temple? Any of those priests get killed? If you are done, we can let you rest in our old cave--we might be able to give it a try."
Crom walks up to the chief, "What did we find? We found an army of zombies - and we crushed them! We sent those necromancers running! I'll tell you, it's nothing but clean up now boys. We get 'em now, and that fine temple gold is ours for the taking."
Crom then shrugs and turns to leave, "But hey, we don't need you. If you're a afraid to fight, we'll do it ourselves and keep that gold."
The orc chief looks skeptical. "Maybe you tell me how you defeated the high priest. Maybe you have his body?"
Crom motions for the others to follow him. "We're on our own, let's move out."
Crom readies his war axe and moves in the direction where the priests dragged Morgan and Ozmund.
Mit'l follows ...
The chief nods:
"Watch out, there is magic power in their evil sanctum. We will follow if we don't hear from you to make sure you are not made into walking corpses. Discounting walking dead, there should be about two hands of temple people in there."
Moving into the complex there are two doors, but you are sure that your companions were dragged into the corridor that parallels this. The smell of burning incense and blood assault your nose as you continue.
"See you in a few!"
With s shake of his head to express his disgust with the orcs, Kelgan follows.
Horster keeps close behind, wary of any followers.
After entering, making a right towards two doors, ignoring the doors and taking the left you see a T intersection. Left is done in red and black mosaic tiles to what looks like some sort of chapel. Right continues down a large hallway.
Faint chanting can be heard to the right, the chapel is curiously silent.
"I think our best bet for finding Morgan is to head towards the chanting ..."
Mit'l tries to discern what the chanting that he is hearing is for
And uses all his wits to best determine which way to go ... any blood smears on the floor, moaning of newly animated zombies, signs pointing to the zombie shop ... anything!
The acoustics are excellent funneling the chanting down the hallway. You see a set of two doors on your right, and a little further down the hall are a similar set of two door. The natural caverns are huge, well carved of smooth stone and go back for quite a distance.
"Aye, Mit'l. Lets look to the right."
Opening the doors, you see what appears to be sparse living quarters with two bunk beds.
Crom nods at Mit'l and growls, "Aye, follow the chanting. Let's move quickly."
Crom continues to move down the hallway.
Horster follows as well, careful about any sights, noises or traps.
Moving much farther into the complex, you see two doors on the right set apart by about thirty feet and a large opening on the left where the chanting is coming from.
Crom flattens against the wall and whispers to Horster while pointing at the source of chanting. "See if you can sneak in and recon the area."
"Right you are, my friend."
Horster pats all his gear, making sure there aren't any loose bits and bobs that could draw unwanted attention. After giving his neck one last stretch, he pads round the corner taking in as many details as he can about the surroundings and the source of the chanting itself.
Horster moves in to scout the Evil Temple and sees a large chamber of decadent evil......
This huge area has an arched ceiling some 30’ or more in height. The floor is of polished black stone which has swirling patterns of red veins through it. The walls behind the draperies, and the ceiling as well, are of dull black rock, while the west wall is of translucent red stone which is seemingly one piece, polished to mirror-like smoothness. A great bell of black iron stands near the entrance point, with a pair of mallets beside its supports. To the south are several long benches or pews. There are three stone altars to the west, the northernmost of pure black, the middle one of streaked red and black, the last of red with black flecks. Motionless Morgan is tied to the pure black altar and motionless Ozymund is tied to the altar of red with black flecks. In the middle altar a gnoll is tied, but he is conscious. At the western end of the temple area is a dais of black stone, with four lesser chairs on its lower tier and a great throne above. The chairs are of bone; the ivory throne is set with gold and adorned with gems of red and black and sitting there is a single red robed figure you have not yet met. Attending him are four priests in the lesser chairs and five robed figures hustle about setting up what appears to be sacrificial implements. The signs and sigils upon these seats are of pure chaos and evil. The other walls are covered by draperies of deep purple with embroidered symbols and evil sayings, done in scarlet and gold and black thread.
Horster recognizes four of the priests from the earlier encounter. The red-robed priest and five others are new. He feels a great despair as he entered, but managed to retreat before succumbing to it.
Horster reports all to his friends, with special emphasis on the numbers of priests and acolytes. "We're too heavily outnumbered here to try a direct assault. Anyone have any ideas? Also, it might've just been my gut, but I nearly lost all hope in there."
"I doubt we'd have time to retreat to the Keep for help. As much as I hate it, we might need the Orcs. "
Crom shakes his heads, "Those orcs aren't going to help us. We're going to have to think of something else."
Crom strokes his beard and muses, "With their superior numbers, a direct assault is futile. We will have to try a diversion or subterfuge. "
Crom points back to one of the rooms down the hall, "I bet we can find some priest garb in those living quarters. If we don acolyte robes, maybe we can enter without drawing attention. I wager if we can get close to that priest in red, we may be able to surprise and kill him quickly. If the head priest folds, I bet the others will panic and flee. We know the acolytes have already depleted their spells, so we just have to focus on killing the red priest."
Crom shrugs, "That's all I got."