The cult of evil had suffered some casualties, but so had the heroes. The arrival of the orc tribe complicated things. The only positive news was the group felt most the priests had expended their magic.
Party up as the fear wears off -- Horster has an extra action coming too--I didn't want to slow things down too much.
Order
Horster
priests have all held actions
Entire party including Horster
"Join us you mangy orc skum or we'll kill your whole tribe after we slay the priest!"
Not waiting for a reaction, Crom turns and charges back into the Sanctum.
First bumping the closest startled orc, Mit'l nods, then charges the priest at AG11.
Kelgan will charge and attack the acolyte in AA16
Lorcan steps back and uses Disrupt Undead on the closer zombie.
The arcane magic-users are free and unconscious as the ranger is unconscious and chained.
Kelgan draws a quick retaliation and Kelgan a bolt of fire. The mace finds it way through Kelgan's defenses.
Order of Action
Horster
evil cultists
"Mit'l, can you revive any of our friends?!"
Horster draws quick response from the acolyte. Horster wounds the acolyte, but not fatally after taking a blow from his mace. The acolyte and priest barely stand after taking blows from Horster and Mit'l. Horster does not grab any of the injured yet, as he doesn't want to be slowed down too much.
Crom moves to support Mit'l and Horster, but unable to attack.
Kelgan misses his attack, and the acolyte and two zombies try to bring him down. His armor deflects all three attacks.
Horster takes a prepared blow from the acolyte as he closes Wounded, Horster is fighting for his life and dodges an attack from the writhing snake of the priest. The emerald snake hissing as it misses him. The priest and Zombie also attack and the small rogue dodges their blows!! Crom dodges two attacks, a firebolt and mace from a priest and acolyte.
Crom's speech to the orcs seems to have them on their heels, and they seem conflicted as to what to do. The battle does seem close at the moment. As the wave of evil advances, many of the orcs draw heavy crossbows.
The orc chief holds his hand up and indicates the writhing snake staff and speaks to his tribe. "I want that staff!!"
The high priest yells out: "Help finish these invaders, and my staff is yours!!"
Party up -- that went well
Crom yells loudly to the orcs as he attacks the priest, "Help us finish these priests and the staff, this cave and half the gold is yours!!"
Crom cuts a priest in half, leaving the corpse in pieces. The breastplate no protection against the powerful swing.
The orcs look anxiously at the chief, and he seems to consider the two offers presented to him.
"Join your servants in the grave!" spits Kelgan as brings his axe down on the nearest acolyte.
Kelgan drops an acolyte with a single brutal swing. The devastating blow brings the numbers closer to even. A priest, high priest, wounded acolyte and three zombies stand against the heroes.
The orc chief marches briskly into the sanctum of evil, five large orcs with greatswords, spears and greataxes trail behind him. He flips down the visor of his helmet as he grimly surveys the battlefield.
Seeing no current path to Morgan ...
If the orcs allow Mit'l makes his way to Ozzy and uses the wand on him.
Else If the orcs look like they won't let him through he steps forward and stabs the high-preist leaving him vulnerable to the orcs.
Having picked the shackles that bound his friends, Horster decides to let the fighters do their dirty work as he temporarily withdraws from the action.
The orc allows Mit'l to pass and his healing improves the condition of Ozzy, but does not bring him to consciousness.
Horster dodges away from the fight.
Lorcan bleeds for a couple rounds before stabilizing.
Kelgan turns his attention to the zombie to the south.
for 17 total slashing.
Kelgan pivots hard to his left, leading with a broad swipe of his shield, batting the zombie's outstretched arms away. THen he uncoils, turning back to the right and straightening rather explosively, lending the full power of his thick torso to the vicious backhand swipe of the warxe.
Even Kelgan is not sure where the undead creature's head lands.
Then steps to the west, standing over the unconscious gnome protectively.
Crom falls, wounded and bleeding.
.
Kelgan takes a feral flurry of zombie claws from the faster undead creatures and one scores a hit (6 point).
A single claw hits him before he strikes a zombie head off. Crom is attacked by a set of claws and a mace blow from an acolyte (21 total) and falls, wounded and bleeding. Horster falls as the priest charges him at the side of the room.
The high priest rushes to hit Mit'l with the staff writhing as a serpent. He rushes past an orc, who attacks the high priest as Mit'l jabs at him with his spear. The orc leaves a vicious cut through the plated armor of the priest.
The priest then strikes Mit'l and venom oozes from a nasty wound.
A volley of crossbow bolts hits the priest and takes him down. Four orcs surround the high priest. The orcs get involved on your side, and the impact is immediately felt. Three miss, but a greataxe blow hits the priest in the chest and leaves him bleeding on the ground. The chief attacks the zombie that took Crom down with his falchion and cuts the zombie down.
The acolyte surrenders as the lone zombie is left to fight Kelgan.
The orcs quickly cut down the last zombie as Kelgan fails to bring it down.
Mit'l and Kelgan survey the massive carnage of in the sanctum of evil with the orc chief and some of his tribe. The orc chief comments with some irony: "I wonder if this was the main source of evil in these caves?"
Mit'l tries to resist the massive poison in his body, though it appears the snake is inert as a staff as the orc chief picks it up.
Mit'l starts reviving the fallen ... it does not appear as if any orcs are injured, if so Mit'l offers healing as a smart political move.
Everyone should be up ... how we doing? Burn more CLW's from the wand now or can we safely high-tail it to the keep.
Kelgan is at 9 of 17.
"What happened? Where are we?", Ozmund mutters as he slowly gets up from where the priests had dumped him.
Lorcan lays in a puddle of his own blood, not moving.
Morgan rises groggily from the altar, and looks around at the carnage.
"Looks like I slept through all the excitement," she says with a slight tinge of regret in her voice. "I guess we won, since I'm not dead and shambling around the place."
"No Morgan, you're a zombie ... go check a mirror ..."
Again, if we stay we will max out our HP ... if heading to town we may want to save charges
As Mit'l distributes healing, the gems on the thrones and altars look like it will take some time, but they can be pried off. Their combined value will be over a thousand gold.
In the very rear of the temple, a side passage goes to the a lavish bedroom.
Besides the plate armor worn by the high priest, the five suits of full plate armor scattered on the three priests and two of the zombies will fetch a pretty penny.
The high priest has a lacquered, sealed wooden scroll case.
The orc chief seems to be taking in the evil shrine. "Didn't think it was this nice back here."
"I'd be in favor of a return to the Keep. We're pretty battered, and our magic is mostly used. "
Seeing the orcs standing amidst the group, Morgan makes her way gingerly towards the Chief.
"Looking at the long view, are ya? These caves, once cleared, would make for a fine establishment. Your people would prosper with trade and good relations with nearby settlements; certainly more than raiding and robbing would bring. Care to send an ambassador back to the Keep with us? We could arrange a meeting to discuss a treaty."
19 Charges used (11 before this fight)
Mit'l stands by with the wand ... waiting to see if we should heal ... while also starting to collect up the treasures they have acquired.
"Aye, we can return to the keep, I just want to make sure we grab all the loot." He looks pointedly at the orcs and then starts prying gems from the throne.
21 charges used
"All the loot? " The orc sentry asks.
Crom keeps stuffing gems in his pockets as he eyes the orcs nervously, "Don't worry pig face, you'll get your cut."
As Crom begins to stuff gems in his pockets, the chief directs the orcs to help.
"They can have the gems, we need the armor and weapon."
The orcs looks at the equipment of Ozzy and Morgan stacked behind the thrones. The chief speaks to Mit'l, as he seems to think he is the most reasonable.
"You can buy weapons and armor at the Fortress. We can't."
The gems should be worth thousands of gold.
Ozmund, seeing where the Orc's are looking, moves over to reclaim his items.
"Sorry boys, these are mine!"
"Send...an..ambassador...with us...to..the...Keep," Morgan growls through gritted teeth, clearly irritated that the Chief ignored the suggestion the first time.
"We're helping you eliminate rivals and claim territory while minimizing losses to your people, as it is. If you simply take my suggestion and try to negotiate trade with the Keep, you would not have steal my armor and weapons, you could buy your own."
The chief says:
"We don't need yours, just these priests' equipment. We will send someone with you--hopefully ending the evil priests' reign will help out. Bring those filthy holy symbols of that big Asmodeus character these guys worship."
The orcs stay away from the equipment previously held by Morgan and Ozzy. They also have no use for the scroll of Silence and Cause Moderate Wounds the high priest held, and hand that over to you.
"There are still nasty monsters on the other side of the caves including the invulnerable one. You may not be ready to face him in your injured state. We may want to get your on your way after a rest in our new cave."
"Let them have their armor and weapons ... they will be much more valuable allies armed ...", says Mit'l, more worried about a confrontation right now in there spent state.
If Ozzy is keeping what he had, it seems as if we should be able to pull out. To the chieftain, "So this is where we will find you when we return?"
The chief seems to consider who to send, and then shrugs and turns to the older orc. "Keep things in hand. Don't squander what has been won today."
He turns to Mit'l. "I'll go with you. Might as well see what the place looks like."
The trip back to the Keep is uneventful. The gems are worth approximately 2500gp, and the most valuable one in the lot is worth about 1000gp.
As the guards see you enter, there is quite the stir and a fully armed and armored orc in your group. The initial impression is that he is a prisoner, and the three guardsmen move forward with a set of manacles, apparently to take him into custody.
"Stand back ... he is with us ... we have established a truce with these warriors.
"He's here in..." it obviously takes a moment for the dwarf to muster himself to say it. "...good faith as an ambassador. You might send someone to inform the castellan."
Crom rolls his eyes, "Yes, after bribing him heavily, he and his tribe decided to help us at the last minute after had we already won the battle. I'm sure he'll be a valuable ally."
Crom heads to the tavern to start drinking. "The first round is on me."
Crom heads to the tavern. The orc steps cautiously inside the Keep and there is an anxious murmuring.
In an unusual event, never observed since you have been there, the inner keep opens its gates and a group of soldiers marches out.
The Captain appears with a group of eight armored cavalrymen. He nods to your group as he appears. Twenty soldiers with spears appear trailing behind.
The captain speaks as he raises his hand: "Looks like this is worth a meeting with the Commander. Anyone that explain the presence of this orc can come with me."
"It was my idea, so I'll come along," Morgan replies, accompanying the orc and the watch captain.
Mit'l nods, "I will come too."
"I think maybe we should all go and explain what we saw and did in the caves."
Horster tags along, bearing in mind he has a blade to pick up later from the Elven smith.