"Attack!"
Ben gives the command to attack and moves forward to make his own swing. Little Buddy leaps forward and tries to take a swipe.
Both of them are pretty clumsy though. Little Buddy's AC is currently 18 because of the enlarge. Ben's is still his usual pathetic 15.
Looking quite out of breath, Thyste jogs up behind Ulretha. "We kill the big guys yet?"
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"Well, I haven't gotten into the room yet, so I assume not," Ulretha answers Thyste.
The Pack, despite their bloodlust has gotten tangled up in the hallway, so the gnoll is able to overtake them. He rounds the final corner and sees the troll.
The gnoll stops for a moment. This creature is no bigger than him but its lanky form and twisted shape spark an unwanted memory.
His sister, the leader of his tribe is on her hands and knees, her body, head and limbs criss crossed in bleeding claw marks of various depths, some of them shallow and enough to suggest they were meant more to inflict pain than damage.
And she is begging, begging for her life, but more for the pain to end. This female who has cowed every other female in the tribe, let alone the males, gnolls almost half a foot taller and with 50 pounds on her have ducked and scraped in her presence and leapt to do her will, has been reduced to nothing more than a pup being whipped.
Onnikka, his sister's pet and companion leaps to her defense, all teeth and fury under her own lattice of wounds. But she never makes it. A foot the size of her body comes seemingly out of nowhere, catching her in the side and launching her across the camp. She doesn't even yelp at the impact or when she lands.
Ulretha hears more massive footsteps everywhere around him, like a drumbeat under the symphony of howls and screams of his people being slaughtered like they were nothing more than goblins or halflings.
The same foot that kicked Onnikka catches his sister in the ribs, knocking her sprawling on her back. It comes to rest on her torso and she can't even muster enough breath to scream...at least not until the giant shifts his weight and the rapid fire sound of cracking ribs can be heard.
Ulretha knows there is nothing he can do for her, but maybe Onnikka...
"Die!" he shouts as he sees the not so big giant before him, the word a howl of anger. It is repeated again and again as he launches himself at the creature.
"Kill it! Kill it!" he snarls, the words filling his allies with his rage, as well.
His fury is so great, he can't focus enough to hit.
In that case in order for Little Buddy to obediently follow his commands he had to run past Ben and the annoying statue and soak up an AoO. But, on the bright side, that gives him a flank with Ulretha!
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The troll just barely catches Little Buddy with his quick attack, but Little Buddy continues on anyway, although he still misses.
Little Ben swings his hefty axe, but it bounces off the hard hide of the troll's body.
Thyste rejoins the group, despite her fear of ghosts upstairs.
Ulretha relives a distracting memory, making him also miss his attack.
Lidia fires another arrow, no longer being harassed by the two creatures, but there are suddenly many more people fighting in the close quarters of the room.
The troll attacks Ulretha, seeing the Gnoll as a great snack should he fell it.
But Ulretha's fury allows him to roll with the hits, making them futile.
Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Map Slide
Flood Troll, -8hp
Thyste
Half-orc
Little Ben
Ulretha
Lidia
As Thyste moves, she considers the possibilities; seeing the room quite full and little place for someone of even halfling size, she seeks to fix the issue.
A flick of her wrist, and her potion is in her hand; a quick glug, and suddenly the halfling is barely over a foot high.
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Ulretha doesn't care about the half-orc while the troll is there. And isn't going anywhere if the troll doesn't, though he moves a step away from the door and into the spot where the half-orc was so that the Pack can get in, too.
His second swing is just as hard as his first, but far more accurate, this time.
Onnikka prowls into the room. All humanoids look pretty much the same to him, but this one smells like one of the hated ones.
The other two hyenas scramble and pace in the doorway trying to find a space to get in the room.
Little Buddy just does his thing, ripping and shredding the opponent right in front of him.
Being flanked is a bad thing, but flanking is even better. So Ben stays put and tries to whallop the troll FIRST, then steps over to block the half orcs access to Lidia.
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Lidia's arrow stabs into the panicked half-orc.
Ulreatha's hatred of trolls slams into the flood troll with extreme force. The troll is still standing, but is definitely wounded.
Onnikka leaps at the troll and draws more blood from the hardened flood troll.
Due to the hardened hide of the flood troll, only one of Little Buddy's attacks penetrate the skin, the others bouncing off.
Little Ben decides he better kill this troll before it finds water to regenerate, so he does so, with a huge swing of his weapon.
Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Map Slide
Thyste, tiny
Half-orc, -4hp
Little Ben
Ulretha
Lidia
The floor rushes up to meet Thyste halfway, and she's off, sprinting at her tiny size, weaving between hyenas' paws and dancing past a statue. As she approaches the half-orc, she switches to the tips of her toes, hiking up her grip on her doru.
As she reaches the half-orc's foot, she looks up to check that it's not Little Ben (whose nickname is now twice as ironic), then plants her doru in it.
She forgets to look back down before she strikes, though, and hits the floor between his toes.
Ben politely, and with a generous smile on his face, asks "I don't suppose you would consider surrendering? I'd really like to ask you a few questions. Like, who are the targets in town?"
Just as he completes his generous offer, the diminutive Thyste darts into view and startles the poor druid. At first he thinks the girl is some fey minion of his opponent and almost takes a swing at her. But Thyste has a way of moving that is unique only to her and he stays his hand in time.
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The half-orc is almost completely unaware of tiny Thyste's existence as she walks through his legs and tries to hit him. He then tries to dodge away from Little Ben as he tries to run.
Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Map Slide
Thyste, tiny
Half-orc, -6hp
Little Ben
Ulretha
Lidia
As the half-orc moves his feet, Thyste dives and angles her spear in hopes of skewering the bottom of his foot.
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Thyste trips the half-orc before he really gets anywhere at all!
Initiative Order, Bold May Go!
Map Slide
Thyste, tiny
Half-orc, -6hp, prone
Little Ben
Ulretha
Lidia
Thyste yanks the butt-spike of her doru out of the floor, hopping lightly onto his body and crossing his back, running down his arm before planting her doru into the knuckle he's using to grip his morningstar.
"You're welcome!" chimes Thyste to the rest, hopping over to stand atop the morningstar, doru in hand.
Ben reaches out a big paw to help the man up, as usual a big smile on his face. He gives the command for Little Buddy to stop attacking and the dinosaur settles to his haunches and licks his wounds.
"Well then! God to see you are such a reasonable fellow. Now, time to spill the beans. Why was Rodrik assassinated and what is all this about an assault on the town? Thyste, could you search him for evidence or anything he might use to cause trouble?"
Ben looks around for a place to sit and plops down on a bed, like its time for a friendly chat. Obviously, intimidation is not his thing.
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Ulretha slams the head of his flail into the face of the troll a couple more times, his own face twisted into a snarl of such anger and hatred that he looks less like a hyena than ever. Animals are incapable of such levels of malevolence. That's reserved for creatures that can think.
Onnikka continues to worry the corpse for a bit until she realizes it is no longer moving. She gives it a sniff and seems to come to a decision, moving away disinterestedly.
Ulretha comes into the interrogation late and perhaps does not hear Ben's friendly approach.
"Those who ally with giants don't get questions, they get flail," he snarls, stalking toward the half-orc with his weapon in hand and an intent look on his face.
Provided she’s unimpeded, Thyste hops along the half-orc, poking her doru into pockets and popping open pouches. ”Juuuust making sure you don’t have anything that’s going to let you rethink your surrender—you understand,” grins the diminutive vixen.
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You find 4 potions, smoke pellets (2), tangleburn bag, daggers (5),
masterwork morningstar, short sword, alchemically treated coals, crowbar, thieves’ tools, a key, a garnet (worth 50 gp), and 30 gp.
"I've no idea what you're talking about! That flood troll was going to kill me and I thought you were her backup!" he replies to Little Ben and Lidia.
Thyste turns to the others. "I was upstairs when everything went down; any truth to what this guy's saying?" she asks, struggling with shoving the garnet into a pouch that is now too small for it.
Little Ben just murmurs some tsks and lets the intimidators have a crack at him since he seems determined to lie.
Little Ben, and anyone else that speaks Giant, can understand this conversation.
The deeper voice says something along the lines of, "half-orcs...has infiltrated...Trunau...orc raid...planned...the tribe...Skreed."
The lighter voice replies, "Yes...soon...tribe preparing...marks in town...Rodrick...too close...die."
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Ulretha shrugs. He pulls out some rope as he approaches. "Let's just take him back to town. We'll tell Kurst we heard him confessing to this flood troll. Between that and the evidence we've found on him, they'll believe it. They'll get someone to hang, or behead, or burn, or whatever they do to murderers in Trunau. I've always wanted to see someone drawn and quartered. In any case, we'll get our reward for solving Rodrick's murder and be done," he says, preparing to tie the half-orc up.
The half-orc chuckles, "Fine, you got me. You won't be able to stop what's coming. The Twisted Nail orcs will wash over Trunau in a tide of bloodshed, slaughtering the people that live here...you know, its not too late to help us. You're a pretty strong group, if you work with us, I'm sure you'll get treated well when they take over."
"Interesting suggestion. But orc tribes are not the type to treat anyone well, not even their own. Twisted Nail, huh? Anyway, I'd still like to know who the targets are. If they are all doomed anyway, why not tell us?"
You can almost hear the pretty please.
"Seems a lot like Trunau's pretty good at throwing off orcish fingers," shrugs Thyste as her potion begins to wear off. "Speaking of throwing off orcish fingers, it may be worth your while to talk about this, a lot, in detail, if you'd like to avoid doing so yourself."
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Ulretha pauses, ready to hear more about this "being treated well" option. Before he can ask about it, though, the other members very foolishly stick with Trunau. But what can you expect? It seems like every flatsnout thinks humans are great and that their settlements should be protected.
He does stop though, putting away his rope. Maybe he'll be able to play both sides against the middle if he doesn't anger this guy, too much.
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Lidia listens to the slimy half-orc confess. She relaxes her bow and stops pointing it at the prisoner, but her frown doesn't relax.
"He's not telling us everything." she says to the others. "Why all this secrecy and sneaking around and surveillance of the town? If the Twisted Nail tribe was going to attack the town, they'd just do it in overwhelming numbers in the dead of night, like orcs always do. They were looking for something, and it was taking them time to find it. What I don't understand is, if they were planning to overwhelm the town, why not just wait until they took the town and find it then?"
She regards the prisoner sourly and shakes her head. "This fellow doesn't strike me as someone who can change his appearance to look like a human. And he doesn't have a tattooed face. I think the murderer is still loose. But I'm guessing this wretch could tell us more with proper motivation."
"But we need to get back to town and warn them. Night has already fallen, and the attack might come any time. They need to be warned. I have no doubt he's telling the truth about that much."
Thyste considers. "Having some folks on the inside of town would boost their odds," she points out, "although perhaps whatever they're looking for would be helpful in taking the town to begin with."
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Ulretha nods toward the tunnel. "Maybe they were planning on digging their way into town. Walls are great and all but they rarely extend very far into the ground and if you can collapse some buildings or walls while simultaneously giving your soldiers a way to walk right in, you can improve your chances. And are any of us going to pretend like Kurst is going to do half as good a job at leading the town guard as Rodrick would have?"
"Maybe the orcs finally figured some things out and aren't just going to throw bodies at the walls, this time."
Thyste nods. "It's a definite possibility. Problem is, there are lots of possibilities."
"Anyway-- who's got manacles? If not, I figure we'll hog-tie him and have a dogsled-- hyenasled? drag him in."
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"Maybe..." says Lidia, considering these theories. "But remember that letter we found at the inn too. Someone was writing to a woman talking about searching for something here in Trunau. This level of preparation for a raid just seems... well, it just isn't typical. Orcs are bullies and thugs. They can certainly be cunning in a pinch, but their dominant attitude about humans is that we're contemptible weaklings. If they'd tried a raid and been repulsed, they might resort to trickery for a second try. But as far as I know, that isn't the case. We're still missing a piece of this puzzle, I'm sure of it."
Lidia shoves the half-orc with one foot. "Get up. You're going to walk back to town with us. And if you try anything, the hyenas will tear you limb from limb."
"Never seen a hyena eat a half-orc's intestines right out of his still-squirming body before! This will be interesting. If you choose to run, that is. Can't promise I'll get to see that if you're cooperative," pipes Thyste.
Ben, who is himself part orc says nervously and without a lot of conviction, "They're just kidding. I'm sure you will be treated fairly. But they are right about one thing, we need to get back to town ASAP... Unless we want to find out where that tunnel goes?"
You lead the half-orc back to town and immediately report your findings to Kurst. "As long as the attack won’t take place until the half-orcs signal for it", Kurst reasons, "and as long as the militia keeps guards stationed at the beacons and around the city walls, Trunau has little to fear. Even if the saboteurs signal the attack from outside the town’s walls without being detected, the militia should have time to sound the alarm and close the gates."
"Anyway, Rodrick's funeral is tomorrow. You're welcome to attend it. After that, we can decide the fate of this half-orc. In the mean time, I'll see if anyone can get more information out of him, but I doubt it." he says as he leads your group to holding cells while yawning.
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"So... that's it then." says Lidia, as if the thought has just occurred to her. She looks around uncomfortably at the others, then simply turns and walks out.
She heads for the Ramblehouse. Hearing the laughter and commotion coming from inside the tavern door, she slips in like a thief and picks her way unobtrusively to the diminutive innkeeper. She orders whatever food they've prepared, and asks what became of the boy, Othdan, and if he's gone home to his family.
Mutton stew with potatoes and peas, served in a loaf of brown bread. Lidia devours it like one of the hyenas might, her lank, dark hair dipping into the gravy as she tears at it with her fingers, her face barely half a foot above it. She stops periodically to lick her dirty fingers and belch like a little ogre. The house beer washes the meal down.
Some of the people had struck up a song, and one drunken fellow was dancing while others clapped. She watches blandly, distantly, thoughtfully, but says nothing more to anyone. She leans back and begins picking strings of mutton from her teeth.
Ben has a thought to and voices his concerns.
"If I were to stage an attack on the town I would have an inside man secure the gates during a time when most of the guard are preoccupied, like, say, at their previous leaders funeral. Perhaps our little group of outsiders should post watch at the gate while this funeral is going on?"