During the rest of the day, you see the monitoring of the guard towers and the bell tower by large guards so you hold your current positions. You see very little foot traffic entering into the fort. As the sun sets, the guard towers become less guarded and Stigmar and Rhen begin their scouting mission. As you approach the fort, sounds begin getting louder as the orcs and their allies all turn and focus their attention inward. Though the 6 orcs on the bridge continue to glance at the surroundings, their attention is otherwise consumed ().
Once the pair of dwarves reach within 500', they hear the fierce roar of a wild animal followed by a loud battle cry in Dwarven. Faint sounds of combat follow, including some dwarven screams.
"What are they doing to our kinfolk?!" Stigmar whispers in shock. "Making them fight for entertainment? We have to save them!"
Rhen whispers back, "Sounds like our kin is sport to these bastard orcs and their giant allies! I'm ready to kill them one by one, if need be, to avenge our brothers."
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"Go fetch the others, I'll move into position at the bridge. When you attack from the front, I can blast them from the side."
You go back and get Barad and Kaz and approach within 65' feet, just outside of the six orcs' darkvision.
Barad hears the report and grumps loudly.
Preposterous! - and he grinds his teeth, pointing the weapon at the orcs - No one will leave that place alive!
He casts longstrider at himself while he waits to see if the others were going to do some buffs and strategizing. Between his anger and his armor, it was hard for him to consider a stealthy approach.
Other than the potion of invisibility and spider climb, which can be used for scouting purposes to determine how many enemies we're dealing with, Rhen has no other buffs.
Uldruk, a stout dwarf with red hair and beard, nods as the rest start making the plan. His blue eyes gleam at the perspective of rescuing some fellow dwarves fallen into dirty orcs' hands. He picks his long hammer with both hands, weighing it. Not the best of frontline fighters, but most fierce warriors he's fought with have shaked hands with him after combat, appreciating his contribution.
He tightens his cloak so that it covers the shine of his mithral armor - they don't want to be detected... yet. Thinking about that, he makes sure his horn is well tied to his back and asks his companions "Eh... how sneaky do we wanna be in this fight? I wanna be sure we're playing the no-horn kind of sneakyness."
The military tactician of the party gathers the group after he and Stigmar did their initial scouting, before initiating the assault. "Uldruk, when we're sneaking up the fort to start the assault, we need sneakyness. Once the dung hits the fan, be as loud as you want. If we're going to assault the fort, we have to account for the guards on the towers and catwalks bombarding us with arrows or bolts. I think either Moira or myself have to get up there to engage them as soon as the assault starts. We have a potion of invisibility each and I have a potion of spider climb. So Moira, you want the frontal assault with the rest or go up on your own? I am fine doing either job, but one of us has to engage the archers. Let me know."
Rhen looks at the wizard, "We need to rush into their ranks immediately, to prevent calls from reinforcement and with these short legs, none of us are that fast. We need some magic to speed us up and then possibly announce our presence with ball of fire taking out the initial six guards on the bridge and anyone below them. Thoughts?"
Uldruk rises his thumb. "Got it. No horn." He checks that all his equipment is well tightened in order to not make unnecessary sounds. "I'll join the frontal assault. I think I'll be more helpful." Once the order is given, he drinks the potion and advances asking the rest.
"I used my fireball on the scouting party earlier today, but I'll be able to hit them with acid. Haste will only last about half a minute, I was going to wait until we were inside to use it, but we can use it now if we want to keep the element of surprise."
Just before drinking the potion, Uldruk recites some lines from an old epic. No fancy language, just two lines, only for himself. They're among his favourite quotes, and they instill some braveness in the young dwarf.
Then he's finally ready.
Rhen will get as close to the entrance through stealth with Uldruk as possible. "Let's go." He will then drink both his potion of invisibility and spider climb and then walk up to the entrance to see if the distracted guards have dogs or other animals that can smell them.
Stigmar creeps down, watching carefully as he gets into position.
Uldruk walks beside Rhen on their frontal 'assault'. He changes the grip of his hammer from left to right hand, containing the adrenaline until the right time.
Stigmar and Moira do not approach the main entrance and instead approach from the side. The fort is encircled by a 10-foot-high wooden palisade constructed of 2-foot-thick logs lashed together.
Since both Uldruk and Rhen are both invisible, you can't see each other, but I assume you listen for each other's footsteps since you both have the same speed.
Rhen drinks his 2 potions and Uldruk drinks his and you both fade from sight. You walk onto the bridge and approach the guard who is looking out for dangers, while at the same time keenly listening for the action inside. You can clearly hear now dwarven grunts as you imagine one of your fellow warriors is fighting a wild animal, perhaps a bear, while you hear orcish cheers when the dwarf screams from pain from an apparent wound.
After a few seconds, the guard abandons his post and goes inside the barbican, and he yells for another to take his place. In that moment, the two invisible dwarves move into the barbican. Another orc guard comes from inside the barbican and takes his quick shift outside. They appear to be changing shifts every minute, as none of them wants to miss the action.
Inside the barbican are 5 more orcs, beside the guard on temporary shift duty. They are armed with longbows, but right now they're peering out the windows of the barbican staring down at the action. Out of curiosity, you take a quick glance, invisibly, and see a red-headed dwarf below in a pit 30' down fighting a bear, solely armed with a metal skillet, while a crowd of about 20-25 orcs watch from 15' above the pit and 15' below you, and bet on the entertainment. The orcs cheer and drink, as they makes bets and hurl insults at the bare-chested dwarf in the pit. The dwarf appears more focused on surviving right now than responding to the insults.
No one has noticed the invisible dwarves. The western door to the barbican is open and leads further into the fort.
If the possibility of sneaking in without being discovered exists, Uldruk would like to capitalize. When confident that they're not being directly looked at, he makes a small sign in the ground for Rhen to see and read, indicating to keep on the exploration. Then he walks deeper in the fort, hoping this comrade follows.
The two invisible dwarves continue with their scouting mission, leaving the 6 distracted orcs watching the half-naked dwarf armed only with a metal skillet fight off a bear. You continue west, leaving the barbican, and find another bridge connecting the barbican to the fort’s gatehouse. To the west, massive double doors lead deeper into the fort. Two narrow towers flank the fort’s gatehouse. On the roof of the gatehouse, 30' up, you see 3 half-ogre guards.
Four wooden ladders are propped against the sides of the bridge that lead down into the dry moat. 4 more orcs stand below the bridge keeping a constant watch on the ladders. A deep trench resembling a dried scab runs around the perimeter of the fort. Several brightly dyed animal-skin tents flap vigorously in the harsh breeze blowing across the ditch’s dusty floor. Some of the tents look empty.
Realizing that his dwarven brother is in danger, Rhen heads back into the barbican to get out of range of the half-ogres, whispering to Uldruk in Dwarven, "Get ready to attack...." He then positions himself invisibly near the greatest concentration of orcs armed with bows. After waiting for a few seconds, he brings his waraxe down on the nearest orc on his surprise round.
Uldruk gets near one of the orcs, stealthily.
Just before swinging his big hammer, he lets his knife slip down to the pit from as close to the org as possible, so that it looks like he did drop it instead of Uldruk. Then he quickly moves a step aside and his at a different one.
Rhen slices one of the orcs (magenta) in the arm with his waraxe, as his enemy is startled by his sudden appearance!
Uldruk bashes another (green) with his longhammer as he appears from invisibility.
The orcs' screams of pain are drowned out by the roar of the orcs at the dwarf vs. bear specactle! The other 4 remaining orcs look in shock, "What the fu?"
Stigmar suddenly looks up as he senses the upcoming fight. "Time to move" he says and steps forward, stopping behind Moira."
Party is up first.
Stigmar murmurs a brief cantrip and fires a glob of acid at the closest orc.