Slice of Glaive

I’m still feeling dazed, but I should be able to shake it off soon. Through the circling stars I notice that there are still 10 zombies of various races around me.

Segment 3
I recover from being dazed. Ghoral misses a zombie right near him.

Segment 4
Kross remains above and shoots the undead near the guardsmen. A wave of holy magic emanates from Jarlyn and several of the undead turn to try and get away. The nearby guardsmen then take out one of the fleeing zombies.

Segment 6
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 2 for 10 damage destroying the last remaining undead in range. Perrol moves to join several guardsmen, one of whom is down. Aiming at one of the zombies attacking them, he hits but his target doesn’t fall. Ghoral takes out one of the two in front of him. Jarlyn suddenly yells out that the second troll is back. Several of the zombies turn and attack Perrol.

Segment 8
Kross fires at the undead troll on fire before it can toss another zombie over the wall. Another wave of holy magic emanates from Jarlyn. Two more were thrown over the wall. A guard manages to behead a zombie and two more guards pair up to take out another undead. Kross yells that there is an incoming troll. Ghoral dives out of the way and the troll lands badly, damaging one leg.

Segment 9
Half-move to get next to the fallen zombie not near the troll.
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 9 for 7 damage
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 5 for 7 damage causing it to stop moving.
Perrol strikes again at the same zombie and kills it.

Segment 12
Half-move to join the three guardsmen who have been unsuccessfully facing two zombies.
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 12 for max damage, completely destroying my target
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 4 and miss
Perrol strikes out but doesn’t fell his opponent. I see Kross fire out over the walls and assume that he is firing at the outside troll. Ghoral whacks the troll and kills it, again. The guardsmen other than those near me appear to be effective. In fact, one of those near me is clawed pretty badly by the remaining zombie in front of us.

Segment 3
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 4 and miss.

Segment 6
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 8 for 8 damage and he is gone.
Four more zombies get chucked over the wall.

Segment 8
Kross continues firing over our heads. I hear a “Woohoo!” from him and would assume that the troll is now dead. My comrades and the guardsmen take care of the rest of the undead in the courtyard. There are still perhaps four outside the walls, but they are unable to get inside the walls.

End Combat

Kross calls for Ghoral to join him on the wall to scout for returning undead. Jarlyn goes around healing the two guardsmen who are still alive, three didn’t make it. Then he comes over and heals me. As Jarlyn is praying over me, the lord comes in fully armored with sword drawn. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a flash of green around Ghoral accompanied by a stinging noise. Perrol yells out that Ghoral has been hit and to get him down. Going to tackle Ghoral, Kross is narrowly missed by another green bolt.

We pass a very uneasy night. As day breaks we notice that around a quarter of the occupants of the camps have deserted. Generally we spend all day resting and digging down to the big bad. Personally, I spend most of the day cutting and carving one of my arrow shafts into two segments for use in my Archer’s Bane Spell. I can make three segments per normal arrow shaft, but I failed my Talacoriom on the first of the three segments.

As dusk falls, Ghoral, Perrol and myself are up on the walls and see a fire arrow shoot straight up in the air far out to see. The guardsman who sees this says, “Hot Damn!” and runs off. Perrol passes on to us that he heard that guardsman say to his superior that the signal for the supply ship has been seen.

Perrol yells that all of the trolls are dead. Scanning the wreckage of the enemy encampments, I see an orc from one of the camps come and check on a troll. He makes a beckoning gesture at his fellows. Apparently Jarlyn sees what I see and then yells back to Perrol that at least one troll is likely still alive no matter what he thinks he saw. Kross starts firing again, hitting the head multiple times. After a while, he has done enough damage that it is certainly dead, part of its head has caved in. Those investigating it scattered as the arrows started to fall. Kross then starts shooting the siege engines and towers.

We consider ourselves finished with the enemy for the moment and turn to digging through to the bad/evil below the chapel. At night, we retire with Jarlyn who can detect evil, Perrol who sees magic, and Ghoral with his night vision as a rotating watch. Suddenly, I’m woken from a sleep by a guardsman pounding on the door. Given that I sleep in my armor and near my weapons, it is fairly quick for me to get prepared and out the door. I see that there are enemies in the courtyard below. I’m told that they are being tossed over the wall by undead trolls.

Segment 12
I jump over the wall and swoop down like a valkyrie into the courtyard. No one else joins me at the moment, but I see arrows flying from those above over the wall and to the outside. More undead goblins and orcs are tossed over the wall. Guardsmen start streaming out of the barracks and then recoiling at the undead.

Segment 3
I finish my landing right next to an undead orc.
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 12 in the stomach for 4 damage
Attack=Orushidaila (botch saved by 2 hero points) causing me to miss
I see a torch fly over the wall toward the exterior. Also, I feel a wave of holy magic and assume it emanated from Jarlyn.

Segment 6
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 12 in shoulder for 5 damage
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 9 in the shoulder for 3 damage but mostly bounces off

Segment 9
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 4 in the chest for 3 damage
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 13 in the shoulder for 12(max) damage and it crumples to the ground.

Segment 12
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 8 in the thighs for 7 cutting off one leg and causing him to fall to the ground but he is still capable of attacking
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 6 in the chest for 6
The undead on the ground strikes out and manages to hit me. However, the one standing in front of my takes a massive strike at my chest dazing me and knocking me silly.

post segment 12 recovery I’m at 4 Stun, 7 Body, and 26 Endurance

We are starting down this tunnel in the side of the cliff face. It is dark as shit and I’m checking for traps even though I can see nothing. We hear eating and eventually smell old blood. Ghoral reports that he has reached the corner. Then Perrol says that it knows we are here.

Segment 12
I hold for the moment. Perrol’s light comes on. I cannot see around the bend that Ghoral is peeking around. He appears rather entranced. With a scowling look, Ghoral turns to me, screaming at the orcs, and raises his weapon at me.
Dodge=Thasori

APRIL FOOLS!!

Ghoral looks around the corner. He tells me that there are eight orcs around the corner, completely in the dark. Sometimes it is irritating that I cannot see without light. Perrol strikes a light behind me.

Segment 12
I hold for the moment, but do take the time to as Ghoral how far away they are. He responds back that they are 8m and that the tunnel widens around the bend. Ghoral moves around the bend, but I don’t hear any attack sounds. Jarlyn urges me to move, so I half move forward and end up holding next to Ghoral who apparently decided to wait to attack. Jarlyn ends up behind me. Kross fires an arrow at the back wall. It explodes and takes out five of the orcs. I move forward next to an orc sitting on the ground and prepare to attack. Ghoral moves up next to me and Perrol moves with him. Several of the orcs bring out pickaxes.

Segment 3
Attack= Orushidaila with DCV 13 for 6 in the vitals, gutting him
Attack=Orushidaila as a coup de grace on the one unconscious on the ground
Perrol takes out one who was recovering from being dazed. Ghoral moves up a bit and takes out the last conscious one.

End Combat

Unfortunately, there was a cave-in at the end of the tunnel that the orcs had been trying to dig through. Perrol, Kross, and I go up the wall to try and get more help. There is no one up in the castle who has mining experience to help. We have a dwarf, but he’s one of those weird farming dwarves. We come to realize that it would take more than 24 hours to get from the cave in to the badness under the chapel. So it turns out we don’t really need to dig or guard the tunnel in comparison to the urgency of the upcoming attack by the sieging orcs. When debating battle strategy, Perrol decides that he would like to try using his boon from the Skyfather to ask for help in this battle. Jarlyn and Perrol go up to the tallest tower to commune and ask for the Skyfather’s aid. Suddenly lightning strikes the lighthouse they are inhabiting and sheers off the top. Jarlyn stands and glows. He looks all around and points down at the chapel. A clear voice from his mouth says, “The energies that would be released if I were to interfere with that would not be beneficial.” He turns toward the besieging army. The air dries out and then gets statically charged. Lightning strikes once between the keep and the camps, another time over a magically shielded tent, a third time hit in another camp. All in all, there are seven lightning strikes throughout the goblin and orc camps, but no trolls are struck. Jarlyn then folds back down into his praying position. The enemy are in retreat, some organized and some not. It is unlikely they will be attacking anytime soon. Kross, with his superior marksmanship, starts to pick on the trolls in the enemy numbers. While they are still stunned from the lightning, he manages to kill one of them and wound another in the head. He continues to shoot the remaining troll until he falls as well.

We send Kross back up the castle walls to inform them that we want the boat. While he is away, we stash the horses our of sight. He comes back with a private from the castle and takes us to the boat. We get ourselves across the river and up the castle walls. We then haul up all of our gear. As we are taken to see the Young Lord, we relate our info from the orcs to the captain. In the room with the lord, I notice a cat that appears to be following us. Suddenly Perrol yells that there is something there, pointing to an empty spot. He also yells to grab the cat.

Segment 12
Attack=Grab for the cat with DCV 4 and miss. The cat retreats further into the room as there are too many people near the door for it to escape. Perrol swings at the empty spot and when he hits, there is a glimmer of blue sparks around where the weapon hit. Ghoral attacks with his Cat Lady’s Claw and it screeches and dissolves. It turns out that it was a ghost.
The captain and the private draw their weapons.
End Combat

We decide to check out the priest’s quarters. We find out that the priest, who is now dead, was an alarch, which is a high enough level to oversee a mid-sized city. Perrol suddenly vomits and Jarlyn appears as if he wants to fall over. It turns out that there is something highly magical and evil in the chapel.

We decide to wake up one of our captive orcs to interrogate him. Since they forgot to discuss what they wanted to ask him before he woke up, I end up guarding him while they go away and discuss it. They return. These two orcs we’ve captured are not with the large siege. They are working for Bern, apparently keeping an eye on the siege. However, they don’t know why. Even though they, in my opinion, are not a threat we will keep them with us and tied up because of the rampant hatred of orcs to which most of my party has fallen victim. Finally, it turns out that Kross and Jarlyn (for moral steadfastness) go across the river and up the wall. I’m keeping watch over the ridge for one of them to come back. Eventually, Kross stealthily climbs down the wall and swims the water. As he crosses the ground, an arrow fires from the castle wall near him. He then abandons stealth and moves toward the grasses. I see a group of about 10 orcs from the camp closest to the river head to the water to attempt a crossing. I hand signal that Kross is coming back and there is orc movement. Perrol joins me. I see the orcs mess around in the water, and quickly give up. One appears to have drowned causing the others to return to their camp. Kross joins us. We learn that there is a boat that will come to meet us at a particular landing during the low tide tomorrow morning. We set up camp for the night. I get nudged awake by Perrol who are on watch at that time. It turns out that Verne is asking quite politely for entrance to the camp, and has been granted such under the rights of parlay. It turns out that the group had been planning on taking the two captives with us to the castle. In return for his orcs, we requested that they accompany us to the castle to meet with the lord there who had expressed an interest in Bern. He refuses and gives his word as a member of the church and gentry that he is telling the truth. There is a very long discussion session, where I am the only one really voting for letting them go because the others all hate orcs. They finally end up agreeing with me. Before he leaves, his parting information is that the leader of the orc siege is SunCrag who claims to be the son of a deity. He also appears to have a human necromancer with him.

I collect 10 arrows, three of which definitely missed in battle. When I have the time to spend an hour per segment, I can get 12 rune-inscribed arrow shaft segment. The next day, we track the orcs back to their den. Kross ends up spotting someone ahead of us on the trail as we start to head to the castle. Kross and Ghoral get off their horses and attempt to sneakily get up to it. Having learned my lesson from the previous day, I stay back with the rest of the group. Those two take care of any orcs they find up there. We end up with one captive. As we continue along the path, we spot another orc most of the way up a hill. They knock him unconscious. It turns out that over the hill is the castle as well as a 400 orc siege. We take our two captives along as we take a left and make our way along this side of the ridge toward the ocean and the castle. We then debate how to get over to the castle since the siege is in the way.

We speak with Vinnie. It turns out that the slavers are highly upset and coming after us. He leaves to go hide, he’s still exiled from the city by Mr. Miggins. We sit thinking and I realize that it would take a significant force to fold us.

In the morning, we head out shortly after breakfast. We decide to purchase 2 weeks worth of rations for the trip there. Halfway to the city gates I notice a person pacing us and Perrol hears a “Good Luck to You.” It appears that Julienne is wishing us well in her surreptitious manner. It was not quite good enough as I did notice her. She peels off and we continue on our day. In a week we reach the next town we reach, Athring, and the guard inspects us. He is a bit concerned for me, I’m acting inconspicuous (as I can) in the back of the group. Perrol vouchsafes for my presence. He then asks us to wait. We pass through with no problems. We find an inn called the Brown Boar for rest. In the yard, I’m actually offered a hand off my horse. Warily, I accept, but keep a hand near a blade stashed on me. The stableboy tenses after I do and looks a bit wary himself. We end up staying the night and each having a bath, at our expense. We purchase another week of rations so that we don’t run out of food just as we arrive. We continue on our way.

One day, I see two orcs in the distance as we are riding. I signal the others and our ranged boys decide to stop and fire. I’m still a good 40m away, cannot reach them, and am on horseback. Kross starts to string his bow and one of the orcs moved.

Segment 12
Perrol strung his bow. Kross fires at them twice with an exploding arrow. Jarlyn preps his crossbow. They start to run away, so I move forward on the horse. Ghoral moves out with me, but on the other side of the line of fire.

Segment 3
Perrol fires and misses, twice.

Segment 4
I move forward again to approach the orcs. Kross fires his last exploding arrow. He also fires a regular arrow that gets one of the orcs right in the head, going straight through and felling him. As Ghoral moves forward up near my level his horse falls from three arrows. I hear/feel an arrow hit the horse and two more wiz by. My horse bucks me and runs off to the right. I glide as gracefully as a feather to the ground.

Segment 6
I look around and can see no one. I use the Thasori to dodge. Ghoral takes out the remaining orc we can see with a dagger throw.

Segment 8
Thanks to my dodge, the three shots go wild and I even see the vague direction where they are coming from.

Segment 9
I see the three orcs on either side of the orcs we’ve felled. They each have a bow. I move forward.

Segment 12
I move forward toward the archers but am still not close enough to attack. I get hit with an arrow to the shoulder and another to the head. I’m practically unconscious and dazed.

Segment 3
I recover from being dazed.

Segment 4
Kross fires and knocks down one of the archers in front of me. Jarlyn starts to charge the other group of three. They fire at him, but he manages to deflect. Abort to Thasori. The archers fire at me, one hits if barely and the other misses. I’m just standing here swaying slightly and bleeding.

Segment 6
Perrol fires at one of the two still standing in front of me and misses. Ghoral throws another dagger.

Segment 8
Kross fires at the same one Perrol recently missed and manages to hit in the legs. Two arrows shoot toward me and both miss.

Segment 9
I quaff a healing potion and then half move next to the one on the right.
Perrol fires and misses at the other one.

Segment 12
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 5 and miss

Segment 3
Perrol fires. Ghoral throws his last dagger.

Segment 4
Jarlyn and Kross fire and take out the last remaining opponent.

End Combat

I collect three arrows that missed for components for my spell. Jarlyn wanders over and heals me.

We have received our assignment from Julienne. I request of the group that we head to the market so that I can look for ingredients for my spells. I do not expect to find arrows, those I’ll have to scrounge from the battlefield and engrave with runes myself. However, I hold some hope of finding some discs of clear polished glass. As we wander the stalls, Perrol remembers that he knows just the place. He starts to head toward the shop of which he knows, located back toward the university. Suddenly, two bowmen come out of the alleys and fire, but I’m not particularly surprised.

Segment 12
Abort to Thasori
Ghoral manages to block one attack and gets hit with another. I have two arrows shot at me and they both miss. Kross jumps up the wall. Jarlyn pulps the hand of one of the archers; he screams. More archers in the distance appear and Perrol reports that they are going to aim for me. The first 2 miss and the third hits in the left arm but I just shake off the damage. Yet more bad guys run out of the alleys. We are now up to 8 archers, 6 fighters, and 2 on the roof behind us.

Segment 3
Half move one hex to be behind one melee fighter with Ghoral at my back.
Attack=Orunatiya with DCV 9 in the leg for 4 damage
Attack=Orunatiya with DCV 6 in the arm for 6 damage
Perrol moves and attacks one of them to seemingly no effect. Ghoral cuts one down. He then turns and asks, “Who’s next?” No effect.

Segment 4
I hear from above the ‘pfoom’ of one of Kross’ exploding arrows. Jarlyn moves forward and whacks ahead. The wounded archer screams and starts running blindly down the alley when we hear a crash like perhaps a trap. His screams now have a more screeching note. Perrol yells that the archers are targeting me. I abort my next move to do a Thasori. The first three miss and the third hits. Perrol signals that we should move down the alley to try and get away or at least get under cover. Jarlyn yells at Kross to look down the alley. The others also fight off their opponents; however, Kross is starting to feel some effects.

Segment 6
Ghoral and Perrol fight.

Segment 8
Kross signals that there appears to be an oil trap in the alley. Kross fires another exploding arrow at the enemy archers.

Segment 9
I move to be directly behind the guy again.
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 5 in the stomach for 3 damage
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 6 in hand for 3 damage

Segment 12
Attack=Orunatiya with DCV 7 in the arms for 3 damage.
The others take out the rest of the swordsmen who are still standing around us. They also manage to stun the enemies in front of us. Ghoral moves forward to attack them when it is possible. They seem to start to recover (they groan).

Segment 3
I hold at the moment. Ghoral beats up the downed man in front of him. Perrol also moves forward and starts to attack the downed men. I move forward to be closer next time I can go.

We take care of the rest, leaving one in the alley guarded by Jarlyn to interrogate.

End Combat

We loot the bodies while Jarlyn heals the remaining enemy and waits for him to wake up. It turns out, though interrogation, that these were multiple bands of brigands. And that they were sent out of Arn. We did not know that we were known and/or wanted as far afield as Arn. We also learn that two of the roof watcher with crossbows were not part of the known group who was hired. They were someone else.

We end up in an out of the way magic supply shop. Since I always make shopowners hostile and get bad barginds, Perrol and Jarlyn head into the shop for me. They happen to have two glass discs for a silver each. I reimburse Perrol for the cost. We head back to the inn, only to run into Vinny (formerly of Mr. Miggins organization who tried to kidnap us a while ago).

By the way, Jarlyn heals me right before bed.

I spent all day in the woods learning a spell that ‘Bob’ showed me. He would occasionally come back and check on my progress. In late afternoon he comes and informs me that the day is nearly over and I should rejoin the group. ‘Bob’ casually invites himself to join our dinner at the Inn. Perrol goes up to play for the crowd and there is a noticeable calming effect on them. Suddenly a tall, thin Ulronai man entered the Inn. He appears to be one who can take care of himself, like we all do. He has a red streak in his platinum blond hair. Nonchalantly, he heads toward me. I can see Perrol out of the corner of my eye and his curiosity is obvious overwhelming him. He fades out his song and heads our way as well. The Ulronai slows as he reaches the table and stays a decent (safe) distance away from the table once he stops. My groupmates have a rather obvious negative reaction to this Ulronai. I shouldn’t be surprised as he is Ulronai and they do not know him. I’m rather wary of him myself because I do not know him and have had little to no contact with my own people for most of my life. “Greetings,” he says rather uncertainly. I give greetings back. He politely asks to join us and Jarlyn gives his permission. Perrol sits shortly after the Ulronai slowly and methodically arranges his weapons and sits. He introduces himself as Deltarion. I tell him that I am called Glaive and give the names of each of my teammates as well. He explains that he came to town on rumors that there was an Ulronai in Tietha and looks pointedly at me. Ghoral pipes up that any friend of Glaive’s is a friend of his and reaches over to slap him on the shoulder. Deltarion starts toward his weapon at that, which causes Perrol to as well, but ‘Bob’ causes them all to calm down again. Deltarion signals for a pitcher of ale. I wish to know if there was any reason why Deltarion felt the need to track down the Ulronai in the rumor as it seemed a bit farfetched. I respond that I lost my family long ago. He wants to know what my family name is and I respond with Panah. He doesn’t recognize the name. In fact, he confides that usually when he follows down the rumor of Ulronai, he doesn’t actually find one. As the awkwardness doesn’t seem to abate, Perrol chimes in with the fact that he has heard of our guest. Deltarion seems rather wary at first, but relaxes when Perrol says that he heard of his master. It comes out that the master is starting to get quite old and has actually gifted this blade to Deltarion. Perrol asks if it is Vashturi and is responded to in affirmative. I notice that there are three Ulronai runes on the handle of the blade: strength, valor, power. He asks if we would like to see the blade and he shows it to us rather surreptitiously. Perrol then recites the tale of Vashturi upon prompting by Deltarion. After some more conversation, he starts to take his leave. He mentions that it is good to see an Ulronai in mixed company doing good. I say that it was not an easy road to get here, but that he is welcome to seek me out again. He leaves.

After two more days in the evening there is a message waiting for us when we return to the Inn. It is Julienne who wants to see us the next morning, hopefully with information on our orc hunt. She tells us that the scouts sent after the covert ops force that replaced us with the Grand High Marshall have not returned or contacted her. She would like us to follow after them in the area where orcs and goblins are causing trouble. We agree.

We manage to sell and divide the proceeds of all of our loot. There is an exception to that in a silvered sword and a holy implement belonging to the temple of Salea, the moon goddess. Jarlyn has remembered that they belong to Salea and prompts us to take it to the temple. At first they did not want to let us enter because of our demographics, but Jarlyn was able to get us in. He gets a boon in exchange for turning in those two items.

We debate what to do next, and decide to go chasing after orcs. However, we will be waiting in Tietha for two days. I plan on studying the Talacoriom with ‘Bob’. Before I can head out for that, we head back to the inn where we find Mr. Miggins waiting for us. Considering that he has gone through a pitcher and a half of ale, he is well on his way to tipsy and smiling at us. I accompany those who want to go over to the corner that Mr. Miggins is occupying. He orders two more pitchers when he sees us approaching. He comments that it was the best money he ever spent and plunks down a bag of money on the table. This is our reward for killing the member of the Red Talons that we fought in the gnome city. We continue sitting at the table with Mr. Miggins having a few ales. Over the course of the evening he tells us that we should stay away from Gnorm’s shop because it will be destroyed. He gets increasingly tipsy and eventually buys a round for the entire tavern. Eventually, two large, brawny guys come in to fetch Mr. Miggins. He agrees to leave after one more pitcher and they head back out content to know that he is not causing trouble nor is he in trouble. He then gets up and weaves through the room to get outside after that last pitcher. We wind up the night, although Perrol continues singing until last call.

The next day we head out to ‘Bob’ and ‘Chad’s place so that I can study some more magic with ‘Bob’ and the others just kind of tagged along. When we arrive ‘Bob’ is sitting on top of the wall and wants to know why we’ve come. I say that I would like to study more magic and he invites us into the yard. He then falls backward into the yard. We go through the gate and start to follow him back to the area near the stables where we always meet them. Jarlyn feels honor bound to warn ‘Chad’ through ‘Bob’ that the shop will be destroyed. He looks thoughtful for a moment. Then he decides to tell me to go into the woods and start my meditation exercises for the magic.