Picking up the action where we left off last week; Marcus Cabot, Norfindel, Henry FitzArnulf, and Roscoe Thorngage had, after destroying a few Draconians in the ruins of the Inn of the Last Home, slipped out the back door to find themselves surrounded by dozens of orcs and goblins and draconians. They were arrested and hauled to the center of what remained of Solace and locked in a big cage on the back of a wagon.
Up on the mountainside Lorena Whiteswan, Magnus Blackburn, and Goldmoon lie moaning in pain under the ever watchful eye of Riverwind. Lorena (through a fog of pain) spotted a patrol of Draconians headed their way. When she reported this to the others both Riverwind and Magnus (drastically failing stealth rolls) stood up to look around shouting “WHERE!?” The group was surrounded and also captured. They were roughly hauled down to solace and imprisoned in the same cage as their compatriots.
After a day of hanging out in the cages a caravan was finally organized and head out towards Pax Tharkas. After a couple days the caravan was traveling near the Qualenesti wood when the caravan guards started dropping like flies – felled by Elvish Arrows!
So… we started with everyone (well all the player characters, plus Goldmoon and Riverwind, and Tike Waylan and Gilthanas – two additional NPCs picked up along the way) in one of the cages and unarmed – but with the locks just busted off by a Gully Dwarf slave (who wanted to sticki it to his soon-to-be former master – before scarpering off into the underbrush). I focused the encounter on just the area around the wagons – there would have been dozens more Orcs and Draconians on either side, but we assumed they would be kept busy by additional ambushing Elves. So on the table I have 7 Elf Rangers, 8 Kapack Draconians (the ones that melt into a pool of acid upon dying) 13 Orc warriors with either sword and shield or great axes, and 7 orc archers….
The Caravan rolls along what remains of the old road leading to Pax Tharkas
When the ambush was spring the Elves got to take one shot with the drop – and they dropped six foes right then and there.
On the Orcs first move they rushed the ambushers, not yet aware that the Gully Dwarf had broken the locks on our heroes cage…
Part of The Gang. From left to right: Christian who plays Henry FitzArnulf, Amanda who plays Lorena Whiteswan, Curtis who plays Magnus Blackburn, and Patrick who plays Roscoe Thorngage.
Also present (but not in any pictures) were Jackson who plays Marcus Cabot, Dave who plays Norfindel, and Rick who has been playing Riverwind since Curly plummeted to his doom off a subterranean waterfall…
When our heroes finally went (Gilthanas was blocking the door out) Gilthanas in one deft (multi-action) move leapt out, picked up a sword from a wounded orc and cut down another!
The rest blundered out scrambling to pick up weapons from injured foes…
Fighting other orcs, or trying to free the other prisoners…
The ambushing Elves.
In the end most of the orcs and Draconians in the center were slain and the remaining ones on the flanks (not on the table) fled! The Elves were dealt a serious blow – three of the seven on the table here were killed in action (by naughty orcs delivering killing blows!) one was seriously injured and another was lightly wounded.
In the melee Riverwind was seriously injured, but Norfindel was able to path him up pretty good afterwards.
Tika the barmaid was the champion of the day taking down at least four Orcs (I can’t say “singlehandedly” because at least two of them had been previously shaken by Roscoe!?).
After freeing the rest of the prisoners and recovering their personal effects the lot of them scarpered into the Qualinesti woods with the Elves…
Huzzah!
4 comments:
Tika is the man! Or maybe Tika IS a man. It would explain why she is in no hurry to be poked and pinched, unlike any decent serving wench, and it would also explain her suspiciously deep singing voice, as well as her burly forearms, from "years of slinging drinks, doncha know". It also explains Roscoe's attraction to her...
Perhaps Henry FitzArnulf's questioning of Tika's gender reflects an inner turmoil in his own character. Is there perhaps a Henrietta trying to bust out of Henry's acid-etched armor? Watching the good knight bash away unsuccessfully at a couple of locks all night, and his subsequent failure to rescue a few prisoners, makes one wonder at whether he should consider trading in his weapons for a frying pan and a frilly frock in future encounters.
Actually what I think he always wanted to be was a lumberjack...
Well, he does have a fondness for angora...
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