A Bear on the StairsA Bear on the Stairs |
As the four sat in the inn recovering, Goodwife Crandoc eyed them dubiously. They'd stood off the attack but showed no signs of rushing off to perform a heroic rescue of her kinfolk from Crandoc's farm. Indeed, the sorceress Lothalla leaned her chin wearily on one hand and announced she needed to go to sleep!
Mikael, her teenage son, became almost hysterical at this point, demanding what the warriors were going to do - why weren't they already heading north? Lotheemas made things worse by semi-seriously suggesting the boy come with them in the morning, nearly getting himself beaned by the lad's mother when the youth leaped at the idea and started looking for a sword. Galacaeien's attempt to make guarding his relatives didn't help much either, and finally the dwarf lost patience and yelled at the boy to shut up.
Lothalla suggested sending her familiar to scout, ready for the next morning, and soon the owl was winging silently across the snowy fields towards Crandoc's farm.
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Finding the farm was simplicity itself; a hundred-foot column of black smoke from the burning barn pointed the way like a finger of wrath. On arrival, the owl settled quietly on the piggery and eyed the place carefully.
The farm consisted of four buildings, set around a central farm-yard. The barn was burning, almost three-quarters gone now; the stables appeared quiet and closed, and the farmhouse seemed occupied, going by the occasional movements at the windows. The piggery he sat on was empty, and the reason was in the centre of the farmyard.
Heaped up any old how was a blood-soaked heap of meat; the remains of the all farm's livestock, slaughtered, hacked up and cast into a rough mound. Finton was unable to tell if any of the remains were human, but didn't think so.
As Lothalla described this, Neidric nodded. He'd seen this sort of thing before, in the snowy Erean mountains that were his home. Faced with an oversupply of fresh meat, orcs would make a heap of it and leave it out overnight to freeze, then bash it into chunks for easier transportation.
The picture was completed when an orc, slightly unsteady on its' feet, appeared at the farmhouse door, pegged a bottle into the snow, and stumbled back inside.
Lothalla went off to rest and recover her magical strength, while Neidric went to find the village milita leader Cherm. All the volunteer militiamen had died in the morning's fighting, and the pair had to round up farmers and shopkeepers to stand on the walls while the party was away.
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Lotheemas visited the silversmith Saypon to commission a particular piece, returning with a beautifully carved silver belt buckle in the shape of a charging bear, which he presented to Neidric. As they returned to the tavern, they passed Galaecien, who was writing a battle-song to demoralize the orcs. Neidric was able to furnish the orcish word for 'bear' - Arau - which the bard worked into her composition.
In the pale pre-dawn light, the four adventurers eyed the back of Crandoc's farmhouse. Smouldering embers were all that remained of the barn, but occasional noises and movements confirmed that orcs still remained in the main building. At one point, a teenaged girl, naked.and bloodied, stumbled out of the front door and attempted to escape, only to be caught and dragged back by laughing orcs. Galaecien looked at the others. "Remember," she said gravely, "our objective here is not to rescue hostages, but to kill orcs."
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Following the plan they'd worked out the previous evening, Lothalla cast a Summoning for two huge, rangy hounds, while Lotheemas conjured up four celestial bears, hoping that tales of the previous day's defeat would magnify their effect. Neidric's bear Mizani was among them, and she greeted the dwarf warrior affectionately, nudging him up onto her back with a furry muzzle. More spells of protection and enhancement were cast, and then the attack began.
Two bears and two dogs were sent around to the front of the farmhouse, while Neidric led two bears and a dog to the back door. The door was rather too small for bears, but the wooden walls were no match for half a ton of bear and the strike force moved inside through an aperture not unlike the world's biggest mouse-hole as Galaecien's strong, clear voice rose in the battle-song she'd prepared.
Inside the back door was a store-room and Neidric found himself blessing his short stature as he dodged dangling hams and onions. Two orcs with spears were waiting for him, and he set to work with his greataxe, decapitating one immediately. Galaecien, following the bears, glanced up the wooden stairs leading to the upper floor, then cast a Hypnotic Pattern spell to strike at the top of the flight. Her arm caught on the rough wooden wall, however, and the spell failed.
Mizani the bear lurched sideways as the orc's spear drove into her belly, and Neidric's strike flailed. Lothalla held back, waiting to see what developed, but Lotheemas had followed Galaecien into the area just inside the door and both spotted the orc who reached the top of the flight and started down. Galaecien threw a knife at it and missed, but Lotheemas speared it with a Searing Light spell. Half-blinded, the orc missed his step and tumbled down the stairs. As it fell Lothalla blasted it with Magic Missiles, and when it crashed to the floor at Galaecien's feet it was stunned enough to stay there for a while.
Recovering, Neidric smashed the second orc to the floor dying, and turned his bear to look for new foes. Two more orcs had appeared at the top of the stairs, an archer and a warrior, and Lotheemas and Galaecien concentrated on the archer as the axeman started down. Lotheemas blasted the archer with his trademark Searing Light, while Galaecien sent an Unseen Servant up the stairs with orders to quietly steal all the archer's arrows. Behind them, Lothalla cast a spell on the descending axe-orc and it went instantly to sleep between one step and the next. Bowling down the stairs, it landed with a crunch right on top of the stunned one already there, fatally crushing it.
Neidric eyed the stairs for a moment. Mizani could probably shove her way up them, but the damage to the house might bring the whole lot down on everyone's head. Instead, he headed through the ground floor, smashing into the main living room at the front of the building to discover four more orcs waiting for him. As he passed the front door, he heard the distinctive thrum of arrow-fire, and saw to his horror that all the summoned animals they'd sent around the front had been shot down outside the front of the building. Growling, he plunged back into the fray. Galaecien glanced past him, wondering whether to risk a thrown knife past the bear but thought it not safe and shifted to her spear instead, as Lotheemas summoned another bear into the main room behind the four orcs. Lothalla, still at the bottom of the stairs and now left alone to face an orc-archer (and, by the footsteps, more orcs approaching from the upper room), winced as an arrow glanced off the invisible shield of her Mage Armour and riposted with a Web spell. The huge mass of sticky webbing erupted into being at the top of the stairs, completely enveloping the archer, and, restricted by the walls of the building, was forced into the bedroom beyond. By the yells and curses the remaining orcs had become entangled as well. As the mass settled, Lothalla grinned as she saw the arrows from the helpless archer's quiver quietly lift up and out as the Unseen Servant carried out its' orders.
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Lotheemas cast a Blindness past the mass of the fighting bears, and an orc dropped its' battleaxe and began to stumble around yelling in shock. Galaecien siezed the moment to slug down a potion of Shield of Faith before leaping forward with her spear. Lothalla dipped to slash the throat out of the sleeping orc before hurrying through to the front of the house to see what had happened to the bears there. Meanwhile, Neidric was slashing and tearing his way across the farmhouse, which was rapidly being transformed into a ruin. As he did so, Lotheemas Blinded another orc, and Galaecien joined him, jabbing with her spear at the orcs ahead of her. Then an orc struck home with its' axe, shattering the bones of Neidric's right arm and sending his axe spinning away.
At the front door, Lothalla had discovered the source of the bowfire. Five orc-archers were drawn up in a loose rank at the far side of the farmyard, having apparently emerged from the stables. Behind them, five more axe-orcs were being ranted at by a bigger orc of wild mien, covered in tattoos and scars and clutching a spear as thick as a knockwurst. Lothalla lobbed a Fireball at the archers and ducked back inside to relay the bad news that this wasn't going to be as easy as they'd hoped. As she did so, a volley of arrows whipped across the snowy farmyard and she dropped, shot in the leg.
Gritting his teeth against the agony, Neidric gripped Mizani with his legs and swung down to reach the floor, grabbing a fallen battleaxe with his left hand. Swinging it up as a continuation of his movement, he struck up between the legs of an onrushing orc, catapulting it backwards across the room in a shower of entrails as the dwarf settled back onto Mizani's back. Beyond, a scream announced that the newly-summoned bear had despatched one of the blinded orcs, the last in the ground floor.
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Galaecien had heard Lothalla's cry as she was shot, and dashed to the front door to investigate. Finding the felled sorceress, she healed her with magic and helped her back to the main room, raising her taunting song once more. Meanwhile, Lotheemas had healed Neidric's arm and he'd retrieved his own axe, shoving the battleaxe through his belt for future use; not a bad weapon, definitely not orc-make. All four hurried to the front windows of the house, to see the orc-archers drawing for another volley. Behind them, Thorach the orc barbarian was foaming and screaming, howling challenges at the farmhouse, and all four immediately marked him as the greatest threat.
Lotheemas sent the newest bear off to run right around the farm on the outside to attack the orcs from the back, while Neidric loosed a crossbow bolt at Thorach as Galaecien hurled a knife, and both weapons glanced off his head. Must be solid bone, thought Galaecien disgustedly as a Fireball blossomed around him, incinerating several orcs but simply making Thorach angrier. Then Lotheemas' trademark Searing Light lashed across him and he snapped. "Charge!" he screamed, and the orcs burst into a run at the farmhouse. Lothalla, back on her feet, caught three with another Web, but her luck ran out as she tried to duck back to cover and an arrow smacked into her face. Dropping heavily to the windowsill, she slid off onto the floor, mortally wounded. A moment later, two more arrows tore into Lotheemas, leaving the brave priest sprawled on the farmhouse floor, also dying. Then the orcs reached the farmhouse, two charging in through the open front door, the rest massing outside the front windows - one now completely without defenders. All hope seemed lost.
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Then Galaecien, leaving Neidric to defend the window they had been standing at, hurled herself across the room to slide prone to Lotheemas' side, disregarding the orcs that were pouring through the unguarded window. She had already cast all her spells, but her need to heal the priest was overwhelming; Galaecien's new committment to the Peloric faith would not accept the death of this man. Reaching deep into her soul, she dug deep for the strength to cast one last healing spell. The magic flowed and the priest's wounds healed, and as they did so Galaecien screamed, feeling a terrible tearing as part of her own life essence burned to power the magic.
At the other window, Neidric held the line alone. Opposite him, Thorach the barbarian shoved his way through the lesser orcs, raising his dreadful spear to strike, disdaining to defend himself. Neidric braced himself as the orc leader surged up onto the windowsill, then struck savagely, almost completely severing the barbarian's leg. With a howl of rage, Thorach toppled sideways and backwards, out of the window and onto the ground outside. This sudden and total defeat of their mighty leader was a fatal blow to the morale of the orcs with him, and they turned and fled, passing the bear - who had run right around the farm, found no foes, and charged back across the farmyard to reach the farmhouse. Reaching the wall, the bear trod fatally on Thorach the Barbarian before evaporating as the summoning expired.
Restored to life at the brink of death, Lotheemas lurched to his feet and over to Lothalla, clapping his hands onto the sorceress' head to likewise heal her on the edge of oblivion. Behind her, Galaecien fought the orcs who'd come in through the window with her spear, outnumbered but holding her own. Neidric whirled from his own empty window to tackle the two orcs who'd entered through the front door, axe flashing, as Lothalla, restored to life, delivered a third Web to glue the orcs attacking Galaecien to the wall behind them. This cost her a slashed arm from one of the survivors and she backed away, attempting a Sleep spell on it that it shrugged off snarling. She wasn't quick enough, though, and a battleaxe clipped her just-healed head, splitting it again. Shaking his own head, Lotheemas healed her again as Neidric struck right and left to drop the last two orcs - and the battle was over.
Session Date: 21st Feb 2012