The Siege of RedcliffThe Siege of RedcliffDawn was just breaking on what promised to be a cold clear day, and Galacaeien, Neidric, Twenty Ocloth, Lothalla and Lotheemas were asleep in Marnor's tavern, having stayed over after a late meeting with The Economics of Redcliff. All were suddenly jerked awake by the sound of someone hammering on the door. Grabbing whatever each felt they needed, they leaped down the stairs to find Marnor in the common room talking to Danath, one of the village's few militamen, while three women and a youth, all wet to the hips, stood numbly behind him.
"Goodwife Crandoc!" cried Marnor, going to her. "What're you doing here?" The woman fell into his arms, exhausted and hysterical. He looked over her shoulder at the party. "This is Goody Crandoc from Crandoc's farm, that's her son Mikal. These are Mal and Lani from Bellingar's. All from the north." Galacaeien could see that they weren't going to get any sense out of Goody Crandoc as she was, and hummed a few bars of a soothing song. Both girls burst into tears, the boy sat down in a chair and Goodwife Crandoc drew a deep breath and began to speak.
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"Hordes of orcs! Hordes! They appeared before our eyes, by magic, middle of the day! They killed anyone who resisted...." she trailed off sobbing. "All the people and livestock from the farms around were herded into ours. We managed to hide in the smoke-house, then slipped away to go for help. Please, you, you must help us! We need heroes...."
 DM Note: For a moment there, Steve nearly sent his owl dramatically up within the tavern. Could have been nasty... |
Neidric the dwarf hefted his axe. "Orcs to fight! A task for us in truth!" he declared. As if cued by this statement, the sound of joined battle drifted to their ears. It seemed to come from the other side of the inn, towards the east, where Churchgate lay. The heroes of Redcliff exchanged a startled glance, then snatched up their weapons and dashed out of the inn. As she ran, the sorceress Lothalla sent her owl Finton into the sky with instructions to reconnoitre, where he was joined by Twenty Ocloth's Gothmog.
Images tumbled through the two sorcerers' heads; two of the village milita stood on the wooden gate, desperately defending themselves against half a dozen burly humanoids weilding battleaxes - orcs, but oddly enough clad in uniformly white clothing, including a white sheet each by the way of a cloak; clearly they had used camouflage to sneak up to the wall. Back to back, Sevielic and Legred fought with their guisarmes, hopelessly outnumbered by the powerful orcs. Lothalla yelled directions, and the party set off to their rescue, Galacaeien's voice already raised in a martial war-chant that thrummed in their blood and stiffened their thews. Lothalla and Twenty Ocloth wove protective magic as they ran.
Sprinting out of the village, they came into sight of the gate just in time to see an axe cleave the unfortunate Legred's helm to the teeth, sending him toppling off the catwalk to crunch into the snow below. Sevielic backed against an upright beam as he struggled to stay alive.
Neidric levelled his crossbow and released a quarrel, grunting in annoyed surprise as it glanced of boiled hide armour under the orc's white camouflage. He slung the weapon and started running for the gate. The same happened to Twenty Ocloth's thrown spear, but Galacaeien's hurled knife vibrated in the wooden palisade next to the startled militiaman's ear instead. Lothalla chose magic instead and her swarm of Magic Missiles punched into an orc, spinning him around to drop dead into the bloody snow near to Legred. Lotheemas called on Pelor's power and summoned an ally - a black bear, touched by the celestial power of his lord. Neidric nearly fainted as half a ton of glowing ursine suddenly appeared from nowhere right next to him, running towards the gate. Recovering himself, and realizing that a running bear could cover a hell of a lot more ground than a short, heavily-armoured dwarf slogging through the snow, he grabbed the creature's coat and swung himself up and onto its' back.
| DM Note: The poor Geoffs were really unlucky here; each took massive wounds to the head before the party could rescue them. Whoops. |
Behind him, Lothalla followed suit and summoned an eagle which she hurled into the fray. Twenty Ocloth cast another Greater Mage Armour while Lotheemas followed up with a Searing Light. This didn't wreak quite the havoc on orcs that it did on Penanggalan vampires, but it left the target scorched and trailing smoke as he fought. Neidric and the bear crashed into the gate tower and started up the steps, the bear agilely climbing the wood with its' great claws as the dwarf readied his greataxe. A scream came from above as the second of the militamen was neatly beheaded by an orc-axe.
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Her inspiring song ended, Galacaeien cast a spell, creating a whirling Hypnotic Pattern in the air amidst the orcs. Eyes turned to look at it, and four of the orcs came to a halt staring in dumb fascination. Things could have gone badly as the party also felt the draw of the mesmeric magic but all managed to throw it off. Lothalla battered another orc with Magic Missiles, but Twenty Ocloth's slung stone failed to penetrate the armour of his target as Lotheemas repeated his Searing Light to rather better effect.
Then Neidric, still mounted on the bear, exploded out of the tower onto the catwalk above the gate and plunged into the group of orcs. His first mighty blow beheaded an orc, and his backstroke sent another reeling back clutching the stump of an arm, before slashing another's leg out from under him and sending him plunging to his death off the catwalk.
Only three remained; one went down with Galacaeien's knife in his eye, while Lotheemas roasted another with his last Searing Light. The last survivor was still hopelessly enthralled by the Hypnotic Pattern, so it was a terrible shock to him when a swipe of a bear's massive paw pinned him to the catwalk. The dwarf vaulted down to rest his axe on the orc's neck. and the battle was over.
The others joined Neidric at the top of the wall as the bear vanished back to wherever it had come from. Lotheemas paused to check the two militiamen but there was nothing he could do for them. He joined them as Neidric finished securing their prisoner and Galacaeien Suggested that he co-operate very fully with their questioning. His name was Adrn, and he confirmed he was part of an organized attack on their village, led by someone he named as Zorc. Unfortunately, co-operative as he was, his mathematics was not up to totting up the number of orcs in the band.
At that moment, Galacaeien's keen ears picked up a renewed sound of strife coming from across the village. The familiars reported back that fighting had broken out in a similar fashion at three more of the town's gates. Southgate was the nearest, and - pausing only to slay the orc prisoner - the party set off at a run along the wall towards it, their numbers swelled as Twenty Ocloth cast a Mirror Image to create two duplicates of his ratty self as he ran along. As they closed, Neidric loosed another crossbow bolt with an equal lack of effect and Lothalla sent another Magic Missile to bombard the nearest orc. Twenty Ocloth was just about to loose a Fireball when it struck him that the whole palisade and gate were made of wood.... Then with a rush they were among the foe, even those who would perhaps not have chosen to be, caught up by the moment.
Galacaeien's spear skewered an orc as she charged in, but the foe were ready for them this time, and blades drew blood from Lothalla, Twenty Ocloth, Neidric and Galacaeien almost immediately. Lothalla was badly hurt, and tried to dodge back out of combat but an orc-axe slashed her leg and she sprawled helplessly. The ratman flung a spear without success, cursing. Lotheemas cast another Summoning, and a moment later the same celestial bear was back on the ramparts wearing a slightly bewildered expression. Neidric Bear-Rider scrambled gleefully astride it, unslinging his axe and wiping the blood from his eyes. As he charged past Galacaeien, the bard cast a healing spell to ease his wounds.
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Lotheemas did the same for Lothalla, allowing the sorceress to scramble free of the battle and retreat to a safe distance for spellcasting. Neidric and his bear started to smash through the orcs, but these were made of sterner stuff and the dwarf's blood was soon flowing again. Twenty Ocloth stabbed at an orc with his spear, but the brute ducked under the point and smashed the blade of his axe into the side of the ratman's head. The sorcerer slumped to the ground, dying, but Lothalla cast a Hypnotism on his foe, bringing him to a dazed halt with his axe raised to snuff out the slitheren's life. Galacaeien and Neidric both took more wounds as they fought on, and they began to wonder if they were going to survive this.
Disregarding the danger of casting spells in the midst of a bloody melee, Lotheemas crouched next to the mortally wounded Twenty Ocloth and healed his dreadful wounds. Lothalla cast another Hypnotism to try and disable the orc charging at the priest, but it failed to take hold and a solid strike with a battleaxe rocked the clerc as he finished his spell. Then Galacaeien changed tack, leaning in close to the orc she was fighting to cast an Inflict Moderate Wounds spell on it. The magic tore through the orc, staggering it so that it lost its' footing on the catwalk and tumbled off, falling to the snow beneath where it was set upon by villagers and beaten to death with domestic implements.
Inspired by this, Lotheemas followed suit, his far more powerful spell blasting his orc backwards off its' feet, dead as a stone before it hit the parapet and toppled over. This broke the nerve of the three orc reinforcements who were approaching the gate from outside, and they turned and fled.
Looking around, the heroes saw that the townsfolk had also triumphed at the other gates, though Bridgegate seemed to be burning. Retrieving their dropped weapons, the party retired to the Slaughtered Tankard to heal up and recuperate. Although Goodwife Crandoc was relieved to hear that the town had been successfully defended, she was clearly anxious about her kin and neighbours, captured by the raiders in their approach from the north.
A rescue was definitely in order...
Session Date: 30th Jan 2012