← Previous Session: Session 009: Proffer from a Necromancer

14 Tarsakh 1471, (Day 19)

Late Afternoon

The Lost Hills

• Having traveled a full day since leaving The Old Owl Well, The Party arrives at the location indicated on Hamund Kost’s hand-drawn map where he suspected the orc raiding party was bivouacked
  • The location is north and west of Wyvern Tor, which is clearly visible for tens of miles in every direction, jutting hundreds of feet out of the mountain, like a giant stone finger
  • Vala Silverton succeeds on an Investigation check, finding what she believes may be orc tracks of an unknown strength

Sword Mountain Foothills

• The Party follows the tracks, leaving the Lost Hills and entering the foothills of The Sword Mountains
  • The Party leaves the Slûûp, Meilu, and the horse cart in a hidden area at the base of the mountains
  • The Party finds a serene area with several trees and natural berms slowly ascending to steep, sheer cliffs
  • A large cave mouth opens at the east end of the cliffs, partially obscured by 2 very large downed trees
  • Vala Silverton succeeds on a Perception check, noticing a small area on the cliff face, approximately 50ft up, that has some slight color differences with the rest of the cliff face
    • She detects no magic originating in the immediate area
• Orthanc, Persi, and ’Rig’ stand in the open, having a loud conversation about how to deal with the orcs for whom they are searching, while Vala Silverton ducks behind a 3 ft tall dirt berm
  • ’Rig’ discusses trying to parlay with the orcs to see if The Party can convince them to attack Hamund Kost and his undead horde at The Old Owl Well.
  • Vala Silverton sends Miss Tra into the sky to scout their location
    • Looking through Miss Tra’s eye, Vala Silverton sees a rapid blur flying ever her shoulder, but cannot discern its make or trajectory
• The Partyhears a loud war horn blaring from the entire base of the mountain that is in their path
  • A loud, booming voice, originating from the mountain face, asks why they are trespassing on land belonging to “The Kingdom of Many-Arrows”
  • The speaker identifies himself as Brughor Axe-Biter and asks if The Party has come to pay tribute to the king of Many-Arrows
  • Brughor tells The Party that the king oversees his lands in Many-Arrows and that Brughor has claimed this territory in the name of the king
  • The Party attempts several impromptu conversations with Brughor
    • Asking if he and his men are interested in eating undead flesh
    • Trying to challenge Brughor’s constitution and fortitude by daring him to eat undead flesh
    • Asking Brughor to help besiege Hamund Kost and his undead horde
  • Brughor is rather perturbed that The Party came to him, on his land, without tribute and then asked for help
    • The Party turns out their pockets, creating a fairly pitiful pile of loot on the ground at their feet
    • Orthanc then announces himself and declares his tribute is that he had not yet killed half of Brughor’s men
    • Brughor is unimpressed by the “pitiful tribute and the pitiful challenge”

[Begin Combat]

• Persi takes advantage of the confusion of the situation to steal Vala Silverton’s Potion of Invisibility from the top of the pile and quaff it before anyone notices
• Orthanc immediately takes an arrow to the shoulder from an unknown location
• Vala Silverton moves into some trees at the base of the mountain to cover from possible overhead attacks
  • The Party does not know where the enemies will be coming from, so Vala Silverton prepares to cast Chromatic Orb at the first enemy she sees
  • Miss Tra scouts the mountain range, finding no enemies, so The Party assumes the attacks are coming from the discolored area of the cliffs

Wyvern Tor

• While invisible, Persi deftly uses his feline agility to move 160 ft up a sheer cliff face to find that the discolored area was actually an expertly crafted blind
  • He easily sneaks past the Orc Scout, who’s drawing a bead for his next attack, and succeeds on an Unarmed Strike, pushing the archer from the perch, 50 ft in the air
  • The archer lands on sharp rocks blow, badly blooding him, and making him visible to Vala Silverton
  • Vala Silverton rapidly casts Chromatic Orb, immolating the archer seconds after he hits the ground
• ’Rig’ begins climbing the cliff face, heading up to the blind, and makes it approximately half way
• Persi’s extensive monk training saves him from a javelin thrown at his side, just before it hit him, he catches it and snaps off the spearhead
• Orthanc moves into the copse of trees where The Party began ascending the cliff face and drinks a potion of invisibility
• Suddenly, a raging, roaring Ogre blasts through the makeshift tree barricade at the mouth of the cave
  • It picks up one of the 25 ft trees and hurls it directly at Vala Silverton
  • 10 ft away from Vala Silverton, the tree explodes into shards, as if it hit an invisible boulder
  • Unfortunately the invisible boulder is named Orthanc, and long shards of splintered wood bury deep into his side
    • Orthanc begins to fall to the ground, but finds some deep Barbarian rage from within himself to push himself up and stay on his feet
  • Luckily for Vala Silverton, only a few smaller shards make it past Orthanc and she takes relatively minor damage
  • The Ogre sees the injured Orthanc and exclaims “Gorg has never eaten one of THESE before!”
• While Persi’s back is turned, looking out of the cliff blind, an Orc Raider sneaks up behind him
  • The Raider hits Persi in the back of the neck with the business end of a Mancatcher, doing little damage but trying to clamp the collar around Persi’s neck
  • Persi succeeds on a contested check, using his cat claws to quickly spring the collar before it can lock around his neck
• A large figure circles behind Persi and screams “Now you will feel the wrath of the Axe-Biter!”
  • Brughor is an extremely large orc, 6.5 feet tall and ~300 lbs, wearing fine scale mail and a tabard with an unusual symbol emblazed on it, and carrying a massive Great Axe
  • Brughor is missing ½ of his lower jaw, which is taken up by the broken head of a throwing axe
• Persi Unarmed Strikes and drives Brughor back, then advances for a second attack
  • While moving toward Brughor, the Orc Raider takes the opportunity to attack with his mancatcher but Persi manages to avoid any damage
  • Persi again Unarmed Strikes and drives Brughor back
• After being bloodied by the tree missile, Orthanc becomes Enraged and charges toward Gorg
  • Orthanc slashes Gorg along the side with his Great Axe, doing damage but Gorg shakes it off
• ’Rig’ completes her ascent of the cliff face, entering at the blind and noticing Persi locked in combat with 2 orcs
  • She expertly dives from the top of the blind, over the pole of the mancatcher, and attacks the Orc Raider with her twin stilettos
  • While leaping, ’Rig’ makes contact with her first stiletto attack, but the Orc Raider’s armor repels the attack
  • Upon landing, ’Rig’ makes an Offhand Attack, but narrowly misses
• An Orc Brigand skirts the outside of the ongoing melee, climbs the rope ladder to the inside entrance to the blind, to gain high ground
  • He throws a javelin at ’Rig’, but misses horribly
• Vala Silverton sends Miss Tra into the air, allowing her to see Orthanc through Miss Tra’s eyes and heal him
  • Vala Silverton stays hidden in the trees to prevent any attacks from above
• Gorg smashes Orthanc in the head with his Great Club, but Orthanc’s visceral rage blunts an attack that would have killed a lesser person
• Persi fails on a Dexterity save, and the Orc Raider uses the leverage he has with the mancatcher to drive Persi prone to the floor
  • The Orc Raider drops the matcatcher, moves in for a melee attack, and slashes Persi with his falx
• Brughor takes advantage of the downed Persi and attacks with his Great Axe
  • Persi quickly parries the attack away from himself
  • Brughor cleaves through the attack to slice ’Rig’ and cause the Bleeding Encounter Condition
  • The deflection from Persi causes the heavy axe to spin around and ultimately hit Brughor
• Persi pays no attention to the mancatcher attached to his neck and attacks as he normally would
  • Persi’s highly dexterous moves prevent the long polearm weapon to barely affect him
  • Persi ( total monk style) taps into the elemental force and calls the power of acid into his mitts
    • Persi double fist gut punches the Orc Brigand causing acid to eat away at his midsection
    • The Orc B’Rig’and falls from the blind 50 ft onto the rocks below
    • The acid weakened the Orc Brigand's torso significantly, causing him to split fully in half when he strikes the rocks below
• Orthanc’s Greataxe slices large gash in the uninjured side of Gorg, but his massive girth absorbs the blow despite the damage
• ’Rig’ bleeds slightly at the beginning of her turn then rallies
  • She attacks the Orc Raider with her double stilettos, poking large holes in his chest which openly bleed
• Vala Silverton strums upon her lute, singing a light, jaunty tune and marking Gorg and 2 groups of Orc Blitzers with faintly glowing purple flames
  • 1 group advances within melee distance to Orthanc, put up their shields, and harry Orthanc with spears
• Gorg winds up another massive attack upon Orthanc’s head with his Great Club
  • The club again smashes against Orthanc’s skull: an unstoppable force striking against an immoveable object” - but Orthanc stoically spits some blood
• The Orc Raider jabs his falx at ’Rig’, but she dodges most of the attack’s inertia
  • The Orc Raider attempts to use the curved end of the falx to slash at ’Rig’’s exposed ribs, but her Studded Armor repels the attack
• Burghor attempts a zealous attack with his Greataxe, intending to behead Persi
  • Persi easily ducks the attack, limboing like a solid Hermes Conrad
• 2 additional groups of Orc Blitzers take formation in front of Orthanc and continue to harry him with spears
• Persi takes stock of his current combat predicament: sandwiched between 2 very powerful enemies, with ’Rig’ preventing them from Flanking him
  • The Orc Raider attempts to cut Persi with its falx as he dives out the window, but Persi deflects the blade at the last second
  • Persi bounds out of the blind window, down the cliff to the ground
    • ’Rig’ feels a bit abandoned
  • Persi lands on the ground below in the middle of the splattered gore of the Orc Brigand but fails to notice… or care
    • Vala Silverton attempts to point out the gruesome scene the Persi is standing in, but he looks at her like they are speaking different languages
• Orthanc is now Flanked, locked in combat with the ogre, Gorg, while 6 Orc Blitzers organize a Shield Wall to begin doing serious damage to him
  • Deciding that for a barbarian Offense is the ONLY Defense, Orthanc opens an even larger wound across the stomach of Gorg, splitting him open enough to see his intestines
  • Gorg is Bloodied but remains in the fight
• ’Rig’ taps into her extensive knowledge of healing to invert its teachings and identify the biggest weakness in her target: the Orc Raider
  • Before the thought is even completely through her head, she closes the distance and drives her stilettos up into the orc’s kidneys, dropping him to the floor to bleed out
  • ’Rig’ reaches deep into herself to find the energy to continue on to attack Brughor with her stilettos
    • Her first attack scrapes against the scales of Brughor’s armor
    • Her second attack narrowly misses her intended target
  • ’Rig’ attempts to give Brughor an out on the battle to join up with The Party to battle Hamund Kost
    • Brughor is fully engaged in battle and declines, stating that he will “Drink grog from your skull”
  • ’Rig’ taps into her Fighter instincts, gaining some health from a Second Wind
• Vala Silverton attacks the mind of Grog with Dissonant Whispers, damaging his psyche but his extreme level of ignorance saves him from any additional effects
• The amassed groups of Orc Blitzers, now in formation, begin making coordinated attacks on Orthanc, but their attacks miss
• Gorg takes advantage of the Orc Blitzers’ harrying, solidly striking Orthanc in the back with his Great Club
  • A massive cracking sound echoes out of Orthanc’s body as one of his vertebrae cracks
  • Orthanc falls to the ground, unconscious, barely clinging to life
• Brughor slashes ’Rig’ with his Battleaxe, slicing through her studded leather armor, but the armor blunting some of the damage
• Suddenly, Meilu comes running up the hill from where The Party left their horse cart with Slûûp riding on her back
  • Slûûp jumps off of Meilu’s back, while Meilu charges toward the flanks of the Orc Blitzer line
  • Meilu rears back and stomps 2 Orc Blitzers with her powerful front hooves, knocking them on the ground, and stomping their heads into pulp
  • Slûûp reaches into his shirt, brings out a small trinket, and holds it in his hands while mumbling words over it
    • Orthanc suddenly awakes and some of his wounds begin to heal
• Persi closes the distance to the remaining Orc Blitzers, approaching them from behind
  • His unusually long arms reach out to the Blitzers on the end of the lines, grasping their heads tightly
  • He then smashes all of the Blitzers’ heads together, imbuing them with elemental acid, and melting them all into bubbling goo
  • Persi follows with an Unarmed Strike, punching Gorg in the nuts with his acid-infused hands
    • Gorg screams in pain as he is being slowly chemically gelded
• Orthanc rallies from Slûûp’s healing, pushes himself from the ground, and uses the momentum to swing his Great Axe up between Gorg’s legs
  • The Great Axe easily parts Gorg’s weakened nethers and splits the ogre to the naval
  • Brughor hears Gorg’s death knell and screams that he will be avenged
• ’Rig’ attacks while Brughor is distracted, stabbing him twice while he laments the loss of the most formidable warrior in his raiding party
• Brughor attempts to make a reciprocal attack but was thoroughly thrown off by ’Rig’’s devastating attack, completely missing her
• Persi uses his feline agility to quickly scale the cliff face and reenter the cave through the blind
  • ’Rig’ is a bit nonplussed, exclaiming “Looks who’s back!”
• Orthanc begins sprinting into the cave complex through the cave opening to see what all the fuss is about in there
• ’Rig’ continues bleeding profusely from her wounds, but also continues ignoring them like a badass
  • While Brughor is distracted by the sudden reemergence of Persi, ’Rig’ Sneak Attacks with her stilettos
    • The fine tip of one slips through Brughor’s scale armor, further piercing him but the second attack misses
• Brughor again attempts to attack Persi with his Battle Axe, but Persi’s monk agility negates the attack
  • Brughor’s Battle Axe cleaves through his initial attack, but grossly misses ’Rig’
  • He then exclaims his own virtues, shouting a Rally of “AXE-BITER” and some of the stab wounds from ’Rig’ begin to close
• Persi repeats his actions from the beginning of the battle, punching Brughor and driving him back but missing with his second attack
• Orthanc hears the continuing battle and Dashes into the cave complex to find his allies
• ’Rig’ stabs at Brughor’s face, trying to take advantage of the weakened state of his axe head jaw and misses but manages to slightly pierce his face
• Vala Silverton finally succeeds in climbing the massive cliff face to see the ongoing melee between Brughor, Persi, and ’Rig’
  • She notices ’Rig’’s attempt to target Brughor’s axe-jaw and launches a Red Chromatic Orb on target
  • Brughor, seeing his imminent end, hastily screams his final words: “Many-Arrowswill avenge me!”
  • The fire of the orb superheats the metal, driving it through Brughor’s remaining jaw, ripping the bottom half of his face off and lighting his head on fire - a truly gruesome death

[End Combat]

• Each Party member gains 325 xp for defeating the orc raiding band at Wyvern Tor
• Slûûp notices the end of combat and quickly hides away whatever he was holding in his hands
  • He says that he thought that his Masters were in trouble and he came to investigate, seeing “The Large Master fall”
  • He apologizes for disobeying Master Persi’s demands that he stay with the cart, but that he felt he needed to help Orthanc
  • Persi attempts to chide Slûûp into submission, but Slûûp comes to the conclusion that he had done well by ignoring Persi’s command and helping Orthanc
  • He decides that he can “help all Masters” and “make Slûûp a better servant”
  • Persi angrily dismisses Slûûp from his service and Slûûp expresses regret that he has lost his “Primary Master” but that he will serve the other 3 members of The Party
  • Orthanc picks Slûûp up by his tunic and says “I owe you, little one,” then drops him to the ground
  • Slûûp clumsily falls, taking some bludgeoning damage and expresses regret and confusion that Orthanc seemingly punished him for doing good
    • Orthanc attempts to explain that Slûûp did good, despite the rough handling Orthanc just gave him
    • Persi laughs at Slûûp’s misfortune and expresses his disdain for Slûûp
• Meilu is still riled up from battle, tromping orc brains into the dirt
  • When she realizes The Party is watching her, she assesses the situation and begins to calm
  • As this happens, her body seems to get heavier and slacker, as if she was temporarily younger and now is aging back to her previous state
• ’Rig’ performs a Medicine Check to determine why Brughor was able to regenerate his wounds but learns nothing
• Orthanc, Persi, and Vala Silverton leave Meilu and Slûûp outside and enter the cave complex through a large cave mouth into the Entry Cavern
  • A large pool of clear water is elevated well above the ground on the west wall
    • Water from the pool slowly streams down along the south wall, seeming to end at a large wall of crushed stone
    • The water does not pool, but rather seems to enter into the wall at the bottom
  • An empty wagon sits along the west wall, north of the pool
    • It is empty and in very good shape, save some deep cuts in the wood and being covered in blood
    • A ruined banner hangs from the side of the wagon and looks to be the destroyed remnants of a Lionshield Coster insignia
  • The Cavern ends in the north where an extremely large pile of discarded rags and torn clothing forms a makeshift sleeping area
    • Blood, broken bones, and rotting meat are strewn about the “bed”, indicating that many different men and beasts had been violently fed upon
• A narrow set of stairs leads up and to the east of the Entry Cavern, opening into a cave room being used as a Storage Area
  • Many large boxes and crates are huddled and stacked into one corner with barrels of varying sizes taking up the opposite
  • The crates, boxes, and barrels are marked by a mixture of heraldry
    • The Party recognizes more Lionshield Coster banners as well as some indicating the merchandise came from the city of Triboar
  • The large amount of containers suggest that these are the spoils of many tendays of raiding along the Triboar Trail
  • Several bed rolls are laid out in the room
• Another narrow set of stairs leads up and to the east into the Throne Room
  • Several bed rolls line the north and south walls
  • The room opens up to the north, where a large makeshift throne has been fashioned by the orc raiders
    • The throne was evidently a very fine piece of furniture that had been captured in a raid
    • It is now a grotesque monument to cruelty and savagery
      • Heads and skulls are mounted on spikes coming from the back of the throne
      • The wood is lacquered with layers of blood splashed over it
  • On the west side of the throne is a finely crafted heraldic banner mounted on a display pole
    • Made of fine materials - tanned leather and milled wood
    • Depicts a stylized orc skull with three arrows arrayed behind it in intricate stitching of silver and gold
    • Seems to be the official banner of some political entity - such as a kingdom
  • On the east side of the throne is a grotesque parody of the same banner
    • Made from the flayed skin of some unfortunate, likely human with a structure of bones
    • Depicts the same stylized orc skull and arrows, but seems to have been burned into the skin with a brand
    • Likely made fairly recently because the skin has yet to rot - or has been otherwise treated to prevent rot from quickly setting in
  • On the west wall sits a small treasure chest
  • On the south wall is a rope ladder leading up to the Boulder Blind looking over the area leading to the dave mouth
• ’Rig’ immediately begins rifling through the treasure chest before any of the other Party members arrive in the room
  • 750 copper, 180 silver, 63 electrum, 30 gold and 3 vials of a transparent, light blue/purple liquid
  • ’Rig’ succeeds on a History check, realizing that she recognizes the type of vial as familiar, but unaware of what might be in them
  • She pockets the coins but leaves the liquid vials in the chest, eyeing them wearily as if some sort of magic within them might jump out and bite her
• Vala Silverton succeeds on a Perception Check, noticing two ropes leading up to the ceiling in the Storage Room
  • The ropes lead to a false ceiling, rigged as a deadfall trap, which would drop tons of boulders when triggered
  • Luckily none of the orcs had the chance to trigger it, otherwise it could have been VERY deadly
• Vala Silverton comes upon the looted treasure chest in the Throne Room, finding only the 3 vials of transparent blue/purple liquid
  • She succeeds on a History Check, identifying them as Silverymoon Lavender perfume, each worth 25 GP
• ’Rig’ investigates the body of Brughor Axe-Biter and finds that he smells like sweaty, oily meat and blood
• Persi slices a chunk of meat off of Brughor’s body, cooks it over a fire in the room, and begins eating it
  • ’Rig’ declares the act “none of her business” but then offers to give Persi some rations
    • He declines, stating that the orc meat is “good” and that “fair is fair” as Brughor would have happily eaten ’Rig’
  • Vala Silverton is disgusted but tries not to show it
  • Persi then takes his shank of orc meat to the throne, sits on it, and entertains himself by pretending to be a king, relieving 1 stress
• Vala Silverton, ’Rig’, and Orthanc continue investigating the cavern complex, returning to the Entry Cavern
  • Vala Silverton and ’Rig’ notice the strange wall where the water flowing from the pool seems to enter
  • ’Rig’ begins pulling away stones from the wall
  • Vala Silverton notices and then helps to meticulously deconstruct the wall
  • They notice that the rock wall did not seem like a natural piling of stones
  • Instead, the stones were very expertly dry-fitted together, making a false wall that would be difficult for most to notice as anything other than a natural phenomenon
    • They also notice that the wall seemed to have been built from the outside, in - sealing the hole from the inside
• Behind the wall is a mostly empty space, approximately 20 ft in diameter
  • Inside are 2 bodies, very well preserved, cold mummified by the dry mountain air 
  • With Guidance from Vala Silverton, ’Rig’ perfectly succeeds in an Investigation Check
  • ’Rig’ identifies the large body as a griffon and the small body as that of a gnome
  • The griffon is lying, curled up on the floor
    • The body displays a large gash on its abdomen and the rock underneath is stained with dark, almost black, dried blood - suggesting it had died of blood loss from a stomach wound
    • The griffon is very well preserved, its silver-white feathers still in perfect condition
      • ’Rig’ & Vala Silverton  take feathers from the griffon
  • The gnome is sitting with its back against the griffon and a shoulder placed on the animal’s torso, as if trying to console it
    • The gnome’s legs are completely crushed, indicating that it likely died from blunt force trauma wounds to its extremities
  • Vala Silverton investigates the bodies and succeeds on a History Check - she cannot pinpoint the exact time but she believes the bodies have been there for less than 50 years
    • She finds a harness and tack on the griffon and a very worn crest from the Waterdeep Griffon Cavalry on the gnome
    • Vala Silverton takes the Worn Griffin Cavalry Crest
    • ’Rig’ finds a very fine, gnome-sized short sword on the gnome’s body and pockets it
      • The short sword seems to have been expertly crafted, as if it were made for someone of noble stock
• The Party goes to sleep.

Next Session → Session 011: Business with a Red Wizard of Thay