Defenders of Highgate, Chapter 3

[dauphinous]

Chapter 3: "Something stinks, and it ain't my socks."

Highgate: the city that stands between the barbaric orc, gnoll, and kobold clans of the north and the civilized Imperial lands to the south. A brave band of soldiers patrol the lands around the city, battling small force incursions. Of the twelve that once stood as the proud members of that band, only six remain, their numbers bolstered to seven by the addition of one brave soul.

The team, led by a resolute cleric of Thor, has been, according to that cleric, sent on a mission to tame the northlands, perhaps for good. As it now stands, they have cleverly found their way into an enemy encampment by virtue of being attacked in the night and taken prisoner. It was only a matter of time and effort for them to manage to free themselves, and six of our hardy heroes now plot to overthrow their captors while the crafty gnome investigates the encampment.

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The stakes take a fair amount of effort to pull from the ground. Probably unsurprisingly, they have been designed with hooks that make them difficult to remove from their resting places. Carter can pull them up with some help, and soon all fourteen are free, if desired.

A simple tripwire can be set up quickly, then it just seems to be a matter of waiting for someone to trip it.

[oliana0]

Oliana

"Oh, and if you can get the Orcs to line up, I can shoot them all with lightening. Was that important information that I left out?"

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Okay, I remember changing a ray of frost to Mending, thinking we were safely camped for the night; I switched that back. And Oliana casted Fire!Ball! 'yesterday', so she's down one level two spell that would have come in handy 'today' I suppose.

[Annalia]

Hertz

"Sir, where do I stand? Perhaps it'd be best to let me hold the rope with you, and put Oliana in front of the entrance. That way, she can fry the orcs if they line up or step back behind the others if they don't."

[anIceFan]

Nalik

That is a good idea Hertz. Oliana can stand behind the others. She probably has the best chance of putting them down with a minimum of ruckus. Remember, we want to draw as little attention as possible. We are in no shape for a direct confrontation.

[lawful_evil]

Carter

Carter readies himself, also unsure where to stand to be most effective. When he sees people preparing to 'hold' the rope as a trip line he just has to offer, "Sir, we have a couple of these stakes, you could use them to anchor the ends of the rope and hold it tight so you don't have to be so close to the entrance."

{{ OOC : Is this whole tent surrounded by orcs? Can't we just leave? Must we stand here and wait? }}

[Torger]

Hengist

Hengist wields the viciously hooked stake with the casual familiarity of someone who's bludgeoned more than one person into insensibility with an improvised club. They will fall silent... Silent as the grave... Grinning to himself at his personal joke, Hengist stands at the ready.

[Holocron Coder]

Deladus

Nodding grimly, Deladus takes one of the stakes and, depending on its size or heft, wields it as a club or dagger.

[anIceFan]

Nalik

As he awaits the return of Sarrok, Nalik meditates on Thor.

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Just want to say that I am waiting on Sarrok's spy mission before we take any action. I am not sure if D' is waiting for W'B's real life to sort itself out, but we can't really do anything yet.

btw, Nalik is preparing Spiritual weapon.

[dauphinous]

The stakes seem to be closest to a dagger, and can be wielded as such. The lights Sarrok left behind go out as everyone is figuring out what to do and where to stand, leaving the tent in darkness again.

It seems like a very long time passes, though in reality, it is probably closer to five or six minutes when the flap that has been determined to be the front flips open. The light that is let in by this action is dim, like that of twilight or dawn. A single orc is looking off at something to the side as he prepares to step inside. He is dressed in studded leather armor and has a pitcher in one arm, while the other is holding the flap open. He has no obvious weapons.

Several voices can be heard outside, though only one of them seems to be close/loud enough to be made out distinctly.

Words in Orcish:

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"..so be quick getting the girl."

{initiative, please}

[anIceFan]

Nalik

As the flap opens, Nalik tenses himself preparing to pull the rope taught.

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initiative - (1d20)[20]

[Torger]

Hengist

Hengist, at the ready, prepares to stab the orc in the throat.

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Initiative - (1d20+3)[17]
attack - (1d20+6)[16]
damage - (1d4+3)[5]
SneakAttack - (1d6)[6]

Penalties for improv weapons not included, and damage assumes a dagger.

[Annalia]

Hertz

Much like Nalik, Hertz tugs on the rope and prepares to keep it taunted as the orc steps in.

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Initiative - (1d20+6)[9] - 9
StrengthCheck - (1d20)[4] - 4 With a check like that, I'm more likely to get tripped.

[lawful_evil]

Carter

Carter, ready with the dagger, waits for the signal to pounce like a sabertooth tiger on a goblin child.

Get the girl?

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"Initiative" - (1d20+3)[23]
"Attack" - (1d20+8)[10] minus impro weapon
"Confirm Crit or Cleave" - (1d20+8)[23] minus impro weapon
"Damage" - (1d4+4)[7]
"Sneak Attack" - (1d6)[2] if possible
"Damage" - (1d4+4)[8] if crit

[oliana0]

Oliana

Yeah, get the girl. I dare you.

Oliana reaches to her waist and panics momentarily. Quickly, she recovers and prepares to cast a spell, should the Orc get past the first rank.

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Init - (1d20+2)[11]
Forgot she had no spell component pouch. Limits the spells a bit.
Ready Magic Missile if Orc doesn't fall at the door.

[Holocron Coder]

Deladus

Holding to see if the orc gets tripped, Deladus prepares.

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Wait to see if trip. If not...

Attack - (1d20+4)[20]
Damage - (1d4+1)[5]

[dauphinous]

The orc nods, presumably to the speaker, but there isn't any way to actually tell. His head turns to look into the tent as he steps forward. Nalik pulls, and Hertz is a little slow to react to the immediate tension. The result is the orc taking a little bit of a hop with a mildly surprised grunt and landing heavily on his other foot.

Carter and Hengist are both ready for anything, though. Carter's upward thrust gets deflected around the orc as Hengist's spike shoves the orc in an unexpected direction. Specifically, to the ground. The pitcher that the orc was carrying falls to the ground, smashing to pieces and splashing liquid that is probably water onto everyone nearby, though there is hardly enough to get anyone well and truly wet. The orc is down on the ground, arterial spray gushing out, with just another small grunt at about the same time as the tent flap falls shut again.

[anIceFan]

Nalik

With the orc down, Naliks first thought is to keep him quiet, at the least. He whispers
Silence him!

[lawful_evil]

Carter

Silence him, eh?

Carter tightens his grip on his stake and pretends the orc is a vampire.

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"Stab" - (1d20+8)[18] minus improv weapon
"Damage" - (1d4+4)[5] Die you blood sucking bastage!

[dauphinous]

The orc, already going glassy-eyed, stops even gurgling a little as Carter finishes him off. The blood spray slows down, though a puddle is forming under it. Just as he and Hengist get the orc quietly to the ground, the back of the tent rustles and Sarrok's voice whispers, "It's me, Sarrok. I've got good news and bad news. And really bad news."

His footsteps can barely be heard as he pads over to where everyone else is. He makes his way around everyone, pressing things into people's hands. "The good news is that I found our stuff and was able to liberate some of it."

OOC:

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Here's what you get back right now.
Carter: cold iron mw long sword, amulet nat armor +1
Deladus: cloak of resistance +1
Hengist: mw shortspear, amulet nat armor +1
Hertz: amulet mighty fist +1, bracers of armor +1
Nalik: Thor's Hammer, holy symbol
Oliana: spell component pouch, wand of Magic Missile (CL3), pearls of power (all 4 of them)

[lawful_evil]

Carter

Carter happily accepts something more normal as weapon and then gets a dejected look. You brought the sword? When have I ever even used this? Oh well. Carter sighs and then whispers back, "What is the bad news? And where is the rest of our stuff?"

Carter straps on his sword and fastens his necklace. Now that he looks all pretty, he is definitely ready for battle.

While Sarrok explains the rest of the news, Carter searches the dead orc for supplies, weapons, gear, boots, maps, tattoos, anything.

[Torger]

Hengist

Hengist takes the offered supplies without comment, donning the amulet and holding the Spear in his main hand. He drags the Orc off to the side and takes up a position near the entrance, prepared to do violence on any others who might enter, either with his spear or the still dripping stake.

[oliana0]

Oliana

"Oo, goodie. I'm dangerous again."

"How many are there? Can we fight our way out?"

[dauphinous]

"The bad news is that we're in the middle of an orc encampment. How many are there? A lot. There is probably a whole clan out there. There's a human that I think is in charge, and I saw El- the thing that looks like Elis. The rest of our stuff is in the human's tent. I just grabbed what I thought I could carry and still not be seen. He came back before I could get too far. Most of it, I think, is in the couple of locked chests there. No lockpicks, though, so I'm not sure."

[lawful_evil]

Carter

While Sarrok explains the rest of the news, Carter searches the dead orc for supplies, weapons, gear, boots, maps, tattoos, anything.

Carter says, "Obviously, Nalik's hammer there might be handy at smashing open the chests, but we'd have to be quick about it. How far away is the tent? Maybe you could draw us a little map of the place in the dirt?"

No lockpicks? I thought thieves could use sticks and all sort of things are improvised lockpicks.

After a moment Carter then asks, "Okay, so what was the really bad news?"

[oliana0]

Oliana

"The human's probably the one we want dead most. Rats. If we had know this, and I had this, before the Orc came in I could have gotten taken away and killed him real quick." Oliana gestures to her component pouch as she speaks.

Looking down at the Orc dead on the ground, and then up to Hengist, then back to the dead Orc. "Don't suppose he's got enough equipment to disguise Hengist as an Orc, do you?"

[dauphinous]

Sarrok starts to draw a crude map in the dirt and shrugs. "That was pretty much all the bad news at once. I guess I could also say that there's no way you guys are all getting out without being seen, even one at a time."

Carter finds a suit of studded leather, a belt, a single dagger, and plain boots. The pitcher is smashed.

"The 'x' is us. A is an open area that looks like it's set up for cooking, but about 20 orcs are sparring right now. B is a supply tent. C is where the human and...the notElis were last I saw. That's where our stuff is, and I think one of those two uses it for his living space. There are orcs all over the place, everywhere. C has two guards for sure. We're in the middle of the woods. They didn't cut the trees down to set up a camp here. These circles are just a rough guess of how many little tents are out there. Oh, and they have orcs patrolling the outer edge of the camp, and there are females here, and children, too. It looks like it's morning to me."

Drawing

[Torger]

Hengist

Glancing back toward the group, Hengist shifts his grip on the shaft of his shortspear. What is our goal here, aside from escape? Do we want the skraels dead, or are we just to escape? If we are here to eliminate the Skraeling threat, then do we kill women and children?

[lawful_evil]

Carter

Carter nods and hands Deladus the dagger saying, "Here, this will work better than that stake." He puts the boots on himself and then after smelling the studded leather offers it to Deladus as well. "I've got my amulet. If you want it, you can use this." He holds up the studded leather. If rejected by Deladus, he'll take it as better than nothing.

Looking at the map, Carter's jaw just drops. Turning to Nalik he inquires, "What's the plan? Should we just storm "A" grab our stuff and run for it?"

[anIceFan]

Nalik

Nalik takes the hammer and the Holy symbol. Interestingly, he is more assured by the representation of Thor than by the fact that he is once again armed.

He listens to Sarrok's report and then the conversation / questions from the others.
My only interest right now is to recover our gear and get out of here. We do not have the resources to take on an entire orc clan. The same goes for Elis and the human. If we kill any of these, it will only be a bonus.

Can you describe this other human? I wonder if it is Astryn?

Morning you say. That may work to our advantage. Orcs work much better in the dark than in bright sunlight.He looks down at the dead orc. Of course we don't know how soon they will start missing this one. Thinks for moment.
We need a distraction. Oliana, can you cause the area to the west of area A to go up in flames, without them knowing that we started it? If can get that, we can all move up to retrieve our equipment.

[oliana0]

Oliana

"Nothing firey that wouldn't give up it's source. Sarrok, did you see an owl anywhere nearby while you were out there?"