Lair Of The Orc Lord - Deep 3 (Part 1)

All ready to leave the city of Sel-kai, the PCs stoically set off into the western forest. Billy, the Hirazi scout (who doesn’t have a last name), leaps into the air and flies high, scanning the area ahead of them. The party manages to travel fifteen miles into the forest, without incident, before the day is over. This time the group manages to avoid the forest spiders altogether, Rikku is happy.

Setting camp for the night in a small clearing, the PCs organize their sentry duty. Billy is glad because he doesn’t have to do it, or at least the players forgot about him - or maybe they chose not to trust him with their lives this early (less then one day) in their relatinoship. During the third watch Rikku hears a noise in the darkness of the forest, however, this is not a problem for him since he is an elf and can see as if it is daylight. He spots a squirrel going about its night business of collecting nuts. During the sixth watch Cavell senses something in the forest, however, he cannot distinguish what it is and so completes his sentry duty with a feeling he is being watched.

An hour or so later Cavell wakes the others in preparation for heading off to find Gorgut’s lair. A few characters head over to where Cavell sensed something in the forest. Searching for clues as to what was out there during the night time, Kodos’ player rolls exceptionally well using his Tracking skill, so well in fact that he manages to identify even the tiny claw marks of a squirrel on the tree bark itself. Cavell notices a small pile of chewed nuts on the ground.

Breaking camp, the party continues into the western forest. After about three hours Billy comes to the ground to let the PCs know they are only a few miles away from Hightower Tor. Within a couple of hours party reaches Hightower Tor after passing through three quarters of a mile of destroyed trees. Billy lands on top of the tor cliff edge and gazes out at the scenery. Near the cave entrance where the party first entered the tor, they search the ground for any signs of tracks from goblins or other creatures that may inhabit the area – none where found.

Wanting to head around to the northwestern side of the tor, Cavell tries to get Billy’s attention. Billy seems to ignore Cavell’s arm waving and so the group starts to head off. Rikku and Hanu hear screaming. Looking up they see Billy falling out of the sky. He lands face-down on the hard rock and is dead instantly. (As GM I made several Alertness checks for Billy in an attempt to notice the two goblins sneaking up behind him while he sat on the edge of the tor gazing out – it was all in vain, however, as the rolls were 10 or less and so Billy noticed nothing out of the ordinary – maybe the wind in his ears masked their approach). Examining Billy’s body, the party notices he was struck by a sword and his wing was broken. Asmodeus takes Billy’s money pouch!

Asmodeus casts Fly I on Hanu who goes to the top of the tor. She notices two goblins making their way back into the ruined tower, known as Hightower. The party decides to head up to the top after the quick report made by Hanu. Everyone drops their backpack and Asmodeus casts Fly I on Kodos who then picks up Rikku and carries him to the top. Hanu does the same with Xera, however, in their case the Fly I spell’s duration ends just as they reach the cliff edge. Without control their inertia carries them up and over the cliff edge. Hanu lands hard against the rock with Xera on her back, she suffers little damage. Lastly, after the horses (and Billy) have been taking care of, Asmodeus gives Cavell the gift of flight as well, who then carries the sorcerer on his back to the cliff top. Cavell then makes a couple of return trips to bring up people’s backpacks and equipment.

Arriving outside the ruined tower, Cavell distributes the backpacks to his fellow party members. Hanu hears the sound of a metal pot hitting the ground inside the tower and Cavell hears the now familiar goblin speech. Believing their approach has been discovered, Asmodeus prepares his Vacuum spell while still outside and then the PCs head into the tower with determination in their stride.

On entering the tower, debris from the levels above that have collapsed can be seen strewn across the floor. Waiting for Asmodeus to catch up (he can only move at 5 feet per round while preparing a spell), the PCs wait at the doorway into a room. Looking up they see a large beam across the tower width and an attached rope hanging from it going down into a hole in the centre of the other room, while in the room itself a six foot pile of debris has been built up to form a wall and a cooking fire with complimentary meat is awaiting them. The rope and hole in the floor must be the same one the party discovered in the dungeon level below last time they visited this location. If Shashari was here, I am sure she would agree.

Hanu throws some debris into the room which hits the makeshift wall on the opposite side. Within seconds two goblins jump over the debris confronting Cavell who is standing in the doorway. Hanu moves forward and seriously wounds one of the goblins. Cavell is attacked and he parries it easily. Asmodeus now lets loose his Vacuum spell a few feet behind the goblins with enough distance away from Cavell and Hanu so that they are not caught in the area of effect. Cavell tries to dispatch one of the wounded goblins, but doesn’t manage to kill it.

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Next round sees Rikku race forward to attack the goblins thinking he would have an easy kill, however, his player forgot to take into account the penalties for moving and attacking in the Snap Phase of combat. Suffice to say he did no damage as the goblin parried his thrust. Cavell and Hanu remove the living presence of the goblins by the end of the round.

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Moving into the room the party discovers a makeshift hovel in which lie four baby goblins – Cavell mercy-kills them, even though the idea is repugnant. It is better than leaving them there to die a slow and painful death of starvation. Asmodeus drops the bodies of the two dead goblins down the hole using the sound they make hitting the bottom as a way to determine the depth of the hole – it appears to be about 150 feet deep. Next, Hanu covers the hole in the floor with a wrecked table and Rikku climbs the rope up to the second level where he finds a battered chest. It takes him two attempts to safely get onto the second level platform. In the chest he finds a small amount of money and a grey agate, semiprecious gem worth 7 silver pieces.

Nothing else is found in the tower so the PCs head off to search the top of the tor for a path down to their horses. Xera finds a path between some rocks in the northern cliff face which the party uses. On their way down Cavell spots a goblinoid sentry on a small hill about 300 feet away from the base of the tor to the north. He tries to point it out to Hanu, however, she just can’t make it out. The party decides not to take on the sentry, but instead they travel anti-clockwise around the tor to get their horses.

Returning north where Cavell spotted the sentry the party prepares for battle. Atop his mount, Cavell gets his lance ready and charges the sentry, however, due to the knight’s shiny armour and the short time it took his mount to reach full gallop, the sentry easily spots him (it rolls 189 + skill bonus for the Alertness skill check) and runs north into cover and out of sight. Cavell stops his charge and the rest of the party catch up to him. They stop and rest for a short time about 40 feet from a cave entrance – probably where the sentry went – but constantly on the look out for trouble. This gives Asmodeus time to recover some Power Points needed for spell casting.

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Cavell and Hanu move to investigate the cave entrance. The only problem now is they have given whoever is down there time to prepare traps and defences for their arrival!

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