Session Thirteen
Hastily the three plotted, a few minutes later Stunty again lifted the makeshift shield & stepped into the corridor, as he edged along the passage Grace crouched beside him an arrow knocked in her bow, Thorn unseen behind his cloak of invisibility slipping ahead of them towards the barricade.
Anticipating more crossbow bolts Stunty & Grace ensure they keep themselves well hidden behind the upturned table, sure enough a few seconds later there is a resounding thud as a bolt strikes the wood. Grace reacts immediately & raises herself above the shield & taking a bead on one of the orcs lets fly one of her magically enhanced arrows, she grimaces as her arrow goes high, however she smiles as a second arrow strikes home, the orc disappearing behind the barricade clutching the shaft in his shoulder, unable to see what Thorn was about, Stunty & Grace retreat towards the junction after Grace's second shot.
Ahead, Thorn moved to within a few yards of barricade, ensuring he was out of Grace's line of sight, he hefted one of the several lumps of scrap recovered from the abandoned workings within the collapsed passage & hurled it at the face of an orc reloading a crossbow, like Grace his first effort went high, however his second shot caught the orc squarely in the face knocking off his precarious perch.
Realising that Grace & Stunty had, as agreed, retreated, Thorn turned to join them, out of the corner of his eye however Thorn saw a fifth orc mount & then leap over the barricade & charge towards the retreating pair. Holding his ground Thorn waited until the orc was passing him by & then flashed his blade towards him, misjudging his swing however the orc was passed before Thorns blade bit flesh, cursing Thorn took of in pursuit, unseen two more orcs slipped over the barricade whilst the two remaining on the barricade hefted crossbows & waited for a target.
As the first orc reached the junction Thorn caught him up & struck from behind, the orc bleeding profusely collapsed writhing in agony, his right arm near severed, spinning Thorn took the second orc across the chest taking his life in a single blow.
Stunty, stepping out from behind their own barricade, braced himself & waited, mace held aloft, to meet the charge of the orcs, suddenly Thorn, casting his cloak aside, materialised beside him, grinning, behind the table Grase drew her broadsword, checked the straps on her shield & braced herself for the charge.
Forgotton, the two orcs atop the barricade peered into the gloom of the passage, despite the lack of illumination given by the smokey torches, their keen eye sight picked out a target at the far end of passage, unhesitatingly they fired &, dropping the crossbows, dropped over the barricade & ran to aid the assault on the pinkskins.
At the junction Stunty & then Grace were struck by heavy quarrels from the crossbows, fortunately for both armour protected their vitals, notwithstanding both suffered heavy bruising from the deflected blows.
As the orcs struck, Stunty's skill with the unwieldy mace showed, deftly he deflected the orcs thrusting blade & hammered his two hand mace into the face of the orc who, skull crushed, died silently. Amid a flurry of blows, Stunty Grimlock despatched the second orc in similar fashion to the first before turning to aid Thorn, Thorn himself, after stumbling back into the wall, struggled to hold his own ably assisted by the ring on his finger, however as Stunty blocked the slash of the fourth orc, Thorn disembowelled the third picking up only flesh wounds for his pains.
Grace, at first hard pressed, raised her shield to fend of the spear thrust towards her face, aghast the point skidded of her shield & slid along her forehead, blood gushing into her eyes, blindly she lashed out her blade feeling resistance as its edge bit into bone. Near death, the orc thrust forward, again finding away through Grace's defence to draw blood. Finally, scraping blood & tears of pain from her eyes Grace skewered the orc upon her broadsword.
Suddenly the fifth orc turned to flee, both Stunty & Thorn leaped towards his unprotected back & swiftly cut him down, dead.
Seeing no more orcs coming over the barricade, all three took the oppurtunity to get thier breath & then dress their various wounds. Grace, fingering the necklace recovered from the dead elven maiden, knows it can aid her but is frustrated, despite her previous use of its power, as to how to activate its healing capabilities, turning to Thorn she proffers the trinket to him, placing his forehead against it, he concentrates on the ring of identification on his little finger before passing the necklace back to Grace,
"Once only a week can the healing power of the charm aid you, but remember you triggered its power when first you found it only three days ago"
Depressed by this news, Grace returns to dressing her wounds as best she can, knowing were it not for the bracelet of protection at her throat she would be dead.
"Have we only been in here so short a time, god, it feels like months"
Stunty, muttering to himself,
"What's you got in your pocketsies then hey, your miserable little buggers"
snarls as he finds nothing more than a few crumbs.
Deciding to rest awhile, bread, cheese & watered wine is broken out & all three eat in silence.
A short while later they ease themselves over the barricade, sprawled at its base is a dead orc, Grace pulls her arrow from the corpse wiping the blood across its torn tunic.
Cautiously they move ahead, the passage, dimly lit by spluttering torches, splits around a huge jagged boulder & then opens into a vast echoing cavern, water thunders from an opening high to the left & a lake opens out beyond the shallow beach, on the beach itself, & presumably on the beach on the far side of the lake bonfires give flickering illumination to the cavern, looking at each other, they begin to explore.