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Riding out from the city, the party headed north-east, planning to cut directly through the northern Tainted Forest - despite the warnings they'd been given - on the most direct route into the Erean mountains. Snow was already falling as they set off, and was thick on the ground as the forest came into view. Some of them had been to this place before, in their own time. Then, it had been a rather pleasant place, gentle airy slopes thickly wooded with tall pine trees. Now, it loomed ominously, its' tangled branches seeming to struggle with each other. They pressed on into the forest, and Sack - who'd been through the southern half of the Forest - was struck by the difference. There was almost no animal or bird life at all. As the trees closed over them and the light of day faded behind, it was almost like going underground. They hacked and struggled through the dense trees for the rest of the day, and finally stopped as the light began to fail. Clearing a large circle, they made a big fire, and Sack used his Alarm spell to ward the site from intruders. As he did so, Surya became aware that there was ...something... watching them. He communicated this to the ranger, who shucked his armour, donned his Chæmelon ring and went out to investigate. Wandering around the campsite, he heard several rustling movements off to the sides, from the sound of them made by creatures of variable size. Finally, just as he was about to return to the campsite, he caught a glimpse of something. Eyes. Eight eyes. Glimmering in the reflected light of their bonfire, and spread across an area more than a foot across. An arrow on the string, the half-orc backed carefully away towards the camp. The night's sleep that followed was nervous in the extreme; two watching, the rest sleeping. Around five, Sack woke suddenly as his mind clanged with the silent warning of his wards being broken. Looking up, he saw Sigred and Kobort - whose watch it was - peering into the forest worriedly. Looking around with his Darkvision, Sack spotted three spiders - large, but not big enough to match the eyes he'd seen - high up in the trees above the camp. As he watched, they moved to the tops and started spinning a web. With a careful arrow-tip, he prodded Surya and Hildraft awake, and indicated the problem. Hildraft blessed a sheaf of arrows, and Sack twisted rags around the shafts; then, dipping them into the flames, the archers let fly. The blazing missiles leapt skywards, striking their targets with audible thumps, and the three spiders fell from the trees. One dropped into the camp, and Sack examined it. He recognized the species; it was a common enough spider in these parts. The only problem was, it was supposed to be about ¼" across, not more than a foot. Casting frequent glances into the trees around, the party settled back to sleep. About an hour later, the alarms were triggered again, and a large form could be seen approaching the camp through the trees; a much, much bigger spider, around 5' across the body. Without hesitation, Sack drew a bead and slammed an arrow into the front of its' cephelothorax. The arrow vanished into the monster, shaft, feathers and all, and the spider dropped dead in its' tracks. Again, the type was familiar, but it was vastly bigger than it should have been. Sack sprinkled it with lamp-oil and burned the body. No-one could sleep after that; and, about an hour from dawn, all were awake when, without warning, a dry, whispery voice spoke to them from beyond the edge of the trees. "Who are you, and why do you trespass in our woods?" it asked. Hildraft and Surya looked at each other, and Surya nudged his Fae Mhor spider pendant out of his collar. It chinked against his armour, and twinkled in the firelight. The owner of the voice obviously saw it, for it spoke again. "are you servants of the queen of the pits .. speak .. prove to me you are of the initiate." Slipping out of the camp, Sack started trying to work his way around the edge towards the source of the voice. As he did so, he saw more and more spiders, of all sizes, clearly watching him. Thinking quickly, Hildraft and Surya both reeled off a few sentences in the Fae Mhor language. "very well," replied the voice in the same tongue, "now explain why you are here" "Why did you attack us?" riposted Surya. "why did you not announce your presence?" returned the voice. At this point, Sack found his way blocked, by several large spiders who had webbed the trees in his path. All appeared to be listening to the ongoing conversation, and awaiting its' outcome. Acting on an obscure impulse - or possibly for the comfort of a hilt in his hand - Surya drew Tormentor. The reaction from the trees was instant. An urgent rustling flowed around the perimeter; to the others it was merely movement, but Hildraft's gift for tongues brought the words to him. The same phrase was repeated over and over, passed from spider to spider: "The Bearer! The Bearer!". The voice spoke again, this time with much more deference. "now we know you, lord. now we know how to honour you. go in peace." There was a brief upsurge of rustling, and then silence; the spiders were all gone, leaving the rest of the party gazing at the Tellaran in deep disquiet. Sigred of Narthal gestured at the dark blade. "Are you sure you can control that thing?" he asked. "Not a word, Priest," grated Surya harshly. "I'll take that as a no, then," replied Sigred sadly. Hildraft too was worried, and spent some time trying to persuade his friend that the sword's power was not worth its' contamination, but Surya was persausive in his assurances that he could cope. The night passed peacefully after that. As day finally broke, a lumpen shape was visible on the edge of the camp. Cautiously investigating, they discovered a freshly-killed deer, clearly a creature of the Tainted Forest but not altogether unwholesome, neatly wrapped in silken spider-cords. A parting gift. |
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Emerging from the forest, they found themselves on a steep slope, with the mighty Erean Mountains towering above them. They consulted the maps Mazahir had made, and set out on the route to Gadûhvrás. The going was hard to begin with, but on the second day, they struck the road made by the Orcs in the elder days, and made better time. Their first encounter was in a small valley, towards evening. A movement caught their eyes, and to their considerable surprise, they discerned an orc patrol heading towards them. There were ten of them, and as they spotted the party they stopped in some confusion. Some were pointing to Hildraft and clearly saying "A dwarf! Let's get 'im!", whil others were pointing at Billy the Bear and saying, "Crap! A bear! Let's get out of here!". Finally, the patrol lowered its' weapons and came up to them. Roughly - but warily - the leader demanded their names and business in the mountains. Surya gave him some false names, and told him they were "just travelling through". It was quite clear that the leaders' instructions were to stop travellers such as themselves; and equally clear that he didn't want to attempt it. He spoke with them for a while, clearly trying to elicit more information, but managing to give away plenty himself. He named them as "Returned Orcs"; apparently, an orc leader styling himself King Skoorl had taken up residence in Gadûhvrás, with the intention of recreating the kingdom as it was before the Dragon. He made a show of "giving permission" for the party to travel on, and led his patrol on down the valley. All nine of them... Belatedly, the group realized that one of the patrol had doubled back and sneaked back up the valley towards Gadûhvrás. |
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The next day, as they travelled a precarious roadway halfway up a sheer mountain-face, they caught a glimpse of another band of orcs heading towards them. This group reacted differently when they saw the travellers; instead of surprise, they shouted a harsh, deep warcry, lowered their spears and began to run to the attack. The road led them around a spur of the mountain, and briefly out of sight of the party. While they were hidden, Hildraft used his Stone Shape to mould the rock of the mountain into a rampart, right across the 20' pathway, 10' high, and 6" thick, with loopholes and a parapet. Sack, Surya, Sigred and Hildraft took positions, drew their bows and waited. The orcs charged around the corner and discovered a stone wall where there hadn't been one a minute ago. Some either didn't believe or couldn't stop, and charged into the solid face with painful clangs and thumps. Then the party opened up with their missiles, and all hell was unleashed. Hildraft gestured, and abruptly all the moisture in the air around his hand coalesced into hundreds of razor-sharp shards of ice, which hurtled away and tore into the front ranks of the orc warband. The first few saw it and managed to dodge, though two of them pitched off the preceipice and the third knocked someone else off, but the next ranks had no warning and the splinters of ice chewed dozens of holes into the unfortunate orcs. Sack and Surya loosed an arrowstorm down from the impromptu barricade, skewering about a dozen orcs. One of Surya's shafts accounted for the leader, who, with normal Orc logic, was leading from the rear. Sigred's lone crossbow bolt might have hit something. Possibly. Dropping his bow, Surya vaulted the parapet, and dropped to the snow below. A 10' drop in heavy armour into bloody snow scattered with entrails was not easy, and he stumbled as he landed. Orc closed around him, as Sack, on the other side of the wall, sliced the heads off some spears that were jabbed through the loopholes. Surrounded and out numbered, Surya appeared unbothered. Tormentor flashed in dark arcs, and orc bodies went flying left and right as the Tellaran succumbed to the same battle rage he'd displayed against the demons in Karennal. In a couple of minutes, he'd slain more than ten of the foe, and the remainder lost their nerve. They turned to flee, but the blade was right behind them, and Sack's bow was singing atop the wall, and Hildraft's icy missiles slashed through the ranks again. Kobort topped things off with a Fireball, and a few moments later, silence fell, broken only by the harsh gasping of Surya as he regained his breath after his manic assault. |