Session 0028 - Navigating Through the Caves

Roster

List of characters who's player was in attendance

Player characters who's player is attending the game start with 1 Hero Point, and can get more during the session.

Absent

List of characters who's player was absent

Player characters for missing players do not start the session with a hero point, and can not get any more during the session.

Session Log

The combat with the orcs continues.
More orcs run into the hallway and throw javelins into the fray, but none of them find their mark.
Ferdinand is one-on-one with the first orc they found down a side-passage. His quick maneuvers cause his opponent to stumble, trying to swing around wildly to locate him. Ferdinand strikes him solidly with a blow that should have dropped the orc, but it remains standing out of sheer rage.
Down the hallway, Harbek waves his hands and mumbles oddly. Immediately afterwards Sarroxtíoð feels much better as magical healing energy fills his body. Harbek repeats the process, healing him even more and taking him back from the brink of collapse. Unfortunately, the effort from the dwarf leaves him visibly shaken and ashen-faced with a small trickle of blood draining from his nose, eyes and ears. He casts a shield spell on himself afterwards for defense.
Eriana sees that Ferdinand has the one orc well in hand, so she moves down the hallway to assist Sarroxtíoð. She tries some fancy maneuvers to tumble past the orc he is fighting then trip him with her runic kukri, but fails.
Alicia moves herself into position to better assist everyone, firing her arbalist at the orc fighting Sarroxtíoð.
With renewed health, Sarroxtíoð attacks the orc he is fighting and misses twice before raising his shield.
An orc in the hallway decides to grab its axe and move in to attack Eriana. It hits her critically with a nasty bleeding slash from its axe.
At the back of the party, Leodegar studies the orcs but learns nothing. He flings a vial at the back line of orcs throwing javelins and misses, splashing some acid on the lead orc in the group.
At the start of the second round, another volley of javelins from the orcs manage to hit Leodegar twice at the back of the party, hurting the investigator badly.
Sarroxtíoð continues to focus on orc he was attacking. At that same time, Eriana finds herself in trouble as she tries to trip the orc that critically hit her, but she fails bad enough to slip and fall prone in the attempt. Another orc runs in to attack and hits her while she is down. Fortunately, Alicia was ready and she helps shield Eriana so the damage is very slight and at the same time drills the orc with her arbalist and scores a critic hit. The bolt is embedded in its off-hand, causing the orc to scream in rage.
Ferdinand has polished off the orc he was fighting at this point, so he runs down the hallway to help in the fight with Eriana. Before he gets there, Sarroxtíoð knocks out the orc he was fighting.
Reeling from her wounds, Eriana is bleeding badly but the bleeding stops as she uses her kukri while prone to trip up the orc she is fighting. After that, Sarroxtíoð finishes the orc off while it was down, knocking it unconscious. The other orc attacking Eriana with a bolt embedded in its hand takes two wild swings and misses, yelling in orcish to his allies then backs up down the hallway and into a nearby branch to disappear around a corner.
Leodegar drinks something that clearly cures him, while the orcs in the hallway hurl one last set of javelins before following the orc down the same side-passage.
After the orcs flee, Harbek tries to make sure the orc that Sarroxtíoð knocked unconscious is dead (the first orc he killed is clearly dead), but he does poorly swinging with his mace. Sarroxtíoð finishes the job with a mighty blow using his magic sword on the orc. He then turns around to finish off the orc Ferdinand had downed earlier. Alicia moves in to assist, though it is dark and she can't see clearly.
Meanwhile, Ferdinand gives chase to the fleeing orcs. He sees them running down the hallway and manages to catch up with one. In the ensuing melee the orc hits him twice, causing Ferdinand to reel from the blows. Eriana runs after them, shouting for everyone else to help out. She gets into a flanking position on that orc and spots the rest moving farther down the hallway. It looks like it may open to the outside beyond a closed palisade with a set of wooded double doors. There is a small passage to the right around a corner on her side of the doors.
The orc they are fighting is badly wounded but remains standing. It takes a wild swing with its axe and misses, then runs past Eriana down the hall to follow the others.
After this the rest of the party begin to move up into the side-passage. Leodegar gets there and hands Ferdinand a vial and tells him to drink it. He does and gets a small amount of healing. He is able to do this and run after the orc that ran away but it continues to flee.
At about this point, with everyone else in the party now down the side-passage, Eriana notices a large number of horses on the other side of the palisade doors neighing and looking agitated. There is an orc to one side of the large double-doors about to release the bar and open the gates. Eriana realizes that the horses are likely to run down the passage in a stampede, so she yells out in warning then bolts back down the passage.
Though badly wounded, Eriana is very fast, running all the way back to the first cavern where they were attacked by the strange rock creatures. She can hear the sound of alarmed horses trampling down the passage right behind her.
The rest of the party were not so quick to respond. Before they can move the horses rush down the hallway and trample everyone. Ferdinand was the nearest to the palisade, but he sees them coming and with his quick reflexes finds a small niche to jump into as the horses rush past. He manages to avoid any damage!
As the horses rush through the remainder of the party they heavily trample Sarroxtíoð, leaving him unconscious and dying in the hallway. Alicia is wounded, but the least hurt. Both Harbek and Leodegar are still standing, but also badly hurt.
Realizing that Eriana is fleeing, they follow after her - running back to the entrance behind the stampeding horses.
Before doing so, Leodegar pauses to force-feed a potion to Sarroxtíoð that instantly heals him and restores him to consciousness. He gets up and follows everyone to the exit. Alicia takes up the rear, watching for orc pursuit with her loaded arbalist in hand. Fortunately the orcs do not rush down the hallway to attack.
Eriana makes it outside and gets to one side and climbs part way up the rock wall near the entrance as the horses emerge and rush down the passageway to the cave entrance.
Not long afterwards, Ferdinand emerges, followed by Harbek and the rest of the party.
Worried that the orcs will pursue them, Harbek tells them he made note of a spot on the way to the caves that looked like a good secluded area for a camp. It is about 30 minutes back the way they came. They all make haste for that spot, with Sarroxtíoð hiding their tracks along the way.
There is still some light left in the afternoon as they travel. It is overcast and not raining, so the trek is not difficult.
The group reach the spot Harbek mentioned without incident and hunker down to rest and recover from the battle.