Kay's Journal, 10/16, Reaper Errant #013

 Kay’s Journal, 10/16

Treasure & Stuff:

• 30GP
• 100SP
• Magic Dwarven Great Axe ‘Stonebreaker’ - Gooseneck

The next morning the wagons were packed and we’d gathered the supplies we needed for the journey. Pujol got a cask of ‘special’ mead – he thinks the mead might make for valuable trade goods, especially considering that the bees that make the honey that goes into the mead get pollen from the medicinal herbs that grow in the area. It gives the mead a slightly bitter flavor. The bee keeper is Samantha, who lives on the outskirts of town.

There are two wagons, each with a driver. One of the drivers is a human man, and the other one is Mercury, a young halfling. He’s the hot head we’d been warned about.

Rothfern gives us a map and describes our possible paths. The old road is longer but safer. The river road is faster, but said to be swarming with orcs – at least 100 or so. Sounds like it’s the old road!

Gooseneck talks to Mercury, who really wants to take the river road and have an excuse to kill orcs. Mercury thinks Rothfern is exaggerating how many orcs there are along the river road.

Pujol suggests we go out on the old road, and if Mercury wants, he can come back along the river road (when we won’t be with them). Mercury seems to think that our group might be able to drive off the orcs. He thinks there are only 50-60 orcs, and that they are in small groups of maybe 10 or so each. Gooseneck asks Mercury about possible ambush points on both of the roads, and Mercury says there are many on both roads. Oh, goody. Mercury also tells us that the old road is an old dwarven road, and while we’d only encounter one orc tribe, the road itself is harder to navigate.

We decide to take the old road. Mercury says it should take at most a week to get to get where we’re going on the old road.

We set off. Abran scouts ahead, while CornCob and I ride in the front wagon, and Pujol, Gooseneck, and Fathom ride in the second wagon.

Towards the end of the first day, I see tracks across the road ahead of us. Abran and CornCob take a closer look. The tracks belong to some larger humanoids and seem to be following a trail toward the river. They look like they’re about a day old, and CornCob says it looks like there were about 10-12 individuals taking the path. 

We see an indication of some old dwarven ruins on the map, and consider going to investigate. They’re off the trail a ways though, so we’d have to make a detour to get there. We decide to skip it.

We continue on. Up ahead, the trail narrows and cliffs close in on either side of it. Abran thinks it looks like a great spot for an ambush, and suggests we scout ahead. Pujol says he has a spell he can use to disguise himself as an orc and go scouting.  He doesn’t speak orcish, so that might be a challenge, but he seems pretty amped about the idea even so.

Pujol heads off, disguised. He goes to the river side of the trail and climbs up the cliffs there, trying to be stealthy about it. Once up there, he sees three orcs in wait at the top. They turn toward him, and he casts a spell on a couple of them to make them friendly. It seems to work on one of them. He tries to mime that he can’t speak, and then gestures for them to follow him down the road. They don’t seem to be buying it.

Another orc steps out of hiding in some bushes. Pujol starts playing music and dancing around to try to charm the rest of them. It doesn’t seem to work, as one of them pulls a weapon. The orcs notice our wagons; one of them points at the wagons, and then blows a horn.

On the trail below, we seem some other orcs come out of cover on the top of the cliff on the other side of the path. Gooseneck starts running toward the cliff that Pujol climbed. CornCob keeps an eye on the orcs on the other side, and readies a spell for when they show themselves. Abran and I shoot at the orcs on the other side of the path; he hits one and I miss. Up on top of the cliffs, Pujol creates an illusion of an elf in the trees and tries to get the orcs to pay attention to that. It seems to work, as they go running toward it.

The orcs on the other side start shooting back at us, and one hits Abran. 

Abran and Corncob move toward the base of the cliff on the other side of the path, while I take cover behind a tree. Pujol makes his elf illusion vanish, like it went invisible, and then points in another direction, like he wants to say the elf went off that way. One of the orcs falls for it, chases after the illusion, and runs off the cliff. The other orcs aren’t buying it, though, and head back to the trail and start climbing down.

Gooseneck approached the cliff and started climbing up. I shot at one of Pujol’s orcs and took it down.

We see they have boulders up on top of the cliffs that are meant for pushing down on to wagons. The orcs up with Pujol start pushing one over to where Gooseneck is climbing, meaning to push one down on him instead. Pujol once again tries to charm them, and has more luck this time. He gets one of them to follow him away from the cliff. One of the others is still climbing down, though, and attacks Gooseneck.

Gooseneck tries to bite the orcs throat, succeeds, and then jumps off the cliff, taking the orc with him. He lands on top of the orc, who (amazingly!) survives the fall. Even so, I yell to the remaining orcs that their leader is dead, and they should flee now if they do not want to share his fate. They are not impressed.

We’re basically mopping up at this point. CornCob, Fathom, and Abran have been concentrating on the orcs on the other side of the path, and steadily whittle down their numbers. Pujol somehow convinces another one to jump off the cliff. He’s little, but vicious!

Once all the orcs are dead, we search them. Gooseneck finds the axe the orc he fought was using, and CornCob says it’s of dwarven make, is called ‘Stonebreaker’, and is enchanted. Gooseneck hangs on to the axe, which everybody agrees is a good idea and his due.