Chapter 05: Under Pressure

Previous · Next

Session Number: 5
Date: Sunday 11 January 2009
Venue: Densial's
PCs & Players:

Krag Clr1 (Fergus) (kills: 1 bugbear)
Rowaine Pal1 (Craig) (kills: 2 goblins)
Silque Rog1 (Densial) (kills: 1 goblin)
Vor-wrek Mnk1 (Densial) (kills: 1 goblin)
Hep Mnk? (DM) (kills: 1 orc, 1 goblin)

XP Awarded: 470 (enough for 2nd level)

Happy New Year!

Evensong begins. Just prior to the serving of the sacramental ale, Sir Veketh non-verbally reinforces that the party members are not welcome to participate, much to their shame. Krag and Vor-wrek notice that the usual head on the ale is absent…

The service ends and the congregation moves towards the southern exit. Khazul and Sir Veketh make their way down the spiral staircases behind the pulpits. Berathoin lingers behind. "I hate it when people are excluded from Moradin's blessings," he says to the party, slurring his words slightly. "Come, and I'll serve ye meself, and Sir Veketh be damned!" Both Vor-wrek and Krag decline, Vor-wrek politely and Krag worriedly. "Well, I'll be over here if ye change yer mind…" Berathoin turns and heads towards the ale cask, but collapses unconscious to the floor before getting even half way there.

Scanning the chapel, the party sees bodies piled all over the floor. Vor-wrek asks Hep and Rowaine to check downstairs where the headmaster and head priest went. Krag runs to the chapel's main door. Before he gets there it is thrown open and a huge orc thunders in, swinging an equally huge double-headed axe threateningly. Close behind is an even more menacing figure - a 7 foot tall bugbear with a nasty looking morning star. To make matters worse, three goblins follow, wielding morning stars - smaller than the bugbear's but wicked nonetheless! Krag yells out a warning cry.

Silque whips out her hidden dagger (she never took much notice of that rule) and runs to Krag's aid. The half-orc retreats a few steps and pulls free one of the shortspears attached to the corridor wall. Hep and Rowaine return from downstairs. Hep charges straight down the corridor to aid his students as three more goblins slip through the door!

Rowaine stops at the east pulpit and grabs the religious but very serviceable warhammer hanging there. She then charges into the fray, felling a goblin with her first strike. Now four allies hold the line, preventing the intruders from advancing any farther.

Krag splits his time between holding the line, dealing out the damage and healing his allies. The rest batter away at the numerically superior enemy. Hep draws the orc's attention and is severely injured, but Krag's healing prayers keep him up. Krag summons a celestial dog which both mauls the orc and draws the enemy's attacks, granting the party a much-needed few seconds to regroup.

Eventually Hep drops the orc. The bugbear strikes Hep with his morning star and the old monk goes down. Krag kills the bugbear, leaving sufficient gaps in the enemy line for Vor-wrek to advance and bar the chapel's door. Two goblins remain, one of which is quickly chopped down by Rowaine. The remaining goblin finds himself surrounded by armed foes, drops his morning star and cowers on the floor. Vor-wrek grabs a spear and covers the creature.

Krag goes to Hep's prone body and manages to stop the bleeding. He then moves over to help Vor-wrek, passing the orc's body on the way. A glimmer of recognition creases the half-orc's face - he has seen this orc before! It is almost certainly Gluuk-Taar, the orc that Sarthen introduced to the party three days ago. The greataxe is unmistakable.

The barred door rattles. Vor-wrek channels his inner orc and says "who is it?" No answer, only silence.

"How many of you are there?" Vor-wrek questions his goblin captive, waving the speartip in the vicinity of the goblin's jugular. "Many!" the goblin replies, rolling over and producing a knife from behind his back. Vor-wrek brains the goblin with the back of his hand, attempting to knock it out. He hits, but the hardy goblin remains on its feet. Displaying blinding speed, the goblin leaps up, throws its knife at Hep's bandaged body and leaps towards the nearest exit, a closed window. The goblin's knife strikes true, but its leap is not - it falls short, smashes the glass and cracks its head on the stone window frame. It slumps to the floor, unconscious.

Rowaine guards the broken window as Krag inspects the unconscious congregation. The victims appear as if they were heavily drunk. The party move the bodies to the head of the chapel and hastily erect a barrier at the beginning of the corridor with overturned pews. All the shortspears are put to good use - three angled up at the broken window, the remainder inserted amongst the pew barrier to make crossing more dangerous.

Krag and Vor-wrek go downstairs to check the teachers. They appear the same as the students above. Krag successfully induces Khazul to vomit, but the dwarf does not waken. Krag does the same thing to Sir Veketh. The underroom is beginning to smell…

Once the headmaster and head priest are safely moved upstairs, Krag and Vor-wrek quickly return downstairs and move as much heavy furniture as they can to block the door in the northern wall - the door that leads to the manse's underground level. Rowaine reports that she has seen a glitter or two outside the window, but nothing further.

An hour passes and the dwarves begin to stir. Both are groggy and unsteady on their feet, but demand to know what has happened. The party quickly fill them in, dissuading Sir Veketh from barging outside in his current state. Minutes later the youths begin to awaken also. A head count reassures the teachers that all of the orphans are present. Everyone takes a moment for the loss of their beloved gardener to sink in…

Previous · Next

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License