In the Hall of Heros Continued mid fight from previous Session…

The Orc Surrounded us but underestimated our abilities. Sheldon did indeed slip a thin steel shank through some vital parts of the Ork Champion. I started my blade in an overly defensive posture that lulled the largest to think I was not going to hit. In the moment he decided to break his own defense I slashed deeply into him in a spray of black ichor they call blood I reminded why they have been unable to conquer this side of the mountains… However it was my turn to be surprised. He went from almost dead to unleashing a series of blows that rallied his com-padres as well. Suddenly, I was pushed back by the onslaught, negating most of it with my own blade his companions also started their own blood frenzy against me, with three of the largest orks battering me I was pushed back several more times. Despite blocking most of the onslaught several serious attacks penetrated, causing me to bleed freely, and in serious need of a breather. Yamis saw my predicament and sent blessing of Pelor my way, and Gil exhorted me to rise up and defend myself and send these foul motherless slugs back to the hole from which they were spawned. My breath returned, my arms and legs revitalized, and my rage intact I fired blows of freezing blades against them maneuvering my way to allow Sheldon better advantage. Gil and Yamis continued an impressive series of attacks against the rear guard of the Ork Champions, taking advantage of their great interest in me to batter their own defenses. McShane blasted forth with gouts of flame, catching the attention of a couple of the orks. Gil decided to interpose himself between the ork and our resident mage/sorcerer, which turned out to be a good strategic move as they decided to turn the attention to McShane. McShane continued to blast forth as Gil executed his patented decapitation moves, that resulted in a dead champion… Sheldon and I busied ourselves taking down a few enraged ork warriors, and Yamis continued to bless the goings on while swinging his morning star in mighty vertical blows crushing the tops of several more orks. In fairly short order we were all breathing hard & covered in Ork splatter, and feeling darn tired. As we caught our breath I looked down to the end of the room and noticed a large chasm past the opening. Sheldon approached as well and asked us to remain quiet. He strained to listen and stated that he could hear the sounds of metal on metal clanking – the sounds of battle… a short search identified a stairway meandering down the side of the chasm into the depths of the earth, the path being lit by underground lichen and various molds.

We discussed it a bit further and decided that whatever kind of fighting that was going on must be some remaining Dwarves that were probably in trouble so we steeled our resolve and made our way down the stairs. As before we let Sheldon move ahead and scout. Nearly at the bottom the stairs moved away from the wall of the chasm and made their way precariously through several landings to a fiery opening at the bottom.

Further observation identified a small host of orks and a very large heavily scarred half ogre/half ork abomination ordering the smaller ones about. Spotted amongst them were several sporting the mini-ballista that we had encountered upstairs. That could pose a serious problem while negotiating the stairs as they had no handrails and those bows hit with the power of a maul and tended to push the hitty about. On a precarious staircase that contained a significant fall we needed to be careful of that. Fortunately Yamis had retrieved on of those ballista and had some ammunition of his own and the reverse was true we could use the precarious nature of the stairs to lure them up where he could push them form the stairs and a mini plan was formed… I rushed down the stairs to the first landing letting myself be seen but ducking down to use the landing itself as cover from their bowmen. It worked as the orcs took notice and started the climb up the stairs to my position. Yamis wasted no time in his attack firing the mini ballista at their bowmen knocking them form the platform. A shrieking whistle was heard and suddenly some flying dog-lizards started attacking Sheldon Yamis and McShane. Gil had made his way down to the first landing with me. Despite Yamis’s peppering of them, the orks made haste to reach me running along the stairs, several falling along the way with Yamis’s help. McShane decided to join Gil and I at the first platform down from the top, but the flying dog-lizards found him an inviting target and harassed him coming down slowing his progress. One of the Ork Bowmen saw his distraction, and loosed a giant arrow at him hitting him squarely in the thigh, and pushing him over the edge. McShane scrambled to grasp the edge of the stairs to stop his decent, but only the screeching of splintering fingernails could be heard, as he tumbled over the landing 40 feet below onto a small ledge. He started to go over that ledge as well but found a small outcropping with his boot and pushed himself back upon the ledge. The dog lizards were not through with him however and continually swooped, climbed and dove at him. McShane unleashed several volleys of fire at them, but they kept coming. Yamis took the opportunity to level careful aim at the bowman that had caught McShane and returned the favor. The hit did not push him over the edge but didn’t need to, the shaft of the arrow cleanly pierced his body impaling him to the rock of the staircase where he was standing.

The orks continued their relentless charge up the stairs to my platform, as they approached I readied myself to use my lightning lasso to pull them to me and over the ledge. They came & I loosed my lightning, but came up short. The orks had somehow been ready for that attack or at least compensated well for it and rushed directly to me and Gil. Gil took several mighty swings with Roarstrag, his axe, as I engaged several enraged orks of my own. At this point I lost sight of what was going on with Yamis, McShane, and Sheldon, as a furious battle on precarious footing was all around me. I saw an opportunity and charged my sword with lightning striking the frenzied ork in front of me. The resulting blast of lightning, allowed me to shadow hop in the flash to a position in the middle of the second staircase. Normally this would be a foolish move but it placed me in an opportune place to catch most of the orks in my cyclone of flame. I summoned my inner fire and set about a whirling of my sword in an arcane twister blasting forth. Most of the orks were instantly set ablaze and those that were not Gil made short work of. The scarred commander was making his way to the stairs, I retreated to the platform making ready to utilize my lightning lasso on him as he approached. I nodded to Gil, and he understood my plan. At this point I noticed that Gil had taken a few serious wounds from the orks that we had just dispatched. I said to him,

“Let me know when you need me to take the front.”

He nodded and moved to engage the leader in the center of the stairs. Yamis was targeting the last of the ork bowmen and was finding him a difficult target at such a range. The leader advanced on Gil, and we set our plan into motion. I let the lighting lasso fly but again the ork deflected it to no effect. He pasted Gil with a mighty blow from an insidious looking long blade, I set my hex on the leader, Gil rose for a mighty swing that appeared to be destined to sever the ork champions head, as he raised the axe above his head for the swing a large arrow shaft pierced his shoulder, spinning him about, and over the edge of the stairs. Gil made a futile grasp for the ledge but missed utterly as he disappeared into the darkness below. Yamis now on the landing behind me took careful aim and loosed a giant arrow. Bodily piercing the remaining archer, and dropping him to the depths. The ork champion and I met at the center of the stairs. I loosed my lighting several times in an effort to send him to his cohorts, to little effect, although I did manage to trip him several times. Yamis started in earnest pelting him with giant arrows, which for the most part embedded themselves into his large shield. Not being able to land a clean blow on me since Yanmis and I kept knocking him down he lurched at me from a prone position trying to sever my legs from the knee down. I saw the attempt and jumped. His blow caught me at the heel of my boot sending me spinning through the air. I smashed my head so hard on the staircase ½ way through my induced flip that I blacked out. The next thing I know, Sheldon is standing above me dropping a potion into my mouth, stating that he shall poke the leader into the eye with his steel… I scrambled to get up behind Sheldon. The leader swung his nasty blade at Sheldon laying his leg open in a freely bleeding wound. This of course triggered my hex, where I teleported in behind the leader. Charging my blade with freezing cold I slashed across his back, as he turned to me Sheldon pierced his sword arm through the bicep, and Yamis pelted him with a giant arrow. The three blows simultaneously caused him to loose his footing and trip over the edge of the stairs, landing somewhere below in a still heap. As I took stock of our situation I spied McShane and Gil retrieving Roarstrag far below. In my weakened state I made my way down the stairs with Yamis, Sheldon leading the way. When we arrived McShane was gesticulating wildly for us to be silent. We complied and he proceeded to paint a picture of another dozen or so orks & a large ork torturing a lone remaining dwarf.

“I am in no condition to fight more orks.”, I stated.

While the fog was clearing from my head by this point I was battered, bruised, stabbed, and cut all about my person. Gil looked not much better, with Sheldon only slightly better still. Of all of us only Yamis looked fit for more combat. Yamis heard the speaking inside of the ork interrogation. He translated for us something about a collapsed tunnel needing to be reopened and that the dwarf was steadfastly refusing to cooperate. It also became clear that the dwarf was responsible for the collapse of the tunnels the orck needed, and that he may have stopped or at least significantly delayed an ork invasion.

“Pelor did not team up with Moradin to bring us here to witness this noble dwarf’s death. By the power of the Light of Pelor and the hammer of Moradin we shall not let this dwarf perish!”

I immediately felt my aches subside, my head clear, and my sword arm grow strong…

“Right. Still there are many in there and few of us, and we’ve been better. What if we try to use a bit of guile instead of brute force to win the day.”

“What do you mean?” asked Gil.

“Do you still have the note from the Emissary?”

Gil rummaged in his pack for a moment and produced the note. Taking it I pulled my leather coat over my wounds and the hood over my head.

“Meet the Emissary’s latest interrogator extraordinaire. I’ll storm in there and try to con them into thinking I’m from the Emissary and that I’ve been tasked with interrogating this dwarf, when I get the dwarf to the stairs we will run as fast as we can up the stairs and you guys can pelt them with the mini-ballista”, I stated.

The rest looked at me dubiously, but eventually nodded indicating they did not have a better plan.

“Sheldon, you remain hidden at the corner. If things go well you can signal the others to make ready for the ambush. If they do not, you can signal for them to come and rescue my sorry behind… Sound good?”

He nodded and the other rose to take their positions. I tapped Sheldon on the shoulder –

“I need your assistance…”.

I stood feet slightly more the shoulder width apart and placed my hands on my hips.

“Look I need to look the part of an insanely mad teifling interrogation master. I need to you kick me in the balls so that I can generate the appropriate amount of rage.”.

Sheldon looked at me dumbfounded…

“I’m serious It’s the only way I can get mad enough to pull it off.” I insisted.

He shook his head and readied a gonad crushing blow. I steeled myself and clenched my teeth The blow had its desired effect… I wanted to kill that slight little piece of pompass rich boy on the spot… He deserved to die a slow painful death, death by Fire crisping his flesh slowly one nerve ending at a time, only to have salt sewn into the wound and… Ahhhh…. Now I am in the right mind set… as I adjusted my gait and stormed into the room…

Inside the room, was as McShane had described.

A HUGE ½ Ogre/Ork Hybrid even bigger then the one we had dispatched on the stairs, a high priest of some sort, several wild eyed, heavily muscled ones and a handful of ork regulars, scattered about a room that was obviously a dwarven forge, that had a huge raging fire in the far corner, as well as several forges ablaze around the perimeter. Also, as McShane had mentioned the dwarf was present being held near one of the forges as the larger ork growled at him in common to open the passage or die. The dwarf looked close to death, naked save for a loin cloth, battered, bruised, and bleeding but still exuding a defiant air of superiority.

“The Emissary is most displeased at your apparent lack of progress! I have been sent to interrogate this worthless piece of dwarven meat and I intend to sacrifice him upon the alter of his own god upstairs if he does not comply with my questions!”.

I bellowed with all the force of will and strength of voice I could muster as I stormed across the room with the look of heated death wishes for anyone that made eye contact with me.

The largest spun to look at me, “Wha…?”

I cut him off immediately, “You’re in charge here?! I should cut your balls off and feed them to you for allowing this to happen! The Emissary requires the information this dwarf has and your incompetence has not gone unnoticed!”.

“Who are you? He bellowed, as I finished my way across the room to him and the dwarf.”.

“You have no right to my prisoner and I do not respect your authority…” he yelled down at me.

I pulled the note from the emissary we had gotten from Rivenroar, careful to hide the actual writing and just show the emissaries mark at the bottom I shoved it into his face,

“You don’t respect MY authority!? My authority comes from the Emissary himself you ignorant excuse for a commander, here is his mark if you don’t believe me!”.

As I shoved the note back into my pocket I looked at the large ork and yelled ferociously into his face, mustering a glint of fire in my stare…

“WHY IS THIS PRISONER NOT MANACLED! ? !”

As I loosed my rope from my pack and palmed a healing potion I looped a lasso over the dwarfs head while slipping him a potion and a wink… and proceeded to lead the dwarf to the exit…

“He is MY prisoner and you are not taking him! I’ll cut you down if you take another step!” the large abomination bellowed.

“How dare you even think of opposing me! I shall strike down where you stand if you don’t move aside!” as I dropped my hex upon him hoping to reinforce my point.

Off to the other side of the room I saw Sheldon disappear hopefully signaling that things were about to go very badly for me as all of the orks drew weapons and moved to surround me. Realizing that the gig was most certainly up I drew my viscous longsword, charged it with lightning, and hacked at the leader giving him a nice lightning induced burning scar. I rode the flash of the lightning to the other side of his merry band I summoned my inner fire and burst forth a blast of arcane fire as I traced the symbols with my sword in the air. Several were lit ablaze, but none fell. The leader moved up between me and cursed me in a tongue I did not understand and landed a mighty blow across my belly, a blow that made me remember why I had not wanted to come in here… Out of the corner of my eye I saw Gil charging into the room, I summoned my will and bellowed,

“For that you shall all DIE! The Emissary does not send pawns to do his bidding,… Kill them ALL!”.

I side-stepped one of the smaller orks and ran toward Gil in a circuitous route to avoid any more foes. The wound the leader placed on me was bleeding at a prodigious rate… Still I summoned my bluster and yelled,

“You dare go against the will of the Emissary – for that you shall all perish!”, I yelled as Gil cut down the nearest of the orks.

The Leader announced that anyone who attacked me will die by his hand and he made his way toward me as the rest of the orks moved in to surround Gil and I. Sheldon, Yamis, and McShane were at the bend of the hallway and started to pepper the orks with javelin sized arrows and various fire magicks, weeding out the less hardy of their band. With the leaders command to leave me to him, Gil was taking an awful amount of abuse. Almost all of the orks were attacking him, he was giving as good as he got but there were just too many and even though I did my best to draw some of the attention away he was still not going to last long in that mess. He yelled mighty exhortations to glorious battle as he buried his axe into ork after ork, but he soon was overcome. Yamis proclaimed him blessed warrior of Pelor, and Gil stirred.

I proclaimed, “A Cleric of Pelor – What are we doing fighting I command you to kill him!” but to no effect they ignored my bluff.

A few seeing Gil fallen ignored him and made their way toward Yamis, Sheldon and McShane. Sheldon and Yamis ran interference for McShane as he continually threw bolts of fire down the hallway generally missing the leader but leaving a burning trail that many of the other orks were touched by. As one of the Orks moved to chase after Yamis and Sheldon Gil took a swing at his ankles with his axe nearly severing his calf. The ork realizing Gil was not dead returned to lay a mighty down stroke of his own axe into Gil. Gil coughed blood and rolled to the side.

“Not yet my empowered avatar of light! Pelore has duties for you to perform!”, Yamis called out.

Amazingly I saw Gil stir. The orks did not seem to notice. By this time, the leader had waded his way through the melee to my side grinning evilly as if he knew something I didn’t, dropped low and swirled about in a flurry of blades that I managed to deflect but Gil having just risen to his feet was struck by the savage attack, and fell to the ground bleeding. I maneuvered to his side and slapped a handful of bella leaves into his bleeding wound. The leaves had the desired effect of staunching the flow of blood and energizing Gil to awaken again. The ork berserkers took note of Gil again and came back to press the attack. Gil deflected several blows and landed a few in rapid succession. At this point I saw Sheldon appear behind big nasty and plunge his thin shank between his ribs declaring that his was looking for the chiefs liver… and bemoaning his altered hybrid anatomy as he failed to find it. The stab did have the effect of igniting the chiefs fire to new levels. The abominations veins bulged, his eyes widened, his hair seemed to stand on end as he bellowed forth a war howl of deafening proportions. He took a mighty upward stroke that had I not sidestepped would have ended any hope of my having children, the stroke instead found purchase in my lower abdomen and made an upward path through my sternum. This blow in concert with the previous one he hit me with, started the blood flowing freely from my body… At the same time I slipped a blow in under his armor to meet up with Sheldon’s steel in the middle of the abominations’ chest, and I fell to the ground unconscious. Yamis finished off his ork with a series of quick blows to the orks head that flattened his skull. And moved in to assist me and land some blows on the remaining orks.

Next I know I awaken to Sheldon dropping another potion bottle next to me – De ja vu… all over again…

I stood and found myself next to big nasty again… Summoning all my bravado…

“Come get me Motherfucker…”, tauting the leader as I limped away from him toward the fire…

At this point I saw a burning corpse of the shaman, that during the fight, I had lost track of, and the dwarf wielding a rune covered Hammer nearby.

My insults did not go unnoticed as the Ogre-ork abomination, saw me and became enraged and moved toward me ignoring my friends, who took advantage of his defensive lapse to land several significant blows. He moved close to me and Gil landed a blow that hooked around the abominations shield gashing his shoulder.

The Leader looked at Gil and stated, “Haven’t I dropped you four times already…?”,

He then proceeded to start a flurry of blade motions that attacked everyone around him. I was able to bring my blade to bear in time to deflect but Gil once again was hit and dropped, along with the hammer wielding dwarf. I swung a frigid blade deep into his thigh, while Yamis and Sheldon worked in concert to bring this beast down. Aware of Sheldon’s knack for finding the seams in his armor he maneuvered the shield to face Sheldon. Yamis, waiting for the move, timed it perfectly to bring a skull splattering smash to the top of the leader dropping him to the ground.

McShane moved immediately to Gil and tried to save him from death by applying a bandage to some of his wounds. I moved to the dwarf and did the same stabilizing him. Looking back over my shoulder I saw McShane was having trouble stopping the bleeding. Yamis and Sheldon saw the same and we all moved in to try and help. Sheldon bandaged a freely bleeding gash to Gil’s forehead, I tied bandages to his legs, while Yamis applied more bella leaves into the wounds across his chest and abdomen while chanting a blessing to Pelor. Gil Stirred slightly lolled to the side and spit some blood from his mouth but was breathing again, albeit in shallow raspy gasps. I took a few moments to summon my strength back to my limbs. I looked around and decided to look for magical auras here. I found a few and proceeded to round up the items in question. During the search I found a magical hammer and dwarven Mithril plate that seemed to be the Dwarf’s that we had rescued, a rapier, a couple of potions, a couple of sapphires, and some money. I piled it in the center of the room and declared that I needed some rest. I took the dead bodies of the orks and set them into the fire, and after the room was clear of debris of a foul nature, undid my bedroll and got a bit of sleep. In the morning Yamis tended my wounds and assured me that Pelor and Moradin were watching my back… I feel a lot better but still could use more rest. The dwarf was conscious and I set about getting his tale…

“What the heck is going on?”, I queried…

“My name is Danen Greef, and I’m a paladin of Moradin. I have come here through the ancient tunnels of the Dwarven masters only to find them infested with Ork trash. The monastery was one of the many entrances/exits to the ancient tunnels, that the orks have overrun. I met up with an adventuring group near the vents to the mines and they told me of orc troubles…”.

“The Farstriders?”, I asked

“Yes. That is their name. Edgar Sommerfield is their leader. Upon investigating the vents we came across numerous orks, more then we could possibly defeat in single combat. Edgar had made me swear upon all I hold holy, that if we were in a situation that was beyond hopeless I would depart to the Monastery and blow the tunnels to stop the orks from advancing. I fear I was only partially successful as I did blow the tunnels but many orks had already gotten through…”.

“We encountered many upstairs in the monastery,…” Sheldon chimed in

“We killed them all”, I added…

Danen nodded in approval, “That is welcome yet tragic news. The orks will no doubt make their way to the vents as an alternate route out of the ancient tunnels. But I know of a way to stop them. There is a point at the center of the tunnels that route water and other manner of material through giant pipes and reservoirs. If we can make it there I’m fairly certain I can decipher the ancient mechanisms and use them to flood the ancient tunnels sealing this passage from the orks, and forcing them through Bordrin’s tower, if they persist in this invasion attempt.”.

“How close are the vents and do we have time to inform Overlook that the orks are in the mountains…?” Gil asked.

“I do not know how much time we have but informing Overlook, will certainly take us out of the way if we are going to the vents.”.

“We may not have enough time to do both.”, McShane stated matter of factly.

“I think we should head to the vents at all possible haste. If the Farstriders are still alive we may be able to rescue them and shut down the tunnels. If we delay, the opportunity may be lost forever, and we’ll be fighting these orks on our own lands in short order. I say we head to the vents…” I said.

The rest of the group mulled it over for a few seconds and wearily shook their heads in agreement…