Curunauth follows Elfstan with a loud, “Gurth an glamhoth!”
Sindarin for “Death to our foes!” Elfstan is trying to use Sting and whatever battle cries that come to mind to put fear into the orcs. Much better for them to want to attack elsewhere or flee, so he can poke them in the back!
-
- Round 4 - -
Ghân throws an Entangle on the hedge. The horses pull back a bit as one lone warg makes it through. Anca and Fang spring upon the lone warg. Anca growls deeply and goes for the wargs ear and Fang goes low and to the right flank. They both score hits. The warg nips Anca but Anca rips off its ear and then seizes the throat of the warg. Fang has hobbled the rear leg and is pulling back hard until a loud snap is heard. The warg cannot slip Anca’s death bite. Kali the descendant of Shadowfax gives a hard kick to the left side of the warg and breaks many ribs and takes the fight out of it. Fang rips at the other rear leg and the horrendous evil wolf is quickly fading now. A few heard a distinct hiss from the back of Kali.
- Round 4 - -
Deor tosses his second Sleep spell. He gets 11 this time all of them already engaged in battle. There are but 17 very demoralized Orcs left fighting.
Orcs have 11 probably injured and 13 dead and 20 sleeping.
Gilraen’s bauble is blazing very brightly and her song is heartening this party of the free people and their animal companions as they try to defend themselves and horses from the glamhoth. She pulls out the spear and feeds Hartur 6 Good Berries and fully heals him.
Mulligan keeps an eye in all directions and sees a bleeding coughing warg make it through the dwarven barrier of barb wire and her smoke. She goes to hit it twice with her +2 Special Silver Bullets and notices for the first time that they appear to explode against evil wolves. The first bullet practical blew the wargs head open. She holds briefly with the second bullet. (Thank your Uncle next chance you have; I am pretty sure that is where they came from.)
Elfstan stabs one through with Sting. He moves out for a quick rear attack as needed. He has time to eat 2 Good Berries.
Curunauth swings his Long Sword and kills one on him another sleeping on the ground.
Thoroncir hits an injured foe and finishes him off. He quickly ends a sleeper’s life.
Gwaelur bashes left with his shield and chops right with his axe and then again on a sleeper and three more orcs are dead.
The 9 Dwarves are mainly in defensive mode. They do drop 3 orcs and coup 2 sleepers while taking 2 injuries but no dwarves drop. Most importantly the line holds and Elfstan, Curunauth & Thoroncir are now flanking the orcs.
Orcs have 7 probably injured and 25 dead and 15 sleeping.
Gil-Gandel switches to his Dwarven made Silver Arrows with better saves. His first hits at point blank for 14 and drops the weak warg. His next two arrows hit for 15 injuring a stronger warg. The warg leaps at him and bites for 5.
Miron’s first try goes very badly as he his arrow snags the quiver and finally many arrows go tumbling out onto the ground. He is flustered and moves out of the way of the wargs, completely missing one returning to the main fight.
Mulligan sees one warg has snuck past Gil-Gandel and is going for Thoroncir’s back, she fires off another +2 Special Silver Bullet. It slams into the warg for 28 points and drops it instantly.
(9 to go & most injured or trapped or entangled?)
-
- Round 5 - -
Thoroncir hears the commotion behind him and turns to see the dead warg and flustered elf and two more wargs coming quick. He sheaths his sword fast and pulls out his magic Strong bow and sends two arrows into the nearest for 20 points. The lightly injured warg drops.
Miron given a chance to recover now sends three +1 arrows flying. All three find vulnerable warg flesh to pierce. He does 34 on a healthy warg and drops it by plenty.
Mulligan moves towards Gil-Gandel and lets fly a normal silver bullet but scores a critical hit for 14 anyway. The warg drops stone cold dead. She stays alert for where she can help and has one of each bullet type handy.
Gil-Gandel relieved of his warg moves swiftly to the webbed area and still gets off two more shots. At point blank he drops a webbed warg.
(5 to go & all injured or trapped or entangled)
- Round 5 - -
Elfstan drops an orc from the back and stabs a second injured one with his +3 knife in his off hand.
Curunauth lays about with his Long Sword. Two healthy orcs go down and a third sleeper.
Gwaelur charges around to meet Elfstan and slams an injured one with his shield and chops down another with his axe and tramples and crunches a further sleeper.
The 10 Dwarves now attack in earnest and drop the last five orcs with 2 to 1 odds and kill 5 more sleepers.
Orcs have 43 dead and 8 sleeping.
The spell casters all get to observe as Anca finishes off the Warg.
“Hurrah, my friends!” Thoroncir says, rejoicing as he raises his strongbow high. “Well done, one and all!” He grins. “Did I not tell you, Curunauth, that victory would be ours?” He sees, to his relief, that Gilraen is unharmed and says, “My lady, would you attend to Gil-Gandel’s and the Dwarves’ wounds, please?”
He will then search the sleeping orcs. Does any appear to be an officer? He will spare and bind that one, but kill the others where they lie.
He asks Miron to come over and, if Gil-Gandel approves, will say, “Please scout in the direction from which the orcs came. It’s possible they have a camp not far distant with a rearguard. Beware of any lingering wargs, and let us know what you find.”
Ghân echoes Thoroncir’s words of praise and particularly thanks the ‘passengers’ for their brave efforts. Superb team work!
He hands round Goodberries, then uses Cure Light Wounds (checking with Gilraen for best effect).
He will cure Anca and Fang (if needed0 personally and make them feel fully appreciated as his ‘pack’.
If Miron (or Gil-Gandel) requests it, Ghân will ask Brownie to fly high overhead while they scout.
Ghân offers Detect Magic for checking the orcs.
DM, I’m confident I have enough spells to do all of that (including my spellstone).
-
- Round 6 - -
Fang gives warning there is still at least a few wargs left. The smoke is clearing now and Gilraen is still singing. One warg is in a leg trap and one in the web, according to Fang 3 are in the entangles.
- Round 6 - -
Gil-Gandel puts three normal arrows into the webbed warg. It dies. Mulligan puts two stone to the one in the leg trap and a Dwarf adds a light crossbow bolt.
Ghân must do something about the 3 entangled in the hedge. Only he can get through safely. Fang is fine and Anca needs but two **berries **and he wants the liver of his foe to be full.
Thoroncir protects and ties up one orc as the Dwarves and Curunauth slay the rest. Curunauth cries, if you kill that one, I can tell you if any remain in the area.
If Ghân can dispatch the Entangled Wargs safely, he will do so with his Scimitar.
If Ghan can’t safely dispatch the wargs safely, Elfstan will see if he can sling them to death. Once the standing enemies are dispatched, he will begin searching the bodies.
When everything has settled down, Elfstan will show Sting to Curunauth. It would also be interesting to use this live orc to compare the two swords to see how brightly they each glow at various ranges.
Ghân dispatches the three Wargs with his scimitar. Searching around there appears to be only the one captured orc left alive. Ghân you think you might be able to slightly modify Entangle to allow your animal friends to move within it. It might take a trip to visit Radagast again.
Ghân and Gilraen begin curing the injured using herbs and berries. The only **Cure Light **is on Gil-Gandel.
Ghân casts his **Detect Magic **and while he finds nothing on the Orcs combined with Deor’s Dragon Light, they locate all of the magic arrows and bullets that were used.
Gil-Gandel: of 9 +1 Arrows and 6 Dwarven Silver arrows he lost one +1 and one needs repair work that will probably need to wait until Rivendell.
Miron shot 12 +1 Arrows and fumbled 6 +1 Arrows fumbled. One is broken and one needs repair.
Mulligan used up 2 smoke bombs & 2 +2 Special Silver Bullets
The orcs have little of value and crappy studded leather armor. There are 35 short swords and 32 long knives.
Curunauth on Sting and his Long Sword, “That must be Bilbo’s blade, an excellent sword for you. I have examined it before but I cannot determine its lineage. No more than Elrond could. I did note that the smith ensured that it would work against evil spiders. Mine is good for Orcs and Undead. Mine will glow dimly if an Orc is within 300 yards. I believe Sting will only go half of that maybe. Both will glow more after striking an Orc. Even I do not know why. I have recaptured some of their arts but not a complete understanding. Here let up take a walk until we see when Sting stops.”
“Shall we loose the dogs to see if there are any remaining wargs in the area?” Thoroncir asks. “Or would Miron or one of our redoubtable Hobbits like to venture forth into the woods? I will accompany any of you, if you wish or think it advisable.”
Assuming his hawk isn’t requested elsewhere, Miron will send Swift Wing ahead of him in the direction the orcs came from. He takes a quick look at the dwarves and Lorliana before departing, murmuring “Send word for me if there are too many injuries- I can’t match our spellcasters when it comes to healing, but I’ll be able to help stabilize the wounded so they can wait for their turn.”
He turns to leave but only manages several paces before halting, again speaking to nobody in particular as he notes “Someone ought to see to that scholar, too- she said she hasn’t seen combat, and the last thing we need is to have one of our clients break down in the middle of unknown territory.”
Having had his say he’ll move in search of the orc camp with as much stealth as his need for haste merits. With at least 70 members, he hopes the horde will have left ample evidence of their passage.
Deor, Why don’t you check on Lorliana and make sure she is ok.
I think I will follow Miron and make sure the area is undisturbed for us, at least for tonight.
Ghân is certainly interested in this idea.
Where is Radagast now? Assuming we get safely to Rivendell, how long to reach Radagast from there?
No, Anca and Fang are bodyguards to Ghân and the other spellcasters. They can regularly sniff the air, but do not ‘run about’.
(Ghân pictures the canines setting off, then the sound of barking, then combat to the death - while the party go “Oh! Where’s that happening?” :eek: )
Also at night, Brownie the Owl is the best support for any scouting.
Ghân has offered Brownie the Owl as overhead cover for scouting - which should work much better at night.
(Also Brownie has been asleep all day.)
Miron, Swiftwing and Brownie and head out with Mulligan trailing along.
Curunauth & Elfstan also head out with their swords glowing.
As to [COLOR=“Sienna”]Radagast, I am jumping that to the setup thread. [/COLOR]
Out of habit, Elfstan will try to keep Sting’s glow concealed even if Curunauth’s blade is illuminating the pair. He will try to be extra wary since Curunauth probably isn’t.
Trying to be as cheerful as possible, Deor retrieves his Dragon and goes to show it to Lorliana, who should certainly be interested in an artifact like that. He’ll also offer Ghan his last Sleep for the Entangled Wargs. After doing so, Deor will check Folca, just out of habit, since she should have spent the battle as an observer.
Keeping a sharp lookout here, as the remaining pair of (trained) Elven eyes. And making generally encouraging remarks to all concerned for their sterling effort!
Deor offers up the sleep not realizing two things. It only has a 50% chance of sleeping a warg and Ghân is already ending their lives with his scimitar.
At about 100 yards out the Glow of Sting is noticeably less than the glow of Curunauth’s blade. At about 200 yards out Sting is getting dim but Curunauth’s is still bright. At 300 yards out Sting is very dim and surprisingly Curunauth’s stops glowing. At 334 yards out Sting stops glowing as the pair head back, Curunauth’s surprisingly starts glowing sooner than expected. Both blades then start glowing brighter, Curunauth says, “Fascinating, I wonder if they are somehow working with each other.”
Meanwhile Miron and Mulligan are slowly following the orc trail. It is indeed not tough to follow it. After about 2 miles they find signs of a temporary camp. It appears the orcs came from further east and had only been here recently.
Miron would like to take a quick look at the tracks leading from the east to see if they were left by approximately the same number of orcs (and wargs) that the party encountered, or if there’s a possibility that more of the host is still around.
“I doubt they would have left anything of value in such a crude enclosure,” Miron whispers to Mulligan, “But unless you’d like to come with me to stare at tracks and warg droppings, you might wish to make a quick circuit of the camp and check to see if the orcs left anything useful here.”
Miron is apparently in high spirits working in his natural element, as he actually attempts to socialize while making one last check of the perimeter, offhandedly (if quietly) telling Mulligan of various tricks one can use to throw off trackers. “If you really want to confuse someone,” he smirks, “You can try to find some unusual animal droppings and systematically leave them on your trail. Good trackers will usually catch the trick and dismiss it, but if you’re lucky you’ll leave some poor marauder searching your trail to find traces of animal companions that don’t actually exist.”