At a hunting lodge.
Paris stayed up keeping watch against orcs until the wee hours. Then she roused Calais, explained what keeping watch meant, and instructed him to wake Brillig when he himself got to tired to watch. (Brillig was rather resistant, as it turned out; but he did keep watch.)
In the morning the Party and Kivan parted company, Kivan giving rather more comprehensive description of the route to the next hunting lodge. Calais and Red scouted ahead while the Party traveled blancmange with Paris on point. Mid-morning the two scouts came upon an orc churn somewhat smaller than that they followed from Jouet. They also noted human footprints atop the orc churn, heading north. All were several days old. They waited for the Party to catch up.
Paris explained that the foresters had split up when they found the churn and that Georges and Kivan's footprints were likely to be those heading north. When questioned, she admitted to staying up the previous night and talking with Kivan.
Continuing SSW, the Party reached the expected second east-west stream by early evening. Anton took to the air (demonstrating the inability to listen to anything else while spell-casting, even when it might be to his own benefit). Calais tried to caution him to go invisible so to not be spotted by enemies, but the words fell on deaf ears. From the treetops, Anton could see the birds he had disturbed and what might be clearings both upstream and downstream. He was too low to actually see any buildings. He returned to earth.
Based on Anton's description, the Party opted to go upstream to the nearest clearing, Red and Calais in advance. They found the lodge. There was no sign of occupation or visitors in several weeks although, apparently, at least one of the foresters had brought wood at some point therein. Paris concealed her disappointment at finding no sign of the other foresters, Claude and Ralf, since they had last been seen by Kivan. She foresaw finding that they did not survive following the large orc band - and swallowed hard.
The Party opted to camp inside for the night. This time Paris explained to all the concept of keeping watches. Claire, Mia, Anton and Red ended up with the duty. Red rejected Paris' offer because she had done watch the night before. Unfortunately, the group did not seem to have a means of judging time, and Red ended up with a very long watch.
The morning included a discussion on exactly what direction to take to try to pick up the orc track, Brillig and Anton being anxious to take out their hated enemies now that the mage-with-books trail was so cold. Paris counseled following the stream directly east because there was no evidence as to how far south this group of orcs might have gone. She reminded the others that the ravagers of Jouet went no further south than the village, but that the foresters had found the proposed churn hand continued south from their baron's town. This led to a discussion as to whether or no only orcs and gargoyles took out the baron's town. Paris surprised the group with her observation that she believed a winged creature even larger than the gargoyles had left the waste-mark on the tower. This prompted Red to insist that Paris recount in detail the relevant parts of her night discussion with Kivan. Thinking that no one else was really interested, Paris started to make her report to Red in her customary quiet tone, but the young giant speedily moved to include others in the group to attend the recitation. Paris made as complete a report as she could, omitting only any mention of the more personal topics that had been touched upon. (See Kivan's Tale. )
Following the steam, the party found that the orc churn crossed it shortly before (from the Party's point of view) the stream emptied into the north-south river that fed waters this valley. The Party followed south and found, as the woods opened out into foothills, that - at some distance - two orcs guarded a cave in the steepest part of a hill. There being no point to holding back the orc-hating contingent, ideas were passed around until a plan emerged. Anton, invisible, would move up towards one side of the orcs, prepared to cast his spell of Silence when the first arrows flew. Calais, as back up, would sneak up towards the other side. Red would shoot his two arrows at the left guard. Paris would shoot her one at the right guard and Claire would shoot her Magic Missile spell there too. At the last minute Mia decided to shoot at the right guard as well. The right guard went down, the left was struck and silenced, and Brillig sprinted towards the cave. Brillig finished the left guard with a rock.
The party then regrouped and took the time to let Mia start her ice armor spell while Calais examined the bodies. Then all entered: Paris and Red, Mia and Claire, Anton and Calais, and Brillig. The packed dirt tunnel led downward, past a single torch and then towards two more torches. A room off to the left. Paris and Red paused and spotted orcs therein, one of which spotted them and came forward. The lead fighters stepped into the room, leaving space for the rest of the Party to join at will. Some dozen orcs seemed to fill the room. They scrambled for weapons and armor as the fighters attacked.
Shortly, Red, Paris and Brillig formed a front line, with Claire to the left of the door behind them and the others to the right. Although Paris took one point of damage to the chest and Red, 3 points to the chest, the orcs were put down in short order. As Calais started to rummage through the bodies, the shouts of more orcs could be heard down the corridor. Paris moved out to take a more defensible stand some 3" beyond the room - above a leveling out of the corridor. Soon she was joined by Brillig, while Red, Claire, and Mia set up for distance shots. Mia used her Slippery Earth spell to halt the orcs advance, while Red and Mia's missiles picked four or so off. Paris debated whether to switch to bow as it became clear that there was no way to estimate the number of foes ahead. However, it was clear that there were orcs behind the Slippery Earth spell that towered above the more normal ones in the immediate area. Red gulped, "We may get too tired before we can kill all of those."
Paris looked out over the approaching foe and found herself wondering if there was any chance at all that the missing foresters could still be alive amongst all these man-eaters. Hopefully they had only watched from a distance these last few days and were, even now, meeting up with Kivan and Georges in the north. Hopefully. Her eyes narrowed and she prepared herself for the first wave of hand-to-hand attackers.
EPs: none
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