A Wyvern is lost in Battle
by Greywolf-ELMThe Wyverns are given the pick of the breeding dens for the night. Most make the best of it. Over the next few days, Gorga tries to gather information on the current goings-on in the Broken Lands, and has to range out as far as the Sacred Cavern of the Blood Orcs, to get any good information. He picks up a few extra weapons while he is there, to give a little variety in battle. Iirkh brawls with some of the Ogres, keeping his strength up. Others in the warband keep themselves busy until Gorga returns.
Having finished some errands, the newly named Wyvern warband does a stint at guard duty at the home tribe. They split shifts to cover the walls and cave entrance throughout the day and night. The warbands on scouting and patrol duty report to Gorga, who gives a daily report to Garnash. The Wolves moved off for a few days to accomplish a task for Garnash and return successful, but still with an air of defeat about them.
One report comes in of Ogre's and Hobgoblins scouting across the river and the Vile Runes have killed every one that they have found. Of course with their superior training in stealth, the Orcs have the upper hand in these small skirmishes.
Gorga discusses this with Garnash, and finds out that the Ogres have been probing the defences of the Orcs for some time now, looking for a weakness.
"Garnash, we should drive off these Ogres." Gorga looks up to Garnash on his throne, flanked by two elite Ogre guards, and wonders if he is going to say more than he should one of these days.
"We are still a small tribe Gorga. With enemies on all sides to defend against, can you and your warband put a stop to these raids?"
One of the guards spots a small skulking form in the far end of the hall. "You. Out. This is a private audience."
Taking the hint, Rhgl sneaks back out the far hall, and out to the tribe courtyard.
"We are off of guard duty on the next cycle. I will take the Wyverns and scout in the Ogre lands. We will see how they like it. If we have the chance, we will strike for blood." Garnash nods at Gorga and waves for the Orc to go and do as he has said. So far this one has not let him down.
With a quick explanation to the warband, of what needs to be done, the Wyverns head to the area south of the normal river crossing along the western caravan route through the Broken Lands. They find a fording place in the river, and Gorga leads the scouting across into Ogre lands. Less than a mile into Ogre lands, Gorga finds tracks. 2 maybe 3 warbands headed North, and One Headed West. The ones headed north are suspected to be heading to the main crossing at the caravan route. Figuring that the tribe can handle them, Gorga decides to scout out the group heading west. Scouting along the makeshift Ogre path, the warband scouts west and finds an encampment with 4 tents, and a large bonfire burning. 12 sentries are spaced out around the camp. The sentries are Hobgoblins in groups of 2; some with bows, and others with swords and shields. 3 Ogres and 2 more Hobgoblins are at the bonfire.
The warband makes camp about a mile from the river and gets together to plan the assault on the encampment. Rhgl, Drigka and Snig will come in from the North, and Drigka will attempt to put 2 of the Hobgoblins to sleep. A bowman and foot soldier together. Then Rhgl and Snig will move in and kill them as stealthily as possible. Rhgl is to speak Gorga's name, and what is happening, if something goes wrong. Gorga assures Rhgl that he will hear what is said.
From the South, Iirkh is being beefed up with multiple spells and potions to be a killing machine, hard to hit during the battle. From a distance Gorga and Hobna will fire arrows into the battle, while Iirkh, Gilnak, and Shglsnor move in for close quarters combat. Sharraxtharkul will give spell support as needed.
This did not work as Gorga had hoped. The sleep spell by Drigka fails to take hold on both of the targeted Hobgoblins. They begin to look around for the source of the spell, but do not call out a warning yet. Rhgl sneaks toward them and is spotted by the bowman who uses the goblin for target practice. Snig charges forward to defend the other goblin, and Rhgl cries out that everything is not working.
"Gorga the spell did not work, Rhgl does not like arrows."
Gorga moves up within bow range, and Iirkh charges in to engage another pair of Hobgoblins, hit one and it did not go down right away. Hobna moved up to support Iirkh with arrows, and Gilnak charges in to fight another group of Hobgoblins.
The Ogres at the fire see what is happening, and call out to the tents, "We get attacked." The warband leader Ootah comes out and rallies his troops.
"We Legbreakers. Who we fight?"
Gorga calls out from beyond the range of the Ogre's eyesight "We are the Wyverns, and we have come to slay you!"
Ootah takes some Hobgoblins in tow and moves to attack the Northern assault that he can see. Rhgl runs for cover and Drigka goes uses a spell to turn invisible. Within a few spits 3 Ogres and a Hobgoblin lay dead or dying at Iirkh's feet, but not before shouting for aid from the encampment. Sharraxtharkul managed to help the Half-Ogre further with a spell to soften the ground beneath the Ogres.
In an unusual act of bravery, Rhgl tumbles past the bowman and drives his spear into a vulnerable spot in the Hobgoblins' armour. One of the hobgoblins is killed by Rhgl before Ootah can join combat with the goblin. Snig, seeing his fellow goblin under siege by hobgoblins and a mighty ogre, steps up to Rhgl's aid. Unfortunately for him, the Ogre swings at Snig twice and batters his body with two blows of his great club.
Snig goes down.
"Gorga not going to like this. Snig has been killed!" Rhgl mutters while running off into the dark, beyond the Ogre and Hobgoblins' vision.
Ootah leaves Snig dying on the ground after the 2 brutal hits. He should be dead in moments, and he runs to support his dying Ogres down south of the encampment. The Hobgoblin heads back to his post and bandages his wounds seeing no further enemies here. Rhgl manages to sneak back through the darkness and stab the Hobgoblin in the back taking out the final guard in this part of camp.
This is when the Ogre Shaman makes himself known, and begins casting spells. Spun Cook of Jammudaru is about 9 feet tall, with shamanistic ornaments all over. He is wearing a necklace of neck bones, boar hide armour, and a sharpened bone through the septum of his nose. His gri-gri is a long wooden staff, with a spoon bowl carved into the end.
"Who dares attack Butor camp?" He begins dancing and calling upon spirits for magic, but his first spell seems to fizzle on Iirkh.
The Hobgoblins are ordered to form up and defend Spun, the tents and the rest of the encampment. Drigka saves the first party member of the day, by healing Snig who was slowly bleeding out onto the ground. Rhgl moves in, and sneaks into the nearest unoccupied tent, searching it for anything valuable or useful. Coming around, and grunting thanks to Drigka, Snig moves in under the tent behind him. They see more Ogre's in the tent across the way.
"Uh oh. Gorga not going to like this! 3 more ogres in that tent." Gorga increases the enemy count with this information and begins to wonder if retreating might be a good idea. Not yet with Iirkh fighting like he is.
Butor the Ogre chieftain and his bodyguards move out of the tent to see what is going on. These guys are big and mean looking. Both bodyguards look rather bestial with sharpened teeth, Tattoos and piercings showing them to be barbarian warriors of the Bear Eater tribe.
Butor yells, looking for Ootah. "What's going on?!?"
"Nothing, go back to bed!" drawing attention to himself, Gorga yells at the Ogre Chieftain.
Gorga and Iirkh move up to the other side of the tent on the southeast, putting Iirkh in the position to attack any charging enemies. Ootah charges and is taken out by Iirkh and Gorga in two spits of the boar, taking only minor injuries themselves.
Meanwhile, Shar, and Hobna are trying to fight off multiple Hobgoblins, exchanging arrows and spells versus arrows of the Hobgoblins. Sharraxtharkul heals the Orc as he is nearly knocked unconscious with all of the arrows sticking out of him. Someone has to be around, if he and Margrax are threatened.
Seeing Butor, his guardsmen, and the Shaman moving up Gorga calls for a retreat. This many fresh Ogres and a Shaman added on, will be too much for the weakened warband. Iirkh is hurt, Gorga is hurt, Hobna is hurt, and Snig is hurt.
"Wyverns! We have crippled the Legbreakers, withdraw from the attack!"
Snig sneaks back out the rear of the tent, and moves out southeast to the campsite by the river. Shglsnor and Gilnak disengage as well. Spun blazes flame in a trail after Iirkh as he retreats, scorching the ground where the Half-Ogre previously stood. As a last spiteful act, Sharraxtharkul called upon the spirits to blast the bodies of the fallen enemies with fire, to keep any from being healed, who might still be holding on to life.
Drigka makes his way across the encampment invisible, and retreats with Iirkh and Gorga, who are being chased by one of the bodyguards, Duuk, who Butor can not call back, because he is mad with battle rage. After 3 spits of running, Gorga, Iirkh, and Drigka turn to fight, and what a fight it is.
Duuk charges in and attacks Iirkh twice, hitting once, for a crushing blow to his shoulder. Combined with the damage from his previous wounds, Iirkh is knocked unconscious. When Iirkh goes down, Drigka moves over and administers some magical healing to him. Gorga hits the Ogre with his glaive, cutting deeply into his side. Iirkh gets up avoiding a backhanded swing from Duuk's greatclub and strikes him with a glancing blow of his own. Duuk is confused by his multiple foes for a moment, and attacks both of them, normally quite able to crush both enemies in a turn of the spit. This time is like every other. Gorga goes down bleeding badly, and Iirkh's head is smashed in, killing him instantly. "Oh crap!" are Iirkh's final words just before his head is caved in by Duuk. ****
Drigka is left with a dilemma, try to get some healing to Gorga, and risk getting hit, or run for the hills and leave him to die with Iirkh. In a final act of bravery and desperation he pours the healing slime down Gorga's throat and takes a crushing club strike for his trouble. He turns and runs as fast as his legs can carry him.
"I hope that helps cuz I'm not sticking around to find out!" He runs for the river camp to see who else has survived. Who knows, if Gorga is gone, maybe Drigka can assert his dominance over the warband.
Gorga rolls to face the Ogre and drives his newly acquired glaive into the Ogre's belly killing him. Nearly in shock at the loss of his best warrior, Gorga cuts off Duuk's head as a trophy and proof of the kill. His head beginning to clear, he finds the remains of Iirkh's ear, and pockets the magical earring. He takes Iirkh's ear off leaving it behind, and throw's the body over his shoulder. Even though he is wounded badly he makes his way to the river to join up with his warband to break the bad news.
* Shins are equivalent to 5 Knucks, or about the length of an Ogre's Shinbone
** Knucks are equivalent to feet, Ogre Knuckles as a unit of measure
*** Boar - Measure of time it takes to skin a boar, about one hour. Spits are also used as a measure of time. A boar on a spit is turned over a fire 6 times in about a minute. So a spit is ten seconds.
**** A 1 in 400 chance critical hit (Two 20's in a row). This was one of the most difficult character deaths I've had to deal with. Awesome rolls on behalf of the NPC . It was a popular character to all of us.
Next Up: A kobold slave, and Iirkh's Half Brother, can we use them? Sure.