The party re-groups in the red masked orc cavern and decides to go back to the keep. By way of the teleporter cavern, they arrive on the keep rooftop in minutes. They find everything and everyone sleeping: people,
beasts, insects, and plants, nothing stirred.
Sometime after 5 PM, they begin waking keep leadership starting with the
Castellan. From there, the Castellan leads Morgan to each
important area of the keep, providing names as he wakes them individually. Morgan curses himself for the condition he
placed on that sleep spell.
The name identifying and
waking process goes on until sunset around 7:45 PM. Most of the officers are awake but there only
limited crews’ man the walls. The vast majority
still sleep. Nilbog’s visions show him undead, humanoids, and
other demonic creatures invading the keep, led by Macrobius. At the urging of Nilbog and the party, Morgan
beseeches his Elven patron Cilborith to dispel the sleep magic he
unleashed. Cilborith answers by waking
everything up but neuters Morgan’s legendary Sleep spell permanently in return. It was no matter, all at once, slowly, the
place became alive again.
The Castellan leads a
disciplined soldiery. The men are fully
aware of the Orcs of the Purple Claw refuges massing at the Caves of Chaos this
past month. They knew that undead of the
barrows walked again. And they fear Macrobius. They all fear the lich.
At sunset, the orc drums and
war cries become discernable. Nilbog
senses evil creeping in from behind. Undead
are coming through the forest Nilbog warns.
Just then, about thirty elves from Pale Wood arrive. They hide in the trees, prepared to ambush monsters
and aid humans. They learn from the elves
that the Gnomes of Lightelf are helping as well. The gnomes are spreading the word throughout
the region.
At about 9 PM, the orc
war party assumes a tactical position outside ballista range. They ready their crude battering rams and
ladders. The shamans cant and the wicked
barbarians rage, over 100 orcs all told, ready to take the keep.
Minutes later the elves
shout word they see approaching undead. They
spot a pack of spider ghouls and a barrow wight leading a hoard of skeletons and
zombies. There must be well over one hundred
undead. The elves know of the spider
ghouls and their climbing abilities. The
spider ghouls climb the trees and attack the elves. The skeletons and zombies make way for the keep’s
eastern side to the drawbridge led by the barrow wight.
The keep soldiers fire at
anything resembling undead within range.
About then the orcs make their move toward the keep using whatever cover
they find. Also at this time, the lich Macrobius
emerges from keep fortress into the inner yard where the party is assembled. Following him are two Set-faced Death
Knights, two wraiths, four elephant-headed minotaur’s, and three fire-breathing
devil boars! No one accounted for the secret underdeeps passage!
So Macrobius takes off flying
and from about fifty feet up throws down a massive fireball right in the middle
of the party. Then the whole inner ward
erupts in melee. For the next three
minutes a most epic battle takes place. The Castellan and about forty of his
men occupy the same courtyard as the party.
The party warriors Darthon, Fema, Rothaga and Fardalf Wydigast fan out with
the Castellan to engage the strongest enemies.
Chopper, the thief, stays mobile, firing magic arrows at Macrobius
repeatedly. Cleric of Mitra Nilbog launches
more than one holy bolt and also heals many of the wounded. The wizard’s Morgan, Baum, and Melkin pepper
Macrobius and the rest with magic missiles and other spells. All the while, keep forces engage in battle
all around. Darthon and Melkin suffer
tragic injuries eventually resolved in battle by Nilbog. More than a few battle scars for most everyone
involved.
Macrobius continues
throwing down massive high-level magic and flies even higher avoiding arrows
and spells. The enemies focus on the Castellan
for much of the battle, but he never falls. Melkin casts a powerful magic missile that
reaches the lich five hundred feet up. This
one hurt. Macrobius retreats via
teleport, probably back to his as of yet undiscovered lair. The surviving Death Knight and minotaur beast
blink out as well.
Most of the undead now retreat
upon Macrobius’ departure. The orcs retreat
as well, but for a different reason. Down
the western road obvious to everyone, a squad of hill giants and ogres, about
ten of them, head and on their way to the keep in obvious conquer and pillage mode. Apparently orcs don’t think much of hill
giants and they route back to the Caves of Chaos. The elves see their retreat will be interrupted
by a band of orc-hating lizardmen from the Baleful Bogs. Perhaps the gnomes alerted the lizardmen?
Meanwhile the giant’s… Not looking for prey just yet, they
sought boulders and other large objects with which to lay siege. The elves already pivoted from the spider
ghoul slaughterfest to the forest edge near the giants, undetected, waiting to
hit and run. Keep personal not involved in healing or dying, rush to defend
the keep. The giants are 675 feet away. We will
see what happens in session #13
In the end, the estimated
body count is as follows:
Enemy Forces
|
Total
|
Deaths
|
The Lich, Shang Macrobius
|
1
|
0
|
Wraiths
|
2
|
1
|
Death Knights
|
2
|
1
|
Elephant-Headed Minotaur’s
|
4
|
3
|
Fire breathing Swine
|
3
|
3
|
Barrow Wight
|
1
|
1
|
Zombies
|
50
|
50
|
Skeletons
|
50
|
22
|
Spider Ghouls
|
20
|
20
|
Wights
|
4
|
2
|
Orc War Priest
|
1
|
1
|
Orc Leaders
|
10
|
2
|
Orc Shamans
|
5
|
3
|
Orcs
|
95
|
23
|
Total
|
248
|
112
|
Keep Forces
|
Total
|
Deaths
|
The Party
|
9
|
0
|
Castellan
|
1
|
0
|
Captain of the Guard
|
1
|
0
|
Sergeant of the Guard
|
1
|
1
|
Bailiff
|
1
|
0
|
Corporal of the Guard
|
1
|
1
|
Corporal of the Watch
|
1
|
0
|
Guardsmen
|
94
|
20
|
Medium Calvary
|
18
|
6
|
Heavy Calvary
|
12
|
3
|
Men at Arms
|
61
|
15
|
Townsmen/Adventurers
|
28
|
10
|
Lackeys
|
15
|
5
|
Total
|
242
|
61
|
4/26/2014
