Day 53 Played in August 2010

Breanna Cleric played by Emily

Glade crazy Magic User played by Scott

Torque Barbarian played by Rusty

Norman played by Rusty

Chieko Thief played by Treasa

Bobo Ranger played by Nick

Picolo Fighter played by Devan

Paxmax played by Vance

Jones NPC Fighter

The party decides to move to "cave 6". Remembering the last incident as this cave, Breanna casts a trap finding spell to avoid the net that so easily surprised us last time. We decide to set a trap of our own. Glade casts an illusion of two travellers trapped in the net that we had sprung. The orcs come in a large group to investigate while we were hiding in the illusion so it appeared there was only the forest around. We got ready a couple of oil flasks, let the cloth to ignite them, and then threw them behind the line of orcs. 7 orcs went down from the flame and our party continued to fire arrows at the confused orcs. After 20 of the orc party is dead, a sleep spell is cast on the remaining orcs, with only 6 of them falling to the spell. 2 orcs try to recover bows on the ground but are shot dead. Members of our party move forward to attack 4 orcs on the left side of the cave entrance, while arrows are shot at 4 orcs on the right. 1 orc was shot down on the right while the other 3 rush in behind Torque and Norman. The orcs miss the attack on Torque and Norman. Chieko the elvish thief attempted to fire and arrow at one of the orcs behind Torque and almost shoots her own foot but manage to shoot Torque in the back instead. The remaining orcs are destroyed with one orc being hit into a horrible crunching mess. Torque is healed and the party moves into the cave after the entrance is searched for items, but nothing was really found.

We find a room after a little distance with 2 orc women and a few kids. Torque talks to them in orcish and they plead for protection and offer to be Torque and Norman's mates. Eventually the party decides that Torque, Norman, and Chieko can stay to guard them. The rest of the party moves north farther into the cave and find a door. The door gets pulled open and 3 orc warriors yell out an alarm. Part of the party is surprised. Bob attacks one and kills him while dodging attacks from two of the orcs. A spell is cast by Breanna to heat the metal of the orc armor. Another orc is slain while the last orc turns to run. Bobo attacks with his sword and puts it through the back of the orcs armor and watches the orc fall to the ground. Bobo, Picolo, and Chieko had an emergency and head back to the keep. Suddenly an army of orcs appears and prepare to wreak havok on the group of travelers (Ed. I think this last line was a joke; also, the journal keeper must have changed as writing style changes here.).

Paxmax has tried to attack and failed. He received 5 points of damage in his attempt. Jones attacks and kills an orc with 8 points. Paxmax does 7 damage and kills an orc into a bloody pulp. Paxmax and Belzedar heal 5 points of damage. Frederick attacks with 12 points and misses. Paxmax deals 5 damage and destroys his enemy. Cassius swings but misses.

Back in the cave room with the females, they converse for awhile. Sooner or later, the female orcs are ready to leave and Torque and Norman allow them to go. The two 1/2 ogre "brothers" set out to meet up with the group. Jones attacks with 5 and misses. All enemies are killed.

Torque and Norman found the group and now are ready to travel. Breanna uses her magic and healed herself. Breanna detects magic and finds 50' of magic rope. We also carry out a ton of gold and other pieces of treasure.

We arrive at the Keep about 4:00 PM. Breanna talks to Groucho. We talk to the priest, Priestly. They received word of the caves, that they are swarming with evil.

Priestly checks the magical rope and finds it to be a climbing rope with the command "climbsay"; this causes the rope to become rigid or retracts to the user. Cassius and Frederick stay at the temple and then the remainder of the party goes to the trader. We sell 30 long swords, 9 suits of chain mail (!!!), and 1 suit of plate mail fro 456 gold and 16 silver. We also sold a barrel of win for 55 gold. The party all receives 58 XP.

We all returned to the inn for a good nights sleep.

Caves Expedition Day 47 (September 16 game time)

11/27/2009 game session

Group of adventurers gathered at the Borderland Keep for an outing to the Caves of Chaos:

Breanna Cleric (Emily), Chieko Thief (Treasa), Picolo Fighter (Devan), Cassius Cleric (NPC controlled by Emily), Frederick Cleric (NPC controlled by Treasa).

The innkeeper at the Keep provided a tasty breakfast of bread, milk, and assorted meats (sausage, bacon, and ham). A trip was made to the trader to resupply oil for the party, the cost being 5 gp per vial of oil.

Nothing exceptional to report after leaving the keep and traveling east to the caves as normal. The party approached the easternmost cave at the north of the ravine, which had previously been partially explored. Breanna vaguely remembered kobolds residing at the cave. After gathering bearings, the party met a large group of kobolds at a cave down from the eastern passage at the entrance.

The kobold group was rather large but not actively aggressive. Rather, one of their number grunted out in common "to leave" as someone had killed their leader recently (not recognizing or grasping the fact that part of this party had been responsible for that act). The party beat a judicious retreat and were somewhat nonplussed.

After consulting the maps and the terrain, the party decided to attempt a cave at the south of the ravine. Based on the maps, it was thought that this was unexplored. However, their intuitions and finally flat out evidence indicated that it was part of the large cave complex that was previously explored. This was determined after locating a familiar dungeon / torture room and using a key (to verify that it was the same room).

The map and terrain were observed again and a cave up further on the ravine was chosen on the north side, to the west of the kobold cave. Although some caution was used in approaching the cave (as recommended by Picolo), nothing specific was done and the whole party tripped a weighted net about ten feet outside of the cave. It was covered in tar and had metal parts that clanged as it crashed onto them, alerting several orcs that quickly appeared.

Somehow, the clerics all were able to cast protection from evil, but to little avail. The orcs demanded that the party surrender, but the members were obstinate and pressed a fight, which the orcs gave gladly. A few members attempted to cut the net (Picolo with a great axe!!!). All of this was futile as the orcs easily subdued the party, knocking Frederick out. The party surrendered and were all bound and blindfolded and brought before what appeared to be the chief orc.

The most charismatic party member (it seems it was one of the clerics) talks with the chief orc and explains that the party was looking for kobolds. The chief must have been bored or tolerant (for an orc???) and gave the ultimatum that the party must kill a rival gnoll leader and bring the head to him, and then never intrude on the orc cave again. A couple of orc guides led the party from the cave (they were blindfolded back to the entrance) to the location of the gnoll cave, which was back at western edge of the ravine.

The party was much more careful approaching this cave, which was quite different from the other caves as of yet explored. It had a smaller entrance (about 8' high) and was all carved out of the natural dirt, later turning to worked stone about 20-30' in. The entrance of the party with light alerted four gnoll sentries, which immediately launched an attack by bow on the party. After a fierce battle, in which Picolo clumsily broke his short bow string, the party took out the four gnolls with minimal damage to the party. Picolo attempted to replace his bow string with the two available bow strings (from long bows!!!) but managed to ruin them both as well. It was found that two of the gnolls had been guarding with halberds (a kind of pole arm) and the other two had been firing with long bows.

Further exploration down the cave to the west and then the north uncovered a room with eight gnolls, all armed with broad swords. These gnolls initially hid back in their room from the immediate missile fire of the party. Then they charged in mass, but were quickly vanquished. It was found that five of their number were female and just as valiant as the males.

The party collected what little treasure was found and headed back to the Borderland Keep. It was a successful trip with Breanna approaching the 3rd level of experience.