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Beren, Gwaihir, Landroval, and Kazay return from their errand to find improvements made to the town's defense. They have built a 6' high wall and a palisade and covered the moat to disguise it. Our group's assignment in the coming battle will be to act as reinforcements for breaches in the wall, and to fight any heavy hero types that attack. Other elite groups like ours includes the fops, Kord, Sir T, etc. We will be positioned on the far right of the wall, near the forest. There we are, waiting for the army. Out of nowhere, it seems, a lone rider with a banner of Zhentil Keep comes riding up. He carries a banner of parley (i.e., he wants to talk). Sir T goes to talk, and comes back rallying his troops (picture Braveheart here). Then the army approaches! They start with a footman's charge, about 700 in the first wave. The cavalry and siege engines are coming slowly behind them with archer cover. Um, but it appears that the archers aren't aiming at us so much as they are aiming at their first wave of attack! That's the problem with getting conscripts to do your dirty work. They charge over the moat, some falling in, some drowning, some making it across. We get in a little hand-to-hand combat. Kord is there with us. Someone shoots Greek fire at us; Corbin inspires us to courage; and Dorn intimidates several peasants. We do a little more hand-to-hand, and then the dragons (blue and red that we saw the day before) go after the siege engines. One of us (or maybe two?) spot something behind us -- could that have been a fireball? We go to investigate (Kord comes with us). Apparently the triage unit (think MASH) has been hit! Some pages come running out, and then we see it. The giant spider-demon 20' high walking through our reserve troops like butter! We go after it. To make a long story short (too late) we kill that one. Gwaihir and Landroval then spot a group of drow in the forest and run after them. Meanwhile, another Bebelith appears! The drow ask for instructions (Danarn is with them). We tell them to move through the forest to flank the enemy's army and take out the spellcasters! So maybe they'll help. Meanwhile, our group is attacking the spider-demon. But Gwaihir and Landroval, before they can make it all the way back to the Bebelith, spot a group of skeletons moving out of the cemetary! (Exciting, isn't it?) So the elven brothers attack the skeletons. There are about 30 of them, coming in waves of 5 or 6, and wouldn't you know it, the point at which we reach them to attack them is just out of sight of the rest of our group! Luckily, after they drop the second Bebelith, Dorn thinks that the elves might be in some trouble, and they come to our aid. We finish off the skeletons, only to see a "bat dude" in the cemetary. There are five grayish elves (I have "cambians?" written) around him, backed by even more skeletons. The grayish elves charge us. Miranda shoots the bat guy, and he responds with a blast of fire. The five charge, missing all of us horribly. We get into hand-to-hand with them, Landroval providing magical support from the backline (color spray, ice storm). We can now see, in front of the bat guy, the black-robed dude who's been animating the skeletons. Dorn charges that one and does 34 points of damage with one swing! Then it all gets a little messy. Landroval tries Ray of Enfeeblement (I think this is on the bat dude) but he saves; Gwaihir summons a swarm of rats (on the spellcaster I think) to prevent him from casting. The skeletons move up and attack Dorn. Gwaihir charges the skeletons, Miranda is having trouble with the very last of the Cambian-types. Landroval casts invisibility on Phae, who sneaks around behind the black-robed spellcaster. Beren kills the last Cambian before it does Miranda in. The wolves (Meneldor and Cricket) and Landroval move up to attack the skeletons. Phae stabs the guy with her moonblade type thing (here we learn he's undead!). Gwaihir and the wolves attack the skeletons, Landroval charges Mr. Black-robe. He was trying to cast, but the damage disturbed him. Dorn (who has been attacking Bat Dude hand-to-hand) takes off Bat Dude's head! Kord charges in and mops up the skeletons. Phae gets the spellcaster again! That drops him and he crumbles to dust (weird). A voice whispers on the wind, "This is not finished..." We take a moment to take the interesting stuff of the corpses (Gwaihir gets a kewl scimitar). Whew! We return to the wall and see the army in full retreat. Some on cavalry are mopping up across the wall. We see brass casings (whatever that means). Phae finds Norster. Bat Dude some type of half-fiend. Black-robed guy a lich (newly turned). The scimitar Gwaihir got appears to have some kind of special flaming property. We help with the routing of the enemy and the healing of the wounded. Then it's time for rest and celebration! The next day we get the chance to check out some of the cool stuff we got. There's an amulet, my scimitar, and a falchion, all magic. Dorn checks out the Bat Dude. He's got magic armor (plate mail) and a magic ring. Phae finds a ton of cool stuff in the lich's belt. We find out that the scimitar is +2 with flaming burst, the ring is +3 ring of protection, the amulet is an amulet of spiritual holding, and probably has the soul of the lich, and the armor is +2 half-plate with fire resistance (but Dorn chooses not to wear it). Town is in mourning over their dead; our side lost about 320. Phae finds a black wand in the belt, with parchment wrapped around it! Looks like a wand of missiles. Dorn also finds four metal phials with etchings, 2 are the same, and 2 more are different. Looks like slaver-make (abyssal tongue). 1 ~ magic protection; 2 ~ restoration, 3 ~ defenistration (?!). They ID scrolls. Landroval takes charge of them, except for Teleport which he lets Norster have. Day draws to an end. The other paladin, Conrad, rides up. They're going back to Broken Arrow pass. If we ever need anything, just ask. That night there is a massive celebration. The group from Farkeep leaves. Sad good-byes, but what do you do. So we party late into the night. |