Turn 27 -- Battle with Orcs!

Beleg and Druckner both duck as another volley of arrows is launched into the center of the party just before the remaining orcs all come streaming into the campsite. Kre is hit by an axe-wielding orc who steps out of the surrounding trees while Druckner is injured from a sword of another orc.

"Venyha s'ahn!" curses Talimar in elvish as he is hit by the initial arrow. He then surveys the scene and sees a group of four orcs, including what appears to be a leader type, lying in wait a few yards northeast of the group. Quickly throwing a pinch of sand to the ground in front of him he casts his sleep spell. All four of the orcs quickly fall to the ground felled by the spell. Talimar sways from the pain in his wound as well as the energy drain from the spell. Steadying himself, he draws his longsword and looks about the camp again.

After the arrows thump into the tree around him, Gnore runs behind a tree, putting it between himself and the archers, and draws his mighty bastard sword, gripping it firmly with both hands. Gnore then looks out at his companions being overwhelmed as he stays out of sight from the orc archers. Yelling curses at the orcs he tries to lure them into the woods with him but he is largely ignored by the orc attackers.

As three orcs move toward Kersath from the south, he takes a few cautious steps back toward the middle of the campsite, hoping to keep himself between the orcs and the mage Dain behind him. He then draws both his longswords and launches a vicious attack on his three assailants. His first blow slices across the throat of a rather large orc to his right, silencing the war-cry that was coming from the beast. Not as lucky with his next blow, the orc to his left parries the strike from the ranger and launches an attack of its own. Kersath easily dodges that blow and retreats another step to now keep the two orcs in front of him.

"Orcs?! Yippee!" says Ortho as he turns to scan the area and find an opponent. As Ortho is not being engaged personally by any orcs he surveys the scene to try and find a suitable foe. Seeing that Brother Randor is engaged by two orcs he chooses to ignore that and moves to attack an orc with a longsword moving to attack Dain from the west. Leaping over the campfire and yelling "Glory to Ironrock!", Ortho swings his battle-axe at the head of the beast with full force. His clumsy attack is easily blocked by the orc who then uses the force of Ortho's jump to sidestep the dwarf and push past him and land a blow to the back of Ortho.

At this point, a new entrant to the battle emerges from the south with a cry of, "Die you godless evils!" Another dwarf dressed in banded mail armour and carrying a mace advances and attacks one of the orcs attacking Kersath. Unfortunately, the dwarf's enthusiasm did not translate into successful attack. Behind this little melee, Dain reaches into a pouch at his side and drops some drops of sand to the ground in front of himself, mimicking the motions of Talimar earlier. As he speaks some strange word, the orc leader and another archer to the northwest of the group fall to the ground asleep.

As the orcs renew their attacks, Ortho, Kersath, and Kre all avoid blows from assailants but Ras is hit hard by the sword of one of the orcs attacking him. The blow knocking the young halfling to the ground with a gaping wound in his left side.

Beleg lowers the face guard on his great helm as the battle first starts, draws his bastard sword and takes a great, two-handed swing at the nearest orc charging to attack him. The diminutive orc raises his spear in an effort to ward off the blow from the large human, but the great paladin's sword snaps the spear in half and carries on to drive deep into the orcs chest, killing it instantly.

Kersath and Brother Randor avoid blows from the orcs confronting them, Randor valiantly defending himself against the two orcs attacking him, while Kre finally finds an opening in his attackers defence and drives Coldheart deep into the eye socket of the orc, slaying it. Druckner lands a glancing blow on one of his assailants as Beleg dodges attacks from the two orcs attacking him.

As the surprise from the initial assault wears off of the companions the battle rises in intensity for not only themselves but from the desperate orcs as well. Shunning the loss of both their leaders, the orcs attack anew. Ras is able to dodge a blow from the large orc attacking him while Kersath deftly moves between his two attackers and avoids any harm to himself. Brother Randor sees an opening and launches a menacing attack on one of the orcs in front of him. His warhammer comes crashing down but the orc raised his shield in time to ward off the blow, even worse, the shock and vibration from the blow cause Randor to drop his warhammer!

Seeing that there are no longer any orc archers lying in wait, Gnore steps from among the cover of the forest to attack an orc fighting Beleg. He lands a glancing to the beast as it turns to face him. The other orc takes the opportunity to thrust his spear under the defence of Beleg and drives the spear deep into the side of the warrior. Beleg attempts to return the blow but is only successful in breaking the shaft of the spear and disarming his opponent.

Looking around to see if any of his companions are in need of aid, Dain just happens to see Kre get hit hard with the longsword from the orc attacking him. Kre's body goes limp as his eyes roll back into his head, Coldheart dropping from his hand. The orc then looks at Dain and gives what can only be assumed to be a smile, a sick, twisting of the face to anyone else. It then says something in orcish and advances on Dain, bloody longsword ready to dispense with the mage.

Beleg, Randor, and Ortho all avoid blows from the orcs as Druckner and Ortho miss hitting their assailants. Kersath though is faring far better than the rest of the group as he quickly sidesteps another blow from the axe-wielding orc attacking him and slides under the orcs defence to open up his insides, longsword slicing under the leather armour and leaving a smear of blood on the blade as it slides through guided by the rangers expert form.

The parties newfound ally attempts once again to dispense with the third orc attacking Kersath but again the blow from his mace is blocked by the orc. Brother Randor is dealt a glancing blow from the sword of one of his assailants as he retreats and bend to retrieve his lost warhammer. He grasps the weapon just in time though to block a blow from the other orc. Garth, Beleg and Talimar also avoid return blows and launch an assault of their own. Ortho regains his balance and lands a blow to the skull of the orc attacking him, his axe driving deep into the brain of the beast, mercifully killing it instantly. Gnore takes a firmer grip on his bastard sword and deals two blows to the orc that attacked him. The first cutting the orc across his right arm, causing him to drop his sword and then the return stroke cutting across the orcs chest to kill him.

Kersath takes the opportunity afforded him from his new ally distracting the last orc facing him to deal it its death blow, a vicious cut across the back of the orcs neck that sends its head toppling off backwards.

Dain is frozen in shock as the sword-wielding orc continues to advance on him. He attempts to raise his staff to protect himself but the orc knocks it to the side and hits Dain across his forehead with the flat of its sword. The creature was obviously trying only to knock the mage unconscious and was quite successful!

Seeing his companion fall, Druckner launches a furious assault on the orc in front of him, one that the orc tried desperately to avoid but was unable to; finally succumbing to a furious blow from the battle-axe of Druckner that chopped off his right arm just above the elbow. "To Dain," shouts Beleg as he also tries to come to the aid of the downed mage. Beleg then deals two wicked swings at the two assailants confronting him and two dead orcs lay in his wake as he moves toward the orc who is now attempting to pick up Dain. Talimar deflects the sword of an attacking orc, sending the sword flying through the air. The young elf smiles wickedly as he plunges his longsword through the heart of the orc.

As Druckner was dealing the deathblow to his previous attacker, another orc comes up behind him and lands a hard blow to the back of him, the orcs spear driving deep into the red-headed dwarfs back. As the pain overwhelms him he falls to the ground unconscious. At this point, Beleg reaches the orc that felled Dain and with one mighty two-handed blow of his bastard sword slices the orc in half. The legs and half of his torso still standing upright as his upper body lies on the ground next to Dain. As the number of attackers is dwindling, Ortho takes the opportunity to tend to the downed mage. He bends to Dain's side and begins to speak softly in prayer. Shortly his hands begin to glow around Dain's temples as Dain's eyes pop open and he takes a deep breath.

Talimar and Garth launch unsuccessful attacks on two orcs as Kersath moves to kill the orc that had been occupying Ras. Randor finally lands a blow to the head of the orc attacking him and there is a sickening crunching sound as the skull of orc fractures under the blow of the priest's warhammer. Continuing the trend to tend to the wounded, Gnore moves over to the far side of the camp and begins to tend to the wounds of Kre, stopping the flow of blood leaving the young thief's body.

As the final orc still standing realizes the folly of its attack it turns to run from the battle, unfortunately the orc turned right into the path of Kersath who plunged his longsword deep into the belly of the orc. A look of horror and surprise crosses the face of the beast as it drops its sword and its hands move down to feebly grasp the blade of Kersath's weapon, its blood spilling out between its fingers as it finally slides off the blade to fall to the ground. Kersath looks down at the fell beast and bends to wipe the vast amount of blood off of each of his longswords before sheathing them.