Battle in the Courtyard

(Gorntar Castle, Oret, 16th March, 730)

Kobort and Hildraft, thinking better of their plan to dash for the gatehouse, changed direction and made for the tower proper. As they did so, the rear rank of orcs readied their bows, and commenced trying to put arrows through the tower window Surya and Sack were behind.

The two archers recommenced peppering the oncoming enemy with arrows. Their first objective was to try and fell Chief Rarrl, who was leading in typical orc fashion from the back. Their shots grazed him, and he faded back into the village. Disapointed, the two switched their attention to the orc-archers, and managed to fell all but one of them.

Kobort and Hildraft reached the tower, and resumed crossbow fire, felling some foes. Unremarked, the four orcs who'd broken away from the main group reached the semi-ruined outbuilding and disapeared inside. For the next few minutes, the pattern was repeated; the orcs advanced, and the party whittled them down with arrows. Two of the ogres were brought down, but it took a dismaying amount of damage to do so.

Then, suddenly, four huge dog-like shapes burst out of the outbuilding. Wargs! Bounding across the darkened courtyard, they headed straight for the tower. At this point, it suddenly occurred to the party that the tower had no closable door.

Hildraft made a dash for the stairs, and climbed to the tower room where Sack was trying to draw a bead on the approaching wolves. He looked around the chamber for furniture to hurl down the stairs at attacking creatures; Surya tapped him on the shoulder and passed him two flasks of flammable oil. Then Surya primed a third, and dropped it neatly down the tower to burst between the wall and the wolves.

The wolves recoiled, unwilling to enter the flames; Kobort ducked hastily into the tower doorway to avoid a scorching. The orcs reached the border of the flames, and hesitated; they had taken heavy casualties, and despite the urging of the sergeants, most of the warriors were in no mood to storm the tower any more. Up in the tower, Hildraft opened a flask of oil, and started pouring it carefully down the stairs.

Two of the wargs started working their way round the flames towards the tower door. Seeing this, Kobort had one last shot and then made the perilous ascent of the tower, in the dark, with slippery oil spread all over the steps. He reached the top and joined the other two at the window; Hildraft unhooked his axe and guarded the stairs, primed oil flask ready. As soon as he heard the click of clawed feet on the stairs, he hurled the flask.

Whoomph!

A tower of flame rushed up the stairwell, forcing Hildraft to leap violently backwards to keep his treasured beard. Howls of fury were audible from below, but they grew louder and closer, not weaker, and the dwarf hefted his axe in readiness. Seconds later, two blazing wolves burst from the stairwell, slashing and biting. Borne backwards, Hildraft took several small wounds before he got his feet under him, then fought back. He had a long struggle of it, but eventually he managed to deal with both.

Meanwhile, the sustained missile fire from the tower had finally broken the orc warriors' will to fight, and they turned to flee. Attempts - up to and including cutting down one of the cowards - to rally them by the sergeants were ineffective, and they fled across the courtyard, easy target for the terrible singing arrows of the bowmen above. Only one sergeant made it to the perilous cover of the corner tower.

The party descended the tower, and Sack circled until he had a clear shot at the badly wounded survivor, then gestured to him to drop his weapons and surrender - which he did. After tying him up, they spread out to garner what loot was worth having from the bodies.

Kobort brought up his Detect Magic again, and, disappointed at the negative results, wandered through the still-burning Orc village in search of magical treasures. He found them. A chain shirt and a great axe; the only drawback was that they were still firmly attached to Chief Rarrl, forgotten by everyone, who fell on Kobort, mad with fury at the destruction of his "empire".

Kobort backed up, desperately trying to defend himself, but the orc chieftain was berserk with fury and a doughty fighter; Kobort was being hacked to bits. Finally, he took a wound he knew would be mortal. In desperation, he scrabbled for his wand, and drew its' magic to change him into a small bird. Rarrl stared up in furious disbelief as the bird rose out of reach, still dripping blood. At that moment, Surya and Sack arrived, having heard the sounds of strife.

There was a tense moment as Surya paused, undecided as to whether to shoot this obviously sorcerous bird that'd appeared from nowhere. Then Rarrl hefted his axe and bellowed, and the decision was made. The Tellaran snapped a quick arrow at the orc and closed with his twin swords.

Behind him, Sack weighed up the situation and resolved to help. Nocking an arrow, he let fly at the whirling melee in front of him; but Surya moved at just the wrong moment, and it nicked his leg. Sack made no further contribution after that, and soon the Tellaran warrior was standing panting over chief Rarrl's corpse.

After collecting what loot was going - including Rarrl's chain shirt and greataxe, both magical - the group settled down and slept in shifts for what remained of the night. Next morning, the castle!