Love Thy Slaver -- 011

[TheZebraShakes™]

Our heroes press on, opting to let sleeping orcs lie, at least for the time being.

They roam around the darkened halls and small chambers up ahead, searching for signs and clues as to what might be going on. Unfortunately, there is not much to be found here except the things which one might expect to find in an orc territory in the mountains. There are other orcs afoot, but conveniently the young adventurers and these orcs never cross paths, always seeming to keep missing each other as an encounter with them would do little to move along the quest.

After a bit of searching through the complex, Garor's keen awareness of his stone surroundings would indicate to him that the ground is slanting upward rather than downward as before. They might be leaving the orc territory behind as they move along toward the surface.

Down a long narrow corridor, the light of Ana's lantern shines upon something which catches the group's eye as it's presence draws attention away from the usual deep gray walls.

Moving in for a closer look, it appears to be a red ribbon snagged on one of the wall's sharp and jutting stones. A few strands of light colored hair are still tangled in the ribbon as well. It is at a high enough level where the stone could have ripped the ribbon from the head of a passerby unaware of the surrounding obstacles.

If the adventurers opt to move further down the hall they will eventually find themselves at a steep hill of stone, dirt, and chipped rock. At the top of the hill of stone and ahead a little ways, Aravos can swear that he sees flecks of daylight.

[TheUdjat]

Ana takes the ribbon and hair, looking over it curiously. She wonders who it belonged to, where they might be now--certainly not an orc. One of the slaves, then? She bends down to give Shadow a good whiff of it, so he'll know the smell whenever they might come across it again. She also hangs onto it for safekeeping. One never knows.

At the mound, it seems clear that they are moving past the orc setup. Probably better to continue avoiding them than trying to take on the whole damn orcish contingent. Besides, maybe if they can just take out their leader or whoever's responsible for the enslaving, they can solve the problem. Orcs tend towards despicable acts, but she hasn't heard of them being quite this organized before, carting off slaves from miles and mils away. It's curious. Or maybe she just doesn't know orcs as well as she thinks.

"You see something?" she asks of Aravos. If told about the light. "Should we press on? This must be where they're taken."

[at]

Nov 7, 2009 18:50:08 GMT -5 TheUdjat said:

"Should we press on? This must be where they're taken."

"Aye, onwards. The ground above will likely be softer, the trail of so many orcs would be hard to hide".

Garor looked up towards the light, they had not travelled far underground. Ballan would still be above, feeding until nightfall before undertaking his return to the acadamy. If this passage did indeed lead to the surface he would call him back - perhaps more might be seen from the air.

Running his hand along the wall as they ascended Garor studied the workmanship, wondering as to it's origin, "when we return we should collapse this tunnel, close the orc's path from the hills."6

[Wicksy]

"Agreed.....clearly people have been brought this way. We should follow"

Lucius keeps one eye out on the rear incase any of the sleeping orcs had woken and followed them.

[TheZebraShakes™]

(So sorry guys, I'll try my best to keep delays like that to a minimum)

---

The four, maybe three, adventurers press onward, making their way up the slope to the cavern and exit above. There are a few small slips and slides on the tricky rock and dirt coating, but everyone makes it to the top in one piece and up ahead through the darkened cave and around a small turn, there is in fact a way out to the dim light of the late afternoon sky.

Outside, the ground is still hard and rocky, not out of the mountainous terrain yet.

As the group inspects their surroundings, a holler echoes through the mountains from not to far away.

"EEEYYYY!!"

At some distance away, the group can make out a tall creature standing at the edge of a rocky cliff about 15 ft from the level ground. By appearance, it looks to be an ogre. and it is holding up and pointing its large hand at the group of noble adventurers who appear to be trespassing upon its turf.

[at]

As they emerge from the tunnels Garor looks to the sky and lets out a shrill whistle to call his owl.
He immediately regrets that decision as the ogre cries out, and readies his stave.

[how far away is the ogre? - if it moves to attack Garor will cast Shillelagh before it gets into range]

[TheZebraShakes™]

(ogre is like. . . medium range and fifteen feet up /don't wanna commit myself to distances @1am / it sounds angry or offended, but currently it is not forcing initiative /not moving to attack/ leaving that ball in your court. . . for now)

[TheUdjat]

Ana sees no reason to start a fight if she can avoid it. Keeping Shadow at bay, she lifts a hand to indicate that she heard the ogre and calls back. "Hi! Just passing through!"

Hey. It could work.

She doesn't draw steel, but she's ready to grab it in a hurry.

[at]

"The inhabitants of these hills seem most unwilling to commit to a fight" observed Garor, "first the orcs hiding behind their illusion and now this."

Paranoid as ever Garor considered the possibilities, that the creature was only waiting for it's friends, or perhaps trying to lure them forwards into a snare or trap.

Garor glanced around at the ground, seeking some trail or trap. If the ogre was content to bellow from afar then so be it.
Spot[dice=20]+5[rand=563353824543179217662903094623122057227475259240615433314283588811]

[TheZebraShakes™]

Just wondering if I only have two or people are just waiting

[TheUdjat]

[It's looking suspiciously like you have only two players. ]

[TheZebraShakes™]

yikes. . . what do you guys wanna do? Keep going or stop.
Only reason I've been taking so long to respond aside from everyone's overall slowness is due to the fact that I don't know who I'm waiting for. If there are two than that's all I need to know. But if you don't wanna play w/ two people than that's fine. Think about it and let me know.

[TheUdjat]

[I'm gonna be honest here. I like playing Ana and wanted this followup for a while, and I enjoy a good old-fashioned D&D romp, but I think all of our attention spans are better spent elsewhere. My only misgiving is at, who is involved in less stuff than the rest of us (just this and Rina, correct?). If he wants to keep going, I'm willing to proceed. It's not like I'm particularly hurting on time to make character posts (no, it's the DM updates that give me trouble...)

Just thought it might be better for you to focus on IGTBE over this. Though both are looking slim lately.

Boards are kinda depressing these days.]doubleclick.

[at]

Dec 9, 2009 11:14:42 GMT -5 TheUdjat said:

[My only misgiving is at, who is involved in less stuff than the rest of us (just this and Rina, correct?)]

[Yes, and poor diego got one-shotted by a random mook in the first round of his first ever combat.

Garor's just a pre-gen so i'm not overly attached to him.

May have to finally put on the DM's hat myself and run a Dark Heresy game to try and shake up some activity]

[TheZebraShakes™]

OK, we'll stop this for now, and if more people turn up again in the future months, maybe we'll start anew w/ another adventure. no prob.

I'll try to keep IGTBE moving w/ the players i have, and At, if you're interested, you're more than welcome to join us. if you'd like just PM me for details.

[TheUdjat]

[Just wanted to say that I fully endorse somebody running any kind of game. I'd love to see what you can do, at. Even though I have no idea what Dark Heresy is.]