SESSION 13
Conversations continued on for a while. Denal excused himself and went up to his room before the spell wore off. Once night fell, the parties split up and went their separate ways; Anson’s group to their rooms, Jundar’s group to their rooms.
Denal kept an eye on who went where. Once the mercs were in their rooms, he waited another half hour then snuck down to Agatsu and Ariks room. He had formulated a plan to free the three slaves. Those slaves were in a room with only two guards. Denal got Anson and the rest up. He told them of the plan. Anson decided that it would not be a good idea to try to take them inside the fort’s walls. How do they explain the fact that they came in without slaves, and left with slaves. Arik mentioned that it would be best if they waited till a better time to do it. Anson racked his mind and came up with a good plan. Ambush them in the mountain pass. They were to get up early and get out of the fortress and set up the ambush and wait.
Day broke and Anson roused the rest of the party. Making sure that they did not wake the mercs, they gathered their things and headed down the stairs. Anson told Agatsu to cut through the mercs saddle straps so during a hard ride, they’d break and the merc would fall off. Satisfied that the plan would work, they set out in a hard ride towards Argoth.
After a fashion, they found a perfect spot. A small corner, barley 25 foot wide. Several rock outcroppings about 30 foot up from the road could provide cover. Setting down caltrops in the road, they sent the dwarf farther up the trail with the horses. Druegarr did not complain, because his head was still swimming from the barrel he drank last night.
The party got into position, climbing the hard rock wall to get behind the outcroppings. About an hour past and the mercs finally showed up. They were slowed by the fact that the slaves had to walk. The half-orcs were in the lead, with Jundar and the wizard second, and the slaves, then the thief and the other fighter.
They entered the area that had the caltrops and the horses stepped on them. Only one was unable to hold his horse from bucking him off. The two panthers came down to block the roadway. Cyrian dropped a web on the back group, catching the thief, fighter, and the slaves. Everyone else tossed Tanglefoot bags..
The mercs looked around for who was attacking them. The wizard spotted Agatsu and threw a magic missile at him. Agatsu ducked behind his cover. He cringed as the missiles arched around the rock and impacted him. He clutched the burn spot on his chest.
Another round of tanglefoot bags were tossed, then out came the arrows. The wizard was caught by one of the bags, but not enough to stop him from casting. Everyone concentrated on the wizard till he dropped. Arik dropped a magic missile at the mage, finishing him.
The half-orcs were thrown from their saddles. They concentrated their attacks on the only thing visible to them, the panthers. Being no match for the half-orcs, they died quick. One of the half-orcs saw the people up in the rocks shooting at him. He started to climb the rocks, only to slide back down. The other orc started to do the same, but got hit in the face with a tanglefoot bag. He dropped to the ground, clutching and tearing at the gooey stuff.
Jundar leapt off his horse and started the climb towards Anson. Dropping his bow, Anson pulled out his sword and crouched down. Jundar rounded a boulder and Anson swung. Jundar caught the blade and shoved the attack to the side. He swung twice at Anson, pulling back at the last moment to hit him with the flat of his blade. Anson crumbled unconscious.
One of the slaves broke free of the web and started to run as fast as the chains would take her. He ran right by the half-orc which was currently in a bezerk state from not being able to get up the rocks. He swung his sword wide and cut her in half. She never knew what hit her. Agatsu tossed a couple alchemist fires at the orc, hitting with one. The orc burst into flames, but did not seem to care.
Gamaliel decided that now was the time to get into melee range and do more good than his tiny rocks were doing. He pulled out his scimitar and sickle. And tried to get down the rock face as quick as possible. He slipped on a loose rock and tumbled down the rocks. Cut and bruised, he landed on the roadway; sprawled out, as unconscious as Anson. The other half-orc who was tangled, finally ripped the tanglefoot bag off and got up. He moved towards Jundar and the other quarry. Jundar made his way past Anson and towards Agatsu. Cyrian saw Agatsu backing up and dropped his last spell on Jundar. Webbing filled the area around Jundar.
Cyrian and Agatsu decided that it would be best to head around to the other party members. Jundar cursed and tore at the webbing. The half-orc was behind him, deep inside the webbing. The free half-orc turned just in time to see Druegarr running up towards him. Druegarr spat obscenities at the half-orc as he swung his axe. The half-orc twisted and struck twice at Druegarr, laying him flat.
Denal came off the mountain and attacked the burning half-orc. The half-orc swung back and caught Denal hard. Denal clutched at his ribs. Cyrian came around the opposite side of the first web with Agatsu.
Cyrian fired an arrow into the half-orc and took it down. Denal saw the other fighter stepping out of the web and tossed a tanglefoot bag on him. The fighter was hit and fell, struggling to free himself. Denal went up to him and slit his throat.
Jundar came out of the webbing on the back side. He knew the rest of his people were on the other side, so he had to go around the webbing as well
Just then, the thief emerged from the webbing. Cyrian trained his bow on the thief and told him to give up. The thief looked around at the rest, who were all dead and found it wise to give up. Hands in the air, he surrendered.
Jundar, hearing all this from around the web, came sprinting towards Agatsu. Agatsu backpedaled behind Cyrian. Jundar saw the thief standing there and yelled: "Hosper! What are you doing?!? We can take them!!"
The thief looked surprised, reached in a grabbed a potion from his belt and downed it. He quickly faded from view. Cyrian let an arrow fly to the thief. Agatsu saw the thief start to disappear and tossed an Alchemist fire. The arrow missed, but the fire did not. The thief started putting out the fire as quick as he could.
Denal rushed the thief in hopes to shove him back into the webbing. He slammed into the thief, but he held fast. The fire disappeared quickly and the thief was completely gone. Cyrian ran down the slope to get away from Jundar. He moved in to where the thief was.
Denal felt a sharp pain in his gut. He looked down and saw a dagger sticking out of his gut. He saw the arm of the thief as he faded into view. Denal stumbled back as poison drove through his system at an incredible rate.
Cyrian took a swing at the thief. He ducked and followed with two hits of his own, Cyrian felt the poison work it’s magic on his system, He body wracked itself in agony, but he remained standing. Jundar charged through Agatsu, with him deftly tumbling aside to avoid the blows Jundar thrust towards him. Jundar jumped off the side of the rocks and landed on the road, driving his sword through Arik.
Arik gasped and slumped over, bleeding to death. Jundar came up behind Cyrian and was about to hit him full force, when he saw Cyrian for what he was. Jundar turned his sword at the last minute and clapped him over the head knocking him unconscious.
Jundar looked up at Agatsu and told him to surrender. Agatsu looked at Jundar and yelled back, "You killed his brother!"
Jundar said more firmly this time, "Surrender, or the elf gets it." Jundar placed the point of his sword on Cyrian's neck.
"Go ahead, He’s just an elf." Agatsu said.
