Ludi Blog

The fight with the undead was over and the fight with the norsemen looked as though it was about to kick off.

"The drow killed Alfredssonson." shouted their leader.

"A slave should know it's place - it attacked me. Touched me in fact." whispered Ril, ready to attack again.

"Let's not have this fight. Into the cart Ril" said Vess moving in front of the very angry looking drow.

Ril's attention focused now on Vess, "You do not address me like that male! " she shouted, somehow making the word 'male' sound just like the word 'scum' and she started casting. Vess's mind resisted the spell and a quick tussle ensued which resulted in the messy human man-handling the drow into the back of the cart.

"I will kill you. I will make you burn." she shouted, her weak fists banging on his strong back. After a few minutes of struggle she relaxed and he lowered her.

"Well to succeed in that you'll have to get up real early and make sure you do it on the first attempt love."

"Yes. I expect I will." she replied smiling the smile that never quite reaches her eyes. "I will pray now to my mistress for guidance." Vess turned away and left her to it.

 Back outside he saw the norsemen leaving the camp with their dead in tow, "Where are they going?" he asked. Celad just shrugged.

The next hour or so was made up with planning for a morning raid on the temple. It was dawn now and Grogg was bored - so he got up checked the blade on his war axe and started strolling down the road.

"Where do you think he's going?" asked Alana, "To find the slaves?" answering her own question.

"No" said Womac, "it looks like he's heading for the temple and that means we'd best go too." The rest of the party gathered their weapons and followed down the road after Grogg who now was seeming to gather a bit of speed. When he had reached the clearing he was in full charge and the rest of the party were struggling to keep up.

Without a pause and now with blind rage running through his head, Groggs charge continued across the courtyard in front of the temple and into the camp where a lone guard stood and confronted him, "What do y ..." the guard died in the raging onslaught but the alarm had now been raised and other guards were jumping from seats and rough beds.

Battle began in earnest with Grogg at times surrounded by enemies both alive and dead whilst the rest of the party rained down arrows and spells on the rest of the camp. Finally seeing that the battle was going against them, a spellcaster in the camp cast a spell to create a fog between the party and the camp, then the remaining orcs and humans mounted one of the two carts not on fire intent on escape and aimed for the centre of the fog bank.

Unfortunately for the escapees the Wedding Crashers only ever worked well together as a fighting unit - Caled sighted on the driver taking him with a single arrow as it entered the fog, Ril cast a spell to light the cart within the fog bank, Womac skewered the two riding up front and Edge first webbed then jumped on the crashing cart to finish the shaman on board. In the meantime Grogg had fallen to an Orcish fighter of some prowess and Alana was happily looking around for things to burn.

Her gaze passed over a hole in the roof about 30ft from her and snapped back as she noticed a female-like face staring back at her. The face disappeared again. To be replaced by 4 feather winged females flying out of the hole and attacking whilst singing.

The fight with the harpies was a long and arduous one with various members of the party becoming overcome with the spell being woven by their singing. Eventually Alana managed to burn most of them out of the sky although one of them did fall burning into the webbed cart which caught alight and started to burn away the fog.

Finally with Grogg brought back to his feet and both spells and hit points running low, the Wedding Crashers retired back to their camp with the occasional crossbow bolt flying out from within the temple to warn them to keep their distance.

Back at the camp, Caled dropped the dead body of a mage onto the floor, "Found this." was all he said as thoughts turned to rest and recuperation.

"We should check in." said Ril and Alana produced the call stone from one of her pockets, pressing the contact rune.

"Yes? What?" came the same voice they'd spoken to 24 hrs before.

"We've found the point where the slaves are kept." said Ril.

"Good. Get in there and sort it out then." came the abrupt reply.

"We intend to," interrupted Vess, "but with the threat of squashed toads hanging over our heads we're struggling to focus."

"Tough. Get on with the job." another abrupt reply.

"Well now. Come on Bray. I know you by reputation. Bray Kit isn't it?"

No answer. So Vess continued, "we're going to do the dirty work for your governor but we need to know that it's not going to be all in vain. You have a reputation as a straight edge and tough negotiator. We need you to have a word with Blackstaff about cutting us a little slack and a warning about the 7th member of our party."

"Who?" came the more cautious reply this time.

"Andreias. The one that was killed at the start of this deal. He's turned up out here, not looking quite alive but still moving around like he was! I don't know what's going on or what you've got us mixed up in but we're gonna need to focus for this job. Have a word with Blackstaff will you? We want the toad threat removed."

"I'll mention your report and concerns." and with that the connection died.

Vess looked up from the call stone to see everyone staring at him - "that's Bray Kit - I've heard of him before. Straight edge. Tough negotiator." none of the party looked entirely convinced - not even Edgeler himself. 

So where now? What can you expect from the temple which is obviously on alert now? How does Vess know Bray Kit? What part does Andreias have to play in this?