Session Sixty Five

The sixty fifth session of the Adventures of the Dragon Crag was on 20th March 2024.
== Party Members Present ==
* Brandr Sigurdson
* Snorri Morgrimson
* Relnwe Adiath
* Professor Meino Osterhaus
* Aleksi Lehtonen (late)
== Synopsis ==
=== Setting a Trap ===
We had a party of Blacktooth Orks to kill and we had a plan. The Professor was going to lead the Orks down a trapped passage way that would be blown up, dividing their force in two. Thus, with the help of Aleksi, Snorri set about disassembling one of his bombs to blow the passage roof. Meanwhile one of the Halfling Heroes led the Professor to where the Ork patrol was. The winds of magic felt weak to the Professor, as though something nearby were actively constraining them - it felt to him similar to a game of wizards' chess. Still, the Professor summoned his shadowstead and moved down the passage way to arouse the Orks. As he turned into the passage, he saw two of the Orks having a fistfight watched over by a much larger ork. The Professor took on the likeness of Snorri and went goad them. It took a while, but the Orks eventually noticed him and instantly became enraged, charging down the Professor. Nimble as a magic squirrel, the Professor hopped onto his shadowsteed and galloped away at a pace that still seemed attainable to the Orks. Arrows clattered about the Professor as he turned down our trapped passageway. 
=== Boom, Crash, Bang ===
The rest of us awaited the Orks arrival, accompanied by Cedroc and Katrina. As the Professor turned the corner, Snorri lit the fuse. Just as the Professor reach safety, there came an almighty boom. Snorri looked up and saw a crack appear in the ceiling. He watched the crack grow and grow, splitting like lightening above the Orks, but also above them. Perhaps he had misplaced the bomb slightly. Perhaps it was time to move back a bit. Snorri, followed close by the rest of the party retreated down the corridor just as the celing split and a cocophony of sound echoes through the tunnel. The celing collapsed right over the Orks, crushing a great many of them. Snorri's bomb had worked a little too well. Still, some of the Orks managed to escape and were trapped between us and a collapsed passage. We had a fight on our hands.
=== Missed Arrows and Flailing Elves ===
We had backed into a wider part of the passage and in front of us Orks emerged from the dust and debris. As usual, Aleksi let loose an arrow and, as usual, Aleksi missed. Large boulders lay hereabout, flung from the explosion, so Rel tried to climb one to get a height advantage. Unfortunately, she slipped and fell flat on her face without even an ounce of elven grace. As she got up, two orks charged directly towards her. The lacklustre start to the fight was quickly righted by the heroic Forgekeeper dwarfs. Snorri fired two clean rounds from his Azthrund at one of the Orks assailing Rel whilst Brandr, with much more grace than the elf, leapt from the same boulder and brought his hammer down on the other ork, knocking it to the ground. Cedroc then charged down the ork Snorri had shot, killing it with a mighty blow from his comically large greatsword. Just then, more orks emerged from the dust and debris: shamans, bigguns, and a boss. The fight was on.
=== Melee ===
The orks charged towards us, allowing us time to fire off another volley. It also allowed the Professor, who was prancing around on his shadowsteed like this was some kind of Averland dressage competition, exhibiting suppleness, flexibility and obedience, (just the way Brandr liked it), to bewilder the ork boss with a magic spell. The boss turned back and looked at the two ork bigguns, narrowing its eyes. Meanwhile, a melee ensued in which Brandr crushed the fallen ork like a grape and another arriving ork shaman flung a confused arrerboy into close combat. The bewildered ork boss then charged at his own biggun and began pounding. The Professor then made all the orks less tough, allowing Cedroc to batter yet another ork. 
=== Shaman Showdown ===
One of the shamans made his fists glow green and grow large, so Snorri shot him in both arms with his pistols. The other shaman then tried to heal the shaman with the big arms but failed and only managed throw a handful of nails at his head. This angered bigarms who turned around and headbutted the other shaman. Meanwhile, the Ork boss, having battered one of his bigguns, turned on Brandr. He brought down an almighty blow that would have crushed the dwarf but Rel extended her shield, absorbed the power and saved Brandr. The shambling shamans resolved their fight with bigarms killing the other.
=== Ow, my ribs ===
The Professor had been watching the melee, casting spells from afar. Unfortunately, he had neglected to prance around on his shadowsteed. Unbeknownst to him, an ork had crept around a rock and charged him from behind. The ork managed to hit the professor, breaking some of his weak, weak ribs. At that, the Professor dashed away. Having been saved by Rel, Brandr repaid the Ork boss's favour by smashing it with is hammer. He brought the hammer down through its right arm and into its body. The ork boss fell down dead. Snorri then charged the surviving shaman, smashing its spine and leaving it dying an helpless. Seeing their boss fall, the last two surviving orks turned tail and ran. However, clutching his broken ribs the Professor charged by on his horse and cut one of them down with his sword while Snorri dispatched the other with a well-aimed shot from his Azthrund. With all the orks dead, the day was ours.
=== That's no ork helm ===
Dismounting from his shadowstead, the Professor closely inspected the dead ork shamans. He saw, with his discerning wizards' eye, a green glow around all the orks. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before and, as life lef their bodies, the green ebbed away, collecting and roiling around the shamans before flowing away to the east. Meanwhile Brandr noticed that the armour of the ork boss was unlike any ork armour he'd ever seen. Indeed, it was not ork armour at all, but armour clearly crafted by some sort of dwarf. However, the armour was made especially for this ork boss - what dwarf would be in cahoots with an ork boss!? The answer was clear. This must be the work of our foul brethren: the chaos dwarf. Our mission to defeat the Blacktooth Orks now had special urgency. We had to find a back way into the Skorrun clan hold and the Blacktooth lair. We asked Cedroc if he knew any such way - he did not. However, he noted that the same foul smells were emitted by the Orks' lair as by the strange water around the glowing crystal he had seen. Thus it was decided that we would investigate the crystal.
== Next Session ==
Session Sixty Six
== Previous Session ==
Session Sixty Four
Category:Session