Session Fifty Two

The fifty second session of the Adventure of the Dragon Crag was on the 22nd August 2023.

## Party Members Present

* Brandr Sigurdson
* Snorri Morgrimson
* Relnwe Adiath
* Professor Meino Osterhaus
* Aleksi Lehtonen

## Synopsis

### Preparations and Fortifications

After arriving back at the Wellspring of Power, we began to make preparation for the inevitable fight to come. We had to fortify the hill as some beastmen would inevitably slip past the ranks of dwarfs. Our mission was simple: defend the waystone whilst fixing it. The mending ritual was complex: we had to carve new runes onto the damaged waystone, do some magic stuff with a pheonix feather and blood, and jam a crystal in the hole. Before the battle, we built a stout tower for the Hrukidron, Aleksi made some poison, Snorri made some bombs, and Rel read the stars. We poured oil to light around the place and erected barricades. As we worked, a fine looking dwarf approached us in the finery of a thane. He had with him two longbeard bodyguards. He introduced himself to us as Thane Behram Gunderson, but said that discussions could wait until after the impending battle. Shortly after Behram arrived, Burlok Finnson returned with the news that another battle had begun in the pass to the south, and that some beastmen had already managed to get through. Even as he spoke, Snorri spotted the unmistakable beastly outlines on the horizon, just as dawn broke.

### The First Wave

They were soon upon us. The first wave was made up of many beastmen of all different sizes. The Prof and Brandr busied themselves with the ritual, while Rel and Aleksi shot arrows. Snorri manned the Hrukidron with Adler and Brenda as his loaders. Behram, Burlok, and the two Longbeards made up the first line of contact. Behram was the first to draw blood, braining a bestigor as centigors charged in. While working on the ritual, Brandr began to carve the wrong rune and much to the Professor's distress, the obelisk glowed and the wind picked up alarmingly. Shooting became much harder for the rest of us. To stop this from happening again, Brandr carved the Rune of Warding on a nearby barricade to channel any unwanted magical bursts. A vast horde of ungors then charged in, but they fell into the spike pits we had dug. Many of them died in the pits and on the poisoned caltrops we had lain. The fight continued. Rel shot a gor in the back of the head and the arrow burst through its face, Snorri threw an incendiary at two gors that had started to climb up the cliff towards us, and Aleksi shot poisoned arrows at the centigors, sending one to the ground. SNorri then took out the climbing Gors with his pistols while the Prof, mid ritual, lit the oil on fire, preventing more beastmen from getting closer. A bray shaman and nore bestogors then arrived. Behram charged down a centigor on the front, battering it with the butt of his crossbow. Aleksi managed to poison another centigor. It succumbed quickly to the love potion and it froze in place with a massive erection befroe collapsing, dead.

### The Minotaur Comes

Rel heard large stomps and growls coming from the south, and as the battle raged, a minotaur emerged. Brandr failed in his part of the ritual again, with better effects - a random spell went off which just so happened to stirke the minotaur with a lightening bolt. More and more bestigor arrived and the fight continued. Snorri shot the hrukidron, the Professor diddled the waystone, Aleksi fired arrows, and the dwarfs on the front became embroiled in a vicious melee. At that moment, the bray shaman turned into a giant bear and charged for the longbeards. Then, the minotaur smashed through the barricades which, until then, had stood strong and the beastmen pushed into our last stand. The longbeards tried to retreat back towards us, but took heavy hit on the way.

### An Orange head in the west

Just as hope seemed to be fading, we heard a mighty cry from the west. But this was no beast cry. It was the cry of a dwarf slayer charging into battle. The cry was followed by the flash of orange as a dwarf slayer burst onto the scene, axe raised, orange hair rippling the dawn light. Boosted, our company fought on. The Professor and Brandr made progress with the ritual, and the Prof even had time to throttle a bestigor's head clean off. It rolled to Aleksi's feet who kicked it away mid-shot.