Move 180: Reinforcements
Orc Caverns--Afternoon, 7 Eleint 1374 DRBlacky finished off Daelen's lizard while Jana finished the one she was facing. Renn took down the orc that Azrun had previously wounded with his magic missiles. Aloysius missed with his dagger, but the orc stumbled while attacking the nimble wizard and nearly lost his footing.
From out in the darkness, sounds of another group moving became audible. The noises of movement were soon accompanied by what sounded to be an orcish war chant.
Jana finished off the lizard she was facing only to hear Daelen words, "Where's Echo?" Jana spun around, looking, to no avail. "Shit!" she said whispered, her expression worried. In a whispered shout she yelled, "Echo!" Jana turned to Arachne. "Which way did she go?"
"Maybe you should worry about the orcs." Daelen said, preparing to take cover behind the lizard's corpse in case these orcs have crossbows too.
Aloysius took another stab at the orc in front of him.
"Kill the sleeping ones before they wake up! " Blacky yelled to Jana and Daelen as he began to cut heads off of sleeping orcs.
"Around the rock along the narrow passage," Arachne replied, "when we first came in."
"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Jana looked back in the direction Echo had gone, then over toward the sound of the incoming orcs. "Dammit!" Jana turned to Arachne, her expression somewhat frantic. "Find her!" Jana, sword still in hand and sleeping orcs ignored, charged toward the incoming orcs.
Daelen stared dumbfounded from behind the lizard. "Crazy wench!" he muttered as he jumped over the lizard and charged after her.
With Azrun aiding Aloysius, Renn turned his attention to the sleeping orcs. Taking his longsword in hand, he slayed as many of the sleepers as he could.
The orc fighting Aloysius skewered him nicely with his longsword, causing the mage to drop his dagger. Luckily, Azrun had decided to aid him and finished the orc with a sickening crack from his staff.
Blacky and Renn set about the unsavory business of trying to discerning the sleeping among the bodies on the floor and killing them. Jana and Daelen charged forward. These four, the most exposed, found themselves pelted by a barrage of crossbow bolts. Each of them, save Renn, took wounds from the missile fire. The sound of clattering overpowered the orcish chant briefly as they threw down their crossbows and charged forward to meet the intruders into their caverns. The lead orc rode on the back of another lizard, larger than the ones already killed. That the orc himself was considerably larger than his brothers was evident even from his sitting position. He wore an impressive suit of orcish plate mail, and his lizard's skin was tastefully painted with depictions of weapons, bashed skulls, and crude etchings of elves having their internal organs removed. The orcish champion bore down on Daelen and Jana with his lizard and a long spear.
Arachne skittered off quietly towards the narrow passageway around the rock pillar.
Azrun looked up, "this does not look fun." He brought out a piece of something from a pouch. Crushing it, he muttered an incantation and pointed toward the big orc's direction.
Blacky ran forward to aid Daelen and Jana.
The wound Aloysius took from the orc nearly dropped him to one knee. Blood quickly stained his tunic. As he tried to regain his composure, he looked around for orcs to throw daggers at.
Jana called to Daelen, "Get the rider!" and moved in to attack the lizard, approaching from what she guessed might be the rider's "off-hand" side based on how he was holding the spear. She swung her bastard sword at the lizard's neck.
Azrun cast a spell but nothing happened. Aloysius wounded one of the approaching orcs with a thrown dagger.
Two of the orcs stopped to assist their champion, hacking ineffectively at Jana and Daelen. The rest of the orcs effectively cut off Blacky's charge towards Jana and Daelen's position, swarming both him and Renn in their exposed position. Both of them took wounds and failed to deliver any damage in return. One of the orcs, however, did obligingly drop his long sword.
Daelen found it hard to attack the large orc on his mount, but the rider had no such difficulty stabbing Daelen with his long spear. Jana hacked into the lizard, missing its neck but taking a healthy chunk out of its side. She narrowly avoided both a lizard bite and a lizard stomp from the huge beast.
Jana hacked twice at the lizard. "Get the damned rider!" she said to Daelen as she swung.
"You guys are in an awful hurry to die!" Blacky yelled as he swung his axe at the nearest orc.
Temporarily unaccosted by orcs in melee, Aloysius cast another spell.
Renn uttered a sharp gasp and jumped back a few steps. He began the makings of an incantation.
Azrun pulled his bow loose and started letting the arrows fly at the big orc on the lizard.
Azrun fired two arrows, hitting the mounted orc with both. Aloysius cast a spell. A coiling snake appeared around the mounted orc's waist, stretching up towards his face hissing. The orc grabbed the snake behind its head and squeezed before disregarding it to put both hands back on his spear.
Blacky took out two of the orcs on him and Renn while the priest attempted a spell. There was no visible effect. Blacky took another wound, but the other orcs were ineffective
Jana chopped the lizard again before the beast caught her with a foot and then with its sharp teeth, which had been filed to points. Daelen was still unable to make a good attack against the heavily armored and mounted orc. The two orcs failed to hit either of them.
"Ow, shit!" Jana yelped. She regained her footing and whacked again at the lizard. "Gods-be-damned lizard," she growled. "Bet you taste like chicken."
"Oof!" Blacky staggered slightly under the last blow, but quickly regained his composure. "Nice shot, bet mine hurts more." He said and swung at the orc that had hit him.
With an annoyed look, Daelen turned away from the rider and attacked the two orcs harassing him, slashing at one with his sword and using his shield to bash the other.
Azrun smiled with his success and kept on sending arrows at the big orc.
Taking a deep breath to calm his fear, Aloysius snatched a dagger from his bandolier and charged the orcs fighting Blacky and Renn, intent on giving them whatever melee support he could muster.
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