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Assuming it appears safe to move away from the spell casters and leave Hound as added protection for them, Drindoleth will begin transforming to his eagle form so that he can take to the air for a broader view of what's happening and where aid is most needed.
Drindoleth takes to the air and is almost immediately struck by another lightning bolt which he ignores. The sender of said bolt has arrows bouncing away from him almost immediately. Drindoleth can reach him swiftly though and probably make short work of a mage type as a bear.
The Knights continue fighting, hampered by trying to subdue and not kill. A tough knot of heavily armored pikemen approach but Deor dispatches 5 of them with another Sleep spell. Ithilneth follows with her own Sleep dropping 6. This does much towards breaking their formation.
Mulligan and Fely drop down behind the lines begin to cause havoc and confusion. Elfstan is not involved at first. Mulligan is knocking fighters over from behind and making a general nuisance of herself as Fely is parrying and disarming foes to his best ability while the swords and scimitars of Raj fail to penetrate him despite the apparent lack of armor. Those few that find Mulligan long enough also find their blades turned easily. Suddenly in rough Quenya Elfstan calls out, Ropes are rigged, help me trip a bunch. Mulligan makes out the gray silky Hithlain ropes cross low the alley. She sees Elfstan had a few blocks or pulleys available to aid him. Mulligan makes some noise and draws a few fighters and then a few more back from the front line and then disappears and races over to Elfstan to help draw the ropes.
Elfstan calls out “Bitur, a good push now!”
He and Mulligan haul on the ropes and Bitur, Sala and their companions shove the line back in a fierce display. They use shields and the flats of swords mainly and great strength from several of them. Fely pushes out at the same time and then pulls himself up the wall like a spider or monkey to the surprise of the men he was fighting. Men are tripping and falling and confusion is maximized. Those taken by Gil-Gandel’s song just stare confused mainly.
Rorimac has injured many trying to get past Gwaelur. Gwaelur is a firm rock that Bren and others are working well with. Bren seems unskilled at not hurting his foes. He himself has taken several wounds. Gwaelur has a single bolt in him.
Hlíf the Engineer of Erebor and Plate mailed veteran is holding well his line. As hardened as Bitur and of even greater skill nothing is getting past his shield and a pile of men with knee, gut, groin and ankle injuries are forming a wall in front of him. Gilraen is tending to the injured that are down and not in the immediate battle.
Ceol attempts to take full advantage of the confusion and chaos, striking at those who are still attempting to hold their line.
Ah, perfect. Drindoleth will do another circle to see if he can get any other mages to reveal themselves. If any more are seen, he'll make note of where they are for later. Then he moves toward the mage, beginning his transformation to his bear form as he gets back to the ground. His goal is to incapacitate the mage and stop him from attacking, but hopefully not cause any injuries that could kill.
Drindoleth is taking some risk here in betting both that his lightning resistance can overpower everything that these mages can dish out and that they'll keep choosing to use lightning spells here given his visible immunity to them. It's a high-risk high-gain scenario, basically, so Deor will slip on his ring, vanishing from sight, Levitate up off the ground, and drop Fireballs on any mages that are revealed by Drindoleth.
If I don't need to keep singing any longer, I'll close in on the battle and try to thin the ranks a bit with a Hypnotic Melody - and if we're dealing with opponents weak enough to be put to Sleep, I'll use the power of the Harp to boost area of effect. But if the people charmed by our song are likely to snap out of it if I stop playing then I'll keep it going for now. At the moment they're largely safe and mostly harmless, which is just as we want them.
Thoroncir continues to work with Ceol, using the flat of his sword where possible, but striking hard blows against any who make a determined effort to hurt him or his companions.
The shaft sticking out from between Gwaelur's armor serves only to anger him. Fire flashes in his eyes. It's all he can do not to mow down everything in sight. "Restraint," he mutters to himself.
Mulligan grins to Elfstan. "I love it when a plan comes together. Come on Fely, let's go cause some more havoc elsewhere. There are probably still some mages around to stop."
Rorimac will continue supporting Gwaelur and the front line.
Elfstan gulps, “sounds good”. Fely says, “Let’s take to the rooftops and drop down behind another group.”
Bitur’s group is tying up people as he keeps guard. They should be free in a few minutes to help elsewhere. Sala soon tells Bitur to help others, he’ll hold here.
Rorimac and Gwaelur are doing fine. Bren has taken another bolt and might have killed one guard. He knows he killed another but that one was evil at least.
Hlíf is holding his area. This would be the group the stealthy folks would likely come up behind.
Ceol is confronted by one that is evil. Does he switch to deadly force or try to subdue this one too?
Thoroncir is doing quite well. He has drawn blood but does not believe he has killed anyone yet.
Gil-Gandel is fairly certain that song has done its job and switches to Hypnotic Melody which combined with another Sleep from Ithilneth thins the front line by the Knights considerably. Most now retreat or surrender.
Drindoleth circles and does draw a deadly cone of cold. He at least makes his save but takes 23 points of damage and with the ice on his feathers finds all he can now do is a controlled dive. He cannot reach the original target but is dead on to the new one. He changes into a bear as he dives and then to his full size and the mage goes down in a heap as Drindoleth takes another 16 points on the crash as a Bear. He quickly puts the injured mage into a non-crushing but extremely restrictive bear hug. There is a very foul feel to this one and his fallen rod is tipped by a human skull. There is also some nasty lizard trying to bite through Drindoleth's very tough hide.
Deor sees the Eagle struck by a Cone of Cold but sees he crashes into that foe. He still has the first mage in sight and tosses a Fireball on this mages instead. Using his various items causes a maximum damage fireball doing +1 dam per die and at +3 levels. But he feels a thrill of power go through his Ring as the opponent tries to turn the spell. The opponent fails his turn attempt and his familiar dies. The Mage took 39 points plus the loss of 8 hit points from the death of his familiar and he drops unconscious at best.
Further into the town some additional battles are playing out. Folca spies for Deor that a few of the other party is hitting the keep from the roof and the main doors.
"Come on Elfstan, you get to rig the ropes again as you did such a good job last time." Mulligan heads towards the rooftop
Rorimac keeps an eye on the fighters ahead. If any evil mages do pop their heads out, they get to be choice of target.
Ithilneth will keep a sharp eye out for Colonel Marn or Mage Olarvi. Especially for persons peering out of the central keep.
That awful feel from the mage coupled with the evil looking rod convinces Drindoleth he isn't dealing with an innocently mislead or bespelled ally. He'll increase the constriction of his bear hug to crushing strength. If necessary, he'll use the mage's body to knock the lizard away from himself.
Deor, having given away his position, will try to move out of it as quickly as possible. He'll continue to use maximum force against mages and leave others untouched or merely Asleep.
Ceol will, at least at first, attempt to subdue the evil individual. (It might be good to have someone to interrogate, after all.) He notes to Thoroncir, "Possibly a leader," as he presses the attack on that man.
Bitur nods at Sala in acknowledgment and starts working his way through town knocking out all that stand in his way.
Thoroncir calls to the evil man opposing Ceol, "Yield at once or die, man of Harad!" If the man will not yield, the knight-errant will attack with full strength.
Nearly all the men near the gate are now sleeping, friendly, confused, knocked unconscious or on the ground in pain. Looking around the evil warrior opposing Thoroncir and Ceol drops his weapon despite not understanding Thoroncir. The fight up front basically ends at this point.
Bitur joins Gwaelur to help push that side and Ithilneth drops one more sleep there suddenly leaving them facing only 3 foes. One of the men of Raj calls, “Cease fighting, we’re here to free your leaders from the Necromancers! Yield!”
Hlíf is still doing fine. Bren seems to be improving at neither getting hit nor giving grievous wounds. Suddenly behind them the 3 stealthy ones appear and bring chaos. A leader type drops to Mulligan’s dagger of sleep. Fely knocks one out and then disarms a pair and Elfstan as become and invisible object to trip backwards over.
Rorimac sees the need for an archer here is gone. He could go to hand to hand or head elsewhere or perhaps climb a building for a better archery platform.
Deor drops moves swiftly and then levitates upwards again. In this time Folca has spotted a new target. A lady in white robes is casting from the north east tower top of the inner wall. It is impossible to say what she is casting but casting is clearly the intent.
Drindoleth crushes the mage with great ease and then uses his body to beat the lizard creature to death. Two men started to charge out to attack the huge bear but at a roar from Drindoleth they seem to have thought better of it and raced back inside. One even thoughtfully left his shining scimitar behind apparently as a gesture of goodwill or perhaps in panic, who can say.
Gil-Gandel’s songs continue to effect the opponents.
Rorimac will look to climb to the roof tops to snipe on any mages who put thier heads above the parapet.
"Fely, Elfstan, nice work again. Let's try the walls and towers as I think everything down here is under control", says Mulligan
Ceol will nod to the surrendering warrior, and sheathe his blades. He says to Thoroncir, "I sense evil in this one, which I did not sense in the others which we fought. Keep an eye on him, as I bind him. I suspect he may be one of the ones behind what has been going on in this town, and perhaps we might learn something from questioning him. We may, however, need a translator...it didn't appear to me as if he understood you."
White robes? What did the robes of the Necromancers we've already seen look like?
Not one Necromancer has worn white. Purples and Blacks being most common but at least one in Red.
Ithilneth tries to hear her words and/or melody. Can she recognize her face, or race?
Ithilneth's sharp eyes make out that she is human and indeed Southron looking. Specifically looks like the locals. She is too far away to hear though.
Well, since this mage is wearing white, I think we can safely conclude that she is not a Necromancer and Deor should leave her alone or she is a particularly powerful Necromancer, entitled to wear different robes, and Deor should blast her immediately. Great. Deor will err on the side of empathy and not attack her, but he might counter her spell if he thinks she is attacking the party.
Sir Thoroncir keeps his longsword at the ready as Ceol binds the evil warrior. If there is a nearby allied man-at-arms who understands both the local tongue and Westron, Thoroncir asks him to translate: "In the name of Elessar, High King of Gondor and Arnor, you are my prisoner now. Resist, try to escape or refuse to answer my questions, and it will not go well for you. Peacefully comply, and you will survive the day."
As Deor debates the situation with himself, she completes her spell and disappears from sight. A large figure crashes out through a door he must of wrecked and is swinging a bloody two-handed sword all about himself. 3 slims arrows soon find home in him and he stumbles and goes down. The Lady in White is nowhere to be seen.
Otherwise things have now settled down. Sala, Rorimac or Gil-Gandel can translate for Thoroncir.
Still no sign of those that entered the keep.
Excellent. Thoroncir will ask Sala for his assistance: "Please ask this man his name, his title, the name of his lord or lady, what is going on in this city, why they wished to trap or harm our party, who or what the lady in white is, and who just entered the keep. Ask just one question at a time." With a bow and a warm smile to Gilraen, the knight-errant adds, "And perhaps my lady would care to use her Rod of Kanotir to determine if our prisoner is being truthful...?"
Gwaelur keeps a sharp eye out for any further aggression.
Gilraen is very busy with healing the wounded on both sides. But Ceol is fairly good at detecting lies though he would need a tongues or comprehend languages spell. Ithilneth has the latter.
Ceol will willingly help out with detecting if our prisoner is lying, if he has the assistance of a spell to comprehend the man's words.
Rorimac will continue across the rooftops to areas which may contain enemies scouting around to see what is there.
Mulligan will lead Fely and Elstan to the walls to get a better view.
Ithilneth will certainly help with the language.
Meanwhile let's get all the temporarily-disabled, charmed, slept and otherwise incapacitated enemies safely corralled, settled down and generally made aware that there's to be no more fighting today.
Bitur will aid with the rounding up of the incapacitated.
We need to keep pressing on! The whole battle isn't over, only this little skirmish of it. We need to press through and break the magics holding the town hostage and we need to do so before they can be reinforced or their executors can escape!
Hlíf listens to Deor and says, “Aye the lad is right, Gwaelur, Bitur lets form up and escort the Mage to the keep. Anyone else that wishes to go too. The knights and locals can handle the roundup. We could use some burglars.” He bellows, “Fely, Elfstan, Pippin’s niece PLEASE REPORT!” A little softer, “Gil-Gandel can you join us? I suppose the healers need to stay put.”
Rorimac finds little on the rooftop but sleeping foes and one young lad with a wicked looking knife trying to hide behind a chimney. He is barely taller than Rorimac.
Mulligan leads Fely and Elstan to the walls and sees things seem to be well handled. It appears any leader types are afraid to expose themselves to attack now. They then hear Hlíf’s bellow.
Drindoleth is very visible to the 3 as he is still on a rooftop in his uber-bear form.
Ithilneth casts comprehend languages on Ceol.
Sala will asks Thoroncir’s question in 2 to 4 ways to increase Ceol’s chance of seeing if the foe is lying.
The questions:
Q: “What is your name and your title?”
A: “I am Captain Krenvin”
Q: “What is the Name of your lord or lady?”
A: “My Lord is Lord Grensin but I am here serving Tresnik the speaker to the dead?”
Q: “What is going on in this city and why they wished to trap or harm our party?”
A: “We are defending the town and kingdom from a force from the north that already beguiled the King and much of his council.”
Q: “Who or what the lady in white is?”
A: “I am not sure, she is local and I am not but she appears to be a young mage and a confident of the Lady Perna, Colonel Marn’s wife.”
On those that entered the keep, that meant the bulk of the other party who invaded the keep.
I will be glad to accommodate you, Hlíf - business is done here for now.
The knight-errant rubs his chin thoughtfully. Does Ceol think the evil man speaks the truth? Does anyone else in the party have any questions you'd like to ask?
Rorimac moves carefully to bring the young lad into view. He gestures for him to come forward and carefully put the knife down while lowering the bow. It's still ready if he is attacked but less threatening than actually ponting it at him.
Pippin's niece?. Mulligan stops for the moment not quite believing what she just heard.
Pippin's niece!. Having spent a few years not being Pippin's niece, being Mulligan and earning her own way in the world, she is not happy, not happy at all.
Actually, she's furious.
10...9..."Ok, we are in the middle of a battle..."
8...7..."He may not actually remember my name..."
6...5..."He is probably old, stupid and senile..."
4...3..."Let's finish here first and then bring it up with him..."
2..."But we have been travelling for a while..."
1..."He can remember other people's names, but I just rate Pippin's Niece..."
"PIPPIN'S NIECE"
Deor lands next to Mulligan, slips off the ring, and gestures toward the keep. "Can we argue about names later? Mulligan, I need your help indoors."
Getting a hold of her temper. "Certainly Deor, I'll talk that addle-pated rat-bearded goblin-sniffer later on.
Ceol was able thanks to the multiple questions from Sala determine they heard the truth.
Hlíf is happy when the 3 burglars show up. "Ah lass, forgive me, we've barely talked and I recall you having a few names but don’t recall any of them now. Was it Murrigan? Morgana? No, that’s just isn’t right. What was it?”
Up on the roof Rorimac faces the child, the child says, “Please don’t shoot”, he tosses the knife a few feet away and puts his hands out palms up. “You’re spells appear worse than the Necromancers why have you come to destroy our town?”
So a small group led by the Dwarves in a V shape with Gil-Gandel and Fely at the rear head for the keep.
With Sala's and Ceol's help, Thoroncir will ask additional questions of the prisoner, under the same conditions as before:
"You say Tresnik is 'the speaker to the dead.' What does that mean?"
"Is there anyone else of exceptional power or skills here?"
"How many troops are in this city, how are they armed, and what are their dispositions?"
"What else were you told of our party, and by whom?"
"Tell me more of Lord Grensin. How did he become your lord? Is this his city?”
"Tell me more, please, about Colonel Marn, and the Lady Perna, his wife. What is their relationship to Lord Grensin?"
Does anyone have any additional questions to ask?
Who told you that the force from the north had beguiled the King and his council? Where is Colonel Marn? Where is the Speaker to the Dead?
Due to the wounds he suffered in flight and battle, Drindoleth will return to his man form. Any major wounds that weren't healed by the shape change will be tended, but his main concern will be moving on to heal those more gravely injured.
Mulligan bites down on any sharp retort, looks Hlif square in the eyes. "It's Mulligan, just Mulligan, please don't forget it. Now, you need a castle broken into and that's why we are here. Shall we go now?"
Rorimac lowers his bow and replies back to the boy without realising he may not understand. "I won't harm you. We are not here to destroy the town, just to stop the Evil plaguing this land, that is all."
The questions:
Q: "You say Tresnik is 'the speaker to the dead.' What does that mean?"
A: “His powers are tied to speaking to the dead and he is a senior in this order, fear and knowledge is their greatest weapon.”
Q: "Is there anyone else of exceptional power or skills here?"
A: “There were several other necromancers. But I do not know how many.”
Q: "How many troops are in this city, how are they armed, and what are their dispositions?"
A: “There are several hundred, but only 30 came in with us. The main part of the defense force appears laid out right here. You have seen the weapons and they were largely useless. Tresnik was very wrong this time, apparently his allies of the other realm did not know how strong you’re group was.”
Q: "What else were you told of our party, and by whom?"
A: “Rumors abound but we were given information that could be ‘relied on’ only from Tresnik. It was said that you were probably in league with the wood spirits though. I suspect this part is true.”
Q: "Tell me more of Lord Grensin. How did he become your lord? Is this his city?”
A: “He is the lawful lord of Grennic, a town south of the lake. I have served him all my life.”
Q: "Tell me more, please, about Colonel Marn, and the Lady Perna, his wife. What is their relationship to Lord Grensin?"
A: “Col. Marn is assigned by the King himself to rule over this fortified town and protect the Great North Road. He does not have much of a relationship with my lord beyond occasional courtly meetings. Marn is military from a lesser noble house and my Lord is from a long line of nobles of high order. Lady Perna is also of this higher class, she was quite the beauty in her day and still a handsome woman.”
Q: “Who told you that the force from the north had beguiled the King and his council?”
A: “It was Tresnik.”
Q: “Where is Colonel Marn?”
A: “I believe he is in the keep.”
Q: “Where is the Speaker to the Dead?”
A: “He is in the keep.”
Hlíf nods to Mulligan, “My apologies Mulligan, I will not forget again” Then he says to Deor, “Come now laddie, you’re the one that urged action and haste.”
Rorimac speaks to the child but the child does not understand. The kid slowly walks out though, palms up and arms out.
Drindoleth is in good health as a human and on return to his Eagle form he will only be down 10 points and in bear form only 4. He sees no living in his immediate area. But there is a door the two men started to charge out but instead departed through in great haste.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1.../Farharad2.jpg
Ithilneth urges the group to carry forward to the keep. "Our true foe is still unmet."