Kirith's 7th Journal Entry

Finally a response from the King to the Mayor of Lakeshire’s request!  He is sending some troops.  I made my way back to Lakeshire arriving just ahead of those troops.  There were some strategy meetings with the Mayor and the head of the troops (sad to say, but I know nothing about the ranks in the army, shows how new I am to all this) which I sat in on.

The troops were going to hit the orcs head on and I and a few other mercenaries were going to infiltrate the lines and cause havoc in the rear.  I’m good at causing havoc.  As soon as the battle was raging, I snuck behind enemy lines.  I love my blink spell, I could kiss Garath for insisting that I learn it.  I was picking orcs off when I became aware of someone yelling for help.  

I heard someone yelling from the old lumber mill

  I was able to finally locate him; he was in a cage in an old lumber mill.  

Messner caged

 I made short work of the guards and one shot the lock freeing him.  He was in pretty bad shape, yet still insisted he wanted to help me.  He told me his name was Messner and some of his friends were taken off to another part of the encampment and he wanted to look for them.

It fit in fine with my plans as I was just trying to kill as many orcs behind the lines without losing my own life.  With his help I should be able to do more damage.  We slowly made our way around the camp looking for his friends.  

Looking for Messner's friends

 

Fighting our way to Messner's caged friend

 We found one of them, Jorgensen, held in another cage near a cave.   Messner went charging out there like a mad man.  Turns out he was a fire mage (a pretty strong one at that) and he was blasting everything that moved.   Casting like that can take a lot out of a mage and it took its toll on Messner as well.   

We found Jorgensen and freed him

 We released Jorgensen who told us that the orcs took their other two friends into the cave.  He told us that he had heard one of the orcs talking about a Troll who was going to perform some type of dark ritual on one of them.  We heard chanting coming from the cave and knew we were running out of time.

I led the way as I was least tired of our little group.  I know it chafed them, but I took my time and picked off the orc warlocks one at a time.  I was slow, but I was able to down them in one shot.  We made our way toward where the chanting was coming from and our eyes were met with the sight of a Troll witchdoctor chanting over a prone figure.  Messner and Jorgensen called out to their friend and that at least interrupted the ritual.  That Troll put up a fight, but we were able to kill him and rescue their friend, Krakauer.  

Killing the Troll witchdoctor and freeing Krakauer

 As Messner and Jorgensen freed Krakauer, there came from somewhere in the back of the cave a terrible scream.  Krakauer grabbed at his friends and told us that the person making that awful cry was the last of their little group, Danforth.  The orcs had been torturing him for hours before Krakauer was lashed to the altar and the Troll started his ritual.  The cry came again, but it was sounding weaker.

We knew we didn’t have much time, so we quickly made our way toward the back (or as quickly as we could with the wounded group we had).  Much of the killing fell to me and I was fine with that.  The atrocities committed by these orcs was too much for me to feel any empathy for him as I sent arcane shot after arcane shot at them.  It wasn’t as easy as I am making it sound as there were some very decent warlocks in that cave and by the time we reached the back of the cave, I was rather singed myself. 

 

We walked around the last corner in that cave and saw a man suspended by chains over a small body of water.  He was arms were stretched taught and a large orc was laughing as he pulled a lever tightening the chains even more.  If this kept on, the suspended man would have his arms ripped out of their sockets.  I heard the others gasp and whisper the name Danforth.   

Danforth stretched taught

 There were a few orc soldiers with this large orc and no way to pick them off without being noticed so we didn’t even try.  It was chaos in there.  Krakauer and Jorgensen had picked up some dropped swords and they engaged the large orc while Messner and I quickly downed the orc soldiers.  Then we turned our attention to helping the other two.  We were finally able to get him down.  I think sheer rage kept that orc up and fighting for as long as he did.

Fighting the orcs to free Danforth

 We turned to the lever and finally figured out how to release it.   

Freeing Danforth from the chains

The water wasn’t as deep as it looked so when Danforth fell into it, we were able to get out there and get his head above water.  Two small arcane blasts  removed the chains, but the wrist shackles would need a blacksmith to remove without hurting him.  He was in pretty bad shape.  Jorgensen and Krakauer supported him between them and we made our way out of the cave.  Some orcs had showed up and was looking around at the devastation we had caused.  Fortunately, they were in the part of the cave with the dead Troll so we quickly made our way outside and skirted most of the fighting.  I led them back to Lakeshire.  It took as some time as we had to stop many times to let them rest and I had to clear out some orcs a time or two, but we finally made it back to town.   

Clearing out some orcs between us and Lakeshire

 They were taken immediately to get some medical attention and then to meet with the Mayor and the leaders of the army for debriefing.  These last couple of days behind enemy lines tired me out.  I took the opportunity to grab a decent meal, a bath and some sleep.  I feel that in the next couple of days I will be heading back out there in the midst of the battle as this is not ended yet.

Kirith

((Level 25))