Lark's Landing, Episode 68

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


6th-7th of Waning Fall, 1AL

After stealing Raim's Book of Secrets, T'Zaric makes his way north until he reunites with Patrick, Fiaeorri, and Logan. They are a bit concerned that he has the book, and admits to taking it without permission, but he assures them that he's just checking it out while everyone is resting.

They wait until the middle of the afternoon when two giant eagles suddenly start bearing down on them. They begin attacking them, but then the birds arrive and turn out to be Extang and Quib. Quib is very angry about the book having been taken from him, but T'Zaric happily and willingly hands it back.

The 3rd Watch then form a plan to head back to the white house of rock and wait while Logan and Quib recover from their lasting injuries while T'Zaric flies out every day to keep an eye on the doings of the orcs in the castle. They set out, only travelling until evening before making camp for the night, hoping to get back onto a more regular sleep routine. However, while Logan - his mind still functioning at a fraction of what it once was - is standing guard on the second watch, he suddenly notices a castle about 100 feet away from their camp that wasn't there before. It certainly looks a lot like the castle the group was in before.

Curious about the castle and the warm light emitting from the open drawbridge, he goes to investigate. He arrives and looks inside, seeing four orcs - who also see him and rush in to attack. Logan responds by imbuing his weapon with thunderous power to do as much damage as he can to his assailants, as well as making a loud noise that wakes up all of his allies.

Startled into wakefulness, and confused by the nearness of the castle, the rest of the 3rd Watch quickly determine that Logan is missing - and that he's most likely one of the figures fighting in the castle entrance. They charge in, Patrick and and Fiaeorri in the lead aided by a haste spell from Extang. While the battle begins outside the gate, it soon flows into the hallway inside as more orcs arrive. It's a hard battle, and even the heavily-armored Logan takes some severe hits, but eventually the battle seems to die down - though not for too long, as Extang - the only one left outside - takes some hits from above - either the wall or one of the towers. He alerts the others and T'Zaric flies out, drawing fire and, in doing so, learning the location of the assailants. He launches a fireball through an arrow slit in one of the towers, seeming to end the fight for now.

He returns to the others, where they spend their brief respite collecting coins from the dead using their magic to heal their wounds - but they don't believe this is over yet. Patrick wants to flee, but most of the others want to press on. Fiaeorri begins setting traps to hinder those chasing them should they choose to flee.

Then they spot a group of furtive orcs dashing across the far end of the hall. They head up to investigate, Fiaeorri in the lead, but the orcs are out of sight by the time they get there. Fiaeorri scouts down the route the orcs came from, finding a hall, a room with smashed bed frames and chests, and a room filled with tables and benches with a door leading to stairs heading downwards.


And that is where this week's game session ended. Check back next week for Episode 69.