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.
8th of Waning Fall, 1AL
The 3rd Watch have found themselves split up, with T'Zaric closed away in the secret attic room he found, examining some type of orb, Extang attuning to an item on the top floor of the tower, along with Patrick and Logan, and Quib and Fiaeorri running down to the next level of the tower, chasing an orc, only to find an additional six orcs waiting in the room below. The orcs swarm in of Fiaeorri and Quib, some of them summoning up magical spears to attack as well. Back upstairs, Extang knows he's almost finished bonding with his item, but he, Logan, and Patrick also spot some movement out on the balcony. Extang sticks to his work, but Logan and Patrick head down the stairs, responding to a call from Quib saying he and Fiaeorri were surrounded.
T'Zaric, only having heard a muffled call, makes his way out of the secret room to investigate what is happening. He arrives just in time for the tower's doors to swing open, followed by orcs rushing into the room to attack him and Extang, also accompanied by floating spears. He begins fighting back, as does Extang, who has finally finished bonding to the magical bracelet. They navigate around the room, often with the help of spells, allowing for some fireballs, but the orcs are relentless. T'Zaric goes down to a lucky blow, and the orcs move in on Extang, pinning him into a corner.
Down below, the fight is going fairly well, in spite of overwhelming odds. Quib has most of the orcs dazed, but more orcs have been coming up the stairs - one on a dire wolf, and another big orc on a dangerous, ice-breathing winter wolf. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that they are fighting for their lives. Quib, hearing fighting upstairs, is able to break away from the fight to discover where T'Zaric and Extang are and is able to revive T'Zaric, then teturns below when he sees that T'Zaric and Extang clearly have the situation handled.
T'Zaric and Extang do seem to have the situation in hand, with all but one of the orcs getting killed off, and Extang using the magic bracelet to start the last one turning to stone before the two of them head down the stairs to join the others - where they find that Fiaeorri has climbed up on the back of the winter wolf beside to slay it, ignoring the hits coming from the huge orc astride the wolf. As they watch, Fiaeorri swings around the orc to drive her rapier into the skull of the wolf, and it crashes to the ground.
Over on the stairs, Patrick is glowing with radiant light and holding back the orcish reinforcements, but there's only so much one person can do. He falls, but Logan is quick to get to his side to revive him. Extang then turns Fiaeorri into a dire wolf and Quib into a t-rex - cramped in this small space. With the extra endurance of these creatures, the group take down the orc chieftain and finally clear the room of orcs. Silence falls, and it seems no more reinforcements are coming.
Fiaeorri, heavily wounded, makes her way back upstairs to the glass cabinet and the treasures within. T'Zaric similarly goes upstairs, heading straight for the orb. He tries to pick it up and... loses himself, becoming - or believing he's become - something much larger, feeling quite lonely and distressed with some sort of itchy, filthy pests running around inside him and hurting him, but also with a hint of hope that something has been found to end this problem.
Downstairs, the rest loot a fair amount of treasure from the orcs, including a probably magic greataxe which is given into Logan's care, as well a magical, glowing shortsword that has caught Quib's eye. Then they head back upstairs to use Extang's bracelet to access the cabinet - where they find Fiaeorri pressed up against the glass, gazing covetously within, and made entirely of stone. They rush to her side, trying to find what could have caused this, and find that though she is stone, there is blood running from a wound gashed in her arm. Patrick heals this, but he's used up all his spells and there's nothing else he can think to do to help her currently.
Noticing the absence of T'Zaric, Extang hops up into the room above and finds him with his hands pressed against an orb on a stand, staring into the orb, but not moving. He pulls T'Zaric away, who manages to snap out of his reverie. They return to the others, open holes into the cabinet through the stonework, and fetch out the various treasures held within. They each sit down with an item they believe to be magical, learning their secrets and their properties.
However, none of them are paying attention to the fact that Logan has gone back to the room downstairs, alone, and is bonding with the axe without having any idea what it may be. An hour passes, and the group hear a strange sound, like metal being dragged along stone. Scrape-thump. Scrape-thump. Scrape-thump.
Logan appears at the top of the stairs, dragging the axe behind him. He takes the haft in both hands and swings it around, bringing the blade down on Patrick, who crumples to the ground.
And that's the end of this week's game session. Find out more next week in Episode 72.
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