Cinco de D&D Week-yo

Having defeated the orcs in the apparently deserted town of Byron Valley, the party was approached by the goblins who assisted in the fight. They took you to see their leader, a hobgoblin called Kerrec, who explained the situation. The goblin tribe had been cast out of the Maurick Mountains after a devastating war with the local dwarves. They were forced east to search for a new home in the Mossdeep woods and planned a simple raid on Byron Valley -- unfortunately, an orc party just happened to launch a raid on the village simultaneously and a war broke out between the two groups with the humans of the village stuck in the midst.

Here, Kerrec offered you a proposal. The village is a warzone and your party has little chance of reaching the road on the other side of town without heavy casualty. The goblins are badly losing the fight, so Kerrec offered to abandon the village and spare the humans if your party helped defeat the orcs. He allowed you safe passage to the village church, where the humans had established their last defense. There you encountered the village leaders, Elder Wilhelm and Sheriff Ramshackle. Since the villagers are patrons of St. Cuthbert, Auren, a monk under the deity, was welcomed and immediately found trustworthy by Wilhelm. Ramshackle is suspicious of all outsiders, a custom among the isolationist villagers of the valley, and did not approve of the goblin bargain, but Wilhelm, as the voice of the village, agreed to it.

Kerrec's plan is thus: Your party will infiltrate the orcs' lair, an abandoned dwarven mine east of the village, and attempt to assassinate their leader, an ogre mage. This unusually intelligent ogre had been spotting and disabling the goblins' traps, which is their specialty in war, and sending orc shock troops to decimate the goblins in combat. Without him, the majority of the orcs would fall to the goblins' guerrilla tactics. Eddi piped up, asking what spells the mage may use and Kerrec, drawing on field experience, replied that the ogre could fly and cast frost spells.

Bill Beard unhappily agreed to stay in the church and take care of Eddi's owlbear chickcubs (who had awoken and angrily tore into the orcflesh Eddi offered them) as well as watch K'Phalvius' asses.

(At some point around here it was revealed that Eddi is a eunuch, but I digress.)

Equipped with a map of the mines that Wilhelm quickly drew up, the party reached the entrance to the orc base without incident and cautiously advanced down a long tunnel until reaching a set of stairs and statue of a dwarf that indicated this was the place. You then cautiously advanced down the stairs, until Eddi slipped and fell down the steps, emitting a echoing clatter of equipment. At the bottom, he found himself at the base of a great stone door. Opening the door revealed two orc guards who the party managed to eliminate quickly enough. Hidden in the shadows, however, was a third orc, who ran from the room hollering for help. The party rushed to follow him out into a dark hallway. Visibility was low and it took a moment to find the offending orc in the darkness. By the time he'd been slain it was too late: his call had alerted the troops and the party was surrounded by five orc barbarians. These hulking warriors bellowed war-cries and rushed the party in a rage, nearly killing K'Phalvius' wolf companion. The party fought valiantly in the cramped and dark quarters: K'Phalvius' arrows flew keenly through the melee; Lucky bounced along, ducking from danger and hurling a javelin at any estranged enemies; Eddi's sword, alighted by a spell, cast a red glow across the hall as it was stained with orcish blood; Andy the anonymous druid and Eagle the anonymous eagle became as one anonymous killing machine of scimitars, talons, and feathers; and Auren deftly balanced a torch in his hand as he rained kicks and punches upon his foes... but never once succeeded in performing a Stunning Fist.

Soon, where the barbarians had been there were only corpses and the party, wearied by the brawl but encouraged by victory, were ready to move on.