"Never say die!"

@Edwin Voskamp's AD&D Game: Freehold 2000-03-12

The party:

• Zooo, a Dwarven Fighter.
• Lothar, King of the Hill People, a Human Fighter.
• Angus, a Human Fighter.
• Banba, a Human Fighter.
• Claire, an Elven Cleric of Labelas Enoreth.
• Rynna, a Halfelven Mage.
• Thalen, a Halfelven Ranger-Cleric of Solonor Thalandira.

Bounty hunting Orcs

As we make our way into Tara, we run into a tall woman, obviously a fighter. She is young, but seems well trained and equipped. Though she is clothed for travel and trailing a donkey, she claims to be local. She introduces herself as Banba, getting immediately into an argument with Angus, so we know she has good judgment. She keeps proving this by taking us to an inn with decent food and buys us a round of ale. We talk and decide one can never have enough fighters in the front line.

She is only to happy to join us and we stock up on a week of good food, as it turns out the headhunting is centered around a militia camp a day's travel south. We buy a week of good food at the farmers' market and set off.

We set up camp at the militia camp, with the other headhunters: one, a human in his thirties, a belt of Orc ears, disreputable looking. Angus can't get much out of him. Banba is more successfull with a party of three: a cleric and two fighters. One of the fighters turns out to be a cousin of hers, Jason. We talk to the provost and he tells us three gold pieces per Orc head. We need to bring the head as proof, and, once out of the camp, everything goes! We sleep in shifts, that night, standing guard as in the field.

The next morning we set off, as all our information indicates that the forest goes for about two days travel before it opens to the plains, where the Orcs are from. Straight south there is an Orc village, numbering three to four hundred. All seem to agree that going a day south, then east should be the best.

We travel a day south and set up camp before it gets dark, on a slight rise in a dense copse of trees. As the others set up camp, I take my war dogs and circle outwards from the camp to determine the most likely avenues of attack, directions of fallbacks, etcetera. We decide on a standard watch order of four shifts:

1. Banba and Claire
2. Zooo and Lothar
3. Thalen
4. Angus and Rynna

Before I go to sleep, I cast Blessed Watchfullness on Zooo, and Claire does the same for Banba. It may have saved our lives, as Zooo barely notices movement in the forest. He hears Orcish spoken. He wakes us all and I cast Light 120 yards away behind where I hear the voices. Ten Orcs are outlined against the light. Rynna casts a Sleep spell and six succumb. Claire Commands one more to sleep. Angus and Lothar charge in, both killing one. Claire shoots another. I kill three of the ones asleep with my arrows and Lothar, Zooo and Angus kill the others. As has become standard operating procedure we strip the bodies from their armor and weapons (studded leather, shields and long swords) and check them for valuables (68 electrum). Zooo chops their heads off. We load the donkeys and set off the next morning. Banba is quite cranky: Claire's more powerfull spell has kept her awake for six hours straight! Zoo stayed up for five and seems the same: a fine dwarf!

We travel East until we hear ahead of us a fairly large party of Orcs. We move out of the direction of their travel and Claire and I walk the three donkeys a hundred yards back, to hide them.

Hiding behind an enormous fallen tree we let the Orcs travel past: they number 19. I signal the attack by shooting at the trailing one. Solonor must not be with me, as I miss. Fortunately, whatever God she follows must be with Rynna, as her never-failing Sleep spell knocks out the leader and five around him. Banba's sling bullets kill one more Orc as I sic Sinann and Sanenn on the sleeping Orcs: I do not want them to wake up: we still have over a dozen Orcs to deal with! Lothar's common sense seems to be back in Freehold as he leaves the line and charges into the Orcs, and is quickly surrounded by three or four of them. Banba gets hit badly: a gaping, heavily bleeding wound (8hp) as I kill one with one shot, Lothar kills two, Claire shoots one and Angus and Zooo each kill one. Taking stock I take a moment and, well-protected behind our faithful fighters I call upon Solonor Thelandira and heal Banba. Her wound closes and she seems almost fully healed. Rynna sicks her dog Thaddeus on an Orc that flanks her and the dog gets hurt, but Rynna uses the distraction to kill the Orc with thrown daggers. Angus, Banba and Lothar each kill one and we mop up. I bandage Banba as Claire bandages Thaddeus. No one else got hurt and we are all fine.

As most of us collect Orc heads, Claire, Angus and I walk back to get the donkeys, only to find that three or four humans, judging by their tracks, have come and took the bag with ten Orc heads. We collect Orc heads, their studded leathers and long swords, as taking all thirty shields would be too much of a load.

We set out in pursuit of the humans. As we go on, I can tell they are three. After a while they split up, but that does not deceive me, as the depth of the tracks guides us to the one with the Orc heads. When we see him in the distance he notices us and tries to run. The fool! I sic my two wonderful war dogs on him and loose two arrows at him. Sinann and Sanenn are so eager and fast that they already reach the man with my first arrow: one grazing Sinann, but missing the target. Sinann and Sanenn tear away at the man, as Zooo and Lothar run up, with Zoo felling him with one blow of that wicked war axe of his. We take back the heads, the man's chainmail, long sword and money (9 gold, 3 silver, 4 copper), his backpack, food, tentroll and waterskins. Just in case we have to hunt down his associates we take the man's head and, to top it off, write "THIEF" in blood on the body's chest.

We decide to try and avoid the "bounty hunters" that may await us near the camp by going straight North until we are out of the forest, then cut West across the fields. We set up for the night as usual: in a defendable spot, with me checking the surroundings and our standard watch list. Zoo asks me to cast Blessed Watchfullness on him again! The Dwarf must be made of iron, going on four hours of sleep a night!

I wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of metal ringing. As I get up, an arrow nocked and drawn, Zoo and Lothar have already dispatched our attackers: one human each. We figure they are our thief's compatriots. We strip them from their chain, longswords and money (23 gold, 16 silver and 10 copper) and take their heads. Banba, woken up by Lothar when he heard the attackers approach, is asleep almost before the bodies hit the ground! She's no dwarf that one!

We make it to the camp without problems, turn in the Orc heads for gold and I talk the provost into setting up the heads of the humans on poles, as an example for others with ideas, to remind them the goal is to hunt Orcs, not prey on the other bounty hunters.

We decide the armor and weapons we have is worth hundreds of gold and we trade with the wagoneers providing the camp. We ride with them back to Tara, in return for guarding them against Orcs. We make it back to Tara and sell the armor and weapons.

Previous Next