Wherein an Oncoming Storm Arrives and a Legend is Lost…

Three weeks have passed.

In that time, the young adventurers have been busy with their respective duties. Finn, as befits the son of Lord Dane, is extraordinarily busy and spends most of this time handling the administrative parts of his father’s job that Dane has no desire to do himself. Most of his comrades are busy with their own duties as soldiers, but spend their respective free time in various capacities. Arn, to no one’s surprise, spends a great deal of time studying books of Magick, intent on learning new ways to increasing his arcane might. Haruki explores the surrounding area, discovering a peaceful spring that he makes a note to return to; simultaneously, Thorondil, who is doing the same sort of survey of the region, finds a mine but decides against further exploration without assistance. Ilanna is also learning the lay of the land, though she is actively seeking out signs of the magical hawks she has heard tales of. Obsessed with furthering his martial skills, Yusuf spends many hours training against any of the other soldiers who are willing to test against him, though he does concentrate almost exclusively upon the shield. Like many of the others, Zistral spends nearly this entire team ranging around the area mostly to get a feel for the land.

Alarms sound, summoning the adventurers present to their duty stations; only Arn and Finn are in the Castle when this transpires, and both rush to the wall where they discover Lord Dane and Ser Malfoy already present. The source of the alarm becomes quite apparent: a small group of orcs led by a fierce-looking dwarf are approaching. When the dwarf holds aloft a spear with a white flag indicating parley and advances with a single orc, a quick discussion is held: who should meet him? Finn suggests that he and Arn do so since Ser Malfoy and Lord Dane are less expendable; his words are convincing though his father dislikes this, and the two wizardly types stride out to meet the dwarf with Finn having tied a white cloth to his naginata.

Bulgaren

The dwarf immediately scoffs at the two, mocking them for their youth and implying that Caithness is a failed state if all they can send forth are boys. Finn is having none of this, however, and instructs the dwarf to say his piece and to do so quickly. Identifying himself as Bulgaren, the dwarf again calls out insults to the castle and, more specifically, the leader of this expedition; upon the castle walls, Lord Dane visibly reacts, and the dwarf, seemingly satisfied, turns his attention to Finn where he declares that they have a week to abandon Defiant less Bulgaren and his orcs kill them all. Finn counters by declaring they will accept the orcish surrender without bloodshed, but the dwarf leans forward, intent on intimidation. Arn tenses but Finn merely smiles, expertly managing to hide his own fear. Bulgaren turns away, calling out once more that they have one week, before rejoining the other orcs; his orcish bodyguard snarls at Arn and Finn before joining him, and later, Finn will realize that the orc has a war horn that looks very much like the Horn of Roland. He also suspects that the entire point of Bulgaren’s mocking was to identify the true leader of Defiant.

 
 
Thorondil, who has been rushing back to the castle from his recently discovered mine, chooses to discreetly trail the orcs in order to gain additional information on them. He is about half a mile away from the castle when, suddenly, a pair of hidden orcs lunge out of hiding and attack him! A fierce but short battle ensues, with Thorn’dil managing to stay mobile and end up dropping both of the creatures. Rather than continuing forward, he retreats after binding his wounds.

At the castle, a hurried council of war is declared about their next course of action. Lord Dane declares his intent to make a stand – this is to be his last great service to Caithness and by God, he will not let this expedition go to waste. Finn promptly agrees – “Retreat, hell! We just got here! – and everyone else lends their support to holding the line which clearly moves Lord Dane. It is decided that they will redouble their efforts to shore up the defenses of the castle while preparing the populace for emergency evacuation. Arn is to take one or two others with him and attempt to deliver a missive to the elves, advising them of the orc incursion and invite them to join in and kill as many of the creatures as they desire. Rather than be completely reactive, it is also decided that Finn will lead a team (comprised of his fellow PCs, of course) to do a recon in force so as to determine the size and composition of Bulgaren’s forces. And hey, if they manage to kill the dwarf along the way, well, so much the better. After some debate with his fellows, Finn decides to strike out immediately rather than waiting until dark; this decision will later come back to haunt him…

Hours later, after the adventurers have departed and are long gone from Defiant, two men are slain in the castle by a trio of summoned necromantic creatures. One is a soldier whose scream alerts the rest of the castle and the other … the other is Lord Dane Sardock.

Player Notes:

• We actually didn’t get a whole lot done this session. Thorn’s solo fight took a lot longer than the GM expected, though that’s probably ‘cause CommJunkee was running the bad guys. He and Gigermann have been doing a lot of one-on-one fights to test various rules and maneuvers so CommJunkee probably knows Thorn’s character as well as Giger.
• Arn, Finn, and Zistral all rolled successfully on the Destiny Item thing. Arn will find his with the elves next week, Finn noticed the horn at the side of the one-handed orc accompanying Bulgaren, and Zistral had a nifty description of how he found his spear but the GM declared that he had a different idea (which will presumably show up next week.)
• Probably no Andricus next week, which is why we sent Arn to the elves.
• Per the GM, next week may end up being the end point for this current run of Banestorm, though we may end up having to go one more week.