There is the sound of a sudden rush of air and a familiar, momentary feeling of disorientation and nausea as Team Arda-Nuff suddenly appears on a rock-strewn hillside. At least the air is not so bitterly cold here as it was outside the crystal dragon's lair.

The ground slopes downward from west to east at an angle of about 45 degrees with a mountain peak rising hundreds of feet higher to the west. The downward slope toward the east ends in a narrow ravine about 250 feet away from where the team now stands. That ravine is only about 50 feet wide and runs roughly north south between a pair of mountains. Those mountains seem to be part of a larger mountain range extending to the north, east and west. There are just a few smaller mountains to the south and the terrain flattens out into plains and forest south of this mountain range.

The team's arrival was not quite silent as several loose rocks had shifted treacherously underfoot. However, everything is silent again moments later and there is no sign of any other creatures nearby.

The Black Mace in Dregz's hands points straight down at the ground beneath his feet.

The starlight from the night sky is sufficient for Raven to see clearly, so she does not need to draw her glowing rapier. Everyone else has darkvision and is not troubled by the darkness of night.

OOC: No new map yet.
Those present are as follows:

• Dregz and the Black Mace (Forya en' i' Leitha)
• Jurz and Rog the dire bat
• Moffdust, Cat the bat and her summoned dire wolf
• Bulldust
• Minmorc
• Raven

"Lets find da orcs." Bulldust whispers, relieved at not being ambushed by a war band of Minmorcs, and excited to be hunting again.  He sniffs around to pick up the scent of orcs, moving as quietly as he can over the steeply sloping rock, and listening for any sound of alarm.

16:33, Today: Bulldust rolled 27 using 1d20+14.  move silently.
16:32, Today: Bulldust rolled 14 using 1d20-1.  listen.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:38, Wed 10 Aug 2022.

Jurz nods at Bully's suggestion, and guessing that he won't be seen against the night sky, the bald goblin mounts Rog and takes to the air.  Circling upwards, Jurz makes a mental note of the lay of the land, and any orc bands (or other dangers) that he might see.

09:50, Today: Jurz rolled 23 using 1d20+3.  spot.
Whooo. Nat 20 ...

"Ooooh, I jus ad an idea - wot if I disguise me as an ork an go ave a look around?" Minmorc will follow Bully.

"Fearz an' tormentz be damned !" Dregz bravely quashes his qualms as he intones wisely to Moffa and Raven.

"Leavses all dat can be spurned beyind.  Wese travels light ... lightish.  Leddz hunt sum Orcses !"

The little priest leads off in pursuit of Bully and Minmorc.

Moffdust grins and grabs the birdie girl by the wing. "Lets us not gets spurned." She hurries them after the brave green goblin, whistling softly for Wolfie to follow along too. Cat the bat is safely hanging inside her cloak.

While Jurz flies off on Rog the dire bat to explore, the rest of Team Arda-Nuff carefully make their way down the slope to the east to the edge of the ravine. Peeking over the edge they see that the ravine is about 50 feet wide at the top and the east and west walls are almost vertical, so it only narrows to about 30 feet width at the bottom.

The east and west walls of the ravine are about 100 feet high at this point but about 60 feet below the top of the cliff (about 40 feet above the floor of the ravine) there are two sections of ledge about 50ft and 70ft long, 5 feet wide and 20ft apart, in the western cliff face. The team is directly above the northern ledge and can see an orc guard leaning back against the cliff wall at the northern end of the north ledge. They soon spot a second orc guard at the southern end of the south ledge as well.

Jurz and Rog fly a bit higher to make sure they are not spotted by the orcs but they are able to see a few more details than the rest of the team can. They see that there are two tunnel openings onto each of those ledges and a larger tunnel opening at ground level between those two ledges. Jurz can just make out a third orc guard standing in the mouth of that larger tunnel too.

OOC: Main Game Map updated.

Jurz returns to the others and reports his findings, leaving it to the big 'uns to decide the way forward.

That said, it would be fun to go rampaging as a bear again.

Dregz waits with keen anticipation to see what plan his wandering tribe alight upon.

Will they be fighting their way in ... or perhaps they'll elect for stealth.

Will the guards be swiftly slain ... or will an intricate tissue of lies see himself and his companions welcomed and waved by ... or even prevailed upon to escort them to the leader.

He suspects it'll all come down to Nuffleball.  It usually does.

Bulldust looks around at his friends and sister.  He shrugs.  Its not like they're elfs or something that needs to be just killed.  He looks at Minmorc with a 'they're your crowd' kind of look.

Minmorc has planted his spear and is drawing the princess Nurzan bow. It wouldn't occur to Minmorc to have some some sort of kinship or loyalty towards orks.

OOC: The way that I think of orks as chaotic evil humanoids who favor barbarians and racially get strength bonuses is that orks would follow the biggest and strongest. That they would settle all disputes violently and would kind of wander an area raiding and hunting until there was nothing left to kill or until their enemies killed their warriors and scattered their tribe. As Minmorc considers himself the biggest and strongest and member of team Ardanuff and captain of the rust ork Nuffle team his plan would probably be to tell these orks to go join the rust orks and kill any that refused. Plus, he'll need to kill an ork if he is going to dress up as a member of this tribe and scout them out.

Raven peeks over the edge of the cliff again studying the guards before stepping back to talk tactics. Whispering, of course.

"I don't think those guards can see each other at all unless the one down at ground level steps out into that pass. If we kill one of them, quick and quiet like, I don't think the others would know anything about it. As long as he didn't fall off the ledge. I can glide down  as quiet as an owl, when he is looking the other way, and sneaky-stab him before he even sees me," she suggests.

Minmorc will look at Raven, deeply impressed and deadly serious. "Dat is a gud plan. Death from abuv is der coolest killin an I'll shoot sum one if dey try to yell fer help. Dis is your time to shine, fly birdie girl, fly!"

Forya en' i' Leitha sighs melodramatically.

"You do realise, don't you, if the wielder of the Mace can see a place, I can teleport them there."

Minmorc is even more impressed, he was in awe of the teleportation magic and if the mace can do it frequently it's very powerful indeed. "Wot else can yer do mister Forya?"

Bulldust draws his wand of Magic Missiles and moves to where he can see the third orc sentry that needs to be killed (the one that's left over after Raven and Min have killed theirs).  He's got this.  He nods a 'ready when you are' towards Min.  Let the killing begin.

Moffdust and Wolfie stay close to Dregz, ready to get a lift when its time to move.

OOC: Just one point of clarification. From the cliff top you can see the 2 orc guards on the north ledge and south ledge but the orc guard in the central, ground floor entrance, is inside that tunnel mouth and can't be seen from above. Jurz spotted him while he was flying on Rog.

I think the current plan is for Raven to glide down and kill the northern ledge guard, with Minmorc ready with his bow for support. Bully is going to shoot the southern ledge guard. Everyone else is gathered round Dregz to teleport wherever seems best after the attacks on the two ledge guards?

The hairy little goblin priest is quite unused to the Magic Stick speaking up, let alone offering advice, and lets out a squeak of surprise and fear, though since Moffa and her wolf at least seem up for a short jaunt, he gets ready to stick his neck out over the edge for line of sight.

Though he does have one nagging doubt.  "If der orcses is very tuff," he suggests to Bully, "'e mights not ged killded at wunce ... p'raps if wese wuz tah use der Furyuz tah get der den wese could 'it 'im 'arder ?"

OOC: I believe that is the plan. Raven attempts death from above, Bully uses magic missile on the second guard, Minmorc shoots if either is still standing. If that's not enough Dregz and Moffa teleport in and Jurz has a crack as a last shot at keeping things quiet.

OOC:  Jurz doesn't have anything quiet  :)

However, he could levitate down with Raven or onto the second guard - but even then he doesn't do much damage without a shape change, and I would rather keep those for later.

Bulldust looks at the wand puzzled, then at Min in awe of the grizzled mountain of muscle that is his only reference point for what it might take to kill an orc at wunce.  "Dunno Dregzie, never used it before.  Better test it out." He walks south out of sight from those below, approaching the cliff at E16, and shoots the wand at the distant orc guard O2.

08:43, Today: Bulldust rolled 17 using 5d4+5.  magic missile wand to orc O2.