The halfling woman stood with a serious, grim look on her face (unusual for a gnome for the new three), but she looked the newcomers up and down. The smaller of the humans looked much like most, a warrior. The second, the barbarian Viridovix she spared a half smile for. “Your a big one, aren’t ya?” Her final gaze went to the half elf woman, a self proclaimed warlock. Nyssia always found warlocks a touch unpredictable - the whole making a pact for magic confused her. Still, Kriv, another warlock, had proved his skill and loyalty…and since she was not of the original group, it wasn’t her place to question.

She crossed her arms and nodded to all of them. “Nyssia.” She said as a means of introduction.

Her attention then went back to the orcs and prizzards idea. “Could set a trap and use the javelins as a barrier…the stupid orcs would run straight into them. Block of several of the caves with the javelins, search each cave one by one.”

"I am Lureene, of the Raventrees of Waterdeep, a priestess of Sune Firehair", said the beautiful redhead in the mail and red tabard to the newcomers. She hooked her mace to her belt and banished her spiritual weapon. "Well met to any who oppose orc-kind. Are any in your group in need of healing or succor?"

"Me is Ulrik Donnarson, warrior of the Highstone clan." He says with a salute, striking his chest with his right hand. "Hail and well-met."

"And me is well, thank you miss."

"Javelins could hold an unarmed halfling and most humans, but armed orcs are out of the question." A typical javelin shaft is only 1" thick, built for throwing more than melee durability. The shafts would more likely be softer woods since they're getting trampled after one throw and all that needs to survive is the pointy end. Although, fantasy game mechanics could differ at DM discretion.

"I am beginning to think the world as a whole knows of where we are with how people come out of the woodwork." The green skinned Eladrin elf said with a playful smirk as she looked over the others. "I at least had a reason, coming from the Feywild." She then looked towards the newcomers. "I am Theirastro Nailo."

After helping gather the dead, Victor asked Lureene to tend to his wounds, then introduced himself. "Captain Victor Harkness, Neverwinter Infantry 42nd Division, retired. Well met. Prizzard, I think she means to arrange the javelins so the orcs run into the points. They might, if they can't see them. Otherwise, orcs aren't that stupid."

The monk looked at the newcomers and gave a short bow. "I am called Stonecrow."

He turned to look at the Eladrin, his mask still on after the battle. "I, too, came her for a reason, and it honestly has nothing to do with killing orcs." He gestured towards both the bodies and the caves in one sweeping gesture. "But that many orcs nearby would make moving around in this area troublesome to say the least." He paused and then conceded, "Plus it keeps them from raiding and killing others."

He looked around. "Is someone here GOOD at trapmaking, out of curiosity with these trap ideas?"

Ero glances up from his book at the newcomers, sighs, then returns to his reading.

"My reasoning too has nothing to do with killing Orcs, but I figure allies would be a good boon when it comes to what I need. So if I help them...." She said with a shrug, towards Stonecrow. "Plus they're fun!" She said with a grin towards Nyssia.

Coins, aye. That's what he is gathering from dead orcs. Ah, adventure and loot. This is life.

"Well met, friends in adventure from many places. Aye, am a big one Nyssia, but do not confuse me for one of these filthy beasts."

Ah, five javelins would do good.

"I am a honorable son of the North. Besides, are we getting ready for something big coming? Do we expect retaliation from the Orcs? Or, are we still heading to Phandalin? Either way you have my Axe."

"If this place is what I think it is, then there will probably be other exits and escape tunnels, probably even chimneys, in the caves," suggests Vane.

"If we let any Orcs escape, we've got two scenarios that we could be looking at. Either the Orcs tell the others that this is not a good place to mess with and they should all stay away, or else they'll think that they need to come back with even more Orcs the next time."

"Personally, given the Orcs' nature, I'm inclined to think that the latter is the mostly likely scenario."

"I think there are enough of us that we can split up and enter each of the caves at the same time. For the most part, that will give us the advantage as the Orcs won't be able to bring their numbers to bear against us."

"I would suggest we pair up one fighter with one spellcaster. If that gives us more teams than there are caves, then fill out whichever team seems the weakest. One of them would probably be the team I'm on. Just saying."

"Judging by the message we intercepted they are already fairly hesitant to attack, probably due to how badly they were chased out long ago. Even just scattering them here would break morale for a while and give thentown plenty of time to build real defenses and a militia as they should have years ago."

Nyssia looked at Prizzard with a shrug. "Given the size of this group, it's more than one clan, probably several at least. I'm sure this loss will scare them for a bit, but it won't be for long - or long enough to train the town anyway.. Orcs are savage, and we had surprise and magic on our side. With the town it will be sword versus sword, and no offence to the town's people, but these things are raised for war....it would be a slaughter."

She sighed as she looked towards the caves. "If there to have a chance, a real chance then we have to make sure the orcs have no will to fight them within the next few months - we have to show then the folly of coming against them. We want that, then it's not over here. We need to either attack them again or take out their chieftain."

While the others were discussing future plans, Lureene quietly examined Victor's wounds, her gestures skilled and gentle so as to avoid him further pain. Then, she invoked the name of Lady Firehair with a whispered but beautiful chant and ran her fingers just above the wound. Immediately warmth and golden light radiated from her fingers, to suffuse Victor's body, and the wounds closed, leaving nary an unsightly scar behind.

OOC: 13:12, Today: Lureene Raventree rolled 10 using 1d8+8 with rolls of 2.  Cure wounds on Victor (lvl1, Life Domain bonuses) .

Then, her work done, she gently stroked the healed skin with her soft fingers before standing up. "We should press the advantage, then", Lureene responded to Nyssia, "so as to fully dissuade them? Will slaying their chieftain do? It seems like it would involve us fighting fewer orcs, and the Lady's favor notwithistanding, fighting orcs is not without its risks, especially now that they're warned to our existence. It might also get the orcs to fight one another, which would not be a displeasing thought."

"I'm just a simple warrior, but I agree we shoukd keep after the orcs."

Looking around and counting on his fingers, then shaking his head and giving up. "Not sure how many we are here, Pairs is too few for a team. I'd say at least three, four or five  even."

Looking up at the others from where she has been collecting more small stones, presumably to augment her collection for throwing, Cinnabar asks the next logical question.

”Did we find the chieftain, or even any indication of where the primary leadership meets?  We must assume they have some method of coordinating the many clans each of which no doubt has its own chieftain.

"Fine fine," Ero says, not looking up from his book.  "Place me in whatever group that doesn't include the halfling or the fey.  They talk too much and say too little."

"And you may as well get comfortable while you make your plans because we're not leaving here until I've rested.  If you think I'm going to walk into some cave to kill orcs one by one, you're sadly mistaken."

"I makes us out to be 19 in number now," Mithra responds.

"That could give us 6 teams of 3 each, with one team getting a fourth person."

"We'll have to wait and see how many caves there are, though, as I said, they might all connect up somewhere inside the mountain."

"However, I only count 5 fighters among us: me, Willem, Ulrik, Victor and Viridovix. Any of the rest of you qualify on that point?"

"Yes, Ero, we know you're a wizard that likes to cast BIG spells, but you may need to use more selective spells within the caves. Or you can stay outside here and watch the horses."

"I don't cast big spells, I cast effective spells." Ero replies.  "Killing a score and ten orcs with a simple evocation is what's been keeping the rest of you alive."

"I prefer a melee, if that counts." Fighter class, duelist style, just not the AC expected of a tank. He's a solo adventurer so the mobility is important.

To Mithra's question Stonecrow replied, "I am a monk, but as I think has been seen, I can fight." He gave a small shrug. "I am probably a little better at close quarters fighting then at range, but I am versatile."

"So, Prizzard, you and Stonecrow sound like a good sixth team," Mithra says.

"How about This goes with you two to give some range ability... in case it's needed?"

"Ero, Ero, Ero... and here I thought it was us fighters that were keeping you alive long enough to cast your spells! Don't think we couldn't have taken out a score or two of Orcs. But once your spell is cast, you can't cast it again for awhile, right? We, on the other hand, can rest for few minutes and then go deal with another score!"

"I'm not all that familiar with your various abilities. We have three Warlocks and only two healers."

"I'm thinking Lureene should go with Ulrik. Krivath can go with Willem, and Thressa can go with me. That leaves Vane to go with Victor."

"So, we've got...

TEAM 1	TEAM 2	TEAM 3	TEAM 4	TEAM 5	TEAM 6
Willem	Mithra	Prizzard	Ulrik	Victor	Viridovix
Krivath	Thressa	Stonecrow	Lureene	Vane	Thia
Theirastra	Cunaar	Cinnabar	Nyssia	Kessife	Ero

"That leaves Cinnabar, Cunaar, Ero, Kessife, Nyssia and Theirastra to decide which team they want to go with."

"Why don't you decide first, Ero?"

She prompted the Wizard to choose a team so that Nyssia could choose a different team.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:05, Wed 29 Sept 2021.

As the people begin to move into their teams Cinnabar realizes that she might need to provide some input to the process.

”I can help with a very small amount of healing, or one or two spells that might help, but any sustained conflict other than long range sniping with rocks is likely to see me become quite useless very quickly.

Prizzard huffs slightly, but it's understandable. He smiles in challenge to Stonecrow but realizes this isn't the type of man to hunt competitively. He's just about to point out the variety of ranged options in this group before Cinnabar speaks up.

"Then you may be more suited to our squad. We'll all have ranged capability and two fighters to share the encounters, perhaps we'll be able to kill them before our lack of armor becomes an issue."

Nyssia (pointedly ignoring the 'halfling comment' looked at Mithra. "I'm equally skilled with blade or crossbow, and can be silent when need be. I'd make a fair scout, and given my afinity with some magic, could be handy as well." She would go with the egotistical mage if that was the plan.

....she wouldn't like it, but she'd keep the fool alive

"...maybe with Lureene and the new guy? Even things out a bit....I can scout for them."