The Battle of The Lea, Part 1

About the Saga

The Blackrazors fight their first engagement with the giants' second wave.

Timeframe

• Greyhawk Date: Patchwall 6, CY 590
• Real World Date: October 26, 2001
• Read other Blackrazor Guild Sagas

Notable Quotes

“I’m going to cast F-L-Y, because I can.” – Tanevir “What’s F-L-Y?” – Baldwin

What Has Come Before

The Blackrazors have returned to the Geoff to find it once again under heavy attack by giants, attacks which threaten to erase the gains made during their previous forays into the duchy. The Grand Duke has asked them to break the siege of the frontier town of the Lea, which is under assault by orcs, ogres and hill giants. He has also asked them – as he has asked all adventuring guilds and bands within the city – to find out once and for all what force is behind the giant invasion. He promised the Blackrazors land and titles if they successfully accomplish this task.

En route to The Lea, the Blackrazors game to the rescue of Fort Diligence, an outpost just outside of the Oytwood that was being attacked by a pyrohydra. They slew the beast, and are now preparing to press on toward the Lea.

The Saga

Patchwall 6, CY 590

Gideon looked out on the ruins of Fort Diligence with something approaching hope. Three days earlier he and a band of six fellow Stormers had broken out of the Lea intent on harassing the attackers besieging the village. The plan had worked … to a point. They’d slain several war bands of orcs, several ogres and even a hill giant before finally running into a force they couldn’t beat. The mixed group – comprised mostly of orcs, but led by ogres and a hill giant – proved to be too much. Most of his men were killed in the initial assault, with the rest dying in their retreat. The battle ended with him as the sole human survivor, and the humanoids cackling wildly as they threw his men into their cook pots.

That had been on the 4th of Patchwall. Now two days later he was at Fort Diligence. He’d hoped to find some help there, and when he’d seen the smoke plume from the fort’s burning, he’d feared the worse. He’d moved closer, thinking he might be able to link up with the survivors, if any. Spying from the tall grasses outside of the villages he could see that although the fort was all but destroyed, there were survivors. He could see more than 20 foot soldiers leaning on their pike, with another half-dozen odd adventurers milling about tending to the wounded and evaluating the fort’s remains.

He wasn’t nearly as sneaky as he thought though. Soldiers in the town spotted him, and quietly notified the Blackrazors. They in turn sent out Troll-Greggor and Erilar to investigate. Even in the former of a huge purple-red troll, Greggor was extremely sneaky. He maneuvered up behind Gideon, and tapped the unsuspecting adventurer on the shoulder.

The Stormer whirled around, startled to see a smiling troll looming over him.

“Who are you?” he managed to say after a long moment’s contemplation.

“I am Greggor. These are the Blackrazors,” he said, pointing at Fort Diligence.” … we are famous throughout the Flanaess.”

“I am familiar with the Blackrazors, I just didn’t know they had a troll!”

Greggor ignored the comment. “So what’s your name?”

“Gideon”

“That’s an awfully manly name,” Greggor laughed. “Come, join us!” the troll began pushing him toward the village. As he did so, Erilar emerged fro his hiding place in the grass, bow drawn and arrow notched.

Once inside the fort, Kalib spoke first asking “Who is this?”

“This is Gideon. He think he is sneaky, but he is not” Greggor said.

“Like Scrappy.”

“Yes, but without the eternal torment.”

The new arrival looked confused for a moment and then said: “My name is Gideon. I am a member of the Steelstorm Guild, in the Lea. I led a band that broke past the siege to harass the giants’ rear guard, but we were slaughtered in a brutal engagement two days ago. I lost all of my men.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Kalib said. “Come, join us. Any enemy of the giants is a friend of ours.”

The Blackrazors decided to spend the night in Fort Diligence so they’re spell-casters could re-memorize spells, and they could leave a distress message out summoning reinforcements from the guild hall. They also had a short discussion about the fate of the soldiers remaining at the fort. The base was clearly in no shape to serve as a defense against the giants, and the soldiers – half of which had been killed fighting the hydra – were no better off. They decided to send them back to Hochoch with Ragnar and Moriam as protection. “Yes! Ragnar will lead them back! Maintain order at guild hall,” the barbarian said, happily agreeing with the guild’s decision.

Patchwall 7, CY 590

The next morning the remains of the army detachment headed back with their Blackrazor escorts. As expected, Guildmaster Tanevir Calwyn spied the distress message requesting two guild mages to reinforce the Geoff contingent. He arrived that morning with the mage Baldwin in tow.

The Blackrazors headed out, and by mid-morning Troll-Greggor – acting as scout – encountered a small band of ogres gathered around a fire and arguing with a hill giant. Standing near by was a small grove of trees, which provided spits for roasting an unknown kind of meat. He reported this find back to the rest of the group.

“We must capture some survivors” Tanevir said, hearing the news. “We need to know more about what’s going on.

“Do we know how many they are?” Gideon asked Greggor.

“Does it matter?” D’klar responded derisively. “We will defeat them all in glorious battle!”

The Blackrazors wasted no time in casting spells to aid them in their upcoming battle, Tanevir proclaiming “ I’m going to cast F-L-Y, because I can.”

Baldwin, never reknowned for his spelling skills, looked confused. “What’s F-L-Y?”

The rest of the guild just laughed.

The attack that followed was a classic Blackrazor operation. Tanevir and Kalib – invisible and flying – led the charge. Kalib closed first, slashing at the hill giant with Justiceseeker. Tanevir followed, sending a ghastly green stream of light streaking at the giant. Much to the mage’s chagrin though, the creature resisted the disintegration spell. He followed up that magical blow with another – flew directly over the giant and blasted it with his signature lance of disruption. Unfortunately, because Kalib was invisible, and because the elf had never cared to much about details, he caught the cleric in the same blast as the giant. Watch your aim you fool! Kalib’s sword, Justiceseeker cursed at the elf.

Next up were Greggor and Erilar, who had snuck up close to the encampment. Greggor attacked the ogres, killing one outright on his first strike. Erilar did not fair as well, accidentally sending his first arrow into the ground. His subsequent shots struck home though, annoying the giant and causing the creature to hurl small boulders in his direction.

Meanwhile, Gideon revealed some of his powers. He stretched out with his mind and sent a force out to clutch the giant’s chest. The creature stumbled as the power took hold, forcing him to choose between breathing and attacking his opponents. Not surprisingly, the slow-witted giant chose fighting.

Meanwhile, Baldwin lashed out with a lightning bolt that seared several of the ogres, allowing Greggor and Erilar to easily drop several of them. At that moment though, nearly 30 orcs suddenly appeared from foxholes in the grove, springing a trap that if not particularly cunning, was effective.

The orcs hurled javelins at Greggor, but their barrage, while impressive, missed. The hill giant, enraged by attack from foes it could not see, lashed out at one it could see: Erilar. It charged the elf, hoping to bash his skull open with his club. Tanevir, seeing the threat, cast a hold spell on the giant. It worked, and the giant froze midstep. Erilar took advantage of the situation and slit the creature’s throat.

Sensing an opportunity to cast one of his lesser used spells, Baldwin used Evard’s Black Tentacles to summon up a dozen writhing tentacles to strangle the orcs in the grove. Unfortunately, most of the tentacles appeared in unthreatening areas, and only one orc was caught in their terrible grasp.

Gideon was far more successful, summoning a concussive force that caused the orcs’ blood to explode out of their skin. Nineteen of the creatures fell in two heartbeats.

As the Blackrazors’ lead force had all but destroyed the encampment, their rear guard suddenly found themselves facing a returning patrol of four ogres led by a hill giant. Gideon immediately went invisible, hoping to evade the creatures’ attention. The attempt failed – the giant was some how to sense his location and strike out at him. The blow staggered the Stormer, who found himself having to fend of enraged ogres as well.

The rest of the Blackrazors weren’t about to leave their new ally to fend for himself. They charged to the Stormer’s aid and within less than two minutes the giant and his kin were dead, the hill giant slain by Troll-Greggor’s rending claws.

The Blackrazors wasted no time in looting through the bodies. On the orcs bodies they found just over 1,700 gold coins of Geoff minting as well as a wand empowered by a light spell. Among the ogres, they found 1,100 gold coins as well as a potion later identified as one of endurance. They also discovered an arcane scroll with three spells on it – slow, jump, and feather fall and an unidentified divine scroll. On the body of the giants they found 100 platinum Geoffite coins, 1,6000 gold coins and an arcane scroll with detect secret doors, summon monster and clairaudience/clairvoyance scribed on it.

The skirmish (and looting) complete, the Blackrazors headed on to their destination, The Lea.

Experience

Not available.