Chapter 4b - North by Northwest

Raz's shining rock blares away the darkness, revealing a very confused Joachim and a group of onrushing Orcs. Though you momentarily shade your eyes at the sudden intrusion of Raz's bright stone, the Orcs keep coming, and you throw yourself into the fray...
Joachim and Raz act almost in unison, each rushing forward to get in on the action. Joachim leads with his sword, charging forward directly into the horde of Orcs. Blade set, legs pumping, armor clanking, the warrior flies into the monsters, and comes cleanly out the other side, a faint trail of shadowy smoke trailing behind him.
His partner Raz jumps at the nearest Orc, but finds himself falling through the creature, landing face-first upon the ground. As the priest sucks dirt, the warband continues moving forward, seemingly unaware of the goings-on around them...

" !@%$#%@ illusion! " the priest says as he pauses to wash his mouth out with his holy water, downing half the skin as he takes the huge hit.

"We got us a mage boys, 'cause ain't no priest would waste his time with that kind of crap." Raz says as he throws up his hands in frustration.

"... Zetroc. He was a mage, right?" Lorem starts looking around, trying to find any signs of the real orcs who clearly were about to struck at them from the shadows using the distraction provided by the illusion, ready to attack at first sighting.

Spot Check

Joachim swings his blade in frustration at the images he had just run through. Only after the third try he understands what happens just in time to hear Raz's words. "He can't be far of. Also we lost that Orc that was leading me ... We must act quick."

Without much hesitation, and in truth much thought in the first place Joachim adds. "I say we split up. I'll head right with Raz and you and Tamrik go right." He proposes speaking to both Raz and Lorem. Without waiting for the reply he heads of towards the designated area only to stop for a second to see if Raz was coming as well.

possibly useful rolles

"Not a good team up. In case we get hurt, neither me nor Tamrik can heal neither each other nor ourselves without using our potions." Lorem noticed that again, Joachim did not wait for a reply and off he went on his own. "I hate when he does it... What is it with him, today?" He turns to Tamrik, still holding sword and shield in hand. "Tamrik, you and Raz go the opposite way. I'll shadow Joachim. Be careful and try not to die."

Joachim was a bit gloomy by now. He heard his wife just outside the cave, opted to go after a prisoner and found himself running into a wall charged by 4 non-existent Orcs. Before that the day had not been much nicer to him. He had run into a camp full of goblins made a fool out of himself and gotten all dirty. The icky mead was still uncomfortable as he walked right now, him only noticing that Lorem was moving along as the other was catching up with him already, and he definitely didn't want to think about how he smelled. The wind in the skies had diminished the senses his nose got to him and he had slowly gotten used to it, but if he focused a bit more he smelled the things that were starting to get rotten by the sun in between his armor plates.

And the accident had only been the start of his misery. He had made himself a fool further more as he accused Garak without a solid accusation falling to the assassins tricks and schemes. He had confronted him with what he could only base on his own wits and intuition. Now he knew he was right about it, but that did not help his credibility. The cherry on top of this deliciously rotten desert was the foul flavour the distance from Gerwin brought to his mouth. He missed her and her company. Now there was a person you could talk openly about and who would understand with you, even though, and this Joachim let carelessly by side, she did almost never agree with him.

Now the paladin was not particularly bad tempered, besides his rash behaviour perhaps and in fact the orcs he slain single handedly had calmed his inner unconscious rage a bit, but on the inside he was eager to run into some enemy he could smite.

Alright Raz. I guess its you and me! Wanna find some orcs to slay? Tamrik had a gleam in his eyes that showed a small amount of bloodlust. He enjoyed fighting, besting others in battle. It was who he was. Lorem, do you need the light? I can create my own. And I can see perfectly in the dark. Looking up, he could see that Lorem was already too far away to hear him.

Onward we go. Tamrik said as he moved down the right hallway. This was one they hadn't ventured down, so he didn't like the idea of rushing in.

search:
Dice Roll: 1d20+4
d20 Results: 2 (Total = 6)
These dice were omitted, altered, or moved: 1d20+3
Original Dice: 1d20+3

spot:
Dice Roll: 1d20+2
d20 Results: 18 (Total = 20)

listen:
Dice Roll: 1d20+2
d20 Results: 16 (Total = 18)

move silently:
Dice Roll: 1d20+8
d20 Results: 14 (Total = 22)

Once again, the quartet splits up, the brave warriors venturing deeper into the cave system...

Please move to the following thread for cave explorations:
Chapter 4b: Spelunking