The Lame leading the Lame

More temporal shifts appeared to have beset the heroes. With a pair of elven wizards as their guides, the party found itself once again transported to unfamiliar surroundings. A great plain stretched before them with the haze of battle lingering in the distance. Knowing only that the Temple of Night lay toward the fighting, the band made its way forward.

Very quickly the party encountered an orc patrol. Fortunately, the predominantly elven group was able to convince the soldiers that they posed no threat to the forces of Chaos. The party was escorted into the camp only to grasp the dismal nature of the battle. Human forces had erected a pallisade on their side of the battlefield, proving that the humans were organized and solidly entrenched. In an effort to bypass these defenses the orc commander appointed one of his soldiers to escort the group. Kresh, or Captain Crunch as he became known, proved himself a capable warrior.

Using magic and overhwleming force, the party managed to bypass the forward sentries. In spite of Gorebelly's insistance on a direct frontal assault, the party elected to support Splinter's plan. the thief would scale the wall, eliminate the wall guard and secure a route over the wall for the rest of the group. Though Dordo proposed a massed volley to knock the nearest guard from his perch, the missile ability of the party proved poor to inept. Splinter also had the misfortune of finding his position given away and was forced to try and talk his way over the wall.

His efforts to convince the guard that he was simply returning from plundering the dead failed. "Why didn't you use the gate?" the guard inquired. Doing so would expose his nefarious intent, Splinter replied. "I wouldn't use the gate if I was stealing stuff."

Outraged at the deteriorating plan, Gorebelly charged the gate with Captain Crunch at his side. Stripe blasted the guard with a volley of magical darts while Dordo and Noname tried to knock him out with a decisive volley. Somewhere, a goodly distance behind the pallisade wall, their missiles certainly slew some free range chickens or an unattended bedroll. Faced with certain injury if he stayed, Splinter leapt from the wall just as Crunch and Gorebelly managed to smash it open. What followed was a comedy of errors and chaos as the party ran through the camp attempting to evade capture.

The group had picked its way through the vast human camp only to encounter a group of imprisoned orcs. Unable to leave his compatriots behind, Crunch insisted on freeing his fellows. realizing that their aid as fighters or as a distraction might aid their cause, the party agreed. Unlike the battle at the gate, the guards were more quickly subdued even as celestial badgers dug to undermine the stockade wall. The freed orcs were equipped with what arms could be salvaged from the human guards and the group made off once more.

Just as the party passed through the camp of the army's camp followers, Gorebelly materialized with a squad of guards hot on his heels. Though flight seemed a preferable option, the orcs wanted revenge and turned to fight despite Splinter's insistence to "knock it off you dufus" in their native tongue. the fight heavily favored the party for the first time ever. Though the group struggled to land decisive blows, the human soldiers proved equally inept. By the time the sparring session ended nine of the soldiers lay dead and the last fled the field gravely wounded.

Knowing that a search party would doubtless form, the party resumed their flight toward the Temple of Night. With only days in which to reach the temple and secure the sacred stone, time was of the essence. Following Amra's death, Yama's desertion and the treachery of that obnoxious human warrior, Captain Crunch's presence was a welcome addition to the party. It remains to be seen whether or not the group will maintain the good fortune that carried them thus far. Without luck, their prospects seem grim indeed.