Storm King's Thunder: Session 7. Nightstone Liberated.

The party then returned to the pit and liberated the townsfolk from their prison. Many of them were hungry and thirsty and the heroes shared their rations and water as far as they would spread. Needing rest after the battle with Hark, they rested the night and prepared to set back off to Nightstone in the morning. Before they left, they told Morak and the other townsfolk to prepare to return to town for midday, as hopefully they would have cleared out the orcs and goblins by then.

Heading back to Nightstone, they found the banners of the Earseeker’s tribe now raised above the walls, with guards on watch and a bell to raise the alarm if attackers were seen. It was still very early (05:00) so they sneaked to near the gatehouse and discussed in hushed whispers how best to get past the guards. Maganose and Carlan decided to try a paired illusion of the image of Hark and mimicked his voice to tell the guards to open the gates. Faced with the image of the ferocious bugbear roaring his name and orders at them, they reacted with complete confusion - they clearly had no idea who he was and shouted abuse back at the image. Carlan then cast sleep upon them and the orcs fell into a deep, magical slumber. The way now open, they opened the gates and slit their throats, making sure to silence the bell as they did.

Sneaking into the town, they saw a small group of orcs patrolling the grounds. Carlan’s sprite scouted the town and to the south stood a massive creature - a hill giant who was devouring a live sheep. Two orcs with it appeared to be cheering on the giant (apparently named “Gurg”) and making bets on which bit of the sheep he would eat first. Garrush and his minions appeared to have set up a base in the Wizard’s Tower Inn, with a few of them awake.

Not wanting to engage all of them at once, they decided to hide in the temple to Lathander. Waiting until the patrol passed nearby, Carlan and Maganose paired their illusion magic again to summon the image of an Orc barmaid enticing them into the temple for an early drink. Thirsty and strangely trusting, they entered the temple and were ambushed by the party. After a few short seconds, the outnumbered and surprised Orcs fell.

By this time Gurg and his companions appeared to have drifted south a little bit and Gurg was eating pumpkins in the fields near the windmill. They decided to then deal with Garrush and the orcs in the inn. Confident that Gurg was too far away, this time they chose speed over stealth and burst into the inn, with Korrak and Darius kicking in the doors as they launched their attack. Garrush and company were now awake and the commotion of the ambush appeared to have alerted them so they were not so easily surprised. The heroes stood against a room full of Earseeker Orcs and an Ogre led by Garrush. The air was full of the clashes of axes and swords, the whizzing of arrows and crossbow bolts and the eldritch light of magic being blasted across the room. As the tide of battle fell in the heroes’ favour, Darius slew Garrush, who fell gurgling a curse at him. The orc shaman tried to flee out the back door but was soon chased down.

Unfortunately by now Gurg appeared to have noticed something was going on and charged towards the inn. Amadeous climbed to the top of the inn and fired his crossbolt at the charging hill giant. As he moved forward, Gurg reached beneath his foul loincloth and grasped a handful of something foul. He then hurled a devastating missile of waste at Amadeous. Utterly appalled, his party charged forward but found themselves under a rain of blows from Gurg’s club. Striking out with axe, blade and Kade’s poisoned arrows the mighty Gurg eventually fell. Seeing their comrades dead, the orcs with him fled the battle and out the gate into the woods.

They then awaited the arrival of the townspeople back to their home.