The Next Day V2.5

We woke up, had a light breakfast and began to prepare for the march back to Durgis Rock. Croft chattered freely with everyone, there is just something shifty about his demeanor. As we were preparing to leave, we could hear a strange noise, everything was difficult to hear because of the rushing sound made by the Falls. We looked out and saw about a dozen small gangly creatures heading our way herding a moving stone statue. It was a terrifying site. The group immediately took up arms and made hasty battle plans.

Baylah stepped outside the doorway and almost completely disappeared in plain sight, I followed him the best I could. There was something about his cloak that made him blend in so well, like magic. He headed straight toward the bridge where some of the goblins were managing to get ahead of the moving rock that looked stuck on the bridge. Baylah took out two of the monsters with out breaking stride and just vanished into thin air. I searched in vain for him and suddenly realized I was alone and staring at a giant animated statue and more goblins than I could handle. As I struggled to find Baylah, several arrows flew over my head and took out several of the creepy things heading toward me, I look back and saw Eiram shooting arrows as fast as he could. Before I could turn back, as unbelievable as it sounds lighting shot from Riane’s hands and hit the statue, which even more unbelievable didn’t do anything, other than make three of the goblins seem a bit more nervous and hesitate. With there hesitation, came their disaster, the bridge gave way and the stone monster fell through, it was so large you could still see it from the waist up and it was trying to crawl back on to the bridge. I knew I had to act and act fast, I wasn’t sure how those three goblins were making the statue move, but I knew I had to stop them. I ran and jumped over the statue and landing right in the middle of the remaining goblins on the bridge. There numbers were a lot less now, arrows were flying every where some hitting goblins, others smashing off the giant. I saw several darts fly by and land safely in the water doing absolutely nothing.

Baylah reappeared and began cutting down more of the offending monsters. I also started beating my way through their ranks with my atharak. I heard the Big Guy running toward the bridge chopping the remaining few down like kindling. It was amazing to watch the elves just decimate the goblin war party. Baylah and I took down the three goblins that were concentrating on the animated statue and it just stopped moving half in the water and half slumped over the bridge. They were wearing shinny necklaces and I confiscated two of them for my collection. I tried to ask Baylah how he could hide so well, seemed even better than me and nobody can hide better than me. He either didn’t understand or ignored me. I grabbed one of the corners from his cloak. He spun around and grabbed it out of my hands and motioned for me to stop it. I just giggled, I knew now it was the cloak, I want one. The rest of what they had was pretty much junk. We left the bodies where they had fallen and hurried off as quickly as we could toward Durgis Rock before more came. This was a mistake we would pay for later.

We gathered up our things and set out on a fast paced hike back through the hills, with Duncan leading the way. It is so funny to watch the gnomes try to walk fast. They look like chickens walking in a strong wind, you are just waiting for them to fall over at any second. We had been on the trail for almost two days when I heard an all too familiar sound. I heard orc war horns faintly carried on the winds. I let everyone know what I had heard and told them to be on the look out. Not long after that we spot a dark shadow coming toward us on the trail. It looks like an orc, but we aren’t sure. Taking no chances Croft and I scout ahead while the rest wait in the cover of the trees. It was agreed if it was an orc we would try to capture it and talk to it. I had no intentions to talk to an orc, I guess that is why then sent Croft. As we got closer we realized it was a wounded orc crawling down the path. It was barely moving. Croft said he was going in closer, I was preparing my knife to slit its throat, when in my amazement, Croft did what I was thinking. We hurried back to where everyone was waiting, Croft said matter of fact that it was an orc, but it had died before we got there. He looked at me and I didn’t say a word. Maybe he isn’t so bad after all, but I still don’t trust him.

We all moved forward, some wanted to examine the orc, me I was so full of hate and fury that I wanted to sit it on fire. All my memories, fears and trauma hit me like a thunder clap, I was just stunned and was going through the motions. When Devil Horn seen the body he noticed lots of scars up and down the orcs arms and said they were kill marks. This meant according to the Big Guy, this was a veteran warrior with many kills to his name. I thought good, now he is dead. Someone suggested we camp and I was all for that, my head was spinning with horrible memories. Duncan wanted to get back to Durgis as quick as possible, because he was convinced it was under attack. We had been traveling for a long time and some of us were tired. He said it didn’t matter he had to get there as quick as possible and help his clan. He headed up the trail on his own. We talked a little bit and were confused on what to do. I was no help at all. We knew it would be better to fight rested, if we even needed to fight. But every moment mattered for the people back at the Rock. The elves offered us another choice. Riane said we could take this magical dust that would allow us to continue for another full day and night as if we were fully rested, but the down side is we would have to rest for two days after. We agreed to take the dust. We immediately were full of energy and couldn’t sleep even if we wanted to. My mind was on revenge and I was ready to kill me some orcs. We quickly caught up to Duncan who was glad and proud to see us. He said I knew you would come and we headed up the path as quick we could. As we got closer to Durgis Rock we could hear sounds of battle, see smoke and we knew that Duncan was right.