Characters: Julian, Balin, Grim, Anthony, Tulgar, Samael.
NPCs: First Reader Norillmir of Oghma: the Keeper of the Tomes (Candlekeep), Lionar Daklbel: Warwizard of the Cleansing Flame, 1 Corp of Obold Manyarrows' Army (~75,000 orcs), Ratharg the Werewolf: Chieftain of the Greywolf tribe, 50 Greywolf Uthgart barbarians, Knell Blackspear: Chieftain of the Black Raven tribe, 50 Uthgart barbarians, Obold's Eyerippers, Isidar Fianche: Flankmaster (Red Knight), Throm Bladeweaver: Warwizard (Red Raven Company).
E 13 Mirtul 1374 - M 13 Mirtul 1374
9000 XP
Julian, Grim, and Balin attempted to get some brief rest in at Candlekeep while Anthony, Tulgar, and Samael waited anxiously at Calantar Keep. Lionar Daklbel Teleported back to Calantar during his morning round and alerted Constal Manton that Arabel was again in peril; under siege from a far greater force numbering upwards of 100,000 standing orcs. Anthony immediately ordered that half of his Cleansing Flame knights arm themselves and Windwalk to Arabel's northern gate. He also made a Sending to Grim so that his fellow adventurers could join them as quickly as possible. After a few more minutes of preparation, Lionar Daklbel Teleported Anthony, Tulgar, and Samael to Arabel. Once Grim, Julian and Balin heard Anthony's brief message they informed First Reader Norillmir that they were temporarily needed elsewhere, and joined their allies at Arabel's north wall. Battle was joined.
The party now stood within the crushed ruin of Arabel's north gate; surrounded by a sea of enemies. Enraged orcs in black banded mail smashed through Purple Dragon lines and into the city. The pale morning sky over Arabel was growing dim. Swelling black rain clouds and swarms of fat vultures lumbered from Obold's massive force and collected over Arabel. Even though this weather stretched for miles all around, Balin sensed an unnatural presence. The wind grew more violent and the party's eyes were drawn back to the horde all around them. Even though their weapons and armor were made of crude mundane steel, the orcs drew incredible strength from their numbers and the unity with which they acted. The party had just arrived but within a second they were being terribly trampled and battered by the raging orcs. Obold had more than inspired the orcs; it seemed he had possessed them.Samael began to throw down Acidballs from his magical necklace into the ranks of attacking orcs. Julian reciprocated by invoking multiple Horrid Wilting spells. Tulgar let out a mighty roar and flailed Gar into the surrounding orc warriors, killing 24 of them in a single swing. Anthony was initially overwhelmed by the orcs as they flooded past his position, the Sword of Cosmas flickered and dissipated. But Anthony would re-muster his concentration, invoking his divine weapon. Positive energy poured from the holy warrior of Tyr's fist as he slashed into the orcs, clearing a small opening for himself and Samael. Grim concentrated hard as well as he incanted a set of powerful arcane words for the first time. Instantly, a trans-planar rift was opened at the mouth of Arabel's gate, charging orcs were sucked in and gone. Grim watched as the rift swallowed increasing numbers of terrible orc warriors. However, his satisfaction turned to dismay when he noticed they were being pulled into the peaceful celestium of Elfhome.
The party's slaughter of the black blooded ones had just begun, and yet for every platoon of orcs they killed more and more filled the voids. The orcs clustered around each adventurer and began to grapple them to the ground and rip at their magical equipment. Julian's Blinking ring allowed him to escape and he immediately blasted the oncoming orc battalion with a Horrid Wilting. Hundreds of dead orcs fell like cards all around, but seconds later it was as if his spell had never gone off. Tulgar became surrounded by an aura of black blood and white snow as he swung Gar with furious efficiency. Although each minute he killed a hundred orcs; they seemed to be overwhelming him even more, and drew great amounts of blood in return.
Movement for the party was impossible, as they stood on the lose wreckage of Arabel's gate and the bodies of hundreds of orcish and Cormyrian warriors. Julian saw as well the many orcs being shunted away from Toril and to the foreign plane of Elfhome. He cast a whirling circle of teeth around the rift's opening. Orcs sucked in by the dimensional force were shredded apart before being Shifted to Elfhome.
The party battled hard and finally vanquished the last of the orc brigade that had made the initial charge into Arabel. Reinforcements from Arabel's other guard stations had arrived and set up a spear wall behind the party. For the first time the party made their first unobscured look at the orc army. It contained both light and heavy infantry, worg cavalry, elite berserkers, well-built siege engines, and a command force flying huge black flags. Without pause, the deafening sound of great drums filled the air, and seemed to burst the dark clouds over Arabel as cold rain poured down on the battlefield. The orc force reorganized itself quickly to respond to the appearance of epic magic and sent two large regiments waving black banners for a second charge. A third large regiment lines up along a section of still intact wall; despite the fact their siege engines were fat out of range. Shamans cast abjurations upon the units from within as they ran up the mound of wrecked stone.The party took one last minute to heal and cast protective spells as well; they were Arabel's only true hope of surviving. As the orcs charged up the stone hill the party heard the sound of a massive arrow volley be unleashed. The party knew that the archers and siege engines were still far out of position to reach Arabel's walls. Suddenly, the wind changed directions and blew hard toward the south; the deadly hail of arrows and boulders came down upon the party and Purple Dragons with the rain. Even before the last of the volley had ended the orcs were upon them. The party was trampled, grappled, and began to be ripped apart. The Cormyrian guard had not readied for the arrow volley and after taking heavy casualties were in disarray; they were now unprepared for the terrible charge they received.
Balin cast a druidic spell he hoped never to use upon the orcs overwhelming the Cormyrian guard. Poisonous black posies came down with the rain, many orcs died the instant the black flower petals touched their evil green skin. In the chaos Julian continued to blast away at the orcs with Horrid Wilting. Anthony and Tulgar cut through the ranks of orcs with epic skill, strength, and faith. Just as things were beginning to look as though they would defeat the orc charge again, the battle would again turn for the worse. Thunder and lightning burst from the clouds upon the party, the vultures grew increasingly impatient, swooping to the ground in the midst of ongoing battle to gorge themselves on the freshly killed and dying. The war drums beat louder with every thunderbolt from the sky. Then with another flash of lightning the Eye Rippers were upon the party.
The Eye Rippers were each surrounded by crackling auras of red electricity and wasted no time in attempting to dispatch Pinehill's adventurers. The barbarian let out an epic roar of anger, which sent the hundreds of orcs rushing past the gates around him into a blood frenzy. He gripped Gris'Tarbam which dripped of blood continuously and unleashed a series of devastating blows into Tulgar. The rogue ran towards Julian and began to slash with lethal accuracy using his sword and light mace. Julian was equally adept however in evading the rogue's attacks and chose instead to single out their cleric. When he reached the cleric Julian cast a permanent Forcecage around the two and activated his Antimagic Torc, intending to make quick work of the now incapacitated spellcaster. Meanwhile, the Sorcerer flew into the air over the gate of Arabel and summoned forth an epic Gate which crackled with electricity and opened like an eye awakening from a long slumber. Grim stopped for a brief moment when he realized the Gate was about to bridge the Gruumsh's home plane to Cormyr.Grim knew time was now even more of the essence and blasted the sorcerer with a powerful Ball of Force. The sorcerer's powerful aura of adjuration warded him easily from this attack. Grim panicked and invoked a masterfully shaped Disjunction effect upon the battlefield. The sorcerer saw this and counterspelled Grim's attempt to even the sides. The sorcerer's black Robe of Eyes shot out a ray of Disintegration and eliminated the Forcecage completely. Julian now stood unprotected by his vast array of magical equipment and the cunning rogue attacked at just that moment. Not but one second later Julian fell dead and disemboweled upon the battlefield, the rogue moved back toward Samael and Balin.
Tulgar looked up and saw in the skies to the northwest, that there was a large flight of Black Ravens circling over a patch of the King's Forest. His Uthgart brothers had arrived, but what they were doing in the King's Forest was unknown. Anthony Manton attempted to Mass Heal the party, but this would not be enough for the dead Julian nor Tulgar who could not sustain but a single round more of combat with the barbarian. Tulgar instead tactically disengaged from the barbarian, Dimension Doored up to the Sorcerer, and attacked with Gar. A powerful burst of adjuration magic and electricity jolted Tulgar back as he sustained nearly an equally grievous wound from hitting the sorcerer.Just then Arabel's northeast wall was hit with a magical blast of boulders and flame. The orc regiment which had previously positioned itself made a charge through the flaming wreckage of stone and wood, and Arabel was now in grave condition. Balin noted that this spell had come from some hidden powerful caster. The orcs spread out quickly through the north streets of Arabel into combat squads, the party would have no way of deal with this additional threat. Just then, the Knights of the Cleansing Flame which Anthony had called upon earlier Windwalked down to the northern gate, engaged the orcs, and halted their advance.
Balin was concerned about something all together different however; the party was being assailed by more than just spells from the Eye Rippers. A terrible chaos storm erupted around Balin, Samael, and Grim and Samael could not escape. Soon he died as his body was ripped apart by chaotic power. Balin shouted that the Eye Rippers were not alone, there was a 5th member! Anthony directed his true and sharp eyes into the sky and through the haze of rain, vultures, and steel, he saw a particularly mangy vulture with 6 smiling eyes staring down upon them. It would be all the party saw of this mysterious caster, for the next instant Anthony was again occupied by the imminent threats of battle around him.
Julian and Samael were dead, Tulgar wounded, and Grim nearly out of spells after a final attempted magical blast against the Sorcerer. Worse still, the Eye Gate was now almost fully dilated and the party saw for the first time what was about to step through the portal; a great fiendish army of orcs, and behind them the gigantic silhouette of a great orc. The avatar of Gruumsh himself. The party rallied for one last final burst as certain death approached.
Just then Anthony saw from the corner of his vision what at first seemed like a hopeful illusion, and then truth. A force of Cormyrian soldiers flying the distinctive flags of Castle Crag and the Red Knight; parliamentarians and Red Raven mercenaries charged over the hill. They were led by two flying casters, a caster draped in the crimson robes of a Red Raven Warwizard, and a cleric commander in full red platemail. The Cleric activated what was for the party the most powerful single spell the had ever seen cast, a burst of reddish-white light came from his hand and cloaked his entire force in an unbreakable aura. Then the Warwizard incanted, and with a single blast of insane arcana annihilated a 500 foot radius centered on the orc command force. The evoker's mage unit then unleashed terrible barrages of meteor swarms and fireballs destroying the remaining force. They continued to crater the ground mercilessly for over a minute. When all the smoke had cleared with the still powerful winds the wizard had left behind a bowl-shaped crater of molten glass and a terrain of craters around it.Upon seeing that an entire Corp of Obold's mighty army was now completely decimated, the Eye Rippers relinquished their grip upon the party and flashed away in a crackle of electricity as quickly as they had come. The portal began to close and soon it was but a small eye which looked about for a few more seconds. It blinked, and was gone. The orcs were vanquished and the Battle of Arabel was won! Or was it?
After the disappearance of the Eye Rippers the winds began to settle, black clouds and rain faded away, and thousands of vultures began to settle upon the ground, finally feasting upon the dead. Balin rushed into the heart of Arabel and began to Heal the wounded soldiers he encountered along the way. Minutes later, the two epic casters whom had annihilated the orc Corp Teleported to the party. The Red Knight introduced himself as Isidar Fianche a Flankmaster of the Red Knight's church and Ornrion in the Parliamentarian Army. His colleague stood with his back to the party, red robe flickering like a flame in the dying wind. He stared at the wreckage of the battlefield he had just created with great satisfaction, Throm Bladeweaver.
Anthony thanked them for bringing such powerful military assistance and for helping save Arabel. Isidar explained that Lord Vorik Aris of Castle Crag had sent them with the demand that Arabel be secured in the name of Parliament. The party refused to relinquish their control over Arabel, Fianche stated that he would remain with his men outside Arabel until he received additional orders from Lord Aris. Anthony ordered Lionar Daklbel to Suzail and informs the Steel Regent of the battle and the new Parliamentarian demands. When Daklbel returned hours later he altered the party that there was to be yet another Red and Purple Council this very evening; the party was to be present as well.
