Epsiode 1.8

Brad, Kathy, Wendell, Tony, Greg

The group's rest was interrupted by distant crashing noises. It seems someone else was exploring Haven, coming from the outside entrance. The group got ready and waited for the inevitable attack, with Tony guarding the main door, Brad guarding the secret door and Kathy holding her enlarge spell for Tony. Orcs burst in the main door, with the now super-sized Tony cutting down the first one before he set foot into the room and then the second one with attack of opportunity. Three more orcs and a kobold made their way in. One orc appeared to be common foot soldiers, like the ones Tony already killed. One orc was obviously their leader and wielded a spiked chain. The final orc was a cleric. The kobold turned out to be a sorcerer. Tony battled the three orcs while Brad made his way to the front line. Greg tried to attain his psionic focus, but it took a few rounds. The kobold shot some type of ray at Tony and sapped some of his strength. The cleric also cast a spell at Tony. He threw off most of the effect, but it left him shaken. Kathy shot Magic Missiles at the Kobold only to see the orc cleric heal him. Wendell moved forward and shot arrows at the kobold. Brad and Tony each took a pounding from the Orc soldier and the captain, but managed to take out the soldier.

Greg finally made it to the battle and took out the kobold with a toss of his blade. Wendell moved in and made a sneak attack against the cleric. But it was not enough. Tony went down and Brad was forced to flee in order to quaff a potion. The cleric retreated down the tunnel, the captain gaurding their escape. Greg pursued, nimbly dodged an attack of opportunity, and took out the captain. Brad, feeling somewhat better, returned and finished off the badly injured cleric.

There was a mad rush to bind Tony's wounds as there were no more healing potions and Ernie was not available. After few tense rounds, Greg managed to stop the bleeding. They were forced to rest for two more days. Ernie's cleric cast all her heal spells. They gathered what weapons they could, built something to drag them in, and began hauling them back to Stonekeep.

Before they reached the surface, they were approached by a troglodyte and his large retinue of other troglodytes, troglodyte skeletons and grimlock zombies. He said he was looking for grimlocks because they had killed two troglodyte patrols. The party claimed to have seen and killed some grimlocks but did not volunteer that they had also killed troglodytes. The troglodyte leader asked them where they were going and when they said they were heading towards the surface, he allowed them to pass, but followed for a while at a safe distance.

Before reaching the surface, the group encountered some grimlocks who were looking for the troglodytes they claim killed one of their patrols. The party told them that they had just seen a group of troglodytes and that there were grimlock zombies with them. The grimlocks took the bait and went in hot pursuit of the troglodytes.

When the party finally returned to Stonekeep, they were informed that Gwibaen had never returned from their previous trip. They decided to rest and then go look for him. Gwiend said she was going with them. Ceodoc objected, but she stopped him with a stern look.