Messoria Account - The Raid on the Horned Hold
Even as Messoria draws her sword to attack, she recognises one of the agents of her father, Kallain, disguised as a mercenary. The fight breaks out and Hengist, the mercenary warlord, starts shouting advice to us which we take full advantage of – much to the dismay of our opponents.
The remaining orc slave calls for aid and the three orc guards from the gate rush to help him, but it proves insufficient. Wanda is seriously injured, but is healed by Messoria who then charges the leader of the duergar: the formidable Forgemaster Urwall. Meanwhile Steven the dwarf has been slashing at his enemies with sweeping blows of the mighty dwarven waraxe, against which the orcs have no defence.
Aelar and Andraste snipe effectively from outside the melee, but the eladrin is surprised by a duergar scout who is able to turn invisible and attack her. She survives with minor injuries as the duergar is pursued into a dead end room by Hengist and Messoria where its invisibility is of little use.
With our enemies defeated before an alarm could be raised we take a few minutes to speak with Hengist and search the room. Hengist has been unable to explore the whole Hold as mercenaries are not wholly trusted, but he recalls seeing a group of slaves being taken across the bridge into the main hold, a Halfling amongst them. Andraste and Aelar find Urwall’s treasure which includes the Skull Sceptre which we have heard has been sought by Gendar, the drow merchant, even though it is not magical.
Using duergar cloaks as a basic disguise, and pretending to be either mercenaries or prisoners, we cross the bridge to the main Hold. Andraste attempts to pick the lock on the door but it proves resistant to her efforts. Hengist takes a more straightforward approach and is able to lever it open with a crowbar and brute strength.
From the hall beyond we hear the sounds of unsuspecting duergar sleeping or resting. Following the sound of snoring, Andraste sneaks into a room to attempt a coup de grace. However, as well as a sleeping duergar, an only too awake duergar wizard is on the far side of the room and immediately notices her. Before he can act, Messoria calls on Sehanine’s power and the wizard is compelled to walk towards the Paladin who is able to strike him down. Andraste, Frank and Wanda are meanwhile able to kill the other duergar as it awakens.
Still unnoticed we sneak into a guard room where we see a duergar soldier and two arbalest armed constructs built to resemble female minotaurs. The soldier and one of the minotaurs fall to our attacks, but from behind a wall appears another duergar who sees the situation and, running towards a large pair of double doors, raises the alarm.
Messoria charges after him and kills him even as the doors open revealing a huge ogress accompanied by four orc raiders. Steven rushes forwards to reinforce her and between them they are able defeat the hulking ogre. Trapped by Sehanine’s radiance, the orc raiders make futile attempts to attack Messoria with thrown handaxes, but her armour proves more than sufficient. The ogre however is able to land several telling blows on Messoria before she is killed and it is only Hengist’s intervention that saves her.
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