Editing Journal 1: Aid in Lilingbroke (section)

== 25 Lowspring 807 ==
It's over. I have not had a chance to write in my journal until now. Much has happened over the last couple of days. That night, we found a group of Otorok assembling parts for a bomb. They had an entire cart full of blasting powder that they were unloading and stashing for later use. We were able to interrupt and slay them. In the battle, we detonated the cart. I have never heard such a noise, nor seen such a blast of fire. There was a wave of pressure you could feel in your chest. Once the fight was over and my ears stopped ringing, a group of the townspeople came running, led by the mayor, to investigate the explosion. We were able to prove to him that there was indeed a bomb plot, and we showed him the hidden stash. He finally believes that our intentions in protecting the town are true, and he helped us clean up the mess and destroy the remaining pouches of powder so no one can use them against us.

The next day, we met with the diplomats, who thanked us for discovering this plot, and were finally willing to take us seriously. Then they gave us a chance to really prove our worth. They gave us a mission to infiltrate the Otorok camp and find out what their plan was. This was not an easy request, as the camp was hours away, and only one of us could pass for an ork, but thanks to Ian's illusions, Glendower, Aalari, and I were able to look like them. We walked right into camp, and after a little asking around, found a high-ranked warrior who pointed us to the Otorok chief. We found him rallying his troops for battle. Turns out, their plan was to bomb the meeting, then use the distraction, and elimination of the most powerful people in the village, to conquer it. With the bombing plan disrupted, he was gathering his entire army to march on the town. They were going to be there by nightfall. We rushed back as fast as we could to gather the mercenaries and warn the town. That gave us enough time to build fortifications and prepare for the coming battle.

That battle was not something I ever hope to experience again. It was horrific. The Otorok orks crashed on the fortifications like a great wave hitting a glacier, breaking against the side and spilling over the top. I was able to use some of my magic to disorient them so they ran into the wooden spikes driven in the ground, but most of the fighting was done by the mercenaries and Urthagar orks at the front lines, in the ditch behind the spikes. We stayed back and to the side to give support from the flank, and a good thing we did. We had to fight off a series of Otorok trying to come around behind the mercenaries. I almost died in that fighting, but for Aalari's magic healing. I'll not forget that experience. The thing I saw while my life was slipping away… By the time our fight was done, the Otorok had broken through the defenses, and the fight was spilling into the town. We decided to use that as an opportunity to move to the other side of the battlefield to look for the diplomats, as we thought they might be the only ones powerful enough to turn the tide of the battle in our favor, and we had no idea where we were. We crawled through the ditch behind the spikes. The things I saw in that ditch will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. When we came out the other side, we were by the meeting hall. We looked inside. We found the diplomats, all battered and beaten. One was unconscious, Ian was catatonic. The Urthagar chief was wounded on the floor, surrounded by a few of his Orks. The Otorok chief and some of his men was standing over him in triumph. If the fight in this room finished in the Otorok's favor, the whole battle would be lost. We knew we had to act fast, so me, Glendower, and Bula ambushed him through the window with a simultaneous strike. Aalari used her Bard magic to heal the Urthagar chief so he could fight the Otorok chief, but we didn't need him to. Our attack from the window killed the Otorok chief outright. With their chief dead and a newly healed enemy chief standing in front of him, the Otorok soldiers quickly surrendered. The Urthagar chief took his opponent's head as a trophy and went outside to announce the end of the battle. The Otorok all either surrendered or ran, and like that, the battle was over. Aalari tended to the diplomats' wounds, while Glendower tried to snap Ian out of his stupor. Many mercenaries and Urthagar had died, so the rest of us helped gather the bodies, but thankfully, none of the diplomats or civilians perished. Since then, we've been cleaning up as best as we could, and resting from the battle. We received many thanks from townspeople and diplomats alike. The shopkeeper let me keep the magic staff she had let me borrow for the battle, which turned out to be very useful. The diplomats also gave us a way to magically contact them if we need it after they paid us for the job. Now, we're resting here for one more night, and in the morning, we head home to [[Wodesville]], back to the Stout Scoundrel and [[Peggy Redfang|Peggy]] to wait for the next mission.
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[[Category:Dragonslayers]]