Gamelog: Return to the Gatehouse

Heroes have not been into Chagrinspire since December and since then have been exploring, trading, and ruining the international slave trade. All were very worthy but they had heard rumours about the Orcs they left an alien seed and a vampire head and some crystals with had changed thgem. The seed had grown into some kind of evil tree vampire thing and the orcs had somehow grown more combative and offensive to other peoples, even raiding outside the Plateau. Allied holy folk and a druid had warned the party.

Some players killed a vampire thrall spying on their local allies. Finally, they did some divination and were ready. They planned to drive their car to Marsh Village and then march to the plateau. They had enough magic to try and climb up the cliff and not go by the stairs. 

On the roof
The man with no name (player) with hid carbine and Arsh the dogmans dog

On the runners (outside car standing on running boards)
Rat Sonja the rat lady
Arsh the dog man (player)

Inside the car 
Sriver Chrysopsia the rogue
Front seat Nial the cleric (player)
Back seat knight, Dwarf priest and another priest serving Nial
A 1st lv thief the second back up driver (but nobody has a skill to actually drive well)

The sky was white with snow, the mud frozen and Chagrinspire's shadow reached into the sky.

The new road made by players traders from their nameless outpost was on a row of hills, to the east a frozen swamp, to the west was the snow-covered trenches of no man's land.

The streamlined staff car trundled over the hilltop road into the vast white horizon but saw something coming at them. As it got closer they saw it was a chariot pulled by giant boars crewed by big orcs and a fancy leader blowing a horn.

They also saw orcs waiting hidden in trenches on the side of the road and suspected a trap for their car so the went off-road on the swamp side. Orcs from trenches jumped out and hurled spears. The chariot swerved to them but Arj the Dogman now a 3rd lv druid also cursed their metal with the heat of two chariot crewmen and the chariot metal fittings. The burning orcs dived into the snow on the roadside, and the driver failed a roll and the chariot flipped injuring him. The huge leader flipped in the air and landed on his feet, possible he moved slower than a normal person would. He flashed his huge fangs showing he was a thrall of the vampires.

Arj and his dog went for the chariot crew and the car did A u-turn and ran down some orcs. A few orcs jumped on the car and were hit by passengers. Several fallen orcs got up with broken bones and went berserk. Suddenly every orc became worse. One berserk work fell of the car and was impaled on a barbed wire fence post. One berserk orc crawled int the car through the roof open hatch and the clerics and night killed it covering everyone in blood. 

The man with no name shot and stabbed a few more, more orcs were run down and the driver managed to not lose control. Arsh fought the leader vampire thrall and his dog stopped the badly scolded orcs who returned to the fight with bows when the armour heating spell expired, the chariot was burning. Clerics in the car used lots of petty spells from safety while the knight got on the roof to hack at orc berserk climbing on the car.

Eventually, they won and the non berserk uninjured orcs fled letting heroes run down and hack up the crazed ones. The thrall did regenerate and was tough but was certainly no true vampire. They took the vamps teeth to question with speak with dead spells later. Arsh was hurt the most but healed fast.

Arrived at marsh village and saw locals had built a palisade of sharpened logs around the village. They had been raided and seen vampire thralls. The east path to the plateau gatehouse had been abandoned by kobolds as orcs now held it. They considered a climb but thought trying to make a deal with the western road kobolds. Their druid ally sent a message by animal and they met some kobolds of mixed ancestry. Apparently, the orcs had united the kobolds by eating them. A kobold crusade had kobold tribes working together. The party thought they should unite them with their allied rail kobold trains of the tunnels.

The priest spoke kobold and the kobolds offered passage and met the King of the Key clan of the gatehouse for only 400gp instead of 1000gp. The kobold king heard how the party wanted to fight orcs so offered them a deal They could stay with the kobolds, find the eastmost secret door they knew of and could be taken through kobold barriers into the orc lair. As long as they did not touch one particular barricade inside the orc area of the gatehouse. They spent a day prepping and found the secret door into the orc-held gatehouse by night. Went in to listen and heard some kind of crafting so opened the door and used sleep on 4 female orc assassin hirelings and captured them. They were unhappy with their current boss and offered to draw maps for freedom. Arsh could speak ork and knew of the cult they belonged to so was wary but agreed.

The party was all ready to attack the next game and expected the uneaten kobolds to be undead and serving the orcs plans the orcs had planted the dark star seed into the vampire's head as advised in dreams to the orc boss. He had been guided by dreams to taint the boars with a disease so those eating it were berserk. The evil tree was sharing dark lore from beyond via dreams to hothouse the orc cult/ Also the former orc priest and wizard were boarded up and had become living crystal statues from huffing alien crystals.

The party enjoyed vehicular homicide and wanted more. Their car had broken three windows and lots of dents so they were going to find a repair spell.  

More mayhem next game...