Road to Greyhawk: Return of the Buff
General Summary
from the journal of Garbrulo Bellario:
I was just kickin' around Loosard, looking for something to do when Gladys and Shiloh roll into town. They too had heard the rumors 'bout Castle Greyhawk. With everyone else lined up to go along with a caravan to Greyhawk City, I figured I'd go with Gladys and Shiloh, perhaps see a little more action or somethin' as we passed through the Buffer Zone, an area still rife with rovin' bands of orc raiders, still causing a ruckus even though the war was over. To keep up with them, a needed a mount. Unfortunately, times bein' what they are, I wasn't exactly flush with cash. I asked around Loosard and the only one sellin' was some stinking hammerface named Bill and his pony was a sad little nag that looked as if he hadn't been fed for weeks. He was askin' for 60 gold pieces, which Gladys didn't even blink at. I don't know my livestock prices, but I know when I'm bein' gouged. Since we were to leave in the mornin', I decided I needed to send a message. I slipped in the back window of his ramshackle house while ol' Bill was sleepin' and took half back what Gladys gave him and left him a note to "Be better". I'll kick him around next time I'm through Loosard if he ain't better. Hopefully he won't be keepin' any more animals then. We left in the mornin'. Bill, now my pony and an improvement on the name's honor, kept up okay. We made it through the Buffer Zone without much issue, but as we approached Safeton, we saw a few large groups of torches comin' in from the West. Gladys and I took off on Faylafel - which was an exhilarating first flight - and did a quick peeksie and, sure enough, a raiding party of orcs was headin' for the city. We galloped to the city to warn them of the attack and, after a bit of explaining what we doing and where we were from, they let us and asked us to help with the assault, if we would, possibly to gain the good graces of a Turin Deathstalker.
I found a safe little spot for Bill, then hopped onto Faylafel to give Gladys a bit of additional support. As we soared over the gate, we saw Shiloh cast a storm of ice, which made all the orcs around that battering ram slip and stumble, then whip some nasty black sphere into their midst that tore all the meat off their bones, leavin' none alive. I acted as a spotter for Gladys and we were able to spot the orc chief, who we dropped after a single pass with two well-placed shots into him from the sky. We circled back just to see the southwest gate not doin' great, so we dropped behind the gate to give some support. I found some cover to watch Gladys' back while she went to work, lighting the now broken gate ablaze to confuse the enemy. It worked, as the orcs didn't come streaming in the gate and she started killin' them left and right. She single-handedly started turning them to fleeing when Shiloh rode up and hurled another one of those black spheres into them. That done, the orcs started to run away within a handful of minutes of the assault beginning. The soldiers were duly impressed and found us some free lodging for the night. We'll try to find passage on a ship to Greyhawk in the morning, perhaps see if we found ourselves in the good graces of this Deathstalker guy. But something's a little skuzzy here; they killed a bunch of their own half-orc residents and rooted out several others and put them on pikes around the outside of the city. A little unsettling. Perhaps this guy's good graces wouldn't be all that good. BTW, Shiloh and Gladys must've been pretty busy with some military action, because they both absolutely wrecked those orcs. It was a sight to behold.
Follow Up:
- Where are these orcs coming from? Maybe if we de-buff this Buffer Zone if we were to locate the main source of these orcs' leadership, we could lessen their threat in the region.
- The soldiers of Safeton asked if we'd stay and help out in Safeton. We declined, Gladys not impressed by the seeming lack of moral compass of the city, but perhaps there is more to the idea of helping them out at a later time.
- This Turin Deathstalker seems to be the head honcho of Safeton. Perhaps an introduction would be a good opportunity to make the name An Adventuring Guild great again... Or maybe come up with a new name and make that one great.
- We need to secure our passage to Greyhawk City at the docks.
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