When we last left our intrepid band, they had decided to journey to the city of the dwarves, and thought to bring along some spirits to aid in negotiations. They went & talked to the local brewer, who turned out to be quite the helpful guy, supplying plenty o' booze and a loaner cart for a very reasonable price.
So, the daring adventurers headed for the hills. Upon reaching the gate of the Dwarvish keep, they were greeted by a suspicious seeming gatekeeper. After a bit of banter, their charm & wit (and the obvious genius of a certain party member) won the group entrance. As they were led to their lodgings, their shrewd powers of observation detected something amiss ... most of the Dwarves seemed to be gone and the remaining few were obviously very concerned about something. Finally, someone wormed out of a certain Dwarvish wench who shall remain nameless (since I can't remember her name) that her daughter had been abducted during her morning constitutional, and the two guard who had accompanied her had been eviscerated. Our heroes quickly convinced said Dwarf that their awesome powers should be brought to bear on the problem.
So, the daring do-gooders headed out towards the badlands, led by dwarfwench. They quickly came to the sight of the scuffle, now richly decked with bowels of Dwarves. The finely tuned senses of their scouts detected the direction in which the attackers fled, and the group gave chase. At the next intersection, the trackers lost the scent of their prey, but in a flash of brilliant intuition, they decided to take the road less traveled, and that made all the difference.
Coming round a bend, the discovered themselves face-to-face with a vicious pack of Horcs! Things looked bad for our greatly outnumbered band of bravados. But, the Horcs underestimated the awesome powers of Timmy the Wizard! In the blink of an eye, half the Horcs fell instantly into a deep, deep sleep. The rest of the cowardly Horcs were quickly subdued, as their leader bargained for their survival.
After lengthy negotiations it was decided that most of the Horcs would be allowed to return to their homelands, if they could make it that far, armed only with knives, in return for the lead Horc guiding the now confident crew to the nasty nabbers that held the hostage Dwarf.
Traveling day and night (or at least day), the audacious explorers came upon a large encampment of the scourge of the badlands. They were certain they had found the culprits, but the camp was obviously too well fortified to attempt a rescue. They stealthily made their way around to the only road from the camp back to the badlands. Here the dauntless defenders of the YCS prepared an ambush for the unwary abductors. As morning broke, a large group rode out from the camp. As they neared, a lone hostage could be discerned riding in their midst.
As the dastardly desperadoes reached our hidden heroes, Timmy once again brought the might of his masterful magic to bear, bringing down numerous riders in one fell swoop. Simultaneously, the less magically inclined leaped upon the agents of evil with various blood curdling cries.
The battle was long and bloody. Timmy's magic powers were taxed to their limits, leaving him barely able to summon the strength to lob the occasional fireball, and even the mightiest warrior in the band found himself hard pressed. In the confusion of the melee, the helpful Horc guide slipped away unobserved. But, in the end our doughty daredevils defeated the malignant malefactors, and rode triumphantly back to the land of the Dwarves.
END OF SESSION 2