We replace the brush on the bridge and move on across.  We make camp as soon as we realize that the children and the elderly can go no further.  We decide to make a cold camp to keep our position hidden, but we prepare a bonfire in the event of emergencies.  Ulric and Brianna decide to take first watch.
Before long, they spot two red eyes in the distance.  While Ulric wakes Korvinean and Finn, Brianna wakes her sister.  Korvinean looses his arrow and buries it right between the creature’s eyes.  The beast runs off, and we light the campfire and keep a vigilant watch for the rest of the night.

The next morning, the group is slow to get moving.  The lack of sleep and continuous travel has worn thin the patience of many.  Despite the general exhaustion, we make better time because the townspeople are simply ready to be done with this hurried evacuation.  As we walk, Korvinean notices a worg moving from left to right across the road far ahead of us.  We keep a watchful eye on the light woods around us, and after a while, we stop for a quick lunch.  Our afternoon journey leads into denser forestation, and everyone is on high alert.

Ahead in the woods to the north, Brianna and Ulric spot some movement.  Just then, an arrow flies out of the underbrush and hits one of the women from the town.  She falls, but is not killed.  As she gets back to her feet, we see a vaguely humanoid shape in the woods where the arrow was loosed.  Brianna immediately throws a shuriken at him, but does not appear to wound him.  She jumps from her horse and charges into the underbrush, wildly punching for his head, but missing.  Korvinean rides toward the creature, but nearly loses control of his horse at the edge of the woods.  Ulric directs Alabaster to charge into the fray, and though he misses with his longsword, the mare stomps on the goblin with one hoof, killing him instantly.

As we search the area, we don’t see any other threats nearby, so we keep moving.  Evening comes and we make camp to attempt to get some rest.  Around eleven o’clock, we hear something break inside our camp, close to where Ulric and Brianna are on watch.  A moment later, another pot breaks slightly further out in the camp.  A small bright ball shoots forth from the woods and lands on a group of townsfolk.  They burst into flames—the breaking noise came from flasks of oil being tossed into camp.  A spark from the first fire takes flight, and lights the second oiled location.

Ulric charges into the woods, and Korvinean follows him.  I begin to follow them, as well.  Briggette mounts Chancellor and heads toward the woods.  Brianna mounts up, as well, and begins to run into the woods when her horse is hit in the head by a clay jug on a rope.  The jug explodes and bursts into flames.  She jumps from the horse, but not before taking some splash damage from the fire along the way.  Finn mounts up and charges toward the woods.  Korvinean yells, “Watch our flank!”

I begin to head back to watch the rear.  Ulric swings his longsword at one of the assailants, and beheads him.  Blood sprays everywhere as his head flies off.  Briggette enters the fray and runs her lance through the other attacker.  Ulric turns and puts Brianna’s horse out of its misery, then goes to tend to the wounded.
I hear a noise on the other side of the camp, and she crouches to listen.  She sees two people, bound, being drug through the woods.  She charges and attacks the beast, but as she runs it through with her sword, she trips on a branch and falls prone at the feet of the other.
Korvinean spots motion in the brush and alerts the camp, “Incoming!”

Brianna is tending to the wounded.

The creature at whose feet I landed is a giant massive orc.  He stands up to his full height, and swings at her with his enormous club, but misses.
Briggette spots the orc, and charges.  Her lance misses, but Chancellor’s hoof crushes his trachea.  I look up at her.  “Thanks!”  I cut the ties on both of the girls the orcs were taking as hostages.  Both were about fifteen, and had obviously been scouted out earlier.

We make the decision to march through the night, and we take a headcount every hour.  As exhaustion sets in the next day, we continue to push on.  Brianna gives up her horse to carry three of the children.  At about 4:00pm, we finally see the town.  I spot a column of dust behind us, and alerts the group, “Guys!  Incoming behind us!”

Ulric commands the people to run for the town walls, and sound the alarm.  We all gather up at the rear, but continue to move toward the town.  As the enemies draw closer, we see 10 worgs with riders.  The first of the townspeople start to enter the North Gate.

Five worgs break off to each side.  We hear a commotion back at the front of our group, so I ride around to the front of the group to check out the situation.  The men from the village are forming a shield wall.  Ulric screams, “COWARDS!” at the goblins as they continue to keep their distance.

One of the worgs bursts in toward the people.  Finn swings, and tears into him, but the worg grabs a child, turns and runs away.  I shoot at the rider as the worg runs, hits solidly, but doesn’t do much damage.  Ulric charges and slices at the goblin, dropping him in one hit, but the worg continues to run.  Alabaster stomps on the worg, and she wounds him severely.

From within our group, an enormous ogre screams the most horrible curse word that any o f us know in goblinish.  Mo’og has come to help us, and he is ready to fight in full plate!

The worg carrying the child is hit, and drops into a fetal style ball.  He drops the child, and Ulric deftly jumps from his horse to cover her.

Brianna takes advantage of the confusion and runs up on the worgs and riders, while Briggette attacks a worg running by her.  He is wounded, but does not fall.  Finn shoots a worg with a crossbow, but does not drop it.  Briggette begins to chase the four worgs who retreat, and hears, “Briggette, get back here!”  She reluctantly lets them go and comes back to the group.  Mo’og tells her, “Do your duty, Knight.  Save your charge.” 

He turns to Ulric, “Do your duty, Knight.  Protect the innocent.”  They begin to corral the people into the town walls.  The portcullis closes immediately behind us.

We hear Ulric’s brother yelling from the wall, “What the hell are you doing?  Why did you close that gate?”  He deftly leaps from the wall onto his horse’s back.  “One day, the bards may sing of the ogre dying to save our children.  There will not be a verse about the knights who sat inside the city walls and watched that happen!”

Ulric puts the child down.  Iulian yells, “Get my brother a lance!”

Brannick rides up next to Briggette, “Stay to my right.”  We all assemble as the portcullis is cranked back up.  We gallop back to the field of battle.  Mo’og has a pile of dead worgs around him, and one on his back.  When we are within 100 feet of the worgs, we see Mo’og go down. 

Brianna finds her horse in the city walls, and charges onto the field.  Brannick rides through the worgs surrounding Mo’og.  He wounds the worg that brought him down.  Finn charges the same worg Brannick just hit.  He strikes perfectly, impaling the worg on the lance and killing it instantly.  I fire my crossbow, and the bolt glances off the armor of one of the goblins. 

Briggette turns and charges back at one of the goblins who is wearing a breastplate.  She hits well! The goblin leader is injured, but not down.  Chancellor’s hoof strikes and injures the worg.

Ulric charges and misses.  Korvinean shoots at one of the goblins, wounding him.  Iulien hits another goblin and wounds him.  Brannick wheels around and impales one of the worgs with his lance.  Finn attacks with his lance and misses.  I shoot and miss.  A worg attacks Ulric and misses, as does his rider.  Another worg tears into the leg of Iulien’s warhorse.  Another misses Finn.

Briggette charges again and drops her lance.  However, Chancellor deals damage to the worg.  Ulric charges the leader again and misses, but Alabaster hits his worg.  Korvinean fires, hits a rider and knocks it off its worg.  Brianna comes closer and throws two shuriken at one of the riders.  She wounds him.  Finn lances and kills another rider.  I fire and miss.  The worgs attack again and miss on all counts.  Briggette attacks the leader, and Chancellor attacks his worg.  Chancellor stands on his head, and the worg goes down; however, Briggette misses the goblin.

“Yield!  And my father will be fair!” Ulric yells.

The goblin responds in his own language, “That will be a cold day in hell, boy.”

“Drop your weapon!”  The goblin refuses, and Ulric attacks.  He drops one of the goblins.  Alabaster attacks with both hooves and a vicious bite to injure the animal.

Korvinean binds Mo’og’s wounds, and hears a horse charging in from behind us, “Briggette, watch our flanks!”  He looks over his shoulder, but can only make out that it’s a horse with a rider.

The goblin leader flips under one of the horses, and comes to stop in a full standing position on Mo’og’s back.  Alabaster attempts to stomp on him, but misses.  Korvinean slashes at him as he tumbles by, and injures him.  Brianna punches at him, and also deals some damage.  The goblin attempts to cut Alabaster’s belly, but misses.  The remaining worg attacks Ulric, but he fails to dodge the lance, and is killed.

I see a woman on a horse charge by, but can’t tell who it is.  She attempts to jump off of her horse, but gets her foot caught in the stirrup and falls on Korvinean and Mo’og.  I ride up, leap from my horse, and lands swinging my sword, but miss the remaining goblin.  Briggette charges once again with her sword, and hits the leader, who finally goes down.

The woman gets up off of Korvinean, “Oh, terribly sorry!  Are you okay?” She prays over Mo’og, and his wounds are healed.

“My lady cleric, are you hurt from the fall?” Ulric says, and offers his hand to help her up.

She replies, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” but she takes his hand.

We realize that there is a group of several hundred orcs headed for us at high speed.  We leave the bodies, and quickly return to the town.  We enter safely, lower the portcullis and close the gate.  The orcs fan out to surround the city.  They lay in a siege.

Two weeks later, the siege is still in effect.  They have made a couple of small assaults on the walls and on the castle, but have not successfully breached our perimeter.  They have built several balistas and catapults.  They have a group on each major road to cut off our supply lines.  There are not enough of them to completely surround the town, so occasional messages have gotten through.

Iulien calls Ulric, Briggette and Finn into a meeting.  “Before the siege, Lord Zurwald had taken 20 of the militia into the castle.  He will take six of these men, and Ulric, Briggette and Finn will take four. Each team will exit one of the gates and attack the catapults and ballista.  The catapults aren’t powerful enough to destroy the walls, but they are wreaking havoc on the town.  We will give you oil, and I can send a few riders behind with torches to light what you’ve oiled.”

Next, he calls in Gizli, Brianna and Korvinean.  “For many years, members of our community have been training you.  This training is going to be necessary.  Tonight we’ll make a sortie and attack their artillery positions.  You three are going to sneak behind the lines and destroy the siege tower they’re building.  From our best guess, it seems to be 35 or 40 feet tall—well over the height of the wall.  That would allow them to drop a drawbridge over the wall and keep constant fire from above.  We will give you oil and a vial or two of Alchemist’s fire, and whatever other help we can.  But, we’re going to have to rely on your talents to get in, do as much damage as possible, and get out.  I won’t lie—it will be a very dangerous mission.”

Ms. Azzara will be leading a small group to try to take out the Bore in the same manner.