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The Shard ( Fantasy )

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"Cutting the forbidden fruit" - turn 7

Reference : https://donalfall.tripod.com/gurps/shard/castledetails.html

Pausing only briefly to look around the vicinity, your hurried conference leads you to agree upon the main keep. Speed is of utmost import and the towers seem a mere distraction. Slogging through the rain and wind, you force yourself up the steep old trail towards the barricade the orcish occupiers have erected at the keep's main door. It takes almost an hour to cross an area that - were conditions normal - should have taken you a quarter that time.

From up here at the massive arch that once supported mighty gates, you are afforded a good view all 'round, with the Northern Orclands streching away as far as the eye can see. On a clear day the view to the North and South must be breathtaking. The tactical significance of this place, as both a gateway to the South and a vantage point, is lost on none of you.

Then Jakob points and shouts a warning1.You all follow his outstretched finger and your blood turns as cold as the ice laden rain beating against your faces. Struggling up to the gates of the castle is a small unit of armoured warriors. They fight the rain as much as you have had to, but seem more inured to it. And they are coming the wrong way.

30 stout, heavy figures in chain mail toil up the slope. They are but a couple of yards from the Castle Gates below you. In the next few minutes, these humanoid grotesques will block your retreat back down the slope, away from the Main Keep. They are unmistakeably Orcs and for some reason are not at the tribal gatherings in Kravesh. For some reason they are here at the Castle and now they block your escape...

There is now few options open to you. Either turn back down the slope and face these Base Creatures or continue over the few obstacles in your path, into the Castle of Hope. And then hope, pray, that the maze of tunnels inside will help you avoid contact with the beasts behind you. Jacob points again. Another detail of the marching column becomes evident as they come through the gates.

The Orcs march in file, quite disciplined for the stories you've heard. But tethered behind the last one in line is a massive, hunchbacked, hairy creature. It stands 9 feet tall, its arms almost the length of its body as they dangle on the ground, dragging a club as large as a man. What that thing is, you have never heard tell of. These Orcs bring a monster with them to the Castle...

GM's Notes
1 - Jacob passed his alertness roll by the most. This is the dramatic system I will use upon in-narrative checks, trying not to break the "flow" of what I am doing.