OarsFinalRest
Oar's Rest Invasion
These events happened during the battle against the Blood Lord (see The Blood Lord Cometh! Year 1000, the Barrier falls!)
At 4am the four members of the adventuring party sprang awake from a shared nightmare about a tsunami of blood washing over the coast of Moradonia.
They were dazed and somewhat confused by their surroundings. A partially ruined building with a sizable hole in it and a giant 10 foot diameter boulder sharing the space with them.
Groggy and a little unaware of what had happened they moved out of the building stepping on to the docks of Oars Rest port.
Memories started to come back that they had been sent to investigate robberies in the area by way of a request from the local Sherrif to the Steel Phoenix Guild. They had been conducting their investigation at night as it meant the area was quieter to move around.
A slight sound of wood bumping against wood drew their attention to what turned out to be multiple landing boats attaching to the dock and releasing their cargo of several hundred Crawling Claws. The claws immediately proceeded to shred the dock workers where they stood.
Facing insurmountable odds the party decided to retreat to the local factory to help raise an alarm.
Behind them walls of ice and thorns started to rise shrouding the port from the outside world as several huge boulders hit and demolished buildings. Docks along the riverside started going on fire and the sight of full battle squads forming up could be seen.
The factory proved fruitless. The workers were not able to comprehend what was happening and by the time they did start to prepare the factory was becoming surrounded.
The party slipped out an upstairs window, abseiling down from the building. They hit the ground as the sound of the doors to the factory being ripped open could be heard. As they slipped away large squads of crazed humanoids could be seen breaking into the building.
They turned their attention to the houses of the townsfolk trying to find a route to the sherrifs palace.
As they approached the houses a rider from the Sherrifs guard came through hoping to find them.
The rider told them that a full invasion was happening. The docks were on fire and a huge army was trying to land at the beach. The boulders which had been landing were coming in from the sea from what looked like huge waterborn Trebuchets. He described the beach as resembling hell.
He asked them to help evacuate the people from the houses. Most of the people had cleared out but some had decided to barricade themselves in their homes and they need to get them out.
Despite the messengers pleading, the party decided to try and make their way to the Sherriff to get him to coordinate the forces better. They made their way through a couple of houses coming across a group of three Bugbears who they swiftly dealt with.
Still no safe passage to the palace could be found and they made their way towards the furthest West ward face of the port. As they rounded near vast defence towers a group of 40 berserkers could be seen in the distance heading their way. 30 or so of them split off to attack and burn the houses while a group of 10 continued towards the adventurers.
The party made a move towards the beach where they could see the full scale invasion force and the ports defenders trying in vain to repel them. As troops would head out to the fight the incoming hordes fewer and fewer would come back.
They found out that the troops leader was called Jacob but he was about a mile up the beach.
The party started getting the troops they met into some form and ordered them to defend against the group of berserkers who had been heading after them.
On the water they could see giant monstrosities of humanoids carrying massive axes and walking across the water towards the beach, sweeping through the troops on the beach with each swing of their weapons.
Suddenly a single berserker broke through from the beach defence lines charging at the party. Though a short battle the single invader appeared resilient and hardy.
As the party looked to move further up the beach the sound of the defence line they had helped organise being overwhelmed could be heard. They were rushed by seven of the berserkers for a lengthy battle which proved tough and arduous. All members of the group took damage of varying levels with the warlock of the party needing to be revived from near death by the groups cleric.
Eventually they managed to overcome the berserkers through a combination of eldritch blasts, deft sword strikes, a magical portculis and a giant using one of the attackers as a club to hit others. As the last three attackers began to throw their final strikes a group of the Sherrif's troops galloped through on horse back, spearing those who remained.
The troop's leader gave the adverturers horses and told them that the Sherrif needs to see them urgently.
Being a bit worse for wear after their battle the group went as fast as possible to the palace passing all manner of horrors on the way.
During a brief rest the Sherrif told them that they were all trapped, the port was being overwhelmed, the ice and thorn walls behind meant they coudl not retreat and he was sure that the end was coming for all in Oars Rest.
He explained that there was one last roll of the dice to take. Secret tunnels to the defence towers they had seen earlier.
These defence towers were built some 300 years before by someone known as Settler Quinn, a great engineer and inventor. The towers featured giant catapults which fired bolts with something called Quinn's fire in them.
They had managed to spot the command ship and felt that taking it out with the Quinn's fire may at least buy time for the rest of Moradonia.
He asked for two teams to go to the towers, one to be drawn from his troops the other to be the adventurers.
The Sherrif got his troops ready for one last ride out to meet the enemy, hopefully drawing them away from the towers and allowing the teams a chance to get there was made. A final rousing speech was made -
"Come my bretheren, my brothers, my sisters, my children. We will distract the beast so you can get through.
Let us open the gates and find our way to the sea one last time.
Let us buy these brave souls a chance to make it to those towers and let us go down in history as those who went out not bowing to the blood lord but screaming fury in his face and putting steel to his guts.
The sun is risen, a fine day dawns, sail yee home you wonders of the deep.
For Mordonia we rise."
Taking to the tunnels the guild members headed west.
The tunnel ended 30 foot away from the tower, a magical key they had been given by the Sherrif glowing as they drew near.
A near miss of a boulder from one of the trebuchets was followed by the attack of four huge death knights.
The team split in two with a pair running into the tower to try to take out the ships while the others attempted to hold off the monsters on the doorstep.
With only six bolts for the crossbow they began destroying the trebuchet boats, each of the Quinn's Fire bolts exploding on striking, causing huge waves to push other boats into each other.
While these shots were being taken the death knights were becoming more dangerous outside. Huge hellfire plasts knocking both of the guild members to the ground, saved only by some healing words from the parties cleric.
A final play involved a bolt being sent directly into the armada's command ship destroying it completely and sending a small tsunami in towards the beach.
A last gasp attempt saw both of the party members fighting the death knights manage to get into the tower squashing one of the knights in the door as it closed.
On the river they had seen a small boat which must have slipped its moorings and the party were able to repel down the cliffs into it slipping away as the rest of Oars Rest port burned.
The armada was of too large a scale for the party to turn back but their bravery and determination to fight in the face of such insurmountable odds was evident in the dent they left in the invading parties.