Santa made his way to the Bank on Christmas Eve to inform us that the Grinch had kidnapped his reindeer! He needed our help in getting them back so he could make his appointed rounds.
We cleverly deduced that the vile Grinch was in league with the Orcs (because Santa told us that we had to go the "nasty part" of Cove to find the gate to the place where his Reindeer were being held.) We prepared ourselves and headed to Cove.
The normally bothersome Orcs were not in the Christmas spirit as they attacked from all sides as soon as we opened the Cove Wall door. Had they not heard of "goodwill toward men?" Apparently not, much to their own dismay as they were slain around us.
We headed to the Fort and again, the Orcs were not in the Holiday spirit. We "explained" the error of their ways and found a shimmering Green gate. After wishing the Orcs "Happy Holidays" we stepped through. (To be fair, the Orcs were all dead so they didn't hear us, but it IS the thought that counts, right?)
Once inside the Grinch's hideaway (T2A), we found a building and there, before us, were Santa's Reindeer. The Grinch at least had them in a stable.
<img src=http://home.neo.rr.com/thedayton/Reindeer.jpg>
The "citizens" of this strange land were many various brightly colored "Orc Cousins" including Orc Christmas Kings, Orc Christmas Assassins, Orc Christmas Marksmen...you get the idea. We also found several Toy Chests that held some very nice items (more about that later
).
We cleared the Orcs as the battle intensified. We stuck together, letting the tanks lead. The archers threw bolt after arrow after bolt, and we mages attacked and healed as best we could.
Finally, after wading through what seemed like a hundred or so Orcs, we found the Grinch. The Grinch had apparently been spending his spare time studying the dark side of magery as he unleashed attack after attack against us. Fire bolts, lightning, e-bolts, poison--he tried to dismember us in every way imaginable, but in the end, he fell.
We found a few more Orcs but they seemed to have lost their will to fight. We tried offering fruitcake, but that only made them more hostile (who can blame them, really?). We finished up the battle and headed back to Brit to split the goodies and drink plenty of spiked eggnog.
The Toy Chests included several +5 intelligence buffs, one +5 dexterity buff, a +5 strength buff, a couple of Dunce Caps (only +2 to intelligence), a plate helm with 200 charges of poison protection and weaponry. We found 2 staffs, a Gong (mace), sword, spear and bow. All have 200 charges of something (it wasn't specified, but you can bet it will be good).
To Sebastian and the staff: thanks for making Christmas Eve a BLAST.
To the Grinch: go back to magery school.
And to the Orcs, I have some more fruitcake for you. I'll bring it down next time I visit Cove.
Happy Holidays, and to all a good night...
