No Storm Lasts Forever, a DND inspired story, by Allan Concillado

Chapter Two: The Goblin Horde, Part Seven.

The first day of travel was quickly put to a halt with the setting sun as the carriage stopped suddenly, jerking the party forwards. "Do you wish to end us this early...?" spoke Midnight with a tone of pure gravel as he sat up with the party in varying looking states of standing

"o-Oh no m'lord!" the driver stuttered. "I really didn't mean to! It-i-it's just..."

"Just what?" asked Phil as he stood to face the carriage driver from the back of the waggon. The driver was as silent as the evergreen trees and environment around the party, except for the loud thump at the front of the carriage.

"Hold here, I'll see what that was," Ledias announced. She stepped out of the right side of the wagon, holding her hand to shield her eyes from the last rays of the sun till dawn. She approached the front of the wagon to find the carriage drive pointing further slightly to the left of the cobble path leading to Tribor with a noticeably pale complexion.

"Those are my c-children..." whimpered the red bearded driver. She looked to where the finger laid upon the forest. From the darkness of the shade, Ledias could only make out humanoid shapes of contrasting sizes from the targeted location. A light of moderate intensity however sprung forth from the location of the figures as the faces of the figures became illuminated from the newly created light... a fire. The large collection of lit faces seemed to consist primarily of orcs. Red tents clumped close together and banners of varying quality staked all across the campsite but... the finger seem to point lower from the tents and towards the fire. Following the direction of the finger once more, two lines of halflings could be seen chained together by their throats by the iron collars, all being held by two orcs around the recent lit fireplace. "Please help them," pleaded the now almost completely colorless halfling caravan driver. Ledias simply nodded her head with her brows knitted together in understanding and determination, heading to the back of the waggon once more.

She told the party the situation and the plan to get the halflings out of there. Phil shook his head. "You're thinking in the short term, the lives of 30 is nothing to the thousands of lives that could be lost if we don't keep going," he explained in a slow and calculated manner, as if contemplating the morality of the action.

He looked around at the party to find Ace, Sorvex and Slayer standing, tying their boots and other armor pieces back on to join Ledias while Cyprus sat up to cork her drink and place it inside her bag to drink later. Midnight was slow to rise but stood and began to exit the wagon as Ace finished tying his boots and begun to walk with him outside. Phil sighed in a defeated tone. "May this be a quick waste of our time."

After around 20 to 30 seconds the entirety of the party had found themselves out of the wagon and standing to the sides of the driver whilst Ace, Midnight and Phil gaze out to the orcish camp site. Phil approached the driver. "Look, we're going to make this quick, if we get your kids out we'll send them to you but should the plan be compromised or take longer than an hour, we'll round the orcs up and have you run them over so you can save them yourself."

"h-Hah HAH! yes! Thank you heroes! I won't fail!" he spoke in a gratified tone as he embraced Phil in a side hug.

"l... y-yes that's quite enough, no need to get all caught up in emotions before we begin," spoke Phil in a serious tone with a hint of an almost friendly warmth in his voice. The plan he had in mind was quickly explained by Phil to the members of the party. Rami would go up to the orcs and ask for their leader to duel them. Sorvex, Cyprus, And Phil would go and sneak behind the orcs and steal the halflings and get them to the driver. Once that's done, they get out of there, but should the initial attempt failed for one reason or another, Ace, Slayer, Midnight and Ledias will flank from the right as to allow more time to the second party to free the halflings or simply kill all the orcs should the occasion be forced upon them.