Zook feels the rush of warmth surge through his body and he takes a few deep breaths to focus his mind on the resilient power of magical healing. He remains out of sight, though.

”Thank you, my friend, it would seem that prayers are indeed answered. Now, as for these orcs, I noticed that some of them had elvish arrows sticking out of them. Maybe that’s why they came rushing out of the forest so fast. Could it be that they were running from their own ambush? They didn’t stick themselves with those arrows.”

”Bert, maybe you should let out an elvish war cry, or some kind of alert in case there are others of your kind lurking close by”

Religion check: 21

(OOC: are we still in the same round or did we move to the next? Who's up? Bert's happy to keep shooting, but I wasn't sure if others still had to go or if the last shot took anyone down...)

Zook you know from your time as a monk that the main elven deity removed an eye from the main orcish deity, and the spell caster is also missing an eye. That elevn deity is also in charge of the pantheon of gods that now includes Baravar so you don't think you will be abandoned by Baravar or the gods.

The leader is looking injured and yells at the Orcs, 3 go left, 3 right and the others carry trying to climb. 

The Orcs don't attack as failing to climb, starting to realise it isn't possible. The leader and second attack (will roll in the morning) as do the snakes and Kella. You guys can have your new round turns now though (will apply it after the rolls I do in the morning) 

Spiritual weapon on Mandaway: Attack: 10 Damage: 4

Leader goes to throw a javelin but he has none left. He uses his action to get one off one of the others. 

The Zhents fire a volley of arrows, one orc in the left group goes down, one in the main group as well. (17 left) Kella misses, Xolkin just hits the second.

(ouch, Mandaway shouldn't have mocked the spiritual weapon) 

Hawk shoots another arrow at the leader:

Attack: 22 Damage: 7 (+ Hunter's Mark damage: 5).

(Is Mandaway on the same tower as Bert and Hawk?)

Bert, from his place of hiding, sees Mandaway get hit by the spiritual weapon. "Egad, Mandaway, be careful! I'll try to give him something else to think about. Think Eldath has anything to say in response?"

(If the towers are open, I'm assuming we can see and hear each other if we're on different ones.)

Bert spins around the turret and raises his nocked longbow, draws, and aims right for the heart of the spellcaster. He fires.

Attack: 24 Damage: 8

Towers are open, and unless you say otherwise I thought you climbed the same one (that one is quite crowded now) 

Quote from rkmobius >>

Bert, from his place of hiding, sees Mandaway get hit by the spiritual weapon. "Egad, Mandaway, be careful! I'll try to give him something else to think about. Think Eldath has anything to say in response?"

 Mandaway held his side and grinned, " She'd probably say why are you up there helping Zhents,  ya daft bugger."

Mandaway held up his holy symbol and passed a hand over Bert, Zook and Hawk. " Eldath, please bless my fellow idiots in their endeavours."

Cast Bless. You can all add 1d4 to your rolls.

Feeling emboldened by his own religious insight, Zook nonetheless remains out of the visual line of fire for the orc band below. He laughs at Mandaway's assessment of the situation. 

"I certainly feel like an idiot, since I forgot to bring my bow the party!" he says, with a laugh. 

He then yells to Bert, repeating what he said before, but in a louder voice, hoping to be heard over the sounds of battle.

"Bert, yell some elvish battle cries or say something menacing in your native tongue... see if you can't rattle those nasty orcs. Plus, I have a feeling that there are some elves nearby, given that these pig nose brutes appear to be stuck with elvish arrows. Maybe you can draw them out and have them come to our aid."

Hawk will look down at the wounds on Mandaway's body. He suddenly realizes again that he is not alone in this fight.

Mandy, do you need help with that? I've been watching you enough that I think I could cure that..

(my update didn't seem to post)

As you are all fighting, it looks to be going poorly. From your vantage point it looks like one of the groups has almost got to the hole at the bridge and you are pretty sure they can get in there. Mandaway is looking pretty bad, and some of the Zhents are a bit beaten up too. The Orcs have stopped attempting to climb and have started an assault (only a few attacked this round and at the Zhents).

Out of the forest you see a hail of arrows as 8 elves burst out of the forest. The leader, visibly hurt by Bert and Hawk, takes another arrow to the back and falls down dead. The second is wounded and a couple other die. The Orcs look back at the elves and at you guys and decide they aren't feeling lucky so bolt off south, away from both groups 

OOC:....Oh! I really definitely thought that the town was fairly impregnable, with solid walls and the drawbridge up and a river as a moat. Totally missed there was a hole. And I thought we were going to be able to just shoot arrows at them until they ran away. I guess that lack of strategic insight works if I displayed it because Bert also has no real combat experience!

Bert sighs as he sees the elves burst out of the forest. He calls out in Elvish, "Hail! We have survivors in here!" He makes himself fully visible between turrets. He also glances at the reaction of the Zhents (insight: 23)(forgot the extra 3 from bless)

Bert will also say quietly in elvish, "does anyone smell smoke?" and gauges the reaction of the Zhents around him to see if they understand him.

The leader of the elfs sees you, and shouts back in common "You're welcome" and he and the elves head back into the forest. The Zhents just look relieved to be alive, and are starting to tend to their injured. Kella goes to make sure Mandaway is okay and help him down the tower if needed 

(Added one line in an edit to my above post, trying to see if the Zhents understand elvish, but less relevant if the elves are leaving!)

None of the Zhents seem to notice, but Kella is the only one in your tower so you aren't sure the others hear

So the orcs are really fleeing? How many do we see running away?

Bert says, "well that was fortuitous, what do you think that was about? I could run out there and see what they have to say about it and if they know anything about a floating castle, giants, stones, stealing the Nightstone... I honestly don't know what's going on here and everything that happens seems to make less sense than what happened before."

He pauses, and goes to talk to Kella.

"What do you think they wanted? And what are your plans now? I don't believe we've had a chance to get to know your new friends. How well do you really know them? Where do you think the villagers went?"

Mandaway rebuffed Kellas assistance with a scowl, and went over to Zook and spoke softly, " What do we do? If we go get the villagers from the cave and bring them back here they'll be enslaved by the Zhents, we could convince them just to move on and leave the Zhents with a useless outpost."

" Or do I just go bury the dead and then we all just leave this place behind and let it sort itself out?"

Hawk is now fully out of his hunter’s state of mind, back into the problems and decisions they face around Nightstone. 

Perhaps we are overthinking this.. maybe we should just find the villagers and ask them. They must have an appointed leader or somebody who can make decisions in times of trouble.. worst case we could take this issue to a lord of a nearby town. I don’t think it’s our place to decide the fate of this town on our own.. but then again I am just a traveler through these lands.. I don’t know how it all works yet!

" What we definetely can't do is let the Zhents know where the villagers are sheltering."

Bert: Kella replies "I think they wanted to survive the elves. Probably use Nightstone to hide and recuperate, or to force close combat which they would probably win. As for my friends, I have worked with them for many years. In fact it is no secret that Xolkin loves me, though he knows I don't feel the same about him. And the villagers fled across the drawbridge, I didn't see where they went after that. Maybe they left tracks?"

(you guys level up as well)