<div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Status</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>Wiped out, stripped, bound, caged</strong><br/><del>AC 19  (touch 15, flat-footed 14, -2 against improvised weapons)</del>, HP 1/105 (94 due to CON damage)<br/><br/>Profane Gift (Telepathic link to Ishtar, +2 Dex)<br/>Dex damage: -1 (now 19, shot foot)<br/>Movement halved due to foot injury: speed 17'<br/>CON damage: -3<br/><br/>Spells remaining: 7 of 7 1st, 5 of 6 2nd, 4 of 4 3rd, 1 of 1 from bonded object.  Uses of bow left: 3 of 3.<br/>Quiver: 7 common arrows, 10 silvered, 9 cold iron, 2 Tangleshot, 5 adamantine arrows, 2 greater hushing arrows, 8 +1 Dragon Bane, 1 Rayne's Resumption, 5 Holy, 3 Merciful<br/>     (pack: 25 common, 5 silvered, 9 cold iron, 1 tangleshot, 5 adamantine, 8 +1 Dragon Bane, 8 Holy arrows)<br/><br/>Dixon HP: 42<br/></div></div><br/>Someday Rayne would gain the ability to take advantage of her opponent's distraction with her bow ... but she wasn't there yet.  And then it looked like she might never... as she was just reaching back over her shoulder for a new arrow when the orc's greataxe came in a blur, catching her in her stretched-taught, bare midriff below her armour shirt.  She knew it was a bad hit - that was all she had time to be aware of, and then she was out, the dim light passing to darkness.<br/><br/>But, as with the fungal nymph, that darkness wasn't a prelude to death and respawning - or at least, not yet.  She regained consciousness to the sound of sex ... but this time, it wasn't her on the receiving end.  Still, perhaps she should have kept her eyes closed... once she opened them she gasped, a weak sound drowned out by the orcs and Sylvia's lustful moans.  Then she couldn't close them again, watching as Sylvia bounced as-if joyfully on two massive orc phalluses.  The arcane archer felt a pang of sympathy - or something - between her own legs.<br/><br/>It was hard to believe Sylvia wasn't being controlled... or rather, she was, but by her lust, and by a guiding hand, not by her collar.  How long had the orcs been using the poor elf, while Rayne slept off her injury?  She couldn't have done anything to help, surely, yet still Rayne felt guilt at leaving her partner to this fate... she groaned as Sylvia cried out in another orgasm, cruelly prolonged as the orcs kept going, to finish in the helpless horizon walker.  Then Sylvia's limp form tumbled into Rayne, who was still on her side, shackled and weak.<br/><br/>It was hard to take stock of her own situation - her useful equipment was all stripped, of course.  The chain shirt and attached vest were gone, hopefully nearby... but that left her with nothing to conceal herself on top, and of course her arms were unable to cover herself like this.  Her skirt was surprisingly intact - but then, the orcs hadn't turned their attentions to her yet.  She lay quiet to preserve that peace a little longer, waiting while the cart bumped on a ways further.  Hoping the orcs would keep their attention on their route, Rayne lurched and twisted until she was able to get to her knees.  She grimaced, then worked herself closer to Sylvia, who occasionally twitched, and moaned, but otherwise lay still.<br/><br/>The half-elf brought her mouth close to one elf-ear.  "Sylvia... Sylvia... are you ... OK?"  Absurd question, really, but what could one say?  "Here... I'm going to look at your bonds."<br/><br/>Rayne bent to do so... she even nuzzled Sylvia to shift her, to get a better look.  Metal chains, manacles - with her hands free, and picks, Rayne could have had a chance.  But not like this!  The orcs' bench looked promising, but there was no way into it, not like this.  Her spells generally required free hands - and would hardly turn this situation around even were she able to cast them.  So all she could do, other than prodding Sylvia, was look for an opportunity.<br/><br/>Well, that wasn't quite all.  She could also despair, and Rayne did more of that, than of anything productive.  They had barely left Stag's End - what was left of that place - and now look at them!  Prisoners of two orcs that either one of the girls should have been able to best handily... and instead Rayne was helpless, and Sylvia appeared just as badly off, if perhaps healthier.  Rayne shuddered again... if two orcs could do that, in one night... what faced the heroines at the cart's destination?<br/><br/>And with nothing to do but fret, after such a run of bad luck, how could one's mind not turn to the worst, even to paranoia?  It had been good fortune that Rayne and Sylvia had gained the initiative against the orcs and giant, who were waiting so patiently in ambush... Sylvia had said that monsters didn't interact with the White Stag, though obviously that beast had led them into this trap.  Yet why was the trap set, if not for them?  So did the orcs see the Stag, and know it would be followed?  Was the same welcome prepared for others on this quest?  That was a dangerous, unfruitful line of thinking... too easy to imagine the whole quest was a trap, plucking away PCs who were struggling against the Change.  Rae-lynne scoffed at herself - why her, then, and not Zombs, or any of the others?  And if this was a deliberate scheme, it would be easy to make it entirely inescapable.  It was just bad luck, surely.  A string of bad luck.  A string that was hopefully at its end... for what could get them out of this, but good luck?<br/>