I've probably mentioned before that the party never does what I think they are going to do, always keeping the DM on his toes. Today's session was no exception.
The party woke up after camping overnight in goblin territory. These were the Hill Beater Goblins, and the toll was paid, keeping them safe overnight. Upon waking, most of the party member felt stronger than before, having leveled up overnight. New spells and more hit points all around! After studying spells, and Cadwin summoning some bears and wild boars to escort them along the way, the party headed off along the road.
After a few hours, thanks to some overhead scouting by a familiar, they were informed that there was a hill fort a few miles up the road, and also what looked like a small army of orcs marching on the road toward them. Expecting the pay another toll, the party engaged in discussions with the Flaming Skull orcs, whose numbers were around 150, and included 10 Verbeeg giants in their ranks. Jarrus introduced the party as slavers in the service of the Slave Lords, but instead of demanding a toll, the orc leader declared that they hated the slave lords and all who served them, setting up the inevitable fight.
Once again, Cadwin proved his worth to the party. Sarril was able to take out the first several ranks of orcs, including all of the officers with Boccob's Rolling Thunder while Jarrus engaged and took out the leader. The remaining orcs were only a challenge due to numbers, and Cadwin was able to take them all out of the fight with an entangle spell, which, at his high level, worked in a 150 ft. radius. This also took most of the Verbeeg giants out of the fight as well, which was good because they proved to be challenging to Pontus, who was fighting four of them in melee and, despite receiving healing from Luapan, was still nearly killed (good thing he has over 100 hit points!).
After entangling the enemy, Cadwin moved forward and cast the spell again (his high wisdom allows him to cast it a ridiculous number of times). Eventually he had entangled nearly the entire army, leaving them only to fight with ranged weapons. But for that, he cast Obscurement, limiting visibility and making ranged attacks impossible. Once Pontus and Jarrus were finished taking down the remaining free orcs and verbeegs, the party was able to get around the army, under cover of obscurement, and head to the hill fort.
The fort appeared to be well guarded, with hobgoblins looking through parapets with ranged weapons trained on the party. Sticking to the plan, the party boldly went up to the fort, claiming to be agents of Sturm Bucholz with an important letter for the merchant Alforas. They claimed to be on their way to catch him, but with a coming storm, they needed shelter until it passes. The ruse appeared to work as they were let inside to speak with the garrison commander, Icar. Icar did not know the party members and did not trust them fully, so he allowed them to come inside one at a time and disarmed them, placing their weapons in an outer gatehouse before leading them further inside.
At this point, the party passed through a second portcullis, which was then closed behind them. Cut off from their weapons, the party now headed further into the fort with Icar. We were not able to play any further to see if the ruse would continue working, or if they were walking into a trap. Stay tuned as we will find out in two weeks.
It is the afternoon of the 22nd Day of Reaping, CY 580.
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