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Planescapin' - Part 3 -- Written by BlueFlames
[Note: Elrond's player was out today, but left his character sheet with me, so the character was able to participate in minimal capacity. Ragnore and the druid did not extend this courtesy and will not be receiving experience for tonight's encounter.]
...and Saka sought a priest. With a short prayer and a simple touch, his once savage wound was reduced to a mere scratch. After that, everyone met at the keep's gate, where Captain Maltaine was waiting. Quin (the halfling sorcerer) was really persistant about griping about the plan he'd seen nothing of. It seemed he didn't mind irritating his superiors.
Maltaine escorted the party into the heart of the keep, where there was a large dining/conference room. Lord Kirsching was poring over a number of documents, when the group entered. This time, Quin wanted to know about the remaining orc forces. The estimate that he was given was that there were still over 600 at the walls. (Actual numbers were 620 orcs remaining to 106 human survivors.) Quin then persisted about the plan, and Kirsching wasn't going to tolerate the pestering, so he thrust one of the documents into Quin's face. It was a detailed drawing of what appeared to be a level of the castle, except that certain rooms and one tunnel in particultar extended beyond the castle wall.
The plan was to send the party three-quarters of a mile behind the orc line, which had been lured to the castle wall by the retreat. Of course, nobody waited to listen to the rest of the briefing before assuming that they were being sent against the rear of a 620-orc line alone. Kirsching was already frustrated, so he let the party argue among themselves about death, honor, nobility, and stupidity. When that interlude was over, Kirsching explained that the party would be going to the abandoned Fort Carth, which it was believed that the orcs were housing siege weapons and the lieutenant in charge of this offensive.
This had a little more appeal, and that was sweetened even further, when Kirsching called out servants with a chest containing a number of pouches. The pouches had 140 gold for each character as payment for eleven dead orcs and a down payment on the head of the orc lieutenant. Naturally, this led to the question of what in the hells was worth that much gold. All that recon had been able to find out about the lieutenant was that it was smaller and had a much different anatomy than an orc, but it was still ugly and green.
Pelsoar (the dwarven sorcerer) rather unilaterally decided that it was go-time. Zah and Saka didn't mind, as they're rather single-minded about combat. Quin saw opportunity to escape the town, so he was pleased with this plan, right up until the 'move toward an occupied fortress' bit. Everyone headed for the basement, under the lead of Maltaine and Kirsching, but after passing through a small dungeon that had been sealed some years ago, they let the party head down the recently added tunnel.
They came up the third (and final) exit shaft. It was the closest they could get to the fortress from underground, but they were still several miles out. Throughout the afternoon, the party advanced, encountering no resistance on the plains, but as they closed in, the fortress looked to be still-abandoned. The timbers forming its outer wall had shown no signs of repair, and on the eastern wall, a twenty-foot gap was open, where a number of the timbers had had their mud foundations washed away in a storm.
Elrond was sent out to survey the interior, while the rest of the party waited. He returned two hours later, reporting rather minimal activity within the fortress. Orcs were moving about between buildings, but they were proving difficult to count. He saw no sign of the non-orc leader. The party put it to a vote, whether they should attack immediately or wait until nightfall, and most decided to use the setting sun, while they had it.
There was less movement between buildings, when the party arrived at the gap in the wall. In fact, there were no orcs visible at all. There were small buildings in each of the corners and a square building, sixty-feet on a side, in the center of the fortress interior. They advanced on the central building. The melee warriors cautiously approached the nearest set of double-doors (on the eastern side of the structure), while the two arcane casters inexplicably made their way to the south wall. While they were sneaking around, they began hearing some noise coming from behind the large structure. Pelsoar wanted to investigate, but Quin had the sense to regroup with the fighters.
Zah kicked in the doors, at which point, he and Saka (standing directly behind Zah) had to make reflex saves. After narrowly avoiding a heavy ballista bolt, the two charged in to attack the two orcs operating the weapon. Quin set the reloader on fire with a spell. While they dealt with the ballista, Elrond rushed to the north-east corner, having spotted an orc entering a perfect flanking position. He hadn't seen the orc's two buddies, though. About the same time, Pelsoar came around the south-west corner and spotted one of those two buddies, who was poking his head around the north-west corner to see Elrond and his fight. Got vertigo from the ring-around-the-rosery yet?
The third orc to the north moved on Elrond, and Pelsoar kept moving right behind him. Zah, Saka, and Quin finished off the ballista operators and had begun to advance into the structure, to a T-intersection. Elrond, meanwhile, retreated to the ballista, which the operators had just finished reloading before they died. Outside of the party's line of sight, two more orc siege engineers got spooked and burst out of the door, behind Pelsoar. Inside, Zah and Saka were being held up by orc warriors and poor attack rolls. Quin moved outside to fire a spell at an orc, but ran out of actions, so one of the orcs moved on Quin, while the other chased after Elrond. Elrond missed with the ballista. (That was not a surprising result by any measure. He took -4 for nonproficiency, -4 for inappropriate size, and I opposed the attack roll with a reflex save instead of armor class, since you really just need to get out of the way of a crossbow bolt as big as your head.)
This is where the battle really started to turn against the party. Zah took a battleaxe to his side, leaving him with a single hitpoint. Saka and Elrond were doing well, but their efforts were doing little more than help them hold their ground. Outside, Quin finally toasted an orc, and Pelsoar attempted to do the same, but his Burning Hands couldn't produce enough damage. Since it had a verbal component, it attracted the attention of the orc he had been following and gave the retreating engineers a reason to stop and fight. The engineers did not have any weapon's drawn, but the third orc had a handaxe, which Pelsoar destroyed with a spell. Suddenly, he was taking huge quantities of nonlethal damage (six, compared to his hitpoint total of seven) from the three unarmed orcs. Things got nasty, when the two engineers pulled out punch daggers, dropping Pelsoar, and leaving him for dead.
Meanwhile, Saka and Zah busted into one of the closed rooms in the large structure. Expecting more opposition, Zah opted to arm his javallin and let Saka take the point. The room held only some unattended battering rams and a table with a potion on top. The move costed precious time, though, as Pelsoar was outside, being turned into a punching bag at this point, while Quin was the only one moving to help him. Quin went through the eastern door, just in time to take a punch dagger in the shoulder, staggering him. He got a spell off first, setting one of the engineers on fire, but things were looking ill for the two casters. Zah, in almost the same condition as Quin, led the charge against the two remaining orcs. In a near-critical, he finished off one orc that had been lightly roasted by Pelsoar. Saka maneuvered around Zah and did the same thing to the last orc.
The encounter isn't over, as they still have to finish off the lieutenant or start burning siege weapons, but we had to stop for the night. I asked Saka's player where he thought the lieutenant would be, and he pointed out the northern room in the structure, citing his videogame sense. I didn't have the heart to tell him that if the lieutenant was in that room, he would have heard the ruckus and come out to nuke the weakened party.
Exp: N/A, as we're still in the middle of an encounter. (Nine kills so far.)
Loot: 140gp per character, plus an unidentified potion, plus coin scattered with corpses that have yet to be searched.
Party Deaths: Three near-misses. (One unconscious and stable, one staggered, and one at 1HP.)
Next Friday: The second surprise and a trip to the center of the multiverse.
Go Back to Part 2 ---- Proceed to Part 4
Planescapin' - Part 3 -- Written by BlueFlames
[Note: Elrond's player was out today, but left his character sheet with me, so the character was able to participate in minimal capacity. Ragnore and the druid did not extend this courtesy and will not be receiving experience for tonight's encounter.]
...and Saka sought a priest. With a short prayer and a simple touch, his once savage wound was reduced to a mere scratch. After that, everyone met at the keep's gate, where Captain Maltaine was waiting. Quin (the halfling sorcerer) was really persistant about griping about the plan he'd seen nothing of. It seemed he didn't mind irritating his superiors.
Maltaine escorted the party into the heart of the keep, where there was a large dining/conference room. Lord Kirsching was poring over a number of documents, when the group entered. This time, Quin wanted to know about the remaining orc forces. The estimate that he was given was that there were still over 600 at the walls. (Actual numbers were 620 orcs remaining to 106 human survivors.) Quin then persisted about the plan, and Kirsching wasn't going to tolerate the pestering, so he thrust one of the documents into Quin's face. It was a detailed drawing of what appeared to be a level of the castle, except that certain rooms and one tunnel in particultar extended beyond the castle wall.
The plan was to send the party three-quarters of a mile behind the orc line, which had been lured to the castle wall by the retreat. Of course, nobody waited to listen to the rest of the briefing before assuming that they were being sent against the rear of a 620-orc line alone. Kirsching was already frustrated, so he let the party argue among themselves about death, honor, nobility, and stupidity. When that interlude was over, Kirsching explained that the party would be going to the abandoned Fort Carth, which it was believed that the orcs were housing siege weapons and the lieutenant in charge of this offensive.
This had a little more appeal, and that was sweetened even further, when Kirsching called out servants with a chest containing a number of pouches. The pouches had 140 gold for each character as payment for eleven dead orcs and a down payment on the head of the orc lieutenant. Naturally, this led to the question of what in the hells was worth that much gold. All that recon had been able to find out about the lieutenant was that it was smaller and had a much different anatomy than an orc, but it was still ugly and green.
Pelsoar (the dwarven sorcerer) rather unilaterally decided that it was go-time. Zah and Saka didn't mind, as they're rather single-minded about combat. Quin saw opportunity to escape the town, so he was pleased with this plan, right up until the 'move toward an occupied fortress' bit. Everyone headed for the basement, under the lead of Maltaine and Kirsching, but after passing through a small dungeon that had been sealed some years ago, they let the party head down the recently added tunnel.
They came up the third (and final) exit shaft. It was the closest they could get to the fortress from underground, but they were still several miles out. Throughout the afternoon, the party advanced, encountering no resistance on the plains, but as they closed in, the fortress looked to be still-abandoned. The timbers forming its outer wall had shown no signs of repair, and on the eastern wall, a twenty-foot gap was open, where a number of the timbers had had their mud foundations washed away in a storm.
Elrond was sent out to survey the interior, while the rest of the party waited. He returned two hours later, reporting rather minimal activity within the fortress. Orcs were moving about between buildings, but they were proving difficult to count. He saw no sign of the non-orc leader. The party put it to a vote, whether they should attack immediately or wait until nightfall, and most decided to use the setting sun, while they had it.
There was less movement between buildings, when the party arrived at the gap in the wall. In fact, there were no orcs visible at all. There were small buildings in each of the corners and a square building, sixty-feet on a side, in the center of the fortress interior. They advanced on the central building. The melee warriors cautiously approached the nearest set of double-doors (on the eastern side of the structure), while the two arcane casters inexplicably made their way to the south wall. While they were sneaking around, they began hearing some noise coming from behind the large structure. Pelsoar wanted to investigate, but Quin had the sense to regroup with the fighters.
Zah kicked in the doors, at which point, he and Saka (standing directly behind Zah) had to make reflex saves. After narrowly avoiding a heavy ballista bolt, the two charged in to attack the two orcs operating the weapon. Quin set the reloader on fire with a spell. While they dealt with the ballista, Elrond rushed to the north-east corner, having spotted an orc entering a perfect flanking position. He hadn't seen the orc's two buddies, though. About the same time, Pelsoar came around the south-west corner and spotted one of those two buddies, who was poking his head around the north-west corner to see Elrond and his fight. Got vertigo from the ring-around-the-rosery yet?
The third orc to the north moved on Elrond, and Pelsoar kept moving right behind him. Zah, Saka, and Quin finished off the ballista operators and had begun to advance into the structure, to a T-intersection. Elrond, meanwhile, retreated to the ballista, which the operators had just finished reloading before they died. Outside of the party's line of sight, two more orc siege engineers got spooked and burst out of the door, behind Pelsoar. Inside, Zah and Saka were being held up by orc warriors and poor attack rolls. Quin moved outside to fire a spell at an orc, but ran out of actions, so one of the orcs moved on Quin, while the other chased after Elrond. Elrond missed with the ballista. (That was not a surprising result by any measure. He took -4 for nonproficiency, -4 for inappropriate size, and I opposed the attack roll with a reflex save instead of armor class, since you really just need to get out of the way of a crossbow bolt as big as your head.)
This is where the battle really started to turn against the party. Zah took a battleaxe to his side, leaving him with a single hitpoint. Saka and Elrond were doing well, but their efforts were doing little more than help them hold their ground. Outside, Quin finally toasted an orc, and Pelsoar attempted to do the same, but his Burning Hands couldn't produce enough damage. Since it had a verbal component, it attracted the attention of the orc he had been following and gave the retreating engineers a reason to stop and fight. The engineers did not have any weapon's drawn, but the third orc had a handaxe, which Pelsoar destroyed with a spell. Suddenly, he was taking huge quantities of nonlethal damage (six, compared to his hitpoint total of seven) from the three unarmed orcs. Things got nasty, when the two engineers pulled out punch daggers, dropping Pelsoar, and leaving him for dead.
Meanwhile, Saka and Zah busted into one of the closed rooms in the large structure. Expecting more opposition, Zah opted to arm his javallin and let Saka take the point. The room held only some unattended battering rams and a table with a potion on top. The move costed precious time, though, as Pelsoar was outside, being turned into a punching bag at this point, while Quin was the only one moving to help him. Quin went through the eastern door, just in time to take a punch dagger in the shoulder, staggering him. He got a spell off first, setting one of the engineers on fire, but things were looking ill for the two casters. Zah, in almost the same condition as Quin, led the charge against the two remaining orcs. In a near-critical, he finished off one orc that had been lightly roasted by Pelsoar. Saka maneuvered around Zah and did the same thing to the last orc.
The encounter isn't over, as they still have to finish off the lieutenant or start burning siege weapons, but we had to stop for the night. I asked Saka's player where he thought the lieutenant would be, and he pointed out the northern room in the structure, citing his videogame sense. I didn't have the heart to tell him that if the lieutenant was in that room, he would have heard the ruckus and come out to nuke the weakened party.
Exp: N/A, as we're still in the middle of an encounter. (Nine kills so far.)
Loot: 140gp per character, plus an unidentified potion, plus coin scattered with corpses that have yet to be searched.
Party Deaths: Three near-misses. (One unconscious and stable, one staggered, and one at 1HP.)
Next Friday: The second surprise and a trip to the center of the multiverse.
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Site Design: SSX-Anubis (based
upon a design by
SSX-Killjoy)
Thanks go to SSX-MS for graphical assistance.
Copyright @ SSX 2007, All Rights Reserved