d&d

Watch our sessions live on my YouTube channel every Sunday night beginning at 9:30pm Central. Subscribe and catch up on previous episodes!

Important Programming Note: Due to a player on vacation, our session next week will be on Monday, December 14. Thus, look for the video and recap on Tuesday the 15th!

 

We come to the last leg of our side quest sojourn in the mountainous crag of Wyvern Tor. A band of orcs have taken up residence inside a roomy cave, harassing travelers along the Triboar Trail. The townmaster of Phandalin had put up a 100gp reward for their elimination, and my players were eager to kill some orcs.

Given the sheer overwhelming number of foes in their last battle, they opted for a much more cautious approach. 

Kethra and Miri eliminated the orc sentry outside the cave. Kethra, with her half-elf darkvision and stealth skills, scouted ahead into the cave, noticing several orcs surrounding a campfire. The party decided they would take up positions outside the cave and funnel the orcs through the entrance. Kethra’s stealthy crossbow shot missed, and the hornet’s nest of orcs went into effect as the den exploded with a half dozen foes, as well as a larger resident – an ogre.

ogrePoor ogre never got a chance. Despite his girth his faster speed and higher initiative roll made him the first foe to emerge. I was delighted by the “oh shit” reaction from my players, a reaction that I’d hear several times thanks to Roll20’s Dynamic Lighting system.

Though large the Ogre would not end up getting a single attack off, as a combination of Miri’s water whip, Talus’s Magic Missile, and Kalinaar and Kethra’s incredibly high damage attacks would finish him off in a single round.

And yet, the orcs have an ability to close the distance to their foe with a bonus action, letting them cover a ton of ground. Several orcs were able to close into melee range just as the ogre went down, and one critical swing with an orc greataxe tore up Kalinaar. Talus had to expend a crucial divination die to keep Kalinaar conscious as another flurry of blows landed.

Then the PCs fought back. Whereas fog cloud proved useful against the zombies at Old Owl Well, this time they could unleash Sleep spells. Both Kethra as an Arcane Trickster and Talus the Wizard have Sleep, and between the two of them were able to knock out four of the six orcs in the area.

They quickly converged on the remaining conscious orcs, then simply performed some decidedly unheroic but perhaps necessary coup d’graces on the slumbering orcs to finish off a much easier fight than I had anticipated.

To recap – ogre makes it to entrance only to go down from everyone’s best attacks. Orcs run up to PCs and do some decent damage, then immediately go down with sleep spells. PCs mop up.

The party looted the orcs’ treasure haul, which amounted to a number of coins, and their experience levels are looming closer to level 4.

Wyvern Tor

They rested in the orc cave then journeyed West across the mountains to return to Phandalin. We did get one random encounter roll with a pack of ghouls at a campfire. I’m learning that these encounters are little more than a distraction since the PCs are fully healed and about to get another full rest – I may need to tweek that to make them a bit more substantial and interesting.

In Phandalin we spent the remaining session turning in quests and selling loot. I jokingly referred to this as the portion of the game where you go around and talk to all the NPCs with yellow exclamation points over their heads. I got to revisit NPCs that I had voiced and acted many weeks ago since we were last in Phandalin. I also realized the party had never actually sold anything before, so a bit of digging through the book to determine the value of gems and various valuable loot stuffs was necessary.

Their pockets even further lined with gold and several outstanding quests completed, the party finally, FINALLY turns their attention back to the main quest. The location of Cragmaw Castle was determined after their adventures in Thundertree, where presumably their employer Gundren Rockseeker, and his map to the titular mine, reside. Tune in next week!

Important Programming Note: Due to a player on vacation, our session next week will be on Monday, December 14. Thus, look for the video and recap on Tuesday the 15th!

Watch our sessions live on my YouTube channel every Sunday night beginning at 9:30pm Central. Subscribe and catch up on previous episodes!