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We interrupt your regularly scheduled Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden to bring you an entirely new mini-campaign! It’s the Forge of Fury (from Tales from the Yawning Portal), with guest DM, Heather.
Starring:
Absalon, level 4 aasimar cleric of death
Lat’Zure, level 4 githzerai rogue soulknife
Youb Asic, level 4 human champion fighter (played by Lat’Zure, then Frank)
Frank, level 4 tortle battle master fighter
Rech, level 4 human champion fighter (played by Abaslon)
After the battle with the hill giant and death dogs, our second party settle down for a short rest and heal up. With a party of three fighters, a short rest is party darn valuable!
From there the only way to go was northwest. A short hallway ended with a big dwarven statue, with a door off to the side.
Rech (played by Chris/Absalon this week) went to investigate the statue, realizing too late that the floor is one big pressure plate. The statue’s mouth opens and poisonous gas spews out into the hallway, poisoning him and Lat’Zure.
On the other side of the door, we can clearly hear the sound of cruel laughter, and frightened crying. Abaslon and Lat’Zure develop a plan: Absalon uses his Shadow Touch to render Lat’Zure invisibile, and the Soulknife rogue uses his psionics to establish a telepathic link for communication.
Lat’zure very carefully and quietly opens the door and slips inside.
The large barracks is filled with over half a dozen orcs, including an imposing general with a bag full of spider-bombs. In the middle of the room, a woman in rags lies crumpled on the floor.
Lat’Zure sneaks in closer, but these orcs are vigilant, and hear movement. The orog general sends a spider-bomb towards the door, blowing it off its hinges, while the orcs stand ready in perfect formation.
The rogue tries to sneak his hand into the bomb satchel, but fails, diving out of the way as the general barks orders at the orcs. The rest of the party stands ready for a big fight in the hallway beyond, hoping to draw the orcs into their own poison-floor trap. Roll for initiative!
Unfortunately for us, these orcs are trained, and led by a clever leader. Instead of rushing us into the hallway, they remain in the barracks and hurl javelins.
Rech takes the Dodge action for two full rounds to defend against the volley of attacks, while Abaslon casts spells and summons another Spiritual Weapon.
The orcs open their ranks as a bulbous, diseased orc comes rushing at Rech. It’s a metaknowledge dilemma! The players are all too familiar with these exploding orcs, having lost an entire party to them recently!
But alas, these player characters know nothing about them. The party eagerly engages the bloated orc, nearly killing it with Abaslon’s Inflict Wounds. Frank has an interesting idea of setting off the trap using Rech’s shield, but the poison does little to the diseased orc.
On its turn the orc rushes further into the hallway, and explodes, dealing terrible damage to everyone and poisoning the rest of the party.
Lat’Zure quietly slips a note to the crumpled woman on the floor, explaining that they’re here to help, then pops out of invisibility to attack the nearest orc, and drawing the attention of several others.
Frank bravely rushes into the room, only to quickly become surrounded. Then we realize two of the orcs are spellcasters, as they first cast Bless on everyone, then summon their own Spiritual Weapons! Yikes.
Frank and Lat’Zure both take horrible blows from the orcs, despite Lat’Zure using his Gith spellcasting to summon a Shield. They’re both at 2 hit points, and not a single orcs has been killed (other than the exploding one!).
Things are looking very bad.
Then a miracle happens.
The woman on the floor had been muttering about not being able to contain something. Suddenly she rises up out of the heap, screams, and casts Fireball in the middle of the room!
That would have been a death sentence for half the party, but she uses Careful spell to avoid targeting us, thanks to Lat’Zure’s message.
The spell has a devastating effect on the orcs, killing half of them and severely wounding the rest. The orog general flees through a hidden door in the back, and the party rallies, quickly advancing and killing the rest.
Thankfully the general dropped the necklace of keys that held the other captives. The party scoops them up, and the unconscious woman, and quickly returns to the room with the captives to reunite the grateful sisters.
The sisters join hands and whisper that their coven is now complete.
Uh-oh.
Their forms melt away to reveal Night Hags underneath — what! The hags cackle gleefully as dark mists descend around the party, bringing a darkly shocking twist to our adventures in the Forge of Fury.
Next week — Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden returns!
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