[Last we ventured we had cleared Emridy Meadows, fought a hill giant and his giant bear pet, gathered an undead army, travelled to Nulb to uncover more information regarding the Temple of Elemental Evil, got sidetracked with a quest to bring a Nulb resident a giant fish head and lost Raimol in the process. This shook us up and felt the battle too tough for our experience and decided to try and find some other adventures before taking on Nulb once more. Back in Hommlet, the smith, Brother Smyth as he is called, gave us a morsel of gossip and recommended we seek out the town elder for a possible adventure. After reincarnating Raimol, the druid told us the price would be a lot more if there were a next time (6,000gp, then 12,000gp, then 24,000gp, etc). We gathered our party and ventured forth…]
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We woke up with heads pounding from too much ale, revelry, and an overall good time because Raimol was back from the dead and we were safe, at least for now. The town smith had given us a lead and mentioned the town elder might have more information. Something about orcs holed up far to the north and growing in number. We gathered our things and left the inn intent on helping our ‘home base’ town of Hommlet and sought out Kenter Nevets.
It was our first time at the estate of the town elder and his residence was almost the size of the inn of the Welcome Wench. ‘This was old money,’ Eldiritch whispered, and anyone who knew the rogue understood his double-meaning. We entered the residence and mentioned the smith and what we could do to help. Looking back, one might equate his look of us as winning some town lottery, as he could barely hide is excitement in finding a group willing enough to investigate this orc uprising. He continued…
We gathered our party together and checked our equipment and setup party formation before we set out. This was a long journey, almost as far as Nulb, and we made sure we would be prepared for any ambush in store for us. [Below is our basic party outline with magical equipment so we can summarize them for later encounters. Please note that they are equipped with normal equipment as well not shown:
Stallen – Level 4 Half-Elf Bard – Masterwork studded leather, composite short bow Str 14, gnome ring (friendship?), cloak of elvenkind, wooden elvish shield and sword (for melee)
Karish – Level 4 Human Barbarian – barbarian armor, masterwork great sword, Lareth’s ring of free-movement (great for killing foes trapped in webs), gloves of dex +2
Eldiritch – Level 4 Elven Rogue – green elven chain, cloak of elvenkind, masterwork composite longbow str 14, trader’s shortsword +1
Kumari – Level 4 Elven Cleric – purple elven chain, Lareth’s club of striking, cloak of elvenkind, ring of protection +1, masterwork sling, steel shield +1
Xiamaru – Level 3 Elven Wizard – masterwork longbow Str 12, fungus figurine
Zert – Level 4 Human Ranger – Lareth’s Breastplate +1, Longsword +2, wooden elven shield
Raimol – Level 3 Human Ranger – Longbow +1
Pishella – Level 4 Sorcerer/Wizard – masterwork xbow ]
Feeling the best we would get, we set out for our destination.
We arrived without incident and surveyed our surroundings…
With the few undead guards we had left, we set them in front and advanced cautiously when we encountered a tough-speaking goblin..
The little goblin ran off and sounded some alarm before we could put an arrow in his back so when the orcs attacked we weren’t surprised. ‘To Arms!’ shouted Stallen, as a pack of orcs advanced on us as orc archers in the rear fired over them at our casters.
We greased the ground causing their front ranks to slip and fall as Kumari summoned her spiritual weapon for the first time. A blood-red scythe appeared out of thin air and hovered over the grease slicing down on the helpless foes. The warriors of our group gathered around the edge of the grease attacking the orcs as they tried to get back up…
Stallen played his all-too-familiar tune once more and the party was energized for battle. You could swore some of us sang along as well as we made short work of the greased orcs. The casters summoned pets, large and small, to occupy the bothersome archers in the back as we made our around the greasy-bloody grave of the orcs.
Xiamaru summoned a tougher pet, a wardog, who was making short work of some goblins that tried to flank us. The scythe moved on to help the dog as we charmed an orc sergeant, and Karish charged the orc archers in the back, making the run in an instant thanks to wearing light armor.
The orc archers fell quickly to the onslaught of sword and canine bite and we were left with an orc sergeant that worked for us. We didn’t trust the longevity of the spell and after finding a safe spot to rest, decided to put him out of his misery, for charmed as was, we swore he seethed in anger as we commanded him around.
After a short and restful reprieve, we pressed on and didn’t make it far before stumbling upon an angry little kobold, not too much-different than the goblin leader we saw earlier. This one had warnings of its own and threatened us just like his goblin friend.
He ran off, again quicker than we could put an arrow in his back, and sent the thief ahead to scout. Eldiritch uncovered an ambush waiting for us…
We knew better though, and learning from our previous encounters and what worked, followed the same steps. Step 1, web and grease the enemy:
Step two: Send in the summons to take on the enemies and soak up damage. This has worked better than expected as we’ve taken to summoning spiders recently who are immune to the web effects and poison their foes to boot!
Step three: Mop up and clean-up. This part is the fun part as we go around gathering up the loot of our fallen and adding them to our extraplanar chest, which has become almost full, and so we decide to hoof it back to Hommlet to sell and re-arm. On the way to Hommlet we encounter a wandering bard and Stallen bristled with a twinge of jealousy.
The bard sang when he talked and was far too nice for our liking. He did mention a quest he was on and shared his adventure with us…
He asked us if we could travel together and Stallen simply replied, ‘We’re full.’ Looking back, meeting such a character in the swamps as we did was strange and proved one of the more random wandering encounters we’ve had, but by the time we got to Hommlet and began selling our loot we had forgotten all about him. We slept the night in the inn and returned to the road heading to Hickory Branch once more, the area where the orc encampment lay in waiting.
No wandering bard or monster stopped out trek and when we returned we explored more of the area. As Eldiritch was creping ahead, he saw another ambush point ahead. We planned for the attack and Stallen began singing as the grease and web spell launched. We took out the bugbear quick along with the kobolds when Xiamaru dismissed the web spell so we could tackle the orcs in back.
Within moments of ensuing battle, the last of the foes dropped and what was left was the looting of the fallen. As we were rifling through their packs and grabbing what little coin they had, Eldiritch stumbled upon another group of monsters thankfully we didn’t disturb at the same time as these…
We needed to sleep though, and back to our safe spot we went and built a very small fire making sure not to alert anyone to our presence. We awoke at night, having fulfilled our eight hours of rest and explored a little more. As Eldiritch approached this group we saw the day before, we encountered a worthy foe, and again were reminded of how important it was to scout ahead before blindly charging…
Unfortunately, what would have been a great surprise attack was spoiled by one of our few remaining undead guards as it got too close to the enemy party and alerted them to our presence. They attacked and we weren’t prepared for them, as Eldiritch ran back to the safety of our group just as Kumari summoned a scythe to occupy them and provide cover for the fleeing thief. The ogre, unbothered by our summons, charged past them and closed in on us…
We needed some crowd control and we needed it now. Stallen took out his instrument and strummed up a magical tune that had the effect of fascinating the ogre. Good, he was out of the battle while the rest of us could focus on the lesser foes or until a skeleton decided to charge the lesser giant.
This strategy actually worked out better than planned as Karish charged into the web, unaffected thanks to his magical ring, and you could see the fear and shock on the orcs archers’ faces as the barbarian hacked and cleaved them down.
We gathered around the fascinated ogre in a circle of death as Stallen kept the momentum of the song up and with a knowing wink, Eldiritch plunged his magical short sword into the back of the ogre to its hilt as Karish swung down with his sword and split the beasts chest almost clear open. It barely shrieked in pain before being cut-off in death and landed with a mighty thud. Our group erupted in a chorus of cheer, but we all secretly knew this ogre was nowhere near the strength of the one we encountered earlier in the moathouse. A strong and formidable foe, no doubt, but not half as strong as Lareth’s personal bodyguard was, but still an achievement nonetheless. We slept and re-learned our spells and journeyed forth with our pockets a little heavier with their coin.
We awoke and it was still dark when we explored more of the area. Eldiritch was sneaking through the heavy brush when he heard before he saw the heavy, almost unnatural, breathing and growling of some beast. Some large beast…
Just as the thief turned to leave he stepped on a branch that snapped and the giant dire boar became alerted. ‘Uh-oh’, was the only thing he quickly said without looking back and bolting to the safety of the group just as casters began to summon bait to occupy the magical boar.
The main group pelted the beast from afar from ranged weapons as casters kept summoning spider, wolf, and dog to occupy the beast’s wrath. As soon as we would complete the spell and our ‘pet’ would appear, the boar would make a mighty swipe with a paw or bite from his giant maw and kill the thing. Just when we thought it would out last our spells, the beast dropped dead from all the arrows and bolts protruding from it and we let out a huge sigh of relief.
We gathered up and went back to our niche in the brush and slept the rest of the night till morning, not too far from where we had a previous battle, and moved out, exploring more of the area…
We went north and crept ahead and discovered a gnoll and a bugbear, looking the veteran warrior, greeting us from atop a large boulder outcropping. They shouted down to us, much like the goblin and kobold before them, and threatened us, much like their brethren before them as well.
And just like before, they disappeared before we could get a shot off and we cursed our luck. We sent up Eldiritch, for like before, an enemy contingent would typically await us in ambush. This time was no different…
‘Wow, an ogre shaman,’ whispered Eldiritch. He’d heard about these from tavern tales and reported his find back to the group. We prepared ourselves for a big fight and following the steps mentioned before, we carried through our actions in almost flawless display…
‘Perfect,’ exclaimed Stallen, as the battle went without a hitch. The ogre shaman was too webbed and pelted with arrows to even get off a spell and like before, we circled the greased and webbed enemy dispatching them with ease as they tried to escape. We rued the day such tactics would be used against us as some of us felt a little wiser and stronger. We looted the dead and went back to our safe spot and rested again before setting out once more, but we came back a different path and heard the many sounds of wolves and howls before actually seeing them. What was worse was that they were led by a large orc…
We would need a good plan to take these on, but decided to discuss over some ale and meat and a good rest. We awoke at sunset and decided to take this pack of wolves on like we did everything else, and so it began with a web spell…
But it didn’t end how recent battles ended, and while we thought we would easily dispatch these beasts, our hubris almost got the better of us. Karish charged into the webs and attacked the giant wolves only to be almost torn to pieces…
[WOW. A 29 point critical hit?! Karish was down and the other wolves were circling the prey to do him in. This was going to be tough] Karish was down and bleeding out, what’s worse is that another wolf got loose of the web and was circling around. The orc trainer was almost dead, having slipped in the grease and stuck in the webs as Raimol and our casters filled him with arrow or bolt, but the fact our lead warrior was down and out was the most pressing of all. Kumari shouted to move aside and attempted a cure moderate wounds spell only to be pounced upon by another wolf, disrupting the spell in mid-incantation.
More arrows and bolts flew through the air at the giant dire wolf to try and kill it before it would end Karish’s life as Kumari and Zert attacked the lesser wolf that disrupted her spell so she could cast another one. Time was running out and so was Karish’s life as his blood mixed with the red sands of the setting sun…
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[Next time… What will happen? How will this battle end? Will this be the end of Karish or even our party? Find out, in the next episode! DA-DA -DUMMmmmmmm … Stay tuned for Chapter 9!]
Temple Storyboard 