Welcome to the ongoing saga of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran a little while back. It started off using The Sunken Citadel module from the Tales From The Yawning Portal source book, but was then fitted into my Homebrew setting and moved on from there.
In the last post, the party sent Garnet (their sorcerer) to scout out the orc encampment under cover of an Invisibility spell. Garnet was unable to resist the urge to throw a Fireball spell, which rather spoiled the plan.
I hope you enjoy my D&D campaign write-ups, and the commentary I add to them. Questions, comments and feedback are welcome !
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Despite Garnet's impetuous nature having totally destroyed the original plan, the escapade had revealed quite a lot of useful information. They now knew where the orc war chief's tent was, where the food store had been (and was now a smoking hole), and that the orcs didn't react to surprises in an organised and speedy kind of way.
Amazingly, despite their previous performance, they came up with a new plan that was possibly an improvement on the original one.
The new plan was to ambush any foraging parties the orcs sent out, or relief parties coming to them, to ensure their food supply ran low. They thought it likely that hunger would make the orcs desperate, so they'd watch from a safe distance and wait to see what opportunities arose.
It didn't take long before opportunities started to appear. First, a foraging party half a dozen strong emerged from the orc encampment. The party tailed them stealthily until they were far enough from their base; too far for an attack to be seen or heard, and too far for any survivors to easily run back and get help.
As it was, there were no survivors. The orcs were put down with shocking speed and brutality, the whole combat lasting only two rounds.
Next up was a body of orcs coming from outside bringing supplies for the camp. There was more of them; a dozen orcs led by an orog, plus half a dozen goblin slaves acting as porters. Their problem was that no-one had warned them there was a feral party of bloodthirsty adventurers on the loose.
The battle against this group lasted slightly longer; about five turns. A fireball dropped on a close-packed group of orcs can do a lot of damage....
The upside of this fight was that the party were able to retrieve some orcish food to replenish their dwindling supplies. It was far from pleasant, but a Purify Food and Drink spell made sure it was safe to eat.
Following this, the party had to watch for about three days before an opportunity arose. During this time, the orcs were getting hungrier and hungrier, and squabbles over any food individual orcs had hoarded became more frequent and vicious.
Finally, desperation led the orcs to launch a full frontal assault on the kobold defences. The orcs could no longer wait for the kobolds to starve, the tables had been turned.
The party saw the orc leaders beating their reluctant and starving troops into position. Then the orcs moved forward in three waves. The result is best described as messy.
Remember that low wall the kobolds had built in front of the bulge at the centre of the rock arch ? It turned out it wasn't a defensive fighting position. It was a marker. The space between the wall and the kobold hideout was littered with traps, and was a killing field as the kobolds used hidden loopholes to open fire on the orcs. They weren't using bows and arrows, most of the missile weapons used were far nastier. Flasks of flaming oil, vials of acid, pottery jars filled with small grey oozes or black puddings, and occasional poison-tipped javelins.
Just as the orc attack started to falter, they were hit by the party, charging them from the rear. This had the effect that the first orcs to find themselves fighting our heroes were the war chief and orogs. Orc leaders are definitely not the type to lead from the front !
This was a tough battle ! The orogs gathered in a shield wall around their war chief, while all around the surviving ordinary orcs fled back to their camp. But despite the courage of the orc leaders, the outcome was inevitable.
Garnet's Fireball and Burning Hands spells weakened them, and then Erioch and Griff charged in to slay the weakened orcs. Nevertheless, the characters took some serious damage in the process; an orc war chief's two-handed battleaxe is a weapon that deserves respect.
A few rounds later, the orcs were down, and the party started moving across the rock bridge towards the kobolds they were supposed to rescue. They wondered how they'd get past such a dense field of traps.
Next time: Meeting the kobolds....
Previous posts in this series;
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-introduction
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-lets-meet-our-characters-
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-arrival-at-oakhurst
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-to-the-sunless-citadel
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-into-the-citadel
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-kobolds-are-people-too-
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-a-deal-with-kobolds
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-no-creatures-land
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-a-beast-a-fountain-and-more-rats
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-first-encounter-with-the-cunning-goblins
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-pits-and-dragons
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-the-goblin-chiefs-potted-plant
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-down-the-hole
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-the-fungus-garden-and-a-laboratory
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-the-bugbear-gardener
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-into-the-twilight-grove
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-showdown-at-the-gulthias-tree
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-an-unexpected-offer
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-orcs--orcs-
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-overthrowing-the-mayor
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-cooling-off-cantrips-and-council
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-taking-the-fight-to-the-orcs
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-first-sight-of-the-orc-stronghold
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-storming-the-wall-of-sorrow
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-kicking-in-the-orcs-back-door
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-finishing-off-the-orc-stronghold
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-tough-choices
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-plans-and-realities