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 found the rear entrance to the orc stronghold. After massacring the penned worgs kept just outside it, they forced their way into the complex.
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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After killing the orcs and their orog leaders from the guardroom, our party had a relatively clear route to the less defensible rear areas of the orc stronghold.
Advancing cautiously, they came to a heavy curtain. Smoke was filtering through it's dense weave, as was a rather awful stench. Pulling aside the curtain, they saw (and smelled) a disturbing sight.
What they had found was the orcs kitchen. Hanging from the walls were an assortment of cooking implements that looked like instruments of torture. The centrepiece was a large cauldron, steaming and bubbling. Sticking over one side was a visibly human (and half cooked) arm. The stink from the cauldron was appalling; orcs were not famous for their culinary skills or appreciation of fine dining.
The actual cooks (it's unfair to caterers everywhere to call them chefs) were three goblins. Clearly dazed by the pungent smoke, two were gleefully throwing logs onto the roaring fire beneath the cauldron, while one was stirring the disgusting contents with an over-sized ladle.
The party made very short work of the three goblins, killing them in a single round and throwing their corpses into the cauldron, thus increasing the stew's protein content considerably.
In the following chamber they found the pantry. If anything, this was even worse. The sacks of poor quality mildewy grain on the floor were bad enough, but the part-dismembered human bodies hanging from hooks set into the ceiling were dreadful.
There was nothing much the party could do here at this stage, so they moved on, swearing vengeance against the orcs who would do such a thing.
They got their chance almost immediately. Stepping into the next chamber, they discovered it was a barracks room. Inside, sleeping in crude cots scattered around the floor, were nine orc archers. They were slow to rouse themselves, exhausted from the recent fight when the party had tried unsuccessfully to storm the front entrance.
What happened next was a massacre, the start of a rampage by the party. With the orcs taken by surprise, they were slaughtered by the characters without putting up any kind of effective resistance.
The party then went from cave to cave, finding groups of orcs sleeping or recovering from the earlier fight. Out of position and without their defences, the orcs were wiped out. The speed of the party's attack was devastating, and within just a few minutes, all the orcs on the top level had been slain.
The last survivor was a single goblin they found. He was working through an empty living area looking for scraps of food, and as soon as he saw the party he fled, inadvertently revealing the location of the hidden stairs that led to the next level down.
Nest episode; finishing the job....
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-storming-the-wall-of-sorrow
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-kicking-in-the-orcs-back-door