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 finished clearing the upper level of the orc stronghold, using the advantage of surprise to their advantage because they'd come in through the back door. Caught by surprise and with all their prepared defences facing the other way, the heroes rampaged through orcish ranks slaughtering all who stood in their way.
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After finishing the massacre of orcs in the upper level, our heroes spotted the goblin making a break for the stairs down to the lower level. They didn't hesitate and went after it in hot pursuit.
The lower level was a new construction by the orcs, based around expanding a few pre-existing caverns. The work was crude and very incomplete.
Sprinting down the stairs after the fleeing goblin, the first chamber our heroes blundered into was a guardroom. The half dozen orcs in it were very much taken by surprise. After putting up a brief resistance which involved the rapid deaths of four of them, the remaining two tried to flee. They didn't even make it to the passageways out before being speared from behind and joining their comrades in death.
Most of the rest of the lower level consisted of a series of unoccupied storage rooms. In my role as DM, I'd been keeping track of which orcs were where, and most of the ones from down on this level had rushed up to the top level to join the futile attempts to halt the party's berserk rampage.
However, the party did find an orcish chapel dedicated to their deity, Gruumsh. Adjacent to it was the chamber which was intended to eventually be the quarters of Urzag, the orc war chief who commanded the stronghold.
He was holed up there with his last few bodyguards, waiting for the adventurers. There was in fact a newly constructed and narrow escape tunnel, which the wily fleeing goblin took full advantage of.
Urzag could have fled, but whether through some kind of orcish honour, pure rage, or fear of what his superiors would do to him, he chose to make a last stand.
Until this point, Erioch and Griff had done pretty much all of the work, with Fartacus providing bardic inspiration and handing out healing potions. Garnet had been saving her remaining spells for when they were needed, and this was definitely that time !
As the warriors charged, Garnet sprayed the orcs with a Burning Hands spell rapidly followed by a salvo of Magic Missiles targeted at Urzag.
The party knew that this was likely to be the final encounter, and focused their attacks, first on a low level shaman who was with Urzag (who lasted for mere seconds), and then on Urzag himself. Fartacus, as a bard, didn't have many spells, but used Hideous Laughter on one of the orog bodyguards to take him out of the fight and then worked with Garnet to keep the other orogs distracted.
With any threat to their backs under control, Griff and Erioch worked to destroy the orcish war leader. He was a tough opponent with lots of hit points, but they had the advantage of being two against one. Moving so that he was outflanked enabled them to (quite reasonably) claim advantage, and from then on his fate was sealed. The damage output from the fighters was prodigious, and Urzag stood little chance.
Within a few rounds he was down, and the two surviving orogs, already badly wounded, fell on top of him a round or two later.
The fight was over, the stronghold cleared, and it only remained for the heroes to loot the bodies. The treasure chest in the corner of the chamber was a worthwhile find, slightly damped by the poison gas trap it was fitted with. But once they finished coughing and spluttering, they found a nice stash of gold as well as a Bag of Holding, a Tankard of Sobriety and an Enduring Spellbook (the last two items can be found in Xanathar's Guide To Everything).
With that done, it was time to high-tail it back to Oakhurst; the stronghold might be taken, but the rest of the invading orc army was still ravaging the mountains and nearby farmland.
Next time: Tough Choices....
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
@alonicus/the-second-dandd-tarak-campaign-clearing-the-orc-stronghold