I climbed up onto the battlement and collapsed in exhaustion on my back. But I quickly rolled to my side and staggered upright. The sounds of sword on sword and screams filled the night around me. Ahead of me on the tower I can see Mukah driving back and killing a pair of goblins. Then from nowhere a glowing spear appears and strikes at the startled Half-Orc.
By the gods, it looks like a Spiritual weapon spell!
There must be a shaman amongst the goblins. I climb the steps to the tower and peer over the battlements into the darkness. On a raised walkway below I can see an Orc clad in ringmail waving his arms above his head. There!
The orc is directing more goblins to charge the tower. I turn to yell to Mukah; “That Orc, he is casting the spell!”
Mukah looks back at me with little comprehension, he has gone mad with battlelust. Roaring some curse or challenge in orcish he steps back runs and leaps off the battlement into darkness.
Jumping up I look over the battlement to see where he has fallen and incredibly I see Mukah land perfectly on his feet beside the orc shaman with his sword ready to strike!
Once More into the Void Session 21: Lets go in the front door.
This week the session was mainly combat followed by a little exploration. I am going to break it down by rounds. Last week, our band of heroes had located a ruined keep in the mountains that we surmised was the lair of the Necromancer. We attempted a stealthy approach but the alarm was soon raised. It took 2-3 rounds of combat the previous week to fight into the courtyard of the keep. Mukah, Talrek and the wolf Tinda are still down in the courtyard. Oto ascended to the battlements and Thyrell and Alcor followed him there.
Round 1
Mukah engages one of the worgs and kills it with his sword. Alcor finishes climbing up onto the battlements near where Oto is pinned down by archers. Talrek, fighting down in the courtyard kills two goblins - one with his Spiritual hammer. Oto casts Burning Hands towards a goblin but he ducks out of the way and is only slightly burned. Oto takes the time to apply a healing salve. Moving away from Oto on the battlements, Thyrell cruelly chops apart a goblin with his twin swords. Oto is struck in the head by an arrow fired from one of the towers. More and more goblin archers are appearing from behind cover.
Round 2
Mukah decapitates a goblin attacking Tinda, then he moves to climb up the battlements. Alcor runs up and attacks two goblins, killing one with his spear but missing the other. Talrek casting Guiding Bolt at more goblins entering the courtyard from the north. Oto casts Magic Missile and finally kills the goblin that had him pinned down, he then moves rapidly over the gatehouse to get closer to where Thyrell and Alcor are fighting. Two goblins archers spot Oto and fire at him. Oto is struck twice by arrows as he presents an enormous target. Talrek is attacked by multiple archers in the towers and is struck gravely by one arrow.
Round 3
Mukah finishes his climb and reaches the battlements. He immediately attacks the archers firing at Oto. Alcor reaches the East tower and kills one of the goblins hiding there. Talrek struggles mightily to climb up onto the battlements out of the courtyard. He manages to pull himself up near Mukah. Talrek’s Spiritual Hammer crushes in the head of one of the goblins. Oto pauses and takes the time to cast Mage Armor on himself then scrambles around a corner into what he hopes is better cover. Thyrell kills the last goblins defending the easternmost tower. Suddenly, two more goblin archers appears out of the darkness with a clear line of sight to Oto. They both fire but miraculously both miss. Mukah comes under fire from five goblins archers but only one manages to hit him.
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| WRONG WAY Oto tries to find cover and walks right into an ambush. |
Round 4
Mukah kills one of the archers defending the central tower. Alcor returns from the east tower and as he runs toward Oto he flings a dart catching one of the archers in the eye, killing him. Talrek kills another goblin in the central tower with his Spiritual Hammer. Oto crawls back over the gate, sees a line goblins in the courtyard and casts Firebolt at him hitting him but not killing him. Thyrell switches to his bow and leaves the east tower on Alcor’s heels. He fires an arrow while running and kills the remaining archer menacing Alcor. The goblin in the courtyard tries to scramble up the wall to get his hands on Oto, but he falls back down. More goblins join the fray from the north, pushed on by a tall, brutish orc. Oto is struck by another arrow and is bleeding gravely now. A spear appears out of thin air and strikes at a surprised Mukah on the central tower.
Round 5
Mukah, apparently lost to battlerage, makes a death defying leap off of the central tower and lands on the battlements 10 feet below and 15 feet away right beside the orc who the heroes suspect is a shaman. The shaman and 3 goblins all converge to attack Mukah in a furious melee. Mukah manages to fend off the goblins and strike the orc shaman with his longsword with a slashing blow. Talrek lights up the shaman with Guiding Bolt from the vantage point of the tower. Then Talrek strikes down a nearby goblin with his Spiritual Hammer. Oto fires one more ineffective Firebolt at the maddened goblin in the courtyard, then he runs for the apparent safety of the central tower. Thyrell runs up to the central tower to join the fight. Tinda lunges out from the darkness and drags away and kills the goblin in the courtyard. Mukah is struck several times and starts to slow. Thyrell is hit by an arrow, but then immediately fires at the goblin archer and kills him.
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| SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA Mukah makes a rash leap from the tower into the middle of the goblins. |
Round 6
Mukah misses the shaman, the shaman then strikes Mukah again who is now staggered and near the end. Before Mukah can be struck again, Talrek hits the shaman again with Guiding Bolt, this time the shaman tumbles to his knees and topples dead off of the battlements. Alcor appears and kills the remaining goblins attacking Mukah. Oto casts his last spell, Burning Hands, this time he kills one goblin and badly injures another. The two remaining goblins, devoid of a leader, turn and make a run for it. Mukah flings his javelin sixty feet striking one fleeting goblin in the hip, but the goblin disappears in the distance. Alcor catches up to the other fleeing goblin (the one who is badly burned) and kills him. Tinda sets off in pursuit of the last goblin.
With the fight over, Oto collapses in a heap and starts patching up his wounds, and removing an arrow from his thigh. The heroes gather together and Talrek casts Prayer of Healing to restore several of the heroes to full health. Talrek goes to see where Tinda is and finds the wolf sniffing around a crude goblin shrine erected on a pile of rubble. In the rubble Talrek finds some gems. Talrek searches the orc shaman corpse and sets aside his ringmail, shield and spear. After casting Detect Magic it is discovered that the spear, shield, boots and a potion are magic. Alcor takes the spear and Talrek takes the shield. The heroes search through some buildings in the rest of the ruins and find a few coins but no clues to how the goblin got away. Tinda is still scratching around the goblin shrine so everyone gathers there to search. No one can find a clue so the decision is made to check again in daylight.
The heroes camp in the east tower and set watches. They are not disturbed during the night. The next day the heroes search around the shrine again but have no success until Mukah finds a concealed door when he pushes some rubble aside. A pair of wooden doors almost flush with the ground conceal an ancient stone staircase descending below the keep.
In the complete melee in the keep over 2 sessions we killed 15 goblin archers, 15 goblin swordsmen, 1 orc shaman and 4 worgs.
We rock!!
ReplyDeleteSigned Thyrell