Lair Of The Orc Lord – Intermission 1

A character development session was held yesterday to give five players a chance to level their characters. Only the new character Hanu could not develop. Today the game continues...

Cold, fresh air on their faces and chunks of ice lying on the ground from the unnatural storm greeted the party as they reached the surface. The trek out of the tunnels below Hightower Tor was a simple steep climb. Now the PCs are concerned for their horses, hoping that they are fairing well after being left for so long.

The exit tunnel has lead the PCs to the north-western edge of the tor itself and the original tunnel entrance where the horses were left is situated down at the southeast edge. The group of adventurers notice the effect of the storm on the land. Trees have been stripped bare of leaves and small branches; it is a scene of devastation.

Arriving safely to the horses, the PCs notice that one is missing. Cavell and Xera decide to take the horses for a short walk to give them some much needed exercise while at the same time look for the missing horse. Sadly the missing horse is found dead and frozen. It had escaped its bonds and ran out into the storm where it didn’t last long after being hit by the huge chunks of ice.

Being very late in the afternoon the PCs decide to stay the night at their makeshift camping room and return to the city of Sel-kai in the morning. Asmodeus uses his ring of translation to read the orcish note that came with the amulet found earlier. The note reads:


Lord Gorgut, seein’ as ‘ow yoo likes amulits, I ‘as got a perfikly fine wun wot I will swap fer dat scabby dwarf one wot yer lended from me. Its ded kool and shiny too wiv a litening bolt ‘n everyfing.

Skabnoze da mitey.


Four hours into their sleep, while Rikku is on watch, they are disturbed by the echoing sounds of metal being scraped on stone. Rikku wakes all the others before going out and investigating the sounds with Hanu and Kodos. All, that is, except Cavell, who is sound asleep and could not be woken. (Cavell’s sleeping problem prevents him from being woken in the first hour he falls asleep. It has been only half an hour since Cavell came off watch duty, hence Rikku’s problem waking him up.)

Rikku, Hanu and Kodos head down the tunnels in search of the thing that is making all the noise. Nearing the end of the long central corridor they hear something crashing down the tunnel that leads to the dungeon below. What ever it was the sound stops and the PCs get a well deserved rest for the remainder of the night.

The trek to the city was also uneventful, apart from noticing the devastation of the land stopped about three quarters of a mile from the tor. Putting their horses in to the city stables, the PCs head to the Temple of Eissa. Making their way up the front steps, they notice the statue of Eissa. Hanu, Rikku and Xera find that it evokes strong memories of a dream they had the night before. A dream in which the goddess Eissa warns them not to return the Life Stone because it will be misused. The group decide to hold off handing over their find and instead will do some research about the stone in order to find out more information.

Xera and Cavell head to the Sel-kai Library while Hanu, Kodos and Rikku take the goblin hearts to the alchemist. Asmodeus goes in search of his guild up in the floating city of Eidolon for information on how to learn new spells. Eidolon floats above the city of Sel-kai.

Five of the goblin hearts are deemed worthy of purchase and the alchemist offers a measly one gold coin each, to which Rikku objects strongly, demanding the five gold coins per heart he was promised. The alchemist was not happy, but in the end offers two gold coins per heart which Rikku accepted.

Asmodeus finds his guild hall and also notices the fine inns and restaurants located in Eidolon. Immediately upon entering the guild hall, Asmodeus feels very self conscious. He notices the very plush décor and feels out of place in his adventuring clothes. Turning around, he leaves the hall and goes and freshens up and puts on his formal wear clothes. Returning to the guild hall with confidence, Asmodeus finds that the person he is after is a professor at the university. Asmodeus is charged a silver piece to make an appointment with the professor tomorrow afternoon then he heads off to Sel-kai to meet his friends at a pre-arranged location.

Xera and Cavell arrive at the library only to find it will cost a silver piece to access the books. Since the library is closing in two hours time, they decide to wait until tomorrow and so head over to the university to see if anyone there may be of use to them. There they find a professor of the Nalandar College (known well for its curriculum of history) may be useful, but he has left for the day and won’t be returning until tomorrow. Xera and Cavell decide to head back to the pre-arranged meeting place.

Coming together, except for Asmodeus who is running late, the PCs decide to have dinner and discuss their findings so far. Asmodeus turns up half an hour or so later and tells them of the fine inns in Eidolon. Not wanting to risk another night at The Limping Dog (poor Jerrell will be saddened to hear that) the party heads up to Eidolon for the night.

They decide to stay at an inn called House of Dreams. The prices are exorbitant, to say the least, however, they rent a large suite that caters for them all. Everyone takes a bath and refreshes before settling into their beds for the night. No watch is set this time after they hear about the security features built into the very fabric of the building; anti-teleporting between rooms (that Kodos just has to test), magically synchronised key-lock combinations for rooms, Changramai warriors to guard guests’ valuables, anti-fire and damage proof walls – in other words, the works!

After a very restful night, almost too restful, the group head to The Green Veranda, a dining house, for breakfast. They didn’t want to risk room-service prices at the House of Dreams. Following breakfast, the PCs return to their room and collect their gear then split up heading to different locations.

Asmodeus goes shopping at the famous Elistar Fabrics and Tailoring, orders some magical robes with hood as well as boots (all 50 gold pieces worth! - he can pick them up in 18 days) then wanders Eidolon, waiting for the time of his appointment.

Hanu and Kodos return to the Temple of Eissa in order to find some more information about what is happening there. It is discovered by Hanu that the current High Priestess is rather domineering and a control freak. The mood of the temple is tense; not at all what she remembers it to be. The last fifteen years has seen the temple change for the worse and it all appears to be centred on the High Priestess. Hanu is suspicious while Kodos is oblivious!

Rikku also goes shopping, this time for a magical sword. He ends up wasting his time as he ultimately finds he doesn’t have near enough money to buy one.

Cavell and Xera head back to the library and find that they need approval papers from the university to access the Research Collection. Frustrated they decide to return to the university and find the professor in the Nalandar College whom which they end up having a most interesting meeting. They find out that the professor could certainly provide the approval papers, however, it is very expensive to access the Research Collection. Taking a chance the two PCs tell him they are searching for information on the Life Stone of Eissa. They ask the professor if he could identify it to which he acknowledges that he could identify the artefact if he was shown it. Ultimately Xera and Cavell blurt out their entire story about having to find it because it is missing. They then hand over the sky blue diamond amulet for inspection.

“Yes this is it, or at least part of it, the back piece is missing.”, exclaims the excited professor Dumble. Cavell shows the professor the plain stone they also found. Excitement is now obvious in the professors shaking hands and little noises he is making as he takes the stone. Turning over the amulet, the professor places the stone into the recess of the back of the diamond (the PCs had not taken the opportunity to examine their finds).

“It fits perfectly but you are still missing the back piece.”, says the professor.

Cavell is getting frustrated; first they find one stone to which they are “pulled”, then they find the actual sky blue diamond and now they are still missing a third piece.

The professor continues: “You see, history records the stone falling from the sky, Elven followers of Eissa had the stone implanted in a focus, the sky blue diamond, while the Nomari (dwarfs) were entrusted with the creation of the entire setting of diamond and stone in gold. In fact the Life Stone is made up of two amulets that fit together with the celestial stone between them. It is displayed on the statue of Eissa in the temple during special celebrations. I didn’t even know the amulet was missing. This is indeed grave for the temple and its followers.”

All the PCs with the exception of Asmodeus meet outside the Temple of Eissa at about midday. Asmodeus is waiting for his appointment time.

Here endeth the session. See you next time…

Lair Of The Orc Lord - Deep 2 (Part 5)

Today's gaming is essentially a fight to escape this orc lair. Due to work commitments and illness it is more than 5 weeks before the gaming group can come back together to see what progresses.

Healing the injured becomes a first priority before moving on. Experience is starting to make the players less carefree about their characters' survival and think wisely. Having no way to go but up the secret passage, the party first rediscovers how to open the closed secret door leading into the northbound corridor. Rikku and Kodos decide to take point and head cautiously forward. Glad to get away from the intense heat of the firechasm, the group come across a door which opens easily.

The room before you is dirty and odorous, with a skeleton on the floor. The strangest thing about it though is that it is illuminated not so much by your lantern as the greenish glow coming from the open archways beyond. The glow also quite clearly shows a welcoming committee!

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The first combat round Kodos moves into the room so Hanu has freedom of movement. A Lugroki (orc) immediately moves to intercept Kodos seeing how he looks to be an easy target. Neither do much damage to each other.

Hanu burst forth into the room and tries to take on two orcs, hitting one. Rikku notices an opportunity and runs up behind the one attacked and downs it easily. (In RMFRP a +20 bonus is added when attacking from the rear.)

A fourth orc moves to intercept Cavell right before he can move into the main room where all the action is happening.

Asmodeus and Xera can't do much and have no opportunity to attack this round.

The last to move is the minotaur who moves up behind Rikku. Since he has already downed one orc, I suppose the minotaur sees him as being the biggest threat at this point. The minotaur takes a mighty swing and crushes Rikku's skull. Rikku is given several rounds left to live (about 90 seconds of time).

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The situation looks grim with the mighty Rikku down and out in the first round. As a GM I had to balance out the effects of having a minotaur this early in the game (that is, the PCs are only level 2 or 3). Since the module I am using is from Games Workshop's game Warhammer Quest I wanted to stay true to the scenario. I achieved this by reducing the minotaur's level from 8 to 5 as well its offensive capabilities. It was a bit of a gamble and right at this point in the combat, I am worried that the minotaur is still too much for the PCs to handle, especially since they don't have any escape route available. There are still five orcs, one minotaur and one goblin shaman to face, now with only five of them - this certainly looks to be the end of the PCs. I do, however, still have faith that they will pull through this situation - I have seen it before and I will undoubtedly see it again.

Concern for their own lives ripples through the party. The now rag-doll-Rikku needs help which means another PC is unavailable to fight. That leaves four versus seven.

Round 2 of combat sees Kodos throw fear to the wind and ignores the orc trying to attack him, moving to the dying Rikku, lifting him onto his back and teleporting him to the now familiar Fountain of Light in the hopes it will restore him fully.

Hanu attacks the orc nearest her, slays it then focuses on the minotaur with the assistance of Asmodeus while Cavell and Xera attack the orc nearest them.

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Kodos enjoys a bath with Rikku.

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Meanwhile, back at the combat, the remaining four party members battle it out killing the minotaur. Yes that's right, killing the minotaur, dead, by Round 3 - awesome! Actually, Hanu did the slaying, however, Cavell has finally entered the room, spotting the goblin shaman further in, followed by Xera who takes on the orc close to her. Asmodeus continues support from the room entryway.

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Not willing to risk a couple of rounds failing to teleport back to the combat - it is hard to predict where space is available to re-appear and the room is not that familiar to Kodos that he can easily get back without a higher chance of failure - Rikku and Kodos decide to run back, so in a couple of rounds they will be fighting again. Cavell takes on and kills the goblin shaman, Hanu takes on an orc archer and Asmodeus and Xera try cooperatively, yet unsuccessfully, to down the last orc swordsman. Kodos appears then disappears as the players try to make my storytelling difficult by placing Kodos in the picture.

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Kodos and Rikku finally turn up right before the end of the battle while the remaining orcs are elliminated.

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After the battle the dead are searched and some items are found. A Power Point storage amulet, money/coins and a Ring of Regeneration were found. Smartly, again, the party return to the Fountain of Light to heal their wounds and splash around a bit. Xera is particularly happy because it has been such a long time since her last real bath and what little she did wash feels refreshed.

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Going back to The Circle Of Power room the PCs find an exit in the northwest corner that leads up and out of the Lair. Much to their surprise, the blocks of ice have stopped falling from the sky and they hope to return to their unscathed horses in anticipation of returning the Stone of Life to the High Priestess at the Temple of Eissa.

Combat experience points were distributed. A few PCs earnt enough XP to develop their character again.

The night ended here after several hours of game play (dinner included). Below is the entire map experience of the PCs for level two of the dungeon.

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