Lair Of The Orc Lord - Deep 3 (Part 2)

Asmodeus is now rested and looking forward to a romp through some dank caves. Hanu and Cavell take point with Asmodeus and Xera then Rikku and Kodos bringing up the rear – although this is not their usual marching order. At the first bend Hanu pauses to get a sneak peak of what is around the corner. She sees chiselled stone steps leading up on the left and spots a few orc archers on a ledge obviously waiting for the party’s arrival.

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The game immediately goes into round by round combat. Players declare their actions and make their rolls, then put this info onto their Combat Record Sheet.

Moving fast, Hanu makes her way up the stairs. She gets a brief glimpse of a large cave opening out to her right as she passes the gap. As GM I check to see if the orcs let loose their arrows, but they were not quite prepared. Cavell, a little slower in initiative than Hanu and the orcs, follows closely behind, but this time the orcs were ready and took a pot-shot at him. It was of no use, as one fumbled and the other missed. The rest of the party wait as Asmodeus prepares an attack spell while Xera, expecting the worse, prepares a concussion relief spell (healing).

It takes another round of movement for Hanu and Cavell to get into contact with the orcs. The orcs do not respond to this apparent threat, rather staying focused on shooting anything trying to pass the gap. The rear-most orc goes down quickly and the two heroes notice another four archers come through the gap in the cave wall off to their left. At the end of this round Kodos and Rikku run past the gap to the base of the stairs. There are several young and apparently frightened orcs watching the fight from their sleeping chamber.

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Hanu leaves Cavell and charges the newcomers while Kodos and Rikku run up the stairs and assist her. Asmodeus edges around the corner to get a good view of his target. Only one orc turns to face Cavell, the other still intent on the gap in front of him. The ferocity of Cavell’s attack throws the orc clearly off the ledge and onto the cave floor below. The orc is down and blinded for thirty rounds – nice critical Cavell!

The remaining orc on the ledge lets loose his arrow before Asmodeus can release his spell (the orc had a faster initiative). Asmodeus is hit and bleeding and he loses his spell and one Power Point - he backs off after being hit. The lovely Xera is immediately at his side, assisting.

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Xera casts the healing spell she had prepared earlier on Asmodeus. Kodos, Hanu and Rikku attack the four orc archers, one of which fumbles its weapon, two miss even though they are at point blank range and a fourth injures Rikku quite severely. It is clear these orcs are afraid, of what is not immediately obvious, but they are not too afraid to attack the party. Cavell dispatches the last orc on the ledge just after hearing the scream of pain from Rikku. He spots movement below and notices six of the young orcs take up arms to defend their home. The youngsters move towards the stairs. Cavell casts an instantaneous Aura spell on himself that bolsters his own party members attack abilities seconds before he hears the mighty roar of a rather large orc coming from behind the four archers. Hearing the echoes of the advancing youngsters Xera and Asmodeus move behind the rock in the hope that whatever is coming their way will simply not notice them.

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The situation looks grim! Cavell is torn between saving his friends Xera and Asmodeus from the savage youngsters or responding to the newest threat, the large orc boss. The youngsters, while small and not particularly good at combat, would certainly pose a serious threat to Xera and Asmodeus if they are intending to leave the cave system, however, Cavell reasons that the young orcs may simply be emulating their warrior elders and will likely make their way up the stairs. He decides to move to the archers and orc boss to assist Hanu and Kodos.

Hanu and Kodos bolstered by Cavell’s aura terminate the life of the two orcs in front of them. Using a React and Melee action, Cavell moves to and stands over the body of the injured Rikku, then slays the foul creature in front of him without hesitation. He does all this even given the penalties for his actions. Only one orc archer and the boss remain. The young orcs do indeed head up the stairs, missing Asmodeus and Xera at the cave entrance – they sigh with relief. Xera casts a blood clotting spell on Asmodeus, trying to keep him alive. Rikku lies on the ground bleeding to death and looking up he sees the two champions of light, Hanu with Cavell, protecting him from the crazed orcs. Lastly, Asmodeus moves into a better position so that he can deal with the young orcs.

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Asmodeus lets loose his Vacuum spell and slays the two orc youngsters at the rear of the group heading up the stairs. Xera at his side and with her hand on his shoulder concentrates on a healing spell. The last orc archer is dispatched by Cavell who then moves to intercept the four charging young orcs intent on ending the lives of the party. Hanu, Kodos and the orc boss trade blows. The young orcs do little, if any, damage to Cavell. Rikku is getting closer to the state of unconsciousness with which he is very familiar.

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Cavell easily takes out two of the young challengers and the other two flee back down the stairs in fear as they fail a morale check. Asmodeus sees the fleeing orcs and quickly prepares another Vacuum spell in an attempt to clean up after Cavell.

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Clearing the way for the fleeing orcs Asmodeus and Xera let them run mindlessly past, then Asmodeus lets loose his spell removing the future threat they would pose. Attacking the large orc boss, Hanu injures it badly and in the process, removes its Defensive Bonus which allows Kodos to issue the killing blow.

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Licking their wounds and not wanting to engage any more orcs, the party make their way outside carrying Rikku on a makeshift blanket stretcher. Xera administers aid to Rikku as best she can, but it is clear to her that he needs more help then she can give. So, after a bit of persuasion, Kodos takes the “initiative” and teleports Rikku to the Temple of Eissa in Sel-kai. The priestesses heal him over the night as promised and Kodos gets a good night’s rest at the Limping Dog. The rest of the party feel confident that they will be left alone and so sleep the night in front of the cave entrance, but do ensure they set a watch. Apart from an annoying squirrel eating nuts in the nearby trees, the party get fully rested.

In the morning Kodos arrives with the fully healed Rikku. More time is given to Kodos to recover some of his Exhaustion Points that he used in getting Rikku back from the Temple before the party re-enters the cave lair.

The bodies of the dead orcs are searched and the little they have is stored away. The large orc leader is not found to be carrying the dwarven amulet they need to complete the Life Stone. Even this guy must be a subordinate to Gorgut. If that is the case, then Gorgut must be formidable indeed!

Making their way through the caves, a side chamber is found empty with a dying fire. Further along they pass a small gap in the cave wall through which a spear is thrown. No one is injured, but Hanu and Cavell quickly move around the bend to find another two orcs with spears waiting for them. These orcs are all large and tough, unlike the smaller, weaker archers. [GM: the archers are level 2 Lesser Orcs while these larger orcs are level 4 Greater Orcs. Essentially the situation is more dangerous due to Greater Orcs having double the offensive bonus, more hit points and they are wearing tougher/heavier armour.]

Bringing up the rear, Xera gets her chakram ready and throws it through the gap, missing the orcs. This situation called for Restricted Area Combat penalties to apply. Since the RolemasterFRP version does not have detailed rules regarding this (at least not that I can find), I used the rules outlined in the Rolemaster 2nd Edition companion book: Arms Companion (ICE#1120) p.28 feeling that they are still suitable to use.

Hanu quickly stuns and downs one of the orcs. The third orc in the group moves from the gap to assist while Xera backs off to the side cave the party had passed earlier. This allows Asmodeus full view of the orcs attacking Hanu so he prepares his Vacuum spell again. Cavell is chomping at the bit wanting to attack the enemy but can’t because there is no space available. Rikku uses his bow in the gap provided by Hanu. He is given fair warning that he might hit Hanu, but decides to go ahead anyway. He misses Hanu, luckily and does little damage.

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Asmodeus’ spell only affects one orc because it failed its resistance roll (RR). These orcs are level 4, the same as Asmodeus and so were only required to roll 45+ ( = 50 + -5[Base Spell Attack Table result] ) on their D100 RR roll. The Base Spell Attack Table is used because the spell Asmodeus is casting is not one that has its own attack table, unlike Fire Bolt say. In this case, Asmodeus performs a D100 roll + modifications to see how effective his spell is against the orcs. A low roll is good for the orcs while a high roll is not so good. Asmodeus’ roll result was below average and so the orcs were given a bonus -5 to add to their D100 RR roll in the hopes of rolling less than the required 50 – of which two did successfully pass.

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As GM I have been rolling Alertness skill checks for a couple of rounds to see if Xera, Asmodeus, Kodos or Rikku can hear the orcs approaching from the cave entrance area. My GMing dice roll consistently low for the most part which is good for the players, however, not in this case. So, in the last round before the orcs appear on the same gaming map piece, I gave the players a chance to roll the Alertness skill check for their own characters. Kodos and Xera are the only ones to hear them coming (thank the Maker!) and prepare. Xera stays in the side cave hoping they will simply pass her while Kodos plucks up the courage to do … something.

There are only two orcs and they go for the most obvious target, Asmodeus. Kodos quickly moves in behind Asmodeus who moves down to the tunnel towards Rikku. As they pass, Xera sneaks out and lets loose her chakram which immediately downs one orc, slicing it through the neck. Kodos is not so lucky and takes considerable concussion damage (hit points) and sustains a minor bleeding wound. The two orcs are taken out quickly, unlike Hanu who is still struggling to get her foes to capitulate and die. Eventually the orcs are all taken care of and their bodies searched. More treasure is found and stored away.

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Interestingly enough there is no back-up to the ambushing orcs. What this suggests to the PCs is unclear. Maybe there are not many orcs left in this cave system after having killed several of them with the goblin shaman Skabnoze underneath Hightower Tor. Maybe they are planning a much larger ambush. Whatever the case, you will have to wait a month due to player commitments for the story to continue …

P.S. By the way, the map board pieces are from a great little company called SkeletonKey Games by Edward Bourelle. Check them out!