Lair Of The Orc Lord - Deep 3 (Part 4)

Game day: 3rd November 2007 - I am a little slow getting this blog written.

Several hours go by as the players, all except Kodos, develop their character to the next level. Now most characters are level five and looking forward to using their new found skills. Only Kodos and Hanu remain at level four. Channeling magic users are the only ones who are permitted to develop their spells, which means Cavell has to fork over 10 % of his cash earnings as a tithe and he is happy to do so. Even though the tithing occurs at his god’s temple, it is carried out now so I don’t forget to ask for it later. Other spell users spend their development points on spell lists but do not have access to them until they do their training when they return to Sel-kai.

And now we return to the PCs who are preparing to go into a curtained-off part of the caves.

Standing with Cavell at the curtain just about to open and enter the room beyond, Hanu realises she is aching all over from the injuries she had received in the previous fight. She decides to move back and let Xera work her magic. Rikku moves up to take her place. Not thinking straight Xera considers casting a spell that heals one hit point per minute. I reminded her player that it will take almost two hours at that rate. Xera decides to use her blue healing paste and rubs it on, which instantly cures all injuries on Hanu.

Rikku, upon moving into Hanu’s position at the front of the party, look at Cavell then brushes aside the curtain. These two at the front are immediately assailed by several arrows as the orc archers at the rear of the cave let loose their bow strings. Cavell and Rikku can see the numerous orcs before them and wonder if this was a good idea.

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After the arrows were fired the two closest orcs moved in to fight with swords. A third orc from the group at the rear of the cave failed his Self Discipline check and ran forward to bring death to the invaders. He was immediately taken out of action as the orc archers continued to rain fire upon the PCs – instead of all the arrows hitting the PCs they shot their own comrades in the back for the most part. (GM’s, my, poor rolling I’m afraid!)

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After the front three orcs are taken care of, Cavell leads the charge into the orc archers, closely followed by Rikku and Hanu. The other orc swordsmen move into combat at this time. With such a tightly packed group of fighters, Asmodeus takes the opportunity to prepare his area of effect spell – the deadly Vacuum spell, centred on Cavell! Xera’s chakram stays holstered and instead prepares her healing spell as she has no clean line of sight on the enemy. Kodos is too scared to move, just in case he reopens his bleed wound again.

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The three lead PCs manage to take out only one orc before Asmodeus causes the air around them to disappear and then rush back in with a vengeance to fill the void. Cavell immediately goes down with a broken neck along with three of the five orcs attacking them. Rikku is injured badly enough that he disengages from combat (his foe is down anyway) and moves back to Xera who is prepared to heal him. Only the tough Hanu is left to fight the remaining two orcs. Asmodeus is extremely pleased with himself and his player makes an evil smile.

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I must admit, this is my fault. It was I who encouraged Asmodeus’s player to take advantage of the situation with the crowding orcs around the three PCs. I showed him that it was best to centre his spell on Cavell. It was I who continued to give him the thumbs up even when the others where arguing with (begging) him not to do it. Ahhh! I relish in the power I have as GM over these puny humans, mwahahahaha!

Actually, it didn’t take much convincing on my part at all. Asmodeus’ player saw a unique opportunity to eliminate many of the orcs troubling them [“yeah and to kill another one of Cavell’s player characters!” – Xera’s player]. This was a very dangerous situation and they still had not come up against Gorgut.

Players now talk frantically about how best they can save Cavell. He has a broken neck with only 12 rounds (5 minutes) of life left. All eyes move to Kodos’ player because Kodos has the ability to teleport him on his back to the Temple of Eissa where they can get free healing. More discussion ensues regarding just how unreliable that healing actually is and how Shashari, their former party member, is still waiting in the temple to be fully healed. Kodos is reluctant to get involved as it means he has to move into the combat zone. I remind Xera of her blue paste and that it will instantly heal any and all injuries a person is suffering. Xera doesn’t hesitate and moves to Cavell, giving him a nice rub down with the blue paste.

Meanwhile, Cavell’s player’s worst nightmare manifests itself in the shape of an immense orc, Gorgut, coming through a secret door hidden under the furs on the floor. Only Hanu is there and she already has two orcs attacking her. She decides to face the huge orc leader and moves into combat.

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[Aside: This is not the first time Kodos has been reluctant to help out the group and it is quickly becoming a problem for them as he is unreliable – something an adventuring party can’t have if they are to survive into the future. Someone in the party needs to talk to him and that should fall to the leader, Rikku, however, he doesn’t appear willing or even truly aware of the dire circumstances they can be in if they cannot count on Kodos when he is needed.]

Hanu’s player character puts her attack efforts into the Snap combat phase hoping to get first strike on Gorgut. As GM I elect Gorgut to attack in the Normal phase. This is done secretly of course and is revealed as the combat progresses.

When combat starts I ask for Snap phase actions first. Hanu is the only one acting in this phase with all the orcs acting in the normal phase. Hanu swings her mighty flail, surprisingly getting past his defences and critically hitting Gorgut (Hanu’s player rolled very well indeed). Hanu is a level 4 PC while Gorgut is level 10 so this result was the best she could have hoped for. Gorgut does not go down but he takes a chunk of damage is stunned for one round. Hanu thinks she can breathe easy now but she doesn’t know what Gorgut has in store.

Gorgut, now stunned, attempts a Self Control•Stun Removal skill check in order to break the effects of the stun. He fails (oh bugger! – GM) and so cannot attack Hanu this round; this also gives Hanu further opportunity next combat round if she can hit him quickly enough. The next round does not see as much damage being done to the orc leader, however, Hanu does manage to stun him again for one round with a No Parry result included. This means that the orc cannot try to parry any attacks and so has limited defence options. While attacking Gorgut, Hanu has been lucky that the other two orcs have done very little in the way of damage against her. Only one orc truly concentrated its attacks on Hanu, the other was shooting at Rikku who eventually went down to only 7 hits of health remaining at the end of the combat.

Xera backs away from Cavell and uses her chakram on an orc, killing it over a couple of rounds. Cavell manages to stand after being incapacitated for a couple of rounds while Xera assisted him. He immediately places his attention on the orc attacking Hanu from the flank.

An enemy not having any defence is a really good thing for a PC. Hanu tries to take full advantage of Gorgut’s run of bad luck and while she doesn’t do a great deal of damage, manages to get a Stun + No Parry result for three rounds! This is the beginning of the end for poor old Gorgut. He can’t attack and is now trapped in his own cave. “Sweet” thinks Hanu.

Cavell dispatches the last remaining orc archer, turns to assist Hanu defeat the large brute, Gorgut and sees that she gets the mightiest blow on the doomed orc slaying him.

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More interested now than ever, the PCs search the orcs and in particular Gorgut, for the third amulet piece of the Life Stone they have been trying to find these couple of weeks. Some other good treasure is found, but … Nothing! What???! Where can it be?

The game is stopped here and will resume in four weeks time due to player commitments.

Progression of the Deep 3 map:

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