Session 0029 - Into the Caves From Above

Roster

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Player characters who's player is attending the game start with 1 Hero Point, and can get more during the session.

Absent

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Player characters for missing players do not start the session with a hero point, and can not get any more during the session.

003-Ferdinand Blackvenner: James

Session Log

After finding the camping spot Harbek remembered seeing on their way up to the cave, the party set about to patch themselves up. Alicia uses her first aid and Lay on Hands ability to patch everyone up while the group build a campsite.
It takes a few hours, but eventually everyone recovers and are back at full health. During this time they are not disturbed and can see no sign of pursuit from the caves.
They camp out for the night, and the night passes uneventfully.
In the morning the wind has picked up, howling through the mountains and making for a cold morning. After everyone handles their daily preparations, the group packs up and heads back up towards the caves.
A strategy for approaching the caves is discussed. Eriana remembers seeing sunlight beyond the palisade where the horses were kept, suggesting their pen led to the outside. If they could sneak in that way it might help catch the orcs unaware, assuming they were still in the caves.
Everyone likes this idea, so they approach the caves farther to the west rather than coming directly from the south as they did initially. Looking for a way up, they can see an approach that looks difficult but not impossible to climb.
Eriana is an expert climber, so she takes the lead to help find a good route to where they think the opening to the pen must be. They attach a rope to everyone to help reduce the risk that someone will fall, and begin their ascent.
The climb proves to be very difficult for some, particularly Harbek and Alicia. Fortunately, they spot what appears to be the opening where they think the pen must be and the rope is helpful in getting everyone up to that location after a few minutes of solid effort. Everyone climbs roughly 80 feet to the opening and are able to crawl to the edge and peer down.
The wide natural pit drops 60 feet to a rocky floor at the bottom, roughly 50 feet across and 40 feet wide. Straw has been laid out across the ground, and to the east is a strong palisade wall. Beyond the palisade wall an area under the overhang of the pit and they can just make out the tunnel heading further east. An orc can be spotted standing outside a gate in the fence, intently looking down the passage. Another orc can be spotted resting nearby against the palisade wall.
Quietly, the group discuss how to approach the pit. They consider trying to get to the other side of the pit to attack from above with missile weapons, but the orcs would not be visible under the overhang from there and it is a harder climb.
While deciding on how to approach the orcs, they notice them get up and move around a bit. The bigger orc wears heavy hides and has a large spiked club nearby. The other orc has metal armor largely covering the torso with an axe on his belt, looking more like the orcs they fought originally. This one is also heavily bandaged and looks quite beat up. He is probably one of the orcs they fought the previous day.
They also notice that the door is closed but not not appear to be bared - perhaps because the pen no longer holds any horses.
Ferdinand suggests they attack some ropes and quickly rappel down and charge the orcs, with those having missile weapons support from above. It should not take long to rappel down 60 feet, and with the orcs attention focused down the cave they might be able to catch them off guard.
This is the plan the group goes with. Ferdinand, Eriana and Sarroxtíoð are the best fighters and climbers, so they will rappel down on separate ropes with the others backing them up with ranged attacks.
When everyone is ready, the three of them head down the ropes. Eriana gets down first and quickly moves into position against the palisade wall. She sneaks successfully, with the orcs unaware of them.
Ferdinand and Sarroxtíoð follow up, doing reasonably well sneaking and again the orcs remain unaware of the party.
From her position, Eriana can see the larger orc just on the other side of the gate. She stabs at it with her knife and hits him, causing the orc to leap forward in surprise. She then moves and kicks the gate open as she rushes the orc, attempting and failing to tumble past him. The wounded orc pushes one gate aside, stows its axe and grabs a javelin but is too slow to get a throw.
All the other party members then move in to attack. Sarroxtíoð enters a rage and rushes in to attack with his magic greatsword, hitting and dealing a mighty blow to the big orc. In rage, the orc responds by grabbing the big spikes club and smacking down Sarroxtíoð hard with a critical hit! In one mighty swing, he nearly knocks out the party barbarian.
Ferdinand follows up by rushing in and tumbling past the big orc an an attempt to flank it. Unfortunately, the big orc is quick and a skilled fighter. It reacts by swinging its big club at the swashbucker as he tries to maneuver and hits him critically! Ferdinand is rocked, but remains standing and manages to stab him with the rapier and knock him out.
From above, Alicia and Leodegar assist with crossbow shots, but the enemy has cover and they are difficult shots. Harbek takes the opportunity to climb down the rope. He is not a great climber, but rappels most of the way down the pit before slipping and falling down the last 10 feet or so with a painful thud.
The wounded orc drops its javelin and grabs its axe, moving around the gate to attack Sarroxtíoð but failing.
Before he was taken down, the big orc let out a massive roar and Eriana can hear the sounds of orcs a ways off down the tunnel shouting in response. She warns everyone that help is coming as she moves in position to tumble past and flank the wounded orc. Between her, and Sarroxtíoð they quickly take knock it out.
Harbek makes it down and moves into the middle of the pit to meet up with Ferdinand as he backs into the pen for a better defensive position, with his main-gauche held up in defense.
There is a lull in the combat as they hear orcs rushing down the passage towards them. Alicia and Leodegar take the opportunity to rappel down the ropes into the pit. Like Harbek, Alicia struggles to get down the last 10 feet or so and falls with a heavy thud to the rocky ground, but does not land prone. Leodegar struggles to climb right from the start, nearly falling the full distance into the pit but he catches himself. He eventually gets down unharmed.
While waiting for the orcs to arrive, Harbek casts a Heal spell on Ferdinand which gets most of his health back. The dwarf oracle then calls over to Sarroxtíoð - "Over here quickly lad! You look banged up, let me help with that."
As the orcs arrive, Eriana finds a good choke point to block them while Harbek cures Sarroxtíoð. He then rushes in with his magic greatsword to help out, quickly followed by Ferdinand.
Initially, things go according to plan - only one orc can easily reach Eriana in melee and another tries to get in but has to squeeze around a rock to do so. She holds them off until one of the orcs critically hits her and nearly drops the swashbuckler with a single blow.
During this fight, Leodegar and Alicia provide ranged support and protection. Harbek begins casting damaging cantrips as well, and both Sarroxtíoð and Ferdinand employ hit-and-run attacks to wear down the orcs Eriana has bottled up in the hallway. There are four orcs in total that rushed down the hall to attack.
Of the four, they notice one has significant bandages around one hand. It squeezes past Eriana to attack Sarroxtíoð but sees Alicia and fixes an angry stare at the champion while engaged in melee with the barbarian.
Not long after this, one of the orcs hits Eriana a couple of times and she is knocked out. Before she falls, she had managed to grapple one of the orcs and badly injured the one she was in melee with.
Alicia moves forward, squeezing into the front line next to Ferdinand and manages to reach down and apply healing to Eriana with her Lay on Hands ability. In the process one of the orcs attacks and critically hits Alicia. She then steps back out of melee to offer missile support. Moments later, Harbek uses his divine power to send healing energy to Eriana from a distance, curing her up a little bit more.
Still prone, Eriana plays dead and the orcs fail to notice that she has regained consciousness. She quickly snatches up her kukri and slashes the orc standing over her, critically hitting it. The slash is powerful enough to let her take a swipe at the orc next to it, but she misses. On her second slash she cuts a powerful gash on the face of the nearby orc that was bending down to see who attacked its ally (scoring a second critical hit!). The orc staggers but does not fall.
The fight comes to order very quickly after this. The two heavily injured orcs and the orc with the bandaged hand are all knocked out in that round of combat, leaving one uninjured orc left in the hallway. Having nowhere to run, it moves in waving its axe and hitting Sarroxtíoð but the half-orc remains standing.
With the combined power of the rest of the party, the last orc quickly falls under a barrage of blades, missile weapons and spells.
At the end of combat the hallway falls silent. There are no sounds of pursuit down the hallway as the group stop and catch their breath.