We resumed the main storyline tonight with the 34th session of the actual campaign, and we picked up right where we had left off. The party had assaulted the ogre lodge, killing one ogre out front, then killing the two in area 1a, but not before one of them got outside the party's bubble of silence, and yelled about the intruders. After three rounds reprieve, the double doors to the Great Hall were opened, and Davben's readied wand of
web caught the four skullcrusher ogres on the other side. Three of the ogres slowly pulled their way forward, meeting their doom. In the midst of that, another skullcrusher ogre arrived from the side hallway near the front doors, and was dealt with by Sir Roderick. Roderick then charged forward to slay the third ogre to work his way through the webbing. This is where we picked up tonight.
Feeling they've got things under control, the party decides to start investigating down the side passages, and all move toward the northeastern doorway. Then they hear the sound of hounds (actually worgs) howling. Davben takes a moment to use the wand of
web to fill up the area near the northwestern door (near rooms 13 and 14), so that the ogres can't come around behind them as they explore down the hallway between areas 2 and 4. Not wanting the hounds to come in and fight them from behind, Margel and Roderick go over to close the front doors, and bar them. There is a skullcrusher ogre standing in the T-intersection just north of rooms 2 and 4, and his readied action goes off, nailing Margel with a thrown rock. Having been so aggravated about the ogres not hitting once with their rock last time, I altered their Mounted Combat feat to Brutal Throw from Complete Adventurer, giving them a fairly decent chance to hit with their thrown stones (it actually became their attack with the highest modifier).
Initiative is rolled, and Værï goes first, followed by Margel, then Sir Roderick, the ogre, and lastly Davben.
Having seen a large boulder strike his companion, Værï double moves up to the ogre, successfully Tumbling the last five feet so as to avoid the AoO. Margel continues with his action, and wants to pull the door shut. I ask him for a strength check, and he passes the DC 17 stength check to close the door. Roderick rides his mount into the hallway, but Værï is in his way, preventing him from closing the full distance, thus he cannot attack the ogre. The ogre decides to take a swipe at Værï, as the DM hadn't realized yet that Værï still had
mirror images up and running since last time. I succeeded in rolling a natural 1 anyway... and the second attack on the full attack missed terribly, too. Davben flies over into the hallway, and spends some time swapping out the wand for some other item, though I forget what.
Værï proceeds to slash at the ogre, dealing a mere 6 damage, but resetting his maneuvers; then he Tumbles away, back through Roderick's space, which would allow the paladin to close the full distance on his turn. Margel then decides to spend a round to lift the bar in place on the front double doors (I just used the same DC for lifting the bar into place, as there is no bar mentioned in the module, but having one is completely sensical). He succeeds, placing the bar, and blocking out the approaching worgs. Sir Roderick steps up with his steed, striking a few times between his five attacks, and dealing 15 damage. Rather enjoying the single foe he sees before him, the ogre lays into Sir Roderick, succeeding to crit with two natural 20's in a row (the attack and the confirmation); my variant second confirmation does not confirm, so his attack merely does the normal double damage... something like 30 points. Everyone hisses with a cringing look on their faces, but Sir Roderick is okay. Davben fires his eldritch blast, dealing 15 damage.
Værï does something, though I don't recall what; he wasn't threatening the ogre at this point. Margel then spends his turn picking up his shield (which he'd had to put down to bar the door) and equipping it, then five-foot steps toward the action. Sir Roderick is a bit worried about his hit points, so he decides to use Lay on Hands to cure himself of 16 damage, and lets his stallion full attack the ogre, hitting with one hoof and its bite, bringing the poor creature to 9 hit points. The ogre goes down swinging, dealing a hefty blow for 15 points of damage right back to Sir Roderick. Fifteen points of eldritch blast from Davben bring this foe to his end.
Værï Tumbles forward into the intersection, as he couldn't see what might be threatening from around the corner. When he stops at the north wall of the hallway, the readied actions of the two skullcrusher ogres at the east and west ends of the hallway go off. Two thrown boulders; one wiffs on a natural 1, while the other hits one of Værï's
mirror images, destroying it. Margel slowly trudges his way into the hallway, double moving, only getting about half-way up its length. Sir Roderick rounds the corner toward the eastern ogre; his faster speed will let him close faster than Margel... After the turn he only goes about 30 feet, half the length of the hall after the turn; he wants to set up a charge for next round, as he was disappointed the turn in the hallway prevented him from charging this round. Davben flies around the corner and also turns toward the east, blasting the ogre for 14 points of damage.
The eastern ogre decides not to wait on Sir Roderick to close with him, and instead charges the paladin; I think he hit. The western ogre (standing in the corner of hallway north of room 2, directly south of the secret door) throws another rock at Værï, hitting and destroying another image (leaving him with three or four remaining at this point). The elf Tumbles through the ogre's threatened area and strikes with Sapphire Nightmare Blade, succeeding on the Concentration check, and thus getting the +1d6 damage, and getting to apply 2d6 sneak attack, as it made the ogre flat-footed (which Værï hadn't realized Sapphire Nightmare Blade does, apparently). It still only ended up being 8 damage... I did screw something up here; Værï was planning to use Mountain Hammer, but I said he couldn't because the floor was wooden. In checking after the session ended, the floors are all supposed to be stone... I will have to make it up to him next week somehow. Letting him Mountain Hammer from here on out will certainly help, though.
Margel continues his slow trek toward engaging the bad guys, double moving toward the west, and stopping just inside the ogre's threatened area. Sir Roderick's horse attacks, dealing 6 damage, and then Roderick declares he is Smiting Evil. Natural 20, confirmed. He had a Critical Smite
TM last week in the side adventure, too... If this is becoming a pattern, I like it! He deals over 40 damage, killing the ogre instantly. Davben turns his attention to the western ogre, hitting despite cover, and inflicting 9 damage.
Unlike normal ogres, Skullcrusher Ogres aren't dumb. They are just as intelligent as the average human. Seeing one foe in front of him surrounded by
mirror images, and one foe not, and having seen two attacks spoiled against Værï because they hit images instead... he choses to full attack Margel, hitting with the second swing. Værï swings and misses, but resets his maneuvers. Margel steps forward, getting a full attack, and hitting once for 14 damage. Roderick delays or something at this point; he doesn't see any foes that he can reach and attack at this point. Davben fires his eldritch blast at the western ogre, dealing 18 damage.
Another ogre stepped into the eastern end of the hallway, from the north, and began throwing rocks at Roderick, hitting with this first one. The western ogre goes out strong, hitting Margel again, and then promptly dying on Værï's blade. Then, since he was just at the corner, Værï peeked his head around to look north (toward the secret door to room 11). There is another ogre waiting there. He takes his readied rock throw, and I give Værï improved cover (+8 to AC) from the attack... Natural 20. An exasperated sound comes out of Værï's mouth as I roll the damage (the crit didn't confirm). Margel cast a healing spell on himself, while Sir Roderick takes the straight-line opportunity to charge at the ogre that had just beaned him with a boulder. But that pesky AoO... the ogre hits Sir Roderick with his large morningstar just before the paladin completes his charge, and the damage is enough to drop Roderick to –1 hit point. He falls from his steed, but the horse continues forward, missing its charge attack against the ogre. (I've never had a Paladin or steed-riding PC before, so I didn't even think to look until just now to see if he should have fallen from the saddle or not. Luckily for him, the fact that he did fall from the saddle probably saved his life).
Well, that turn of events certainly changed things, and lessened the party's confidence. From this point onward, it felt as if the party was becoming more and more desperate, slowly realizing they had just bit off more than they could chew... Brutal Throw certainly helped in that regard. Davben flies to the east, looking to help save Roderick. The distance is long enough that he can't get to the paladin and activate any curative effects, so he fires an eldritch blast at the ogre, dealing 13 damage.
The western ogre moves south, just moving past the corner, and attacks Værï. The one on the eastern end attacks the paladin's warhorse twice... the DM feels it would attack the live, biting beast before it, rather than attack the prone and unmoving knight laid at the horse's feet... (see how nice I am?) Værï and Margel both miss the western ogre. The warhorse attacks the eastern ogre, hitting once for 6 damage. Roderick lays there unconscious while Davben heals him with some curative magic from his Belt of Healing. Davben also had gotten out a wand of some obscure spell from
Dragon Magic that makes a duplicate of him for one round (possibly because it is only a 1st CL wand?) He figures more targets means less of a chance that Roderick will die.
Here is where my DM-deviousness starts to show up... Remember how I said there was one ogre stuck in that first
web, but so far back he had total cover from the PC's? Well, his other friends in the Great Hall came to free him by lighting the webbing on fire. Yeah, he suffered a small bit of fire damage, but that started the slow burn through the webbing. It would take seven rounds for the webbing to completely burn from back to front. I'm counting eight rounds since the last time the PC's rolled initiative, and there was another round or two of time before that happened... The webbing has cleared, and the ogres are now going to be cutting off the PC's line of escape...
An ogre steps into the T-intersection from the south (again, this is all in the hallways between and north of rooms 2 and 4), and throws a boulder at Davben (flying targets seem to be the appropriate targets for boulders, don't you think?) I don't remember if it hit or not, but the PC's were starting to get worried. The eastern ogre continues to whittle away sizable chunks of the warhorse's hit points, kindly ignoring the now-conscious paladin on the ground at the horse's feet. The western ogre takes a few more swipes at Margel. Værï hits for 10 damage, and Margel full-attacks, dealing a total of 16 damage. Sir Roderick swift-casts CLW's on his mount (recall that swift-cast spells don't provoke AoO's), then Davben tells him to play dead... I inform them that won't work, since the ogre just saw him cast a spell... Instead Sir Roderick stands and five-foot steps out of his horse's space, placing the horse between himself and the ogre. I was VERY nice, and allowed being in the same space as the horse to provide Roderick with cover, meaning no AoO's. The warhorse dealt 10 damage, then Davben dropped the last two charges of his Belt of Healing to cure Roderick... of only 9 hit points.
The eastern ogre continues to lay into the warhorse, while the western one attacks Margel, and the middle one throws another stone at Davben. Værï deals 11 damage with his single attack, while Margel five-foot steps to a spot between the western ogre and the middle one, then draws and drinks a potion of CLW. The warhorse was a boss, and critical hit the eastern ogre, dealing 23 damage on its turn. Roderick and Davben turned their attention to the middle ogre, the one blocking their path of escape, dealing semi-respectable damage.
The eastern ogre laid in a few more hits on the horse, while the middle one turned his attention to Davben. The western ogre backed away northward; the PC's never saw him after that. Værï and Margel turned their attentions to the middle ogre, and within another round or two, all the ogres the PC's were aware of, were dead or dying.
They weren't out yet, but I'll have to finish this tomorrow.
I'm back.
After the death of the eastern ogre, the warhorse moves back toward Roderick, and he wants to sweep himself up into the saddle so the horse can keep moving, and doesn't have to stop its movement. With a DC 20 Ride check for a fast mount, I'll let that happen. Roderick gets a 19… the horse stops, and Roderick mounts, then readies to attack any foe that comes into his threatened area. Davben then laid down the killing blow on middle ogre, using Eldritch Glaive. His second attack missed, but at that point the ogre was at –1 hit point (though he did stabilize a few rounds later…)
Værï moves southward down the hallway, his double move bringing him to just north of the doorway. He specifically looks for bad guys out in the entry room, and his Spot check (18 on the die) beats the natural 1 on the Ogre's Hide check. The ogre is in the northeast part of Room 1, between that barrel and the door, with his back against the north wall, trying to Hide, while readying an action to attack the first character who comes out the door.
Margel double moves up near Værï, and the elf gives a silent hand motion to slow up and not pass. Sir Roderick rides up, heeding Værï's warning, and Davben joins the group as well. Although I probably erred in my description of ogre attacks previously, enough of them were targeted at Værï to have depleted him of all his
mirror images by this point. Well, with the party all there, and none of them having triggered the skullcrusher ogre's readied attack, his turn came back around, and he decided to take the action to them; he could see them all huddled in the doorway, after all. The ogre five-foot steps to the east, thus removing any cover the PC's would have, and initiates a grapple on Værï. Skullcrusher ogres are devious this way, and I even took the spikes off their armor.
With Improved Grapple, the ogre doesn't provoke an AoO, and easily succeeds on the touch attack. Then his grapple check with a +21 modifier… Værï rolls his grapple check to resist, failing miserably. Now, generally if a foe starts grappling, then the party rogue gets to go to town on him, because he loses his Dex to AC… but this time the ogre happened to be grappling the rogue, so no help there. I deal the measly 1d4+7 nonlethal damage, and then Værï tries to use escape artist, getting a 27. I rolled a natural 20. "Forty-one," I say, and Værï wonders why he even tried. I point out that the 27 could have succeeded. "No, that's basically impossible." Okay, if that's how you want to see it.
Margel attacks the ogre, missing with a 16 (which technically should have hit, as I had lessened their armor from half-plate to breastplate… but he wasn't using his shield while grappling, but I forgot that. Oh well, numbers-wise it is the same as if he was wearing half-plate with no shield. The same would have been true of all the rock-throwers before… Serendipitous, I guess). Sir Roderick succeeds on his quick dismount at this point, then moves as far as he can, getting to the side of the ogre, and not provoking because the ogre doesn't threaten while grappling. He takes a swing!… and misses with a 17. Davben is in position to use eldritch glaive, and he hits with the first blow, dealing 15 damage… and misses with the secondary attack. At least those iterative attacks can miss on a 2…
The ogre continues to squeeze Værï, though I forgot that the ogre's BAB of +6 would have entitled it to a second grapple check each round… And he's only been hit once; he's not that overly concerned about these characters killing him. Værï tries to escape again, failing, Margel strikes a meager blow, and Roderick five-foot steps around the ogre, gaining flanking from Margel. His first attack misses with a 15, and so he decides to Smite with his second attack… normal +9 (iterative attack), +1 (Bless), +2 (flanking), and now +2 (charisma mod from smite)… he gets a 17, missing. Davben shines, scoring a critical hit with eldritch glaive for 22 damage, then hits again for 23 damage (he had activated gloves of arcane something or other, that added +1d6 damage to his eldritch blast), slaying the ogre.
So, now the party needs to get the hell out of here. They debate going through the door, which is barred (on their side), but has worgs on the other side, or trying to find another way out (maybe up into the watch tower, then out the windows, which are just open-air). Well, Værï spends his turn standing up from where the ogre had dropped him, and moving to the door. Margel double moves to the door, and Roderick mounts back up and moves to the front door. Davben flies a bit to the west, and readies an eldritch blast if anyone comes through the still-open double doors from the great hall. It is only at this point that they see the webbing is all gone.
At some point earlier than this (probably still in the hall, fighting the eastern, middle, and western ogres), I made a DM Hint
TM comment that 'you guys really ought to leave soon.' "We're trying." "It doesn't really look that way to me…" After the session, Værï did comment/agree that they have a problem of dividing their attacks too much. As we wrapped up the session, I even told the whole table that fights will go a lot easier if you concentrate fire; if there are five bad guys, and you each fight your own foe, all five of those foes will still get their actions each round. If you focus your fire on one or two foes, they'll start to drop faster, which will lessen the number of attacks you face.
Anyway, right after Davben readies his action, a skullcrusher ogre walks into the doorway from the Great Hall, and Davben's blast goes off, dealing 13 damage. The ogre then throws as boulder at Davben, striking a decent blow. Værï moved toward the new threat that had presented itself, and uses his Belt of Healing; I explain how curative magic works to heal both lethal and an equal amount of nonlethal damage. Margel tries to lift the bar on the door, failing the DC 17 Strength check by 1. Sir Roderick tries to lift the bar on the door, failing the DC 17 Strength check by 1. Margel tries to argue for some bonus because they are both trying to lift it one right after the other; I point out that is what the Aid Another action is for.
Davben wants to slow this ogre down, so activates his gloves of entangling blast (MIC), and it was a good time to use them, as his eldritch blast damage was a crappy 7, which was divided to 3 by the gloves, but the ogre is entangled (moves at half speed, -2 to attacks, -4 to Dex, etc) for three rounds. Well, lucky for the ogre, Davben is only 20 feet away. He moves his half speed of 15 feet, then grabs Davben right out of the sky, bear hugging him for 1d4+7 nonlethal. Værï finishes closing the distance and attacks with Sapphire Nightmare Blade, hitting and getting sneak attack for 17 damage.
Margel delays this time so he can aid Sir Roderick in lifting the bar on the door. He successfully aids with an 11, but Sir Roderick fails with a 16. There has been a lot of failing with a 16 tonight; enough that I remember it, and find it funny.
Davben is still holding his wand of Instant Diversion, and activates that as a swift action (the only magic items you can't activate in a grapple are spell completion [ie - scrolls], so he's fine on that front), though I'm not exactly sure what his intended purpose was, and then he gets frustrated that he can't do anything else. He wants to use eldritch glaive; you can't attack with a reach weapon in a grapple, and you can't use your invocations because they have somatic components. 'Well then I'll just blast him with a ranged eldritch blast.' You can't use your invocations in a grapple, because they have somatic components (he doesn't believe me and spends the next round trying to find where it says that; I then read the Weapons and Armor heading for Warlocks, where it states it plainly.)
The skullcrusher ogre continues to squeeze Davben, and I make a comment about how they REALLY need to get out of there, and how their dallying means I get to start pulling out the fun things. Two trolls exit the double doorway from the Great Hall, and one stops to take a swipe at the Instant Diversion image (after they reminded me it was there; hey, it did something after all), while the other circles around to the south, now threatening both Værï and the grappling pair. Værï five-foot steps back away from everyone and casts
invisibility on himself (maybe in an attempt to start running?) While Margel sees his previous attempt at helping Roderick as a waste, so he does something better, and casts Bull's Strength on the paladin, raising his Strength to 22. Sir Roderick rolls his strength check to lift that bar… and gets a 16.
Davben activates the wand of Instant Diversion again, and then he asks to pull out his wand of Web; it was getting a bit late in the evening and it simply slipped my mind that pulling out something like that requires a successful grapple check… so I let him do it as a move action. (I'll need to clarify that in the XP email tonight…), and he activates it, centering it about 15 feet south of the wester double door to the Great Hall. Since the web has to be between two diametrically opposed surfaces, the southeastern part of it collapses on itself, but it makes a "front edge" diagonally between the northeast corner of the tower, and the east side of the double doors, and filled in behind that, capturing the troll that had stopped near the doorway to attack the Instant Diversion image.
The skullcrusher ogre gets another squeeze on Davben, and the troll, having seen where Værï was when he turned invisible, stepped forward and took a few ineffective swings at the elf. The webbed troll would have ignored the image in front of him (to protestation of my players), since he had just killed one and seen it disappear, then another reappear when the grappled man said some magic "abracadabra" words. However, he was webbed in place, so he spent his turn attacking said image.
Værï decided it was time to get Davben free of the ogre's grip, and reveled in the +2 to hit granted by being invisible, hitting with Sapphire Nightmare Blade, and with a total of 5d6 damage and his magic rapier, dealt 28 points of damage, which was just enough to put the ogre to –1 hit points. Margel fails his attempt to lift the bar on the door (getting a 15), and Sir Roderick also fails the lift the bar, then abandons the door, riding over toward the unwebbed troll, just entering its threatened range.
Finally free, Davben stands up from where the ogre dropped him, and then is grumpy he can't use eldritch glaive (which is a full-round action), instead he just fires a normal eldritch blast at the troll, missing entirely.
The troll directs a full attack at Sir Roderick, whiffing with the first claw, but striking with the second one, and the bite. Værï Tumbles up to the troll and hits for 5 nonlethal damage, resetting his maneuvers, and Margel FINALLY succeeds on lifting the bar off the door with an 18 on the strength check. Sir Roderick then full attacks the troll, both himself and his horse hitting multiple times. A total of four hits raises the troll's nonlethal damage to 66, and it falls over, unconscious.
Davben then stows his wand and pulls out a scroll of Obscuring Mist, which he will cast while over at the front door, to cover their retreat, and give miss chances to whatever hounds are howling outside (they don't yet know that they are worgs). Margel then notes that he could cast Obscuring Mist instead, but the action is done. Then the trolls go, and the prone one regenerates 5 hit points, which is enough to make him conscious. Rather than waste time standing, he just attacks from prone, but fails to hit anyone with any of his attacks. The webbed troll makes his strength checks and slowly pulls himself out of the web he was stuck in.
Værï casts
lesser orb of acid at the prone troll, hitting despite the penalty to attacking a prone target with a ranged weapon, and dealing 13 acid damage, and knocking the troll unconscious again. Margel then abandons the door as well, and starts slowly lumbering back toward the other PC's (who are roughly 20 feet southwest of the double doors to the Great Hall), and casts some spell, though I forget what. Sir Roderick is not sure what to do; this is the first time he's fought trolls, and the whole regeneration thing threw him a bit. He was split on attacking the prone troll, or heading over to attack the one that had just freed himself from the web. I suggested having the horse make a hoof attack on the prone one, then moving to attack the other with his sword. Liking that idea he attacks with a hoof… and misses with a Nat 1. So instead he just full-attacks the prone troll, hitting three times for 10, 15, and 18 damage; that troll isn't standing any time soon.
Davben moves out of the area, and the space between the two trolls is now clear of any PC's, so Davben asks how tall the ceiling is… about 25 feet. So, another web is cast (the wand had 14 charges to start with… this makes four that have been used so far in this assault, and one other was used earlier, IIRC), and a 30 ft by 30 ft cube of webbing locks all the trolls down. Both trolls succeed on their saves vs the
web, and the conscious troll makes gets over a 20 on the strength check, and starts slowly pulling himself through the sticky strands. The other one just regenerates.
Værï begins moving over toward the main door, and Margel reverses course, heading back to the door. In the round since he'd left, another skullcrusher ogre had arrived at that T-intersection between and just north of rooms 2 and 4, and his readied boulder throw strikes Margel with a critical hit. Margel then finishes his action by casting
obscuring mist. Sir Roderick moves to the door, and I'm nice about not enforcing the half movement speed for poor visibility. He gives the door a mighty push… (well, it should be a pull, actually) …and fails with a 16. They argue for allowing the warhorse to assist, and taking pity on them, I ask for the horse's strength score and roll a d20, getting a 19 on the die. Roderick doesn't see me roll, and rolls a d20 himself, failing to get a 10, and looking disheartened. The players quickly (and vociferously) tell him that I already rolled it, and it passed. A modified 18 pulls the door open, and then the worgs attack.
The worgs aren't overly difficult opponents for the PC's, and the one or two times they actually hit, they failed to trip anyone. Davben flies over to the northeast doorway and casts another web, filling that hall and preventing that ogre from being a problem as they make their escape. On Værï's turn he tried to move through Sir Roderick's (and Butch's) space, and then Tumble through the worg's space, and failing to succeed on said Tumble check ends his movement… in an occupied square; he falls prone. He still has a standard action left, though, and hits despite being prone, dealing 7 damage. Margel attacks around the one still-closed door, missing both times due to cover. Roderick and his steed lay into the worg in front, the horse dealing 14, which included a crit, and Roderick dealing 18 with the first attack, dropping that worg, then hitting the other in the 10-foot-wide doorway for another 8 damage.
The worgs shift over 5 feet each, so they all can attack, and I get a hit or two on Værï's prone form. The obscuring mist didn't actually cause anyone to miss due to concealment, but it did block line of sight from further than 5 feet. Davben flies through the doorway, the worg's AoO missing with a Nat 1. An eldritch blast hits the third worg for 18 damage. Værï asks about standing and moving out of Roderick's space; he can do it, he'll just get an AoO for it, which misses. Margel continues to miss due to cover, and Roderick kicks butt once again, I think downing both worgs that were blocking the door.
Davben got a bast off on the last remaining worg that I somehow had delayed until after his action (or I just muffed some of the series of actions above; I probably am forgetting another round of combat with several misses involved), but regardless, upon the single remaining worg's turn arriving, the worg bites at Davben, then runs off to the southeast. Værï cries for him to take his AoO, but Davben doesn't have a melee weapon in his hand, as the fog prevented Eldritch Glaive from being useful.
The party finally leaves, then makes their way toward the tree line, where they have horses tied up. Værï goes as fast as he can, and Roderick goes faster, intending to get Margel's horse and bring it back to the cleric, because Tin Can Margel can only run at 60 feet per round. Davben paces the cleric so he doesn't get left behind. I give one last boulder throw to the ogres as the PC's are retreating, and rolling randomly I target it at Margel, which is appropriate. It scores a decent chunk of damage (it might have been a critical), and drops Margel down to –3 hit points… but Margel has Diehard (he said he'd learned his lesson, for whatever that's worth). This slows Margel to 20 feet per round, and he starts casting
cure minor wounds on himself to get up to 0, and then downs a potion of CLW (which they only had because of the Sunless Citadel reboot I ran them through with the drow), getting back into positive hit points.
They make it to their horses, and hear the worgs being let loose to track them, but they make descent time on the horses, and I coax them into taking some precautions on covering their trail back to the scouting camp. I actually asked them what they would like to do to cover their trail, and they looked at me dumbfounded, saying no one was a druid anymore… I hold their hand and suggest they ride their horses in a stream for a ways to stop the worgs from being able to follow the scent. They make it back to camp, and as we ended the session, Roderick had 10 hit points (of 80), Margel had 9 hit points (of 66?), Davben had 44 of 52, and Værï wasn't too bad off, and using up his Belt of Healing actually got him back up to full.
Given the amount of healing they need to recover, they have decided to rest at the scouting camp for a full day, then prep spells the day after to assault it again. Værï doesn't mind this, as it will give him time to add a scroll to his spellbook (he mentioned after the session that he'd had almost no time to do that in game of late… I internally roll my eyes, as their adventures of late have not been on a hard timeline at all. Nothing has stopped him from taking a day to sit in an inn and copy a spell. Still, it will be good for them to rest, and Værï plans to put one of Davben's scrolls of
web into his spellbook.
We quickly allow Davben to do a bit of scouting under fly and a potion of invisibility, and he learns there are two other doors to the main complex. I show him a cropped version of the lodge map, so he can see the worg yard, and the two doors leading to area 19, and the double doors near area 8. He does this scouting during the day of rest, so they can plan their assault a bit better.
Then they discussed some tactics; what worked and what didn't. Concentrating fire was mentioned, and Værï suggested they stay out of the 10-foot wide hallways, as it doesn't give the party room to maneuver… The DM finds that thought interesting, because that just leaves them going into the Great Hall… or through one of the doors from the worg yard. Margel mentioned needing to prepare more curing spells; his levels in Ordained Champion means he can spontaneously convert spells to those of the War Domain, but he can no longer spontaneously convert to curing spells. This was a big hindrance to them tonight. Davben also showed some wisdom, mentioning that their entry into the lodge won't be as easy next time (very true; next time the ogres will be on alert.)
Even though they dropped seven ogres the first session, two of them stabilized, and three of the seven they dropped tonight stabilized as well. The trolls will be just fine… the ogre's numbers are still enough to be very difficult. The Great Hall is probably still an EL 13 or 14. They haven't even seen the Hill Giant guest or the Skullcrusher Ogre chief yet. Nor have they seen the chief's wife (who in preparation for tonight I made a Primordial Giant Skullcrusher Ogre with two levels of Warlock, getting the spider climb and summon swarm invocations; I had been worried the ogres were ending up being push-overs). Going at the Great Hall in a frontal assault, is not going to go well in their favor, especially since some of the surviving ogres and trolls experienced how effective grappling the party was. If they go storming into the great hall, the 18 ogres there will just grapple the crap out of the party. Davben will have height to use for flying in that hall, but that's the only advantage they will have.
The party even discussed leaving camp and going to the nearest town to buy supplies. The nearest town is three days away, however, and that would definitely give the raiding party time to come back. So, that idea was nixed. Davben mentioned just hanging out 200 feet above the worg yard and picking them off with eldrtich spear. Margel identified them as worgs once the front door was open, so they know they are intelligent enough to speak. The high-flying sniper would probably take out a few worgs, but then they'd cry to be let inside. They might try it though.
It'll be interesting to see what they plan to do next time. Like I said near the beginning of this post, they were overconfident, and it almost got two of them killed. But that's good, it should give them a healthy respect for how dangerous these ogres can be… Next time I won't divert attacks to the warhorse when the paladin is down. They will be vicious with the party, as they should be. It's always a very fine balancing act making the PC's fear the monsters, without killing the PC's and ruining the fun. The threat of death has to be there, and stupid tactics can lead to death, but kill too many PC's too often, and the players might stop coming.
One last thing. Since it will be about 48 hours before the PC's attack the lodge again, I think I might have the drow emissary arrive… the drow priestess that is from the first encounter of
Expedition to the Demonweb Pits… She doesn't want to see her plans dashed by some upstart heroes… so she'll stick around to help defeat them. But, maybe I'll hold off a bit more. At the pace the PC's are going, they'll have to make at least two more forays into the lodge to kill all the ogres.
