We played the nineteenth session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.
The roster for this session was as follows:
- Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
- Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
- Zommernar, CN elf fighter 2 (Nael)
- Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
- Wilros Wackledeckle, gnome (NPC)
- Indur, gnoll (NPC)
- Zhukk, orc (NPC)
- Four friendly zombie adventurers (NPCs)
- Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
- Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
- Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
- Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
- Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
- Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
- Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)
Last we played, the party sent their zombie minions after Ghudgak's orcs, slaying two and capturing the last of them, Zhukk. They also rescued a gnome prisoner named Wilros Wackledeckle. The orcs' lair contained a stone which bestowed magical properties upon those who ate pieces of it. The party experimented with it, gaining some permanent ability score increases and a 500 g.p. gemstone, which they let Egbert keep. The stone also healed one of their zombies, turned another invisible, and caused a third's short sword to begin glowing - perhaps it had become magical?
From Zhukk, they learned of "Dead Eaters" lairing in a cave just off the orcs' lair. From Wilros, they learned of a hole in the ceiling of a nearby cavern which led to the upper level. Wilros showed them where the cave was. The party gathered itself together and decided to return to the secret entrance to regroup with their hirelings, then plan an attack against Mangug's orcs on the upper level.
As they returned to the secret entrance, they were confronted by a group of five barbarian warriors who accused the party of stealing their people's relics and demanded they surrender their stolen goods. The barbarians had already subdued the party's hirelings outside, who had apparently surrendered without a fight.
We picked up there. The players continued to talk through their options, but eventually resigned themselves to fighting. They told Egbert to read what he had written on his scroll. The barbarians drew their bows and pointed them as Egbert, threatening to fill him with arrows if he began reading. The player characters all stood in front of Egbert and told him to read.
Egbert read. Both sides prepared to loose missiles at one another, but Egbert's spell went off before anyone else could act. He cast sleep at the barbarians, but rolled low (just 2 on 2d4!), putting two of the barbarian warriors to sleep. The remaining barbarians sent their arrows flying, but all either missed or were deflected by armor. Llombaerth threw flaming oil at the enemies, scoring a critical hit on one of the warriors and splashing the remaining two. The warrior struck with the flaming oil was set alight and died screaming. Indur put an arrow through the other warrior's face for max damage, killing them instantly.
At the top of the following round, the leader failed her morale check by 10, meaning she would surrender. She cried out towards her dead allies, threw down her weapons, and subjected herself to the party's mercy.
The party bound the leader and the two sleeping warriors. They made an offer to release the barbarians if they pledged to help the party slay Mangug's orcs and retrieve their treasure. The leader spit on the ground and said that her people would never be slaves to plundering adventurers who had killed her warriors.
The players discussed and decided to gift the leader with the barbarian chieftain's sword they had found in the museum. The leader was stunned - this was the sword of her people's greatest chieftain. Had the party possessed this all along? If they were willing to part with it now, why not earlier? She had only wanted the return of her people's relics. This bloodshed could have been avoided entirely.
The party reminded her that the barbarians had taken their hirelings hostage, threatened them, and demanded they surrender their treasure. The party admitted that they had mistakenly assumed that the barbarians wanted all of their treasure. They mentioned that they had found the chieftain's bones, and were happy to return these.
The leader looked regretful. She glanced back towards the two dead barbarians and lamented that she had taken such an aggressive approach. She said that if the chieftain's bones were returned, her people would help the party. She introduced herself as Girthil. The party agreed to let the barbarians keep any of their relics that they found, as well as any loose coinage on the orcs, once they were defeated.
The party freed Girthil and her warriors. Girthil went out onto the ledge outside the secret entrance and called to her warriors down below, telling them to free the captives. The party's mercenaries were irate at having been captured, and expected the party to slay the enemies. There was considerable tension between the barbarians and the party's hirelings.
The party decided to leave their hirelings and four of the remaining eight regular barbarians to guard the camp. They also left Zhukk in camp, as he did not want to fight other orcs. Wilros Wackledeckle also elected to remain in camp. The party escorted Girthil to retrieve her chieftain's bones and secured those in camp as well.
The rest of the company (Llombaerth, Mirkle, Zommernar, Egbert, Indur, the four zombies, Girthil, and her four remaining warriors) headed upstairs to ambush Mangug's orcs.
Planning the attack took a while. The players had to get on the same page about their mental map of the dungeon. The whole party would emerge from the throne room area (previously used by Drak's orcs) and turn left. Llombaerth, Indur, and two barbarians would take the first passage on the right, which they knew looped around and entered Mangug's/the goblins' territory from the rear. The rest of the party would head straight towards the intersection with the one way secret door. Zommernar and Egbert would take the zombies right to rush the orcs, while Mirkle, Girthil, and the two remaining barbarians went through the secret door to join the fray by way of the main entrance corridor.
Here's the map the players came up with:
They put their plain into action, emerging from the throne room into the hallway. Immediately, they heard orcish voices calling to them from the end of the hall, near the intersection with the secret door. The party couldn't see them yet, but the orcs could see their light source.
The party moved closer and found two orcs guarding the intersection. The orcs were surprised to see that the party had found another way in, but assumed that they had come to treat with Mangug, as discussed earlier. The party sent their zombies forward in a charge and followed close behind them. Llombaerth, Indur, and two barbarians took the first right as planned and rushed to flank.
The orcs cried out in alarm when they saw the zombies. The zombies and orcs engaged in melee as Mirkle, Girthil, and another barbarian brought up the rear, firing projectiles and stabbing through the first rank with their spears. The party failed to score any hits in the first round, while one of the orcs stabbed the thief zombie with a spear. A third orc joined the melee, crashing into the thief zombie with its flail, which "killed" the zombie.
The following round, a barbarian stabbed one of the orcs, but managed only a minor wound. Mangug himself came to join the melee, and four orcs attacked with their flails. Two managed to hit the wizard zombie, which brought that zombie down as well. With a few zombies eliminated, Zommernar could wade into melee with his long sword.
Meanwhile, the second group had circled around into the heart of orc territory, and found two more orcs moving perpendicular to them to reinforce the ongoing melee. They had caught the orcs on their flank, and had just enough movement left to charge in, so they did. The orcs were unprepared, and could not set to receive a charge with their spears or counterattack in any way. Indur managed to kill an orc in the charge.
The following round, Zommernar tried to get the zombies to push the orcs back up the corridor to clear the way to the secret door, but the orcs held their ground. Zommernar struck and killed the wounded orc with his sword. Mirkle scored a hit with her spear, but didn't kill any orcs.
In the other melee, Llombaerth circled around the remaining orc and struck it with his glowing short sword, killing it. The blade was light and sharp, cutting quickly and true. As the orc fell, it landed a retaliatory blow against Llombaerth with its flail, dealing 5 damage. With the last of the two orcs dead, the party continued down the hall to join the other melee, emerging at the orcs' rear.
The remaining four orcs finally saw the writing on the wall, and their morale broke. They failed the check by 3, so they made a fighting retreat. They backed towards the secret door, making attacks as they went. Llombaerth attempted to hit the whole group with flaming oil, but rolled a critical failure. The oil flew over the orcs' heads and shattered just beyond them, hitting the whole group for splash damage.
The orcs managed to land a blow on the party's burly fighter zombie for 5 damage, and another hit Zommernar for 7 damage, but then the party laid into them. Zommernar slew Mangug, and Mirkle, Indur, and four of the five barbarians landed hits on the remaining orcs. The combined damage was enough to thoroughly slay the orcs, and combat was over.
We wrapped the session there. The highlight of this session was definitely the planning phase, where the players had to use their accumulated knowledge of Quasqueton's halls to coordinate their battle strategy. It took a long time for them to get on the same page about the dungeon's layout, but it really clicked when they decided to collaborate on a map and label their hallways. It struck me as very different than the last time the party had fought orcs here, where they had been the defenders and the orcs had craftily counter flanked and ambushed their flanking party and generally foiled their carefully laid plans. It feels more and more like the players have mastered this space.
The combat definitely became unwieldy with so many moving pieces, and I struggled to reconstruct it after the fact for this report, but I think I did a reasonably fine job. At a certain point I just said to hell with initiative and declared that everyone was attacking everyone else at the same time, which was not a bad solution, but definitely eliminated some element of tactical nuance.
I'm tempted to go through the PHB and sort the different weapons into an ordered list based on Speed Factor so that I have a sort of phased initiative to fall back on in big skirmishes like this. For example, if I went by the weapon types used in this combat, the order would be: flaming oil (Llombaerth) > short swords (Llombaerth) > long swords (Zommernar) > spears (Mirkle, barbarians, and orcs) > short bows (Mirkle and barbarians), flails (orcs), and morning stars (Indur) > long bows (Indur and orcs). That seems like it would simplify big skirmishes while still allowing for some element of strategy. Something worth testing out in the future!