"Pathfinder Campaign - A Call to Arms - S23" Topic

SESSION 23: TRUE JUSTICE

ROUND 6B – DEVASTATING

• Risandor keeps up his Inspire Courage and casts Daze upon Magor. Magor needs to make a DC 13 Will save. He rolls a 17 and passes.
• Thomas's knees go weak after seeing the female orc slump from her wounds. He's makes a Withdrawal move (Full Round Action) to contemplate his role in slaughtering the orc. He looks at Baby Cord for redemption. Baby Cord is looking hungrily at all the meat that's becoming available. Thomas's aggression starts to return and he gets ready to intimidate again.
• Halee takes the opportunity for a clear shot at Magor and hits him in the left leg for 6pts of damage.
• Ansic 5ft steps into the breach and attacks Magor. He stabs the monstrous orc in the left thigh for 12pts of damage.
• Halee yells to Ghislain to get out of the way. Ghislain is clearly relieved to have received that request and he takes on last stab at Magor with his short spear, misses and then 5ft steps back.
• Cord flies into a mighty rage, 5ft steps to the east and attacks Magor. He slashes and Milo and misses and stabs with Otis but also misses.
• Fixed to the task at hand, Uthalin swings his war axe at Uffe and again the combination of the Inspire Courage and dwarven hatred just manages to get him to hit the brute in the chest, this time for 12pts of damage. Only the orcs ferocity enables it to keep fighting.

ROUND 7A – REDEPLOY

• Uffe bleeds out a point of damage.
• Uffe swings his great axe against Uthalin and hits the stout warrior in the right leg for 9pts of damage. Even in near death the orc is deadly. Uthalin grunts. His determination isn't fazed by this scratch.
• Magor Spleen Splitter makes an intelligence check roll of 3 (against an intelligence of 7, ie he needed to roll under a 7 on a D20). He realises that he cannot sustain this number of attacks against the entire group and that Uffe Elbow Smasher is mortally wounded. He makes a Withdrawal move and on his way out grabs the last female who also withdraws.

THE REST OF THE COMBAT

Realising that Uffe is isolated and dying. Uthalin is physically pulled from the fight by Thomas and Ansic and Cord is verbally restrained by Halee.

The party backs off and peppers the brute with arrows.

Uffe tries to get out of the grease but slips and falls. The combination of the grease and his heavy armour effectively immobilises the brute and he dies from blood loss and arrow fire before he can get out of the grease.

The party quickly tend to the wounded, gathering them into a safer position.

Baby Cord wriggles free of Thomas and starts to naw on Penn. Thomas says "No" and directs him to the juicy orc meat which Baby Cord gladly starts to tear off chunks and feed.

Risandor casts detect magic and the great axe glows a faint green light……..

DEW

PCs need to consider: did they go for help? Are we about to be outnumbered? Considering several are down hit points and the men-at-arms are pretty much out of it unless they use up the healing potions, might be time to plan for the possibility that a whole lot of orcs are going to be coming funneled through the corridor. Perhaps more grease and a ready flame to blunt the attack, take out a few, injure some more, maybe demoralize them. Reminding them of their leaders death could also help demoralize them (roll his head down the corridor towards them?) with a whole lot of trash talk. Meanwhile check the room for valuables/anything useful? Investigate the possibly magic axe? Something PCs could use?
Thanks much for running this, DEW, the combination of personalities and the unpredictable action (with great risks) makes for a GREAT story and adventure.

I think the main thing is deciding what is still waiting for us down that passageway.

For me, I seriously doubt there are any more orcs down there besides what we have already encountered. With three rounds of us beating on the door to open it, I think the leader would not have faced us himself if he still had "minions" to put between us and him. I am confident he would have called for reinforcements during that fight if he had them available.

There COULD, however, still be a "pet" that we have not seen yet, something he or his bodyguard and harem did not have time to release from its cage yet that is now being unlocked…

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So… Two men at arms out of action, two hurting bad.

Uthalin has the best bonuses vs orcs, he MUST be cured. Either with a Cure Light spell or potion, all other party members are at full health or at least double-digits.

If we decide to use a potion and save the spell slot, Ris and Halee both also still have caltrops to hinder any enemy advance, or hinder any enemies chasing us as we retreat.

We cannot ID the axe without a Spellcraft check, and that is a trained skill. Halee is not trained in that, so unless Ris does and wants to give it a shot, I would be fairly confident it is a magic weapon with no special properties (like evilly-aligned or otherwise made for orc's only.)

Halee confidently votes that we should press on, but she has also not felt the sting of any weapon yet, so there is that…

Ultimately she will go with what the party decides.

Tom: In Rules As Written terms, there is no mechanic for just rolling the head down the hall as a demoralizing agent in itself; Intimidation can only be attempted from max 30ft away, and there must be clear line of sight between the instigator and his target enemy.

With that in mind, Thomas lofting the head and messing with it while intimidating or taunting the remaining orcs within line of sight (and 30ft) as his, "Dazzling Display," Feat might get an extra circumstantial bonus, so using the head might very well be a good idea…

Of course, it is up to DEW *if* there should be any bonus and what that bonus might be. Depending on how dedicated or whacked out DEW feels the orcs are, it may drive the remaining survivors into a suicidal frenzy!

TWO last things to consider #1 recall there is still a Bugbear skulking about near the caves looking for "low-hanging fruit" (wounded or lone party members.) We need to ensure we can still handle a possible ambush by him upon our eventual departure. #2 On our trip out of the caves, the pack of wolves… might be attracted and encouraged by the smell of blood. Torches and oil might help keeping them at bay, but I am getting ahead of myself…