Chapter 3 – Reconnaissance against the Orcs – Y1, M4, D12 -> D14

For once, I didn’t forget any Five Leagues rule shenanigans from our last chapter. We’re not quite at the end of the in-world week yet, so no need to roll for the end of the campaign turn either.

I have realised however that I haven’t been including character sheets with the posts as I mentioned I would in my first chapter. I’ll include those with this post for completeness.

Now, we need to start thinking about our journey to fight with the orcs, and what our plan is to try and deal with them.

What’s our objective?

Ultimately, we need to try and drive the orc tribe entirely from this valley. That’s not going to be something the party can achieve in a few days before their boatman returns to ferry them back to the city.

In the short-term then we have two or three goals we should try and hit, before we need to return to the river:

• Try to identify the number of orcs that have moved into the valley
• Gather evidence of the orc presence so near the city that can be taken back to Port Vantage
• If possible, disrupt any early attempts by the orcs to gather food or approach the dryad’s wood

The first two are the most important: if we can take evidence back to Port Vantage, Roland and Argwyllem might be able to gather support from the temple of Torm or enlist the services of a small detachment from Viscatti’s army. That would depend on the ruling council of the city seeing the orcs as enough of a threat however. Whilst we know how many orcs are there, the party doesn’t – and neither do the people of the city. Without that information, there’d be little chance of persuading those in charge of the threat.

Taking Stock of Our Supplies

Before we get down to adventuring, let’s see what we’ve got left for the party to eat. This is our limiting factor (excluding transport anyway) before we need to return to town.

Brun the squire is currently humping 2 weeks’ worth of rations for the party around. However, we bought those rations 3 days ago. About 1.5 weeks’ rations left, which must also cover our 3-day travel back.

That gives us… call it 4 days maximum up in the foothills (up to D16) of the mountain range. We also need to spend some time going back and seeing if we can persuade Janos to stay on the river for longer.

Planning our First Move

Right now, we’re in this area. The party is going to be heading north from the small green woods. It’s only half a day’s march up to the foothills of the mountain range, so we’ll get there by nightfall of D12.

We need to return to the riverbank and hail the fisherman in 2 days’ time (D14) when we’ll also need to do our end of campaign turn roll from Five Leagues.

My plan then is this:

We spend half a day moving up into the foothills, 1 day scouting around as best we can, then another half day’s march back to the river. We’ll handle the conversation with the fisherman then and either be forced to take a 3 day trip back to town and try and persuade the council, or we have another 2.5 days to continue exploring before we’re forced to return by a shortage of food.

These are the world’s crudest annotations of a plan, but I hope they get it across.

Moving into the Foothills – D12, Evening

Setting the Scene

Dusk lit the valley in fiery shades as the party reached the foothills. Ahead of them the mountain range loomed purple against the sky with the snow-caps blazing in the last of the light. Here and there clusters of pines dotted the slopes, standing out from rocky crevasses and fields of scree. In some places the mountains looked so steep as to prevent all climbing except by the most expert, but dark shadowed areas showed possible passes and paths through the wall of stone.

They had come to the entrance of a small ravine, about forty feet high but only eight feet wide at this point. Tree roots and hardy gorse clung for life to ledges on either side of the ravine’s entrance. Further on it looked to open out in a grassy-sided valley where a few wild sheep and goats grazed between boulders and small caves. Flowing down the centre of the valley, a small stream wetted their boots where it followed a layer of uneven rocks and gravel.

“A mighty sight!” the dwarf exclaimed, puffing with the exertion of the climb in his chainmail.

“It is,” replied Roland, looking up at the cliffs either side of them, “but I shouldn’t like to be caught here after dark if there are orcs about. Let’s scale to the top of these sides and make camp there for the night.”

Night had near fully fallen by the time they laid their blankets down in the lee of a boulder at the top of the ravine. It had been a hard climb up and all of them felt the exertion in their legs and backs. They gathered what little scrub and deadfall could be seen, piled together to make a small fire in the shelter of the rock. Only the dwarf with his natural ability to see in the dark could go freely about. The others moved slowly and carefully to avoid tripping in the dark and all took care to stay well clear of the ravine’s edge.

Argwyllem and the dwarf took watch, looking up the valley deeper into the mountains whilst the others prepared tinder boxes to set the small fire going. Thick clouds had blown into the valley from the west and little moon or starlight shone through. Only the dark outlines of the valley sides about them against the grey-black sky were visible to them now.

(At this point, I make a Wisdom check to detect danger for both Garagrim and Argwyllem. For Argwyllem this is harder due to the darkness. Both pass easily, with Argwyllem rolling a 9 (beating his Wis of 17, even with a +4 penalty) and Garagrim rolling a 3.)

Before the brush could take spark, an alarmed whisper came back to them from the ravine’s edge where the dwarf and cleric stood.

“Don’t light that! Stop, listen!”

They stood stock still then, ears pricked, and all eyes turned to look up the ravine. Almost half a mile up the valley, just beyond another cutting and bend, something was moving out in the darkness. The out-of-time thuds and crunches of nailed boots on the gravel carried around the bend of the valley and cast a sinister echo. The group had no torches lit or the light would have alerted the party far sooner. A party of size moving in these treacherous valleys in the dark could mean only one thing: orcs. As nocturnal creatures with a mortal fear of the sun, accustomed to the hard places of the world, a dark night such as this was perfect for them. They could hunt and go about the valley freely, before finding or digging shelter for the day.

Roland, Eleonora, and Brun crawled carefully across the scrubby ground to the edge where the dwarf and the cleric crouched.

“Garagrim, tell us, what can you make out?” Roland spoke, resting a hand on the dwarf’s shoulder as he lay next to him.

“Hard to tell at this distance, but I’d wager a huntin’ party. Twenty of ‘em, maybe more. We might ambush ‘em as they pass beneath us.”

A small break in the clouds came then, and a little light fell into the valley. All of them could make out the rough shapes of the orc band moving down the valley. The dwarf’s estimate might have been right but all they could see was a moving mass like some great black beetle bobbing over the rocks.

Roland thought for a moment, looking about him for ideas. When his plan formed, he hissed his orders to the others as quietly as he could.

“Quickly, Garagrim, let’s gather as many large rocks as we can. Enough to throw down about their heads. The rest of you – get your weapons together. Quietly! Then lie back just away from the edge.”

(Rolling a D8, the party gathers a mere 3 rocks large enough to throw down into the valley.)

They scrabbled about as quickly as they dared before settling into their positions. Garagrim alone remained by the cliff edge, ready to signal the others.

Setting up the Encounter

Creating the Map

I do love mapping out encounters. Once again, I’ve used Inkarnate and made use of the built-in night filter. I based this valley on a place I know and have walked several times in real life – Cave Dale in Castleton. If you’re in the UK and holidaying in the Peak District, it’s worth visiting the village, seeing the ruin of Peveril Castle, and venturing about the place. There’s some excellent cafes too.

We’re looking at a steep-sided ravine, with a mixture of rocky and grassy slopes, with harsh cliff faces as well. Goat paths run further up the hillside. The central ‘path’ is more a gravelly streambed than a road. The trees and plant life that cling on up here are scrubby and small, struggling to survive in infertile soil.

The small cave on the left of the ravine only extends 6 or 7 feet back into the hillside and is about 2 feet tall. It could be crawled into for quick shelter but isn’t anything beyond that.

I’m going to go gridless for this encounter and use inch-based movement I think, with characters moving as many inches as they have movement rating for simplicity.

I’ll see if I can attach a zip file, or provide a sharing link to one, for a pack of these battlemaps that you can download for free – with daytime and nighttime variants – gridded and ungridded of course.

If you decide to use these maps in your own games, do let me know. I’d love to know how you used them.

The Orcs

This one is going to be hard. At night our human-led party is going to be at a disadvantage vs. the orcs with their infravision.

The orc hunting party is made up of 21 orcs – three of the ‘squads’ we talked about when we sized up the tribe.

That means we’ll have on the board:

• 3 orc leaders
• 9 orc assistants
• 9 regular orc hunters

As it’s a hunting party, we’ll have half of the opponents carry 3 javelins each (4 assistants, 5 hunters). The remainder, including the leaders, will each carry short bows. These will be in addition to their hand weapons – a mixed variety of swords, axes, and spears.

The orcs will enter the board from the north edge each round, in groups of 7, strung out in a rough column. On the round a group of orcs enter, they do so by moving their full movement rate.

Here’s the models I’ll be using: leaders have red bases, assistant leaders have green, regular orcs have grey. We’re not treating the assistants as having banners (there are rules for that with subchiefs in the monster manual), but it was a quick way to distinguish them. Tabletop Simulator lets me put notes on each figure, which is how I’ll track who has what weapons.

The Party

The party will be in hiding – based around the unlit campfire behind the large rock on the right-hand cliff, close to the southern board edge.

Garagrim, the only member of the party with infravision, will be lying prone by the cliff edge.

As the orcs approach and get within their infravision distance, we’ll need to make some opposed rolls to see if they spot him vs. Garagrim remaining hidden. If he can remain hidden, the party will be able to get a surprise round.

They’ll have the opportunity to throw the rocks they gathered down on the heads of any orcs below them.

My strategy for this one is one of ambush: hit the lead of the orc column with rocks, missile weapons, and spells, then form a shield wall on the goat path leading up the party’s location and try and hold an orcish advance back until their morale breaks.

If that fails, the party will break and flee to the south along the goat track and we’ll get into a chase sequence.

With all that prep out of the way, it’s time for us to play out…

Ambushing the Orcs – D12, Night

Round 1

No real need for initiative in round 1, as both sides are too far away from each other to try and engage, and the orcs are currently unaware. We’ll be flying through these early rounds until battle is joined.

The party don’t want to move from their hidden positions just yet either.

The first group of orcs enters the board, advancing 9” up the ravine in a rough column.

Round 2

Another round of movement – no initiative rolls just yet.

Before we do that, the second orc squad advances up the ravine following in the footsteps of the first. Each squad is arrayed so that the leader is at the front, then the other orcs are sandwiched between the assistants. It makes sense, to me at least, that the assistants would be used to keep the runtier orcs of the gang in line.

The first squad is about 19” away from Garagrim now. Maybe we give it one more turn to see if they spot him. He is a small dwarf after all, prone at the cliff edge.

Round 3

Perhaps our last round without a need for initiative. The orcs keep moving up the valley, and all 3 groups are now on the board.

Seeing them all coming down the path like that really hammers home how trying to deal with 21 orcs is going to be a tall order for the party, even if they are all HD1 creatures. We’re going to need to hope for a really good cast of Sleep from Eleonora and perhaps some not so chivalrous taking cover behind the rock to avoid a hail of missile fire.

The lead group is now within 12” of Garagrim. More than enough for them to have a chance of spotting him with infravision. I subscribe to the ‘able to see infrared’ school of infravision rather than giving full nightvision in AD&D.

I have Garagrim make a check against his Dexterity first of all to see how well he’s hidden, pressed down into the ground. He’s pretty nimble, for a dwarf, with a score of 15, but still fails with a roll of 18. The orcs make a spotting check (I’m assuming they have a Wis of between 8 and 10 for this) and the lead group rolls a 7. They’ve detected the dwarf!

Spotted! – The Narrative

Garagrim cursed the weight of his chainmail under his breath as he lay just back from the sharp cliff edge. A hard tussock of grass was under his belly and pushed up on him uncomfortably, just as the weight of his armour pressed him down to the earth.

He could see the orcs clearly as they moved along the gravel streambed; three groups, all grunting and griping in their foul language as the crunch of their hobnailed boots echoed from the sides of the ravine.

The dwarf could bear the discomfort of the tussock no longer. As quietly as he could he shifted his weight slowly to his right, each movement setting the rings of his mail rustling. In the still night air, that sound felt as if it would wake the dead.

He peered back over the side of the cliff, to see at that moment the lead orc halt. It raised its meaty right fist, setting the others in the column crunching into each other’s backs with more grunts and snarls.

Slowly, the orc sniffed the air. It turned its head this way and that, scanning the clifftops. Just as Garagrim thought he might have gotten away with his movement, the orc’s gaze fixed on him. The glittering red eyes shone in the pale moonlight with a brutish, predatory cunning. The fist came down to point at him, followed a second later by a bellowed cry.

Round 4 – The Ambush Discovered

Our first round with initiative, and the party wins it. The orcs don’t know about the rest of the group right now, just Garagrim, so for now we’ll assume they’re going to try and rush the hillside in a mob, with a few thrown javelins on the way.

The question is – what should Garagrim’s move be? If he stays prone, and high up above the orcs for this turn, he’s going to be very hard to hit with any of those javelins even without the use of his shield.

We’ll gamble on that – he’ll stay prone and try and gather up one of the throwing rocks for now. We can still try throwing them down on the orc warband as they advance up the hill towards us.

The rest of the party will sit tight too – they’ve heard the orc’s warcry, but leaving the cover of the rock right now would be foolish. Argwyllem will cast Bless (lasts until the end of round 10) on the party at this point. This will give everybody a +1 to their attack rolls – much needed for fighting in the dark and to try and get the edge in this fight.

The orcs rush from the gravel streambed up the side of the ravine towards the goat path leading to Garagrim’s position. None throw javelins at this point as they are out of range and all are going too quickly to try and make attacks with their short bows.

The rear 2 groups move at their full movement rate of 9”, as they have easy access to goat paths straight away. The first group must scramble up the hillside however, so I take 2” off their movement allowance. Next round they’ll be able to make beyond the gap in the ridge line and close in with the party, so we’ve got to engage them quickly.

Time to see if our gamble pays off and we can win initiative next turn.

Round 5

By the grace of the dice gods the party win initiative again – we can form our battleline!

Roland, Garagrim, Argwyllem, and Brun all rush to the gap in the cliff where the goat path runs. They’re not quite in the ideal positions just yet, but hopefully it’s good enough to check the initial advance of the orcs.

Eleonora meanwhile is going to try and climb the boulder by the campfire to see if she can get a good vantage point to cast her spells from and to rain down sling bullets on the advancing orcs.

The rock is less than 10 feet tall and has good ledges for handholds, so no climb check is needed. She makes it to the top this round and has good partial cover from the second boulder on top.

Now it’s the orcs – they come barrelling up the hill. The first mob of them gets 3 of their number into contact with the party’s front-line. They come in swinging, attacking with a sword, a spear, and a battleaxe (from left to right).

The orc facing off against Brun misses, Roland takes a hit from the spear (for 1 damage, thankfully), and the orc leader misses Garagrim too.

All-in-all, we’ve got off far more lightly than we could’ve done for the first round of real combat.

Round 6 – Holding the line!

The tide turns on initiative at last; the party’s luck couldn’t last forever. The orcs win, by a very narrow margin.

Whilst the first group of orcs is engaged on the party’s frontline, the other two groups break off to the left, approaching the rocky ledges of the hill. Whilst they can’t make a climbing attempt this round, they will be able to on the next one.

If they can climb the ledges, even in small numbers, they’ll be well placed to flank the party and roll up that very thin frontline.

Up front, the slugging match continues. Thankfully, all 3 of the orcs engaged with the party miss their attacks.

We’ll handle the party’s frontline first, then get to Eleonora’s spellcasting.

Argwyllem rushes into place, with Brun moving slightly to the right to complete the line. Now there’s a solid wall of armour in the way of the orc’s push.

They all go in swinging, with mixed results. Garagrim rolls 13 twice – it’s enough to score hits, with his effective THAC0 of 17 (high ground, Bless, hatred of orcs) on the first orc leader. The hatred of orcs shines through and the dwarf deals a mighty 15 damage, killing the leader! A fantastic start.

Roland is next – he misses once, but hits with his second attack. The lucerne hammer swings down and cracks and orc across the skull for another killing blow, courtesy of 6 damage.

Argwyllem hits too, although only just. He needed a 12 to make it, and he gets it. Following his paladin’s lead, he brings his morningstar down onto the assistant leader’s helmet for 5 damage. It’s a solid hit and would fell an ordinary orc, but the beast in front of him can take it with its 8HP.

Unfortunately, Brun doesn’t keep the success going and misses with a roll of 5. Still, he’s a body on the line, and that’s what we need.

Now it’s time for Eleonora to work her magic – predictably, it’s a cast of Sleep, centred just behind the group that’s attacking the party’s frontline. She gets a great roll – 5, on 2d4. That takes out most of the second group of orcs approaching the cliffside for the next 5 rounds (Round 12 end, as spells take effect from the end of the round).

I found a nifty status ring mod on the Steam workshop for TTS that will make tracking things like this much easier in the future. All the orcs with a red ‘Unconscious’ ring are those affected by sleep until Round 11. If you use TTS to play TTRPGs, you can find the mod here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2332972032&searchtext=status

Our tally at the end of round 6 then is:

• 1 orc slain by Roland
• 1 orc slain by Garagrim (bonus XP for him)
• 5 orcs put to sleep by Eleonora and prevented from flanking (bonus XP for her)

No need for a morale check for the first group of orcs just yet – they’ve only lost 2 of their 7 total. If 2 more go down, that group will need to make a 50% casualties morale check.

Round 7 – Climbing orcs!

Initiative comes back to the party this round. With a tonne of orcs asleep, Roland and Garagrim are going to push their advantage and advance into the next group of orcs and hopefully keep putting them down.

Argwyllem and Brun are still occupied with the assistant leader to their front.

Out of spells (the low level wizard experience – cast once, then become a terrible ranged weapon user!) Eleonora will be starting to loose sling bullets from atop her rock. In the dark, she’s going to have some penalties to that for sure.

It’s another good one for the party – Garagrim, Roland, and Argwyllem all score again on the orcs, with Brun missing once more. I’m beginning to think Brun’s heart isn’t in this adventure, since he seems to miss in every encounter we face.

The dwarf keeps on killing, bringing down another orc with ease with a mighty 9 damage again. Roland deals 7, bringing the assistant leader he’s fighting down to 1HP remaining. Argwyllem only deals 4 damage with his morningstar but it’s enough to kill the assistant fighting him and Brun.

Both of those orcs were from the first group, so we’ve managed to cut them down enough to need a morale check at the end of the round!

That only leaves Eleonora – the problem for her is there’s no orcs she can shoot at! Well, easily anyway. Most of the group that’s still standing is at the bottom of a cliff, and would be out of line of sight if we were using 3D terrain. The sleeping orcs are behind the frontline and her party members – another no go.

She’s got to wait and keep lookout on that right flank for us.

Over to the orcs – how this goes might turn a reasonably successful fight into a much more worrying affair.

The 3 remaining orcs in group 1 all push up the goat path to attack the party, stepping over the bodies of their fallen comrades. Why are they still attacking and not testing morale immediately, I hear you ask? Morale is rolled at the end of the round, as in the normal play flow actions get declared first.

It doesn’t matter much for them – they all miss!

Whilst the unconscious orcs snooze happily courtesy of Eleonora, most of group 3, and a few orcs from group 2, begin their climb up the rocky cliff.

Given orcs inhabit mountains, I’m going to treat them as mountaineers – that gives them a 60% chance on the D100 roll to make the climb this turn and be ready to flank the party. 4 of the orcs make it, out of the 7 who tried the climb this turn – about average. In the screenshot below, the dark red dice at the ‘tens’ and the bright red dice the ‘units’ for the D100 rolls.

The orcs use their remaining movement allowances to move around the cliff a little and prepare to move on the flank of the frontline next round.

Now for the morale check for group 1 – we’ll roll for each of the orcs individually. I missed one of the triggers for a morale check, the group maybe should’ve rolled when their leader was slain but it’s not the end of the world. I don’t want to make the encounters too easy (although they’ve all felt pretty breezy so far).

Orcs have ‘Steady’ morale – passing on a roll less than a 12 on 2d10. The orcs in group 1 have some pretty bad penalties to their morale scores however – fighting a magic-using foe (-2), an assistant leader is on 1HP (-4 for that orc), and no enemy slain (-2). With some very poor rolls, all 3 of the remaining orcs in group 1 are running for their lives next round!

Our tally then, for the end of round 7 is:

• 1 orc slain by Garagrim (bonus XP again)
• 1 orc slain by Argwyllem

Round 8 – Fighting the flankers

I am going to declare some actions for the party this time before I roll initiative – the party’s frontline could easily go and kill the unconscious orcs, but they need to reform. All 4 of them are going to withdraw to the base of the rock that Eleonora is standing on, whilst she will make a sling shot at the closest orc.

If the orcs win initiative, then the frontliners will close with them as best as they can and attack.

And, as if thinking about the orcs winning initiative made it happen, they win with a roll of a 1.

We’ll handle the 3 fleeing orcs from group 1 first – they go running away at their full movement rate back down the hill over the bodies of the unconscious orcs from group 2, taking opportunity attacks in the back as they go.

This time it’s Argwyllem’s turn to miss, but Garagrim, Roland, and Brun all strike true. The dwarf deals a mere 5 damage, wounding the assistant leader as he flees. Roland cuts down the assistant leader, any damage would’ve done with the target on 1HP, and Brun scores his first hit of the encounter, slaying the orc outright with a wicked cut of 5 damage from his broadsword.

As the orcs already atop the cliff rush forwards, surrounding Brun, those at the bottom continue to try and climb. Only a couple more orcs make it this time around and join the flanking manoeuvre towards the party.

Poor Brun is hung out to dry on the right flank of the party’s line and he pays the price for it – 3 orcs gather around him and come in swinging. What follows is one of the most incredible sets of dice rolls I’ve seen in all my time playing TTRPGs.

The first orc, rolling right to left, misses. The second orc scores a hit with a roll of 15, dealing 3 damage with his longsword. Then the surprise happens: the leftmost orc rolls a critical, then rolls another critical, before finally finishing his rampage with a roll of 17. Three strikes, all with a spear, run the poor squire through and he is killed outright. Even if we were using the rules for characters going unconscious and dying at their -10HP, Brun would be lost.

We’ll honour Brun’s death with a bit of narrative shortly. Until then, it’s time for the party to try and get their revenge!

The revenge-getting isn’t as successful as we might hope for. Roland and Argwyllem both score a hit apiece, but Garagrim misses the assistant leader on the far right entirely. The damage isn’t outstanding either. Roland kills his opponent, but Argwyllem doesn’t do enough to kill the orc to his front, leaving the creature standing with 2HP.

Eleonora joins in with her sling, dealing 2 damage to the assistant leader Garagrim is fighting – at 6HP, he’s easily killable by Garagrim next turn if he hits.

Our tally at the end of Round 8 then is:

• An orc slain by Brun
• Brun slain by an orc!
• An orc slain by Roland

We need the next round to go well, or we’re going to need to come up with an escape plan sharpish. Let’s give Brun a proper narrative send-off first though.

The Squire’s Death – Narrative

They had a moment to catch their breath, as the remaining orcs to their front scrabbled back down the goat path over the bodies of their fallen comrades. Roland and Garagrim shared a laugh and cry of victory.

It was cut short by Eleonora’s cry from atop the rock behind them. “On your right! They’re coming up the cliffs!”

They wheeled around, but far too slowly. The moment seemed to stretch in time as they began to run to their right. Four orcs were charging down on Brun, barrelling out of the darkness bellowing savage war cries, their red eyes shining out of the dark with malice and bloodlust.

Brun didn’t stand a chance – they connected with him bodily, those mountain creatures built for war. One leapt at the squire who parried it with a yell of triumph and fear. It was followed by a huge brute, its ruddy face covered in ritual scars and warpaint, that brought a cleaving axe down on Brun’s shield arm. The squire screamed and a spray of blood set the orc’s face glistening in the moonlight. He had no time to recover or retreat – a third orc came out of the darkness, spear pointed out over his shield. The creature rushed in and the spear punched through.

Argwyllem reeled back as the iron point stopped just short of him, spattering him with the squire’s blood, then withdrew through Brun’s body, and plunged in again. The squire screamed as the spear punched into his chest, withdrew, and came in once more. The last blow pinned him to the ground and the horrible cries fell silent.

Round 9 – Avenging the Squire

This one is going to be tricky – both sides tied for initiative, so all actions are simultaneous.

Let’s handle the scary stuff first – i.e. the orcs. First, the ones still at the bottom of the cliff and trying to climb up. Thankfully, only one of them makes it to the top, leaving a leader and a regular warrior still scrabbling about over the stones.

Next, 2 more orcs at the top of the cliff rush into the party. Roland and Argwyllem are now facing 2 orcs each. After what happened to Brun last round, that’s a scary prospect. The dice gods seem to be back on our side. Most of the orcs miss, and the 2 that lands hits (1 hit on Argwyllem, 1 on Roland) Both do very low damage. Argwyllem is on 5HP now, and Roland on 6.

Now it’s the party’s turn, and they are hellbent on revenge. Whilst Eleonora and Argwyllem both miss with their attacks, Garagrim and Roland make it count.

Garagrim scores a critical, and hits with the follow-up attack. I’m going to have him split these attacks across 2 orcs, as the damage rolled with the critical is more than enough to kill the assistant leader, and the second attack is enough to kill another orc outright. This feels right for the narrative, as it means Garagrim has struck down the orc that killed Brun. A worthy revenge for the poor squire.

Roland deals 7 damage to the assistant leader who dealt one of the other blows to Brun, bringing that orc down to 1HP.

The tricky question now is whether these orcs fighting the party should test for morale. If I was playing this with a group, and DMing, I think I would for the sake of party survival, so I’ll give myself the same benefit here.

Only 1 of the orcs fails their test – the critically wounded assistant leader thanks to a -4 penalty to their morale score – the others stand and keep fighting.

The tally for round 9 then is:

• 2 orcs slain by Garagrim (bonus XP again!)
• 1 orc routing, thanks to damage from Roland

Round 10

The party wins the initiative! This is much needed – it’ll give them a chance to cut down the orcs still standing against them, and perhaps try and thin down some of the unconscious orcs next turn before they wake.

If we don’t take the chance to try and deal with those sleeping orcs, they’re going to be coming up on our left flank up the goat path and ruining Roland’s day the same way Brun’s was.

Garagrim is the healthiest of all the frontline, so he pushes in between the orcs and their fellows trying to climb up the cliffs before making his attacks. He has 2 attacks this turn and will put them both into the assistant leader facing Argwyllem. The priest will do the same, to give us the best chance of downing that threat.

Roland is going to split his attacks – 1 is going into the regular warrior to his front, and the other into an unconscious orc next to him. Attacks on sleeping targets are an automatic hit, so provided we do enough damage, that’ll be another assistant leader down.

Eleonora looses a sling bullet at the distant orc who climbed up the cliff last round.

A lot of dice rolling later and we have our results – Garagrim failed to score any hits, a rare failure for him. The others did better, with Roland and Argwyllem scoring criticals on their targets. Roland smashes the orc warrior to his front down with ease. Sadly, they both failed to capitalise with the follow-up attacks. That leaves the assistant leader facing Argwyllem still standing and ready to strike back.

Roland also didn’t do enough damage to the unconscious assistant leader to his left to kill him outright, but he has reduced the creature to 3HP.

Eleonora surprises again, landing a hit on her target with her sling and shaving off 2HP.

Over to the orcs. The fleeing assistant leader is struck down by Roland with an attack of opportunity as it tries to disengage – no need to roll for damage, since that orc was down to 1HP.

The assistant leader strikes at Argwyllem but misses. A very good thing, since if he’d hit, he’d have had a good chance of killing him!

Garagrim, for the record, missed again. This hasn’t been his round. That statement is further hammered home when the orc who climbed up the cliff last round rushes in, rolls a 16 to hit, beating his 3AC, and delivers maximum damage – 8 points!

The dwarf is now down to 3HP. It’s a good thing we put him in harm’s way however – that attack would have easily killed either the cleric or the paladin.

Things go from bad to worse when the 2 orcs at the bottom of the cliff finally make the climb and reach the top, ready to join the fray next round. This fight has been far too close for comfort.

In the party’s favour however is the fact they’ve cut down well more than 50% of the original orc warband. There’s only 4 awake and active orcs up and fighting out of the 21 who started down the valley. That means it’s time for more morale checks.

Half the orcs fail – the heavily wounded assistant Argwyllem clobbered, and the orc warrior who scrabbled up the cliff. Seeing the mound of orc dead scattered about the party was clearly too much for him. That does leave a leader and regular warrior who are still keen for the fight next round.

Our tally for Round 10 then is:

• Another 2 kills for Roland
• 2 orcs fleeing

Round 11 – Barely Surviving

The risk level is intense this round – the orcs win the initiative by a single point, and the party are no longer benefitting from the Bless spell.

The fleeing orcs flee, with 2 of them leaving the board (the assistant leader from group 1 and the orc warrior atop the cliff). That’ll mean the orc tribe up in the mountains will be warned of the party and know that enemies are in the valley. Another complication that we could well have done without.

All 3 of the frontliners miss their opportunity attacks too, allowing the wounded assistant leader to make it close to the board edge.

Next the surviving orc leader and the sole warrior left from group 3 continue their attack. Roland is hit hard, taking 5 damage. He’s now down to 1HP – this is really very bad indeed. Thankfully the dwarf’s life is out of danger with the warrior missing his attack.

We have to end the fight this turn, or the rest of those orcs will be getting up and wondering how best to cook this band of insolent adventurers after bashing their heads in.

The beleaguered party fights back with all 3 of the frontliners making hits. Roland delivers 5 damage to the orc leader who nearly killed him before Argwyllem strikes the final blow, putting the massive orc down for good. Garagrim slays the orc warrior likewise. Eleonora targets one of the sleeping orcs with her sling, putting on 2 damage. Not enough to kill the orc, but it’ll make the frontliners’ lives easier.

This has been, I think it’s safe to say, the toughest fight of our adventure so far. We’re barely alive and there’s another 5 orcs to deal with who will wake up at the end of next round. Let’s see if we can finish them off before they do. I think we might end up using our Five Leagues story point that we earned from the starter scenario to have any that survive run away so that our adventure doesn’t end here.

Our tally for round 11 then:

• Another kill for Garagrim.
• A kill for Argwyllem
• Everybody in very rough shape!

Round 12 – Butcher’s work

The party wins initiative – not that it matters much for this round. They quickly close in on the unconscious orcs and go to work. With all of the attacks automatically hitting we only need to roll for damage.

Roland and Garagrim both slay their targets, including the leader of group 2, whilst Argwyllem deals a pathetic 2 damage to an orc warrior. Eleonora can’t contribute to the butcher’s work going on down there, but she’s almost certainly glad not to as a wizard.

The 2 assistant leaders and the remaining orc warrior from group 2 will have a very rude awakening for round 13!

We won’t count the sleeping orc kill for Garagrim’s bonus XP as that feels gratuitous, and it’s not as if he had to overcome a great challenge to kill it.

Round 13 – Finishing it

Do I burn the story point and force these 3 orcs to withdraw? No. I’m going to gamble on them failing their morale checks anyway, if they survive the party’s attacks this turn.

I might be regretting that gamble already as the orcs win the initiative. Waking from their slumber they close with the party, looking about them in surprise at the piles of orc corpses atop the slope and the fighters in their midst.

Thankfully we get very lucky – all 3 of the orcs miss their attacks!

The party replies, swinging their weapons at the woozy orcs. They score hits but deal some frankly embarrassing damage. Both Roland and Garagrim fail to kill their targets outright. Argwyllem does finally finish off the orc warrior he was clubbing last round when it was asleep.

We’ve got some morale checks to make for these orcs at least. I really hope they run – any single hit on the party will almost certainly be lethal at this point.

The rolls are very 50:50 – one orc runs, one doesn’t.

That takes us into Round 14 then, with the chance for an orc to deliver a deathblow if we don’t win initiative…

Round 14

I don’t think I’ve ever felt this much tension playing a solo dice game. The orcs win initiative… and the assistant leader facing Roland misses with a roll of an 8.

We should have this in the bag now.

Garagrim makes an opportunity attack against the fleeing orc and cuts the creature down (no need for damage rolls, it was down to 1HP), before all of the frontliners pile on to the stubborn orc that refuses to die or quit and strike it down. The dwarf and the paladin both make their hits and between them can’t do less damage than would be required to kill it. We’ll say Roland took the killing blow with his hammer with his last gasp of strength!

Some final tallying then:

• Garagrim scores a kill, for some more bonus XP

And we barely survived the encounter!

Wrapping Up the Ambush – XP, Brun’s Gear, Orc Tribe Casualties

That was nailbiting, especially once Brun died and the hits started coming in on the heroes. There were times during that encounter that I honestly thought we’d end up rolling new characters who might stumble across this battle site in future.

We made it though – even if it was by a whisper.

XP Rewards

Let’s deal with the XP rewards from this first:

• 555XP divided by our 4 surviving party members for defeating 21 orcs (12 x 35XP for leaders/assistants, 9 x 15XP for the regulars)
• 60XP bonus for Garagrim for his personal kills
• 50XP bonus for Eleonora for her cast of Sleep
• 50XP bonus for Argwyllem for the cast of Bless, in overcoming the orcs

Brun’s Gear and Not Looting the Orcs

We’re not going to have time to loot the bodies – with 3 orcs having escaped, the rest of the tribe could come down from the mountains at any time to hunt for the party, and Brun’s gear is more important for us.

In fact, I don’t think the party would even believe they had time to bury the squire. They’ve just fought for their lives, their ambush having gone very wrong, and barely survived. The best we can do for Brun’s body right now is to lay it in a hidden place and return here later to bury him properly.

The silver lining is that we do have the carrying capacity amongst the party to gather up Brun’s gear without slowing us down too much. Leaving non-essentials behind, we can salvage his 62lb backpack containing rations and useful adventuring kit, spreading the load of the rations around the party.

His leather armour and shield we can’t take, nor his quarterstaff, but the broadsword, bow, and quiver can be strapped on to somebody’s belt.

Taking the time to gather all of that together, and to hide Brun’s body in the lee of the rock, perhaps covered with bracken and rocks in a very crude cairn, leaves no time for searching the pockets of the mangled orcs.

Garagrim will however take an orc’s head as proof, stuffed in one of the large sacks. I have a feeling the party will need it when they get back to the city to try and muster up support from the council, or from local hirelings or henchmen.

Orc Tribe Casualties

The orc tribe hasn’t fared well either. They’ve lost: 3 leaders, 7 assistant leaders, and 8 warriors. 2 assistants and 1 warrior were able to escape the ravine.

We can assume the party has made sure the orc casualties in the ravine are truly dead, so we’ll count all 18 of the casualties as lost to the tribe.

That takes the total number of combatants in the valley down to 172, from the 190 the tribe started with. It’s a dent, and 9% of all their combatants is a significant loss rate. We’ll need to think about the kind of morale impact that’s had on the orc tribe in our next chapter. Some narrative from the orcs’ point of view might be interesting to write when the ones who fled return to the lair.

One thing is very clear – we’re going to need a lot more backup if we want to try and deal with the orcs en masse. This was a very near run thing and I wouldn’t like to repeat it. The orcs are likely to be much more wary coming into the valley now. If nothing else, the party’s sacrifice may have bought the dryad some breathing room.

Our Next Move – Y1, M4, D12 (Night) -> D14

No time for the party to get the full rest they need, which will be a problem if any other encounters come up. We’ll have Argwyllem heal Roland and Garagrim with 1 cast of Cure Light Wounds each, then we must get moving. We’re pretty badly encumbered with the gear we salvaged from Brun’s body which slows us down both on the overland map and in any encounters we might get into.

We set ourselves three objectives at the start of this chapter:

1. Try to identify the number of orcs that have moved into the valley
2. Gather evidence of the orc presence so near the city that can be taken back to Port Vantage
3. If possible, disrupt any early attempts by the orcs to gather food or approach the dryad’s wood

We’ve failed the first one, there’s no way we can do that as beat up as we are. We do have evidence of the orc presence though, courtesy of the head in a bag (fantasy classic), and we have disrupted an early attempt by the orcs to gather food.

With that then, we’ll make an overnight march down to the riverbank. Slowed down as we are, we’ll get there around mid-day on D13, with the whole party truly exhausted. No random encounters on the way, so now we’ll set up a temporary camp in the woods by the riverbank and rest until D14.

With this being a very long rest we’ll be able to keep adequate watches and we’re well hidden on the edge of the dryad’s wood. Thankfully we don’t roll any random encounters during the rest either.

With that, dawn breaks on D14, and the party signals Janos the fisherman to collect them. This puts us back on the way downriver. The fisherman is no doubt not surprised to see a member of the party gone, and the rest most likely in a foul mood. Orcs in the mountains of the Vantage Coast are nothing new, but seeing them this far south is a surprise.

Ending the Five Leagues Campaign Turn

With D14 upon us, the last thing to do for this chapter is to end our Five Leagues campaign turn and see what’s happening in the wider world.

We’ve been victorious in an encounter with an enemy (we’ll count the orcs as part of the Duskling Warbands threat), but rather than rolling D6 for how many adventure points we get, I’ll just award 1, as it wasn’t a Five Leagues driven encounter.

No need to do the injury step from Five Leagues, or the loot/unusual finds tables.

We’ll need to begin our next campaign turn ‘In Camp’, and then travel back down river to the town, from where we’ll spend time resting, recruiting to rebuild our little party’s numbers back up, and trying to persuade the council of Port Vantage to aid us in fighting the orcs.

News Travels

Finally, it’s time for the ‘News Travels’ step. We roll D100 and get 35: the enemy is acting against us. ‘Us’ in the context of our campaign is very broad – the party isn’t really notable yet, but we’ll count it as the enemy acting against the region as a whole.

This is another D100 roll and we get 24: the enemy is sponsoring caravan raids. Five Leagues wants us to randomly pick the enemy faction here, but I think we’ll go ahead and pick ‘The Ruin Within’.

I wrote up a little description for this enemy faction, but I’ve not included it in a blog post yet, so here it is:

The Ruin Within – Threat Level 6:

Whilst Grand Duke Viscatti is keen to be portrayed as a strong and effective ruler whose military can keep the peace this is far from the truth. The region is too large and too wild to be controlled easily and groups of bandits, brigands, and petty monsters – orcs, goblins, kobolds, and such – make their homes in the hills and mountains.

The overland trade routes in particular can often rich pickings. Some are driven into this life by poverty, others are deserters from Viscatti’s army or destitute mercenaries washed-up from small border conflicts.

Much work can be found by adventurers in hunting down these brigands and a tidy profit can be made in reclaiming their ill-gotten gains.

In recent months rumours have grown of a new bandit lord who has established a secret fortress somewhere in the region and is steadily amassing an army of their own. Some believe that this bandit wishes to claim the region purely for personal profit; others, in dark tavern corners, whisper that they are Grand Duke Viscatti’s half-brother, long thought dead.

Hideout Location: Unknown

What does this mean for us?

This roll means that, if we were using Five Leagues trade system (which I might use some elements from) we couldn’t make any rare goods rolls in town until we complete 3 ‘Ride Patrols’ to secure the roads.

This gives us a great story hook – the council of Port Vantage might be looking for adventurers to patrol the roads, with rising attacks from bandits on caravans. If we can complete that job for them, they might be willing to lend us troops to go and fight the orcs!

And with that, we’re done with this chapter.

Final Thoughts

This was another long one – I do wonder if I should split this up a little more, but I like that each chapter right now is a self-contained story and game report. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

We’ve had a few surprises, the upset of Brun’s death, and gotten a great story hook for our next few chapters that will hopefully lead to us finishing off the orcs in future.

As always, any feedback or suggestions are more than welcome in the comments.

Free battle maps for the Cave Dale encounter in this zip file that you can download from my GitHub: DnDBattleMaps/Cave Dale Battle Maps - 4k .zip at main · UlyssesSockdrawer/DnDBattleMaps (github.com)