Heroes of the 13th Age: Part 3-Orcs and Fire

Two weeks ago we began with our first 13th Age play session.  Last Saturday we continued where we left off, at the start of combat.

The group consists of

Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric

Indigo the Gnome Cleric
Zephine (note the name change), the Half-Elf Rogue
Legolis, the High Elf Ranger
Hey Watchit, the Half-Orc Fighter
Lief, the Human Bard
Delthen Eversoar, the Human Paladin
Rolen Stillwind, the Wood Elf Sorcerer, and
Yoshi Antien, the Samurai flavored Half-Elf Fighter

Our heroes had been trying to make their way around the ruined inner fortress walls of an old military installation called Jawarl Avignon.  Unfortunately, some bad luck alerted an Orc Sergeant to their presence, particularly the rogue on top of the wall whom he spotted after a portion of the roof collapsed into his room and he saw her.

This initiated a scramble over the walls and the flight of the Orc, while blowing his war horn, across the courtyard.

Our session consisted entirely of rounds two to six of combat.  It took several hours.  It was a lot of fun.  Everyone had something interesting to try to do.  Some success, some failure, but a good time had by all.

Round two began with the Lief the Bard moving down into the room, what had been some worker’s quarters, but which had become the Orc Sergeant’s room, and moving to the narrow doorway to begin his Song of Spilt Blood.  The Orc Sergeant had disappeared into an opening across the courtyard, and shortly thereafter, ten Orcs with swords boiled out looking for invaders to attack.  The clerics moved to the top of the wall.  The Ogre from the front gate raced around to try to catch the attackers still outside the wall. 

Delthen the Inquisition Paladin charged down off the roof and right into the middle of the Orc Swordsmen (all mooks) (who came to be known as the Swordy-Orcs) and killed two right off.  He took no damage from their counter-attack, and one actually fumbled and killed one of his companions.  Legolis moved into position up on the roofs of the courtyard buildings and shot and killed another Swordy-Orc.  Yoshi also drew his bow, but missed his target.

Meanwhile, the Sorcerer Rolen cast Scorching Ray and set the Ogre on fire.  Zephine, stylish Rogue that she is, leapt down on the Ogre and landed successfully on his shoulders.  Unfortunately, she was unable to land an effective blow with her dagger. 

Much to the chagrin of the party, another set of ten Orcs, this time Archer Orcs (another pool of mooks), ran out into the courtyard and started to let fly with their arrows.  Arrows hit Legolis, Rolen, Cerise and Yoshi, with critical hits (thanks in part to the expanded crit range for the Orcs) on Legolis (x2) and Yoshi.  However, one Orc archer fumbled, and the players suggested that his bowstring broke, a suggestion I accepted and he went from Archer Orc to Knife Orc for the rest of the combat.

The round concluded with Hey Watchit the fighter putting a big wallop with his tree upside the head of the Ogre (being careful, of course, not to hit Zephine in the process).

Round 3

Because there is an Owlbear down at the bottom of the dry well, I had the players make a roll for me to see what kind of interest the monster might have in the combat going on above its head.  I interpreted the roll as it had “some” interest, but it was not coming out yet.

The combat round began with the Orc Sergeant charging back out for a swing and a miss (but 4 points miss damage) on Delthen the Paladin.

Lief concluded his Song of Spilt Blood giving Delthen a recovery. 

Gnome Cleric Indigo cast his heal on the badly arrowed up Legolis, then cast his Javelin of Faith at the archers, but missed.  Cerise followed suit, casting her heal on Legolis and hitting an archer with her javelin.

The Ogre fended Hey away and attempted to dislodge Zephine but failed.

Delthen used his Smite Evil to bash the Orc Sergeant.  The Swordy-Orcs manage to land one critical hit on Delthen.  Three of the Swordy-Orcs advanced to attack Lief, but one fumbled and the other two missed.  Lief used a magic item to turn one of the misses into fumbles and two of the Orcs ended up dead from fumbles.  He successfully rolled the regeneration on the item, which allows for immediate rolling instead of at a quick rest.

Legolis lets go with his Acid Arrow spell on the Orc Archers, but missed the attack, though it still did ongoing acid damage.  Yoshi killed an Archer Orc and got a second shot which missed.

Zephine rolled a successful improvised maneuver scrambling around atop the Ogre and garnered a +2 bonus to hit, but her main attack still missed. 

Rolen aimed his magic wand and intoned his Scorching Ray spell, but with his fumble (at his own suggestion) set the roof upon which he and Yoshi were standing afire.  Rolen quickly fled the roof area.

The Archer Orcs let go another volley, missing Legolis, making a critical hit on Cerise, and fumbling (and because it was funny, I took the suggestion that the arrow sailed over the wall to where Zephine and Hey had the Ogre engaged and hit the Ogre. 

Hey attacked and missed the Ogre but used his Lethal racial ability to reroll and hit.

Round 4

The Orc Sergeant missed Delthen again, but did enough miss damage (again with a “lucky” miss that still triggered enhanced miss damage) to put Delthen on the ground.

Lief the Bard easily disengaged from the last Swordy-Orc and rushed a healing potion to Delthen to put him back on his feet.

Indigo cast a quick heal on Cerise and then poured a flask of lamp oil onto the already burning Ogre, adding to his ongoing damage.  He then climbed back out of the fortress to assist in further fighting the Ogre.

Cerise cast a quick heal on herself, cast her Javelin of Faith killing another Archer.  She then moved to get off the burning roof, but slipped at the edge and went down to the courtyard the “easy way” except for the sudden stop.  This erased much of the healing she just had received.

The Ogre took a swing at hey and did some serious damage.

Delthen killed another Swordy-Orc.  The Swordy-Orcs hit both Delthen and Rolen.  Yoshi missed with his arrow.  Legolis, with his borrowed Elven Grace, succeeded in rolling for a second action and killed all but the last archer (who was the one who had broken his bow string).

Rolen also succeeded in his Elven Grace roll, he Gathered Power and then unleashed his Burning Hands spell killing the last Archer Orc and a Swordy-Orc.

Zephine came down off the Ogre and attempted to entangle his legs with a rope, but missed again with her main attack.

Hey swung wide at the Ogre.

Round 5

The Orc Sergeant swung and missed.  Lief used his magic hood to turn the miss into a fumble and yet another Swordy-Orc died.

Lief blasted the Orc Sergeant with Battle Chant. 

Indigo, outside the wall, used his Trickery domain to create a “3” trick die.  He then struck the Ogre with his war hammer. 

Cerise cast another quick heal and once again cast her Javelin of Faith and hit the Orc Sergeant. 

The Ogre succumbed to the ongoing fire.

Delthen missed the Orc in front of him.

Legolis succeeded in another Elven Grace roll which allowed him to fire twice, hitting once and missing once on the Orc Sergeant.  Yoshi also hit with his bow, and using his Surprising racial power combined with his Second Shot attack to shoot twice.  The second shot was unfortunately a miss.

Rolen cast Scorching Ray and set the Orc Sergeant on fire.

Zephine ran to a different section of the fortress outside the wall and climb up onto the roofs.  Hey first rallied, then moved over with Crommard (still terrified) to the area where Zephine scaled the wall.

Round 6

The Orc Sergeant disengaged with Delthen and moved to defend a doorway of another of the rooms around the courtyard.  He then threw a javelin to no effect.

Lief, using his Battle Chant then killed the Orc Sergeant.  Just as the Orc fell, a group of five Giant Rats (mooks) was released out of the doorway where the Sergeant had taken a position, to be followed by an Orc Shaman and his two Orc Berserker guards.  They did not move to engage, however they instead fled towards the area where Crommard the monk/academic had informed the party he believed there was a secret entrance to the subterranean part of the fortress.  The Shaman did toss a curse off towards Delthen, but the dark power of Delthen’s faith easily shrugged it off.

From outside the wall, Indigo the Gnome Cleric again moved to climb the wall in an area that was not on fire.  Cerise the Spirit-Touched Cleric used her Javelin of Faith to slay one of the rats.  Delthen charged the Berserker who was the rear guard of the retreating Orcs and landed a solid blow with his mace.  Legolis, once again invoking his borrowed Elven Grace fired multiple arrows, killing three rats.  Yoshi fired his bow to kill the last rat from his vantage on the burning roof.

Rolen the Wood Elf Sorcerer scored a success with Elven Grace and Gathered Power and then fired a scorching ray to further damage the Orc Berserker.

Zephine finally rolled a successful attack invoking Shadow Walk and disappeared from view (with Momentum!).  Hey Watchit, the Half-Orc Fighter, carefully lowered Crommard, the non-combatant NPC, into the courtyard and then followed down.

At the end of the round, the fire crept up on Yoshi and started to do fire damage to him.  He needs to get off the roof.

And there we had to leave the party.

They have Orcs to chase, an Owlbear in the well, the escalation die is just hitting 6.

Oh, and the fire continues to spread.

What will happen to challenge our brave heroes next time?  Certainly one or more of the Fire, Swords and Owlbear that is out there!