So this is one of those ‘good news, bad news’ type things. The good news is, the five-sessions-per-character-before-death curse on me has ended. The bad news is, it didn’t end in a good way. I believe the technical term is ‘TPK’.
We started with Leo, Hector, Kaly, and Mr. Speaker being met by the Griffon Cavalry and the Silver Star Society, the groups of twelve griffon knights and four mages respectively that they had decided to hire to assist with dealing with the giants. As soon as they arrived, Mr. Speaker took his leave while the rest made their way straight to Gruddhaug.
When they arrived, things were suspiciously quiet. As it turned out, it was empty but for me. My new character, Ognard, a triton cleric, was searching for something (what, alas, we will never learn) located in Gruddhaug, and was already inside. As were the bodies of Harshnag, Zero, and all the others prisoners that Kaly and Hector had encountered during their incarceration.
We burned the bodies and then set out after the giants. Tracking them, we followed them in the direction of Pelor’s Blessing, bypassing where they had made camp and beating them to the town. There, the civilians and most of the Harvest Guard left while we prepared to repel an assault. After four days, during which a couple of the Griffon Cavalry and Harvest Guard were picked off in nighttime raids, we collectively agreed that no major assault was forthcoming, and we would have to go to them.
Setting off north, back toward where we first saw the giants’ camp, we decided that stealth was out of the question. Our army was just a bit too big and loud, so the only option we could see was an all-out assault. Marching on in, we came upon their camp, an old ruin with a tower that they had fortified in preparation.
Our plan was to stop a hundred feet or so out, so we would have the ranged advantage for at least a round or two. However, we came upon the camp sooner than anticipated, and were in hand-to-hand immediately.
The total enemy forces included a manticore, three hill giants, about ten hobgoblin soldiers, an ettin, maybe six or eight ogres and half-ogres, and the hobgoblin spellcaster that had been at Gruddhaug. We knew, or at least believed, that Chief Guh was present too, and assumed that she was inside the tower.
The hobgoblins were on us before we could do anything, bludgeoning Hector but flailing ineffectually at Leo and I (the three of us constituted the front line). The hobgoblin spellcaster dropped a life-draining spell over us (which Kaly dispelled as soon as she was able) and then it was our chance to act. Hector hit a couple of the hobgoblins and then retreated, as he had taken quite a bit of damage even just by this point, and Leo tried but failed to do any damage (which, thanks to terrible, terrible dice rolling, was the unfortunate state for the first five or six rounds of combat).
As my turn came up, I popped Spirit Guardians (which is my new favourite spell). Then the giants and ogres started moving in. One of the giants reached us and killed two of the mages outright, causing the third to run and leaving just their leader, who stuck around for a long time and did a decent amount of damage before she was eventually brought down. The Griffon Cavalry split their forces, half fighting the manticore in the air, and the other half going for one of the giants. They eventually killed the manticore and severely damaged the giant while their mounts were gradually killed off by ogre-thrown spears. Once on the ground, the riders still fought valiantly, and helped us clear up most of the ogres, but were slowly whittled down until there were just a couple left, plus their leader.
Other than Hector’s first couple of strikes, the eight or nine hobgoblins in our face were not damaged by anything other than my Spirit Guardians, which eventually took them all out. I split my focus between healing and attacking, while the others did their usual things. Eventually, we brought it to the point where all the hobgoblins were dead – except the spellcaster, who fled inside the ruined tower – as were the giants, ogres, and manticore, but we were all severely injured (and depleted – I was down to my last two spell slots and on six hit points) and had only the couple of griffon-less Griffon Riders left to support us, and we had not yet even seen inside the tower.
We began to regroup before the door to the tower, but then Hector, at this point the least damaged of us, charged in through a hole on the side and was Polymorphed into a mouse, which none of us saw, and thus, could do nothing about. Before the rest of us could enter, out came another hill giant, this one wearing Harshnag’s armour. A couple of bugbears, including their chief whom we had fought a couple of times by this point, followed the giant out. Between the three of them, they killed the remaining Griffon Riders and bludgeoned Kaly and I to unconsciousness. Leo, everyone else unconscious or unaccounted for, turned tail, cast Fly on himself, and fled.
The giant chased, while the bugbear and chief went into the forest pursuing the last remaining Griffon Rider (he didn’t get far). Hector, still a mouse, had climbed up onto the giant, and was being carried along for the ride. The hobgoblin spellcaster decided he also wanted a piece of Leo, so he cast Fly on himself and went after him. In doing so, Polymorph dropped on Hector, and the fight was back on.
At the same time, Kaly rolled a natural 20 on a death save – the second time during the fight, in fact, making it the fourth or fifth time overall, and the most interesting thing was that that her player had left (because it was getting really late) so it wasn’t even her that rolled it. She healed me up with the intention of teleporting us out with Dimension Door on the next turn, and I dropped a Fog Cloud near the giant in an attempt to help the others. Unfortunately, the spellcaster immediately took me out with Magic Missile, and the bugbears took Kaly out with javelins. Over the next couple of rounds, I failed enough death saving throws to break my curse with my first ever first session character death, while Kaly also failed enough saves and died.
Meanwhile, Hector, with Leo’s Eldritch Blasting help, slowly worked his way through the giant and the spellcaster. The bugbear chief had attuned to Hector’s Berserker Axe, and after he went berserk Hector led him on a merry chase that brought him straight to Chief Guh, who mulched him with a rock. Unfortunately, along the way, she also hit Hector with three other rocks, and knocked him out.
What followed was an awkward exchange between Leo and the final bugbear, where they tried to outmanoeuvre each other, but couldn’t, which ended with Hector rolling a natural twenty on a death saving throw and running. He and Leo fled through the forest, but they were pursued by a pair of wargs with bugbear riders (who had been suspiciously absent from the fight). They tried to hide, but the dice weren’t with them, and they were found and cut down. The bugbears made definite sure that they were dead this time.
And that’s where things end for our adventures in Talmar, a TPK after what was a monster of a session. To say this fight was a long one would be severely understating it; the longest other fight we’ve had that I can think of went maybe twelve rounds, this lasted twenty-seven. Not included Leo and Hector’s flight, which was out of combat. It was insane.
Will we return to Talmar? Maybe one day. In the meantime, we will be off for the next month or so, as, coming into the holiday season, we won’t all be available for another session until January. When we come back, it will be to start a new campaign in a new place. Will my curse continue into the new campaign? I certainly hope not.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. We have enough people available next week that I’m going to run a one-shot, my first time as a DM. It’s definitely going to be interesting and quite probably will be terrible, but with the DM for this campaign as one of my players, maybe it will also be a chance for some sweet, sweet revenge. We shall see.