I seem to be doing a lot of running when we get into combat. Doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s chasing or fleeing, though to be fair, it’s mostly been fleeing. I dread the day when we get into a fight in an enclosed room.
Let’s start at the beginning. We had two nights on the road before reaching Conyberry, and nothing much of interest occurred. When we arrived at the ghost town, we followed a trail until we came to an old hut. Airina took the lead and knocked, entering and discussing our business there with the banshee, Agatha. She asked a question and offered the jewelled comb we had been given for Agatha’s payment, and Agatha gave her an answer and then told us to leave. We promptly did. No muss, no fuss. Quest numero uno complete.
Heading south, we came to the ruins at Old Owl Well, where we spotted a colourful tent pitched in the courtyard before a tower. I took point and called out a greeting, at which point a dozen zombies emerged from the tower. So too did a man, a necromancer, step out of the tent and tell the zombies to hold position. We discussed his business, and he explained that he was a wizard from Thay doing research on the ruins and the ancient civilisation they were part of. We did not take any issue with this, and believed him when he said he wouldn’t be making any problems for anyone, so we bid him good day and left. Second quest in the bag (or so we thought – more on that later).
One thing the necromancer asked us was to take care of the orcs to the south. We were going that way to deal with them anyway (quest three), but I was almost tempted to tell him to get stuffed when all he offered in recompense was a paltry twenty electrum. I managed to barter him up to adding an extra ten silver, which was just adding insult to injury. I was so insulted I didn’t even skim any off the top, just gave it straight to Mercenary for party funds.
But we kept going south, to deal with the orcs, as was our goal in the first place. We found them at Wyvern Tor, where there was a solitary orc standing guard outside the entrance to a cave at the end of a ravine. We climbed to the top of the ravine in order to get close to make an unseen attack, but my clanking companions in their heavy armour weren’t nearly quiet enough and gave away our position. I moved around to be just above the cave entrance while the others set up position opposite for the orc attack.
The first orcs came streaming out of the cave, throwing javelins at the others while Mercenary fired her crossbow at them, eventually downing one. The rest of the orcs, including their dual-battleaxe-wielding leader, charged my companions, climbing the ravine with surprising swiftness and engaging them in combat.
Meanwhile, an ogre, the first thing tall enough to be within range of my attacks, came out of the cave, so I threw a dagger at its head. On its subsequent turn, it climbed the ravine, and when I tried to hide from it I rolled poorly and it came for me. Thus began my several turns of doing nothing but disengaging and running away from it as quickly as possible. I contributed no more to the fight, but the ogre never got involved either, so I’d say that was a tie (for reference, in case you know the abilities and toughnesses of orcs and ogres, we were still only level two for this fight, having fallen just 10 XP short of levelling up last week).
Over on the other side of the ravine, my compatriots fought valiantly but seemingly futilely. Parvus was knocked unconscious while he and Mercenary fought the orc leader and several others, and Airina was not only swarmed and downed, she failed her first death saving throw and then rolled a 1. So she died.
Mercenary, though, got very lucky with some fluffed hits from the orcs, and managed to kill the leader, causing the rest of them to run away in terror. She stabilised Parvus and tried to help Airina, but obviously it was too late.
By this point, the orcs that had been attacking Airina had also started coming for me, so caught between them and the ogre, I ran inside the cave and hid. After the orcs fled, the ogre was still searching for me, so I used Minor Illusion to make it sound like I was down a different tunnel. While he went searching in that direction I was able slip out unseen and unheard.
I met up with Mercenary and helped her carry Parvus and Airina away. We took a short rest, and when Parvus woke up, so did he. During this rest, Airina came back to life, returned by her god (and a DM that didn’t want a session three player character permadeath). When everyone was rested up, we returned to the cave, killed the ogre – who was still looking for me after it had been, like, three or four hours – and looted the place.
After leaving and setting up camp for the night, Airina explained that she wanted to go back to investigate the necromancer some more. The rest of us were sceptical, unsure of how much else we could glean from going back, but she was very insistent, so eventually we agreed. Which means our business with him (and quest number two) is not quite done after all.
That is where things ended. With lots of running, what I would call another lucky end to a fight I was certain was going to be a TPK unless I ran away completely, and the first resurrection of a character not just in this campaign, but for me, in any campaign that I’ve been part of. I have to say, the first three sessions of this campaign have been very interesting, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.