Previously, the party had escorted the granite dwarfs Frayka and Meerak to the Dawnstone. With an arcane ritual complete, and the granite dwarves gone, what comes next...
June 2 (Sunday), afternoon - With the Granite dwarves having departed, the party debated what to do next. From a prior session, Melior Ardenshade (the druid) had been requested, via a letter in the druidic language, to meet (someone) in the village of Bornil on June 10. Bornil is a few miles south of Linden, or 4-5 days south of the party's current location. With a few days to spare, and Ravar's rough sketch map in hand, Badric, cleric of Raurig (life), convinced the party to spend a day or two heading further north, seeking to confirm the location of the Shadow Wall hills.
A mile north of the Dawnstone, the old remnants of road split, going north and northeast. The party continued northeast across the rolling open ground, interspersed with copses of trees. The old Onorian road was easy to follow. Three miles up the northeast road, the party came upon a scene of battle, with four elves lying dead in the road. Melior, perceiving faint tracks heading southeast from the scene of battle, followed them to the unconscious and near-dead body of another elf.
With healing magic and a good rest, the elf, Arian (a sorcerer), was able to tell the tale of an orc ambush. His party of five, from the Forest of Kyrell (to the west), had been tracking orcs along the road when they were ambushed. His friends were quickly overcome, but he was able to sneak away before passing out from his wounds.
Proceeding east/northeast along the road, orc tracks were easy to find. A mere mile east of the ambush site, the tracks left the road and headed due north, toward the foothills visible in the distance. Fours miles north of the road, the open ground turned to grasslands, and then to scrubby foothills. As the party entered the low scrubby hills, they heard periodic drums to the north.
Continuing north, ~7 miles from the road, the party came upon an orc village, under construction, but with a mostly complete wooden palisade in place. Several orcs were visible, working on various incomplete sections of the palisade. With no discussion of plans or tactics, Niam (the assassin/rogue), commenced the fight with a longbow shot from the top of a nearby hill. The first orc fell, skewered by his longbow shot, and a general melee ensued.
Having not had a plan, the first phase of the battle consisted of ranged missile and spell attacks from the top of a slight rise southeast of the village. Several orcs were killed at range as others swarmed out of the village. The melee characters headed toward the village as the spellcasters maintained the assault from a distance. A timely Sleep spell from Duncan took out three wolves which had been released from a pen in the village.
The fight was tough (and the characters had taken some damage), but the party had the upper hand, and there were only a few orcs remaining (including the "boss", charging Thalmyr) when a huge two-headed figure emerged from a cave mouth in the side of the far hill. As the session ended, the two-headed giant howled in rage and ran toward the party's melee characters...
Next - the conclusion of the fight...
GM Commentary - One of our newer players had been content to spend the last bunch of sessions playing the character of one of the absent players, while his daughter played her own character. Liking the game sessions, we decided it was time for him to stop filling in for others, and to roll up his own character and play "himself". Thus Arian, the high elf sorcerer of draconic bloodlines was born (found near death by the side of the road).
We had 6 characters in this session, including a halfling warlock guest player. As has been the case in prior combats, I continue to underestimate the abilities of the party. Challenge ratings in the rules are consistently underestimated, and I need to ramp things up even more in the future. I should have learned this lesson by now...
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