The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 10 - Bearly Surviving

The prep...

Not a lot to prep for this session. I had all my orc stats left over from the previous session, including the much tougher leader orc (with the max hit points). I also gave him a villain action (taken from Matt Coleville's very interesting video on making your boss battles more engaging). Essentially I gave the leader orc the ability to attempt to knock an enemy prone using a bonus action.

I remembered to roll for loot this time. I rolled for each orc, and the put the lowest amounts on the orcs downstairs. I gave the richer loot (including two different types of gems - since once again the orcs rolled platinum. And I don't think these guys would be carting around platinum) to the orcs upstairs. They are gambling after all.

Other than that, I just prepped the magic item card for the Mithril armor and pulled out the Monster Manual in case the Druid wanted to try to wild shape into something new. I asked them before the game if they had thought about how to deal with the orcs upstairs... and nope, they hadn't. Well, let's see what happens next.

The story...

I started off reminding them that it sounded like the orcs were holding position upstairs. What followed was a lot of discussion on the best way to take the orcs out. I was a kind DM and let them really talk this out. Since these are newer players and this is a casual game, I didn't want to pressure them too much. If I was playing with more advanced players, I would have had the orcs make some kind of additional moves, maybe taking positions at the top of the stairs, or in one of the rooms. Instead I had another, simpler plan in mind.

The druid was very specific
about what the cat looked like.

Eventually the decided to have the Druid use her Wild Shape ability to transform into a cat and climb up the side of the farmhouse and see if any of the windows were open. We spent a few minutes figuring out what kind of cat she would transform into (because players love that kind of thing). I described a kind of porch outside, and they asked if it was covered. I decided it was, so it was actually very easy for the cat to climb up to the overhang. The plan was to have the Rogue and Druid go upstairs, give Big Al a signal to come up, and then move from there. Except what they didn't really talk about, or make clear to Al, was what he was supposed to do. So I had assume he would come charging up the stairs and into battle.

She noticed that one window was open, the one overlooking Big Al's office. The room was trashed, but no orcs could be seen. The Rogue rolled well on her climbing check, and soon the two players were in the office. The Rogue did some quick ransacking of the room, but there was nothing to be found. (She actually missed a stash of Al's coin hidden behind stacks of boring paperwork which even the orcs ignored).

At this point they heard some sounds. A gentle orc command, and then the sound of wood gently touching another wooden surface. It wasn't coming from close to the heroes, but somewhere to their right. They decided the orcs were up to something, but not sure what. So they signaled, Big Al by tapping a pattern on the floor. Sure enough the rancher walked up the stairs.

Orcs do love their javelins.

As the stairway opened into the upper hall, Al saw that the orcs had taken his gaming table and set it up as a barricade at the end of his hall. I rolled a wisdom check, he failed, and so he went charging down the hall right at them instead of ducking into a doorway. These guys had javelins prepared and were ready for combat.

The Rogue and Druid cried out in dismay as it seemed that once again an NPC had gone off roading. But we rolled initiative. As I stated the turn order I added that near the end a "mystery guest" got to act. This caused both players to panic a little. Who else was here? Who else was participating in battle?

Well I had my back-up plan in place. If things started to go south I was going to have the local druid Paellia show up, heal Inverna and then join into the fray herself if things got dire. Remember, that my Druid player had left a message at Conyberry for the local druid to meet them at Butterskull Ranch. Well Paellia got the message and would show up this session in one way or another.

And pretty soon it was obvious that the player characters needed the help. Big Al got one good swipe in with a great axe he lifted from the downed orcs in the floor below, but two javelins brought him down. Remember he only had 9 hit points to begin with because he had been beaten up when the characters found him. The rogue used her bow to fire down the hall, but the barricade was making it tougher for her to hit the orcs. The Druid, still in cat form, raced down the hall, transformed back into an elf in front of them, and then dragged Big Al into a nearby bedroom. She was going to try to stabilize him the next round. But that was her last use of Wild Shape for the day (she had already turned into Petunia the cow earlier).

I allowed that the orcs by the barricade were stunned by the cat transforming into an elf, and so didn't act that round. This gave the Rogue another free shot, rolled a natural 20 critically hitting the orc and taking him out of the fight. Only one orc was at the barricade.

Local druid, at your service.

Meanwhile Paellia healed Inverna downstairs and Inverna used her Second Wind ability to boost her hit points further. She was ready to fight and moved into position downstairs. Of course the players had no idea this was happening.

The Druid stabilized Big Al using her healer's kit. But wasn't sure what she could do next. She was obviously trying to keep her final healing spell ready. The Rogue noticed a rat peeking at her from the top of the stairwell. Suddenly a voice in elvish called out, "Time to clean up the cobwebs, if y'all know what I mean." The player of the Druid got a bit grin on her face and said, "I drop concentration on the Web spell."

Now a piece of orc armor got caught in the webs, so it fell to the ground, alerting the orcs to something else happening. The orc leader ordered one of his men down the stairs, and battle was joined. The Rogue lined up her next shot, but she rolled a natural 1, and we are using fumble rules - so her bowstring broke. She had picked up spares, but it would take a full action to replace them. At that moment, the rat raced down the hall and joined the Druid. She transformed into a female halfling wearing furs, with a slightly unstable expression on her face and asking happily, "Are we having a battle?"

Entangle, the spell that can change the battle.

With Paellia and Inverna joining the battle the tide turned. Inverna took out one orc down stairs, so the leader ordered his remaining companion to deal with her. He moved to the game table, hefted it up with his massive strength and attempted to block the two druids behind it. His objective was to break line of sight so they could stop casting spells at him (he was hit by Entangle and Frostbite over the course of the battle). He would then engage the Rogue in single combat. But the leader rolled well to lift the table, but poorly to maneuver it. He kept slamming it into the hallway. The Rogue got in a free hit, but the guy wasn't falling. Meanwhile Inverna was taking hits downstairs, and was missing quite a bit.

I'll be honest and say the dice hated my players that night. They rolled a lot of natural 1s and the orcs kept making their Constitution and Dexterity saving throughs. Spells weren't hurting them. I could see the combat was getting frustrating, so I figure it was time to end it. Paellia asked the Druid if it was time for Bear. The Druid saw what was coming and said, "Yes. Bear Time, for sure."

Sometimes you've got to Be the bear.

Paellia transformed into a black bear and hurtled at the orc leader and his table. She pinned him under it, and did some brutal bite damage on him. The Rogue was able to edge past him and finish off the orc dueling with Inverna on the stairwell, delivering a one shot killing blow. The orc failed his strength check, and Paellia shoved the table down hard on the orc, crushing his spine and killing him.

After the battle ended, the Druid healed Big Al and got him back on his feet. They then moved to clean up the mess a bit. The players picked up the loot from the downed orcs and were pleased with the gems. Big Al gave them his mithril shirt as promised. He also invited them to stay the night at his place and rest up. The group agreed.

Paellia finally got a chance to talk to the players, and we had a good bit of roleplaying there. I had her talking in quick sentences, moving in birdlike ways and seem to take joy in fighting in animal forms. She explained how she wanted to find out where the dragon originated, because she suspected that something worse was happening to the East, where the dragon flew from. She felt that whatever forced a dragon to flee would pose a bigger threat to the world. She is part of the Emerald Enclave, a group of druids and rangers who protect the natural order. She offered a place in the order to the Druid if she could help protect the area around Phandalin and take care of the dragon. The characters accepted, being the heroic types they were.

Paellia dropped an important hint. If the heroes could figure out where the orcs came from, then they would determine where the dragon is currently residing. Because all the orc trouble seemed to start when the dragon moved in.

The session ended with the characters bedding down for the evening, after helping Big Al clean up a bit more around the place.

The post...

Mithral Shirt - armor anyone can wear!

So this session was dominated by a tough combat for the players. They spent time planning, but because they didn't specify what the objective was to their NPC, things went poorly. But also, man did the dice hate them. Having Al taken out so early in combat was a real problem, and why I held Inverna in reserve. But the fact that the orcs were just not getting hit, while the players were taking damage forced me to bring Paellia into the fight.

The players did ask me if that was part of the plan the whole time. I admitted that I held her in my back pocket in case things went badly. But I really think they could have healed Inverna or Al before battle and things would have gone much better. I know the Druid was trying to conserve her spells, but it would have been better to have some strong arms at full (or near full) health going into the battle.

Still the combat was fun, and Paellia was a fun character to role-play. I also made sure that she was doing what the players wanted, by having her always ask the Druid, "What do you think? Entangle?" or "What do you think, Bear?" I'm really trying to be careful about the NPCs taking the spotlight away from the players. And while I think that did happen a bit with Paellia killing the orc leader, she is not going to be involved in the adventure any more. If we continue playing into my planned Princes of the Apocalypse campaign, then she will return for that.

All that said, the players had fun and were curious to see what was going to happen next.

Up Next:

Session 11: Shriner's Convention