GURPS DF Session 56 - Caves of Chaos, part 10

This is another late summary from last month. Due to the coronavirus lockdown, we played remotely rather than in person. I laid out maps and paper minis on the table, and used Hangouts to broadcast a video of the battlefield.

Session Date: Sunday 22 March 2020 

Party roster from previous session:
Miao Miao, cat-folk swashbuckler, 391 points (PC)
- Jenkins, human servant, 186 points (NPC Ally)
- Brother Warian, human monk (initiate), 177 points (NPC Ally)

- Gregus, human sellsword, unknown points (NPC Hireling)
- Mace, human mace-wielder, unknown points (NPC Hireling)
Davin Emberwood, human wizard, 326 points (PC)

Sister Miriam Suntemple, human cleric, 297 points (PC)
Hemmu Gahrol, half-orc knight, 252 points (PC)
Llandor the Gray, wood-elf scout, 290 points (PC)
Sir Yvor Gryffyn, human knight, 309 points (PC)

Location: Borderlands between the Kingdom of Ioscany and the Wilds of Pyrrhon

 We resumed in the orc hall, with the orc females having retreated...

  Yvor called out to alert the party that someone/something had been heard from the exit in on the northern wall of the hall. The party formed up and proceeded along the corridor, in search of the orc chief. They came to a junction ahead, where the orcs were waiting for them.

 The chief stood behind a row of swordsmen and archers, flanked addition to a handful each of female  orc archers and males with swords, the chief was behind them, flanked by his two wives. The chief was a large orc clad head to toe in mail armour, armed with a throwing axe, a balanced dwarven battle-hammer (an actual hammer, not a pick), and a heavy medium shield  with a likeness of a skull and crossbones (which Llandor) could see was enchanted. One of the wives wielded a two-handed long axe, the other wielded a bow and sword.

 During the fight, there were insults traded in Orcish between Hemmu and the chief and his wives. Hemmu, suffering from both Berserk and Bad Temper, lost control of her temper and went berserk. Thankfully it didn't cause any regrettable instances for the party, and Hemmu was able to recover herself once the orcs were down.

 This fight was more of a challenge for the party, but that was relative to the earlier orc fights. Ultimately with the size and strength of the party, this was only going to go one way. The PCs were there for the chief's head, and neither he nor bodyguards were going to willingly let that happen, so it was a fight to the death. 

 The party looted the coin purses from the chief and his wives, the dwarven hammer, and the magical shield. Also a gold ring set with a beryl gem, under the chief's gauntlet. They would also strip the orc mail from the chief. The shield took a severe beating from Sir Yvor's longsword and was badly damaged, but thankfully there was still enough structural integrity for the enchantment to hold. Later, back at the keep, Davin would cast Analyse Magic upon the shield and discover it is a medium shield of warding (Deflect +1).

 After the fight, the party decided to quickly scout for the chief's room or tribe's treasure stash, before they returned to the hobgoblins to complete their transaction and secure the release of the prisoners. In the chiefs room they found a narrow opening hidden behind a hanging tapestry; inside a tiny cavern space they found two orcish swords resting against a locked metal chest. Inside the chest they saw 2 shortswords on top of armour covered in coins. They re-locked the chest and dragged the whole lot out. Back at the crossroads they also found the orc tribe's storeroom where they grabbed a large stack of spears and a crossbow and bolts.

 Exiting the orc cave, the party retreated to the nearest small wood, where they left some of their number with the metal chest, while the others took the orc chief's head to the goblin cave. The hobgoblin chief came out with an entourage, and was obviously pleased that the part had delivered the first orc chief's head. Four human prisoners were brought out, and the trade was done. The party asked about the evil humans supposedly in one of the other caves, but the chief didn't seem willing to talk about that, at least not yet. He again offered treasure in return for bringing him the head of the second orc chief. Then he said after that, if the party killed gnolls then he would tell them about the humans in the caves. The PCs indicated they might be willing to do so in future. They took the freed prisoners, collected their colleagues with the orc treasure, and returned to the keep.

 The human prisoners of the hobgoblins were a merchant and his wife, and two of their caravan guards. Once safely back at the keep, the merchant gave the party a promissory note for 100 shillings ($2000) which would be redeemable with the merchants' guild back at Marsh Hall (or any other large town in the kingdom). He was also able to negotiate for the party's benefit a reduction of guild fees and taxes when selling loot at the keep; this amounted to a 10% increase (from 40% to 50%), for the duration of their current stay at the keep. The merchant's wife gave the party an ornate heirloom dagger ($200) which turned out to be enchanted (a mighty dagger of seeking; Accuracy +1 and Puissance +1).

 The contents of the metal chest were: 2 good shortswords, 491 coppers ($491 total), 81 shillings ($1620 total), 13 "gold" Florins from the former Kingdom of Pyrrhon ($780 total), a hooded and sleeved light mail hauberk, sized for a human, and a scale hauberk, sized for a dwarf.

Contents of orc purses as follows.
Chief: 3 gold crowns
Wives: 5 silver shillings, 15 coppers
Guards: 26 silver shillings, 24 coppers

Loot they kept:
1x chief's balanced dwarven battle-hammer - HEMMU
1x sleeved light mail hauberk (human) - HEMMU
1x chief's magical shield - MIRIAM (needs to be repaired first)
1x good orcish falchion - HEMMU
1x orcish mail - DAVIN
4x spears - given to the rescued guards
1x chief's gold ring set with gem (valued at $3500) - WARIAN (power item upgrade)
1x heirloom dagger, twice enchanted - COMMUNAL (Jenkins for safekeeping; may sell later)

Loot they sold:

1x good orcish falchion - SOLD
1x metal chest - SOLD
1x scale hauberk (dwarf) - SOLD
11x spears - SOLD
2x good shortswords - SOLD
1x medium crossbow, in need of maintenance - SOLD
60x crossbow bolts - SOLD

 Dividing up the coins from the chest and orc purses, along with the loot that was sold, the party members got just shy of 2 gold crowns ($780) each. The remaining went into the communal group pot, to be used to pay for healing at the shrine, hireling wages, power item recharges, and other shared expenses. The promissory note (and possibly the magical dagger) will be cashed-in later.

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