DF Khoramandu Sea, Session 68 - Caves of Chaos, part 22

Due to the coronavirus lockdown, we once again played remotely using Hangouts. I don't use a VTT; when I need to show the battlefield, I use paper maps and minis, and point a webcam at the table.

Session Date: Thursday 11 June 2020

Party roster:
Miao Miao, cat-folk swashbuckler, 411 points (PC)
- Jenkins, human servant, 186 points (NPC Ally)
- Brother Warian, human monk (initiate), 177 points (NPC Ally)
Sir Yvor Gryffyn, human knight, 343 points (PC)
Davin Emberwood, human wizard, 342 points (PC)
Childerbert "Bert" Ingoberger, halfling locksmith (thief), 287 points (PC)
Hemmu Gahrol, half-orc knight, 275 points (NPC)
Adam Aesalor, half-orc wizard, 257 points (PC)

Location: Borderlands between the Kingdom of Ioscany and the Wilds of Pyrrhon; back inside the Keep.

 The party spent a week recuperating at the inn. Their plan is for the party to return to Marsh Hall soon, where they can spend as much time and money as they can afford on training. For now, the week of downtime sufficed. (There was a bit of "levelling up" between sessions; mostly stat increases, as training opportunities are limited at the keep on the borderlands.)

 Sister Miriam departed the group during the week (the player wanting to trade in the pregen for a PC of his own creation). The cleric returned to her temple in Marsh Hall, to report to the temple on the destruction of the evil cult in the caves. This opened up a vacancy in the group.

 The magic shield was repaired by the keep's armourer, but he had less success with the strange material of the cultists' robes, and he returned those without charge.

 At the end of the week a new party member arrived, unbidden and unexpected. The young half-orc wizard was immediately approached by Hemmu, who spoke to him in Orcish only to find out that he couldn't understand. That got the other party members' attention. 

 The new arrival was looking for Lady Miao, and he was carrying a sealed scroll addressed to her from the University of Phessio, the capital of the kingdom. This was unusual, as Miao had no prior connection with that university. The letter was a recommendation of its bearer, Adam Aesalor, as a promising graduate wizard. Miao did not recognise the name of the correspondent, Ugral Vaal, however the Lecturer in Lost Gates apparently knew Lady Miao Miao's mother, the Marquise of Felindia, and so the recommendation was readily accepted.

 There was much celebration in the inn, and the party brought Adam up to speed on what had recently transpired, and that they were returning to the caves the next day, to deal with the second orc chief.

 The journey to the caves was again uneventful (my players like to request a use of Luck on my Wandering Monster roll, so they are rarely accosted before they reach the ravine). They went up the slope, past the first orc cave (now quiet), and along to the second cave. 

 Hemmu called into the cave in Orcish, saying that they were just there for the chief, and that if the orcs would give him up to be beheaded, then no-one else need be hurt. Surprisingly, the orcs didn't go for this. The orcs called out that the chief wasn't there, that he was out hunting, that the party should come back later. They even tried to pay the PCs to go away. This tempted some party members, who thought of taking the money and attacking anyway, but ultimately the party refused to be bought off.

 The party decided to enter uninvited, and they marched into the cave with Miao and Hemmu in front, then Sir Yvor, followed by Bert, and then the rest. A few yards in they came to a crossroads and decided to go left. Stepping into the junction triggered a trap which no-one had spotted, releasing a large weighted net down onto the three front-line fighters. Bert stopped the net in time to reflexively jump back, but his warning came to late to those in front, and the party's three warriors were all entangled in the net.

 I treated the net as a grapple (using the Fantastic Dungeon Grappling rules for DFRPG) and each fighter received enough control "damage" to be at -4 DX. The PCs immediately tried to free themselves, with Miao grappling the net, and the two knights trying to hack themselves out. This would take several seconds, but a group of 5 orcs immediately demanded the party's surrender. 

 The PCs ignored the call to surrender, and kept trying to free themselves, while Bert scrambled over the net to hide in the shadows on the opposite side of the tunnel. Davin tried to intimidate the orcs, which caught them by surprise and they stepped back. Then, walking on air, Davin stepped over the net and between the trapped PCs and the orcs. 

 Miao surrendered, believing that should a fight break out while she and the two knights were under the net, that things could go very badly for the party. Other than Warian, the rest of the party ignored the call to surrender, and prepared to fight. The orcs demanded that the PCs drop their weapons, which no-one but Miao did, so they attacked Davin.

 A dodge by Davin, and multiple critical misses by the orcs, meant Davin avoided being hit as well as fumbled orc weapons. Yvor and Hemmu cut themselves free, but were unable to easily cross the net while Miao was still trapped inside.
 Between an Ice Dagger from Davin, a couple of Lightning bolts from Adam, a thrown axe from Hemmu, and a heavy crossbow bolt from Jenkins, four of the orcs were down, and the last orc retreated. Miao was able to extricate herself from the net.

 The party stepped back from the junction, and Adam created a semicircular Wall of Lighting to protect the group. We ended the session there, with imminent orcish reinforcements expected...