Damien - Human Infernal Sorcerer (300 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (333 points)
Day 196 (Cont.):
Amothius 36th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Thanks to Sindri's strategic genius, the orcs that had taken a section of wall were repulsed, though the drake-rider archers continued to rain arrows from above. Reports came in of a group of elementals controlled by orc shamans having pushed the defenders back off the walls, and the party moved to intercept. They arrived to find a pair each of fire spirits in the form of bears and water spirits in the form of fish, with a pair of shamans throwing lightning storms down on the defenders.
Damien gave everybody Armour, and then Sindri and Virgil charged in. The bears charged as well, but one of them was knocked out by Morgan's Mind Blast. One shaman smacked his mace on the ground, resulting in a cluster of arm-thick roots emerging from the ground, entangling Virgil and pulling Sindri prone, while the other threw in a lightning storm, lightly frying the warriors even through Damien's Armour.
One of the fish spat a gout of water at Virgil, knocking him off the wall, but he was able to grab hold of the edge instead of falling 10m, and Damien cast Hawk Flight on him to get him back in the fight. Sindri broke free of the roots, while Morgan knocked the other fire bear out with another Mind Blast. Another lightning storm shocked the party, except for Boras, while the other shaman was able to wake up one of the fire bears, which crawled on top of Sindri. He should have been badly burned but emerged unscathed thanks to his Tiefling fire resistance and Damien's Armour.
Virgil used his superior speed to fly all the way around the back of the orc shamans, and was shocked by another lightning storm before cutting one down. Damien cast Hawk Flight on Morgan, who knocked another fish out before being hit by a massive jet of water which broke through his Pyro Bolt parry and knocked him back 8m. From the drake riders far above, a volley of arrows caught Boras, Sindri, and Virgil, though nobody was injured.
The other shaman was quickly dealt with by Virgil, and one of the fire bears was smashed into a cloud of smoke. From this point the fight was effectively over; Boras took a water jet and knocked over Damien, and another volley of arrows rained down from above, but nobody was further injured. Victorious, Virgil expended Serendipity to find a clue as to the orc's intentions, and discovered a strange holy symbol on one of the shamans' body; Boras was unable to identify it other than to say that it wasn't Kord, Melora, or the orcish god of destruction Gru'umsh.
It turned out that the party's victory was to no avail, as the orc commander outplayed Sindri on the strategic level, managing to breach the walls in several places. Reports came in of two major orc forces: one group of orc veterans were acting as rear guard for another group, led by an orc in extremely heavy armour, who were pushing further into the city.
Sindri (correctly) guessed that the orc leading the charge would be Agdug the Invincible, and decided to stop him personally, arranging his troops such that Agdug's were forced down a street, directly towards the party. Damien buffed everybody with Hawk Flight and Armour, but they didn't get more time to prepare, as the orcs rounded a corner and Agdug, equipped with a sword and tower shield, yelled out an order to charge.
Sindri, Virgil, and Boras stood behind a blockade of overturned carts halfway down the street, while Damien and Morgan lined up shots from behind buildings further back, Damien flying (to get a clearer shot) and Morgan on the ground. Two orcs with greatswords ran around the buildings to flank while four shieldbearers and Agdug moved up the middle towards the blockade. A pair of orcish archers aimed shots at the defenders, while an orcish wizard cast some sort of spell.
The greatsword orcs arrived on the flank at the same time as the shieldbearers charged from the front, but none of them were able to land a hit on the initial charge. Virgil took down a pair of shieldbearers before falling back, Sindri downed one and injured his greatsword orc, Morgan stunned one with Mind Blast, and Damien aimed at Agdug, waiting for a clear shot to use Lightning to ignore the orc's otherwise-imposing heavy steel armour.
Agdug pressed through his fallen allies, yelling that this conquest was required to give the orcs a new homeland, and pressed Virgil back but did not wound him. One of the greatsword orcs took advantage of the opening to attack Boras, but he managed to block, while Sindri finished off the other one. Damien finally had a clear shot and loosed a bolt of Lightning at Agdug, only for it to bounce directly back at him! He took severe damage (and had to use Luck to avoid falling unconscious), and Boras flew back to assist him.
Morgan managed to afflict the orcish wizard with Madness, preventing him from casting further spells, while the orcs continued to advance.
Notes:
Realized in between sessions that Air Move/Acceleration is 2x Basic Move. Damien might pick up the Instant Acceleration modifier on Hawk Flight so that it's instant speed. It still wouldn't give a multi-hex step, though.
After their difficulty with the drake riders, the party chose Risk 1 for the elementals. With a relatively easy win, they decided to go for Risk 3 against Agdug. So far, it seems relatively easy.
We realized at some point that everybody had forgotten about the fire-men, who had apparently been left behind outside of Carda. Woops.
The elementals would have been really tough, but Morgan was able to effectively one-shot them pretty easily. Looking back, they should probably have higher Will in the future.
Expanding on my revised Power Parry rules, an Innate Attack is too heavy to parry if its damage is double or more the parry's.
Morgan's knockback by the water jet was hilarious compared to Virgil. ST9 with Skinny means that his effective ST was all of 5.
A major mistake I made: the party shouldn't be able to dodge the lightning storms at all!
Sindri lost the Tactics roll to Agdug, giving the orcs 2 re-rolls, though they haven't used any yet.
Also during the fight with Agdug, everybody forgot that they had Hawk Flight until Damien got hurt and reminded them.
Due to repeated combats and lack of potions, everybody but Damien has been healed a fair bit by Boras, so if they take serious wounds, they're in trouble.
Damien's going to switch to Dispel Magic to get rid of whatever spell Agdug has on him.
XP:
2 for general success
1 for roleplaying to Virgil (Bloodlust)
MVP went to Damien for his buffs massively helping the party.
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