Session #21: The Siege Begins

We introduced some new characters and new players this session. Sterling plays the defender, a dwarf knight name of Seamus (that's Shay-mus) Silvershield; Jordan plays the leader, a human sentinel named Deckard, with a bear companion named Misha; Traver plays one of our strikers, a drow scout named Shivra; Andrew plays the other striker, a drow hexblade named Vorgym; Andrew's brother Phil plays one of the party's controllers, a tiefling mage named Amnon; and Sal has retained his character from the party's TPK, the party's other controller, an elf hunter named Nirreh.

The party was sort of mashed together at the request of a town crier in Falconia, looking for adventurers to reinforce the besieged Orcbane Keep. They headed east toward the river crossing, and came upon a number of dead Falconian soldiers around the burnt bridge. Suspecting a trap, they found their suspicions confirmed when orcs shot ropes tied to arrows across the river to allow their raiding party to climb across. The strategy proved less than effective, and the only real damage the orcs did to the party came from their archers. High points included a bear nimbly crossing the weakened bridge, and a rope being cut to send a pair of orcs into the freezing snowmelt water of the river below.

After dealing with the ambush, the party headed on to Orcbane Keep, and were fortunate to arrive in the midst of a lull in the siege. They met with Marshal Rendon, the famous master of the keep, known for his exploits in the Howl War against the gnolls and their demon lord leader, Yeenoghu. He gave them the task of drawing the hill giants involved in the siege within range of the keep's ballista - the keep's soldiers could deal with the orcs easily enough, even with their numbers in the 50s as opposed to the 200s, but not the massive hill giants and the boulders they besieged the keep with. The party joined the front line before the gate, and engaged the first wave of orcish forces. They managed to defeat this wave with relative ease, but now another wave approaches, with more fearsome orcs and a pack of vicious war hyenas...

We ended the session here - there were some technical issues early on, and both of the encounters described here proved to be quite complex and took up a lot of our time. Such is the case with large set pieces like this, though =) See everyone for next week's session!