Sal wasn't present for this session, as he was on a date (hopefully he used a condom) - Nirreh was put on the wall of the keep as a result.
The second wave came hard, with hyenas swarming the group. More dangerous, though, were the orc rampagers, who used their rampage ability to essentially "bladestorm" through the group, swinging their flails all over the place. The party took a loss here, with one character going into dying status. The guards holding the line had to be called up to help clear out the rest of the orcs.
With the orcs defeated, the giants finally advanced, led by four orcs riding a battle worg. The party handled the orcs rather easily - but once the giants arrived, they found themselves quickly in trouble as the giants crushed the town guards, one by one - only three managed to escape the initial assault and build a line in front of the keep gates. The party hardly escaped damage - Shivra was crit for 40 damage after carelessly drawing an opportunity attack; Seamus was knocked unconscious by a swing from a giant's massive club; Vorgym & Deckard were also taken out by attacks from the hill giants. One by one, the ballista picked off the giants until only one remained - unfortunately, only Amnon and a single guard, "Steve", remained among the allied forces (although Marshal Rendon joined the battle when the third and final ballista shot was being prepared). The highlight of the final moments of this encounter was, of course, Steve nailing the giant's 25 AC with his measly +8 crossbow attack. Oh, and the final ballista bolt splitting the giant's head like a melon as it sailed clean through.
In the end, Seamus was unconscious, Vorgym & Deckard were both dying with 2 failures, and Shivra was dead after 3 straight failures. Only Amnon remained standing, and he was one solid hit from the giant away from joining the others. 9 of the 10 guards on the battlefield had also been killed, with only Steve (Keep Guard 5, who had started the battle utterly terrified) still alive. Orc, hyena & giant corpses littered the battlefield, 4 stacked on top of eachother in many cases. Yet the party was victorious - the siege broken, the orcs routed. They shared a victorious feast all together, including Shivra, who Marshal Rendon generously resurrected (with the help of the party's intended gold piece reward, of course).
I think we all agreed this was a very fun encounter, and tense as well toward the end. The hill giant was basically a turn away from TPKing the active group by crushing Amnon into paste. In the end however, the party triumphed, taking its only loss on an ill-drawn opportunity attack which ended up critting. I opted to grant mercy (at a price, of course) to Shivra in this particular case because 1) Traver is the only one who's given me a backstory so far, and 2) the hill giants were level 13 brutes; brutes hit harder than most other monsters at standard level, but these particular brutes had an 8-level advantage over the party. Beyond this point, though, you're all on your own!
We will be looking to have an extra session on Saturday at the usual time, noon - 3 PM Pacific/2 - 5 PM Central - I don't think Sterling will be able to make it, but as we did tonight, if we are able to have everyone else present we will go ahead and play it. I have confirmation from everyone but Sal, I will post an update depending on his response.
Additionally, regarding the Grandmaster Training rewards which each member of the party will receive from training with Marshal Rendon - everyone needs to make sure they pick one from the following selection by next Wednesday at the latest, although having one chosen by Saturday would be preferable: Insight of the Vault, Climb the Giant, Advanced Delver's Training, Davros Elden's Defensive Step, Drizzt's Kick or Davros Elden's Hasty Resurgence. Note that multiple people can choose the same training - just pick one of the six listed, and you can add it to your magic items!
Edit: Finding the Grandmaster Trainings in the character builder is a bit of a hassle, as there doesn't seem to be an implemented category for them. This might be because they're not really something characters are supposed to be able to buy for themselves - anyway, in order to pick one, you will need to search for it using the "Search" button in the marketplace, the bottom option on the left. Put in the EXACT name of the training, and then you can add it.
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