The Second D&D Tarak Campaign - Plans and Realities

Welcome to the ongoing saga of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran a little while back. It started off using The Sunken Citadel module from the Tales From The Yawning Portal source book, but was then fitted into my Homebrew setting and moved on from there.

In the last post, the party decided to go and rescue a band of kobolds, finding them hiding inside a rock arch between two mountain peaks besieged by orcs.

I hope you enjoy my D&D campaign write-ups, and the commentary I add to them. Questions, comments and feedback are welcome !

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The Plan

Having spotted the orc camps besieging the kobolds from a distance, the party retired to consider how to deal with them. With at least 120 orcs in each camp, it was too many for a direct confrontation. But the good news was that only one camp would need to be dealt with; the second would be separated by the rock arch and the deep chasm between the two peaks.

After some discussion, the plan was devised that looked something like this.....

Garnet would scout forward using an Invisibility spell; this would last up to an hour as long as they didn't launch any attacks or cast any spells.

Then, with the information discreetly gained about the layout of the camp, the party would target the orcish food stores with hit and run raids which would hopefully also whittle the numbers down slightly. When the orcs were short on supplies it would force them to send foraging parties out who would be easy targets for the party to wipe out once they were away from the defences in smaller numbers.

Eventually the orcs would be demoralised, hungry and low enough on numbers that they'd melt away or be weak enough to make it worth a frontal assault.

That was the plan.....

The Reality

Garnet's first attempt to infiltrate the orc camp came unstuck when they attempted to sneak through the gap in the palisade. They discovered the hidden pit the traditional way, by falling through the covering.

The party didn't know this, but the pit cover was secured by a long pin or bar hidden behind the palisade that the orcs would slide out when they wanted to cross it.

Garnet was able to fly, but it takes a run-up, so they still took the 2D6 of falling damage plus D6 damage from the spikes thoughtfully arranged at the bottom of the pit. Luckily, a successful saving throw meant the paralysis poison the spikes were smeared with didn't take effect.

A flight out of the pit and back to base followed, with the mission resuming an hour or two later when the commotion in the orc camp had died down.

This time Garnet flew in, by flying up the mountainside and then gliding silently down into the camp from above. Although there was blizzard-level snowfall, the wind meant that any footprints were immediately obscured.

Garnet had no trouble locating the main food store of the orcs; a large marquee guarded by two orogs.

Unfortunately, this is where enthusiasm kicked in. After doing so well with the sneaking around and being careful and not starting any trouble, Garnet couldn't resist the urge to drop a fireball on the store tent.

This, of course, dropped the Invisibility spell. Thus, the party were treated to the spectacle of Garnet half jumping, half flying over the pit and fleeing out of the orcs camp with a back filled with orcish arrows and a dozen orcs in hot pursuit.

They were lucky enough to be able to drive off the pursuing orcs after a short confrontation, apply healing and retreat back to a safe distance.

So now, the orcs were without most of their food, but were also thoroughly alert and aware that there were hostile adventurers in the vicinity.

Next time: breakout.....

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zakludick 13 days ago

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I cast Fireball!

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