The Second D&D Tarak Campaign - Taking The Fight To The Orcs

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 had a downtime and roleplay session, as well as doing what they could to prepare the town of Oakhurst for defence from the oncoming orc army. But at a council meeting, it was decided that it might be best to attack the orcs rather than waiting passively....

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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After the party attended the council of war, Yusdrayl (the kobold shamaness) approached them and introduced a particularly small and weedy kobold by the name of Milbak. He knew the location where the orcs had started digging their stronghold, and the best discreet routes to get to it.

After a night of rest, our heroes set off towards the stronghold, led by their diminutive guide.

The kobold guide, Milbak, warned them that he new there was a hidden watch post covering the approach to the stronghold. It would give the orcs advanced warning of anyone coming to attack them before their work was complete, as well as providing them a distant view of Oakhurst so that they could monitor events in the town.

The foothills of the mountain were lightly wooded, with broken copses of spruce, holly and fir trees. On a steep rise among these trees, the orcs had established their watch post. It was very discreet, and hard to spot from below - it just looked like a scarpment with a cliff at the top. But Milbak was able to guide the party to a rear approach which would allow them to get to the post without being spotted unless they did something noisy and stupid.

Close up, they saw the watch post consisted of a flat-topped hill steep enough to be very hard to climb from three sides. The crest had been reinforced to create an abatis of large rocks and tree debris creating an easily defended fortification with just the access route to the rear.

I ruled that it would require decent stealth (a DC12 roll) to climb up the gravel and dirt approach path. Failure to be stealthy would alert the orcs and lead to a rain of stones, arrows and logs being thrown down on them.

Luckily even the tin-can wearing warrior priest made the (relatively easy) stealth roll, and they were able to charge into the rear of the watch post. That gained them the element of surprise, which they took full advantage of.

Inside, the watch post was guarded by six orcs and three goblin scouts, led by two orogs (extra big, extra fierce orc leaders) named Gradum and Gradee.

The ground area inside was circular and about 60 feet in diameter, with two low dividing walls separating the watch area, sleeping area and rear defence area.

There was also a 20’ deep at the rear entrance, but our heroes suspected something like that would be there, spotted it easily and jumped across with no problem whatsoever.

In truly heroic style, the party charged straight at the two orog leaders, using the logic of taking down the strongest opponents first.

Gradum went down almost immediately, weakened before the charge impacted by offensive spells cast by Fartacus and Garnet, the party's bard and sorcerer, and then struck down by the party's front line fighters.

Gradee lasted longer, as the orcs piled in on the flanks to distract and weaken the heroes. But not much longer. Erioch and Griff ignored the damage the orcs were doing and focused all their strikes at the orog.

With their leaders gone, the orcs started to falter. But they are creatures renowned for their bloodlust, so they didn't break and run. They fought to the last orc, dying in a gory heap of green goo.

The goblins, on the other hand, either (depending on your perspective) showed the cowardly nature of their kind or, more charitably, demonstrated far more common sense than their larger comrades. All three of them hopped over the low wall and ran off.

Two were shot down by archers and spells, but the third got away. The party knew that the orcs at the stronghold would be warned of their approach....

In true D&D style, the party looted the bodies, although orcs are usualyl slim pickings. Each orc had 2D6 gold pieces (mostly Enrieme Ceramic Dukes and Filrath Fids). In addition, Gradum had a necklace with 50 assorted teeth. Griff knew that to orcs, this was a good find; they use teeth as money, with larger teeth being worth more.

Next time: Assaulting the orc stronghold.....