Session 11: The Mountain Door

General Summary

The heroes launched their attack against the two orcs standing guard in front of an entrance leading inside the Stone Tooth. The first one fell quickly, but not before telling the other to get inside and 'prepare the defenses'. He did as told and disappeared into the cave. The Dragon's Bane took some time to prepare their infiltration as well, but it became clear that swift action would work better than taking time for planning while letting the orcs do the same. They started making their way inside.

The orcs managed to indeed make some preparations, and had setup defensive posts behind arrow slits surrounding the entrance hall. Shooting the advancing heroes with arrows, they were eventually still unable to stop the intruders, and Kethra managed to break through the massive main door, consisting of two tall stone slabs bearing the legendary Dhurgeddin's symbol. As a last line of defense, the brutes hurled javelins across a great chasm towards the party, while trying to cut a rope bridge used for crossing it. They failed at that as well which meant the Dragon's Bane had successfully defeated the orcish main defensive force. Damian started sneakily mapping the surroundings. He discovered two human prisoners held in a locked cell. Geradil and Courana were grateful and begged the heroes to help them get home. However the party had more important stuff to do, so the prisoners were left waiting for when they return later. Hopefully. Next point of interest was a kitchen of sorts. A large fire burned in the center of a room surrounded by tables and shelves filled with kitchenware. The smoke from the fire went through an opening in the ceiling forming a chimney. Thorbjörn found some questionable meat for Archer, but nothing else of interest was going on. Moving on, the cavern opened into a large storage area. Various kinds of goods were piled against the walls here - mostly flour, dried meat and other foodstuff stolen from farms and homesteads. Shava found someone's secret stash of coin as well. The sharp eyes of Damian also had found a secret door at the end of a passage. This was the party's next target. It revealed a narrow tunnel leading to another similar secret door, the difference being that this one was scratched and carved full of orcish curses and hexes. Behind it, four female orcs were minding their business, one of them clearly the author of the writings on the door. An old, crooked orcish shaman, with skulls adorning her clothes and lair stood up from behind her worktable and commanded her roommates to attack. Unfortunately she herself didn't manage to achieve much, since Damian forced her to drop on the floor and cackle uncontrollably with Tasha's Hideous Laughter. The heroes managed to quickly kill the rest of the orcs, leaving the shaman for last. She tried to escape through a locked door behind her, but the party could not let that happen and finished her as well. The door led to a large open cavern, with wide stairs descending into darkness. From below, the group heard an ominous buzzing, and it was getting closer... The Dragon's Bane decided to return to the shaman's lair, quickly locking the door behind them.

Campaign

Tales from the Yawning Portal

Protagonists