He’ll open fire at medium range.
So 37 Orcs on a tight bottleneck path, this could be interesting.
Once I have got around the back, check to see if anyone else is coming or if further alerts are going on. Also set up a simple rope trip across the path, if possible. It would be to slow retreating Orcs down enough to be stopped, not to incapicatate them.
I would guess Gil-Gandel will be attacking the Orcs from the rear, and I’ll pick up anyone he misses (unllikely of course 
) who is running back to the camp. If Gil-Gandel looks to be in trouble or the fight sounds bad, I will head back to lend a hand.
The party scrambles down to the point on the map below the left small trail and where the path is wider.
This allows the spell casters to pass the armored dwarves and Thoroncir an opportunity to scramble up the large rock outcropping to the right side (dark grey area) and Ghân to position himself in the heavy scrub area to the left to cast Barkskin, followed by Entangle directly in front of him in the scrub area.
One orc is out in front of the others, Brin and Caramir stop and turn quickly and slice him down and immediately spin and resume their downward retreat. The group of Orcs coming from the right run into the main group and are forced to halt abruptly.
At this point Gil-Gandel, takes aim at the second to last orc just going through the point where the Front of the party had been before the retreat. At short range, he easily hits his unsuspecting foe and goes tumbling down; Gil-Gandel shoots the final orc and misses but hits with his next arrow as the orc turns to see where his attacker is.
Mulligan has rope ready and nearly back to where the party had been.
Gwaelur, Theogrim & Gimli take the front position on the path with Jari, Brúni & Víli as immediate support. Brin and Caramir both scramble up the rock to join Thoroncir.
Moose lands on the goblins on the small right hand path. He crushes one to death, knocks one backwards into the other goblins and then bashes the second to last goblins with his antlers into the last goblin. He is actually facing the wrong direction with the bulk of the goblins behind him and no way to turn, however the goblins looks less than happy.
Gwaelur & Gimli let loose their bolts at the leads orcs, Gwaelur’s misses but Gimli’s hit. This larger orc survives, but the dwarves drop to their knees and duck at Gimli’s command and Jari & Brúni release two more bolts. Jari’s hits home and the Orc keeps coming. Víli was yelling for Theogrim to drop but Theogrim is not use to this type of fighting and is more worried about the three lead orcs then what Víli was saying. .
Thoroncir sees a great shot at the confused and clumped Goblins in the right hand trail. He hits once & injures one in the middle.
He is now joined by Brin and Caramir.
Gil-Gandel is happy that none seemed to be making for him, but now has tougher shots for range and obstacles. He shoots the trailing orc, drops it, and misses twice.
Mulligan completes his trip line and starts down the main path.
Deor sees a great opportunity to sleep up to 10 orcs and casts, he drops 8 of them. This is roughly from just below the branching where Moose is down 90’ (3”)
At this point, Ghân gets the entangle up and stands ready to see what is happening.
Moose strikes front and knocks the last goblin out. He times a rear mule kick to send the goblin behind him off to the goblin land of the dead.
The three lead orcs complete their spear charge into the front line. The injured lead orc hits Gimli’s shield hard, but Gimli stands firm, Theogrim’s shield is knocked aside and the other orc hits him for 6 points of damage. Theogrim strikes back hard with his bastard sword and cuts his first attack down. Gimli cleaves his orc and shield bashes it while he is at it. This orc is deceased. Gwaelur hits twice on the third, dispatching it.
Thoroncir hits again and kills a goblin this time. (5 dead for him and moose and the one he injured)
Brin and Caramir sight and shoot the Orcs instead, trying to reduce the pressure on the front. Brin shoots at short range and hits twice, dropping both. Caramir also shoots two and they die.
Merry from Pony back shoots 3 times and drops two orcs.
Náli & Nanthor are guarding the rear. The ponies are uphill from them and then Deor & Merry.
This leaves only 3 orcs (and the 8 sleeping of course) and 8 goblins, but one is injured.
The eight goblins this point are fleeing back up the path, abandoning the 3 remaining orcs. Moose is now look for a good spot to turn around.
Gil-Gandel has targets coming into his range as Mulligan swiftly disappears into the scrub and waits for the Goblins to pass him.
Thoroncir looses two arrows at the fleeing goblin, but misses both times.
The three remaining orcs using vicious looking scimitars meet your front three. Gimli turns the scimitar swipes until he sees an opening to destroy another orc. Theogrim again strikes and kills, this time without being hit. Gwaelur kills the last with a mighty blow from his axe, chopping through its sword arm and into its chest.
Brin & Caramir fire a volley of 4 arrows, killing 3 goblins and Gil-Gandel drops 2 more and Mulligan backstabs the trailing goblin, killing it.
At this point two surprises occur, a lightning bolt blasts the rear of the party, killing three ponies instantly and blasting Náli and Nanthor severely. Ghân hears orc cursing and sees disturbances in his entangle, probably 4 or 5 invisible orcs or goblins have been caught or slowed.
Merry spins and fires an arrow at the now visible enemy caster and Deor attempts to hit him with a magic missile. The magic missile fails but the arrow gets through.
For clarification purposes, we have 8 sleeping orcs above us, only 2 goblins left and one is injured.
We now have a caster behind us and at least 4 invisible orcs to the left. Probably more.
Well the good news is that the first batch of enemies is down.
The bad news is that they are behind us now.
Gil-Gandel, give them a hand if you can, I will keep watch back here for anything further. If the fighting hadn’t done so already, that lightning bolt will have alerted everyone in the area.
Find a place out of the way but with views down the paths, using **ears ** and **eyes ** to try and locate any further re-inforcements. I’m expecting a couple of Uruk-Hai to turn up with some more Orcs. I’m hoping that isn’t them and Gash behind us, but you never know.
Thoroncir will swiftly cross the road and move ahead to his left, to get ahead of - and protect - Ghan. Then he will resume arrow fire. Except that Ghân shouts out, “Wait, an entanglement is up!”
If Gil-Gandel can get over to within range of the caster dude (Gash, no doubt) he’ll let him have it. Otherwise allow any fugitives to fugue off, and go to sword against any enemy still making a nuisance of themselves, saving ammo for now.
The three dwarves behind the front turn and charge over the dead ponies and try to get the caster. Caramir pivots and takes am at the new foe.
Ghân will Summon Insects on the caster.
Then if the caster is wearing metal armour, Ghân will cast Heat Metal on him (and any other two orcs in range).
Cure Light Wounds and First Aid on anyone badly injured in front of me.
Next comes another Summon Insects on the caster.
Any other player instructions? Should I progress the battle?
With enemies in our rear, invisible or hidden,** Theogrim** will pull back to be closer to the spellcasters. He doesn’t like the idea of invisible orcs stepping up to hack at Deor.
Thoroncir will avoid any entanglement as best he can, and finish his move on foot to protect Ghan. He will resume arrow fire against any enemies still standing, with Gash his first priority. “Well done, my friends, well done!” he shouts to the others. "Victory is nearly in our grasp. Elendil!"
Gwaelur will also make his way towards the spellcasters to better try and defend them.
Targets of opportunity for Brin, with an emphasis on magic-users. I don’t know how you handle shooting into melee. Brin is no Legolas, so it is probably not a good idea.
A greatly increased chance of hitting the wrong person. Assuming a rapid Hand-to-Hand battle, the targets are constantly moving and you suffer a penalty to hit and an increase chance of a fumble or failure where I then see if you hit a different person/creature.
Okay, I will get the next turn out before the night passes. If I get an opportunity, maybe this afternoon.
Thoroncir takes up position near Ghân looking for the Orc, he realizes this is sword work and the orcs are invisible. One appears to be still trudging forward.
Ghân turns and moves to the injured, ready to summon insects.
Caramir and Brin have one clear shot at the caster, before the injured Náli & Nathor charge him. Merry also fires another shot. The three arrows fire and surprisingly all three hit. The Mage has a look of pain and worry.
Just as Náli & Nathor are about to hit him. Náli is attacked by two large orcs that hew and hack him. A small goblin appears missing Nathor. 4 arrows let fly at Caramir with two hitting. The 4 archers are just behind the Mage.
Deor sees his opportunity and tosses his final spell as another sleep on the archers. All 4 go down along with the goblin and one of the large orcs. The Mage is of course fine.
Nathor is trying to get to the Mage as he tosses something to the ground, Nathor leaps to the side as a huge puff of smoke unfurls.
Caramir & Brin have a clean shot at the large orc, Merry does not. They fire and Brin hits while Caramir misses hitting a large rock and shattering his arrow. The orc is still up.
Jari, Brúni & Víli hit the orc as one and knock him down the path. However they stop short of the smoke.
Moose works his way out of the path and back to the rocks, now heading downhill.
Mulligan hides and makes his way back to the main party. He notices the Goblins continue to flee.
Ghân gets to Náli and realizes he is dead and his armor is actually partially slagged as was his shield. He turns to Nathor, who looks bad but is alive. A cure light gives back 6 points.
Thoroncir is in position to get the orc crossing over and hits him with the Long Sword. The orc dies turning visible.
Gimli and Gwaelur have picked up and reloaded their Crossbows.
Jari, Brúni & Víli hear chanting and take deep breaths and charge into the smoke swinging wildly. The manage not to hurt themselves and Jari is sure he hit something.
Brin and Caramir are scanning the area looking for targets. Caramir casually shoots the fleeing goblins before the disappears. He drops the healthy one.
Mulligan sees things look clear and slings another bullet at the remaining goblin. He also hits and drops his target. This one was the injured one.
The Dwarves burst through the the smoke cloud and find nothing.
Ghân looks to the three ponies and sees it is too late for all three. He is sad.
Gil-Gandel nears the party and sees Thoroncir swing gently into the green area.
He looks and listens for movement. He shoots in the scrub and another orc appears bleeding and entangled but dead.
The scrub abruptly stops moving.
You can almost hear the sound of breath being held.
Nothing else happens.
Caramir suggests to Brin that we go look for tracks and see which way this mage went. Merry, Gimli, Gwaelur and Theogrim follow the trackers.
Gil-Gandel fires two more arrows at point blank range and hits the second time. He then shoots at the arrow as another dead orc appears.
Jari, Brúni & Víli spread out a bit and listen for invisible orcs.
Nanthor and Deor head up to check on the sleeping orcs. Deor notes that Nanther cautiously approaches each dead orc on the way and ensures they remain dead. Mulligan keeps and eye on them as he watches for suspicious movement anywhere else.
A voice from the scrub says, “Can I surrender?”
Ghân wades into his entangle (I allow druids to do so once they hit 3rd level) and ties up the orc thoroughly.
Caramir & Brin find several tracks leading back away from the battle, one human, three large orcs and 8 smaller sets of footprints.
“It might not be prudent to pursue to far or to get separated from the rest of the party”, Merry suggest.
Gimli growls, “This mage must die, Náli was a good dwarf and still young by our reckoning.”
Thoroncir, sword drawn, will stand watch over Ghan as he tries to heal Nathor and anyone else who needs it. The Sea-Knight of Linhir will listen carefully for the approach of any invisible foe, and will be looking about to see if any branches inexplicably move, footprints appear in soft soil, etc.
Is there some spell by which our spellcasters can fling flour or some other fine particulate over a large area, to reveal invisible enemies (wind conditions permitting)?
No, neither Ghân nor Deor have this sort of thing. And to be honest, it wouldn’t get used that often anyway…
Make sure that Folca is in range to try to spot this mage as he runs away- if we can catch him on his way out, he’ll be low on spells and we’ll never get a better chance than this.
I’m clean out of spells now except Invisibility and cantrips, right? Or did the Invisibility get traded down to have extra 1st level chances? In what fashion did my Magic Missile miss? Did it just plain miss the target or was there a magical reason? Or do I know?
Someone’s got to deal with those sleeping orcs now. I hate to say it but we don’t have time to tie them all up- I count 10 orcs, a goblin, and a large orc (Uruk-hai?) sleeping. Could we hamstring them if it comes to that, rather than kill them? Start tying up those who I can and disarming those I can’t.
Stand at the ready as the would-be captive comes out of the bushes to hit with a Cough if he shows any sign of fighting. It’s not much, but it’ll let the archers nail him.
There is a common 1st-level spell called Shield that does various useful things, including blocking all Magic Missiles targeted at the user from his front. Some other spells block all incoming spells of below a certain level, but I for one hope our foe isn’t that good. Tales also tell of magic items and magic resistant creatures. MMs do not miss visible targets.
If we must put our foes to death, so be it, but it would be no kindness to maim them. Their own kind would use them cruelly and they would likely die harder. We have several minutes left before your charm will wear off, and I will stand down and secure some of them myself.
“Lord Gimli, be of good heart for Náli. As a grown adult he chose himself what risks to run, and he died bravely and with little pain. Doubtless the Maker has his place in the Halls of Waiting already prepared, where he may sit by his fathers and not be ashamed, though they were burned Dwarves[sup]*[/sup] themselves; and we will sing to his memory.”
- For the peanut gallery: A reference to the Dwarves’ most honoured war dead, who were slain at Azanulbizar, or Dimrill Dale as it is commonly called, before the gates of the Dwarrowdelf (Moria); and were cremated, contrary to the Dwarves’ usual customs, as there were too many slain to bury.
Ghân agrees. This animal-killer must be stopped (but the rest of the party must agree on immediate pursuit. (Wose Druids think revenge can be served hot or cold…)
By my count, you’ve cast three 1st level spells :eek: , so you must be out of spells (apart from cantrips).
Gil-Gandel has named the only reasons why your Magic Missile would miss. It is an excellent spell, especially when enemies get too strong for Sleep
Thoroncir says, “Let us kill the orcs and goblin at once, while they sleep; they will never be anything but evil. I am willing to pursue our escaped foes at once, but would prefer not to go alone, as their numbers are still uncertain. Who will go with me?”
Gimli and the three remaining dwarves favor quick kills and lets be off.
Merry reminds Gimli, “we actually accepted the surrender of the invisible orc, twould be a foul deed to kill him now.”