Middle Earth FA63 D&D Game, the Second Adventure, Scouting Ered Lithui

Thoroncir mounts up, lance in hand, with a heartfelt parting gaze at Renee.

Lad, are you going to continue to spend all your time starring at the girl or are you actually going to do something about it?

These moon eyes in battle can be a dangerous thing, go off together and get it out of your systems already. We need your head to be clear.
(That’s Gwaelur talk for “Get a room already!” :stuck_out_tongue: )

“Gwaelur, my friend,” Thoroncir quietly says, grasping him lightly by the shoulder before riding off to join the cavalry, “the day will come when I will do more as to the fair Renee, but… that day is not yet here, for reasons I cannot now explain. Fear not! My head is clear, and I am not distracted from my duty to King and country. You will have no cause for complaint when battle is joined, as indeed I trust I have given you cause for none thus far.”

Fair enough, fair enough. I do not doubt your abilities or your…focus. As long as it is your head that is doing your thinking I suppose all is well.

With Sleep, Enlarge, and Invisibility at the ready, Deor will prepare to make his stand at the dugout, with his horse close at hand to make a getaway if need be.

Are there any Uruk-Hai or Hunter-Killers with the orcs who have cut off the Greens?

Incidentally, Deor, I should think Enlarge would work very well on Moose. No need to worry about equipment matching his increased size!

Iiiiiiinteresting. I’ll ask him about it first, but that’s a sneaky idea, and a Moose who stood maybe 11’ or 12’ at the shoulder would be about ten times more intimidating and destructive than a standard-issue 7’ or 8’ Moose.

Ghân is loading

1st: Detect Magic, Entangle, Faerie Fire, Locate Animals, Speak to Animals

2nd: Barkskin, Cure Light Wounds, Goodberry, Heat Metal, Obscurement

3rd: Neutralise Poison, Tree

Ghân will cast Barkskin on himself, then offer to cast Obscurement (to conceal the casters in misty vapour when the orcs approach).

Thoroncir makes sure that his longsword slides easily in its scabbard, double-checks his grip on his lance and positions himself near Gil-Gandel and Theogrim. He peers off into the distance, eager for the battle to begin.

Mulligan is ready and waiting with the rest of the group in the dugout, although if I can find a better position to lookout from with giving away where I am, I will do so.

Ghân decides not to casts his obscurement spell as he realizes it reduces visibility of any sort to 2’ to 8’. It serves no purpose in protecting his friends.

Renee begins her Song of Estë.

The “Green” Orcs come sweeping past. The five ranger drop out just they pass the dugout to prepare to attack the pursuers. Ten minutes later a large group of orcs moving rapidly come by. They number around 240 and include many large Uruk-Hai. They number nearly 80 and many have large bows. In the middle of this mass are 10 orcs on wargs. One on the largest warg carries a black staff with a large Red Eye at the top. Two others carry smaller staffs. All 10 wear black cloaks with the Red Eye symbol of Sauron. Over this central group in a 60’ radius is a darkening of light like some shadow is protecting them from the sun.

The Army gets just past and the Rangers attack the left flank.
Brin fires on the Shaman, his arrows seem to deflect off the shadowy zone. He cries warning to the others.
Gwaelur hits a large Uruk in the back. He staggers but turns and leads a few dozen to the party. (Gwaelur switches to Axe and Shield)
Deor sleeps 11 orcs, leaving mostly Uruk-Hai coming at the party.
Ghân tosses an entangle between the closest orcs and the trench. He appears to have entangled 7orcs and 3 Uruk-Hai and slows 1 orc and 3 Uruk-Hai.
Mulligan slings a bullet at the slow orc and drops it.
Brin fires and hits the injured Uruk and drops him.

The cavalry is charging in at high speed, Thoroncir sees the large group charging to where Renee and the others are and spurs his horse on to great speed. Moose quickly kicks it up to a higher gear to keep up. He is not encumbered by armor or rider.

Theogrim and Captain Helton fall behind but Gil-Gandel easily keeps up, if a little behind.

Over 20 Uruk-Hai draw their bows out and prepare for the charge. Dozens of orcs fan out protecting the Bowyers and the warg riders. Gwaelur hears one of the riders cursing the Uruk that broke off to attack the dugout. Roughly translated, “You fool, bring your men back and form the defensive shield around our archers and Shamans.”

The Sea-Knight couches his lance and cries, Elendil!, charging down the biggest, meanest-looking orc before him. He’ll come about and charge again, as the opportunity presents itself. As always, if his lance becomes encumbered by an orc corpse, he’ll drop it, draw his longsword and hack away.

Ghân will use Faerie Fire, Entangle and Heat Metal as appropriate.

Gwaelur is going into full on attack mode. He is a fighting machine.

He will shout back the info he just overheard to the rest of the party.

“Try to break through their defensive wall. Their powerful Shaman’s and archers are back that way.”

The bod with the staff gets my immediate attention, as soon as I’m in range. Movie Legolas might at this point stand up and perch on his galloping horse’s shoulders for a better vantage point, but I think that’s going a little too far. :smiley:

Now to see what I can do with some proper sling bullets.

Those little glass balls: The more confusion in there the better. If I can get a few of them in a rowl confused/stunned/whatever they do, it provides a weak link through to the Shaman and archers, not mention making them easy for Gwaelur.

However, if there are any injured Orcs, switch to using the silver bullets given by my Uncle to put them down permanently.

Time for some fun. :cool:

Get Moose to hold still long enough, cast an Enlarge on him, and let him open up a clear path to the Shaman for Gwaelur. Then run, and cast Invisibility on myself.

Don’t say Ghân didn’t warn you!

Deor calls for Moose’s attention. He cast his Enlarge spell and for the next 30 minutes Moose will be 60% larger. In his case this is a over 12’ tall with an 11’ rack of antlers.

Moose bellows loudly and puts on a burst of speed to charge through the ranks of Orcs and Uruk-Hai. Theogrim and Captain Helton fall behind him as does another squad.

Thoroncir cries out “Elendil” and charges down an Uruk nearing the dugout. He hits it for 18 knocking it down and his war horse charges over top finishing it off.

Gwaelur storms out of the pit shouting “Khazad Dum”. He kills two orcs and engages 3 more. The orcs all miss him.

Brin shoots and drops two orcs, one at short range and one at point blank. When he sees Gil-Gandel he shouts out, “The Shaman on the big Warg has some sort of protection from arrows up.”

Gil-Gandel sees the party is endangered and hits three orcs dropping two of them.

The Ranger of Ithilien that returned first uses his bow to take down the last Uruk nearing the party.

Ghân’s second Entangle stops the last 5 orcs that charged over and had help the archers with their jobs. There are now 12 orcs entangled and 3 Uruk-Hai.

Mulligan fires a smoke bomb at the Shaman and it explodes about 8 feet up and 15 feet from the Shaman. The smoke spreads out over a 30’ radius dome obscuring the view in and one has to assume out.
Meanwhile the Rangers are firing at will at the Uruk-Hai archers except Riglo who charges into the fray wielding a long sword that is glowing with a bluish light. Many orcs fall back from his assault in fear and the Uruk-Hai send 10 arrows at him that mostly miss or do little damage. He kills 6 orcs on his way in and is nearing the Uruk-Hai already. A squad of cavalry followed him in and lance open a wider passage killing or maiming another 5 orcs.

The squads are riding in hard and fast. Arrows fly at them and spears are prepared. In many cases the light war horse turn at the last second and the lancers get the better of the first exchange. The drop 40+ orcs and have six riders fall out, injured or worse.

Moose barrels over 4 orcs without stopping. Several arrows have hit him, but not slowed him down. The orcs he hits with his antlers go flying, those he trampled just gurgle. The Uruk-Hai try to fallback or away but Theogrim lances one and drops it and Captain Helton kills another. The other riders widen the path through the orcs. Moose is barreling in the strange smoky cloud.

The orcs in green have turn to charge back at the enemy orcs.

Thoroncir, on Seafoam, is in the thick of things, and will continue to attack with his lance. When possible, he’ll watch for any direct threat against Renee and immediately move to counter it. Elendil! Elendil! Onward for Gondor and Elendil!