[This entry is from Robert. Both Jamie and RJ missed this session. Todd took on Cuðbert while Kathryn and Cliff’s son, Drew, came over to play Skuli. Robert was offered Cuðbert to play since his new character would not be coming into play right away and I did not know when he would come into play but he declined.
My GM comments in brackets and italics as usual.
Spoiler Alert: This session was largely taken up with an encounter from the Hellfrost Encounters Book 1…encounter #8 to be specific.]
Morning arrived with no problems. The party set out, continuing to follow the river trail, which had a number of orc tracks heading in the other direction. Smelling smoke, Cuthbert ran ahead to investigate. Further down the trail he heard the sound of someone chopping wood off the trail somewhere, so he snuck in that direction to investigate. He came upon a fairly large clearing in a depression in the ground. In the middle were 8 large tents, surrounding a campfire. scattered about the clearing were the infamous snow bushes and stonestumps of the Myrkyr Holt.
[The are some thumbnails of the camp below (click for larger versions). I had run out of time to put together enough stumps and other props for the camp. The infamous snow bushes are simply a fog or cloud prop I had and was using for bushes and the stone stumps are some stalagmites that I was using for stumps. Might as well have the props become something more than just stand in for a different prop. 😉
The other stumps were actually some hay sheaves from One Monk Miniatures free Halloween Prop release. I just adjusted the size and color to make them look more like stumps.
The first image is the bird’s eye view…I had to break out the old Tact-Tiles to get a big enough map.
The next one is a closeup of the tent area.
Next is a closeup of some of the flora of the area…including the infamous Snow Bushes and Stone Stumps!
Lastly, a more or less eye level view across the camp (Hi Rach!)
Another eye level view…
Near one of the tents, an orc was whipping a human who was chopping wood. Another orc, wielding bow, was standing by the fire nearby. They were the same tribe of orcs as before, the Eyesplitters. Cuthbert headed back to the trail to inform the others of his findings. The group decided to go back and investigate further. Cuthbert and Nissa scouted around the perimeter of the clearing, meeting up on the far side. While scouting, Cuthbert saw something hanging and swinging from a tree. It was a body wrapped in a cocoon, hanging from a web, with orc boots hanging out the bottom.
[Not that the players know this but the orc was one of the few that escaped the battle at the river ford the evening before. He had almost made his way all the way back to camp before encountering one of the giant spiders of the Holt. I suppose that if he had made it to the camp, the orcs might have been a bit more on alert than they actually were. Good thing the spider got him, right?]
While Cuthbert and Nissa were scouting, the orc dragged the human to one of the tents, and then sat by the fire. Cuthbert and Nissa met up and returned to the party, reporting that they did not see any other orcs or humans, but the tent flaps were closed, and there could easily be more orcs in the tents.
[Despite this possibility, the talk at the table was more like it was only two orcs…no problem.]
The party began to cautiously approach the tents from multiple sides, but Skuli tripped, knocking his sword against his shield very loudly. The orcs were now alerted! Andwik heard low growly from the tent he was near. Cuthbert was ambushed from behind by an orc hiding in a tree behind up. “Get up! More slaves!” one of the orcs by the fire yelled.
[Snake eyes on the Stealth check and Drew elected to accept the Benny rather than spend one to reroll. Skuli tripped over something in the snow and fell (ending up Prone) and loudly smacking his sword against his shield in the process…which did alert the orcs. The switched from being “inactive” observers to “active” observers and the one in the tree noticed Cuðbert, right below him, rather easily…although the reciprocal had not been the case (Cuðbert never spotted this orc). The orc yelled in orcish so only Skuli actually knew what was said but the shout’s role as an alarm was pretty clear to all.
As a group, we’ve been having some discussions about Savage Worlds as a “tactical” game and the role of coordinating actions and planning. One broad distinction that I’ve drawn for the group is that there are both “reactive” and “proactive” situations or encounters. In a reactive encounter, the Player Characters haven’t initiated the encounter and are forced to react or respond to it…the ambush at the river ford in the prior session is a good example. A more proactive encounter is one where the PCs are initiating the encounter and they force the opposition to react to their plans.
This orc camp was obviously a proactive situation. They knew the orcs were here but the orcs didn’t seem to know that they were here. The players had the opportunity to essentially ambush the orcs. There was some discussion back and forth about how best to attack (e.g., setting up a “gauntlet” for the orcs to come through, a “pincer” attack of coming at them from two directions). In the end though, there didn’t seem to be any clear plan of attack to me (or to the players given some of the comments). Everyone seemed to largely be doing their own thing.
When Skuli alerted the orcs, the party wasn’t really in position for any of the plans discussed or even for an effective combat.
I did screw up with the Stealth checks though. Although I tried to make it clear that the party could pretty freely move into position…as long as they used the cover of the snowbushes and stone stumps (along with the “normal” vegetation) to give them bonuses. I, however, forgot that they could move five times their normal movement with a single Stealth check when out of combat.]
Some wolves emerged from a tent and began to attack. Cuthbert climbed the tree to attack the orc who shot him. It was then that many orcs came out of the tents. There was at least a dozen! Cries for help were heard from the tent the human was thrown in. One of the orcs shot into the tent and yelled for the occupants to shut up.
The orc Cuthbert was fighting rappelled out of the tree using the rope tied around his waist, and got ready to shoot again, but Cuthbert leapt out of the tree onto the orc, killing it. Tyrannis went to the tent to investigate the cries for help. There were four prisoners, and one of them had been shot. As the combat continued, Cuthbert and Tyrannis are both gravely wounded by arrows. Karaphos, not wanting his brother to die, figured that it might be a good strategy to use a sap bolt to incapacitate Tyrannis himself! That was the orc would think he was dead and move on to someone else. However he eventually decided against it, and just tried to attack the orc instead.
[Here are some pictures of the combat. First up, Andwick gets close to the tents as three wolves charge out. Two orcs stand inside the ring of the tents.
And here’s a couple of the ambush of Cuðbert from the tree.
And out came the orcs…
This turned into a rather long and relatively difficult combat. The party essentially lost the chance to take the fight to the orcs and were largely forced to respond to the orcs’ tactics. This could be summed up as: Shoot and try to keep away from the melee fighters. It worked relatively well too. Both Cuðbert and Taranis were nearly killed…both ended the fight with three wounds and one had to use a Benny to Soak to avoid Incapacitation. Both were also just missed by additional attacks after they had reached three wounds.]
Eventually, all the orcs are killed, except for one who managed to get away. The party regrouped and healed, and freed the slaves. Three of the slaves were heading to Minolfr’s to trade with him, as they often do. A few days prior, they were ambushed by the orcs, and their two guards, Iron Guild Mercenaries were killed. They were also going to trade mead with a hermit, by leaving it in a specific place for him that Olfin knows about.
[Ölfun and Sian had previously mentioned this hermit. They trade with him (mostly foodstuffs and especially alcohol) for his alchemical devices. These merchants added that the way to trade with the hermit was to leave some goods at a stone plinth and the hermit would then find you. The merchants indicated that they had been hoping to catch up with Munólfr before he headed back to the Urðarbrunnr and do some trading with him. They also indicated that the party could have the trade goods they had brought as a thank you for having saved them. The merchants gathered up their personal gear (e.g., their winter clothing that the orcs had taken from them) and the party gathered up the trade goods and continued on their way. Skuli made it quite clear that the gear which belonged to the Iron Guild mercenaries should be returned to the Guild.]
The fourth of the slaves was a man named Drefan, who met up with the others while heading to Minolfr’s himself, and decided to travel with them.
Drefan is Robert’s new character. I had been provided no information about him other than stats so I had no idea why he was in the area. I simply went with what I had thought would be the quickest way of bringing him…as one of the individuals captured by the orcs (I never thought the fight would take most of the session). When the party started talking with Drefan and asking him questions, he was pretty tight-lipped and had very little to say to the party. It almost seemed like Drefan was hiding something. The Freelands are a dangerous place and the party knows that there are lots of bandits in the area…maybe Drefan is a bandit and had been planning on robbing the merchants when he could. Based on his responses to the questions asked (or more to the point, lack thereof), that would be my most logical conclusion. Robert just wasn’t very responsive to the other players’ attempts to play out the conversation with his character and pretty much shut down roleplaying the meeting.]
The group then continued to follow the river, heading to Minolfr’s with as much of the supplies as they could carry. Karaphos graciously burdened himself with two of the pipes and some pipeweed.
Upon arriving, it looked as if no one had been at Minolfr’s for days. The party camped for the night, and the next day they made for Askfold Stead, arriving a bit after dark. Jutta was waiting at the gate. Cuthbert handed the key and box to Jutta. Karaphos very much wanted to see the box opened, and was quite tempted to make a deal with Jutta to see it, but he eventually decided the price was too high. Minolfr and his men then came out of the gates, and Jutta gives them the chest. They looked healthy, as they had apparently made a deal with Jutta themselves.
[When the party left Askvold’s Stead to head out to recover the chest, Munólfr had indicated that he and his men would be heading back home to die in the woods that they loved. This made it somewhat strange that there was no sign of them at the camp.
Jutta apparently knew that the party was returning as she was at the gates. She offered a peek in the chest in exchange for his service…apparently too high of a price. She did, however, whisper in his ear that it did contain a plant that walked the world before man. Karaphos somehow translated that to mean an extraterrestrial and lost interest.
Munólfr and his men left with the chest but could not tell the party anything about what they were doing or their deal with Jutta. Silence was, apparently, part of the bargain.]
Drefan, seeing the fascinating things that these heroes do, thought it might be a good idea to journey with them some more. Perhaps he could be of some help…
