Season of the Witch

As the dulcet tones of Courtney Love and Hole belt out their cover of the Donovan Leitch song from the sixties the party gazes down into the Cauldron, a 1,000 foot hole in the ground with a swirling waterfall coming from the north and a pair of Harpies fighting the buffeting winds, three towers are barely visiblt on an island through the mists. This must be the abode of the Amber Witch! Already wounded by the encounter with ten Bugbears, the thought of climbing 1,000 feet down slippery, wet, moss covered rocks while fighting Harpies seems beyond crazy. If they are to succeed they must find another way to breach the witch's lair.

ooo lala

utoh!

We also got the wings of flying identified, found the command word and how long it lasts which is scaling. We gave our new dwarf companion that +3 two handed sword me, ravi, and niko liberated from the castle we assaulted so he is now a machine on the frontlines as well. The wings can only be used once a day and have a max limit of 300lb so that wouldn't work to get us down there, not to mention the winds would probably rip them apart. I can't imagine Lance is strong enough to fly in those conditions so there won't be much in the way of scouting for us. I believe our 3 fighters would be capable of scaling down this mountain with some luck on our side simply due to our strength and dex, but that would leave the party split and you guys still at the top even if it worked. Its possible there could be some ravines or something around in the area that could lead down into the cauldron, I mean the people/things down there have to get out somehow right?

aye, its possible but we'd be better served staying together. many thanks for the sword too

i dont see why we cant have a rope tied to a tree while those without bow descend and then those with shoot the harpies

1,000 feet of rope. It would have to be almost a foot thick and would weigh 2-3000#. and how long would it take to climb down that wet tree trunk size rope, might be easier to just jump. Save vs. Dex to take half of 333 damage...

i defintely rermber u saying 100 foot drop but ok

He said 1,000.

i think al here means he's got a route already in mind for us to take, which doesnt involve tonnes of rope or 1000 feet of fall damage.

Game time Robert

mouahhhhhhh. let me work the problem will get back to you all shortly.

Julio missed the epic battle of us vs. 60+ bugbears. We killed 37 of them.

yeah that is why Julio is still alive... strategically avoided death....

The group could have really used a well placed fireball last night. The Bugbears would have fought hand to hand down to the last man, and they would have won in the end. Party fatigue was just about to come into play while many fresh troops were arriving from the inner cave. Kelyn's Pyrotechnic Display , in addition to briefly blinding the Bugbears, and half of the party, scared the Bugbear Leader, when he failed his morale check, he ordered a retreat for those not actively engaged. Bugbears will never back down from a fight, unless some caster threatens to blast them with arcane fury. Magic scares simple fighter types, they can't hit it and it can hit them. Kelyn is the heroine here . A flashy, mildly effective spell can do more than several swords chopping people down. All classes have their place in any party. The fighter, the caster, the healer, the trap finder & door unlocker all play a part in the game. While you can survive without them for a time, there will be large holes, literally and figuratively, in any group that does not have the full complement of abilities.

Now that the dust has cleared, there were 21 Bugbears in the original encounter with 40 more joining as reinforcements for a total of 61. 37 were slain ( 60.66 %), including 5 leaders. 24 escaped to fight another day, of which 11 were temporarily blinded. The Bugbears had a long summit during the rest period. While you could not hear the words distinctly, the songs of mourning and the proud declarations of resistance to the invaders from above were easily conjured from the sounds.

I still think they ones to the south should have had an instant morale check when Ragnar came charging across the cave, leapt 30 feet into the air and came down on the front bugbear piercing it from skull to foot. In terms of fatiguing out, I think the upper group was more concerned with their health levels than fatiguing. Ravi, Volk and Brinley were all pretty beat up by the end.

Actually Ravi was at the end of his rope, starting in one round he would start getting cumulative minuses to his attack, as well as being low of HP, the group would have become increasingly more ineffective. In this case splitting the party as you did, nullified the natural flanking instinct any hunter would have. Backing would have had a similar effect, but allowed the enemy to have partial cover to attack from. Of course they will have reacted, so next Saturday you will deal with older, wiser Bugbears...

Knuckles & Lance can keep scouting above to try and find another way down, but the bugbear caves seem like the most obvious route in. Good strategy by the Witch.

The only other cave I remember seeing up top was the one the harpies were coming out of and I don't think we can reach that one, nor do we want to tangle with harpies.