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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bryan898" data-source="post: 1927420" data-attributes="member: 9085">We had an extremely long and truly inspiring battle last night that I have to share.  It took over 6 hours, and we usually go quickly. The battle was truly awesome though, like the scene in "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" where they hold off the orcs and goblins in the burial chamber of the king.The party consisted of five people, 3rd level characters with a 25 point buy, in the Midnight Campaign Setting.  The party consisted of: a tactical fighter (me), a classic dungeon dwelling rogue, a rogue specializing in espionage and information, an elven channeler, and a halfling wildlander. We were in a smaller town ruled by Izrador's forces.  Recently we had been using guerilla tactics to take down small patrols, and had taken down about 1/4 of the local orcs (and assassinated the local Legate).  After one such excursion we ambushed some drunken orcs and an ogre after leaving the bar.  While the party thieves were invisible standing about 10' in front of me I taunted the group.  Either the temptation for some fun or the huge reward on my head motivated them to charge. It didn't matter as the rogue cut them down as they charged, and those that got through met my longspear (hold the line).  The rest bolted, after giving chase their yells were heard and we saw activity at the fort.  I immediately bolted for cover, then the DM counted down from three as the other players stood there dumbly (sometimes I wonder).  The ballista shot landing nearby woke them up rather quickly, and we retreated. We returned to our hideout, an abondoned dwarven force constructed out of stone which no one had been in for 200 years.  We broke by breaking through some large bars in the chimney, so the only entrance we had was via the 5x5 chimney due to the DC 40 lock on the door.  We set up to rest, not thinking to hide as we entered (we had become used to retreating to her).  Because it would be rather conspicous to have someone on the roof we took watch below, assuming someone would just jump down the chimney.... sometimes we're dumb...That night we awoke to see barrels of oil being poured down our chimney.  Then the floor and chimney became a raging inferno and we had no way out.  I jumped into the flames, risking the burn to look up and see a tower shield blocking the way.  That with a chimney slicked with oil made escape impossible.  We wet some blankets and tryed to suffocate the flames, which helped a little, but not nearly enough.  Having an idea the wildlander ran to the other room and called me over.  We began bashing into the wall at a high spot in the far room with mauls.  After a couple of minutes we cleared a small hole about 15' up (we stood on blacksmith equiment).  Eventually the fire started to die down as they ran out of oil, and we waited it out in the corner under the hole with wet blankets over our heads.  When it finally stopped we went over to get out, but could hear the footsteps overhead.  Standing over the chimney was a huge half-ogre warrior in half-plate armor.  Our thief turned invisible and tryed climbing up the chimney only to meet a javelin in his face, then hit the ground hard, leaving him unconscious.  We moved in and tried some cover fire while I used a grappling hook to try and climb up.  The half-ogre shook the arrows off like a dog shaking off water.  After getting about halfway, the half-ogre grinned and slashed the rope, dropping me on my companions painfully.  Out of ideas, and a little worried that we were trapped I began desperately pounding down the foot thick stone door with a maul.  Within minutes I could hear the movement outside of troops mobilizing. The party wizard then came up with a great idea.  He turned me invisible, and I took a grappling hook and some coiled rope.  I left most of the rope outside the chimney, while the others took up a hold on it, built some momentum with the rope and threw it right at the half-ogre.  Rolled a natural 20, and got the hook to attach firmly, then yelled "pull' and we began a tug of war.  The first round we tied the half-ogre (the other four helping me), then the half ogre tried to break the rope but failed.  The next round proved much better with a natural 20, we pulled him down hard, and he landed head first right on me.  We rolled out of the chimney wrestling on the floor, and as he brandished a dagger near my throat the party thief thrust his sword into his back, finding an opening.  Then they came...Next dropped in a troll, that headlessly jumped down, he charge right in and almost killed the party ranger in the first round shredding through skin and muscle.  We immediately jumped him, I charged right in gutting him with a power attack and a critical, but the troll raged on.  The theif flanked him and hit him in the jaw with his mace, nearly breaking it off.  Then five more orcs jumped down the chimney, the troll ripped into my shoulder, and took a bit of my arm before I took him down in the next round.  For the next 2 hours we fended off groups of orcs 5 strong at a time, a new group coming every round.  Waves of orcs came and worn us down, doing damage here and there, and our resources slowly ran out.  Ogres came and took out the wildlander with a large hit.  Another troll came and the classic thief dropped.  Then more orcs, occasionally interspersed with an orc cheiftain.  After a few hours we were left battered and bloody, everyone but my character (the tank), and the party channeler layed bloody on the ground.  My character had 9 hp left, and the party channeler had been having to resort to sacrificing Con to cast spells, he was down to 2 Con.  Then the goblins came... wave after wave of goblins.  I took a position in front of the channeler with my bastard sword (combat reflexes and hold the line), and the channeler used rapid shot to rain death on the goblins, we fended them off barely... taking a few hits.  The cleric dropped to 1 Con healing me with his last spell.  Then the big orc cheiftain dropped through the chimney.... I threw an orc javelin, planting it firmly in his stomach.. the orc simply ripped it out and charged right through the channeler's arrows.  I slashed him across the knee, throwing off his aim enough so I could dodge.  The next round I stabbed him through the shoulder, and the channler threw a javelin that caught him in the ribs.  With a vicious blow the orc cheiftain's mace cracked on my temple and I blackened out.  Grabbing a javelin the channeler charge the cheiftain, and plunged the javelin through his backside... With a loud grunt the cheiftain fell... and all was quiet.  In all we fought off the rest of the orc forces in the town during the battle: 60-70 orcs, 20 goblins, 10 ranger orcs, 10 orc cheiftains, 6 ogres, 2 trolls, and the big orc cheif.  It took us forever, and every character dropped at one point or another, but the battle was one of the most exhilirating and epic I've ever had in D&D.  We were all on the edge of our seats for this whole battle, and we didn't even break once in the whole six hours (a feat for our group).  Now we just have to wait for the retalliation!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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