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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 3045599" data-attributes="member: 3586">Fighter, Rogue, Incarnate, Warlock, Dragon Shaman and Warmage. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />For those interested, my party was:Human Bard/Druid/Rogue, Azurin Totemist, Azurin Incarnate, Dwarf Soulknife, Human Scout, Halfling Druid/WizardIn their first expedition, they crept through the hole in the wall, did some scouting, killed the Wyvern, and then ran from the resulting commotion.In their second expedition, they crept into the guest quarters, slew the emissaries, and then attacked the orc chief in his hall. The totemist died in the encounter, but otherwise they played *very* well, and really caught the orcs off guard.At this point, various orc patrols were scouring the land for them. That "cave" they were in they'd found through use of the Survival skill. The orcs didn't find them... but instead a few elves that were in the vicinity. One elf survived, but was captured and taken prisoner. The PCs encountered the orc patrol, slew it, and rescued the elf. Hello, new PC! (Elf Soulborn).The third expedition found the top level mostly unguarded (the orcs were out looking for the PCs, after all!) and they penetrated the dungeons, making their way to the third level before expending too many of their resources and retreating.At this point, the orcs found their hideout! The PCs fled towards the nearby Suss Forest (I'd placed this adventure in the Pomarj of the World of Greyhawk), where they used a wand of web they'd recently acquired to make pursuit a lot harder, and then came across a friendly band of centaurs that offered aid.The fourth expedition allowed them to reach the final dungeon level and slay the orogs and rescue the prisoners... but both the elf and the halfling died in the final battle (mainly due to a miscommunication with the dwarf, who had been providing them with protection).If I'd wanted to, I could have made things a lot harder for the PCs, but that doesn't make for an entertaining game where there's a TPK every session. What orc reinforcements there were didn't cover the losses, and if there's a lot of ground to cover, searching by orc patrols isn't going to be so effective. (The good Survival check of the ranger ensured that the party's hideout was far enough away so that the orcs wouldn't find it easily).The "cave" was, of course, inspired by Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. In the introductory text to that adventure, we can find, "It is assumed that the party has safely arrived at a spot near the giants' stronghold - a small cave, well hidden, where they can be assured of being undetected... If the party decides to retire between forays against the Steading, they may be assured of relative safety at the hidden cave base camp - provided they take moderate precautions not to leave a plain trail or be followed to this sanctuary." There's a lot of similarities between the two adventures!Cheers!</blockquote>

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