The Second D&D Tarak Campaign - Bloodbath in Varpeak Valley

5 days ago

Welcome to the ongoing saga of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran a little while back. It started off using The Sunken Citadel module from the Tales From The Yawning Portal source book, but was then fitted into my Homebrew setting and moved on from there.

Last time, we left our party half-charging and half-sliding down a steep slope to attack the leader of the orc army and his bodyguards....

I hope you enjoy my D&D campaign write-ups, and the commentary I add to them. Questions, comments and feedback are welcome !

Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio

The party's charge was a fairly chaotic affair, taking the orcs by surprise, but with the party finding that the slope was steeper than they'd expected and more slippery. Loose scree with a light coat of fresh snow on top created a huge risk of sliding out of control and landing prostrate at the feet of the orc leader's bodyguards.

There was one member of the party who stayed under control; Garnet. As an aasimar, they could fly, and used this to sweep down alongside the party and peel off at the last moment to attack the trolls who accompanied Jabzug Dwarfswallower.

This was exactly the right thing to do. The trolls' fearsome regenerative ability was stopped dead by fire. Garnet was (as we've seen previously) quite a fan of spells like Burning Hands and Fireball, and unloaded them freely. Meanwhile they stayed just airborne enough to be out of reach of the trolls but not high enough to be a target for orc archers on the other side of the avalanche barricades.

The rest of the party somehow (!) made dexterity saves to remain upright and ploughed into the rest of Jabzug's bodyguard. In addition to the two trolls Garnet was tying up, the bodyguards consisted of four orogs, four ogres, and a 4th level orc shaman, a Hand of Yurtrus.

Jabzug himself was an orc war chief with maximum hit points. He also had a unique magical item; Jabzug's Olifant. This massive horn could be heard from a mile away, and once a day could be blown to be heard seven miles away and have the effect of a Dispel Magic spell on all opponents within 100 feet.

It was the poor shaman who took the brunt of the charge. Recognising a spell-caster on the way down, Erioch went straight for him, aiming to cut down what could be the most serious threat as fast as possible. It worked, the shaman was smashed to a pulp by in the very first round of attacks.

While Erioch and Garnet were dealing with their enemies, Griff and Fartacus focused their efforts on Jabzug himself. Ignoring the ogres and orogs was a risk, and caused them to take some serious damage, but it was worth it. Tied up in combat, Jabzug gave as good as he got, but was too busy to exercise any tactical control.

A round later, Erioch arrived behind him, and with three deadly and well co-ordinated enemies surrounding him, started to falter. Garnet was also able to include the ogres in a couple of area effect spells that were mainly aimed at the now severely debilitated and demoralised trolls, which diverted their attention.

After a couple more rounds of fierce combat, Jabzug fell to the ground. Erioch and Griff turned on the annoying ogres and orogs while Fartacus (nominally a bard, but by this time quite a useful second-line fighter) applied a coup-de-gras to ensure Jabzug stayed down.

With their leader gone, the fight went out of the surviving bodyguards. But there was no surrender; both party and enemy were trapped by the avalanches and steep scree slope.

So the fight carried on to it's inevitable conclusion. All the enemy lay dead, the snow stained with blood and body parts. The party were also on their last legs, sorely wounded but not down. Apart from Garnet, who came out of the fight without a scratch. Life's like that, sometimes.

Next time.... epilogue

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9 comments

@thehivetuber 61

5 days ago

Garnet flying in and roasting those trolls was awesome lol. Fire spells are the best for stopping their healing. The fight was obviously a hard one but the team managed to pull through. Nice writing man

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@alonicus 70

4 days ago

Thanks ! It was a strange group, this one. They made so many dumb decisions, but when it came to going into battle they were like a well-oiled machine....

!BBH

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@thehivetuber 61

3 days ago

hahaha they know how to do battle

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@zakludick 74

4 days ago

The mage is so cheesy hehehe. Someone needs to knock them down a peg sometime! 😜

I'm starting to feel sorry for all the Orcs and their allies. haha

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@alonicus 70

4 days ago

lol, yeah, the orcs in my world are probably not orc-y enough. I guess I don't see them as bad guys, just a bit hot tempered and uncouth. After all, when you're an orc, eating humans isn't cannibalism.....

As for Garnet... yeah. The peg was indeed knocked down, but that was sometime later and more of an OOC thing by someone else rather than me.....

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@zakludick 74

4 days ago

!LOL

The Orcs in Maledictus Terra there are two groups of Orcs, the group that was sealed away for hundreds of years are civilized tribes. There is another group of Orcs who are unreasoning savages who have devolved in their range of intelligence.

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@lolzbot 71

4 days ago

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What did the tie say to the hat?
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@alonicus 70

3 days ago

I like it ! I wonder how much of a challenge it is to work out rapidly which variety you're dealing with. I guess the smart suits or tribal fetishes thing is likely to be a giveaway....

!BBH

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@zakludick 74

3 days ago

Haha. They are both tribal... but the crazy ones have zero language and are unreasoningly violent, but also careless and stupid.

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