The Screaming Devilkin that the PCs killed last session wasn’t that dangerous in itself but the ruckus he made sure attracted attention!

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

• Aracyne, Elf Hunter, Guild Leader, (Isaac)
• Jedri, Ratman Thief (Isaac)
• Forka, Dogman Knight (Edmond)
• Torch, Goblin Torchbearer, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
• Ghardeet, hired Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman (me)

Level 4A

• The Battle Brothers go back at the entrance of Level 4 nearby and there they see someone coming from the south. It’s an orc, grievously wounded but still standing. They decide to capture him so they can interrogate him at their leisure and get more information about this level. They jump on him but right at this moment there’s much noises coming from the ogre lair just the other side of the eastern door.
• The orc isn’t happy either at the idea of meeting with ogres and they all flee together southward and then east into natural passages – unexplored territory yet for the PCs.
• There’s boiling sounds coming from the east and it’s also noticably warmer the more they advance. The orc says it’s not a good place, better follow him and get to his home he says. The PCs accept to follow him.
• They backtrack a little and now they see several ogres (five of them) coming their way. They hurry and turn south and then east, fleeing away from the brutes. After more than an hundred feet they turn north and soon get at the entrance of a large cavern (dimly lit).

• There’s a lower section in the middle of the cavern with an island in the middle. To the left and right are also elevated sections and five orc archers stand on each side, bow at the ready.
• The wounded orc shouts: « don’t shoot, it’s Snagrat! » They shoot anyway, the orc get hit by a several arrows and dies. Torch the not-expendable-goblin-anymore blocks many arrows with his nice dwarven shield.
• The PCs hear the ogres behind them and they decide to they’d be better taking on the orcs and they all try to jump on the eastern section (I’ve messed up with the difference in elevations, that shouldn’t have been possible, oops o_O).
• They all succeed to jump, except Ghardeet who didn’t react quickly enough (slow iniative) and gets caught by a massive blow from an ogre’s club from behind and he’s down! Aracyne shouts to Ghardeet to get up already (rally) and get with them and the mage makes an ultimate effort, get on his feet and tries a levitate spell but fails, falls down all the way to the bottom of the cliff and dies…
• The Battle Brothers have lost their hired mage and are now fighting against 5 orcs in melee. The 5 archers on the other side concentrate their fire on the ogres for the moment and kill the closer one, the one who clubbed Ghardeet, forcing the remaining ogres to turn tail. The archers then switch their focus on the adventurers and shoot at them but, in the confusing melee, they hit their comrades as often as not.
• Aracyne isn’t in melee though, he stays behind his companions with his bow and he kills two orc archers and disable another over the course of the fight. He manages to evade several arrows aimed at him too (good evade skill and fast footwork).
• Meanwhile, Forka, Jedri and Torch slowly gain the advantage despite being initially outnumbered. They eventually kill all 5 orcs on their side but they’re also all pretty banged up from this fight, with heavily-armored Forka being the least wounded.
• But now they see a throng of orc warriors coming from the west and they don’t have much choice but fleeing the way they came, with the remaining orc archers shooting at them (but missing fortunately). Forka throws Torch moria-style across the chasm (as his acrobatic skill his poor and he suffers from a condition making it even more difficult) and then himself, Jedri and Aracyne jump back on the southern section.
• They hurry down the passage to get away from the orc arrows. The ogres don’t seem to have lingered fortunately.
• They want to go back at the level’s entrance and they go westward but then they see a giant lizard (pretty much like a komodo dragon in my mind, bacteriological-hazard bite included) coming at them from a side-passage (random encounter) and they now sprint to escape.
• They’re in sight of the entrance, the stairs, with the giant lizard breathing down Aracyne’s neck (last on marching order) and they can see an ogre sort-of keeping watch nearby. They dash for the stairs. Aracyne dodges a bite attempt from the giant lizard and then also manages to get into the stairs. Now the ogre and giant lizard face each other and start fighting harryhausen-style and the adventurers climb up not looking down. Halfway, Aracyne throws up from exertion (sickly condition) and almost fall to his death but he wills himself and soldiers on.
• From Level 3 they get to Level 2 pretty quickly with the ladder that leads to the secret room and then they’re down to Level 1 in no time.
• There their hobgoblin allies complain that the blockade of Level 1 isn’t doing that great, the adventurers are inflicting heavy casualties on them. But they also trapped one party into the special room, they’re there right now but one adventurer mage have blocked access with a magic stone wall. By the time the hobgoblins manage to enter the room the adventurers are gone, the portcullis trapping them smashed open. There’s one dead adventurer left in the room, it seems like the Black Axes don’t care that much for each other.
• Chief Nerulf is in a bad mood and he tells the Battle Brothers that since they lost his mage (Ghardeet) he’ll keep theirs (Hedralynn) as his warriors need a healer.
• The Battle Brothers leave Gunderholfen to go back in Longfelt and, apart from a few stings from angry wasps, don’t have any troubles crossing Ganfal Swamp.

Closing Comments:

• Very near tpk territory here. In fact if I hadn’t messed up with the elevation in the orc cavern I don’t think they could have survived.
• I’m a bit disappointed by myself for that mistake really. Not that they haven’t been killed but I very much like verticality in dungeons, something that is often lacking, so to mess this up is annoying. Less skimming through the rooms’ description I guess.
• The rally mechanics in Dragonbane allows for a fellow characters to « persuade » another to still act even getting down to 0 hp. I was on the fence about that but I think it makes sense narratively speaking and I’m all for it now. There’s also a « 3 failures- 3 successes » count (borrowed from D&D 5E no doubt) and that I don’t like that much and I’m replacing with the grittier Frail feature from Worlds without Number where one is kept at just another hitpoint from dying unless he receives magical healing.
• Fleeing in unkown territory is very very risky. Their orc « guide » had his own motives for sure. The issue of whom to trust is maybe a bit too much to ask from my young players though. They have a nice childhood, why wouldn’t they be trustful? Well ttrpgs are good for a variety of reasons, one is to simulate non-favorable situations and learn from those perhaps (i.e not everyone has your best interest in mind).
• I like the concept of the Screaming Devilkin monster. More of an alarm system than a real threat, it does only light damage but is hard to kill (27hps as per the book). The real threat of course is in having a good chance of provoking a random encounter and possibly alerting nearby denizens too. I’m thinking about making them somewhat more prevalent in the dungeon, that may be a bit evil…