Froggy Tea Party Presents: Dragon of Icespire Peak

SESSION 4: Shrodinger's Farmer

After convincing Goliath the Giant Spider to come with them, the party returned to the cart where Nausicaa slumbers. They checked on her, and found nothing had changed. Packing everything up, they prepared to leave. Goliath questioned why the party was in Conyberry at all, and they explained their quest to save Alfonse at Butterskull Ranch. Goliath mentioned how they had hunted there one time and were chased off by Alfonse and the ranch hands, never to hunt there again. Goliath told the party that it feared going there and has the party promise that they will protect it if it comes to it. They promised, but not wanting to upset their newfound spider companion the party asked Goliath about the Shrine of Savras as an alternative to going to the ranch. He mentioned that it was a staging area for the orcs who attacked Conyberry and that last they saw there was a large contingent of orcs still there. The party chose to hedge their bets that there were less orcs at Butterskull Ranch and headed east.

Leaving Conyberry the party traveled the Triboar Trail. Because the land was flat, they were able to make out where the ranch was in the distance, and rather than follow the trail they cut across the grassy plain on a less traveled and more direct path to the ranch. About two miles before they reached the ranch they encountered a lone cow. She grazed on grass near the bumpy dirt path, and Alexander used Speak with Animals to talk to it. Petunia told them she didn't know how she got there, that she'd just followed the smell of good grass and kept eating. She described that the pasture she came from had grass, but not this good because it was sparse and trampled on. The party didn't quite know Petunia was from the Ranch, but had an inkling. They convinced Petunia to follow them.

The party reached the ranch's edge and investigated the fencing that encompassed the area. The fencing cut to the left and right of the party, and then separated an open pasture from corn fields. They knew they were in the right place but couldn't immediately see the farmhouse. It was mostly quiet, but in the far distance was the sound of wood shattering, as if furniture was being thrown and smashed about. Not wanting to draw any particular attention yet, they chose to hide amongst the cornstalks. Mama stayed with the cart to keep an eye Nausicaa, Goliath, and Petunia. Goliath, in fear, told the party that he would hide underneath the cart and suck his body up to the bottom to stay hidden.

The party waded through the corn until they reached an orchard of apples and pears. The trees were neatly aligned and didn't provide a significant amount of cover. A decision was made amongst the group to stay in hiding. After a thorough surveyed of the land, it was noticed that the corn field wrapped up and around the ranch, which would hide their approach to the farmhouse. Back into the safety of the corn stalks, they waded through the eastern fields and then turned north, keeping the ranch lands in view to their left. Reaching the edge of the corn field they found themselves very near the farmhouse.

The party stayed hidden while Alexander stepped out and began investigating. As he did a shadow passed by a window and spotted him. The light hit the green skin of an orc and it let out a guttural battle cry. He and three others charged out of the house from the front door with their greataxes in hand, ready to fight. Many more heavy footsteps could be heard inside.

As Alexander was the only one to step from the corn stalks, the orcs remained unaware of the party members hiding amongst the corn, giving them an advantage. Stout emerged and surprised the first orc, swinging hard on him. She put her blade into his neck and gashed him. Perseus followed immediately after with his greataxe in hand and in one fell swoop brought the axe down on a second orc, cutting him in two. Heavy footsteps stomp toward the farmhouse's entry door and two additional orcs emerged to survey the fight. They barely had time to do much except gawk at the gore of their fellow orc warrior on the ground.

One of the four who'd emerged at the start attempted to attack Alexander, but because he'd been drinking heavily he was very off kilter. When the orc attacked Alexander, he tried to swing his greataxe, but instead lost balance and stumbled forward. He caught himself from falling by grabbing onto Alexander, throwing his arms around him. Alexander attempted to retaliate with his weapons, but was thrown off by the orc now wrapping his large arms around him. He misjudged the girth of the orc and instead of hitting when he swung his daggers, he wrapped his arms around the orc in an impromptu bro hug.

The other orc seeing his buddy cleaved in two turned to Perseus and landed a glancing blow. Perseus, though damaged doesn't let the small wound affect them. Mama, hearing the commotion coming from nearby makes a mad dash from the cart, through the corn field and orchard up to the garden area, she sees there is something going on, but wanted to get closer to see what.

Miss Coco used her Bardic spell, Calm Emotions from the safety of the corn field, putting the orcs into an indifferent mood, all but the two who could see the orc who'd been cut in half. Those two standing by the door were briefly affected but snapped out of it. Her own party members were able to resist the charm of the spell and remained able to continue the fight.

Stout attempted to finish off the orc nearest, but the swing missed. Perseus tried to get another single strike kill, but as their axe came down the orc moved slightly and the greataxe cleaved the ground instead. Unknown to Alexander and the orc hugging, the battle was fairly equal until Alexander tried a different tactic and used their power of intimidation to talk down to the orc and force him to think about what a failure he is. The words stung and while physically unharmed, takes damage to his psyche and slips into a drunken depression. The orc is demoralized and moves to leave the fight area.

Mama on approach to the farmhouse sees the orc striding away from the area, but rather than jump into an attack, she uses her investigative abilities to determine what she should do. Seeing that the orc heading her way was not hostile, she simply gave him a nod. He nodded back and they passed each other. As she approached the house she saw that some sort of battle had gone on, but she waited to see the next actions of her party members before making an attack.

Coco, seeing Alexander's tactic, also decided to try her hand at bullying an orc into giving up and walking away. She successfully talked down to the one Stout had wounded, telling him that he should leave before anything (more) bad happens. He saw things weren't going well, and being wounded follows after his orc buddy. He catches up with him and they continue to walk along the path together talking of getting more to drink.

Stout intercepted one of the orcs near the door and moved to him and took a stab at him. She successfully wounded him and then disengaged to hide back in the corn stalks. Perseus swung his axe at the remaining orcs who had first exited the house and dealt a heavy blow. The orc hit back and slashed at Perseus, dealing a bit more damage, but nothing Perseus couldn't handle. Mama had held her attack until seeing what was going on, and having seen they were fighting swung her shortsword into the one that struck Perseus. The orc fell to the ground and his blood stained the dirt.

Alexander attempted to blast an orc with Eldritch Blast, but just barely missed its head. Seeing that they might become the target of the orc he hid inside the house's doorway. He spotted two orcs on the kitchen floor, indifferent to his presence as they are enthralled with drinking ale.

Mama moved in on one of the orcs and slid her daggers into his side, taking him down. Coco's Calm Emotions spell ended and rather than risk the rest of the unknown number of orcs inside the farmhouse coming out, she cast Calm Emotions a second time. Stout and Mama were unable to resist the spell, but Alexander and Perseus did. The orcs were put into a passive state again, giving the party time to breathe.

Stout looked in the window to the right of the entryway door and saw three additional orcs sitting in a far corner of a dining room passive, but drinking.

Rather than risk the last orc fall out of the spell again and call attention to the ones still in the house, the party ganged up on him. Stout, Perseus, and Mama took him out while Alexander explored the house, looking to free Alfonse. He headed past the orcs drunk on the kitchen floor, into a foyer, and up to the second floor.

The party took a deep breath to decide what their next move will be...