Froggy Tea Party Presents: Dragon of Icespire Peak

SESSION 5: Bottleneck Advantage

Knowing that there were still orcs in the farmhouse, the party readied themselves. Stout took a hidden position right at the entrance of the doorway, pressed against the wall just around the edge to lay in wait. Mama, seeing Stout prepare to stealthily attack, deftly climbed onto the awning above the main entry door in preparation to do the same. Coco giggled from the corn field knowing that she's fully safe there and chose to remain that way, and Perseus joined her while chugging a healing potion to regain some strength. His wounds healed up a bit and readied to spring into action once more. Meanwhile, upstairs, Alexander heard commotion and the footsteps of orcs. Unable to fully tell if they were coming his way, he summoned his trident and prepared to defend himself.

The orcs, now freed of the Calm Mind effect, stood in their drunken stupor and sought to find what the commotion was. Remembering they saw someone move past them through a door, an orc from the kitchen followed through that doorway to the empty foyer leading to the upstairs and back door.

Determined to find Alfonse, Alexander opened the door to his left and the door creaked heavily. The room appeared to be Alfonse's. There was an ornate bed, a desk, a dresser. It was well organized and seemed to be where Alfonse kept his life. But Alfonse wasn't there. The orc at the bottom of the stairs heard the door creek and headed up to investigate.

The orc closest to the front door reached it before the other three coming from the dining room, and Stout saw their moment to strike. From around the corner she surprised the orc coming through the doorway and swung her shortsword at them, slashing heavily across their chest.

As she did, the three orcs from the dining area appear in the entryway between the dining room and kitchen to see an orc in the door be slashed. The three moved up to the doorway but are bottlenecked because the stalky, broad shouldered orc in the doorway.

Mama heard Stout engage. She grabbed the edge of the awning, flipped down onto the porch, and also tried to sneak attack, however her footing faltered and she misses her opportunity to sneak attack, but rebounds with a one-two attack. First her shortsword gashes the orc, and then her dagger takes another cut. The surprise in the orc's eyes from just being pounced was apparent. He was not expecting to be slashed to within an inch of his life by walking through a door.

Beyond the orc she'd just attacked, Mama could see that one was different from the others, in that he wore scale mail armor, and wielded a flail and wooden shield. The leader orc yelled out in rage seeing the attack on the orc in the door, and sought to push past the orc in the door to join the fight. He yelled out obscenities and the party learned his name. Skull-Stomper.

Alexander heard the orc climbing the stairs and readied. As it appeared at the top of the stairs, he let loose an Eldritch Blast in hope of sending it flying down the stairs, however by the time the spell was fired the orc has gained footing at the top step. Instead of hitting the banister and tumbling down, it's knocked back ten feet into the upper common room. The blast looked as though it only annoyed the orc.

The orc at the main doorway, having been surprise attacked, wanted retribution. The doorway was too small to fully swing his greataxe, so it stepped out slightly and jabbed the sharp end at Mama. The point pierced into her chest. Stout reacted and protects Mama by swinging her short sword into the orc's neck, nearly decapitating it. It fell to the floor in a bloody heap. Because she'd stepped out from the wall a little, Skull-Stomper was in reach and Stout used the opportunity to take first blood on him. Reaching around the door frame, she swiped with her dagger and landed a glancing hit.

One of the two subordinate orcs shoved past Skull-Stomper to also swung his greataxe. Just barely outside the door he was able to get a swing in and gouged into Mama at a shallow angle. She was bloodied and felt her life force draining.