Play Report Mar 31 2026 - Crow's Keep #32
Introduction
A short but eventful one today! The band returns to the Caves of Chaos for a good old-fashioned search and destroy mission. I have long had the orcs ready to go, so it was a light and easy session from the judgeβs perspective.
I used the orc mace from Wonder & Wickedness here. One of the PCs was struck by it, and I had them make 3 escalating saves: DC 10 Fortitude for it to start; DC 15 Fortitude to avert the physical changes into an orc; a final DC 18 Will save to avoid becoming an orc in mind and body.
Aislinn failed all but the last, becoming my campaignβs version of a half-orc. To reflect this, I gave her a -2 to Personality, as well as a sort of half-Deed die. Half-orcs get a Vile Acts of Violence die, which scales up as a warrior of half the characterβs level. In order to use it, the character needs to first kill something (that gets their blood pumping, of courseβno bags of rats here). This gives them a one-time deed die which is spent when used, expiring after an hour.
Were I to spin out half-orc into a fully fledged class, I would give it the Vile Acts die, some thief skills (hide, sneak silently, backstab, etc) and a d8 HD to match the orc monster in the book.
Report
In attendance:
- Boris, level 1 dwarf
- HBGB, level 2 halfling
- Aislinn, level 2 thief
Plus the retainers Ingham, level 1 cleric, and Rolfr, level 1 wizard.
With the dragon Maldraakisβs command still ringing in his ears, Boris the dwarf organized an expedition to the Caves of Chaos. There, the Ogre-whelming Force would seek Papa Doorknocker, the orc who had stolen the staff Uzelin from the dragonβs hoard! The band also suspected that Doorknocker may have been the orc who left the bloody handprints in Zelligar's hidden library.
Eschewing men-at-arms to better move quietly through the Caves, the band traveled by boat and docked at Saint Olimβs, leaving the boat in the care of some doughty river marines. From there, it was a short match along the road to the Caves of Chaos!
Though the gnolls were gone and the kobolds vanquished, the Caves were still alive with activity. In particular, the fraternal conflict between the orc gangs seemed alive and well, with big, by-the-book orcs shoving and arguing with their mutant kin. The conflict was soon put to bed by a mutated orc boss, with many arms like an insect and a flexing prehensile, who came out to bully the gangs into submission!
Once the orcs had shuffled back into their lair, Aislinn, Boris, and Heebie Jeebie went ahead into the orc cave where the mutant boss had retired. Within, dull torches flickered and the sound of feasting pigs reverberated through the stone halls.
Heebie Jeebie counted a dozen orcs to the west and some sort of foul mead-hall to the east. Aislinn and Boris scurried ahead, with Aislinn dispatching a guard and Boris reaching a dead-end. As the dwarf examined the suspect stones at the far side of the corridor, Aislinn witnessed the orc-boss from earlier executing captives. For this purpose, he swung an orc-headed mace, killing them one by one until the last captive survived! The scouts looked on in horror as the victim violently transformed into an orc himself!
Reasoning that this was certainly their quarry, the band charged the orc-boss! Heebie Jeebie was ensnared by the orcβs tail and whipped around like a toy, while Aislinn was struck in the temple by the orc-mace!
As Aislinnβs head swam and skin bubbled, Boris swung his hammer at the bossβs head, felling the mutant war pig. The Force scarcely had time to loot the orcβs chambers before being flushed out by his followers! Thinking quickly, the hired wizard Rolfr offered a pound of flesh to the primordial forces of magic to allow the band to leap from the cliffside and get a head start on their pursuers.
Behind them they heard a stentorian and guttural voice intone a spell of his own, and soon a gang of orcs overtook the band in the woods, moving at blinding speed. Some were run off with a swift show of force, but they gave the band hell, nearly slaying Rolfr and Boris. Some quick thinking and clever judo against the high-speed hogs bought the Force their freedom, leaving behind the orcs and fleeing to Saint Olimβs.
As they licked their wounds in the safety of the old hermitage, they realized that they had slain Curseblood, the mutant boss, and that the wizard casting spells from the cave mouth had been their true quarry, Papa Doorknocker. As the band loaded their camp into their boat, they were already planning how best to claim the orc-wizardβs head.
Aislinn spent many days bedridden, trying to fend off the orc transformation with herbal medicine and the healing of the clerics. In the end, she staved off the final changes and maintained her free will, but was forever warped and deformed. She is now known to all as Aislinn Half-orc.