Dan:

Combat started and we re-rolled initiative.  Brisc went first and stabbed a dagger into the bone door/gate so it couldn't close.  "Him" moved forward just behind the gate.  The hobgoblin archer shot at Clarissa and "She" moved next to the "Him" and threw a hatchet at TerStegan.  Xeeli jammed the other door so we were no longer in danger of being locked out.  Clarissa cast Grease on "Him" and "She", however they both made their saves.  Then TerStegan killed the Cockatrice with a crit.

Dave:

Our heroes continued their assault on the Hag’s Keep.  TerStegan had moved just inside and was facing the two Ogres.  The archers behind the arrow slits were further isolated by the open doors which made them tough to get at.  Clarisa had laid a line of Grease under the Ogres.  One slipped and lost a couple actions but they just stepped back and continued to use their reach.  But the heroes had to navigate around it for the rest of the fight.  Mostly it was whittled down the chickens and goblins and try to keep the front-line guys up from the Ogre onslaught.  But we weren’t doing much against them.  The archers were no joke but the Ogres were the real threat.  They had the usual high defenses and attacks.  So high, that when they hit, they almost always crit.  And an Ogre crit was 40+.  Plus, they got extra effects on their attacks like shove and trip.  Lastly, they had reach and opportunity attacks so with their size, they covered a lot of territory.  They were “on par” with the single foes we’ve been fighting but there were two of them plus supporting minions.  A tough fight, to be sure especially after expending resources on the bridge battle last time with no rest between.

After a couple of rounds, things were not looking good for our heroes.  The Ogres were mostly untouched and we were reeling.  The casters were mostly out of spells and Brisco had used his Battlefield Medicine on everyone.  Paul was rolling poorly and that wasn’t helping.  Oakwood showed up, did a bit of healing, turned on his damage field and moved up to get as many foes in it as possible.  At least he had a fresh pool of hit points.  Xeelie got crit and was forced to back out.  However, around here, Clarisa used a charge of her Necklace of Fireballs and did a bunch of damage.  The Him Ogre was finally at least injured.  We concentrated fire on Him and he finally fell with a hero point driven crit from TerStegan.  The goblins and chickens had been taken out along the way so there was only Her and one Hobgoblin left.  However, she was barely injured.  She racked up Oakwood.  She hit and moved him into the Grease.  When he stood up from being prone, she crit him with an opportunity attack and he was almost out.  Xeelie was out and Briscoe poured a healing potion down her.  But BTO was having tech issues and had to drop right afterwards.  But luckily, she started missing after that crit on Oakwood.  She missed 6 straight swings while everyone concentrated her.  She finally dropped and we survived.

At this point, it was after midnight so we talked about stopping there.  But we debated a bit.  Wade offered to pull us out of combat and start with the looting and healing but Paul wanted to get his last two rounds of his Bless spell.  He was for charging forward.  In addition, we could hear the Hag doing some sort of ritual so realistically, we couldn’t afford a 10-minute rest anyway.  We ended up taking one round to do some quick healing.  Briscoe did a battle-med on Oakwood and Oakwood passed out some Fresh Produce.  TerStegan ate his but Oakwood and Briscoe will have to use an action next round.  Clarisa gave Oakwood some temp hit points.  Xeelie was left out since she wasn’t on the map but at least she had that potion in her.  She’ll probably need some battle-med from Oakwood first thing next time.  Hit point wise, we’re in pretty good shape.  I think this is a “solve the bandit problem” side quest so the rewards should be good.  But can we defeat a Hag (and minions) with no spells and very little healing left? We’ll find out next time.

Brian/GM: