Crossing the Celduin *Spoiler alert*

[Michebugio]

You could also give the players an easy win once in a while. Not everything has to be a ragged, desperate victory.

While I would agree under most circumstances, the Crossing of Celduin *has* to be a ragged, desperate victory

[Khamul]

I second that... it should be their toughest fight so far.

[Fridokind Wargaug]

For my players it wasn't actuallay that hard unfortunately. They tore the bridge down so the army tried crossing a few miles east of the bridge on a semi-ford. I told them, that only three of them can stand next to each other, so three they were and were only attacked by one orc a time (the fourth one was constantly doing music, the fifth had bow).

They did this strategy again in the Zirakzigil fighting only while standing in hallways and doors and such. So I guess they will never want to fight on an open battle field again

[Michebugio]

I bring this topic up once again since my group is playing the final assault tonight and as the Loremaster I would need some advice from those who already played it.

Is it too hard? Too easy? How well did your players fare against the Gibbet King?

[zedturtle]

I abbreviated the number of rounds (due to it being PbP) but had the enemies scale up each round (by the end they were fighting Black Uruks). When the GK arrived, I was thinking that they'd be hosed but they all had pretty good Wisdom (3 or 4, mostly) and thus made most of their Corruption Tests. Their initial plan (the put wood down on the bridge and planned to set it on fire when the GK attacked) was short circuited by flaming arrows. They ended up putting him into the river.

One PC ended up unconscious, we might have had a couple of Wounds.

[Michebugio]

Thanks zed.

Did you use the rule that they needed a great or extraordinary success on their attack rolls against the orcs to also attack the GK? That seems quite gruesome to me.

And yeah, one orc soldier each turn seems very easy to me too. I think I will scale the enemies as you did, though the Black Uruks while ALSO fighting the GK (and needing great successes against the Uruks just to attempt another attack against him) sound quite hard.

[zedturtle]

I let them "attack" the cage with athletics tests. But, doing so allowed the Uruks to get almost free hits on them.

[Fridokind Wargaug]

My group could only attack the GK after an great or extraordinary attack on the orcs, it went pretty well, 3 of them already have 4 dice on their weapons. The second hit on the GK wounded him, so he went down, which was kind of anti-climatic

[Michebugio]

For my players, it was almost a disaster.

The archer was Wounded twice by goblins (!), since he rolled an Eye and white numbers on both Protection rolls, and went down in the first rounds.

The others barely resisted for the 12 rounds required, and they were already almost defeated when the Gibbet King showed up.

On the very first attack however, the Woodman scored a Gandalf with his axe and the GK failed his Protection roll! That seemed awfully anti-climatic to me, since by RAW he would have been killed instantly on the round he showed up. And, you know, he's the big campaign boss

So I treated him as having Unnatural Vitality (he's like a zombie, after all), and I kept him alive until he finished all his Hate points as by the Quality. During those rounds, he managed to paralyze everyone and the elf had to spend Hope and use his Light of the Stars to keep orcs at bay while everyone recovered from the Dreadful Spells.

In the end, one character was unconscious and Wounded, two others were Miserable and barely alive. Very tough encounter.

[Khamul]

What is Light of the Stars?