TPK "Never underestimate the orc"

[sageryne]

Hi all,

Well, last night was the surprising end to a year long campaign. Our entire party, two veteran characters (dwarf and woodsman, 68 exp), a new character (hobbit, about 10 exp) and two NPCs were wiped out by eleven orcs (8 soldiers and 3 guards).

We were all surprised, including the GM. The two veteran characters had taken on that many orcs before (on their own) and won handily. However, last night, fate was against us.

We started off with an encounter with two Beornings. They captured the hobbit and threatened to kill him. The woodsman killed the hostage taker with a called shot to the eye and the dwarf tackled the second attacker, taking him out. It turns out they weren't really hostile, just starving and desperate escaped slaves. We tried to reason with the survivor, but that is where the dice turned on us. Our hobbit, a skilled negotiator, rolled not one but three Eyes of Sauron during the attempts to reason with the survivor. He ended up screaming at us in hatred and attracting unwanted attention. Finally, we untied his legs and he threw himself off a cliff.

Then, we moved on and looked for a campsite. Our guide failed his explore roll and we didn't find a good campsite. It was cold so we lit a fire. During the second watch, the dwarf failed his awareness roll (at the time, it didn't seem worth spending a point of hope on) and the party was attacked by 4 orc soldiers, 4 orc archers (soldiers) and three orc guards. He and one of the NPCs on guard were hit by an ambush opening volley taking some damage.

All three (!) sleeping members of the party failed their awareness rolls to wake up, leaving the one player and one NPC to fight the first thee turns on their own. That wouldn't have been so disastrous if the NPC hadn't taken a arrow to the throat and died in the second round (Eye of Sauron roll by the orc archer).

By the time the other two players and NPC joined the fray, the dwarf was already close to going down. The woodman, hobbit and NPC were unarmored.

Orcs, even the most basic soldiers, are dangerous, especially when you are outnumbered and they have archers who can see in the dark. All too quickly, the arrows and bent sword slashes started to add up. The dwarf went down, then the second NPC, then the woodsman and finally the hobbit (in the process of trying to run away).

It was a total party kill.

We all sat back kind of stunned. Even our GM was at a loss for words. It was completely unexpected and a sad end to a very exciting year long campaign that had seen the two veteran players kill an ice dragon and bring a wagon train across Mirkwood, and the three players be hunted by orcs through the marshes near the Gladden Fields and kill a pair of stone trolls.

None of us felt that the TPK was wrong. It felt very realistic. We had made some errors throughout the session, not spent hope when we should have, and the dice rolling had been horrific (many, many, Eyes of Sauron were rolled both by the character and by the GM for the bad guys).

Anyway, to the designers, well done. You have built a game where orcs are a realistic threat, even to veteran characters. The PCs died, in the cold Misty Mountains, in the dark, far from help. No one will ever know of their demise (the orcs looted the bodies and ate them).

Perhaps one day, another group of PCs will stumble across the 120 treasure they looted from the trolls and buried at the foot of the Misty Mountains under dwarven runes of secrecy.

Once thing we got a chuckle out of is "what happens to their house and servants in Dale?" After killing a dragon and earning a huge amount of treasure, the two veteran PCs (dwarf and woodsman) bought a large house in Dale. They staffed it with four servants and invested a good portion of their treasure to pay for the upkeep of the house and salaries of the servants. Now that the PCs are dead, far away in the Misty Mountains, no one will ever know their fate. How long will the servants continue to maintain the house and the investments before they realise their masters are never coming back? Then, what will they do? We had a few laughs thinking about that.

It was a great campaign. Now, we are thinking about creating new characters and picking up the threads of the campaign again.

A question for other players and GMs, when you have had veteran PCs die in your campaigns, do you restart the players with new characters (perhaps with a few extra XP as per the rules), or do you start again with more experienced characters? We had that discussion last night and have not come to a decision yet. What are your thoughts?

TTYL

- Sageryne (the woodsman who died from two critical arrow hits after waking up without his armor)

[Hermes Serpent]

Thanks for the recap. A heroic last stand at the root of which was appalling dice luck. I trust the dice are now either hammered into pieces or roasting in the microwave.

[Gweinel]

It was like many cases in Tolkien's work where heroes are dying from an orcish band. Nice recap indeed and i feel a bit pity of your bad luck.

[Mim]

Thank you for sharing. Yes, you had a difficult battle & it's a shame that you all went through this, however, you raise an excellent point about Orcs. In most games, they serve as sword fodder, but in Middle-earth, they can prove daunting foes.

Concerning your question, if your LM allows, you may want to read (or he'll go through it) Further Adventures in the Loremaster's Guide, pp 119-21, which discusses the alternatives of generating additional characters.

The points about having them be related or friends with your heroes (or your servants in Dale) might help.

[Corvo]

Well, to answer your last question, the Heroic Heritage rules (LB p.120) gives your new character 8 xp (and 2 for the Hobbit): not like 68 xp, yet a big bonus to a starting character (enough to raise both Valour and Wisdom).

[scooped by Mim!]

[Mim]

Not to worry Corvo, we all help each other out

Good point about the additional XPs, BTW - they do add up nicely.

[roodie]

Well, it's time for the neglected servants to step up, and start looking for their masters! Their loyalty does them credit (hence the raising of Wisdom), and the armoury was also full with weapons and armour of all kind! Onward to glory!