OAWYM: Desert Strike

Game Date: 7/1/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 33
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Karzen (Daniel) - Eladrin Artificer
Ulmack (Gary) - Halfling Monk
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin
Velris (Graham) - Half-Elf Warlock

The Session:
We've defeated most of the slave lords, and now we're backtracking through the tunnels to make our way back home. After fighting our way through a large gate, we entered a tunnel that split into two directions.  The smaller tunnel was occupied by seven slavers, who Velris took out with a fireball (his fireball-spewing staff turned out to be the savior of the session).  There were three doors in the hallway, leading to some empty barracks. 

On the other end of the hall was a door leading back to the larger hallway.  Velris peeked through the door and killed another group of slavers with a fireball, and the remaining slavers fled in a panic.  We chased them and picked them off one by one.  Halfbeard tried to take the long way around and attack them from the other side, but sadly we'd finished them off before he got there.

We picked up a wagon and some horses, and led the rescued slaves out of the dungeon.  At this point we had ten former slaves as followers, plus Dame Gold.  We needed to travel through the desert to head back to the dockside town.  On the second day of our trek, we saw a large hobgoblin raiding party, with slaves of their own in tow.

We attempted to set up an ambush.  We placed ourselves in strategic locations and prepared for a fight.  We faced at least fifty hobgoblins, though most of them were low level.  Val failed a stealth check, causing the hobgoblins to investigate.  Then Velris fired off a fireball, and the battle was on.

It was a long, difficult fight, and we almost didn't make it.  Velris had the most kills, by taking out the weaker hobgoblins with fireballs.  But the hobgoblin captains were heavy hitters.  Ulmack went down several times, with Val healing him each time.  Then Halfbeard and Karzen went down as well.  The rescued slaves helped out, but they were too weak to do much.  It took them the entire battle to take out two enemies. 

It finally came down to Velris and Val.  Val kept some of the strongest Hobgoblins occupied, since they had trouble getting through her Cloak of Displacement.  Meanwhile Velris worked on crowd control.  When Velris finished off his opponents, he went to help Dame Gold, who was making death saves by this time.  Val finished off the final Hobgoblin with a Divine Smite.

After the battle, we healed our wounded and counted survivors.  Unfortunately Karzen didn't make it, having failed three death saves.  Dame Gold is still alive, along with four of the rescued slaves.  We looked for a safe place to take a long rest, and ended the session.