Session 8 took place on a Thursday, 2 players couln't make it, so we played with 4. This also turned out to be the shortest session so far. Truly it can be said that the dice-gods wanted to kill the party with random encounters.
  • Really, the dice-gods really did!

The Characters were:
Berta
Tiny Tracey
Pel
Turwin
Shamos (forcibly recruited)
Tarkus (forcibly recruited)

As with the start of every session, the party passes through the gates of legendary Castle Torrog, the party descended down to the crossroads close to the crumbling old tower.
The party spied a goblin atop the roof of the tower.
  • By now, all the players have caught on to the fact that there's nothing more to be had in the tower.
  • I ask them what they want to do and basically, they give dirty looks as they announce their intention to head south.

Whilst at the crossroads, the party decide to head south and continue investigating the monster infested dungeon they had encountered in the previous session.
  • The spotted that the parrty are heading towards is 12 miles (or 2 hexes) away, this requires 2 random encounter rolls.
  • The first roll triggered a random encounter - and it resulted in an ogre attacking the party.
An ogre came lumbering out of the treeline of the forest to attack the party.
The ogre charged the party and they peppered the ogre with ranged attacks and cantrip-spells, as the ogre closed he flung his own javelin at the party - which misses its target.
As the ogre closesd into melee, the party managed to do enough damage to the ogre to take it down.
  • The ogre started 6d6x10 feet away from the party.
  • I rolled a 22, which worked out well for the party, giving them the opportunity to whittle the ogre down.
  • That's 2 ogres defeated now, both without taking damage.
After this battle, the party pressed onward.
  • My next encounter roll was a 20! A double sized encounter.
  • On my random roll table, I rolled and got 1d3 bugbears - a new enemy for the party.
  • Because I got a 20 on my random encounter roll, it meant that there would be 2d3 bugbears and they came from the foothills.
  • I got a little apprehensive here, 4 bugbears could be deadly for the party. But that's what the dice rolled.
The bugbears approached from the foothills in the east and charged in.
The bugbears were a little closer than the ogre, but the employed the same strategy and peppered them with ranged attacks.
  • A fairly standard strategy, but less effective against the bugbears, whose AC is significantly better than that of an ogre.
The ranged attacks of the party are so effective against bugbears as an ogre and the bugbears continue to close in and hurled their own ranged attacks.
Very little was decided by the opening volleys of both side and everyone began closing for melee.
The bugbears rolled low on initiative, giving the party the advantage. An advantage that they promptly squandered.
Combat continued and the bugbears attacked, they very quickly landed a critical hit on Tiny Tracy. Tiny Tracy lost 75% of her HP in that attack.
  • Ow!
Another couple of rounds passed with a bit of attrition on both sides.
The bugbears land another critical hit! This time on Berta. She take 22 points of damage.
​That would have been enough to put her on 0, even if she had been on max HP. In the next round Tiny Tracy is knocked to 0 HP.
2 characters are down, the party could be in trouble and they know it!
Shamos stops using his cantrips and switches to his more powerful spells. Chromatic orb to be precise.
  • It's a powerful 1st level spell no doubt. But it has a drawback, it requires the spell-caster to make a roll-to-hit.
Shamos makes his roll to hit the bugbear... and misses.
Things are starting to look risky for the party.
There are 4 bugbears and 4 characters in the front line holding them back. But 2 of them are out of the fight.
The party manages to take out a bugbear.
But Tarkus and Turwin still have to face the remaining 3 bugbears and not even Tarkus' trademark wrestling moves are helping him here.
​Eventually Tarkus is knocked down to 0 HP. 
Sometimes, during a battle, there comes a moment where you can feel it turning against you. The balance or momentum has shifted.
  • The party are getting this feeling and decide to get more drastic - and decisive.
Now that half of the party are incapacitated, Pel stops attacking and begins trying to administer aid to unconscious characters.
This doesn't go so well, so Pel has to resort to using healing potions, including his own!
Characters are healed and come up... and go back down again. At some point all the front line characters are up and down!
  • The potions are just delaying the attrition the bugbears are causing, hopefully long enough for them to put the bugbears down. ​
The potions keep the party going long enough to wear the bugbears down. One by one, they begin falling. Tarkus eventually even gets to wrestle one!

After the party have defeated the bugbears and reached the dungeon site, they come to a decision.

They decide to return back to Castle Turrog. Their destination in sight, they turn around and head back. They've used their potions and spells and most of the party are on low hit points.
  • I don't blame them really. The dice gods are been unkind to them and they don't need any more bad luck.
The party take a rest and head back. Luckily, the party reach safety without any further mishap.

  • A little anticlimatic, I Know. But the dice gods have spoken and who am I to argue with them.

End of session eight.