Lords Alliance Campaign:  In Time of Need

Well I started yet another game on Myth-weavers, this one a 10th level party of five that is on a quest to help The Church of Tyr and the Knights of the Eternal Order find out what happened to one of their most loyal paladins after a group he lead to destroy a wizard of great power and recover an artifact from said wizards keep.  

So far the players have learned it's been over 10 years since this paladin has returned to the church where he basically lived once becoming a faithful servant of Tyr and that his wife and child have either gone missing or been murdered.  Scouts of the church have been sent out to the keep (though though abandoned except maybe being occupied by a bandit group) in recent weeks and the ones who return after surviving (though few) report seeing a black carriage pulled by horses every few days parking at the keep and then leaving sometime after.

Graves in the city of Archenbridge on the outskirts have turned up with missing bodies and not just in small numbers.  It's a mystery as to how or who is stealing the bodies though the characters suspect necromantic magic.  Some witnesses have reported seeing a black carriage, only to run away in fear after hearing strange voices.

The first encounter with hostiles was when the players headed to the hills in which the keep is located, but instead have decided to take on a goblin horde instead to work on their strategy as a fighting unit and perhaps make some money in the process, all the while helping the city of Archenbridge and those who pass through the hills (mostly daring merchants trying to take a shortcut).

HILL GIANT ENCOUNTER

My plan was to have a pretty challenging encounter first off, so I put the group up against 4 Hill Giants and 1 Ogre Mage who was basically the leader of this band.  They prey on those passing through a narrow hill valley, demanding a toll of sorts or granting death to those who refuse. 

I placed the giants up high on the hills, giving them an advantage of throwing their rocks against those below.  The ogre mage of course was lower in CR and level, but he had the ability to fly as well as their innate spell like abilities.

This picture gives you a basic idea of what my setup was.  I made this map using MapTool and the tokens using TokenTool, both are AWESOME programs.  Definitely recommend them.  This picture was after quite a few rounds and I believe combat was basically over.

RESULTS OF ENCOUNTER
The giants killed one of the light horses that the cleric was using as a mount and the battle caused the other to flee in fear (panicking, I made will saves for the horse as it wasn't a war horse, and just a LIGHT horse).

A few of the PC's were hurt pretty badly but over all took down 3 of the giants (causing the other to flee, which was later taken out) and the ogre mage.  I put this encounter at a CR 10 encounter.  The Hill Giants were CR 6 (default out the Monster Manual) and the Ogre Mage was CR 7 I think or 8 (default out the Monster Manual). 

It made for a pretty exciting battle and the players seemed to enjoy it.  To my knowledge I believe it lasted about 6 or 7 rounds.

Thanks for checking out the Tomb!!!  I'll be updating this blog pretty regularly now since I have more time and will be posting encounters with results, NPC's I create, and other various cool DND things I come across.  I bid you good day fellow dnder's.