The game went well, we still have no wizard, which does worry me, but we'll see how it goes. The cleric also wasn't as engaged as I would had liked, but she did change the tide of battle more than once.  I didn't have to do any prep, as I had already done it. On game day I just had to re-read my notes.

The first scenario was a large one, so we played it with miniatures; I finally got to place the Lord of the Rings RISK minis on the board, they aren't to scale but they are more glamorous than paper! I will say that I held back, all of my monsters could had gotten a second attack, but I just took it with my commanders, I think next game I will unleash the orcs full potential.

Everyone remembered the rules for miniature battles pretty well, it has been a while since we used them! I like to keep things "Theatre of the Mind" but with 6 players it is hard to keep everybody on the same page. I would like to think of a system to remind me what segment we are in, as we used the 2 segment round method, and all it takes is for somebody to ask me a really good question and I forget where I am at.

As far as errors went, I made one, but I granted her a free re-roll as payment for ruining one of her ideas.

STORY

The characters had found a secure room in a section of the mine that was completely unknown to the enemy, they had left sign to tell their peers where they had gone and were found by the two adventurers who arrived to play today.

Delving deeper into the mine, they players found themselves in a passage to an underground source of the Immerflow River and discovered that the orcs were using this river to ship finished arms and armor down river; barrels and boxes where falling from a waterfall 200 feet above the river, and orcs were busy on a long bridge designed to help them push the products free of rocky outcrops with long poles. These orcs were quickly picked off.

An elevator system was found that allowed two people to make their way up 200' to the level above, but they were discovered. An orc was going to cut the lift rope but a player decided that it was better to just let the lift free fall back down, a drop of 100', both riders were injured and the lift was broken, but the rope system was still in place.

Exploring further up river, they found a slave camp, slaves were slowly and unproductively trying to mine Mithral out of the wall, guarded by a small orcish camp of 30 soldiers and a commander. The players were knocking out the light sources as they crept up the bridge, and this didn't go unnoticed, but wasn't taken seriously either as the torches are prone to go out. The commander ordered six soldiers to go investigate, and another group to go secure the slaves, that is when war happened!

The players were funneled on the bridge, and the cleric began casting spells, she caused a bonfire used to light the area up to magically flair, blinding half of the orcs, and slowing down their response to invaders. They fought their way through the ranks, with bow and sword while the slaves were corralled back up, but before a true counter attack could be made by the orcs, the cleric cast a spell which forced the orc commander to Surrender just long enough to kill the orc POWs, they had the commander gagged so that he couldn't recall the order, and these orcs are all religious nuts who aren't afraid of dying since they believe that they will return more powerful than before, which may be true as these orcs are incredibly powerful already! They tried to get the commander to talk, but just got belittled, and torturing him earned them nothing but his religious fervor, so they killed him.

The party rested, which was allowed as the orcs above didn't believe that they could come up and after if the slave camp down below failed to deal with them, then they would just go away as the broken lift was the only way up out of the river section. The products already dropped that day had been hung up, and a plan was developed by the players, two of them would dress in orcish mail, with a small chest to pretend that they were bringing their tiny load of mithral up top. One of the slaves had also been a carpenter, and he was able to fix the lift with boards and nails pilfered from some of the shipping crates. The plan worked and the guard was thrown 200 feet to his death.

The party had found themselves surrounded by racks, once in a while a barrel full of finished arms would roll out of a shaft in the wall and crash along the racks. Orcs could pull a rope and release the barrels down the hole in the floor, and a lot of water was running from the cave itself, which formed the waterfall. The speed of the water wasn't fast, but it was waist deep and putred. Walking three miles down this rough and twisted cave, they finally found a fork, they decided to head left.

From the darkness, they were attacked by a patrol that they couldn't see until the cleric cast a spell to light the section of dark corridor up. All of this patrol was slain in a long battle, except for on orc, who was allowed to escape back down the corridor. Once this battle was over, we stopped for the night. Our calander advanced 3 days during play.

The players had found some gems that have not yet been appraised, and were unable to identify a few potions which they discovered while searching the orc tents.