(I'm not going to bother making you guys roll for the spider-infested section of the city. Between the potent spell and the fact that the spiders are busy being squashed by orcs, you're able to slip through completely unnoticed).

As the spell wears off at the end of the hour, you find yourselves in a darker portion of the city. You see no spiders here... skeletal remains. The bones look ancient... probably the remains of the original inhabitants of the city. It's hard to say what happened here, but the buildings look mostly intact (if weathered by age), suggesting that it was likely a plague or even a famine rather than battle which brought this once-great city to its knees.

"No spiders here," the orog grunts, kicking a skull out of his way. "Battle behind... Urgad hopes there something here to squish..."

The two orcs nod in agreement. Ruby looks extremely nervous at the orcs' proclamations of their desire to do battle.

Quote from Mister_Whisker>>

(I'm not going to bother making you guys roll for the spider-infested section of the city. Between the potent spell and the fact that the spiders are busy being squashed by orcs, you're able to slip through completely unnoticed).

(OOC: Nice!  Thank goodness for weirdly powerful spells.)

As the spell wears off at the end of the hour, you find yourselves in a darker portion of the city. You see no spiders here... skeletal remains. The bones look ancient... probably the remains of the original inhabitants of the city. It's hard to say what happened here, but the buildings look mostly intact (if weathered by age), suggesting that it was likely a plague or even a famine rather than battle which brought this once-great city to its knees.

"No spiders here," the orog grunts, kicking a skull out of his way. "Battle behind... Urgad hopes there something here to squish..."

The two orcs nod in agreement. Ruby looks extremely nervous at the orcs' proclamations of their desire to do battle.

Hewelathan draws his Moon Sickle and is comforted somewhat by the glimmering moonlight along the blade.  He gives a rueful laugh at the orog's words and says, "Enemies ahead.  And the undead.  Plenty of things to squish or shatter." 

Hewelathan believes that the magic that animates the undead gives them some awareness of the world.  Without his spell, he waits for one of the stealthier members of the group to scout ahead and lead the way through this part of the city.

Jodie prepares to venture forth with stealth (8). "Which way does the compass point?"

Tamphalic has a quick look with/at (?) the orb of direction to see which way they should head out too.

Jodie starts to scout ahead... unfortunately, it doesn't take her long to turn a corner and find herself looking right into the face of a ghast... and behind the ghast are four ghouls.

How would you like to handle this? Lead the five monsters back to the party for a fair fight, try to lead them away, or something else entirely?

Jodie leads the undead back to the party, as she expects they'll make quick work of them.

Jodie returns to the party... along with a ghast and four ghouls. These undead seem a lot less interested in talking than Lord Akkron was...

Everyone, please roll initiative!

Initiative (monsters)
Ghast - 8
Ghouls (x4) - 6

Initiative (NPCs)
Ruby - 12
Orog - 17
Orc Brutes (x2) - 12

Jodie: 18

Hewelathan

Initiative: 16 (in game log)

Nickeline Initiative: 5

Tamphalic init: 20

I'll go ahead and roll the last two.

Korba: 28
Hildegard: 7

Our heroes start this fight as you see Jodie running towards you, followed closely by five undead!

Initiative:
Korba (28)
Tamphalic (20)
Jodie (18)
--
Orog (17)
--
Hewelathan (16)
--
Ruby (12)
Orc Brutes (x2) (12)
--
Ghast (8)
--
Hildegard (7)
--
Ghouls (x4) (6)
--
Nickeline (5)

(Note: I don't really feel the need to make a map for this confrontation, I expect it will be pretty quick)

Tamphalic will try to get as many of them in his breath weapon (30ft line)

DC12 dex save or take 1 lightning damage and none of those hit will be able to take reactions until next turn (blue dragon mask feature)

I'll just say the ghast and two ghouls are in the path of the breath weapon.

Dex saves:
Ghast - 8
Ghoul - 6
Ghoul - 11

The ghast and both ghouls fail, taking 1 point of damage each.

Korba and Jodie are up!

Jodie nocks and arrow and lets it fly towards the ghast and watches it sail past (9).  The bard smiles sheepishly and looks at the bracers questioning if they're of any assistance.

"Well, I expected we'd clear a few out of our way...but will there be more?"  Jodie moves back to get closer to her allies to sing a bolstering song if things go sour...

Korba fires off an eldritch blast at the ghast.

EB vs. Ghast
Attack: 26 (nat 20); Damage: 17 (force)

The orog follows suit and charges in to try to finish off the badly-injured ghast.

Greataxe vs. ghast
Attack: 10 Damage: 14
Attack: 10 Damage: 16

Unfortunately, the ghast deftly dodges both of the orog's brutal attacks.

Hewelathan is up!

Hewelathan: Round 1

While the party outnumbers the ghouls 2:1, when Hewelathan sees the ghast dodge the orog's axe, he worries that the undead could still harm his companions before they can destroy the creatures. 

Hewelathan moves to follow the orog into melee, transforming into a brown bear before he takes his second step. (The bear still wears Hewelathan's belt and cloak.)  Hewelathan-bear moves to the ghast to attack. Then he tries to position himself between the party and the ghouls.

Movement: Up to 40' to engage the ghast in melee. Then
Action: Multiattack (one bite and one with claws)
  Melee Weapon Attack ghast, Claws: 12 Damage: 15 slashing` 
  Melee Weapon Attack ghast (or one of the ghouls if the ghast is already dead), Bite: 19 Damage: 15 piercing
Bonus Action: Wild Shape to a brown bear
Free Action: None

The poor ghast didn't have a chance... Hew-bear rips its head clean off its body and rakes his claws across one of the ghouls' chests, leaving a deep wound.

Ruby and the two orc brutes are up! Ruby hurls two beams of arcane magic at the ghoul whom Hew-bear wounded.

Arcane Burst vs. Ghoul 1:
Attack: 24 Damage: 15
Attack: 18 Damage: 9

The two orc brutes charge into melee, each one closing in with one of the uninjured ghouls. They attack recklessly, so the ghouls will have advantage to hit them (if said ghouls survive long enough...)

Greataxe vs. Ghoul 2:
Attack: 11 Damage: 14

Greataxe vs. Ghoul 3:
Attack: 22 Damage: 11

Hildegarde is up!

Ruby's Arcane Burst disintegrated Ghoul 1, and the second blast hit Ghoul 2.

Initiative:
Korba
Tamphalic
Jodie
--
Orog
--
Hewelathan
--
Ruby
Orc Brutes (x2) - reckless
--
Ghast
--
Hildegard
--
Ghoul 1
Ghoul 2 - 10 damage
Ghoul 3 - 11 damage
Ghoul 4
--
Nickeline