.. you all head up the stairs as stealthily as possible (luckily the orcs make a lotof tromping and noise, and that hides the sound of most of you). Shroom extinguishes his torch via Prestidigitation, before they round the corner of the first landing.
You all take up positions behind the pile of rubble, as much as you can. You can all just barely fit there.. with Ridcully actually slipping into the shadows opposite of the pile.
A low emotionless metallic voice answers below.
"By your leave..." (and you lose the rest as you head up the stairs to the first landing).
You all take up places...
Tromp tromp tromp. They are coming up...
The orcs are headed up the stairs led by heavy clanking metal footsteps.
It is not pitch black-- there is dim light coming in front outside.
As they get to the top of the landing, Fargrim, Shroom, and Edwena can make out (with their lowlight vision) the metallic form of a rusted metal humanoid. At first he seems like a man in heavy armor, but it soon becomes apparent, that he is the armor, and his own eyes glow enough to silhouette his form and the orcs behind him. He is leading another pair of orcish bolt-throwers (wearing their crossbow harnesses) and another pair of orcish berserkers with distinctive mohawks.
The group is ordered with the metallic humanoid in front, then the two bolt throwers, then the two berserkers.
They head past and turn to go up the next landing, when Ridcully steps out of the shadows like a ghost and drives his dagger into the last orc berserker.
STABBBB!!!
The orc howls in pain and stumbles around clutching his back, trying to reach Ridcully.. Ridcully manages to position himself where he can flank with the first party member who wants to melee the berserker.
(init rolls please!)
There is sudden chaos as the orcs and the metalic humanoid scramble clumsily into position. The metal-man is booming out "Stay Calm. We are under Ambush...MAINTAIN YOUR RANKS."
The orcs are not listening.
===========OOC=================
(In deference to Drohem's point about Warriors Surge the orcs will have to hit before they can surge, from now on..)
Slight issue with Ridcullys damage- formatting mistakes made it a bit too low! In the future please do it like so: 1d4+2d8+8.
If it's a crit, remeber to add another 1d12 to the total. I just re-rolled the sneak attack damage to make it 20 vice 17.
The last orc berserker is bloodied. Down -20 from 38 hit points. (currently at 18 hp).
Note that you are in very close quarters, so unless you make a point of staying behind the debris heap, you may be considered in melee.