Trollopulous Adjusted Session 88 (Machodor #48); Battle of the 5 Armies, Bandit Mountain Style

    

The Dragon Cult leader makes a move

     

Timekeeping

This session took place on 03/10/2024, and the PCs adventured for 6 days.

Player Characters Present

Slippery Pete (Level 8 Thief, wearer of the Hat of Disguise and wielder of the Black Dagger)

Giuseppe (Level 7 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of a Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles)

Primus (Level 4 Fighter of Machodor, wearer of the Medallion of the Rising Sun) 

Gurt the Green (Level 3 Paladin of Machodor, wielder of the Longsword+3)

Boduke (Level 1 Dwarf Fighter Thief)

Introduction

In the last session a patron kidnaped the Countess Echellet of Guarda, or so he thought, and that set off a cascade of events. This session these events in turn converged into a mass battle in the mountains, with three patrons and the PCs taking sides.

From this report onwards I will be including some Patron downtime actions to try and put the reader in a better position to appreciate what it is like to DM in this kind of campaign. Keep in mind that none of the events below were pre-planned or scripted by me, I'm just doing my best to keep up and ensure patron orders are interpreted in a way that produces the best opportunities for convergence.

Downtime

The Dragon Cult Leader allied with the Master of Winter, the latter concerned with keeping the pressure on the forces of civilisation and/or bandits muscling in on his territory; the former interested in obtaining a certain hostage - the Countess Echellet - he believed had been taken by the Talibandits when they attacked Guarda. 

At first, the forces of the MoW marched west (and were spotted by Sever last session); they continued until they were positioned to the east of the mountains presumed to be the location of the Talibandit's lair, and there with the Dragon Cult leader began searching for an entrance. 

However, before they could find anything, an attack by a force of gnolls from the south east was tracked back towards the Ice Castle. You see, unknown to anyone else; the leader of the Talibandits, Usama Loot Laden, and his allied gnolls had already taken the Castle and had then sent 50 gnolls back to base to inform the rest of the gang. 

Convinced that the Ice Castle was were they needed to go, the DCL & MoW and their troops set off in that direction, oblivious to the fact that the Countess was actually right where they had been searching. In time, under the direction of Giuseppe, Machodorian Pegasus Patrols scouted these troops matching the description of those Sever had sighted the week before and marching in the opposite direction (east) to the previous sighting; but as yet they were still an unidentified force.

Session Report

Saffira

This session started with a bit of mystery. Saffira, the maid of the household of the missing Countess Echellet, had been investigated by Slippery Pete during down time. She had been working at the villa for about a year, and was effectively running the place in the countess' absence. Incidentally, there was little of value in the villa, it was run on a spartan budget, anything valuable was sold to help the poor of Guarda. He had tried Thieves' Cant on her, but she showed only confusion. However, one morning he spotted her reading a note and then hastily getting rid of it. The thief retrieved the note, it read: "This is the last note you will see unless you provide the ransom. Next time it will be body parts. Bring the funds to the Ice Castle NOW."

Obviously this was important, to say the least.

The charismatic Pete persuaded Saffira to confide in him. He found out from the maid that the Countess had been afraid for some time that the Dragon Cult was out to get her, that they had people all through the town who were part of the cult. Saffira wasn't sure about her employer's paranoia until recently, but now she agreed. 

The players investigated the household without much to show for it, then went to the Garrison and spoke to Commander Sheffield there to get his cooperation. Knowing that the Garrison and Militia don't get on too well, and that the party had good relations with the latter, they would have their work cut out for them with Sheffield. The usual sort of D&D shenanigans followed where the PCs merely caused offence without finding out much. When Slippery Pete tried to pick his pocket and failed, the party were escorted out of the building by his subordinate Captain Falkorre; however, not before the Commander had agreed to their request to examine the troops for a certain "eye-disease". Believe me, this was serious and important.

Both the garrison and the 500 strong militia were investigated during the morning. I rolled for reactions from the various NPCs for this request, with various modifications based on the individuals dispositions. One of them, the Militia Captain Tallon, refused outright to be examined and declared he would challenge to a dual anyone who insisted on such an examination. Gurt, taking the role of the party heavy in Sever's absence, took him up on it and soon had beaten him into submission.

To cut a long story short, through clever investigation the party learned that the dragon cult had substituted an Echelle look-a-like to give them time to mass an army and get the real thing before the forces of Guarda could do so.

The players connected this information with the troops reported earlier by the Pegasus patrol. Gathering up their forces, 100 human militia volunteers, 50 dwarf heavy foot paid for themselves, and 32 Pegasus air cavalry made available by the 6th Company Commander, they moved out east. They had a problem in that Gurt had disabled the Captain of the human Militia; but the remainder consented to command by the martial PCs.

Late on the day of Sunday October 6th, the vigil of the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, their army caught up with their foe. But what was actually going on here was initially hard to work out. A battered force of Gnolls, led by Usama Loot Laden mounted on a huge mammoth, had just been devastated by a surprise attack of some kind. 

hastily scribbled battle map

In red, a hundred men clad in outlandish red-dragon themed armour and sporting flags of similar design. In black, fifty Gnolls; but, clearly, fifty more had just been killed along with some a small human cavalry unit, by a combination of a White Dragon and a team of Ballistae (also in white) positioned on a ridge near the entrance to the Master of Winter's valley.

Combat #1: 100 Dragon Cultist Fanatics

Rounds 4: Party win, cultists win, party wins, cultists win

Result: Party victory

Highlights:  Giuseppe used his magical shield to block a ballistae shot. The power gap between Sever and Primus wasn't helped by my constantly getting the names mixed up. Dragon breath weapons attacks galore.

Their approach spotted, the white dragon made a run at the Pegasus Riders (as though it had some beef with them particularly). Its breath weapon wiped out 10 riders and wounded their mounts so badly they had to land immediately, these were the first recorded losses for the Machodor Pegasus Corps regular companies. The air battle then moved away from the ground battle (the White Dragon eventually retreated), leaving the player's army to advance on the dragon cultists who had turned to face them. Meanwhile the remaining gnolls had turned around and were making tracks back to the Ice Castle with Usama as fast as they could go.

The player's forces advanced; but, before they could engage, a Red Dragon, previously Invisible, breathed fire all over the militia unit; 60 were killed and 20 more fled. Only 20 remained, held to the will power of Gurt and Primus (who I kept calling Sever through out this session). 

At the same time, on the northern flank the dwarves were attacked by ballista bolts. It is not clear to me whether siege engines hit at 1/10 scale or not in mass battles, but I have been playing it that way. In this case though, Giuseppe, bearer of the Shield vs Missiles, managed to block a ballista bolt and save his square (ten) of dwarves from destruction.

Then the ground forces finally met; the enemy wielding vicious, short daggers, suffered from their lack of reach and lost many before they got in close. What had happened to the Red Dragon? It had immediately abandoned the scene and set off after the gnolls, in fact flying right past them and landing in the Ice Castle.

Meanwhile, Slippery Pete had gone into stealth mode and trailed both the Dragon and the gnolls, and he had quite the adventure in downtime.

The fighters among the ranks of the PCs rejoiced at remembering the rule that allows for multiple attacks against 0-level enemies. They cut down cultists left and right, and there were no levelled officers  among them to serve as a break (their main purpose of them being in the monster manual entries, I have guessed) against the fighter's onslaught. The dragon cultists proved to be true fanatics though, and fought to the last man. However, the Master of Winter's men were not of this sort. Several ballistae crews had already been taken out from the air by Pegasus archery and they'd had enough. With the wagons making a retreat, the party were not about to let them get away.

AI art really is bad.

Combat #2: Master of Winter's Ballistae & Wagon Train

Rounds 5: Party, MoW, Party, Party, MoW, MoW

Result: Partial party victory

Highlights:  The faster party members, supported by Pegasus air cavalry, initiated a running battle with the waggoneers, going as far as chasing them right into the Master of Winter's valley; but the sight of a returning white dragon gave them pause and they called it a day there.

The party searched the enemy and found what turned out to be quite a bit of loot the Talibandits had acquired from the Ice Castle. Then they returned slowly to Guarda, heavily laden down with the bodies of their dead. In this session they had gotten no closer to their objective of rescuing the Countess, which but had inflicted losses on their enemies and would have to be content with that.

Session Statistics: 

Wilderness travel: 48  Miles

Combats: 2

Combat rounds: 9

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 88 (Machodor #48)

Treasure & Items

The bodies of the Gnolls were loaded down with loot:

5000 cp, 3000 sp, 300 ep, 4225 gp

Gems (17):  100 gp Lapis Lazuli, 20 gp Malachite, 200 gp Jade, 200 gp Jet, 30 gp Malachite, 40 gp Lapis Lazuli, 45 gp Smoky Quartz, 50 gp Eye Agate, 50 gp Hematite, 50 gp Hematite, 50 gp Smoky Quartz, 50 gp Tiger Eye Agate, 50 gp Turquoise, 500 gp Garnet, 500 gp Jet, 500 gp Tourmaline, 60 gp Sardonyx. Total: 2495

Jewellery (7): 12000 gp Decanter,  3000 gp Necklace,  900 gp Belt, 600 gp Locket, 1000 gp Goblet,  1000 gp Anklet,  4000 gp Statuette. Total: 22,500

Total Value: 29,770 gp.

Monsters

100 Dragon Cult Fanatics 2950 XP

60  Master Of Winter Artillerists & Waggoneers  605 XP

Total XP: 3555

Modified* score:  1896

* details of the method for scoring mass battles will follow in its own post.

31,661 XP & 29,770 GP Assignment

Slippery Pete (Level 8, E)  5,954 XP & 5954 GP

Giuseppe (Level 7, E) 6,428 XP & 5954 GP

Primus (Level 4, E )  6,428 XP & 5954 GP

Boduke (Level 1/1, E) 6,428  XP & 5954 GP

Gurt the Green (Level 3, E)  6,428 XP & 5954 GP

Graveyard

Domby (Henchman with Dex 5), double surprised and turned into a pin cushion in session #87

Luke (Half elf Fighter/Cleric level 1), tragically killed by a normal hydra while trying to cauterise one of its neck stumps in session  #86

Gurt the Green (Paladin level 3),  killed by a hydra bite in session  #86 RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Pleasance (Footman level 0), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81

Siegward (Henchman Fighter level 1), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81

Tawadros (Henchman Fighter level 4),  killed by a phase spider bite in session #81 RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Patria (Footman level 0), killed by a two headed snake bite in session #81

Deltacron (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 1/1), threw his last flask of oil at, and was level drained to death by, a Vampire in session #76

Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), killed again by the toxic gas of an Achaierai in session #72

Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), wrong place, wrong time; killed by Sever the Ranger in session #72 RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Red (Paladin Level 1), always popular with the ladies, he was eaten up by a female Roc in the Pizza Slice of Doom during session #67

Jacques Ocular (Magic User level 1), a fat green worm burrowed into his head and turned him into a Son Of Kyuss in Brovenloft in Session #43

Pino (Dwarf Footman level 0), Killed by a Frost Giant axe in the head in session #39

Paro (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 2/2)  Killed by Winter Wolves and frozen in session #39

Zabib (1/2 Elf Fighter/Magic User level 1/1), Killed by Frost Giant rocks in downtime prior to session #39