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| Before shot of a mass battle. |
Timekeeping
This session took place on 10/10/2024, 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)
Sever (Level 8 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength)
Bumblebore (Level 4, Magic User of Machodor, wielder of the Wand of Paralysation)
and Firedrake Familiar O'Malfoy
Comfort Rod (Level 5 Cleric, Psionicist and wielder Hammer of Giant Influence)
Deadeye Donny (Level 1 Monk, likes animals)
Introduction
In this session the player's plans go astray and they never reach their objective, yet have fun anyway.
Downtime
In the aftermath of the battle in session #48, Slipper Pete followed the fleeing Gnolls and Usma Loot Laden in order to infiltrate the Ice Castle and find Countess Echellet, if she was there. If any valuables found their way into his pockets, so much the better. He was even considering trying to sneak attack Usama if the opportunity presented itself. What happened next was a story worthy of Appendix N. Neither he nor the Gnolls reached the Ice Castle first, it was the Dragon Cult Leader on his red dragon who did so. As he approached Pete observed him flying off again, and he got a good enough view to be pretty sure the DCL had left empty handed.
As a peak into how I handle such things, here are the discord logs:
and then once I found out what Usama's player was intending to do, I could get back to Pete's player as he made the castle battlements.
and then things got weird.
Showing his true nature, Usama surprise attacked his own allies, unknowingly catching the thief at the same time. Pete made his save, survived the lightning bolt, and got out of the way as the surviving Gnolls and Usama fought it out. After a sweep of the back rooms he found no sign of the Countess. He did find the torn up banners of the previous occupants of the Ice Castle, and a large circular hatch-like door which he could not open. By the time he returned to the courtyard all the gnolls were dead; and Usama, his wizard, and his Mammoth had vanished. All this happened while the players army was on the way back to Guarda, and Pete was able to re-join them before the next session. Note that, of course, Usama had no idea he had been observed.
Session Report
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| DMG p30 |
The session started in sombre fashion, with time catching up right on the heals of the party's activities in the previous session. A solemn Mass was held at the Guarda Cathedral for the militia and Pegasus Corps members killed in battle. The leader of the Pegasus Corps Air Cavalry 6th Company, Sir Colias, gave a eulogy and later pledged his help to avenge them against the Master of Winter and the Dragon Cult. With Sever now a fully fledged named level Ranger (the first in the campaign) he was able to recruit hirelings, and with Giuseppe and Gurt the Green out of action they were needed.
I rolled a 95 and got 'Any FOOTMAN', which turned out to be 50 Heavy Foot with a Captain. Of course, these guys do not come with any equipment, that needs to be provided; but the player characters had been gradually accumulating arms and armour over the last year, and so they drew on these stores to set up with the recruits with Scale Mail, Spears, Hand Axes, and a shield. Not bad. I'm excited to see where this goes as there are lots of rules to support running a mercenary company in the DMG, but I've not put them all together and seen them working in a campaign before. Along with these humans under Captain Falcon, there were still 45 Dwarves (though 15 were still recovering from last session's battle). From these they drew out enough to
man operate the 3 captured Ballista; but I ruled they would only be at half efficiency until they could build up enough skill from practice.
So, with their army of 50 Men, 45 Dwarves, & 32 Pegasus Air Cavalry, backed up with the party members and 6 wagons they had captured (technically re-captured), they set off to verify Slippery Pete's findings regarding the Ice Castle. If they could confirm the Countess was not there, they would return to searching for the original Talibandit base. With the ground forces limited to three 3 mile hexes a day, Sever took 10 Pegasus riders with him to scout ahead (the speedy fliers could make it to the castle and back in only three hours).
Things had changed since Pete had left an abandoned castle behind.
Recently restored banners flew on the battlements.
Sever was wary of approaching and exposing himself to the Ice Cannons Slippery Pete had identified were also on the battlements, never the less it was hard to get a good look without taking a chance from close range. When he did so he was lucky to not be as surprised as the gunner who stood dumbfounded looking back at him. Convess soared away before the gunner could react. So, the castle was inhabited, and the occupants now knew something was up. Was it time for Plan B? Sever returned to discuss this but the session took a different turn from here. There was a random encounter of 120 Hobgoblins to deal with!
Combat #1: 120 Hobgoblins
Rounds 2: Surprise 2 Segments, Party win
Result: Total Party victory
Highlights: If you're a bunch of Hobgoblins looking for trouble in the Bandit Mountains of Machodor; let me tell you, you do not want to get surprised by a unit of Pegasus Corps Archers.
The initial aerial archery attack with surprise was devastating and then the ground units closed and ensured the remaining hobgoblins were cut down in short order. With the main body defeated, thoughts turned to lairs and loot rather than the mission. Sever was easily able follow the tracks made by the creatures, and so he set off in search of their origin with the army following; but the lair proved to be much further away than hoped.
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| The Hobgoblins had come from the aptly named: "Caves leading South" |
They reached the caves before a major storm hit, so they had that going for them, and for the best part of two days followed the trail south. These were the same caves where the players had defeated an orc force with its baggage train last year. A branch led off to a bridge over a shear drop; and beyond was a curing tunnel that lead to a text book example of a hobgoblin lair. Sever staked out a spot nearby, hoping to ambush a hobgoblin or two while the main body caught up with him; but the ground force again run into trouble. This time it was 7 Fire Giants (by coincidence there had been a fire giant here last year as well). The creatures got a segment of surprise and launched a fusillade of stone projectiles; but, they were not overly aggressive, this was a warning fusillade. They then demanded tribute; which, in other circumstances, I'm sure the party would have seriously considered.
However, Comfort Rod hefted his Hammer of Giant Influence and for the first time used its magic power in earnest. The giants' leader rolled a 1 for his save. At first I think they were planning to get the giants to join them in smashing the hobgoblin lair; but then someone though to ask them to bring out the treasure from their lair! This was a great idea, in theory; but in reality it turned out that the fire giants lair was some days' journey distant; and so they never saw them again. With that threat taken care off, they were ready to push on and join up with Sever.
He explained the situation, a gate house blocked access into a cavern beyond which presumably held the hobgoblin lair. Keen to get the job done, they opted for a frontal attack.
Combat #2: Hobgoblin lair
Rounds 6: Monsters win, Monsters win, Party win, Party win, Party win, Party win
Result: Party crushed their enemies, saw them driven before them and heard the lamentation of the (hobgoblin) women.
Highlights: Donny deflected multiple ballista bolts with with monk magic. A new combo tactic, I think it was called Light and Smite, was invented by Bumblebore and Comfort Rod.
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| for some reason he insisted it looked like this |
In his extended downtime, Bumblebore had been working on a captured piece of the sentinel the players had defeated in the Pizza Slice of Doom some time ago. The result was effectively a
Wand of Paralysation.
The gatehouse proved to be difficult to get through and was well defended. Slippery Pete went invisible and scooted past to "check the defences further in". He found a ziggurat in the center of the cavern, atop which was a (self)important hobgoblin who must have been leader and his bodyguards. The temptation to back stab the leader proved to much, but somehow he missed and so ran off, inadvertently giving the chief the courage to chase after him in the direction of the battle (which by now had got past the gatehouse). The chief reached the battle in time to be the target of a repeat of the "Light and Smite" tactic, the remainder fled while they could and and the party looted a ziggurat (after setting off a poison gas trap that nearly did for Bumblebore!).
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 42 Miles
Combats: 2
Combat rounds: 8
Treasure and XP
Trollopulous Adjusted Session 89 (Machodor #49)
Treasure & Items
Gems:
10 gp Obsidian, 10 gp Rhodochrosite, 100 gp Smoky Quartz, 100 gp Star Rose Quartz, 10 gp Tiger Eye Agate, 50 gp Tiger Eye Agate, 500 gp Aquamarine, 600 gp Coral, 100 gp Star Rose Quartz, 12 gp Moss Agate, 2000 gp Diamond, 80 gp Azurite, 500 gp Spinel, 5000 gp Star Sapphire, 20 gp Azurite, 5000 gp Amethyst.
Jewellery:
3000 gp Belt, 5000 gp Statue, 2700 gp Chalice, 1800 gp Sceptre
Total Value: 26,592 gp.
Scroll 3rd Level *2 (Tongues, Fireball) 4th Level *2 (Confusion, Fear) 1400 XP (to Bumblebore)
Potion of Flying 500 XP
Monsters
Mass Combat #1:
120 Hobgoblins grunts 3480 XP
6 leaders 12 assistants 684 XP
Sub Chief 52 XP
(1877 cp, 626 gp distributed to the troops)
Total XP: 4216
Adjusted XP: 1476
Hobgoblin Lair:
20 Hobgoblin Home Guards 570 XP
Chief Hobgoblin 64 XP
3 Giant Apes 810 XP
30,012 XP & 26,592 GP Assignment
Slippery Pete (E) 6002 XP & 5318 GP
Sever (E) 6002 XP & 5318 GP
Bumblebore (E) 7402 XP & 5318 GP
Comfort Rod (E) 6002 XP & 5318 GP
Deadeye Donny (E) 6002 XP & 5318 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
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