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| "That's just ice falling from the Pegasus' hooves, right?" |
Timekeeping
This session took place on 01/05/2025, and the PCs adventured for 3 days.
Player Characters Present
Slippery Pete (Level 9 Thief, wearer of the Hat of Disguise and wielder of the Black Dagger)
Sever the Wrathful (Level 8 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength, rider of Mustang) with henchmen Thomas (C4) & Rabbit (FMT 2/2/3)
Giuseppe (Level 7 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of the Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles, rider of Bonecrusher) with henchmen Bishoy and Tawadros (F5) and Rhoikos (M2)
Sheamus (Level 7 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, rider of the Rocket Cycle and wielder of the Drewblade) with henchman McScales (Lizardman F4)
Gurt the Green (Level 6 Paladin of Machodor, wielder of the Liberator+3, bearer of the Fabled Ice Jewel of Frigia, rider of Artax) with henchman Solaire (F3) and Anri (M4) and Cedric (C1)
There are two kinds of really good downtime actions: those that might set the seeds for future adventure, and those that shave off time that would otherwise be used up in session. During the couple of weeks since session #62 the players were off doing various things of the first kind, including an exploration off the map by Giuseppe. What was there? It just so happened the I had been reading G1 and decided this was perfect for the place for a hill giant steading. Now I know module usage is a bit of a no no, but after reading it I thought to myself, "Self, what is the worst that can happen? They might just ignore it". And when the session started the players set off to somewhere they had never been before as a group. That's just a normal Thursday for a BROSR DM.
Session Report
Sever's henchmen had been keeping tabs on the Ice Pyramid, an enigmatic structure presumed to be associated with the Master of Winter in some way; but, so far, little explored by the players and then only in down time. As it happened, recent scouting just missed certain events there, so there was little news to go off. It was time to go there and see for themselves. Sat in the Ice Castle, there was much discussion among the players as to the precise route to take, and whether to bring their troops along with them. I consulted my "avalanche risk table" and waited for them to come to a conclusion. In the end they decided to send some guys off to Guarda (I forget why now) and only take Sever's Pegasus scouts and those who could fit on the Rocket Cycle. The exception here was Giuseppe, who split the difference by riding Bonecrusher—with his magic horse shoes—which would allow him to easily scale mountains.
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| Giuseppe chose the pass marked with X |
After a few hours’ flight from the Ice Castle, Sheamus, Sever, and their companions arrived at the Ice Pyramid. Unlike their last aerial scouting by Sever's henchmen, who had found the structure had sealed shut but was otherwise dormant, now its icy walls radiated arcane power and malevolence. They landed nearby and, after probing the glowing runes with to no avail, Sheamus touched one of the swirling sigils on the Pyramid’s face, only to be stunned for his troubles. As Sheamus stood unresponsive, someone suggested using the Erase spell on a rune, but Sever's henchman, who knew the spell, remained at Fort Wrath. Undaunted, Sever resolved to retrieve him, a mere few hours’ flight on Mustang.
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| Meanwhile Giuseppe's approach was interrupted. Bad luck, or Yeti? |
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| Click to see how he escaped disaster! |
Sever returned from Fort Wrath with Rabbit, who cast Erase on a glowing rune, but alas, the sigil was unaffected by the spell, its magic unyielding. Giuseppe now arrived astride Bonecrusher, accompanied by a new ally, Bjorn the Were-bear, who bore a grim tale. Last year (way back in session 51), Bjorn had witnessed the Master of Winter’s brutal raid on Gimmelwald, powerless to halt the slaughter. Ever since, he had prowled the Bandit Mountains, seeking vengeance. A month prior, under the full moon’s light, he had tracked the Master himself, borne aloft on a dragon at the head of his frost-wreathed troops. Though unable to strike, Bjorn had observed a strange ritual at the Ice Pyramid, its runes flaring as a Yeti leader chanted, the Master’s troops vanishing in an icy flash while the Master departed, bearing the a torque he had certainly not worn before. Captivated by this lore drop, the party pondered its import, though its value to them remained uncertain.
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| Bjorn |
Having spent hours probing the Ice Pyramid’s secrets to little avail, the party deemed their investigation complete and turned to Giuseppe’s tale of hill giants he had spied during recent travels, resolving to confront them for what they hoped would be a swift victory with tangible rewards.
Having returned to the Ice Castle by dusk, the party rallied Giuseppe’s Swords! unit—seventy heavy footmen—their other troops scattered across the Bandit Mountains and thus unavailable. The next morning they set forth on a two-day march toward the hill giant fort, while Sever and his Pegasus Corps would scout the stronghold from the skies. After a day’s vigilance, their aerial watch revealed some fifteen giants lumbering forth to patrol, hunt, or guard the rugged crags, alongside six dire wolves stalking the shadows.
Sever rejoined Giuseppe’s Swords unit and reported while they were establishing camp for the night in a rugged valley. Nightfall descended and most of the players threw themselves down to sleep, perhaps dreaming of hill giants and treasure.
At the dead of night, a sentry’s cry rang out from the camp’s edge, "ORCS!"
Combat #1: Ambushed by 180 Orcs
Rounds: 4 (party win, party win, enemy routs, party pursues)
Result: Costly Party Victory
Highlights: The orcs, having stealthily encircled Giuseppe’s Swords unit, surged from all sides, their war cries shattering the silence. Somehow the party prevailed in a deadly mass combat.
There are a few ways to handle a combat of this kind, but for me I tend to immediately slip into the scaling mode and mass combat as I have shown in previous session reports; however beginning the fight camped for the night added some challenges since I usually only do that with the party alone. This prompted me to treat it as a standard night encounter in determining who was ready to respond to the attack immediately and apply similar methods to the troops.
Of the fourteen in the party—Sheamus, Giuseppe, Sever, Slippery Pete, Gurt, and nine henchmen, including two pure casters—I excluded the casters from watch duties. So, for each three-hour watch period over the twelve-hour night, three characters stood guard. By rolling three times I determined that, during the ambush, Giuseppe, his henchman Tawadros, and Sever were on duty, positioned at opposite ends of the camp. I assigned ten footmen from the Swords! unit to guard duty, while the rest, unarmoured, scrambled to respond grabbing shields and spears at Giuseppe's urging.
In hindsight, I should have asked the party about their camp's disposition, as their lack of input led to misunderstandings about positioning. Generating terrain features for the valley would have helped with verisimilitude. Anyway, working with what I had, I ruled that the orcs, undetected until their assault, had closed to melee range, granting them an initial advantage without formal surprise. This limited the party’s ability to charge, though I ultimately allowed it, reasoning that Giuseppe, Tawadros, and Sever were not right on the front line maintained by the troops. I even allowed mounts to be used where it seemed appropriate.
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| The Battle of Orcs Drift |
All this turned a potentially long battle into something well under 30 minutes. Sever with his extra attack in the first round, plus charging, was the first to do damage; with his lance he totalled 52 on his first hit. Now in a standard 1:1 scale battle that's one very dead orc, but in mass scale at 1:10, the effect is like a "Cleave", and can apply to more than one orc. The damage is adjusted for scale, 5.2, and applied to the average hit points for a 10 orc "square", 4.5, so one square of 10 was gone, with 0.7 hp left over and recorded as "wounds" for the unit. Giuseppe now added his damage as well, the Swords! unit had their go, then the Orcs rolled their remaining attackers. With most of their targets only protected by a shield, the orcs caused 6 casualties out of 7 squares of Giuseppe's unit, effectively eliminating the whole bunch. This was a major setback; but, if the party could somehow hold the field, many men could still be saved. Sever switched to his two handed sword after his charge, did more damage and wiped out another unit of 10 orcs, while Giuseppe did damage with his second attack.
While this was going on the remainder of the party were waking up and deciding what to do, most choosing to grab a weapon and fight, but Sheamus, always concerned for his armour, set about getting dressed by McScales (and missed the whole battle doing so, earning himself an S rating).
Next round, with Sever having cleared a way straight through the enemy front ranks, he reached the leader put him down. The morale of these orcs failed immediately afterwards and the remainder fled. Still in mass combat mode, Sever gave chase with some others, while the healers and paladins worked on the fallen. I applied the same scaling to their healing, i.e. total it and divide by 10 then apply the the unit the result saved men who would otherwise have died. In the aftermath, the orcs had left behind a nice collection of wagons for the party to claim as their own. These came in handy to load up the many wounded and drag themselves back to the Ice Castle. The Giants would have to wait. I wondered if they players would get side tracked away and not return for a year (Spoiler: they did not).
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 36 Miles
Combats: 1
Combat rounds: 4
Treasure & Items
682ep,5000cp,3000sp
12 gems:50,10,10,50,1000,10,500,500,500,500,500,100:3730gp
3 potions: Hill Giant Control, Invisibility, and Diminution: 1050xp
total value: 4,246 GP, 5296 XP
Monsters
100 Orcs 1500 XP
6,796 XP & 4,246 GP Assignment
Slippery Pete (E) 715 XP & 447 GP
Sever (E) 715 XP & 447 GP
and Poindexter (E) 358 XP & 223 GP
and Thomas (E) 358 XP & 223 GP
Giuseppe (E) 715 XP & 447 GP
and Bishoy 358 XP & 223 GP
and Tawadros 358 XP & 223 GP
and Rhoikos (E) 358 XP & 223 GP
Shaemus (E) 715 XP & 447 GP
and McScales (E) 358 XP & 223 GP
Gurt the Green (E) 358 XP & 223 GP
and Solaire (E) 358 XP & 223 GP
and Anri (E) 358 XP & 223 GP
and Cedric (E) 358 XP & 223 GP
Graveyard
Paul (Henchman Paladin level 1), reduced to 0 hit points by white dragon breath when climbing down a rope ladder in session #108. Killed not by the fall; but by the sudden stop at the bottom. RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Ignatius the Smiter (Cleric level 1), horrifically mutilated and killed by double hit from a Shoggoth in session #106
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), wrong place, wrong time; killed by Sever the Ranger in session #72 RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), killed again by the toxic gas of an Achaierai in session #72
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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