 |
| Usama Loot Laden (and mount) |
Timekeeping
Introduction
Player Characters Present
Downtime
Session Report
As the sun rose on a clear morning, a sentry posted at one of the cave system's six entrances reported something strange at the exit to the little cul-de-sac like valley the ruined village was in; trees, lots of trees! Over night, seemingly by magic, a huge forest had formed. Going forward to investigate, they soon found their worst fears proven, the forest extended in such a way as to arc from one end of the exit to the valley all the way to the other side, half a mile away; creating an enclosed space that narrowed down to about 200 yards at its far end, and there in front of the trees was an army drawn up and waiting, the Talibandits. The party could see Usama himself ride forward, waving a white flag, escorted by 4 warriors and another bearing a banner.
 |
| Local map showing the caves |
Three players rode forward, with three Pegasus riders backing them up. Only one of the players attempted to read what was on the enemy's banner, which written in Illusionary Script, and this required him to make a saving through, which fortunately for him he made and so was not magically Confused. With the banner a failure, but with them all in range; Usama's magic user ally, Invisible off to the side, cast her Lightning Bolt (much as she had done on another occasion); and all hell broke loose.
 |
| Goodbye faithful steed |
Combat #1: Usama's Treachery
Rounds: 2
Result: Party flees!
Highlights: The bolt got Sever, Gurt, and Sheamus, and their mounts, and sadly Convess the Pegasus failed his save and took full damage, which was enough to kill the faithful steed. By the time the survivors reacted the image of Usama had wavered and disappeared, it was an Illusion!
The magic user ran off somewhere into the trees, but when they tried to pursue they found them too thick to make it further than 10' per round (as per the spell); and to make it worse they heard the growls of summoned bears in there. They were forced to retreat.
The Talibandit troops jeered and laughed as the PCs raced back to the presumed safety of the valley, but it was soon apparent this this was no place of safety; numerous shots rang out from the mountains nearby. Durka Durka's tribesmen had taken up position there and were able to rain down shots with their enchanted acorns with impunity. The players whole force hesitated at the threshold to the village and tried to think of a way out of their predicament.
Slippery Pete volunteered to climb up there and took off to do so (an uncharacteristically brave move, but perhaps he figured he would be less of a target up there). The small unit of Pegasus archers tried to make and impression but were out matched in fire power, an soon forced to land. Now time dragged, would the battle start, or would attrition keep slowly piling up? I had no planned solution here, this was not a "round 1 this happens, round 2 that happens, the PCs can influence the out come by winning such and such set piece small scale combat." which I've seen advised around the place. No, bottled in like they were, the ball was in the player's court completely. You could sense the tension!
The first attempt to reclaim the initiative was to send some of the unwounded Pegasus air cavalry out in pairs to seek reinforcements, two went to Guarda, and two to Schloss Ragnar. The speedy mounts were able to evade the Durka Durka fire and get clear, but even they would not be able to reach their respective destinations and return with help in less than four hours. Could the PCs army hold out that long, would they try?
I wondered if they might seek safety in the caves. They could have tried, the entrances would have been defensible; but they found the former gnoll home instinctively unsafe, I guess. In fact, I'd dropped a clue or two (that had gone unnoticed) to the existence of an underground river that actually led out of the rear of the caves and could have been used to escape, or flank the enemy, or perhaps even led to the discovery of a path into the basements of Tora Bora...but we'll never know now.
Instead, Giuseppe came to the fore with a inspired tactic; he would take the dwarf unit up the mountain side and directly engage the Durka Durka's there. This was a great example of a player influencing the world around him, do dwarves really have such an ability? Well, it seemed reasonable to me at the time! Later I rationalised that perhaps dwarves could locate navigable ways to ascend that other races might not, particularly with Giuseppe able to lead them up there with Bonecrusher's Horseshoes of a Zephyr. I decided this put them in open or skirmish formation, but that was a small price to pay to escape the stalemate. Suddenly the hunters became the hunted. As they got moving the the Durka Durka druid's realised their danger and cast a number Obscurement spells, and at the same time Slippery Pete was moving in to flank them all by himself (so brave!). With his men on the mountain now in danger, the Durka Durka druid leader, Putda bin Outwillya, pressured Usama to advance and engage the enemy; and the bandit leader was happy to do so.
 |
| battlefield in action |
Combat #2: Battle of the Ruined Village
Rounds: 11
Result: Party Victory
Highlights: The enemy closed and sent both sides exchange missile file while setting up for a charge. Once this opening rounds passed each unit settled in for a slugging match back and forth, losing sight of other parts of the battlefield.
Usama, astride his might mammoth, was in the centre of his heavy foot on the left wing. When the units clashed, Sever and Gurt began wading through the 0-levels and soon met with the man himself. They did not have things their own way, Usama had many levelled henchmen to protect him, as well as some druids. In the end running the druids with all this going on proved a bit too much for me to fully exploit, I abducted later that maybe Putda wasn't all in with his support of Usama.
Meanwhile the other units had also crossed the no-man's land between them and engaged. The militia from Guarda suffered heavy losses with only the guidance of Sheamus to keep them together when one of their leaders fell.
There were plenty of places to lose this battle, the place to win it was always going to be with the villainous Usama and those who faced him, and he gave as good as he got--both verbally and physically.
 |
| Usama in happier days |
Finally the last of Usama's protectors fell and the man himself was on his last legs. The female magic user, who must have had a thing for her boss, tried to run up Invisibly and use a Fear spell to save him. However, she did not quite make it and instead effected one of the militia units and caught some of her own troops in the area of effect. Usama fell next round after a rousing speech no one recorded, and the magic user was then caught by Sheamus and his rocket cycle, which ran her over as she tried to flee back to the safety of the forest.
Among the vanquished were ten captured officers, men who lacked the malevolent zeal of their leader and were merely typical bandits seeking easy plunder. These men readily surrendered when Usama fell. Twenty archers, gripped by the last minute Fear spell, fled into the forest, only to meet a grim fate as bears devoured them. Vultures circled overhead as the party began the somber task of looting the fallen enemy.
Later that day, Sixtus arrived with reinforcements from the Pegausu Corps Sixth Company. Though too late to influence the battle's outcome, his timely intervention allowed the party to dispel an illusion cloaking a section of the forest that prevented their leaving the field. Within this revealed area, they discovered the Talibandits’ packhorses and carts, brimming with loot and harboring a few prisoners. The captured officers disclosed that Usama had abandoned his mountain lair, collapsing its entrances, with plans to relocate to the Ruins of Trollopulous.
The party gathered the loot and their fallen comrades, returning to Guarda. That night, a fierce thunderstorm tore through the battle site, as if nature itself recoiled at the Druids’ actions that day—though such musings remained speculative.
They reached Guarda by midday on November 16, 2024, and set about assessing the value of their hard-won spoils.
The unit template I'd prepared before hand really helped make this session manageable, but I immediately made some changes to it; eventually I want the units, particularly those owned by the players, to have these standing by like character sheets, ready to go at a moment's notice. At the time I was still thinking in these terms but have moved on to a different way of doing it.
 |
| Template use example with Giuseppe's "Swords!" unit |
With theatre of the mind and mass battles, there is crucial cut off point were it is no longer possible for some players to visualise what is going on. This varies from player to player. Loosing track of things is also not necessarily bad, it can simply be a reflection of the fact that this mode of play can be more chaotic than anything a single party might encounter in a dungeon.
However in this case the battle became more complex than necessary as I made the smaller Talibandit forces (20 archers, 20 cavalry) etc into their own units, instead of combining some of them. Since the cognitive over head is per unit--regardless of each unit's size--this is something I will avoid in the future. Similarly, for the forces of good, the two militia companies were so similar in make up that they were easy to confuse.
Experience rules
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 18 Miles
Combats: 2
Combat rounds: 12
No comments:
Post a Comment