Time: 3/5/23-3/14/23, Rest 3/15/23, Active 3/16/23
PCs: Gwendolyn (bard), Max (barbarian), Luther (paladin)
Hench: Cemil, Amadayo, Mahin, Mushu, Eggie, Kit
Mercs: 6 Horse Archers
A very rare session missing Redcorn/Bigtoe’s player had the crew a little rudderless during the week about what the session was actually going to entail. Late in the week, Lord Issac de Molay (Patron Paladin) dropped a hook requesting recon into suspected enemy territory with a bonus for a captive to interrogate:
Planning an operation near the headwaters of the Yellow river. There is an old road running North from North Bridge Fort along the river. I need to know what lies along this road. Will pay 1,000 GP for each hex scouted from North Bridge along the road/river as far as Hex 17.10.
Will pay an additional 2,000 GP for one Healthy Beast man captured in Hex 15.11 through 17.10 and brought to Riverstride. Interested in an area called "Butzkrag" by the beasts. I will pay 3,000 GP for exact location of this evil hole. This mission is meant to be a quiet, small party recon not an attack. See Sir Eversly in North Bridge Fort for further details.
The party liked the sound of this as they have done well with Issac’s recon missions in the past. The session fired off from Northbridge after some downtime bookkeeping where the party sought audience with Sir Eversly. They were appalled to learn that they had to wait in a petitioners’ line like some kind of common adventuring party, but after a while they got in front of Issac’s vassal. They learned some details about the area and that Issac was offering to hire out an explorer henchman for wilderness guidance.
The group decided to hire Kit the Explorer and hit the road to the north, which was an old causeway fallen into disrepair after years of neglect from the beastmen occupiers. They determined it was still serviceable but heavy weather or random events may cause trouble to heavy wagon trains.
They explored a few hexes north along this broken road and found a few animal lairs which they determined were not likely a threat to Issac’s army. Kit coincidentally had the mapping proficiency so I ruled that he was going to attempt to map this scouting expedition on his own initiative.
On the second day of scouting they located a freshly raised palisade and watchtower manned by gnolls. They crept close on foot, using tall grass for cover, and watched for a bit. Then they tried to approach and talk to them but were warned to keep their distance with warning shots from the gnolls’ longbows. They bantered back and forth a bit, learning that the gnolls had prisoners and that they really did not like music, which infuriated Gwendolyn who had to be held back.
They tossed around a few ideas about attacking the gnolls, even asking Kit’s opinion. Kit the explorer advised guerrilla warfare to ensure victory. Wait for them to patrol or go hunting, pick them off in small groups. PCs weren’t fond of that due to time involved.
They didn’t really settle on anything so they opted to search the rest of the hex for more lairs just to make sure nothing was gonna hit them in the rear. They found a den of rust monsters that Kit noped right out of. They couldn’t find anything else so they returned to the gnolls.
I ruled that the gnolls set an ambush, waiting on the party to return to attack. But they got lazy and went back to their fort when the PCs were gone for so long searching for other lairs. The PCs still didn’t have a plan, but gathered some firemaking supplies with a half-formed idea of trying to set the place ablaze. As they approached they heard some screaming of almost certainly some innocent captive being murdered. ACKS Gnolls explicitly say in their monster entry they prefer intelligent food that screams. Boy them beastmen are somethin’ else, I tell ya what.
This had Luther the paladin in a lather about not standing for it, which pushed the action forward into a front assault on the gate/entry area of the fort. The martials charged forward, with big swole Max charging the entry door under a hail of arrows and bashing it down. The meat of the party followed in, with the ranged guys exchanging fire with the gnolls crouching along the palisade.
A hard-fought battle reached a climactic scene with the gnoll chieftain surrendering from on top of his watchtower after Max began lighting the base of it on fire. Some gnolls were taken prisoner and promptly executed by the vengeful Luther, leaving just the chieftain bound and ready to deliver to Issac. Half their mercs and one of the henchmen was also killed.
The party found and freed Tab Delaney, a petty nobleman from the interior of the Barony who offered to reward them with a magic item if they were to safely escort him home. I played in an AD&D session where the DM used freed prisoners as treasure maps and I liked it so I stole it. I also made them roll the treasure so I couldn’t be blamed if they got something lame like a checks notes Potion of Polymorph.
Laden with a modest gnoll lair’s worth of loot, a captive gnoll chieftain, and a prisoner that they kinda (?) wanted to take home, the party chose to pack up and head for home. They were excited to keep scouting but had to address the more immediate concerns.
They got to Northbridge, offloaded some goods, then carried on towards Riverstride, Lord Issac’s stronghold to the east. They stopped at a roadside merchant compound led by Hakim and offloaded some more goods, then arrived in Riverstride. They turned over the gnoll captive and told him of the map that Kit was in possession of in Northbridge. These things pleased Issac and he offered them rewards, a little less since their captive was not from the indicated hexes closer to Issac’s primary point of concern, but a little more since there was a map that Issac did not plan for.
The party chose to take this reward in “store credit” with Issac’s venturers who sell his magic items in some of the bigger markets of the region, earning them a 20% markup of value but only usable with Issac’s stores Talston Arms and Townhouse Arms of Bellport.
The dice were mighty kind for most of their journey, only running into one sticky situation with some Frost Giants who were immediately hostile. Only Max’s adjustment to surprise saved them, allowing them to evade before the Giants became aware of them. They took Delaney to the house, had a celebratory feast with his family, and parked in the capital of Bellport.
Musings:
Just when I think I might actually have to create a session or something, Patrons come through again. I am the laziest DM ever and it’s funny how much it doesn’t matter. Just trust the dice, run with things that are fun or impulsive in the moment, build on them as it goes.
Joking aside, it really is a strategy to not waste your energy creating every detail of every part of your world. If the players don’t interact with it, it just doesn’t matter. Use that energy efficiently. Build on where the excitement is. Give the players the reins and let them drive the game.
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