Time: 3/19/23- 3/31/23, Rest 4/1/23, Active 4/2/23
PC: Gwendolyn, Luther, Redcorn, Max
Hench: Cemil, Amadayo, Mahin, Eggie
Merc: mixed cav
Hench: Cemil, Amadayo, Mahin, Eggie
Merc: mixed cav
Last session the crew took on a mission for Lord Issac de Molay (Patron Paladin) in which they pushed into the wilderness and beastmen occupied territory to gather information on something called the "Butzkrag". There is some suspicion that it is tied into the Dark Hymn in some way and Issac wants more info.
This week they were back at it, pushing to locate the site of the Butzkrag, whatever that is, and scouting the territory leading up to the supposed location. Redcorn was back in the mix, significantly increasing their overland power level with his weaponized animals and some newly acquired mercenaries.
The early part of the session was pretty standard, they retraced their steps from the previous weeks, moving eventually into new territory along the Yellow River. The Butzkrag was allegedly somewhere near the source of this tributary of the Teesar, but they hadn't found it yet.
Using speak with animals and a griffin, Redcorn took the skies and located a series of low hills with a poorly screened entryway. He led the party to the location where they tore down the brush hiding the cavemouth and narrowly avoided falling in a pit trap with some wicked poison on stakes.
They sent their mercs up on the high ground to be ready to charge down if anything came out and the principals of the party entered the cave. After 100ish feet, they heard a steady chopping sound. They also heard their mounted mercs above their head. They cautiously approached and were met with a rush of dust and debris as the cavern mouth was collapsed in front of them. They decided against trying to dig their way further in considering their lack of tools and unwillingness to waste the time.
Another day, another aerial scouting mission, and Redcorn reported a gathering crowd of stone statues around the entrance to an very old temple ruin. They discussed various schemes to approach and investigate the large bronze doors on the ancient building but determined that the risk/reward of tangling with what they assumed was a Medusa lair wasn't favorable.
They left and kept after it, tracking down some giant spiders in another old ruined town of some sort and killing them. They scraped out a little loot including a magic shield that drank blood from a little mouth on the bottom after Gwendolyn joked it should nom nom nom blood. She was spot on with her guess and it was totally pre-planned and absolutely not the DM leaning into memed up flavor during the session.
So far the crew had had some small success but were not finding beastmen to capture or the site of the Butzkrag. They moved into the next hex on which should include the location of interest if their previous recon and Issac's interrogation of the gnoll captive from last session were any indication. Using trained hunting animals to track led them eventually to a spot near a large hill where they could hear the murmur of a large crowd of sorts.
They sent their assassin hench to check it out who returned at a sprint telling everyone to run with very little else to say. He jumped on his horse and fled back the way they came because he had been discovered by the enemy sentries. The party followed and after confirming that they weren't pursued got some additional information. There were countless beastmen camped around this hill, thousands probably.
They moved off and camped in a spot with good visibility. The terrain was pretty open grasslands with some rolling hills. There weren't great spots to conceal their location so they opted to have a better chance of seeing the enemy coming. Fortunately, the sentries didn't seem overly concerned with pursuit so they were able to camp and discuss strategies.
They knew Issac wanted a captive from close to the area and this had to be a significant gathering. That many tribes in one spot was unusual for sure. The next day, Redcorn went aerial at a distance, couldn't really see much other than big gathering, some permanent structures up top, and a well travelled path to the northwest. He returned and the crew decided to lay an ambush along that path to catch someone coming or going.
They split wide and laid in wait while I sketched out the chances for something of significance to happen. I love the 2d6 scale for random things. It's easy for me to think what is more or less likely to happen and fire away. I rolled for a random encounter and hit on the first hour. I rolled in the party's favor, a lightly guarded treasure caravan leading away from the area. I rolled which types of beastmen were escorting it which was less to the party's favor, bugbears and lizardmen, some of the tougher beasties in ACKs. Rolled for surprise and the fight was on.
Fight took a while. We weren't really at BR level yet so I scaled up the enemy and went to town. It was a slog, with heavy casualties on both sides. Eventually the bugbear commander succumbed to a Command spell to "surrender" and the party rolled up the fight. They were smart in staying far enough away from the primary camp that the fight was not likely to be overheard. Dice were in their favor there and they made full use of the good fortune.
With their dead and wounded stacked on wagons and captive bugbears slung across saddles, they extracted as fast as they were able and were fortunate in their return trip with random encounters. They force marched on their last day to make Northbridge where Redcorn cast Restore Life and Limb on the party's mascot Cemil. Unfortunately, his Tampering with Mortality roll was insufficient and Cemil was no more. RIP to the Rowing Team. IYKYK.
With their dead and wounded stacked on wagons and captive bugbears slung across saddles, they extracted as fast as they were able and were fortunate in their return trip with random encounters. They force marched on their last day to make Northbridge where Redcorn cast Restore Life and Limb on the party's mascot Cemil. Unfortunately, his Tampering with Mortality roll was insufficient and Cemil was no more. RIP to the Rowing Team. IYKYK.
They rested then departed towards Issac's keep at Riverstride, where they turned in their captives and debriefed with their employer. He was pleased with the results and eager to interrogate the captives. He paid them their due in hard cash this time and the rest of the session was them Restoring their dead henchmen and traveling to larger markets to offload goods.
Musings:
I was unprepared for the mass level combat. I rushed through scaling it up and I'm not super happy with the results. Ultimately it was a challenging encounter for the party with more than adequate reward, but going forward I think I'm going to stick to the D@W: Campaigns abstracted BR for army sized battle and focus on forays for the party. We'll see how it goes as they progress and hire more troops and such to put it on an even footing mechanically.
Mass combat and battle ratings and such are all very new to our table's players so before we run into it again I want to make sure there's a basic understanding of the rules we're going to use. ACKS is great in that you can get as detailed as you want with it. For our table, I think the Campaigns level abstraction is enough to keep the flavor without boring the players that have less interest in battlefield stuff. If you're into a more wargame feel, check out Domains at War: Battles for a more robust experience.
This session revealed some of the events that have been unfolding for quite some time now in enemy territory. There may be some additional collaboration with Issac and this team. We'll see in the coming sessions if there's any crack back from the Butzkrag gathering after the PC's lightning raid.
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