Session 49: PCs are Wild Cards

 Session 49: PCs are Wild Cards

9/10/23-9/12/23, rest 9/13, active 9/14

PC: Gwendolyn, Flynn, Cleet, Legany, Elkland

Hench: Beyza, Amadayo, Mahin, Madrof

#ACKS

We’re two weeks into the Braunstein event that I’m calling the Brigstein. Armies are stomping around in a civil war and killing each other and sieging and burning cities and all manner of madness. The normal table players are playing sessions while the Brigstein players are burning the place down. Last week they avoided the chaos, this week they jumped right in.

Most of Team A’s PCs were within the city of Talston, which was currently under siege by Marshal Eli Hummel, the new Lord of Loch Lucerne, and troops from his frenemy Lord Valestrian. That was the only group not in time jail so they figured they’d get into some trouble within the framework of a siege.

Gwendolyn traveled there in downtime and had to talk her way past the Hummel siege camp. She didn't see any Valestrians to interact with and in fact didn't even know they were there. The soldiers weren’t just going to let her in, so they interrogated her and eventually recruited her to act as a spy in the town after taking all of her crew's rations. Charisma is a hell of a stat.

At the Talston gates, it was going to be much harder to talk her way in I told myself as I rolled a reaction check and maxed it out. FML. Turns out this platoon guarding this particular gate on this shift were mostly fans of the famous Gwendolyn the Goat, renowned for her songs about goats and cats and barbarians and other things she’s seen on her many adventures. They even wore little goat pins and she signed autographs and shook hands and would have taken selfies if that was a thing but after short order she gained access to the city and kept her hood up to avoid notice.

Once the group reunited, Flynn and the gang inside which included a couple fresh PCs learned of POWs being held by Talston. The Lawfuls in the bunch were uber offended by Lord Talston hanging POWs from the walls to taunt his enemies and did not want the survivors to suffer the same fate. They talked their way into the camp under the guise of concern over the captives’ well-being. A heavy rainstorm helped dampen any zeal the guards might have had and they were able to check on the prisoners with a promise not to do anything to make the soldiers kill them.

Unfortunately the camp was in pretty terrible condition, especially with the rain, and Flynn the cleric went to work trying to offer what aid that he could. The group was able to interview a captive NCO and encourage him to rouse the troops in the event that the party was able to formulate some kind of rescue plan. They talked of using signal lights on top of a windmill to signal someone outside the city and tossed some other ideas around about what to actually do.

The PCs split off at this point to scout entrances to the primary castle and scout guard rotations and dispositions at the gates. Some of them were being followed by mercenaries belonging to the Black Stag company, employed by Talston. Shenanigans ensued where they tried to lose them in the rain and detect evil and such, ending with Gwendolyn and Beyza the Hench being cornered in a tavern by a handful of menacing dudes.

Turns out these were the same guys that had kidnapped the two of them previously and had told them to leave. Again a positive reaction check kept them from being attacked, but the mercs warned Gwendolyn to leave town or else. She dropped some payroll off at EARS and she was out. The new shift of guards searched her for contraband or spy stuff and didn’t find any, so they let her leave the gates. Charisma.

The next day, a plan was hatched for “National Guard Appreciation Day” wherein the remaining PCs would fashion ribbons and buy booze to pass out to any veterans or active duty soldiers in the town. Cleet the tweaker spiked a few barrels of ale with poison and went for the gates they had scouted while Flynn took some wine and spirits to the POW camp. Where Cleet intended to eradicate the guards on the two gates, Flynn just wanted to get them drunk and stage a breakout with a bunch of clubs they had bought.

While the POW guards were enjoying their unexpected holiday, Legany the barbarian left to light the lamp at the top of the windmill. The miller gave him some trouble but a bribe smoothed things over and in short order the signal was set. After enough of the POW guards were drunk, some others got wise and started poking around the cart, asking questions and getting suspicious. The group sprang the POWs and they quickly overcame the few capable guards. The party marched their mob towards the gate and miraculously didn’t hit any interference in the streets.

Poison, a mob of prisoners, and a well placed sleep spell secured the first gate, which was opened to a charging division of Hummel’s troops. Talston, while surprised by the treachery, was not completely helpless and sent units to defend. While there was a big battle at that breach, the party ran for the second gate, again using the POWs to subdue the reduced soldiers. But the garrison had called for reinforcements, so when this gate opened, Talston’s troops were going to arrive before the invading Hummel could make entry. A rousing speech from Elkland the enchanter allowed the POWs to pass a morale check to hold the gate long enough to give Hummel’s troops a chance to enter. Chaos ensued, with Hummel overwhelming the two breach points and pushing Talston’s remaining troops back to the old castle and its inner walls. By the end of the day, the party was paid their reward that was uh… foraged… from the town by Hummel’s men and the city of Talston had fallen, if not the castle.

Musings:

Running sessions during an event in the background is interesting. I think next time, I’ll run the macro level faction players on weekly turns instead of daily turns. I chose daily at the outset to allow for more control and interest from those players but if the session runs into the future, which they almost always do at least a few days, then I’m having to guess at likely actions and dictate the next X days worth to any faction player involved. For instance, Hummel and Talston are now essentially in time jail for a few days to account for the actions that took place during the session. It’s nothing that can’t be worked around but it is interesting to consider. Big props to the Brigstein players for understanding their part in the greater scheme of things.

I was glad that the players were able to find something to interest them for the session. A lot of the results were driven by favorable reaction checks, which is always interesting and sometimes difficult to parse. I think in the future I should add more situational modifiers as I may have been too easy on the bard entering and leaving the town. A few PCs have died recently so it was nice for the group to get a win. Lookin’ forward to the fallout from this session.