Where are the Goblins?

To the honorable Knight Captain Dawes, I, Sir Percival, report on my recent activity. 

I have secured passage for Fr. Richardson and the Pilgrims of the Warming Rays of Benevolent Pelor in Ascendency aboard Captain Weathersby's vessel, The Osprey. Weathersby is a merchant and nothing more, hardly the example set by Captain Tinsworth. We are scheduled to depart 20 NOV.

In the meantime, a lawman of sorts by the name of Zimon joined our party along with the warrior Thom Bruise and Fr. Cassian of Pelor. In the days leading up to our departure, Zimon aimed to aid the local guardsmen in rounding up several outstanding bounties. What we discovered in the course of this action was disturbing for a few reasons, first of which is that the bounty system acts as an unsupervised method of petty vengeance for those with spare coin. I beg you to discuss the practice with your peers in the constabulary at your earliest convenience.

An alleged abuser of women, a heretic, and a cheese thief were all investigated, but each was an example of confusion, misinformation, or pettiness on the parts of those involved. It is a blessing that Fr. Cassian and I were present to oversee the endeavor as hiring armed and hungry adventurers for basic police work is an extremely irresponsible practice.

By Pelor's grace, we actually did uncover a criminal worthy of justice, Lord Locksley. He was stealing, committing insurance fraud, and smuggling goods while hiding behind his title. We were tasked with discovering solid evidence to justify a warrant for his arrest. Zimon and Thom Bruise spearheaded the operation by staking out, infiltrating, and discovering incriminating correspondence. We also confiscated much of the stolen goods through a clever ruse.

Locksley and his six uncommonly jovial companions were captured with only a few mercenaries losing their lives. We turned them in and have acquired a warrant for the arrest of his agent, Little John, in Bonevale. We intend to execute that warrant once we arrive in the border town.

Enclosed is my tithe to the Order out of my share of our reward. Should you require anything further of your humble servant, you have only to command and rest assured it will be done.

Yours in the Light of Pelor,

Knight Warder Percival, Gradsul

 

Logistics Wins Wars

Lady Echellet (Fighter ???) of Guarda has been a prominent and uncommonly Good aligned NPC in the Bandit Mountains of Trollopulous since we began play there. We rescued her from the necromancer at Castle Von Necro very early on and she's been an ally ever since. A combined force of gnolls and bandits attacked Guarda and captured her when she rode out to defend her home. She was replaced unbeknownst to anyone by a body double in a stupor who was then later kidnapped by a different bandit. Our primarily Good party wasn't going to stand for that.

I'm going to shine a light on a fundamental truth of warfare: logistics wins wars. Tactics are important but nothing matters as much as being where you need to be with the materiel and personnel you need to have to achieve your objective. In real D&D, the most important resource is time. There is no pausing the session to return to a scenario because everyone got sleepy. Failure to respect this truth by our Caller (that's me) cost us initiative and advantage repeatedly, leading to a less than total victory and causing more casualties than necessary including our ranger's Pegasus mount (again, me, making this failure particularly painful and personal).

Session 1: We learned Echellet had disappeared shortly after the gnoll attack on Guarda. We investigated and suspected she'd been kidnapped by a thief and/or spellcaster, likely on a large flying creature. We mobilized immediately and tracked them, the ranger taking point due to speed on his Pegasus. He was able to locate and destroy the culprits (a Patron player, we learned later) and rescue the Lady, but it was a plant or body double. This session actually went mostly as planned and we kept the time-wasting to a dull roar.

Session 2: We extrapolated on what we thought we knew, leading us to mobilize on a location where we thought the real Echellet was stashed. Hired troops, organized, equipped, took a lot of session time. Random hobgoblin ambush on the road distracted us from our objective. We diverted to track them to their lair and get their loot which ate up the rest of the session. While it was a good score, it was not the objective. We achieved nothing in the pursuit of our goal. 

Session 3: Some additional investigation changed our target to a nearby mountain range where we discovered the Talibandit group entrenched in Afghanistan-style caves and tunnels. We broke in, killed a bunch, and took a few captives. They had weird weapons like rifles that were inert once we got away from the mountains. This was recon so can't really consider it time wasted. Could be a mixed blessing changing targets, too, since this would end up being closer to the target.

Session 4: Captive revealed a map and confirmed the presence of prisoners, including one that fit Echellet's description. We returned, killed a bunch of entrenched riflemen with RPGs, found a boulder trap and some imprisoned animals mimicking the call of a mythical monster. Couldn't find Echellet, ran out of time, exfil. 

Somewhere around here we had a spooky Halloween session. It was fun, but again, a distraction away from our stated objective. Real time is a real resource.

Session 5: Dropped a message prior to session to the bandit leader, Usama Loot-Laden (another Patron), to turn the prisoners over to us or else. Also the captive we had was liberated by magic. We returned with the map, troops, and a plan. The thief would infiltrate and locate Echellet, then we'd attack and cause a distraction. He'd try to free or at least keep her from being executed or moved. We got into position but the sneaking portion took most of the session. A recovered note indicated Echellet had been turned over to another villain Patron. Our objective now became one of justice and/or retribution. 

We could leave, again, or occupy a nearby ruined village and stage for an assault next session. Having been thwarted time and again by failing to execute our plans efficiently, we stayed there, killed the gnolls in the ruins, and dug in. With only a day of downtime and no contact with the enemy we hoped to avoid notice until we could launch our attack. We failed. This was the most painful and costly of the sessions where the caller had mismanaged session time. We should have engaged the enemy instead of trying to get cute.

Session 6: We woke to find a magical forest boxing us into the ruins and the valley beyond. Usama offered a parley flag but betrayed it, cementing his death sentence. A hard fought battle resulted in many casualties that could have been avoided by engaging the enemy the session prior in their caves where they could not utilize their numbers or druidic magic and we could apply the advantage of our leveled PCs. We killed most of the enemy troops, but many of the druids escaped. The loot and casualties are still being counted but it was unnecessarily costly and bloody all because we failed to manage our time properly and execute on stated objectives.

Some of our decisions as a group in the sessions leading up to this scenario could be reviewed, like choosing not to negotiate with the kidnappers or pay any ransom. Communication from both sides was simply demands of one variety or another so maybe there wasn't an opportunity to resolve it that way. Ultimately, we were victorious in battle but failed to achieve the primary objective of rescuing Lady Echellet. The lesson here is choose an objective and make your every action serve that objective. Otherwise you'll bleed to death from paper cuts that drain resources, most importantly time, until your final confrontation is more difficult than necessary. Delays allowed the enemy to move Echellet and prepare for that final battle and the most galling part of the whole thing is that I fucking knew better.

RIP Convess.

Local 345 of the NSAD

From the journal of Namor the Mariner, Bastia:

Nov 10-11: Time kinda got away from us this past week. After drinking away the profits from the last adventure, we realized we still needed to repair the Bill's hull which is gonna cost quite a bit of gold. I gotta find us some work and fast.

Innkeeper is a bust, wants us to club rats for coppers. Morgan thinks this dago on the docks, Oliver, might have some work, so we hit him up. He sends us to the Red Fox, a front for some boss figure named Jimmy Hoffa. Hey if he's payin', whatever.

Jimmy is a union boss. Wants us to convince independent workers on the docks to join the union. Offers decent pay, if nothing world-altering, and we have no other prospects so we take a run at it. We get a list of those that need convincing and off we go.

We take a light touch to start and convince a few to join up, confirm a few others are die-hards, and learn that Jimmy is being investigated by a local patrolman, one SGT Barney Fife (Chris P. Bacon). Ole Fife and I have history, but if he goes sniffin' around the union he's like to disappear. We try to sell the information to Jimmy to let him know he's gotten law enforcement attention but he thinks that we should foot the bribe to run off Fife and threatens that if he goes down we go down with him. He's lost his bloody mind, I'm not payin' for trouble he got himself into.

There's a reason Morgan does the talkin'. I lose my temper and tell Jimmy not only are we not payin' his bribe, we also quit. He can keep his nickels for services rendered and we ain't no part of his little circus. Bye.

Great work, genius, now how do we get paid?

Nov 12: So I may have made an enemy of a local crime boss. Hard to say, I didn't stab him or anything. Either way, might be best to lay low for a while. We head up to the monastery to see if Hollander has any work for us, preferably out of town. He tells us about a potential Sinkhole of Evil that his unit caught wind of at the edge of the Dreadwood to the north. We accept the small incentive he offers to investigate and set sail. We arrive just before dusk and rest onboard after securing a solid landing spot for the next day.

Nov 13: Bright and early we disembark and get to sniffin' around. My dog Davey and I take point and fortunately miss the old tripwire set on the buried foundation of some long-forgotten building. Unfortunately the warlock Artorias doesn't miss it. The giant boulder that springs forth from some overgrown section nearby flattens him and his wardog. Morgan tries to scoop him into a bucket but there just isn't anything left. I make sure we get his gold and that there aren't any ambushers lying in wait.

We poke around and find some treasure stowed away beyond where the boulder was set. Musta been some cache left by elves or bandits or bandit elves. Ours now. Quite a lot of copper but we can't really be picky with how broke we are, so we organize a work detail from the crew and after a while get it back to ship.

Down a member but otherwise unharmed, we decide to continue the search for this sinkhole. We find a strange, crystal clear pool with a winding staircase visible at the bottom. I holler and it echoes back like there's no water and an open space beneath. More magic and our warlock's dead. Great.

We fuck about a while before someone calls back from inside. Maybe we can take him hostage? I toss a grappling hook down and after it appears to land on solid ground, tie off to a tree and descend. A brief pass through water and then I'm in a small chamber with a round stone door. Looks like a tomb. Has some elven scribbles on it, but I can't read it. Neither can Morgan.

We call through the door and a dude named V answers, says he's been trapped for over a month. Takes us a while but we're able to describe the characters on the door to him and he puzzles out there's a lever somewhere nearby. He just doesn't have any light. He fumbles around, finds it, and the door rolls open.

V says he's been reliving the same day over and over since Oct 6, the same day that we relived on MacDonald's farm. The tomb descends beyond this little landing that he's at and he says he's been killed wandering down there a few times. Having secured the bag and likely the target of our search, we "rescue" V since he looks like he probably isn't worth much to take hostage and sail back to Bastia.

Some seals accompany us a ways during the night which I interpret as a good omen. Porcan is with us. This is confirmed when we find a bunch of flotsam en route to town. We pull some aboard and it appears to be trade goods lost at sea. Some poor ship got et by a sea creature or something. We love salvage rights and secure the goods. Praise be to the Sea Lord!

Nov 14: Dock at Bastia. I'm prepared to fight my way onto the dock but there aren't any of Jimmy's goons waiting to thump us or anything. We report to Hollander and get our reward. We also learn that Fife is missing. That's a shame, but I did what I could. V and I plan to set out for Monmurg and move some of these goods. Morgan's gonna hang back.

A New Dawn, a New Day

 

After Action Report 

Order of Daybreak

Chapterhouse Dawn, Gradsul

    

7 NOV 24

MEMORANDUM FOR

TO:                  Knight Captain Dawes

FROM:            Knight Bulwark Percival

SUBJECT:      AAR for Expeditionary Excursion to Bonevale

REF:               Order 111.74

 

1.      GENERAL INFORMATION / INTRODUCTION

Command desires a presence within the elven-held territory of Bonevale to ensure proper conditions for the faithful of Pelor. 

2.      SUMMARY

The following is information regarding the contingency itself:

·         Deployed Location: Coastal trade hub of Bonevale

·         Deployed Personnel:  Knight Bulwark Percival

·         Duration of Deployment: 1 NOV to 7 NOV

·         Contingency Purpose: In support of establishing the Order and defending the interests of the faithful of Pelor in and around Bonevale

·         Scope of Operation: Establish presence of KoD within the territory. Render aid to those in need. Report on state of settlement to command.

3.      Pre-deployment

·         Booked passage with Captain Tinsworth of the Elegant Mercy.  

·         Captain Tinsworth predicted two day passage to Bonevale by sea. Readied equipment for voyage.  

·         Tinsworth is a faithful Pelor follower and should be considered for future missions. A mount and additional arms were unnecessary for this mission, despite the regular loadout for each Knight. Acquired a mace as a sidearm in case of CQB unsuited to primary weapon.

4.      Deployment

·         Arrived on schedule. Tinsworth donated to the Order's cause at disembarkation.   

·         Joined other adventurers in seeking lodging. Sanji the Warmage of the Glowing Hand chose The Bouche, an upscale inn. Innkeep Geoff. Regulus Cornelius (RC or "Cola") a sailor and archer completed the party. Prominently displayed my battle standard to advertise my presence. 

·         Sanji shared a desire to aid the town and establish a reputation. RC less transparent in motive. 

5.      Recon

·         Scouted the town, discovering a mix of human and elven cultural elements. No obvious religious or administrative centers. No sign of squalor or sickness among populace. Militia primarily elven archers. Defenses are wooden palisade and unconventional precautions against monsters/fauna. Would not withstand determined siege. Population transient. Market small but active.  

·         Scouted by foot, alone. Party remained at The Bouche.  

·         Resources should be committed to develop Pelor's presence within the town. The heretic elven influence is strong.

6.      Sheriff Kai-Lan

·         Sought introduction to elven Sheriff named Kai-Lan. He requested assistance with a petty crime, a misplaced coin purse on the docks. Interviewed Donny the Dockworker about the purse. RC produced the coin purse from his pack, insisting that he found it on the Elegant Mercy when we arrived. All involved were skeptical but Donny was happy to have his property returned. Reported back to Kai-Lan to lukewarm reception. Intended to await further opportunities from the elf. 

·         Party traveled by foot with little further planning. All were armed. 

·         RC demonstrated resourcefulness. I am dissatisfied with his inability to credibly explain how he came to possess the purse. Recommend scrutiny of the sailor's actions in the future.

7.      The Deal 

·         We were approached by a figure under dubious circumstances who revealed himself to be Theodore, a classmate of Sanji's from their school of wizardry. I did not care for the skullduggery. He solicited our aid with security during the purchase of an allegedly dangerous magic item on behalf of The Glowing Hand mage guild. He was cagey and evasive when pressed for details. Sanji vouched for him, so we agreed to help. 

After some time for Theodore to set the meet, we were provided with a rendezvous point. I dispatched RC early to the location to provide overwatch. He observed OPFOR combatants inserting in the same manner and engaged, defeating several after an exchange of bow fire. He then pursued a fleeing, robed elf with the intent to capture. The elf responded with lethal magic, destroying RC's hand and felling him. 

Sanji and I arrived after a civilian raised the alarm. We witnessed the exchange and engaged the elf mage. I demanded the elf's surrender but received no response. He turned his lethal magic on me, I inflicted a slashing wound with my greatsword, and Sanji bludgeoned him to the ground with his quarterstaff. He expired as I was rendering aid to RC. OPFOR consisted of boggarts and elves.

Secured the scene for civilian safety when Sheriff Kai-Lan arrived. Reported to his office to give statements. He was visibly frustrated by the violence and suspicious of our involvement. Sanji produced evidence that the elf was employed by the Scarlet Brotherhood, a dagger with the order's symbol on it that the elf carried. Theodore arrived and produced a sealed order, which caused Kai-Lan to accept our purpose. His writ to act was apparently legitimate. 

·         We expected trouble but not of this magnitude. The ability to establish overwatch prior to the ambush saved Theodore's life.

·         We acted in the interests of a known Lawful faction, albeit in a cloak and dagger fashion. RC acted with valor and if he were a member of the order would be recommended for commendation. Theodore took possession of two confirmed Evil items, an amulet and ring, to return to the Glowing Hand for research. Recommend command approach the Glowing Hand to coordinate future operations.

 

8.      Exfiltration  

·         Theodore secured passage back to Gradsul. We joined with in the intent to recover, resupply, and report to our superiors. Theodore offered the funds originally intended to purchase the item as a reward, which we accepted. I have tithed to the Order on my return to Gradsul. 

·         RC will require a week's rest before he is able to seek restoration of his missing hand. Sanji intends to develop his spellbook and seek further information from within his guild regarding the developing situation in Bonevale. I will train and volunteer for any specific orders before returning to the Bonevale under previous general orders.

·         Should secure passage ahead of time, if able. Fortunate that Theodore had a plan in that regard.

9.      CONCLUSION

Sanji is solid. RC is reckless but effective. Care will be taken to preserve the reputation of my unit and the Order at large. More information will be gathered before taking on any other missions under dubious circumstances. It turned out this was a sanctioned action by a Lawful faction, but knowing that ahead of time would have been preferable. 

I have taken an effective first step in developing the Order's presence in the Bonevale area. Need to develop a working relationship with Sheriff Kai-Lan. Need to learn more about the ruler of the area. Need to learn more about evil magic items being trafficked by the elves and boggarts. Request redeployment to the theater with these interests in mind.

 

PERCIVAL OF GRADSUL
Knight Bulwark