Bloodfall 11

Team No-Good made their play last week and stole the Falcon Idol, leaving the besieged Bloodfall at an all-time low in morale and teetering on the verge of destruction. Having created their own problem, several of the same players put on white hats and took a run at solving it this session.

Several PCs had escaped the siege to seek help from outside, Thorgal and Raylan the rangers from Untorfin the Bronze Dragon and Broderick and Kirk from the city Svarthold. Untorfin agreed to aid them in exchange for the death of the nearby white dragons. The leadership of Svarthold didn't care at all, but a visiting band of mercenaries from Brozer Island offered their aid. They only asked a detailed map of the area surrounding Svarthold in exchange.

Much of this session was planning and maneuvering resources. CPT Animal of the Drakonian Auxiliary Army accompanied Broderick to the rendezvous with Raylan and Untorfin. Raylan snuck through the lines and raced a patrol of goblins to the smugglers' tunnel. The plan was to use a duel with the gnoll king as a distraction, then attack while he was exposed, but the PCs were too cowardly to challenge the gnoll themselves so they convinced Halforn Halfornson to do it for them.

The group sent the new thief, Peter Dinklage, out the sekrit tunnel to deliver the plan to Broderick and Raylan and the new cleric Pius (this party grows every week). He got lost and took a long time to deliver the message. Meanwhile, the ranger Hussein demanded the honor of delivering the terms of the duel to the Gnoll king. He ran into a group of gnoll sentries who gave him a bunch of grief, so he outran them to the command tent and tossed his underwear-laden spear-made-parley flag into the ground at the king's tent and demanded he show himself.

A brief interaction between the two led to blows and Hussein's horse was cut from under him. He managed to avoid being crushed and exchanged many blows with the Gnoll king before being cut down by the Blackblade, skinned, and displayed as another morale blow to the troops of Bloodfall.

Halfornson declined to engage in any duel with the gnoll king after that, so those inside simply lit a big fire to signal go-time. By about this time, the Sandwich goblins to the south, being led in gross chanting by the Sons of Loki Cthaylorites, had manifested some sort of weather event of strange green clouds, heat lightning, and fishy, stagnant water smell on the wind. No one really knew what to make of that so ignored it.

The allies formed up outside under Halforn's command, meeting the gnolls across the field. CPT Animal's poorly disciplined and slovenly mercs formed up to attack from the rear once battle was joined. Untorfin kicked it off, risking gnoll archer fire to strafe the enemy with his breath weapon and force a fear check from his terrifying aura. The bulk of Bloodfall's forces remained in the walls to defend against the goblins threatening to assault.

Most of the session was planning and such so by the time we actually kicked off we only had about an hour left. I gave the group the choice of running a scaled AD&D combat at 10:1 or zeroing in on the strike force trying to kill the gnoll king which was always their plan. They chose the gnoll king zoom in and I breathed a sigh of relief. There were like 6 different factions worth of figs to account for and I was kinda spent energy wise. I didn't have the gas to run all that at the end of session.

The dragon's fear had been wildly effective, making a giant hole around the gnoll king and his body guards. Gunnbjorn led his Ogresmasher mercs against them, with Raylan wielding Heartstopper and Aevarr being carried into battle behind Chanting a battle hymn of Tyr. Broderick and Pius engaged from the rear, with the NPC armies engaging the gnolls and sticking them in place to prevent them rallying to their king.

I thought the gnoll king's +5 longsword was going to kill at least one PC, but I think the only casualties were horses. Aevarr's chant prevented at least 2 hits that I recall and otherwise he just rolled poorly. The goblins attacking the walls and the gnolls giving the humans all they could handle broke and fled when the gnoll king fell and the Blackblade was lifted high overhead by Raylan. 

The defenders of Bloodfall suffered heavy casualties but survived. Animal's mercs many fewer, the PCs none. The crazy weather faded away as the cultists and goblins fled. The siege was lifted and the PCs were declared the heroes of Bloodfall. The Blackblade thrummed and hummed and vibrated in unsettling ways. Raylan really liked the sword but agreed it was probably evil when Broderick demanded its destruction after detecting it as definitely 100% evil. Jarl Fost agreed and suggested it be stowed in a lead-lined box until some way to destroy it could be discovered.

Grading:

- Raylan: Excellent. Bold in combat, defeated the gnoll king, tried to wrangle the cats
- Broderick: Excellent. Bold in combat, brought reinforcements, steadfast against evil sword temptation
- Gunnbjorn: Excellent. Bold in combat, led his men against the enemy
- Hussein: Deceased. RIP
- Pius: Excellent. Hard on the heels of Broderick the "main character"
- Aevarr: Excellent. Battle Chant of Tyr probably saved two lives.
- Peter: Excellent. Sneaky message delivery, [REDACTED]. NO COMBAT XP

Combat
Total XP:	1555
Cuts:	10
PC:	311.00

When Preparation Meets Opportunity

I, Knight Justicar Percival of Horizon, report a great victory from the tip of Pelor's spear thrust deep into the heart of evil. Some might call our success the blind luck of aimless idiots, but not in my hearing, because I know as sure as the sun rises in the east that we owe our success to our most awesome god of Light and Warmth.

We knew the ogre village from our previous excursion would be a problem and unfortunately it was. While we were seeking allies from anyone nearby interested in the fight against the beastmen, the brutes lashed out at the nearby halflings of Starnsville, effectively destroying our vassal town before we had time to react.

To blunt their march should their rampage continue, Fr. Cassian boldly called forth griffons with his Pelor-gifted miracles and set to routing them with June's borrowed Mask of the Basilisk, strafing them until they broke and fled for home. This tactic had limited long-term value as their chieftain was not the typical drooling specimen of Ogre-kind and regrouped his forces at their village. They were unlikely to stare up at any approaching griffons in the future.

Our call for aid was answered by the filthy insidious arrogant local elves of the Dreadwood, led by their Emperor Xi Tzu, who promised aid within a few days. With reinforcements on the way, we deployed our adventuring party to destroy any recon sent out by the ogres and keep them blind. The ogres were not scouting so we put the pressure on them, using a rotating shift of griffons to strafe their camp, screech, and otherwise disturb them. This had the desired effect of depriving them of comfort and exhausting them so if it came to battle they would be weakened and vulnerable.

I desperately wanted a chance to kill their leader. If we could cut the head from the snake, they would be unable to organize effectively and maybe even retreat. Unfortunately two full companies of ogres had survived Fr. Cassian's strafing. There simply was no way we could just attack them.

We camped at our forward point and continued our airborne psychological attack on the ogre camp. Charlie the Explorer, my faithful henchman and hero of the operation, shook me awake sometime in the night. He was alarmed to find the entire ground shaking. It could have been many things but Pelor guided my instincts and I blurted out the command to halt. Everyone was to stand perfectly still.

The rumbling subsided and I thanked our Sunny Lord for the added wrinkle on my otherwise smooth brain. Rumbling ground could be any number of things, but for some reason I imagined a subterranean assault, a worm or tunneling creature. As it turns out I was right, and the creatures, great gray monstrous worms, left us and attacked the ogres who were stirred to unrest by the griffon harassment.

This was our chance. We armed ourselves and rushed to engage the ogres while they were distracted, cutting a path to their chieftain. Our lances, arrows, and spells struck true and we were able to effectively eliminate the entire command structure of the enemy force. They routed in confusion after suffering many losses to both us and the worms. Unfortunately our temporary alliance could not be cemented and we struck down the remaining worm before it ate us, our horses, and everything around it.

Emperor Xi Tzu arrived to Horizon with an elite band of hippogriff-mounted cataphract cavalry, displaying all the haughty demands and condescension expectations an Emperor of a Chaos-tainted corrupt soulless long-lived race of sub-humans demi-humans. He demanded fancy cheeses and wine and I was happy that our little backwater fort had none of these things. 

Xi Tzu was eager to pursue the fleeing ogres and blood his well-trained but green blades on an enemy already routed, weak, and broken. I was eager to see him gone. This is what we call a mutually beneficial arrangement and we happily waved him good-bye.

With the elves out of our hair, Fr. Cassian departed for Gradsul on griffon-back to deliver a foul blade recovered from the ogre hoard to the church heads there. It should be destroyed immediately as it creates undead from foes slain with it.

Horizon continues to grow. We have founded a settlement and attract the faithful monthly. We truly are carving out civilization from this dark land. Next, we will approach the lost of Skalafell who allege that they were abandoned by Keoland in the previous war. We will show them a better way.

Yours in victory,

Knight Justicar Percival, Lord of Horizon

Musings:

DM was going to run any engagement with the ogres with ACKS abstracted combat using Battle Ratings. This system is great for resolving larger scale combats quickly but it heavily favors those who are stronger. The ogres had us outmatched in this system maybe 8:1? Maybe more. We had some advantage in a defense, but waiting to get punched ain't really our thing. We put ourselves out there to see what we could achieve before it got to BR where we'd almost certainly lose and got lucky. The random encounter with the worms was just the opportunity we needed. 

This session shines a light on players taking the initiative. Do not simply react to the DM. By destroying the enemy leadership, even if they rallied and attacked us they wouldn't have the commanders to effectively lead and would suffer in BR combat. Unfortunately the elves will get the glory of running them down, but we got all the treasure so I'll call that a win.

Bloodfall 10

"Ok team, what are yall gonna to do tonight?" says the DM, wincing at the response. "Who's got a Good PC? Cuz you can't come." That pretty much set the tone for the session, balanced around 2 (two) separate heist schemes to be investigated, planned, and executed all at once.

There was some chatter in downtime among a segment of the party calling themselves "Team No-Good" where they wanted to steal the Falcon Idol from Bloodfall. Yngve the Fighter had personal reasons due to a downtime pbp run by a separate DM and the rest were just looking for a payout. If Yngve's hook generation bothers you, well, you are Not Going To Make It. Hold on loosely, brother, and lean into inserts to the campaign. This is part of playing in a club atmosphere.

So there we were with a massive party of scoundrels, ne'er-do-wells, and apathetics. They wanted to break Baldrig the Enforcer out of prison and also steal the Falcon. Much time was spent planning and investigating, with creative use of resources earning them quality intel and disguises. One group was going to infiltrate the Great Hall as part of the guard unit while the other was going to stake out the Falcon and secure their exit.

Vigi the dwarf was able to verify that Viseworth was indeed paying for Baldrig's release after some frustrating encounters with scoundrels. I think it was Hymir that laid a fat bribe on Rosco the Barkeep that revealed a sekrit tunnel used for smuggling and Hymir, Van, and Thornbro in some combination that convinced a trollop to involve herself as a distraction. Rollo and Yngve were persona non grata after their participation in the Bloodstein on the side of the besiegers of Bloodfall, so they were laying low and waiting to engage with muscle. Lloyd and Thornbro used their animals and magic to gather intel. Samson ran as face with Broderick the Neon, paladin guardian of the Falcon and also a PC not played during session, to get a written pass to get them past the gate. Thornbro commented, "Oh no we're going to have to kill my own PC!" and then continued with the heist because he's not a baby.

After some two hours of set-up, they purchased some supplies and another PC joined briefly only to be run out because he was Good aligned and also very very late to session. He insulted them and they insulted him and he left. Bros gon bro.

Van and Hymir infiltrated the Great Hall, but there were many more guards involved than they anticipated, a full squad for each shift. Istrid the trollop got to work but was a little overwhelmed at the attention. The SGT on duty was unimpressed and guarded the door to the cell dutifully. The two tried to convince him to leave, involve himself with Istrid, or something but he wasn't biting. So they ambushed him.

A SGT is generally a 1st level fighter. Ok, not that tough. The PCs generated two segments of surprise. This was gonna be a quick ordeal quickly resolved and I began to think about how to run the "hiding the body" Splinter Cell/Assassin's Creed scene. The slap fight that ensued took several rounds, alerted the room, and turned into chaos.

Van eventually choked the guard out and claimed him to be angling for Baldrig's release. There was much confusion and eventually Istrid fled, some guards chased her, and a runner went for the CPT. Leadbelly came out, quickly and incorrectly assessed the situation, and tied the unconscious SGT to a chair for the CPT to sort out. Then he plopped down in a nearby chair to observe.

Hymir and Van were on the clock, so Hymir went big and tried to slip in the door. I use 2d6 to resolve most anything that doesn't have an exact mechanical representation in the game I'm playing. Low is bad, high is good. Simple and effective. Boxcars got the elf into the room with no one the wiser while Van rambled at those present as a distraction. Baldrig nearly killed the elf but bought his story about freedom. He took the offered uniform and left promptly, never to be seen again in session. Hymir was left in an unlocked cell while Van ran interference outside.

The CPT showed up, called Van out, and once the bullshit was clearly drying up Van tried to split. A melee ensued where mercs tried to grapple him but by some miracle he fought each one off. Hymir dashed out in the confusion but caught a sword blow for his trouble. The two lightly encumbered PCs broke free and fled into the town. This was the first indication that their planning was not as precise as they'd hoped. No one knew where their rendezvous point was because they hadn't set one. Samson even waited in a different location to be notified when it was time to leave. They hared off into the town, Hymir eventually losing his tail but Van being caught and killed in the ensuing struggle due to ignorance of the winding alleys of Bloodfall.

Hymir the Elf, probably

In the meantime, Rollo had snuck out through the sekrit passage to try and drum up a distracting raid on the town and gather his men to meet with whoever escaped in the chaos. Unfortunately, none of the enemies could be convinced to go against the Gnoll King's wishes to lay a siege with his ever-growing stockpile of catapults.

Growing impatient and running low on both session and game time, Yngve set fire to a house nearby as a distraction. While it caused quite the alarm, the guards on the Falcon maintained discipline. It should also be noted that Broderick was not on duty on the Falcon at this time. Eventually enough of a conflagration was under way to encourage the Gnolls to probe the town's defenses. Between the fire, a raid, and a breakout, it was full bedlam. Vigi the Dwarf ran forward and rallied the guards to join him at the raid, half of them joining him to run off into the darkness only for him to slip away and return to the Idol.

The remaining guards were quickly subdued with magic, missile fire, and charging attacks by Yngve, Lloyd, and Vigi, but not before one could escape. Uh oh they were on the clock. If Fost or one of the leveled guys showed up they knew they were chalked. Yngve jumped up on the statue to use some dust he was given to turn it invisible, but a hidden glyph of warding sparked off and paralyzed him. The rest struggled the idol into the waiting wagon and beat it for the gate, Hymir sprinkling the fairy dust or whatever on everyone in the back.

The guards on the gate were very confused about a seemingly empty wagon, but they had a pass signed by the hero Broderick so surely they were legit. Off they went into the night and were joined shortly by Rollo and his men who scared off a goblin patrol and "escorted" them through the besieging beastmen. Samson still waited at Thor on the Floor, left behind either on purpose or by accident, who knows.

As they struggled with their wagon in the dark through the hills, the members of "Team No-Good" sprung their betrayal, pushing the Idol out onto the ground and informing Lloyd and Thornbro that they were gonna take it for themselves so scram. Lloyd was pissed but outnumbered and Thornbro had to leave for RL so he just followed Lloyd's lead. They shook fists but otherwise carried on towards Svarthold. No-Good enacted their downtime plan, loaded the Falcon onto their waiting cart, and departed for destinations unknown.

Musings:

It should come as no surprise when the party intentionally comprised of scumbags does scumbag things. There was some frustration over the treachery and some apologies as players, but Yngve at least was magically compelled to act as he did. I find it interesting that despite all of the drama, laughs, and ultimate goals achieved during the session that no one got paid. Baldrig disappeared and the Idol, while in their possession, had not been liquidated. There were many witnesses to their various criminal acts, and these PCs are pretty much all wanted in Bloodfall should the town even survive. Downtime should be interesting.

Grading:

- Yngve: Excellent. Pursued his mission doggedly. Solved problems like a fighter.
- Hymir: Excellent. Disguising, spying, killing, fleeing.
- Rollo: Excellent. Gathered his men, tried to influence from his position as a commander, intimidated the goblins and escorted the cart through the line.
- Thornbro: Excellent. Druid in town played up social awkwardness, engaged with animals at every opportunity, set clear moral guidelines for participation
- Samson: Excellent. Ran interference with Broderick, missed the fighting because no one told him where the fight was.
- Lloyd: Excellent. MU focused, involved in planning with spells, used familiar to scout.
- Van: Deceased. RIP
- Vigi: Excellent. Solved problems like a fighter.

Combat
Total XP:	100
Cuts:	16
PC:	12.50

Moonshine Malcolm and the Krieger Dilemma

LT Malcolm Krieger (RET) 558A98 Age 22 One Term 5000cr

Rifle 1, SMG 1, Brawling, Fwd Obs

Malcolm Kriger was an aimless youth of no great potential. He was smart, but not particularly athletic or ambitious. By way of an upper middle class upbringing, he was able to dodge most levels of responsibility until he was tossed out of the house after a barfight and embarrassing-to-the-family-name night in jail. The Army recruiter loved him.

During his first term, he excelled mostly by faking it until he made it, his laziness flying under the radar as he tripped over a commission as a Lieutenant and stumbled through officer training as a forward observer. A disagreement with his CO, CPT Trigger, a flash of characteristically self-sabotaging temper, and a month in the brig left the young LT without an invitation for continuing service with the Army.

CPT Trigger, as a last middle-finger to the PITA Krieger, left him at a backwater waystation called Moonshine with no ticket out, no farewell weaponry, and only the wages that he had not wasted on liquor, fighting, and women in that order.

Thus far able to coast on above average intelligence and the bare minimum of effort, Krieger was left to actually have to make something of himself without any kind of real foundation as a man. Great. A temper and a little experience does not a brawler make, but he at least knew how to handle a weapon and call in an orbital strike? What the fuck use is that in civilian life?

Wandering the streets of the city leaves him with little other than rumors that a local shipment of corn destined for the corpo-distilleries was overdosed with pesticides and like to kill anyone that drinks anything made from it. Maybe that info could be peddled to someone of note if he could find out more information, but until then he needed a place to crash and probably a weapon. This place is definitely sketchy.

Put Some 'Spect On That Name

I want to thank Knight Captain Dawes for his expediency in helping the Holy Rollers conclude our recent task in Gradsul. Without his aid, we would have undoubtedly erred through ignorance. This report will explain.

Fr. Cassian prayed upon his wounds suffered in the service of Pelor and was granted the restoration of his flesh by our Holy Lord. During his convalescence, we learned more about the task the Khajit Danconia wanted us to perform. He also offered a solid reward. I am troubled over the moral implications of completing it and will pray on it for guidance.

Our party renewed our quest to recover Sir Willers' remains from the wilderness. We offered to escort some halflings along the road and spent a little time investigating for rumored bandit activity which was ultimately fruitless. Depositing the halflings at my vassalage of Starnsville, we carried on.

The scout Zimon reported a hub of activity ahead, where men in aprons were loading wagons with harvested nuts. He took this as an illegal nut-butter operation and acted accordingly, setting a distracting brushfire and spurring us to attack. We arrived on the scene to armed but unimpressive men fleeing in panic. I quickly gathered their leader, asserted control over the situation, and organized the extinguishing of the fire.

Their story was that they worked for a grocer of sorts named Mr. Whole. He dealt in organically sourced, high quality produce and provided it to a discerning clientele. In other words, he picked berries out of the woods and sold them at an obscene markup to delusional morons. (DM had recently visited a Whole Foods for the first time. RIP). We met with Mr. Whole, quickly determined that while absolutely a den of Chaos, it was not one worth immediately burning to the ground without further investigation, and departed to revisit the place with cleansing fire at a later date. A scowling harridan threatened me on several occasions to "go back where I belong". I nodded politely and saluted her. We will meet again and her howling under the attentions of my Inquisition will soothe my irritated soul.

Zimon led our party onwards, where eventually we discovered the site of an old battlefield. Our teachings tell us that places of concentrated death often develop into sinkholes of evil and begin spawning undead, but none of that was happening here. We investigated and found it was clearly Sir Willers' resting place, where he had his heroic last stand against hordes of beastmen, primarily orcs by the bones.

A few hours after we had collected his remains and those of whatever officers we could find. This site clearly needed further work to set to rights so Zimon flew back on his magical steed to get a work crew while Fr. Cassian sent a magic message to Gradsul to notify the church of our success. We aimed to follow all proper procedure to avoid any confusion that we were simply grave robbers.

Thanks to Knight Captain Dawes, we made contact with the Willers family and estate, apparently well-connected at court in Gradsul. I borrowed the flying steed and delivered Sir Willers home. The family hosted me and offered a reward which I accepted. It also improved our standing in all the right places with the nobility. The Holy Rollers are known now, and will continue to grow in renown as we fight the good fight on the frontier.

We set Fr. Jasper and his pilgrims to restoring the site and continued combing the territory for threats. Some foul creatures, undead constructs of heinous and unknown origin, were dispatched at the cost of much of Zimon's blood.

A warband of ogres stumbled into our party and said something absolutely foolish like, "You got trade?" with the glint of greed and naivety in their beady, retarded eyes. I suppose they missed the banner, holy symbols of Pelor, and resolute purpose in ours. As we rode them down, they scattered, seeking to notify their nearby village of attack. We prevented their escape but we may have been discovered and while I relish the thought of wading in ogre blood, chose the better part of valor against hundreds of them and we retreated.

Our trackers suggested doubling back and making false trails before heading home. It was a sound tactic. We will begin preparations to exterminate this nest of pests as soon as possible.

Yours at the tip of the spear,

Knight Justicar Percival, Lord of Horizon

Musings:

We're approaching the level of the game where it begins to beg for a wider scope. We're gaining renown with nobility at home, making allies abroad, and taking on larger tasks like domain building, vassals, and the like. The ogre village is our first large scale encounter. Something we're learning is building an army is possible, but it isn't fast without taking some extra steps. The markets available to us are small or distant. If we're going to clash on a battlefield with anything, we're gonna have to grow beyond our handfuls of troops. Our recent allies, recovered magic items, and market class manipulation should see us with a decent recruiting pool in May.

Bloodfall 9: Bloodstein

I am not a true believer in TNB, but I do recognize the Braunstein as a valuable tool to resolve some types of scenarios within your campaign that crop up organically. Much to my dismay, I realized that the Bloodfall campaign had many factions at odds with each other that were barreling towards conflict. Because it's a living campaign, this friction could not be ignored until I felt like feeding it piecemeal to the players. I was going to have to run a Braunstein session.

I am wargame coded. I tried to set the conflict up in an interesting way, which I thought I did ok at, but after stepping back it was clear that I had a wargame scenario that we were going to resolve differently. I needed many fewer zero-sum goals but this is why we try new things. My previous events have all been play by post.

The Roster

Madcow - Leadbelly, Captain of the Guard
WeatherReport - Halforn Halfornson, previous Jarl's son
Joshinyu - Jibberwall Goblins
Matthew - Jarl Fost, High Priest of Odin
Polyfamous - Howler the Blackblade, Gnoll Chieftain
Hollyfelled - Xandir the Shaker and the Sons of Loki, Cthaylor Cultists
Bdubs - Viseworth the Taxman
Boldvay - Olvar Goldeneye, Comall Trading Post
J - Sandwich Goblins

The McGuffins

The Falcon Idol - Installed by PCs. Permanent Plant Growth, infinite food, big status/wealth
The Blackblade - Legendary sword of Howler the Gnoll King. Unifying force for beastmen.
The Witness - Info on the previous Jarl's suspicious death.
The Jarl's Seat - Meet the new boss...

Each faction had overlapping interests in at least a few of the McGuffins, plus their own individual things like survival, unification, revenge, or greed. I set a basic resolution system of a CRT for combat and 2d6 for anything else, then immediately shot myself in the foot by declaring that movement had to run through the DM. My vision of watching different conflicts develop and be resolved independently was dashed.

Despite my best efforts to ruin things, the players persevered, spending most of the time negotiating, setting, and breaking alliances. There was bribery, treachery, and double-treachery, all the greatest hits. I made the mistake of trying to keep tabs on everything which eventually turned into information overload. Add to that the need to track movement and special actions like theft, spying, and recon and I was toast. It was a mistake to emphasize the war element over top of the shenanigans element at the same time.

Ultimately, the goal of any of this is to set up solid scenarios for the campaign's PCs to play out during sessions. This event ended with the namesake town of Bloodfall under siege by a coalition of beastmen and Cthaylor cultists, the beastmen shooting themselves in the foot by killing their outside supplier of arms and armor, and the town's unsurprisingly infamous tax collector MIA.

There were several PCs allied to various factions and they all survived their various conflicts. On review, play was strong all around but Fost was closest to all of his goals. He maintained his seat as Jarl and possession of the Falcon Idol. He failed to discover the witness, but so did everyone else. Gnoll King also hit a goal and also wins the trophy for Funniest Voice D&D with his Scandinavian accent. I give myself a D-. Set up was poor, adjudication clunky, but we did get to an interesting resolution that all agreed was the right play.

Braunstein is the right tool for some jobs, but not every job. It helps to run it well and identify the correct application. Maybe this conflict needed a more dedicated wargame approach but we got there anyway. Special thanks to the good sports of Bloodfall. Let's see how the PCs get out of the siege.

Bloodfall 8

Big fighter party, buncha mercs. Gnomes under the thumb of a Cthayloric priest. Paladin drove the party to mobilize and have them shake it off.

Ferocious cult leader

We basically had two side sessions, a scout/recon/thief role and big clog-the-gap army battle. I'm gonna bullet point the big picture and then talk about the nuts and bolts of the session.

- Scout the gnome encampment, catch them mid heinous evil ritual, most gnomes hidden indoors
- Get discovered, try to lead gnomes into the hills and lose them, try to capture one
- Corrupted gnomes gather their numbers and rush after the party
- Big battle in the pass, PCs hold the front line, thieves sneak around
- Clean-up, treasure, cult journal

I pulled the scouts into a separate room in the hopes it would accelerate the recon part and preserve a little tension. It failed at the first, succeeded at the second. I used surprise to determine the initial situation. Hymir the elf was discovered! The few gnomes (30-40) that were outside scrambled to get ahold of him but he ran. Samson the dwarf waited to ambush a straggler but was discovered and ran the other way. Floyd the half elf tried to lead a bunch of them down the pass towards the waiting party.

Hymir doubled back to witness more than a hundred gnomes gathering at the camp from the nearby caves. Samson eventually did find a straggler and tried to grapple him before being forced to kill him. Floyd outpaced the gnomes who gave up on him, eventually returning to warn the party. The group formed up and began marching to meet the gnomes. They didn't yet know there were over 100 to their ~30. Samson and Hymir returned with more info.

Now with badger heads!

The party wanted a flat part of the pass and to hold the front line with their PCs. In a more open battle to maneuver in, I would have scaled up the fight to accelerate resolution, but this would have unfairly penalized the PCs' individual power in this narrow gap. I chose to just run it as it was.

I had ruled during the recon that the gnomes were not as hampered by the rough hill terrain as Hymir. This opened the door to a possible flank during the battle which could have turned the tide. I used 2d6 to determine if the gnomes would/could execute on that and failed, ruling that their limited leveled presence kept them from having enough control to execute complex maneuvers.

Hymir was able to pelt the enemy cleric at perfect times to interrupt several spells and Floyd blind him with his own, effectively removing him from the combat. The rest was just a slog of numbers and morale. Ormr and Gunnbjorn went down, among a handful of mercs, but eventually the gnomes withdrew. Broderick the Paladin declared a counter-charge which resulted in more combat but ultimately broke morale for the gnomes. 

Pretend there are a bunch of gnomes

I missed a morale check for Gunnbjorn's men when he went down. I missed treating the gnomes as individual units or clusters based on their leveled LTs and subsequent morale checks when they went down. Had I scaled up I would have tracked that a little easier, but as it was I defaulted to two sides. Morale is the deciding factor in most pitched battles and it was in this one too, just took a while to get there and made this a bit more of a slog than it had to be.

We had our first engagement with the unarmed combat rules in Bloodfall. I am on record as despising AD&D unarmed combat. I find it an unwelcome change of pace during an encounter because of the jarring shift in system and the friction it causes. I refuse to grapple when I'm a PC and have missed many opportunities to train myself on it. I'm gonna have to get over that as a DM and start pummeling. My personal preferences have no bearing on PC choice of action. I suggest that if you think you're going to grapple, review the rules in the DMG and have your modifiers ready as much as you can.

Grading:

The Good aligned PCs nearly caught a hit across the board for making the gnome open the first treasure box, but review of notes and discussion showed they believed the captive to be an evil cultist priest and not the native gnome captured priest. The Paladin opened the second box once that seemed more clear.

• Hymir the Assassin: Excellent. Scouted, tried to murder the cleric, kept him pinned during the battle, tried to set traps.
• Samson the Fighter/Thief: Excellent. Thief role declared, much scouting and recon. Good RP with Paladin. Discovered loot, picked lock. Some argument over not opening the chest. Not aberrant enough for a grade hit in that scenario where it was unlikely he could get away with skimming anything.
• Vigi the Fighter: Excellent. Bold, front line fighter, rejoined the fight in Ormr's place despite low HPs.
• Lloyd the Cleric/Magic-User: Excellent. Supported recon group, used every spell to great effect, combat medic
• Gunnbjorn the Fighter: Excellent. Bold, front liner, led his men
• Broderick the Paladin: Excellent. Bold front liner. Pushed for killing blow on cult after withdrawal. Good RP.
• Rollo the Fighter: Excellent. Bold, front liner, led his men, enforcer
• Ormr the Fighter: Excellent. Bold, front liner

Combat
Total XP:	1543
Cuts:	16
PC:	192.88

A Good, Honest Quest

I am invigorated writing this report and trust that Knight Captain Dawes will share in my excitement upon reading it.

I, Knight Justicar Percival, Lord of Horizon, led the Holy Rollers into the wilderness to carve out more territory for our growing flock to settle in. Danconia the Khajit had wares. He also had information about a legendary jewel, partner to the crown that we recently parted ways with, deep in the interior of the Sea Princes. No conversation was had about incentive to retrieve it and since we passed on the crown we have no claim to it for ourselves. The hook remains set nonetheless and we will undoubtedly trip over it at some point of weakness or idleness.

We departed for Horizon with the intent to comb the regions north for evil to vanquish and lush green fields to cultivate. A band of pilgrims camped along the newly constructed road. They were led by Fr. Jasper and had a thrilling story to tell of Edward Willers, a champion of Pelor who had a heroic last stand against Chaos somewhere to our north. They were on a mission to seek out this relic but were ill-equipped for such a task. We offered to escort them to Horizon and naturally took on the quest for ourselves.

Gaia the elven spellsword joined our party, a fine example of his kind who was immediately baptized by Prelate Cassian in the cool clean spring water nearby. Let our magnanimity ring out to the elven community! All are welcomed into our protective arms, if you swear to Pelor's Holy Light. 

Our searching for the relic discovered several lairs of Chaos, gnolls and hobgholls and the like which Pelor graced us with the strength to dispatch. We also discovered the halfling community Skarnsville led by Sheriff Squibbles. I was a bit surprised at the zeal with which Sanji and Zimon threw themselves into the local hobby of gambling. I did not see any of the usual degradation surrounding such practices like prostitution, drug use, or a debtor's prison so I restrained my judgement and allowed them their fun. After exceedingly large sums intimidated Squibbles off the table, we had some rooms comp'd at the Little Caesar's Palace for the night. Squibbles agreed to ally Starnsville to Horizon's cause.

We carried on our mission the next day, finding a vile terrain of mushrooms and disease north of the halfling community. A short engagement with monstrously large wasps concluded our excursion and we retired to Horizon and then Bonevale. I account this a successful foray into the north and am aquiver with anticipation to recover the honor of Edward Willers and entomb him properly at Prelate Cassian's Cathedral at Horizon.

Questing for the Glory of Pelor,

Knight Justicar Percival, Bonevale

Musings:

This was a classic session and a great example of random encounters driving engagement. First the pilgrims then the halfling village became the bulk of the roleplaying interaction throughout the day. By extrapolating what the pilgrims might be searching for and building on what the halfling community is like we now have a true Knight's Quest to pursue along with interesting additions to our milieu. None of it required an abundance of preparation to play out, either.

Bloodfall 7

We had a lighter than usual roster for this session due to Bdubs' appearance on ACKS to Grind and time jail for some PCs. Rollo took the lead on a delve into the Fist, with Thorgal, Aevarr, and Aleks in support. They had a scheme to do... something?.. to the Loki statue on level 2 that they had found previously. Alright cool.

It didn't take long to get back into the dungeon. They found a weird ritual site in one of the rooms with some dead halflings. Aevarr saw to their proper rest on a pyre of broken furniture. They took notes about the strange sigils along the ritual circle and carried on.

Their attempt to bypass the chute trap to level 2 failed, thwarted by the supernatural slipperiness of the sliding stair. They found themselves trapped again, but didn't appear particularly worried and I didn't care at all.

They found Loki's idol again in his widdershins swirling mist but chose not to molest it. Chatter was that it was their only safe way out should something go awry. I giggled to myself at the party relying on Loki for salvation.

A giant oxen carcass housed a bunch of giant rats. The warriors held the line until morale broke and the remaining critters scurried away. There was some treasure in the carcass used as a nest which they shared out and kept moving.

There was an illusory feast that the mercs tore into before Rollo scolded them. When it was revealed to be magic they freaked out and fled the room. Aleks drank from the only actual physical horn in the place and regained some health. I didn't care for the phrase, "I'll do it, I'm only level 1" as though he was sacrificial. While technically true (the elites don't want you to know 1st level PCs are free), no character sees themselves that way.

A sekrit compartment held a suit of chainmail fashioned from the same dark iron as the fixtures on this level of the dungeon. I think Rollo ended up with it. He's so edgy. The next exploration connected this delve with their last in the room with the spaghetti slime monster corpse that ate a hole in the floor. With an exit secured they felt more comfortable just poking about.

Platinum script in an unknown language covered the floor in thick inlays in the next chamber. Rollo pried at it and despite taking electrical damage, retrieved a whole coil of the valuable metal with no thought as to why it was there or what it was powering. By weight it seemed significant, so the rest of the party started prying until they ran out of hps.

It took a long time and the original intent behind the trap was time + random encounter + hps cost. Oh man I rolled a massive lizard with 6 HD, it was gonna ambush them outside the room. Oh man someone's going alone to stash some silver in the sekrit compartment nearby due to weight. Unfortunately, the stupid lizard couldn't roll a hit, the fight was anticlimactic, and the party exfilled with a big ole fat ruby.

They were in the dungeon so long they had to camp outside. Travel back was interrupted by random halflings. Why? Hell idk, but seems like they'd be looking for their missing family that got sacrificed in the dungeon. The group was uber suspicious and Rollo wanted to turn them away, but Aleks convinced them otherwise and they escorted the little people back to Bloodfall.

Jarl Fost was... standoffishly understanding of the halflings' plight. But they weren't Norse or human so he suggested that the party investigate the Cthaylor cultist activity and otherwise the halflings should return home. Aevarr burnt the halflings' scrap of cultist script as heresy and the party asked Malvith the Speckled if he knew anything about their notes. He didn't, that's some cult shit, but he could cast a spell the next day for gold. I forget why but the group declined and we ended there. I think Rollo was suspicious of Malzith too.

We've taken to having the party split treasure and assign gp xp. This is suggested in the PHB and while it can be cumbersome, leads to more engagement between party members. Its working ok right now mostly because they're in and out quick, with time to spare at the end of the session. IME, it's very difficult to have those discussions by chat after the session because some players simply don't engage like that.

4/8-4/9, active 4/10

• Aleks the Fighter: Excellent, held the line
• Rollo the Fighter: Excellent, caller, held the line, led his men
• Thorgal the Ranger: Excellent, mapper, held the line, scouted
• Aevarr the Cleric: Excellent, engaged with cult stuff, much spells, rites for halflings

Combat
Total XP:	653
Cuts:	8
PC:	163.25

Why Do They Keep Calling Me Charlie?

Knight Captain Dawes will forgive my frustration with the depths of evil encountered on this frontier and read only the facts of this report in the nature that they are intended.

The Holy Rollers are met at every turn by perfidy, corruption, and otherworldly meddling beyond the ken of mortal heathens of false gods. Despite these setbacks, we continue to glorify Pelor through the taming of unclaimed wilds and spreading of his word. 

Our objective was to verify that the territory south of FOB Horizon was cleared of unwanted dangers so that Sanji might establish his own neighboring domain around the elven temple dungeon. I do not pretend to know the motivations of wizards but killing monsters and claiming land for Pelor I understand. We swept the dungeon and lands around and our surveyor was satisfied that the territory was ripe for settling. Sanji will begin construction immediately.

With our primary objective secured, we retired to the villa in Bonevale. Zimon overheard some fellows in The Bouche talking about a map they found to a magical place, the Mountain of Confection. These guys were suspect, but by asking around it turned out that they did indeed occasionally find solid maps. They offered advantageous rates for us to protect them on their journey and we obliged. Our debts climb ever higher and require adventure to combat.

We carried them up the coast to meet with their contact, destroying some bugbears along the way. The guide was apparently an abomination of the sea that spoke in a heinous voice. Our employers, who I dubbed Ace and Gary since they offered no names, were satisfied with the given directions and we continued on.

We found a terribly sketchy rope bridge that would definitely not hold our horses so we struck inland to go around the canyon. We caught back up with our original path and were able to find our destination, a cave in the side of the mountain. We'd been in many caves and killed much evil, so this did not trigger any particular unease. Zimon volunteered to scout ahead as is his role within our band.

He did not return. We readied ourselves for a fight and entered, only to awaken having lost a day and a kidney each. Our trackers trailed the culprits to a nearby dryad grove where we found Ace and Gary's skin suits. The dryads claimed to be "saving lives" by their charade, implying they were in league with extraplanar entities, but I was having none of it. I demanded our organs returned to us and then executed the creature for its offense. The next one tried to barter for its life by restoring Ace and Gary to their bodies. I smote that one down as well. The final creature pled innocence and my compatriots convinced me not to administer justice a final time. It released captive children that were cursed to form the letters above the cave and we returned to Bonevale, our own kidneys wrapped in wax paper from our rations.

Some of the children had been gone many years, but most were easily returned to their families, the only good to come of this foray. I took on an apparently orphaned child as a page rather than turn him loose in the streets. Cassian employed another as an altar boy. We will recuperate from our unelected surgery and continue the fight against Chaos in the days to come.

Yours in the Light,

Knight Justicar Percival, Bonevale

Musings:

This session was clearly based off of the Candy Mountain meme from the 00s. Those old enough to remember the video (sorry Sanji) realized it at different points but chose to engage with the thread anyway on the chance that there was a clever change to the story instead of just noping out of it as an obvious trap. If you're curious about the acid trip that is Candy Mountain, click here. 

I think the DM saw the video and thought it'd be funny and it was. We got some treasure and it was a side quest vibe anyway since we achieved the main goal of setting Sanji's tower up. We also improved our standing locally as Big Damned Heroes by rescuing the kids. It was a weird but victorious session for the good guys.

Bloodfall 6

We had the sixth session of Bloodfall and it was a doozy. The rangers located a camp in downtime. It was empty but had a fresh campfire and vague humanoid footprints nearby. They immediately imprinted orcs on it which was interesting. Planning was all based around killing some orcs. Broderick the Paladin had a goat sacrificed for their good fortune, Kirk offering it to Forseti, the god of Justice. Maybe it worked.

Off they went, scouts in the lead. Held off, located the empty camp, investigated better in session to learn it was truly empty with no sign of habitation. The rangers found some tracks leading away and the scout team followed. Mutual surprise of a bugbear ambush sent them running.

Tense, the party waited at the decoy camp for the bugbears to chase them. The monsters did not. After the second hour, some ogres bumbled in and were surprised to find the group there. In a short, bloody fight the party demolished them, their shield wall and advantageous initiative rolls too powerful for the big dumb idiots.

The call was made to fall back, find another position to lure the bugbears to. The rangers located a defensible position, essentially a dungeon room in the rocks with three narrow paths or "hallways" leading to it. They were satisfied and set up.

Bugbears are tricksome and sneaky. Rangers and elves are, too. The bugbears chose late at night to attack, hoping to gain advantage of infravision over the humans. For the second time that night, the rangers were surprised. The bugbears attacked from all three sides but focused on the east. They outnumbered the humans 2:1 and had them on HD 3:1. It was, uh, not good.

Raylan and Thorgal plugged their holes. Leif the elf made a bold play to try and execute one of the bugbears on his side and intimidate the others to flee. Raylan took a beating on a bad surprise round, Leif was killed, and Thorgal held the line with his dogs while the sleeping party woke and armed themselves.

You can't sleep in armor. It was tossed out that they could try, I assessed a likely too light penalty, and they decided against it. Good and proper play. Anyway, most of their party was unarmored for the fight of their lives. Tactically, they had three choke points and were holding. The next move changed their lives forever.

Dramatic pause.

We didn't really have a caller for the session, so Broderick had stepped in late. He pulled everyone back to focus around the fight where Raylan, Gunnbjorn, and Aevarr were holding their bottleneck and making ground. It immediately looked like an awful decision from my end, allowing the enemy to flood into the clearing and potentially overwhelm them. But the goal was a morale check by defeating their leader. The clerics suggested they could use magic to help but they couldn't get after the cowardly bugbear chief that was leading from the rear.

It was a huge gamble. The bugbear chief filled in and Broderick and Gunnbjorn led the charge to make space for the clerics who needed to be close. The Command spells worked, the chief and subchief groveled and surrendered respectively, and the warriors crashed into them, killing the groveling chief and forcing that morale check. It was *awful* and the bugbears that weren't engaged fled into the darkness. Those who were surrendered in confusion and the subchief was subdued before the magic wore off.

Had initiative gone differently, had attack rolls gone differently, had basically *anything* not gone their way in that moment they were doomed. But Forseti had their backs and they collected a bunch of prisoners and treasure, including a magic axe with the head of a stop sign. Aevarr sacrificed a captive to Tyr, the god of battle, in thanks for their victory.

Lots of math and such for encumbrance and they walked back to town. A cluster of goblins watched them pass from a cave in the side of a hill hundreds of yards off and definitely won't be a problem for later, but they sacrificed one of the prisoners as a threat to them just in case. Jarl Fost of Odin was *super* pleased with their results and will feast them in the week to come.

Musings:

Surprise was the mechanic of the day. The bugbears modified the ranger surprise bonus and evened the playing field, but the ogres were dopes and stumbled right into the trap. Leif the elf made a wild play that could have really changed things, but he only had 1 hp. RIP. Shieldwall vs the ogres was clutch, too.

From the DM perspective, the primary ruling of the night was allowing the charging warriors to target the bugbear chief specifically during that final melee. I ruled that way because he was groveling despite the general assumption that melee is a chaotic scrum where targets can't be chosen. The shock of the turning tide was enough for me to justify it.

Grades:

• Raylan the Ranger: Excellent. Scouted, held the line, bold. Bearer of "Heartstopper"
• Kirk the Cleric: Excellent. Sacrificed to Forseti, cast much magic
• Thorgal the Ranger: Excellent. Scouted, held the line
• Broderick the Paladin: Excellent. Bold, caller, pushed milieu well
• Ævarr the Cleric: Excellent. Sacrificed to Tyr, cast much magic
• Gunnbjorn the Fighter: Excellent. Bold, shield wall
• Leif the Assassin: Excellent. Risky murder attempt. RIP.
  

Session time: 4/1/25-4/4/25, free 4/5/25

Combat
Total XP:	3679
Cuts:	12
PC:	613.17