Gonna start writing these more play report style cos I’m bored of writing and also I have a real writer in my group who is doing a way better job (link will go here). Going to put my notes in Italics so you know when it’s storytime and when it’s my GM notes.
Where we’re at: After fleeing through a portal away from Nildazi, the realm of the evil sorcerer baron Voghtairi, they have made their way to Fort Duvno, the northernmost stronghold of Orthos, right on the border. They have in tow the barons kidnapped son, Rolf, whom they rescued from bandits.
The party are intercepted at the gates of Fort Duvno by a swarm of guards. Their initial suspicion is swayed when they recognize the battered baronson. The group is rewarded 2000 gold by the baron. They also sell their table, netting another 6000 gold. They spend a week here to level up.
I’m really liking this gold for XP and long resting system. They spent a while last session figuring out who was going to carry what, and they ended up doubling back into enemy territory to claim their loot. It gives the world a real weight to it I feel. I’m not sure if they agree but they didn’t seem to be annoyed by it.
Longer rests also let us do downtime, which is becoming something of a pillar of gameplay as goals are carved out. Icoriol broke his sword in the Tayan Theras temple so he wants to repair it. Unfortunately he rolled terribly so he spends a bunch of money and makes no progress. The sword doesn’t seem to be obeying natural laws of the world. His knowledge of smithing doesn’t help him against this chaotic blade.
Balthazar spends the week doing favors for the Square of Zoshk, a church/training ground to the saint of organized warfare. He got to choose between that and the court of Soviah, the saint of justice through strict adherence to written law. The player is mostly doing this to gain favours, but it’s perfectly in character for Balthazar and his choice lends a real insight into his character. Rewarding players really does influence their behavior!
They plan to head south, but the Baron would love to have strong heroes such as this for his war effort. He mentions offhandedly that Senago is under siege. The Friends of Orthos (as they have named themselves) take him up on the offer.
This surprised me, I’d been awake into the wee hours of the morning prepping Solemnity, the city I thought they’d get to. Senago is 4 lines in my notebook. I’m surprised it was able to make most of a session.
In that conversation, the party is introducd to Lady Alindra, the barons lawfully appointed Black Rose knight. The party realises at this point that the rest of the world doesn’t know the Black Rose Knights have allied with the sorcerer baron. In private, Lobsang writes a letter explaining everything. The baron finds Lobsang in his quarters, furious.
“What heresy is this!” The black rose knights are a holy order, tightly intimately with the leadership of Orthos, to doubt them is to doubt the queen, which is a big no no in Korianis (which is basically feudal britain). It’s like slapping the baron in the face. “I could have you beheaded for what you’ve said… but you returned my son. Explain yourself- have you gone mad!?”
Lobsang doubles down. By this point the PCs have been helping out in town for a week, and they’ve pledged to help in Senago. The baron weighs his options, and decides to let this slide. Luckily no one else knows what Lobsang has said. He avoids them for the rest of their time in town.
The Friends meet with Captain Burkhard in Senago, who tells them of the desperate position. The beastmen are led by Gnarl the Two Headed. There are 250 of them to the 100 men. These are all that are left, to protect their village. The baron is busy protecting the northern border in the Wode so he can’t spare any more here. And yet, the beastmen wait in town, journeying no further south. What are they waiting for?
The Friends survey the terrain. Intel from Burkhard reveals a pile of javelins the beastmen have made, a pen of war beasts (elephants) and some cages holding prisoners to the east of the town. They also know the beastmens basic schedule - in the evening they congregate in the center of town, a massive pile of food, where they gorge themselves ravenously.
The Friends of Orthos hatch a plan.
First, they position archers round back, hidden on top of the valley that leads northwards out of the village. Then, Balthazar uses his divine gift to disguise himself as a beastman. He infiltrates, waiting by the javelin pile until feeding time. In the mean time, Lobsang leads two units of archers to the ruined rooftops of Senago. They wait.
A roar sounds from the middle of town. The beastmen start manically dashing to the center of down. Balthazar, still in disguise, lingers behind then sets the javelins on fire. He is long gone by the time the beastmen realise their weapons are burning. When some of the group splits from the feeding pile to investigate, the archers are upon them. At the same time, the remaining infantry charge from the hills.
The battle is fierce, the beastmen outnumber the men and, even unarmed, they are more than a match, for they have claws and teeth. The party regroups in the chaos, the town burning around them, and navigate the streets to find Gnarl. They find him in a small square surrounded by four of his soldiers. He’s a hulking thing of muscle with two wolf heads perched, bloodstained, no his shoulders.
They engage, gnarl swinging his claws wildly. He pursues Balthazar and Lobsang up to the burning rooftops while Gruffie and Icoriol deal with the lesser beastmen. He’s yelling commands to his men and his own ferocity propels his actions when they are defeated (he gets a free attack when a seen ally reaches 0 hit-points, the beastmen are really characterized by their bloodlust). At a certain point, his eyes blur, his ferocity reaches a new height. At half hit points, he starts making attacks with advantage. (This is partly because they fucking wrecked him super quick, so he got some power increases for the last couple turns, but also this theme of going crazy as they get more damaged is a staple for the beastmen).
Just before he is slain, some more soldiers arrive, both men and beastmen. They are running for their lives. Behind them, a gigantic grey tusked behemoth is charging towards the square. It bulldozes a building, crushing a beastman in the process, before a horrid wrenching sound erupts from its trunk. It’s equipped with a wooden platform, unoccupied. Gnarl sprints and leaps from a rooftop onto its back. Instantly the elephents demeanour changes, becoming slower, crueler. The minds of Gnarl and the elephant meld in the way that beastkin can.
However, before this can get really bad, Lobsang leaps onto the elephant and slays gnarl with a series of punches. He even withstands Gnarls last hurrah flurry of attacks (another beastman thing).
Lobsang looks to be thrown from the elephant, but quick thinking Gruffie Mayhem casts a spell that takes some inspiration from the beastmen, letting her mind meld with that of the beasts, and allowing communication between them. Elephants are intelligent, empathetic creatures, and it understands that The Friends are trying to help. It consents to be piloted by Lobsang against the beastmen.
After that, it’s just mopping up the last of the beastmen.
Before this fight, the battle had been fought using some shitty warfare rules of mine (shitty might be a bit harsh, they worked, but using standard phased initiative on a larger scale would have worked better). It was basically a Chainmail ripoff. It was a bit clunky in play (maybe because I only knew about half the rules) and seriously bored on of my players. Lesson learned!
Burkhard has been slain in the battle of Senago, but the town is free, the beastmen have been beaten back, for now. Not bad for a reinforcement of 4 people. Interestingly, the battle only went so well because so many of the beastmen failed their morale check and fled. That means they’re still out there. We’ll come back to this in a sec.
Triumphantly, The Friends return to Fort Duvno atop their elephant. At first it’s a perceived attack, before the guards realize who rides the beast. The Baron, his joy and relief overcoming his previous angst, congratulates the party. Larger rewards are in order. In addition, after long thinking, Baron Amakoth has sent Lady Alindra back to Solemnity. This will cause a splash in the political world, but the players don’t care about that crap. Well, for now. In exchange for his elephant, and for his services, Lobsang is granted the title Earl of Melk, and becomes one of Baron Amakoths sworn vassals. He is granted the 24-mile hex just north of where Fort Duvno lives. There was a great moment where the player got to redraw the boundary of the map and he said something along the lines of “I’m impacting the world!” He also renamed it to Lobsland, and as first act as Earl, knighted the rest of the Friends as the Lobknights. (As an aside, this is generally why I don’t let players name things, but this also has a perfectly old school feel, reminds me of Greyhawk)
Yes! That’s the joy of the sandbox. However, it won’t all be smooth sailing. He’s right in the thick of the beastmen assault, and remember what I said about the beastmen fleeing? I need a real system for this, but at the moment the units each nation controls is roughly a function of how much territory they control (more land = more companies). Two companies (~200 beastment) were stationed in Senago, and at least 1 company fled. Fleeing units may lose you a battle but they dont die, and can be used again later. It remains to be seen how that goes, but the camera is following The Friends heading south to Solemnity. I might do some stuff over discord with Lobsangs player to do some domain stuff but I need solid rules for it first.
Not everyone is heading south. Lobsang obviously stays to rule his domain, but Gruffie Mayhem decides her adventuring days are done here as well. These two players have had new characters in mind for a while, it’s pretty fortuitous it ended here. I like that their characters are now out here, maybe to be played again. Probably not, since they’re only 4th level and we’re heading into higher tiers (this is a reason I really don’t like 5th edition D&D)
The session ends with a short cutscene showing the lord of the southern beastmen accepting an alliance with The Sorcerer Baron Voghtairi to bookend this handful of sessions, effectively ending season 1 of the campaign.
Overall, the session was better than I thought it would be with how unprepared I felt, and the rewards were great. The players are starting to get invested in the stuff they’ve learned and they’re starting to feel that their effects have real weight in the world. I think the old school style is breaking through. I’m having a blast running, when University isn’t kicking my ass so hard I barely have time to prep.
Next up, Solemnity! They’ve heard about this city for 6 sessions, I hope it lives up to expectations. I have a gloopy post coming up soon about a sandbox city game prepping table, but I have yet to test it. I’m writing this play report after the next session so actually I can sneakily tell you that my first method of prep was shit so hopefully my new method works. You can read about that in Ruby Crown IX. I think the next chapter is going to be written by the impeccable Bofie, my writer friend, so look forward to real fiction!