Building Bhakashal - Session Report - Revenge!

This week the party set out to get Sir Bluto Sans Pite. After betraying them, Sir Bluto became a pirate, and has been working a particular area of the coast and the trade routes, and has a hideout on a remote island. They want to get him back for what he did. 

When the party went to Castanamir’s island for their patron, Quin Faal the Iolite, Faal put out a bounty on Sans Pite’s head, knowing this would generate information about his activities from those wanting to collect. When the PCs returned from Castanamir’s island Faal knew the areas where Sans Pite was raiding, and a suspected island for his hideout. As payment for their excursion to Castanamir’s Island (the party gave Quin Faal the gingwatzim they had removed to study, as well as several other artifacts and Castanamir’s journals, as well as details about the parts of his complex they explored), Faal has given them ownership of the The Black Blade, Captained by Lees Wagam the Russet, a Kutya water Gyre (3rd level), they have a crew of 16 emberi (humans) and 4 Malu (fish people), 4 ballistae and a catapult

After betraying the party outside White Plume, Sans Pite slew the captain and several crew of the ship the Blue Sky when they were in a nearby port in a brazen daylight attack. The crew accepted him as the new captain, and the ship warlock, Kanai Grith the Hessonite, sided with them as well. He and Snarla are both working for Sans Pite. Sans Pite’s hideout is on a small, remote island.

They chose a cave in an enclosed bay, and Kanai used his dig spell to break through the land bridge marked with the black circle, giving their ship an escape out of their cove.

The heavy forest of the surrounding land made them very hard to find. The PCs sailed for three days, they had one encounter with fishermen that was uneventful, they gambled with the crew twice, and there were no encounters of note when they spotted the island. They were hoping to run into Sans Pite on the water. That’s one of the things about random rolling for encounters when traveling, sometimes nothing comes up and all there is to note is the weather (there was a big storm, but no one was lost to it). Sometimes you get one encounter after another. But when they roll 3 days of consecutive “no encounters”, they figure that they will soon be rolling encounters on the island instead. They talk about this at the table, and it shapes their planning. They start thinking of a defensive posture

They approach the island, and I show them the map, and they find a spot on the south coast where they think Sans Pite might have placed his hideout. They sail there early morning, and nestle into a nook (marked with a blue star). They were very close, Sans Pite was at the Red Star. 

After a movie discussion one session, one of the boys watched Predator, and he suggested they feign being a ship ran aground with damage, and make camp (at the grey star on the map) in the woods. Build a big fire, and the pirates will come to investigate. A few members of the crew would tend the fire, but many would be in the trees above with the PCs and will use missile fire and spells to take out the pirates when they arrive. The party illusionist and fighter, the captain and the other half of the crew are back on the ship hiding. When the pirates show up, the illusionist will cover their ship (about 75 feet long) with the illusion of a battered, damaged ship, his improved phantasmal force was large enough to do it. The crew could be hidden in this illusion.

Then their attackers would hopefully go directly to the fire and the crew still on Black Blade would hopefully get surprise against them from behind, they were planning on letting the pirates get to the fire, there were two sailors and one PC (the party priest) at the fire tending it, and when the pirates arrived they were to talk to them long enough for the others in the trees and the men from the ship to target them, and trap sprung!

That was the plan. 

So what they didn’t know, as they did not scout the island or use, for example, a speak with animals to find out what other things were on the island, or that divination spell they considered selling recently (on a scroll), was that there were, in addition to wandering monsters, two organized groups on the island. The pirates under Sans Pite, and a rakasta camp on the far side of the island. Sailing up like this in broad daylight would hold a 4 in 6 chance of being noticed by one of the island’s groups. The rakasta camp is marked by the orange star. This group has been hiding here for several months from pursuit. Sans Pite knows of them and they have an understanding. They agree to warn of and repulse invaders and Sans Pite leaves them alone. I rolled and today Sans Pite was visiting the Rakasta camp and the Blue Sky was returning home from pirating.

No one noticed the PCs arriving. So they set up the camp, build the fire and wait. I rolled to see what would be attracted to the fire first, the pirates, the rakasta, the wandering monsters, or a group of griffons that had stopped on the island to feed, they were resting during the day in a grove on the north side of the island marked by the purple star. 

I rolled each turn after the fire was started, I gave each group a 1 in 6 chance per turn of noting the smoke, first turn, a 1 came up for the griffons, at the top of the island. I rolled to see if they would investigate, and knowing fire to be from bipeds, and bipeds to be tasty, they did. 

Second turn, nothing, griffons just flying south. But the party ranger with his Eyes of the Eagle spots them and sees them as griffons, not just birds. 

Third turn a 1 comes up for the Blue Sky, which is returning to the island. I give them a 5 in 6 of checking out the fire on their way in. The rakasta are further east and north, so a fire where the party was, particularly one that large, in the infernally hot mid-afternoon, would be odd. They rolled to check it out. The Blue Sky was just off the coast, and it would take 2 turns to get to the Black Blade. 

So by turn 3 the ship has noticed the smoke, and it will show up 2 turns later near the bay. 

On turn 4 Sans Pite’s camp notices the smoke, as do Sans Pite and the Rakasta. I roll a 3 in 6 chance that someone from the camp will respond as Sans Pite, the ship and the two warlocks are out of house. They decide to stay. 

I roll to see what the Rakasta will do. In this case as Sans Pite is a major NPC for me, I weigh the odds a bit differently. Sans Pite and the Rakasta recognize that the smoke is from an unusual place, and Sans Pite knows that he is a wanted man, so I roll to see if he will ignore the fire or pay attention. I roll that he will address the fire. As he is without his two casters, their ship and half of his personal henchmen, I don’t want to have him barging in. I decide that he will ask the shaman of the rakastas to cast augury and ask if he should head to the fire or not. He casts the bones, and tells Sans Pite that to go to the fire will be a bad idea. So he decides he will approach the fire but not go all the way there, not engage, and asks the rakasta to lend him mounts and men to go investigate. They agree, and he’s off.

Also on turn 4 the griffons arrive, they see sailors in the trees to eat!. The party members and the sailors had climbed up into the trees, some were on low hanging branches, some in the middle and some up high. All of those up high were targets for the griffons to snatch but would also have unobstructed shots, anyone in the med to lower branches took penalties to hit, but would not be the target of the griffons. 

The party warlock had time to cast his fireball, he targeted it so it would detonate and it’s edge would be around 10’ from the tree canopy top. He had to wait until they were close enough. I rolled and the griffons came in out of synch, so it came down to timing, the griffon’s arrival is deterministic in my system, the initiative roll + casting time for the warlock will determine which ones are in the fireball area when it goes off. 

One griffon arrives before the rest, and the party ranger is the prime target, he has his bastard sword out. 

The griffons are diving to grab a target with their talons and fly them away. So they aren’t diving INTO their targets, they are diving down to grab and fly away with them, swoop and snatch. I rulle that a charging attack, as they would still have the speed to do increased damage. So 2 point AC penalty for the griffons, but attacks do double damage.

So the ranger is 6th level, since the griffon is charging, the longest weapon strikes first, that’s the bastard sword. He’s +4 to hit and +4 to damage with the sword, add +2 for the AC penalty for the griffon, he rolls a critical hit. The ranger chose his critical hit impact - 20 - Double Damage. 2-16 against large creatures, he rolls a 12 x 2 = 24 + 4 = 28 hp of damage. We roll for monster HP live, so I roll 7d8 for the Griffon and get 23 hp. 

At this point I narrate it.

“The griffon screeches as it begins a dive, swooping down with talons out to grab you, you pull back your sword and as the beast’s talons flash in front of you your blade comes across and cuts through both of it’s legs. You duck below it’s underside as it crashes into the trees”

I rolled, and the griffon hit one of the sailors on the way down, knocking him to the ground at -2 hp. The party priest, who was on the ground as he was too heavily armored to climb trees, healed him beside the dead griffon on the ground, bringing the sailor back to life. Side note, that priest of Zeus has healed 6 other sailors on the ship, everyone he has healed converted to Zeus and has been listening to his words of wisdom. Using healing magic on henchmen brings big loyalty bonuses. 

So back to the treetops. The initiative system sequenced the next thing to happen was the fireball, however, the caster was deep enough into the trees that there was a chance the tiny sizzling sphere that blossoms into a fireball might hit something before blossoming. I decide that there is a 2 in 6 chance that will happen. I get the player of the warlock to roll, he gets a 4, so the spell casts successfully,  it catches the 4 remaining griffons before they hit the trees. Three failed their saves, one made it. 

Three took enough damage to ground them with a crash, that killed them. The one that took half damage survived the fall, but the party priest had his mace, called out to Zeus, and dispatched it with a single smite. Huzzah! 

So that’s the half of the party at the camp. Now the half back on the boat. The smoke from the fire, and then the fireball on turn 4 were both noticed by the Blue Sky, and it arrives on turn 5. The party is being confronted by two warlocks, warlocks are smart, so I play them smart. Rather than just barge around the corner to find what is there, they attempt to “spring” any trap that might be waiting for them. Kanai Grith the Hessonite, the second Warlock on the ship, has Phantasmal Force, and before they come around the inlet Kanai casts an illusion of 8 outriggers, 2 sailors each, paddling towards the beach past the Black Blade. Kanai hopes to trigger any ambush. 

The party and half the crew of the Black Blade are on deck, as soon as the fireball went off, the party illusionist cast the illusion of the Black Blade heavily damaged on top of the ship, so it looked like a wreck, it also concealed the party fighter, illusionist, ship’s captain and crew behind phantom debris. As the phantasmal outriggers arrived, they took the bait and had the sailors shoot two ballistae. They hit one of the targets and it shimmers and flickers as the bolt sails through. They realize it is an illusion, and although their illusion is still active, and the black blade looks wrecked, and the crew is still hidden to the eye, their opponents now know this is an ambush, and when they see the ship they will suspect it is manned and armed. 

The illusory outriggers disappear.

The Blue Sky prepares for combat, and the party ranger has climbed down from the tree and is sprinting towards the ship, expecting that their fireball will likely draw attention. He arrives on the beach as the Blue Sky comes around and Snarla sees him. She recognizes him from weeks ago when they stole the party’s mounts and money.

The ranger, ever the quick thinker, calls out to her that they want her to join them and take out Sans Pite, the party has no interest in running the pirate group, or stopping them, they just want Sans Pite, and want Snarla and Kanai to throw in with them.

We stopped there.

Next week we will pick up with an encounter reaction roll for Snarla, if she agrees, they will plot to bring Sir Bluto down. He is on the way with a group of rakasta mounted on sabre toothed tigers, he plans on watching from afar. He will arrive in the next turn, so if the party keeps talking to Snarla for long enough he will arrive and watch from a distance, witnessing any betrayal if it happens. 

It will be epic.