Building Bhakashal – Overland Travel - The Caravan - Part 2

What a session! Sometimes when we play I want to write up a journal for people because the session has great examples of how we handle circumstances that come up regularly in the game. I think people get a lot of odd ideas about how sandbox style games are run, and particularly how games that rely heavily on randomization and dice mechanics work at the table. Also, my games are “full Bhakashal” now, with the custom classes and mechanics, so if you want a preview of what you will be getting, this is pretty good.

My Wed group is on the classic sandbox adventure. After finishing their last adventure (White Plume – they bailed after a few early deaths and had to deal with the consequences for many sessions), they quite literally looked at the Greyhawk map, saw “the Forgotten City” on the map, and decided to go there.

It doesn’t get more sandbox than that.

This involved a week long sea voyage and so far 4 days of overland travel to get to the mountains, across the mountains is the Sea of Dust, their destination. The start of their trip is detailed here:

https://dwelleroftheforbiddencity.blogspot.com/2023/11/building-bhakashal-overland-travel.html

When we left off in the previous session, they approached the mountains and a Roc bore down on the caravan. The way we run initiative and combat, an aerial attacker bearing down from a distance can be hit by missile fire and spells before they arrive, depending on the distance and speed that can be more than one attack per combatant.

Everyone took out missile weapons and got a shot in before it arrived. However, it was windy, the Roc was coming in fast, and as the caravan was over 500’ long, only some of the guards were in range for crossbow shots. Of the 30 or so that were in range, only 2 hit!

The party warlock cast Magic Missile, at 8^th level they get 4 missiles for 2-5 damage each, the thief/magic-user also had Magic Missile, though at a lower level of experience. Together they did a respectable amount of damage, Magic Missile never misses and has a terrific range. In Bhakashal, Magic Missile is cast by touching your forehead and drawing a sizzling energy spike out of your head, then whipping it towards your enemies, and it unerringly finds its target. Big fun.

Still, the huge monster dove, undaunted.

The caravan has its own Warlock (Mahl Unoss the Puissant), and he cast Lightning Bolt at the mighty creature. This was the last defense, fortunately for the party the beast failed it’s save, and the damage was sufficient to bring it between half and one quarter HP, so it could make a controlled dive, but it had to land.

Referee - “Mahl Unoss the Puissant sits tall in the saddle of his giant lizard, wrapping a glass rod with the fur of a slain Chimera, he whispers the words that release the power of the spell. The rod glows bright blue, and lightning appears in the air a full 300 feet from the warlock, materializing from nothing. The bolt shoots forward like a hungry beast released, and after another 20 or so feet suddenly forks into three nearly parallel bolts, all now a painfully bright blue white and ragged. They strike the raging Roc in the side and on its massive wing. The beast screeches in pain, and alternately flaps and coasts towards thick forest of trees, where the splintering of wood and more shrieking from the beast could be heard.”

In Bhakashal substituting material components can get you different versions of the spell, the Chimera skin allows the caster to split the bolt in such a way that it covers more area, and the target takes a -3 save penalty.

That was fun.

The Roc decided to land as far from the caravan as possible, worried that it could be taken when it landed. The caravan leader and the party agreed to leave it be and continue on.

They pressed forward and powered through the rest of the day to get as much distance as possible

They arrived in the mountains and started up the pass. At this point they had socialized with the caravan guards and animal handlers, as well as the Caravan Master Gylevan “the Jackrabbit” Mahgler and Mahl Unoss the Puissant, the caravan’s warlock. Gylevan is a retired 7^th level mercenary with a Razor sword, magic armor, and Boots of Striding and Springing (remember that, it will matter later). He likes to gamble and is well liked by his crew. The PCs have gambled with them, exchanged information, and were forming bonds.

Unoss is an NPC warlock that was generated as a PC for a one shot, I kept him around and have used him as a NPC in different campaigns, leveling him up as time passes in between uses. He served as an Akhaada (arena) warlock for most of his career (pre use as a one shot character), since then he has done some adventuring (the one shot and two others, also as a “hired gun” NPC warlock for a run at Forbidden City with my Monday group), worked as a ship’s warlock (for my Tuesday campaign last year), and is now a caravan Warlock for my Wednesday group.

Every day of travel the players tell me  if they want to do RP or not, if they say yes, we will role play out whatever scenario is appropriate, eating at the captain’s table, gambling with the crew, entertaining the crew with illusions, preaching, and converting the crew, etc. Players do fun things when they get the chance to RP “casually”. On an ocean voyage in a previous campaign one player noted he had a fishing skill, and he approached the crew members fishing off the boat and struck up a conversation, they cast nets together and he insisted that we roll to determine success.

Players will “game” anything if they can.

The NPC priest they had brought along, Cyga the Cauled, was becoming popular with the caravan, casting blessings, auguries and minor healing spells for the crew and healing the beasts of burden. A Seer (priest) of Omagh, god of death, she had converted about 10 of the animal handlers and 4 of the guards to her faith. She had also bested one of the guards in a sparring match, the Seer favored a mace in combat, and she bested the guard armed with shield and longsword in three passes. We played that fight, with a player running the Seer and me running the guard.

Day two in the mountains and we rolled an encounter with a wind walker. I adore elemental monsters, and air elementals are super fun, they can cause such havoc! When they rolled the encounter, I initially described it as a loud, howling wind. Then it started to ROAR, and then it became incredibly strong, and then one of the guards was shot into the air, high up, then plummeted down screaming. Oddly enough he made a saving throw and didn’t die from the experience, but the party was frightened.

They didn’t know what it was, and I wasn’t telling them!

The wind walker blew up dust and dirt that blinded the guards and spooked the animals. The party had no idea what they were facing. One of the PCs had a Bhakashal spell, Quen-Tharin’s Baleful Penetrating Gaze. It allows a form of X-ray vision.

When the wind walker picked up the next caravan guard and raised them into the air, the party phantasmist cast the spell and “saw” a vaguely humanoid outline of the wind walker attacking the guard.

That was a cool moment. That guard was dropped but the party slayer (ranger/assassin) is a Garudin (bird-person) and managed to catch them before they hit.

As a ref, I have to decide what the NPCs are doing when an attack happens, just like the PCs have to. But I don’t want to take advantage of my comprehensive knowledge of the situation, so I randomize what the monsters do.

What would the party warlock do in this situation?

Mahl has spells, items and scroll spells. The way the magic item tables in Bhakashal are structured is similar to the way they are structured in AD&D 1e, scrolls come up fairly often, and all mid-level warlocks will have a few scrolls. For Unoss I set up the following odds to determine his response:

1-4. Charm Monster

5. Wand of Conjuration

6. Scroll - Invisible Stalker

 

Charm Monster would end the fight there and then if it worked so I weighted that heavier. The wand would take time (to take out and use) and had charges he didn’t want to waste, and the scroll spell was a one shot, so he was reluctant to use it.

But it is his job.

I rolled a 6!

Unoss took out a scroll and cast Aerial Servant. He directed the servant to protect him and the caravan, and it attacked the wind walker. Two air elemental beings attacking each other, two raging storms locked in combat. I did a morale check on the walker to see how it would handle something that could impact it directly, it failed and fled, the aerial servant was too tough, and it was used to easy prey. The guards were grateful as the party saved one of their lives. The caravan continued on, and the next two days were tense as we rolled no encounters.

Every time I roll dice for encounters the players get antsy.

The party warlock became friends with Mahl Unoss, they had a few conversations as they travelled. The PC warlock asked Unoss if he was willing to trade spells, and a positive reaction roll led to a discussion. A scroll of Lightning Bolt was traded for one with Wall of Iron. This was a cause for some celebration, as the PC had been looking for Lightning Bolt (or Fireball) for a time, and they all waited with bated breath while he rolled his “to know”. It was successful, and now they have Lightning Bolt in their arsenal!

And you know at some point they will need Wall of Iron and not have it, LOL.

The third day in the mountains a storm hit, it was heavy rain and wind, but they pressed on as the wind walker had slowed them down. They rolled an encounter with fire giants. Given where they were I decided it would be an attack from above, they were in a narrow pass where the caravan had to go slowly and in a long line. The perfect place for an ambush. The rain concealed the giant’s from early discovery.

We rolled for surprise and fortunately neither side was surprised, so one of the caravan guards spotted the giants, 100’ above them. All hell was about to break loose, there were 5 giants, three together, and (unknown to them) two moving to flanking positions. The three together reached for boulders.

Roll for initiative!!!!

It was CRAZY.

The party warlock rolled a 1 and successfully cast Rope Trick, climbing up to safety. Two other nearby party members took their action running to the rope and starting to climb. The caravan master screamed to the whole procession to flee as fast as they could. The caravan has 30 giant lizards, loaded for bear, with on rider each, 50 guards (unmounted), and 10 giant lizard cavalry guards. At full charge they weren’t that fast, and the caravan itself was about 500’ long.

At this point I had to make a few hard decisions. In a situation like this, do NPCs protect themselves or protect others? Do they flee like everyone else, or do they do “heroic” things? I’m a firm believer in rolling for things like this. I want some spontaneity in my game.

I construct a set of weighted options based on the NPC’s profile, class, etc. So, for example, the caravan master Gylevan Mahgler  was a retired 7^th level mercenary (fighter), so he wasn’t easy to scare. I gave him these odds:

1-4: stand ground and direct flight of caravan

5: fire crossbow at giants

6: flee and try to seek shelter in the Rope Trick with the party

 

I rolled a 1, he was focused on getting everyone to flee as fast as possible, and he stayed his ground, shouting at the beasts and riders to move. The whole party except the Justiciar (paladin) ran towards the Rope Trick. That was noticed by the guards, animal handlers, caravan master and Mahl Unoss.

Unoss has his aerial servant (still around) lift him up into the sky, making him “hover” in the air far from the caravan line of fire. He then prepared a spell.

Cyga the Cauled, Seer of Omagh, was another example, what would a priestess of death do in a situation like this? I gave this some thought, what does a priestess of a death god think about death? Would she be indifferent to it? Would she seek to deal it out to others? Would she feel compelled to not interfere with death when it occurred? I decided that one of the options would be the priestess *courting* death.

So she might flee, cast Light on a giant to blind it (she was in range), use her Crossbow of Distance (good odds to hit but not much damage) or cast Sanctuary on herself, making it less likely the giants could hit her, and draw their fire.

1. Flee

2-3. Cast Light to blind a giant

4. Use Crossbow of Distance

5-6. Cast Sanctuary on herself and draw fire

 

I rolled a 5, and she cast Sanctuary on herself.

The party Justiciar was another problem case, he could have headed into the Rope Trick for shelter, but he would have had to abandon his special mount, in Bhakashal you get a mount as your “warhorse” based on your deity, his was Iospha, god of fire, so he rode a giant boar.

No getting that up the rope!

They were sitting ducks under the giant’s rocks, and a giant’s rock thrown from above like this does enough damage to slay a party member in terms of HP alone, also, if they roll a critical it is instant death, crushed by a giant rock. But he wasn’t abandoning his special mount. So, he rode along, picking up guards fleeing on foot along the way who jumped and clung to his mount (giant boars are big), riding like the devil to get away from the giant’s rocks. He rescued 5 guards this way.

Then the rocks flew. Three huge boulders came down. There were 30 gess (giant lizards) each with a rider and 1-2 guards on foot, each grouping of gess, rider and guard(s) was counted as one unit. The party represented an additional 8 (all mounted), and there were 10 mounted caravan guards, as well as the caravan master and Unoss. A total of 50 targets sorted by mounts. I assigned numbers to everyone, and I rolled a d100 and divided it into two.

The rocks targeted two gess/rider/guards and one of the mounted guards. What the party didn’t know was that mounted guard was a high level NPC mercenary that was fleeing from a death sentence, he was posing as a guard to get smuggled out. They might never find this out.

The giant rolled a 2 to hit and missed. There were howls and screams when that happened.

The second and third boulder rolled a regular hit, the damage wounded the beast of burden and killed the guard and the rider on the second by HP alone, and a critical on the third slayed them all instantly.

Other than the Justiciar, the party had all fled to the Rope Trick, Mahgler the caravan master screamed, “UNOSS, stop them!”

I rolled again for the Warlock’s actions,

1. Magic Missile

2. Charm Monster

3-5. Lightning bolt

6. Aerial Servant

I rolled a 3, Unoss cursed the giants in the dead tongue of the necrovores of the underworld, the Vorunn, and he cast Lightning Bolt again, this time above the giants and against the loose rock of the mountains, triggering a small avalanche that blinded them and did minor damage.

This delayed their next attack, and more of the caravan made it out of the pass.

That was one round. 

The next round, the Justiciar made it to the end of the pass with his rescued guards, who he released, and he turned around to get more guards.

Cyga the Cauled turned to the giants and cursed them in the name of Omagh, challenging them to target her, trusting the Sanctuary spell of her god to protect her and draw their fire.

She’s a badass.

Caravan master Gylevan Mahgler, in a move that convinced the party he was mad, jumped from his mount and used his Boots of Striding and Springing to run and leap along, periodically shouting at the beasts to urge them on, and twice picking up fallen guards to spring them over to a fleeing mount that stopped to grab them. 

I rolled to see who the giant’s would attack, 5 attacks this round as the flanking giants were in place above them.

1-8. Unoss

9-12. Cyga

13-16. Paladin

17-18. Mahgler

19-20. Beast of burden

They wanted to slay giant lizards as food, and to get whatever goods they were carrying.  I rolled and the giant’s targeted Unoss, Mahgler, Cyga and two giant lizard teams, all rolled randomly.

The boulder hurled at Unoss had no chance, as the Aerial servant could easily move him out of the way, and it did. Mahgler was jumping around in a crazy pattern very quickly with his boots, so the giant took a penalty on the shot, it whistled overhead (missing by 1) and the Jackrabbit was safe! Cyga’s Fire Giant failed its save against Sanctuary, so it could not attack her, instead bellowing in a rage as it smashed the boulder into the ground at its feet, unable to cast it at her.

Cyga shouted praise to Omagh while shaking her holy symbol (her mace) in the air, “Omagh is my armor foul one, your rocks will break on my body!”

Two giant lizards and crews were pasted by boulders, but by now more than half of the caravan was out of the pass and harm’s way.

The Justiciar picked up several more guards and turned to get them to safety.

Unoss then cast his second spell, Stinking Cloud, this one was memorized. It hit the three giant’s standing together, and one of them plummeted off the mountainside when racked with coughing. The other two were incapacitated. I rolled and the two flanking giants headed back to save their comrades.

Mahgler waited until the last gess departed the pass, and he sprung back to look for survivors. The Justiciar and him cleared the pass and fled ahead. Cyga went with them, and the party closed the Rope Trick.

Then things got interesting.

The Rope Trick would last for two hours and 40 minutes. Would the giants still be around at that point?

Questions like this are a frequent occurrence at the table, there are no rules to turn to.

When something like this comes up, I throw it to the table, and we talk it out. I do this to be fair, to give the players a chance to make their arguments, and I do this as it’s fun. Players love to argue about stuff like this. I told them they were in the extradimensional space and couldn’t know what was happening outside. Should they “peek” and see? Would they be spotted?

They surmised that after the caravan was gone from the pass, the giants would come down to check on their wounded comrade, retrieve the dead for consumption, and to grab whatever cargo was not destroyed by the boulders.

How long would that take?

We talked it out and knowing the size of the giant lizards and the giants themselves, each giant could drag one dead giant lizard up the mountain to their lair at a time. There was also some retrievable cargo that wasn’t destroyed. They would assign a giant to watch to see if the caravan master or warlock returned. The party didn’t know if the giant’s knew they would eventually come out. They might just sit around and wait to see.

I rolled to determine what they did. The party decided to wait until the 2 hour mark then “peek” out. I rolled the odds that they would be spotted, and they managed to be unnoticed, what they saw was that all but one of the dead gess were removed, two giants were here, as well as about 5 hell hounds, and some cargo remained unmoved.

The closed up and waited until the spell was soon to end. When they peeked out again I rolled to see if they were noticed, and they were not. This time there were two giants remaining, one dead giant lizard, and one intact container of caravan goods.

They now have to decide how to get out of the Rope Trick without being noticed, as the giants were still around. If they manage to escape they have to ask themselves if they want to continue with the caravan or track down the giant’s in their lair to hopefully steal their loot.

Decisions, decisions.

As you can notice, I randomize a lot of the game, this keeps things unpredictable and inspiring:

I know a lot of DMs wouldn’t have had the party travel for a few days without encounters. The advantage to what I do is that they never know when an encounter is going to happen, and when it does, it won’t always happen in the “optimal” environment for a fight.

Many DM’s would “balance” their encounters by calibrating the monsters/NPCs/animals to the party’s level and power. Instead, I roll on pregenerated random tables that pay no heed to the party’s makeup or level. The Wind Walker encounter could have been a TPK, so too could the giant encounter.

Many DM’s would ensure that PCs were not targeted in that giant encounter, as it was randomly rolled and they didn’t have an opportunity to avoid the encounter, so it wasn’t “fair”. But that’s the nature of travelling through dangerous areas!

Few DM’s would randomize the actions of NPCs or monsters, they would instead pick the actions to ensure they were “optimized”, I prefer to roll randomly and see what happens as it’s unpredictable and it can lead to results that are even more awesome than what you planned.

Many DMs would not have bothered to have NPCs taking on prominent roles in the adventure, or interacting with other NPCs (e.g., the Seer converting guards), as the adventure is “all about the PCs”, but Bhakashal is a living world, and the PCs are but one tiny part of that world. NPCs aren’t cardboard cut outs or clusters of stats to occupy space, they have agency, perform heroic (and cowardly) acts, are sometimes irrelevant to the fight, and sometimes crucial. Nothing makes the game duller than “in the background” predictable NPCs that either contribute nothing or run everything.

Many DMs would have “hand waved” the travel portion of this adventure, fast forwarding the party to their destination. Not us! Travel is part of the adventure too! The party has had such awesome RP over the last few sessions, they have made friends, learned things about the game world, created stakes and formed alliances.

Unpredictability through randomization is, IMO, key to three very important aspects of the game:

1)     Surprising EVERYONE at the table. The referee controls so much of the game world, it is important to have things that even they can’t predict. An “omnipotent” DM that knows everything gets bored fast.

2)     When aspects of the game are unpredictable, including the actions of NPCs, the game world seems more REAL. Stories are often noticeably curated; you can often predict what will happen in the next part of the story because that result is “what the story demands”. Randomization throws a spanner in this, and just like real life, things rarely progress as planned.

3)     Randomization creates tactical opacity, the inability to predict what your opponents will do. Of course, it works both ways, your opponents are less likely to predict what you will do, and vice versa. Predictable combat is the height of boredom, and one of the reasons why many people complain that combat “takes too long”.

I have no idea if the party will pursue the giants or just continue on, and more importantly I DON’T WANT TO KNOW! Part of the fun is me not knowing what will happen next.

Onwards to adventure!