Building Bhakashal – Session Report
My Wednesday group has stopped for the year. In our
previous session the lads had an encounter check with 5 min left, they opted to
roll and find out what it was rather than waiting the week and rolling first
thing next session. We rolled an encounter with bandits. I grabbed a sample
bandit crew from the 1st Edition AD&D Rogues Gallery to check
for the makeup of the group.
It was a very large group, 123 NPCs, organized into 7 units of varying sizes, most of whom were mounted. Since the party was far from Bhakashal, the bandits rode horses. Since it was at night, the bandits had a few torches but were generally hard to see. I rolled for encounter distance, and they were 300’ apart, behind a section of forest. We rolled for surprise, neither side was surprised. When that happens, it means that the two groups notice each other about the same time. I told the party they saw some torchlight flickering through the trees, and the bandits heard the sound of the caravan moving. The caravan travels dark wherever possible, but with almost 90 giant lizards they make some noise while moving. Craight the Swift (the caravan master) sent out a guard to investigate, there was a clash of steel and the guard returned.
He had been attacked and slayed his attacker, when he
turned to leave he saw another figure in the distance turning around too. Craight
acted instantly, I rolled to see what he would do (I typically come up with 3-4
options and roll between them). In this case, he asked the party warlock to
stay with the caravan, then sent it off away from the bandits, he called over
10 guards and a guard captain (all mounted on giant lizards) to stay with him,
all the other guards went with the caravan.
He ordered the caravan seer (priest) and caravan warlock
to stay their ground with him. The caravan Seer , Hurna Gamelin cast a prayer
spell on the party in anticipation of the battle. The party Warlock, Mahl Unoss
the Puissant, took out his Wand of Conjuration and summoned two wyverns
(randomly determined), which he immediately dispatched towards the force in the
distant trees. Craight asked the rest of the party to stay with him.
The party crossed the mountains with Craight, fought with
him, gambled with him, talked maps with him, were saved by him, they said yes.
I played Craight as plain talking, practical and ruthless in defending his
caravan.
The bandit leader, Waymar the Lion, is a disgraced former
Lord of a nearby kingdom (they are miles from Bhakashal at this point), he
works as a bandit to attack the holdings of the other Lords who discovered his
dishonorable works and brought him to account. Waymar is no fool, he reacts
just as fast, I roll to see what he does, and the result is sending out three
units to the party’s location, and another two out to flank the caravan,
anticipating that it might flee rather than stand its ground.
The remaining units stay with Waymar.
His caravan Seer, Pyringa the Coal, activates Fire Shield, enshrouding her body in holy flames. Their caravan warlock, Garmondgol the Reed, travels with Unit 7, commanded by Ygami Ayse, 6th level Kutya mercenary henchman of Garmondgol’s. Garmondgol casts Charm Plants on a section of trees immediately beside their main group, they will now work to tangle anything that comes through.
Units 2 and 3 from the bandits appear in the clearing, far
apart, the unit 2 lancers spread out and charge directly, the unit 3 bandits attack
the flank and pull their horses up in a line to fire crossbows. The unit 5
bandits are going around the long way to approach from directly behind the
party and hopefully achieve surprise.
The party responded. When you are being fired at and
charged, you get to fire back if you desire. Several party members shot bows
and took out mounted 4 bandit crossbowmen, the caravan guards shot crossbows
and took out a few more.
The other side shot crossbows and took out a few caravan guards
and did minor damage to a few PCs. The party Thaumaturge (thief/magic-user) asked
which of the Unit 3 bandits was shouting orders, he then used Magic Missile
to target the leader, any attack that reduces you below ½ your HP while mounted
dismounts you, the leader shook as the missiles lit him up, and fell to the
ground. Magic missiles on the battlefield are very cool, they weave through the
chaos to unerringly find their target.
Badass.
The party Seer cast Cacophony of Lies on 5 of the
charging lancers, all failed their saves, and the spell took effect. They
stopped their charge and began to argue with each other, increasing in
intensity, soon abandoning the charge entirely. They scream accusations and
abuse at each other, unable to act.
Craight the Swift charges out towards the remaining lancers
as they charge, at the last moment he springs into the air using his magical
boots and comes down on one of the lancers, splitting his head open with his
sword.
The party illusionist was casting a Spectral Force when
one of the crossbow bolts, shot from the Unit 3 leader, struck him in the arm,
disrupting his spell.
The remaining lancers arrive in the next round, and the
crossbowmen drop their bows and charge from their flank with broadswords or
battle axes in hand.
Then the remaining 10 lancers and leader arrive. There
are 9 party members in the group, 10 guards, the caravan seer and the caravan
warlock. The way things were set up, the lancers attacked the party and the
caravan warlock. The lancers are 0-levels, so most of them missed, but 3 hit,
doing minor damage to the PCs.
Mahl Unoss now casts his first spell (the initial action
was with his wand), Stinking Cloud, it commences away from the party and
envelops most of the charging bandits. They all fail their saves, LOL, and are
down for 4 rounds.
The caravan guards, under the cool eye of Seer Hurna
Gamelin, priest of Eddea, target the charging bandits not caught by the cloud
with crossbow bolts, between the 10 of them they slay them all.
The party engages in melee with the mounted lancers after
the charge, who have switched to broadswords. Since they all got their charge
attack, the party Mercenary (fighter), Spartan (monk), Seer (priest) and Slayer
(Ranger/assassin) get to respond.
The Spartan uses his magical glaive and slays a lancer handily.
The Seer uses his magical Beak and Claw, a short sword dagger combination, if
the sword hits, the dagger automatically hits. He has used this a number of times,
and he consistently misses with the beak and hits with the claw. This time it
worked, and he hit twice, slaying a lancer.
The Slayer used a longsword and gets one attack per round
against 0-level lancers (I hold over this rule for my table, in Bhakashal it
disappears and is replaced by a crit system that gives high level fighters
extra attacks), so he butchers 4 of them with 5 successful hits. This leaves 4
lancers for the Mercenary to deal with.
At this point the Unit 5 bandits are coming around and
will attempt to surprise the party, the bandits in the Stinking Cloud are
neutralized for 4 rounds, the bandits hit by the Cacophony of Lies are
still unable to act, shouting and arguing with each other for another 5 rounds.
While all this fighting has been going on, the two
Wyverns have been attacking the main group of bandits. As there are no player
characters in the area, I take 5 at the table and roll the results of the
encounter. I roll first for surprise, which was successful for the wyverns (the
bandits were not expecting an aerial assault). The beasts dive, shrieking, and
randomly target two bandits, and two of them are snatched in their beaks, flown
into the sky, torn in half and fall to the ground below.
I figure that counts for a morale check, not all of the
bandits are seasoned veterans, but all units make the check. As the wyverns
dive again, the units separate, forcing them to choose targets. A die roll
determines that they both focus on Unit 6 again. This time there is missile
fire from 18 bandits, 7 of them hit, doing damage, but not enough to take
either Wyvern out of the sky.
The two leaders of unit 6 throw nets at the creatures,
trying to foul their talons, one misses but one hits, and the wyvern screeches
in anger, veering off. The other whips it’s tail around as it passes, skewering
one of the leaders, who fails his poison save and dies on the spot. The leader
of Unit 7 hurls a spear at one of the Wyverns as it passes and scores a crit,
blinding it, and it crashes into the trees.
The wyvern with tangled talons circles, this gives the
soldiers time to shoot, but they roll terribly and it manages to strike again,
this time not bothering with talons and using the tail, it skewers the other
unit 6 leader who dies instantly.
This triggers another morale check, and unit 6 breaks up
and flees. Unit 7 crossbowmen manage to do enough damage that the second wyvern
crashes into the ground, and dies.
I now switch to the party Warlock who has fled with the
caravan. Borun the Majestic, an 8th level Bhakashal Warlock, along
with 40 guards, are being pursued by Units 1 and 4, who are trying to cut them
off. The guards split between front and back of the caravan, and Borun chose to
ride at the back, assuming that they were fast enough and reacted soon enough
to get ahead of their pursuers.
Movement is treated deterministically, so plotted
trajectories using the routes available on the map, measured distances, and
determined that the caravan would indeed make it past the pursuing group, that
would be approximately 100’ behind them when they emerged.
I rolled for surprise, the bandits failed, which means
when they burst out on to the trail the caravan was on, Borun was aware they
were coming. My job as the ref is to interpret the rolls, in this case I
decided that the bandits, in trying to cut off the caravan, had to move through
the forest, and made quite the ruckus doing so, which allowed the PC to know
they were coming and react before they could. Riding full bore through the
forest and exploding out on to the trail would be disorienting as well.
ME - “You hear crashing through the woods behind you,
getting closer by the moment”
Borun - “I call to Glose, Makel and Khog, ‘circle’! I
call to the other guards “flank, crossbows!”
“Circle” means that the guards will surround the warlock,
protecting him while he casts spells. Borun lost some gold to these three
guards in cards over the last few days of travel, they are eager to keep him
alive! They are all mounted, like Borun, on giant lizards. “Flank, crossbows”
means that the other guards in the unit will flank Borun and shoot crossbows
until melee or flight is necessary.
Borun takes out a scroll, unfurling it and beginning to
read. The symbols dance on the papyrus, there is a shimmering in the air, then
Borun’s eyes roll back, and he points, slashing his finger across the air in
front of him, then around 80’ back, a searing circular wall of fire appears,
cutting across the trail.
Seconds later, the charging bandits explode from the
forest, surprised, and ride through the curved wall of fire. Unit was was in
the lead, riding in two rows of 5, as they have nets and were going to net the
party for Unit 4 to finish off. Because of the placement, and surprise, the
radius of the wall (30’), it caught all of the first wave of 5, the second wave
rolled saves for half to avoid.
The wall does 2-12 + 8, so it incinerated the first 5
bandits, and almost killed all their horses, the second wave had a few
successful saves, but the damage was enough to kill them too. The only survivors were the two 3rd
level unit leaders, they made it through the wall but were now in the middle of
a circular wall of fire.
The next wave of riders saw the flames and heard the
screaming before emerging and called a stop.
They ride around and emerge into the road, at this point
the crossbowmen from the caravan were in position and fire, 13 shots, med range
penalties but they did respectably, taking out 4 of the next unit.
Now, Unit 4 saw unit 1 incinerated, its leaders captured,
so a morale roll was in order. They passed though, so I had one of the Unit 4
leaders fire them up with screams for revenge. Now, they had the choice to
either return fire or charge. Tactically, returning fire was probably smarter,
but they were pissed off, so I rolled to see what they would do, and they took
out swords and axes and charged.
The guards fired crossbows again, this time 13 shots took
down 3 more bandits. 13 left, but 2 of these are 5th level leaders,
and they were pissed.
Borun easily identified the leaders from their shouted commands
and targeted one with Polymorph Other.
“Borun takes out a small caterpillar cocoon from his belt
pouch, he whispers the words “czoam, kallam noss beka”, five times over, moving
the cocoon to a different point in the air with each iteration, finally, he
holds the cocoon in between his cupped hands, blows on them, and opens them
again. The cocoon is gone, but a green and yellow smoke curls out and shoots in
the direction of Nogoth the Fist, the primary leader of Unit 4, the smoke
enters his mouth, and as he screams his body thrashes so violently it falls
from his horse, then his limbs begin to distort and twist, and with amazing
rapidity his form is changed from that of an adult Emberi (human) to that of a
small wild boar.
The bandits stared in horror. That required another
morale check, and this one failed. The remaining bandits peeled off and headed
back to their leader. The two leaders caught in the wall of fire were starting
to choke on the smoke, they both rolled saves to avoid asphyxiation.
So now Unit 6 and the remainder of Unit 4 have fled, Unit
7 is with the bandit leader, priest and warlock, Unit 1 is destroyed, it’s
leaders almost dead. Units 2 and 3 have sustained losses, and there are lancers
still under the effect of Cacophony of Lies, as well as a chunk of the
other mounted unit in a Stinking Cloud spell.
At this point, the party Slayer, who is a Garudin (bird
folk) flies up into the air and over towards the bandit leader. He surveys from
the air and sees the carnage that Borun has wrought, the fleeing bandits from
both the leader’s position and the caravan’s, as well as the unit approaching
from the rear of the party.
He calls out to the bandit leader.
“Your bandits broke and are fleeing, we have slain
dozens, is it worth so much death?”
Waymar, the bandit leader, had a decision to make. He had
lost one unit entirely, most of two others, including his precious lancers, and
he had done some damage to the caravan (about 10 guards dead so far), but it
was clear that this was going to be a tough fight, with heavy losses. One of
his personal henchmen blew on a horn three times, signalling for all units to
return. One of the fleeing units came back, another kept going, deciding they
had enough!
He decided to parley.
I rolled to see what Craight would do. As soon as the party Slayer started talking
Craight decided he would not trust Waymar to stick to his guns if he did agree
to parley, especially once his troops regrouped, so he told Mahl Unoss to use
his Wand again, and the Warlock took it out, tracing a pattern in the air with
its glowing end, speaking the command words just low enough that no one nearby
would hear.
I rolled to see what he got this time, and it was 3
manticores, they shrieked, then landed and surrounded Mahl Unoss. The bandit
leader, flanked by his remaining units, emerged from the woods, the Unit that
was sent to attack the party from behind was now gone and back with Waymar.
The two groups faced each other.
The leader from Unit 5 shouted to Waymar, “Nogoth the
Fist is transformed, he squeals as a young, wild boar now, let us slay them
all!”
Waymar barked a response, “SILENCE”, and turned to the
party and Craight, pointing at the figure beside him, sheathed in bright blue
flames.
“You place me in a bind strangers, my priestess, Pyringa
the Coal, who burns bright beside me even now, burns for your blood, she is a
priestess of Iospha, god of the pyre, you used your debased magic fire to burn
our warriors, your continued existence is an affront to her god.”
He then pointed to a Togmu (frog-folk) figure who was
sitting atop a strange mount, it appeared to be a stag, its tail being rather lion-like, and its
legs ending in cloven hooves. Its head is that of a huge badger, but instead of
teeth it has sharp, jagged bony ridges. It’s fur was mottled and grotesque.
Dressed
in only a cloak and harness, the Togmu had a scimitar, several scroll tubes and
a pair of drums all within easy reach.
“Garmondgol the Reed
is my warlock, you have slain many of his friends today, and he begs me to
command him to summon a powerful creature to crush your men like insects.”
Craight
spoke up now, hand gripping his sword like a vise.
“My
warlock, Mahl Unoss the Puissant, has summoned three beasts to his side, they
will impale dozens of your warriors from afar and tear the heads off the others
when close. While they do that, he will use his magics to slay dozens more.”
The boys considered bantering with the guy but decided
against it.
The two groups carefully separated, with the party Slayer
staying in the air for a while as they separated, ensuring the bandits were not
in pursuit.
In a few game weeks I will roll to see if Pyringa the
Coal will leave the caravan at their next stop and take some bandits with her
to exact revenge on the party. But they don’t know that.
That's the stuff.
