Session 50: Battle Of The Iron Wood

 

PCs:

sir Korin Clubfoot, dwarf, F6

Dame Mia the elf, T5/MU4

sir Norbor the half-orc, F5

PARTY'S HENCHMEN:

Cleon, F4

Falhed, R1

Gravoldel, R1

Briu, T1

Vailbezal, I1

Larth, P1

Rhadum, R2

Jared, C1

Bierduth, C1

Zasti, MU1

Rotoris the elf, MU1

10 light horsemen

2 mounted crossbowmen

SESSION RECAP:

    The party starts preparing for the attack. The fact that a powerful magic user was part of the group that they were about to face was very worrisome. So they decide to use Mia's stealthiness as well as a potion of invisibility and a potion of undetectable poison that they had from previous adventures to take him out. The plan is to have an invisible Mia approach them when they prepare the meal of the day and poison the food that is intented for the magic user. Their prisoners informed them for the time that they usually eat and also for the fact that the wizard eats alone at his tower and one of his servants brings him his food.

    However, the group knew that some members of the party, like Larth the paladin, won't be eager to use poison. So, they ask him to stay where they are alongside the 2 mounted crossbowmen and guard their prisoners, awaiting for the party to face their enemies. He accepts and so the rest of the team head to the north, and after about an hour of travel they approach the area of the bandit's keep.

The left map shows the wider area with the green box being the keep and the right one represents he keep, with every square being 10 ft wide.

    The area was as described to them by their prisoners. The party hid behind a small hill, 40 yards away from their enemies' keep and Norbor carefully scouted by climbing it to see its exact location. Then, they put forth their plan, having Mia drink the invisibility potion and approach the area. 

    Every wall of the old keep had holes that were guarded by one guard, while some were cooking and about 30 of them were resting inside. She could see that some of them were on the tower, on the northwestern corner of the keep. She saw that in the south wall there was the bigger gap and invaded through here. She waited and after a few minutes she saw the door of the tower opening and a soldier arriving to demand the wizard's meal. When he took it, Mia filled it with poison as carefully as she could. The guard didn't seem to notice and she returned to the rest of the party.

    They decided to wait a few minutes and then approach under the cover of the trees to see what happened. If they were lucky enough and the magic user was dead, they would use the illusionist's powers to create a hologram of the huge silver dragon they encountered a few days before to terrorise their enemies and force them to flee. Then they would charge to destroy them.

The state of the party and the bandits before the party's assault

    The illusionist, Mia, Notoris and the 3 rangers waited in the western side, while Norbor and the rest of the cavalry, with Cleon and Korin by their side were waiting in the eastern side of the keep. The illusionist unleashed his magic and a terrible silver dragon appeared! From the 60 men of the bandits only 10 stayed on their post. Also the leader of the group and his 3 lieutenants didn't seem to panic. 50 guards however ran for their lives towards the east. Sadly for them, the cavalry of Norbor, Cleon and Korin was waiting and despite their smaller number, the element of surprise and the panic of the bandits lead to their doom.

The state of the battlefield after the dragon image appeared

    With them gone, Mia appeared out of the woods and with her spell put the 10 guards that stayed to sleep. She also used web and the 3 lieutenants were caught. Only the leader remained, who despite everything was ready to fight to the death. He was incircled by 5 enemies, the 3 rangers, Korin and Cleon and managed to wound all of them, killing Rhadum before finally fall too. Norbor and the cavalry finished off the webbed enemies and Mia killed the asleep ones. 

              The final part of the battle

    With that done, they carefully entered the tower. By using clairvoyance they saw a room upstairs with a dead body and treasure in the cellar. There many gems and silver coins as loot from the bandits' illegal activities and in the room of the magic user they found his dead body, his spellbook and a few items that appeared valuable. Korin decapitated him for good measure.

    Since their victory was now ensured and night began to fall, they decided to rest in the keep, hoping that Larth and the prisoners will be ok. A few hours before dawn however, a group of bandits approached the keep. Not wanting to give another battle, the used the cover of the night and the forest to abandon the keep. From a safe distance they saw the bandits enter the keep and taking control of it. They decided to make a big circle around it and head back to Larth and his men.

    Luckily enough Larth didn't meet these bandits and had an easy night. So with their prisoners and the dead body of Rhadum they head back to Verbobonc. After one day and a half of travelling, they reach the city. In here they pay the temple of St. Cuthbert to raise from the dead Rhadum! That was a move that their comrades were impressed by, increasing their trust.

    They also payed the price to identify the weapons and the armor of the high ranked enemies, as well as many objects they found on the magic users room. They were happy to learn that the weapons and the armor that they had were magical and that the magic user had a sling of the halfling and a wondrous figurine! They also brought with them the head of the wizard, who Mia realised from his spellbook could do spells of 5th level, who turned out to be Akarnum, a wanted wizard from Veluna, earning them a reward of 1000 gp!

LOOT AND KILLS:

Loot:

16 gems worth 3079 gp total

2000 sp

400 gp

wondrous figurine (silver raven)

sling of the halfling

Akarnum's spellbook

longsword +2

battleaxe +1

3 plate mail +1

Kills:

60 bandits

3 lieutenants

1 leader of the bandits

1 magic user

DECEASED PLAYER CHARACTERS:

Urikas the elf, F1/MU1, Readying 25, 576 CY, eaten by ghouls

Zyla the elf, C1, Readying 25, 576 CY, eaten by ghouls

Jack, F1, Readying 28, 576 CY, slain by the evil cleric named Lareth

Causticas the elf, F3/MU3, Goodmonth 14, 576 CY, burned alive by a red dragon

Yus, C1, Brewfest 6, 576 CY, Poisoned by a purple worm's sting

Trenaccatlo, F1, Ready'reat 27, 576 CY, devoured by a two-headed giant troll

Korin Clubfoot, F5, Flocktime 11, 577 CY, poisoned by giant centipedes / REVIVED

sir Norbor the half-orc, F5, Coldeven 7, 578 CY, poisoned by huge spiders / REVIVED

sir Norbor the half-orc, F5, Planting 8, 578 CY, poisoned by large spiders/ REVIVED

THOUGHTS AFTER THE SESSION:

    Another nice chainmaily session in this campaign! As usual, I divide the enemies in groups of 10 levels total and decide in what category they belong according to their armor. That was easy for the normal bandits since they were 1 level each, so every group of 10 guards was a normal chainmail figure of light armor troops (leather and shield). The leader (8 level) and the 3 lieutenants (4 level each) would be divided in two groups of armored troups(plate and shield), although for higher level enemies I just use normal ADnD combat rules. I combine the chainmail battlesystem to resolve what's happening for example when 30 enemies fight of 20 of the party's men and in the same time normal ADnD to figure out what two PCs do against some of the bandit's forces.

    Indeed I didn't need to. The fact that basically only the leader managed to give a fight made it easy for me. He was extremely strong and his magical weapons and armor made him very dangerous but in the end the party's numbers were far too greater.

    All that thanks to the party's amazing strategy! I love how they used a random encounter that happened a few sessions before to have the illusionist use phantasmal force to such a devastating effect! It's great how every little random detail falls into line and can be used as an advantage by the players! Big shout-out to Norbor's player who came up with the idea, whose blog you can find here btw!

    I also was troubled about the fact that the hirelings were used as henchmen. I agreed to it because they were really close to their enemies and it would be strange if they left the party alone in this, but they asked for more reward and took all the silver coins! Not bad for simple hirelings! I also counted them as heavy horsemen. This was too much I think because they had leather armor but I took into account the fact that Norbor, their leader in this fight, was heavily armored and his horse was barded as well!

    It was also a very risky move by using Mia to poison the magic user. She was lucky because despite the invisibility I had the player roll a d100 and in a 10 or lower the guard could sense that something is up. She succeeded twice, as well as when she poisoned the food. I also had rolled the chance to have someone else taste the food before the magic user (which it didn't happen) and of course he failed his saving throw. And we shouldn't forget that I roll the invisibility potion duration in secret, so Mia couldn't know how much time she had. She took however two doses, to make sure that she had enough in case the plan demaned a few more minutes. This lucky bet combined with their amazing surprise tactic, lead to one more victory!

    They forgot of course about Larth but luckily for him he had no random encounters. Also most of their henchmen have increaded loyalty now! Of course Cleon is now fanatically devoted to the party, after so many years of service, but the other are approaching that level as well!

    So it all worked out fine in the end! The golden anniversary of the campaign was a truly amazing session and we are looking forward for the next! Let's see what the party will do then!!!