Campaign Journal: Breaking the Siege

Who's saddling up?

• Jax - Barbarian
• Fred - Dead Thief
• Rondel - Elf
• Fulvus - Halfling
• Various Mooks

We started with a bit of retcon as the party stepped from various sinking ships onto the two dwarven galleys. Well, except Fred, who was probably unceremoniously bundled along. 

At the end of the battle, Slick still had an active water breathing spell, so I had made up a D10 random treasure table of how much he grabbed before the sinking ship became too much of a deathtrap. They got a respectable pile of loot. 

The two ships sailed on to Chirath, then sat just out of catapult range as Rondel flew to the citadel guarding the harbor (somehow not getting shot). Some tense conversation with the guard captain, a few dropped names, and the city's Legate was summoned to meet with Rondel. The party has interacted with him in the past, and he was aware that they were out and about seeking resources. A cutter was dispatched to escort the dwarven ships in, and they entered the harbor under watchful eyes.

Like this, but full of dwarves.

There was animated discussion on whether the dwarves would be allowed off the ships...

By now, word of the ships' arrival had run through town, and the city's priest and librarian hustled to meet their counterparts who had arrived with the party.

To the business at hand. De-corpsifying Frederick. Well, that does take some time and effort and correct sacrifices and gifts and chanting and such. And we really need an addition to the temple. Ok, if we name it after Frederick and Rondel, since the party emptied Fred's pockets and Rondel put in most of the rest. And so the local temple now has the new "Frederick & Keebler" hospital wing.

Frederick was going to take some time to recover, once he was dragged back from the afterlife (where he witnessed forgotten gods panhandling for worshipers). In the meantime, the party caroused, of course. Property damage, taunts and boasts, feats of derring-do. The usual. The surviving ship's crew was discharged with substantial coin, except Geatio, who was kept on as a hireling because of his chiurgeon skills.

source

Once all were healed and over their hangovers, it was time to plan. The lenses had been secured in the city's main citadel under the watchful eyes of the Library Paladins. The Legate approached the party and let them know they would have aid, because this was a concern for the whole region, and much bigger than the party.

And so, they gained the escort of a company of archers and spearmen. Led by none other than Benedikt Silberbauer (and loyal squire Gerhard) on his flying carpet. And an increasingly bad German-Austrian accent. "Gerhard! Get to the carpet!" You know...

Grancet, Chief Librarian, and the two Library Paladins loaded up the lenses and a couple of iron-bound, locked tomes onto the party's wagon and stepped aboard. Off to Cobalt Lake with the entourage.

As the company snaked its way to the lake, the party discussed sending a messenger ahead (again a flying elf) to notify Queen Adra that a military force was approaching, but only the party and few people necessary to activate the lens would enter her domain.

Benedikt, scouting ahead, announced smoke from the lake settlement. Dammit.

Never mind the pleasantries. The party saddled up, followed by the Chirath forces double-timing under Benedikt's admonishments. 

Cobalt Lake's militia was hard-pressed by a larger Chaos force. Mutants clashed, supported by chimera and ogres. Various Chaos knights and mages contributed their own talents. 

Disturbingly, several lanky humanoids were spotted among the troops, vomiting on opposing forces, who suddenly sprouted mutations.

Somewhere, a horn sounded, and the newly mutated changed sides. DAMMIT.

The Chirath forces arrayed themselves and flanked. Benedikt shouted commands as he fended off a flying chimera. The party spread out, wading through the morass of combat to square off against the leaders. Battle was closed.

Things that happened: Lighting bolt against a vivimancer and their guards. Spores! Halflings attempting to gut a Damned Horse. Horse and knight getting webbed and curbstomped. Everyone getting suffocated by an insect swarm. Chimera and vomiting plaguebearers getting beat down by Jax and Goober. Rondel finally spotting another hidden vivimancer and magic missiling him to kingdom come. The remaining shattered Chaos forces fled.

Victory, at cost. About half of the Cobalt militia and Chirath forces had perished in the defense.

Queen Adra emerged from her place among her troops. Looked with distaste on the Chirath sigils on the supporting troops. Rondel quickly introduced her to Benedikt, and explained their presence. Benedikt introduced himself with the proper deference to royalty. Which went a long way. 

All hail the Queen

Adra looked over the ruins of the battle. Your assistance and timing is appreciated. But your machinations made us a target. Anyway, we have more pressing matters. Now is the time to mourn and heal. Come.

DM Notes:

Ok, we're in the home stretch. Build the barrier, connect some disparate factions, reveal the final challenges, bring the campaign home.

And it was fun and chaotic. I was hoping to have a mass combat system ready to try for this first "real" army battle, but ended up just doing opposing die rolls and some narrative to move the combat forward while the party members focused on their own objectives.  

The vomiting "Plaguebringers" were compliments of Steven Cook's Chaos Hordes. Also a callback to the Acroria knight who had amputated his own arm in response to some mutagen.

Damnit: I forgot Queen Adra also had a contingent of undead spiders. I need to start a spreadsheet of the various factions and their respective forces.

At this point, I have about six lightweight mass combat systems (plus considering revamping the mass combat system from Aftermath! for fantasy gaming. Because why not...). I need to figure out what will work best for us (and my limited personal mental computing power. Ha). I'll definitely share my conclusions once I find my preferred system.

In local news: Today (7/10), Dragonflight Gamecon opens up attendee signups for games. I'm running three Shadowdark and two OSE games over the weekend, plus happy to run a pickup game. So if you're local and want to experience my table chaos, I look forward to seeing you there.