Kill Them All

From DQWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search

Return to Scribe notes

Summary

Adventure: Kill Them All
GM: Ian Wood
Session: Spring 813
Night: Tuesdays starting at 7:00pm
Location 37 Horotutu Rd, One Tree Hill
Level: High Level+.
Rules: Opposed Rolling Combat; E&E playtest

PCs with a positive, results oriented approach. Who will get stuck in, slay to the left and slaughter to the right.
Most will be high, although Medium with good strike chances and defence will be welcome, as would buff-mages. And a Healer or two. Hem hem.
The opposition are likely to be craven, weak, easily dispatched and generally pathetic.
Unless someone reinforces them, or gets them food.

The Party

Employer & others

  • Marquessa Dulciena de Bowcourt wants her March cleansed of the filth and vermin that are harming her people.
  • Tricky Dicky may wish otherwise, so watch your back, flanks, and probably people in front of you too.

Job

To travel the length and width of Bowcourt ridding the land of foul creatures and protecting the people. It is expected that rapid travel, shock and awe assaults and a focus on causing as much destruction to the enemy as possible in as short as time as possible will force the invaders to seek their havens (or at least find another way to Alfheim but hush, that is impolitic).

Stand firm and break the waves of stench that will try to swarm over you, Smite the enemy, Swing your mighty Swords, Cleanse the land and enjoy yourselves.

Payment

Favour, Land, Marriage, a Rare Artifact or two.
Free Resurrections!

Scribe Notes

Brief and Blitz

Duesday 1st Thaw

We meet and introduce ourselves then get our mission brief from a representative of the Marquessa - a dandy from an old Bowcourt family (name?). They want the whole invasion moved out of Bowcourt but they'll settle for accurate intelligence on troop positions and intentions. He has some resources to offer us, including special Guild Healing potions from some reserve they haven't told us about.

First up we fly to Slippery Rock for restoratives and so I can give Wordsmith instruction on flying my ship. The witches have been stocking up which is a good thing as we make a significant dent in their supply.

I have a couple of things to drop off to Blitz so after casting spells in my Enhance (a relic from my E&E days) we fly towards Blitz's camp. We're most of the way there when something hits the ship at 40,000 feet, I grab at it but only catch the goblin, his rock falls away. The Goblin starts turning blue so I pass him into the cabin for questioning. He mentions something about Lord Verenthos(?) of ? having powerful allies before the hatch closes, then a brief knife fight (Eltan has familiarity with Goblin Etiquette) and conversation follows. The goblin was ordered from his tribe in Terra Nova by a Sergeant, attached to a rock then thrown a long way until he hit us.

As we drop down to pick out landmarks and identify the village below us, a big dark leathery winged thing with an armoured rider approach and get within range a few thousand feet up, the rider has spiky Drow style armour, so I roust the troops, grab a ranged weapon and fire away, fortune is with us as I strike twice and the fire lance doesn't even explode on me, the Drow throws some Enchantments back at me, the Nazgûl-bird thing drops from the Air, Wordsmith brings us down after it, the bird falls to pull out and impacts, hopefully its thrashing is death throes. The Drow gracefully dismounted at 100' and is now feather falling, our front line now has Phoenix Wings on so we charge, taking turns to strike the Drow who starts flying too and strikes back at us, the fight takes time then we spot a dozen more fliers in-bound, and they don't look friendly, I order the evac and distract the Drow for while, testing out his paralysis effect before flying up to join the party in our tactical retreat.

Going high to lose the company we then drop down on the township that Blitz is camped near, we land the ship, leave it with guards and acquire a kid to guide us to the command tents.

We start briefing Blitzkrieg but he's a bit down and a whiner, odd, applying my extensive training in such delicate matters, I try slapping him out of it which seems to be working, then the real Blitz turns up and sends his double away. We share a beer, news, and I hand over a couple of trinkets to help with the war.

Blitz mentions there's a camp of about 300 Drow plus minions south of his position, the Void Wolves are due to hit them in three days, are we available to help take them out before we head back into the softer eastern side of the ice road? Hell yeah!

We settle into the camp and I spend some time repairing my armour.

Scouting - Guild Style

W'ansday 2nd Thaw

I spend most of the day with in the forges, repairing armour. The others escort our small company (300 archers and 200 men at arms) down to meet the Void Wolves and set up temporary fortifications a few miles west of the Drow camp.

They find the magic in the land is odd, mana is high in one spot then low in the next and what's high for one person is low for the next.

A night of revelry or rest before battle to suit personal taste.

Th'rsday 3rd Thaw

We're going scouting to test the Drow perimeter and their response time.

Ben ignites the Fire Running and we charge in from the west with our feet on fire, a Drow and Nazgûl-bird (a different one) swoop out of the low clouds about 1/4 mile from the river bordering their camp, his terrifying primal scream of terror alerts us to his approach. I take the wind from beneath his wings and he drops at our feet, using the first charge of complete heal to mostly recover. Wordsmith prepares fell magic; Thorn, Ben and I charge the Nazgûl-bird; Eltan and Turf charge the Drow, taking him out of his saddle to engage him down behind his bird. We smite them mightily and have them on their last legs then they trigger the second complete heal - some sort of Rune magic stored in a container attached to the saddle, it also drains a couple of us that fail to resist. Reinforcements riding giant lizards surge out of the river and charge towards us, we've got plenty of time... then the Drow blows his horn to summon them faster, we now have less than a minute. More smiting then the fight turns, Wordsmith lays down mighty magic to stop them using our loot healing themselves and avoiding the damage, Turf and Eltan stun the Drow and take him down before he recovers, Turf making sure of the kill before Eltan can protest, I carve the Animal Growth off the bird and it drops to 8' tall, we bring it down before it can flee.

We now have about 30 seconds until the cavalry arrive.

Charge of the Lizard Brigade

The party braced to face the charging lizard cavalry and a deadly fight ensued. Grievous blows were taken by both sides, with decapitated heads flying in all directions. The cavalry were routed with the party taking captive a number of riders and mounts. With the aid of the garrison the prisons were taken to the fort, with the next few hours spent interrogating and divinating.

Recruiting the Enemy

Back at camp we spend the afternoon making repairs. The prisoners aren't able to tell us much nor negotiate so Thorn resurrects the leader (Archem) and we negotiate with him and eventually hire him and his troop. Turf and Eltan arrange some sort of time share of the 100 Lizard Warriors in return for Turf's land and Eltan's cash.

Early in the evening we approach the camp again. The Bat-Monkeys have a go at us but we shoot several of them from the sky and the rest keep their distance after that. The rest of the party stops about 1 mile out and fortifies the position while I approach closer to call for their surrender.

They indicate their desire to continue fighting by firing a couple of anti-magical siege weapons at me.

Then when I start flying back towards the others on my barely functioning wings then send the Lizard cavalry out to exact some revenge for their fallen comrades - exactly as we hoped. Once the Cavalry was close enough, Archem dropped his invisibility and I drew the other troops to where they could see him. A bit of negotiation later and we have most of 100 Lizard cavalry though they won't fight against the Drow in this battle.

Frysday 4th Thaw

The next morning as we're preparing to bait the Drow again we receive word that they are starting to march out to the north.

Into the 300 rode the wedge of death

Turf conjures up some fire steeds, we allocate lances and charge to engage the enemy while the Wolves move their howling anti-magic circle towards the Drow camp.

First strike is against their scouts, six lizard-centaur like creatures with crossbows and lances are patrolling west of the column, we charge. The flurry of snow and blood clears, we leave 5 corpses with large holes torn through them and an unhappy giant turtle. About thirty small snow burrowing things approach and interpose themselves between us and the Drow at the head of the column, a lucky arrow kills one and we see tentacles exposed in its death throes.

Second strike is against another group of scouts, twelve of them come to engage us, 11 corpses and a small turtle are left behind.

Third strike is against the rear of their column. More lizards, raptor like with nasty looking claws. We make a glancing charge and kill the rear-most five, escaping unscratched and leaving a couple of them with extreme phobias to further disrupt their comrades. As we hoped thirty of them break from the formation and charge after us, we lead them away from reinforcements then turn and charge. Maintaining our disciplined charges, it takes nearly a minute before they are all dead. Thorn was mauled by a lucky hit, the tips of the claws breaking off in her torso and working their way deeper before she cut them out.

Fourth strike, feinting another glancing strike at their rear, we steady up and go straight into their column, killing and disrupting our way through half of their army then sweeping away just before we come in range of the Drow mages.

They stop trying to advance to the north, it seems we have annoyed them. Continuing to feint and snipe we don't kill as many but gradually lead them south.

An hour later we are getting too close to their forest camp and change to hitting them harder from the east and west, still refusing to engage the Drow directly.

A bit more of this and hopefully the Drow will fall back to their camp to turn their siege weapons on us at which point the Void Wolves will be rewarded for their patience in working their way into the Drow camp from the south.

Starting our mission

We do eventually encourage the core of the Drow army to retreat back to their camp, by the time we get there the Wolves and our auxiliaries have dealt to them.

We pick through the camp a bit but the Wolves seem to have accidentally destroyed all of the interesting magical stuff. Going back to where we hit the column we pick up a few bits and pieces and some interesting GTNs.

Reapsday 5th Thaw

We make our way back to Blitzkrieg's main camp, repair armour, heal, divine, and rest a bit.

Sunday 6th Thaw

Flying high, we cross over the ice road and come down near Bowcourt. We evict some Orcs from a barn at an abandoned farm and hide the ship there before we ride into Bowcourt.

Some issues with guards but eventually we talk to the right people to find out where the Marquessa would like us to strike first. But plans have changed, some clever mages have come up with a grand ritual to protect Bowcourt, we are to escort them to the river and keep them alive and uninterrupted long enough to complete the ritual.

Moonday 7th Thaw

We cruelly drag the mages out of their beds before midday and load them on the wagons, once we're out of town a couple of them start casting and we find we're moving faster and there's less grumbling from the wagons. Some sort of Earth equivalent of Mage Current is moving us along and the wagons are now somewhat larger on the inside and contain luxurious couches, drinks, snacks and the other necessities for roughing it on the road.

Minor issues with bandits and locals trying to charge tolls.

That night they use similar magics on their tents, we demand that Eltan learn these spells asap.

Duesday 8th Thaw

We arrive at the hill where they want to do their ritual and set up camp.

The Ritual

W'nsday 9th - Duesday 22nd Thaw

The mages start doing their ritual, we set up some defensive works, clear lines of fire, scout and ask questions of the mages.

The mages are putting various magics into a magical border along the western edge of Bowcourt, the party has some items they contribute to the protections.

We find a village not far away where the inhabitants are mostly mad, assaulted by some sort of horror from the Drow army. They beserkly attack, we meet them in favourable terrain, take them out as they come to us and try to restore enlightenment and apply some healing. Enough of them recover to look after the others and we send them east.

Raid and Ambush

About half way through the ritual a Drow force comes for us, we ride out to meet them and set an ambush. In a brutal fight we kill a lot of them but their leaders carried on while they left their grunts to deal to us. Injured and rapidly patching ourselves up we give chase, fortunately our fire steeds are faster and we manage to run them off before they get to the mages.

W'nsday 23rd - Th'rsday 24th Thaw

Packing up we take the wagons back to Bowcourt. The mages are exhausted and tell us they have permanently lost most of the abilities they contributed to the ritual.

Frysday 25th Thaw

Debrief and our payment is organised.

Reapsday 26th Thaw

We fly back to Seagate.

Calendar

Spring: Thaw (10) 813wk
Moonday Duesday W'ansday Th'rsday Frysday Reapsday Sunday
Candlemansa 1 Guild Meeting

Seagate, Slippery Rock, Blitz' Camp

2 Scouting, Lizard Cavaly 3 B. Camp 4 Attack on the Enemy Column 5 B. Camp Heal & Repair 6 Fly to Bowcourt
7 Wagons Westward 8 Westward 9 Ritual begins 10 ... 11 ... 12 ... 13 ...
14 ... 15 ... 16 ... 17 ... 18 ... 19 ... 20 ...
21 ... 22 Ritual Completed 23 Wagons East 24 ..to Bowcourt 25 Bowcourt 26 Fly back to Seagate 27
Spring: Seedtime (11)
28 29 30 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 Rites of Thunor 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 Equinox 16 17 Eostre 18 Seagate Spring Ball
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 1 2
Spring: Blossom (12)
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 Floralia 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Walpurgisnacht

Information

Drow Forces

Ballistic Goblins

Binder Adhered to a rock and launched from Terra Nova (according to the Goblin), somehow travelled extremely fast and survived the trip (specialised Binder Force Bubbles?) though Blitzkrieg reports that he has had reports of dead Goblins randomly dropping from the sky.

Drow Forces SoB

The Drow force positioned south of Blitzkrieg's main army, west of the Ice Road.

  • Nazgûl-birds - 2+
  • Monkey Bats - lots
  • Drow - currently about 20, there were lots more but they have recently gone elsewhere
  • Warriors - about 400
    • 100 Lizard cavalry
    • Dwarves
    • Orcs
    • Hobbits
    • Saurime
  • Followers, minions, slaves - about 1,500

Buffs on the Lizard cav.: Str of Stone, Trollskin, Witchsight

Nazgûl-bird

Big leathery black winged creature. Called a Nazgûl-bird until an Actual Namer gets its name. A fell beast ridden by a Drow E&E to control the skies above their armies.

The Drow rider was heavily armed and armoured, able to fly independently (Item-Cloak?), proficient with sword and shields. Several charged items to absorb attacks.

Special E&E Aura of Paralysis - every time we touched him or he touched us, Paralysis or resist for numbness for a pulse.

Lizard Cavalry

From the plane of Berko. Lizards are sentient (just) 2-hex carnivores. Mounted warriors good with Lance and sword. Mercenaries. Paid 1/2 pound of True Silver a season and promised land in the WK after they win.

Monkey Bats

Large flying bats with monkey arms, scouts, swoop and throw grenados.


Logistics

Buffs

Magic Rk Effects Dur Ar Be El Th Wo Tu P7
Strength of Stone (El) 15 +15 EN 16 hours Y Y Y Y Y
Armour of Earth (El) 20 +42% Def 1 DR 10.5 hours Y Y Y Y Y
Mind Shield (Th) 12 blocks mind reading & gives +34 vs Mental Attack 25 hrs Y Y Y Y Y
Mind Speech (Th) 80 mins Y Y Y Y Y
Force Shield (Th) 8 +13 def 90 minutes
Weapon of Flames (Wo) 16 +17%, +8damage (+16 vs. undead/cold/water) 21 minutes Y Y
Ash Armour (Be) 11 60 pt ablative vs elemental dmg 12 Hours Y Y Y Y Y
Branch Counterspells (Wo) 7/8 +51MR on a college on area, +27MR entities. +54/+28 Ent/Thau SK 12/13 min
Death Shield (Tu) Protects from Death magic 1 min
Aryan Mil Sci
Melee Only: +10IV +10SC +10Def +1 Pass Action at End of Pulse
Raise Morale +5 WP
Aryan - Morning Callisf Drill
+1 AG until dawn.

Mil Sci

Skirmish Formations Watches
Default

Ben Aryan Thorn Turf
Eltan Wordsmith

Double File

Aryan Turf
Eltan Wordsmith
Ben Thorn

Single File

Aryan
Turf
Thorn
Eltan
Wordsmith
Ben

4 Hrs per Watch

Thorn Eltan
Ben Turf
Aryan Wordsmith

Loot

  • 5 x 12 x 15pt HP (plus lingering healing)
  • Whispering Winds
  • Comm to garrison
  • Enhancements
  • 144 x Rk 8 Restoratives (10 EN for 20 FT) at 500sp each, 72,000sp.
  • Knowledge: Heart Rune Armour
  • Drow and Bird
    • Sword
    • Cloak
    • Belt with damage ablatives
    • Bird saddle with rune heal thing


  • Attack of the 16 lizard riders
    • Cloak of Awesomeness: Rust red cloak made of extremely fine wool, with broad shoulders: will go over any human sized armour, could be tailored once to fit a different size. Rank 20 Charismatic Aura (+30 on reaction rolls, stacks). Rank 20 Spell Barrier (rank 10 on your own spells). PR 10 against all magical damage.
    • Sword of Whisp: Shadowy grey long sword, can be used as a hand and half if strong enough. Feels icy cold. BC 60, DMG +12 (+4 cold), IV +10. EN damage of a Possible Specific Greivous is to actual EN (not magical EN).
    • 4 Green Cloaks: Mottled green cloak of spider silk. Protection D+5 to EN and FT physical damage (stacks with any non-magical armour). +15 stealth in green areas.
    • 7 Emerald Swords: Sabre BC 65, DMG +10. Level 4, 5 and 6 +5 (if >0).
    • 3 Lances of Yew: 30 feet long lances. SC 80.
    • 4 Shields of Yore: Knight shield, DEF +30 + 4/Rank. PROT 5. Can take a Specific Greivious, and explodes.
    • 8 Bracelets of Power: Attnues bearer to their mount, allowing instant and automatic control of the mount. Rider and mount share the same magical resistance.
    • 6 Plate mail armour: 1 x {Prot 12 FT, DEF +53}; 2 x {Prot 10 FT 2 EN, DEF +43}; 2 x {Prot 8 FT 4 EN, DEF +33}; 1 x {6 FT 6 EN, DEF +22}. Defence bonus does not stack with Defence spells which will override the defence of the armour. Enchanted armour allows mages to cast without penalty.
    • Cinch of Harmony: Allows the rider (wearing a Bracelet of Power) to take or give FT or EN from their mount.
    • Banner of Awe - +2 ranks in Mil Sci; +2 PC; May be used as a lance with SC 80%; May be set to float behind owner who is wearing a Garter of Thyme. Causes fear within 15 feet no more than once per minute.
    • Garter of Thyme - Leather garter worn on the upper calf, must be woven with fresh Thyme to be effective. Makes the wearer the 'owner' of the Banner of Awe.