Kill Them All

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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

• Aryan 6'2" male Human PB 15 - Stephen Mil Sci Scribe
• Wordsmith 3'9" male Dwarf PB 13 - Errol
• Eltan 2'6" male Hobbit-Rat PB 23 - Joe
• Thorn 5'6" female human 13 PB - Helen S.
• Ben 6'5" male shape-changer tiger PB 18 - Ian A Party Leader
• Turf male Elf - Terry

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.

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.