Mondays are busy, and even though I had this one stashed away, I never got time to post and cleanup anything. And as we had the not particularly well-run battle last night, we can present this character who was at the battle, but when the tide turned, he and several of his gnolls turned tail and left to try again another day. Which I also need to present to the players as they were busy fighting the kobolds. There will be a brief game recap at the end of this post.
Last October we had our own challenge for October: an RPG thing a day. While in theory it was supposed to be fairly general (at least I thought that was the intent though others say it was specifically for this game so I will admit being confused as normal), we also put some effort into making things we could actually use. As one of the players is bringing a gnoll pack to attack Windemere Crossing at the behest of their god Yeenog. Obviously, this is going to happen as I even scheduled it on the calendar, had the Elf princess be seen as she and her guards went to the Silver Pirate in, and there have been two sightings of kobold scouts. Why kobold scouts? Because I misread the story! Why we have a kobold mage as a character as well in this challenge!
According to the Revenge of the Horde:
To a gnoll, clan is everything. Individuals may disagree, fight or even kill each other, but the good of the clan comes before all else.
They are scavengers through and through. The guidebook indicates that there are several types of gnolls: plains, gutter, rock gnolls. Thinking that the rock gnolls fit best for this area as the plains are far to the south (and east and west perhaps as I don't have a world map, so those areas are still "here there be dragons" waiting to be filled out as needed). Gutter gnolls are the city-dwelling gnolls.
Rock gnolls plan their attacks more thoroughly than other gnolls. They may also speak common languages and even do some trade. Windemere Crossing has not had any experience with gnolls in anyone's memory. Perhaps because their shaman has used magical disguises for their scouts.
Durva Blighthand is a gnoll Alpha. Their shaman Gougher Spliteyes speaks to their good Yeenog. Durva led the attack against the Elven enclave in the mountains, killing the Elf Lord. Leader of the Bitter Fields pack, he wears the Elf Lord's skull on his breastplate. A viscous hunter and often a cruel leader, he wants to expand the clan's reach. While his pack thinks of him as a king, he leads by example, and is at the forefront in the battles they wage.
Knowing that the Elf Queen is in Windemere Crossing, he wants to take over that town for the clan. It's tall walls and stout gates would protect the clan and trap those who live inside now. The pack is already moving, and he has information from his scouts that have been in the area for weeks now. These scouts look like kobolds, or dwarves, or other creatures thanks to the magic pendants Gougher Spliteye crafted from the skulls of those creatures and his magic.
Durva Brighthand Gnoll Alpha
STR 13 INT 11 WIS 10 DEX 12 CON 15 CHA 9
AC 15 (shield + natural armor) HP 32 Att 1 x weapon, heavy spear 1d6+2 MV 90 (30)
Part of a large warband when attacking Windemere Crossing, their main goal is to capture the Elf Queen and also to take over the village. However, there are now 3 squads of military people there (spearmen, archers and swordsmen) as well as a few town guards. I need to figure a good way to handle mass combat.
Regardless, the war party of gnolls will have Durva Brightand leading the group of at least two dozen gnolls.
Game Recap - The Battle of Windemere Crossing 28th Haelhold
Heading down the mountain, as they come into sight of Windemere Crossing, they see off in the distance a caravan leaving the trade town. The town seems quieter than normal, and the town guard, Anya Van Rynel directs them to the town hall, where an emergency meeting was taking place. Usman, a trader, was speaking to the town tribunal, with the military heads in attendance. He had barely survived an attack on the caravan by a group of gnolls, and only by the swift axe of Nasliope, the tall woman standing next to him but watching the even taller burgermiester carefully. They were planning to attack the town, in search of some Elven queen they had been following. Then the city bell began to ring, and the battle commenced.
While I had tried to plan for an exciting mass battle, it was not to be. The characters took to the east gate with the spearmen and defended the gate against the kobolds. They managed to keep them from the walls, with Quinby and Baldur cutting the ropes from the grappling hooks. The partially finished gate was being held close with the might of the spearmen until the kobold mage used a lightning bolt to destroy the gates. At that point, Krag took off, swinging his mighty sword. Quinby kept slinging stones at the increasingly irritated mage. And as normal, there was a lot of misses in there from all side. They group saw Lurbok coming up behind the mage, but he was stopped by two of his entourage. Baldur had leapt down from the wall and drove his spear right through the kobold. Enoki tried as well but landed off-center. There was a bit of battle there, with the spearmen usually missing, but at least the kobolds kept missing as well. After several rounds of missing the kobold guards, Lurbok did manage to actually hit and kill one of them but by then he had taken a lot of damage and was killed in next attack. Enoki has been running over there to help, and he did cast his spores. but the mage actually made his save, so there was no effect. He battled the two kobolds and managed to kill one, then landed the final blow on the mage that killed the kobold. There was a crowd of spearmen fighting kobolds with the characters, and while only 1 spearman died, the group finally managed to kill of the 20 or so kobolds. Rennor had joined the scrum by then but also repeatedly missed. Krag gave Rennor her father's sword, Orc Biter, as she wept quietly. Quinby is the proud owner of a magical robe that gives him an AC or 15. I'll have to write this up. Perhaps there will be a downside. He also tried to make friends with Aedel.
The other groups in the attack off-scene managed to fight off the small horde, losing 2 swordsman and 1 overly patriotic citizen. Lommarlum was severely wounded in the battle, and Baldur brought him back from the brink of death. Arrows have a pretty good shield against the gnolls who apparently had not thought through the walls with archers on top.
We wrapped up there. Owlbear rodeo worked pretty well - I had the big map of Windermere Crossing available but I also made a quick and dirty wall for the city for that particular scene.
 |
| Battle at East Gate |
In the end, most of the gnolls were killed, and there will be a bonfire outside of town. Lurbok's death will hit the town oddly: he was the stablemaster, and he died defending the town. But he was an Orc. His daughters (he has several) can take over the stables as they already did most of the work. Rennor is going to double down in training, getting used to her father's sword (which is a +2 sword for her, though oddly -2 against gnolls). As per Enoki, she wants to be a protector. Behing closed doors, the two Amazons have a lengthy discussion, resulting in the Burgermiester saying she will stay on until high summer but then has to leave. Nasliope is staying as her guard, though both women are big enough that few people want to mess with them. Under her cloak, sometimes a flash of metal can be seen as Paoatie starts wearing her armor again.
I'll write up a few things and present that at the next session. I am obviously getting tired, so someone else can run a game for a while. I am hoping they want to come back to this, but we'll see what they want to do later. But at least everyone leveled up!
NPCs Met
Usman - caravan master / merchant
Burgermeister Paoatie - Amazon
Lommarlum - Dwarf captain of the military group
Anya Van Rynevel - town guard
a lot of dead kobolds and one dead kobold
shaman2024 Challenge
No comments:
Post a Comment