Sandbox Campaign, Week 2: Assault on a Fortified Position

This is part two of my ongoing sandbox campaign, now meeting twice weekly when possible.  Click here to read the first part or refresh yourself on the cast of characters.  

The session began with the party on the run, headed north to Castle Morbis in search of a healer to remove the ghoul fever from Monty the dwarf fighter and Cameo the roc (general consensus is that a roc ghoul would be terrifying).  They traveled all night, then realized what a bad idea it was to exhaust yourself in a dangerous forest and slept in the daytime.  Upon returning to the road, they discovered a riderless warhorse, saddled and in plate barding armor, with blood on his flanks.  They calmed the horse and determined that the horse was uninjured and thus the blood must be someone else's.  In the saddle bag, they discovered a map showing a route through the forest to a big X.



The party continued toward Castle Morbis, but both Monty and Cameo had successfully shaken off their ghoulish affliction, and so when they encountered the first landmark on the map, they decided to pursue the big X.  Venturing deep into the Shatterwald, they discovered a number of signs of former habitation before reaching the map's X, which turned out the be a ruined castle; a square keep bound on all sides by outer walls with round turrets.  The PCs approached from the front, where the gatehouse stood open.  The drawbridge, slightly rotten, was down over the murky, brackish moat.  The tower to the left had crumbled a bit, dropping large stones into the moat and leaving a large gash in the tower, with about 10 ft. of intact wall above the water level.  The castle gave no signs of being inhabited, so Monty and Kat went down to try to gain entry through the broken tower.  As they hopped across the stones, however, a tentacle rose out of the water and tried to grab Monty.  The rest of the party rushed in to help the fighter and the bard fight off what turned out to be an otyugh.

source

Fortunately, the otyugh missed with all of its attacks for the first three turns of combat, giving the rest of the party time to move in for the fight and deal a couple wounds to the filth-loving creature.  Crow Dance decided to vault off his horse and land lance-first on the otyugh, but he rolled a '2' and ended up sinking into the murky depths of the moat.  The otyugh, sensing easier prey, latched on to the sinking, raging barbarian and began thrashing about in the water, and the rest of the party was able to finish off the terrible aberration.

After encountering the moat monster, the party decided to try the front door.  Wary of the rotting drawbridge, Sigurd spurred his horse and leaped into the gatehouse, where he was immediately struck by four spears thrust from hidden arrow slits in either wall.  The inner gate, blocking the path between the gatehouse and the castle, was tantalizingly half-broken, so other party members rushed in to help break it down the rest of the way.  Unfortunately, they were met by boiling water poured from murder holes in the gatehouse ceiling.  Kat used her bardic performance to fascinate all four creatures who were stabbing through the arrow slits, and the party broke through the door only to be faced with a series of palisades designed to funnel them in to a killing gauntlet of... kobolds.

The party rushed in and assailed the yipping pack of kobolds, though going was slow due to the palisades, and anyone who ventured out of the palisades found themselves under fire from arrows fired from the second floor of the keep.  Crow Dance vaulted from his saddle over the palisade and found that the kobolds were led by a hobgoblin.  After clearing out the creatures in the courtyard, taking arrow fire all the while, the party split.  At this point, Rikkit, who had until now been busy trying to fin his cat familiar, caught up with the party and joined the fight.  Monty went west and took out two of the kobolds which had been stabbing through the gatehouse.  Zel, Daphne, and Sigurd went east to do the same, but Rikkit - having just noticed the kobolds stabbing through the arrow slits - cast colour spray through the slit, knocking out everyone in the room but Sigurd, who then delivered a coup de grâce to both kobolds.

Monty and Rikkit then climbed onto the western parapets and investigated the broken tower, opening the door to reveal a bruised and bloody man locked in a stout wooden cage suspended over the shattered floor, and a single hobgoblin guarding him.  Rikkit hit Monty with enlarge person, and Monty consequently had serious trouble trying to get through the door to attack the hobgoblin.  Rikkit, at Monty's urging, ducked between his legs and tried to tumble past the hobgoblin, but was felled by an attack of opportunity.  Monty finally killed the hobgoblin and made it through the door.  The enlarged dwarf then pulled the cage to safety and freed the prisoned as the rest of the party arrived.

The prisoner introduced himself as Sir Hardrig of Whitemouth, a knight who had purchased a map from a barkeep in Castle Morbis who promised that it would lead to a keep full of treasure guarded by an evil wyrm.  Unfortunately, when Sir Hardrig and his retinue arrived here, they were ambushed by hobgoblins and kobolds, and his retinue of squires and men-at-arms was slaughtered while he was badly beaten and kept for ransom.  Zel healed Rikkit and Crow Dance healed Hardrig and gave him the black cloak and masterwork quarterstaff of the necromancer.  Sigurd, starstruck at meeting a real knight, also gave him a morningstar and offered to squire for him.

They moved out onto the parapet and prepared to assault the northwest tower, but the door flew open and a kobold sorcerer cast sleep on Monty, who easily shook it off much to the chagrin of the tower full of kobolds.  When Monty rushed in, he discovered that there were also two hobgoblins flanking the door and ready to strike any who entered.  In the ensuing fight, more critical hits and fumbles occurred than in the whole game up to this point.  Monty was reduced to three hit points by a critical attack of opportunity from one of the hobgoblins, who then went on to shatter his own sword against a doorframe and get surrounded by party members.  Sigurd, Rikkit, and Sir Hardrig sought to outflank the tower by climbing down into the courtyard and then up onto the north wall to approach the tower from that direction, but the ground floor of the tower opened to reveal a pack of wild dogs and their hobgoblin archer master.  Crow Dance took care of the dogs by dumping a backpack full of venison over the wall, allowing Rikkit to make it into the tower, urged on by his enthusiastic party members.  Unfortunately, Rikkit was once again felled, this time by a wounded kobold.

Cameo flew into the lower floor of the tower and began clawing at the hobgoblin dog-trainer.  Monty was finally taken down by the last kobold, who then attempted to hop over the staircase to attack Daphne, but ended up falling down the stairs with a natural 1.  Crow Dance then leapt down the stairs and landed peg-leg first on the prone kobold, ending the fight.

~~~

I've started using a planner with my game to keep track of what day it is in the campaign.  That way, I can keep track of how long players have been traveling or resting, when diseases take effect, what the weather should be like, when it will be a full moon (and thus when lycanthropes appear on the random encounter tables), etc.  It also lets me set pre-determined events, like holidays, birthdays, celestial occurrences, or any sort of time-sensitive plot device.  I take a brief note of the day's happenings as the game progresses, too, so I can look back and remind the players how long it has been since X event.

I certainly can't take credit for this idea, but I heartily recommend it to GMs running a campaign like this.

-your fortified d20 despot