Leaving Zel and Rikkit to rest in the bloodstained ogre cave, the rest of the party headed back to explore the underground dwarven trade road. After following it for two days, they reached its end: a door disguised as the face of a cliff. It opened into a trackless forest north of the Frostspines, a favourite haunt of bandits and savage tribesmen. Chernyx returned to report their findings to Zel and Rikkit while Monty, Sigrid, Daphne, and Kat sought out Castle Drenn, Castle Morbis' sister castle, now long occupied by the barbarians. They were soon ambushed by a sizable group of bandits and, after struggling against the bandits' nets for a few rounds, agreed to throw down their weapons and come with them.
They were led, bound and blindfolded, into the palisaded camp of Helga Manarms, one of the two main bandit leaders of the region who made frequent raids against Castle Morbis. After a bit of light questioning, Kat revealed that the party had come here via a secret underground pass through the mountains and, against the protestations of her companions, she agreed to show the bandits the secret entrance. When she returned, Helga gave the party an ultimatum. Apparently, Helga's camp was in much disarray due to a recent raid by Uli Blackeye - her rival - whose newfound strength came in the form of an alliance with goblins. Some of Helga's best men, including her halfling lover LaFontaine, had run off with Uli's forces (Though Helga, in denial, insisted they had been kidnapped). Helga told the party that they must scout out Uli's camp and report back to her or they would never see their wealth and possessions again. This was more than enough motivation for the party - especially Sigrid, who had over 50% of the 10,000 gp she needed to resurrect Sir Hardrig, the fallen object of her affections.
They were given an escort of two bandit woodsmen named Dave and Chorn (thanks to some quick banter amongst our gaming group, we soon learned that their last names were Matthews and Cowder). Two nights into their excursion, they were ambushed by scouts from Uli Blackeye's camp. The party fought well alongside Chorn and Dave, although an excellently rolled critical fumble from Monty (attack hits nearest ally and threatens a critical) resulted in his throwing axe slicing off Dave Matthew's cheek. The band captured the one survivor of the fight and obtained from him the location of Uli's camp: Barrow Lake, in the foothills to the west.
As they proceeded through the woods, the party stumbled upon a familiar figure: the barbarian/oracle Crowdance, last seen when the party fought their way into a ruined castle occupied by hobgoblins and kobolds. Crowdance had wandered here in a fever dream, having failed to shake off the filth fever he contracted from the fight with the otyugh in the castle moat. Having received an oracular premonition that he would die of this wasting disease (seriously, I have never seen so many natural 1s rolled on so many different dice as when Crowdance was making Fortitude saves against this disease), he decided to go down fighting and rushed at Monty, who cut him down with tears in his eyes. (The party later came back for a finger bone to reincarnate him with).
Another day or two saw the party reach Barrow Lake, an icy-blue jewel set amidst a field of ancient burial mounds. They tried to make a foray inward at night, but ran into a couple sentries stationed atop a cairn. The party quickly slaughtered the sentries and beat a hasty retreat all the way back to Helga's camp.
Guy de la Rue, the seasoned mercenary that briefly joined the party in part 5, now found himself employed in Uli's camp. After the uproar of the incursion that night, he set off to parlay with Helga and broker some sort of peace deal. When he arrived at Helga's camp, he found his one-time adventuring companions fighting for their lives against Helga's band of crack archers (Helga having betrayed the party after they fulfilled their end of the bargain). He quickly drew his daggers and leapt into the fray.
The party fought their way into the camp, standing off against hordes of bandit archers and the bandit elites (Ranger 4, favoured enemy: human). Sigrid slew Chorn Cowder while Monty chased down and axed Dave Matthews. They all fought their way to Helga's pavilion, where Helga burst out and struck at them with her bastard sword 'Death Fang,' leaping and cutting at the surrounding party while a tribal shaman concealed within the pavilion reached out and healed her. Soon, Monty struck her a serious blow, leaving the bandit leader swaying on her feet until Sigrid finished her off with Grave Sealer. The shaman fled the camp along with the rest of the surviving bandits and tribesmen.
The party found their treasure - along with Helga's personal stash - in a chest buried 2 feet under another (mostly empty) chest.
The party then returned through the secret pass to Castle Morbis, meeting up with Zel, Rikkit, and Chernyx before going to claim their reward for finding the pass, killing Helga Manarms, and obtaining many bandit scalps. The guard captain sent them back out with 20 castle men-at-arms to verify the truth of the secret pass and to attack the camp of Uli Blackeye.
When they reached Barrow Lake, they saw sentries posted on top of two barrows. Monty and Cameo rushed in to attack them, only to find straw-stuffed dummies, at which point two goblin alchemists broke out of their invisibility and bathed the barrows in flame.
The barrow lands suddenly came alive: bandits and goblins rushed out of the cairns, grass-cloaked bandit elites rose up from the tops of the barrows, and battle was met. Monty, now with an armour class of 28 thanks to enchanted armour, went from barrow to barrow cleaving through its defenders with his lucerne hammer. Sigrid rode around the battle field cutting goblins and bandits down from horseback. Rikkit arced gouts of flame from one bandit to the next while Daphne and Kat used bow and whip to pick at a cluster of bandits. Zel half-heartedly fended off a single pathetic goblin while concentrating on calling down lightning and directing her roc and two summoned animals (a crocodile and a giant spider).
Soon, Uli emerged from his great barrow, dressed in shadowed leather armour and bearing a falcata and a kukri with which to make deadly whirlwind strikes. He was flanked by a sorcerer and the halfling bard LaFontaine, and preceded by a bodyguard of four half-orc barbarians. They immediately set upon the nearest threat: the enlarged, armoured hulk of a dwarf cutting a bloody swath through their bandit forces. The four barbarians encircled Monty and cut at him, dealing several blows with their greataxes, while the sorcerer and bard targeted him with a scroll of reduce person and a charm person spell, respectively. The dwarf shrugged off the magic attacks and cleaved into the half-orcs with Orc-Gutter.
As Sigrid charged Uli's sorcerer, Uli leapt out with a spring attack and struck her with his falcata before springing away again unharmed. Kat then used pilfering hand to steal Uli's falcata right out of his hand and ran off with it, leaving him with a less-powerful kukri as his main weapon. Sigrid cut both the sorcerer and the bard down while Rikkit and Monty finished off the half-orcs. Uli soon found enemies bearing down on him, so he activated his decoy ring; four Ulis ran off in different directions, and the party split to pursue each of them. When all the Ulis were revealed to be illusory, the real Uli broke his invisibility and hit Kat with a sneak attack, hoping to regain his falcata. The dispersed party soon reformed on Uli, who vowed to go down fighting rather than be taken alive. His wish was granted.
Amongst his papers, the party found a letter to Uli from Blackhide, goblin chieftain and arch-enemy of Rikkit. In the letter, Blackhide urged his ally Uli to move camps now that Helga's forces apparently knew its location, informed Uli of his most recent move to a mountain called "Grothmagog" in the goblin tongue, and made reference to "our new secret weapon and ally."
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I have described two large pitched battles in this update. Pitched battles are challenging to put together and to run, so I thought I might go over my methods here for your benefit.
When I prepare for a pitched battle, I first determine what "units" I will use: in the case of the battle at Helga's Camp, I used 10 bandit archers (CR1), 8 bandit elites including Chorn and Dave (CR3), a shaman (CR5) and Helga herself (CR6); at Uli's camp, I had 8 bandit archers, 6 bandit elites, 4 half-orc barbarians (CR2, though they should really probably be CR3), 4 goblin warriors (CR1), 2 goblin alchemists (CR3), a sorcerer (CR3), a bard (CR5), and Uli himself (CR6). I like to try out a couple of the units against the players in other contexts first to gauge their power, see how the players react to them, and let the players learn their tricks. Some, like the goblin alchemists, I keep as a surprise (though now that they've encountered them in this battle, they may be more prepared for them in possible future encounters...).
I try to make sure that the units represent a wide variety of fighting styles that present unique threats and make the battle interesting instead of just a monotonous slog:
- Having a lot of low-level threats (bandit archers, goblin warriors) helps create a sense of danger and a "fight against the odds." They don't pose much of a threat individually, but their numbers ensure that you'll get a hit or two every couple turns, plus they prevent the party from rushing right to the elite troops and the big bad guys. As for loot, they should have mundane weapons and armour, a bit of gold, and maybe 10% of them have a potion.
- Elite troops like the bandit elites and the half-orc barbarians hit hard and/or are hard to hit. The elites are human-hunting rangers with composite longbows and battleaxes, ensuring they can pack a punch at range or in melee. The half-orcs are easy to hit, but they hit hard and they stay up for a long time, especially with the half-orc ferocity ability which lets them stay up for a round after being dropped below zero. Elite troops should be less powerful than the party, but still a threat. They should be deployed in numbers that make the fight challenging but not overwhelming - usually, there should be more of them than there are party members, but fewer than twice the party. These guys will usually have masterwork weapons and armour, a fair bit of gold, and maybe a potion or two.
- Unique threats like the shaman, the bard, the sorcerer, and the goblin alchemists are used to switch things up a bit. They should bring their powers to bear in a way that makes their presence known as a threat to the party, but having tons of them would just get boring and/or overpowering, and slow things down. Often, these units will be spellcasters, who can change the nature of the battlefield or throw a wrench into the party's strategy. These guys definitely have masterwork items and probably have magic items, including a few potions and scrolls.
- The leader should be a real challenge, usually a PC class one to two levels above the average party level. I roll up the leader the same way I let the party roll up their own characters. I select their feats and magic items to make give them a distinct fighting style and make them a real and memorable threat to the party. Helga, for instance, fought with a bastard sword and a spiked shield. Uli used a +1 falcata and kukri, and had feats such as Spring Attack and Whirlwind Strike to make him a dynamic opponent whether facing a single PC or a group of them. The leaders should stay in reserve for the first half of the battle, both to ensure that they aren't prematurely killed by powerful spells and to keep the party from rushing straight at him and getting surrounded and killed by the whole bad guy army. They should have some interesting magic items that both help them in battle and could help the party as valuable loot, some potions to keep the fight going, and a sizable chunk of gold.
For the battle itself, definitely map it out. Otherwise, you will forget how many of what kind of troops are where. I like to use distinctly different dice to represent the different troop types on the map. The party, or course, is represented with Lego.
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| Sigrid and Crowdance on horseback; Chernyx, Pascal the monkey, and Cameo the Roc in back row; Kat, Daphne, Monty, Zel, and Guy in the main row; Rikkit (non-Lego) in front. |
Another thing to keep in mind for pitched battles, as with all encounters, is to switch up the environment to keep things interesting. The Helga camp battle had tents and spiked wooden palisades breaking up the battleground, the Uli camp had barrows and a frozen lake shore.
The most important thing to remember about pitched battles, though, is that they get exhausting. A pitched battle should be pretty much the only fight for the party that day. Think of a pitched battle as an entire dungeon in one encounter. Also, if your campaign is just a string of pitched battles, your players will soon tire of it.
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-your rank-and-file d20 despot
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