BSSS - Session 12

 

 Summary

A side-story set a week before the previous session of characters heading out of the Undying City to figure out where the barbarians that keep attacking it are, what their deal is, and, hopefully, bringing back information about it before the big procession at the end of the week. Then a whole lot of murder happens. Characters

• Shimsusa the Archer - 2nd Level Fighter
• Sargira - 1st Level Psychomancer Sorceress
• Hazail - 1st Level Fighter

Session Recap

With the big procession for the beginning of the new year (and, unbeknownst to most people, for the transformation of everyone into the city into the Unliving) the authorities recruit a group of Scavengers, give them some muscle, and tell them to head north and figure out what is the deal with the barbarians that have spent the last month or so showing up outside the gates of the city, murdering everything that is caught outside the gates...then simply leaving. 

While the Undying City is quite used to Northern Barbarians trying to attack the city, especially so after it had aligned itself with a lord of Law, they have always been interested in actually attacking the city. These guys were clearly acting different, showing no desire to actually go inside (and at a horde of several hundred strong it is not beyond the realm possibility they might be able to do it too) or even besiege the city, simply leaving once they have left the fields outside its walls soaked in blood. 

Shimsusa the Archer, former mercenary and now full member of the Hedgehogs of Mercy company goes along with the expedition as both an "expert" and also to keep an eye out for what is actually going on.

The expedition had headed up the river, following the road, being almost certain that these barbarians were followers of the Sword God and so figured the best place to start looking would be his temple. They also suspected (quite rightfully) that they were probably being lead by their old acquaintance Conan. 

The trip following the road north is quiet and uneventful. After all, with these barbarians roaming the plains and seemingly coming out of nowhere, it's not exactly common to see many merchants around (plus the only large city up north was destroyed several months ago by strange heavily armored assailants). 

Eventually the party reached some ruins that the players were familiar with from an earlier expedition and decided to look around the place (having found signs of fires and camps in an earlier ruin along the road) and just settle in for the evening. As they were in the process of searching the ruins, they saw a great dust cloud approaching them and soon were greeted by a host of 45 Chariot Nomads, out looking for barbarians as well. Apparently the barbarians had assaulted one of their camps, inflicting heavy losses, so the Chariot Nomads were out for vengeance. The two groups agreed to cooperate, having a shared goal, and the party went back to their search. 

Among the remains of a brick tower (likely an old grain silo) they found a nest of some large and missing creature, and among the nest found a veritable treasure trove - expensive pelts, rare and valuable saplings, two strange potions, a map to a dungeon, a magical spear and a magic sword! Hazail the fighter picked it up, and learned that it's name is Ruin to All Cities, and the only thing it desired was to slay the forces of Law. An awkward predicament, considering the 135 Law-aligned warriors presently making camp for the evening on the other side of the ruins. With some discrete fenagling of keeping Hazail and his new sword away from that group, a plan was hatched for the next day.

The next day the whole host set out, first spotting and confirming that they had found the barbarian camp next to the river, right where the Temple of the Sword God was located. The chariots charged right through the camp, killing about a third of the barbarians in just one swoop, but as they wheeled around to charge a second time, the berserkers had managed to organize themselves and counter-charged, losing many in the process but being able to halt the charioteers and turning the entire thing into a horrible, bloody melee. 

Meanwhile the party was trying to approach the camp, when another 40 berserkers, led by a host of five champions and a large individual with a powerful magical aura about him, spotted them and charged them in turn. What proceeded was a running fight of the archers pelting the barbarians as everyone just kept running away, managing to kill the bigger majority of the attackers before they finally caught up with them. 

The powerful man who's aura up close resembled the red of rust and blood, and thousands of swords stabbed into his silhouette cut 3 of the heavy infantrymen that were with the party straight in half with a single fell swoop. Luckily some bad saving throw rolls on the barbarian parts had them falling asleep due to Sargira's magic. The pushing of her magic had cost her quite dearly though, her skin starting to bubble and painfully peel away from her muscles  After the fight had settled the party was somehow miraculously still alive and victorious. Their chariot nomad allies had also managed to finally clear the mass of berserkers as well, though at extremely heavy losses - only 7 of the 45 chariots and their crew were still alive at the end. 

With Sargira passing out from the pain of the magical corruption that had begun in her, the party realized that, indeed, the terrifying warrior who's throat they slit was Conan, and he and his champions were all wielding 6 magical swords, not at all dissimilar to the 3 that the party itself possessed. 

Borrowing an spare horse from the Chariot Nomads the party loaded their loot, swords and sorceress onto it and headed back to town, arriving as the day of the Ritual was about to begin...

Observations

So this was kind of an odd session to organize. My plan for the next (chronological) session is to play out the battle within the Undying City, for which I have actually constructed an entire tabletop wargame! More on that in a future post though.

But while I was still working on the wargame, I didn't want to simply skip a week of gaming, having already skipped two due to a trip out of the country. So after consulting with my players, one of the things they did want to explore (and had been curious about during the last two sessions) was what was the deal with these barbarian attacks, and had Conan actually succeeded in finding the missing sword pieces in Gladio's temple (He had!). 

The fight with the berserkers and the party I handled this time using the, much more elegant than my own, skirmish rules from Marica B's excellent Fantastic Medieval Campaigns. Despite me accidently misremembering the rules and having warband attacks dealing HD instead of HP in damage..the fight was still shockingly close and the party really only survived due to sheer luck of the dice. So even "Easy Mode" ended up feeling quite risky. 

Also with so so many enemies killed, the party had their single biggest exp gain in the campaign so far, with all 3 characters gaining a level at the end of it (the two new ones being level 2 now, and Shimsusa being level 3 and quite far along the path to level 4!) 

While I don't regret going with the 100 exp per HD of enemy defeated rule for this campaign, I do see why in Supplement 1 experience for enemies was cut way way WAY down in OD&D and has been the case for subsequent rulesets of classic D&D. I suspect that in whatever next game I run (either continuing the Serpents of Smoke & Steel or something new) I will definitely be cutting that way down as well. Maybe 20 exp per HD? 10 even? I haven't decided yet.

So, at some point soon, expect a post about this wargame nonsense I've made as well as a report of how it actually played out during the session!