Introduction

Today we have a battle report, in several stages. This report covers an attack by a Downtime Player (“Patron”) on the Tuesday Session’s newly-acquired hideout in Ghost Town on 11 July 1023. The initial session report was published previously, but this one will go further into the planning and execution between myself and the Downtime Player, the Goblin King. It also features an appearance by one of the Thursday Session Players, who made an amazing decision to get involved with the Goblins in a wholly unexpected way!

The seeds of this escapade were planted back in May (!), when goblin scouts spotted some horsemen riding through the strip of land between the Stabala Forest and the Cold Marsh. This was the second group of armed men to traverse this path in a couple of weeks, both moving in the same direction, and the first had not returned. In addition, there was a strange portent in the skies above the mountains to the east. (the timestamps are going to look odd at first, as the Goblin King joined the game in early June and I shared some info that his Faction would have had).

DM NOTE on Timestamps: I generally remove the timestamps from the discord threads for ease of reading and reducing clutter. I have left them in for this report (and may continue to do so in the future) to give an indication of the “in real life” time frame of these Downtime Player activities.

The Goblin King presented his activities for his monthly turn:

The Snarling Prowlers will go west with two of my personal Hobgoblin guards with a few purposes:

1. Scout of the lands of Troll Killer. I’d love to get a feel for the number of people in his barony and the disposition of his troops.

2. Make contact with The Goblins of the Wyvern's Sting. I’d like to create some form of alliance between us to keep Troll Killer in check, especially with the amount of movement we’re seeing to the east.

3. When returning and nothing prevents them: take captives from the farms for Our Lord. If at all possible make it look like it was done by the Wyvern’s Sting.

The Dungeon Master — 06/18/2023 7:44 AM

5 May 1023 the cloudy, misty weather breaks in the early evening. A wind from the west seems to drive the dark clouds to the eastern horizon. Starting around sunset there are tiny flashes of purple light on the horizon, off above the mountains to the ESE. (edited)

15 May 1023 You are able to see flashing purple lightning in the mountains to the ESE. It reminds you of the purple lights from 5 May. But this time the lightning continues all night and every night thereafter.

14 June 1023 Your scouts report another group of men, about 30 this time, traveling up the same path as the horsemen a few weeks ago. They made camp (in hex 0701) and kept a powerful presence and alert all night.

Just before dawn on the 15th, your shaman witnessed three meteors streak across the sky in the east. (edited).

26 June 1023 Your scouts report that the same group of 30 or so horsemen that were seen going north 12 days ago were observed traveling back south again. A closer inspection revealed a very disciplined military group, all mounted archers, with multiple outriders and strong pickets.

b. the Goblins of the Wyvern's Sting are amenable to an alliance. They request any help or information you have about the human ruin near the Serpentine, south of Trollkiller. They have sent some bands to explore and they have not returned!

c. There is one village with a basic tower and palisade to the northeast that you know of. Your most recent foray netted some bedraggled folk on the edge of the swamp. It turns out their village had been taken over by other men. These men were all on horses and took everyone into slavery!

The Goblin King

Eeexcellent...

You can read the full report on my free RPG Substack, Memorium, as the entire article is nearly 10,000 words! 

Goblin Attack! The Sons of Mithra feel the Wyvern's Sting

This is Dundermoose!

 I had the opportunity to join DunderMoose on his yootoob channel for a long and wide-ranging discussion of Campaign Prep, Wargaming in D&D and the Downtime Player's role (sometimes called Patron Players, or Faction Players).

It was a great time, and I look forward to any sort of follow-up from gamers watching the video!

Here is the video:

Here is a link to the itchio page for a free download of the Leader of Men: Basic Massed Combat System rules

This Massed Combat system is designed to be used with any RPG system to facilitate Massed Combat encounters at the table with a minimum of preparation & in a short amount of time. Your RPG system may have its own rules for Massed Combats, and these are likely to be more appropriate for very large, set-piece battles, or battles that take place ‘off-screen’.

Setting Up the Combat

Massed Combat between large forces is relatively easy to manage with just a few rules regarding unit descriptions and combat tactics.

To make massed combat manageable, reduce the number of actual combatants by a 10:1 or 20:1 ratio. For example, a unit of 100 Cavalry would be represented in the battle by just 10 (10:1) or five (20:1) “figures”* or “miniatures”.

In the Basic Massed Combat System, we dispense with miniatures and represent each unit with cubes or tokens (especially for play at an IRL table), and an index card (or just a piece of paper!). 

Naval Battles Too!!

We also had a brief chat about how the Downtime Players run their own activities, only coming to the DM for adjudication if they don't know what to do, or if it involves another player.

One of these situations resulted in a Downtime Player running a naval combat with miniatures, and fighting a battle on the table top with his nephew!

You can download those rules, based on Ancient Naval Battles by Don Featherstone and Tony Bath: Ancients Naval Battles, edited by The Purple Druid

I hope you have fun with these, and I look forward to your feedback!

Downtime Player Braunstein Report - April 1023 - Varga the Horse Trader

 Introduction

For this campaign, I wanted to add something that I have begun to call Downtime Players (DTP), sometimes called "Patrons" or "Illegal High-level NPCs" in other places...

These Downtime Players would run NPCs, individually or as entire Factions. These "Braunstein Reports" (for lack of a better name) will sometimes include the Discord chat logs between the players and myself, to give an idea of how this procedure works in real life. Endless pixels have been burned in discussions and arguments over the validity and value of this method of play, so I will begin here with some definitions of and descriptions of how this is supposed to work in my campaign.

An important factor in using downtime players for running the actions and activities of erstwhile NPC characters of Factions is that their role is somewhat limited by the Dungeon Master. While the NPC will be created, in whole or in part, by the DTP and the DM, the NPC will have a randomly defined personality. The DTP will be empowered to set the initial goals. The DTP character/Faction's actions or moves may be vetoed or modified by the DM in order to fit the Character, Setting, Theme and Tone.

Session Player

A participant in the game who attends the regular weekly sessions and runs one or more Player Character adventurers. These Players take an active role in Session play and their characters are subject to 1:1 Downtime Pacing between Sessions. In-session time may flow as fast or slowly as needed, even for the party to be able to get as far as two weeks into the future.

Downtime Player

A Downtime Player is primarily differentiated from a "normal" or Session Player by not actually taking part in the weekly adventures of the player characters. The Downtime Player will run an NPC as a single character or as part of a group or Faction. Each Downtime Player will set out their plan for a monthly turn, with weekly updates/course corrections. Some of the DTP will run characters that are leveled, and some are not. All of them will have access to regular income, and regular expenses. There are other important differences from "regular" Session Player characters:

•  DTP Characters will not earn experience.
• The actions and activities of DTP Characters will be held strictly to their alignment and personality traits. Out-of-character activities will be discussed (leaving the door open for Character development) and either modified or canceled. (As opposed to Session Players, whose choices can & will lead to an alignment change).
• DTP Players will control Factions, but not Domains. All of them will be subject to the rule of the Governor and the laws of the land. This is to avoid the perception of "cheapening" or de-valuing the Domain. If a DTP wishes to pursue the creation/usurpation of a legitimate, existing Domain, that is another thing altogether. And a very interesting play idea!

Braunstein

Historically, Braunstein has meant a form of game where several participants take on teh role of characters in a certain place. These characters area allowed to act and interact as they would like, coming to the Referee for adjudication of disputes and conflicts. 

One of the Session Players (Belloc of Poitiers) in the campaign offered this insight:

Braunstein: A species of wargame where players negotiate to achieve asymmetric (& often positive sum) victory conditions.

A game of diplomacy involves players taking on the role of a Major European power where players, and (in play-by-post games) uses a referee to resolve disputes. But I would argue b/c the victory conditions are symmetric (everyone  wants 18 supply centers) & zero-sum (only one player can achieve this), it is not the sort of game built by D. Wesley

For this campaign, the term "Braunstein" will refer to this activity, which takes place out-of-session or in downtime activities, whether the participants are Session Players (SP) or Downtime Players (DTP).

Downtime Player Turn Rules

Braunstein Game Turns

A Faction or Domain Turn occurs over the course of one month (Calendar days). Barring unusual events, the Faction/Domain morale is adjusted every Quarter.

The Domain Growth phase occurs automatically for PCs of the appropriate level, as listed in the character class description. Wilderness Domains do not automatically draw families to settle.

Factions grow by recruiting new members and/or promoting Hirelings to Member status (if appicable).

The Congregant Growth phase is only applicable to PCs/NPCs that have built and staffed a religious structure.

The Revenue Collection phase must be performed by the Master of the Domain, or an officer of the court called a Bailiff. In larger Domains, the Bailiff will have deputies to assist in collection.

For Factions involved in mercantile or trade ventures, the revenue is collected as rent, trade goods exchanged, etc.

Campaign Activities include a wide range of actions. These include adjusting garrison levels, patrol frequency, trade issues, domain infrastructure, issuing decrees, and so on. 

Braunstein Patrons may engage in, or have Faction members engage in, the various Downtime hijinks or other time-consuming activities such as making scrolls/potions, etc. These activities may influence Faction/Domain morale.

The Braunstein Turn

Faction/Domain Growth

Congregant Growth

Revenue Collection

Campaign Activities: Complete responses to the previous month’s events. Write orders to NPCs/PCs for the coming month.

a.    Random Events

b.    Week One – DM Resolution

c.    Week Two - DM Resolution

d.    Week Three - DM Resolution

e.    Week Four - DM Resolution

Expense Payments

Faction/Domain Morale

Introduction

DM NOTE: I put out an announcement on twitter and in some discords I hang out in, asking if anyone was interested in playing a "Patron". I had six or seven people respond, and gave them the lowdown. The intros and DTP development process went something like this (reminder that the posts on this blarg are embargoed by three months for OpSec):

Pick whomever you like, or are interested in. Or, if you have an idea, the setting is based on Thieves World slash Lankhmar fiction.

Varga sounds interesting.

Varga has a stall in the Old Market (NW quadrant)

Feel free to develop him. We'll figure out a way to get him known to the Players. you can use the tables on p100 of the AD&D DMG for personality info, if you want some inspiration

I wrangled a way for the players to come see you last night.

They wanted to sell you a bronze lock they took from a temple in the Serpentine. You pressed them for info, offered gold, but they told you they barely escaped and it collapsed behind them as they ran out.

You are free to believe that or not. You are aware of gossip of another group, the Red Wyverns, whom you have fenced with before, that also claim to have found a hidden temple in the Serpentine. You sold Castille a small block of tea for 5 GP (enough really fancy style tea for 5-6 pots) which you wrapped in a piece of cloth. (edited)

What team name are the players going by?

The Tuesday night session is The Sons of Mithra

The Thursday group is a bit behind due to some poor planning

You wrote a note in the cloth wrapping of the tea:

My friends, you are in great danger from the Red Wyverns. They dislike competition.

Most genuine Vargas

It happened rather suddenly. I had to improvise!

I like it. Did they claim to pry the lock off a door. Does it have a key? Identifiable workmanship?

Also, they asked about finding a fence from a metalsmith in the Old Market, he told them how to find you, and gave them the tip, "Tell him Johann sent you, which is code for these dudes may be big trouble

Feel free to set up a list of 6-8 contacts in the market that can send ppl to you and vice versa

Will do. Does Johann actually go by Johann normally.

Anyone playing the Begger leader yet?

Any playing leaders of the guilds in the Market?

no, but he is Voran

Amazon - Japanese style names and culture

Berzerkers - use Spanish style names

Kordu - Citizens of the Empire, darker skin, black/dark brown hair, 'Croatian' style names

Voran - Descended from the First Men the old-folks of the area, German style names

The lock was part of a door, and it set off a trap, so there is a nifty extra mechanism. There is no key, but now that it is disassembled, making one is trivial.

They kicked down a dry-rotted door, set off the trap. Lost two mercs

Did they reveal the kind of trap?

no

You bought the lock for 2 GP, offered a "bag of gold" for a map of the temple and where to find it

That's when they said it collapsed.

I suppose I'll have to see if their surviving mercs can be identified and located and approached for info if a weakness or lever can be found.

I'm going to need a crew or access to one. I'll put together the concept.

12 April

You do have two young serving girls, about 12-13 years, that helped you serve tea to Castille (horse archer type) and Luke (Cleric of Ares), both Berzerkers.

17 April

Okay, Varga will want to have a friendly relationship with the merc companies quartermasters. Buy drinks, a little something on the wife's birthday, that sort of thing. For referrals by them of their troops a promise of a fair deal, with a little kickback.

Same deal of info trading with the Begger leader,and permission to station one outside to pick up any discussions of customers, who treat beggers as invisible, prior to entry. 

Obviously mutual benefit arrangements with the Thieves and Bandits, with the understanding that nothing comes back on him, and they don't kill any golden geese.

Basically a network of information and mutual referral with innkeepers, hostlers, dock officials, the local middle-level law, etc. The working glue of society that straddles the lines. 

In addition to the shop girls, a fast-talking "associate" freelance who can do legwork and muscle as needed. Like an Archie to Varga's Nero Wolfe. Not a thug, but can handle himself and move across social strati.

Varga will be trying to track down the party's surviving mercs, and reach out to the Wyverns QM.

18 April

You find a Serjeant Zeljko at a seedy merc watering hole called The Sundered Shield (not a place where you have any contacts). It's the middle of the day on Sat, 15 April, and you can tell he is tipsy, to say the least. He is sitting with a couple of men who are obviously soldiers, and three young men with wide eyes, hanging on his every word. He is talking about a green light that sucked the life right out of half of his troop of men, stole their souls and made them into the foulest of undead! He takes a big swig of ale from a tankard and begins to launch into a well-rehearsed tale of horror and heroic combat against his erstwhile comrades-in-arms.

The, usually a crusty old NCO who handles pay, fodder, lodging, supplies, gear, maintenance. The Supply Chief. They really run an outfit.

The Dungeon Master 

If you spend a couple of coppers on the sergeant you can get him to talk further and discover that the group he was with lost 3 of their five members. 

He says they had a very high opinion of themselves.

The magic user walked right into the light to take a closer look at the runes on the floor.

It was like opening the gates of the damned!

OK, let's try this:

You start with a Homestead (see Spears of Sojenka domain rules) worth 1,000 GP. You may have up to 50 members in your faction. You were a Deputy Quartermaster in the Guard of Sojenka yourself, before you mustered out as a 5th level Under-Captain. 

You have had your Homestead for just under a year:

A Fighter character may establish a

Homestead to use as a quasi-stronghold. The

Homestead will not attract peasant families.

The Homestead may attract workers of

various sorts, housemen, cooks, laborers, etc.

It allows the Fighter to form an Faction

(called a Company, or Regiment, or Troop), a

truly mercenary collection of 2d6 first-level

Minions of the same class willing to join the

Player Character for purely monetary reasons.

Each time the Player Character gains a level

thereafter, he will attract an additional 1d6 

1st-level Minions to his Company. 

All Minions must be paid standard rates for Men-at-arms

(Minions). In addition, the Company Captain

may recruit and hire more 0-level men-at-

arms (minions) to increase the size of his

Company. See the Minions, Followers,

Mercenaries, and Specialists rules.

The Dungeon Master 

Roll up 2d6 first level fighters to be your Faction, plus any other 0-levels that you want to recruit.

Your Faction will earn Revenue via various activities as are listed in the Hijinks section of Spears. Your leveled Faction members may each perform one Hijink for Revenue per month.

Session Report 027 - 13 July 1023

 

 Introduction

Pre-session downtime notes:

July 13th is a busy day on the docks in the port of Sojenka.

13 July

Part One

Party treks to Xathok, A Class II Market village on the edge of Paradise Bay. About halfway between Xathok and Drenoba (another Class II Market) is the Shrine of Hades and the underwater Temple of Lumoch. Reaching the Shrine takes a full 6 hours, they arrive at about 2pm.

Ebb tide was at 1pm, and Flood tide is going to be at 7pm. While they will have *Potions of Water Breathing* that enable them to breathe underwater, they do not have FREE ACTION, so movement will be reduced to 10’. 

When they follow the trail down to the water’s edge and the cliffside cave, they can see several sharks in the water. Some are near the cave entrance, others are farther out to sea.

After they enter the cave, which is just above the waterline, they can hear the lapping of waves in the pool in the large chamber, as well as a strange wheezing sound. Moving further into the chamber, the wheezing sound is coming from the Drowned Ones “dwelling” in this chamber.

Funeral, Bulwark, and Boris all present their holy symbols and manage to Turn all of the undead, who flee down into the pool.

Scribbles casts Light on a spearpoint and the group drops down the pool to the lower level where the temple is. They move down the natural passage and get to the “rubble chamber”, where they are surprised by Deep Ones who manage to get two shots off with heavy crossbows.

Bertrand and Beaufort (men at arms), Three-fifths & Messer charge these Deep Ones and engage in Melee.

There is also a large crowd of humans that have been drowned and are in the process of being transformed into Drowned Ones. Funeral is able to Turn a good number of these, who flee toward the chambers further into the cave complex. This disrupts the advance of the reinforcements coming to protect the Deep One lair.

Three Fifths and the others parley with the Deep Ones (who roll an 11 on the Reaction Roll!). It turns out the Deep Ones are angry about the death of their Guardian, but they blame it on the treachery of the Gluk, whose cursed temple is poisoning the waters.

The humans and the Dreenoi henchman are allowed to enter the Temple of Lumoch, as they have declared their intention to repair the broken altar and stop the leaching of chaos energy into the water.

Inside the temple, they manage to get past the Brain Coral sitting on the stone pedestal without molesting it. There is a lot of talk about how to best stab or chop it. 

In the central chamber, they see the giant crab automaton and put the fake “pearl” into the hole in its mouth/face. The crab does not move or even seem to register they are there.

There is a brief battle with two undead coelacanth and then they enter the sanctum of the temple, proper. The broken altar lies in front of an enormous statue of Lumoch, a mermaid-like creature with the tail of a lobster and a narwhal-like horn coming out of its head.
Bulwark drinks the Stine Shape potion and repairs the altar. He then takes the amphora and replaces it into the socket so obviously made for it.

When the jewel-inlaid amphora is back in its socket, there is a backlash of magical energy and Bulwark is killed!

Torrent collects his belongings.

They move on to explore and search the “egg rooms” for quite some time, finding only shredded, leathery egg shells and broken mother-of-pearl “tree” branches.

Part Two

They decide to leave, and are disappointed with the amount of treasure they found in this temple. They stop in the vestibule and scrape a large number of colorful, coral tiles from a mosaic. They fill three bags.

Afterward they exit the Temple and find two of the fishmen waiting for them. The Deep Ones say they are going to escort them back to the surface, but the priest wants to see them first.

Boris and Three-fifths decide they can’t leave well enough alone, and they ask to borrow two heavy crossbows for some unfinished business in the temple. They whole group troops back in and they gather near the brain coral, just sitting there, pulsing with its grotesque pink light, reflecting a hideous purple back from the coral growths all around it.
Boris and three-fifths take careful aim and let fly, two silvery bolts fly out, and one pierces the brain coral.

Seemingly forgetting all about the psychic attack that happened last time, when they tried smashing the thing with a hammer. This time they were not so lucky!
A horrific psychic scream filled the temple, and a flash of sickly pink light.

Several of the group made their saving throw, some did not, all took damage. Not all were able to survive, saved or no. Torrent, dove, Bertrand and Beaufort all died writhing in agony as the psychic manifestation tore apart their brains.

Oof.

After this debacle, the group returned the crossbows, and were led to the priest,who had re-gathered his undead charges. As thanks for cleansing the Deep One’s lair, he gave them a conch shell full of small pearls, semi-precious stones and bits of shaped and polished coral.

Finally, they returned to the main chamber above, which was now filled with water from the rising tide.

They needed to wait 7 turns for the potion to wear off, so they huddled in an alcove, with spears set and pointing out, to protect themselves from wandering sharks.

The minutes ticked by in tense anticipation of swimming death, but they were spared.

They returned to the surface where Cookie had built a camp for the men at arms, and they spent the night.

There were no encounters.

14 July

In the morning of the 14th they returned to Sojenka. There were no extraordinary encounters on the road.

Downtime 15-20 July

Scribbles will go with 3/5 to have the pearl examined.

Funeral is going to return to Sojenka to make a report on the water temple. He will visit the boys rescued from the fire temple.

If I have time, Scribbles will research the pearls himself, and see if his order has any record of the Brain Coral.

Barber is going to approach Lord Hedwig and recount his exploration of the bars, the cult, and the palace of the Red Prince and explain his conclusion that his wife is sequestered in secret with her sister. Especially given the runaround I have received, and see if he wishes to further employ me to investigate.

19 July Charlos will be attending the Hawking even hosted by Governor Asharem

Session Report 026 - 11 July 1023

 Introduction

Castile - Berzerker Fighter 4

Zippen  - Halfling Guardian 1

Luke - Berzerker Cleric of Ares 3

Pre-session Downtime

Castile and Zippen spent the past week at Ghost Town, supervising construction of the palisade and stone bunker

Luke was recruiting in Sojenka, traveled up to Ghost Town on the morning of the 11th

Due to the discovery of two corpses, drained of blood, the group is preparing for battle with a Vampyr. 

Mirrors, Garlic, Hammers & Stakes, Holy Symbols

Part One

They descend to Area 9E, the “Ghoul Room”, see bloody footprints - small, like a woman’s - and leftover ashes from last week’s battle.

They move into Area 9, the bedroom, and search carefully. The vanity has been moved, it has been rotated so that the mirror portion is facing into the corner. When Castile investigates, he sees the glass of the mirror has been shattered, spider-webbed in two places. He takes a sliver of the glass and tucks it in his belt.

Sundenkrieg alerts Castile to the presence of the secret doors behind the tapestries, north and west walls.

The bones of the dead adult remaining in the one bed are carried upstairs for a proper burial. The remains of the child that were in the same bed previously, are now gone…but bloody footprints and smudges lead Zippen to the bed and then to the secret door in the North wall.

DM NOTE: Zippen is a Halfling Guardian. In the Sojenka setting Halflings are very different from those of Tolkien or Dragonlance. They are less “civilized”, so to speak, with a very clannish culture that is centered around harmony within the forest, rather than creature comforts and snug holes in the ground. The halfling PCs are available in two “class as race”-type occupations: Guardian & Woodwright. The Guardian class is analogous to the typical Ranger, the Woodwright approximates a Druid.

Castile places some threads at the base of the tapestry on the west wall to be a marker in case anyone moves the tapestry to pass through the door. Then they move to the secret door in the other wall.

This passage leads down two flights of stairs to a large “Garden” chamber. The garden is illuminated by large, glowing bulbs of some kind, floating in the air. The light does have a quality much like that of natural sunlight. There is a bit of discussion as to how the vampyr could have traversed this room. The idea is floated that perhaps the plants get a “night-time” too, so the vampyr could have crossed through then. 

Zippen does see small footprints in the loam of the path, which is heavily overgrown. He  recognizes several types of dangerous and/or valuable plants:

MAGICAL PLANTS

Bat Thorne

Oil from the leaves if consumed can cure blood infections.

Ink Vine

Sap from this vine is highly prized by Magicians for using in magical inks, 50-70 GP per ounce

Red Seren Fern

The leaves of this fern are covered with tiny hairs that are extremely sharp, they get into any exposed skin and cause a horrible, itching rash. 

The roots are dried and ground into powder which is mixed with vinegar to become a poison antidote.

Snake Vine

A carnivorous vine, related to Sleepflower that attacks its prey with two sharp thorns on the end of its tendrils. The thorns are poisoned causing paralysis.

There is a locked copper door, heavily corroded from the moisture in the air, that Castile has a key to. There is also a secret door, in the west wall, just south of the copper door. The footprints in the loam lead right through it, and there are marks in the detritus where it has been pushed aside when the door swung open.

They go through this door, up some stairs, to another small chamber,where they are attacked by 6 undead goblins! These are easily dispatched, the largest one has an empty scabbard for a short sword-sized blade on his belt.

Part Two

This room has three doors, the one they entered through on the E wall, and one to the N and S. The S door is not locked, so they go through. It leads to a long stairway down. Five flights of 40 feet depth, turning and turning. At the bottom is a large landing with a stairway going up to the E and the W wall is covered with running water. Castile determines this to be an illusion and, with sword in hand, leaps through!

The illusion of water hides a stairway going down. Castile tumbles to the bottom, suffering bumps and bruises, but not breaking his neck!

There is another locked door at the bottom of the steps, this one with the jigsaw keyhole. Castile unlocks the door and they barge in.

They are in a large statuary hall, with tall columns down the center, illuminated by blue crystals at the top. The statues are 20’ tall depictions of men in robes or armor. Traversing the room slowly, Sundenkrieg is able to identify two more secret doors in the N wall. At the W end of the hall is another copper-clad door, that Sundenkrieg announces is protected by a magical trap. Tests determine the door to be energized by some electric potential.

Castile is prepared for this and a metal bar is brought up to short out the trap. The trap is tripped, and a mighty arc of lightning flashes toward the ceiling, arcing from crystal to crystal, shattering them in spectacular fashion, and showering the floor with pale, blue shards. The lights, obviously, go out. The door in the east wall slams shut. Investigation shows it, too, is trapped by a magical energy charge, and some shouting alerts the rear-guard outside to get another metal bar. They attempt to short out the door and an infantryman is killed by the blowback.

Now that the path of exit has been cleared, they go through the door to the W and find a large chamber of skeletons. Luke turns them, for round after round, they flee down the passage and into a great pit, an abattoir. There is another door in the W wall of this room, but they decline to go further. Back to the Hall of Statues, and through the secret door at the E end of the room, another set of stairs going down.

They decide to investigate this later.

The secret door in the center of the N wall leads into a dark cavern, the ceiling and floor are covered in crystalline stalactites and stalagmites. At the edge of the lantern light, a skeletal arm floats in the air, swinging a sword back and forth.

Luke brings forth a scroll and casts Dispel Magic on the sword, it falls to the ground.

A sepulchral voice comes from the darkness, “Leave or die, intruders”

Suddenly, skeletal hands burst from the ground all around the party, grasping and clawing. The party leaps and doges, then exits the cavern.

This will take more planning, and they decide to return to the surface.

Part Three

Later that night, an infantry sergeant informs Castile that a patrol has not returned from their rounds.

DM NOTE: A discord exchange was used to play by post and adjudicate this turn of events:

Tell me about the path you take when going down into the dungeon to look for the missing patrol. (edited)

Castile, Mithra's Bastard 

Same approach that we take to delving... forward team and fall back team, sweeping that first floor, counter clockwise from the entry into the big room, not proceeding past the steel doors since they shouldn't have been past the steel doors

Looking for tracks, signs of battle, etc.

Timewise this would have been immediately after learning of it.

The Dungeon Master 

So:

Room 2  2241

5 (have you gone into 5b and sorted out that ghost yet?)  2243

5E   2244

5a   2247

6     2253

7     2258

4     2301

4E  2302

3    2303

You make a complete circuit, finding nothing out of the ordinary. You retrace your steps and find that the door to 12 has been tampered with, the bar was replaced, but not fully. (edited)

Castile, Mithra's Bastard

No one should be 10 or 11, that steel door off of 2 should be the extent of that patrol. There are steel fall back doors but the patrols don't go that far.

We have not addressed the ghosts specifically with anything (edited)

This should be the approximate patrol route. They won't look in 5b until we do something about the ghost.

There are additional doors installed deeper in, but the patrols don't go that far since it's not a complete isolation.

Off duty troops would be around 4 6 and 7

The Dungeon Master 

You make a complete circuit, finding nothing out of the ordinary. You retrace your steps and find that the door to 12 has been tampered with, the bar was replaced, but not fully.

Castile, Mithra's Bastard 

Ask Sundenkrieg about sekrits before proceeding with extreme prejudice. Trusting his answer before breaching the door. Attempting to track. Suggest a group chat with Zippen to keep him in the loop. He's likely working and not able to respond as quickly but he is involved.

The Dungeon Master 

Sundenkrieg tells you there is magic and a trap beyond the steel door, but you knew that. He says it's the same as it has been.

When you open the metal door over the copper-clad entrance door, the face on the door begins shouting again!

“NONE MAY PASS UNLESS THEY KNOW THE WORD!”

“DID NEUREM SEND YOU? I SHALL TELL HIM YOU TRIED TO ENTER!”

Castile, Mithra's Bastard 

Same phrasing as before?

The Dungeon Master 

yes

Castile, Mithra's Bastard 

Spread out quickly, if there's lightning it should only hit me, give the password, (Gamosh right?) and hide behind my shield in case it blasts me.

The Dungeon Master 

It does not blast you, but neither does it open. It begins shouting in a weird language (Old Jacinth)

Castile, Mithra's Bastard 

Are there signs of combat around?

The Dungeon Master 

No. The only things that are noticeable are the bar that was slightly askew, and now the face appears to have changed the password.

The face in the door shouts again.

“NONE MAY PASS UNLESS THEY KNOW THE WORD”

“DID NEUREM SEND YOU? I SHALL TELL HIM YOU TRIED TO ENTER”

Castile, Mithra's Bastard 

I'm assuming none of the patrols have discovered any further secret passages or you'd have told us.

Try to give the answer Light's End, Neurem, Villermus

The Dungeon Master 

Correct if there were any secret doors left to find you would have them.

None of those words seem to calm the animated face on the copper door.

Castile, Mithra's Bastard 

Try the names of the two old gods that we know.

The Dungeon Master 

nana-sin

nin-hursag

Sorry, no

Castile, Mithra's Bastard 

Well

/Dang/

Part Four

After the excitement of the missing patrol vanishing, Castile sends more troops on patrol, increasing the level of staffing topside. He sends a dozen more infantry and all 30 cavalry to see to the horses.

Shortly after they reach the surface and take positions around the walls…

Unbeknownst to the party members, the Goblins of the northern reaches have been in communication. The group of Goblins the Sons of Mithra captured some weeks ago were members of The Wyvern’s Sting tribe, who have reached out to an ally in the east for aid in discovering what happened to their brothers.

Last night, on the 10th, these two tribes met some miles north of the Ghost Town, and made a plan to attack and raze the new town the humans were building.

DM NOTE: I provided one of the Braunstein players with two sets of rules for playing out this scenario [link]. One is that of Tony Bath and his How to Set Up a Wargames Campaign for sieges, and the other was a set of scenario rules for Chainmail. The Patron Braunstein player is familiar with Chainmail, and decided to run the battle with that method. Due to a bit of time-zone differential, this part of the game took a while to coordinate and accomplish.

Because there were only NPC hireling men at arms present within the palisade of the new Ghost Town fort, I let the Braunstein player run the battle for himself, at his convenience. I kept the battle secret from the players until it had been resolved.

The following exchange was then shared in the discord as a private channel between the sons of Mithra (Tuesday Group) and the Goblin King.

The attack took place around midnight, 11 July 1023. The attacking force consists of approximately 100 Goblins and a Troll ally.

Goblin Attack

DM NOTE: the following exchange has been edited slightly for clarity and readability. Spelling has been fixed, some grammar shortcuts remain. The Goblin King player used the “Horse Archer” cavalry in as melee troops, as the number of archers was too few to impact the game, according to Chainmail rules.

Goblins lost the element of surprise before they got there, giving the defenders two turns to prepare.

DM NOTE: In Chainmail the turn length is about one minute. We had already established that the descent and/or ascent of the vertical shaft leading to the dungeon of Neurem takes 10 minutes. Therefore I have ruled that the men operating the derrick took note of the attack, and began to descend into the shaft two minutes after the attack began.

Three possible plans as per Solo Wargaming Guide

1: Defend the walls with all forces, including unmounted cavalry 

2: Half of the cavalry mount and prepare a counter charge inside the walls while the other half helped defend the walls

3: Mount all, sally out the back door and back attack

Dice decided 2

Turn 3 as the goblins closed on the wall: minor losses from crossbow fire . The heavy infantry climbing it [the palisade] noticed the ladders. Cavalry saddled horses.

DM NOTE: the derrick operators begin to descend to the bottom of the shaft to warn the sons of Mithra

Turn 4: troll kept beating down the door. Goblins in the south mounted, got counterattacked by the cavalry and lost a stand. The crossbowmen were pulled off the wall and ripped apart, and the other defenders deserted the gates and drew back, in good order. Cavalry mounted and prepared for the countercharge

Turn 5: gate was bashed down by the troll. Guards pulled back. 20 goblins dismounted the wall while the others fought against the dismounted cavalry. The mounted cavalry hearing the ruckus turned and prepared a charge

Turn 6: trolls and goblins entered the gates. Cavalry countercharged, killing 10 goblins and the rest withdrew.

Turn 7: cavalry heard the troll and the sounds of routing. turned about face and started opening the gate because this situation was lost. Dismounted cav went down the ladders, followed by goblins

Turn 8: troll (as ogre) caught up to the heavy infantry. They pleaded for their lives. He ate 2 of them. The goblins had the turn and were able to catch up to the dismounted cavalry outside the walls. Light infantry ran.

Turn 9-10: cavalry had ridden away. Light infantry was caught by the regrouped goblins south and killed. 5 dismounted cavalry defended against the goblins as the others fled into the night

DM NOTE: The battle proper was over in only 10 turns. This means the warning from the surface was only just reaching the base below as the Goblins were rounding up their prisoners and beginning to search for loot.

@The Goblin King Notes on the battle

Casualties:

Combined goblin troops:

30 goblins.  

Defenders of the palisade:

5 cavalry. 

9 Foot troops

Captured by goblins

3 heavy foot troops

10 scared horses

Fleeing survivors

15 mounted knights

10 dismounted knights

Lessons learned: probably my idea of charging was overly optimistic. More could've been achieved if they'd all mounted up and done the same countercharge. Not sure if they'd have been able to turn the tide completely, but  they'd done a hell of a lot more

On the other hand: if they'd all mounted up the goblins could've waited them out on the walls, or moved over the walls for a better surround, causing all of them to fall

Half of me feels I did the defenders a disservice with the plan and they could've done better.

Dice were awfully against them though. The night fighting caused them a huge pain and many lost kills

Also lesson learned: in this smaller scenario the opportunity cost of resting would've been so big that basically no one ever had time to and most of the battle was fought with troops tired

(RE the gate: I saw that wooden walls/gates were 5-15 siege points. Rolled for it, got 10. Counted the Troll as a ram that did 2 damage per turn, so the gate fell on turn 5)

@The Goblin King

Eagerly awaiting what will result from this

But for now it's time to hit the sack

PPS: thinking on this more: the countercharge plan would probably have worked if not for the infiltration team. This caused the knights to have to turn about and deal with those. But by the time they'd have been back in position the others would've been in too much disarray to support. If they hadn't failed their roll to see the south team things might've become hairy for the goblins tbh

The Dungeon Master 

Okay so is your plan to fade away into the darkness after or are you going to stick around

I will drop this into their channel and see what happens they're probably going to want to come out and try to track you down or whatever

@The Goblin King

Let's see... We still have 70-80 gobbos

Let's spend an hour going through the place and looting it. And the march back. But we lost 30 good green skins avenging the deaths caused in this place. Let's have something to show for it That should still give us a good head start over them

Post Session Downtime

On the 12th Luke will perform burials for the dead and plans to return to Sojenka on the 13th, accompanied by 3 horse archers.