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.
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