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BlueFlames' Editorials
Planescapin' - Part 2 -- Written by BlueFlames
I knew that the first session that I had planned was a bad idea. I knew that months ago, and it had me thinking of chickening out and moving the starting point to after the first encounter that I had planned. I designed the hostiles, and thought they'd be appropriate, but I was still shaky about a total-party-kill in the first session. Some sucker (that would be me) decided to throw level one characters into a mass-combat situation. I chose to send one-thousand orcs against two-hundred-and-fifty humanoids and the player characters.
Well, I'm not quite that stupid. A little bit of tactics and the power of suggestion were enough to turn that potential disaster into a pretty reasonable fight. I'm kind of jumping to the end, though.
The town of Aline (built around a castle) has recently fallen under siege. That might be overstating it just a bit, but a thousand orcs had massed several hundred yards away from the town's palisade. The response was a call for volunteers and the conscription of everyone else able to pick up a spear and a shield. Those who ran were run down by calvary elements and slain before they could make outside of an earshot of the town. It doesn't take too many pained screams to scare people into obeying the draft. Pavillions popped up along the outside of the palisade over the following nights.
The campaign began after the final day of training prior to a preemptive strike. The party had the evening to introduce themselves and get a sense of each other's motives. It's a diverse group. There's a half-orc barbarian, Ragnore, that loves war, despite barely being able to pronounce it. Next is the elf druid, who keeps Ragnore on a leash (albeit metaphorical). Next to her is our paladin, Zah, also a lover of battle, devoted to Heironeous. The two sorcerers are next, a dwarf and a halfling. The former, Pelgoar, is angry because he was drafted for battle, when he wanted to smith more weaponry, and the latter is uncomfortable with the notion of dying in battle. After them are the samurai, Saka and the ranger, Elrond (yeah, there will be a price in pain for that), who are following the theme of the other melee characters, really wishing for a fight.
And then there was sleep. No orc attacks in the night. No traitors fleeing for the orc lines. Just sleep. Well, until morning, when the sun came beaming into the pavillions. Shortly there after, the call to arms was issued, and everyone began lining up in formation. The archers and casters, with the exception of the party's druid (Ragnore was not going to allow her away from his side) were placed in a separate formation to the rear. Everyone else formed ranks. For several minutes, the formation grew, and the guard captain, on his mount, surveyed his lines and repeatedly glanced at the hostile lines. Almost reluctantly, he issued the charge order.
Charge or be trampled were the options, so everyone began running. After a few moments, a message began filtering through the lieutenants within the human ranks. The orcs had begun to flank. In response, the human line began splitting into two blobs, to match the two blobs of orcs, but as that was happening, everyone over five-feet, ten-inches was permitted a spot check. Except for Ragnore, who managed to get a negative result, all of the player characters in the melee line successfully noticed a detail that the lieutenants had missed. While the bulk of the orcs were splitting into two groups, several dozen were still plowing right down the middle, and would be able to massacre the archers, unless the party continued down the middle.
And continue down the middle, they did. Initially, they had only a few, poorly trained orcs to kill, but things got trickier. More orcs from the charge were continually arriving, and on their flanks, a few were breaking through the edges of the human lines. With orcs arriving faster than they could be killed, things were slowly becoming grim. The early advance stalled. An NPC that had followed the party died, and another was in terrible condition after taking an axe in his ribcage.
A round of listen checks was called for, with two DCs (the higher being impossible to hit). Elrond hit a lucky 20, for a total of 25 after bonuses, and could hear the guard captain's voice over the din of battle, but could not make out the words. They continued fighting, and more orcs came into the vicinity. Saka took a nasty hit to the shoulder and failed to deliver an effective reprisal. Ragnore and Elrond were stalled in an attempt to bring down an orc warrior. Pelgoar had run out of alchemist's fire, and neither the druid nor the other sorcerer were having any luck with ranged combat.
Again, listen checks were called for. Elrond hit a 17, and the halfling broke 21. Elrond could still hear the captain, but not the words. His short companion caught the four words that he had been waiting to hear since they formed ranks. "RETREAT! TO THE CASTLE!" He passed the word along, and the rest of the party was content to take that order from anyone, authority figure or not. Ragnore finished off an orc, and another orc finished off a human warrior, but besides that, all that remained was a full-speed sprint, into the palisade, over the moat, and into the castle. Being the ones that had charged deepest into the orc lines, the party was the last group of people to enter the castle wall, with the last straggler almost getting his heel caught in the portcullis.
Captain Maltaine (the party doesn't know his name yet, but no matter) rode over to them, ordered them to the healers, and then to the gate of the keep. At that point, we had to call it a night.
Exp: 200 per character for eleven kills, plus quest experience being held for later.
Loot: None yet.
Party Deaths: None yet. (So much for a bad idea.)
Next Friday: A tunnel, a surprise, another surprise, and a portal.
Go Back to Part 1 ---- Proceed to Part 3
Planescapin' - Part 2 -- Written by BlueFlames
I knew that the first session that I had planned was a bad idea. I knew that months ago, and it had me thinking of chickening out and moving the starting point to after the first encounter that I had planned. I designed the hostiles, and thought they'd be appropriate, but I was still shaky about a total-party-kill in the first session. Some sucker (that would be me) decided to throw level one characters into a mass-combat situation. I chose to send one-thousand orcs against two-hundred-and-fifty humanoids and the player characters.
Well, I'm not quite that stupid. A little bit of tactics and the power of suggestion were enough to turn that potential disaster into a pretty reasonable fight. I'm kind of jumping to the end, though.
The town of Aline (built around a castle) has recently fallen under siege. That might be overstating it just a bit, but a thousand orcs had massed several hundred yards away from the town's palisade. The response was a call for volunteers and the conscription of everyone else able to pick up a spear and a shield. Those who ran were run down by calvary elements and slain before they could make outside of an earshot of the town. It doesn't take too many pained screams to scare people into obeying the draft. Pavillions popped up along the outside of the palisade over the following nights.
The campaign began after the final day of training prior to a preemptive strike. The party had the evening to introduce themselves and get a sense of each other's motives. It's a diverse group. There's a half-orc barbarian, Ragnore, that loves war, despite barely being able to pronounce it. Next is the elf druid, who keeps Ragnore on a leash (albeit metaphorical). Next to her is our paladin, Zah, also a lover of battle, devoted to Heironeous. The two sorcerers are next, a dwarf and a halfling. The former, Pelgoar, is angry because he was drafted for battle, when he wanted to smith more weaponry, and the latter is uncomfortable with the notion of dying in battle. After them are the samurai, Saka and the ranger, Elrond (yeah, there will be a price in pain for that), who are following the theme of the other melee characters, really wishing for a fight.
And then there was sleep. No orc attacks in the night. No traitors fleeing for the orc lines. Just sleep. Well, until morning, when the sun came beaming into the pavillions. Shortly there after, the call to arms was issued, and everyone began lining up in formation. The archers and casters, with the exception of the party's druid (Ragnore was not going to allow her away from his side) were placed in a separate formation to the rear. Everyone else formed ranks. For several minutes, the formation grew, and the guard captain, on his mount, surveyed his lines and repeatedly glanced at the hostile lines. Almost reluctantly, he issued the charge order.
Charge or be trampled were the options, so everyone began running. After a few moments, a message began filtering through the lieutenants within the human ranks. The orcs had begun to flank. In response, the human line began splitting into two blobs, to match the two blobs of orcs, but as that was happening, everyone over five-feet, ten-inches was permitted a spot check. Except for Ragnore, who managed to get a negative result, all of the player characters in the melee line successfully noticed a detail that the lieutenants had missed. While the bulk of the orcs were splitting into two groups, several dozen were still plowing right down the middle, and would be able to massacre the archers, unless the party continued down the middle.
And continue down the middle, they did. Initially, they had only a few, poorly trained orcs to kill, but things got trickier. More orcs from the charge were continually arriving, and on their flanks, a few were breaking through the edges of the human lines. With orcs arriving faster than they could be killed, things were slowly becoming grim. The early advance stalled. An NPC that had followed the party died, and another was in terrible condition after taking an axe in his ribcage.
A round of listen checks was called for, with two DCs (the higher being impossible to hit). Elrond hit a lucky 20, for a total of 25 after bonuses, and could hear the guard captain's voice over the din of battle, but could not make out the words. They continued fighting, and more orcs came into the vicinity. Saka took a nasty hit to the shoulder and failed to deliver an effective reprisal. Ragnore and Elrond were stalled in an attempt to bring down an orc warrior. Pelgoar had run out of alchemist's fire, and neither the druid nor the other sorcerer were having any luck with ranged combat.
Again, listen checks were called for. Elrond hit a 17, and the halfling broke 21. Elrond could still hear the captain, but not the words. His short companion caught the four words that he had been waiting to hear since they formed ranks. "RETREAT! TO THE CASTLE!" He passed the word along, and the rest of the party was content to take that order from anyone, authority figure or not. Ragnore finished off an orc, and another orc finished off a human warrior, but besides that, all that remained was a full-speed sprint, into the palisade, over the moat, and into the castle. Being the ones that had charged deepest into the orc lines, the party was the last group of people to enter the castle wall, with the last straggler almost getting his heel caught in the portcullis.
Captain Maltaine (the party doesn't know his name yet, but no matter) rode over to them, ordered them to the healers, and then to the gate of the keep. At that point, we had to call it a night.
Exp: 200 per character for eleven kills, plus quest experience being held for later.
Loot: None yet.
Party Deaths: None yet. (So much for a bad idea.)
Next Friday: A tunnel, a surprise, another surprise, and a portal.
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Site Design: SSX-Anubis (based
upon a design by
SSX-Killjoy)
Thanks go to SSX-MS for graphical assistance.
Copyright @ SSX 2007, All Rights Reserved