Caewin Abbey Campaign

[TimP]

My group played our second session of Burning Wheel Sunday night. We finally got to some combat. My group really loved character generation, but were very leery of the whole scripting process.

I typed up a concise intro/synopsis of the combat system sans weapon charts and the like, which helped alleviate the problem of only having one book.

I personally have never had as much fun during a combat-heavy session (And I like combat!). Despite our frequent mistakes and rules consultation, the combat flowed really smoothly and naturally. The players quickly grasped scripting (which surprised us all, I think). By its very nature BW combat seems to inject drama and tension. We had two combat scenes that night, and by the second one combat went really quickly. Awesome stuff. I think my entire group was 'converted' by the end of the session.

I learned three things GMing BW that night.

'Let it Ride' rocks

Chthonic river squid-beasts lose tentacles really easily when the GM forgets to roll for their 3D DN4 armor.

An armored knight mounted on a warhorse will mow through an entire raiding party of Black Goblin orcs (from the back of the BW book) in short order if the GM doesn't fight smart.

Tim

[luke]

yes, yes, yes and YAY!

:D
-L

[Fourth Horseman]

An armored knight mounted on a warhorse will mow through an entire raiding party of Black Goblin orcs (from the back of the BW book) in short order if the GM doesn't fight smart.

Sometimes he'll plow through them even if you do play smart.

Charge through the rabble. :D

[foxandwarlock]

Wow. I don't even know what its like to be able to hit anything from horseback.

*cough, +4 Ob, cough* :D

[Thor Olavsrud]

Wow. I don't even know what its like to be able to hit anything from horseback.

*cough, +4 Ob, cough* :D

Looks like someone needs Mounted Combat Training :P

[TimP]

I fear I served the unfortunate Orcs poorly. They were split up into three squads of six and had just disembarked from three boats onto the east bank of a really large river. These Orcs had been raiding up and down the river and had captured some soon-to-be slaves from a Mudpeople village (a 'race' of pacifistic fishermen that I'll submit to the forums once I've done some revision to their lifepaths) and had also procured a couple of Great Wolf pups, whose pack was howling fiercely from the west bank of the river.

I ruled the orcs were surprised by our intrepid adventurerers, since they were a bit preoccupied with the wolves across the river. I gave the party a couple of 'free' exchanges. They crashed the boat they were in into the east bank, and the knight (Sir Conrad, as detailed in other posts) lept his mount over the prow of the boat, lance couched. Van DeVentner, a retired sell-sword scout turned fisherman was riding Conrad's riding horse and followed suit, though not quite as gracefully.

They charged into the first column of Goblins, while the other PC, Albricht the Pardoner (priest with the true faith) and an NPC who had been roped into helming the boat shoved the vessel off the shore and attempted to make an end run with the goal of freeing the mudmen.

Conrad had spitted one Orc on his lance and flattened another with the charge of his warhorse, all in one exchange. Van was less succesful, the simple riding horse balked at the nasty Orcs and the prospect of going in harms way. Van decided to change his script to dismount in one action (which I ruled he could do if he made an Ob3 speed check). He failed. I had him make a Steel check to reflect his surprise at suddenly being flat on his back. He failed and had a couple of volleys of hesitation in the next exchange (which I thought simulated him gasping for breath when the wind was knocked out of him rather nicely).

At this point, I was still a bit wary of killing off the party. I decided the remnants of the first column would act as a rear-guard/delaying force while the other two squads attempted to get away with the Warg pups and Mudpeople. Though it seemed a reasonable concept at the time, it turned out to be a Bad Idea.

One of the now un-surprised Orcs went after Van on the ground. He got inside, but never could achieve lock. Van eventually got up and killed that beastie while the it was attempting to draw its dagger.

Conrad had a number of opponents on him, but they were unable to pierce his armor (he rolled amazingly well all night, never even had any armor damaged!).

With both Conrad and Van in full action, the first Orc squad was soon mincemeat, though Van kept losing pieces of chainmail on the river bank.

The first column disposed of, Conrad spurs his horse and charges the second column. I think, 'Right, I'm not going so easy on him this time, I'll have the orcs surround him and pull him from his horse'. The knight crashes into this group and spits another Orc. This squad is the one bearing the two wolf pups, and I have the two carrying them run off into the woods. The rest of the Orcs move to surround him. I roll poorly for the two orcs that try to get inside and push/drag Conrad from his horse. There's more scimitars bouncing off armor. Conrad's player does a good job realizing that he is possibly in a bit of a predicament, scripts charge with his horse, runs over the Orc in front of him and gallops away to make another charge. There's just no way for the Orcs to resist a charging warhorse, unless they have Avoid scripted (which I didn't do, because by this time Van had caught up and got their attention). Anyway, to make an already long story shorter, Orcs go flying and are mutilated in horrible ways by the pair of warriors.

Meanwhile, Albricht and Karl, the NPC tillerman have finally gotten their boat where they want it. Albricht attempts to just from the prow of their vessel onto the stern of one of the Orc boats, fails (just barely), teeters for a moment and falls into the shallow water. I had him check steel, and he failed pretty badly. He spends the next few volleys spitting up all the river water he's swallowed. I felt bad for poor Albricht. He's not really a combat effective character, and he was trying so hard to get in on the action and do something heroic, but it just wasn't working out for him.

By this time the final squad of orcs has gone into 'oh shit' mode, dropped the chain of mud-people slaves and started running for their lives. Well, their not outrunning a warhorse, now are they. :wink: More Orc mincemeat. The entire party gets in on this last bit of action. Albricht uses intimidation to get the stunned chain of mudpeople slaves moving away from the combat (yay, Albricht). Conrad and Van kill the remaining Orcs.

Sum total results: Caewin Abbey Possey 16!, Orcs 0. (The two wolf-pup bearing Orcs dropped their burdens not far from the scene of combat and hauled ass out of the vicinity).

Things I should have done: used archers, had the three columns of orcs act a bit more cohesively, had the Orcs attack Conrad's charger. I screwed up the way a rider controls his mount. I could not find my copy of the Mount Burner and made the mistake of letting the rider have vulcan mind-meld with his horse, instead of the delay of issuing a command and it taking effect later. Still, it was a blast, and Conrad's player was having a great time.

Conrad gained a point of deed Artha for his actions and will have a nice tale to tell (or to be told about him, once news gets back to civilization) at court.

Cool things coming up: The party gets to interact with the Great Wolf Pack, unless they're total bastards and steal the pups for themselves. They might meet the Elves as well, as they've broken an ancient treaty by leaving the river and trespassing in the woods while killing all these Orcs.

Anyway, sorry for inflicting this terribly long blow by blow account on everyone, but maybe it will be useful for other newbies.

Tim

[TimP]

Wow. I don't even know what its like to be able to hit anything from horseback.

Our other warrior had the same problem. Then compounded it by attempting some Annie Oakley dismounting maneuvre and failing miserably. :lol:

Sometimes he'll plow through them even if you do play smart.

Charge through the rabble.

I can see that. A lance just ignores plated leather armor, but even if they'd had better armor there's the push effect to consider. I actually love the fact that a mounted knight is such a fearsome opponent-I mean, it was the dominant weapon system for several hundred years!

Tim

[Fourth Horseman]

If you really want to test the knight just get him off the horse. This can be done nicely by just getting him into situations where he needs to dismount. Orcs run into nearby cottage or cave. BTW if I were a Named operating in knight country I would never have my boys operating too far from a chokepoint.

Or it can be done the old fashioned (mean) way. Kill the knight's horse. It should be rather easy since (a) barding is rare and "muy" expensive so he shouldn't have it in the first place, and (b) killing the horse has the bonus effect of sending the cavalier tumbling when he's riding at full gallop, this can produce humorous results.

Now if you're just looking to kill the knight, give a couple of the orcs crossbows next time. They are the poor man's WMD of the BW universe. And if you're just downright spiteful throw in a low level summoner. But we would never do those things in a second session would we? :wink:

Be forewarned though, even a dismounted knight can be rather formidable. Its something about those tin cans. Try getting inside on one with a black orc when the knight has nothing but a dagger out. You may find the results rather surprising. :roll:

[foxandwarlock]

Hey TimP,

In terms of surprise, I'm not sure how you ruled on that or determined how many exchanges to give them but my group uses Hesitation for this. I think the example in the back of the BW or CB has the knight rolling Hesitation for surprise too. Just a thought.

I probably would not have made the rider roll Hesitation for failing his Speed check. Falling flat on your back (and maybe taking some damage per the throw rules) is plenty punishment enough; he had to give up 2 actions to stand up so he was essentially penalized for failing his roll.

[TimP]

If you really want to test the knight just get him off the horse. This can be done nicely by just getting him into situations where he needs to dismount. Orcs run into nearby cottage or cave. BTW if I were a Named operating in knight country I would never have my boys operating too far from a chokepoint.

This battle took place at the confluence of a large river and a sizeable creek in the forest. I had ruled there weren't any sizeable trees within about 100' of the intersection of the two bodies of water. I definitely could have made the terrain more interesting (tough for a mounted knight), with boggy mud, driftwood, and other detritus, but I just had no freaking clue he was going to mow through the Orcs like he did.

Or it can be done the old fashioned (mean) way. Kill the knight's horse. It should be rather easy since (a) barding is rare and "muy" expensive so he shouldn't have it in the first place, and (b) killing the horse has the bonus effect of sending the cavalier tumbling when he's riding at full gallop, this can produce humorous results.

Now if you're just looking to kill the knight, give a couple of the orcs crossbows next time. They are the poor man's WMD of the BW universe. And if you're just downright spiteful throw in a low level summoner. But we would never do those things in a second session would we?

Originally I didn't want to attack the horse or use archers because I thought the party was going to need all the help it could get. By the time I realized they didn't need any help the knight's player was having too much fun for me to rain on his parade with such nasty tactics. Truthfully, it would probably have been too late anyway,considering the amount of damage he had done in three exchanges.

I actually never thought the party would charge the Orcs like that. I mean, good god, there were 18 of them! against 3 PCs, one of which was combat-ineffective! The other warrior's player said something along the lines of 'This is probably a horrible idea and we'll all die, but I follow after the knight'. I had envisioned a stealthy chase for two or three days back to the ruined keep the Orcs were based out of, and then a rescue attempt or expedient retreat. Cheers to the knight's player though for playing him as written (young and brash and eager to make a name for himself).

[TimP]

Hey TimP,

In terms of surprise, I'm not sure how you ruled on that or determined how many exchanges to give them but my group uses Hesitation for this. I think the example in the back of the BW or CB has the knight rolling Hesitation for surprise too. Just a thought.

I probably would not have made the rider roll Hesitation for failing his Speed check. Falling flat on your back (and maybe taking some damage per the throw rules) is plenty punishment enough; he had to give up 2 actions to stand up so he was essentially penalized for failing his roll.

Yeah, I know I didn't follow the rules with the surprise thing. Partially it was me being lazy and not wanting to roll hesitation for 18 Orcs. The other part is that I thought the Orcs would be really surprised by these two mounted warriors attacking them from completely out of the blue.

You're right about the rider falling from horseback. The hesitation was probably a bit excessive.

I played a bit loose with the rules, I guess. Mainly from not knowing them well enough. :oops:

Tim

[Fourth Horseman]

brash and eager to make a name for himself

Err, that would apply to every self-respecting knight, including the old farts. Kudos to your knight player, he does his ancestors proud. :mrgreen: Sounds like a fun crew.

[foxandwarlock]

No criticism here. My group has been at it for about six months now and one of the things that was helpful was knowing how other people handle certain situations - and the immediacy of response on the boards.

When it comes to big groups our GM breaks them up into smaller groups and rolls to reflect that group's response. And if you're feeling like its not enough surprise, give them some Ob penalties to their base Hesitation in order to reflect the total bushwhacking nature of the situation.

And keep the feedback coming! :twisted:

[Thor Olavsrud]

Cool Tim! Sounds like a very fun session.

Fourthhorseman is right! Attack the horse! That would almost certainly have freaked him out.

That said though, be careful with this type of situation. Generally orcs in Burning Wheel are pretty tough. Were any of them wearing armor? Usually one orc per player is pretty challenging, and you can make it pretty deadly by adding an extra orc or two on top of that. Normally, 18 orcs versus 3 heroes is a recipe for TPK.

[Kublai]

Great beginning, TimP!

Next time, if you'd like, have the Orcs help each other try to dismount the knight. Give them all spears. Have one orc try to push the knight, while granting him a +1 die for each other orc helping. That'll get him off right quick! :twisted:

[TimP]

When it comes to big groups our GM breaks them up into smaller groups and rolls to reflect that group's response. And if you're feeling like its not enough surprise, give them some Ob penalties to their base Hesitation in order to reflect the total bushwhacking nature of the situation.

Gotcha, that sounds like a much better solution for sure.

That said though, be careful with this type of situation. Generally orcs in Burning Wheel are pretty tough. Were any of them wearing armor? Usually one orc per player is pretty challenging, and you can make it pretty deadly by adding an extra orc or two on top of that. Normally, 18 orcs versus 3 heroes is a recipe for TPK

These Orcs were all of the Black Goblin variety, bone stock from the back of the BW book. They just had plated leather, as per the description and with the lance having VA2, it might as well have been no armor at all. Admittedly, I wasn't fighting very smart or cohesively or things would have gone much differently.

Have one orc try to push the knight, while granting him a +1 die for each other orc helping. That'll get him off right quick!

Argh, I wish I had thought about the helping rules, that definitely would have done the trick!

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions guys, my world will be a much more dangerous place next time my group gets together :twisted:

Tim

[TimP]

By the way, Has anyone burned up a set of lifepaths/traits for a Viking analagous culture?

[Kublai]

No, but it'd be great if you did! :D

[Thor Olavsrud]

By the way, Has anyone burned up a set of lifepaths/traits for a Viking analagous culture?

I know Luke is really interested in seeing this done, but it's way done on his list. You should give it a shot!

[TimP]

I was afraid that would be the answer. :shock:

I've got the old Runequest Viking box set and have read a couple of books on Viking culture, but I'll have to do a significant amount of additional research to achieve BW standards. It's a good excuse to buy books, though!

Tim

[TimP]

We had a great Burning Wheel session last night. I was really on with my
descriptions and 'mood'. A good amount of plot improvisation, too. This is insanely long. I apologize for poor writing, spelling, and grammar in advance. :)

The party had been scouting out an Orc encampment (The Orcs are actually rebuilding a small ruined keep in the wilderness, using slave labor) they had discovered in a previous session. The group had killed a couple of sentries early in the day. As dusk fell they headed back to camp, which was on top of a tall hill overlooking the Orc encampment. Looking down on the trail from the Orc camp to the spot where they killed the sentries, they see a couple of Orcs come out to relieve said sentries. The relief party discovers the bodies and runs back to the ruined keep. Ten minutes later, out of the fort comes 2 orcs mounted on Great Wolves and trailed by a small column of 8 infantry, two of which were armed with crossbows. I read the BW description to the party to impart the proper amount of respect for Wargs: "The warg's next action, once he has his jaws around something, is to Shake. He convulses his whole body in one mucular whip attempting to snap the victims spine. No roll is made. If the warg shakes, the victim takes a B12". I think my players were suitably impressed with how much trouble they were in :-).

Albricht the Pardoner (Cameron's character), Van DeVentner (Travis' character, a retired mercenary), and Ainslee (a scout/ranger/archer type played by this guy Walt, who lives in OKC and joins us once in a while) take up defensive positions around their camp. Sir Conrad of Nodwich (Pat's character) quickly saddles his charger, takes up his lance, and without saying a word to the rest of the group, heads out to meet the advancing Orc column. (Normally I would say this is a Bad Idea, but it totally fits his character, a brash young knight out to win a name for himself).

The rest of the party looks around at each other, confused. Conrad makes his way down the hill toward the orcs, rounds a bend in the trail and there they are! He couches his lance and charges, so do the two warg-riding Orcs at the head of the column. They charge through each other in a cloud of dust, the warhorse rolling its eyes wildly, the wargs growling and nipping at its flanks. No one is unseated or hurt from the charges (good armor rolls all around). The warg-riders wheel their mounts around. Conrad keeps charging (I wasn't expecting or prepared for this) and runs right through the middle of the column of infantry. The infantry are not ready and all have draw weapon scripted, except for the crossbowmen in the back. Conrad presses on, though the column of Orcs has slowed him down a bit. He takes a crossbow bolt to the shoulder, giving him a light wound. The warg-riders are hot on his trail as Conrad clears the rear of the infantry column. He spurs on his horse and begins to pull away from the wargs. (I had no idea Pat was going to do this, he manages to draw off the warg riders, which were the main threat. The column of infantry is stunned, surprised and needs a few minutes to get their act together).

Back at base camp, the rest of the party hears the sounds of combat below and decide to filter down through the woods and see if they can't help.

Conrad continues careening down the trail, and comes across a deadfall tree across the lane, he fails his ride check and his horse balks at the
obstacle. Conrad very nearly goes over the head of his horse (Pat got exactly what he his check to stay mounted). Unfortunately, the warg riders catch back up to him at this point, and as he's reseating himself an orc lance slams into his back and penetrates his mail. Conrad is staggered from the pain and blacks out (Conrad takes a midi wound at this point, and fails his steel check badly). I have his horse
make a steel check with some heavy obstacles due to having wolves at his flanks and an unresponsive master on his back. Instead of having the mount Hesitate, I rule that the horse freaks, clears the deadfall tree and halls ass down the trail.). Conrad comes to, branches are slapping him in the face, his horse is breathing heavily and going at a full gallop down a woodland trail. In the dark. The knight gets his mount back under control. The wargs are still chasing him, but are no match in a race with a horse and Conrad pulls away from them.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party has made it down the hill to where the Orc infantry squad is 'discussing' what to do next. Ainslee and Van manage to sneak up on the squabbling Orcs. Ainslee is hanging back to fire arrows from cover. Van has his short sword drawn and is praying his chainmail doesn't jingle and give him away as he gets closer to the Orcs. Albricht has no stealth abilities and is carrying a crossbow captured from the sentries the party had killed earlier in the day. He has no bow skill and is at root with double obstacles. He steps out into the trail and fires! Albricht somehow manages to actually hit an Orc, wounding one in the arm. The Orcs turn and begin to form up and move towards the Priest.

The first Orc to advance runs into the stealthy Van. It's the last step of his brutish life, as Van shoves his shortsword through the Orc's neck (Travis absolutely killed his attack roll and the Orc failed its armor roll horribly). The Orc drops to the ground as all hell breaks loose. To make a long story shorter, Albricht ends up taking a crossbow bolt to the eye and dies (Cameron was sick of him anyway, so it wasn't as terrible as it might have been), Ainslee drops a couple of Orcs with his bow, Van kills 3 or 4 Orcs, gets his mail really banged up and takes a pretty serious wound in the process. The couple of remaining orcs decide discretion is the better part of valor and flee back to their keep. Ainslee and Van quickly drag Albricht's body off of the trail, retrieve his holy symbol and prayer book and hastily pile a cairn of stones over him.

At this point Van and Conrad both are pretty badly wounded and in need of competent medical care. Of course, Ainslee and Van have no idea where Conrad is. Ainslee's player asks if he knows of any place to seek help close by. (Ainslee is a local boy and hangs around with Rangers and the like, and I thought it would make a cool addition to the story, so I make something up). Magda, the ancient Tulwyn (name cribbed from Harn) mystic lives in a cabin on Moon Lake, though it is said that she exacts a heavy toll for her services. (The Tulwyn are a primitive barbarian culture of hill-people. Though the party doesn't know this yet, the Orcs have been raiding them for some time, taking slaves, cattle, sheep and such. Walt came up with Moon Lake. I drew it in on the map. Magda is not entirely a good person, sort of a Baba Yaga type I'm thinking :-). Ainslee and Van make a desperate journey over land through the wooded hills to a place they only know the vaguest of rumours about.

Conrad has been travelling west, away from the Orc camp for most of the night. His horse is nearly foundered and the knight himself is bleeding and slipping in and out of consciousness (just being descriptive here, he isn't that badlyhurt. He finally gets back to the Werra River and the party's boat (They had travelled north up the river from Caewin Abbey to the head of the trail leading to the ruined keep). He realizes there's no way in hell he's operating a boat in his condition and turns his horse to the north, hoping to run in to the Mud People (the Mud People are a race of peaceful humanoids that the party has helped in a previous adventure. They rescued several of them from an Orc raiding party. This is what led them to the Orcs' base camp, incidentally). He reaches the Mud People Village that morning and falls off of his horse feverish and unconscious.

Van and Ainslee make it to Magda's cottage (good orienteering rolls!) and are standing outside the cabin discussing the particulars of how they're going to introduce themselves. Magda, of course, knows that they are there. Much crankiness issues forth from the old witch. She only helps them because they have been wounded fighting the Orcs. It nearly goes the other way when they mention they are from Caewin Abbey. The Tulwyn people are primitive and pagan and Magda, especially, doesn't much care for the worshipers of the All-Father (Christian equivalent). We had a great little scene going on here. Her cabin is a typical witch's abode. There are dried animal bits, skeletons, herbs and all manners of weird things hanging from the walls of her hut. She sends Ainslee after a pot of water to boil and begins preparing some herbs with a mortar and pestle. She cooks up a poultice to treat the worst of Van's wounds. He passes out when it's applied, but wakes up the next morning feeling much better. Magda insists that Van rest for at least a week before leaving.

Aisnlee is kept busy with chores during this time. When Van is finally healed enough to travel the old Witch asks what he's going to pay for her services. Van offers his entire purse (which is not much: a couple of silvers and a handful of coppers). Magda spits on the floor in derision 'Is that all your life's worth, boy!'. They try to mollify her and tell her to name her price (lots of jokes about 'bring me a shrubbery' ensue). She tells the two that they must bring her the head of Broke-Fang, the leader of the Orcs terrorizing this area. This will fulfill their debt, and more. (I wish I could have come up with something cooler and more 'witchy' to do, but nothing sprang to mind).

Back at Mud People Central, Conrad has recovered enough to travel. Eventually the group meets back up at the river and take the boat back to the abbey. Cameron has his new character together by now too. He goes by Tristram (not his real name) and is a Machiavellian poisoner, courtier, and general power-hungry not-so-good guy. He doesn't fit so well with the rest of the party, but I decide to run with it. There should be lots of opportunity for backstabbing, plot-thickening moments, and moral quandries with this guy around.

Anyway, the party makes it back to the Abbey. They have a discussion ith the Abbot, who is very concerned with having an orc fortress practically in his backyard. Unfortunately the Abbey doesn't have the resources to send soldiers to help the party, but Abbot Norwat promises material support for any expedition they might mount.

Conrad and Van are still pretty banged up and require another week of light duty to fully recover from their wounds. We gloss over this period. Equipment is repaired, Tristram is introduced and recruited. Conrad helps
the sergeant of the Abbey guard train the village militia.

The party gets their provisions together and decide to see what they can do about Broke-Fang. They choose to take a route through the Field of Kings (very analogous to the Barrow Wight field in LOTR. What can I say, I'm a hack!) rather than pass through the Fey Wood as they have been doing (there's a pretty serious non-trespassing treaty with the Elves that they've been breaking left and right by tromping all over the forest).

This is the cool part: Van has the 'Superstitious' trait. He's scared shitless to pass through the Field of Kings, which is rumoured to be haunted by the ghosts of the warriors that died there in a great climactic battle between good and the forces of a demon king a thousand years ago. Travis is playing his character's nervousness VERY well. He's subtle about it and it's an awesome thing as the rest of the party starts to clue in to what's going through Van's head.

Anway, they take a final vote on which route to take. Everyone but Van votes for the Field of Kings and off they go. They cross over the Werra River by ferry and travel all day along an ancient road through the Field of Kings. They see nothing but the occasional flock of birds overhead and make camp in a draw as night starts to fall. Van draws second watch and Travis pulls me aside to the other room. He wants to play up his Superstitious trait and asks for 'something to happen' on his watch. First watch passes uneventfully. Van goes on watch, sits on a big flat rock and pulls his cloak around him. I have him make a perception check. He succeeds. 'You hear a strange noise over the hill behind you. It sounds like schiiiick click click, schiiiiick click click on and on, sometimes close, sometimes far away.' Van is getting slightly freaked out. He wakes up Conrad. Pat asks if Conrad can hear anything (At this point I decide there IS something out there). Conrad makes his perception check 'schiiick click click, schiiick click click with an occasionally clack click clack wham!. Now there's another source of the same kind of noise, over the hill to your right'. A heavy fog starts to roll in and the temperature drops very low very quickly (I'm not sure if my players know about the association of low temperatures with supernatural phenomenon, but they're starting to pretty weirded out anyway). Conrad and Van decide to go investigate (uh oh, I've got to come up with what is Out There now!). Wisely, they wake the rest of the party before they leave. Ainslee warns them that they had better not leave camp 'Stay close to the fire!'. Conrad and Van are dissuaded. The fog gets thicker. Their pot of water is covered with ICE now. God it's cold for April!. Ainslee's watch is next. Van decides there's no freaking way he's going back to sleep and ends up staying up the entire night and getting about 2 hours of sleep. The party stays huddled in camp, nearly running out of firewood (which Ainslee was really concerned about. He did NOT want that fire to go out.) and are VERY nervous.

In the morning they pack up and head back down the old road. As they crest the hills that border the draw they had camped in they see these vaguely conical piles of round stones all over the place, with other stones scattered all around. They were NOT there before they camped the night before. Tristram wants to go investigate the piles of stones, but the rest of the party votes him down with a resounding NO!

I had a great time doing that scene. Man, they were actually freaked out! I couldn't believe it. Warmed my little GM heart, I tell you.

They travel the rest of that morning in the Field of Kings, seeing only smoke from a campfire/chimney off in the distance. They decide not to investigate (I think they're quite certain that the Field is a very dangerous place by now :wink: They turn north off the ancient path early that afternoon and finally get out of the Field of Kings shortly thereafter and into the shale hills that the Orcs inhabit.

The adventurers halt about two hours before dusk and gather an extra
supply of firewood for the ensuing night. It begins to rain shortly after the party stops. Ainslee is unable to get a fire started in the drizzle. They take care of their animals, eat some hardtack and settle down for a miserable night in the rain.

On Ainslee's watch the rain stops. He tries to start the fire again and succeeds. Too bad, because wet wood burns very smokily. There's a troll about in these parts. The rest of Ainslee's watch passes uneventfully, but on Tristram's watch the Troll makes his appearence.

Tristram makes his perception roll. 'You hear a boom......boom.......boom.... sound to the north, it's far away, but getting closer' (I'm slamming my fists on the table to make the noise of the Troll's approach. They're probably not that loud in 'reality' but I'm going for drama here). He wakes the rest of the party 'You hear boom....boom........boom..... cryeaaaaaaaaatch schrboooooom' (tree being knocked down). The party starts scrambling around, getting their stuff packed up, saddles on their horses, etcetera. Funny side note, they're all sleeping in their armor after the events of the night before.

They've camped in another draw and Tristram decides to go up on an adjoining hill to take a look at what's coming their way. Sure enough, he sees a massive troll coming in their general direction, pushing the scrub oak and maples that grow in these shaley hills out of the way. I roll a perception check for the troll and he sees Tristram on top of the hill framed against the faint pre-dawn light. The troll bellows and starts towards him. Tristram scrambles back down the hill and reports in. The party has a minute or so before the troll gets there. Conrad is the only one with good enough horsemanship to get his mount saddled in time, the other mounted characters fail their rolls miserably.

Conrad mounts up just as the troll rounds the toe of the hill that envelops
the draw the party made camp in. The troll sees the soft tasty little humans running around and roars/bellows really loudly. We go to combat mode. The troll charges, Conrad charges. The rest of the party gets weapons, arrows, and such ready. What happens when a charging warhorse and a 2-ton Troll meet at full run? Conrad wasn't expecting the troll to charge, so he hadn't scripted strike for the volley when the collision took place. The horse and Troll collide. Amazing, they both decide not to use natural defenses and both make their Power tests with the exact same number of successes. They collide with a tremendous bone-jarring thwack. The warhorse falls back on it's haunches wobbly kneed, the Troll is stunned as well. Conrad manages to stay mounted, drops his lance and draws his broadsword.

Van moves along the hill above the Troll, finds a big rock, wrenches it from the ground and bounces it off the troll's head (tough hide!). The fight with the troll goes on for quite a while and it's touch and go as to who's going to prevail. It's damn near an epic battle The party has a really tough time penetrating the Troll's hide. Tristram has prepared poison to put on his crossbow bolts, but never manages to get through the trolls skin. The party only defeats the Troll by whittling it down with called shots to the head and legs.

The troll takes off running taking a couple of wounds, stunned that these humans didn't scream and run at sight of it. Stunned that they didn't go squish. Stunned that it hurts and is bleeding! Conrad has been wounded and really needs the lance he dropped earlier to get a killing blow on this monster. Van has been fighting beside him (pinking the trolls legs with a short sword and making jokes about taking down this imperial walker with his harpoon) and throws the fallen lance up to Conrad. Ainslee fires a couple of arrows at the running Troll, which looks something like a beastly pin cushion at this point. He makes some pretty incredible long range shots, but just can't get a lucky break on damage. Conrad spurs his horse (which has also been wounded by the troll), catches up to the troll and skewers it in the back. The troll goes down with a tremendous thud. It's unconscious. Conrad dismounts, draws his broadsword and goes over to the fallen troll. Its chest is moving up and down, it's breath clouding in the pre-dawn chill. Conrad raises his broadsword far over his head and swings for the troll's neck. His sword chops through the tough hide and muscle to lodge in the troll's spinal column. Conrad wrenches his weapon from the now dead troll's corpse.

We stopped here, as we'd been playing for about 8 hours and it was getting late. Man, BW combat is just fun fun fun. We're slowly getting used to the system and the creativity in a fight is really starting to flow. The party figured out the magic of called shots against the troll. 7d of indestructable natural armor was giving them fits. I'm still a bit weak on the recovery rules. I did some hand-waving with the Magda/Mud-People healers, but the party was still out of action for two weeks. Great fun!

Tim

[jc_madden]

Perhaps Magda has an ulterior motive? Maybe she need's "Broke-fang's" head for a spell or potion or something?