H&Y Infinite Open Table Sessions 25 (Attack on Circlebrook)
Characters:
Ronby (Duress) + Phil + Tanzy
Xavos (Laggs)
Flamagio (Reeves) + Silvio + Eclair
Gundur Bundur (Oscar)
Note: Important for context is that the PCs have been finding evidence of an attack on Circlebrook by ghouls with unknown allies scheduled for Autumn 1. This session took place before I made the domain play changes in my prior articles on said changes, but the players were aware of the factions in the area. We were primarily using the mass combat rules from Knave 2e.
Autumn 1, 6023
On the day of the attack, the PCs wake up and begin marshaling their troops. They have 20 orc infantry and 2 war mages by way of Rolof Redmountain, and Croakpool sent 4 elven rangers on Loreto's behest. They could see that the attackers were forming up in 4 groups, 2 groups of skeleton soldiers marching out of the river to the west and south and 2 groups of orcish commandos outfitted in Gnomish adamantine attacking from the east and north. They also saw that a portal to another plane was opening up in the middle of the town, possibly to draw in more reinforcements.
The PCs roughly split their forces, relying on the magical firepower from Flamagio and Silvio to hold down 2 streets, and the raw strength from the demon-possessed Xavos to hold down another. They threw the rest of their hirelings and characters at the last street to try and overwhelm one of the lanes of attack.
Pictured: Crude battle plans depicting defenses in a rough 4-pointed cross formation.
The PCs rolled extremely well and were able to eliminate the commanders of the attack and decimate the attackers as they approached. The central portal opened mid-battle long enough for a single demon to crawl out, he destroyed the outer wards of Circlebrook with a spell but was ultimately defeated by the combined prowess of the PCs.
Note: I scaled down the mass-combat rules to match the relative scales of the battle but that made the outsized power of the PCs and their magic impact the battle quite heavily. The PCs definitely had a good plan for defense and strategized well, but it felt a bit too easy. I'm going to chalk this up to my own inexperience with mass combat, I think if I had more experience with small-scale wargaming this might have been a bit more back-and-forth.
Results after the battle concluded:
Pictured: Many dead orcish commandos and skeletons, a defeated two-legged walker mech and large demon superimposed over the last image. Fireball pictographics cover the scene.
The party helps Circlebrook clean up after the battle. There's damage throughout the town but the only major loss was the ward around the town. Rolof's soldiers took the brunt of the lives lost, many of the townsfolk only came out with bumps and scrapes. The party loots the dead commandos for their adamantine and absconds with the totaled two-legged walker mech, taking both as rich prizes for their efforts in saving the town.
The party decides to take a trip up to Frogville near Croakpool to see if they want the golden frog statue they got while adventuring a couple sessions ago..
Autumn 4, 6023
The party gets to Frogville, meeting back up with their friend Malcolm the blacksmith. They give the golden frog statue to the frogfolk there as a gift, cementing themselves as honorary frogfolk and earning them warm hospitality whenever they visit.