Midgard : Scenario 3 : None Shall Pass : prelude

Well, it has been a long time since I made any progress on my Midgard : Britannia campaign. Lots of real life has got in the way recently, so large tabletop battles have had to take a bit of a back seat. Now that there is a Bank Holiday coming up at the end of this month in the UK (actually next Monday), I should be able to find the time to run the third battle in the campaign - None Shall Pass

I have a couple of days to prepare and put into order the game set up and the miniatures and scenery required for the scenario. In addition to putting together the physical requirements of the game, I also need to work on the story of the Roman advance to the next encampment/watch tower. I also need to update the map if I can, but I am having issues with my current image processor - I used to be able to use Photoshop (albeit a very old version that I purchased many moons ago) to a reasonable level of competency, but that version is now, alas, not compatible with Windows 11 and I just cannot get it to load on my latest PC.

Roman soldier - public domain image

For this scenario, the armies are not evenly matched as prescribed by the scenario. It sees the Romans protecting their rear from a larger force of Britons at a pair of river crossings. Each army is made up from the survivors of the previous encounter plus any reinforcements rolled up in the aftermath. There are a few new types of unit to contend with that should make the game more interesting from a narrative perspective at least.

The Britons' army for scenario 3 (97/209=306pts):

• Bellicus 3 (47pts)
• Maviloduus 2 (32pts)
• Catuarus 1 (18pts)
• 1x Warriors 3 (22pts)
• 3x Warriors 2 (51pts)
• 1x Female Warriors (16pts)
• 1x Mounted Warriors (16pts)
• 2x Skyclad (32pts)
• 2x Archers (30pts)
• 2x Slingers (20pts)
• 1x Hounds (22pts)

The Roman army for scenario 3 (85/121=206pts):

• Lucius Valerius Corvus 3 (43pts)
• Gaia Pomponia Thrax 2 (21pts)
• Marius Pollux 2 (21pts) 
• 1x Legionaries (34pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Archers (29pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Spearmen (24pts)
• 1x Legionaries (-1St) (34pts)

It is quite strange how the numbers of the antagonists (by points value) on both sides in this campaign so far have added up to the correct amounts to play the scenarios in the rule book. I daresay that after this battle things may go a little differently, but for now I am pleased with the campaign's progress.

The next post on Midgard should see a write up of the game similar to what has gone before. Until then.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#14) - Day 22 - onboard the Soul of the Winter

We managed to get another Ghosts of Saltmarsh D&D 5e RPG session in again on our regular-ish Thursday evening slot. Most of the players made it, so we carried on from where we left off. 

Here is the party list for reference (we are all currently at 4th level)...

Dharion - half-elf ranger

Drakkon - half-orc fighter (player not present, so we re-wrote the start of the encounter a little)

Druss - dragonborn barbarian

Gladreth - human wizard

Korum - human cleric

Navda - human rogue

...

Late at night of Day 22 - onboard the Soul of the Winter

Druss rapidly pulled himself back into the cabin to avoid being seen by the encroaching sahuagin warriors, and let Gladreth and I know what was happening. Navda, however, as he was unable to hear Druss's whispered warning, what with him being in another cabin, decided to investigate the noises himself.

Soul of the Winter - Sahuagin arrival

As I had slept without my armour on, I decided that I would try to quietly don my mail before the sahuagin investigated our cabin. This would have been a great ploy if it hadn't been for the fact that several of the sea devils decided to invade our cabins via the port holes (this meant that my, and other characters who usually wore armour, ACs were temporarily lowered).

Gladreth and I just about managed to deal with the sahuagin that entered our room via the port hole and the one that was outside too, but Drakkon got bottled up in the corridor outside his cabin by several in the round atrium. Gladreth went to help him whilst I milled around wondering what I could do to help out as there was no room to join the melee.

Meanwhile, from their description of what happened after the combat had finished, Navda and Dharion got bogged down in a melee with a magic wielding sahuagin matriarch who came through their cabin's port hole, and many more warriors that had come down the stairs.

The combat in Navda and Dharion's cabin was a tight run thing, what with about five sahuagin including the witch, attacking them. Navda managed to get out of the room and scream for my help, whilst poor Dharion was left in a pool of blood after being stabbed with a trident that took him close to death (he failed 2 Death Saves before Navda could stabilise him and I could get there to Heal him).

As I was making my way to aid Dharion, I heard the combat from my rear come to a halt as both Gladreth and Druss were injured and hit the deck. Torn between the urgency of saving Dharion and the risk to Gladreth and Druss, I decided that I had just enough time to get both actions completed if I hurried on with my original intentions.

Luckily, we were saved by the winding of a mournful sounding sea-horn. The remaining sahuagin warriors heard the sound and began to slink off as they disengaged from the combat.

After making sure that everyone was stable, we began to explore the rest of the ship to see how the crew had fared with this attack. We met with Captain Woolgar on the upper deck, who told us that he had lost five of his crew members but was heartened by the fact that we had survived and had taken care of eight of the raiders including the magic wielding witch, although her body had disappeared from the cabin in which she was killed when we began to collect the dead for disposal.

Soul of the Winter - Sahuagin departure

The DM mentioned at the end of the session that this should have been a short encounter that we should have easily ended in a few rounds. What with our extremely poor dice rolls and bad tactics, we made a right hash of it. Hopefully, we have got all the bad rolls out of the way so that the main encounter of this part of the adventure runs a little more smoothly.

As a result, this is a very short write-up of the encounter - it was basically a combat that the DM decided to cut short (as our session had run out of time) to save our blushes.

Song of Blades and Heroes - Battle Report 3

Last night we managed to get together for the final round of this mini-campaign. So far, the Orcs of the Red Eye had managed to push the human villagers away from their village. A band of elves saw this as an affront to their standing and forced the orcs to run away with their tails between their legs. Budlak, the orc leader, felt ashamed to be beaten by one measly elf, so he returned to the village to sort the situation out once and for all.

Orcs of the Red Eye (302 pts)...

Warchief Budlak Q 3+ C 4 Leader Tough (100 pts)

5 x Orc warriors  Q 4+ C 3 (115 pts)

3 x Orc archers Q4+ C 3 Shooter - Medium (87 pts) 

Orcs of the Red Eye

Since the previous game, Budlak managed to recruit two more archers to refill his ranks (basically I kept the same force composition for this game too). 

Defenders of the Realm - a mixed Human and Elf warband (295 pts)...

1 x Elf warrior  Q 2+ C 3 (38 pts)

1 x Elf archer  Q 2+ C 3 Shooter - Long (55 pts)

5 x Human Heavy Infantry  Q 4+ C 4 Short Move (130 pts)

1 x Human Light Infantry  Q 3+ C 2 Shooter - Medium (28 pts)

1 x Human Archer  Q 3+ C 2 Shooter - Medium (44 pts) 

Defenders of the Realm

To keep things "realistic" the remaining human and elf forces combined and added five extra human troops to swell their numbers. 

Again, this was just a straight fight to the bitter end - the winner finally keeps hold of the village. The orcs seemed to have the upper hand in both of the previous battles (apart from the devastation caused by the final gruesome kill in the second scenario), but would this time prove any different? The orcs gained the initiative so went first...

Starting positions

Turn 1

The orc warriors advanced rapidly towards the village, scenting a swift victory over the man flesh who they so easily defeated previously - the orc archers seemed to be a bit more cautious. The humans and elves (Defenders) advanced more slowly to meet the threat

Turn 1

Turn 2

When the elf warrior from their previous encounter came into view, the orc bluster ran out (rolled the dreaded double-one on my second activation) as Budlak caught sight of the elf that had caused his warband to flee. The human/elf archers let fly their arrows but all missed. The allies continued their cautious advance

Turn 2

Turn 3

Most of the orcs failed to advance (failed almost every activation roll) and the Defenders closed into combat. More archery failed to find its mark on the orc ranks

Turn 3

Turn 4

The sight of the heroic elf must have really affected Budlak as his forces again failed to advance into combat (double-one again, this time on the first activation!). The Defenders advanced further but all the combat ended without casualties. Again, the human and elf archers missed their targets

Turn 4

Turn 5

This is where the game began to warm up considerably (but typically I forgot to take photos at the end of each turn due to the excitement).

Budlak finally came out of his stupor and dispatched the troublesome elf. The melee around the farmhouse saw the humans retaliate for the loss of the elf by killing an orc warrior, but emboldened by his previous success against the elf warrior, Budlak killed again; this time a human warrior (O 8, HE 7)

Turn 6

Due to the pressure of numbers brought to bear, the orcs were forced to retreat from the combat, losing another of their warriors (O 7, HE 7)

Turn 7

The orcs finally brought their archers to bear from the other side of the building (it took a long time to get them there due to so many activation failures), causing the humans to huddle up closer after another of their number was felled by archery, but the defenders' bows kept the orcs at a safe enough distance for now.

Finally, the Defenders got a break through. Budlak found himself isolated and was cut down where he stood. This caused a few of the orcs to flee (Morale check on loss of leader), and then, seeing their comrades flee, most of the rest of the warband also broke away (Morale check for the warband dropping below half numbers), leaving just two solitary orcs on the battlefield. Seeing their fellow raiders killed or running away, and being only a tiny distance away from the board edges themselves (due to them also fleeing but not quite far enough to leave the battlefield), they decided that they would flee too (O 0, HE 6)

Turn 7

Well, that was a tidy bashing the orcs got there - again their poor Quality showed - Morale checks have been the bane of the orcs this campaign. This time the fighting was quite a way from the board edges but the orcs failed on multiple counts so all except two left the board - another massive collapse like last time.

The two double-ones during the game also did not help the orc cause, and neither did the fact that we got the movement allowances for the human heavy infantry wrong (they were moved a lot faster than they should have done). The orcs had pretty awful dice-rolls throughout the entire game; almost always when an outcome relied upon at least half-decent rolls - so many 1s flew from my dice hand during this game - at one point there were 6 failed activations in one turn! That said, the orcs lost and the human/elf alliance won not only the scenario, but also the campaign.

So, overall, the human/elf alliance was victorious over the orcs of the Red Eye. I really enjoyed the min-campaign, as did my son. He prefers this game now to Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. I spent a lot of the time whilst playing what my son's options were at each juncture. Next game, I will let him fly solo, as he seems to have mastered the intricacies of the rules now.

Song of Blades and Heroes - Battle Report 2

We had a quiet Sunday this weekend just gone, so we pulled out the Song of Blades and Heroes rule book again for a rematch. This time, I kept my victorious orcs and #2 Son decided to go for an elven warband - this time his points values were more accurate.

Orcs of the Red Eye (302 pts)...

Warchief Budlak Q 3+ C 4 Leader Tough (100 pts)

5 x Orc warriors  Q 4+ C 3 (115 pts)

3 x Orc archers Q4+ C 3 Shooter - Medium (87 pts) 

The orcs of the Red Eye

Defenders of the Realm - Elf warband (298 pts)...

4 x Elf warriors  Q 2+ C 3 (152 pts)

2 x Elf archers  Q 2+ C 3 Shooter - Long (110 pts)

1 x Wood Elf warrior  Q 3+ C 3 Forester (36 pts) 

The elf warband

We decided that this skirmish would be the second part of an ongoing mini-story (we are hoping to get one more game in later on this week to conclude the saga). After the rather one-sided affair between the humans and orcs last time out, a small scouting band of elves decided that the humans needed to get their village back and the orcs needed to be put back in their place to restore the natural order (and restore the buffer zone the human village afforded the local elf settlement).

We chose to play a straight up fight again as the scenario we rolled just didn't quite meet what we wanted to play. We diced for who was to be the defender and who was to go first. The orc faction was the defending force, so set up the table, the elves chose which side to enter from, the defenders set up first and then the elves rolled the best initiative so went first.

Starting Positions

Turn 1

Both sides advanced across the battleground of the local village. The elves did not hold back in their efforts to close into combat with the orcs and reclaim the village from them

Turn 1

Turn 2

There followed an ineffective exchange of arrows, and close combat was joined (one wood elf versus two orcs)

Turn 2

Turn 3

This turn ended up being a bit of a disaster for the elves; the elves advanced but the dreaded double-one was rolled half-way through the process, so play turned over to the orcs whereby the wood elf was easily downed by the two orcs he was in combat with (O 9, E 6)

Turn 3

Turn 4

The combat began to coalesce on the village side of the board. The elves managed to inflict a gruesome kill on one of the orc archers which caused another orc archer to retreat away from the combat. The orcs retaliated by ganging up on a single elf spearman and hacked him down (O 8, E 5)

Turn 4

Turn 5

The elves managed to kill another orc archer but the tide really turned with another double-one being rolled. This meant that the orcs could really go on the rampage; they killed a further two elves and a Morale check caused a further elf to retreat off the board. What with the final elf archer being laid prone and the final elf spearman being isolated it should have been a small matter of mopping them up one at a time (O 7, E 2)

Turn 5

Turn 6

Unfortunately for the orcs, this was not to be. In a fit of rage at seeing his comrades being slaughtered, the final elf spearman managed a gruesome kill on the last orc archer which led to the entire orc warband fleeing from the board (O 0, E 2)

The orcs flee

Again, this proved to be a very one-sided affair right until the very final roll of the dice by the elves. The gruesome kill and the subsequent Morale checks meant that all of the orcs fled. I tried to roll for my leader first, because if he passed the test, then his Leadership trait would have added +1 to the other's dice rolls; he failed and so did the rest. Even if some of the orcs had passed, they would have had to have taken a second Morale check for the loss of their leader, and then a third Morale check if their numbers dropped below half. They didn't stand a chance at Q 4+. Lesson learned for the future - do not fight too close to the board's edge just in case a morale check looms.

My son was beginning to get side-tracked towards the end of the game as he was upset at how badly the elves had fought and how badly his dice rolls were. I managed to entice him back for the final turn (I asked him if he wanted to surrender but he said "No") and everything changed on the one combat dice roll. I felt a little underwhelmed at how defeat was snatched so easily from the jaws of victory, but happy for my son as he now knew that games can change direction on literally one dice roll.

We will try to play one more game later on this week to round out the mini-campaign. I will keep the same orc force (just need to work out two replacements for actual kills) as they return for one final attempt to wrest the village away from the humans, and my son will take the remaining humans and elves (2 of each) and add to them to make up a full sized force. As the score is one-all, then this will be the decider.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#13) - Return to Saltmarsh (Days 14-22)

We got back to our full complement of players this session, but Drakkon had to sit out the remainder of the necromancer encounter until we were able to reclaim him from the lizardfolk.

Day 14 (continued) - the fight in the cavern

Sir Riley chuckled to himself as he continued chanting in a strange language. The waters to either side where the alligator teeth were thrown began to bubble and two skeletal figures emerged from the murky depths of the water. Seeing as these were undead, I channelled the divine Radiance of the Dawn to deal with the new arrivals. It damaged them enough for Sir Riley to get annoyed and call forth a gaseous attack upon my companions.

The ensuing combat was brutal with many wounds dealt out by both sides. I managed to cast a Burning Hands spell which damaged Sir Riley quite extensively, and he cast some kind of spell that summoned a black fog to hide within. What emerged from that smoke was a winged demonic being enveloped in fire. The demon then disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. Whilst this was going on, the two summoned skeletal beings were destroyed; one being was chopped to pieces by Dharion's sword and axe and finished off by Navda's archery, whilst the final being was Firebolted by Gladreth.

As we looked around after the combat, catching our collective breaths, black tentacles suddenly erupted from the ether and engulfed Dharion and Druss, who fought back with all their might. Gladreth also took a lot of damage from the new threat and fell to the floor. I somehow sensed that the demon was above us and shouted to let the party know. Navda shot an arrow but missed, but a perfectly aimed javelin from Druss managed to kill it outright. The demon plummetted to the floor and slowly turned back into the skeleton form of Sir Riley, whereupon it then proceeded to crumble to dust.

I healed Gladreth enough to bring her round, whilst the other adventurers removed the heads of the alligator and the skeletons to show to the lizardfolk what had been attacking their tribe.

When we arrived back at the lizardfolk camp, we showed them the grizzly trophies and said that we could find no survivors. Although saddened by the loss of their family, they let Drakkon go and gave us a bag of painted pebbles as a reward. They then escorted us the rest of the way through the swamp to the outskirts of Saltmarsh.

Days 14-21 - Saltmarsh

Upon arrival in the town we first sought out someone in authority to tell them about the landslide just out of town; they agreed to send a party of workmen to sort it out. We also needed to assess our treasures, so we visited the lady we had asked about evaluations previously. It appeared that the lizardfolk painted stones were barter tokens for food, drink and shelter; we kept them for possible further use. The belongings of Sir Riley, the necromancer, turned out to be an evil cloak, a necromancer's spell book and a Staff of Major Healing. We agreed to dispose of the evil items in due course, but that I should keep the staff as I was the main healer of the party.

We then reported to the linen trader to tell him about our failed quest. Unfortunately, we had to tell him that Morley had done a runner with the linen and did not consider himself a friend of the trader. When he asked about his cart and horses, we had to apologise on not returning that also, although we did mention where it could be found. The trader was not happy and left in a huff.

We then spent the next seven days making new acquaintances, now that we had become something of a talking point around town. The local council approved of how we were handling ourselves and the situation but when we tried to reclaim our ship, we found that it was still impounded in the harbour and considered the property of the crown. No matter how we argued, the guards and council would not return it to us.

It was whilst we were arguing with an official that a tall, well-dressed orc sauntered up to us and asked us whether we could retrieve an item or two from a cargo ship a few days' sail away. In payment, his boss, the owner of several sailing vessels, would give us a ship.

Doubting his word, but not wanting to miss a possible opportunity that might be too good to be true, we decided to follow the orc to his master's abode, a mansion on a hill on the outskirts of town.

The mansion, upon arrival, was a little more run down than it appeared from the town, but none-the-less it was still an impressive building. Upon entry, the main hallway was full of expensive tapestries on the walls and heavy furniture that may have been fashionable many moons go but were still worth a pretty penny today. We were soon shown into a study to meet an elderly, well-dressed human named Albrick, who treated us to food and drink before getting down to business.

Albrick mentioned that he was the owner of the Emperor of the Waves, a ship that went missing around ten years ago. It was travelling back from strange lands full of precious cargo, including a Cross of Pelor (a top furnishing for a battle helm that would allow its wearer to converse with the god and thereafter be bestowed with great powers), when it got caught in a storm and was never seen again, until three days ago when it was spotted on an island a few days' sail away.

To get a drop on any salvagers, Albrick asked us to find the ship, remove the full cargo to a ship he would furnish us with for the mission, and the Emperor would be ours. He said that he would give us two hundred Gold Crowns for our troubles as a sweetener in the deal.

We had a quick meeting and decided that we would take the deal, as a ship we could then definitely call our own would be worth the risk. He pulled a large ledger from a shelf and made an entry within it which he asked us to counter-sign; which happened to be in our own blood from a hidden needle in the ink pot. After we had all read and signed the ledger, he handed us the promised two hundred crowns and said that the Soul of the Winter under Captain Woolgar was anchored in the harbour, fully crewed, awaiting our arrival.

Day 22 - onboard the Soul of the Winter 

The following day, after we had re-equipped ourselves in readiness for the voyage, we climbed aboard the ship. It was only then that we noticed that the entire crew was made up of dwarves; a people not fully trusted in these parts.

The ship set sail as soon as we were onboard and we were warned to remain in our cabins as there was a major storm brewing where we were headed. We spent the time playing games and chatting, but as time wore on we all began to feel a little more queasy as the waters became rougher and the skies became greyer.

At around 9pm, after everyone had eaten and the night shift had settled in, we made ready for our beds. It was at this point that Drakken thought that he heard scuffling and then something go thump on the deck above the cabin. He moved to the door to investigate the unusual sound, and upon opening it was met by the sight of a sea creature coming down the steps towards him...

A sea creature met upon the ship's steps

Song of Blades and Heroes - Battle report

My youngest son has been with us for the last week or so and rather than go over the fields to play football today he decided that he wanted to play a battle game. We usually only play the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Games : Battle Companies, but he said that he wanted to try something a little different this time. He still wanted to play a skirmish level affair with about the same amount of soldiers on each side. I racked my brains and pulled out my copy of the Song of Blades and Heroes rule book, which I haven't played for many a year now.

I had a quick skip through the rules to remind myself of how to play and we both choose a ~300 point army each...

Orcs of the Red Eye (302 pts)...

Warchief Budlak Q 3+ C 4 Leader Tough (100 pts)

5 x Orc warriors  Q 4+ C 3 (115 pts)

3 x Orc archers Q4+ C 3 Shooter - Medium (87 pts) 

View from the orcs' side

Defenders of the Realm - Medieval style humans (278 pts)...

Sir Tristan  Q3+ C 3 Leader (60 pts)

1 x Heavy Infantry  Q 4+ C 4 Short Move (26 pts)

3 x Barbarian Warriors  Q 3+ C 3 Fearless (108 pts)

3 x Human Shortbowmen  Q 3+ C 2 Shooter - Medium (84 pts) 

We got our maths a bit wrong here, for some reason we thought it added up to 298 pts - an extra Heavy Infantryman could have been added to the human force. 

View from the humans' side

We decided to play a straight up fight just to learn/get used to the rules again. We diced for who was to be the defender and who was to go first. The human faction was the defending force, so set up the table, the orcs chose which side to enter from, the defenders set up first and then rolled the best initiative so went first.

Turns 1-3

Both sides advanced across the battleground of the local village; the orcs were more eager to close into combat and claim the prize of the village and all its stores

Turn 2

Turn 3

Turn 4

Shooting produced no effect from either side, but when combat ensued, one of the human warriors was knocked prone

Turn 4

Turn 5

This turn was far more bloody - two orcs were knocked prone but one human archer was killed by the orc archers and one barbarian was killed by the orc warriors (O 9, H 6)

Turn 5

Turn 6

After taking such a heavy beating, the human warriors stepped back to reform their shield wall. Another of the human archers was not able to retreat as quickly as the others and fell to more orc arrows (O 9, H 5)

Turn 6

Turn 7

The orcs attacked again and one more barbarian fell causing a Morale check for the force hitting half strength. One human archer ran away, but the remainder retreated to within a few mm of the board edge (O 9, H 3)

Turn 7

Turns 8-9

The orcs chased the humans, who backed away and chose to use the high ground for their final stand

Turn 8

Turn 9

Turn 10

Sir Tristan fell to the orc rabble which caused a second Morale check, wherein the heavy infantryman ran away, leaving a solitary barbarian to defend the village  (O 9, H 1)

Turn 10

Turn 11

The orc archers killed the remaining barbarian warrior (O 9, H 0)

Final stand

Orc victory

The orc that shot the final arrow

This turned out to be a rather one-sided affair. The orcs made mincemeat of the human defenders. As the orc leader, I played a very aggressive game, and always rolled a minimum of two Activation Dice. My son played it very safe and only ever rolled one die per figure, except we both rolled 3 dice for the last figure in each turn.

I think that if he had that extra warrior, it might have made a small difference to the outcome (the orcs may have lost one or two troops), but he realised his biggest mistake was playing it too safe; he was so worried about rolling a double-one and not being able to use all of his troops in each turn. I threw caution to the wind and always rolled two dice, only rolling a double-one once in the entire game.

My son really enjoyed his first foray into Song of Blades and Heroes and said that he would love to play again sometime soon.

Historical Holiday Interlude - Rhodes

During the first half of July this year, my partner and I decided to take a trip to Rhodes. We had already been to Cyprus in March and taken in lots of (pre)historical goodness in the way of ancient tombs and Greek and Roman remains, so this time would bring us a little more towards the present day with the most intact medieval city in Europe. It also linked nicely with the Knights of the Order of St. John.

Not knowing much about Rhodes other than the story of the persecution of the Knights Templar in 1307 and the subsequent fiscal attacks on the Knights of Rhodes in the aftermath of that act (apparently to break the financial power of the two orders), we decided to explore a bit of the old town to find out more.

From the couple of museums we visited we discovered that the city of Rhodes is one of the most intact medieval cities in Europe and that the old town and the Grand Master's Palace are the two main attractions in the north of the island - we didn't get to see any of the other fortresses and towers on the rest of the island as this was to be mostly a holiday of relaxation (sun, sea and sleep).

City Walls (as seen from the harbour)

 

The Harbour defences

 

 

 

Grand Master's Palace (as seen from the harbour)

Anyway, without going into all the details, we explored a lot of the old medieval town, palace and city walls and learned a lot of the history of the island and the Order of the Knights of St. John. These details may come in handy for future gaming with knightly orders in their historical context, or for fantasy versions in an imaginary world. Often, a real institution's history and organisation can be a great place to start to base a fantasy one on.

Surprisingly, other than appearances on a few tee-shirts and fridge magnets, not much is made of the Colossus of Rhodes. I wanted to find out a little more about this Wonder of the Ancient World, but other than it fell to an earthquake in ~226/225 BC, I only really found out that it didn't straddle the harbour as I always thought but was situated to one side. It represented the sun god Helios, and was apparently 33 meters tall and made of bronze. It was raised to celebrate a victory over Demetrius of Macedon. Sadly, the remnants were gathered up in the 7th century and melted down. What a sad way to end its life.

Being a mostly fantasy game player, I thought that the machinations of the order and their enemies could make for a great political game, especially if I could use the iconography of the Colossus as part of the set-up. Then, when I found out that they had their own dragon myth I got even more excited about gaming possibilities. Apparently around the year 1332 a dragon terrorised the people of Rhodes. Many knights went to Mal Paso (Bad Pass) to slay the enormous, long-tailed beast with scales of metal that no arrow or spear could pierce, but none returned. As a result, Grand Master Helion de Villeneuve forbade anyone else from attempting to slay the monster, but, as always in these tales, a young knight, Dieudonne de Gozon disobeyed the order and set about defeating it. To cut a long story short, he took a year out from his knightly duties to fashion a replica of the dragon at his father's castle in Languedoc to get his horse and dogs used to the sight of such a beast. Having also learned of a small, vulnerable unplated part of its underbelly, he set off to slay it. When he encountered the dragon, he was knocked off his horse by its long tail. However, he was able to pierce its soft underbelly with a spear, but the monster's dead body fell on him, trapping him beneath. He was hauled out by joyous villagers and taken to Grand Master Helion de Villeneuve who was going to punish him for disobeying orders, but let him off due to the cries of the populace and promoted him to Grand Master instead. Apparently the dragon's head was on display on the Sea Gate until at least the 17th century when it was written about by two travellers!

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (session 12) - The Lizardfolk (Day 14)

One of the players could not make the session tonight, so we dropped his character (Drakkon) from this encounter - we agreed that he had returned to the lizardfolk to guard our stake in the venture whilst we explored the cave system.

As the ripples approached the party, Navda threw a fist-sized stone at where he thought an underwater being might be. The stone splashed heavily and the ripples stopped. The area went very still and quiet and we all held our collective breaths. Suddenly, the water erupted right in front of me as a massive snake reared out of the water. I managed to cast a Warding Flare to stop the beast, but it was either cast too late or had no effect on the reptile as it bit me.

Navda managed to shoot the creature with his bow, but not before a second snake emerged in front of Dharion. We engaged the snakes in combat, but even above the din of the fight and the resultant splashing water, we all noticed the centre of the pool had begun to bubble and move.

The snakes attacking us suddenly dropped from sight as we looked at the moving mound and dreaded what might emerge from it. A huge alligator burst from the weeds and detritus and headed straight for us. We managed to form a battle line but the beast was so fast it managed to bite me and render me unconscious before I could get a strike in. I remember none of the remainder of the battle, but this is what I was told afterwards when my comrades brought me round...

The fight was a close run thing. The huge alligator managed to cause several grievous wounds to my comrades in arms, but they eventually destroyed it using a combination of magic and sheer brutality. As the fight went on I slowly slipped towards death as my blood flowed from my wounds in a torrent unstopped. Luckily, the beast was slain just in time, and Navda's medicinal skills stabilised me so that I could then be properly Cured by Dharion.

Noticing that the party was in dire need of medical attention, I cast a Prayer of Healing that managed to undo most of the damage caused by the encounter with the great crocodilian. We made sure that the alligator stayed dead.

We took stock of our situation, mostly making sure that there was no sign of those two snakes that we had encountered just prior to the alligator, and began to explore the rest of the open cavern. We found a small entrance to a cave system and proceeded through.

Saltmarsh lizardfolk cave system

We kept to the more shallow waterways where we could wade through rather than swim, or the areas of dry land. Unfortunately this meant that Navda managed to set off a number of traps; the final one being as we approached a dark cave in the north-west corner.

After Navda, and then Gladreth had been hit by a number of darts from a trap in the north-west sector, we heard a voice emanate from the darkened cave. Sir Riley of Aradora introduced himself and was quite joyous at our arrival. As it was dark in the cavern, I cast Light on one of my holy symbols so that we could see who we were talking to. It turned out Sir Riley was a skeleton that had been pinned face down by a column of rock that had dropped from an overhead trap and had landed on his pelvis and upper legs. He explained that he was able to use his magics to keep himself alive, but at the cost of his body slowly rotting away - he had been there a very long time. This explanation rang alarm bells for me but I couldn't put my finger on why his story did not ring true to me. The rest of the party were more believing and proceeded to rescue him from under the stone. Although he came out in two parts, we placed his bits together and he was able to restore his skeletal body to wholeness; again this rang alarm bells in my mind.

Whilst being rescued, Sir Riley told us his story; he and his comrades had been hired by the governess of Saltmarsh a few decades ago to explore this area and to establish a new habitat for the town. Unfortunately, he was caught by the various traps and finally ended up under the rock. He asked about the alligator as he and his companions had had a run in with the beast all those years ago but had not been able to slay it. We affirmed that it had been killed by our own hands. He then asked us to look around the cave system to find his effects. We willingly obliged, finding a robe and backpack which he gladly received and put on, and a wooden staff with a ruby red gem at the top, which I refused to give back to him. I was still unsure of his motives despite him being very friendly.

Sir Riley's ears pricked up and he looked like he had heard something. Upon asking him, we were told he could only hear reptilian voices. We decided that we would head out of the caves to take stock of our situation but Sir Riley took a detour to examine the body of the great alligator. He murmured a few strange words as he pulled two of the alligator's teeth and cast them into the marsh either side of the party. He then thanked us for our help...

Ghosts of Saltmarsh - The Wreck of the Tammeraut II (Days 10-14)

It has been a fair few weeks (months?) since I last posted a write-up of our D&D Saltmarsh campaign. Unfortunately, due to real life and holidays getting in the way each week we ended up with a bit of a hiatus in the campaign. We managed to get back round the virtual table on Thursday to remedy that.

 

 Day 10 (Continued) - The Wreck of the Tammeraut

The underwater combat continued on with the appearance of more zombies emerging from the wreck. This was not helped by the fact that we could also hear some very low-pitched moaning emanating from within the remains of the ship, indicating that something large was still in there.

As the fight at this point was now limited to just a few remaining zombies, Dharrion was able to sneak past the combat to see what was inhabiting the wreck. The water turned extremely cold as he approached the large being within; it looked remarkably like a sea captain but much larger (maybe 10'-12' tall), with a suction-cupped tentacle for one arm and a great sword held in the other!

As the last of the sea zombies were put back to rest by the fighters in our group, with a little help from Gladreth and I casting some offensive spells I might add, the fight moved into the wreck. The giant sea zombie cast about with its great sword and tentacled arm with great devastation, causing me to heal many wounds to my fellow adventurers, but it was not only physical damage it caused; the cold and sense of fear emanating from the being eroded our confidence that we could defeat this being. Druss was hit for some nasty, permanent necrotic damage that put him out of the fight, but that diversion was just enough for me to cast Burning Hands and for the rest of the party to re-double their efforts to allow Dharion to finish off the entity with a hit that critically damaged it. It fell and turned to sludge and seaweed in a matter of seconds leaving no trace of it ever being there other than the great sword it left behind.

As we gathered together to assess our situation we realised that all the effort had caused our underwater breathing abilities to begin to wear off as we began to struggle a little for breath (except for Gladreth as she joined us later). We had just enough time to search the inside of the wreck, and discovered a huge treasure chest (the treasure that the pirate crew of the Tammeraut were going to bury somewhere safe), and to block the stone plug over the orifice to the otherworld with the magical immovable iron rod.

We returned to the surface with hands and pockets full of whatever treasure we could carry and climbed onto our boat just in time as our underwater breathing abilities ran out. What to do with the remainder of the treasure was quickly discussed and we returned to the hermitage on Firewatch Island.

Days 11-13 

Over the next few days we returned to the site of the wreck and sent Drakkon down wearing his magical helm to recover the rest of the treasure and returned it all to the island. Whilst this was going on I was able to repair the permanent necrotic damage to Druss with a Minor Restoration spell and he made a full recovery.

During the afternoon of the thirteenth day, after assessing the value of the treasure, we made a small number of, what we hoped were innocent looking, boat trips back to the main harbour town to transport our newly found wealth. We rented a large room in a quality inn and set about converting what we could into large denominations of currency in the form of gems and jewellery. This still meant we had a number of chests full that were too heavy to carry by any one individual. 

Day 14 - Return to Saltmarsh

The next day, as we had nothing else to keep us in town, what with Morley having gone missing again, we decided to return to Saltmarsh. We packed our rented cart and headed back along the coastal path towards the city.

Several hours into our journey, we discovered that the road had been completely wiped out by a mudslide with no easy way around it. We decided to leave the cart and horses in a safe place and went looking for a way around the road blockage.

It was very heavy going in the surrounding marshlands, and after a number of minutes we began to hear reptilian screeching coming from the woods ahead of us. As we edged forward to investigate, the ground erupted beneath the party and everyone but myself was swept up into the trees in a huge net trap. This drew the attention of the lizard folk, who ran to investigate what their trap had caught. I tried desperately to hide but I did not act quickly enough and was soon surrounded by many lizardmen pointing their spears and darts at me.

They were convinced that we had come to steal them away and kill them like we had the others, but as the discussion went on it became obvious that they had mistaken us for the real evil-doers and that they saw all humanoids as the same. I was able to stall them in their discussions of wanting to eat us (they had even begun to build a cooking fire which I kicked apart before they had the chance to light it) long enough for my companions to cut themselves free of the net trap. This evened the odds a bit and eventually we were able to find out what had happened to their tribe and offered our help in stopping the perpetrators. It appeared that humans captured the lizard folk and took them to a cave from which they were never seen again.

We were asked to leave all of our shiny stuff as collateral to force us to return after investigating the disappearance of their families. We managed to negotiate with 50 gold crowns, but my offer of a Light infused coin was met with scorn as their shaman showed that he could do the same trick. They would keep the shiny stuff for one day and then assume that we were just like the other humans and had just run off without helping them.

After the shiny transaction had taken place we were shown to the cave a short distance away where all of the other lizard folk had been taken into and had never returned. We were left at the entrance to the cave by their trackers, who then headed back to their tribe, and headed into it.

It turned out that it was not really a cave entrance as such, but an opening into a shallow valley dominated by a sixty foot diameter pool full of black water, surrounded by very boggy ground with the occasional small islet piled with what looked like reptilian bones that were maybe several weeks old.

Saltmarsh Cave

As we approached one of the small islets after wading through some of the bog, we noticed the water began to approach our position from both sides in a rippling motion.

 

And a final update: due to the aforementioned everyday stuff getting in the way, the Midgard : Britannia campaign also took a hit time wise recently. The next scenario is almost ready to go but it is finding the time to get the table set up and a game played. I think I have the forces and scenario sorted, plus some newly bought scenery (river sections - still unpainted - to replace those my cat destroyed a number of years back) to allow it to happen. Hopefully I can get the next scenario sorted in the next couple of weeks, and the next game played, although I do still have a lot of real life stuff to deal with first.

Midgard : Scenario 2 : Aftermath

The Encounter in the Mist saw both sides take very heavy casualties; in fact, the Romans were almost wiped out...

The Britons' losses (87pts):

• 2x Warriors 3 (44pts)
  
• 1x Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 1x Slingers (10pts)
• 1x Skyclad (16pts)
  

The Roman losses (137pts):

• Marcus Aurelius Bellator 2 (25pts)
  
• 1x Legionaries (34pts)
• 1x Cavalry (20pts)
• 2x Archers (58pts) 

• (1x Legionaries (34pts) from previous game Hors de Combat due to reduced Stamina)

The last battle left a big hole in both armies' forces, so I have upped the reinforcements this time round to make sure that I have a couple of decently sized forces for the next game, with a mind to attempting a last-stand type scenario where one side is outnumbered by the other. So, here are the reinforcements that I rolled (in the order I rolled them) for the next game...

The Britons' reinforcements (150pts out of a possible 150pts):

• 1x Archers (15pts)
• 1x Archers (15pts)
• 1x Skyclad (16pts)
• 1x Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 1x Slingers (10pts)
• 1x Hounds (22pts) 
• 1x Mounted Warriors (16pts) 
• 1x Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 1x Warriors 3 (22pts)

The Roman reinforcements (53pts):

• 1x Centurion 2 - replacement (no cost)
• 1x Auxiliary Archers (29pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Spearmen (24pts)

Going forward I will change the numbers of reinforcements back to the amounts from the last post on that subject - Britons = 100pts plus % based on size of victory, Romans = either Legionaries or two rolls on the auxiliary tables. I may change the table somewhat as I am rolling too many "specialist" units and really want more warriors types. I will have a think on that again over the next few days. I have decided that the Romans, like the Britons, should get automatic replacements for their lost leaders; a bog-standard Level 2 Legionary Centurion, except if cavalry are rolled and a new mounted Decurion or somesuch can be added. I will allow any reduced Stamina units to make up the numbers on the tabletop if needed.

The Britons' army for scenario 3 (97/209=306pts):

• Bellicus 3 (47pts)
• Maviloduus 2 (32pts)
• Catuarus 1 (18pts)
• 1x Warriors 3 (22pts)
• 3x Warriors 2 (51pts)
• 1x Female Warriors (16pts)
• 1x Mounted Warriors (16pts)
• 2x Skyclad (32pts)
• 2x Archers (30pts)
• 2x Slingers (20pts)
• 1x Hounds (22pts)

This force is now back to a smidge over the 300pts starting value - what I was aiming for to enable me to play None Shall Pass (Scenario 2 from the rulebook).
 

The Roman army for scenario 3 (85/121=206pts):

• Lucius Valerius Corvus 3 (43pts)
• Gaia Pomponia Thrax 2 (21pts)
• Marius Pollux 2 (21pts) 
• 1x Legionaries (34pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Archers (29pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Spearmen (24pts)
• 1x Legionaries (-1St) (34pts)

The Romans are up to 200pts now which allows for the None Shall Pass scenario to be played properly (correct points sizes; 300:200). I am amazed at how these numbers are turning out if I am honest. There is no dice fudgery going on, just pure chance.

 

For the above scenario to become playable on the tabletop I need to create a few more figures bases. I will need a unit of Hounds for the Britons, plus a new centurion and unit of Auxiliary Spearmen for the Romans. I have all the figures required, so I will just need to paint them up and/or supply sabots for them. Now, what do I go for, mastiffs or wolfhounds, and how many on the base? I have a dog handler to go with them, but will need a different style of base as these dogs are mounted on 2p pieces and the handler on a 1p piece.

Mastiffs

Wolfhounds

The scenario also calls for a couple of items of scenery that I do not have, so I will either have to buy something that fits the bill or use an everyday item to allow me to proxy that scenery like in the last game where I used a couple of cork dining place-mats as rough ground. I will also try to get some more paint onto some more of the unpainted figures.

Representing the horrors of Cthulhu without giving the game away

I decided on a change of pace today, and amended the style of post. This is a break in form from the last few months' of D&D and Midgard game write-up offerings. I am harking back to a mini-series of related posts from 2021 wherein I discussed various ways I used to run fantasy gaming sessions. They can be seen again below if you wish to take a look...

Dungeon Dwellers' Tactics - 23 Jan 2021
Henchmen and Hirelings - 7 Jan 2021
Dungeon Ecology - 6 Jan 2021
Dungeon Parties - 5 Jan 2021

Continuing on; this is a post on how I think it may be better to represent the Cthulhu mythos and other similarly associated gribblies on the tabletop without stat blocks getting in the way - i.e. keeping a sense of awe and horror without reducing everything to numbers.

Whilst reading a book, or watching a film or TV show, I love the feelings of suspense and dread that the authors/screenwriters give to their creations and the protagonists' encounters with them. I would very much like to represent those feelings in my tabletop games.

Cthulhu Mythos Calamari - free download

I have played Call of Cthulhu on and off for many years, over several different versions, including the Dark Ages and Invictus settings. I have also played a number of one-off humans versus monsters RPGs and tabletop games like All Flesh Must Be Eaten and Broken Legions, but what has prompted me to write this post is my recent-ish acquisition of the Osprey Publishing book When Nightmares Come. It got me thinking that I often find that the horror of Lovecraft's creations are not given any justice once they make it to a rules set, because once they have stats associated with them and the players get hold of said stats, then the horror element has essentially gone. So, how do we represent unnamable and indescribable things in tabletop and RPG games?

I think the first thing we need to look at here is whether we are going to Role play or Rule play. Obviously all games require rules to make it fair for everyone that takes part and they provide the guidelines on how to play, but sometimes rules can get in the way of a darned good narrative. Most of the RPGs that I have participated in as a player have been theatre of the mind style - no miniatures, no props, just good story telling by the GM and the level of immersion into the game instilled by the players. From this, would it be too much of a stretch to have monster abilities that the GM makes up on the fly? The GM can work out what will cause harm to the creature based on pre-game thoughts, or maybe ingenious role playing by the players - that is, if a player thinks of a great ruse to disable a critter, then it should be rewarded with game-world changes by the GM. That doesn't mean to say that the next time a similar monster is encountered it has to have the same vulnerabilities.

When I play a game I try not to look at any stat blocks or monster descriptions so I purposefully don't know what each critter is capable of. Obviously stats are required for game play's sake, but if they are used, they need to be kept secret so the players do not know what they are up against. Unfortunately, having played many RPGs and having read many fantasy, sci-fi and horror novels I, as a player, kind of know what most creatures are by their description and then know what their traditional weaknesses and vulnerabilities are. This leads me towards a bit of rule playing knowing that such-and-such is a 2 HD monster, cannot be hit by mundane weapons, but is vulnerable to silver. I wish I could forget all of this whilst playing. That said, even though I, as a player, know this, unless a particular gribbly has been encountered previously, my character does not know what it is. This is where the Role playing comes in.

So, here is where a good GM comes into their own. Why should a particular monster look like the stereotypical form of that monster? Why can only certain weapons harm them? Why can they not come out during the day/night? Although it would turn any "real life" mythology on its head, in a fantasy or sci-fi world these vulnerabilities can be different. A monster might just be a particular species that is just very hard to kill. Use the rules in the Bestiary of whatever game world you are playing in but amend it slightly. In a fantasy context, maybe ghouls are not undead but are a race that live in crypts and darker environs as sunlight harms them (it does not kill them but slows them, blinds them etc.). They can be killed by mundane weapons but due to their metabolism they regenerate swiftly or their biology dictates they need very little blood in their system, so as a result a cut will very likely not bleed (or not very much at any rate) hence all hits only cause minimum damage.

Using the above as an example of how we can mix things up, means we can use more horrific creatures in several new and different ways. Like the ghouls mentioned above, maybe zombies are also not undead, but are afflicted by a virus (as per many Hollywood movies recently), or are beings subjected to a fungal spore infection (as in my own Doggerland D&D campaign). Do they move quickly or slowly? How do they feed and what on?

Before a monster is encountered properly for the first time in an adventure, have signs and clues to its existence; stories told around camp fires or in the local inn, spoor (fur, scales, slime, ectoplasm), the remains of its previous victim(s), a strange smell in the area etc. Build the picture slowly but enticingly. The next encounter should be just as the monster has wreaked havoc amongst, but not been killed by, another group of NPCs (maybe make these NPCs warriors or adventurers so it ups the perceived threat level). Next, have the heroes encounter the monster but have them not be able to kill it quickly (reduce all hits to maybe the minimum damage, let it take several hits and then escape). Finally, have the heroes meet the monster face-to-face. Use its normal stat lines but try to work the combat encounter so that one of the heroes deliver a death blow using a particular kind of weapon (a silver blade, a magic item, etc.) or only bludgeoning hits cause damage etc., to make them think that is its weakness. If this killing blow can be emulated in other encounters with the same type of creature, then the players may think that the beings can only be overcome by certain weapon types; the mythology will build itself. 

These are just a few options for consideration when running horror style encounters in your RPG. Unfortunately, this is a little more difficult for a tabletop wargame as both sides need to know the beings' capabilities (although I can think of one or two ways around that). Maybe I can have a think on this subject further and use the idea for a future post?