Dark Age of Eracost Session 7

 Party

• Baron Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 3

• Tavenna, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 2

• Kilosz, Fighter 1

• Baron Gregoire, Paladin 2

• Baron Shevayron, Tratkean Fighter 2

• Saporobir Caan, Explorer 2

• Æredan, Navgarine Warrior 1

Recap

July 28, 427

The party spent a week in Rantal. Yet more war dogs and spiked barding were purchased, Tavenna learned her new spell (a lightning bolt spell that’s custom to this setting) and Saporobir hired a 1st level explorer named Bartosz, along with some mercenary horse archers. A new PC met us here, replacing Draeo - Æredan the Navgarine Warrior.

August 4

Party travelled north to Amtolosz along the road, meeting no trouble.

August 5

We set out north to investigate reports of kidnappings and dragonmen attacks. Farmers and traders met along the road indicated that the dragonmen attacks were further east, but they were very concerned about local disappearances.

Our hunting dogs alerted us to a strange smell along the road and we found a herd of sheep. One sheep acted strangely and stared at Shevayron. When he tried to zap it with a lightning cantrip, it transformed into a twisted plant creature. The creature was immediately torn to shreds by our war dogs.

We inspected the creature, found it was intentionally growing in the shape of a sheep to blend in. Tavenna, our historian, revealed that these monsters had been seen in part wars with Gadaszin, but had never taken stealthy forms like this. Ravenna, also being our animal expert, inspected every sheep but found no more monsters. We collected some ichor, and set our hunting dogs on the trail of the plant creature, which led us east into the forest.

Later in the day, Greg spotted something shiny in the grass… a diamond ring. He decided to try it on. Fingol cast protection from power on him in case of a curse, but it wasn’t enough. Greg was cursed and his strength halved!

Near the end of the day we came across some old Navgarine ruins. This had been a city of carefully grown trees, now overgrown and ruined. Æredan found some inscriptions, which allowed Tavenna to identify the ruins as the ancient city of Blessed River. We camped here after spending an inordinate amount of time convincing the noble paladin Gregoire not to intentionally get killed in the forest at night or try to start a forest fire.

August 6

We explored some paths through the dense forest ruins. We came across small groups of goblins and kobolds, and both were dispatched without much danger.

The goblin group was camped around a broken statue plinth. Our Navgarines read the inscription, which named an ancient Keeper famously slain by dragons.

After slaying the kobolds we approached a stone structure, which we guessed to be the keep of the ancient Navgarine city.

Dark Age of Eracost Session 6

 Party

• Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 3

• Tavenna, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 1

• Kilosz, Fighter 1

• Greg, Paladin 2

• Shevayron, Tratkean Fighter 2

• Saporobir Caan, Explorer 2

Recap

From my perspective playing Fingol the Navgarine Keeper.

May 24, 427

After some deliberation, the Earl of Amtolosz confirmed our rights to the fort, and named those party members who agreed to be raised to the rank of baron. We would rule the wilderness barony as an oligarchy. We decided to name the fort Vigilant Keep.

Then followed a massive amount of downtime activity tracking. We took a full 60 days of downtime, primarily so Fingol could study 6 (!) new spells. If you’re wondering how he had so many open slots, Keepers of the Stars get expanded repertoire at level 3 along with access to level 2 spells, Fingol has INT 17 and hadn’t filled his extra slot from hitting 2nd level.

While Fingol powered up with spells (aka natural power techniques in this setting), other party members trained proficiencies, and Saporobir partied the entire time, spending well over 1500 gp and becoming a local legend.

July 24

Finally, the party was ready for adventure. We set out to track down the two treasure maps that we’d looted from Tarvon’s brigands. The first map led us to a cave, east of Vigilant Keep. Inside we discovered a prisoner had been kept by the brigands. We found out that this man (a navgarine) was an apprentice alchemist, and the brigands had forced him to work on some kind of cursed potion, involving tiger eye, willow bark, blessed thistle and holy water.

July 26

Having allowed Simul, the prisoner, to rest a day at Vigilant Keep, we took him back to his hometown, a small Nomoine village. There he was reunited with his family, and refused Fingol’s offer of work as a henchman.

July 27

Searched for the treasure from the second map, and it was simply a buried chest with some silver and gems.

July 28

Returned to Rantal to sell some scrolls and resupply. The sale of magic items got Tavenna to 2nd level.

The general plan from here was to investigate the disappearances north of Amtolosz caused by dragonmen.

Fingol’s Squad

Reserve xp: 125

Fingol Keeper 3 4169 / 7280

Tavenna         Keeper 2 1813 / 3640

Kilosz Fighter 1 1718 / 2000

Dark Age of Eracost Session 5

From my perspective, playing Fingol the Navgarine Keeper.

Party:

• Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 1

• Tavenna, 0-level apprentice keeper

• Kilosz, 0-level launderer

• Greg, Paladin 1

• Ambrogino, Venturer 1

• Szeidran, 0-level guard

• Shevayron, Tratkean Fighter 1

• Saporobir Caan, Explorer 1

May 21, 427

With the brigands locked in their keep, we formed up at the bailey gate and brought forward our ballista.

A stranger (new PC replacing Jaret) calling himself Saporobir came upon our rearguard and met with some suspicion, but assured us of his hate for Tarvon. He snuck around to the back of the keep alone.

We fired our ballista and punched a hole through the keep door, then advanced. At about 90 ft. out, Ambrogino and Shevayron shouted to the remaining brigands. Our demands were simple. Everyone except Tarvon was to lay down arms, and they would be allowed to walk away.

To the remnants of a force which had lost more than three quarters of its strength, up against an enemy whose numbers and strength was still unknown, this offer was too good to refuse. Weapons were thrown from windows, and out of the gate came the bulk of the remaining men:

• 27 brigand archers

• 2 navgarine practitioners (mages)

• 4 priests

Each man was searched and questioned, then allowed to flee. They told us that Tarvon was hiding on the upper level. After the others had gone, Shevayron questioned the priests. We learned that this brigand group was native to Waterwatch (a nation to the south which is known mostly for piracy). Tarvon had lost his village in a war with Rantal, and turned to brigandry. Our party was not impressed by these excuses, and Shevayron was particularly incensed at Keudan priests going along with a group that indiscriminately slaughtered innocents. Going back on his word, he ordered the priests tied up to be delivered to the Earl of Amtolosz.

Unbeknownst to the main force, Saporobir was scaling the back of the keep with a grappling hook. He made it to the top and found a locked trapdoor. On this he knocked and said, “Tarvon! I’m here to save you, hurry up!” The door opened, and inside was Tarvon with his three captains, his wife and two other women. Saporobir offered the brigands an escape with his rope, and they agreed, apparently in desperation. They sent Saporobir down first, followed by Tarvon himself. Saporobir slid quickly to the bottom, smashed his lantern and started shooting arrows at the brigand leader, who was injured before scrambling back up.

Still unaware of this, our party stormed the keep with Greg and Shevayron in the lead, and the bulk of the spearmen behind. On the ground floor we found some enslaved villagers who we released. We caught Tarvon’s men on the roof and held the trapdoor with spears. After taking a few volleys of arrows, they finally surrendered.

Shevayron interrogated the men, but we learned little. Then we put Tarvon and his captains to the sword.

May 24th

After two days rest in our shiny new (ok somewhat shoddy and partly burned down) fort, the captured warhorses were again fit for travel.

We left behind the Szeidran, our most loyal henchman (now a 1st level fighter) to command the spearmen and archers and hold the fort. We returned to Amtolosz in triumph, bearing the head of Tarvon.

On the way in, we met a wounded soldier who told of dragonman raiders north of town.

We met the Earl, collected a tidy 1000 gp reward, and presented our case. We asked to be given title to the land around the fort we’d captured, to keep the area secure from further dangers. This was left to be decided next session.

Gains:

Most of the party reached level 2 and henchmen level 1. Fingol and Ambrogino reached level 3 due to lower level caps (they were capped at 1 xp below 3 after taking the keep, then pushed over by the reward).

The party got a big influx of gold by selling the warhorses and spoils of the brigands, and we got a decent haul of other loot including a +1 sword, 7 magic scrolls, 6 potions, a treasure map and an alchemy lab in the keep.

Dark Age of Eracost Session 4

 From my perspective, playing Fingol the Navgarine Keeper.

Party:

• Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 1

• Tavenna, 0-level apprentice keeper

• Greg, Paladin 1 (in absentia, played by me)

• Jaret, Navgarine Urchin 1

• Ceana, 0-level seamstress

• Efaila, 0-level tavern keeper

• Ambrogino, Venturer 1 (in absentia, played by me and Jaret)

• Szeidran, 0-level guard

• Draeo, Assassin 1

• Shevayron, Tratkean Fighter 1

May 5, 427

Yesterday, the party had arrived back in Amtolosz after raiding Tarvon’s brigand patrols. On the morning of the 5th, there was a disturbance in the streets, as a wounded man arrived in town, reporting that Tarvon had raided a hamlet in the Baronies, slaughtering everyone and sending the lone survivor with a message that the “coward” who had killed his men should show himself. Of course we had no idea who he referred to, since we were all very based and courageous lads who had slaughtered his men.

So after briefly considering a reckless outing to try to intercept his raiding party, we proceeded with our previous plans and force-marched south to the small city of Rantal.

May 6

Here the party took two weeks to prepare for the attack on Tarvon.

Notable hiring:

• Fingol hired a new 0-level henchman, Kirosz, a muscular launderer with an intense desire to “wring the brigands’ necks”

• Ambrogino hired an artillerist and a driver for his cart-mounted ballista

• Greg/the party hired a small force of mercenaries:

• 10 light infantry

• 14 heavy spearmen

• 6 bowmen

Notable purchases:

• 2 war dogs with spiked leather barding (1 for Shevayron, 1 for Fingol)

• 14 bags of caltrops (!!)

Tavenna was assigned to study healing for two weeks with the local physicker, Shevayron worked on learning riding and some others did odd jobs for a bit of coin.

May 21

We scouted the brigand patrol paths, then approached Tarvon’s fort after nightfall. The fort was a strong stone keep, with a bailey surrounded by a 10' wooden palisade.

A rough sketch of our force deployment:

Advance

• Draeo and Jaret

Center

• 14 Heavy spearmen + Greg in a single rank

• 6 bowmen + Kilosz in second rank

Right flank

• 5 light infantry with javelins

• Fingol, Tavenna, 3 armored war dogs and 2 hunting dogs

Left flank

• 5 light infantry with javelins

• Shevayron, 2 armored war dogs

Rear

• The ballista cart with Ambrogino, Szeidran, Efaila, Ceana and the unnamed cart driver and artillerist

The main force held back far out of hearing distance without torches while the advance force sneaked up to the palisade. They made it up to a dark section of the wall undetected, then slid along to the gate and began spreading caltrops. Still not hearing any disturbance, they went north and lit a section of the palisades on fire with naphtha, then circled all the way around to the south.

When the watchmen finally spotted the fire, they raised the alarm and sent five men out to fight the fire. Those five men ran across the caltrops and were horribly incapacitated. Seeing the fire lit, our main force advanced.

While the general confusion reigned, Draeo and Jaret slipped over the palisade on the south wall. They tried to light the stable on fire to stop the brigand cavalry from mounting up, but it didn’t stop them.

At this point we realized there were 31 medium cavalry with lamellar and barded warhorses. Previous intel had said there were 20 cavalry, and we had assumed they were light cavalry. We had prepared two layers of anti-cavalry defenses - first the caltrops, then the heavy spearmen. 14 against 31 didn’t look too good, but then…

The cavalry charged out the gates directly through 15 ft. of caltrops, and they were absolutely devastated. On the same round, we hit them with a bolt from our medium ballista and a volley of arrows. At the end of the round there were only 8 or 9 left standing, and their morale broke. The next round they attempted to retreat, but none made it back inside.

With the heart of Tarvon’s forces torn out, we advanced, exchanging fire with his archers until they retreated. To add insult to injury, Draeo had set even more caltrops on the grassy field between the gate and the keep, which took out even more archers. Unfortunately, the retreating archers caught on to the fact that someone was infiltrating, and they quickly searched the tents and outbuildings. Draeo and Jaret were both caught and slain by the enraged brigands.

Our main force advanced into the bailey, and the brigands sealed themselves into the keep.

Dark Age of Eracost Campaign Session 3

From my perspective, playing Fingol the Navgarine Keeper.

Party:

• Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 1

• Greg, Paladin 1 (in absentia, played by me)

• Jaret, Navgarine Urchin 1

• Ambrogino, Venturer 1

• Draeo, Assassin 1

• Shevayron, Tratkean Fighter 1

April 14, 427

Late in the evening, the party returned to Amtolosz and went to the Garden House inn, where they met a Tratkean sailor named Shevayron and quickly recruited him.

April 15-27

During the following two weeks of downtime the party sold all the bandit gear, including the magic items, and spent lots of money on equipment, mounts, dogs and henchmen. Fingol managed to get a war dog and kitted him out with spiked chainmail.

In all, four 0-level henchmen were hired. Jaret hired two women who appeared to have potential as thieves, and Draeo began training them in hopes that they would be able to level into assassins. Ambrogino hired a spearman from the town guard. And Fingol hired Tavena, an apprentice Navgarine Keeper.

“I’m essentially looking for if any of the women are morally dubious.” - Jaret

“I need FIGHTING MEN!” - Fingol before hiring a female mage.

“If you were to fall down the stairs, would you survive the impact?” - Jaret to Tavena, who turned out to have 1 hp.

April 28

The newly expanded party set out toward the location which we’d been told contained a hill fort occupied by Tarvon and his brigands. The total strength now was 6 PCs, 4 Henchmen, 2 hunting dogs and 2 war dogs.

April 29

We stashed Ambrogino’s cart and set out on elk-back to scout the hex. Very quickly we stumbled upon the fort, a small stone keep with a wooden palisade around the bailey. We set up along one of the trails leading toward it.

It wasn’t long before a patrol of 5 men came across the party’s path, and we ran them down, taking a prisoner. We got some basic numbers out of the prisoner before executing him, and found that the brigands had more numbers than we thought. We also found out that there were two patrols of 5 men out, and the route of the other. Thanks to this information we intercepted the second patrol and wiped them out as well.

April 30-May 1

The party had some wounded, and wanted to go back to town as the new month would mean another war dog, so we headed back to Amtolosz. On the way, we spotted what may have been a valuable vein of ore.

There, in addition to the new supply of war dog and military oil, we found that we could obtain siege engines. Ambrogino promptly built himself a war wagon with a medium ballista on the back. None of us understood the rules for siege engines so we got away with (figurative… just barely) murder. Next session we’ll have to correct the ballista rules, but at this point we were rolling with a warthog from Halo.

May 2-3

Returned to the field. Updated strength: 6 PCs, 4 Henchmen, 2 hunting dogs, 3 armored war dogs and a medium ballista on a cart.

We camped out again on the brigand patrol routes, and this time ran across a patrol of 10 men. They’d obviously doubled the patrol size since we ambushed the previous ones, but this was to our benefit, as we still won the fight with ease and took out twice the men.

Figuring if it worked once it might work again, we checked the opposite patrol route and… voila, another brigand patrol. This time after the shock and awe of our ballista, we captured 5 men.

May 4-5

We took the 5 prisoners back to Amtolosz and turned them in to the guard, accepting a small reward.

 

Dark Age of Eracost Campaign Sessions 1 and 2

Session 1

From my perspective, playing Fingol the Navgarine Keeper (custom race for the Illiras setting, closest analogue would be an elven mage).

Party:

• Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 1

• Jarett, Navgarine Urchin 1

• Ambrosio, Venturer 1

• Draeo, Assassin 1

• Greg, Paladin 1

April 10, 427

Arrived outside Amtalosz, where there was a wagon being inspected at the gate.

A guard approached the wagon, and a brigand stabbed him, shouting “Tarvon has a message!”

5 brigands leapt from the wagon and attacked the guards. Fingol tried to help, along with some other bystanders. Fingol’s two hunting dogs, Godwin and Fion, were slain in the fight, but the brigands were killed without any other human casualties.

After the fight, the party received no reward and little thanks from the guards, but only some information. Tarvon is a brigand leader, for whom there is a 1000 gp reward offered by the Earl of Amtolosz.

At the mercenary guild in town there were two other postings. One to investigate beastmen attacks in the north, and another to investigate disappearances.

Banding together with the other adventurers from the gate, Fingol agreed to go after Tarvon in a few days. In the meantime, Fingol (who has Alchemy 3) took on some work with the local alchemist, earned some gold and bought 2 new hunting dogs.

Session 2

From my perspective, playing Fingol the Navgarine Keeper.

Party:

• Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 1

• Jarett, Navgarine Urchin 1

• Ambrosio, Venturer 1 (in absentia, played by Jarett)

• Draeo, Assassin 1

• Greg, Paladin 1 (in absentia, played by me)

April 13, 427

The party set out with the five adventurers, 2 hunting dogs, 1 war dog and a cart, searching the road to the south for evidence of brigands. In the morning there was an encounter with a merchant train that amounted to nothing. But in the evening, we encountered brigands.

25 brigands came out of the hills, and we failed our surprise roll so they were 2 rounds from engaging us before we could even think about fleeing. Not wanting to lose our cart and supplies, and knowing that Fingol had a big AoE spell, we started shooting and casting.

Fingol got the perfect casting of the spell Falter Creatures, which is a lightning spell that does damage in a cone similar to Fan of Flames. Bigger cone, smaller damage, and creatures who fail the save falter for a round. The cone covered EVERY brigand. It was glorious.

With elementalism I had a d6+1 of damage… and I rolled a 1. 4 out of 25 brigands went down. At this point we all figured we’d be switching to our backup characters.

Draeo shot down the brigand leader, but they charged in and surrounded us. Fingol fled to his riding mule, Greg got wrestled to the ground immediately, and the 2 new hunting dogs were butchered (that’s 4 dogs in 2 sessions I’ve lost). The three remaining PCs were all Charisma guys, and they negotiated a surrender.

As the party was dragged away, Fingol followed the trail.

After force-marching, the brigands had an encounter very similar to the one we’d had earlier in the day - a merchant caravan of 20 wagons. Now the CHA characters went to work again, and before long the wounded brigands were convinced to greedily attack the caravan, and our assassin was going in with them. Six brigands were left with the prisoners, and of course as soon as the others were gone, the prisoners rose up to attack, and Fingol came out of the woods to help. Jarett’s war dog had a field day and the brigands were slaughtered.

On the other end, it was 10 brigands against a merchant and 4 guards, but the merchant was a 5th level venturer. Between him cleaving and Draeo backstabbing, the brigands were crushed and scattered. We chased them down and left only one alive, to answer questions.

We learned a lot from the prisoner. We got the rough location of Tarvon’s hideout in an old fort, learned that he has about 50 more men, including 20 cavalry and 2 Navgarine practitioners. We got the tip that local village women had been visiting the brigands, and Jarett followed this up the next day on the road, speaking to a farmer, then a village priest, then a disgruntled father, then finally a young woman who had run off with a brigand. Miriam gave us some further details of the fort and Tarvon’s routines.

Finally, we returned to Amtalosz to sell our cartful of brigand equipment. Loot included a potion, two magic scrolls and a map, as well as 25 sets of bandit gear.