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.
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