Last time, Ivy made an alliance with the newly-exiled gnoll Widestripe and his handful of followers. Widestripe had lost the election to become the clan’s new leader to his brother Horsebiter after Ivy killed their father in a duel. He wanted her help to kill his brother and gain control of the clan. Widestripe has only a fuzzy idea of what swearing fealty means, but does understand that the deal is that if he fights for Ivy she’ll reward him with gold, and if he doesn’t she’ll kill him.
Ivy’s picked fighters assaulted the narrow entryway to the gnoll cave, taking several wounds but managing to kill Horsebiter. The gnoll clan’s elder, Greypelt, attempted to surrender. Ivy would have been happy to add the surviving gnolls to her warband but Heinryk the Hero, overcome with his berserk’s battle-lust, slew Greypelt. The last two gnolls lost a morale check and fled deeper into the cave, where two of their fellows guard a long tunnel with bows at the ready.
That’s where the action resumes. The rest of this session was one long, complicated combat, with the action eventually breaking out across three different fronts.
Cast of Characters
The warband is split into three groups:
Ivy & Her Champions
Ivy Blackstar – Fighter 4. Wields Blackstar, her +2 sword, and has sworn to conquer the town of Eveningstar.
Nogi of Firedeep – Dwarf 2
Heinryk the Hero – Fighter 4. A berserk.
Harg – A bugbear
Widestripe – a gnoll
Bent-Tail – a gnoll, one of Widestripe’s supporters
Three-Laughs – another one of Widestripe’s supporters. Killed by arrows in the initial charge
Ivy and the champions lead the van of the assault.
Mothclaw’s Band
Mothclaw – Orc 1. Ivy’s loyal lieutenant.
Urskrag & Luggog – orcs
Rangrop – a goblin
Dorben – Dwarf 2
Drunvir & Reedle – Elf 1
Mothclaw’s group formed the second wave of the attack.
Ambrosius’ Band
Ambrosius – Cleric 3. Former leader of the cult of evil chaos that the main party destroyed. With the help of the cult’s relics (now lost) he reanimated King Rivior’s body as a wight, and knows whose spirit inhabits Ivy’s helm. Plotting to become the power behind the throne as Ivy’s councilor.
Dedbane, Golgob, & Wolfeye – hobgoblins. Unhappy about taking orders from an orc.
Robart & Delgert – Fighter 1. Robart is an old bandit and former merchant’s guard. Delgert is his adult daughter.
Ambrosius and his troop remain outside the cave, to secure the warband’s retreat or to act as reinforcements as needed.
THE LOG
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| the battlefield |
Round 11
Heinryk cuts one of the fleeing gnolls (Gnawbone) down from behind. Two arrows strike him from the archers stationed at the end of the tunnel (13/24 HP), but the berserk barely notices.
Round 12
Ivy is furious at Heinryk for disobeying orders, but feels like she has no choice but to commit her forces now. The truce is broken, and her troops will expect plunder. Better to lead her warband to victory here than to be seen being further undermined. She calls her remaining champions Harg the bugbear and Nogi the dwarf after her, but orders Mothclaw to hold this chamber.
Heinryk pursues the remaining gnoll halfway down the tunnel. Two more arrows whiz past him.
In the nearby Shunned Cave, a large owlbear wakes from its daytime slumber. It smells blood.
Round 13
Heinryk catches up to the fleeing gnoll (Stinktooth) at the intersection. The panicking gnoll dodges right and begins to flee towards J49, yelping in alarm. An arrow strikes Heinryk from the archers in J47 (9/24 HP). Ivy and her champions catch up with Heinryk.
Back in J46, Mothclaw’s group begins to loot the dead gnolls. Dorben the dwarf and Rangrop the goblin also help themselves to bows and arrows from amongst the slain.
Round 14
As Ivy approaches the battle-maddened Heinryk, he spins to strike at her, dealing a savage blow (15/31 HP). Heinryk has a 1-in-6 chance to attack allies in a fight, and his number finally came up. A stray gnoll arrow strikes Harg, marking the bugbear’s second wound in this attack (6/14 HP). Following a Morale check, Ivy’s champions are enraged at Heinryk’s betrayal and move to the attack, although only one can aid her in the narrow tunnel. Ivy does not hesitate, scoring a critical hit for 9 damage, but Heinryk remains upright after a blow that would have felled a horse (1/24 HP – Heinryk takes -1 damage from all sources while in his battle-frenzy).
Outside, the owlbear emerges from its cave, blinking at the light. It sees Ambrosius’s band and rises up onto its hind legs for a hunting hoot. Ambrosius yells at his troop to form a line, with Robart, Delgert, and two of the hobgoblins’ spears to the fore. The cleric remains in the second line with the hobgoblin Wolfeye, who fits an arrow to his bowstring.
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| The wages of treachery |
Round 15
A three-way simultaneous initiative! The gnoll arrows miss everybody. Ivy scores another hit for 12-1 damage – Blackstar strikes off Heinryk’s axe-hand and part of his forearm, but the berserk still manages to smash Ivy against the wall with his shield before passing out from loss of blood (7/31 HP). Rising, Ivy yells “at them!” gesturing down the tunnel with Blackstar’s dripping blade. Harg and Nogi charge. (since I’ve been running Ivy’s champions as “PC’s” Heinryk got to make a save vs death and rolled on my Death and Dismemberment table).
Outside, Ambrosius’ troops move into formation. Wolfeye shoots, but the shot is long and the arrow goes wide. The owlbear thumps down on all fours and begins to run at them.
Round 16
The gnoll archers make their last, hasty shots, but miss. Harg and Nogi reach them, each scoring wounds.
Widestripe and Bent-Tail run past Ivy, cackling, and turn right at the intersection. They are headed for the common room at J49, where they know the gnoll women and children will be.
The owlbear’s charge picks up speed, the monster hooting each time its powerful foreclaws slam into the ground. Ambrosius’ forces test Morale and hold, but barely. Wolfeye misses another shot.
Round 17
Nogi wounds his gnoll, Bald-Nose, a second time (in addition to having 4 Dexterity and a vow against wearing armor, Nogi seems to have terrible luck on the damage rolls for his two-handed axe). Ivy considers the unconscious Heinryk for a moment before cutting his throat. His death is a loss to the warband’s fighting strength, but his battle-frenzy has turned out to be a liability.
Widestripe and Bent-Tail burst into the gnoll’s common room in J49. Widestripe declares to the assembled gnoll women that they are safe now, and that he leads the clan. A reaction roll indicates that the female gnolls accept this, fearful of the slaughter that they can hear going on outside. However, Horsebiter left a single warrior here as a guard, the eerie gnoll known as No-Smell. Emerging from the shadows, No-Smell spits with disgust and asks Widestripe if he means to kill Horsebiter’s two children himself, or if he plans to let the humans do that for him too. Widestripe is infuriated and moves to the attack.
The owlbear wins initiative and slams into Ambrosius’ line before Wolfeye can shoot for a third time. The hobgoblins Golgob and Dedbane are torn apart in a flurry of beak and claws, but old Robart manages to wound the beast with his spear (26/30 HP). After a long break while I looked up whether an owlbear can be affected by OSE’s Cause Fear spell, Ambrosius intones the dread words and the owlbear turns to flee, screeching in terror. The spell’s effect lasts for two Turns, which is 120 Rounds, so it’s basically out of the fight. The owlbear runs back to its cave to hide from visions of whatever owlbears are afraid of. Unfortunately, a failed Morale roll also sends Wolfeye, Delgert, and Robart scattering in panic.
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| Pretty much like this |
Round 18
The gnoll Sixclaws manages to wound Harg (2/14 HP) before Nogi and Harg kill the two gnolls they were fighting. Ivy sends the wounded Harg back to the cave entrance and continues into the gnolls’ lair with Nogi.
In J49, Widestripe and No-Smell circle each other. Widestripe snarls and yaps, while No-Smell is silent and flat-eyed.
Mothclaw’s band rush outside to find out what all that commotion was and find Ambrosius standing alone amongst the dead hobgoblins and scattered weapons that the fleeing Delgert and Robart tossed aside. The orc laughs uproariously when Ambrosius fills him in. Robart and Delgert return, sheepishly collecting their weapons. Wolfeye is still running for the hobgoblin cave.
Round 19
Widestripe nearly kills No-Smell with a single blow (1/9 HP). Ivy and Nogi enter the common room, and her cold command “Enough!” stops the fight. Widestripe knows only the barest smattering of Common, but is able to translate her demand that the beaten No-Smell surrender (though he does so rudely and with a lot of extra swaggering). No-Smell grudgingly admits defeat. He feels that if most of the gnoll women and children can be saved from this disaster, then the clan survives.
TURN 2
Mothclaw and Ambrosius make their reports. The cleric casts Cure Light Wounds on Ivy for 4 HP (11/31 HP), and explains that his fear spell will not last much longer. She leaves Widestripe, Bent-Tail, Ambrosius and Harg in the common room to guard the prisoners, with Robart and Delgert to back them up. The rest of the warband heads to the cave entrance. She is debating whether to post guards or to lead her forces into the owlbear’s den and finish the creature now.
TURN 3
Cause Fear’s duration ends and a Morale roll determines that the owlbear emerges from its cave again, drawn to the smell of spilled hobgoblin entrails. As it begins to feed, Ivy gives the warband their orders. Better to kill the creature now, she says, while they have it out in the open.
TURN 4 – Combat
In the end, the fight is brief. The elves Reedle and Drunvir, Dorben the dwarf, and Rangrop the goblin pepper the owlbear with arrows while Ivy, Nogi, and the orcs brace to meet its charge. By the time the owlbear reaches them it is at 18 health. It runs onto Urskrag the orc’s braced spear, momentum driving the shaft deep into its chest (10/30), Mothclaw stabs with his sword (5/30), and Ivy delivers the killing blow by putting Blackstar through one of its huge reddened eyes. Nogi also lands a feeble blow for 1 damage.
Over The Next Hour…
The warband loots the gnoll cave of valuables. Mothclaw discovers a barrel of powerful ale in the gnoll’s provisions, and many in the warband quickly become drunk.
The cowardly gnoll Stinktooth is hauled out of his hiding in the chieftain’s quarters in J50 (I had completely forgotten about him, to be honest). All of the gnolls are made to swear Ivy’s oath of allegiance, with Harg translating the words.
Widestripe demands to be allowed to kill Horsebiter’s children to clarify the succession and cause their mothers to enter heat again in the next breeding season. After Harg explains the gnoll custom to Ivy she waves a hand in consent. With eleven more female gnolls and 16 young (after Horsebiter’s are killed) she has just gained a lot of hungry mouths to feed.
Several of the gnoll women begin to butcher the owlbear and build a fire in front of the cave. Others prepare the corpses of the males for funerary rites. There are too many dead to ritually consume them all, as is proper, but the most important organs can still be removed and the limbs be scattered for scavengers.
THE TALLY
Treasure
4 silver necklaces (30 gp each)
Gem (Heinryk’s, worth 50 gp)
Sable cloak (450 gp)
220 gp
277 sp
200 cp
Monsters
Owlbear – 175 xp
Heinryk – 200 xp
10 gnolls – 200 xp
XP distribution is complicated: everybody who fought the owlbear gets 22 xp, while Ivy, Harg, and Nogi get the lion’s share at 459 xp each.
Ambrosius, Nogi, Harg, and Mothclaw get champion’s shares of the treasure: 22 gold, 28 silver, and 20 copper.
Regular warband members get 11 gold, 14 silver, and 10 copper (except for Wolfeye, who forfeitted his share by not returning to the warband after the first owlbear fight).
Ivy receives a champion’s share plus any coin that didn’t divide evenly into a share: 33 gold 39 silver, and 30 copper, as well as all of the goods. She distributes 5 gp to No-Smell and Stinktooth, 1 gp to each female gnoll, and 1 cp to each gnoll child, given after they swear their oaths.
She makes other gifts of her treasure as well: Widestripe receives the valuable sable cloak (Ivy will be relying on him to keep her new gnoll followers in line). Harg receives the 50 gp gem. Ambrosius, Nogi, Harg, and Mothclaw each receive one of the silver necklaces.
Heinryk’s body is stripped and the corpse dumped outside. Mothclaw claims his leather armor, while Urskrag takes his mail and battle-axe.
It is now a little after 3pm. As the scent of roasting owlbear and the drunken shouts of celebrating warriors fill Eveningstar Gorge, the Silver Daggers set out for the Haunted Halls…
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