When last we left our heroines, they had set out to the dwarven enclave of Shockhaven to procure a shipment of the local favorite brew. This would keep the AWOL sailors in their faction happy and demonstrate goodwill towards their hosts at Castle Tintintagel. Led by Sir Serge and accompanied by a dozen light horsemen, each princesses brought along one henchman and ten grunts, for safety and a good thing they did!
Halfway to Shockhaven, while passing through a broad swath of marshlands, they run head on into a band of fifty orcs. The road at this point consisted of a raised causeway roughly twenty or so feet wide, a mere foot above the wooded wetlands, which made for a fairly simple theater of the mind experience. Thanks to some lucky distance rolls, even in the marsh the orcs started the fight 130 yards away, and we’re clearly armed only with melee weapons.
With light horse outriders to fire and aft, the girls were unlikely to be surprised, and managed to win initiative on the first round of the fight. Although the numbers on each side or roughly the same, the girls had all the advantage. Electing to preserve their numbers, the princesses ordered the light horse to split fire and move, to draw the orcs in. This, combined with the fire of ten archers, put down a handful of the orcs.
At this point, your ‘umble host explained the dilemma faced by the orcs. Should they charge in this turn, or steadily advance? The dice decided and declared a steady advance, putting the orcs forty feet away from the line of humans. If the orcs could win initiative on the next round, they’d be in good position to overwhelm the front line of humans.
Alas for them, the dice went the princess’s way. A second volleyball weakened the orcs further, but not enough to force the 25% morale check. The orcish leaders, luckily for them, managed to avoid all of the missile fire. Oh, except for a magic missile thrown at the leader by Izzy’s hench-wizard, Harrison Potter, which hurt him, but did not kill him. The lines of battle met, 20 across the front, limited by the width of the road.
In the chaos, Sycamore chose to wade off into the trees, hoping to backstab the orcish leader. A handful of orcs broke off to intercept her, and an even number of light horse moved to save her from her brave but impetuous ploy.
On the road, Sycamore’s heavy foot struck first with their spears, then the orcs charging troops, and finally the wild sailors. In the scrum, even numbers were lost, to the chagrin of the orcish leader. He had been counting on the weight of his charge to carry his boys home, but the human line stood tall. His nerve shot thanks to a whopping 94 rolled on a morale check needing less than 10*, he ordered his men to throw down their arms.
The orcs knew that the men of Castle Tintintagel are honorable, and counted on their preference for ransom. As a sign of good faith, they offered up seven potions, two to each of the brave lasses who led the humans in battle.
With 34 prisoners in hand, the girls chose mercy. Eight of the horsemen and the walking wounded would place the orcs into the dungeons beneath the castle, and put them to work for their keep in the fields that surround the keep to boot.
At this point, the swoleceror Maya noticed the sigil on the shields of the orcs, a hastily scribed goat’s head, black as the night. Servants of She of the Thousand Young! and avowed enemy of the Coyote thing they met last session. Guess they didn’t need his help after all!
With mixed emotions, they completed the rest of the day’s journey without incident. Marsh gave way to woodlands, and just before dinner, Shockhaven came into view. A squat, hulking pile of black brick workshops surmounted by two tall smokestacks – cold and silent sentinels – huddled atop a black mesa. The place waited for them behind smooth stone walls with an air of sad resignation. The woodsmen expressed interest at the walls of the place, guessing that the place had once been a low mountain of rock, a smaller kin to the two great mountains of the island, before having been carved down to a stump. An impressive feat
The sailors licked their lips, eager to try the brew such a ship must surely have in store for them. Their night would end in disappointment.
“HALLOO THE BREWERY!” Sir Serge called out in the gathering desk. Cracks appeared in the walls and a great slab of a drawbridge descended to allow entry. At the open passage stood a shirtless dwarf, his big belly and corded arms covered in blue tattoos, orange hair cut back to a towering Mohawk, and long beard braided in the usual manner.
“The welcome of my hall is lessened of late,” mourned Brewmaster Simon Bar Finkle. “Our stores grow light as the Servants of the Black Goat grow bold. My Master of the Gathering has lost too many dwarves and you have been too long absent.”
“My apologies,” Sir Serge lamented, but the pigmen trapped me in the sleeping cave. And I was lost to dreams these many moons. Thankfully, these fine young ladies happened by, and pulled me from the arms of that cursed mistress, Nepenthe.”
Introductions were made all around, and thanks in part to the charming fighting-woman Izzy’s charisma, Brewmaster Simon was made glad of heart. To have such friends was a fine thing indeed, and for them to bring him the gift of a potion of invulnerability (taken from the orcs) was a gem in a seam of gold. He ordered the finest feast possible, which amounted to very little, as the great fires and been and kettles had been set to smoulder and the kettles and tanks sat empty. Over a simple repast, the Brewmaster explained that his workers had been decimated, and for months he could not retrieve the raw ingredients so important to his main product. Without supplies, he had nothing to offer Castle Tintintagel nor the native Waponi-Wu, and things remain as such for long, the dwarves would have to close up shop, and return to delving deep beneath the mountains.
The princesses offered to help – they could retrieve the necessary ingredient – and Sir Serge could not but deny his old friend the same.
And so, after a day of rest, the princesses and Sir Serge set out to retrieve ten large sacks of shockberries, that Bremaster Simon might stoke the fires and slake the thirst not just of the ever increasingly irascible sailors in their group, but the knights and natives as well…
…and that’s just the first half of a two hour session. You can get so much done in a game of AD&D. A big battle with fifty on a side, two rounds of role-play, and a whole new faction introduced? What’s not to love.
* The morale system is so easy, you guys! Take the differential in dead and multiply by ten, then add or subtract that from 50+(5xHD). There are a couple of other modifiers for excess deaths or leader deaths, but that first check is simple. With a differential of more than 50 between the target and the roll, it’s time for the surrender monkeys. Or in this case pigmen.