2nd: Sir Arrosto and his Bandit Problem,
(Played June 8, 1997)
Sir Arrosto of Blue Tower wants some mercenary cadre to help him eliminate the bandit problem in his area.
Adventure Background, Adventure
Outline
Players: Joe White, Kara White, Scott Chelette, Ray Turney, Ken McKinney, Sam Jennings (part)
Summaries: Chelette
Sir Arrosto of Blue Tower is having bandit problems around his lands. He appealed to Count Vestenza of Vond and received money to get mercenary help in Melbin. Sir Arrosto is willing to pay for the services of a small team, who he will support at his estate while they are conducting the mission (no support cost) and will pay 2 gold per bandit killed (minus 1 gold per peasant lost) up to 100 gold. He suspects there are about 50 mounted bandits. Easy bargaining provides the party with a reward of 100 gold as long as not too many peasants are killed and the bandits are eliminated as a threat.
Count Lucius Vond: Master of Vond Island in Lac Vond and has many knights and a few baronets whom owe fealty to him. Liege Lord of Sheriff Moliari, Sir Arrosto, Sir Haleria, Sir Tunessi, and many others. Income is several thousand gold per year.
Port Town of Chake, 1200 inhabitants, (in the Chake region) on Lac Vond is the closest town to the Blue Tower (about 12 km away.) The climate and environment of the town are very nice and the trade possibilities seem easy (but limited.) The bandits have a member living in the city who listens for any big news about the bandits. Rumor will probably warn him that the mercenary party has arrived and he will ride to tell the bandit gang.
Inhabitants of the Chake Region: Sheriff Moliari and his three deputies protect the town and the trade that flows through it. He has a staff of a few constables who help keep the peace and collect town tariffs for goods travelling through. Sir Haleria and Sir Tunessi are two other knights nearby who also getting bothered by the bandits.
The Blue Tower: Sir Arrosto lives in a three story stone tower with an attached, adjacent, and solid wooden warehouse. The bluish stone of the three-story tower gives its name. Arrosto's wife, two sons, castellan, squire, five men-at-arms, and twenty assorted household staff live with Sir Arrosto in the tower or nearby cottages. All of the knight's staff is loyal, but any raising of the peasant militia will tip off the bandits in two-four days (due to their patrols and raiding.)
The Bandits: the bandit gang is from the plains river region to the north. The bandits are wanted by several knights to the north for banditry and they have fled here for easy pickings and safety. One of the gang members is local to Chake and knew of the ruined fortress of Burgen. The 50 bandits ride low quality horses (maximum 1/2 attack skill) and are all lancers (spears) with poor quality and damaged armor (4-6 AP) and moderate skill (50-60%). The gang has three leaders, two who can fight and one with Tactics skill (75%).
The Ruined Fortress of Burgen: the fortress used to be a huge complex on a low plateau. A couple hundred years ago, Marshall Tarrano of the Eastern Lake Marches had the fortress built to house the Green Shirt Legion with a appropriation of the Senate. Tarrano wanted a big fortress built so he could skim off a fortune for himself. The fortress location has no strategic significance, so when the Northern Lake Alliance rebelled, the fortress was empty during the crushing of the rebellion. The ill timed attack by three giants of the rebellion destroyed the lower fortress (as planned) but not with the Green Shirt Legion inside. Soon afterwards the fortress was abandoned. About 50 years ago, Count Vestenza of Vond's grandfather had the upper part of the fortress partially restored and used as a base to protect the local caravans. Bandit King Eik caused the caravans to significantly lessen, so the fortress was abandoned and left to decay, for it was too expensive to maintain for a single knight.
The Layout: the bandits have restored the palisade and put a simple roof on one of the shells of the fortress. The horses are kept in the large palisade area when not out grazing. The pond/reservoir has free water everyone uses. About 20 captured women and assorted staff are also in the fortress and are guarded by the junior members of the bandit gang (those under 20 or those who cannot ride.) These 10 junior members raise the total gang size to about 60.
Patrolling: The bandits have to constantly patrol and raid to build up food for the winter and to feed their horses. They have built up quite a supply of food by attacking the farmers not protected by the three local knights and by light raiding on those protected by the three knights. Probably about 30 horse-riding bandits will be out raiding when the party arrives unless they spend a couple days.
The Bandit's Plan: once the bandits realize a party of mercenaries has been hired, they will use some of the mineral poison they have to poison a chicken and have one of the bandits turn it in as taxes to the knight's cook. Sir Arrosto is well known as a chicken eater and the bandits lamely hope this will kill him and end the mercenary threat. The poison is very good but Sir Arrosto has strengthening enchant. So even though the poison will work, he will have one HP left. He will lay around in bed and whisper to the party. If this does not work the bandits will try to intimidate the inhabitants of the tower into surrendering after a night attack. The bandits will only get in a fight with the mercenaries if it is all the bandits vs. only the mercenaries. They will try to chase off the peasant militia, if possible or ride away from any attacks.
Wrap-up: The bandits have 45 horses total, each worth an average of 10-15 gold. The bandit armor and weapons are worth about 2-5 gold (after death) per bandit and the stores of food and supplies at Burgen are worth about 40-50 gold. The 100 gold payment for the mission is in escrow at the Mercenary Guild of Melbin.
2nd: Sir Arrosto and his Bandit Problem or Revenge of the Elite Commandos
The Characters: Cosmo (Joe), Dagmar (Kara), Marco Lamberti (Ken), Cosimo (Ray), Thor (Scott)
Sir Arrosto of Blue Tower has hired the party to take out a group of around 50 mounted bandits that have been looting local farms. In Melbin, we buy 40 anti-cavalry caltrops and head out to Port Chake, a town of 1200 inhabitants near the Blue Tower. When we arrive in town, the Sheriff knows little about the bandit situation, but gives us two deputies as guides. The bandits are have apparently taken up residence in an abandonned shell keep some distance away. We debate trying to extort additional payment from the other two local knights, but decide we don't have enough time.
When we make it to the Blue Tower, Sir Arrosto is ready to call up his militia and make a frontal assault on the bandit's hideout. Since this would inevitably lead to high casualties amoung the peasantry, we decide to reconioter the ruined keep first. Sir Arrosto will call up his militia and have them ready.
At the bandit keep, Marco does his usual excellent recon job. It turns out the the keep is in much better shape than we expected. The rear and side walls are high and in good repair. The front wall and foreward sections have been reduced to rubble, but a sturdy wooden pallisade has been built in its place. We observe the location and discover that only about 10 bandits are currently in the keep and security is lax. In a daring raid, the Elite Commandos storm the open gates and take the bandits by surprise. In the fighting several of us are almost run down by horses being herded out of the keep by Cosimo's mule skinner. Cosimo himself has no easy time getting through the inner door to the keep. Thor and his two followers take on the other inner door. As he went through the door into a narrow passage, bandits dropped large stones from the walls above. Thor was hit in the chest for huge damage, but was able to keep going because of his Mithril Armor and high hit points. Thor backed out of the passage to assess the situation. Seeing that the bandit in the passageway was about to go through the door to the inner keep, Thor charged ahead. Ignoring the rocks being dropped from above, he rushed the bandit and crashed through the inner door. Just as he got through, another rock hit him square in the chest and knocked him out. Things were looking bad but the two barbarian followers bravely came through and cast healing on Thor. Just as Thor is standing up to fight, another rock from above takes down Barbarian #2. Thor and Barbarian #1 go into action and quickly subdue the bandits. As Thor and B1 fight, another rock is dropped on the unconscious B2 apparently mortally wounding him. Fortunately, Thor is able to resolve the combat quickly and resucitate B2, who is still gravely wounded.
The rest of the bandits eventually surrender and we capture them along with the captive farm girls who have been their camp followers. We learn that the other bandits have been out raiding for some time. We pack up all the booty (weapons, armor, farm animals, girls, etc.) and head back to the Blue Tower. Along the way, we meet the castellan who tells us that Sir Arrosto has been poisoned. We return to the Blue Tower to find the Knight has been reduced to 1 HP and is barely conscious. He has been poisoned by a chicken brought in as tax payment by an unknown peasant. We are unable to find any leads on the poisoning and we have the castellan send for the nearby enchantress. She may be able to cure the Knight. Since we can do nothing for Sir Arrosto, we head back to the "ruined" keep to ambush the bandits when they return.
On the trail to the keep, Marco is on point and hears approaching horses. We hide on the side of the trail as 30 mounted bandits pass us on the way to the Blue Tower. By the time we arrive, the attached warehouse is on fire and the bandits are riding in circles around the tower. We sneak up the bluff and Dagmar is able to take out a couple of bandits with missle fire before we take refuge in the tower. The two deputies, the castellan, Sir Arrosto's men at arms and remaining militia are all in the tower. We sally forth several times, but it is very difficult for infantry to effectively engage mounted men with room to maneuver. In one attempt, the party sallied forth and deployed the caltrops to our front. The bandits rode around but were not able to make a charge. Eventually the bandits wanted to make a deal: we give them food and they leave the area. We immediately rejected the deal since we were being paid for killing bandits.
The bandits then rode off and were not seen for hours. We considered going out to look for their camp, but wisely stayed in the tower with the food. Sure enough, that night all 30 remaining bandits returned and started to break in to the warehouse. Cosimo kept watch from the top of the tower as the other party members and followers went out to engage them. The party members easily cut through the first few bandits, but were quickly surrounded. Fortunately were able to form a defensive circle to avoid being attacked from behind. As it was, each man faced two or three opponents. After several rounds the battle started to go badly. Marco was impaled, but managed to stay up. Thor was demoralized by one of the leaders, then had an arm severed. In the nick of time, Thor's healing spirit was able to reattach the arm and keep him in the battle. Seeing that we were not going down easily, the bandits broke morale and ran. In the darkness we were able to chase down a few more. We ended up killing the majority of the bandits and capturing 23 of 30 horses. The remaining bandits scattered and were not seen again.
Returning to Melbin, Cosimo skillfully negotiated very favorable terms for our next mission: Expedition with the Amaran Bishop.
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Copyright © 1997-2002 by Michael Derry, derry@jugenstil.com |
Updated 5 APR 02 |