Mercenary 970629

4th: Pacification of Impanema, (Played June 29, 1997)
The Lamberti family of Majorca hires the team to act as mercenary cadre for a company of troops paid for by the Lamberti family. The mission is to protect and expand the Lamberti family's interests in the city of Impanema.
Adventure Background, Adventure Handout
Players: Scott Chelette, Ken McKinney, Ron Shigeta, Garrett ??, Sam Jennings
Summaries: 970629.Chelette

Adventure Background

Impanema: (15,000) Human city along the Tapenga in the Crossed Umbrella Tribal lands. Heavily influenced by the teachings of the Prophet in all cultural aspects. The city is non-violent, democratic, and communal supporting the local human famers and paying tribute directly to the Chief of the Crossed Umbrella Tribe. The inhabitants speak Old Galeric and Goblin.

Mona Lamberti will handle all the up front costs in raising the company and Guido Lamberti will arrive in Melbin with a fat trader to tranport the company to Impanema and he will provide direction for the company.

The characters have two weeks to complete hiring and one month to get acquainted with the troops before arrival in Impanema. On the way to Impanema, Guido briefs the cadre on the particulars of the first mission.

Adventure Handout

Uncle Guido's Mission Specifications

Geography:

Hillorzin (Fairie Nexus): Mountain valley with lake shrouded in fog which is home to dangerous apparitions and fairie creatures. The link to Fairie is strong here and many fairie creatures can cross over and live around the lake for long periods of time.

Tapenga River: Has a huge river delta which is the home of several human and goblin pirate ships. 300 meter wide along most of the main length. Several significant clans live along the Tapenga, but few interact with or embrace the Emperor Tsivory or his politics.

Havanari River: Tributary of the Tapenga River, with a Caputin Monastary about 10 km from the Tapenga. About 100 meters wide along its main length. The most important tribe along the Havanari is the Five Leaves of Bamboo Tribe.

Whiskered Helm Tribe: Dominant tribe of the Tapenga Valley mostly reknown for breeding of fine dire wolf mounts for export to the goblins in the fertile plains outside of the Valley. The Five Mothers of Gazzir control most of the political action in the tribe and along the Tapenga Valley. These old hags have been in the area since before the goblins arrived, but embraced the ways of the Prophet when the goblins of the tribe converted.

Five Leaves of Bamboo Tribe: Most important tribe along the Havanari river, about half the tribe are Golden Skin Cursed and none follow the ways of the Prophet, but instead follow the traditional ways of goblin spirit magic.

Background on the Boat:

Uncle Guido is a member of the Ananpina Trade Guild (of the Four Diamond Clan) in the Velga river valley. Three months ago he hired an agent through some contacts in the Trade Guild. The agent, Misy Fampitandremana, is a Five Leaves of Bamboo Tribe female goblin shaman with ties to the Five Mothers of Gazzir.

The mission of this agent was to hire a group of goblins to go harass the human farmers around the city of Impanema for a few months. The agent was to also leave a message for Guido in the city of Impanema, letting him know the skills and disposition of the hired band. The crucial part of the hiring was to pick a group of harassers who would not be bothered by the Whiskered Helm Tribe for a few months.

Specifications of the Hired Band:

Misy has left a sealed letter in goblin to Uncle Guido in Impanema. She has been very successful in her mission and has hired the outcast son of the Head Mother. The son, Hatrany An'ilay, is a demonic goblin who leads a band of anti-human radicals who wish the Impanema city dwellers to leave the valley. Hatrany lives in an abandoned mining village with a small band, but Misy has hired the bandit gang of Mahery Vaika to assist Hatrany and his followers in their attempt to drive the humans away.

Misy has included a map of to get to the mine village, which is near the Hillorzin Fairie Nexus.

Additional Specifications of the Band:

Once Guido and the mercenaries arrive, Misy sends an update to the information she left already. Mitompo Teny leads a group of gold skin goblins who live near Hillorzin and they have agreed to help Hatrany. This help will not just be Mitompo and his sumo boys, but will also allow the band to travel back and forth from fairie.

Details of the Band:

Format: skill/armor
Hatrany: 9/8/powers and magic, 4 followers 7/7/magic
Mahery: 8/6/magic, 49 followers 5/4
Mitompo: 8/2/powers, 8 followers 7/2

Hatrany's Powers: access to many spirit magic spells, many MPs, fox totemistic magic
Mitompo's Powers: berserk-like power, travel to fairie

970629.Chelette

The Characters: Marco Lamberti (Ken), Thor (Scott), Sir Orlando (Garrett), Luijo (Ron), and Dieter (Sam).

The Lamberti family has hired the party to recruit a company of 100 mercenaries and take them to the human city of Ipanema in the Goblin lands. The company will act as a security force under the direction of Uncle Guido Lamberti. The stated reason for the mission is to protect and expand the Lamberti family's trading interests in Impanema.

In Melbin we recruited a force of 100 mercenaries through the guild. The force includes:

20 Barbarians with cured leather and pole axe
20 Men with bezainted, spear and shield
20 Men with ringmail, sword and shield
15 Heavy Crossbowmen
8 Combat Medics with short sword
2 Healers
10 Mercenary Sargeants
1 Tracker
1 Combat Engineer

After recruiting, we spent one month in Melbin working with the men and training them to 30% in Forced March.

On the way to the Goblin lands, the boat got stuck on a sandbar for a few days and the men had to disembark to lighten the load. Eventually the boat floated free and we were able to make it to Ipanema without further incident. In Ipanema, we anchored the boat in the middle of the river for security and took up residence in an old manor house converted to an inn. Sir Orlando was up to his usual obnoxious behavior and annoyed the barbarians. He ended up taking some good hits in the drunken brawl following the arrival feast.

The local populace thinks that the mercenaries have arrived to protect the city and chase off some Goblin raiders that have been harassing farmers. They don't know that the Goblins have in fact been hired by Uncle Guido through a Goblin agent in Ananpina. They are patsys meant to be easily run off to convince the locals that we are good guys.

From Uncle Guido we get a full report on the location and disposition of the Goblin raiders. There are 3 leaders and around 60 Goblin bandits. They have set up a base camp in a gorge not far away. Luijo and Marco scout the area. The gorge hideout is a natural fort on the side of a steep mountain. The only obvious entrance is a narrow walkway cut into the side of the gorge. It is inset into the side of the gorge, only 1.5 meters high and wide enough for just one man at the narrowest points. Fighting through the narrow walkway would be very difficult, and it would be impossible to bring a large number of men through quickly. At the end of the narrow gorge is a small open area that leads to a small bridge across the river leading to several buildings were the Goblins stay. The position is very defensible, but fortunately there is a back entrance. Scouting the area, Marco and Luijo discovered several entrances to an abandonned mine. Our intelligence on the gorge hideout indicated that one of the mine shafts also came out behind the gorge buildings. Luijo and Marco scouted the mine extensively and were able to find the entrance to the Goblin area.

We then brought up the company and divided into three groups. Luijo and the Crossbowmen took up position on a bluff overlooking the buildings. From there they could hide until the battle started, then shoot goblins as they came out of the buildings. Sir Orlando, his Squire and Horses, and the spearmen took up position near the narrow gorge entrance. Their mission was to stop any goblins from escaping. Uncle Guido had not given specific instructions other than making a good show of running off the Goblin bandits, but the more bloodthirsty members of the party figured we might as well kill them all just for being goblins, sorcerers or whatever.

Marco led the main group into the mine but had trouble finding the path to the goblins. The company ended marching around for hours in the mine, but was not discovered by the goblins. The units outside were getting bored and nervous, since they had not heard Dieter's Teutan Horn, the signal that the battle was starting. The leaders outside kept strict discipline, however and managed to keep the men ready for battle as the others were lost in the mine. Eventually Marco found the entrance to the goblin lair. It was guarded by a number of goblins in an open room. Running foreward, Marco, Thor and his two followers Uller and Loki surprised the goblins and closed with them quickly. Marco ran past and secured the door while the Barbarians engaged their opponents. Loki killed his with one swing and ran toward the door, which was guarded by Marco. In his haste to move foreward to the action and secure the other side of the door, Loki scuffled with Marco, angering him greatly. Dieter and others then mnoved into the first room to finish off the goblin guards. In the melee, Thor fumbled badly and accidently hit Dieter in the abdomen for maximum damage. He was nearly cut in half by the 30 points of damage, but Marco saw him go down and sent his healing spirit to save him.

Moving through the mine door into the open area by the buildings, Marco, Thor and Uller engaged large Goblins fighting Sumo style. They dodged and grappled their opponents, rendering their weapons useless. One grabbed Thor's arm and began working on it. Thor stabbed back with his dagger, but is was ineffective. Things were going badly until more men moved up and stabbed the wrestlers as they were engaged. Several of the Sumo Goblins retreated to the first building and scuffled with someone inside. Marco tried but could not make it in the door. We later found out that it was Loki inside, valiantly struggling with several of the Wrestlers before being completely pounded into the ground and killed. Abandonning the front door, Marco and a few men moved around the back of the building. As they came around the corner, they saw four of Hatrany's shamanic followers. The next thing Marco knows, he and the three men with him have been befuddled. The Goblins quickly dispatched the mercenaries as Marco stood by in helpless stupor. They would of taken him out too, but were wary of his heavy mithril armor and decided to wait until they all could gang up on him. Fortunately more men moved up and engaged them before they could finish off Marco. Eventually Marco snapped out of it and attacked the Goblins from behind. He fought valiantly, but one of the Goblins severed his head with a critical hit, killing him instantly. His valuable posessions will be returned to the Lamberti Family.

In front of the buildings, Thor moved up slowly forming the men in line to avoid being flanked. As Goblins poured out of the second and third buildings, Luijo and his crossbowmen opened fire from the bluff above. They scored a number of good hits, but were quickly pincushionned by volleys of arrow fire from the large number of goblins below. They kept firing for many more rounds, but were badly outgunned by the volume of fire from the Goblin archers. Later, at a critical moment in the battle, Lujo hit the Goblin Leader Hatrany with a poisoned bolt, weakening him badly.

In front of the second building, Thor formed up a line of men and engaged the Goblins. The Barbarians with poleaxes did tremendous damage and the combat medics stood behind to keep the men up and heal those that went down. Within a few rounds, Thor engaged the Goblin Leader Mahery and eviscerated him with a massive hit to the abdomen. The battle raged on with the line holding, but we had great difficulty in getting men quickly through the narrow door from the mine and into the action. In the front rank, Dieter goes wild with a flurry of critical hits. Through a break in the enemy line, Thor sees the Goblin Leader Hatrany and breaks through to take him on. Uller and Dieter also finish off their opponents and move up. Thor and Hatrany battle for several rounds with little effect until Thor scores a massive impale. Unfortunately Hatrany parries the blow and Thor's Halberd is buried deep in the Goblin's shield. With his weapon firmly stuck in the shield, Thor is unable to parry as Hatrany nearly severs the Barbarian's head with a critical hit. Thor goes down, completely incapacitated. Dieter then steps up and engages Hatramy. The Teutan scores yet another critical, but the big Goblin still does not go down. Hatrany fights with Dieter for several more rounds but is not able to drop him. Seeing that the battle is lost, Hatrany makes a run for it. Dieter gives chase and impales him in the arm. Hartany continues to try to get away as Dieter works on the arm. Eventually the damage is too much and Dieter takes him down on the Bridge. Hatrany had obviously been using large bladesharp and protection and had healed a tremendous amount of damage, but strangely no enchantments were found on his body.

At the Gorge entrance, Sir Orlando rallies the spearmen and takes care of the stragglers who tried to get away. In the end we capture a few prisoners, but decide that it is better if there are no witnesses. This shakedown mission was a success, but losses were high: Marco Lamberti, Six Barbarian Poleaxemen and Two Crossbowmen were killed.

Back in Ipanema, the Barbarians bring back the Goblin heads on stakes. They then hold a gory shamanic ritual which devolves into drunken revelry. Guido is somewhat taken aback by the fact that we killed *all* the Goblins, including the leaders. The Ipanema City Council meets and decides that Uncle Guido and the mercenaries should make an emissary to the Head Mother of Gazzir to explain the death of her outcast son Hatrany. Dieter still has Hatrany's head and doesn't want to give it up or go and grovel to some lowly goblin. Uncle Guido thinks Dieter is just holding out for a bonus and gives him 200 gold. Even after assurances that it is only a security detail with no grovelling involved, Dieter still doesn't want to go on the mission, so his status is unresolved.