Run Date: May 2nd, 2023
Today was a solo session, as the other two players could not make it.
PCs
[Pa]: Dalinar (Lv3 Asn); Corvus Lv 3 Ftr, Amaram Lv3 Dw Cp
Of Mercs and Men
Solo sessions for [Pa] have a history of bringing about all sorts of silliness. During my LFG game, he found all sorts of quirky and strange points of interest while evading the dangers of Crestwood. Today, however, was the inverse.
We started with the player deciding that he did indeed want to go ahead, even if the session ended short. The retcon from last week's treasure allowed his crew to hit Lv3 and gave him a nice stash of cash to work with. He began by looking into hiring Mercs. I admit that I don't know what their stats are supposed to be, just their gear. This would become relevant later on. I also admit that I'm lazy and just rolled up the entire month instead of splitting it week to week. Nonetheless, [Pa] hired what he wanted then headed to Siadanos to hire a few more. He was cautious with his spending, only hiring a few guys here and there.
Right after leaving Türos Tem, Dalinar's party encountered a swarm of Giant Bees. They were quite a ways out and surprised, but Dalinar was not about to leave them undisturbed. He, his henchman, and his new longbowman fired a volley; and with cleaves, murdered near half the swarm. The Bees did not stick around. The rest of the trip to Siadanos was uneventful.
While Dalinar looked into his hiring prospects, I explained the process of rolling for Mercs and showed him how each Market Class affects the results. In Siadanos, Dalinar hired on a Heavy Cav and some more footmen. He was continuing to work conservatively, though I believe that may be due to his lack of familiarity with the game's power curve. Once he finished collecting this crew (total 1 PC, 2 Hench, 6 Mercs), he decided to go lair hunting in the Viaspen.
Dalinar's trip was uneventful, and it only took him 3 hours to find his first lair. Unfortunately, it was a Cockatrice lair. His group stumbled across the lair, surprising the giant Cockbeasts. Dalinar was left with a decision: Fight or Flight. I don't think he fully grasped the gravity of the situation, and ordered his party to charge. The surprise volley and lance charge managed to drop one of the vicious beasts. It wasn't enough to break their ranks, however, and chaos ensued the following round.
Two attacks with Petrify, 18 HP, and a decent AC meant that even with a good initiative Dalinar's crew could only wound another. The flock then turned and unleashed hell, felling or petrifying several of the frontline mercs. Dalinar called for a full retreat immediately after and we were introduced to the Wilderness Evasion rules.
As anything goes, mistakes inbound. To begin, I noticed there is a Pursue option on the Morale table. The Cockatrices rolled Fight On. The evasion rules, however, say 2-8 means pursuit. I ran with the latter. As far as speed goes, Cockatrices have the advantage. It was a 1:1 ratio, more or less. I read this to mean the first evasion was an 18+ (failed). I feel like I may have read the chart wrong in my excitement to narrate and keep things rolling. The flock succeeded their roll and fell upon the party again. This process repeated several times: Evade, Fail, Initiative, Pursue?, Evade, Fail, Initiative... each time with less and less living party members.
As a general rule, I don't like repetitiveness. In other instances, I would have ruled the escape failed and no other attempts could be made without a significant change in the battlefield or strategy (tossing meals, abandoning others to die, etc). In this instance, I held out hope that one of the repeated rolls would fall in favor of Dalinar. It did, though only after everyone in his party was wiped out.
Dalinar, now alone, worked his way back to Türos Tem. He avoided drifting too far off course while traveling in the woods, and encountered nothing on the return trip. After arriving, he sat down with several drinks and regaled the inn with his little misadventure. Of course, Dalinar was careful to avoid making it seem too terrible, as he had intended on hiring some new henches.
As luck would have it, there were several henches hanging out in Türos Tem: A Lv3 Bladedancer, Lv1 Thief, and a Lv0. The thief refused service, but Dalinar managed to convince the Bladedancer to join up at the cost of a Silver Sword (No idea if there is a rule for it so I just assumed dagger's math ie x10 price). He also managed to hire on the Lv0. While going over the stats for this Normal Man, we found something interesting. The man was frail and terrible, low dex and con, but his 17 Charisma made up for it. I need to look up rules to see if Normal Men can become any class. Too bad he didn't qualify for bard. Nonetheless, Dalinar put the man to work with a 50gp stipend and commanded him to keep his ears out about rumors, roaming mercs, et al. Given Normal Men don't have the skills for Hijinks, I'm leaning on just using this as a time investment plus repurposing the weekly hiring costs for henches.
When all was said and done, we ended the session with Dalinar ready to adventure again after the 10th of May.
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