Rotvalan Reveries Ep10: Nightfall

Run Date: June 30, 2024

PCs
Anthonie: Lv3 Mage
Emmelina: Lv2 Wonderworker
Friedrick: Lv1 Mage

Hench
None

Afterword

I’m putting the afterword first (yes, that means it’s a foreword) since the report itself will be fairly short. I am often critical at myself, possibly moreso than I should be, but my goal as a game master is fairness wherever possible.

Today I made a decision for expediency. 60ish Orcs vs 25ish PC/Crew. I stand by the decision that rolling individuals here would have dragged on, though my bias played a part in tipping the scales. One player controls most of the army and extras, and my goal was to abstract what I could as quick and fairly as possible so the adventure could continue.

After about two rounds I realized that individuals, and even my usual grouping method, would only slow things down further. The battle would predominately be me and another throwing handfuls of dice. To this end, I decided to mesh the Man to Man rules with the Campaign Battle rules. The short of it means that the fight would resolve as Ranged → Melee with semi-simultaneous and randomized strikes. Effectively, this abstracts the volleys of arrows being shot and the chaos of melee while keeping things moving quickly. ACKS II’s Campaign system doesn’t exactly scale down that far (I think it’s like a minimum of 6 Units of X BR or something), meaning I stepped beyond RAW and into HouseRule territory mid-session. This is something I try to avoid wherever possible, especially as my role is to practice and master the rules and be capable of teaching them to others.

My rambling aside, I think the narrative level of the battle was wonderful.

Nightfall

The group gathered a bit late. Anthonie spent some time mapping the dungeon from last session and organizing the logistics for another delve. Their target is only a few hexes outside of Coxhaven, but the travel would be slowed by mud and rain; this turned out to be the death of them.

Night fell just before the half-platoon entered the Greenwood, leaving them on the edge of the woods. They set up their watches and tents and settled in. The rain had lightened up and a cool breeze from the mountains drifted through the camp. All in all it was a pleasant night until the watchmen spotted bobbing lights in the woods. They woke the camp as the lights broke the treeline. Anthonie took command and directed his men into battle lines before beginning the summoning spell for Flamethrower Friend. Emmelina and Friedrick, being fairly squishy themselves, stayed back with Anthonie and waited.

There is a rule that was added a short while back to clarify/codify marching lines for armies and the like, as well as forcing engagements (asymmetrical warfare or something). Since the enemy had the numbers, and were clearly hostile, Anthonie attempted to force the engagement. This meant that the enemy orc lines would need a little time to fully fill out. Since this rule is used for Campaign Battles using something like 6 units, I decided to hybridize it with Man to Man combat. This meant that the PC’s group of 25 would begin by confronting 25 of the orcs. Given the size of the combat, I imagined it wouldn’t take more than a round or so before the others fell in (whereas in battles, it’s like a Turn or something).

Next we determined the encounter distance. The ruling here was weird because I didn’t put nightfall into consideration. Instead, I just rolled with the moving torchlights revealing enough to engage. This gave us a starting range of something like 450’. As larger battles go, this seemed to track well since several rounds were spent marching and hustling to close the gap before charging. This was great for the PC’s army since they had some longer range units in their crew while the orc’s ranged squad were stuck with shortbows. Oh right, I also rolled with the “firing into a mass” rules even if the unit wasn’t technically a platoon. 25 vs 30? Close enough.

As mentioned, I only ran the first couple rounds as individuals as I realized my groupings initiatives were basically just rolling down the line in a nearly I go you go manner. This was when I shifted to the Range → Melee thing.

The PC’s ranged line did good work picking off enemies, but the MVP was Flamethrower Friend. As the orc melee line charged, he let loose a breath weapon that destroyed all but 5 of them. A couple of manes dropped, but the PC melee line (small as it was) held. The immense losses the orcs took tipped the scales on morale and they began to falter.

The next volley of ranged attacks wiped out the PC’s slingers and hit the PC line. We had a back and forth about this, with Anthonie arguing for rolling the individual rolls after I’d hit all of them with 3 damage. It annoyed me, admittedly, but fine. Using the handy dice roller on the discord each of the 3 PCs were assailed by 7-8 attacks. Frederick is the only one who came out alive.

After watching their commander get pin-cushioned, the PC’s mercs shattered and ran into the night. The supply crew consisting of loyal Ravi (Owlbolds) rushed to their master’s aid. He spent a Fate Point getting up while his Flamethrower Friend annihilated the remaining melee line. The Orcs were also in full retreat and there would be no victors this day.

Frederick, seeing the angle at which the flames had turned (FF is invisible, remember), began booking it into the dark like the others. While fleeing, he saw one final flash of flame engulf Anthonie as the Ravi dove desperately to protect their master. Nothing but black corpses were left alongside a demonic cry into the black sky.

We joked a bit about the ending of the battle and the absolute chaos before I rolled some navigation checks to see what happened to Frederick and the other Mercs. By the end, only the Pathfinder hire and Frederick made it back to Coxhaven. They conveniently stumbled across each other as they drank to their PTSD.

Rewards (Totals)

None