Kingmaker: Stolen Land, Session 12

This session went in a bit of an unexpected direction, which is I guess why we play the game instead of writing a novel…

1. The Worgs of Summer

After burying what was left of Eagle-Face Dan, the party continued to map the forest to the north west. There was more rain, which developed into a full-blown thunderstorm as they located a 15′ tall statue on the edge of the Narlmarches. It was an old statue of the stag-headed god Erastil, cracked and overgrown. A search turned up a few foundation stones that indicated that perhaps there was once a structure here, but nothing more. The party shrugged, shook the water off their cloaks, and moved on.

From the statue, they kept going north west (actually, I suppose it’s just north, now that I look at the map), which took them out of the forest and out into the rolling plains. With the help of a partially completed map that they found on a corpse last session, they were able to make good time despite the frequent rainfalls. At least it was warm.

Or was it too warm? After the last round of storms, the heat and humidity soared, and everyone failed their save against the heat, taking some non-lethal damage and becoming fatigued. Naturally, it was that same day that a random encounter turned up, and Satampra’s player rolled a 100 for the encounter. Excitedly, I looked at the encounter chart to see what fearsome monster would turn up, only to find… 1 worg.

Well, I increased that to 2 worgs, since the party has 6 PCs. A mated pair of worgs had been lying in wait in the underbrush, and ambushed the group from both sides. The slavering creatures politely requested their extra horse (Dan’s horse, now riderless), but the party, after recovering from the shock of talking to wolves, was reluctant to part with the mount. Instead, Salar the halfling ranger offered the worgs some owlbear jerky, which the monsters tried to take from his hand. To be fair, they tried to take his hand, too. They were a bit hungry, it seemed. Battle was joined!

The horses were already very uneasy at the scent and sight of these dangerous predators, and tried to bolt when the worgs leaped to attack. The group dismounted as best they could, while finally realizing that perhaps they should invest in warhorses. Or maybe just walk – that was Mestinous the elven wizard’s idea (“I can walk, I have a 14 Con!”). Anyway, before Boliden the barbarian could dismount, one of the worgs tore into his horse’s belly, nearly killing the poor animal, and it took off, dumping Boliden to the ground. Travaris the cleric cast bless, while Mestinous and Salar used sword and spell to handle one worg, and Boliden and Satampra the rogue took on the other. Iofur the druid, whose player was absent for the session, used his Weather domain ability a few times, but kept missing.

The worgs did not last very long under the assault, and were quickly put down. The horses were retrieved, and the wolf-like monsters were skinned by the ranger. They stopped short of eating their meat, however, thinking that perhaps eating something that could talk was a bridge too far. Perhaps.

Later that same day, Boliden spotted an old Tiger Lord burial mound. It was overgrown with blackberries, and the barbarian could only speculate that perhaps his people had controlled much more territory than they do now. Satampra was eager to loot the grave, but was reluctant to do so with Boliden around, especially since the huge man was easily the most dangerous member of the group.

2. The Perils of Beer & Pretzels

The group continued to make good time exploring the plains west of Oleg’s, and continued to get rained on a lot. Salar speculated that perhaps they would be better off waiting for a less rainy season to go mapping the wild, but it was pointed out that conditions would probably be worse once it got colder (and continued to precipitate). After a few more uneventful days, they reached the South Rostland Road and followed it south to Oleg’s. There they reported on their latest journey, and presented a tatzylwyrm head for Oleg to mount on his wall. The mining equipment that they had ordered on their last visit had arrived – it was all part of their “bandit rehabilitation program,” which basically meant hard labor in the kobold mine – and they set out for the Sootscale’s cavern in order to deliver the goods. Also to fill the kobolds in on the plans that had been made for them without their input…

However, the adventurers did not quite make it that far. They were traversing the hills of the Kamelands, not too far from the towering Old Sycamore tree that once sheltered the evil mites, when they spotted another party on horseback in the distance, heading roughly north while our heroes were going south. The two groups had spotted one another, and the other group looked to be about a half-dozen strong. A random encounter of bandits had been rolled, and I decided it was time for the PCs to meet Akiros, in the hopes that they would learn that he was a potential ally in the Stag Lord’s fort. So I threw together a group of 6 bandits, Akiros, and Auchs.

The party started to head towards the other group, who in response ducked out of sight behind one of the hills. The players then thought that they would try to circle around a bit and approach from a flank, but they weren’t expecting much trouble, for some reason. I had Salar make a Survival check, opposed by Akrios’ check, to see who would outwit the other. Akiros won the roll, and thus had anticipated that the PCs might try to approach from the direction they chose, and had an ambush waiting for them. So the group rode around a bend in a ravine, and came face to face with 6 bandits with bows already in cover, with Akiros, holding a javelin, and Auchs, holding a big rock, more out in the open. For one long moment, no one spoke.

And then Auchs, squinting at Boliden, slowly realized something. “Hey,” he exclaimed, pointing at the barbarian, “Auchs know big man. Big man hurt Auchs!” His brutish face twisted in anger. For his part, Boliden recognized Auchs from the battle at Oleg’s, and quietly relayed this information to his companions.

“Is that so?” Akiros replied to his oversized companion. He assumed that he was faced with the group of warriors that took out Kressle’s camp, and was responsible for Searos’ disappearance. He wasn’t too keen about attacking them, but then again, it would probably be a worthy battle. He hefted his javelin and prepared to order the assault.

“Woah. Woah!” Salar rode forward a bit on his pony, holding up a hand in a gesture of peace. “We’re friends! Friends! We don’t want to fight!” That may not have been strictly true of the party as a whole, but Salar’s player was usually determined to make friends with whomever they met. Even the undead revenant Nettles.

“Friends, eh?” Akiros chuckled. “Well, friends, I’m a bit short of coin at the moment.” The bandits around him grinned. “Perhaps you all could lend me some gold until I’m back on my feet again?”

“Uhh… maybe. How much gold?”

“Oh, I dunno. How about all of it?” The bandits laughed, and Auchs awkwardly joined in too, although he didn’t really get it.

That didn’t sit right with Mestinous, who immediately reached for his spell components. That struck the others as a bit hasty, but they went along with it. For my part, I was expecting some back-and-forth that would allow Akiros’ dissatisfaction with the Stag Lord to come to light. But the player had been drinking a bit, and we reasoned that perhaps Mestinous and Travaris (a cleric of Cayden Cailean) had been imbibing a bit too freely as the group headed south, making the elf surlier than usual.

Satampra got off the first shot, while Mestinous started summoning an earth elemental. The bandits fired off a volley of arrows, doing minimal damage, while Auchs threw his rock to absolutely no effect. Akiros, cursing at the poor sightlines in the canyon, dropped his javelin, drew his sword, and ran up behind a boulder.

Boliden also tried to advance without exposing himself to enemy fire, while Satampra charged over a hill to reach the archers and the others dismounted and prepared for melee. Mestinous’ elemental appeared, and he sent it through the boulder that Akiros was hiding behind. Akiros smashed the summoned creature in one blow, alerting the group that maybe he was actually pretty dangerous.

Iofur (player still absent) fired off storm bursts at the bandits and took the closest one out. Mestinous summoned a flaming sphere for his next trick, and used it to burn Auchs pretty badly. Auchs didn’t like that, and the big guy (rebuilt as a 4th level Brawler, from the Advanced Class Guide playtest) charged at the wizard, grabbed him, pulled him off his horse, and put him in a headlock. Where’s that 14 Con now, hmm?

Salar the halfling ranger rushed to Mestinous’ aid, and scored a maximum-damage critical against Auchs. Mind you, that was only 10 points of damage, but the event boosted morale. Then Travaris the cleric hit Auchs with a hold person, to which the big lug easily failed his saving throw (and every subsequent saving throw). Salar used the opportunity to get out his rope and tie Auchs up.

Meanwhile, Boliden and Akiros were trading blows, and Satampra was dueling with the bandits in cover. Akiros, seeing that they were getting overwhelmed, called for a fighting retreat. The 4 bandits that were still standing started to move to where they had stashed their horses, firing arrows as they went. Akiros, for his part, tried to block the PCs from getting to the others. The PCs not dealing with Auchs started to move up.

The bandits did escape, but as Akiros was planning to run, someone had the bright idea of having Iofur the druid cast entangle. I grimaced – I didn’t want them to kill Akiros so soon, and certainly not in such a humiliating fashion. But as luck would have it, Akiros made his save against the grasping roots, and charged out of the AoE. He would have struck Iofur, but as his player was not present I didn’t think that would be fair. Instead I had him attack Satampra, who was standing next to the druid and who had been chucking alchemist’s fires at Akiros.

Threat. Crit. Akiros struck Satampra for 26 points, which put him a few points from death. Boliden charged up while the others scrambled to save the rogue. Akiros was cut off from his horse and running out of hit points, but he had enough to try one last desperate gambit. He ate an AoO from the barbarian and took off at a dead run. He was still conscious, but only until his rage wore off. Boliden decided to run him down if he could.

Over at the other end of the canyon, Travaris’ prayer had worn off and Auchs was struggling to break free of his bonds. As he did so, Salar and Travaris tried to convince the poor guy that he had been abandoned and that they were his friends. But then I rolled a 20 for Auchs’ Strength check, and he did actually break the ropes! He ran off blindly. Salar grabbed his pony, got it under control, and rode after him.

And that’s when we ran out of time. Needless to say, it seems unlikely that Akiros (should he escape) will side with the PCs against the Stag Lord in the future. But you never know! Next session I will attempt to use the chase rules, so that’s something to look forward to.

Next: bandit chase!