Majestic Wilderlands – Do You Hear the People Sing?

Do you hear the people sing,
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!

That’s more or less where we left off, with the bunch of us victorious in the first battle, but winded, wounded, depleted of resources, and facing a very large number of foes of uncertain power but known quantity: lots of them.

We fade away to an inn for a moment, as Elder Carmina chats about the rebellion in Tain with the local clergy. Each person of worth is required to have a medallion to stay in town or do business, and service suppressing the rebellion is required to earn the medallion. 

They leave, passing the local shops, to arrive outside the gates of Caer Tain, within which the rest of the party is getting busy bleeding out, more or less.

In the main hall, there are several levels and a few balconies – the tower goes all the way up to the roof. We agree to clear the keep from the bottom to the top

We head down, check out the arrow slits and find that the troops outside going about their business, more or less. While Keyar is looking out the window, he hears a pot clang to the ground outside once, then twice. Crap. We assume someone’s trying to get the attention of the troops outside, we head up to the second floor, NE tower. We pull open the curtain, and see the cook about to dump more pots out the window. 

Mark uses Command: “Grovel!” and she drops to her knees, cowering . . . but not throwing cookware out the door either. We gently lead her aside and secure her.

We all note, quickly enough, that in the NW corner of the room, some sacks covering (hastily) a trap door. The paladin calls light, and opens the door, and heads down. There’s another serving woman down there, trying to hide. I mean her no harm, and she’s happy to stay in the room, unharmed.

From upstairs, I hear “Quick, come quick! The Sheriff is hurt!” from Keyar. 

He rolls Decption for a 1. A true Han Solo moment: “We’re all fine here, situation normal.” Crap.

Mark quickly climbs back upstairs, as Keyar lets us all know that we’re about to have company. We all rush to a place where we can fight. Keyar is on the third floor, and we hear shouting “The Sheriff is dead! The Sheriff is dead! We’ve been invaded!”

Keyar tries to kick open a door being held closed, dynamic entry style, longbow at the ready. ’cause you can do that crap in D&D. He fails.

Ouside the gate, Aevin ( +Ken H ) and Elder Carmina ( +Joshua Macy ) and the Deacon of Acolytes of the temple of Mitra see and hear the commotion from within the castle. Seizing the moment, they . . . look around. The gate is open for transit, as people come in and out. The gate itself is open – double doors leading to an open portcullis. 

They walk casually forward, trying to fly casual, so to speak – Aevin and Carmina advance nonchalantly, the Deacon moves chalantly.

Across the way, Leshar stands in the door, awaiting trouble. There are two archers with crossbows moving to the gate. There’s a large crowd of people in the courtyard. No one is alarmed or aggressive, yet, but of course that will change quickly once a threat is truly detected. There are also guys up on the wall. 

Gawd. We’re going to try and take this castle by ourselves. 

Leshar decides to take action by closing and barring the main doors into the keep. Mark rushes to the third floor with Keyar, and Vognur helps Keyar bash the door again. He smashes the door, and knocks the guard back and down on his butt. The room is a barracks room, and there’s a fully armed guard on the roof shouting down. A washer-woman flees the scene. We hear confused noises.

“What? The Sheriff is down?”“Go! Go! Move it!”“Out of my way!”

Up at the Northeast doors, Aevin and Carmina and the Deacon pass through the gate and see that the only way into the gatehouse is a currently-open door. Leshar tosses bodies out into the main entrance, then closes and bars the second set of doors, just to make life difficult for anyone making their way into the castle.

Up in the barracks tower, Keyar shoots the guard that is standing outside on the wall twice, with Advantage from a flank attack. He hits both times, for 23 HP of damage. Vognur attacks the prone guy, again with Advantage, using the mighty Sheriff’s sword. I think 11 HP were done.

Outside, the guards start to bark orders, but chaos still reigns. “Get off your ass and shoot them!”

A guard with a “knight-killer” bow shoots and misses Vognur.

Over in the gatehouse, Aevin and Carmina come across five guards, two sleeping, none with armor. Carmina casts Guidance on Aevin (a d4 in addition to any rolls he makes, once), and Aevin demands that they surrender. He rolls Intimidation 6 – and spends the d4, getting a 4. One surrenders, one is confused, the third is confused, angry, and armed. I shall call him Mal, but in an “about to be killed” way. Maybe call him Wash instead.

Aevin chops at the attacking guard, doing 9 slashing damage.

Down in the main keep, someone is trying the door, jiggering it back and forth. A knight is trying to wave at people; a younger knight is trying to figure out what’s going on. The adventurers in the castle square are starting to bustle and look around. Leshar takes a moment to smash open the chest in what was the Steward’s room. There are pouches, letters, seals and wax . . . Leshar gathers up the not-coins stuff.

Mark moves up and shoots twice at the bowman, missing once and hitting once for a piddly 4 HP. Keyar rolls 17 twice vs. AC 18, missing twice. Vognur continues to duel with his half-naked foe, doing 6 HP of damage. The return struggle has his foe hit him for 11 HP, a wound we can ill afford.

The opposing longbowman actually manages to hit Keyar, but for only 3 HP.

Leshar, for some reason, indulges in pyrmaniacal impulses and sets the bottom floor of the keep we’re in on fire. The floors will burn merrily; only the stone shell will be left. 

The Keep, The Keep, The Keep is on fire!We don’t need no water let the . .  

Much confusion is going on, as we’re fighting on multiple fronts and levels. The battle on top of the keep gets complicated because the guys are behind fortifications. Keyar shoots the guy fighting Vogunr for 32 points of damage (!), which only barely brings him down (!!). Mark runs forward and bars the door.

Vognur quickly does a quick search, and finds a chest with a few hundred silver, and (most importantly to us) a bunch of Healing Potions. Vognur swigs one down – common potions are 2d4+2, which has a nice 7 HP average feel to it, and he picks up 6 HP.

Over in the gatehouse, the troops in the first room are overwhelmed or surrender. Progress. 

Things are complicated and scattered; this is actually highly realistic . . . but hard to transcribe.

Outside on the upper keep, the knights and soldiers are calling for wood for a battering ram. Someone with an axe starts chopping away at the door. “You! Help him! Get my father out of there!”

Oh, crap. Likely the Sheriff’s son.

Mark runs into the northwest tower on the third floor – looks like it might be the Sheriff’s room. He shoots twice through a window at an opposing archer, hitting once and causing them to bunch up and crouch down behind the fortifications. 

We hear the leader type call for a keg, with a blue star. Flammable something, clearly – it’s the equivalent of greek fire.

Over in the gatehouse, there’s no one else there, inside the gatehouse, so they look around and see what mayhem they can wreak. They charge the Deacon to go let the townsfolk know that the Sheriff is dead; the Deacon climbs down a murder-hole, and hustles on his way to raise the alarum.

Keyar finds the stairs to the fourth floor, while Mark smashes the chest at the foot of the Sheriff’s bed. I grab a small coffer of important papers, containing appointment of Medein Curo as constable of the tower, with the Sheriff’s signature: Karvius Curo. The constable is the sheriff’s son.

Leshar and Vognur follow Keyar up the stairs. There appears to be a ladies sitting area, and there are drinks, cheese, and other stuff that’s been knocked over in some haste. There are a bunch of people behind the door. Oh, and there’s a trap door in the ceiling, leading to the roof.

In the courtyard, they bring the battering ram. On the tower, they bring up the cask.
I will note that doing this without any real magical aid is really hard. We could really use some spells – web, sleep, some sort of concealing fog, illusion. Having we five take on an entire castle? Not wise. Awesome, but not wise.
Mark kicks at a locked door, at AC 15; Leshar does likewise, and kicks in his door. Seeing an older woman, a young girl, another woman . . . basically the ladies of the household. They shriek “it’s a demon!!” 


Keyar is up on the roof . . . and he finds an unlit brazier, oil, rags . . . everything required to fling flaming death at foes, and he has a clear view of the keg and the troops below, unimpeded by cover.

Over in the gatehouse, they make a diversion, and one of the guards pokes his head through. One Hold Person spell later, Carmina immobilizes one, and Aevin fires a heavy crossbow at another for 7HP damage, advantaged and with surprise.

Downstairs, Mark keeps working on the door. Two solid kicks (1d20+3 vs AC 15) and there’s 11 HP total done to the door thus far.

Keyar takes careful aim with a few flaming arrows at the barrel of greek fire . . . he has advantage, and hits the barrel twice for 20 HP. The cask shatters, the fire goes up . . . and the three holding it are drenched, on fire, and screaming. They keep their nerve, and run onto the wooden roof of the tower – risking setting the entire thing ablaze.

Leshar gets assaulted by a 5yo with a doll, and he informs the ladies of the Sheriff’s demise, and that he only requires one of them, the rest would make a tasty snack. Except for the little girl, who is brave enough for all of them.

Vognur strives to reach the roof again, and fails again.

Mark smashes up the door, and finds the real sheriff’s room, inside is +2 Plate Armor. A very nice find. Inside the locked chest . . . next turn I guess.

Back over at the gatehouse, Aevin pops up, draws his sword, and smacks the guy, with advantage, for 14 blunt trauma (flat of the blade). He then makes an Intimidate check for 15, and one gives up.

Carmina pops her head out of the trap door, and casts Hold Person again . . . and he is frozen, with his knight-killer crossbow pointed directly at Aevin. 

Knight-killers have +6 to hit and 5d4 damage. Yow.

Keyar, back on the roof. Moves around to look what’s up there.

Vognur proves that Horse Lords can’t jump, failing his third athletics check to reach the trap door in the ceiling. 

Mark kicks and smashes at the locked chest in hopes of finding good stuff. And by that we mean papers and healing potions. 

The battle over at the gatehouse continues, but in the chaos of battle, a disadvantaged shot with a killer crossbow goes awry.

The guards continue to pound on the keep door with a battering ram. When they eventually burst through, they’ll find the area on fire, I think.

Keyar pours oil down on the guys with the battering ram. The guys at the base of the keep scatter like guys with about-to-be flaming oil on them.

Vognur continues to jump like Tigger on crack. He rolls a 23. He finally nails it. 

Leshar continues to threaten the women, and as they are driven to one of the windows, they catch a glimpse of the tower wall, on fire. As Leshar looks, Mark gets a vision of the bottom of the tower, on fire, with the high clergy of Mitra trapped in the basement. 

I know it. I’m going to have to leave the plate armor behind.

****
750XP milestone award. Slayage and capture of bad guys earns us another 425.
We end the session there.