We started right where we left off, leaving the Customhouse to help defend the ruins of Rivershard against the Lizardfolk assault that the players had uncovered. It was an hour's walk through the Road of Lanterns, at which point Hermiad saw them emerge and rejoined the party. He had been sent as a runner back to the landing site and the rest of the clan, mainly because Anthony was sick.
Rarhan, captain of the dragonborn guard and the PC's escort last session, ran down to rejoin the defenders. Lizardfolk riders had been seen on the horizon, and the 100 or so town guardsmen were busy turning the ruins into fortifications. Rarhan invited the vikings to join in, and we ran a skill challenge!
For the mechanics, I asked everyone to come up with two skill rolls they would make. They could concentrate on one skill they were really good at, or choose two skills and get a bonus. I asked everyone to come up with activities that would help the fortification. Here are some of the descriptions I remember:
* Bartix used Religion to interpret the Lizardfolk beliefs and build some scary offensive displays.
* Oddny and Varin used History as military experience to implement tried-and-true anti-siege methodology.
* Erik and Mendas used Streetwise to develop contingency plans for urban warfare should they have to fall back.
* Edgar used Athletics to dig, dig, dig.
* Rurik used Diplomacy to get the most out of all the workers!
* Hermiad used Nature, and only Nature, to interpret the existing lay of the land and plan where to place walls and trenches to maximal effect.
So, with a plan in place, everyone rolled their first skill. This was a full-sized encounter-weight skill challenge, requiring 12 successes before 6 failures. The first round generated 5 successes, 3 failures... so halfway there. Of course, there wasn't much that could be done to readjust their tactics, so we did the second round and went 7 and 1. That's 12 successes exactly, meaning that the fortifications were implemented!
They worked on their plans throughout the day, and behind them on the horizon, lizardfolk gathered. By the evening, the originally planned invasion time, the vikings could see some 1000 lizardfolk gathered, wearing the markings of several different tribes. But no one was attacking... the PCs sensed a vacuum of leadership. The defenders of Rivershard continued to work, getting a fitful sleep but making it safely through the night.
In the morning, the defenses were more or less complete. The lizardfolk were ready to go too: a chieftain rode in front of their ranks, totally pumping them up. Mendas snuck forward to listen in to the speech, and the horde seemed to be getting into it. This Chief Mukhur told his assembled throngs that the dragonborn may not have been the insane rabble that they had expected, but were still unprotected, vastly outnumbered, and ripe for sacking. Then, suddenly, the horde stopped banging their spears and fell silent! The rest of the vikings looked around them and saw a new figure above their lines. Hovering above them was the Ordinator Arcanis from the Seven-Pillared Hall!
The Ordinator Arcanis wears deep black robes and a golden mask of an impassive, stylized dragonborn face. This mysterious figure serves as the magistrate for the Seven-Pillared Hall. As the representative of the Mages of Saruun, the Ordinator Arcanis judges guilt or innocence in grievances and acts as an arbitrator in disputes.
There is no single Ordinator Arcanis. Each of the Mages of Saruun takes up the golden mask and black robes in turn, rotating the responsibility throughout the organization. When the Ordinator Arcanis walks the Hall the inhabitants tremble. It is not unusual for the Ordinator Arcanis to remain unseen for weeks or months at a time only to suddenly appear suddenly to execute the law of the mages or to settle a dispute. In most cases, the judgment of the Ordinator Arcanis is swift, harsh, and usually fatal-the mages have no desire to maintain jails or inflict minor penalties.
Anyway, that's what one of the dragonborn explained to the party. The Ordinator hovered some thirty feet above the dragonborn lines, its mask gleaming in the sun. From the way that the lizardfolk reacted, they had not been expecting such concrete support from the Mages of Saruun. Still, Mukhur lifted his warclub and charged, some 200 of his tribe behind him. Mendas noted that most of the horde stayed put. The rogue scampered back to his party in time to receive the charge!
And here we players took a pause. I brought out the map, a big field, 21x35 squares of green. As a result of winning the skill challenge, the players would get to set up the map in any way they chose using the box of scenery I provided. This includes trenches, trees, bushes, mushrooms, rocks, hills, walls, and fires, especially fires! They still had to protect an entire long flank, though: I would be allowed to field forces along the entire 35-square map edge.
Their main tactic was to use walls for funneling the troops. They were able to create a single off-center passage, which they lined with trenches. They flirted with using the three trenches I provided, and filling them all with the burning pitch they had collected all the way back in the Siege of Hyboria. I ruled, however, that the fire had a chance of spreading with this much petroleum spread around. Instead they opted for one trench, dug deep, for a nice stable burn.
Finally, they were set. The vikings lined up on the map edge closest to Rivershard.
I brought out my forces: 12 lizardfolk infantry (pretty obviously minions), two lizardfolk riding war raptors (using dire wolf stat blocks), two blackscale lizardfolk bruisers, and two marsh mystics. That's pretty much every trick in the lizardfolk playbook, with one or two inventions, and my players are about to outgrow them. This is your swan song, lizardfolk.
Nearly everyone beat the lizards in initiative. Hermiad and Varin climbed up on the ramparts to take potshots at separate riders, while Mendas and Edgar got into position (Edgar stood before the pit, ready to drop in a torch). Rurik and Oddny had crossbows, reserving actions for when they had targets in range.
Then the horde acted. Everyone but the marsh mystics had the same initiative. A rider and eight infantry charged down the middle of the gauntlet, ending up around the trench or on the left flank. As they went, Oddny hit one of the infantry with her crossbow, killing it instantly. Rurik took out another as they approached.
On the other side of the battlefield, the Blackscale Bruisers rushed up and knocked a hole in the wall! Yeah! The rider and four more minions rushed in to fill the gap.
Bartix had been delaying his turn and now stepped into action. A magic missile dispatched a threatening minion, and then he spent an action point to throw an Odin's Ball down the line of the wall (Odin's Ball is his rebranded Fireball). As Zach described it, a blask of magic energy left his orb, travelled across the battlefield, then burst to form a towering visage of the one-eyed god! Very Final Fantasy 7!
Bartix trained it on one of the minions such that he 7x7 blast hit everyone on that flank. This is where Bartix normally falls down, blowing the hit rolls, but this time he was on, and beat everyone's reflex! Four minions gone, and everyone else taking serious damage, boosted by Rurik's warlordiness!
Erik went next, engulfing three minions with a burst of flame. Edgar finished his turn and dropped the torch, setting the pit on fire. It didn't catch anyone, but now the flaming barrier was up. So we were approaching the end of the first turn, and I had two of my infantry left.
Bah! My only chance to make an impact lay in the marsh mystics. They ran up and fired off Poison Clouds, one on Edgar, one hitting Hermiad, Rurik, and Erik! Everyone but the ranger took damage and were dazed!
At the top of the order again, Mendas darted out from cover and hit the raptor with his Bait and Switch. Fine, it was stabbed, but he also switched places with it, sending it into the flames!
Rurik was dazed and didn't have a lot of options, but used Knights Move to lend Hermiad some more mobility. The ranger then jumped down from the wall and rushed one marsh mystic, hitting him with both barrels of his twin strike. Then, through the action point, he brought out his Two-Wolf Pounce, a daily that involved three attacks and a total of 5W! Also, three attacks through an action point, that's three triggers of Rurik's Resourceful Presence. That ended up being a lot of damage, including, I believe, a crit. He killed his first marsh mystic, shifted, and bloodied the second! Awesome!
So I had pretty much lost my right, but I still had something going on the left. Varin was right next to a rider and raptor, but he teleported away and laid a curse'n'blast. That killed the rider, but he still had to worry about the beast. It moved up on a rock and lunged at him, but for little affect.
The other remnants of the wave were the two Blackscale Bruisers. They moved around the flank, and one got into position to try and whack Rurik using his reach! No luck, though.
The mystic didn't have many options: these guys are straight controllers, with a very limited ability to damage. He shifted back and hit Hermiad with Swamp Grasp, successfully incapacitating him. That was a pretty good result, the ranger was going to be held in place for a little while. But then, Hermiad triggered his displacing collar, teleporting out of the swamp and behind the mystic! We figured that the mystic was congratulating himself on somehow dispersing his foe, unaware that an angry viking was now behind him.
Mendas was facing the lizardfolk-raptor combo, but the raptor was granting combat advantage for some reason. Prone, maybe? That sounds right. Anyway, the stab and the sneak attack killed the mount. "You killed Bitey!" the rider shouted, rushing at Mendas. But he rolled a 1.
No longer dazed, Rurik and Erik could respond to the giant lizardfolk coming up behind them. Rurik turned his magic greataxe into a halberd and poked the lizard back. Erik summoned his floating holy weapon, which went to town on the other lizard. I think both were now bloodied.
Edgar was still dazed until the turn end of the surviving marsh mystic. With his one action, he ran around and engaged the two surviving minions. They responded by hitting him with their warclubs, and one critted! Resulting in a mighty 8 damage! Our fighter laughed.
Let's see, what else. Mendas killed his dude... Varin got out the Infernal Darkness, which caused the raptor to run away and join up with his blackscale allies. Bartix fired off a Bizarre Terrain to further hinder the blackscales, but they were still able to charge their foes. Erik was hit and pushed back! and to safety! which is a crappy power, actually.
Edgar was starting to regret using his whetstone, there was nothing of note left for him to hit! Still, with his now +13 to hit, he had little chance of missing, and not immediately killing, the two. And... he rolled a three! He proved us all wrong! Martin then pleaded with everyone else not to kill the minions, as he really wanted to do something this game.
Uh, Bartix used his Icy Terrain out on the giants. Oddny charged over and killed the raptor, Rurik killed one Blackscale, and Erik killed the other.
Hermiad fatally surprised his mystic, and Mendas finished off the rider. Everyone watched with baited breath as Edgar wound up... and hit! The field was swept clean, and the heroes had won!
I had wanted another encounter in the night, but it wasn't to be. Instead we entered into a narrative/roleplaying section. The invasion was soundly defeated over the entire battle lines. Chief Mukhur never charged, and with a huge portion of his tribe dead, he slinked away. The rest of the assembled horde began to trickle away. Meanwhile the Ordinator Arcanis began to throw around some serious power, somehow chaining rituals together rapidly cast Bloom, then Ironwood, to rebuild the wall with armored trees. Rarhan congratulated the PCs and pledged that a great alliance had been forged between their peoples. Satisfied, the vikings returned to the Seven-Pillared Hall to do some commerce and to follow-up on that note.
And, it turns out, to drink! The party arrived at a jubilant Hall, celebrating the victory in the valley below. They went straight to Rothar's Taproom, and accepted all the free drinks that they could fit in their viking gullets! They met Rothar, a goliath that ran the place, and the barkeep encouraged his customers to celebrate the heroes (he got paid either way). Bartix used Prestidigitation to play a movie of their battle, and Mendas played the crowd. And everyone got drunk. Also Bartix found a female shifter with snake-traits. As he explained, his faith allowed him to lie with snakes and not women, so this would be okay... but he blew his Diplomacy and didn't Do anyone.
Whew, we haven't ended a game in a bar all campaign! Kind of a classic D&D thing, I'm glad to cross it off the list. We start next game... proceeding with our dungeon!
Casualties:
2 Lizardfolk Greenscale Hunters
2 War Raptors
2 Marsh Mystics
2 Blackscale Bruisers
12 level 5 Lizardfolk minions
Several beers. I didn't partake, so I have no stake in this.
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