1650: The Miniseries – Session 04 – Conclusion

[The new Baron Gammertingen goes to war.]

Player Characters:
Lasairfhiona [pronounced “Lah-sah-reena”] – human female Medicine Woman (4th-level Shaman)
Ysgwyn [pronounced “ees-win”] – elf female Theurgist-Swordmaster (3rd-level Elven Spellsword)
Ignis – human male Commissary (4th-level Venturer)
Vladimir – dwarf male Dwarven Repriser (3rd-level Dwarven Fury)

Non-Player Characters:
Gabriel – human female Forester (3rd-level Explorer), Lasairfhiona’s bodyguard
Heinrike – human female Gammertingen Scout, head of the Scouts unit
Marcus – human male Slayer (4th-level Assassin)
Wulf-Klaus – human male noble, Baron of Gammertingen

Missed the Session:
Vojtěch – human male “Theurgist” (really a Spiritualist, a 3rd-level Warlock)


Friday, June 10, 1650 AD
Wulf-Klaus, 6th Baron of Gammertingen, spent most of the day saying good-bye to his guests as they returned home from his coronation.  This led to a great deal of traffic in and out of the town walls, something he used as cover for moving his few troops out of town to join up with the mercenary army Ignis had in Feldhausen.  The troops were replaced in town by servants dressed up to appear as soldiers to keep any spies from reporting that Gammertingen was undefended and ripe for attack.  This was a gamble, but Wulf-Klaus felt he needed to deal with the enemy army encamped in the norther plateau of his barony on his terms, not theirs, and soonest.

Ignis lead strike groups of mercenaries out of Feldhausen to attack enemy blockades set up inside the eastern and northeastern borders of the barony.  He even made a quick stop in the walled village of Steinhilber to deliver a missive from the new baron to the Mayor of Steinhilber.  The mayor was polite and provided some supplies to Ignis’ strike team, but held a more wait-and-see attitude.

By the end of the day, Wulf-Klaus had moved a platoon of veteran musketeers, a platoon of dragoons, and a half-platoon of Gammertingen Scouts out of Gammertingen town and to the village of Feldhausen.  The baron himself left with the dragoons, leaving Vojtěch in charge of Gammertingen town, with orders to hold the town until the baron returned.  The steward, Bernhardt Hoffman, was not pleased with this, feeling he should have been left in charge.  The Captain of the Guard, Hildebrant Lang, understood the need and only regretted not being able to serve at the baron’s side.

Saturday, June 11, 1650 AD
Early in the morning Wulf-Klaus and Ignis divided up the mercenaries into platoons and then grouped all the platoons into two divisions.  The baron commanded the first division, containing the 1st Scouts, the 1st Dragoons on foot (which Wulf-Klaus attached himself to), and the half platoon of mercenary armored pikemen.  Ignis commanded the second division, which consisted of the 1st Veteran Musketeers (which Ignis attached himself to), a platoon and a half of arquebusiers, a platoon of mixed weapons musketeers (flintlocks and matchlocks), and a platoon of pikemen.  [Named units are House troops, the rest are the mercenaries Ignis hired in Justingen.]  Yswyn and Vladimir decided they would operate independently and Lasairfhiona attached herself to the mercenary pike unit as lieutenant.

The Scouts located the enemy army camp site a couple hours northwest of Feldhausen and reported they were packing up their camp in preparation to marching!  Wulf-Klaus and Ignis got their smaller army in gear and started marching northwest towards the enemy.  Lasairfhiona sent her spirit animal, Wren, flying ahead to keep track of the enemy army.  The enemy army appeared to be aware of the baron’s forces and was moving south/southeast to meet them!

Shortly after Noon, the two armies met.  The enemy commander set his command unit, Division I, (a platoon of Dragoons organized as two units of cavalry and a platoon of veteran harquebusiers) on a low hill for better visibility.  His right flank, Division II, (two platoons each of pike and musketeers) was anchored next to a hill, while his left flank, Division IV, (also two platoons each of pike and musketeers) had a lot of room to attempt a sweep around the baron’s right.  Several of the baron’s compatriots (the player characters) noticed that the center of the enemy army, Division III, (three platoons of harquebusiers backed by a single unit of pike) seemed to be equipped with different gear than the other three divisions.  They also appeared to be calling out back and forth in Italian, not German.  This suggested they were condottieri.

Everyone on the baron’s side, from the individual troops to the general himself, immediately noticed that the enemy army was four times the size of the baron’s army.

To balance the sides a little, Marcus used a stone of controlling earth elementals in his possession to summon a 12-foot tall earth elemental to take to the field (and plied it with 20 gp worth of rare earths to hopefully keep it from murdering him if he lost control of it).  The earth elemental was placed in the first division as a separate unit and Marcus was attached to the Scouts.  This bolstered the morale of the baron’s troops somewhat, but the fight ahead still looked to be dangerous.  The baron’s army then placed itself between two copses of trees, the first division on the left flank and the second division holding the center/right.  Out on the far left, Yswyn and Vladimir took position with a plan to use a series of small rises to cover their approach on the enemy’s right flank.  They planned on sprinting until they got within attack range and then charging into the flanks of each enemy unit, killing as they went.

Wulf-Klaus initiated the conflict by marching his left flank forward behind the slowly charging earth elemental.  The enemy right advanced and fired on the elemental, their bullets ricocheting off its rocky exterior harmlessly [earth elementals are immune to non-magical attacks].  Suddenly the earth elemental was a much bigger threat!

Ignis then used his cube of force to lob a fireball at one of the two mounted dragoon units screening the enemy commander, killing several enemy dragoons and causing the rest to flee the field!  [Magic attacks cause an automatic Shock Roll on the target and this unit rolled miserably low, routing immediately.]  The baron’s mercenary forces gave a cheer as their “boss” lived up to his reputation as walking artillery.  The second division marched forward to close with the enemy.

The enemy general, wielding the only magic weapon on his side, recognized the earth elemental and Ignis as the threats to his army they were.  He ordered his remaining mounted dragoons to charge the unit containing the wizard while he and the harquebusiers advanced to confront the earth elemental.  The condottieri advanced as well, angling slightly to the right to shield their paycheck…er, general from hostile gunfire.  The enemy left advanced forward unopposed.

Wulf-Klaus had Marcus send the earth elemental to attack the musketeers.  It shambled forward and slammed into one of the musketeer units.  With a unit of pikemen backing them up and their general advancing to support them, the unit stood up to the assault.  Meanwhile, the scouts and armored pike under the baron’s command readied to counter-attack any attacks the enemy might make on them.

The condottieri advanced further in the center, but with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm.  Rather than charge to attack, they readied for a counter-attack.  This noticeably frustrated the enemy general who could be heard yelling at the condottiere leader to push forward.  The Italians did not seem keen on the idea, keeping a wary eye on the earth elemental to their right.

Ignis ordered his division to attack the unit of mounted dragoons attempting to kill him.  The mercenaries took to the task with gusto and cut down most of the cavalry platoon, with only a few stragglers routing off the field.  Ignis then fired a second fireball at one of the readied condottieri harquebus units, but the Italians held firm.

Out on the baron’s far left flank, Vladimir and Yswyn were finally in position to charge the enemy – or at least Yswyn was.  She paused in her advance to wait on Vladimir so they could charge together and hit the flank of a platoon of enemy musketeers [her initiative was much higher than his, so she held action until his initiative].  Unfortunately, this pause allowed the enemy leader to engage the earth elemental in combat, freeing the Division II  musketeers and their supporting pikemen to move around the elemental.  In doing so, the platoon of musketeers going around on their right caught sight of the two adventurers and called out for pike support.  Both the musketeers and their supporting pike then readied for some form of attack from the adventurers.  When Yswyn and Vladimir finally advanced, the pikemen were ready and cut Yswyn down.  Vladimir was able to close, but not successfully attack the pikemen.  Standing over the bloody remains of his elf companion and staring down an entire platoon of enemy pikemen, Vladimir prepared to sell his life dearly.

Wulf-Klaus, noticing that his companions were likely to die if he did nothing, ordered the earth elemental be turned to attack the threatening pikemen.  This became a fortuitous mistake.  When the earth elemental turned to attack the pikemen, the enemy general took advantage of the opening and cut down the elemental.  As the enemy army started to cheer, Wulf-Klaus ordered his entire division to volley fire at the suddenly exposed harquebus unit containing the enemy general [both platoons with ranged weapons double-fired on the enemy command unit, something they could not due while he was in melee combat].  After a hail of fire from the Gammertingen Scouts and the 1st Dragoons, the enemy harquebusiers first fled and then were shot down to a man!

The condottieri troops advanced toward the baron’s troops, attempting to eliminate him in revenge for the death of the enemy general (and to maybe still get paid by the general’s backers).  Their attack failed to kill enough of the dragoons with the baron to matter.  Over on the enemy left, Division IV finally reached the edge of firing range on Ignis’ division.  Rather than charge in, they readied for a counter-attack.  If Ignis ignored them or advanced on the enemy center, they would charge into his unprotected flank.

Not wanting to send his own troops into readied opponents, Ignis instead had his division concentrate fire on the condottieri platoons, including him making another fireball attack.  This was more than the Italians could stand their lead platoon broke.

At the same time, Division II attempted to advance on Vladimir.  The Dwarven Fury let loose his rage, counter-attacking the musketeers and forcing them to flee.  The supporting pikemen attacked Vladimir next but their attacks were deflected by the protective runes tattooed on his body [they rolled a 12 to hit and needed a 13 or better].  Vladimir held firm, refusing to yield Yswyn’s body to his enemies.

With apparent victory snatched from their grasp and their leader now dead, the enemy army’s morale sank.  Most of their units routed or fled immediately.  The two platoons that held decided they did not want to face the entire baronial army on their own and ceded the field of battle to the baron, raising the white flag of surrender.

The baron accepted their surrender, letting those in flight leave rather than chase them down, but taking captive those who stayed on the field.  He sent forces to secure the body of the enemy general and the enemy baggage train before anyone could make off with it.  The baggage train was quickly searched by Marcus for the general’s correspondence.  Once that correspondence was secured, Wulf-Klaus allowed his troops, mercenary and House, to loot the rest of the baggage train.  There was much cheering for his generosity.  [He did take a share of the enemy payroll for later use – he’s generous but not dumb.]

As soon as the battle concluded, Lasairfhiona separated from the unit she was attached to and ran over to provide healing for Yswyn.  What she found was a bloody mess that was dimly recognizable as Yswyn [Yswyn’s player rolled low on the Mortality Table].  She and Vladimir bound the remains for transportation back to town to see if the baron would pay to have her brought back to life or just for her funeral.  Lasairfhiona then attended to healing the surprisingly few wounded troops in the baron’s army.

Once the enemy baggage train was thoroughly looted, the entire army marched back to their camp at Feldhausen, morale high.  There the army settled in for a serious celebration.  Messengers were sent back to Gammertingen town and the other villages in the barony to announce the victory.  A separate message from Wulf-Klaus asked Vojtěch to contact the Lutheran Church in Trochtelfingen and request a prelate be sent with utmost haste to Feldhausen for a “diplomatic miracle”.  [This was a coded request for someone capable of casting Restore Life and Limb to avoid starting a diplomatic dispute.]

After a couple of hours of celebration with the troops, Wulf-Klaus, Marcus, and Ignis settled down with the enemy general’s correspondence to find out who was behind the campaign against Gammertingen.  They quickly discovered that the enemy general was actually Leopold Friedrich Zollern, distant nephew to Prince Meinrad von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen!  Further, the correspondence suggested that Leopold, albeit indirectly, was being supplied by the prince and the German troops under his command were Zollern house troops, not hired mercenaries.  This provoked a debate between the three men.  Marcus was quite willing to go have a short, sharp conversation with the prince, but advised mending fences and strengthening claims, not getting into a bloody mess over who killed whom first.  Wulf-Klaus wanted Marcus to have a pointed discussion with the prince, but agreed he might be able to get concessions or leverage in exchange for keeping the matter quiet.  Ignis, ever the venturer, agreed that making a deal would be better than making vengeance.  The three continued discussing options until very late in the evening.

Sunday, June 12, 1650 AD
Carl Dominik Bruhn, a prelate of the Lutheran Church, arrived in Feldhausen.  Once the political niceties were explained [and a generous donation made to the church], the prelate performed the rite of Restore Life and Limb on Yswyn.  The rite healed her body, but her soul failed to return.  The prelate announced he would try again the next morning.

Wulf-Klaus sent the 1st Dragoons and the 1st Musketeers back to Gammertingen town to secure it in case Leopold’s troops reformed and attempted an attack on the town.  He wanted to avoid besieging his own home if he could help it.

The Gammertingen Scouts were sent north to see if any remnants of Leopold’s army remained in the barony.  Several hours later, they returned and reported that groups of condottieri were spotted marching east, flying white flags.  They appeared to be leaving the barony now that their employer was dead.  There were no sightings of Leopold’s German troops, but signs indicated they had fled west into County Zollern, ruled by a different branch of the Zollern family than County Sigmaringen and possibly friendly.  Wulf-Klaus decided to send a letter of complaint to Prince Eitel Frederick II of County Zollern by way of the baron’s allies in Wurttemberg, suggesting he might waive claims for restitution if the prince turned over the troops.  He didn't expect either to happen, but maybe rattling the cash-strapped prince's chains would encourage him to apply some family pressure on his cousin.

Monday, June 13, 1650 AD
After another donation by Wulf-Klaus, the prelate again performed the rite of Restore Life and Limb on Yswyn.  Despite promising signs, her soul again failed to return to the Earthly realm.  The prelate announced he would try again the next morning.

Wulf-Klaus put the mercenaries back to work finishing the defensive works for Feldhausen.  He spent the rest of the day with his “privy council” [the player characters], discussing where else defensive works might be needed, the order that they would be built, and the reconstruction of Kettenacker.

Tuesday, June 13, 1650 AD
After yet another donation by Wulf-Klaus, the prelate again performed the rite of Restore Life and Limb on Yswyn.  This time her soul returned, but she was blind.  The prelate, secretly relieved that the rite had finally worked (the mercenaries were starting to mutter about him), announced that he could cure the blindness with a final performance of the rite the next morning.  Wulf-Klaus agreed to this and readied another donation.  He wasn’t too glum about this as the coins were coming from Leopold’s coffers, not his.

Micha and Sigi were summoned from Gammertingen town to “help with Yswyn’s recovery.”  She appreciated this and spent the rest of the day enjoying the young men.

The earthworks for defending Feldhausen were completed.

Tuesday, June 13, 1650 AD
After a final donation by Wulf-Klaus, the prelate again performed the rite of Restore Life and Limb on Yswyn, restoring her sight and a body made whole.  She will require two weeks of bed rest to fully recover but planed to spend most of that time with Micha and Sigi, so she was content.

Wulf-Klaus returned to Gammertingen along with most of his privy council, leaving only Ignis to manage the mercenary army.  Ignis’s orders were to travel north to Steinhilber, secure it (and remind the citizens who they owe loyalty to), and then march south along the trade road to flush out any lingering enemy troops or bandits.  What happens after that will depend upon what new threats (if any) arise.

End of Session

End of Miniseries


[So the big battle happened and the PCs did make a difference.  I learned that level 3 and 4 characters are not quite high enough to act as independent units by themselves – Yswyn learned that the hard way when attacked by a pike unit.  She only had 15 hit points and took 40 from a single hit.  Ouch!  While the PCs were competent enough to be lieutenants for platoons, they needed a few more levels to go out solo.  The rules indicated this, but I fudged a bit to allow the players the opportunity to shine.  I’ll know better next time.]

[The mass combat rules for ACKS, Domains at War, work well.  There were some rules that I kept needing but were hard to find, so a cheat sheet with the relevant parts would have been handy.  This was exacerbated by switching between the Guns at War supplement and the main rules, which doesn’t cover gunpowder weapons.  A unified rulebook for the gunpowder material containing the base rules or at least many more cross references so I could quickly go from one book to the other would be very appreciated.  I’d prefer a complete gunpowder rulebook.]

[Units making a Shock Roll seem to break easier than I would have expected, especially as they often had a -4 on the roll due to being 50% or more damaged (-2) and being disordered because of taking damage (-2).  On the other hand, the entire battle wrapped up in a timely fashion, especially once the players took out the enemy general and forced a Morale Check on the entire enemy army.]

[This is the conclusion of 1650: The Miniseries.  My players very much enjoyed the campaign setting, but some had issue with the low power level.  If I had to do it again, I think I would raise the starting experience points so the average character level would be 5 and not 3.  Maybe also grant larger chunks of experience between session so by the time of the big battle, they could act as independent units and take a hit or two.]

[The players seem interested in continuing but on the fence about staying with ACKS.  We are going to meet in March to play boardgames and talk it out.  I might resume with a different game system (HERO System is a possibility) or jump time forward and raise everyone’s experience points.  I plan on continuing with Gammertingen as an Imagi-nation no matter what, so there will be more posts here on the blog no matter what we decide.  The initial posting schedule will be slow until I can get with my brain trust to work out how I want things to progress.  I want to get to a minimum posting frequency of one post per two weeks.]


1650: The Miniseries
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3, Part 1
Session 3, Part 2

Delay on Session 4

Session 4 did not happen in January as two players were not able to make the scheduled game due to family health issues.  As it will likely be the final session of the miniseries, I want everyone to be there for the conclusion.  

The next scheduled session is February 23, so the session notes for that will happen a week or two later, depending upon how busy the day job is the following week.  Sorry for the delay.

UPDATE: Session 4 happened and I'm nearly done writing up the session notes.  Expect them no later than Tuesday morning, March 5.

UPDATE 2: I completed the first draft of Session 4 but I need to review it to verify I didn't miss anything and then do an edit on it.  March 7th is looking more likely, but definitely no later than Friday, March 8th.

1650: The Miniseries – Session 03 – Part 2

[The new Baron is crowned, the border sweeping starts, and the Baron's birthday is celebrated a bit more than expected.]

Player Characters:
Lasairfhiona [pronounced “Lah-sah-reena”] – human female Medicine Woman (4th-level Shaman)
Ysgwyn [pronounced “ees-win”] – elf female Warrior-Seer (2nd-level Elven Spellsword)
Ignis – human male Commissary (4th-level Venturer)
Vladimir – dwarf male Dwarven Repriser (3rd-level Dwarven Fury)
Vojtěch – human male “Theurgist” (actually a Spiritualist, a 3rd-level Warlock)

Non-Player Characters:
Gabriel – human female Forester (3rd-level Explorer)
Heinrike – human female Gammertingen Scout, head of the Scouts unit
Marcus – human male Slayer (4th-level Assassin)
Wolf-Klaus – human male noble, Baron of Gammertingen


Thursday, June 9, 1650 AD
9:00 AM
START MONTAGE

GAMMERTINGEN LUTHERAN CHURCH:
Wolf-Klaus, dressed in his most impressive clothes, fit for nobility but with a bare head, enters the Gammertingen Lutheran church and all present stand.  The church is full of dignitaries and the elite of the townsfolk.  Paintings of Wolf-Klaus’ deceased family were also present at the altar, each with a black ribbon around it.  Wolf-Klaus starts walking down the aisle to where the priest waits.  The organ starts playing impressive music.  [Organ music continues playing through entire montage.]

CUT TO SOUTH OF KETTERNACKER:
Ignis and a small detail of mercenaries crawl up the side of a low rise, each wearing a light blue armband.  At the crest they spy a blockade manned by troops in black.  The mercenaries ready their muskets.

CUT TO FURTHER SOUTH:
Another group of mercenaries with light blue armbands are prepping their harquebuses and sighting on a blockade different from the one previously shown.

CUT BACK TO GAMMERTINGEN LUTHERAN CHURCH:
Wolf-Klaus is kneeling before the priest, taking his oaths.  The priest is asking, “…to defend the barony and the people therein and keep the peace?”  “I will,” Wolf-Klaus vows.

CUT BACK TO SOUTH OF KETTERNACKER:
The mercenaries in black are sitting and joking with each other when a fireball erupts among them, unleashing an inferno of flames and burning everything.  The mercenaries die screaming.  Ignis and his team stand up to watch.

CUT BACK TO FURTHER SOUTH:
One of the mercenaries in black at this blockade looks to the horizon to the north, where a plume of smoke can just barely be seen.  The others stand as he draws their attention to it - then a volley of harquebus fire from a nearby rise cuts them all down.

CUT BACK TO GAMMERTINGEN LUTHERAN CHURCH:
Wolf-Klaus, now wearing the baronial crown of Gammertingen turns to face the attending dignitaries and townsfolk and is greeted with applause.

FADE TO BLACK

Late Morning
Following the coronation ceremony, a minor reception happened where Wolf-Klaus, now Baron of Gammertingen, publicly mixed with the visiting and local dignitaries.  As all the important issues were discussed in private the night before, this is a social setting for small talk and congratulations, to see and be seen.  The paintings of Wolf-Klaus’ deceased family from inside the church were also present and kept the reception slightly somber.

Afternoon
Waiting for the baron’s birthday feast later that evening, Yswyn decided that her bed had been too empty the last week.  She sent a message to the Snuggly Duckling, asking that Micha and Sigi be sent over to Gammertingen town and the guest house Wolf-Klaus had set aside for his trusted friends.  If she was going to stay in this human town, she thought, she might as well have some toys to play with.

Vojtěch spent the time doing the things a court mage would do, planting the idea that he is the court mage in the minds of both the visiting dignitaries and the baron’s household staff.  Vojtěch doesn’t actually hold that position, but when the time comes for that to be decided, he wants all involved to see him as the natural candidate.

Lasairfhiona, Gabriel, and Yswyn picked up their dresses from the dressmaker and had a final fitting to fix any minor details.  The dresses all had extra pockets sewn into them for concealing things [read: “pistols and other weapons”].  Gabriel’s and Yswyn’s dresses both had sword sheaths artfully hidden in the back of the dresses.  [Short swords only, but still swords.]  The three women spent the rest of the evening filling the pockets with various implements of warfare “just in case” and adjusting placements and positions of the gear so they did not clank when they walked and the dresses draped naturally.  Ebba Schultes, the dressmaker, had done her job well and the three women felt ready for anything untoward that might happen that night.

Evening
The party for Wolf-Klaus’ birthday was a feast held in the courtyard between the manor house and the barracks.  The decorations were extensive and tasteful, having been arranged by the Baroness prior to her untimely death.  The initial stages of the party went well until Vladimir noticed that his most recent refill was only half full.  He looked around for the server who had given him the half empty drink and spotted the man steadily walking towards the high table while pulling out a previously concealed pistol.  Vladimir stood up to get a better view and noticed three other “servers” also walking steadily towards the high table where the baron and the prince were seated.

At the same time, Lasairfhiona also noticed four servers acting unusual and ignoring requests from the guests near them.  She glanced over at Vladimir and saw the dwarf picking up his battleaxe and stepping towards one of the servers.  That was all the warning she needed to nudge Gabriel and discretely point out the possible trouble.

Vladimir struck the first blow, sneaking up behind the closest assassin and striking him with his battleaxe, loudly declaring, “Never short a dwarf on his ale!”  This made everyone else at the feast pause in their conversations, wondering how drunk the dwarf was to over-react so badly.  Then the assassins raised their pistols, pointing them at the High Table.  Suddenly the crowd realized this was an assassination attempt, maybe the dwarf wasn't really that drunk, and they did not want to get caught in the crossfire between the assassins and the possibly sober dwarf.  Almost as one the crowd started scrambling toward the exits [or at least away from the High Table].

In the ensuing scramble and fight between the assassins and Wolf-Klaus’ “associates”, Vojtěch cast Summon Hero to engage one of the assassins and eventually kill him.  Another assassin shot Wolf-Klaus and hit him with a glancing blow with his pistol [I rolled low on damage].  Lasairfhiona used Command Word “Surrender” on him, which he did.  Yswyn and Gabriel killed the last two assassins, by which time most of the guests had fled the courtyard.  Lasairfhiona immediately moved to Wolf-Klaus’ side and healed him.  The newly confirmed baron commented, “Now I’ll have to be seen at the street festival or everyone will think I died during the attack.”

Vojtěch had the assassin’s bodies taken away to be examined later [as a court mage would do].  Meinrad, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, excused himself for the evening, claiming he had had enough excitement for the evening and retired to his rooms.  Wolf-Klaus went and changed into fresh clothes without so many bullet holes in them and more appropriate for a street festival.  The rest of the visiting dignitaries [once they were located] accepted the baron’s invitation to adjoin to the street festival.  The group of worthies [plus the baron’s “associates”] exited the walled portion of the town and spent several hours enjoying the street festival just across the river.  The baron made a point of being seen to counter any rumors he had just been killed in an assassination attempt.  Many of the townsfolk were surprised and pleased to see him still alive.  Those that weren’t, hid it well.

End of Session


[So, for the opening scene of this part of Session 3 I was channeling the baptism scene in the Godfather, where Michael Corleone was renouncing the works of the devil while his hit teams were killing all those who had wronged him and murdered his father.  I might not have done it full justice, but I was trying to be concise while getting the idea across – the session notes are long enough as it is.]

[Next session the PCs will be reunited as the Baron goes to war against the enemy forces inside his barony.  I plan to use the mass combat system in the ACKS Domains at War supplement.  I’ve played using it before and it is one of the reasons I chose the Adventurer Conqueror King System for this campaign.  This will be my first time running it, so wish me luck!]

1650: The Miniseries
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3, Part 1

Session 4 [Not Yet Written]

1650: The Miniseries – Session 03 – Part 1

[Forces put in place, raids happen, and guests arrive.]

Player Characters:
Lasairfhiona [pronounced “Lah-sah-reena”] – human female Medicine Woman (4th-level Shaman)
Ysgwyn [pronounced “ees-win”] – elf female Warrior-Seer (2nd-level Elven Spellsword)
Ignis – human male Commissary (4th-level Venturer)
Vladimir – dwarf male Dwarven Repriser (3rd-level Dwarven Fury)
Vojtěch – human male “Theurgist” (actually a Spiritualist, a 3rd-level Warlock)

Non-Player Characters:
Marcus – human male Slayer (4th-level Assassin)
Gabriel – human female Forrester (3rd-level Explorer)
Wolf-Klaus – human male noble, Baron of Gammertingen


Monday, June 6, 1650 AD
In the morning, Wolf-Klaus sent Marcus and Heinrike east to attempt to intercept Ignis and his forces on their way back to the barony.  Wolf-Klaus gave them new orders for Ignis and his troops to deliver to Ignis.  They stopped only to pick up supplies before walking east.  Heinrike knew some good lookout points to spot an approaching force, but some measure of luck would still be necessary.

Vojtěch spent the day perusing the baronial records and library looking for information on the town of Bitz.  He found a record of the town being abandoned in 1641.  Most of those leaving the town headed south, staying inside the County of Sigmaringen, but a clothier known to the Gammertingen’s Steward stopped to speak with the steward and the baron.  The clothier, Timotheus Sonnen, relayed that the few people left in Bitz chose to “flee the evil that had taken residence there.”  The notes are not very specific about what exactly happened, only that Bitz was now abandoned.  As the Thirty Years War was ongoing, the baron decided to not pursue the matter as he had trouble enough.

Lasairfhiona decided she wanted to go harass the enemy troops camped in the northern part of the barony.  She felt there should be some animals in the area she could induce to attack the campsite and make life difficult for the enemy and Gabriel, her bodyguard, could not dissuade her.  Lasairfhiona informed Yswyn of her plan and Yswyn thought it sounded entertaining, so she volunteered to accompany Lasairfhiona and Gabriel.  They paused long enough to inform Wolf-Klaus of their plans before the three of them headed northeast on the road towards Harthausen.

Vladimir decided that his time would be best spent doing two things: bodyguarding Wolf-Klaus and drinking.  He spent the day tailing Wolf-Klaus around as Wolf-Klaus made the arrangements for his official coronation on Thursday and performed the tedious duties of ruling.  That’s where the drinking came in for Vladimir.  No one attempted to dissuade the dwarf of either of his plans and got used to him being there.

Afternoon
Lasairfhiona and Yswyn reached the area roughly south of the enemy camp [by 2-3 miles] and turned north off the road.  Carefully approaching the area, they noticed a guard picket in a small copse of trees.  Lasairfhiona sent her totem animal [a raven named “Wren”] to investigate.  Wren reported humans in the trees, numbering twice as many as them.

Lasairfhiona, Gabriel, and Yswyn discussed tactics and decided to attack from range.  While Gabriel and Yswyn prepared their bows, Lasairfhiona noticed some squirrels in the grasses nearby and went over to talk with them.  Lasairfhiona cast speak with animals and asked the three squirrels to go harass the humans over in the trees.  Lasairfhiona later reported that the squirrel leader replied, “Those humans?  They chased us out of our trees.  We’re in.”  She vows that the squirrel leader then snapped his claws and a pack of 12 squirrels moved out of the nearby tall grass and advanced on the enemy picket.  Lasairfhiona then went over back to where Gabriel and Yswyn waited.

They watched the squirrels advance and then attack the sentries, hearing the humans cry out in terror as the squirrels swarmed them.  Deciding that the squirrels were distracting enough, the trio changed plans and drew swords.  They charged the copse of trees, Lasairfhiona stopping outside the copse to chant [she cast holy chant to provide bonuses to Yswyn and Gabriel].  As Yswyn and Gabriel charged in, the sentries discharged their weapons, trying to kill some of the squirrels.  The sentries were mostly unprepared for the two women: Gabriel cut down two of them and Yswyn whirled through the remaining four like an elven reaper, cutting them all down.

The three women then emptied the pockets and haversacks of the sentries, looking for useful information.  While Lasairfhiona sorted through the pile of material, Yswyn arranged the bodies into “amusing positions.”  They soon noticed 20+ additional enemy troops moving in formation towards them.  They grabbed the sentries’ weapons, black powder, and ammunition and ran for it.  Lasairfhiona sent Wren flying ahead and Wren returned almost immediately, reporting humans on horses approaching from the west to cut off their retreat.  Warned of the cavalry, Lasairfhiona, Gabriel, and Yswyn took evasive action.  It took them most of the afternoon to truly lose their pursuers [and several Evasion rolls].  Once clear of the riders, the trio used a combination of wilderness proficiencies and the occasional pass without trace spell to safely exit the area and report back to Gammertingen town.

Tuesday, June 7, 1650 AD
Mid-morning
The family of Wolf-Klaus’ deceased brother-in-law, Carl zu Hohensolms-Lich, arrived at the town gates.  The group consisted of Alexander zu Hohensolms-Lich (Carl’s father) and Judit-Daniela (mother) and Katja and Sibylle (sisters, unmarried) with a small retinue.  Wolf-Klaus broke the news of the assassination of his family and their son to them as gently as he could and brought them into the manor house.  [Note: Lich is the name of a town and in this case denotes one of the branches of the Hohensolms family.]

Noon
Thanks to Heinrike’s excellent knowledge of the land, she and Marcus were able to intercept Ignis and his troops north of Wilsingen as the army marched across the northern Zweifalten Abbey lands towards the Barony of Gammertingen.  Marcus delivered Ignis’ new orders.  The new orders were to take his troops and any engineers to Harthausen and fortify the village as seems best while awaiting new orders.  Not for the last time, Ignis wondered how he went from merchant to army general.

A couple hours later, Ignis and his army approached the border into Gammertingen.  They could see some enemy troops hurriedly packing up a blockade and gear.  When asked if he wanted the army to give chase, Ignis said, “No.  I’ll handle this.”  He pulled out his cube of force, stood up in the wagon he was riding in, and used the cube to lob a fireball at the enemy troops.  Clustered as they were, he caught all of them in the blast, along with the wooden rails of the barricade, incinerating everything.  This impressed the mercenaries to no end and they marched through the burned remains of the blockade with heightened morale, knowing that their leader WAS the artillery they seemed to be lacking.

Mid-Afternoon
Ignis and his troops marched into Harthausen.  The villagers were very nervous at first, but once Ignis showed the badge indicating he was on the Baron’s business and explained his orders, they became very happy and enthusiastic.  Ignis set Axel Oppenheimer, the engineer he had hired in Justingen, to surveying the village and drawing up plans for fortifications for the troops and the villagers.  The rest of the mercenaries set up camp adjacent to the village.

Back at Gammertingen town, Meinrad von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and his party arrived for the coronation.  While a representative from Sigmaringen had been expected, the Prince himself was not, nor were his possibly-armed retainers.  Wolf-Klaus greeted his very noble guest, apologizing for the low-key greeting as so illustrious a guest had not been expected.  Prince Meinrad graciously accepted the apology and stated he had heard word from merchants that there were troubles in Gammertingen and he felt obliged to come in person to support his neighbor to the north.  If Wolf-Klaus needed troops to secure his birth-right, Prince Meinrad was willing to send a contingent of his personal forces to assist the young baron.  Suspecting that if he accepted this offer, those troops might never leave, Wolf-Klaus politely declined, stating that he had forces in route to meet his needs.  The two men and their entourages then entered the manor house to get settled.  Vladimir suddenly had a lot more people to keep an eye on.  This was going to take more beer.

Wednesday, June 8, 1650 AD
At dawn, Marcus and Heinrike left Harthausen to return to Gammertingen and report back to Wolf-Klaus.  When he finally heard how many mercenaries Ignis was able to hire, he was pleased.  He drew up some new orders for Ignis, instructing Ignis to start clearing all the blockades set up by the enemy at the borders of the barony and be ready to march against the main army on Saturday, June 11.  Wolf-Klaus then asked Marcus and Heinrike to deliver these new orders to Ignis and then return for the coronation.  As the coronation was the next day, they ask to borrow horses from the baronial stable to complete these orders and were granted permission.  They were both glad for that.

Throughout the day, additional guests arrived for the ceremony.  Lasairfhiona acted as the greeter, allowing Wolf-Klaus and the Steward to continue with preparations and paying attention to Prince Meinrad.  The first to arrive was Erich Volk, the lone (and alone) representative from Ketternacker.  He wanted to speak with the new baron about when the baron was going to help rebuild Ketternacker.  He was currently happy to have soldiers there protecting the survivors but didn't want them there forever.

Next arriving was Hermann Kromer, the Mayor of Trochtelfingen in Fürstenberg, with his entourage.  The mayor had heard rumors of bandits cutting off the trade roads south of him and seen the drop in merchants arriving from the south.  He wanted to verify with the new baron that trade will resume soonest.  If the new baron cannot do this on his own, Mayor Kromer was willing to ask the Fürstenberg family for troops to fix the problem…if the baron will agree to move the border south so the trade road is in Fürstenberg territory.  Lasairfhiona agreed to pass that offer along to the baron.

Around midday, Marius Franke and Wolfgang Langenberg, representatives from Feldhausen and Harthausen, respectively, arrived together.  Wolfgang was very happy with the defenses and troops the new baron had arranged and the good work they were doing.  In fact, he wouldn't shut up about it, speaking enthusiastically with anyone who would listen.  Marius Franke was a bit grumpy about it as he wanted defenses and soldiers to keep his family safe as well.  He may also have been tired of listening to Wolfgang for the last three and a half hours.

About the same time but in Harthausen, Axel Oppenheimer reported to Ignis that most of the town could be incorporated or enclosed inside some basic fortifications, but three houses on the north side were too far away and might need to be demolished to avoid enemy attackers using them for cover.  Knowing how that information would be received by the owners of those three homes, Ignis told Axel to start building the fortifications [a ditch and an earth ramparts], but not mention the demolition part.

Later in the afternoon, back in Gammertingen town, Kurt Havener, a master potter by trade and the representative from Brunner arrived.  He turned out to also be the representative from Mariaberg as the nuns did not feel safe enough to travel at this time.  He brought gifts from both the village and the monastery and wanted to meet the new baron to find out what he will do to make the barony safe again.

In Harthausen, Marcus and Heinrike arrived on horses and delivered Ignis’ new orders.  Looking the orders over, Ignis called in the mercenary captains to plan out the raids and in what order to accomplish them.  Scouts were sent out to verify the locations of the target blockades.

In the early evening, just before the drawbridges into Gammertingen town were raised, Father Kovac, a representative of Zweifalten Abbey, and his assistants arrived in a rapidly driven carriage.  His arrival was not expected and when asked, he stated he hadn't planned on attending until a small army of mercenaries marched across the northern edge of the Abbey's lands and entered the barony.  He was tasked by the Abbot himself to find out what is going on in the barony and what the baron plans on doing with those troops.  He had the grace to bring a present.

During the evening, Wolf-Klaus had private meetings with most of his guests, Vladimir his silent shadow.  Wolf-Klaus attempted to instill confidence in his guests that he had the situation under control and a plan to fix things without going into details.  He also did his best to placate Father Kovac.

End of Part 1


[This entry started running long and I still had a big scene or two to write up, so I broke it into 2 parts.  Part 2 will follow in about a week.]

[This session was about providing clues to the players about what is going on plus seeding plot points for use after the miniseries, plus I got to introduce some significant NPCs.  I’ll write more about this session after Part 2 so I can get this posted.]

[Despite showing up in the session notes, Marcus has become an NPC due to his player moving across the country.  I email his player periodically to find out how Marcus should respond to events and to keep him up to date on the campaign.  Hi Mike!]


1650: The Miniseries
Session 1
Session 2

Session 3, Part 2

1650: The Miniseries – Session 02

[Much investigation is done and the enemy located, if not identified.]

Player Characters:
Lasairfhiona [pronounced “Lah-sah-reena”] – human female Medicine Woman (4th-level Shaman)
Ysgwyn [pronounced “ees-win”] – elf female Warrior-Seer (2nd-level Elven Spellsword)
Ignis – human male Commissary (4th-level Venturer)
Vladimir – dwarf male Dwarven Repriser (3rd-level Dwarven Fury)
Vojtěch – human male “Theurgist” (actually a Spiritualist, a 3rd-level Warlock)
Marcus, A.K.A.: Totenschwarz – human male Slayer (4th-level Assassin)

Non-Player Characters:
Gabriel – human female Warrior (2nd-level Fighter)
Wolf-Klaus – human male noble, 5th child and 4th son of the Baron of Gammertingen
Heinrike Dreier - human female, leader of the Gammertingen Scouts


Friday, June 3, 1650 AD
The drinking buddies of Wolf-Klaus, de facto 6th Baron of Gammertingen split up to achieve a variety of goals.  Lasairfhiona and her bodyguard, Gabriel, went to several dressmakers, looking for appropriate dress for the new baron’s coronation on the 9th.  It turned out there were several dresses available, dresses for the Baron’s family that had not been delivered yet.  Or paid for.  The dressmaker, Ebba Schultes, found a dress that fit and agreed to have it altered to appear different by the 8th.  Lasairfhiona also wanted her bodyguard in a dress, to which Gabriel balked at.  Her objections that dresses were impractical to fight in and as Lasairfhiona’s bodyguard, she, Gabriel, must be ready to fight.  Lasairfhiona gradually talked her bodyguard around to getting fitted, mostly trumping Gabriel’s reluctance by pointing out Gabriel could not do her job if she was not allowed into the ceremony or the ball afterward due to her inappropriate manner of dressing.

Marcus, meanwhile, sent a scout, one Heinrike Dreier, to attempt to reach the town of Steinhilber by looping around to the east through Wilsingen and approaching from the southeast.  [Note: the Gammertingen Scouts is a unit of scouts comprised of women.  During the Thirty Years War most of the men of military age were conscripted by various armies and few of those ever returned.  This necessitated the invention of a volunteer unit comprised of the only physically fit people left in the barony.  They are very familiar with the barony lands and excellent shots with their harquebuses, which they also occasionally used for hunting to supplement food stores in the barony.  Often on lands belonging to other, Catholic, principalities.]

Ignis, a skilled scrounger and occasional merchant, was tasked by Wolf-Klaus with going to the Imperial City of Justingen to hire as many mercenaries as he could to help defend the barony.  Ignis consulted with Captain Lang, head of the Baronial Guard, to find out what kind of troops he should get.  Captain Lang recommended defensive troops, mostly infantry with firearms.  He also recommended using part of the monies given to him to purchase several months of food and supplies for the mercenaries to keep them from raiding the barony for victuals.  Ignis agreed and made notes as to what would be needed before starting his trip to Justingen.

Vojtěch sent his vulture familiar, Booesława [approximately pronounced “Baats·lava”], west to investigate the town of Bitz, rumored to be haunted due to something that happened during the war.  Inspired by this, Lasairfhiona sent Wren, her animal totem, to scout Steinhilber.

Lasairfhiona then went to the manor house to see if she could track the assassins who attacked Wolf-Klaus’ family.  She spent a couple hours following the tracks of the assassins through town to the various spots where the guards killed each one.  What she finds seems to match up with the report from the Captain of the Guard.  By the time she finished, Wren returned and reported getting shot at before arriving at Steinhilber.  Crows in that area that Wren talked with reported the local humans were all excited.  Lasairfhiona found Marcus and shared this information with him.

A couple hours later, Booesława returned to Vojtěch and reported on Bitz.  Booesława reported that there was nothing living there, that the familiar sensed some form of power in the area but was not their long enough to identify it, and that the graveyard was fully stocked.  Vojtěch made notes on all of this and went over to the baronial library to research Bitz.

Late in the afternoon, Heinrike Dreier, the scout Marcus sent to approach Steinhilber from the southeast returned and made her report.  She reported that while approaching the barony’s border from the Zweifalten Abbey side, troops had set up an impromptu toll booth just inside the barony’s border.  The troops appeared to be mercenaries and were harassing merchants entering the barony.

Marcus took this report directly to Wolf-Klaus, who was handling matters related to his coronation and defense of the town.  Wolf-Klaus asked Marcus to put together a team and locate and count what hostile troops were in the northern part of the barony.  If Marcus could also find out who was paying them, so much the better.  Wolf-Klaus needed a report on this by Monday the 6th.  Marcus immediately went to work assembling a team.

Saturday, June 4, 1650 AD
Marcus’ scouting team ended up being a bit larger than he planned due to an enthusiastic response.  The team consisted of himself, Ysgwyn, Lasairfhiona and her bodyguard Gabriel, and a small unit of Gammertingen scouts armed with flintlock harquebuses.  Once assembled, the group headed up onto the plateau above the Lauchert River and north, looking for hostile troops.

[Historical Note: In this time period, “harquebus” was the name of the lighter of the two classes of longarm weapon and “musket” the name of the heavy longarm needing a stand to fire.  In about 100 years the usage of the names would reverse, with muskets being the name of the lighter longarm weapon and harquebus the heavier weapon needing the stand to fire.  This was not a case of technology improving but a case of terminology changing over time.]

At roughly the same time but about 10 miles to the east, Ignis was crossing the eastern border of Zweifalten Abbey and into part of Swabian Austria, disguised as a minor merchant.  A border station collecting tariffs on goods crossing the border was there [a common thing in this period across Europe and the reason shipping goods was expensive].  Ignis was concerned that Gammertingen’s unknown enemy might be tracking people leaving Gammertingen with large sums of money for hiring mercenaries, just like he was doing.  When approached by the border guard, Ignis offered to pay more than the required tariff in exchange for no record of his entry.  The guard looked around and say no one was particularly paying attention to him and gracefully accepted the bribe, welcoming “Herr Vogel” [Mr. Bird] to Swabian Austria.

Afternoon
Carefully working their way north to avoid accidentally stumbling upon hostile forces, the scouting party approached a shallow vale between low hills a mile east of Magerkingen, up on the Gammertingen plateau.  Gabriel noticed a small guard picket in a copse of trees on the other end of the vale.  Marcus split his forces, sending the scouts and Gabriel [who had a longbow] to a line of cover on the left while he and Lasairfhiona and Ysgwyn continued to walk north, pretending to be unaware of the picket.  The plan was to get a little closer and attack when the guards noticed them and called for them to halt.  Marcus was hoping he and Ysgwyn could get close enough to charge but wasn’t expecting to get that lucky.

Instead, Marcus got extremely lucky.  The guards were apparently throwing dice rather than paying attention and his group got to within 40 yards before being noticed.  Marcus signaled for the scouts to shoot before he and Ysgwyn charged in.  The picket guards were all dead within seconds with no wounds to the attackers at all.  Marcus and his group immediately started searching the bodies for gear to take back to Gammertingen for the defense and for any evidence as to who was paying the soldiers.  A path north was found, leading back to whatever the guards were a picket for.

Just as the searching was done, a group of soldiers responding to the gunshots marched into view from the north.  This group consisted of 12 musketmen, 7 pikemen, and two officers.  [Actually a lieutenant and a sergeant, but the PCs could not see the rank insignia from this distance, just that they were shouting orders.]  Marcus had the scouting group take up positions behind trees for cover and then wait for his signal.  Just as the opposing force lined up, Marcus ordered everyone with ranged weapons to shoot.  While the scouts reloaded, the enemy fired their muskets, wounding several in the scouting party.  Ysgwyn and Gabriel targeted the leader of the enemy troops with their bows, which provoked the pikemen to advance to attack.

While the pike advanced, the archers killed the other enemy leader.  The pikemen charged in to attack to great effect, dropping several of the scouts and wounding the PCs.  By this point the remaining scouts fired their second volley and then affixed bayonets to their weapons [a new technology at the time and one of the few ways Gammertingen was on the cutting edge technologically].  The scouts counter-charged the pikemen to close the distance and overwhelmed them.  The remaining scouts and Ysgwyn then charged the enemy muskets where Ysgwyn became a whirlwind of death with her sword.

Lasairfhiona cast several healing spells to revive the wounded, including one of the enemy troops [for later questioning].  Knowing more enemy troops were likely to show soon, Marcus sent the wounded scouts and the captive south to return to Gammertingen town.  He, Heinrike, Lasairfhiona and Gabriel, and Ysgwyn headed east and then north, hoping to side-step any further enemy troops.  In this, they were successful.  They also located the main encampment of the enemy force with over 200 troops and another, larger patrol with cavalry forming up.  They made a quick map of the encampment with notes to the troop types and rough numbers.  Marcus noticed that, significantly, the force had no cannons nor other siege equipment.  The scouting party then quickly left the area to return south before being spotted.

Late Afternoon
Ignis arrived at the Imperial City of Justingen.  After securing lodging, he started scouting out the city, locating the mercenary market.  He spent the evening asking after what mercenary companies might be in town and their reputations.

Sunday, June 5, 1650 AD
Despite it being a day of worship, Ignis was busy hustling to hire every available mercenary that met the guidelines provided by Captain Lang.  By the end of the day he was able to hire 12 flintlock musketeers, 14 matchlock musketeers, 25 flintlock harquebusiers, 18 matchlock harquebusiers, 25 pikemen, and 14 armored pikemen, plus an engineer and supplies for all of the mercenaries for two months.

End of Session


[I played a little loosey-goosey with time as I ran this session, basically working my way around the table and asking each player what their character was up to.  I then threaded similar activities together and shone the spotlight on each player in turn.  This ended up with Ignis a day so ahead of the rest of the group in the timeline, but things will re-synch next session.  Probably.]


1650: The Miniseries
Session 1

Session 3, Part 1

1650: The Miniseries – Session 01

[Tales of the Snuggly Duckling.  ...Not really, but that’s where things start.]

Player Characters:
Lasairfhiona [pronounced “Lah-sah-reena”] – human female Medicine Woman [4th-level Shaman]
Ysgwyn [pronounced “ees-win”] – elf female Warrior-Seer [2nd-level Elven Spellsword]
Ignis – human male Commissary [4th-level Venturer]
Vladimir – dwarf male Dwarven Repriser [3rd-level Dwarven Fury]
Vojtěch – human male “Theurgist” [actually a Spiritualist, a 3rd-level Warlock]
Marcus, A.K.A.: Totenschwarz – human male Slayer [4th-level Assassin]

Non-Player Characters:
Gabriel – human female Warrior [2nd-level Fighter]
Wolf-Klaus – human male noble, 5th child and 4th son of the Baron of Gammertingen


Thursday, June 2, 1650 AD
The Barony of Gammertingen is a minor principality in the Swabian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire and barely worth the land it occupied.  Its only claim to significance is the toll the Baron is allowed to charge on the trade road between Sigmaringen and Hechingen and the branch leading to Trochtelfingen.  Two years ago the Peace at Westphalia was signed, ending the Thirty Years War, and Gammertingen is recovering from the effects of decades of war and plague.  The current Baron, Detlev II, 5th Baron of Gammertingen, had five children and one week from now it will be his youngest son’s 18th birthday.  It will be a day of dining with visiting nobles, displaying his son’s fine upbringing, and arranging a politically beneficial marriage.  Everything will be prim and proper.

This night, however, was a night of drunken debauchery with his son’s ne’er-do-well friends and various hangers-on across the border in Neufra, the village where everything “fell off a cart.”  The Baron’s son, Wolf-Klaus, was ensconced at the Snuggly Duckling, the best tavern and brothel in Neufra, where he and his friends had been celebrating for several hours already.

Wolf-Klaus was drinking in the private room with Vojtěch, a “scholar” of his acquaintance and patronage, Lasairfhiona, a Celtic druid, and her self-appointed bodyguard, Gabriel.  The windows and the door to the common room were open to allow an evening breeze through to cool the room and the tavern off.  Remnants of the feast were still on the table in the private room [and in some places, the floor].

In the common room, Vladimir, a dwarf who regularly lost at cards to Wolf-Klaus, was engaged in a series of drinking contests and Ignis, who "knows a guy" when you are looking for something cheap or illegal, was throwing dice with other gamblers in a corner.  Ysgwyn, representative of a nearby elven enclave and a bit of a lush, was upstairs making use of both of the brothel’s two young men, Micha and Sigi [she has a thing for “round-ears”].  Marcus [a "siege engineer" who attached himself to Wolf-Klaus' retinue], having availed himself of much food and drink, was in the privies out back, relieving himself.

A group of eight stevedores entered the mostly full tavern and took seats at a table too small for their group, right next to the entrance to the private room.  Ignis noticed that they had short swords concealed upon their persons and decided to keep an eye on them [but not actually abandoning the dice game he was in].  Despite sitting at a table near the stevedores, Vladimir barely noticed their entrance as he was concentrating on acting befuddled by his drinks.  He felt he could get the money from at least five more humans before they realized his capacity for this weak human beer was much, much greater than theirs and he didn’t want to blow it - he needed a stake for the card game scheduled for later.

The stevedores noisily complained about having such a small table when there was a whole nearly empty room next to them.  Vojtěch noticed this and used a simple prestidigitation to make his whisper of “You don’t want to do that” carry across the private room and to the table of stevedores.

Rather than calm down the stevedores, this display of magic riled them up.  They got up from their table and stood in the door to the private room, shouting accusations of sorcery and claiming Vojtěch cast a spell on them.  Wolf-Klaus told the stevedores that the room was private and they should go back to their table in the common room.  Lasairfhiona nodded at Gabriel who pulled one of her many flintlock pistols out and set it on the table.

Sensing trouble was about to happen, Ignis finally left his dice game and walked over behind the group of stevedores.  He offered to buy them a round of the good stuff if they’d just go back to their table and sit down [this represented a couple weeks of pay for stevedores and he thought it would make a good bribe].  Unfortunately, at the same time in front of the group of stevedores, Gabriel barked at the stevedores to leave and cocked her pistol where they could see.  The loudest of the stevedores replied with, “Girlie, we’ve got weapons too!  At ‘em lads!”  Seven of the eight of the stevedores drew their concealed short swords and rushed into the room to attack.  The eighth drew his short sword and said to Ignis, “Your silver’s nice, friend, but the gold we’ve been paid is nicer.”  Then he attacked Ignis.

Meanwhile, out behind the tavern Marcus had finished his business in the privy and was leaving it when he noticed two groups of four men with swords out clustered around the two back entrances of the tavern.  One of the four men at the door that Marcus wanted to use noticed Marcus and waved his sword threateningly at Marcus.  Marcus pretended to take the hint and instead of approaching the tavern, turned and walked around behind the privies as though to flee.  Once he was out of sight, he drew his dagger and started moving silently with the intent of sneaking up behind the men.

Back inside the private room, violent things were happening.  Gabriel fired her pistol at the noisy stevedore, injuring him, but not killing him.  The stevedores broke up into pairs, with two each attacking Gabriel, Lasairfhiona, and Vojtěch and the seventh stevedore attacking Wolf-Klaus.  Only the two attacking Vojtěch were successful in the initial round of attacks, but this staggered Vojtěch and in the next round they dropped him to the floor.  Lasairfhiona cast Obscuring Mist, which was not as helpful as she hoped, and then switched to Holy Chant, which was.  Gabriel kept firing a pistol at a stevedore, dropping the spent pistol to the floor, drawing a fresh pistol, and then repeating the process.

When Ignis saw Vojtěch fall into the mist from his multiple wounds, Ignis ignored the stevedore he was fighting, drew his Cube of Force, and triggered the Disintegrate power of the cube, turning to dust one of the stevedores.  [The stevedore next to the disintegrated man was heard to say, “I thought we killed the mage!?”]  The man he had been fighting paled a bit and then started calling out loud for back up.  Ignis also noticed at this point that the four bouncers working the Snuggly Duckling were very studiously looking into their drinks, ignoring the fight they would normally be breaking up.  Ignis was starting to seriously suspect that this fight wasn’t a misunderstanding at all.

The sudden hush of the crowd in the room from the initial gunshots finally brought Vladimir’s attention to the fight going on.  He drew his two handaxes and charged into the private room to attack the stevedores attacking his friends.  For the most part, the stevedores ignored him and focused on those they were already fighting.  This mad Vladimir angry and he slipped into his fighting fury, allowing this anger to consume him.

Outside, Marcus and the men with swords heard the calls for back up coming from inside.  The four men at the main back entrance charged into the tavern.  The four men Marcus was sneaking up to were whispering to each other and Marcus picked up that they were expecting Wolf-Klaus to flee the fight through this door and were waiting to kill him when he did.  How rude.  Marcus silently stepped up behind the rear-most man, clamped his hand over the man’s mouth, and cut his throat, turning the body just enough so the blood spray did not spatter and alert the man in front of his victim.  He quietly set the dead man down and prepared to step behind his next target.  [Marcus made a successful Move Silently check and the men were still out of combat, so I ruled he did a coup de grace with his backstab, silently dropping his target.  Further, as long as he kept making his Move Silently roll, he could repeat this each round until they noticed.]

Back inside the common room, Ignis noticed the four men with longswords entering the tavern.  They were mostly in a line, so Ignis decided to take the opportunity to eliminate them.  He stepped over close to the front doors for a better line of fire and released a Lightning Bolt from his Cube of Force, telling the people at the table in front of him to duck.  They did immediately and the bolt went over them, fried three of the four attackers, and then went out the back door where it eventually struck the hillside behind the tavern.  The noise from this finally alerted Ysgwyn to the fight going on downstairs and she quickly donned pants and a tunic [with the help of Micha and Sigi], grabbed her sword and long bow [and a few arrows], and rushed out of the room to the upstairs balcony.  Looking down upon the common area, she noticed the swordsman making his way towards Ignis and shot at the swordsman until he was in melee combat.  She then attempted to get downstairs and into the fight.

The three remaining attackers outside saw the bolt, but the light ruined their night vision for a short bit, allowing Marcus to kill two more of them before the fourth one finally noticed Marcus standing over his now-dead companions.  He died shortly later to Marcus's dagger.  Inside the tavern, Vladimir’s fury allowed him to cut down most of the attacking stevedores in a series of cleave attacks.  Gabriel dropped the last stevedore with another pistol shot.  Ignis disintegrated the last stevedore in the common room [thanks to Lasairfhiona’s Holy Chant causing the stevedore to fail his saving throw]. He attempted to talk the final swordsman into surrendering, but accidentally disarmed himself by sticking his sword into the wall and losing his grip.  Before the swordsman could cut down the unarmed Ignis, Vladimir charged over and cut the man's arms off, killing him.

With the combat over, everyone regrouped in the private room.  Well, everyone but Ysgwyn and Ignis.  Ysgwyn started whipping the bouncers with the flat of her blade for obviously taking bribes to sit out the fight.  She and Ignis interrogated them in front of the tavern crowd to the crowd’s delight – they love street theater and don’t get to see it that often in such a small and out of the way place like Neufra.  Lasairfhiona healed up Vojtěch with her Staff of Healing, but he still lost an eye to the fight [a result on the Mortality Table].  The pockets of the assassins were checked and a small quantity of gold was taken from each, along with a hand-drawn picture of Wolf-Klaus and a single letter to their leader instructing them to kill Wolf-Klaus and then join the rest to assist in the escape from the main attack at the manor house.

Wolf-Klaus asked his friends to assist him in getting back to Gammertingen and possibly rescuing his parents and siblings.  Offended the birthday party was broken up by the assassins and willing to help their meal ticket, er, friend, the group agreed.  Horses were acquired to hasten the mile ride over the hill and back to the town of Gammertingen.

Vojtěch sent his vulture familiar ahead to find out what might be going on at Gammertingen town.  The vulture returned shortly, reporting fires and people running around with torches.  This spurred the group to ride faster [and then slow down as it was night and they did not want to risk alerting anyone by using torches].

As the group crossed the top of the hill, Gammertingen town came into view.  The barracks building was billowing smoke, possibly from the stables that comprised the ground floor of the four story building.  Torch-bearing groups could be seen moving through the streets inside the walled town and the gates of the two gatehouses appeared to be open but with the drawbridges up.  As the group carefully rode the winding road down this side of the hill, Ignis noticed a tree across the road further down and some people around it.  He alerted the rest of the group to the situation.

As the group rode up, five men with bows stood behind the downed tree and challenged them.  Ignis immediately shot one of them with a pistol and Vladimir hopped off his horse and charged the rest, quickly killing them all by himself.  Others figures in the trees to either side of the road could be heard throwing down their swords and fleeing the area.  [There was some consternation amongst the other players that the people Vladimir just killed could have been loyal to the barony, but it was too late by that point to do anything about it.]

Vladimir, Ysgwyn, and Gabriel hefted the downed tree between them and moved it aside, allowing the group to proceed.  As they rode past the south wall of the town they were noticed and the guards on the wall cried out “Riders approaching,” alerting the guards at the east gatehouse to group’s presence.  They were challenged at the gate and Wolf-Klaus answered the challenges, naming the guards as he talked to them.  Eventually the drawbridge was lowered and the group was allowed into the town.

They were greeted by Bernhardt Hoffman, the Steward, who addressed Wolf-Klaus as “My Lord” and not the usual “Herr”.  Several members of the group noticed this, but kept quiet, waiting for Wolf-Klaus to acknowledge it.  They were escorted to the armory as the manor house and barracks were still being searched.  The guards with the Steward tried to subtly peel off Wolf-Klaus’ low-class friends, but the PCs were not having any of that and stood with their friend.  Lasairfhiona volunteered to go heal the injured and Marcus to go see if by chance any of Wolf-Klaus’ family yet lived.  Both were escorted by guards.

In the armory, the Steward briefed Wolf-Klaus on what happened.  There had been a report of some sort of attack on Kettenacker [small village on the barony’s eastern border].  The baron ordered a small contingent of troops be dispatched to investigate.  Shortly after the troops left, a large fire was discovered in the stables and the rest of the soldiers and most of the house staff worked at putting the fire out, led by the Captain of the Guard, Hildebrant Lang.  While the fire was being fought, gunshots were heard inside the manor house.  Captain Lang led a small group of troops into the manor house to investigate.  He appears to have discovered the assassins as they were finishing their work.  A gun battle started as the assassins tried to escape using the walkways on the town walls.  The Captain pursued those who made it out of the building and into the town.

A separate gun battle happened at the north gatehouse when a different group attempted to sabotage the gates and the drawbridge.  The gate hinges were damaged, but the drawbridge was still functional.  The Steward reported it was possible that the assassins were planning to escape through the north gate, but Captain Lang and troops loyal to the baron seemed to have cut them off and members of the guard were currently searching the town for the trapped assassins.

Wolf-Klaus relayed the events of the attack on him to the steward.  As he finished, Marcus returned from the manor house and confirmed that Wolf-Klaus’ parents, his siblings, and their spouses were all dead.  At this point the Steward produced the baron’s signet ring and handed it to Wolf-Klaus.  Wolf-Klaus took it with some hesitation and then put it on.  He then ordered a rider to contact the soldiers heading to Kettenacker and update their orders to check on the villages of Harthausen and Feldhausen on their way back, assuming Kettenacker is safe.  He also ordered a rider head north to inform the leaders of Bronnen, Mariaberg, and Steinhilber there was a new baron and the coronation will be on the 9th of this month.  He then ordered the Steward to adjust the scheduled birthday celebration to be his coronation ceremony instead.

Once the Steward was out of the room, Wolf-Klaus called his friends closer and quietly asked them to investigate who was behind the conspiracy against his family.  Wolf-Klaus needed stay here to keep the barony from collapsing, but there was much that needed looking into.  He suspected further attacks on the barony soon.  After sharing glances at each other, the newly-minted baron’s drinking buddies agreed to be his loyal agents.  Wolf-Klaus, much relieved, assigned a guest house to them and they discussed what steps needed to be taken next…

End of Session

[Despite this wall of text, we wrapped up a bit early for the day.  We’d gotten through all the material I had immediately ready and I needed to know how the players would go about investigating things.  The ambush on the road back to Gammertingen was supposed to take a little longer, but after Vladimir axed 4 out of the 5 bowmen in one round, I decided that the rest of the bandit-types pissed their pants and ran.  Oh, and they were bandit-types, not loyalists, but the tension was spot on.  Their job was to stop any sort of relief force from Neufra, but seeing no one really imagined one would appear, they were the least paid and least stalwart of the bad guys.]

[There was some additional information provided to the characters after this, but I’m going to sum that up at the beginning of the next session post.  I’ll be providing the results of the next couple of days to a week of investigation by the player characters at the beginning of the next session (in November) so we can get to the next bit in the story.  As this is a miniseries and not a full campaign I need to keep things moving along as I’m supposed to finish the arc in 3 more sessions.]

[A note about the place names: This campaign takes place in 1650 in the Holy Roman Empire, which occupied the center of Europe for 800+ years.  I’ve added a fantasy element and chosen to use a map of the HRE at 1400, running with the idea that some of the consolidation in lands that happened in the real world did not happen in my world.  I may do a blog post discussing the differences between my world and the historical world if interest is shown, but for the moment just know that all the places named actually exist and I’m leaning heavily on the German Wikipedia for information and material.  That said, I’ve changed a few things for my game, notably my characterization of Neufra and the existence of the Barony of Gammertingen as a principality.  The town of Gammertingen still exists today and can be looked up in Wikipedia and Google Earth.  Enjoy!]


1650: The Miniseries Session 2