This session was tied up with one big adventure and fight, but it was one hell of a fight.

The characters (The Vingaardians):

  • Drystan Silverhart – Level 5 Aasamar Paladin (Knight of Solamnia)
  • Yseult De Lorimar – Level 5 Human Warlock (Noble)
  • “Fletch” Siannodel – Level 5 Kagonesti Elven Ranger (Folk Hero)
  • Sabelina – Level 5 Human Cleric of Gilean (Acolyte)
  • Sidekicks: Hrigg Roundrook and Tem Temble

For this session, the party was to infiltrate Wheelwatch Keep so soldiers from Kalaman, led by Lieutenant Raven, could storm the gates and seize the keep, thus keeping the lines of communication open with Estwilde. The beginning of the session was just focused on how do we get in – once I reminded the players that they were working with the Knight Commander of Kalaman, and could requisition the Red Dragon Army uniforms they’d captured in the last session (something that they’d otherwise know), this part went along quickly.

Quote of the session – “We don’t want to do the classics, we want to be effective.” – Fletch.

From there, they infiltrated the keep, and things generally started very role-play heavy, and it clicked with me very quickly what this scenario was – something I didn’t quite get when I was reading the adventure and doing prep. Much as the first Against the Giants scenario was something I realized was something of a Hitman playset level, the infiltration of Wheelwatch Keep was a World War II Team On A Mission movie, like Guns of Navarone, Kelly’s Heroes, or The Dirty Dozen. The party could sneak in over the walls and go in Arcane Blasts blazing, or they could sneak in through deception and trickery, and try to hold out once the gate was open until reinforcements arrived.

Now, I did fudge a few things for the sake of time – in the adventure, it reports it takes 1 minute for the gate to open, which is 10 rounds of game time, and an eternity in real time. Instead, what I did was give a full round from the start of the mechanism opening for it to be open enough for Raven to get troops in to secure the mechanism. This was aggravated by the fact that the session was ultimately running longer than our usual 3-4 hours.

Things switched to combat when Drystan insisted on escorting their horses to the stables (where the Dragonnel was), after one of the Red Dragon Army soldiers had been ordered to take the horses to the stables while Yseult (who was disgused as the commander), and Drystan (as her bodyguard) reported to the officer in charge of the keep. This lead to Drystan getting found out by the Dragonnel, and the fight starting. Fortunately, a bunch of bad perception checks by nearby guards allowed them to delay the response from the guards enough that Fletch, Sabelina, Hrigg, and Tem made it to the barracks and started going after the guards there, keeping them corralled there.

Between the three groups, and some lucky Deception rolls by Yseult (who had taken the Acting feat) and Animal Handling rolls from Drystan, they were able to keep the guards from forming a coherent response. The Deception roll allowed Yseult to bluff one of the guards into opening the gate, while Fletch’s group kept the guards just occupied enough that they didn’t blow a horn calling for reinforcements. The one time they did blow a reinforcement horn, it was guards that weren’t in a direct position to see what was happening, which meant there wasn’t a larger response.

There was a named NPC casualty – Elgo Duckditcher (the Kender). She managed to pick the lock on her cell with an improvised lock pick (rolled double natural 20s with disadvantage), then picked the Red Dragon Army commander’s pocket to steal his dagger while he was fighting with Yseult, and got a stab in on him and then a guard who came to check in, only to get killed by that guard. However, by that time the damage was done, Yseult had gotten a false order out to have the gates opened, and Drystan was able to take out the Sivak and that guard, meaning there was no one to stop them from preventing the commander from countermanding the order.

We wrapped the session after Lieutenant Raven’s reinforcements arrived, as we were over time. Next session (which will be in August) we’ll deal with the aftermath.