After almost sixty weeks of encounters, it was inevitable that at some point it should come to this, a field of ruin, where the unvanquished evil rules a battlefield littered with the corpses of slain heroes. So it was that on week 9 of March of the Phantom Brigade, the seven doughty adventurers met their end against a like number of phantom dwarves and orcs in the streets of Hammerfast. But let us begin at the beginning, so that the full light of discovery may shine upon this tragic event. Warning, this post contains graphic descriptions of each character’s slaughter in loving detail, with particular attention paid to the splatter patterns of brains and entrails.
The party at this week congregated around the single table at Basement Games, with the Jr. DM back in the players spot as Merrick the halfling thief. The other veteran players were Jarren the wizard and Quinn the paladin. With them were four young players who were new or inexperienced. Since there were 7 in the party, an orc and dwarf ghost were added, for a total of 4 dwarves and 3 orcs. It was going to be a tough battle, but with 3 veteran players, and everyone after (a really) extended rest, I thought they would be able to handle it. It was a level 3 encounter, and only 2 among them were even level 2.
Previously, the survivors of the Ghost Tower were last seen retreating from the burning colony they helped build. The ghost of Salazar Vladistone laughed as he was struck down that he would only rise again, stronger than before. But they managed to save the sage Faldyra and the rest of the colonists, and they trudged through the winter back to Hammerfast. With the founder slain and the town destroyed, there was little hope of rebuilding before spring. And so the companions had spent two months of that winter back within the walls of Hammerfast, ruminating on the past and planning for the future.
Oops! I had meant to give them time to spend the paltry gold they had earned throughout the adventure, but it totally skipped my mind, as more and more people started showing up and I tried to keep the flow of the story going. It probably wouldnt have saved them, but relatively cheap healing potions could have made some difference.
Beginnings are difficult in that environment for the first 15 minutes or so, and I prefer to slowly build up to full gaming. I throw out a line here or there, or a bit of info, maybe ask a few questions, but let people settle in. Then I will begin retelling whats come before, not always the full version, it depends mainly on who was present then and now, which is often most of the party. But for first time players, I like to fill them in on the story so far, to help immerse them into the story of the current encounter. Tonight that meant three players, plus two observers (whom I treat especially well, in order to entice them into the game!) so the intro took awhile, meanwhile I had half the players in the tavern, enjoying about the only way to spend a… dawn in Hammerfast. Well, it was far north, so the sun rose late in the winter. The other half, the knights and paladin, were on the town walls, doing their guard duty. It was they who first observed the approach of the phantom army out of the shadows on the horizon. From their midst stepped Salazar Vladistone, stronger and angrier than before. He thundered vengeance upon the town.
Inside the tavern there was a rush to escape through the main door, and Belgos had to kick dwarves out of his way to make it to the town walls. He kicked over one dwarf who turned out to be a messenger from Fadyra the sage. She was in the Arcane tower and had dire need of her champions from the ghost tower. She had found out something about Salazar. Belgos rushed up the stairs of the town walls as Quinn gave a rebellious challenge to the phantom menace. Salazar fumed and raged, then became deadly calm as he re-iterated his claim that he controlled ALL the ghosts of the Nentir Vale. He raised his arms and called upon the ghosts he commanded. He told them to rise against the town, and the army behind him stood motionless. Then ghosts began emerging onto the streets of Hammerfast. The ghosts of the dwarves and orcs who fought a bloody battle for town of Hammerfast in days of legend now turned their spectral weapons upon the living in a breach of contracts forged by gods.
The party had to fight their way through the streets of Hammerfast, and as they rushed through the town they were beset upon by 7 ghosts – 3 orcs who stepped out of a building to bar their way as 4 dwarves marched out behind them. The two begoi were first to go, and they did what any good Belgos should do – stand back and plink away. The rogue was next, ad he threw a dagger into the nearest orc. Quinn, Brandis, and Valenae (renamed Gimli) all charged the orcs. Very few of the first attacks hit except for Brandis who was pleased to discover that radiant damage disrupted the ghost’s insubstantiality. Sadly, except for Brandis, this was never exploited, nor was it ever deduced that force damage also caused the ghosts to become substantial, until the very end. Half damage on every attack of the battle was a substantial amount of lost damage.
The orcs, then dwarves went last in initiative order, and with the first of 3 natural 20s of the night, it was a devastating round. Quinn, Belgos 1 and Brandis were bloodied. On Belgos1 turn, he risked an opportunity attack – while running – to reach a sewer grate. The character wanted to pop up behind the enemy by traveling underground through the sewer. (To be fair, he IS a drow). Instead He fell face first into the grating over the sewer, knocked out by the orc whose way he crossed. The crazed dash across the battlefield ended predictably, ad cost the party time and resources at a crucial juncture.
The other Belgos was also knocked unconscious in the second round of combat, but the cleric Gimli was able to heal both by giving a healing surge to one, and the bonus 2 hp to the other. Belgos1 kept the 2 hp and was the second to last character to be knocked out at battles end. Merrick was being beat on by an orc, and Jarren was being chased by a dwarf who wasn’t afraid to risk an opportunity attack when it charged past the cleric to get to the wizard. The orcs kept shouting things such as “By Gruumsh I taste victory!” while the dwarves would shout “By Moradins beard!” Some of the new players guessed rightly to who the shouts referred.
Another round of combat passed. The wizard used burning hands to damage a group clustered around the middle of the battlefield, between Gimli and Quinn. Quinn stayed on his opponent hacking and slashing away, but the dwarf was hard to hit, and weapons inflicted half damage. By round 4, the cleric and the paladin were both knocked out, and since they had to leave, I took them and a dwarf and orc out of the battle. Quinn described how the two ran of and the ghosts chased them. In retrospect, I should have had the cleric use his last healing word before he left, but since his character was unconscious, I couldn’t.
From here the battle went downhill, and I read the short riot act about how it is possible some or all characters might die, but that it is just a game, and it should not be taken personally. I then systematically hacked them down. Quinn, Jarren, Merrick, Belgos1, and Belgos2 were left. None of the enemy except maybe one were bloodied. Merrick was knocked out, but on his death save, he rolled an 18 – I ruled that because the warpriest was so recently among them, he could still apply the +2, and so sprang up with a healing surge. Belgos1, arrived at the far end of the map and came up out of the sewer to begin rapid shotting them from behind. Belgos2 had to shift back each turn to shoot, and was eventually hacked down by an orc. The halfling was next to fall, charged by a dwarf.
Only Jarren, Quinn, and Begos1 ere left standing, and none of the 5 enemy had been slain, though they were all bloodied. In fact two of the enemy were below 10 hp, but even doing 10 in a single attack was nigh impossible with the half damage. They fought valiantly, swinging and firing until the end, but it came. First Jarren was charged by an orc, but it missed! Then Quinn was hit by two dwarves flanking him. He toppled under their mace bashings. The third dwarf charged the drow ranger, and slammed him into the ground with the head of his spectral mace. There was one orc left, he grunted at the wizard standing alone, and charged. The battle axe clove deep, felling the wizard where he stood.
The battle ended there, 15 minutes after 8. It was a bittersweet victory, and though it was an exciting fight, the end was not glorious. Hacked down by orcs is not a fun way to end an encounter – especially one that began on such a morbid note of their new colony being destroyed, forced to retreat home, and to fight out you’re being hounded by a ghost who cant be killed.
It is funny, but as much as I sometimes portray the adversarial persona of “evil dm” it is not the way I truly feel. Underneath that persona I try to be completely impartial in my actions and judgement, while in my heart I am rooting for the players, To slay them all in an orgy of blood and guts was fun on a very primal level, but to see it happen was heartbreaking. In some ways I wish I had pulled the punches, or called an end at 8 with the battle unresolved to be hand-waved the next week. But to play it to the bitter end was a call I made for many reasons, the main one probably being because I have never dm’ed a total party kill before, and my curiosity got the better of me.
Everyone handled it well, and I hope there were no hard feelings. We were laughing and joking right up until the end, even if it was getting to be a bit of gallows humor. We ended it when I told them that once they fell, the ghosts were no longer interested, and that they would be able to pull themselves up off the pavement and continue next week.
Wielding a Bohemian Ear Spoon 