Rise of the Runelords Recap # 60 [RPG]

[1 Abadius 4708 to 16 Abadius 4708]

Veznutt is an old friend
of Jinkatsyu's parents.

The first weeks of the new year go by quickly as each of the adventurers prepares, in their own way, for the invasion they know is on the way.  Salma researches the weaknesses of dragons in Ilsoari Gandethus’ archives, and helps his teammates by making multiple magical trips to recover and sell the wagonload of treasures discovered at the Kreeg Clanhold.  Jinkatsyu trains hard to increase his stamina and has a fruitful encounter with an old friend from some years past: Veznutt Parrooh.  The aged but spry gnome is intrigued when Jinkatsyu mentions Jorgenfist, and relates that he’s heard rumours that stone giants have recently built a fortress called that in the Valley of the Black Tower in the Iron Peaks.  Parooh promises to try to track down a good map of the area, but from memory says one could travel to the Storval Stairs and head east to reach the Valley.  Meanwhile, Ava spends her time helping out at the Cathedral, and earns the deep gratitude of all who work there.  Nerissa returns from some extremely dangerous solo expeditions spent scouting for any signs of approaching giants, having successfully fought off goblins, wild boars, and even bugbears.  She found no signs, but rumours continue to run rampant in the area of people spotting giant-sized footprints, smashed trapper’s cabins, and the like.  Kang spends most of his time hunched over his portable alchemical laboratory, concocting a slew of new and old recipes to fully outfit his teammates for the battle to come. 

 Early in the month, the adventurers hold important meetings with Mayor Deverin and Sheriff Hemlock.  Deverin is resistant to suggestions that Sandpoint be evacuated, saying it would be a huge undertaking to move (and keep safe) so many people, and that, try as they might, a sizable number of the residents would never leave just because of largely unsubstantiated rumors.  Salma persuades her, however, to see if she can get people to assemble in the town’s stone buildings on 17 Abadius so that, if a dragon attacks, they’ll be away from flammable wooden buildings.  Mayor Deverin also says she’s been able to get a small contingent of reinforcements from Magnimar, with the cover story that they’re in the town for a “joint training exercise.”

A later meeting with Sheriff Hemlock is equally productive.  Hemlock is determined that the town won’t be caught off-guard like it was when goblins invaded during the previous year's Swallowtail Festival.  He discusses the placement of the Town Guard, the Citizen’s Militia, and the Magnimarian troops at the most likely invasion points. Jinkatsyu has the foresight to realize that the units need a good way to communicate with each other, and arranges for each to be outfitted with whistling signal arrows.

The adventurers stay on watch during the night of 16 Abadius, just in case the invasion comes a day early, but all is quiet in Sandpoint.

[17 Abadius 4708]

Just as she promised, Mayor Deverin comes up with a plan to get the residents of Sandpoint to congregate in stone buildings (like the Garrison, the Cathedral, the Town Hall, and even the old Glassworks factory) without panicking anyone by telling everyone there’s a special “town drill.”  In the doldrums of winter, most residents are happy to take part in a break from their routine.   The adventurers decide to take up position at Tanner’s Bridge, hypothesizing that an attack is most likely to come from the east.

Despite their "primitive" weapons and clothing, stone giants 

are intelligent and have a strong (if skewed) sense of honour.

At the first blush of sunset, Kang’s uncanny eyesight allows him to see something that the others miss: silhouettes of enormous figures on the nearest tors, heading for the northern entrance into the town!  Kang’s warning gives everyone time to prepare, and he and the other adventurers head there to reinforce the strongpoint where Sheriff Hemlock has taken command.  First blood is struck as a hail of boulders begin to rain down on the North Gate.  The invasion of Sandpoint has begun!  Three massive stone giants, difficult to see clearly in the waning light, call out taunts, perhaps hoping to lure the defenders out of their fortifications.  None fall for the trick however, and the return fire of dozens of archers (blessed by Ava’s magic) proves that the battle will be hard fought on both sides.  Just as the bloody giants draw their clubs and start to charge, Salma’s spellcraft spoils their plans by encircling them in a ring of blinding energy!  Two of the giants can only stumble around, while the third is felled by a long distance explosive hurled by Kang.

The defenders’ victory at the North Gate couldn’t have come at a better time, as, seconds later, a signal arrow is heard from Tanner’s Bridge, indicating another group of giants is attacking.  The adventurers race back to their previous position, only to find that here, the Town Guard has been overrun: instead of having a defensible chokepoint (in the form of the bridge), the giants are tall enough to easily wade through the waters!  And worse, they didn’t come alone—a trio of massive bears covered in matted fur and bony growths are chasing recalcitrant townsfolk!  The rush to the eastern side of Sandpoint is disorganized—instead of responding as a unit, the adventurers arrive in ones and twos and quickly risk catastrophe.  Kang’s dragonfly wings give him speed and manoeuvrability, but the giants’ skill with hurling massive boulders soon leaves him bruised, shaken, and ready to retreat!  Ava arrives, seconds too late to save local tanner Larz Rovanky from being torn apart from one of the massive bears. 

Dire bears are larger, more aggressive,
and far more deadly than their lesser cousins.

 And just as the others arrive to do battle amongst the tombstones of the Boneyard, the situation escalates.  A dragon descends from the clouds and strafes the Garrison with flame!  Shouts can also be heard from the Town Square, as giants have apparently breached the perimeter and are running wild through the streets!  Nerissa recognizes one of the screams as coming from Sister Giulia, but the amnesiac warrior has her own problems, locked in hand-to-hand combat with multiple massive foes.  She somehow manages to tumble away and follows Kang’s instructions to head for the Town Square.  Ava uses her magic to help Jinkatsyu get some distance from the attackers, but escape looks unlikely.  And then, to make a dangerous situation even more perilous, Salma evokes a tremendous blast of cold at the ascending dragon.  The dragon isn’t severely hurt, but now its gaze falls squarely on the wizard and her companions!

Salvation for Sandpoint is balanced on a knife’s edge, and the situation looks bleak—can the adventurers turn the tide?

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Director's Commentary (January 13, 2018)

One of the optional subsystems I'm really glad I incorporated into the campaign from the beginning was Downtime from Ultimate Campaign.  It helps organise what each PC is doing when there's time away from adventuring, and it's a very fast straightforward system to use.  I do think some of the options are over-powered (like getting hit points and experience points for relatively low amounts of gold), so I have instituted some house rules so those options don't outshine every other.

The PCs had some very good suggestions to the town leaders about preparing for the invasion.  I wanted to show that the leaders were sensible and taking reasonable precautions (players quickly scoff at NPCs who are played as stupid just to preserve the plot), while also still allowing the heroes their chance to shine in the invasion.  In order to speed things up at the northern gates where the NPC archers were, I just reduced the giants hit points by a fixed percentage to represent all of the arrows raining down.  It worked well.

I'm glad I had a lot of time to prepare for this session, because there was a ton to do in terms of drawing out maps ahead of time, getting minis for everything, making notes on the round-by-round breakdown of the invasion, etc.  Although it was impossible to grid Sandpoint to scale, I did have flip-mats prepped for all of the planned battle sites with notes on the distance and travel time between each one.

This session covered the first part of the invasion, and it was fantastic.  Ending with the dragon swooping down and the PCs in trouble was a great cliffhanger.