Emperor of Ice - Sellswords Campaign Chapter 3: Part the Second

Once again the party of adventurers wearily march up the hillside approaching the mouth of Giant Pass. The knight at the rear of the group trails behind the others, limping occasionally.

Gunnar: "Come on hop-along, keep up."
Sir Robin: "Shut it! I just have trouble going uphill."
Sintamo: "What a shame we are in the bloody mountains then!"
Gunnar: "Even Eddie's walking faster than you and he's wearing platforms."
Eduardo: "They are NOT platform soles, I have orthopedic inserts!"
Eldarondo: "So how come you've been three inches taller since you bought that fancy orange robe then?"
Brother Christos: "Can we concentrate in the matter in hand? The pass is just over this rise, I went further into the pass than any of you and I'm sure I spotted the right path to get us through."

The elf and the ranger exchange looks and raise their eyebrows.

At the crest of the slope they pause taking in the scene before them.
Christos: "It's changed! I don't understand it."

A large rock plummets down from the peaks above and smashes into the ground in front of them.

Gunnar: "Yeah, well that's Storm Giants for you....cultural enemies!"


The party entered Giant Pass at a promising-looking gap in the rocks.
"Remember, this time we stick together.....wait, where's Christos?"

To begin with things went well, the PCs moved forward without opposition. However Eduardo sensed a strange fluctuation in the magical mana.
" Odd, the magical energy seems weak here. Usually it's stronger in the mountains."
"It's probably your platforms, are they insulating you from the natural energy?"
"They're orthopedic insoles!"

Two ogres and a troll did show up, but there were all in the far NE corner for some reason, we just assumed they were snacking on the remains of the giant we had killed a few days previously.

Suddenly a group of rock goblins appeared behind the party.  Concentrating, Eduardo gathered his magical energy....

....FIREBALL!
Eldarondo: "You missed one!"
Eddie: "Consider it a gift to you, he's not worth the energy of another fireball."
Twang...thud..."Urgh"!
Eldarondo "Thanks!"

Things are looking good. The party is unhurt so far, the odd rock goblin ambush was easily dealt with.
Sintamo: "Eddie, look out!"
"What, spiders?" Eduardo cried as he jumped backwards.
As he did so a small form landed on the ground where he had been standing with a wet splat!
"What was that?"
Sintomo nudged the inert figure with his foot.
"Rock goblin ambush, I told you they were a bit thick!"

There is little opposition and ranging ahead, Brother Christos has spotted an opening in the rocks that led to the far side of the pass.
It was at this point Eduardo "the Magnificent" (his words not mine) chose to open his mouth and utter the immortal words...."This is a lot easier than last time!"
The rest of the party glared at him.
"You utter troll's arsehole, you've really done it now!"

Of course from now on we saw repeated PCs failing activations (two characters failed all 3 activations in the next turn!) The ogres got aggressive and rushed forward and lots of rock goblins started showing up.

leaving the hack'n bash merchants more skilled fighters to deal with the ogres, Sintamo hurried back to help Eddie and Eldarondo....

....who had found a fire giant!

Despite wounding the monster the elf went down in hand to hand combat.

Sir Robin and Brother Christos took down the first ogre.

Sintamo stuck an arrow into the second ogre, before Gunnar charged in and finished it off.
"Cultural enemy!"

More ogres and lots of goblins now showed up, after a frantic melee with them and the fire giant, both Sir Robin and the dwarf fell, surrounded by the bodies of their foes (in fact Robin had killed the last of their immediate enemies, then was felled by a stone chucked by a hill giant).

Sintamo turned the hill giant into a pin cushion, while Eldarondo used his healing skill to get the dwarf back on his feet, then Eduardo finished the beast off with a FIREBALL!

No sooner has the elf revived Sir Robin than the ogres reach the party and another ice giant arrives to join the party. Christos narrowly avoids being crushed by a random rock thrown from the peaks above by leaping out of the way. As the PCs square up to the ice giant, a rock goblin sneaks up on Gunnar and cuts the previously wounded dwarf down!

In the meantime Sir Robin and Sintamo take out the goblins blocking the party's escape route.

Eddie excels himself by launching multiple fireballs to take down the ice giant before anyone else gets hurt.

The party move on to engage the ogres blocking their way to their fallen comrades. Christos takes out the first ogre, then avoids the second, to run back and pick up the dwarf. Robin and the ranger finished off the second monster.

Taking advantage of a brief lull, Sintamo ran back to pick up Eldarondo and legged it towards the exit point with the elf over his shoulder.
The PCs manged to outpace the multiple goblin hordes pursuing them escaped without further loss.
This shows the table layout just after the last PC escaped.

Sintamo managed to revive the elf but when they tried to bring Gunnar around he was beyond their help.

Fortunately we could afford to get him resurrected (I tend to think of "dead" characters just being too badly injured to be helped by the first aid healing PCs can provide and resurrection actually being more specialist magical "surgery").

Ironically, the reason we had the cash in the group kitty was that Gunnar had taken the time to loot the ice giant he had killed in our first attempt at the pass!

Emperor of Ice - Sellswords Campaign Chapter 3

Our heroes wearily tramp up the hillside approaching the pass.
Gunnar: "So definitely no orcs here then?"
Sintamo: "They never come here. Sometimes you get the odd rock goblin."
Eduardo: "Watzat?"
Sintamo: "Just like normal goblins, but without their low cunning. They tend to ambush you by jumping off rocks, usually a quick step to the side is enough to deal with them. Stupid....but fast, they can shin up a rock face like a spider up a web."
"There's spiders?" Eddie muttered.

As the crest the last ridgeline, they see Giant Pass stretched out before them. It was as if a giant axe had split the mountain range, leaving a narrow cleft between the peaks. The narrow valley was filled with a jumbled mess of  huge rocks and boulders.
Brother Christos: "It's a maze!"
Sintamo: "It shouldn't be too difficult to find a way through. I can see three gaps in the rocks from here."
Eldarondo: "Four, elf eyes."
Sintamo: "According to legend, the pass was formed by Storm Giants throwing rocks at each other across the pass. Poor throws fell into the valley and formed the strange rock formations. Of course that's just a fairy story."

A bellowing shout echoed amount the mountain peaks and a huge rock arced from the mountains to the east, to crash into the pass, sending up a cloud of dust and rock splinters. Jeering laughter could be heard from the peaks to the west.
Everyone glared at Sintamo.
Sir Robin "Fairy story?"
Gunnar: "Are we just going to stand here or what?"
"Stand here." Eduardo squeeked muttered.

Chapter 3 – Giant Pass

 (4XP per player).

The first part of the coded directions led the party top cross the forbidding Black Crags. There are only two known routes; the southern pass is occupied by a fierce tribe of orcs so the PCs decide to use the northern pass, which the orcs strangely avoid.

The whole table is a narrow mountain pass that is a maze of small outcrops and large free-standing rocks. In the mountains above the Storm Giants can be heard bellowing at each like thunder and throwing huge stones at one another.

 

Deployment: The party enter South East (square 9) from the South edge.

When entering a square generate the path (as seen from the entry point)

1	Turn Left
2	Turn Right
3	Straight with junction on left
4	Straight with junction on Right
5	T Junction (left and right, no straight on)
6	Crossroads

If result means absolutely no way through to exit, even by back tracking roll again.

Traps:  There are no traps.

Foes:

None starting.

Rock Goblin.

Small, fast goblinoids who have a knack for blending into the surroundings.

DL 9, Missile DL11 (inc effects of spells)

Dodge, if hit in melee roll 1d6, 5+ they dodge the blow – place them 1” away from the PC.

When the AMBUSH! card is drawn, 1 rock goblin leaps from the nearest rock.

Reinforcements: 1d6 Rock Goblins.

Complications: The first time the Things Could get Worse card is drawn, a Troll appears in centre of random square. Moves randomly unless in same square as PCs, can cross all boundaries (climb over rocks). Roll 1d10 for placement square, if a 0 then 2 trolls appear in separate squares (reroll any further 0).

Scenario Event: A stray rock lands on the table, hurled by a Storm Giant. Roll for a random placement, the rock covers an area 3” diameter. Any foe within the area takes 2DAM and are knocked to the ground (no armour/shield save allowed). PCs may attempt to dodge DL 13, if successful move them to just outside the area and they take 1DAM from flying rock splinters.

Wandering Monster: If a wandering monster card is drawn, roll a d6.

1-2 – Ogre

3 – Stone Elemental

4 – Stone Giant

5 – Fire Giant

6 – Ice Giant

Wandering monsters appear in the centre of a random square and can cross all boundaries (climb over/walk through rocks).

If 3-6 is rolled a second time replace with an Ogre.

Victory Conditions: The PCs must cross the table and exit from the North edge of the North West (square 1)

Other individual rewards: A PC carrying an out-of-action PC off the table gains 1 XP. Killing an elemental or giant gains 1XP.

Things did not go well!

First activation, Sintamo stepped on a scorpion!

Fortunately he managed to avoid it's sting in retaliation.

"How does he do it? Even trees don't grow at this altitude, where's a scorpion come from?"

"I think he keeps them in his pocket!"

Keeping with the plan (not) Christos rushes off ahead to scout the way and Sir Robin thought he had better follow and keep an eye on him.

Eddie stands still, peering around to see if he can spot Sintamo's scorpion (failed activations) when a giant turns up!

Eduardo: "Eeek, it's a storm giant!"

Gunnar: "No Laddie, it's an ice giant. Storm giants are much bigger than this."

Eldarondo: "Well he looks big enough to me!"

Robin rushes back to support the rest of the party, whilst Sintamo draws his bow.
His first arrow buries itself in the monster's shoulder, causing the giant to look around for the bitting insect.
He draws his second arrow....Twang! bowstring snaps, oh bugger!

"Eddie, Fireball, now!"
Eduardo gestures dramatically at the giant....Phut! a small shower of sparks emits from his fingers.
The giant lumbers forward to see the pretty lights.
The wizard tries again, this time a single glowing ember drifts upwards and lands on the giant's nose.
Letting out a bellow of paint, the giant brushes the ember off, then charges at Eddie and Eldarondo!
Desperately trying to draw his sword, Eddie catches a glancing blow from the giant's club which knocks the wind out of him.

Gunnar and Sir Robin pile in to the fray, the dwarf hacks a deep cut into the giant's thigh and Robin deftly avoids a blow with the club and stabs into the giants arm.
Suddenly there is a sickening Crunch!
"What was that?"
"The giant just stepped on Sir Robin."
"That must have hurt."
"There's blood coming out his nose and ears, is that bad?"

 This time the elf is the target of the giant's attack and he is knocked to his knees from a viscous blow with the club. Restringing his bow, Sintamo sticks two more arrows into the monster's chest and Gunnar hacks at the giant's knee. The giant falls to the ground and the dwarf leaps forward and brings his axe down on it's head!

"Good shot Gunnar!"
"It's nothing" said the dwarf, smugly "Easy when it's your cultural enemy".
"I thought orcs were his cultural enemy?"
"Yeah and trolls, ogres, anything taller than him really".
"Oi, I heard that!"

Brother Christos rushed back around the corner.
"Come on you lot, what's keeping you? Oh, that is!"

Eldarondo used his healing skills to bring Sir Robin around and helps him to his feet.
"How are you feeling? You look a bit grey"
"I'm fine" said Robin as he took one step then collapsed, yelling in pain.
"You probably shouldn't put any weight in that ankle."

With one of their best fighters unable to walk, two others injured and given they hadn't actually entered the pass yet, the party decided to carry Robin back to the tavern they had stayed in the night before and try their luck again once his leg was better.

I'll post our second attempt at traversing Giant Pass over the weekend.

Cruel Seas House Rules

Someone might have noticed that I have really got into Warlord Games' Cruel seas in a big way. It is a fun set to play, not especially historically accurate, but not complicated either.

There have been a few things that have generated conversations after a game. For example, my bugbear is measuring shooting ranges from the gun position means that you can have two ships with identical weapons, in arc of each other, but only one ship is in range because of where the weapon is placed. Fine if the rules were using 1:300 ground scale, but they are not (a 4" gun had a max range of just under 20,000 yards which would be 60m on the table at 1:300 scale).

As a result I have come up with various house rules, which suit the regular group of people I play with. Some are my own ideas, others are based on suggestions I've found on the internet.

Shooting

Measure the shortest distance between the two ships, that is the range for all guns.

Check arc of fire from the gun position, as per the rules.

Torpedoes

Only a Dud on a roll of 6.

Do not re-roll 6s but use Critical Hits Table below.

1	ENGINE HIT
2	RUDDER/ STEERING HIT
3	FUEL HIT
4	EXTRA DAMAGE TO VESSEL
5	2x ENGINE HIT
6	ENGINE HIT & RUDDER HIT
7	TAKING ON WATER
8	TAKING ON WATER
9	CRIPPLED
10	BROKEN BACK

TAKING ON WATER - take an additional 3d6 damage at the start of each activation.

CRIPPLED – Apply #1 ENGINE HIT, #2 RUDDER HIT AND #8 TAKING ON WATER.

BROKEN BACK – Vessel breaks in 2 and slips beneath the waves

Sinking Ships

Unless suffering Broken Back from a torpedo hit, Large and Huge sized ships do not sink immediately when they are destroyed. They remain as wreckage for 1-3 turns before sinking.

Wreckage counts as obscured visibility if it is between the target and the shooter.

If a torpedo strikes wreckage, roll to hit as normal. If it misses the torpedo will carry on and may hit another target beyond the wreckage.

(I picked up some 3d printed models for wreckage)

Aircraft

Flak shooting at bombing aircraft, as per rules except 1 is always a hit.

Bomb Attack

Roll for each bomb if multiples are dropped.

+2 to hit if dive bomber.

-2 to hit if plane was hit by flak (even if not damaged).

Bombs

Light (250lb) 3d6 Damage

Medium (500lb) 5d6 Damage

Heavy (1000lb) 7d6 Damage

Aircraft	Speed	Armament
Ju 87	140	1 x Med Bomb
Ju 88	140	6 x Lt Bomb
Me 110	140	2 x Lt Bomb
Beaufighter	140	1 x Torpedo