AD&D Session 5: The Battle of the Sunken Valley

We started the session with Sir Goldborn the Paladin and Pocco the Magic-User meeting in Borgogazze on January 12, after their respective training as brand-new Level 2 adventurers. Pocco learned a new spell, Magic Missile, in his training time, and became familiar with his scroll of spells.

It mostly contains higher-level spells that can be cast from the scroll at a risk, and a first-level spell (Mending) which Pocco can try to transcribe in his spellbook. He will need to make a special ink to do so, this needs ingredients such as an inexpensive gem (Hematite), a herb (Acacia), and a monster part (Giant spider silk).

Pocco's wizarding master was unhelpful in telling him where giant spiders live. He says they are all over the world, and for more specific information he will need to ask a specialized Sage (with considerable cost).

Sir's training went well without interruption, and there were no major events last month or so as Longuria celebrated Yuletide and the coming of the new year. Sir and Pocco are now broke though, having paid a lot for training and monthly upkeep.

They decide the only way to accomplish something this session is to get the help of Borgogazze's army. So they begin talking their way up the chain of command. Positive reaction rolls lead to recommendation letters for the higher-in-command, until they gain an audience with the Captain of Borgogazze's Army, Cpt. Reynolds, in his pentgonal-shaped fortress. They are able to convince him to mount an attack on the Orcish village that is troubling the region and have the two adventurers serve as guides.

The Captain builds up the army: three Lieutenants, their Sergeants, troops and conscripts join. The army composition is rolled for in the Hirelings table, and it turns out that the Captain thought best to send 10 artillerists with 5 ballistae to the mission. In total the army comprises about 100 soldiers.

As the army will take 3 days to gather in Ristoro A, the adventurers have some time to explore west of Borgogazze. They come across a 5-miles long swamp with a thin suspended wooden platform over it as a road. Crossing this carefully, they go through a forest and finally find a plain with... a giant city in the distance!

This is the city of Anch-Mar. Because it is not well-connected due to the swamp and all, it has only limited relations with Borgogazze. The adventurers can't pay the entry fee to the city gates, so are forced to spend the night in the city outskirts. There is a whole lively community of people here, who are not rich enough to pay the city's steep citizenship costs.

The party finds refuge at the wooden hut of Mr. Giorgione, who hosts them for the night in exchange of night watch service. He tells them a bit about the city: very money-oriented, the people's main concern is to swindle and rob each other for gold, and there's a marked social hierarchy based on wealth. Sometimes thieves from the outskirts scale the walls and return with some coin. There's also a sewer system accessible from outside the city, but everyone is too scared to enter it.

Naturally, our heroes go check the entrance to the sewers out, but find it barred by a rusty iron gate with an equally rusty padlock. They try to force it open by strength (lift iron/bend gates percentage chance times two) but fail. So they just return to Borgogazze and then Ristoro A to meet with the rest of the troops. On the way back, Pocco finds some Acacia herb in the forest for his ink.

The journey begins. The army is considerably slowed by the ballistae, moving at the Encumbered rate outdoors. They pass the point where the magpie was consulted and see the outline of a big fortress perching on a hill to the east, which Sir had missed last time. They go through the forested hills past the moathouse, and encounter a squadron of 110 tribesmen carrying big shields.

The tribesmen send what appears to be a chief figure to parlay. Even if they can't understand each other, the parties establish that they are friendly to each other and exchange gifts. Pocco gifts an incense rod and some belladonna and gets a small sack of lentils in return. Then Pocco tries to explain that they are to give battle to the Orcs by drawing a picture of Shrek on the floor and crossing it out. The chief frowns and steps on the picture. So it seems that the parties have a common enemy. It was too hard however to communicate an invitation to join the army, so everyone continues on their way.

The army comes to a Big Mesa that gives way to some mountains. They go around the mountains in hilly territory and see an ancient ruin of a village at the foot of a mountain. Exploring the ruins, the aventurers uncover the entrance to some ancient catacombs. But the army must march on! They close the entrance and remember its location for the future.

Arriving at the spot where the magpie suggested the orc village should be (20 miles northwest), they find... nothing. So they explore more toward the north-northwest in case the bird wasn't accurate. They find a small hamlet inhabited by battle-hardened humans. It's the village of Wide Berth. The villagers are in frequent conflict against the Orcs, and like the idea of raiding/destroying the Orc village with this big army, so 30 of their fighting men join Borgogazze's army. The villagers also indicate the location of the Orc village. It was in the west-northwest.

March and march (good that Cpt. Reynolds provided three weeks of food supplies...) they finally come to see the Orc village. It sits in the middle of a giant depression, the Sunken Valley, which extends for miles and miles. The village is defended by two watch towers, a palisade, a ditch and a gate.

Battle begins quite unsubtly as our heroic army marches in formation toward the village. At this point we set up the scene on the tabletop, using dice instead of miniatures, each die representing 10 soldiers. The battle is fought with normal AD&D combat rules (although after about 3.5 hrs of playing I didn't have it in my heart to also use weapons vs. armor adjustments...) where both HP and damage are multiplied by 10 for mass units.

Exciting tabletop action ensues. The battle starts in favour of our Human heroes as the unit of Orc footmen guarding the front of the village are overwhelmed and dispatched. Some very good shots by the ballistae are scored against the watch towers and many Orc archers up there take ballista missiles to their face. The ballista shots are easy to score, needing only a 2 on the d20.

But then the gate opens and a massive amount of Orc troops pour out, inluding elite units and the chief of the village himself bearing the village standard. The ballistae scores 1 on the d20 before being meleed by the Orc chief and his entourage. The side battles take too long to win, and as a general melee forms in the center, it is soon clear that the Human forces are just badly outnumbered.

Then the gate opens again, and a similar amount of troops storms out. The Humans decide to cut their losses and retreat, suffering free attacks against them. The Orcs decide not to press further and let them go, but they'll probably remember this daring challenge. 60 of the 130 Human troops escape and take refuge in Wide Berth to fight another day, while the Orcs lost about 50 soldiers.

This session accounted for 9 days of game time, so its events will be concluded on the morning of Jan. 21. As for XP, our heroes had some part in the battle, Pocco with a sleep spell and Sir with his halberd, so they get 145 XP each.