Friday, 17 September 2021

New Campaign: The Forge

 ** There are no forges in this adventure, the Forge is a small keep at the top of a mountain pass guarding the entrance to the Five Kingdoms.  the Forge will hopefully forge the party members into a cohesive unit

The Forge

The forge is a deep canyon filled with many score of rapids both at the start and the end of the river.  The end is much more peaceful and a little idyllic, but the start is rushed from the beginning with swift flowing river that speeds up even faster as it rushes over a series of rapids and then a tumult leading to a waterfall several score of meters high onto jagged rocks and a few more rugged rapids before it exits the canyon.  The trip from the lake is hampered by the mists that rise off the first series of treacherous steps of the cataract.  When the waterfall is reached the first defense of the old kingdom is reached a fort partially excavated out from the mountain.  The way into the kingdom is only passable from the road that stretches from the below lands beside the river.  It is possible to lead horses along this pass in single file.  There are a small team of goblins holding the pass much like the old kingdom did against larger organized armies.  They drop rocks on the party and scatter pebbles along the way hoping to soften them up.  If they are attacked, they will retreat.  From their position they have 75% cover.  The keep itself cannot be fully defended with the numbers that they currently have.  Once the characters are into the keep it is theirs.  They have one unit of troops apiece and can therefore hold it. 

 

The Players will have one army when they take the Forge.  The maximum number of armies they can control is equal to their proficiency bonus which will determine which forces they can challenge on the field of combat

 

There has been set up at some previous time a stone pier set along the river where it flows out of the canyon.  The army of Gutral Mastekeena has arranged supply drops here every two weeks until the drops are no-longer picked up.  They will also at random drop off military units as reinforcements.  If the characters are winning, they will get support. 

The pier is a kilometer away from the mouth of the canyon and the path is easy apart from having to clear the way of the path.  the path leads away from the water but always keeps the river close by.  The path has been paved with cobblestones but has been covered with growth and small trees; the sound of the river is drowned out by the sound of cicadas.

Perception DC14 will uncover animal bones and corpses nearby.  Many a few of the corpse have been picked apart by other animals but you can see a corpse of a coyote as well DC16, DC 18 you notice that there is no blood anywhere.  Stirges attack.  Only if the characters the coyote will they not be surprised. 

+5 to hit Dmg 5 AC14 hp2 successful attack begins blood loss next turn.  Spend one action detaching stirge xp50 each PC

Beyond the stirges the characters will see the canopy of the forest is covered with webs and with stirge corpses, one of which is still struggling.  Only if the web is destroyed will they be attacked by a swarm of spiders, which will “fall” on the web destroyer.  If they leave the webs intact nothing will happen.

The path will tough briefly at the river again and the characters will see that the path skipped a large stretch of white water and give the view of the first waterfall, a torrent dropping over a 50m drop.  The path continues near the water before it turns inland next to the escarpment.  The mist has made the stones slick and covered with slime.  It is not dangerous, but the way is much more slippery DC12 dexterity save.  Any that try to go up must deal with webs and a swarm of spiders.  Further along the way the webs form an impassible obstacle.  Cutting these will summon two insect swarms and two giant spiders. Xp125 each PC

Swarms 22hp, AC 12 +3 to hit, 10 damage, or 5 damage if ½ hp or less.

Giant spiders AC 14, hp 26, +5 to hit, bite 7 damage poison DC11 and 9 damage.  Paralysed at 0hp and poisoned for 1 hour.  Web +5 to hit, and restrained if hit DC12 Strength check to break or 5hp

The path is straight and smooth and has built out of stone wide enough a horse with a cart, large shallow steps in between two smooth ramps made of stone.  The path switches back and forth along the face of the mountain as the river winds and plunges through rapids and great waterfalls.  Each arm of the heads 500m away from the river before doubling back; each time it arrives back it is 50m higher.  There is a stair that bypasses each arm of the path, climbing 50m quickly.  After 20 stairs there is a resting point where a camp can be made.

After the second camp they will see a fortress that guards the path, with one more climb.  The goblins sit at the top of the last two stairs, and they will throw rocks down on the party, when they get closer, they switch to spears and arrows.  For the first 25m they are at disadvantage to hit but at advantage to hit for the last 25m, but only two attacks can be made each round due to line of sight.  The goblins have good cover 4 goblins 50xp each PC.

The last arm of the path is guarded by 4 more goblins who will try to bombard the party the goblins will be dispersed along the pathway with 75% cover and attack the party and use traps to make it more difficult.  Ice on the path with a coating of fresh water, round stones on the pathway etc.  DC 12 DEX save or fall prone.  Or move at half speed to ignore.  50xp for each PC

Inside the keep they will find four goblins, plus any that escaped the PCs here with the Goblin Boss.  They will fight it out with the players getting 100xp per PC plus 25xp per additional goblin. 

 

A long rest in the keep they will be level 2. 

The Keep has enough space to garrison 300 soldiers and 30 horses.  Each player character will have a single unit of light soldiers, 3 units of Infantry(50), 2 units of Archers (50) and 1 unit of Cavalry(25). 

By spending 4x the number in gold, (8x for cavalry) the unit can be raised from light to medium, x2 that from medium to heavy and x4 of the before raising them from heavy to superheavy. 

50 light infantry à 200gp to Medium Infantry à 400gp to Heavy Infantry and à 1600gp to Super Heavy Infantry.

The size of the unit is a standard d6 (50) additional numbers add 2d to the total (25)

 

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