Session 86 - Fishfreaks of Fort Westop - Campaign Days 1002-1006

After a week of rest and refit in Aeravir, the Stormbringers and Nighthawks mercenary companies joined forces to take on their next challenge, going back to the strange Lightning Tower compound. HA HAHAHA just kidding, Mr. DM! The players put a switcheroo on my, they're headed instead up the road to take on a reported bang of hyena-men near one of the frontier forts.

Of course the entire coast has been sacked by fishfreaks from the sea, thanks to the extra-planar evil of Lamalla! There's a possibility of purging fish cult sites for money as well. The council that rules Aeravir seems to have a bottomless supply of cash on hand for jobs like these and the players are keen on earning every gold piece of it.

By now the force is well over 300 strong, plus support staff. Movement per the DMG slows to only 4-6 miles per day, meaning it will be a 3 day trek to the fort. It's worth noting that the DMG also indicates that for groups over 100 in size, you check for encounters every time period!

It pays to read the whole DMG.

Amazingly, there are no encounters after checking almost 16 times! (Oh well, there's always the return trip for nasty surprises.) The army stops at the fort where they learn of the village the hyena-men have settled in. It's only a mile or so north of the fort.

Checking the settlement/fortress rules, the suggested procedure is to check surprise. 

This procedure is useful for determining if the players actually get the jump on various lairs or camps. In this case the result was the players are able to approach to within line of sight without giving warning. They efficiently deploy mounted infantry and prepare to launch volleys of longbow fire into the settlement.

At this point I am actually scrambling madly, having checked the suggested Monster Manual size for the hyena-men (gnolls), determined their beasts and treasure, etc. I quickly must come up with the village layout, which is easy because the place is a ruin. Some tottering building will do. I also ponder why the heyena-men are here, so close to the fort. The answer is obvious: they are here because they are under the influence of the fishfreaks, possibly a high priestess. Another quick roll to determine her level 1-2 8th lvl, 3-4 9th, 5-6 10th. I come up with a "4" so it's a 9th level high priestess. I also decide that the fishfreaks would need water, so there are numerous wells in the village. In my mind their mission is easy to think of as well - subvert the fort and finally conquer the last of the coastal forces, clearing the way for Greater Fishmendom.

How would you open?

The battle is anti-clmatic, however. The players are surprised that the heyena-men make good use of their great bows to inflict casualties at a distance. The return fire is less effective due to cover. The player do manage to close the distance on foot, keeping their small cavalry force as a shock element in reserve. Eventually the horsemen engage and the heyena-men break ranks in a panic. They flee, females and children, too. None are spared. The players observer the high priestess jump down into one of the wells. They try to dump flaming oil into the well, but the results are not known until later. Only a paltry few hundred gold pieces are found, along with some pigmen slaves.

Now the players decide to invest in the area and not chase the fleeing heyena-men. Charles the thief is lowered on ropes down into the darkness. Soon he is standing hip deep in dark water, but there is no sign of the priestess. There is a large cavern about 30' feet deep, with a wide tunnel running off to the east. More PCs descend, along with a contingent of infantry. 

Again, I am now pressed to generate a WHOLE DUNGEON FROM SCRATCH. Thankfully, I have Appendix A, the random dungeon generator, from the DMG. I'm barely keeping up with the players, but it's fine! I white knuckle this and try not to let them see me sweat.

Eventually the maze is growing with several passages that they cannot explore completely. They follow the flow of water into a squarish room with multiple exits. There are also 13 very ugly men. "Kill 'em for the priestess!" they shout.

They really enjoy seafood.

The following melee is not a fair fight either. The PCs enjoy multiple attacks per round against these 0lvl "men". They elect to keep a couple of these jabronis alive for questioning, and decide to back out of the watery maze.

We stop around this point as we are out of time. The players march back to the fort until they can come back.