Tuesday 20 September 2016

A Giant Battle

July 4 to July 10–12, 3430, Age of Kings

GM's note: this report is a few weeks old in my memory, and it's the second time we played it through. We discovered that gaining advantage while flanking became too powerful during fights with single adversaries. This battle and the next are both do-overs with adjusted rules.

After much squabbling over what to do with the nine-fingered bandit, the group decided to let him wander off into the darkness. But before he could get to said darkness, Ander notched an arrow and let it fly, striking the bandit in the back and killing him.

After even more squabbling, they opted not to search for his bandit camp, and press on with the journey at hand.

*   *   *

The next morning the set off as weather got colder and rainier, and over the next day the rain was they only thing they encountered.

*   *   *

The next day, late in the morning, through the drizzle they could see a scene of carnage ahead on the muddy road. As they got closer they were met by the remains of a very one-sided battle: two bodies violently smashed into the ground, one on top of the other, making difficult to determine right away how many corpses there were. Ander found the tracks of several sheep nearby, and some very large humanoid footprints moving further down the road. 

Ander scouted ahead and found a hill giant resting upon a rock outcropping, happily tearing into the bodies of dead sheep for lunch. He went back and alerted the others, who all decided to attempt an ambush on the giant, while Gerhardt and the carts stayed back.


So they crept through the rain (except for Boots, who decided strolling down the middle of the road would be a better approach) towards the feeding giant. Quickly noticing Boots, the giant stood up to engage the intruder as his allies attacked from all angles.

Ander stayed across the road firing arrows at the giant while Lorentz also kept a safe distance and attacked with his crossbow. Broak and Audrey took a more direct approach (as barbarians and fighters do) and Grabby struck from behind with hit-and-run tactics, while Boots supported with magic from the road.


During the battle, Audrey took quite a pummeling from the giant's stone hammer. Eventually Boots cast a cloud of daggers leveled with the giant's head, keeping his allies out of harm's way. Which eventually led to the giant charging out into the road after Boots.


Eventually, after many arrows, bolts, bruises and cuts, the hill giant fell into the mud, dead from his many wounds from the puny party.

And on the lighter side:

Broak, about to take one for the team... that's just his finger, perverts!