...anyway...
There were five of us involved in the first session (four players and our GM) though there will be five players from the second session. This isn't a particular issue as the way the campaign has been designed it isn't that difficult for individuals to miss a session here and there and then get back on board...literally...you'll see what I mean momentarily...
Our group consisted of my Ogrun former man at arms Bosh Skullsplitter, former Llaelese military officer (also a drunkard, chain-smoking, womaniser...but that's not apparent till later...) Sebastion LaCroix, Danika Jansen a Morrowan warrior priestess (with the priority being 'warrior' rather than 'priestess' given her flexible attitude to looting) and a pugilist guttersnipe Gobber named Bert Haroldson who on first examination seemed to have no useful skills whatsoever...but on second examination actually...had no useful skills whatsoever...
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When I write these sort of articles there are often situations that require some out of narrative explaining so when that occurs an 'Editors Note' will appear. You can ignore these if your only interested in the narrative but to be honest they're mainly me making excuses for the stupid things we do. I'll also sometimes use these to give rules explanations so those new to the system can see how things work...
Off we go then...
Mission One - 'Strangers on a Train'
Introduction.
A company calling itself the 'Continental' Rail Company had been advertising all over Ord for guards for an undisclosed security job. All potential candidates were to report to a branch office of the company in the train station at Berck. The pay offered was suspiciously good with food and lodging also thrown in...the fact that a railway company was offering lodging should have raised a few alarm bells now I come to think about it...
Bosh arrived at the designated meeting point at the same time as a few other travellers and he followed their lead as they entered what appeared to be the main office of the continental railway station at which they stood. There were several well travelled looking individuals inside from all the races across the Iron Kingdoms from Ogrun, Trollkin and Dwarves, Iosan, Nyss and even a couple of Gobbers though the majority were human. The chosen professions on show were also spread across the ranges from the heavily armoured to the elaborately dressed, engineers to men at arms, riflemen and pistoleers. Considering this was advertised as a security job he was rather surprised to note how many of the candidates seemed utterly unsuited for combat...perhaps their military talents were less obvious...though the engineers might come in useful...
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Amongst those who stood out from the crowd were a couple more Ogrun Bokur (who quite literally stood out by virtue of their size), a heavily armoured woman who was talking to herself, a military looking gentlemen who somehow seemed to have found a chair in a room that apparently had none or at least only that one and was relaxing with flask of some drink and an odd smelling cigar. There were a couple of gobbers as well but Bosh had little confidence that they'be be much use as defenders of anything more valuable than the kitchen. His thoughts (such as they were) were interrupted as a gentlemen wearing the uniform of the Continental Rail Company entered the room and addressed the assembled group...
The job turned out to be guards for a multiple stage train journey with the first stage being from their current location in Berck to the Ordic capitol of Merin. Lodging was aboard the train and food would be courtesy of the trains own catering carriage. It was also made clear that there would be no return journeys provided and unless some-one took the entire round trip back to Carre Dova they'd have to find their way home by their own means should they wish to terminate their employment further along the route. The thought of travelling halfway across Immoren and potentially being hundreds of miles from home in hostile territory put off several of the crowd...of the candidates remaining twenty four were selected.
Amongst the humans hired were several riflemen, pistoleers, a couple of mechanics and a well travelled looking person though he had no obvious weaponry and the other races were represented by the three Ogruns, a Dwarf, several shifty looking Gobbers and a Nyss as well as the few individuals that he'd already noted. Bosh was less than impressed with pretty much all of them and it seemed that the few competent looking ones amongst the group had leaped to the same conclusions about the competency of their colleagues...it was certainly going to be an interesting trip...
The Job.
Just before the engine and engineering carriage behind it was a guard carriage with another at rear of the train and a third was situated in the centre separated from the galley carriage by a single currently empty one for cargo. Sandwiched between these were a further four compartments also apparently for cargo. Due to the somewhat limited space Bosh and the other two Ogruns agreed to spread themselves out between the three guard compartments and Bosh in an unusually intelligent move picked the one closest to the food. The gentlemen he'd noticed drinking earlier had also decided upon the same compartment as had the armoured priestess and a Gobber.
When it became obvious that no-one was going to organise them the former military officer named Sebastian LaCroix took it upon himself to split people up into shifts and organise patrol patterns and as he was obviously needed to make sure every-one was in the right place decided that it would be better if he didn't actually patrol himself so he was easy to find in an emergency...
Editors Note - Toms character (Sebastian) has extremely good command skills which means an average friendly or neutral 'None Player Character (NPC)' will do what he asks of them in most circumstances unless it's something near suicidal, monumentally stupid or he rolls terribly. 'Player Characters (PC's)' always get the option to ignore what another PC asks them to do. This makes sense as otherwise an asshole could easily dominate a game session and ruin it for every-one else...of course a PC can also choose to do what they're asked if it makes sense to them or if it was what they were going to do anyway...
...his character is also quite good at appearing to be busy while actually doing bugger all...
It was at this point that a representative of the continental train company turned up with our first weeks pay and a contract to sign before commandeering some of the new guards to assist with the loading. Sebastian volunteered to check off the cargo as it was loaded on board, Bosh and the other Ogruns assisted with the loading while engaging in the Ogrun equivalent of small talk which mainly revolved around their relative military service records, homeland and the distinct possibility that they were going to get stuck with all the grunt work on this trip. Danica decided to bless the engine and pray for their safe passage while Bert the Gobber had disappeared in the direction of the galley carriage. Sebastian also recruited one of the female guards to assist with the paperwork afterwards...much of this assistance was done in the end guard carriage with the door shut so no-one would break their concentration...apparently...
Editors Note - It's obviously going to be no surprise that the four PC's are all on the same shift and in the same carriage. Ask any GM who writes a campaign and most of them will tell you that one of the most difficult things to justify is why a group of (more often than not) completely different characters decide to join forces. Not every group of people can meet in a tavern and then decide to adventure together for no apparent reason now can they, lol?
With the train finally moving after everything was loaded and checked Bert, Bosh, Danika and Sebastian adjourned to their own carriage as it wasn't their shift for quite some time. Being the only one who'd done any actual work Bosh decided to get some sleep before his shift as did Danika (after a bit of praying and blessing things), Sebastian went to double-check some paperwork with the young lady who helped him earlier before returning an hour or so later and Bert had yet again disappeared in the direction of the galley carriage...
An Unexpected Stop.
Bosh, Danika and Sebastian were awakened suddenly as the train came noisily to a halt...
Editors Note - I'm not sure what the protocol is in Immoren for mixed sex military units or standards of decency. Whatever they may be Martin decided that his female character had slept in full armour thus conveniently avoiding us having to think about the subject of whether seeing a Priestess of Morrow in her undergarments counts as heresy, lol.
Sebastian suggested that Bosh and Danika stationed themselves at the carriage doors as they were already armoured while he still needed to get into his armour though he did have his weapons to hand, Bert was heading back to the carriage from wherever he'd been lurking. Bosh sensibly pointed out that as it still wasn't their shift that if there was a problem it was some-one else's. Danika was muttering to herself again and making several strange gestures that looked vaguely similar to those that the few masters of the arcane that Bosh had encountered during his military service used when casting a spell of some kind. This musing was confirmed when she announced that there was nothing going on outside even though the darkness made it next to impossible for the others to make out anything...then there was a knock on the carriage door that Bosh was guarding...
It turned out to be one of the female 'Rifleman' from one of the other shift groups and after checking with Sebastian he allowed her entry to the carriage. Apparently there had been a major parts breakage in the trains engine (a snapped piston it seemed) and there were no spares in the engine section that would do the job...perhaps there was something amongst the cargo that could do the job?
Fortunately as Sebastian had checked the items as they'd been loaded and had double checked the manifest with some assistance earlier he would be sure to know if there were any appropriate parts in the cargo. As it was of such importance Sebastian decided that it was best that he was 100% sure that the parts were there before he sent any-one routing through the cargo carriages so he examined the manifest again...
Editors Note - Of course Sebastian hadn't check the manifest properly the first time...that would have required actual effort...no-one's actual character knows that though their players of course do...
While going through this tedious process Bert went to have a look himself as he'd actually been spending most of the journey so far trying to work out a way to open the containers without leaving any obvious traces. Having eventually 'confirmed the location' of the necessary parts Sebastian sent Bosh to their location with appropriate instructions...After a gigantic crate filled with lumps of metal landed on the carriage floor Sebastian then gave Bosh some far more precise instructions...
Editors Note - It was obvious that Sebastian meant just the parts he needed and to take them to the engine section however I decided that Bosh was going to take all instructions literally when it was inconvenient for every-one else for him to do so as quite frankly he's not as thick as every-one seems to think and he's beginning to resent getting stuck with all the grunt work...
Danika meanwhile was continuing to keep a look out as a breakdown on the most desolate part of the journey furthest from help in either direction seemed like an unlikely piece of bad luck. As it turned out her suspicions weren't entirely unfounded. The engineer required some assistance with holding some weighty parts in place so yet again the Ogruns were drafted in to do the grunt work. Another unlikely coincidence occurred as she observed a group of riders charging towards them whose attack seemed timed to the exact moment that the Ogruns were occupied helping the repair team with the engine...
Ambush.
Editors Note - Those of you familiar with the Warmachine/Hordes miniature war-game will also be familiar with the combat system. For those of you who aren't here's how it works. Melee attacks are controlled by a MAT stat whereas ranged attacks use one called RAT. MAT is calculated by taking your Prowess (PRW) stat, adding any appropriate Skill Value (Great Weapon, Hand Weapon, Unarmed etc,) and then modifying it by any Attack Modifier of the weapon (certain unwieldy or inaccurate weapons will apply a minus whereas a very simple to use item like a dagger may apply a plus). RAT works similarly though Poise (POI) is used instead of PRW. Once you have your total you roll 2d6, add the total to it and if that total equals or beats your targets Defense (DEF) then you've hit them...we'll talk about actually damaging them in a bit...
Sebastian moved to a suitable firing point from one of the train carriages and quickly directed any-one in earshot to do the same as well, Danika moved down the train towards the engine in order to defend the vulnerable repair crews, Bert waited in one of the gaps between carriages and as Bosh was currently holding a large piston in place there wasn't a lot else he could do. The other guards either found firing positions, readied melee weapons or hid depending on their particular areas of expertise (or lack thereof). Meanwhile Sebastian had estimated that they're were under attack by about thirty riders (a fact which Danika confirmed) and began to fire as soon as they entered range...
Editors Note - Defense (DEF) is the sum of a characters Agility (AGI), Perception (PER) and Speed (SPD) which may also be modified by a number of factors (some Races such as Gobbers get benefits due to their small size and certain heavy armours reduce your Defense due to the reduction in mobility). Though the approaching thieves had a high DEF score Tom's character has a high RAT, Skill modifier and a number of useful complimentary abilities amongst which is one called 'Virtuoso' which grants the ability to roll three dice rather than two and pick the ones he wants with a single designated weapon...no points for guessing that his applies to pistols...In game terms this means he doesn't miss very often...
Due to either having no ranged weapons or having left them on the train Bosh and his fellow Ogruns had no way of effecting the battle at this stage though they 'encouraged' the engineers to get a move on and bolt the parts in place so they could let go of them and go and beat something to death. Danika was similarly inconvenienced by a lack of a ranged weapon but had positioned herself ready to smite any bandit foolish enough to try and board the train via her location. Bert was nowhere to be seen...as usual...
Sebastian's inspired shooting had taken out two of the attackers at extreme range despite they're speed and a couple of others had fallen to other various projectiles fired at them from the other guards...
Editors Note - Ranged weapons have a POW score to represent damage and for melee weapons this is the POW of the weapon plus the strength of the wielder. The total of 2D6 are added to this score and the difference between this total and the victims armour (ARM) is the amount of damage caused to the target...simple...I'm guessing that these bandits weren't particularly well armoured...
The engineers finally had the piston fixed in place well enough for Bosh to let go of it and the other Ogruns also found themselves similarly unencumbered just as the bandits entered charge range, Sebastian's precision shooting had taken out a couple more enemies and they had begun to spread out as they approached the train. One of these groups had now found themselves intercepted by three charging Ogrun one of which was armed with a particularly nasty looking pole mounted cleaver...
Editors Note - Combat happens in an order based on relative initiatives of the participants but I've fudged the order of events for narrative purposes so before any picky rules lawyers comment all this stuff did actually happened in the encounter...just not necessarily exactly in this order, lol.
Bosh reached the bandits a moment before his fellows and promptly cut one from his horse before killing a second with his back-swing, Sebastian shot dead another pair as Danika moved into position to engage a group that had dismounted and were approaching the train...it was at this point that Bert made an appearance...
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Interrogation.
When Bosh arrived at the carriage currently serving as a brig Sebastian had already demonstrated the significant downside to keeping quiet to the prisoners by putting a bullet in each of their kneecaps and the sight of nine feet and five hundred pounds of blood-stained Ogrun entering the carriage did little to reassure them though the armoured woman diligently cleaning bits of their comrades brain matter from the head of her mace wasn't helping either.
"Which one first?"
Editors Note - Interrogation is a General Skill and attempting to undertake an interrogation without the appropriate Skill means your at a penalty to success. However both Sebastian and Bosh have Intimidate which will do in a pinch. Some Skills use variable stats to generate their values based on the particular situation so (for example) some-one like Bosh would probably use his physical size to intimidate his victim using Strength (STR) plus Intimidation whereas a more intellectual person like Sebastian might use Intellect (INT) plus Intimidation and so on...
Sebastian suggested the somewhat interesting strategy that he'd question the one captive while allowing him to witness Bosh breaking his fellow bandits arms and legs with the obvious implication that he'd be next. After Bosh began to run out of breakable limbs Danika pointing out to both the survivors that she could heal them after the torture if she wished so they could go through it all again from scratch should they be too damaged and this was apparently the final straw as the (relatively) unharmed would be raider promptly told them everything he knew...which admittedly wasn't much...
They were a group of bandits and mercenaries from all over the surrounding area based in a camp in the hills a considerable distance away and that they'd been hired specifically to raid the train by an individual known only to their leader who was apparently a Kayazy...but despite some more 'encouragement' still insisted that they had no contacts aboard the train despite the incredibly suspicious timing of the attack...
Editors Note - I can see my lack of background knowledge is going to screw me over considerably in this campaign as I have no idea what a Kayazy is or why we should care...
This last piece of information seemed to irritate Sebastian considerably and he told Bosh to execute the prisoner he was currently 'persuading'. As up to this point he'd being running the security operation just fine Bosh saw no reason not to comply with the request so removed the bandits head from their shoulders...Bert who had been growing considerably paler as the interrogation process went on promptly evacuated the contents of his stomach...
News that the train was now repaired was announced so the survivor was tied up in one of the carriages and the rest of the journey finished uneventfully...
A Frank Exchange of Views.
Sebastian had many talents but chief amongst them was the ability to seize an opportunity when one arose and it was obvious that there was something else going on here and that if he was going to be stuck in the middle of it he'd need far more motivation than a few gold coins, terrible food and the barely drinkable piss that passed for wine from the trains stock...
As he was effectively doing the job anyway the rest of the guards had little objection to nominating Sebastian to speak on their behalf in order to get things a bit more formally organised. Bosh followed just in case the company representative had guards of his own who may object to Sebastians somewhat candid opinion of the companies management abilities...
After detailing the myriad faults with the companies half assed recruiting policy (any-one who turns up apparently), the trains defences (or lack thereof), the poor facilities (by which he meant the quality of the wine more than likely) together with greatly exaggerating the organisation he'd had had to do on board he negotiated a pay rise for himself (though this came with the stipulation of him 'officially' doing the job he claimed to be doing anyway), double pay for the the more useful of the guards and a bonus should they meet significant resistance along the way (he had of course exaggerated the forces involved in the raid in every conceivable manner) as well as obtaining a complete list of the trains various stops so at least he had some idea of the threats they'd face with a bit of time to prepare...
...at least in theory...
It looks like Sebastian...sorry...Captain LaCroix...had just acquired himself a Mercenary Company...with some-one else footing the bill...
In Conclusion - Back in the Real World.
Editors Note - It was my intention to do something in these articles detailing how the session went from a real world point of view together with some blurb about how our characters develop from a mechanical point of view. This'll be at the end of the articles so you can ignore it if you're not interested...
All in all it was a really enjoyable session and fortunately my limited knowledge of the background was countered nicely by the fact that Tom and Martin both know the background inside out as does our GM Andrew (he's also a Press-ganger). The only downside was that Arold's Gobber wasn't actually as much fun as a comic relief character to play as he wanted him to be and if you're not having fun then what's the point? He's therefore decided to create a new character and as we're only on our first session that's not going to cause any issues to do. Bert the Gobber may well still be kept around as an NPC so we may not have seen the last of him regardless...I should point out that this was entirely his decision...
Part of the character creation process is to create some kind of adventuring company but Andrew decided to let this happen organically as part of the first mission. Though it can be dangerous for a GM to hope that the PC's do what he needs them to do in this particular case he got lucky. So we're now a Mercenary Company...
In game terms that means one of us is nominated 'Captain' and gains the 'Natural Leader' Ability (which is a shame as I think Sebastian already had it...) and the rest of us get to choose from a list of Occupational Skills he's also meant to nominate some-one as his Lieutenant, another as the Treasurer with the rest of the PC's being Sergeants but they don't have any specific benefits. There are other options such as Outlaws, Pirates, Arcane Orders, etc. but most of these would need to be selected before the campaign started to make sense...though I suppose a talented GM could work around that.
Experience points were also dished out. We got one for turning up and some of us got another for teamwork which gave us the two we needed to level up. Unlike most game systems I've played those XP are only usable for very specific things based on what level you've reached. Two XP gives us a choice of two Occupational Skills, but an extra Military Skill isn't available till four and so on. I suppose this limits min-maxing to a certain extent and also makes tailoring the difficulty level of encounters a bit more consistent for GM's...
After some discussion Arold has decided upon a Trollkin Field Mechanik and Soldier as his replacement character and this is rather useful as Field Mechaniks come with a light laborjack (a walking forklift truck for those of you unfamiliar with the background) which means that Bosh and the other Ogruns wont get stuck with all the heavy lifting from now on. I'm guessing he'll get hired before the next leg of our journey...
We're going to have these sessions fortnightly so if you're curious about our continued adventures then hopefully I'll be posting another instalment at some point in the future...
Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.
Off we go then...
Mission One - 'Strangers on a Train'
Introduction.
A company calling itself the 'Continental' Rail Company had been advertising all over Ord for guards for an undisclosed security job. All potential candidates were to report to a branch office of the company in the train station at Berck. The pay offered was suspiciously good with food and lodging also thrown in...the fact that a railway company was offering lodging should have raised a few alarm bells now I come to think about it...
The job turned out to be guards for a multiple stage train journey with the first stage being from their current location in Berck to the Ordic capitol of Merin. Lodging was aboard the train and food would be courtesy of the trains own catering carriage. It was also made clear that there would be no return journeys provided and unless some-one took the entire round trip back to Carre Dova they'd have to find their way home by their own means should they wish to terminate their employment further along the route. The thought of travelling halfway across Immoren and potentially being hundreds of miles from home in hostile territory put off several of the crowd...of the candidates remaining twenty four were selected.
Amongst the humans hired were several riflemen, pistoleers, a couple of mechanics and a well travelled looking person though he had no obvious weaponry and the other races were represented by the three Ogruns, a Dwarf, several shifty looking Gobbers and a Nyss as well as the few individuals that he'd already noted. Bosh was less than impressed with pretty much all of them and it seemed that the few competent looking ones amongst the group had leaped to the same conclusions about the competency of their colleagues...it was certainly going to be an interesting trip...
The Job.
When it became obvious that no-one was going to organise them the former military officer named Sebastian LaCroix took it upon himself to split people up into shifts and organise patrol patterns and as he was obviously needed to make sure every-one was in the right place decided that it would be better if he didn't actually patrol himself so he was easy to find in an emergency...
Editors Note - Toms character (Sebastian) has extremely good command skills which means an average friendly or neutral 'None Player Character (NPC)' will do what he asks of them in most circumstances unless it's something near suicidal, monumentally stupid or he rolls terribly. 'Player Characters (PC's)' always get the option to ignore what another PC asks them to do. This makes sense as otherwise an asshole could easily dominate a game session and ruin it for every-one else...of course a PC can also choose to do what they're asked if it makes sense to them or if it was what they were going to do anyway...
...his character is also quite good at appearing to be busy while actually doing bugger all...
It was at this point that a representative of the continental train company turned up with our first weeks pay and a contract to sign before commandeering some of the new guards to assist with the loading. Sebastian volunteered to check off the cargo as it was loaded on board, Bosh and the other Ogruns assisted with the loading while engaging in the Ogrun equivalent of small talk which mainly revolved around their relative military service records, homeland and the distinct possibility that they were going to get stuck with all the grunt work on this trip. Danica decided to bless the engine and pray for their safe passage while Bert the Gobber had disappeared in the direction of the galley carriage. Sebastian also recruited one of the female guards to assist with the paperwork afterwards...much of this assistance was done in the end guard carriage with the door shut so no-one would break their concentration...apparently...
With the train finally moving after everything was loaded and checked Bert, Bosh, Danika and Sebastian adjourned to their own carriage as it wasn't their shift for quite some time. Being the only one who'd done any actual work Bosh decided to get some sleep before his shift as did Danika (after a bit of praying and blessing things), Sebastian went to double-check some paperwork with the young lady who helped him earlier before returning an hour or so later and Bert had yet again disappeared in the direction of the galley carriage...
An Unexpected Stop.
Bosh, Danika and Sebastian were awakened suddenly as the train came noisily to a halt...
Editors Note - I'm not sure what the protocol is in Immoren for mixed sex military units or standards of decency. Whatever they may be Martin decided that his female character had slept in full armour thus conveniently avoiding us having to think about the subject of whether seeing a Priestess of Morrow in her undergarments counts as heresy, lol.
Sebastian suggested that Bosh and Danika stationed themselves at the carriage doors as they were already armoured while he still needed to get into his armour though he did have his weapons to hand, Bert was heading back to the carriage from wherever he'd been lurking. Bosh sensibly pointed out that as it still wasn't their shift that if there was a problem it was some-one else's. Danika was muttering to herself again and making several strange gestures that looked vaguely similar to those that the few masters of the arcane that Bosh had encountered during his military service used when casting a spell of some kind. This musing was confirmed when she announced that there was nothing going on outside even though the darkness made it next to impossible for the others to make out anything...then there was a knock on the carriage door that Bosh was guarding...
Fortunately as Sebastian had checked the items as they'd been loaded and had double checked the manifest with some assistance earlier he would be sure to know if there were any appropriate parts in the cargo. As it was of such importance Sebastian decided that it was best that he was 100% sure that the parts were there before he sent any-one routing through the cargo carriages so he examined the manifest again...
Editors Note - Of course Sebastian hadn't check the manifest properly the first time...that would have required actual effort...no-one's actual character knows that though their players of course do...
While going through this tedious process Bert went to have a look himself as he'd actually been spending most of the journey so far trying to work out a way to open the containers without leaving any obvious traces. Having eventually 'confirmed the location' of the necessary parts Sebastian sent Bosh to their location with appropriate instructions...After a gigantic crate filled with lumps of metal landed on the carriage floor Sebastian then gave Bosh some far more precise instructions...
Editors Note - It was obvious that Sebastian meant just the parts he needed and to take them to the engine section however I decided that Bosh was going to take all instructions literally when it was inconvenient for every-one else for him to do so as quite frankly he's not as thick as every-one seems to think and he's beginning to resent getting stuck with all the grunt work...
Danika meanwhile was continuing to keep a look out as a breakdown on the most desolate part of the journey furthest from help in either direction seemed like an unlikely piece of bad luck. As it turned out her suspicions weren't entirely unfounded. The engineer required some assistance with holding some weighty parts in place so yet again the Ogruns were drafted in to do the grunt work. Another unlikely coincidence occurred as she observed a group of riders charging towards them whose attack seemed timed to the exact moment that the Ogruns were occupied helping the repair team with the engine...
Ambush.
Editors Note - Those of you familiar with the Warmachine/Hordes miniature war-game will also be familiar with the combat system. For those of you who aren't here's how it works. Melee attacks are controlled by a MAT stat whereas ranged attacks use one called RAT. MAT is calculated by taking your Prowess (PRW) stat, adding any appropriate Skill Value (Great Weapon, Hand Weapon, Unarmed etc,) and then modifying it by any Attack Modifier of the weapon (certain unwieldy or inaccurate weapons will apply a minus whereas a very simple to use item like a dagger may apply a plus). RAT works similarly though Poise (POI) is used instead of PRW. Once you have your total you roll 2d6, add the total to it and if that total equals or beats your targets Defense (DEF) then you've hit them...we'll talk about actually damaging them in a bit...
Sebastian moved to a suitable firing point from one of the train carriages and quickly directed any-one in earshot to do the same as well, Danika moved down the train towards the engine in order to defend the vulnerable repair crews, Bert waited in one of the gaps between carriages and as Bosh was currently holding a large piston in place there wasn't a lot else he could do. The other guards either found firing positions, readied melee weapons or hid depending on their particular areas of expertise (or lack thereof). Meanwhile Sebastian had estimated that they're were under attack by about thirty riders (a fact which Danika confirmed) and began to fire as soon as they entered range...
Editors Note - Defense (DEF) is the sum of a characters Agility (AGI), Perception (PER) and Speed (SPD) which may also be modified by a number of factors (some Races such as Gobbers get benefits due to their small size and certain heavy armours reduce your Defense due to the reduction in mobility). Though the approaching thieves had a high DEF score Tom's character has a high RAT, Skill modifier and a number of useful complimentary abilities amongst which is one called 'Virtuoso' which grants the ability to roll three dice rather than two and pick the ones he wants with a single designated weapon...no points for guessing that his applies to pistols...In game terms this means he doesn't miss very often...
Sebastian's inspired shooting had taken out two of the attackers at extreme range despite they're speed and a couple of others had fallen to other various projectiles fired at them from the other guards...
Editors Note - Ranged weapons have a POW score to represent damage and for melee weapons this is the POW of the weapon plus the strength of the wielder. The total of 2D6 are added to this score and the difference between this total and the victims armour (ARM) is the amount of damage caused to the target...simple...I'm guessing that these bandits weren't particularly well armoured...
The engineers finally had the piston fixed in place well enough for Bosh to let go of it and the other Ogruns also found themselves similarly unencumbered just as the bandits entered charge range, Sebastian's precision shooting had taken out a couple more enemies and they had begun to spread out as they approached the train. One of these groups had now found themselves intercepted by three charging Ogrun one of which was armed with a particularly nasty looking pole mounted cleaver...
Editors Note - Combat happens in an order based on relative initiatives of the participants but I've fudged the order of events for narrative purposes so before any picky rules lawyers comment all this stuff did actually happened in the encounter...just not necessarily exactly in this order, lol.
Bosh reached the bandits a moment before his fellows and promptly cut one from his horse before killing a second with his back-swing, Sebastian shot dead another pair as Danika moved into position to engage a group that had dismounted and were approaching the train...it was at this point that Bert made an appearance...
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...as he leaped from the top of the train in an attempt to dismount a rider and instead landed on the back of the horse though managed to then get the desired result as the rider fell from his horse in surprise...taking the unfortunate Gobber with him...even more unfortunately he somehow managed to land underneath the rider...
Bosh accounted for two more horsemen though was bleeding from a trivial flesh-wound while his fellow Ogruns caught up and accounted for one more horseman while dismounting another. Bosh then incapacitated the grounded bandit with a precise (for him) strike with the Warcleavers hilt before killing another as the rest finally decided that attacking the train was a safer prospect and galloped away in that direction...
Editors Note - There's a rather useful Bounty Hunter career Ability called 'Takedown' which allows you to turn an incapacitating blow into a none fatal one so the victim can be tied-up, manacled or otherwise imprisoned to be questioned later. This is fortunate as my Ogrun does quite a lot of damage so taking some-one alive isn't particularly easy without that Ability...
Sebastian embarrassed the rest of the shooters by killing another two on his own to their one between them. Noting that Bosh and the other Ogruns were now disengaged he indicated with a combination of expressive gestures and shouted commands that they should assist Danika and intercept the other group respectively before finally yelling encouragement to Bert that seemed to inspire him to greater efforts as he avoided several blows from the bandit before stabbing him in the throat with a spring-loaded blade at his wrist...
Editors Note - Toms character Sebastian has an Ability called 'Team Leader' which means that when he gains a Feat Point (a limited resource that you can spend in exchange for certain bonuses) he can give it to another character in his Command range. In this case he generously donated the ones he got from his bandit kills to Arolds character Bert to use in order to avoid getting killed. Without their bonuses his character would have been quite dead indeed...
Danika decapitated an attacker with her mace before caving in the chest of a second with a vicious shield bash though a third managed to slip under her guard to inflict a minor wound upon her while doing so. Her remaining attackers were somewhat distracted by the intimidating war-cry of a charging Ogrun though his help wasn't strictly necessary as she killed another with her mace and crippled one with her shield. The remaining attackers were unwilling to surrender so were now being mopped up by the surviving guards. Danika finished off the crippled and defenceless bandit writhing on the floor while Bosh killed another of the demoralised would be thieves before knocking out the only one in range in the same manner as the one he'd incapacitated earlier...the attack was over...
After depositing the captives in one of the cargo containers Sebastian asked him to gather the rest of the bodies together and see if there was any way of identifying the attackers. Bosh interpreted this instruction as 'loot all the corpses' though was somewhat surprised that the Priestess Danika volunteered to help. It also occurred to him that he'd been grouped with the only decent military organiser and warriors on the train...well...except for that Gobber who managed to fall over...he was pretty useless. It turned out that four of the guards had died during the attack so Bosh added their weapons to the pile...well...not before helping himself to a particularly nice two-handed sword for those moments when the Ogrun Warcleaver might be a little too unwieldy...
The bandits didn't have much in the way of gold or valuables but what they had was swiftly redistributed and their weapons were dumped in a corner of one of the cargo compartments as 'spoils of war'. None of their arms or armour was superior to those of the guards but they might have some resale value...
When Bosh arrived at the carriage currently serving as a brig Sebastian had already demonstrated the significant downside to keeping quiet to the prisoners by putting a bullet in each of their kneecaps and the sight of nine feet and five hundred pounds of blood-stained Ogrun entering the carriage did little to reassure them though the armoured woman diligently cleaning bits of their comrades brain matter from the head of her mace wasn't helping either.
"Which one first?"
Editors Note - Interrogation is a General Skill and attempting to undertake an interrogation without the appropriate Skill means your at a penalty to success. However both Sebastian and Bosh have Intimidate which will do in a pinch. Some Skills use variable stats to generate their values based on the particular situation so (for example) some-one like Bosh would probably use his physical size to intimidate his victim using Strength (STR) plus Intimidation whereas a more intellectual person like Sebastian might use Intellect (INT) plus Intimidation and so on...
Sebastian suggested the somewhat interesting strategy that he'd question the one captive while allowing him to witness Bosh breaking his fellow bandits arms and legs with the obvious implication that he'd be next. After Bosh began to run out of breakable limbs Danika pointing out to both the survivors that she could heal them after the torture if she wished so they could go through it all again from scratch should they be too damaged and this was apparently the final straw as the (relatively) unharmed would be raider promptly told them everything he knew...which admittedly wasn't much...
Editors Note - I can see my lack of background knowledge is going to screw me over considerably in this campaign as I have no idea what a Kayazy is or why we should care...
This last piece of information seemed to irritate Sebastian considerably and he told Bosh to execute the prisoner he was currently 'persuading'. As up to this point he'd being running the security operation just fine Bosh saw no reason not to comply with the request so removed the bandits head from their shoulders...Bert who had been growing considerably paler as the interrogation process went on promptly evacuated the contents of his stomach...
News that the train was now repaired was announced so the survivor was tied up in one of the carriages and the rest of the journey finished uneventfully...
A Frank Exchange of Views.
Sebastian had many talents but chief amongst them was the ability to seize an opportunity when one arose and it was obvious that there was something else going on here and that if he was going to be stuck in the middle of it he'd need far more motivation than a few gold coins, terrible food and the barely drinkable piss that passed for wine from the trains stock...
As he was effectively doing the job anyway the rest of the guards had little objection to nominating Sebastian to speak on their behalf in order to get things a bit more formally organised. Bosh followed just in case the company representative had guards of his own who may object to Sebastians somewhat candid opinion of the companies management abilities...
After detailing the myriad faults with the companies half assed recruiting policy (any-one who turns up apparently), the trains defences (or lack thereof), the poor facilities (by which he meant the quality of the wine more than likely) together with greatly exaggerating the organisation he'd had had to do on board he negotiated a pay rise for himself (though this came with the stipulation of him 'officially' doing the job he claimed to be doing anyway), double pay for the the more useful of the guards and a bonus should they meet significant resistance along the way (he had of course exaggerated the forces involved in the raid in every conceivable manner) as well as obtaining a complete list of the trains various stops so at least he had some idea of the threats they'd face with a bit of time to prepare...
It looks like Sebastian...sorry...Captain LaCroix...had just acquired himself a Mercenary Company...with some-one else footing the bill...
In Conclusion - Back in the Real World.
Editors Note - It was my intention to do something in these articles detailing how the session went from a real world point of view together with some blurb about how our characters develop from a mechanical point of view. This'll be at the end of the articles so you can ignore it if you're not interested...
All in all it was a really enjoyable session and fortunately my limited knowledge of the background was countered nicely by the fact that Tom and Martin both know the background inside out as does our GM Andrew (he's also a Press-ganger). The only downside was that Arold's Gobber wasn't actually as much fun as a comic relief character to play as he wanted him to be and if you're not having fun then what's the point? He's therefore decided to create a new character and as we're only on our first session that's not going to cause any issues to do. Bert the Gobber may well still be kept around as an NPC so we may not have seen the last of him regardless...I should point out that this was entirely his decision...
Part of the character creation process is to create some kind of adventuring company but Andrew decided to let this happen organically as part of the first mission. Though it can be dangerous for a GM to hope that the PC's do what he needs them to do in this particular case he got lucky. So we're now a Mercenary Company...
In game terms that means one of us is nominated 'Captain' and gains the 'Natural Leader' Ability (which is a shame as I think Sebastian already had it...) and the rest of us get to choose from a list of Occupational Skills he's also meant to nominate some-one as his Lieutenant, another as the Treasurer with the rest of the PC's being Sergeants but they don't have any specific benefits. There are other options such as Outlaws, Pirates, Arcane Orders, etc. but most of these would need to be selected before the campaign started to make sense...though I suppose a talented GM could work around that.
Experience points were also dished out. We got one for turning up and some of us got another for teamwork which gave us the two we needed to level up. Unlike most game systems I've played those XP are only usable for very specific things based on what level you've reached. Two XP gives us a choice of two Occupational Skills, but an extra Military Skill isn't available till four and so on. I suppose this limits min-maxing to a certain extent and also makes tailoring the difficulty level of encounters a bit more consistent for GM's...
After some discussion Arold has decided upon a Trollkin Field Mechanik and Soldier as his replacement character and this is rather useful as Field Mechaniks come with a light laborjack (a walking forklift truck for those of you unfamiliar with the background) which means that Bosh and the other Ogruns wont get stuck with all the heavy lifting from now on. I'm guessing he'll get hired before the next leg of our journey...
We're going to have these sessions fortnightly so if you're curious about our continued adventures then hopefully I'll be posting another instalment at some point in the future...
Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.
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