This is a Castles & Crusades adventure, although it can be used easily with any pre-4E version of D&D.
This adventure attempts to handle a difficult encounter type: large battles. It presents several battles of increasing numbers and odds culminating with a large battle on a lightly defended outpost. There are some brief new mechanics presented to handle the mass combats. It is, essentially, a complete railroad in order to get to the battles.
The last module in this series, I2, had the characters adventuring around a small hill fort/tower that was in the process of being reclaimed by a local goblin warlord. The parties hijinks at the site have given the warlord the pretext he needs to launch an invasion of his human neighbors to the north. He’s in a tenuous position though, and needs success for his longer-term internal plans to come to fruition. Essentially, he’s showing his peers he a tough guy that can deliver, and they should throw in with him. He’s likely to succeed. The political climate is interesting. The other local human rulers in the region are not happy with the victim kingdom, with at least one throwing his support behind the goblins. This is not your typical fantasy worldview …
The players need to be in the goblin kingdom, near the border, and fleeing/traveling towards the north. There are several small encounters that are supposed to build up the tension. FIrst some scouts and trackers are sighted in the distance, following the party. Then some cavalry show up and harass the party; first a lone figure and then a group. The goal is to get the party moving and up the tension. There are a few wandering monsters encounters available from a nicely done table. These are mostly animal encounters, and one small fey encounter. They generally just provide some flavor and false excitement for the group, although they may harass a straggler; they actually act like real animals afraid of humans.
The party eventually reaches the border of the goblin kingdoms, a small river with a ford. And an ambush. The party is going to face about 35 goblins who have a well developed sense of tactics. This is probably going to be a rough fight for the party. Cut off in an exposed area of difficult terrain and facing an enemy with lots of missile weapons … I hope the wizard is fifth level …
That should be a huge battle for the party, and a rough one at that. Making it out of it alive should feel like a decent accomplishment. They can travel north to a small settlement, really just a palisade with a small tower and a longhouse. They can rest and recover here and interact with the frontiersmen villagers. A few of the notables are described however they are not really much more than the standard fantasy tropes and are not very interesting. It feels a lot like a cross between the village from The 13th Warrior and Rourke’s Drift. After the party has been there awhile and bonded a bit then the goblin army shows up. This should result in a nice ‘Oh Crap!’ moment. There are about 25 combatants in the settlement, with another dozen or so non-combatants. The enemy numbers over 400 infantry, with about 50 fantasy cavalry. And they use good tactics. There’s a small opportunity to role-play with the enemy, however the bulk of this is going to be combat oriented over a single day. It’s going to be a surprise, so the casters will have whatever is at hand. About that 5th level wizard …
This is going to be rough. There are going to be assaults using primitive ladders & rams, archers, flaming arrows and oil flasks, spider cavalry coming over the walls, and villagers blaming the party. A breakout is a possibility, however all of the villagers are not going to flee, and it’s going to be a pretty desperate affair. There are some morale rules that will come in to play once around 120 goblins are killed (!) and there are some rules for massed fights; essentially breaking combats in to groups of 5 and using averages for to-hit roles and dividing up damage with no remainders.
All of the modules in this series have had the opportunity for large massed battles however the centerpiece of this module is the assault on the walled settlement. If the party has played those earlier adventures or are very smart then they may have a chance to survive without DM fudging. Fudging is a big no-no in my book so … This is going to be a very rough encounter, both to run and to play in. The players will certainly remember it for a long time to come, both if they survive and if they die. There’s a very real possibility, indeed likelihood, for a total TPK. As a mini campaign arc this would be a great finale. Either the characters will go on to great things or they will die, hopefully heorically. In fact, there’s a nice little subsection on parting scenes to help deal with character death.
This is available on DriveThru.