Deep Carbon Observatory adventure log - Session 16

What happened in Session 16

Thursday the 11th

Player Characters present at the beginning of the session: 

• Ash - Xiavorin, Level 1 Grimalkin
• D. - Oobl, Level 5 Mossling
• Freddy - Trunchkin, Level 5 Friar
• Marcus - Controlling the Undead army
• Peter - Controlling the Undead army

In the fiction, the Magpies had just passed the Dam. Between them and the entrance to the Deep Carbon Observatory stretched the profundal zone: the dried basin of Reed Lake, where the Kapeks and the Reed People were beginning a war.

The kapeks army

The Magpies were steadfast allies with the Kapeks and committed themselves to the conflict. To determine the outcome, we resolved the battle using a one-off wargame. The result would decide who controlled Reed Lake—and, crucially, whether the territory immediately outside the dungeon would be held by allies or enemies.

Download the wargame rules here. 

Before the fighting began, the Magpies witnessed a grim portent. The Laputa, Captain Zarathusa’s ship, obliterated the last remaining golem with cannon fire, then advanced toward the Dam accompanied by several lifeboats. Simple victory was not enough: the Kapeks would need to survive in sufficient numbers to resist the sailors once they arrived.

The wargame supplies

The Reed People were significantly altered from the source material. Their forces consisted entirely of undead, animated by an inherently unstable necromantic binding. This magic would only hold for a short time - six turns in game - during which they intended to complete a great ritual. Scattered across the lakebed lay the colossal bones of an ancient corpse, embedded in the mud and represented in play as control points.

If, at the end of the sixth turn, the Reed People controlled a majority of these bones, the ritual would succeed, and a vast undead monstrosity would rise, annihilating the Kapeks. If they failed, the necromantic binding would collapse, the undead army would crumble into dust, and the Kapeks would be left in sole control of the field.

The battlefield

The battlefield itself was treacherous and asymmetrical, shaped by several key terrain features:

• Shallow ponds, freely navigable by Kapeks but difficult to navigate for the undead
• Scalding geysers, hazardous to Kapeks but ignored by undead units
• Dense fields of detritus that blocked charges and reduced the effectiveness of ranged attacks
• Zones infested with rotting, explosive pufferfish that endangered any unit passing through at speed

Initial kapeks lines

The battle opened with a bold Kapek cavalry charge on the eastern flank, intended to seize the colossus bones in the opening round. The attack badly underestimated the undead archers, who inflicted severe losses and enabled a rapid counterattack. By the end of the first round, the Kapeks had lost roughly twenty per cent of their force and were already being driven onto the defensive.

The failed cavalry attack

The fighting soon shifted toward the centre, where the main bodies of both armies became locked in a grinding melee. Throughout the engagement, undead archers continued to harass Kapek units, steadily eroding their numbers.

Xiavorin revenge

Several figures distinguished themselves in the chaos. Xiavorin the grimalkin killed an undead commander and then broke through the enemy line and charged into the archers, disrupting their fire. Elsewhere, Kapek heavy units disengaged from the central struggle and regrouped, preparing for a coordinated push elsewhere on the field.

The battle for the centre

By the beginning of the sixth and final round, the undead army held a decisive numerical advantage, fielding nearly twice as many units as the Kapeks. Yet numbers proved less important than position. The undead had concentrated their strength in the east to defend the bones. The Kapeks, recognising the futility of that front, abandoned it entirely and committed everything to a desperate assault in the west.

All remaining forces - including the characters Xiavorin, Oobl the Mossling, and Trunchkin the Friar - were thrown into the attack.

The final showdown

The final moments were tense and finely balanced. Against the odds, the Magpies succeeded in destroying two undead monstrosities, capturing two control points at the last possible moment, and interrupting the necromantic ritual before it could be completed.

When the dust settled, only fourteen Kapeks remained from an original force of ninety. As they looked out across the Dam and the approaching sailors with grim resignation, the Magpies pressed onward toward the entrance of the Deep Carbon Observatory.

Dungeon delving will begin next session!

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All the details about Deep Carbon Observatory belong to Patrick Stuart - Buy the module - His Blog - My Review - Video Review

All the art belongs to Scap Princess - Buy her stuff - Her Blog

All the elements of Dolmenwood belong to Gavin Norman - Buy the system - Video Review

The wargame rules are inspired by hell march by Alchemical Raker