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A Tabletop Trip into Phlan XII Part 2: A Pirate’s Death for Me

…which is often the way things seem before they go terribly, terribly wrong.

In this case, the PCs had not considered that Trumpet might leave them outside the slave pen while he sent in a guard to retrieve their purchases  – which he did. Aeryn and Ginallath exchanged a quick look and decided to use the catchall backup plan: violence.

Ginallath quickly fired off a sleep spell while Aeryn made a break for the slave pen. The elf mage’s spell fizzled (pirates roll fine saves, landlubbers), but Inigo and Raj hardly noticed, happy as they were to be doing less sneaking and more pirate killing. Though shocked at first, Trumpet and his guards rallied quickly and Trumpet blew his signature instrument – alerting the compound. The slave pen guards quickly rushed to his aid, leaving rogue, mage, and rangers with 15 pirates and the third mate himself to deal with.

Among those who heard the noise were Wolf and MacTavish, still working for Aard at the cattle pen.  As Aard gathered his group to rush to Trumpet’s aid, MacTavish was struck by inspiration.  He “neglected” to close the pen, and one quick application of scare later, the animals were bursting out in a mighty stampede. The rampaging cattle cut off any hope of Trumpet’s pirates getting any help – except from Aard and his boys, accompanied by Wolf and MacTavish.

In the meantime, Raj and Inigo had accounted for four pirates between them, but Ginallath was badly wounded by the guards and Aeryn had taken a cut from Trumpet as she tried to slip into the slave pen. Inside, she found herself face to face with the guard Trumpet had sent inside. He froze in surprise as Aeryn entered – just enough time for Rosko to headbutt him in the stomach while Dak strangled him with his chains. Aeryn found the pirate’s key and unlocked the  pair, and then Galon Bivant – mission accomplished! If only they could get out, that is. Taking up the dead pirate’s cutlass, Dak positioned himself to defend the doorway while Aeryn readied her hand crossbow.

Outside, the pirates’ numbers were wearing down Inigo and Raj. Bellowing orders to his guards to rush the slave pen, Trumpet personally entered the fray, striking down Raj with a couple of well-placed blows. Now alone, Inigo defended her unconscious and bleeding body while a badly-wounded Ginallath played dead. The sight of more pirates arriving caused the party’s hearts to sink.

Fortunately, this was Aard’s group. As the pirates rushed to join the battle, MacTavish muttered a prayer to Tempus and turned on them, or tried to since his aim slipped and he ended up striking his own shield instead. Aard turned to curse him for a clumsy fool -then fell with Wolf’s blade in his back. Ginallath rose and nailed another pirate with a well placed arrow shot, and between the three of them quickly dispatched the remaining pirates of Aard’s squad before moving in to help their teammates.

Aeryn, Dak, Rosko, and their young charge were still trapped in the slave pen. As Dak heroically strove to defend the doorway, Aeryn carefully sighted her crossbow and let fly. With a snap, the firing mechanism broke, sending the bolt backwards into her face, dropping her (the critical fumble deck is a harsh mistress). Cursing, Dak redoubled his efforts while Rosko and the boy bandaged the now unconscious Aeryn.

Outside, though, the tide was turning. Wolf slew several pirates while MacTavish administered Tempus’ grace to heal Inigo’s wounds. No longer on the verge of death, Inigo made a beeline for Trumpet, and the ranger and the third mate were soon locked in furious combat. Trumpet’s greater experience was no match for Inigo’s raw fury, and the pirate was soon grievously wounded. With his guards dead and Wold and MacTavish moving to engage, he made a run for it – straight for the rampaging steers with Inigo hot on his heels. MacTavish quickly conjured a spiritual weapon and sent it flying after the luckless pirate, and with a few short strokes Trumpet lay dead in the dust.

At this point a furious debate ensued - Wolf, MacTavish, and Inigo all wanted to find Captain Scabbard and challenge him as well. But with Aeryn and Raj unconscious, Ginallath badly hurt, and MacTavish out of spells, the party decided on the better part of valor and escaped with their mission accomplished while the remaining pirates tried to control the escaped cattle.

A Tabletop Trip into Phlan XII Part 1: A Pirate’s Life For Me

With the Thri-Kreen slain and their treasure gathered, the party decided to bury the statue and most of the gold until their return, and move on to the Pirate encampment. After a half-day’s ride, they saw the smoke from the pirates’ cooking fires and soon came into sight of the compound itself – a log palisade with several watchtowers. Captain Scabbard’s ship, the infamous Moonsea Stiletto, was moored in the bay just beyond the walls.

After some discussion, the party decided it would be best to infiltrate in two groups, and then decide what to do after thoroughly surveying the fortress. First in were Wolf and MacTavish, both of whom had some nautical experience and could thus present themselves as potential recruits. Thanks largely to MacTavish’s status as a Cleric of Tempus – after all, a cleric’s often the only thing standing between ye and an eyepatch or pegleg, matey – the pirates quickly accepted them. After an interview with Scabbard himself and his third mate, the aptly named Trumpet, Wolf and MacTavish signed the Pirate articles, received their headscarves and poofy shirts, and were promptly remanded to the custody of a pirate named Aard who set them to work taking care of the pirates’ 30 head of stolen cattle.

Next in were Aeryn, Ginallath, Inigo, and Rajmani, with rogue and mage disguised as slave dealers and the two rangers as bodyguards. They were also received by Trumpet (the Third Mate being Officer of the Day), who showed them the slave pens. The women meant as husbands for the Phlan colonists had already been purchased by buyers from Zhentil Keep, but two stowaways from their ship – the burly blond barbarian Dak, and his wiry dark-haired buddy Rosko – were still available. Aeryn noticed their objective, young Galon Bivant, in the corner of the pen. Dak and Rosko had clearly adopted him and were watching out for him.

Trumpet next showed the “slave dealers” to an open space in the camp where they could pitch their tents while they negotiated prices with Captain Scabbard. Inigo and Rajmani, both of whom had been in the wilderness for a while, succumbed to the shared experience of hunting down Thri-Kreen and nipped off for a quickie while Aeryn and Ginallath made contact with Wolf and MacTavish – more accurately, MacTavish made contact with Aeryn by flirting with her, and Raj gleefully played the part of the overprotective bodyguard by giving him a good slap in the name of “defending her employer”.

The party spent the next day watching the pirates’ routine. Wolf spent most of it shoveling cow dung, while MacTavish had his clerical powers tested on wounded and sick pirates. Aeryn and Ginallath met with Scabbard amid his collection of prized carved figurines, who offered them both Dak and Rosko for a “mere” 8,000 GP. When the party met again (under cover of a “romantic rendezvous”) between MacTavish and Aeryn, they came up with a plan: Aeryn and Inigo would recover the golden Thri-Kreen idol and offer it to Scabbard as payment for Dak and Rosko. Once inside the slave pen, the party would turn on the pirates and liberate Galon.

Later that afternoon, Aeryn and Inigo returned to the Thri-Kreen mounds and dug up the statue. Scabbard was very pleased with it – after, of course, he’d had his sorceress lover Murron make certain it was harmless – and summoned Trumpet to hand Aeryn and Ginallath’s new slaves over to them. With the two of them, Inigo, and Rajmani at the slave pen, and Wolf and Inigo at the corral waiting to rush to their assistance, everything seemed to be going as planned…

The Battle for Business Mission: Narn vs Narn

Turn/Time: Turn 6/April, 2261

Scenario: Flee to the Jumpgate (modified)

Terrain: One jumpgate.

Situation: With the Tza’sol position crumbling in the face of Centauri aggression, the remnants of the Narn Regime decide it’s time to forcibly bring their breakaway brethren back into the fold. A powerful Kha’ri loyalist task force is formed to take the jumpgate at the lucrative trade world of Business Mission and destroy the Tza’sol fleet there. As the attackers deploy from hyperspace, Narn on both sides prepare for that bloodiest and most unforgiving of battles - brother against brother.  

TO&E:

Narn Regime:

• 1x Bin’Tak
• 8x G’quonth (shipbreaker mines)
• 1x G’tal

Tza’sol Narn:

• 1x Ka’Bin’Tak
• 4x Bin’Tak
• 5x G’quan
• 1x Var’Nic
• 1xT’loth
• 2x Rongoth

Turn 1: The Tza’sol admiral kept his fleet in tight formation as the loyalists exited the gate, leveraging the longer range of his mines over the loyalists more powerful but shorter-ranged shipbreakers. His Bin’tak, the only ship in range, peppered the loyalists with mines as they deployed into their own battle formations.

Turn 2: Now ready for battle, the loyalist Narn trained their heavy lasers on their Tza’sol opponents and let fly while contuning to advance. A shot from their flagship tore into the Tza’sol Ka’bin’tak’s engines, rendering it immobile, while a G’quonth sliced her heavy laser into a Tza’sol Bin’tak’s main reactor, producing a critical explosion before the Tza’sol engineers could activate safety protocols. The resulting explosion and accompanying wave of Cadmium-2 radiation killed the entire crew instantly, leaving the ship adrift (there were three 5-6 crew crits in a row!). The loyalists were not wholly unscathed, however, as their opponents’ mines and firepower took their toll.  A lucky hit brought the loyalists’ G’tal flagship to a halt, leaving both sides’ admirals in the unenviable postion of having to conduct the battle from stationary ships – and boresighted on each other. Trying desperately to avoid the massive blasts of the Tza’sol mines, loyalist and Tza’sol fighters engaged each other in their own dance of death.

Turn 3: Like gunfighters, the loyalist and Tza’sol flagships stared each other down – and then unleashed their firepower. The G’tal got the worst of the exchange and was left crippled and with only a skeleton crew to keep her running. The loyalist admiral promptly transferred his flag to the Bin’tak. Meanwhile, the heavily damaged loyalist cruisers were concentrating their fire on the Tza’sol dreadnoughts, their combined fire destroying one Tza’sol Bin’tak with what would have been a most satisfying explosion – had it not engulfed four flights of loyalist Frazis.  As the battle raged, engineers aboard both flagships worked frantically to repair battle damage. The loyalists succeeded in repairing the damage to their Bin’tak’s engines while the Tza’sol Ka’bin’tak fixed its faulty fire control systems.

     

Turn 4:  At last the loyalist fleet had reached shipbreaker range, but with its numbers sadly depleted. The shipbreaker mines of the loyalist G’quonths wreaked tremendous damage on the Tza’sol fleet, but the remaining ships were not enough to turn the tide of the battle. The Tza’sol Bin’taks quickly finished off two more loyalist G’quonths, and a final Bin’tak salvo destroyed the Loyalist flagship. With no direction from their Admiral, the remaining loyalists individually broke contact and fled for open space.

Aftermath: The Tza’sol forces made a thorough sweep of the area for survivors, and the loyalist prisoners found themselves well-treated. Among those recovered were the loyalist Admiral and his staff, all of whom immediately defected to the Tza’sol (the alternative -execution by the Kha’ri for this fiasco, was unpalatable).

The Tza’sol Narn, whose stock had been at a low ebb after their well-publicised failures against the Centauri, gained a great deal of prestige in the sector from their victory at Business Mission and many of the burgeoning Narn expatriate population now began to see them as a valid alternative to the Kha’ri-in-exile. 

The Earth Alliance, unsure which Narn faction most deserved an autographed Molly Rome photo, instead spent the money on some buffalo wings and a copy of Johnny English as a morale booster. Molly Rome did not attend the showing, though she sent a nice note.

Analysis: With two roughly equal Narn fleets, this battle ended up hinging on the advantages of regular vs shipbreaker mines. Given the slowness of Narn ships, the regular mines proved significantly more useful as Scott was able to cause considerable damage over time as Bob tried to close with him. The attrition effect of mines really racks up over several turns.

Thanks to Marc for the pics and rough notes!

The Second Battle of Ope’diar, Raid on Janegann: Minbari vs League

Turn/Time: Turn 6, April 2261

Scenario:  A Call to Arms

Terrain: None

Situation: As the League defend their Ope’diar staging point from the Narn, a Minbari raiding force simultaneously jumps in-system near the industrial world of Janegann. Though his forces are already stretched to the breaking point, the CnC Ope’Diar scrapes together a small battlegroup to defend this vital source of war materiel. Sacrificing his system defence ships to lure away an over-eager Minbari commander, the League task force commander now faces the remaining fleet elements.

TO&E:

Minbari Federation:

• 3x Sharlin (one diverted away by a Raid)
• 2x Tinashi
• 1x Nial wing

League of Nonaligned Worlds:

• 2x Takata (BSS Stormbringer, Takata)
• 2x Kaliva (BSS Will of the Prophet, Tears of the Prophet)
• 3x Varl (VCS Banshee, Spectre, Wraith)

Setup: The League defenders set up at the centre of the board, with the Minbari approaching in two wings.

Turn 1: The Minbari struck hard and fast, ripping into Stormbringer and knocking her engines offline. The League defenders quickly recovered themselves, heavily damaging one of the oncoming Tinashis with concentrated fire.

Turn 2: Will of the Prophet finished off the damaged Tinashi, and quickly found herself the focus of unwelcome attention from the Minbari. Heavy engine damage turned her into a floating gun emplacement in short order, as the rest of the League ships continued to pour firepower into the Minbari fleet. Meanwhile, Stormbringer’s damage control parties quickly got her engines back into working order.

 

Turn 3: Finally in range, the Minbari fighters tore into the League ships, though one flight was downed by Stormbringer’s anti-fighter defenses. Tears of the Prophet blasted apart the remaining Tinashi, while accurate Minbari firepower destroyed the fire control (and crews) for Stormbringer and Takata’s forward guns.

Turn 4: Drifting through the remains of the Tinashi, Tears of the Prophet’s captain brought his ship about and did his best to keep the Minbari off of the still immobile Will of the Prophet. Nials buzzed around the stricken Kaliva like hornets, but Will’s captain kept his head, and his anti-fighter defenses destroyed the remaining independent Minbari fighters.

Turn 5: The superior firepower of the Shar’lins now began to tell against the damaged League ships. Will of the Prophet, her DamCon crews still frantically struggling to repair her engines, was raked by heavy fire and crippled. She was soon joined by Stormbringer, already heavily scarred by combat.

Turn 6: For one crucial moment, Tears of the Prophet’s sensor crews got a fix on one of the Shar’lins. She lined her grav lance up and let fly, gouging a gaping hole into the Minbari cruiser’s aft section and surgically removing her engines (and engineering crew). As the second Shar’lin lined up on Will of the Prophet, her captain regretfully bid his ship farewell and ordered his crew into the lifepods. Moments later, Will was an expanding cloud of burning metal fragments. At this point, the League commander recieved word of the successful defence of the Ope’diar starbase, and gave the order to withdraw there.

 

Aftermath: Tears of the Prophet’s crippling shot on the Shar’lin saved the League task force, as the Minbari commander declined to pursue with half of his available cruisers out of action. Tears of the Prophet managed to recover almost all of Will of the Prophet’s crew complement, and her captain and crew recieved a sizable bonus from a grateful Brakiri Syndicracy for their excellent combat performance.

With both his Shar’lins repaired, the Minbari commander knew it would be only a matter of time before a stronger League force arrived to evict him from his new conquest, and he began to send parties of Warrior Caste marines to the surface of Janegann to destroy any stockpiles and means of production that could not be transferred to his ships. The running battles between the Minbari and the Janegann planetary militia continued throughout the month.

Analysis:

Marc says: From a tactical standpoint, I planned on not having initiative for most of the game and sent experienced ships to this battle.  Upon losing set-up, and the scout based re-roll, I set up in the center of the board.  The reason for this was so that I would get a decent shot at something on turn one, regardless of how far away he positioned his ships. 

Gary split his formation into a weak side – strong side layout.  I went to the weak side because I thought I would be able to kill both of these ships quickly if I used the entire fleet against them.  It took 3 turns, not 2 as predicted. But this was not really a large problem.  I had ALL of my fleet remaining.  Some minor damage had been taken on most of my major ships.  At this point the biggest issue was the multiple critical hits to engines.  Basically, the one Kaliva had become a pillbox.  I still had the advantage in numbers and the scouts were doing a great job of lowering his stealth and concentrating weapons fire.  So I turned into the Sharlins. 

Critical hits won this one for Gary.  As soon as my turn was completed, the forward arc weapons went down on BOTH Takatas and were not heard from again.  Even so, the battle came down to a final throw of 16 dice to create just four hits and finish off the first Sharlin.  I only got three.  We had played up to the time limit and agreed to finish the turn.  Had the game gone just one more turn…   This was a very tight game.  Even our economic losses in ships are identical.  2x battle and 1x Patrol vs. 1x War and 1xBattle = 45RR.

Thanks to Marc for the pics, notes, and analysis!