Defense of Biston

August 21, 2014

The group discusses how to defend Biston.  The know from Adrasteia that there will be four portals and they aren't sure how to do that.  They eventually decide to split the party and the town's resources.  The Count can take one portal.  They want Luza, the wife, to head up one attack as she can close a portal.  They decide to put Adrasteia and the now returned Jack with the town's militia and the rest will take the last portal.  They do take some time on this and discuss a few other options.  They also include how they will move about the town once a group gets rid of a portal.  They arrange it so that if a group closes a portal, they will activate a magical light into the sky for all to see and know that portal is closed.  

The orcs have changed their tactics.  As the magic hums, announcing the opening of a portal, a dozen orcs, or two dozen gobllins, supported by ogres or a hill giant, appear around the portals and they immediately move to the defense.  The fighting is quite fierce.  A few times, the militia or the Count's men are pushed back and suffer losses.  At one point, the militia's reserves are needed to come forward before Jack and Adrasteia are overwhelmed.  Fain found out the hard way the portals are being created differently and it takes him a longer to take down a portal than normal but eventually he takes care of his and sends up the notice.  Shar, Trogdar and Volgash are able to take care of their portal.  

Once the fighting is finished, the Count comes forward and thanks the group for helping in the town and offers potions of healing.  He also offers to the rest of the town.  And that's when Adrasteia knows that more portals are going to open in a few hours!  The militia and the Count's men start setting up barriers around the new destination while the group also gets ready.  This fight is no less fierce but with all of the concentrated forces, it's much easier to take care of the portals.  Trogdor and Volgash again count kills and are rushing around the edges.  After closing several portals, Fain leads a group of militia for the sneaky goblins that sneak out and try and hide in the nearby houses.  Shar manages to take care of several groups with magic and Jack picks off several before they are able to get out.  Soon, the fighting is done and the invaders are again repelled.  

The Count promises to fix up a house and keep it for the group anytime they come back to town.  He also promises to get more men to help defend the town.  Finally, he says he will work on getting more people to the town to help it grow.  The Mayor is happy as the Count is asking now and working with him instead of fighting him.  

Adrasteia doesn't have any visions, so the group might have some time before the next round of fighting.  

GM Notes

• I was so excited for this, more so than usual.  I had picked up a projector to put the map on the table.  However, an adapter that I need hasn't arrived yet, so I couldn't do that.  
• I figured I would still use d20Pro but with the other TV.  However, d20Pro crashed hard and I couldn't get it working again.  Grrr.  So technology failed me and I ended up starting late and losing time to it.  Darn it.  
• The battles, to me, weren't as good if I had been able to use the maps.  It would have shown the distances and the different fights and I think it would have been really cool to have the large scale fights on the map.  However, it turns out that my players would rather I project the maps on the table and we still use minis.  Not what I expected, which is fine as I do have minis, but some adjustments will have to be made.  
• The fight itself and the role playing we did were quite fun.  There will be more of that to come.   

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