BasEx D&D: Relieve the Outpost!

On the frontier lands of the Duchy of Karameikos, 

a BasEx battle begins!

The logical adventure after "B1: In Search of the Unknown" is of course the classic [and better known] "B2: The Keep on the Borderlands" which I have in original edition from my sister's box set [I still have some of the crappy blue dice, too!].

As most of the group is familiar with and played B2, it was understood that while "meta" feel would be the same, the specifics would be greatly changed.

In any event, the group explored - at some risk - the abandoned fortress of Quasqueton, home of the mysterious and unspellable heroes Rogahn and Zelligar. Achieving great things brought them accolades from Duke Stefan III, of the Duchy of Karameikos. And as success is invariably rewarded with greater demands by the authorities, the Duke soon summons them for another task: travel to The Keep on the Borderlands and aid the castellan in his struggle against the forces of Chaos.

After being entrusted with Duke Stefan's writ of employ, the party travels upriver on the sailing barge Steach Queen. Captain Seldin smells of salt and his bowlegged gait indicates that the river trade is a new adventure for him. He says he served the Duke for many years, trading from Specularum to Black Eagle Barony, and even to the outer islands. He seems unworried by the wild lands. "After a few brushes with  pirates and the deep monsters, river work is tame work" he says laconically.

The destination is Overfals, a settlement far into the borderlands between The Northern Wilds and the frontier the good Duke claims. There at the trident meeting of the Black, Cruth and Steach Rivers, the Duke has rapidly built a keep to give substance to his claim. This strategic location controls all river traffic between it and Krakatos, his main fortress, and Specularum. There are no roads, so the only efficient [and profitable] highway is the river - and the Duke means to control it!

It is 20 Karameikon Leagues from Krakatos to Overfals [60 miles - the Kn League being the distance a man can walk or a horse-drawn cart can cover in an hour. 8 Leagues is held to be a Daylong, a day's travel]. With each mile upriver there are fewer signs of human habitation. Some frontiersman are occasionally seen walking in the distance or along a rough trail near the river; these wave and bandy words with the captain and crew. It is a well-watered land of rolling hills, deep dales, stands of trees and tall grasses laced with wildflowers. Good land, but as yet untamed.

Rowing in the morning then sailing with the afternoon up-river breeze, the Queen makes slow but steady progress.  Laden with supplies for the keep and the settlement, as well as the party and its possessions, the barge is solid but not swift! Still, in two days it makes port at Riverton, a frontier fort of dirt walls surmounted by a palisade that protects a natural cove on a riverbend.

Here, the party and crew take a rest, a few supplies are off-loaded, and the captain checks with the garrison commander about any threats further up river. Suddenly, a sentry's shout alerts the garrison: a wayrider is galloping to the fort from an outpost  - they are under attack! The sentry waves back, and Watch Corporal Pelgar begins gathering a few mounted men. "Coming, my newfound friends?" he asks the party.

The party accepts the challenge and quickly saddles their mounts; all are ready to depart when the wayrider arrives. Breathlessly, he says that the small post was gathering supplies for Riverton, when a pack of wild men and wolves attacked. "They're like nothing I've ever seen" says the soldier, wide-eyed. "I don't know which is worse, the howling of the men or the wolves!" 

   "Do they have any bows or missiles," asks Pelgar, all business.

   "None I saw, Corporal. Our archers were holding them at bay as I rode off."

   "Let's go!" says Pelgar.

All of the party except Alcibiades and Gordo ride off - they'll help the garrison if needed and protect the party's supplies meanwhile. Pelgar brings an archer and a swordsman, he himself being an archer - this is all the garrison can mount. The party therefore makes up most of the rescue effort, mounted on a mix of riding horses and ponies. The dwarf rides behind Major the Magician, muttering in his beard about "infernal animals, a dwarf belongs on his own two feet" etc, etc.

The group rapidly sight the outpost. It is on a small rise surrounded by scrub and a few trees. The horses become skittish as a disturbing howling grows louder the closer they get. The attackers caper and leap in a bizarre fashion as they circle the outpost. At first glance, their antics make no sense - but as the party dismounts and gets closer, a sprinkling of arrows are seen sticking up out of the ground where the soldiers had wasted their shafts.

"I'll try to get a clear space to spelcast a few of them" says Major.

"Do it," says Pelgar. "We'll head left and secure the wagons" he says to his pair of soldiers. The party heads straight towards the ruined building in which the outpost lies, Rego the Hermit [cleric] leading the way with Zarak the dwarf to his right. Following behind them are Major [MU] and Pendo the halfling. In the rear, Kandolin [fighter] notches an arrow and prepares to loose it.

Below, about three Rounds into the combat.

Three soldiers in the ruins, center. Some provisioners cowering with the wagons, lower left. At top and left, 6 wild men and 3 wolves. One man is down with an arrow deep in his chest, top, but nearby another and a wolf attack a mace wielding corporal in charge of the outpost. At left, two of the Berserkers struggle to free themselves from the Web Spell cast by Major. 

Near the provisioners, bottom left, archery has taken down one of the fearsomely mutated wolves. The swordsman and Rego advance to support the lone archer just inside the wall.

Scene at top: One wildman down, one advancing behind the swifter wolf! The corporal uses the wall to protect his side, but his own archer takes an optimistic shot at the wolf and instead grazes him!  "After we survive this, Pitsek, we're going to have a long talk over ale YOU are buying," shouts the corporal over his shoulder.

all are classic metal Empire and Chaos Citadel figs

Scene at lower left. A wolf is down but another is charging forward. Two wild men have been webbed. As they flail about in a frenzied fashion, they begin attacking each other in their rage! Something is not right with these guys...With a few arrows in it, a wolf goes down just in front of the swordsman. ""Ba'nuts balls," swears the swordsman, "that one was mine!"  The archer shrugs nervously...

classic metal Citadel figs, empire and chaos; at left, Old Glory medieval carts & figs

cloth is Battlesystems Terrain; plastic building ruins are GW from MESBG

Round the right side, Zarak steadily trots forwards. Pendo lets fly a shaft into the posterior of the wolf, provoking frenzied howls and unseemly whines. The corporal swings doggedly at it, encouraged by it's wounds - surely it is near death?? But he himself has several wounds, though he desperately fights on, knowing help is at hand.

classic Heritage adventurers, halfling and dwarf [click]

The well-balanced attack by the relieving party was just in the nick of time. Despite this, one archer was nearly killed by a wolf, and the corporal severely mauled. Rego quickly cast a cure light wounds on the archer, who returned from the brink of death with one hit point. The corporal would have to wait for Gordo to heal him.

None of the warriors or wolves ran away or surrendered.  They fought to the death with their last breath, and those with any life left had to have it forcibly taken from them.  Close up, they were even more unnerving - their eyes especially, which were black as coal except for a fiery vertical slit at center. The wolves had fearsome bone spikes in unlikely places, or festering wounds on their flanks...

Who - or who - were they?  Perhaps we should ask "Whose were they??"

*** break ***

In game terms, I used a 1"=10' ground scale, which makes it easy to put BasEx encounters on the table. There were three Initiative rolls per turn for the outpost,  attackers and relief party. Once characters were in melee, they rolled to strike first against their opponent within that Initiative order, i.e. regardless of which Side had the Initiative, in melee the fight would be resolved by individual figure Initiative. This neatly sequenced shooting and spells at distance while high Dexterity characters got their Initiative advantages close up.

I simplified the phased melee sequence of the book using the simultaneous action option on B23. Each character had one action when it was their time to act.

Combat Sequence B24
Note: Check Morale @ First Death & 50% casualties [-1if losing] B27;
   - Hirelings are +/- Hirer’s Charisma B7

1) Initiative roll-off, Winning Side Acts first B25. 

Actions:

- Cast Spell / Move / Shoot / Move & Shoot / Move & Melee / “Task”
Modifiers: DEX [-3 to +3], Range [+1 / -1], Cover [-1 to -4], Magic [+/- ?],
- Movement & Shooting [+1 Shooter Still; +1 Target Still; -1 Shooter Moved > ½]

- Task = Oil & Holy Water B26 – spread or throw [missile], other Actions
- If in Melee, may only Fighting Withdrawal or Retreat B25.
- May run at x3 rate; but out of breath next Round [-2 to Hit / +2 being Hit], B24.      

     -- Figs that run can't do anything else.
- Fumble / miss on a natural ‘1’, Critical Hit for x2 Damage on a natural ‘20’.

2) Initiative Losing Side Acts. As above.

There was some confusion about moving and shooting.  Later, I clarified that the rules allow missiles to move and shoot, but they can't initiate melee on a turn they shoot, i.e. Shoot then move into melee. Subsequently, I decided to reward shooters for remaining stationary [aiming] and shooting at stationary targets. Moving over 1/2 is penalized. This gives shooters some realistic choices that balance considerations of changing position versus aiming. Spells require no movement - or distractions - at all to be cast successfully. 

I forgot about Running, which is 3x the normal rate but you can't do anything else, obviously.  It results in large distances covered, which is awkward on a small table space. It may concede Initiative to the opposition, depending on the dice.

I also made a mistake with the Web spell, which I wrongly assumed had a 240' range like Sleep, Fireball, et al.  It doesn't - it's range is only 10'! That would be 1" on the tabletop battle.  Ultimately, it didn't matter, as Major could have cast Sleep instead with the same results.

I've no problems with the system generally. It requires decisions on the fly by the DM about bonuses and penalties [there are too many possible situations to cover them all], but organizes fighting into a series of discrete, easily managed actions. All I did with the simplified sequence was make it more fluid by resolving actions simultaneously by Initiative, an option in the rules, p. B23.

One may not think of D&D as a skirmish game, but there's very little difference between a wargame skirmish game and an RPG skirmish, except the background information and the greatly fleshed out characters.

More to come!