DF Novices, Team-A, Session 50 - Diary of Yorgen Gant

     The novices campaign has made it to 50 sessions. Here is an in-character report for the last session from the player of Yorgen. As always, I am giving out an Impulse Point to any player who writes a summary for the blog.

Session Date:    Tuesday 24 October 2023

Party roster:

Ben, half-ogre barbarian, 132 points (PC)
Doran Longbeard, dwarf knight, 162 points (PC)
Eleanor Bayley, human thief, 191 points (PC)
- Dagne, human cleric, 125 points (NPC Hireling)
Erizax Ofaris, human wizard, 195 points (PC)
Randall, human veteran, 135 points (NPC)
Yorgen Gant, human knight (squire), 91 points (PC)
Ulokk, half-ogre thief, 85 points (NPC)

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Diary of Yorgen Gant:

By the gods, but what did I agree to when I signed up with these people?! I blame myself, the fault is mine. I have grown accustomed to working with knights and people of great valour and determination, even people who have risen to the occasion through great hardship and personal sacrifice. My expectations were thus impossibly high, and I must not hold the relative lack of professionalism against these adventurers. They are here for the lucre, the mean rewards of applied violence that, I hasten to admit, is often necessary in places like the sad shadow that Bridgegate has become. They are sellswords, unhindered by oaths of chivalry or oaths of any kind save, perhaps, the oaths they utter freely from time to time best not transcribed.

But even then... Should they ever require my services again, I am inclined to charge them double the going rate, unless their behaviour improves dramatically before this matter is done.

However, I get ahead of myself, and must begin perforce at the beginning, having gone through the secret door that my own previous exploration had completely missed. Aye, and wasn't Eleanor swift to point that out when I rebuked Doran for failing to properly search a room for opponents. A fair comment, Lady Eleanor, but for that you will need to live with my adding a title to your name much to your annoyance. At least for a little while. 't would only be chivalrous to do so.

This room, to which I have just now alluded, was to be found close to the exit of the first room through which we ventured, and which was thoroughly empty of all things except mouldering bed rolls. By the gods, how many of these creatures live down here? How many did Ulokk and I miss? Regardless, this second room was filled with beds of better quality, with chests for personal dunnage at their base. This to me appeared like a more proper room for a small permanent garrison, and would not have looked amiss in the quarters I so often shared with other squires in a life that now seems increasingly distant. No mere brutes slept here, I may assure you. But upon entering I could see little of this room, my eyes not attuned to seeing in the gloom as those of some of my companions. Doran, I am certain, could see more of the room than I could in the light glowing from his equipment, but I still rebuked him for declaring the room empty at single glance, earning a rebuke from Mistress Eleanor in turn. The comment, as I already proclaimed, was fair, and I did not dispute it. But I did instruct Doran in the proper ways to ensure the safety of a room in which one suspects enemies may be hiding, and that is to walk the perimeter. So I tasked the dwarf to walk one way whilst myself and Ulokk walked the other, hoping to meet in the middle and thus proclaim the search done. But Doran instead went to rummage through the chests in search of loot.

I must confess myself to be disappointed. I had sensed some kinship with Doran earlier, noting his easy familiarity with his weapons and the care he took in his armour, like any good man at arms would. But alas, it seems that come the test, Doran is an adventurer and opportunist first, and a protector a long way second. This will not do, my dwarven friend. I will need to instruct you in the ways of chivalry and discipline. By Ishtanna, so I will.

My confidence in my companions was restored later, however, and however briefly, when we were ambushed by a pack of giant rats. These creatures, I am certain, were able to hear us from quite some way away given that the incessant chatter upon which I have remarked before had returned in earnest, and as such the foul things were able to spring at us from ambush. Caught unaware, my companions and I swiftly rallied and lay about us with our weapons to turn these vermin into so many smears of blood and offal. All but Ben, silent Ben, who appeared stunned at the swiftness of the violence for many seconds and was swarmed by the vermin as a result, but whose strong armour and iron constitution shrugged off all that was thrown at it. Stalwart companion! With the correct training, you will make an excellent guard captain, Ben. Would that our current Empire would have seen past the accident of your birth in your younger years, for you would have made a most formidable squire and, dare I say it, a most fearsome knight.

Of my companions, it would certainly appear that Randall hated rats most of all. While I fended off the foul beasts who seemed intent on crawling between my shield and myself, this paragon of professional precision (if you permit me the poetic indulgence) slayed rat after rat, accounting for more than half of their number by the time I had finally dispatched my first. Indeed, so incensed was Randall at the mere sight of these things that he took his time finishing one wich such brutality that, come the finish, it was quartered and ready to be cooked should one ever be so desperate as to attempt that. Alas one got away, but I doubt we will be bothered by their verminous kind again.

After this combat, however, it was decided that we should rest and see to our wounds. Having received no worse than a mere flesh wound from a particularly vicious rat bite to the arm, I nevertheless allowed that rest would be a fine idea, and we repaired to the room which we had thankfully properly searched earlier. There, however, the cleric Dagne insisted on dealing with this mere trifle of an injury. I commend her for her zeal, and her adherence to her faith. And, I shall admit, I was thankful for the assistance, knowing how wounds no matter how small may fester long after the conclusion of a battle if left untreated. Take heed all you who read this who would take up the sword... a light cut to the arm can be as lethal as a sword through the heart, in time.

We set forth after an hour, and I need not bother you with the confusion and palaver that ensued when my companions discussed who should stand watch, or even trying to decide if someone should. It was Lady Eleanor who settled that dispute, as I had assumed she would. Her dislike for me is palpable, but my respect for her grows by the hour. There might be little common sense in this group, but she seems to have enough spare for those of them not burdened with any at all.

It was a short while later that I began to question if these adventurers were truly fools, or if they sought to have us all killed. We came upon a short corridor ending in a blind turning to the left, and a door in one of its faces. Naturally we cannot progress past this door, knowing not what it contains nor what may be waiting around the corner. Nor may we look into that room without also shielding that blind corner, for any manner of foe may spring at us while we are so distracted. Thus I announce that I shall guard the corner, while the others search that room. Aye, and search properly! There was a brief discussion, which I should by now have expected, about who should accompany me to light my way as I do not see in the dark unlike our enemies. It seems that at this moment even Erizax overcame his clear aversion to my presence, and graced my shield with the luminescence of bright daylight. Remarkable indeed!

Thus able to see sufficiently, I posted guard at the corner, soon flanked by Ben who I would like to think had seen the importance of the position, but whom I suspect simply misunderstood the instructions. Soon after Ulokk appeared at my other side, and thus flanked by two half ogres I felt that nothing could get past us.

It was then that I could hear, in the distance, a faint sound. Immediately I lowered my voice and hissed back to my companions down the corridor that I could hear something.

It was also then that the incident occurred which made me question why I had agreed to accompany these adventurers. Hardly had my hissed warning reached the others, when Doran could be heard shouting at the top of his voice 'Aye, you're hearing me!'. His voice boomed and echoed through the underground complex, ringing off the walls and sounding away through the corridors in front of me. If there was an enemy in these tunnels who had not heard that, they must have been deaf.

I shall admit now that my blood boiled. What lunacy could have gripped him to do such a thing? What madness had addled his brain? Was I truly embarked on this errand with foold and knaves? But before I could utter something unworthy, I heard Ulokk whisper next to me 'Why did we agree to this?'. If my stalwart friend has had enough, then I know things have gone past the point where raising my own voice in reply will suffice. I also know now that he only broke his customary silence because he must have known I was about to act on an unworthy impulse. As such, I swallowed down my anger and hissed at Doran to keep his voice down, and instructing the others to form up in our agreed battle formation. At that point, I am not afraid to admit, I decided to take charge of this expedition of fools.

My instructions were clear. To move together as one, turn left into a visible corridor, and make our way to that corridor's end before returning whence we came and proceeding up the central corridor to sweep this area and clear it of any ambush that might have been prepared now. No, cried Erizax, for he knew where that tunnel led, and averred that it connected back to the main tunnel at any rate. He proposed we should instead push through, to a second corridor to our left which I could not yet see but which he assured me was there, passing at least that one corridor to our left and another to our right before arriving there. This to me seemed lunacy, utter madness, to leave our flanks and rear thus exposed. But it was there, so Erizax continued, that the group was defeated last, and thus where they should go for reasons they would not articulate. Doran, now abashed, seemed to get a gleam in his eyes and agreed immediately. From then it was an inevitability, as the group decided to disregard my advice and push directly ahead.

And thus I bowed to the inevitable and we proceeded along. Much to my surprise, we were neither ambushed nor shot from the cross corridors, and arrived at the second corridor unmolested. But it was while Doran, Ben, and I were pushing into that corridor to clear it that the ambush was sprung. From the corridor that we had ignored to our right.

I shall grant that at times I sound like a pompous ass. I will further admit that, come tactics and leadership, and I can be insufferable. But I have become thus because I have learned my lessons on the field of battle the hard way, and have learned these lessons well. Should I ever forget them, I have but to look at the many scars I carry to remind me of the lesson I had learned through pain, blood, and sacrifice. An arrow had thus come from the corridor, and narrowly missed Eleanor. She had the presence of mind to call out 'archers!', which made me turn on my heels and run as fast as my burdens would carry me back to the junction, shouting the simple question 'where?'.

It was Dagne who responded, while others milled about in confusion and disarray, shouting 'by me', giving me a clear indication on where to go to thwart this threat. My now glowing shield lit the way, and I stood foursquare in the corridor which I now knew to contain archers, waiting for Doran and Ben to catch up. Before they could, however, more arrows came at us, and I called an instruction to charge their number. Dagne paid heed to that instruction as well as Ben and Doran, and I do not doubt we made a brave sight charging down that narrow tunnel towards three goblin archers who loosed one more volley and then threw down their bows to draw knives, chittering in fear.

At least, I assume they were chittering in fear, I do not speak their language. Ulokk has some understanding of their tongue, which I heard him put to good use behind me. But not, it seemed, directed at these archers. This fact I held in the back of my thoughts, intent only on slaying the threat to our group, when realisation was brought to me in the form of another goblin springing at me from a hitherto hidden corridor to my left. I barely registered its presence, and its clumsy strike slid off my shield without as much as a scuff on the metal, but it suddenly dawned upon me that our rear section had been ambushed in turn. Containing as it does Ulokk and Erizax, I must trust that they can take care of themselves. Presently I could hear the twang of a crossbow and the clatter of equipment hitting the ground, so I can safely presume that Eleanor is also far from helpless. This is good, for they will need to fend for themselves for the nonce.

Doran and I are fighting three goblins, directly behind us Ben and Dagne are fighting two more, and I do not know how many the others are fighting in that main corridor.

But fight we must.

At them, brave companions, at them!