Session 51 - Top Ballista!
10 Felmont 1010
General Summary
The party does various "post combat clean-up". Tork retrieves the grappling hook from the wall, Leo starts looting the Wizard's corpse, Tork and Elincia decide to push the Wyvern corpse over the edge of the wall as a message to the troops below, and Seraphina decides to open the door.
The door is locked, so she starts swinging Shatterspike, which causes severe damage to the reinforced door, but doesn't break it down. There is a commotion on the tower above, and two hobgoblin faces poke over the edge. Tork and Elincia one-shot these troops, and Leo decides to take potshots at the troops that are milling about in the street below, since they didn't seem to get the message from the falling Wyvern. Stavos, still blowing the whistle, checks the situation above, and finds five remaining hobgoblin soldiers, mostly in chain mail, but one wearing half-plate armor, all with shields and longswords. He drops back down next to Seraphina and relays this information to the party, but loses flight to do so. Seraphina finishes off the door, finding a bunk room with some armaments, but no defenders. From above, they hear a hand bell ringing loudly, presumably a call for help. There is a ladder in the center of the room going to the roof with a closed hatch, and no other exits. There are arrow slits around the room and murder holes in the ceiling.
Tork attempts to leap up and grab the ledge of the parapet, but the wet stone foils him and he slides back down, his monk agility allowing him to land gracefully. Elincia takes a shot at the troops below to reinforce Leo's message, hitting two of them. Seraphina takes the initiative again and climbs the ladder, taking out the hatch in a single devastating blow of Shatterspike. Leaping to the roof, she is surrounded by hostiles who descend upon her. The Hobgoblin in Half-Plate lands a doozy of a blow on her, severely wounding her, and a more modest second hit. One of the others swings hard at her, but she is able to deflect the blow with Shatterspike; the hobgoblin's sword bursts into fragments! However, as she is deflecting this blow, a third hobgoblin slips in another critically placed blow, and she begins to stagger from her wounds, only her steely resolve keeping her standing. Stavos leaps up the ladder to lend a hand, and strikes the leader in Half-Plate, tripping him up and leaving him prone, and follows with a second strong blow while he is down. Tork also is able to make it to the roof in a sprint, and helps draw the attention from Seraphina. Leo is only able to make it to the top of the ladder with his stubby little legs, but is able to see how badly Seraphina is hurting, and calls forth some healing energy with Healing Light. At this point, the tide turns in favor of the party, as they are able to land blows taking out the leader in Half Plate, and two others. Elincia also gets to the roof and places a Healing Spirit spell on Seraphina. With the numbers now favorable for the party, the Hobgoblins are quickly taken down.
Now in control of the roof, the party surveys the situation. There is a vat of pitch (though cold), a score of ballista bolts, and the ballista itself. After taking a look at the skies for Wyverns, they decide to try to hit the ballista on the tower across the river to kill two birds with one stone. Stavos, having been trained in similar weapons shipboard in his Marine days, has a pretty good feel for how to use the ballista, and he instructs Leo and Elincia in getting it lined up to shoot the other tower. Leo dips the rounds in the pitch, and Elincia lights them with produce flame. Their first shot does hit the tower near the top, giving them a bit better visibility on their target, and some confidence that this approach will work. Their second shot flies a bit wide, but the third definitely seems to hit where they expect the opposing ballista to be mounted. They hear some insistent ringing of a similar hand bell from the opposite tower. Elincia decides to draw attention to the party, and rings the bell over on this tower as well, and Tork seems quite unamused by this, chiding her for silence. She puts the bell into her Bag of Colding.
Feeling that the damage to the other ballista is what it is, they decide to try turning the ballista southward, toward the barracks, with the idea of starting a fire on the roof. As they are cranking it around to do so, Tork spots a company of human soldiers making double-time along the wall. He alerts the party, and prepares to throw his spear at the first to come within long range of his spear. The front half of the company, wearing shields and wielding longswords (6 of 12) run toward the entrance to the tower, the first taking a spear to the chest from Tork. Seraphina drops moonbeam at the entrance, right on top of them. Stavos grabs the vat of pitch and drags it to the top of the ladder, prepared to pour it on the first up the stairs. He yells for Elincia to set it aflame, which she does.
The second rank of soldiers advance part way, then raise their crossbows and shoot at Tork. several fly wide, but one comes right at him. Tork catches it and flings it down on the heads of the soldiers below; laughing mockingly at the approaching troops.
The front ranks, in a very uncomfortable situation, push through the moonbeam, one dying on the spot, and the second running for the ladder. As he gets there, Stavos dumps the vat of burning pitch right on top of him, lighting the area around the ladder on fire (and the soldier as well). He panics and runs into the corner of the room on fire. The remaining soldiers, trapped between having to run through the moonbeam and being shot from above charge right through the moonbeam, some not making it out alive, some just getting past the front edge. Several others never even make it to the moonbeam before being cut down from arrows and spear from above. This hapless company of soldiers only lands a single crossbow bolt on Tork in the entire encounter. The rest of the battle is a cleanup action, with Seraphina sweeping the room with Moonbeam, and the archers of the group taking angled shots at the troops they spot hiding along the edges of the room. Once the Moonbeam moves away from the doorway though, two troops make a run for it. Tork vaults down to the wall, running them down.
Leo has by now cranked the ballista around to point where he thinks the roof of the Barracks is, and they fire off two rounds with just the bolts themselves on fire (the pitch having been poured down on the ladder). After a couple attempts, they decide the payback might not be good enough, and they begin destroying the ballista and preparing to withdraw.
The party climbs down to the wall top again, and Tork picks up his grappling hook and simply jumps down to join them. They decide to do the same to get back down to the city below. Tork lowers the rope, and the party climbs down, a couple struggling with the wet conditions, and landing poorly (Leo as usual!). Tork once again wows the party, by simply leaping from the 40 foot wall, and expertly landing unharmed.
They begin searching for a place to take a short break, out of sight of the enemies, feeling spent after nearly five straight hours of sneaking through the city and tense combat. They are considering the river as a practical option, since they still benefit from an earlier casting of Water Breathing.
Report Date
30 Jul 2021
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