DavesGaming

We were now near enough to Boareskyre Bridge we could see the Bridgefort standing above the trees just to the right of the road, and a large Crusader war camp set up in the open ground between the causeway to the fort and the ramp up to the Bridge itself. The Bridge was huge, on about the same scale as the Bridge entrance into Baldur’s Gate. The fort was impressive in its own right, not on the scale of a proper castle but a solid stone ediface that was built to withstand such a seige.
We had secured an “in” for us at the Crusader camp. So we approached, and introduced ourselves as friends of Keherrem. The young dwarven warrior we had rescued. We were welcomed in and introduced to his uncle Kharm. Kharm was apparently one of the commanders of the seige forces. He was appreciative we’d rescued his nephew, tossed a small reward our way, and went off on army business. We chatted with Keherrem for a time, small talk. Like we were mercenaries considering signing up.
This was a loose enough operation we were able to explore and chat. We learned the camp had patrols out looking for the Wardstone, to activate the back door into the Bridgefort. We also learned a tough old soldier known as “The Barghest” was in overall command. Jaheira knew that name, I’ve encountered it in my learnings of history back in Candlekeep. We all agreed we wanted to stear clear of his command tents. If the assassins who penetrated the Ducal Palace in Baldur’s Gate had a copy of my likeness, it seems likely the top commander here would know of me too.
Along the south edge of the camp we saw a Red Wizard concentrating on some vile magic. Dyna thought it was some sort of curse directed at the Bridgefort. We could see it was just him and a bodyguard, no one else in plain sight here. Eh, I don’t really like covert ops! I asked Erato if she could sneak in and pilfer any of his things? She was embarrassed and said she hadn’t really worked much on sneaking and skullduggery. I had to chuckle, me either.
Well, I suppose the thing to do is see if I can just swipe his books. Sure I’m wearing plate armor, but that doesn’t stand out so much in a military camp. And if I’m noticed, I’m sure we can deal with it.
Yeah, we dealt with it. We got his books, the curse spell he was working on, some miscellaneous gear. And the Crusade is now minus one Red Wizard and his body guard. Stealth is not what I’m built for. [Okay seriously, Brademante is small and quick. She IS built for that, but its not what she is trained or equipped for!]
We decided to high tail it out.

Back down the road, then we took a small trail (a game trail?) to the north. This would take us up closer to the Bridgefort and away from the camp.

I’d heard they liked to ride the big wolves, but we’d never seen that before!

Things have changed a lot in six months. Even a fairly large group of goblins are easily dispatched. We have grown a lot as a team.

We found another patrol of goblins, and a large number of them in a cave. We cleared out the area.
Jaheira led us to a magic stone ring, in plain sight of the Bridgefort.

I went first.

Khalid seems to have grown a lot as a leader. He is knowledgable about this sort of business, and he had done a good job leading the defense of this fort. As long as it held, the Crusade would not have free access to the bridge. Of course, he was pleased we had an army with us.
He asked us to do a quick assessment of the fort to see if it could hold as long as we needed to bring up the troops.

He seemed on the verge of breaking down, and our distraction allowed some sort of magical attack to come through. We all immediately felt weakened by the breach. Fortunately, a solution was found in the documentation we had found on the Red Wizard in the Crusader’s camp. We all felt relief as quickly as we’d felt woozy.

Although the sutuation was obviously growing serious, we felt they could hold out for 12 hours or so while we ran back to the Flaming Fist camp and brought the whole army in. When they heard us at the gates, they would open Bridgefort’s own gate and charge out. The pinscher should route them completely… In total, the Crusader force didn’t seem that big, just bigger than what the defenders had here.

We broke camp and set out. This would be the largest scale battle any of us had participated in. I was a little worried about how we would fit into the battle.
When we arrived at the seige camp we let a company of Flaming Fist heavy infantry lead the way, then I led my team around a flank.

The scope of this fight was so large, it was a challenge to see and identify such foes. And of course Erato and Dyna weren’t alone, the Fists had several archers and a few spell casters of their own to help.
After several minutes the tide clearly turned, the Crusader’s front was broken and we had freedom to penetrate into the camp itself.

He was a fearsome foe! One of the better warriors we’ve ever faced. But from the start he was fighting alone, his forces were being shattered. We brought him down fairly quickly.
As the fighting around the camp quieted down, I saw our friend Keherrem among the fallen. What a stupid Crusade for a stupid cause! Insanity. I looked for our own leaders and found Bence Duncan.

It felt good to be a part of something so important to these troops.

But something happened as I crossed. The Boareskyre Bridge was indeed cursed against me. Some alien force tried to penetrate into my soul.

I truly don’t know how to describe what all happened. After a time I felt I’d won. I was still myself, and the alien force had been restrained.
I think the hooded man who haunted my dreams paid me a visit as I was still sorting my senses. He continues to mock me about not learning the right lessons, and being too soft. He is obviously some manifestation of evil, he fails to grasp what he calls weakness IS my strength. Whether he and the Bhaal force are connected I’m not sure.

I saw a Bhaal symbol had been left on the Bridge. My friends were all around me now, but I heard the soldiers behind talking nervously about what I was. Soon I was able to stand. I could tell my whole body and soul had been through some trauma. I felt tired. But fine.
Capt Corwin and Duncan were furious, like I’d done something wrong. They have no idea what I’m fighting against. No doubt most of the soldiers were unsettled. We were told we were heading out, it would be many day’s march to get to our coalition camp currently beseiging the Crusade at Dragonspear Castle.

During our long march, the troops all avoided me and my team. My taint seemed to carry over to my friends.

*****

As other runs have shown me, a substandard character never needs to stay substandard. The way AD&D works, and ought to work, skill (experience) and carefully accumulated items/magic matter far more to how capable a character (or party) is in the long run, than the scores do. It is fun for me to play a team that needs to be managed carefully to be at their best. And it plays well when your protagonist is intelligent and wise about how they approach their team and adventure. Which is all to say, Brademante is a fun protagonist for me. And she has worked her way up to having the most kills of anyone on the team (around 30%).

I’ll also mention, as I have before, I love a few of the *bigger* battles in SoD. It is fun to have your character and team be a part of something so obviously important.
Now that said, there are problems with this execution as battles. Like much of D&D and the IE games, they are too *individual* and chaotic. Ideally there should be some role for group/army type tactics. Like a line of armored soldiers with shields could get a hefty combat bonus as long as they stay unbroken (in ancient and medieval battles, casualties were often quite low as long as a unit stayed intact, and total massacres occured when a unit broke, leading to more very one-sided battles than we usually see in this modern age). Of course, in the grand scheme of things, the battles here are still quite small. But I like wargaming and army maneuvers. It would be fun I think if there was some mechanism to better reflect some of this. And for the record, there was a D&D mass combat set called “Battle System” for exactly this purpose. I ran a few such games back in the ’80s and 90s. Just something different and fun. I’m not shocked that they didn’t add a mass combat system to SoD, and what they did is truly a lot of fun to me. I’m just rambling…
But I do want to mention this does all effect how I wrote up this chapter. That is, I tried to present it as a more proper military type of operation than what the game actually portrays. Brademante is essentially a special forces commander. She has no place in the main line of battle, but her elite unit can take on some specific, key challenges.

I will likely continue at this slow pace through SoD. I’m having much fun with the renders and narration. I *think* three more posts for this? We’ll see.