We had a wild and many-feathered Burning Wheel session last night. This episode was a continuation of the last one I posted — the players had tracked their enemy to the gates of a remote fortress. An army of oil-infected peasants and a giant undead demon creature prepared to batter down the gates of said fortress and take it.

Our heroes were hiding on a rocky overlook observing the scene below. They quickly decided that they couldn’t wait for Martin and company to return — they would charge into and through the mass of “zombies” (remember, they’re all actually alive!) and make for the necromancer himself.

Stop.
Ok, we had some logistical problems with this session. Though four of the core players were there, two others were not, and we had an additional other old player join us for the evening. Martin, who had won his way into the castle by virtue of his silver tongue in the last episode, wasn’t being played tonight. Danny had a rehearsal! Of course, Chris and Drozdal had characters with him on the inside. I discussed this with them briefly and they both agreed they would play their alternate characters outside the castle until we could resolve what was going on inside.

My friend Ian joined us last night with his brutal hobbit knight, Biggie. This character is very old, very experienced and has the luck of the devil.

So what’s a GM to do? I had the scene beautifully arranged last session, but with players popping in and out the whole focus changed. At first I was dismayed. But I gently consulted the players: Would they be interested in doing the big ol’battle? Sure! they said. So we just pinched our noses, threw continuity to the wind and let characters into the scene as needed. Ian and Biggie walked into the session and the camp before the group got rolling.

Start.
As everyone is gearing up at camp, Tristam, the wounded knight justiciar, rose from his stretcher and stumbled off into the woods alone. Rich became very solemn, Tristam knelt down to pray. “Tudom, grant me the strength to crush your enemies. Lift this veil of pain from mine eyes. I vow I shall destroy the demon which offends thee. If you grant me this, oh Lord, I shall strip myself of rank and join a holy order. And if I should fail, Tudom, my soul will be cast down to hell for I shall be dead. If I should live and renounce this vow, I beseech you inflict me with boils and a hair shirt that cannot be removed.”

After his prayer, Rich looked up, “I want the wound modifier to go away for the battle.” I was stunned, but delighted. This is the first vow any faithful character in our game had offered. Pete/taepoong came up with controversial rules for these a while back, and it just seemed very right at the time. Rich and I renegoitated the vow, adding in the last bit of “If I should renounce”, because I feel vows need to have very clear failure strictures. And then Rich rolled his Faith of B3. (He threw in a Persona point to add +1D.) He rolled one single success and a hush fell over the table. Was this a whiff? I frowned. “Technically a success,” I announced. But did it feel right? I hadn’t announced an obstacle before he threw the dice, and frankly I didn’t know what the obstacle would be. I turned to the audience (the rest of the table), “Technically he passed an Ob 1 Faith test. Shall God grant him his vow? A show of hands please.” The players unanimously voted him in for his vow. Up to this point his character was suffering under a partially healed Traumatic wound— he had recovered 2 of 4 dice. Now those remaining two dice were restored until he brought down that demon.

Tristam returned to camp and announced his intention to lead the charge. The others were delighted. He solemnly wrote out his will and testament—disbursing his armor, his sword, his horse and seal to his companions. During this Brand (the wizard) slipped up to the knight with a letter in hand, “Would you sign this, sire?” He explained it was a letter of introduction, and that if Tristam would fall it would hurt the wizard’s reputation and he would need some evidence of his good service to the knight. The knight justiciar signed ruefully. And Pete earned a Fate point for his character, Brand.

Then the madness began. The party mounted up and trotted down toward the battle. Their goal? Use Brand’s (the wizard’s) Sense to track down the Necromancer and his minions. The hitch? Brand’s Sense only extended 40 paces. Not very far on the battlefield!

Stop.
After they had told me their goals, I set out what they would have to do: Using the mass melee rules they were going to have to charge into the zombies. If victorious, they will have fought their way into the middle of the horde and Brand will be allowed to make a Perception test to spot the Necromancer. If Brand spots the Necromancer, then they will have to make one more mass melee push to cut their way into the center. If they fail either push, they are driven back and have to start over—if they live!

Start.
We negotiated dice for the melee. For example, Tristam’s brilliant instinct got him an additional advantage die: “Charge through the rabble.” He always has his sights set on bigger things!

Stop.
Now, to put this in perspective, there were a thousand of zombies under the telepathic control of a concealed necromancer versus two knights, a squire, and a wizard mounted. Riding backed with one of the knights and the squire was a hobbit knight and an archer respectively. If you count the horses (which I did), that’s 10 on 1000. Not very good odds! I decided that they would only be up against 50 or so zombies at once, and if they could break that line, they would have freedom of movement. That’s 50 dice on my side, though!

Start.
They charged three times and were thrown back three times! (one tie and two losses by one die.) In the distance, the giant battered down the gates of the fortress. There was no time to lose. Yet the group fell to arguing about stratagem. (I did announce that clever strategy would earn them extra dice.)

Finally, they decided to use their mobility to attack a smaller group of zombies and create an opening by leading them away and circling around. They also decided to operate closer to the walls in order to get covering fire from the defenders.

Stop.
Once they demonstrated their strategy to me, I told them exactly it’s effects: It earned them +2D bonus dice and more importantly reduced the dice I would roll for the zombies by one quarter (-13D).
Satisfied, we played on.

Start.
At this point everyone was howling, shouting and praying to the gods. The table was electric. Dice chattered as they rattled out of flailing fists and scattered across the table. After the tally had been taken, and much artha spent, the players had eeked out a victory by two successes! Huzzah, they cried! Now amidst their enemies, the mantle fell on the wizard’s shoulders—he must use his arcane senses to track the enemy. A three success Perception test led him in the right direction.

On fire, they scooped up their dice and prepared for the next assault. No one (except for Drozdal?) was quiet at the table, a running howl erupted as the dice started to roll. They were shouting encouragements and fists raised in defiance. This time around I had access to all of my dice (50) minus the margin of victory from the last round of engagement (2 successes), 48 dice!

Much artha was spent (I think Rich and Ian both doubled their dice). And they slaughted me (42 success to 26)! Like a lion driving a herd of ungulates before him, they swept through the rabble and burst upon a hideous scene at it’s center. The Necromancer and his brood driving the giant on with a Black Rod. Brand quickly assessed, “They’re all warded!”

Stop.
At this point we dropped out of mass melee into scripted melee. Also, Danny returned from rehearsal during this exchange and I let him jump right into the fight. He was disguised as a zombie, trying to get close to necromancer! (Everyone thought that was hysterical).

Also, I am going to admit something I probably shouldn’t at this point on these forums: With all these beautiful bad guys before them—three wizards and a “grog”—I went into adversial mode. I started pulling out all sorts of dirty tricks and completely unabashedly rooting for my bad guys! Gasp! What a bad GM I am!

Olegi, Godfrey, and Innocent the Nigromancer (he likes to call himself that) were the opposition. The players didn’t have a chance!

One of the enemy wizards—Godfrey, the one skulking around the behind the others—was a former player character seduced by one the witch, Olegi (Martin’s adversary in the last post).

Lastly, one of the players’ characters had been infected by the Necromancer’s oil in the same episode that Tristam was wounded. As the group broke in to the clearing around the necromancer, I turned to the player and whispered into his ear, “You’re under Innocent’s control now.” He blinked, “What does that mean?” I frowned, “You know what that means.” He sighed, shrugged and smiled evilly.

Start.
The first exchange went largely in the necromancer’s favor. The players positioned and moved in. An arrow as fired and a few blows were landed, but all of the enemy characters were protected by Turn Aside the Blade, so the blows fell harmlessly aside. One of the knight’s horses was killed by the grog, Fulk. Innocent took to the air with a Levitation, and Olegi raised a minor Grey Cloak—increasing everyone’s obstacles by 2. (Except that all the wizards had the Sense up and could see right through it!)
Godfrey used Sarch’s Glare to hypnotically freeze Tristam’s horse (who had charged near him).

Second exchange didn’t go so well... Brand destroyed my house of cards. He tossed a torch (which he had lit from earlier on) next to Godfrey, he then used Pyrotechnics on the torch to make it flare up and scorch the wizard—knowing full well that no mortal weapon or direct wizard’s spell would harm him. But the natural effects of fire would affect him like any other.

Before I describe the results of that action, I want to note that Brand also cast Fire Fan as a Counter Spell to the Grey Cloak in this volley.

Back to Godfrey and the Pyrotechnics. The skulking wizard was in the midst of a spell. He was hurt. Being hurt counts as spell interrupt. He had to make a Tax test. In addition, it also counts as Spell Failure. I had to roll the DOF to see what happened with his spell. I rolled a 1. The table went wild, “Unwanted Summoning!” Oh shit. I consulted the summoning chapter, and after a few minutes of consultation, a Greater Imp tore through and whispered to Godfrey, “You want to be immortal?” Rich—Godfrey’s former player—shrugged, “Sure!” The imp promptly possessed Godfrey body and soul!

This was catastrophic for me. Godfrey was sustaining all the Turn Aside the Blade spells! And now he was demon!

To make matters worse Brand’s counter spell (Fire/Destroyer vs Water/Creative) managed to shred my Grey Cloak. Fuck!

The nail in the coffin...Olegi was using the cover of her spells to land a few strikes on the knights. It just so happened, the knight was also striking...and without the benefit of her sorcerous protection, the witch—Martin’s love!—was cleaved in two.

However, Martin was otherwise engaged with his former protege, Godfrey! The swordsman threw off his guise and charged the demon-wizard... and slew him! GAH! Nothing was going my way, such a great villain lost!

Stop.
It was at this point I realized the sheer beauty of the sanctioned bribery of the Buffy tVS Drama Points mechanic. When I asked my players later if they would have been bought off with Deeds point they unanomously said, “No!” Ah well...

Start.
Meanwhile one of the last dastardly acts of this brutal engagement was launched—the infected and now-turned archer planted an arrow in the wizard’s chest... HIS WiZARD, not the enemy! The table erupted in a near coup d’etat. Players were howling and hissing. Pete, Brand’s player, set to arguing and arguing— “I would have seen him, I would have known he was infected,” blah blah blah. I brushed aside his arguments and he took a Midi wound. As he hesitated he was forced to let down all of his spells except The Sense.

But the fight was nearly over. Just the necromancer left to deal with. The knight justiciar rode under him in an attempt to swing his sword up at him. The knight nearly died! The wizard launched a Choking Hand at the knight and nearly incapacitated him before he managed to roll 1D of his Riding skill and spur his horse to escape the range of the spell!

Wounded, but brave, Brand rode under the Necromancer and fired off a searing blast of Fire Fan, shearing away the Necromancer’s Eldritch Shield and forcing him to make concentration tests to maintain his spells. Miraculously, I made the tests (I had been rolling very poorly). But Brand didn’t survive the contest, the Necromancer wrapped his Choking Hand ‘round the wounded wizard’s throat and choked him to unconsciousness and then death.

Stop.
I gave the other players a chance to intervene when Brand fell unconscious, but they were terrified to enter the Necromancer’s presence. Brand’s throat was crushed and he was given a Mortal Wound by the damaging Lock.

Start.
Biggie saved the day. As the Necromancer summoned his horde to him, Biggie flung his special Hobbit throwing spikes up the floating wizard. Of course, he managed to hit and distract the wizard with the last one. He failed his concentration test...

stop.
Ok, I admit it! I didn’t fail it! I passed it! I passed the test, but I had him fail anyway! The fight was bordering on ridiculous at this point, and it had to end. I threw the necromancer to the dogs. There were more important things at stake!

Start.
The necromancer fell, broke his leg and the players set upon him like wolves. They chopped off the hand which held the rod and stood dazed for a moment. During this confusion, the archer was freed from control of the Rod. But he was still attuned to its presence, [Actually, I can’t tell you what happened, because my players read this thread and this action is still in play. Classified for Game Security Reasons!]

The Demon Giant came for the Rod. The players fled before him. He followed. In the distance they heard the baying of wolves. They cursed, it was that damn Orc Summoner! They also realized that if they destroyed the Rod the Orc would somehow gain control of the Demon. They had to banish the demon and then destroy the Rod.

Stop.
Pete’s character’s knocked out, probably dead. Pete is obviously disappointed. What do you do? I handed him his other character in the campaign, Brother Thom. The Brother simply came whistling down the road at the right time. And just what they needed, a man of faith!

Start.
Thom and Tristam had a brief reunion on the road as the demon and the zombies pressed toward them. Biggie decided that he had to go back for Brand, the fallen wizard. He convinced Von Goten mount up, dodge through the zombie and demon and ride back to the scene of the carnage. Quickly, Brand has mere minutes to live!

Meanwhile, Thom prayed for protection against the zombies—a minor miracle— and he and Tristam went alone to the demon’s feet. There they prayed for an exorcism— a major miracle! Pete and Rich were shouting, “By the Law of God! The Law of Tudom! The Light of Law! By the Light of God!” They huddled together for protection and cast the dice for Faith.

Everyone was on their feet, cheering over each success (even me)! Pete rolled 9 success himself, and then Rich jumped in with his helping die. . . and rolled the final success! A major miracle and the demon was banished! A cold wind arced across the land and the giant sank to his knees.

Martin earned Fate and Persona points during all this as he baited the demon (he has the skill) and waved that Rod in his face. The young Frank then hastily doused the Rod in holy water and destroyed it.

Stop!
Phew! That about ended the session and concluded this leg of the campaign.

Everyone got two Deeds points, a Persona and a Fate point. But this was in addition to the Persona and Fate points I was handing out during the session—which were being spent furiously!

The Fate points for manifesting BITs worked great. And Persona points for Moldbreaker were given out to the knight Tristam and to the turned archer, Dodge. Biggie got a Deeds point for thinking of Brand over all else and getting back to his body to tend him. And Dodge got another Deeds point for playing the bad guy so well and furthering the greater aims of the other side!

Many, many tests for advancement were earned during this scenario. Lots of challenging tests! But I can’t recall an instance where a character’s ability actually advanced. Perhaps one of my players will chime in and remind me.

The greatest moments of the session were Tristam’s transformation from agent of law to agent of faith— complete character change!—and Brand’s ascendency to power. The wizard was brilliant in his sorcerous strategy throughout the night, and he even forgot himself and bravely confronted the Necromancer one on one. But his transformation ended tragically, his throat crushed and life ebbing!

The more i read of Burning Wheel the more excited i am to play. I just had a quick question. Could you give an explaination of the different points you were using (Deeds, Fate, Persona) since i don't remember them being addressed in the book?

Thanks.

Thomas

Hi Tom,

You are correct, I am using a variant of the Artha system listed in the book.

You can read about it and download it here:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=7047

BTW, many of the characters came much closer to earning an epiphany in their respective skills last night!

Hey

That session was so intense! When unwanted summoning took place eveyone was screming for Seraph to appear (that would at least solve demon problem), loads of artha points were spended during mass comabat (for open ending dices and gaining advantage over zombie-mob). I had a real great time. Thanx again Abzu :)

Just my 2 cents.

I played tristam's squire Sigurd. I know that my role wasn't as important as those of main character's but: when everyone was chargin' towards necromancer Sigurd took carefull aim at him with crosbow (persona point was spend to double crosbow skill from B3 to B6), shot barely missed necromancer's head (4 successes, but unfortuneatly I needed i needed 5 to hit, and didin't rolled any sixes so could not open-end any of those dices with faith points), and if that action would end succesfull that could changed outcome of this combat :)
Ahh and Sigurd took care of that necromancer "grog" with great axe (mounted charge + called strike to the head - B7 wound - ouch).

Drozdal

I played Brand (and hopefully will play him again!). I had a blast (pun intended) playing out this scenario. One of the most exciting things for me during the night was trying to cast an Abstraction right in the middle of a combat!

Using the rules available in this new Magic chapter (http://www.burningwheel.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=5), I tried to add the Fire Facet to my Emperor's Hand spell. The effect would be an Emperor's Hand that shocked my target as well as scorched him. The base Obstacle is 3 for Emperor's Hand and adding the Fire facet made it Ob5, which is pretty tough for a sorcerer with only 7 dice! It also made the casting time double! But, heck, I went for it and pulled it off! Yahoo! So abstractions on the fly are quite possible, you just can't get greedy!

As for the final duel with the nigromancer, Brand knew full well that the enemy was protected from his magic. Yet, he also knew that if he could blast off the Eldritch Shield, he'd force the nigromancer to make Will tests, which are far more effective than actually hurting someone. Unfortunately, all the Will tests were passed. :o( Yet, the Eldritch Shield was gone and so Brand was free to actually wound the nigromancer with his magic. Unfortunately, the spell was too wimpy to reach the floating villain and that was that. All hail Fire Fan!! At Ob1, it is the best tool for shearing off enemy's Eldritch Shields!