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Author Topic: A Tilean Campaign  (Read 110865 times)

Offline Padrissimus

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 578
    • Big Small Worlds
Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #645 on: May 29, 2022, 10:31:28 PM »
Tilea's Troubles, Part 37 is up, being some connecting stories. Goblin Big Boss Gurmliss returns, and the 'Sons of the Desert' make their way to Remas.

See: https://youtu.be/HJiLALROqU8

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
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Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #646 on: May 30, 2022, 04:19:45 AM »
Great stuff as always mate, you continue to inspire!
Home of the Grumpy Gnome

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/

Offline Padrissimus

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Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #647 on: June 20, 2022, 08:45:02 PM »
I am much obliged, Grumpy, for your words.


Tilea's Troubles, Part 38 is done. See - https://youtu.be/IhfTg9xchD0

Offline Garanhir

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 476
Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #648 on: June 21, 2022, 02:49:46 PM »
I'm sure your voice work is getting better, too, it's like listening to a well-recorded audiobook.
A life without festivity is a long road without an inn.
-Democritus


Offline Padrissimus

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 578
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Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #649 on: June 21, 2022, 02:57:13 PM »
Thanks. Maybe the more I do the more at ease I am? Or the more I am willing to experiment? Or the more confident I am just to get on with it? But either way, I am glad it seems well-recorded to you.

(I have learned not to do it when the boys are running around in the house, or when the washing machine - directly above me on the floor above - is not operating!)

Offline WuZhuiQiu

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1198
Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #650 on: June 22, 2022, 04:31:00 AM »
That was a good listen! I'll have to go back through previous episodes.

Offline Dr Mathias

  • LPL Champion (S6,S7) Bronze Medalist (S5)
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  • Purveyor of the one-and-only Miracle Elixir!
    • Dr. Mathias's Miniature Extravaganza
Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #651 on: June 22, 2022, 06:43:58 PM »
Always enjoy it when a new episode pops up :)
a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice.
Dr. Mathias's Miniature Extravaganza

Offline Padrissimus

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 578
    • Big Small Worlds
Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #652 on: June 23, 2022, 02:42:11 PM »
Good to hear, good Doctor.

Here is the new special modelling and painting video (number 3), packed with pikes.

https://youtu.be/67PnAMEmLdA

Offline WuZhuiQiu

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1198
Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #653 on: June 27, 2022, 04:01:44 AM »
That is an effective-looking unit!

I like the mention of a Cathayan Panda Pelt, by the way!

As for other units, have you modelled Ogre pike yet? Perhaps, they might be only two ranks deep, but able to skewer riders off of their mounts, or lift horses and riders together! Rules for bolt-shooters might be adapted, enabling them to pierce at least two ranks of opposing infantry, but at -1 strength for each additional enemy rank after the first. Or, would their multiple attacks already take care of that, so that their pikes would at least enable two ranks of Ogres to fight?

Rat-pike could be clumsy in tunnels, though, unless they are of the tree rat variety?
« Last Edit: June 28, 2022, 10:19:33 PM by WuZhuiQiu »

Offline Padrissimus

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Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #654 on: July 13, 2022, 08:50:58 PM »
Ogres already fight in two ranks, and unlike man-sized warriors, the second rank gets to use all 3 Attacks! Pikes are superfluous to them, I reckon!

Meanwhile ...

The next part of Tilea's Troubles, being Part 39, a two part prequel to a battle report, is up. Find it at

https://youtu.be/Ju8asZ_WDGE

Some scenes ...






« Last Edit: July 13, 2022, 08:58:57 PM by Padrissimus »

Offline Padrissimus

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 578
    • Big Small Worlds
Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #655 on: July 24, 2022, 09:32:57 PM »
A new battle report for Tilea's Troubles is up: The Assault on Viadaza, entitled "Death Becomes Them."

See - https://youtu.be/C68OzxqLkkY






Offline Padrissimus

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 578
    • Big Small Worlds
Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #656 on: August 06, 2022, 10:37:49 AM »
Tilea's Troubles Part 41 is up. Featuring Arabyans and ogres!

See https://youtu.be/CfS2xFROcWQ

Some pictures ...






Offline Furt

  • Scatterbrained Genius
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  • Barbarous...
    • "Adventures in Lead"
Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #657 on: August 06, 2022, 12:41:56 PM »
I never knew this thread existed.  :o

What a great project and labor of love. Your telling of the stories on YouTube is very entertaining.  :-*
“A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.”

http://adventuresinlead.blogspot.com/


Offline Padrissimus

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 578
    • Big Small Worlds
Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #658 on: August 06, 2022, 12:43:16 PM »
Glad you found it. Hope you enjoy the videos.

Offline Padrissimus

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 578
    • Big Small Worlds
Re: A Tilean Campaign
« Reply #659 on: August 14, 2022, 01:44:38 PM »
At long last I have a report from the campaign's present day, which means my players (hello, guys) should now be able to forward their orders for the new season to me. Here goes ...

An Excerpt from Bonacorso Fidelibus’s Work: The Many Wars of the Early 25th Century

The Last Months of Summer, 2404


Having tried but failed to rid the marshes surrounding the city of Miragliano of the foul undead …



… the grand alliance army, under the command of Captain-General Lord Alessio Falconi of Portomaggiore, had constructed raft-mounted siege towers and a ram …



… while fresh water was carried from the vicinity of Soncino to the army’s camp every day …



… hoping thus to stave off the sickness bred by the foul, miasmic vapours. Those who did fall ill were sent the other away to the watchtower, there to breathe untainted air.



All these sensible measures bought his army just enough time to complete the construction of the rafts, after which Lord Alessio ordered the assault to commence forthwith.



The battle was hard, but not over-costly to the living. Most of the army’s soldiers praised their general for his haste, for they knew full well that had they tarried longer then sickness would surely have killed many more than died in the assault. The enemy’s walls were captured. The city was taken.



Many hundreds of the undead were slain, and at long last, notwithstanding the vampire priest Biagino’s escape, it seemed the war against the vampires was finally won.

Despite the foulness of their surroundings, the victorious army was in a celebratory mood, incredulous at their very light losses and glad simply to be alive. The Remans had suffered worst - their commander Lukyan Soldatovya, the priest Bendali and the mercenary dwarfs having all sunk to the bottom of the moats foul waters ….



… while the VMC brigade was almost entirely unharmed.


Lord Alessio now intended that his soldiers should live – it seemed the least reward they could expect from their grateful commander - but he could not risk wasting his long campaign and hard-won victory. Staying in, or even close to, the tainted city for any length of time, even a few days, would most likely decimate his army or worse. Sixty years before, when the notorious Reman Arch-Lector Frederigo Ordini’s massive alliance army journeyed into the Blighted Marshes, they died almost to a man. The Remans serving Lord Alessio were most concerned, for the story of the army in the marshes was very familiar to them. Nonetheless, Lord Alessio knew full well he could not leave without thoroughly cleansing the city of corruption.

Command of the surviving Remans had fallen to the captain of the mercenary dwarven crossbows, who was unwilling to tarry even one day more, despite the VMC’s Myrmiddian commander, Luccia La Fanciulla’s attempts at persuasion. (Her pleading was not helped by the fact that her second in command, the wizard Johannes Deeter, was just as keen as the Remans to depart immediately.)


 
Every drop of water was unsafe, every intake of breath filled the soldiers’ mouths with the rank taste of death. The entire city and the noisome waters surrounding it, stank of rotting flesh. Fat, sluggish, swamp-flies infested the whole land, while not a scrap of edible food remained in the city, nor for leagues around.



The army’s supplies had been stretched to the limits and were now almost wholly depleted, as the soldiers’ homelands were so distant that re-supply had long since become a sporadic, insufficient affair. While the army had passed through living lands, it had supplemented its limited stores by foraging from its surroundings. But that had not been the case since it drew close to Miragliano.



Lord Marcus Portelli, the captain-general’s most trusted adviser, declared this accursed realm to be the sort of place in which vile uomini ratto might breed, or goblins would scavenge, or lizard creatures from beyond the seas could dwell, but for men (he waxed poetically) it was:

“A map of misery, a world of woe, a microcosmos of miasmas; with more disease in it than the pest house at plague-time, and a stink worse than the Mayor of Olessi’s dog-house on mid-summer’s day!”

He then suggested that with the wizards’ help, and what flammable supplies still lay within the city (oil, pitch, tar and all such stocks, which he doubted the undead had had any use for), then even such a sodden place might be wholly consumed by fire, leaving only charred and cracked stones.



He also suggested that a new settlement could be built some safe distance to the south or east, to serve as a bastion against any further disturbance in these parts, and as a base from which the slow recovery of the land might be directed. Perhaps from there the work of repairing the dykes and damns might be done, so that gradually, over years, the marsh’s recent expansion would be pushed back.

The captain-general agreed to consider the matter. In the meantime, he ordered the speedy, but thorough, burning of the city, aiming to leave only when it was properly ablaze. Nevertheless, the Remans now marched away - their only Morrite cleric had died in the assault, so there were no magical prayers or blessings they could offer in the cleansing of the city. Nor did they have any black-powder, or any wizard to conjure fire from the etheric winds.

The VMC’s wizards, Johannes Deeter and Serafina Rosa, and the ingenious siege master Captain Guccio, took charge of the preparations, being assigned a third of the army to assist, plus nearly all the remaining powder supplies.



The rest of the army was ordered to search the city for valuable goods, especially gold and silver, as well as locating all the flammable stocks to assist the arsonist contingent.

The resulting conflagration was impressive, as was the amount of plunder - the undead had left most such things as they lay.



When the army marched away, its officers agreed unanimously that the cleansing had been most effective. But any pride they felt was soon sapped, for lingering just those few extra days proved costly. As they marched east along the road to Ebino, the fever became fatal for many, so that every regiment and company suffered losses.

None knew the whereabouts or condition of the vampire Biagino. But, unlike his mistress the duchess Maria, or her sire Duke Alessandro, he had proved repeatedly weak, having fled from fight after fight, so that most were satisfied he had most likely become but one more desperate denizen of the Marshes; a foul monster haunting some noisome valley, like a wild, territorial beast.



The people of Urbimo, who had lived in fear for so long, had somewhat mixed feelings. The war was won, but a vampire still (un)lived. Pietro and Carlo Cybo began pressing the Reman arch-lector to establish some sort of permanent watch over the state of Miragliano, sufficient to thwart any resurgence of vampires.


In the north-east, General Mazallini of the Compagnia del Sole, the governor of Campogrotta, had lost a great many soldiers when the ratmen’s bombard had exploded – including entire regiments of halberdiers and crossbowmen, and two companies of horsemen. Only a handful of survivors had staggered out of the now deadly ground. After the explosion, the Karak Borgo dwarfs marched up the Iron Road …



… and Perrette and the last of the Brabanzon riders departed northwards.



Those who dwelt in Sermide and Buldio made their way to the walled city, fearful of another attack. There were bitter disputes between the Compagnia del Sole and the citizens, but, perhaps inevitably, what with the injuries already received, the lack of allies to assist, and the proximity of the rat-men with their terrible new weapons, Mazallini soon ordered what was left of his once army-sized company to march away along the road to the west.



As the Compagnia made its miserable progress along the road …



… those few who had escaped the battle at the bridge died, after which many more grew similarly sickly …



… for the river Tarano, running beside the road for long stretches, and from which they had been drawing water, proved to have been tainted by the bombard's poison.



They attempted to remedy this by taking water only from the northerly streams feeding the river. They had no new contract, nor any particular destination in mind, but their urge to avoid a miserable death in Campogrotta drove them on.



Despite the absence of soldiers to defend the city, apart from the dwarfs camped some distance away at Lugo, the ratmen moved cautiously. Perhaps they were fearful of a trap? Or their own army had suffered in the explosion? Whatever the reason, several weeks passed, while all remaining in Campogrotta feared another explosion, or an assault. When the wind blew southerly, the city air tasted foul, and flesh-meat, fish and fruit rotted unnaturally fast. The populace learned to use only water from upriver, and to eat nothing from south of the river or even close to its banks. Sickness was rife, and some died. None were foolish enough to venture into the poisoned land, where fatal illness could set in within an hour, while others hid their illness until they could do so no more, some even dying suddenly in the streets. 



Then, half-way through the last month of summer, the attack came. Tarano Keep was suddenly captured, despite the meagre garrison blowing up part of the bridge with gunpowder.



From there, having made the bridge crossable for their many engines, the rat-men swarmed over.



With days the city was captured, its populace becoming prisoners. The dwarfs at Lugo did not come to the city’s aid, for they were already close to their mountain home. No riders came from the wilderness to the north, and the Compagnia del Sole was so far away that the blood in the river-water had thinned to nought by the time it passed them by.

None knew what the dwarfen king in Karak Borgo intended, but he had until recently invested a great deal of gold in the recovery of Campogrotta and Ravola from the Bentiglovio and Boulderguts’ rule, hiring not one but two mercenary armies to assist his own warriors in the fight.



Now all his efforts appeared to have come to nought, for both realms were now lost to a new enemy; one which was likely to prove far more troubling to trade and prosperity than the ogres ever were; one that could destroy an army with the launch of but one grenado.



Perhaps not unsurprisingly, there were signs that the sleeping, sylvan elves of Tettoverde had been awakened by poisoning of their forest’s northern-most tip. Having long since spurned nearly all interaction with human and dwarfen realms, other than the activities of the Sharlian Riders (a mercenary company of adventurers who were rumoured to have been outcasts from the forest) it they could not ignore such a threat. And indeed, there were reported sightings of animated trees lurking at the forest’s edge …



… and giant hawks bearing riders high in the sky over the forest canopy to the south-east of Campogrotta.



Such tales had, however, always been quite commonplace. Only time would tell whether, as in more ancient times, the elves would send a host out from the forest’s shadow to thwart their enemies, or whether, as many thought more likely, they would simply prepare to annihilate any and all who dared to trespass upon their realm.

Continued ......


 

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