Battlesystem AAR: White Plume Mountain

[SgtHulka]

Inspired by Jevenkah and Teshub, I wanted to add some big battles to the Dungeons & Dragons campaigns I've been playing with my kids. My son and I started to learn TSR's Battlesystem, and this is our first attempt at giving it a go. We're not at home, so we were limited to the plastic (and bonesium) I brought as part of a "travel" kit, and some D&D RPG battle mats.

My kids' characters are currently delving White Plume Mountain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Plume_Mountain), where the mad wizard Keraptis has hidden three stolen weapons of immense power and reknown. The previous owners of the weapons, including the local Theocracy, has begged the characters to recover the weapons before they can be used against Men, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings and other creatures of Law. The characters, among them a Champion of Athena and an aspiring Knight-Paladin, accepted the quest and successfully recovered the Greathammer Whelm.

Keraptis is beginning to worry. The characters have defeated his traps and puzzles and guardians much more easily than he expected. So he sends out a psychic summons to the Creatures of Chaos lairing in the bogs and dark forests surrounding White Plume Mountain. Answering his summons are:


A Hobgoblin Horde...


Groveling Goblins...


Lurking Lizardmen, Cunning Kobolds, and Terrible Troglodytes...


Barbaric Bugbears and Menacing Minotaurs!

Keraptis hoped his monstrous minions could defeat the Army of Men (and Elves) camped outside White Plume Mountain and thereby trap the heroic PC's within!

The Army of Law arrayed for combat. Trumpets sounded and with great discipline they marched forth into the jaws of combat.

Athena's Cavalry charged the Groveling Goblins.

And the goblins made them pay in blood.


The human berserkers killed the Minotaurs...

...and then tried to take down the Lizardmen, but were defeated.

While the Lizards gorged on the berserker's bodies, the Elves charged behind a barrage of magic missiles, routing the Lizardfolk.


Meanwhile, on the monster's left flank, the Ogres that had been charmed by Lawful Magic-Users defeated the Troglodytes.

The cunning kobolds avoided the giant ogres, seeking to kill the magic-users and thereby end their control of the giant ogres.

The result was a comical chase through the forest, kobolds racing after the fleeing Magic Users while the Ogres tried to catch up to the kobolds from behind.


Eventually, the Ogre succeeded, and the forces of Man and of Law won the field.