Pirate Attack

"Back to the ships!" I, Comes Elias, commanded once we returned to the coast of Palmyra. "Now we are needed in Nevora."

We were ordered to man the defenses at Fort Rodgers on the Nevoran coast. The fort protected a precious artifact - the Amulet of Inara. Pirates in the service of the Dark Alliance had designs upon the amulet.

A Rough Passage

The Legion crossed from Palmyra to Nevora in two ships - an Imperial galley and Sol'rithen's ship. On the way, we got caught in a storm. The galley, my flagship, managed to plow through the waves and make it safely to Nevora. Sol'rithen's ship was blown off course.

Thus, we were shorthanded when the battle began.

The Initial Attack

The remnant of the Legion that made it took up positions in the fort. We had two powerful ballistas to drive off the enemy ships.

The pirates hove into view. We could see from their flag that they were the notorious Silver Swords. We knew we had a tough fight on hand.

Suddenly, gouts of flame issued from the ships. They were using one of the latest infernal weapons, bombards!

We responded with our ballistas. We managed to sink a few pirate galleons. But their bombards struck back, blowing up one of the ballistas.

The Pirate Assault

Suddenly, the bombardment ended. The Silver Swords must have run out of ammunition. Instead, they decided to rely upon their namesake - their silver swords. The pirates launched boats and rowed to shore.

The Legion put up a brave resistance, but sheer numbers proved decisive. The Silver Swords smashed through the fort's gates, rushed the second ballista, and cut down the crew.

The Final Stand

With the pirates in the fort, I had no choice but to order the Legion to retire to the keep.

The Silver Swords used more infernal bombs to blow open the keep's gate and rushed in. We had our hands full just defending ourselves. This allowed the pirates to hold us off while others searched the castle for the amulet. The found and seized it, then rushed back to their ships. 

Unfortunately, I must report that the amulet is now in the hands of the Dark Alliance. We await further orders.

OOC GAME NOTES

Due to the end of the school term, our numbers were light. We only had five participants (Elias, Jayden, Howl, Sprouts, and newcomer Usa). I use the story of the storm to explain the missing legionaries. Don't worry, they will make it back to the Legion.

The scenario was essentially a mix of ring the bell and capture the flag. The Legion had to drive off the pirates by sinking their ships.

Here are the actual ships (each about 3 feet high).

We could sink them with bow and arrows (acting as ballistas). Usa, Sprouts, and I defended first. I don't remember if we sank anything.

Howl and Jayden were pirates in the first round. They would win by seizing the amulet, hidden in a tower (a bucket). They could destroy a ballista by either hitting it with cannon fire from a ship or by assaulting it. We used spell balls as cannon balls. An assault essentially worked like ring the bell - we used more buckets to represent the bastion. Ring it to destroy the ballista in the bastion, although one of the 2 bastions was indestructible.

Howl and Jayden quickly managed to find and seize the amulet. We switched sides and the pirates won handily again.

We had fun so we tried to scenario a few more times, tweaking the rules as we went. We ditched the amulet and just played an annihilation scenario - destroy the ships or the ballistas to win. Later, we moved the ships closer to the ballistas, which resulted in more sunken ships. Note that I switched events around in my narrative - essentially the initial attack in the narrative represents the later run-throughs.

The scenario was designed for more people and probably would have worked better if we had a full 10-12 people. But we adapted.

In hindsight, I think we could have split this into multiple scenarios.

1. The initial attack by the pirates - the Legion needs to destroy the ships and the pirates need to eliminate the ballistas. This could represent the pirates breaking into the fort.
2. Search for the amulet - have 4 or more buckets on the field. The pirates need to find the amulet and escape with it. I would give each side a life count. The Legion would need to wipe out the pirates before they steal off with the amulet.

Regardless, I had fun with the scenario. I especially enjoyed playing artillerist and shooting (throwing) the cannon balls.

Thanks RJ for putting this together. The pirate ships were fantastic!