Session 17: The Bros and the Lost City of dul Qazik

Rolling on the rumor table, we get a 4 so Brogallo decides he's going to visit the distant Lost City of dul Qazik to search for the treasure shown in the map that he recovered from the Oni. The Lost City is about 200 miles south, so using the movement rate shown on pg 102 of the PHB, the light horse can move at a rate of 24" which translates to 24 miles per day. I'm using 30 mile hexes on my world map, which means their movement rate works out to roughly 9 days of travel each way. Since this is a solo game, I don't really feel like breaking it down to 6 mile hexes etc, and I'll be checking once per hex for random encounters. Likewise, I'm going to assume the intervening area is sparsely populated and won't generate terrain/features like I do with the main maps.

Krall is researching poisons and out of play until 29 May 2025. The Bros will take the Brocenary Lancers Second and Third Cohorts while leaving the infantry troops to defend the Obsidian Citadel. They bring the draft horses along as beasts of burden and set out for the distant city.

Some quick rolls on the relevant DMG Appendix B tables, gives us a ruined city nestled in the mountains. I make 6 rolls to see who's guarding the treasure and build the following table:

1. Stone Giant
2. Ogre
3. Ogre Magi (again!)
4. Orc
5. Ice Troll
6. Xorn

A d6 comes up with a 2, indicating that the Ogres have a lair in the ruined city. I decide that they've taken over the ruins of a former gatehouse, completely unaware of the tomb beneath their feet which contains the treasure that Brogallo seeks. The remaining monsters have their own lairs within the sprawling city and are potential factions that can be bargained with or destroyed, as the dice gods decide.

Their swift journey south is fortuitously uneventful and the Bros do not encounter any wandering wonsters. I roll a d8 to see how many hours it takes them to discover the location marked on the map, getting a 6. This means 36 wandering monster checks which also all come up empty - the Bros' luck holds!
They identify their target and Brogallo tells the Brocenaries to secure a wide perimeter and to keep quiet. The Bros make their way to the gatehouse, quietly enter and surprise a group of 15 ogres with 7 mates, 2 young and 5 ragged prisoners kept in a pen in anticipation of being the featured dish in tonight's ogre feastday.

The Bros definitively win surprise 6-1 and wipe out the ogre males, thanks to the fighters' 3/2 attacks and Blastikus' Wand of Frost. They proceed to melee where it takes them another 5 rounds to eliminate the ogress mates and their vile younglings. The prisoners consist of 2 local peasants, a caveman from the surrounding mountains, an unfortunate brigand that was sold to the ogres by his compatriots, and a half-orc exiled from the orc tribe who also lives elsewhere in the city. 

Blastikus, having grown fond of his half-orc muscle, offers the half-orc employment as a henchman and a 78% reaction shows that he accepts. The peasants return to their village and the brigand joins them, having formed a friendship with the pair while captured. The caveman hoots, grunts, waves his arms around excitedly and flees into the mountains, hopefully finding his way back to his cavepeople.

The Bros continue their explorations of the gatehouse and find the entrance to the underground storeroom containing the treasure they've been seeking, as well as some loot that the ogres had in their lair. All in all, a decent haul...

The Bros begin their journey home. They have 2 wandering monster encounters: a herd of wooly mammoths with a 48% encounter reaction (neutral/uninterested, so I rule they just glance at the tiny humans before continuing on their way) and a dwarven warband of 250 individuals who roll a 55% (neutral/uninterested so I rule they're on a mission of their own and don't feel threatened by an inferior band of loser humans that have the poor taste to associate with half-orcs).

The total trip time is 18 days (9 days each way) so the boys are on the bench until 23 May 2025.