The Tarak D&D Campaign - The Battle of Wadi Al Naffatiyeh, Part 1

Welcome to the next post in a series where I describe the adventures during a 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran a little while ago.

As an experiment, I'm posting this using InLeo as a front end rather than my usual PeakD - let me know if you see anything different !

In the last instalment, the party re-joined the army in a forced march to the city of Abadar, hoping to outpace the undead horde heading that way.

They survived the strenuous march and the army was able to deploy just south of the city in the Wadi Al Naffatiyeh, a natural chokepoint which would help to offset the vastly superior numbers of the undead (the cemeteries of a large and ancient empire with many thousands of years of history are a fruitful source of recruits if you don't have to worry about them being alive !).

Our heroes were part of a veteran mercenary company which was deployed in the third line, held in reserve.

Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio

The Battle Mechanic

This seems like a good place to explain how I chose to play the battle out. There are a number of ways to handle massed battles in D&D. Choosing which one depends on how much time you have, what kind of resources you have in the way of miniatures and wargames rules, but most importantly on what your players would find most enjoyable.

It's also worth considering what role that actual characters would have. Battles are dangerous places if you're where the action is hottest, and the sheer number of opponents and risk of being unable to catch a breathing space (for healing and buffing) can easily get a character killed very fast.

In this case, the players were a mixed group, so playing it as a pure tabletop wargame might be interesting for one or two of them, but the rest wouldn't enjoy that approach. Conversely, using a purely narrative approach is the quickest and gets a result the DM can fit into the storyline, but has a high risk that the players will feel uninvolved due to having their agency removed and losing the ability to influence events.

So I went for a hybrid approach. Putting the characters in the third rank keeps them away from being hit by the initial tide of undead which would probably sweep them away. I had a plan for them, the idea being to use them as "special forces" for a dedicated mission, but in the meantime I'd describe the battle and throw just enough encounters at them to give the impression and feeling of how dangerous it could be.

King Gortig - Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio

A Secret Mission

As soon as the army had deployed, a party of cavalry galloped up to Sir Walter's Company. It was the command staff, headed up by King Gortig himself !

Gortig looks to be in his early 60’s, his black hair turning grey, but with piercing blue eyes. His skin is weather-beaten and tanned, with a couple of slight visible scars. He’s broad across the shoulders and stout, but it looks like it’s all muscle; he really is a bull of a man. He looks suitably regal with his gold coronet, but the armour it is fitted to is clearly well-used, even though there isn’t a spot of rust or corrosion. He is accompanied by his Constable of Information, Sir Alberich; the nearest thing you can get to a human who looks like a rat, but one of the sharpest (and most twisted) minds around.

As higher level than many, and with Barrow as a local expert, the party were given a special briefing.

They are briefed that when the enemy impacts the second line, they are to peel off and go for a specific geyser entrance. The instruction is to get to the base of the largest geyser (Rayihat Karihat Qadima – which translates as "old stinker") just before it blows, which it does at noon each day.

The goal is to blow the whole field. They were given a scroll of Earthquake and one of Delayed Blast Fireball with which to do it, and a wand of Dimension Door with 8 charges to mount the getaway. Timing and location were the key; they need to get to the base of the largest geyser, and strike with the earthquake and fireball simultaneously just as it is about to erupt (casting Earthquake first, because casting it second it would break concentration on the fireball's "timer").

The reason for holding until the second line was hit was to allow the enemy army to press forward into a compact mass in the area likely to be affected by the results.

The instructions had a little extra detail. At the base of the largest geyser was a cavern with a walled pool. Just as the geyser starts to blow, the pool boils then drains, and that is the time to destroy the field. To find the cavern, they were told to simply go always downward ! A previous reconnaissance party had carved arrows for at least some of the way. The enemy were likely to intervene if they could.

Next time... The Battle - Part 2 .