Play Report: Party Split in Sojenka

 Play Report: Party Split in Sojenka

On Tuesday, the 22nd of August, 2023, the Sons of Mithra suffered a calamity.  They elected to kick Luke, a 5th cleric of Ares, out of their group, over his decision from the PC to recruit a small private force, and withdrew a significant sum in order to equip… as the PC wasn’t sure what it would take to do so. 

That’s the short summary.  And without the surrounding context, the decision seems a bit crazy, leading to the ultimate exile from Tuesday play.  As the player of Luke I would like to fill in some of the details that fed into this decision.

First, let’s discuss some of the history of play in Sojenka.  There are three groups, approx:  Tuesday, Thursday, and Patrons.  Tuesday and Thursday are the two groups of players, formed simply by the times we were able to play.  I was invited in by the DM, and joined Tuesday because I was hungry for play.  Unfortunately I also happen to be inclined to doze off during Tuesday sessions, because we’re starting later.  There just isn’t the complexity in Blueholm to keep me engaged, and life dealt an interesting hand in this regard.

Regardless, there is also Thursday, which our understanding of has been limited.  They have as many players, roughly, but lack the same successes, or adventurism into the wilderness.  Or perhaps we’re truly ignorant of their activities, and they have some successes we have missed, in turning so much away from Tonisburg.  Impossible to say.  But we do know they have been stunned by the size of Mithra’s forces.

Then, there are the patrons.  Patrons are a BrOSR concept, for seeding NPCs and their motivations in the campaign.  Strictly speaking, they’re not players.  More quest givers, and major forces that marshal forces to defend their interests, or to if sufficiently persuaded, to marshal against threats a party of PCs couldn’t handle.  They might compete with PCs in some fashion, but their interests aren’t focused on pulling treasure from dungeons in the wilderness.

The game started in May 2023.  It has progressed through several points of discussion, and serious considerations of scope.  From allowing girls to PVP (Party vs Party) violence.  (PVP violence was a go, btw….)

Tuesday’s operation found miscellaneous success out on the plains, but success seemed too far between I questioned often if there was anything of value above ground, and more exactly, outside of Tonisburg.  There was the, virtually empty, hidden temple with a necromancer, which was… meh… in loot, but later we discovered a large cult, that ended in the entire party getting wiped.  

Then… we discovered the dungeon beneath Ghost Town.  The promise here was a vastness, the hidden temple lacked.  We discovered extensive supplies, illusions setup like ghosts, and actual ghosts.  A wizard’s lair at some point, it was extensive, and well kitted.  Some of the materials were destroyed, but there was easily 10k or so in supplies that we took advantage of.  And to date, we haven’t discovered the full extent, but there are connections to other dungeons, and at least 3+ levels below.  

We decided pretty early that we need a FOB in the area to ward off the danger of ambush.  The cult in the area was something that established a mutual interest with the temple of Ares, and was a prominent threat… which never materialized, or fucked off to bug someone else.  We’re not really sure.  But a forward base would cut down on logistical costs, and extend delves outside of the danger zone.

For a few reasons this is important: first, to get into the dungeon, you have to drop 100 ft straight down by rope.  And until we secured the first dungeon level, there were stirges, snakes, and rats, as well as other creatures that gave us pause.  This is exceedingly dangerous, and something we wanted to fix… but would require investment, which we might as well start developing the area.

Initially all it was, was a palisade.  Enough to keep in a small force, as we didn’t encounter anything above ground to really give us the vibe we needed more (and didn’t have the time to invest in more yet… and then the Goblin Nation attacked… and dispersed all our forces topside, and tried to get in downside, which did not succeed, fortunately.   

And also just before this, we had our encounter with Thursday.  Our policy at this time was “go away if you mean no harm, we’ll kill anyone that persists.”  I generally agreed, but there are of course dangers to this course of action.  Up until this point it was friendly competition.  Banter afterwards, made us less charitable.  

In events later on, Luke found a spy looking at Kastav, and pressed into his hand through friendly conversation a message he hoped reached Thursday.  Perhaps it did.  Perhaps it was lost or was delivered to a Patron, instead of PC.  I have no idea.  I offered them light praise and then firm warning to not come at us again, or face death.  Luke only informed the rest of Tuesday about the letter later, in an attempt to cool tensions in private chats.  

Meanwhile, Tuesday is cementing a heavy control over Ghost Town, which is just outside of controlled territory.  Midsummer, the Sons started to invest heavily as a forward operation post.   Sappers were brought in to shore up parts of the dungeon, and recruitment surged, in fear of the unknown PVP threat.  

Exploration of the second level, and clearing hexes were the primary goals.  And exploring some adjacent areas on level 1 that we discovered, that apparently connected to the Old Necropolis.  

Thursday, unfortunately, isn’t interested in coming to any sort of arranged agreement, and never reaches out to us, directly or indirectly.  Sons of Mithra policy for dealing with other groups didn’t change.  Default aggressive, which would lead to tragedy.  Though not entirely Thursday’s fault… they were betrayed.  I’ll address that in a second, the policy went from sensible to stupid after we determined the Goblin army numbers, and learned Thursday didn’t have the capital or forces to really be that much a threat.  

Thursday had recruited a mercenary, whose interests weren’t being served, and apparent incompetence to lead.  Castile jumped on the opportunity to leverage this force to undermine Thursday.  I have meta information, and continued to cast what doubt I could about this person, but she left quite the impression on the PC.  If we had secured the surface any sooner, such an encounter probably wouldn’t have occurred.  But without her… there would have been dead PCs from pvp much earlier.  

Her awe with the forces of SoM was apparent, and she fed us information sufficient to suggest that Thursday wasn’t a threat worth taking seriously, unless they did something phenomenally stupid.  We have vampires and a huge dungeon to clear.  There is passive income to establish, etc.  

That then brings us to the shitstorm that is August 17th, 2023.  Thursday, unaware of our expansion of patrols and obsessive control to the Old Necropolis, embark on an expedition, to deal with the undead, and other threats they are aware of among the tombs.  There are 11-12 PCs in the group, the traitorous mercenary and her lackeys, and a misc. number of other troops.

Thursday encounters no less than 90 troops in the field, who are called to swarm and surround them.  There is no escape, and the terms are pretty clear, just surrender.  However… Thursday keeps stalling for time, and trying to find a way out of this situation.  It does come to the first TUES-THURS conversation, in real time… which is exactly as aggressive and hostile as will not get them out of this situation. 

They threw down arms however, and that should be it.  Even if they resist being taken prisoner, they’re outnumbered, unarmed, and on foot.  There is no more reason to shed blood.  But… Thursday talks themselves into getting killed in a fashion that’s just a mass suicide in player terms.  But Castile also has fault here, for he insisted on opening fire with crossbows.  I think this is too far.  Way too far.  And the tone with which he entered the encounter was not good.  I get not wanting to show weakness… but charity need not be weak, and it seemed to be Thursday could have used some charity.  

From a player perspective, this was a catastrophe.  Thursday did not take a PVP party wipe well.  They also lost significant capital from their coffers, in 4 weeks of supplies, a wagon, and the horses.  As well as whatever the traitors carried.  And Castile tipped our hand about the traitors, in open comms.  He was rubbing in the supremacy of the Sons of Mithra to a degree that wasn’t smart.  There was a lot of salt in shared chats, which the DM crushed.  But the salt remains.

From a PC perspective… we knew these were not everyone in the cleanup, that we had encountered before.  Revenge was on the table, if tenuous.  And… they claimed to be on a holy expedition.  The rest of them brushed it off, and listening to some recordings, they certainly did use it as cover of their identities… but there was some truth to it.  Some effort needed to be made to restore good faith.  Which Castile and the others were not fit to do.  

I have had Luke move between locations irregularly, preferring Sojenka and the temples.  Luke’s IC motivation is, despite being a cleric of Ares… peace.  He is against the secessionist plans of the others, but largely doesn’t move against it.  But the spilling of blood like this will cause other blood to be spilled.  Ghost Town/Necropolis are not easily reached, and there are weaknesses in supplying it.  Would Thursday go that far?  Maybe.  Tensions are high.  

Luke wanted to return the dead to the city.  The party shot it down.  Luke said he’d be adamant.  They also shot that down, and threatened to hide the bodies somewhere in the wilderness, and refusing to tell him.  They arguing carting the bodies to town would bring down other consequences.  And perhaps they were right.  But I still believe the conflict warranted it.  

Luke is allowed to depart with a limited number of keepsakes, identifiers, and non-valuable belongings.  He also withdraws 2k gold from the treasury at GT, intending to spend on some personal projects.  This… does not go well…

I had considered over several months the need to recruit a small private force that could serve as a guard in Sojenka, while traveling, and to do some of the dirty work a cleric just isn’t able to do (clerics in Sojenka must wear a red stole at all times in the city.)  He also wanted plausible deniability from the actions of the Sons of Mithra, and to decomplicate one aspect, that being Luke’s irregular and somewhat random transits between Sojenka, Kastav, and GT for meta reasons.  

… the biggest problem with the Castile seemed to be the dilution of the mercenary recruiting pool.  Luke had the ability to only hire a small number of troops.  Less than 20.  Whatever caused a depression in the SoM’s share of that pool, wasn’t Luke.  I explained, I had aspirations for a small private force.  They did not take kindly to that, and allegations flew of betrayal.  The rest of the group immediately kicked me from mutual channels, and demanded I be removed outright, from Tuesday.  I held out for a while, but as it became clear to the DM that I did not talk to them about this, it was agreed I was to withdraw from Tuesday, and transition to the role of Patron.  Details that are still being shaken out.

Luke went and talked with the High Priest Ares, and the High Priest of Hades.   There is bad news on the horizon for the Sons of Mithra, if they continue to show such arrogance.  But I believe ultimately some of the pvp tension will bleed away, with compliance.

Now … 

I didn’t expect it to be a big deal, that I would somewhat covertly recruit a small force.  A retinue is all.  10-20 men Luke could rely on to have exclusive loyalty, and pursue his aims (which did not conflict with the party, simply covert.)  I did expect a row over the money withdrawal though, because it was substantial (2k.)  No other way around it.  But the troops would be used to contribute to Sons of Mithra operations, just in other ways.

Did I convey this well? Nope.  I don’t need to justify my every action to every other player, and they don’t to me.  But I would need to purchase materiel, in addition to men at arms.  I expected half to 3/4ths to get returned, unless something irresistible came up.  But I just made a guess, and didn’t know for sure.  They paid out the last fragment of gold that was his, and that was that.

Now, I think the others overreacted.  Hugely.  I recruited 12 or so men, from an available pool of <20. When they complained about me shrinking their overall pool, the DM made mention that there were multiple groups hiring, not just SoM or myself.  And, considering the numbers we had, and the way we keep enacting defeat in detail on Thursday... what threat is there that requires a hundred new soldiers right this minute?

The sons of Mithra maintain by joint agreement maintain well over 300 men, just at Ghost Town:

(There is easily another 100-150 men at Kastav in the taxed borders of Sojenka)

The above records are dated, from 8/20/2023. I lost access to the sheets on 22, but have misc records on other sheets, where I thought I might use the patterns for other games. We don't need to panic. But we do need more gold. This isn't even taking into consideration settlements and their maintenance (1% a month iirc.) Just for the hell of it, this is the sort of valuations of those settlements, captured some time ago, as well as the gold inflow and outflow:

I hadn’t been paying much attention to the finances, and this I think is one of the fatal flaw of this group.  The immediate autocratic reaction to even raising the possibility of other goals and aims that deviated from the Party line, was frustrating.  And the tone they approached the question, was threatening.  Retrospectively, not all that put out by getting removed from play.  There is I suspect more vengeance from the Sons of Mithra than there will be from Thursday…

Just saying.