With the unseen and mysterious army approaching the town, our newly minted adventurers have to decide the best plan of defense. The folks from Horsk are not the most highly trained fighting force in Drunkeros but they are hearty people. You have to be in order to live this far North. Will it be enough to save the day? Only one way to find out
In the town of Horsk, Mayor Agnog GreenbarCorduroy Denims is trying to clear out the city, to prepare for the upcoming Vampire Army invasion. He brings in Jessga, a tough warrior, who seems not to respect the Norhallians. Val tries to show her Scroll of Pedigree, but she is having none of it. After some attempts to win Jessga over, Val is able to convince her of the threat approaching. Another dude shows up, named Leon, who's super Aragorn-y, which is slightly different than Arag-horny, which is when you're horny for Aragorn. Leon doesn't do anything, and then yet another character arrives, and at this point I'm convinced that Norhall is just a ploy by Tim to make my job as difficult as possible. This new character is a youth named Sig (?) and he wants to fight against the Vampires to avenge his parents, who were recently killed. Jessga is against this at first, but acquiesces to his passion. She then turns to The Daring Dragoons and asks what they need. Isaac asks about the demographics of the town, what resources they have to work with. Jessga explains that there are about 700 people living in Horsk, about 100 fighters (only about 50 of which are worth anything), some archers, some trained combat folks. She suddenly gets hostile toward them, and Isaac persuades her to calm down. She draws in the ground, a map of the town, including the exit roads. There is one that goes North, to Norhall Academy, and one that goes Southeast, to the rest of the civilized world. She says that they could send the villagers to the church, or, there is a large house to the east that is owned by the Kidd family, particularly ol' Jasper. He set up a successful fur trading business, allowing for him to buy the largest house in all of Horsk. She's unsure if he would help, however.
Isaac has to idea to concentrate all of the townsolf into one building, so they can defend it, rather than a bunch of spread out buildings. Jessga agrees, and commands Teddy Yudain to go start making the arrangements. He does, and begins herding people into as few buildings as possible within Town Square. Many people are in the Town Hall, many people are trying to get into the tavern (the best place to be). Smash suggests they try to form a barricade, and Sig pops in to tell them that he brought his late parents' cart, which could be used, along with other carts, to form a blockade. The army is about 20 minutes away at this point, so Bek suggests digging a pit filled with non-sterile spikes to trap some of them. A bunch of the folks in town get to work on that. Val is kind of freaking out, not used to being around so many frantic people. Bek tries to pep her up, using some tough love. Smash helps. She does snap out of it a little bit.
20 minutes pass. Things are calm now, and they don't hear anything. Isaac tries to go through a tall building to look from the top and see if he can see the army approaching, but is shooed away by the man of the house. Smash is also there, and he intimidates the man into joining the militia outside. Isaac makes it to the roof and looks outside, and can see some of the treetops moving. It does seem that the army is waiting in the forest. Isaac returns to the ground and tells Jessga that the army is right on top of them, and everyone takes offensive stances. Jessga asks them if they have any advice for their army, since they've never faced anything like this before. Isaac merely tells them to "Aim for the Head." Isaac and Smash have a kind of tug of war to be further in front of the others, until Isaac picks up the half-orc. Bek stands on the corner of a building. Zin also is far ahead, trying to watch Smash and Isaac, because it's funny. Val hangs out back near the mayor and other townsfolk, to protect them, and calm them down. She's about 200 ft away.
20 more minutes pass. People are starting to get restless. The party can hear the sounds of the army outside, feet stomping and crunching and all that, while the denizens of Horsk are getting angrier at the Norhallians. Bek wants to ride out there on a horse to see if they are out there, maybe lure them out. Isaac agrees to join her, and Jessga rides up, telling her that she will go, as well as Leon. Sig also rides up, he wants to go, too. Jessga suggests that all the Norhallians go, which they agree to. Smash goes to get Val. The group heads out into the woods, noticing that the sun is going down. This reminds them that they are fighting Vampires, and they were probably waiting for night-time to attack. Sig heads off into the forest by himself, syaing that he wants revenge on whatever killed his family. Leon and Jessga follow, and Bek tries to have a discussion about whether they should let these three go in and die, or should they go in after them. She is interrupted by Smash Leroy Jenkins-ing all over the podcast, and runs right in. The other follow, resigned.
As they move through the forest, they see no Vampires, or threats of any kind. Sig starts to get angry with the Norhallians. Smash examines the tracks in the ground, and determines that there were a few creatures that approached the edge of the forest and turned around, perhaps scouts of some kind? Time passes, and night set in. The group begins to hear voices, they can't tell if they are real or imagined. Probably imagined, though, as some of the voices are their loved ones, and strange sounds that couldn't exist. The episode ends...
Short[]
The town of Norhall prepares for battle. Nothing happens. Eventually, the Horskians get annoyed with the Norhallians, prompting the adventurers, along with Jessga, Leon, and Sig, to head into the forest to search for the army. They find nothing, but once the sun goes down, they begin to hear strange and spooky voices that may or may not be coming from their own minds...
Trivia[]
Confirmed that Agnog is, in fact, the mayor
Also, his name is now Corduroy Denims
This is because Tim forgot the character's name from the last episode, and didn't have a handy Wiki to help him. Sorry, Tim
Josh clarifies that Issac is a Cleric (Clericfies?). I don't think we knew his class before
The population of Horsk is roughly 700
Horsk is exactly the same as Barovia from the Curse of Strahd
Smash gets inspiration from his new best friend, Isaac
Their forces are 50 decent fighters and 51 peasants with shitty weapons