Battle Field Inspiration

[Lobo316]

OK, just trying a little experiment here, the party I am runnning will be coming accross a battle field that is several days old. The conflict, for your reference, is an imperial, roman style army with savage/barbarian allies that were ambushed and wiped up by a larger group of barbarians. Figure rougly 300 or so total combatants. Very few horses (the location is an isle that doesn't accomidate horses well).

I'd like to ask for anyone who'd like to participate to toss out a few ideas for what a group of companions, traveling accross this fairly recent battlefield in a harsh, cold, wet environment might find. Useful items, curious items, RP opportunites, what do you envion such a battlefield looking like and what could they find? Survivors? People giving last rights? Thieves? Scavangers? And if you need to know, the characters are around 2nd and 3rd level.

Also, they players are all part of the a barbarian tribe did the ambushing, but they were not here when the skirmish took place.

Maybe this would be useful in someone elses game as well? Thanks for any suggestions and ideas!

[Sir Ironside]

You're gonna get a lot of cool responses so I'll just add a little one now.

Just remember how horrible and overwhelming the smell will be, especially if they have been baking under the sun. Not just the rot there is a lot of excrement.

(Funny, I've never read-up on what takes place after a battle from that period. You'd have to think that there would be some kind of burial for the dead.)

[Dracyian]

What are the cultures behaviours for dealing with the dead, will they have just stacked the corpses into mass pyres with some oil and let them burn, or would they have done an underground burial? Do the victors take no prisoners? Were the victors invading or defending? What about looting and pillaging?

If the Victors were defending they would probably let the losers deal with their own dead while they did the same. If the victors were the invading of offensive side of the battle they may have had the dead dealt with in their manner.

So you party walking up to the feild may find charred piles of bones where nothing is growing at all (basically the scene from lord of the rings two towers where Aragorn and company come across the remains of the orcs after they were defeated by the Rohirrim riders), or they may find huge burial mounds, of course it could be both. Depending on the looting and pillaging practices and how old the battlefeild is there may be some hidden or lost trinkets in the mess or weapons used to mark burial sites or it could have been picked clean. They could come across grave robbers or pillagers.

If you have an strong necromancy evil presences in your setting there is a possibility that someone is out there gathering necromancing resources. A passionate battle could also leave spirits attached to this world in a vengeful manner

[Lobo316]

If you have an strong necromancy evil presences in your setting there is a possibility that someone is out there gathering necromancing resources. A passionate battle could also leave spirits attached to this world in a vengeful manner

Funny you should mention that, I do have an undead encounter planned. I'm just also looking for other ideas.

The victorious side in this case is the defending side. This is an imperial invasion, similar to real world roman expansion. The players are on the northman/barbarian side. There are some barbarian traitors on the Imps side.

[Lobo316]

You're gonna get a lot of cool responses so I'll just add a little one now.

Just remember how horrible and overwhelming the smell will be, especially if they have been baking under the sun. Not just the rot there is a lot of excrement.

(Funny, I've never read-up on what takes place after a battle from that period. You'd have to think that there would be some kind of burial for the dead.)

Man, I didn't think about the smell...ugh, gritty, but real.

[NJPDX]

The ungodly stench was the first thing that came to mind. Then again you say it's a cold environment, if it's cold enough then there might be some level of refrigeration going on and that would mitigate some of the stink.

Regardless, I can barely imagine how horrible an ancient battlefield would have looked like, but if I had to guess here are some images that spring to mind: Blood slicked grass, eviscera and emptied guts strewn about. Bloated corpses, wracked with rigor mortis. Camp followers moving amongst the dead trying to identify loved ones. Thieves stripping the dead of valuables, hacking off fingers to get at rings and such. Ravens, vultures and other scavengers picking over the dead. You could go a lot of different ways with this depending on the story your trying to tell with this battlefield and the mood you're trying to evoke.

[Lurker]

Rgr on pointing out the cool/cold will help (to a point only) on the smell. However, you mentioned wet ... that will make the bodies bloated and squishy. Then, if they are 'popped' not even the cold won't help the smell!

On the other hand, if it is in a peat bog area, the acid in the ground/water will begin the mummification process. With that, not so much on the smell or bloating.

Now looking historically, I'd look for there to be burial mound or a burnt area from the funeral pyre of the winning barbarians. Then there would be piles of dead from the invasion forces. They would be hacked up, head hands/fingers removed (heads for trophies, & hands/fingers to remove arm bands and rings easily). Now how grisly you make this depends on how brutal you want the war to be. That can go either way, you can have them be enemies but moderately honorable (so less brutality) or they could be going for the brutal side and openly torturing and disgracing the bodies (a good one was on the recent "Vikings" show that the Earl mentioned his sons' heads were cut off and then tied nose to butt to show them disgrace)

Now for the traitorous barbarians ... places where they were tortured and their bodies completely disgraced (an enemy may be respected and their bodies give some basic rites if there is honorable war, but a traitor ... they will never receive any form of respect, soooo the aftermath on the battle field will not be pretty!)

Plus, there will be broken weapons armor shields etc scattered around (some good stuff here and there too).

All of this will bring in animals & monsters to feed on the bodies (undead too, but you have that covered, but also ogres, trolls, owlbears, etc etc etc too) and other things (human included here) to grab the easy loot left laying around (even a broken sword or spear can be used by a farmer to make a tool etc).

For a bit of fun, with it being only a force of 300 ish total, that would have been a scout in force element from the imperial forces, sooooo now time for the main army to show up looking for their lost brothers in arms!

[Dracyian]

The stench wasn't the first thing to cross my mind, I guess the first thing you need to figure out is how long its been if it is only two or three days old there will still be loot left as the theives, pillagers and everyone else probably haven't shown up yet because it takes a few days to break down camp and gather your stuff to leave after a battle and deal with the dead. If its been a week most of the looting would have started and all the big or super valueable items are going to saught out first.

In a cold wet envirnoment I would imagine the stench wouldn't set in till the next day if it is cold enough to act like a fridge, however if the battlefield is soaked totally different. Also there is a definite danger of disease when working your way through a battlefield especially if its wet.

As far as RP ideas I think the first thing you need to start with is a Con save to see if your players can stopped from being relvolted to the point of uncontrollable vomiting from the stench alone, then if they have any wounds that get wet disease scare.

[Lobo316]

Thanks for all the replies folks. I'm running this game tomorrow and will be combing over these ideas and suggestions tonight.

[dachda]

Something else to think about. Who won the battle? and how would they dispose of their dead? While they may leave their enemy's dead heaped upon the battle field, given time to do so they would dispose of their own dead by whatever method their culture dictated. At least if the battle occurred more than a day or two earlier, and assuming the victor did not need to leave the area in a hurry. Perhaps because the defeated army's reinforcements just showed up or something of the sort.

Also if the battle was near a town, village or city, all the dead may be disposed of to prevent disease or to prevent undead from rising.

[Dracyian]

How did it go Lobo?