Scenario 3 - The Last Stand

 While the battle against the Jungle Deep rages along the line of the old beacon towers, you and your companions have made a huge discovery. Scouting the area behind Tor Varden, you found a long, deep fissure that runs down into the gloom beneath the canopy of the Jungle Deep. Within this fissure is a rough and broken stairway. It seems too purposeful to be a natural occurrence, yet its rough surface and uneven, sloping steps argue against it being made by the hands of men. Reporting your find to your superiors, you quickly receive new orders. You are to lead your team down the stairs and penetrate as far as you can into the Jungle Deep. You will be the first warriors of Alladore to enter the cursed realm and any intelligence you can bring back will be of huge importance. Take any opportunity to strike against the enemy, but your primary goal is reconnaissance.

 

Scenario 3 - The Final Stand

Having pushed through the swamp, the land becomes firmer and the gnarled trees less dense. The rolling black clouds above still cast everything in a perpetual twilight and ash and smoke still drifts in the air. For the most part, the land is quiet. No birds sing, no insects call out. Occasionally, a small animal twitters from the shadows or scampers through the dead leaves. 

Twice you have spotted small patrols composed of gnolls and masked men, but both times you have been able to find cover and remain undetected. With few indications of the passage of time, you are forced to rely on your own reckoning and the growl of your stomach to know when to call halts, rest, and eat. You have passed several streams, which seem to contain fresh water, though you remain wary of drinking from them.

Just as your companions are starting to tire, and you are considering calling a halt for sleep, you spy a broken structure in the gloom ahead. Crawling forwards you can see that it is a partially collapsed stone farmhouse, of a kind that is common in both Alladore and Lorenthia. Creeping closer, you see shifting shadows within, and, closer still, you hear whispered voices. There are several people inside, definitely humans. As you focus on the speech, you begin to pick up the lilting accent of Lorenthia, and although the words are still obscure, you can hear an undercurrent of fear. Making up your mind, you call out softly to the house ‘Lorenthia’.

The voices go silent, but you hear a shuffling from inside. You call out again, ‘Lorenthia’.

A moment of silence, and then a reply comes from within, ‘Friends’.

Standing up, with your hands open before you, you walk slowly towards the door of the house. A man is standing there, in the tattered remains of a Lorenthian uniform. A battered and notched sword is in his hand. 

‘We are friends. From Alladore.’ you say. 

The man lowers his sword and grunts, ‘We’ll take friends from anywhere.’

Inside the broken house, you see several more soldiers as well as a group of women and children. The man in the tattered uniform speaks again.

‘I don’t know how long it has been since the world ended, but for all I knew, we were the only survivors. There are things out there, gnolls and worse, hunting us.’ 

‘Lorenthia is destroyed,’ you reply, ‘but the world endures. Alladore still stands. We can take you there…’

But even as you say the last word, a horn sounds in the distant gloom, and your companions come running. Everyone draws their weapons and prepares to face the onslaught.

For this scenario, I used my shiny new Tenfold Dungeon to represent the interior of the farmhouse.

 

The Rangers and the companions were still picking their way to safety - and Bohwihsh, as usual, towards the treasure - when the Jungle Deep struck.  In the first wave were no less than seven Hu-Mans in two groups (three archers to the north-west, and two archers and two warriors to the south), as well as three undead coming from the west. To make matters worse, an wave of ash and smoke drifted over the ruined farmhouse, considerably reducing visibility (to 10") and making it difficult for the archers in the farmhouse to get a bead.  The choking smoke also badly affected The Twins (suffering for this scenario from the disease contracted from the vampire bats in the swamp), Jabir and Akriss' Cobra.

The Alladorans rallied round however.  A Burning Mark from the Twins wreaked havoc among the enemy, killing one and sending another one fleeing (this was our first use of the morale test rules, ndlr).  Whereas Keila had four enemies on her heels, she was left with only two, and felt more confident in turning around to confront them, killing another with a mighty blow.

The Twins' "Burning Mark" narrows the odds

 

The undead were closing in on Bohwihsh, despite the best efforts of his Battle Ram.  Seeing this, one of the civilians within the farmhouse, an elderly man driven half-crazed by grief, leapt through the window to engage the enemy.

On the north side of the farmhouse, Jabir and one of the Lorenthian archers, Ash, engaged in a firefight with their three Hu-Man enemies, Jabir planning to slowly pull back and lure them towards Akriss, who had blessed him with a Shield of Light in the meantime.

It was at this point that an Allosaurus arrived on the battlefield with a stupendous roar.  It rushed at the farmhouse, its powerful jaws trying to seize Ash through the window, but fortunately he was able to roll to safety.  Akriss used his spellbook to then Slow the creature, which came as a blessing.  The giant chewed up Akriss' cobra, but a well-placed arrow from Ash had it bellowing in pain [reduced to 9 HP].

Akriss sent off a volley of fireballs [using Split Cast], but they were relatively ineffective, the dinosaur unharmed and only one archer being badly wounded and falling back.

On the other side of the farmhouse, Keila and Jabir had carved their way through the zombies, and with the help of The Twins shooting, had also knocked two vampire bats out of the air.  Bohwihsh was at last able to scoop up the coveted treasure !

The Lorenthian knight, Ahab, let out a blood-curdling roar and charged the Allosaurus, although his first swing went wide.  Unfortunately for him, four Hu-Man warriors appeared not far away, and proceeded to swamp him.  An archer put in the low blow that slew the noble warrior.  Akriss and Jabir were now in delicate posture, with six Hu-Mans milling around the dinosaur's giant legs only fifty or so paces ahead of them.

The heroes pulled back into the courtyard, reinforced by the other Lorenthian archer, Oak.  By turn 6, the first enemy - not counting a couple of giant spiders already swarming out of the roofbeams, but dealt with by the civilians inside - climbed down into the farmhouse through the debris of the roof.  He was however met by Pattashin, feelin better after Akriss' Heal spell, and who struck off the Hu-Man's head with one mighty [critical] blow.  Meanwhile, Ash was keeping the enemy archers busy from his window.  The Allosaurus had, however, now lumbered into the courtyard and to make matters worse, two Vampire Bats were flying towards the company.  Although little threat in themselves, they risked tangling up Jabir and Oak and stopping them getting off their arrows and bolts.

The company did a pretty good job of defending the courtyard, Pattashin drawing one enemy inside the farmhouse where he and a civilian, lurking behind the door, ambushed him.  A perfect shot from The Twins brought the Allosaurus crashing down.  Akriss beheaded another Hu-Man with Pattashin's help, and suddenly the Hu-Mans were on the run.  This was but short respite, however, and did not come without cost, as both Oak and Jabir, no doubt worried about the dinosaur's thrashing tail, fell to the vampire bats to general surprise.  Within the farmhouse, Keila had been jumped by a Giant Spider and almost killed, and poisoned to boot.

A second dinosaur now appeared, another meat-eater.  Despite Bohwihsh's best efforts to lead it away, it eventually got to the farmhouse, where its mighty jaws reached through the window and swallowed the elderly man whole.  

 

Things were suddenly looking bleak, Jabir, Ahab and Oak down, and all of the heroes excepting The Twins now bearing serious wounds [Akriss, down to only 7 health, being in the best shape !].  Yet it was at that very moment that the ash clouds and the tree canopy mysteriously parted for a moment, allowing the heroes to perceive a single, bright star, the symbol of Alladore.  Magic flowed through Keila, driving away even the dark poison in her veins.

With the dinosaur smashing its way through the walls and about to enter the farmhouse, the decision was nonetheless made to abandon it.  The three civilians and Keila fled through the front door...right into the arms of five Hu-Mans.  Just as we expected, their leader surely yelled [although it was actually one of those cool fluke moments that really writes the story, ndlr].

 

The swirling ash was, however, getting thicker [ie. we were now at the end of turn 9, ndlr].  If the civilians could be saved, there was some hope of surviving the enemy onslaught.

The Battle Ram killed off the last archer from the initial wave of enemies, meaning the heroes back was no longer exposed.  The Twins handed off their Cordial of Spellfire to Akriss, allowing him to cast Heal on Pattashin and bring another warrior back into the fight. The plan was for Akriss to then slither into the farmhouse, and confront the dinosaur, hopefully with a Slow spell. Meanwhile, to everyone's surprise, Keila charged the five Hu-Mans in front of her, and one of the civilians followed.  Pretty much everybody now piled in, although a civilian fell dead, pierced by an arrow.

At this point, as if the ever-expanding roots of the Jungle Deep had touched something sensitive far down in the earth, the ground began to shake [thanks to the Event Card, ndlr].  It turns out that their enemies got the worst of it : even the dinosaur, that had now crashed into the farmhouse, reeling as a wall and the remains of the roof collapsed in on it.  The dramatic effect on the Hu-Mans (Hu-Men ?) allowed the heroes to gain the upper hand, Pattashin taking off their leader's head with one precision strike, Keila crushing another under her axe, and one of the farmdwellers also dealing a mighty and vengeful blow against the oppressor that brought another down.  At this point, Bohwihsh's trap, set up at the beginning of the scenario, went off and badly wounded one of the last two Hu-Mans, whom Pattashin quickly despatched.

Smells like victory !  The "f" markers are our house morale rules for enemies, which worked nicely

 

The ash was at last thick enough to slip away.  Three of the seven Lorenthians had survived, and of the heroes, only Jabir and Akriss' Cobra had gone down.  Everyone else, although not in great shape, was on their feet !  Although Lorenthia mourned more dead, it was felt that a victory had been scored against the Jungle Deep, as the heroes made their way back to the stairwell, and safety.

Time to go !

 

Great stuff, the stuff of greatness even, with a heroic and desperate defense of the surviving Lorenthians despite overwhelming odds !

Akriss' Cobra had its health reduced to 0 but it was only a Close Call.  Jabir, unfortunately, will never be quite as strong, the healers of Alladore unable to fully extirp the infection caused by the vampire bat.

The Rangers add up their XP.  We have decided to implement a house rule : instead of Rangers getting equal XP, each Ranger gains XP for whatever s/he or his/her companions achieved, which is then doubled (as we have 2 Rangers).  This doubling is not applied to XP that, by its nature, benefits both Rangers.

The Twins and their companions dispatched a total of 6 Hu-Mans, 3 Zombies, 2 Bats and of course the mighty Allosaurus.  This represents (36 x 2 =) 72 XP.  The Lorenthians took out 2 Giants Spiders and 1 Bat = 6 XP.  3 Lorenthians survived, for 24 XP.  All this (+102XP) brings The Twins to 605 pts and Level 6.  They choose not to change any spells, and improve their Shoot Stat to +4.

Akriss and his companions - as is too often the case ! - had less success, bringing low 7 Hu-Mans and 1 Bat, for (23x2 =) 46 XP.  To this they add the collective 30 XP (Lorenthian kills and survivors).  76 XP only brings Akriss up to 487 pts, so he remains level 4.

All Companions gain 2 PP, except for the Cobra and Jabir (1 PP), enough to bring Akriss' Cobra familiar up to Level 1.  We also have another House Rule : for each 10 XP (FRD) a Companion brings in for his Ranger, he receives an additional 1 PP.  This benefits both Pattashin and Keila.  No other Companion changes level, however.

All Heroic Abilities and Spells used are regained.

Bohwish's treasure turns out to be a stash of gold, which the Lorenthians leave (gladly ?) to the Alladore war effort (+1 PP for Keila).  Akriss' has found a valuable potion, an Explosive Cocktail which he gives to Pattashin.

During the fighting, The Twins found a +3 Magic Arrow.  This is solemnly presented to Ash, the sole survivor of the Lorenthian military from the farmhouse, as a reminder of the ties between the two lands.

Akriss has a spellbook, in which he writes his Heal spell.

This is the end of a mission, so reorganisation is possible.  Akriss decides it would be best to leave Jabir time to recover.  Hearing that Katniss, the Alladoran Border Guard that helped them at Tor Varden, is in the camp, Akriss pulls a few strings and has her reaffected to the Rangers.