Scenario 0 - Blood Moon

For the past two weeks, the soldiers of Alladore have lost nearly every battle and skirmish they have fought against the forces of the Jungle Deep. The army has been forced to fall back along nearly the entire front and almost every beacon tower has been lost. While giant spiders, Hu-Mans, and undead continue to pour up out of the shadows, it is not their number or their fighting prowess that has caused these defeats, it is something else. There is dark sorcery at work that is sapping the strength and the will of the soldiers.

In all of these battles, soldiers have reported a few creatures carrying ‘shields’ of polished glass. These creatures stay behind the front lines, slowly waving these shields back and forth. Thankfully, after one skirmish, a brave group of rangers recovered one of these shields and sent it back for study. 

Eventually, the answer was found deep in the library of The Cascades. The shields were ‘spell mirrors’. Somewhere within the Jungle Deep, an evil mage used these mirrors to see and cast his spells during the battle. Although the wizards of The Cascades could find no way to counteract these mirrors, they did discover a spell that could track the evil sorcery back to its original location.

The next time the forces of Alladore and the Jungle Deep met in battle, a conjuror stood nearby and waited. As soon as she saw a cultist carrying one of the mirrors she cast her spell, and received a vision of a long, dark road, leading to an earthen mound with a dark cave entrance. Inside the cave, everything was madness and confusion and the conjuror could understand nothing more. Still, before exhaustion overwhelmed her, she wrote down everything she had seen and drew a rough map of the road. 

This precious map has just been given to you. Your captains have tasked you with taking a small team down in the Jungle Deep in an effort to find this mound and to locate and destroy the sorcerer who must dwell within. Your mission is crucial to the war. If you fail, then there is little doubt that the forces of Alladore will continue to suffer defeat after defeat.

 

Scenario 0 - Blood Moon

With limited time to gather your companions, you set off immediately, racing through the rocky hills and valleys. You sped on through the dawn, and stopped only briefly for a quick meal and rest, before you set off again. Pushing your weary legs onwards, you watched as the sun slowly sank behind the hills. Thankfully a full moon shone in the night sky and helped guide you onward.

You were just about to call for another rest, when you stumbled upon a small group of auxiliary troops, huddled around a fire. The troops looked up at your approach and you saw hope alight on their grim faces. A tall man, well dressed, stood up to speak for the group.
‘Your arrival could not be more fortuitous, as we gravely need your help. We are all that is left of a small garrison set to defend High Rock, a little village just over this hill. Last night, a pair of werewolves descended on us. They tore through the village and the rest of our company. We did our best, but we were no match for them. We last saw them heading for the headsman's house. There might still be survivors, but without help, we have no chance.’

While you were loath to delay your mission, you could not ignore such a call for aid.

[I decided to play the Blood Moon scenario as a starter mission for my band, about to embark on the Temple of Madness quest.  Wanting to test their mettle, I played the scenario on "Challenge Level", known in earlier scenarios as "Three or Four Players", and I also played with the Event Cards for Level 6-10 Rangers.  This will make a guinea pig out of you, Aka Morumotto....]

It sometimes happens that Elaïn contract a disease that causes them to revert to the nature of their Maïren counterpart, often displaying exceptionally violent behaviour as a result.  Whilst extremely rare, this disease is, for unknown reasons, the most spontaneously found among wolf-folk, and hence goes by the name of lycanthropy.  A cure does exist, but more often, a sword is sadly the quickest remedy, if lives are to be saved.  For a single bite can be contagious and cause the lycanthropy to spread like wildfire.

With this in mind, Aka, accompanied by his right-hand mouse Angadrême, the silent but violent Kruxakhor, and the sneaky Edguin, approached the headman's house, under the bright light of a gibbon moon.

Tagging along were four auxiliaries of Alladore, Seb, Covin, Nicolan, and Orla.

Enemies were already visible, with "headless chickens" all over the place, and vampire bats smelling fresh blood and swarming out of the rafters of the barn.

The first werewolf gave away its position immediately, howling from within the headsman's house at the low moon. 

Aka Morumotto had swam out into the lake, where he discovered a dog's mutilated corpse that someone had obviously tried to hide on a raft lost amongst the weeds.  He then hurried to assist Seb, who was swatting the three vampire bats flapping hungrily around him.  In the end, the dishevelled giant did the job all alone.

A far more deadly threat, however, was the Grim Wolf that leapt at Covin's throat....and brought him down.  The creature, now whipped into a frenzy, badly wounded Kruxaghor seconds later.

Fortunately Angadrême was on hand. Her Transpose spell allowed Kruxaghor to trade places with Aka Morumotto.  Although the guinea pig warrior also suffered hurt, he was finally able to dispatch the creature.

Covered by Nicolan, who drew to him the enemies lurking about the woods, Edguin was able to discover some vital clues.  He proceeded to the cart, underneath which were hiding an elderly vulture, and a boy.  To the surprise of all, the boy was a Hu-Man.  Whatever was he doing here, in this village ?  Not too much time to think, as a bone-chilling howl echoed all around, freezing those of lesser valour.  Nicolan ordered the wounded Seb to stay by the cart and guard the head-man and his strange companion.

The intrepid Nicolan, who had noticed a gleam in the gloomy light and was now holding a silver sword, was about to pick the lock on the headman's house, when a giant snake literally dropped off the roof, at his feet.  Fortunately Edguin was not far off, and snuck up behind the creature, killing it with a well-placed slice along its entire length.

All the members of the company in fighting shape were now gathered outside the headman's house.  After Angadreme enchanted his katana, Aka ordered Kruxakhor, Nicolan and Edguin inside, to prepare an ambush for the werewolf.  The enraged creature, its blood boiling, charged headlong into the trap.  Trap or not, bearing in mind that Aka (5 Health), Kruxakhor (5 Health) and Nicolan (7 Health) were already seriously wounded, this could prove to be their end.

But it wasn't. With one sweep of his katana [Aka rolled an 18, allowing him to activate his Deadly Strike ability, ndlr], the valiant guinea pig lopped the werewolf's head clean off, putting a swift and merciful end to its misery and torment.

This left the company free to explore the house...where Edguin discovered a bloody hand-print smeared down the wall, just above the corpse of an auxiliary soldier.  Looking closely, he could see that three fingers were missing...which corresponded exactly to Covin's old war wound.  The company dashed outside, and lo and behold, Covin's corpse, transfixed in death, had taken on its tortured were-ram form under the moonlight.

It was left now to the company to piece together the events in the village.  The vulture headman of High Rock was suspect, and after a rather hurried and therefore forceful interrogation, he spilt the beans.  He had gotten hold of some lycanthrope-infected blood from a hedge witch (Angadrême swore to make her pay for the smear on the profession....) and injected it into some wolves.  It had on them an immediate effect, increasing their speed and bulk, and also their aggressivity.  His motives were, initially, to provide protection for his village from the intrusions of the Jungle Deep, by making it too dangerous to approach.  When Lorenthia fell, however, the headman feared the inevitable coming of the Jungle Deep, and decided to get into its good graces by offering it a way to raise new troops.  He purchased some children from Hu-Mans, and infected one of them.  The effects were however disastrous under a full moon : the child became a werewolf and, mad with rage, tore through the small garrison the King had sent to protect High Rock, infecting Covin in the process.  Only daybreak brought an end to the massacre, and on the following night, it would surely begin anew....

The headman would no doubt swing for his sins.  Aka ordered Orla to escort him to the nearest camp to face military justice.  He then placed the Hu-Man boy in Seb's care, and suggested they remain in the deserted village.  It would be an unusual arrangement, but perhaps beneficial to both.  As for Nicolan, Aka asked him to join his company on their perilous mission, and the young noble readily agreed...

The only remaining question is...did the Dire Wolf kill Covin by chance ?  By rivalry ?  Or out of some sort of pity ?

 

Apart from Covin, no-one else had their Health reduced to 0.

The Ranger adds up his XP (our special rules for this do not apply, as there is only 1 Ranger on this mission).

Aka Morumotto and his companions took out twelve bats, carrionspawn and wolves.  They also slew a Giant Snake and of course a Werewolf.  The identity of the second were was uncovered, and three companions and two civilians survived.

This means a total of 107 XP, bringing Aka Morumotto up to Level 1.  He gains +5 skills. He has no spells to swap out.

All Companions gain 2 PP.  We also have another House Rule : for each 5 XP (FRD) a Companion brings in for his Ranger, he receives an additional 1 PP.  This benefitted Kruxakhor (+1 PP) and above all Edguin, who discovered the identity of the second werecreature (+4 PP).  Both Orla and Seb gained additional PP, but this was not recorded as I have no intention of playing them as returning characters.  I see Seb better as the child's guardian, and Orla did not achieve anything noteworthy during the action.

No Companion changes level.

All Heroic Abilities and Spells used are regained.

No Treasure was acquired.

The company did not redistribute any gains from the scenario or previously, Nicolan keeping his silver-plated sword and Edguin his silver dagger.

This is the end of a scenario, but as it is actually a side quest mission, reorganisation is allowed.  This allows Aka to incorporate Nicolan into his company, in place of another character he had initially taken.