Scenario 2 - The Incantation Lock

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 2 - The Incantation Lock

The passageway twists and turns, always descending deeper into the earth. As you pause for a moment, to catch your breath, you hear noises up ahead. Approaching carefully, you peek around the corner into a small, well-lit chamber. The chamber contains four unusual stone statues impassively facing each other; they have Hu-Man heads on a lion's body, which is a particularly disconcerting idea.

The walls are covered with runes that are impossible to read at this distance. In the centre of the wall perpendicular to you, is another doorway, the only apparent exit to the chamber. This door is covered in arcane writing, but otherwise seems to have no handle, and no key hole. It must be held shut by some sort of incantation lock. To understand how to open it, you’ll have to read the writing on the door. 

Unfortunately, there are also a few temple guardians moving about the chamber.

I added a Challenge Level to the scenario : 1 additional Temple Guardian

 

During what seemed like an eternally long wait for Nicolan to emerge from the chamber of whispers, Aka Morumotto, weak from loss of blood, drifted into a fitful sleep.  Plunging ever deeper into feverish dreams, he walked through them with the foreboding sense that he was not alone.

The visions were horrifying : swarms of evil creatures, fuelled by an endless appetite for hate, overwhelmed Aka's companions one by one, until only he and Angadrême remained, and their bitter turn soon came.

Yet into this terrible dream, which felt so lifelike, trickled a little hope, for a the edge of his mind Aka felt numbers forming, and knew they meant something...."Wake up, Aka.  He has made it out.  We must move on".  The guinea pig looked up, overwhelmed with sudden gratitude, at Angadrême's downy  muzzle.

[As you may have figured, I used the excellent suggestion for this mission : if you lose a scenario, consider it to be an evil vision placed in the heroes' minds by the sorceror who haunts the barrow mound, and play it again !]

Groggy from this troubled sleep, Aka found himself unable to concentrate on his surroundings and could do little more but push his company forward. He didn't even think to use Shika to sniff out the way ahead [both the Perception roll and the Stealth roll were failures].

The room they entered was exactly as it had been in his dream.

Aka watched Nicolan run towards the rune-covered door to his right, knowing what the soldier would discover. He was determined not to let the rest of his dream play out !

Whilst Angadrême concentrated on activating the altar-statues, Ruairidh and Kruxakhor held off the Temple Guardians whilst Aka sought the knowledge he had been unable to uncover in his dream, inscribed in the cave wall.  This time he was successful !

Within the circle of statues, fierce fighting continued, and although Ruairidh was stretched out unconscious, Edguin took his place, threading through the chaos to inflict terrible wounds upon the enemy.  Shika had played a key role in distracting and splitting up their enemies, although she finally fled.

Thanks to his nightmares - or perhaps his dreams, was another agency at work here ? - Aka was able to quickly guess the combination on the incantation lock.  The doorway slid open and it was now a matter of fighting their way out.

One thing in Aka's dream did however come true - one of his comrades being overwhelmed by hordes of hateful dead.  Only it was not himself or Angadrême, but Nicolan.  The company had no choice but to leave him behind, despite Edguin's best attempts to save his comrade.

Ruairidh, Nicolan and Shika all had their Health reduced to 0, but everyone had a Full Recovery - obviously the opening of the door had in some way scared off the zombies swarming over Nicolan.  The question is, whatever were they afraid of ?  During this mission, health gained is limited to +8 points.  Aka was now in slightly better shape (with 11 Health), but still below par.

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 six Temple Guardians, and one of the Valiant Dead, translated the runes on the cave wall, opened the door and got four of the company safely through it.

This means a total of 57 XP, bringing Aka Morumotto up to Level 2.  Due to his severe wounds, the guinea pig had avoided hand to hand combat during the encounter, but had used all his throwing knives.  +1 Shoot seemed the best progression.  Aka is not a spell-user so there was no call to swap out a spell.

All Companions gain 2 PP, except Ruairidh, Nicolan and Shika (1 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 Edguin (+2 PP, for having slain three Temple Guardians and getting through the door), and Nicolan (+1 PP) and Kruxakhor (+1 PP).

Edguin reaches Level 1, gaining +1 Health.

All Heroic Abilities and Spells used are regained.

The company did not acquire any treasure.

The company did not redistribute any gains from the scenario or previously.

This is the end of a scenario, so no reorganisation is allowed.