A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 14

OK, so there I was, contemplating with dread the Quest Finale in my Five Leagues From The Borderlands solo campaign. It would require a Site battle, and I had never run Our Heroes through one of those before. Would my tile layout be big enough? Would the layout be good for gaming? Also, we had a brand new warband member, Myrrh the Fey-Blood, as a Follower. But that's getting ahead of myself...

It all started innocently enough. I knew from the last Quest Turn that the next one would be the Finale, which meant a site battle. But first I wanted to run Our Heroes through a day at The Crossing, to see how things might go, and then rest up for the rest of that turn. So that was Campaign Turn 25: Morgan healed up, the Town Guard was helped, we tried to recruit a replacement for Brarkisy but found no one, and the locals supplied some rations. There was the offer of a contract, but it was declined.

Which brings us to the current turn 26, which will be the fourteenth tabletop game of the campaign. Local events yielded useful tales, adding a Story Point. We helped the Town Guard to offset the cost of living. And then tried to recruit a new warband member again, and that's how Myrrh the Fey-Blood, a street urchin, joined the party. Following that, another contract was offered, but we declined it in favor of finishing the Quest. We had to travel to the site, and along the way we encountered a Sociable Knight, who gave Profound Life Advice which added another Story Point to the stash.

And then it was game time! First things first, I had to create the Site; I used tiles from the game "Star Wars: Imperial Assault" to map out the underground complex that Our Heroes would be invading. I rolled up Warband Remnants on the Dusklings chart, and selected models as Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, and a Unique Foe, the Enemy Marshall. Once this was done, six Exploration tokens were placed in accordance with the rules. After that, I did a preliminary scouting move with Tundaline, who rolled a 92 which made for quiet entry and the opportunity to move a group of bad guys to the center after placement. Not that I would do so, that center point was where we needed to go to perform the Ritual (one of the possible victory conditions) and I wanted as few enemies there as possible. And then I rolled to place the bad guys in groups of three at the designated exploration tokens. Finally, I deployed Weppi and the rest of the Warband, and we were ready to go!

So rather than the normal turn-by-turn description, suffice to say the enemy groups moving in their patrols caught Our Heroes between the Captain and the Enemy Marshall; this was not the plan, as we were trying to get to the center to perform the Ritual, but the alternate victory condition was to kill these two enemy characters. So, tally ho! The group at Marker 5 went off to guard Marker 4, effectively taking them out of the game. The rest closed in from two different directions. On the right, Tundaline and Morgan made a good show of things and took down the enemy group with the Captain, Morgan taking a Wound in the process. On the left, Weppi and Grushnag made short work of the Enemy Marshall and assorted villains accompanying him, although Myrrh went out of action and Weppi spent a Story Point to make the reroll that killed the Enemy Marshall. With both the Captain and the unique Foe dead, we finished off the stragglers and retreated.

And what did we get for our trouble? Myrrh was Moderately Wounded, and will need to spend a campaign turn recovering. The Old Gods smiled upon us, and Weppi gained a point of Luck. Weppi also earned the ability "Rugged Survivor" which will reduce any healing time she has by one campaign turn. Also, two doses of Ironshield Root, 1 Ferret's Drink potion, and a suit of Fine light armor. Finally, as News Travels, an old ruin has become home to strange creatures.

I have some thoughts on the site battle and the quest chain as a whole. As my campaign victory condition is to reduce all the Threats to 0, the quest chain in and of itself did nothing to advance my progress. It had a few neat rewards, but for the five tabletop games I played out for it, I could have been reducing the Threats and making actual progress (I feel the same way about Contracts.) As far as the site battle itself, this was a bit different than an actual Delve because we were fighting to eliminate certain enemies, who, as it turned out, came to us and mostly the battle was very close to the entrance. I am sure if we were exploring the markers it would have been a different story, but again not necessarily working towards the campaign goals. While Delves and Site Battles happen, I don't think I would voluntarily pursue one again. As a final, unrelated note, I was experimenting with camera settings during the game and so the pictures are of varying quality.

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 13

 OK, so there we were, watching the season opener of the Dallas Cowboys when there was a weather delay during the game. It was estimated to be an hour, and of course I thought "I can play my next Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign turn with that much time!" So I did just that.

It was the fourth Quest turn, and I rolled up the "Ingredient Hunt" task. This entailed fighting an Aberration it's lair, which would be a particularly destroyed part of Armskirk, the Ruined City. In this case, it would be an Ogre, with a roll of 08 on the Creatures Most Vile table. So I set up the game, marked the Entry Point and three points of interest, and selected Brarkisy as my Scout. In her first move, she spotted the Ogre, and it was ready and aware. It moved towards her...

The first turn saw the arrival of the rest of the warband at the Entry Point. A good initiative roll allowed Brarkisy to backpedal a bit towards the rest of the warband and Plog The Elder to try and get up the Wall Of Fire (no good reason to, I just anted it up, but he didn't get the spell cast after all.) The Ogre for it's own part advanced towards Our Heroes but didn't quite close the gap. Which left everyone else in range to move and attack. In the ensuing melee, Tudaline, Morgan, and Brarkisy all went down, while the Ogre took a Monster Point of damage from Grushnag.

Turn Two was a bit more successful. Plog The Elder managed to successfully summon a Construct in the form of a giant Evil Clown doll, which moved to attack the Ogre. While the attack was unsuccessful, it would provide a bonus to Weppi when she attacked (which caused another Moster Point of damage!) The Ogre caused no damage in it's return attacks against Weppi. Grushnag, following up, landed a few blows but was unable to overcome the Ogre's inherent Toughness.

On Turn Three, Weppi act first and rushed the Ogre. A solid hit and the beast was down! But at what cost?

The cost was Brarkisy, who was found to be dead, squashed by the Ogre's club. Morgan was moderately wounded and will need to recover for a campaign turn. Tundaline as just knocked out. We were able to loot a Fine Crossbow from the assorted debris in the Ogre's lair, but that was all. And a lucky die roll resulted in the next Quest Turn being the Finale! A site battle against one of the campaign Threats.  

A Tale of Two Tortles: Game 12

 OK, so I played the 12th game of my Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign, the ongoing "A Tale Of Two Tortles." This marks the 23rd campaign turn and was the third game of the current Quest. Things started well enough in the town area of The Crossing, a location so named for being near one of the few bridges remaining that cross the Wheldrake River running through Armskirk, the Ruined City. There was a Wandering Healer, you see, and that was important because Morgan was still recovering from her injuries. Between the Healer and normal healing, she was back on her feet and ready to fight. Our little band of do-gooders helped the Town Guard to avoid Upkeep fees, and did a little Hard Work to earn extra coin. Their connections panned out and resulted in a Contract being offered, but it was declined in favor of pursuing the Quest. The Quest action would, in fact, be taking place in a new area of The Crossing that Our Heroes have not yet explored. Someone with information pertinent to the Quest was in need of rescuing from some Forest Folk of the Ice Heart Court (played in this episode by Goblins, because my Elves are far from being finished.)

So the game was set up as a Raid scenario, as Our Heroes tried to infiltrate the Forest Folk encampment to rescue the captive. Wepi, my first model moved, was spotted, and the game commenced properly.

During the first turn, Plog the Elder got up a Wall Of Fire behind the bad guys in the center, hopefully cutting off any of the sentries that may try to advance into the fray. Weppi surged forward (using a point of Will to gain an extra 3" of movement) and promptly killed one of the fey goblins. Two other goblins tested their mettle against Weppi's might but both failed to injure her. Some sentries moved to go around the wall of fire, while others moved north around the ruined buildings. The remaining warband members moved in behind Weppi, albeit not as quickly.

Turn Two saw Plog the Elder maintain the Wall of Fire between the captive and the sentries, they would have to go around it to engage Our Heroes. Weppi felled another goblin.The remaining forest folk near the center surged around the fire, one felling Weppi (I removed her model before the picture!) and one shooting at Tundaline from behind the barricade. From the north, the other group of goblins engaged Our Heroes from the rear, Morgan and Brarkisy engaged in combat while another goblin took a shot at Plog the Elder. The two followers engaged the goblins in return, while Grushnag grabbed the Captive; this had the joint effect of winning the scenario and adding a set of hands to the warband for this battle, the latter point of course I completely forgot about for the rest of the game. Seeing the carnage, one of the goblins fled the scene.

On Turn Three started with Tundaline charging the archer across the barricade, with no effect to be had in this set of exchanges or later. A Goblin felled Morgan, and another shot at Plog the Elder causing a wound. For her part, Brarkisy felled the two goblins in the rear over a couple sets of exchanges.

For the final turn, Brarkisy and Tundaline both killed goblin archers, ending the skirmish.

We completed the Quest turn, and what did we get for it? Information related to the Quest and a single gold coin. Good times. Both Weppi and Morgan wound up just being Knocked Out, saving the use of the Soul Sphere for the future. Even the World Events roll resulted in nothing interesting.

A couple of items of note that happened this game: this was the first time I used my fully-3D barricades, and I really liked the way they looked on the table; also, I now have more ruined buildings than I can fit on my 24" x 24" gaming board which means not every game needs to look the same any more. Soy feliz.  

The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo: Game 8

OK, so I played my eighth campaign game of Five Parsecs From Home. It was a short, bloody affair with quite a lot of payoff for Our Heroes. It started simply enough, with Asvyaske, O, and Iruurlaa all doing some Training while Aim found and passed up on a good bargain and Uezkfu definitely Does Not have any gambling problem. Khirki had a nice chat with some locals. And then it happened: all those rumors resolved into a Quest! Now we were getting somewhere! So, absinthe in hand, Our Heroes went merrily off to their fate.

They had to get a crate from the back of a truck parked out in the wastes. This seemed easy enough, except that our old friends from Tukera Lines had sent some drug-addled security forces along with a Nomad Scout to stop us. Weren't we on the same side? Or had something changed? In any case, the light was fading fast and we did not know how long we had to get the crate and get out of the area. And there seemed to be another, similar crate nearby. We'll grab that too if we have the chance!

First turn, O made a beeline for the truck. The Tukera goons and their friend moved either close to cover, or in some cases fully into it. The rest of Our Heroes moved forward, Aim dashing into cover and Iruurlaa testing out the new Shell Gun. Hit! Score! A dead goon!

The second turn was bloody for both sides. Uezkfu killed a goon, Aim killed the Nomad Scout, and then the Tukera team managed to take out Khirki and Uezkfu. O grabbed the crate while Iruurlaa moved closer and took another shot with the Shell Gun, killing another Tukera goon. There was only the Tukera lieutenant left facing Our Heroes, but she held her ground.

On the third turn, Aim moved out of cover and took a shot at the Tukera leader, dropping her dead. O made it to the other crate (scoring another Quest rumor) and with that, the skirmish was over.

After the game, I rolled well for the survival of Uezkfu and Khirki; Uezkfu got School Of Hard Knocks, landing us another Story point, and Khirki was just knocked out. We gained another Quest rumor, got 6 credits out of the whole shebang, and were able to loot a plasma rifle from a Tukera goon. In both the Campaign Events and Character Events, Quest Rumors were scored. This totalled FOUR Quest Rumors from one game. Where will our next Quest mission take us? 

The Voyages Of The Century Flamingo: Game 7

OK, so I played out Turn 7 of my Five Parsecs From Home campaign. After our success for Tukera Lines last turn, we were able to get another courier delivery assignment, this time from the Subsector Duke himself. But first, a recap of time spent in the vicinity of the Starport: Asvyaske spent some time Training, O and Aim repaired the damaged weapons, and Iruurlaa and Uekzfu both found Patrons. Uezkfu had also used our last Med-patch to get back on her paws. Another Rumor was found, which resolved into a Quest. A lot is going on all at once!

One thing we have learned on this overgrown pink world of Windsor is that any time something is being delivered, someone else wants to take it. This time was no different, and a posse of Tech-gangers decided this delivery was for them. There were six of them, one a leader and one with a shell gun. The rest were armed with infantry lasers, and they were approaching the delivery point from the opposite direction from Our Heroes.

The delivery point was the main entrance door of a frontier homestead. The general area was overgrown with the damnable pink fluff that seems to cover the entire world. There was an airborne jellypink drifting through the area, and the homesteader had his car parked out in front of his dwelling.

So, to begin with, Aim moved into cover and had a clear shot at one of the tech-gangers and promptly dropped her with a well-placed shot from his hunting rifle. The Gangers then advanced into cover, and returned fire on the entire Crew, but without any effect. As the rest of the Crew moved forward, one of the Gangers decided to run away. This would not be the last time this happened.

After that, Aim took a good shot at the Ganger with the shell gun, but only caused a Stun result. O made the Delivery. Victory secured! The Gangers returned fire without effect. Asvyaske moved forward and dropped the Tech-ganger leader with a single shot from his Hand Cannon. Iruurla, Khirki, and Uezkfu were all unsuccessful in their return fire.

Next, the remaining Tech-gangers opened fire on Our Heroes, and Asvyaske took a hit! Not down, but a bit stunned. Irrurlaa finally found his mark and dropped a Ganger, Aim missed his shot at the Ganger with the Shell gun, and both Khirki and Uezkfu missed their shots. However, the hail of fire was enough to convince another Ganger to leave the skirmish.

Following on, Aim took a shot at the Shell gunner and managed to Stun her. She shakily returned fire without effect. Uezkfu managed to get into the Shiny Bits, and everyone else shot at the remaining Ganger without further effect.

Finally, Asvyaske took a shot at the last Ganger and felled her with his Hand Cannon. That was the end of the skirmish, and we had Held the Field!

Afterwards, we recovered that Shell Gun. It would come in handy! Upon returning to the Starport, we were paid our 3 credits of danger pay and an additional 4 credits for completing the job. Our ship was paid off, and our coffers were growing. Now, about that Quest...

Ruined Plaza, Part 2

I finished the other half of the Ruined Plaza from Dave Graffam Games. This time there was a lot of warping in the walls and upper floor I needed to fix, not sure what was up with that.

Barricades (Again)

 OK, so I made some Barricades for my Ruined City terrain from (mostly) leftover odds and ends from Dave Graffam Games kits. I had previously made some 2D ones from the excellent sets by Permes, but they were not exactly what I was looking for. So, between other projects, I slowly assembled crates, boxes, and a few tables and then glued them together in 3-inch sections. These are exactly what I was looking for when I started this Barricade journey so many months ago. I think they will not only find use in my games of Five Leagues From The Borderlands, but in the upcoming Frostgrave campaign as well.