A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 23

 We came, we saw, we got our asses kicked! This marks the general result of the 42nd campaign turn and 23rd game of my solo Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign. Rather than randomly determine the opposition from the table in the rulebook, I decided to give my warband a bit of a challenge by choosing a rough opponent, give them the maximum numbers and leadership, and then add an Ogre to their forces. It was bound to get me out of the rut of lining up and killing the enemy so the victory condition could be achieved at our leisure. But first, we spent some time at The Crossing doing town stuff. There was a weapon shortage, which didn't affect us much. We helped the town guard to offset the high cost of living, and Rukacta did dome Training. Through our Connections, Roysa the Herder Maid sent us an Adventure point. And not much else happened in town. 

Those scheming Gnawlings were now known to be actively hunting us through the general area of The Crossing, with the goal of eliminating us and creating a larger presence for themselves in the region. This particular group was composed of their Hate Sworn, eight rats including two with poisoned crossbows. They were further led by a Lieutenant and a Captain, and accompanied by an Ogre (I've got a Rat-Ogre model somewhere, but no idea where to even start looking for it, so a regular Ogre had to do.) This was a chosen force, not randomly rolled, and I hoped that it would provide a challenge, if not a massacre, for Our Heroes.

So the plan was to have Quicktoes backed up by Rukacta and Plog The Elder to make a dash for the further building we had to scout out, and then get away before any trouble reached them. The right flank had Weppi, Tundaline, and Myrrh ready to roll up and tackle the Ogre head on, with a side trip by Myrrh to scout the closer objective. And the first turn ran according to plan. Plog The Elder was unable to get "Foresee" to cast, but no rush yet on that. Upon reflection, the barrier wall of fire might have been a better bet, but hindsight is always 20/20, right? The bad guys surged forward, and both of the crossbow rats made it to elevated positions.

Turn Two is where everything started to go wrong. Our initiative rolls were so bad that no one got to act before the Gnawlings closed for combat. Quicktoes was taken down by the lieutenant and Rukacta was out of action from a poisoned crossbow shot before we even had a chance to act. At the same time, a couple of the Hate Sworn attacked Weppi, and were promptly slain for their trouble. Myrrh ran up the stairs and scouted the building while doing so, Plog The Elder backpedaled towards Weppi and Tundaline while successfully casting his "Foresee," and Tundaline then brought up the rear. One of the crossbow rats ran away at this point.

On Turn Three, we again had poor initiative rolls. The remaining poison crossbow rat took a shot at Weppi, but failed to penetrate her armor. The Captain and Lieutenant both bounced off of Weppi, and several other Gnawlings were closing fast. Weppi and Tundaline tried to kill the Captain and Lieutenant without effect. Myrrh found his mark and killed that pesky crossbow rat. 

Tundaline acted first on Turn Four, charging and killing the Gnawling Captain. She was pushed back by the Lieutenant but killed two more ratmen as they followed up. Plog The Elder was also pushed back by the three Hate Sworn attacking him. Weppi attacked the Lieutenant, but was pushed back for her trouble. The Ogre was unable to engage Our Heroes due to a distinct lack of room for his big feet. Myrrh wanted to make a leap of more than 2" from one building to another, but there are no rules for this particular heroic action; only 2" leaps as a normal part of movement are covered. So I decided a 9+ Travel test would be required, otherwise he would miss and fall to the ground. He made it! And with this, we had fulfilled the scenario objective of scouting two randomly determined locations before turn 7 (normally, 6, but Plog The Elder had cast "Foresee.")

On the fifth Turn, the Gnawlings again acted before any of Our Heroes. Plog The Elder went down, the Ogre was big enough to attack Myrrh on the second floor, so he went down as well. Four ratmen attacked Tundaline and two died for their efforts. Tundaline was pushed back by her follow up against them, and Weppi was pushed back after her attack on the Ogre. She also suffered a Wound in her exchanges with the monster.

Turn Six saw both good fortune with initiative and a bit of a disaster. Tundaline and Weppi both attacked before the bad guys, and the dwarf felled the ratman closest to her. Weppi engaged the Gnawling lieutenant and was pushed back. The lieutenant attacked Weppi and was pushed back. The Ogre attacked Weppi and struck her down! Tundaline was alone against the lieutenant and the Ogre!

On Turn Seven through Turn Nine, Tundaline had a lot of back and forth with both the lieutenant and the Ogre. I forgot the "Stalwart" rule preventing her being pushed back, but in the end she triumphed over both of them. She got a bunch of Experience and is now Loyal.

But what of the rest of the Warband? They all survived! Weppi and Quicktoes were both just knocked out, Plog The Elder and Rukacta had moderate injuries and would need to spend some time healing, and Myrrh had a serious injury that would have him out for a while as well. We gained 7 Adventure Points, and wagered 5 of them with a roll of 4 to reduce the threat level of the Gnawling Horde by one. We looted some Rations, an enchanted Harness Of Vengeance, and a standard weapon of Fey Steel. Finally, News Travelled that a Travelling Stranger was at a random settlement yadda yadda we aren't going to meet him in two turns because we are this close ---> <--- to eliminating the threat of the Gnawling Horde from Armskirk, the Ruined City. They have a Threat level of 1 now, and we are going to crush them! I mean, after we heal up and all...

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 22

 A tale of two Tortles: Tequila Edition! That's right, I was drinking tequila before I started playing the 22nd game of my ongoing Five Leagues From The Borderlands solo campaign. A couple of things went wrong: I had meant to choose a tougher entry from the list rather than randomly generating the foe, and I meant to add a monster to the Forces Of Evil. As it turned out, the weenie force I rolled up to oppose Our Heroes was surprisingly difficult to defeat and resulted in the real possibility of lasting damage to the warband. 

Of course, it all started, as it always does, with the pre-battle activities. We were at The Crossing, a surviving neighborhood of Armskirk, the Ruined City. There was a Town Crier offering a contract, but we are on a mission to drive out the Gnawling horde so we declined it. WE helped the Town Guard and Quicktoes did some Training. Our Connections revealed a Quest to be undertaken, but it was ignored in the same manner as the Contract that had been offered by the Town Crier. Our enemy target would be Gnawling raiders, known to be counting their pillage nearby. They were in the area trying to gather information, but we were going to find it first! We had to move into contact with a token by the end of Turn 6 and Interact with it to win the scenario; due to random placement, the token was actually in the enemy deployment area. We were up against 8 Gnawling Raiders led by a Sergeant. Three of them had slings. A truly weenie force, low toughness, no armor, poor combat ability, and useless missile weapons. It SHOULD be a walk in the park.

The first turn was the usual surge towards each other. Plog The Elder tried to cast Foresee, but did not get it off. Nothing of merit happened this turn.

On the second turn, Tundaline and Rukacta continued running up the right flank, trying to get back to the middle (poor deployment, I blame the tequila!) Myrrh and Weppi moved up the center. I somehow thought the Gnawlings had the "Hatred Of Magic" rule that applies to Dusklings, so they swarmed Myrrh. He was able to turn the tables on three of them and slay them, including the Sergeant, in their tracks before he succumbed to the attacks of the fourth. He went down as a hero! The three enemy slingers hurled rocks ineffectively. Quicktoes moved up behind Weppi, and Plog the Elder tried to cast Foresee again, but with no luck. The Gnawling slinger on the left flank decided he had enough, and promptly fed the scene. 

Turn 3 saw Quicktoes spring into action, leaping into the cart the Raider that had killed Myrrh was fighting from. The sly Halfling took down the enemy before it had a chance to react. Two other Gnawlings attacked Plog The Elder, overwhelming the elderly tortle and taking him down. The remaining slingers hit Rukacta and took him out of action. Tundaline circled back the way she came, trying to engage the Raiders that had attacked Plog the Elder. Weppi, for her own part, moved up behind Quicktoes. A quick recap: Myrrh, Plog The Elder, and Rukacta are all out of action, and there are still four Gnawling Raiders attacking Our Heroes; no one is even close to Objective token yet.

On Turn 4, Tundaline moved to engage the Gnawlings that had taken down Plog the Elder; she wasn't close enough to attack, but certainly close enough to draw them into attacking her. Which is what they did, much to their dismay. Tundaline turned the tables on them and killed them both. The slingers jumped down from heir elevated position and ran towards Our Heroes. Weppi moved to intercept them, and Quicktoes made a made dash towards the courier rat (Objective token) trying to reach it before it scampered off.

The fifth turn had only Tundaline reacting before the Gnawlings moved, and she positioned herself close to Weppi to intercept the evil rat-men. They fell for the bait and attacked her, and both fell before the might of her warhammer. Quicktoes made it to the courier rat, made the interaction with it, and completed the scenario victory conditions. We had won, and Held The Field. But what of our downed brethren? 

First, our fallen Heroes: the dice compensated for my drunken plans, and everyone was simply Knocked Out. I was quite worried before the rolls, as I really like these three models. We managed to loot a Repair Kit, and we have a lead to a new Unexplored Location on the map. And the News Travelled that a stranger is visiting; we may select a random settlement, and if we visit there within the next two campaign turns and want to meet them, we may roll a Traveler Encounter. Finally, two Adventure Milestone rolls were made, the first was a wager of 5 Adventure Points to reduce the Gnawling Horde threat level by one with a "2" rolled, and the second was a wager of 5 Adventure Points to promote Rukacta to a Hero with a roll of "1". So both rolls succeeded, the Gnawling Horde threat was reduced by one point, and Rukacta is now a Hero. 

I quite enjoyed this game, despite the initial mistakes made in enemy forces and deployment. It looked like the whole battle was going south on Turn 3, but we recovered and managed to pull a win out of it. Next game, I will be picking and choosing enemy forces as well as bringing a monster to support them. I think, in the interest of safety, I will not play after consuming copious amounts of alcohol.

Meet Rukacta!

 For those of you following along at home, a few games ago in my Five Leagues From The Borderlands solo campaign Our Heroes picked up a Grateful Volunteer who has been chilling in town while the rest of the Warband has gone out and done warband-y things. In the last game, we sadly lost Morgan, a Skyborn former soldier. So now is the time for our Grateful Volunteer to shine! Equipped with a bastard sword, light armor, and a shield, he is ready to join the rest of the warband as we wrap up the drive to eliminate the Gnawling Horde from Armskirk, the Ruined City.

A Tale of Two Tortles: Game 21

 OK, so my last game was a milestone at Game 20, and this game is a milestone of being the 40th Campaign Turn. I'd love to recount the Town Events that transpired on this vaunted occasion, but due to a computer error I deleted the data, leaving only the Battle Encounter to be presented. Suffice to say that we made it back to The Crossing safely, ready for battle. We would be fighting Tunnel Fighters from the Gnawling Horde, and they brought a friend: a Feral Mercenary. We had to get to the wrecked wagon at the intersection for a bit of intelligence on these chittering fiends, and they seemed like they wanted either stop us, or were just looking for a fight.

On Turn One, we found out these guys are fast! They crossed the board and almost, not quite, made it into melee. Their crossbows fired without effect. Myrrh returned fire, killing one of their crossbowrats. Plog The Elder was climbing a ruined a ruined building.

Turn Two saw the melee close. Weppi killed one of the Gnawlings, but both she and Tundaline came away from the skirmish at the wagon with Wounds on them. Over on the other side, a rat took down Morgan before Quicktoes killed it in return. Myrrh fired ineffectively. With two of the bad guys dead, the remaining crossbowrat fled as fast as his paws could carry him. Plog cast his "Foresee" spell, allowing us until Turn 6 to investigate the wagon.

And then Turn Three saw fortunes improve. Tundaline killed a rat, Weppi managed to push back the Feral Mercenary, and Myrrh found his mark against another Gnawling. Quicktoes made a mad dash for the wagon. Plog The Elder tried to summon his Construct, but the winds of magic were against him.

Finally, Turn Four saw the conclusion of the skirmish. Tundaline killed the remaining rat, and Weppi killed the Feral Mercenary. Victory was ours and we Held The Field.

The Resolution was that Morgan had died of her wounds. She will be missed. We picked up a gold coin from the rats, and acquired a couple of Bandages. A total of one Story Point and six Adventure Points were gained. News Travelled that the Duke had increased patrols, reducing the Gnawling Horde Threat by one. Finally, and Adventure Milestone was attempted, with five Adventure Points wagered and a roll of "1," we reduced the Threat by one more. I am really disappointed at the loss of Morgan, she was one of my favorite Warband members.

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 20

 Welcome to Game 20 of my ongoing solo Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign! This is pretty special for me, since my last campaign fizzled after about 16 games. I wasn't numbering them back then, so it's a little hard to tell for sure. But "20" feels like a milestone achievement. One of the things that I noticed in the earlier campaign, even though it was using the 2nd edition rules, is that the Warband hits a certain level of aptitude and it becomes increasingly easy to win the battles. I am starting to hit that point with my current campaign, as Weppi and company are getting powerful. There are a lot of ways to increase the difficulty of the campaign, but I don't like switching things up partway through. So my plan at this point is to wrap up the Threat of the Gnawling Horde, and then move to a new campaign in the Ancient Land of Dust using this same warband. But that's enough pontificating about the overall campaign; let's get to the game!

It started, as it always does, in Town. We were still in Bradfordshire, trying to root out he last vestiges of the Duskling Warbands. We spent a couple of turns healing up, lost some gold to Pickpockets, and researched where, exactly, the Goblin Hideout could be found. And so the story went this turn, granting +1 Story Point. We Helped The Town Guard to offset the high cost of living; Quicktoes did some training. There was no Trade that we wanted to engage in, and there was no result from our Connections. The Hideout was right here in Bradfordshire. And now, death was coming to it.

So, the approach phase for the Hideout Raid saw Weppi moving twice before the Dusklings were alerted to her presence. The beginning of Turn 1 saw the bulk of the goblins rushing towards Weppi's position; one made contact and was promptly killed for his insolence. Plog The Elder revealed the Unknown Enemies marker as only two goblins, which was a relief because this meant only ten of them, instead of the possible 13 that we might have faced. Two of the Dusklings had run towards Morgan, Quicktoes, and Myrrh, only to be met with steel and cut down. Three bad guys were dead already, one decided to run away, and it was only the first turn.

Turn Two saw Weppi under siege. The Sergeant, the Captain, and another goblin all attacked her one after the after. They all died for their efforts. Two more goblins ran into the general vicinity, and another one headed towards to Morgan-Quicktoes-Myrrh cluster. Tundaline was coming up behind Weppi, while Myrrh took a bowshot at the goblin advancing towards him. He missed.

On the Third Turn, there was an amazing initiative roll: four 1's, allowing almost everyone to act before the Dusklings. Weppi and Tundaline finished off the two goblins by them. Morgan and Quicktoes advance towards the last goblin, who took a shot at them but missed. Myrrh returned fire from a distance, but also missed.

On Turn Four, Tundaline activated first and killed the last goblin. We Held the Field, had killed the enemy Leadership, and destroyed the Threat of the Duskling Warbands once and for all.

We gained a total of four Adventure Points. Experience allowed both Weppi and Quicktoes to make advancement rolls, and both received +1 to their combat scores. Weppi is now +2 Combat with a Toughness of 5 protected by Armor 3. She is literally a walking tank now. We found the remains of a victim, who is forever in our debt (+1 Story Point,) and also found tracks leading to a new location (add an Unknown Location to the map.) We were able to loot a repair kit, a suit of light armor, and a shield from the Duskling corpses. Finally, News Travelled that the Gnawling Horde was making plans against us, and their Threat level was increased by one, from 4 to 5. I was hoping to roll over them quickly; this will be a setback to be overcome. But now we are six Heroes and a reserve Follower, and getting stronger after every battle.

A Tale of Two Tortles: Game 19

 So! Game 19 of my ongoing Five Leagues From The Borderlands solo campaign happened. It was Turn 36 of the campaign, and boy was it a doozy! It always starts easily enough, this time in we were still in Bradfordshire doing village things. We helped the Town Guard and Tundaline did some Training. There was to be no Gambling, as the law was cracking down (helping the Town Guard, WE were cracking down on that sort of thing!) But that's not the exciting stuff. The exciting stuff was taking the fight to the Duskling Warbands and trying to stomp them out of existence. 

We needed to find out more about where they were hiding. There was a spot in Bradfordshire where they had been known to camp out, and we went there to find more clues. As we approached a little farmstead on the outskirts, the Dusklings thems elves were returning from a raid. Prowling Renegades, six of them, and they brought a friend too! A real bear, this was an Unreasoning Brute who we had heard of from other parts of the Ruined city. 

We decided to run the same play as last time: give Morgan the Ferret's Drink potion so she could speed around the battlefield examining the clues while staying out of sight of the goblins, while the rest of us tried to lure the bad guys close to us to give her some space to work her investigative magic. And that's exactly how it went on the first turn. Plog The Elder was able to cast his Foresee spell, allowing us an extra turn to accomplish the search for clues.

On Turn Two, things got messy fast. Myrrh missed his shot, Tundaline killed a goblin before being felled in return, and Weppi wounded the Unreasoning Brute before Quicktoes finished him off. Plog The Elder put up a wall of fire to protect Morgan from the bad guys as she closed on a clue. Finally, two of the goblins, seeing the Brute go down, decided to flee the scene.

At the start of Turn Three, there were only three goblins and five of us. Quicktoes killed the Duskling close to him. Plog the Elder summoned a Construct, which promptly attacked the closest goblin; the goblin held it's own and took it down. Weppi dispatched another goblin. That bad guy who knocked out he construct then took a shot a Plog The Elder, and that single shot took him down! Morgan, for her own part, uncovered the clue in the field.

Turn Four saw Myrrh try to shoot that last goblin, but only wounded him. Weppi then went in for the kill, but the tables of fate turned and she went out of action. The Duskling then took a return shot at Myrrh, but not only missed but also ran out of ammo. Morgan then used the added speed from the Ferret's Drink to engage the goblin, and she too went down before the diminutive marauder's knife! Was there no stopping the foul thing?

Turn Five started with only Myrrh and Quicktoes facing off against the apparently unstoppable last Duskling. Quicktoes engaged it, but was pushed back for his trouble. That goblin pounced on Quicktoes in return, who fought it to a draw. Myrrh took a shot at it, finally killing it. There was one clue left...

On Turn Six, Quicktoes hopped in the wagon with the last clue, fulfilling the Victory Conditions of the skirmish. But what would be the cost in fallen comrades? Four of their friends were down, so the halfling and Myrrh went to attend to their fellows.

We gained a total of six Adventure Points for our trouble; four from the normal d6 roll and another two for defeating a Unique Foe. Weppi was moderately injured and would normally require three turns to heal up, but as a Rugged Survivor, this was reduced to two. Tundaline was seriously injured and will require three turns of healing. Plog the Elder was merely knocked out, while Morgan suffered a light injury and will be out for two turns of healing. Quicktoes had a Flash Of Insight, with a roll of 00 he became a full-fledged Hero in the Warband (which was very fitting given how well he performed in this battle.) We recovered a bastard sword from the goblins, and liberated some sacks of grain from the abandoned farm that could be sold for one Gold coin. Finally, Roysa the Herder Mid sent us a letter, resulting in an extra Adventure Point.

Next up, we will need to locate the Duskling Warbands hideout and eliminate it in a Camp Raid to reduce their Threat entirely, after we do some healing up.

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 18

 OK, so I played through Game 18 of my ongoing solo Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign. When we last left Our Heroes, they were In Camp in an uninhabited part of Armskirk, The Ruined City. They spent Campaign Turn 34 travelling to Bradfordshire, a settlement outside the city proper that is a lot less destroyed. Campaign Turn 35 was then another Skirmish turn, resulting in this game. But first, there were important things to do in Bradfordshire; we need a new Recruit, which resulted in Quicktoes joining the warband (as an aside, I bought a Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures "Halfling Rogue" for this new addition, and the model is wearing boots... who ever heard of a halfling with footwear?)

This time around, we wanted to bring the good fight to the frightful menace of the Duskling Warbands. They were skulking in the same map location as Our Heroes, so no travel would be required. Those fiends were hunting us, too. Per the rules, all of their ranged attacks would have the Poison trait. But as it was a Maddened Wave of goblins, there were no archers, so I made the executive decision that ALL of their weapons would have Poison. Make it a little dangerous! And if we didn't defeat them? They would be carrying out part of their overall scheme, which now seemed to be defeating us! But was it? We would have to search around their stomping grounds a little and find out what was really going on... the scenario would be Search For Something, with a randomly-placed Search marker and then a random table edge was determined for the Duskling deployment.

This was going to require some thinking. The Dusklings would be past the Search marker before Our Heroes could get to it, so I thought the trick might be to give Morgan the Ferret's Drink potion so she could circle around behind the goblins as we used the rest of the warband as bait to draw them forward and past the Search marker. So, on the first turn, we formed a battle line and did not advance very far forward as the Dusklings advance quickly towards us. Plog The Elder tried to cast "Foresee" so as to give Morgan an extra turn to search the Search marker, but failed to get it off.

Turn Two was much more exciting! Myrrh tried shooting at one of the oncoming goblins, but rolled a "1" and was out of ammo for the rest of the skirmish. The Dusklings surged forward, exactly as anticipated, but couldn't quite reach Our Heroes. Weppi then charged, killing one of the enemy. Quicktoes followed her example, but failed to find his mark. Tundaline then moved in next to Weppi, and killed another bad guy. Morgan had by this time circled behind the goblins and was in sight of the Search marker, and Plog The Elder managed to cast Foresee this turn as well. With the clash of steel and sparks of magic flying about, two of the Dusklings decided they had enough of this and promptly fled the scene.

On Turn Three, Weppi started string by circling around Tundaline and killing another goblin. The Dusklings then moved up to fight Weppi and Tundaline, one dying before Weppi's armored might and another pushing Tundaline back. Quicktoes and Myrrh leapt into the fray, but the halfling went down, out of action in his very first skirmish! Morgan made it to the Search marker, and succeeded in her Battlewise test to fulfill the Scenario victory condition.

By Turn Four, there were only two Dusklings left. Weppi and Myrrh dispatched them before they had a chance to act. Victory was ours and we Held The Field! Yay!

The Search marker? That turned out to be evidence of the Duskling plans (add 2 Adventure Points.) We gained another 2 Adventure Points for winning the scenario, and wagering the 4 Adventure Points we earned versus a d6 roll, we reduced the Duskling Warband threat by one level. Quicktoes was just knocked out, no real harm done. We were able to loot a Spring Vial from the Dusklings, and in the ruins a Grateful Volunteer revealed themself, adding a new Warband member if we decided to keep them. Finally, News Travels... a Caravan is arriving at The Crossing, and we can roll two additional times on the Rare Goods table if we get there within two campaign turns.