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.

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 17

 OK, so I played through Campaign Turns 32 and 33 of my solo Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign a few days ago. Number 32 was just resting up so Tundaline could heal, but we ran into a pack of pickpockets and lost three Gold coins. Those that could helped the Town Guard and did some Hard Work, slightly offsetting the loss to the pickpockets. For the 33rd campaign turn, we were ready to bring the fight to The Ruin Within at their hideout! 

But first, we spent some time at The Crossing doing town things, like helping the Town Guard, doing some Hard Work, and discovering where, exactly, The Ruin Within was hiding out. Once we figured that out (Adventure Milestone, 6 Adventure points wagered with a roll of 4, we found out with no problem!) we had to Travel there. While on the way, we saw Something in the distance and added an Unexplored Location to the map. We had arrived just as they were counting their loot!

Before the game proper started, there was an approach phase as we snuck up on them. Weppi clunked forward while Myrrh got a nice start on climbing to the second floor of a ruined building. Weppi clunked ahead some more and the bad guys spotted her, they were five Bloodstained Renegades with their Lieutenant and Captain. Our victory condition would be to kill these two leaders, but there would be additional benefits if we Held The Field.

The first game turn saw advancement to combat positions. Weppi positioned herself at a break in a wall, using her bulk to block the Renegades from surrounding her. Myrrh took a shot at an opposing archer without effect, who then returned fire with similar results. The rest of the Renegades surged forward to attack Our Heroes, not quite closing the distance between the opposing groups. Morgan and Grushnag followed up behind Weppi, while Plog The Elder and Tundaline brought up the left flank.

Turn Two brought menace and mayhem. Weppi managed to kill two of the bad guys but not without taking a wound herself, while Myrrh found his mark on the enemy archer he had previously shot at. Grushnag squeezed past Weppi and made a lunge for the Lieutenant, killing him on the first exchange. Morgan moved up right behind Weppi, while Plog the Elder and Tundaline tactically maneuvered. The other Renegade archer decided he had enough of the slaughter, and promptly fled the scene.

At the start of Turn Three, there were only two bad guys left: a Renegade and the Captain. By the time dust cleared, Grushnag was down, Morgan had killed the remaining Renegade, and Tundaline had finished off the Captain by inflicting two wounds, no clean kill there. We had Held The Field and stamped out the last vestige of The Ruin Within from Armskirk, the Ruined City!

As it turned out Grushnag wasn't just down, he was dead. He had been a good follower, and brought down his fair share of foes. He would be missed. The total haul from the battle was to be 3 Gold, 6 Adventure Points, four Torches, a Fine basic weapon, and a Fine bastard sword. After we settled in to Camp amongst the ruins, News Travelled that the rangers have been scouting the area, which added a further two Adventure points. Next up: travelling to Bradfordshire!

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 16

 OK, so I played through some more Campaign Turns of my solo Five Leagues From The Borderlands game. Campaign Turns 29 and 30 had a whole lot of Healing going on, as well as helping the Town Guard to offset the high Cost Of Living. Plog the Elder was fully Healed, and Morgan healed four Campaign Turns' worth through judicious visits to the Town Healer. Turn 31 is where things got better; the plan was for Morgan to Heal and visit the Town Healer to be ready to fight on the next turn, but there was a Wandering Healer in town who got her back on her feet and into action this turn! Our choice for adventure would to maintain the momentum against The Ruin Within; they were still in the same map area as we are, but waiting in ambush (there would be no Seizing The Initiative and they gained the Outflank trait) with the intent to cause Chaos and carnage; we would lose 3 Adventure points if we failed to complete the Objective. To succeed, we needed to Search For Something (again!) and the target token was on the second floor of a building on the enemy half of the table. It would take more work than last skirmish to succeed this time!

The first turn was spent merely advancing towards each other, so uneventful I forgot to put down the turn marker die. Myrrh, now fully matured as a Fey Blood and armed with a bow, ran up the stairs for a good vantage for shooting. Everyone else remained on the ground.

Turn Two was decisive, to put it mildly. After the various melees were over, four of the Outlaws were dead, one ran away, and Tundaline was down for the count. Myrrh missed his shot, and Plog The Elder did NOT manage to summon his Construct. Weppi had a Wound on her, as did one of the bad guys.

On Turn Three, the momentum was carried through. Morwen and Grushnag killed off two more Outlaws, and the remaining two ran away. Victory was ours, and we Held The Field.

Resolving the scenario, we fulfilled the Victory Condition with Searching Something, which turned out to be evidence of Victims, adding an Adventure Point. We spent four Adventure Pints to make an Adventure Milestone to reduce the Ruin Within threat level, which turned out successfully. For our trouble, we gained another six Adventure Points. Tundaline was Moderately Wounded, requiring a turn of Healing. Another Adventure Milestone roll was made wagering six Adventure Points, which promoted Morgan to a full-fledged Hero and coming into her own as a Skysworn warrior. We managed to loot two more doses of Ironshield Root, and an Unusual Find was a Warhammer. Finally, News Travelled that a letter needed delivering. We would drop it off in Mirefield when we went to root out the Hideout of The Run Within...