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...

A Tale Of Two Tortles: Game 15

 OK, so I played through my 15th tabletop game of the Five Leagues from The Borderlands campaign. Turn 27 of the campaign was spent resting up so Myrrh could heal, which also included Supportive Locals (allowing an extra campaign activity) and A Friend Sends Aid (gaining 2 more Gold.) The game itself was Turn 28, having a Market Day at The Crossing in which we bought Tundaline a Ranger's Cloak for 8 Gold. The Meeting Engagement scenario was rolled, against 8 Murder Cultists led by a Sergeant. They were preparing to attack villagers, with the intent of entrenching themselves further in the area. We had to Search For Something, which wound up being randomly placed on a second-story floor of a building close to Our Heroes. I finally managed to Seize the Initiative, and then promptly forgot about it as I had to shoo the cats from my terrain.

On the first turn, the Murder Cultists all moved before the warband, moving forward in three separate groups (remember, I forgot I Seized The initiative due to cat trouble!) Weppi and Grushnag rolled towards the left flank, while Myrrh headed towards the building with the Objective in it. Tundaline, Plog the Elder, and Morgan rushed forward to control a gap in the ruined walls that would serve as a choke-point to the enemy advance. Plog also got up a Wall Of Fire to further slow them.

Turn Two saw the enemy moving forward again. Myrrh scrambled up the stone wall to grab the objective, but there were no bad guys directly below him cutting off his easy retreat. Weppi trundled forward while Grushnag leapt into combat, killing a Cultist. Likewise on the right flank there would clearly be some fighting soon.

And fighting there would be on Turn Three! but first, Myrrh scrambled down from the building and headed towards Weppi and Grushnag instead of trying to retreat past the Cultists. Weppi charged into a Cultist, took a wound but no one fell. On the other side, Plog the Elder went down to the enemy Sergeant, but not before killing a Cultist himself, leaving Tundaline and Morgan caught between two groups of enemy.

The next Turn was decisive. Weppi and Grushnag killed a Cultist, and then Myrrh caught up to them and dispatched another himself. The Cultists for their own part took down Morgan, but Tundaline was able to follow up and kill their Sergeant.

On Turn Five, Tundaline found herself effectively alone against four Murder Cultists, but over both her own and their activations, she killed two of them. Weppi, Grushnag, and Myrrh were scrambling as fast as they could to come to her rescue, but it was still a long way to travel.

Turn Six heralded the arrival of Grushnag and Myrrh to Tundaline's vicinity, but not before she fell to the cruel blades of the enemy. At this point, an Executive Decision was made to take the game into Overtime, for a few additional turns to see if we could Hold The Field. This brought with some risk that Grushnag and Myrrh would be injured or killed, but I was fairly confident Weppi could survive. We had a Soul Sphere in reserve, after all.

The Seventh Turn (is that a seventh son of a seventh son?) had Weppi uselessly crashing against a Cultist, but weathering both of their return attacks. Grushgag then killed one while Myrrh was pushed back, but not before wounding that last Cultist.

On the last turn, Weppi found her mark and dispatched the last Murder Cultist. It was a tough fought battle, and some friends were down, but we had emerged victorious against the Ruin Within.

Resolving the scenario, it turned out the item Myrrh found was valuable evidence of enemy plans, yielding 2 Adventure Points. A further 5 Adventure Points were awarded for completing the Scenario Objective. We made an Adventure Milestone roll with 4 points, rolling a 2 and reducing the Ruin Within threat level by one. In determining the fate of those who went out of action during the Scenario, Plog the Elder was Lightly wounded and would need to spend a Campaign Turn recovering, while Tundaline turned out to be dead; the Soul Sphere was used to revive her. Morgan was Moderately wounded and would require six Campaign Turns to heal up. There was an Unusual Find on the battlefield, precious metals worth four Gold. We were also able to loot a Repair Kit. A Flash of insight roll was made for Grushnag and Myrrh; Grushnag had no result, but Myrrh became a Hero! Finally, News Travelled that some travelers had seen something odd across the ruins of the city, and an Unexplored location was added to the Wilderness of the map.

As some final reflections on the game, the Murder Cultists were tough foes. They only fled on a roll of 1, and during the game not a single 1 was rolled for their Morale. Pushing the game into Overtime was a bit risky, but it paid off. Weppi already had a wound and stood a good chance of going out of action, but I was confident about that due to the Soul Sphere. Fortunately I was able to ue it to save Tundaline instead, the only other original Warband member. It's going to be a long time healing up for Morgan, so we will have a few turns resting before we head out for more adventure!

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.