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!
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