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.
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