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...
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