OK, so I started a new campaign for my Five Leagues From The Borderlands warband. I am calling this one Tortles In The Dust, because I am setting the campaign in The Land Of Ancient Dust using the supplement of the same name. Our Threats would be The Dust Rises, The Oldest Kin, and Outlaw Bands. To finish the campaign, we need to eliminate all threats, and finish/defeat/explore three each of Delves, Quests, Contracts, Unknown Locations, and Aberrations.
To start with we arrived in the village of Istahkr, a mystical site. Plog The Elder would feel right at home here! There was also a Wandering Scholar who had recently arrived, and offered to help Study. Unfortunately, we had other thing we needed to take care of. We paid our 1 gold for Upkeep, earned it back through Hard Work, and Recruited Plodo, a local Chitter (although his Chitter abilities will not be available until he achieves Hero status.) We bought Plodo a Warspear, because I have found that Warspears really make a difference in combat. We tried to make some Connections in this new land, but came up empty. One thing we did discover, however, is that there were some Outlaws nearby making trouble. So we decided to find them, fight them, and maybe find out what they are up to.
They were not near the village, so we had to make a trip out to the Wilderness. While travelling, we met a Physician who yielded some Useful Information (+2 Adventure points! Yay!) And since this was the first time we travelled in the Dust, we also picked up a Quest. More on that in the future.
And then we were upon the Repentant Deserters, who were counting their loot but ready to fight. The immediate area had four cases of Unpleasant Flora, three patches of Soft Sand, a lot of big boulders, and a big ol' Obelisk. I forgot to put out the Glimmers. The environmental effect as that the sand grasps and siezes, which meant our heroes could not Dash but the enemy could (we're not Sand Dwellers yet, the Quest will fix that.) There were six of the Deserters, three with self-bows. No leaders, no unique individuals, so it should be an easy fight, right? Right? We did not Sieze The Initiative.
The first turn saw both sides advancing towards each other. Plog The Elder got up a Barrier (a wall of fire) which protected the left flank, but a Deserter archer felled Weppi on the first shot. The idea had been for Weppi to be supported by Plodo and Rukacta, but now The new guy was left out in the open with the other weakest warband member. Tundaline and Quicktoes were heading for the Stash (represented by the Turn Marker Die.)
Turn Two went marginally better. Tundaline secured the objective, Plog The Elder failed to cast his Construct spell and wound up in melee with a Deserter but survived, and a skirmish with Quicktoes, Rukacta, and Plodo versus one of the Deserters ended with no casualties. The archers had no effect.
On Turn Three, things started looking less positive. Plog The Elder was taken down by a bad guy, and the cluster of remaining Heroes only felled two of the Deserters. Plodo's warspear was effective here, as his Counterattack with it was one of the killing blows. 8 Gold well spent! Those two Deserter casualties broke the morale of a third, and he promptly departed the battlefield, leaving the three archers facing our four friends.
The fourth turn was a bit of a disaster, with both Tundaline and Quicktoes going out of action, and the other two huddling against the Obelisk to try and minimize the amount of shooting that could come their way.
Turn Five (Turn Four in the pictures, I forgot to rotate the die previously) brought a daring attack by Rukacta and Plodo in the face of enemy archery! Plodo was cut down, but Rukacta in turn killed the offending Deserter, which led to another bad guy running away. Rukacta was face to face with the last enemy.
On Turn Six... but wait, here's the thing. If Our Heroes win the battle (we have already achieved the Objective) we stand to gain more Adventure points and Gold than if, say, Rukacta ran away at this point. So I mentally prepared myself to spend Story Points as necessary to achieve a victory. And it took three of them to re-roll the last deserter's three exchanges with Rukacta for our surviving Hero to secure that Victory and Hold the Field! THREE Story Points! The Turn Six picture is showing 5, due to the aforementioned reason.
Weppi was lightly wounded and would require two turns of recovery. Tundaline was also lightly wounded and would aso be out two turns. Plog The Elder was severely injured and would need to recover for four turns. Quicktoes was just knocked out, the lucky git. Plodo was moderately injured and would be out for four turns. We looted a suit of Fie Partial Armor, and found a Personal Item that we might find the owner of, and returning it would be beneficial. Finally, News Travelled that the Emir had raided enemy forces and the Dust Rises threat has been reduced by one. An Adventure Milestone was achieved for 5 Adventure Points and Plodo is now a Hero.
So that was six turns of fighting in the Dust. The Repentant Deserters were tougher than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise. I am still working on my scenery for the campaign, so that will continue to evolve over time. I expect to be working on this for quite a while, so there is plenty of time to get it all done.
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