Tortles In The Dust: Game 4

 OK, so I played Game 4 of my new Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign, "Tortles In The Dust."

But first, some bookkeeping before we get into it. Do you remember that young girl we rescued last game? She has become a Loyal member of the Warband. Her name is Vashti. She's just a Follower, so she'll be in the background for a while, but when we have someone out Healing, she will make an appearance to fill in the ranks.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can Continue the Adventure. Last seen, Our Heroes had rescued Vashti from the Legion of the Lion and were In Camp in the wilderness. Local events required a Bravery test to prevent a random warband member from being injured with damaged equipment; we passed the test. We also Lived Off The Land, while Plodo Trained, gaining +1 Experience. We managed to find a Contract using our Connections, but decided not to take it. This Quest is more important right now! And of the Quest, we needed to go to a new location in an existing random Map Area. Our Heroes would need to Vanquish The Foe who holds an important Quest item. But as we travelled to the new area, we were attacked by Petty Robbers! It looks like this Campaign Turn will be a two-for-one with back to back battles! 

The battle with the Petty Robbers was a quick, brutal affair. There were six of them, including two with slings. It was supposed to be the Defensive Engagement scenario, but I didn't look at my notes and played a Meeting Engagement instead. The game was over in two turns with no casualties for Our Heroes. At least there's some pretty pictures!

Once we arrived at the Shrine of the Monkey Goddess, we found the Forsaken Infantry we had been searching for, as their Captain had the fabled Phial Of The Sands we needed to further our knowledge of the Dust. There were eight of them, including two with crossbows, as well as the Captain who was our target. I used the same miniatures as I had used last game for the Legion Of The Lion; I still had them out, so it was an easy choice.

The first turn saw the obligatory advancing towards each other; Plog The Elder managed to get up a wall of fire to block one of the crossbowmen, and the other was out of range so moved forward. In the midst of the commotion, an Avatar of the Cat God made a brief appearance to inspect the realm of the Monkey Goddess.

Turn Two resulted in the first melees and casualties... seeing that the Forsaken Infantry were rushing ahead, Our Heroes held their actions until the bad guys were in contact range. Tundaline was quickly cut down by the enemy Captain. Plodo and Rukacta couldn't quite close the distance to attack. Plog The Elder animated his Construct, but it was quickly defeated by the opposition.

On Turn Three, things got wild! Weppi felled a couple of bad guys, Rukacta killed the Captain (thereby fulfilling the scenario Victory Condition,) and somewhere in the maelstrom of combat Plodo was taken down as well. I also forgot to rotate the Turn Marker Die to "3" so my pictures will show the wrong turn number here and moving forward.

The momentum continued on Turn Four: Weppi and Rukacta killed a couple more bad guys, Quicktoes came out from hiding behind Plog The Elder and dispatched a third. One of the crossbowmen wounded Rukacta and was wounded in return by the Felid's Harness Of Vengeance. With one crossbowman wounded and the other having just witnessed the slaughter of most of his friends, they both decided to make a run for it. The remaining Forsaken Infantryman was now Fearless.

"Fearless" didn't help him on Turn Five: Weppi dispatched him cleanly in the opening move.

This one should have been over quicker than it was. A few bad rolls for Our Heroes showed that encounters from the Core Rulebook can still have some teeth. Tundaline suffered a Light injury and would be Healing for two campaign turns. Plodo was not so lucky, sustaining a serious injury and will require five campaign turns to Heal up. As this was a Quest scenario, there was no experience or loot to be gained. The Quest Step roll was a 3, so the Quest continues...