Rangers of Shadow Deep - Mission 2 part 3... the top of the tower!

 

 

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Mission 2: Scenario 3 "Tor Varden - The Upper Level"

 

This was the last part of the second mission from the main Rangers of Shadow Deep Rulebook.. Our Rangers and companions emerge at the top of the tower of Tor Varden... There was a huge woodpile at the centre of the tower. Chained to the top of this was a prisoner waiting to be sacrificed. Guarding the tower platform were 3 Gnoll Archers, a Gnoll fighter... and a sinister Shadow Knight!

 

In the first turn only 3 of our characters could get out onto the platform. Alfie suggested that they should all be figures who could shoot - so it was both Rangers and an archer who came out firing their bows... Both my guys missed their targets, but Alfie's ranger hit one of the Gnoll archers with his first shot, seriously wounding him...

The rest of our crew rushed out of the stairwell at the start of the second turn... My archers failed to hit their targets again.. Alfie's conjuror fumbled his magic bolt spell, and then the baddies moved into positions where they could all finally see what was going on. At the end of the second turn we saw green fire in the distance, and realising that the tower of Tor Dargos had fallen to the forces of the Shadow Deep! All our characters had to take a Will roll...unfortunately all three of Alfie's companions were traumatised by the sight of the green fire and were now reduced to only one action per turn...

 

Turn 3 was more running and shooting... Alfie's conjuror used his one action to use his last magic bolt to wipe out one of the Gnoll archers..... my Man-at-arms ran at another Gnoll, but was knocked out immediately... The Shadow Knight and Gnoll Fighter moved around the wood pile to intercept my Ranger and Archer...

 

The Shadow Knight is really tough to beat. He has +4 fight, and any damage that is done to him by non-magic weapons is halved. Luckily for us, Alfie's Ranger had used the magic powder he found on the dead Gnoll sergeant in the last scenario to make his sword magic. Combining this with his one use ability of Frenzied attack, and a cracking dice roll, he severely damaged the Shadow knight with his first hit. My guys tried to join in... didn't do any damage, but my Warhound did manage to push back the Shadow Knight right at the end of turn 4.... this was when we saw more green fire lighting up the sky in the opposite direction to before.. the tower of Tor Hammel had also fallen to the tide of evil!! Will rolls were made again.. and some of the companions were now so terrified that they had -2 Fight for the rest of the scenario...

 

If the Shadow Knight is unengaged at the end of turn 5 he will sacrifice the soldier on the woodpile and then set it alight! - It was a good job then that Alfie's Ranger used his first action to blast the Shadow knight into nothingness with his one use magic bolt spell!!... we finished off the remaining Gnolls with out too much trouble... and that was it. We had retaken Tor Varden from the forces of darkness.

 

The top of the tower (paper printout mat using "2 minute tabletop" resources...and a coffee stirrer wood pile!)

The start of turn 1... the Rangers come out shooting!

The start of turn 2...

...turn 3... some companions are reduced to one action..

...the end of turn 4... my Warhound has just pushed back the Shadow Knight....

 

 

We earned enough experience for our Rangers to go up to level 3. This means we have slightly more recruitment points now, so we may decide to change our companions a bit before the next mission... A few of our current companions have survived 5 scenarios without being reduced to 0 health... so that means they get an extra permanent Health point, which is pretty cool!

 

There is one other 3 part mission in the rule book. But I also have the "Blood Moon" Mission which is suitable for level 0-5 Rangers... so maybe we will do that next...??

Frostgrave - The Pits of Null

 

A couple of weeks ago we played through "The Pits of Null" scenario from the Frostgrave Folio... There were five null pits on the table...and some Nullmen... Anyone touching the pits is immune to magic, but also cannot use magic... The Nullmen are attracted to the most powerful magic user (which was mostly Lizzy's wizard for this scenario)...every turn another Nullman appeared... we were using Ulterior Motive cards, I had "Soul Drain" and Lizzy had "The Drawing Knife".... we had a couple of wandering monsters - a Vampire and some Snakemen...

 

This was a very interesting game. The anti-magic pits and the Nullmen really added a fun element. Lizzy completed her objective by removing a magic dagger from a statue... my objective however was a lot more dramatic... I opened a magic trapdoor towards the end of the game and every figure on the board had to succeed a high Will roll or be moved towards the trap a number of inches equal to the number they failed their roll by, and if they ended up touching the trap they were reduced to zero health immediately!! - A bunch of figures were sucked into the trap - monsters and warband members!!

 

 

This was the last of the three scenarios from the "Sellsword" section of the Frostgrave Folio. I really enjoyed all of them, they effected our usual tactics in very interesting ways.

 

We have decide that we will conclude the adventures of our current warbands for now by playing through the "Ravages of Time" semi-cooperative" mini campaign that is at the back of the Frostgrave Folio.... and then we will be starting again with fresh new wizards and warbands to play through the "Thaw of the Lich Lord" big campaign...

Dungeon Scenery - Mantic Terrain Crate

When I was at the Hammerhead wargames show, I bought a reduced priced box of scenery from the Mantic Games stall... This was some stuff from their Kickstarter they did a year or two ago.. The box said "Dungeon Crate" and had a bunch of relevant "Dungeon" Terrain in... some really nice bits - I especially like the Wizards study stuff... The mine carts and tracks will look nice as part of Shadows of Brimstone games... Good stuff, I wouldn't have paid full price for it, but I got a good deal.

 

 

 

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Tor Varden Lower levels

Mission 2 - scenario 2 - "Tor Varden, Lower Level"... after our run in with the Gnolls at their camp by the river, we made it to the tower at Tor Varden. We had found the scroll in the Gnoll camp, so we knew how to quietly enter the doorway without making a skill roll... there were three rooms we had to make it through to get to the stairs that led to the top of the tower...

 

The first room was an Armoury... there were some Gnoll fighters and a Gnoll archer in here. In this scenario each room has a turn limit trigger, so if you don't get through and open the door in time, the next room will have additional perils! - The trigger for this room was 4 turns... luckily we managed to take out the Gnolls and get to the door just in time. There were two clues in this room - we found the log book of the Captain of the tower, and a book of astronomy...

 

The second room was a shaman's workshop - in the centre of the room was a big table with a huge Flesh Golem on it. There were some more Gnolls and a Gnoll Shaman in here. If we didn't kill the shaman before the end of the 3rd turn he would wake up the Flesh Golem... we rushed in doing some bad shooting and then we mobbed the Gnolls... a brawl ensued... my warhound was knocked out (4 times in 4 games!) and two of Alfie's companions were badly hurt, but we managed to kill all the Gnolls before the end of the 3rd turn... so the Flesh Golem stayed asleep on his table.

 

The last room was some kind of torture room. In here there were two prisoners chained to the wall, some Gnoll fighters, and in the centre was Gnoll sergeant scuffling with another wounded prisoner... we charged across the room engaging the first Gnoll... we couldn't shoot at the sergeant for fear of shooting the prisoner, but luckily even though he was unarmed he managed to reduce the sergeant to half health with a lucky roll by himself before we got to them!... a big scrum developed, and then it didn't take too long to finish off the last of the Gnolls. We found some magic dust on the body of the Gnoll sergeant that can make one of our weapons magic. Alfie decided that he would like to give it to his Ranger for the next scenario.We then had a decision to make. Before going up the stairs to the next level, we could choose to get extra experience points if we left one of our companions to stay behind and guard the wounded prisoners. But if we did this they would not be joining us for the next scenario... we decided to keep the team together and forego the extra points. Besides, one of the prisoners seemed perfectly capable of looking after himself!

 

My warhound shook himself back to consciousness and warily followed behind as we started to climb the stairs to the next level.....

 

 

Things could have turned bad quite easily in this scenario... we were lucky to clear the first room just in time, if we hadn't then the penalty for the second room would have given us all -2 fight... and if the Golem had woken up it could have been a whole different story!

Agden Reservoir

 

A nice quiet walk around Agden Reservoir last weekend. Just a 20 minute drive from our house... this was a place we hadn't visited before. The UK has hardly had any rain this past year. The reservoirs are noticeably low.

Shadows of Brimstone.... more monsters...

Rievaulx Abbey - North Yorkshire

 

On a slightly rainy day at the beginning of May we decided to visit Rievaulx Abbey on the way back from an East coast holiday. I hadn't heard of it before, but we like to visit English Heritage sites that we're unfamiliar with.... What a fantastic place - originally a huge elaborate Abbey, reduced to ruins by Henry VIII, and now preserved by English Heritage. Nice café too!