Rangers of ShadowDeep - Swampland

Rangers of Shadow Deep

Mission 3 - Scenario 2 - "Swampland"

......and so to part two of the Descent Into Darkness mission for Rangers of Shadow Deep...after climbing down the broken stairs, our Rangers and trusty crew find themselves at the edge of a sinister swamp, and it looks like the water nearest the stairs is pretty deep. The Rangers are going to have to swim for it!!

 

   This scenario is played on a smaller 2" x"2 table, the first 1/3 of which is considered to be deep water and can only be moved across by swimming. The rest of the board is considered rough ground, so the team can only move at half their normal rate...

 

At the bottom of the broken stairs...the darker area is deep water...

   Swimming is hard. A lot of failed swimming rolls were made, and the Rangers struggled to get across the water. Meanwhile, the three swamp zombies that were on the table at the start of the game, attracted by the thrashing, flailing and semi-drowning Rangers, moved in to attack! Alfie's conjuror Malvolio succeeded in blasting one of the zombies with a Magic Bolt... another zombie made a bee-line for Archibald (the archer) who was doing the best job at swimming so far, but hadn't quite made it out of the water yet...if this wasn't bad enough, at the end of the turn another swamp zombie appeared from under the water and attacked him as well! Roderick the Man-at-arms swam to help Archibald, and between them they managed to kill both the zombies, freeing Archibald from their clutches and letting him get out of the deep water.

 

Attack of the swamp zombies!!

  As Roderick had already moved before he attacked, he was still in the deep water at the end of his turn. This was when the second underwater swamp zombie attacked. As the rest of the Rangers struggled across the table, Roderick tried to fight off the zombie... rolling a 2... he was dragged under the surface of the water never to be seen again. Members of our teams have been knocked out in previous scenarios, but this was the first actual death. A dark day indeed. In this mission the rangers can heal between scenarios, but they can't recruit... so we will be one team member down for the final game.

A dramatic re-construction of the death of Roderick....

    The remainder of the Rangers finally made it out of the water. They avenged Roderick by filling the swamp zombie full of arrows. Then finally after picking up some interesting objects (which they later failed rolls to identify the significance of!) were chased off the far edge of the table by a couple of giant flies.

 

This scenario really felt like a struggle, and we had some dramatic moments in the game. Our games so far have been a lot of fun, working as a team and taking on the baddies.. but the combination of the terrain and the monsters in this one really made us feel under threat, and then with the shocking death of one of our team - I think this has definitely been the most enjoyable game so far!... Ha - although I've had a read through of the final scenario, and if any of us come out alive it will be a miracle! - I'm really looking forward to that one!!