Rangers of Shadow Deep - Burning Light - Part V

For the fifth part of the "Burning Light" campaign mission for Rangers of Shadow Deep... we have moved across the courtyard of the Convent to search a tower in the corner which appears to be some kind of Herb Store...

(There are some spoilers here - so if you are planning to play through this mission yourself, maybe don't read this until after you've had your own game experience...)

   

Our current lineup of Heroes:

Alfie's Team:

Arthur - Ranger (level 7)

Malvolio - Conjuror

Fern - Guardswoman

Hattie - Recruit

Brutus - Hound (rescued in the first scenario)

My Team:

Jennifer - Ranger (level 7)

Archibald - Archer

Seb - (a character from the Bloodmoon mission who is now a companion)

Geoffrey - Warhound

St.Doneera - Ghostly Warrior Priestess (who joined us in the third scenario)

After the smell of zombie nuns in the last location, the scent of herbs in this tower was a blessed relief... It was dark in the large room - our heroes could just make out racks of shelving and broken cupboards lining the walls, a large table in the center of the room..and something large and green in the far corner.. as our team entered the room through the broken door a Darkroot vine burst up through the floor directly in front of Seb... the situation became clear - the green mass in the corner must be the body of the Darkroot, and its vines were spread out into the room searching for victims!

"Dark Root" plant body (Miniature from Super Dungeon Explore)

"Dark Root Vine" (Miniature from Super Dungeon Explore)

A Vine erupts out of the floor and attacks Seb.

Jennifer my ranger was standing right next to Seb - so she "forced combat" and immediately attacked the vine - with help from Seb, she rolled just enough to slice the vine to bits with her first hit!

After a brief discussion, we decided that we would try and go en-mass diagonally across the room to take on the body of the Darkroot. We knew that if we killed it, then all the vines would also immediately die, leaving the room safe to search for clues that might help us in our quest to find the Decanter of St.Emilia...

Line of sight was severely reduced because of the darkness in the room, so we couldn't do any shooting yet.. we started to move across the room in groups. At the end of the first turn more darkroot vines appeared near the shelves...

Arthur and his companions arrived at the large table in the center of the room - Arthur failed a perception roll, and found nothing useful on the table... doh!... that was when a thick cloud of ash blew across the room.. for the next two turns line of sight was reduced even further... everyone had to pass a Will roll or lose an action. Five of our heroes failed their rolls...

Choked by a cloud of ash - half our heroes are reduced to one action!

Everyone moved a little bit more towards the body of the Darkroot. Jennifer was suddenly struck down by a crippling headache (failing a will roll as part of the event for round 3), which meant she would completely miss her activation in the next round...

Archibald managed to shoot one of the vines and moved over to a locked cupboard... everyone apart from Jennifer moved further into the room... another vine popped up out of the floor near our team...

The cupboard that Archibald wanted to search was locked - but he forced it open with a Strength Roll... inside were a few herbs that may prove useful later...

Archibald searches the shelves whilst everyone else heads towards the plant beast in the corner!

Another vine came up out of the ground - this time right next to Arthur... as our heroes were in a tight group that meant that a big fight ensued.. Arthur and Brutus against one vine, Seb, Malvolio and Hattie against another.. and Fern in melee with both vines at the same time.. despite the vines being outnumbered - they managed to dish out some damage before they were cut down...

Two Giant flies appeared - silhouetted behind us in the broken doorway through which we had entered this house of herbal horrors...

Three heroes take on a Darkroot Vine...

Jennifer, recovering from her stabbing headache, wasn't going to make it to the Darkvine body with the main group - so she veered off to search another cupboard... the vine that had appeared there was now chasing after Archibald... This cupboard wasn't locked - but all that she found was a load of poisonous fungus... luckily she passed a health check...

Taking on the Dark Root - St.Doneera takes a massive hit!

Meanwhile, Geoffrey, St.Doneera and Seb had made it to the evil plant body in the corner... Geoffrey and Seb managed to do some minor damage..but St.Doneera took a powerful swipe from the fiendish foliage... reducing her to only 2 health! If St.Donnera is knocked out then she won't return to help us with the rest of the mission... so this was not good news! Luckily, Malvolio and Hattie were not far behind... with five of us attacking the perilous plant at once, Hattie dealt the killing blow... instantly all the remaining vines on the board withered and died...

Malvolio and Hattie run to join the fight...

Seb helped Fern to smash open another cupboard, finding a pouch to carry herbs... and in the final turn, as a wolf appeared out of the darkness on the other side of the room, Arthur opened the final cupboard, and failing a perception roll, found nothing but some useless old bones...

Although we had some exciting fights, and managed to work together successfully to take down the Darkroot, we had three missed opportunities... we wondered what would have happened if Jennifer had passed her Will roll in the event phase in turn 3... was there something Arthur should have seen on the table in the middle of the room? Was there some significance to the bones that Arthur found that he just couldn't understand?.... we will never know... and so we have no more clues as to the location of the Decanter....

All of our heroes apart from Jennifer, Seb and Geoffrey had injuries - we managed to heal most of them, but even after healing, St.Doneera will be going into the next scenario with only 8 Health...

"The Ruined Chapel" will be our next target for investigation...

...

I created all the floorplans for this campaign using the fantastic free resources available from

  2 minute tabletop.

Warmaster - Norse Army

I've been working on my second Warmaster army on and off between other things for about a year. 

After searching through the lists, and doing a bit of research on available miniatures, I decided on a Norse Army. 

Kalistra have a great selection of 12mm Barbarians in their fantasy range, and they also have Vikings in their Medieval range. They are very reasonably priced, and nice miniatures too. I sourced a Giant and some figures suitable for Giant Bears from Copplestone Miniatures, the war mammoth was from Alternative Armies and some Giant wolves and Valkeries from Magister Militum.

So I now have two fully painted Warmaster Armies... I just need to find a local opponent and get them out on the table!

Some useful links:
WARMASTER REVOLUTION (Current free rules and army lists)
WARMASTER PODCAST
WARMASTER Facebook COMMUNITY
KALISTRA - 12mm Fantasy miniatures
COPPLESTONE - 15mm Barbarians etc (Giant and Bears were from here)
MAGISTER MILITUM - (10mm Wolves and Valkeries)
ALTERNATIVE ARMIES - (War Mammoth)

Here is the finished army:

BONDSMEN - Kalistra Barbarians

HUNTSMEN - Kalistra Barbarian Bowmen

BESERKERS - Kalistra Vikings

JARL and HEROES/WIZARDS - Kalistra Barbarian Command Characters

JARL - Kalistra Barbarian Command figure

WEREKIN - Copplestone Bears

CAVALRY - Kalistra Barbarian Horsemen

CAVALRY - Kalistra Barbarian Bison Riders

ULFWERENER - Magister Militum Fantasy wolves

HUSCARLS - Kalistra Vikings

VALKYRIES - Kalistra (left) Magister Militum (right)

WAR MAMMOTH - Alternative Armies

STORM GIANT - Copplestone Giant

HORN OF RESOUNDING - Kalistra Barbarian Chariot with Horn crafted from Milliput.

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Burning Light - Part IV

For the fourth part of the "Burning Light" campaign mission for Rangers of Shadow Deep... we have moved up the other staircase above the Hospital to search The Abbess' Quarters...

(There are some spoilers here - so if you are planning to play through this mission yourself, maybe don't read this until after you've had your own game experience...)

   

All our heroes were feeling pretty healthy at the start of this scenario - they didn't take many hits in the last one, and most managed to heal up to full health. Our team has been bolstered by two extra members since the beginning of the mission, so now we have:

Alfie's Team:

Arthur - Ranger (level 6)

Malvolio - Conjuror

Fern - Guardswoman

Hattie - Recruit

Brutus - Hound (rescued in the first scenario)

My Team:

Jennifer - Ranger (level 6)

Archibald - Archer

Seb - (a character from the Bloodmoon mission who is now a companion)

Geoffrey - Warhound

St.Doneera - Ghostly Warrior Priestess (who joined us in the third scenario)

The set up for The Abbess' Quarters - It's a large room with very little furniture. They live a Spartan life these nuns! 

As we ascended the other staircase up from the hospital, our heroes found themselves in a large room. There was a desk on the other side, some bookshelves, and a couple of doors to smaller rooms to investigate. There was a very bad smell, a large hole in the roof... and three giant flies coming at us across the room!

All our guys emerge from the stairs into the room...

Some good dice rolls for shooting meant that we managed to take out all three flies between us in the first round before they could get anywhere near us!.. We then decided to split up into groups to investigate the room: Seb headed towards one of the bookcases, Jennifer and Archibald went towards one of the doors, St.Doneera and Geoffrey towards the other door, Malvolio and Fern towards the other bookcase, and Arthur, Brutus and Hattie made for the desk... this was when two more giant flies came down through the hole in the roof and landed in the center of the room..

Archibald killed one of the flies with one shot... Jennifer missed the other one, but Geoffrey the warhound was nearby and ran over and finished it off... everyone moved nearer to their objectives as two more flies came up the stairs behind us...

As we spread out to investigate, two giant flies come up the stairs behind us...

Whilst Jennifer struggled to open the locked door of one of the small rooms, Archibald shot another one of the flies. The other fly moved towards Seb as he was the nearest hero. Meanwhile Seb was climbing up and investigating a bookcase. He had seen something shiny at the top of it... he succeeded his climb roll and found an interesting artifact! It will give him a bonus to his armour when fighting undead for the rest of the mission... and it will be worth some XP if he survives and still has it at the end!

Two more giant flies appeared in the centre of the room and attacked Malvolio and Fern... they were both wounded by the flies before Geoffrey and St.Doneera could run and help. Between them they eventually killed them both - but it was tough going!

Jennifer and Archibald struggle to open a door.

As Arthur, Brutus and Hattie made it to the desk, they discovered the source of the terrible smell - the body of a dead Nun... The deceased Nun suddenly stood up and attacked them - at the same time vomiting up a cloud of nasty insects that tried to sting everyone that was nearby!! As they were in a group, they managed to gang up on the Nun easily, and put her out of her misery before she or the insects could do much damage... Jennifer and Arthur were still struggling with their door... and Seb descended from the bookcase and ran at the giant fly wielding his warhammer over his head!

St.Doneera made it over to the furthest door, and Malvolio and a wounded Fern got to the other book shelf. This was when a sinister black cloud wafted into the room - everyone had to make a health roll to avoid catching a disease! Luckily everyone was ok. St.Doneera discovered that the door she was trying was unlocked. Inside the room there was a bed. Occupying the bed was a huge bloated wriggling grub. Filled with absolute disgust at this unholy abomination she rushed into the room and stabbed it with her golden sword. The sword struck metal... making a really lucky roll to avoid even more disease, she ripped open the fetid body of the white grub to find a holy chalice inside it!

Arthur, Brutus and Hattie approach the desk...

Whilst this was going on, a red mist rose up from the floor of the room engulfing the giant fly that Seb was fighting, and seemed to invigorate it and make it even more dangerous.

Malvolio searching amongst the jumble of books on the bookshelf found an old diary, which may be useful later on in the mission? We will have to wait and see...

With all the possible points of interest searched, we decided to all turn back and make our way back to the stairs before anything else bad happened... this was when a giant spider scuttled out of a hole... luckily for Seb it ran over and pounced on the giant fly that was attacking him and dragged it back into it's den!

No more creatures were on the table... everyone did double moves towards the staircase. A large wolf burst out of the furthest small room and chased after our heroes as they were about to descend the stairs... we were pretty sure we would all make it down the stairs before the wolf got to us. And we all did apart from Malvolio. The wolf just caught him at the top of the steps. He turned and bashed it with his morning star. Rolling high -  that was the end of the wolf. Malvolio slipped down the stairs after the others - glad to be out of this stinky place...

Giant Flies attack!

We were very lucky on this part of the mission - we passed some difficult dice rolls, avoided a lot of potential disease, found some interesting stuff, and got a decent amount of XP - enough for us to both upgrade our Rangers to level 7! 

Fern and Seb were both injured, but we had an unused healing spell, and made a couple of successful survival rolls - so after that they are not doing too badly as they prepare for the next stage of the mission... "The Herb Store"...

...

I created all the floorplans for this campaign using the fantastic free resources available from

  2 minute tabletop.