Sand Husks...

I recently got a copy of the "Across the Wastes" mission for Rangers of Shadow Deep... this latest mission has a desert setting, and reading through the booklet I found mention of a bunch of new interesting monsters and characters. One of the new monster types are "Sand Husks"... a type of desert zombie.."dessicated corpses filled with sand"... a rummage in my bits box, and these are the result.. using bits of old plastic Games Workshop zombies and skeletons, plus some bits of Frostgrave cultists, some milliput, pva glue and sand...

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Burning Light - Part IX

So here we are at the ninth and last part of the "Burning Light" campaign mission for Rangers of Shadow Deep... "The Final Showdown"...so we were successful in our search for the Decanter of St,Emelia after the last scenario... all we had to do now was get out of the Convent alive... but the evil powers of the Shadow Deep were now aware of our presence...and something had been sent to try and stop us....

As our Rangers and our companions (old and new) - entered the courtyard (the location of their first encounter in the convent)... they were met with a terrifying sight... There were three exits on the far edge of the Courtyard.. one near each corner: both were guarded by gnolls and wolves, and a central exit. In front of that one was a huge demonic shape with huge wings... a Terror Wing!!

(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 9)

Malvolio - Conjuror

Fern - Guardswoman

Brutus - Hound (rescued in the first scenario)

My Team:

Jennifer - Ranger (level 9)

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 table set up at the start of the game...

Gnolls and wolves guard the exits...

The Terror Wing stares down at our heroes as they enter the Courtyard...

Our Rangers and their companions.. will they all make it out alive?

Our Rangers re-entered the courtyard. Hattie was dead. They were not at at full health, but their numbers were bolstered by two new helpers in their quest - Brutus the hound who we had rescued from one of the locked buildings in the courtyard in the first scenario.. and St.Doneera the ghostly  figure of a Saint who had mysteriously appeared to help us when we explored the Dormitory above the Hospital in the third scenario... We had to decide which figure was carrying the Decanter. We had to try and get it off the table, and if that figure fell, another figure could pick it up from their body. Arthur had the most health, so he was the one to start with the Holy relic.

Our Rangers started to move across the room... the gnolls and wolves were just out of range of their bows... but then the wolves started to run towards them... Archibald took one of them out with one shot.... Jennifer concentrated her fire on the Terror Wing which was in range... she used her one off "Steady Aim" heroic ability and managed to reduce the demonic beast to half its health in the first turn!! The Terror wing rose up from its starting position and started to move down the courtyard towards us.. and then another wolf ran out of the doorway behind it.

Jennifer, Geoffrey and Archibald moved up the left hand side of the central fountain, hoping no zombies would creep out of it like the last time they were here. Archibald shot another wolf... and then Jennifer used her Smoke Spell to hide them from the view of the Terror Wing... Arthur shot yet another wolf that was running at him down the right hand side of he table. Jennifer, Geoffrey and Archibald were nearest to the Terror Wing, but because they were hidden by the smoke, the fearsome winged creature flew over the fountain and swooped down on Brutus as he was the next nearest visible hero... One of the Gnoll fighters ran and attacked Geoffrey. The Gnoll was running from the other side of the smoke spell, so he could see him... Jennifer and Archibald were close enough to move in and help...

Brutus only had two health points at the start of this game... he didn't stand a chance against the demonic winged nightmare...

Whilst the Terror Wing was distracted by Brutus - Arthur, Malvolio and Fern took on the Gnoll fighter that was running at them down the right hand side of the courtyard. The Gnolls were both outnumbered on both sides of the table. Neither lasted long.

St.Doneera moved towards the Terror Wing... the beast sensed her ghostly presence and tried to blast her with an elemental magical attack... luckily this time her holy aura was too strong, and she managed to shrug it off...

Jennifer and Archibald both stayed where they were and fired their bows at the terror wing... neither managed to cause any damage this time... Arthur, Fern and Malvolio moved further up on the right hand side... With a hideous screech, The Terror Wing pounced on St.Doneera... an epic struggle ensued...and St.Doneera disappeared in an explosion of golden dust between its claws! One second she was there... the next... gone.

Seb and Geoffrey started running up the courtyard towards the doorway in the far left corner... Another wolf came through the central exit

Arthur turned, concentrated, and blasted the Terror Wing with his one off Magic Bolt spell... Reducing it to a shriveled smoking heap on the far side of the fountain!

This left three minions of the Shadow Deep on the table....two Gnoll archers, and one wolf.

Jennifer shot the wolf. One Gnoll archer tried to shoot Seb, but missed... the other Gnoll shot at Malvolio damaging him slightly...

Seb ran and attacked one of the Gnolls... Malvolio blasted the other with one of his Magic Bolts...

 

And that was it. All enemies taken out, our remaining heroes left the courtyard at the start of the 6th turn - Arthur still in possession of the Decanter of St.Emilia.

We were lucky with our dice rolls. If we hadn't taken down the Terror Wing quickly, I sense that the situation could have escalated and got a lot harder fast!

Our mission was complete. Our Rangers returned to Alladore with the Decanter. Brutus the hound survived the attack from the Terror Wing, but he had a permanent injury of a crushed leg... he would forever walk with a limp (movement reduced to 7" instead of 8"). Hattie was dead. St.Doneera would never be seen again....

At the end of the mission, we handed over all the artifacts we had found, and along with them and the creatures we had dispatched in the final scenario, we had enough XP to go up to level 10. Both our Rangers upgraded their shooting stats to +4.

Our Rangers rested briefly, they have re-organised their teams of companions... and it won't be long until they are sent on their next mission... to the TEMPLE OF MADNESS...

...

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

  2 minute tabletop.

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Burning Light - Part VIII

So here we are at the eighth part of the "Burning Light" campaign mission for Rangers of Shadow Deep... there is only one area of the Convent of St.Emilia that we haven't explored... The Gatehouse...

(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 8)

Malvolio - Conjuror

Fern - Guardswoman

Hattie - Recruit

Brutus - Hound (rescued in the first scenario)

My Team:

Jennifer - Ranger (level 8)

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 Gatehouse set up at the start of the game...

Three dead bodies are chained up and stinking out this room...

Ogre.

Our two Rangers and their companions ready for action...

As our teams entered the ruins of the gatehouse of the convent...it very quickly became evident that something nasty had taken up residence there... a nasty smell of death was coming from three rotting bodies that were chained up on the other side of the room. The interior designer of this evil decoration suddenly stood up in the center of the room. A very large Ogre.

Two of our three archers - Jennifer and Arthur concentrated their fire on the Ogre, and he went down in the first turn under a hail of arrows. The previously unseen ghoul that was creeping out of the corner to the right was shot by our third: Archibald... So far, so good!

My guys go right...

Alfie's guys go left..

Hattie, Fern, Malvolio and Brutus approach a door in the wall...

Earthquake! - Archibald and St.Doneera loose their next activation...

Our teams headed off in different directions... Alfie's guys towards a door in the left hand wall, and mine towards a hole in the right... suddenly the building began to shake.. It was an earthquake! Archibald and St.Donnera both stumbled and fell, so they couldn't activate in the following turn...

As Alfie's companions struggle to open a locked door
 a Zombie rises up in the corner behind them...

Everyone spread out further into the room - as Alfie's team got to the door, a zombie rose up in the corner behind them... Malvolio, Fern and Brutus all failed their rolls to open the door...

Jennifer the Ranger examines one of the dead bodies...

Seb and Geoffrey moved off into the side room through the hole in the wall to see what they could find... Jennifer made it to the first of the three dead bodies that were chained up as some kind of grim decoration... Finally Alfie's gang managed to break open the door... to reveal a room with four ghouls in it... and something that looked like it might be some kind of treasure in the corner...

As this was all going on, we suddenly heard a deep grunting laugh...and a second Ogre lumbered into the room through the doorway in the far wall...

Oh great... a room full of ghouls!

Another Ogre!!

Jennifer examined the body that she was next to - it was the body of a Lorenthian Royal messenger. She found a rolled up parchment covered in blood in a pouch dangling from his corpse... she didn't have time to examine it properly now though (after the game it would turn out to be a vague clue).. and she bravely moved towards the Ogre to distract it from Arthur who was about to examine one of the other bodies... Meanwhile the ghouls were creeping across their room towards Alfie's companions. Hattie turned and ran at the zombie that was shambling towards her from behind... It wounded her, but she managed to kill it on her next activation...

There was a sudden chill in the room. One of the most dangerous creatures of the Shadow Deep had glided into the gatehouse behind the ogre. A Shadow Knight. Shadow Knights only take half damage from non-magical weapons, so they are notoriously hard to kill... St.Doneera and Archibald were nearby and moved to intercept it. Luckily, St.Doneera's attacks count as magical, so she does full damage to Shadow Knights. Between them they managed to reduce it to a third of it's health.

Seb had picked up a treasure he found in the corner of the room he was in (it would turn out to be some gold - worth XP at the end of the scenario), and Geoffrey ran to help Jennifer fight the Ogre. Jennifer was badly wounded in the struggle, but between them they managed to defeat it. Whilst his was going on, a big scrap was going on between Alfie's companions and the gang of ghouls... it took a couple of turns to beat them...

Taking on a shadow knight...

Arthur searched the body that he was next to, finding a small artifact that would give us all some XP. Jennifer ran over and used her one use frenzied attack ability to help smash the Shadow Knight into dust..

As Seb was moving back into the main room, a set of creepy chains lashed down from the ceiling, catching him up and entangling him...

These ghouls are tough!!

St.Donnera examined the last of the three bodies... of course it turned out to be a zombie. She made short work of it. Seb managed to free himself from the weird magical chains...

St.Doneera takes out another zombie...

Brutus was knocked out, but the ghouls were finally defeated. Malvolio moved into the room to go and retrieve what looked like a treasure in the far corner. This was when three Gnolls scrambled up out of an alcove in the wall.. a Gnoll fighter, a Gnoll archer and a Gnoll sergeant! Ambush!!

Malvolio is just off to pick up a treasure... what could possibly go wrong?

Where did that gang of Gnolls come from!!?

The Gnoll archer started shooting at Alfie's companions as the other two Gnolls ran at them... just as this was happening a cloud of small insects exploded out of a heap of rubbish and swarmed our heroes... Seb and Fern were totally incapacitated and had to miss an activation. This was really the worst time for this to happen!!

Malvolio ran across the room to try and help... and Hattie, who had been wounded by the zombie she was struggling with, ran over to give some back-up to to her friends. They managed to kill the Gnoll fighter, but the sergeant was a force to be reckoned with!

Seb and Fern are swarmed by insects and miss their next activation...

With all the objectives searched, and the start of the final turn, everyone who was near enough moved to try and help with the Gnoll ambush... Hattie was knocked out by the Sergeant...Malvolio and Jennifer managed to get in on the action, and they were both knocked out too!! Malvolio dropped and lost the treasure he was carrying, so we will never know what it was... And then that was it.. we ran out of time.

Jennifer and Malvolio were fine, Brutus was badly wounded and will only be on 2 health for the next mission... but Hattie, Hattie who has been with us from the very start of our missions into the Shadow Deep, Hattie with 14 progression points from 14 survived scenarios...Hattie, named by Alfie (because she had a hat)... Hattie was dead.... Noooooooooooooooo!!!

Hattie! - Noooooooooo!!

And so we have finished exploring the convent. It was now time to decide where we would make our final search for the magical Decanter of St.Emilia. We looked back over all our notes from the clues we had found in our previous scenarios in this campaign. We were 99% sure we knew where to look. We made our decision. We were right!! We found it!! 

Despite the terrible loss of Hattie, and some badly injured heroes, we got enough XP in this scenario for our Rangers to go up to Level 9.

All areas of the convent have now been explored...

So with the Decanter in our possession, we regrouped, healed ourselves as much as we could...and we all stepped out into the courtyard. All we had to do now was get out of this place and get the Decanter back to Alladore. Suddenly we heard a terrifying scream... something was waiting for us in the courtyard....

R.I.P. Hattie - Killed in action.

...

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

  2 minute tabletop.