Rangers of Shadow Deep - Temple of Madness - Part III

TEMPLE OF MADNESS is a four part mission for level 5 - 15 Rangers for the RANGERS OF SHADOW DEEP co-operative tabletop skirmish game.

Our heroes managed to open the incantation lock in the last scenario, but it was tough going - four of our team were only on 8 health. The minions of the evil ShadowDeep Mage were now aware of the presence of our characters in their underground lair... 

After running down a long sloping tunnel, our roughed up heroes entered a room finding themselves on a ledge overlooking a large pit. On the opposite side of the room was another ledge, with a large metal door in the center. A huge chandelier was hanging over the pit... four ropes came off it and were tied up on the ledge with the heroes. There were four large wheels on the opposite ledge... a ladder led down into the pit, and there was another ladder going up on he other side of the room. In the middle of the pit were three statues. In the corners of the pit were four trapdoors.

As our team took in their surroundings, the four wheels on the opposite wall started to turn... the four trapdoors creaked open, and simultaneously they heard a grinding of gears and a loud metallic clang from the door across the room. Four ghouls climbed up out of the trapdoors... and more ghouls crept out of the shadowy far corners of the ledges....

Our current lineup of Heroes:

Alfie's Team:

Arthur - Ranger (level 10)

Malvolio - Conjuror

Fern - Guardswoman

Odis - Rogue (New recruit for this mission)

My Team:

Jennifer - Ranger (level 10)

Archibald - Archer

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

The setup at the start of the game...
The deer's heads represent where the ropes from the chandelier are tied up.

Standing on the ledge...

It was risky, but possible, to use the ropes to swing from one ledge to the other... but the result of failure could be disastrous for some of our guys who were already on low health. We decided that Jennifer and Archibald would attempt it as their health was ok. The rest of the guys would try and run across the pit as a group and take on any ghouls as they went...

Jennifer and Archibald took pot shots at ghouls in the first round, taking out one and wounding another...

At the end of every round we had to roll on a special random table. Another ghoul, ghoul rotter or ghoul fiend would appear out of one of the trapdoors.

Jennifer and Archibald shoot at ghouls from the ledge, whilst everyone else tries to get across the pit...

Another ghoul comes out of a trapdoor...

It wasn't long before a big fight kicked off between the adventurers and a gang of ghouls in the middle of the pit... most of the ghouls were knocked out - but unfortunately so was Odis!

It's all kicking off in the center of the pit!

Odis is knocked out...

Jennifer and Archibald were still on the ledge - they took out both ghouls there, and then luckily they both succeeded in their rope swing attempts! - They swooped diagonally across the room to the other ledge... the ghouls that had been up there had climbed down into the pit by this time - so they were unhindered in trying to turn the wheels that they had landed next to. Archibald was having trouble getting his to move - but Jennifer had no problem with hers... there was a click from the door, and then one of the trapdoors on the pit floor slammed shut... now there were only three left for baddies to emerge from... just then one of the statues in the center of the room seemed to animate and sing a mysterious song... what could it mean? Arthur who was nearest the statue felt suddenly empowered (he would have a bonus in combat for the rest of the game!)...

Jennifer and Archibald have swung across the room... another ghoul enters the pit.

The guys on the floor made it up the ladder to the ledge on the other side... all the guys apart from Seb that is, who was grabbed by two ghouls at the bottom of the ladder.. he tried his best, and managed to deal damage to one of them - but was knocked out by the other...

Jennifer takes on the ghoul that knocked out Seb...

As Arthur and Fern went to turn some wheels, Malvolio went to help Archibald who was still struggling with his.. Jennifer shot one ghoul through the head - and ran at the other ghoul at the top of the ladder...

The final wheel is turned, unlocking the door...

At last all the wheels were turned - Malvolio helped Jennifer finish off the final fiendish ghoul... the door swung open.. and our heroes exited the room...

...we're out!!

Odis and Seb were knocked out - but both were ok... between us we killed 10 ghouls and a ghoul fiend... we got XP for hearing the mysterious song, for turning the wheels, and for getting people out of the door... We had some good dice rolls in this scenario - things could have gone a lot worse - we could easily have been overwhelmed by ghouls on the floor of the pit.

We really liked the rope swinging mechanic - very fun!

Next time - the final confrontation with the evil mage in "The Mirror Enduring"...

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

  2 minute tabletop.

Skeleton Ogres

Here are a couple of "skeleton ogres" that I got for some up-coming Rangers of ShadowDeep scenarios... They are chunky oldschool metal miniatures from Ral Partha (see links below)...

...

http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/dsa-the-dark-eye-28mm-fantasy-c-30/armalion-c-30_36/19305-undead-ogre-with-club-p-1190.html

http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/dsa-the-dark-eye-28mm-fantasy-c-30/armalion-c-30_36/19304-undead-ogre-with-axe-p-1189.html

Dropzone Commander - UCM forces

I bought the two player starter set of DROPZONE COMMANDER a couple of years ago - it contained small starter forces for two factions -  the UCM (Humans) and the SCOURGE (bio-mechanical aliens)...It is a 10mm scale sci-fi tabletop battle game set in the far future.  I have been steadily collecting and building on my original starter set over time. 

Recently the game IP was sold by HAWK wargames to TTCombat - the game has been re-booted with more streamlined rules - downloadable for free from their website. They are in the process of recasting the models, and making available the ones that have gone out of print (still not all available yet at the time of writing)... 

I have finally finished painting my UCM faction. 

I went for a grey camo pattern for the ground forces (Army painter Wolf Grey / Ash Grey) - and a plain (Wolf Grey) scheme for the Dropships/Air support.. I'm pleased with the final result - but these were really a bit of a slog to get through towards the end with all that camouflage!

I'm waiting for the final few Scourge models to come back into print before I start painting them... I want to paint them all at the same time for continuity with the colour scheme.

UCM Ground Forces

UCM - Air support / Dropship  Forces

Phoenix

Falcon Gunships

Raven Light Dropships

Raven Light Dropships

Condor Dropships

Titania Eagle

 

Titania Raven Dropship

Albatross Heavy Dropship

Archangel Interceptor

 

Praetorians

Colonial Legionnaires

Wolf LAV

 

Longbow Howitzers

Battlewalker

Kodiak ACV

Katanas

Ferum Class Dronebase

Bear APCS

Broadsword

Gladius Battle Tanks

Scimitar Battle Tanks

Sabres

Rapiers

https://ttcombat.com/collections/dropzone-commander

https://www.dropzonecommander.com/

Armored Skeletons

Here are a bunch of old Games Workshop metal armored Skeletons I've painted... they will come in handy for Frostgrave and Rangers of ShadowDeep...

Zombie Camels!

One of the new creatures included in the new ACROSS THE WASTES mission for Rangers of Shadowdeep is a Zombie Camel! - Currently there are no available zombie camels from any miniature manufacturers that I could find.... but standard camels certainly are available.. I bought a couple from WARBASES in the UK, and modified them by gouging out some bits and adding a bit of milliput under the holes to represent some gruesome bits of rotting flesh...

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Temple of Madness - Part II

TEMPLE OF MADNESS is a four part mission for level 5 - 15 Rangers for the RANGERS OF SHADOW DEEP co-operative tabletop skirmish game.

After our disaster with the "Laughing Columns" in the first part of the Temple of Madness mission, our battered party of heroes had descended down a hole in the floor, and after scrambling down a dark tunnel, they finally emerged into a well lit chamber... there were four raised discs in the floor...a big metal door in the right hand wall, and a point of interest on each of the other two walls. The door looked like it might be locked, but there were some arcane words written on it... The room was not empty. There were five temple guardians in the room...and from the sounds that our heroes could hear - it wouldn't be long until more evil minions of the Shadow Mage would be on their way to try and stop them....

Our current lineup of Heroes:

Alfie's Team:

Arthur - Ranger (level 10)

Malvolio - Conjuror

Fern - Guardswoman

Odis - Rogue (New recruit for this mission)

My Team:

Jennifer - Ranger (level 10)

Archibald - Archer

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

 

 
Unsure how we were going to get out of the room - we decided we would go and read what the writing on the door said... Jennifer and Archibald both shot at a temple guardian that was approaching from the right hand corner and then started moving towards the door.. Arthur, Malvolio and Odis all moved towards the door as well. The temple guardians started to move towards us... Malvolio and Seb started across the room towards the left to see if there were any clues that might help... Two skeletons appeared out of the shadows in the top right hand corner of the chamber....

At the end of every round more baddies would turn up. We had to roll on a table to see what they were (combinations of groups of skeletons, armored skeletons and temple guardians), and then roll to determine which random corner of the room they would emerge from...

Arthur and Fern take on some temple guardians whilst Odis reads the runes on the door...

The writing on the door that Odis read, told us that the door was sealed with an incantation lock. We would have to light the four braziers on the magic discs, then speak the three command words in the correct order (a 3 digit number - we would read a passage from the back of the mission book and see if we got it right...) Whilst we were trying to do this, more and more evil creatures would be turning up to try and stop us....

Seb and Malvolio take on two temple guardians... 

 

Seb and Malvolio were stopped in their attempt to find any clues. Seb was on low health after his experience in the first scenario...They were both knocked out.

Whilst Arthur, Odis and Fern struggled with a combination of temple guardians and skeletons, Jennifer and Archibald started moving towards the other clue as even more undead warriors came at them out of the corners...

Archibald was having trouble working out what the clue meant. He was just about to be overwhelmed by a bunch of boney bandits, when Jennifer got near enough to help by casting her special "Burning Light spell" - disintegrating all but one of that particular group of skeletal ne'r-do-wells! Archibald smashed up the last one and then finally figured out what the clue was telling us...

Alfie's remaining guys started across the chamber towards the other clue... Fern was mobbed by two more gangs of skeletons - she got a bit bashed up, but managed to take them all out!! - Arthur finally got to the last clue whilst everyone else was fighting off various baddies... 

 

Now we knew what to do, and we had to make it back to the door, lighting the braziers as we went... 

Fern was finally knocked out by a single temple guardian who got to her just as she had lit one of the braziers... the remaining three party members - Jennifer, Arthur and Archibald, lit the last three braziers as more of the evil wizards hench-dudes approached from the corners... the two clues that we had found meant that we had a good idea in what order the command words should be spoken. Archibald spoke the words. They were not correct - flashes of blue energy skipped around the room - Jennifer and Archibald were both slightly damaged... Luckily the bad guys were not near enough to get to our guys in the next turn... Archibald tried again - this time it worked! - There was a grinding of rusty metal gears - and the doors slid open...

...

I really didn't think we were going to get though this scenario without being completely overwhelmed. I think this is the hardest one we have done yet. The death toll was crazy - between us we killed 5 temple guardians, 4 Skeleton knights and 18 Skeletons!! We accumulated enough experience to go up to level 11.

 We rolled for injuries. Nobody died this time - but Odis now has a permanent injury of a smashed leg, so he has -1 movement from now on... Seb, Malvolio, Fern and Odis will all be starting on only 8 health for the next part of the mission... "The pit of ghouls"

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

  2 minute tabletop.