The Sunken Temple, Part 2

OK, so when I played The Sunken Temple, I did the whole thing in one go. I split the blog entries up for ease of use, but somehow I never got around to doing the second part of it until now!

Heroes vs. Zombies: The Deployment

When we last left Our Heroes, they had narrowly escaped certain death at the fangs of six wolves. And while they were all on their feet and reasonably safe and sound, it was an object lesson to not be so hasty in trying to just kill everything they stumbled upon. Which turned out to be a very good thing to know when they finally discovered the Ruined Chapel outside the Temple proper.

At the end of the 1st turn, there is already one Drowned Dead destroyed.

You see, there was a gang of bandits hanging out there. And they had an ogre with them. While our small band of heroes may think they're tough, they're not killing-an-ogre-with-buddies tough yet. And so, Rauffe de Corilla went to the bandit leader with all of the swagger and charisma that his fine breeding had gifted him, and he decided to negotiate. And the 2d6 roll was 10! The bandits decided to leave Our Heroes in peace.

Two Drowned Dead are left at the end of Turn 2

Now that the bandits had gone on their way, this left Our Heroes with the task of trying to figure out how to get INTO the Sunken Temple. The entrance was underwater. It took them four separate attempts to drain the lake enough to get into the Temple. And while they were exploring, a bit of a cave-in caused Frans a Light Injury, but the use of some medicinal herbs got him back up and ready to rumble. There was also a Holy Symbol found, worth 1 Gold Crown. And then they found the inner sanctum. This would be where the treasure was!

How is there still a Drowned Dead left at the end of Turn 3?

It was also the lair of six Drowned Dead. And it wasn't much of a fight. It was over in four turns, Rauffe's warband sustained no casualties, and everyone got a chance to fight, even if only six of them landed killing blows. It kind of reminded me of a Little League game.

And just like that, it was all over after the first die roll of Turn 4

The warband was able to recover some gold, two jewelstones, and three special magical items unique to the scenario (and you need to buy the supplement to find about them!) I was a bit concerned going into this game, as the Drowned Dead have a high toughness. But I lucked out and rolled a LOT of 6's, both to hit and to harm. And with that, Rauffe de Corilla, his sister Rosalind del Sur, and their assorted followers headed back to Aveijo.

As an aside, I built the Sunken Temple using 5mm foamcore board to the dimensions given in the supplement. I decorated it using designs from "The Garden" from Worldworks Games, modified as needed to fit the walls.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

The Sunken Temple, Part 1

Quite a while ago, I purchased the "Sunken Temple" scenario pack for Five Leagues From The Borderlands. Not quite as long ago, I built the scenic piece to use as the Temple itself. I've been itching to play it, but haven't ever really gotten around to it, because it didn't really fit much into my idea of what a Glorantha campaign should include. However, with the advent of my Generic Medieval Fantasy warband, it was suddenly a lot more viable.

Look! There's a new guy already!

It all started nicely enough in the town of Aveijo. The villagers were happy to share food and ale, meaning their would be no Upkeep cost (this benefit was sadly wasted, however, as the warband is not yet big enough to require any Upkeep!) They did some Labor to earn three Gold Crowns, and Recruited the scenario special Character Frans. Arminel went Fishing, he found a little spot, far away, where nobody else seems to come. He had a chance to catch four fish, and could count his Fishing Ability as +1 higher. He caught nothing, however. There was an Icon available for 5 gold crowns. It was not bought. A shield and helmet were bought for Thadrunlir Boghaeck. And they spent 1 Story Point to buy Full Armor for 15 gold, which was then equipped to Rosalind del Sur.

Lots of forest to deploy in...

Now, the fun thing about the Sunken Temple is that it's not just a matter of lining up against the enemy and fighting them. There are tasks to be done, explorations to be made, and things to be found. The first part involves searching for the temple itself, and it Rauffe and his buddies five searching turns to find it, acquiring exactly the eight Search points required. And once the location of the Temple is known, the group runs into a group of wolves...

I am using a werewolf for the "Big Wolf" as I only have two sizes of wolf in my collection

Rosalind and Velasquita were well ahead of the rest of the warband, engaging in a little girl talk when they stumbled upon the wolves' den. While the ladies tried to back away from the pack, the wolves leaped to engage! Velasquita went down quickly under a flurry of teeth and claws...

It went from a nice walk in the woods to very bad trouble for Rosalind del Sur

In a rush, the wolves quickly overwhelmed Rosalind del Sur and both dwarfs. No one seemed to be able to shoot the fast moving predators, but somehow Frans was able to dispatch two of the snarling hunters. Not bad, old man!

Almost half the warband has fallen to the wolves already...

Arminel found his mark with his crossbow, killing the wolf approaching him. Bernaldo held his own when the small wolf attacked him, and he even managed to put some between them. Menendo was not so lucky, taken down by the big wolf.

Well now, this looks like the situation is improving, right?

The small wolf then made short work of Bernaldo. Arminel, realizing that he had a better chance in melee with it than by shooting, tried to kill it up close and personal, only to be felled as well. The small wolf however was now wounded; Arminel had almost won! And the old Frans killed his third wolf. Somehow the wizened priest was becoming the hero of the day! And then, the little wolf succumbed to it's wound. Rauffe de Corilla and Frans were alone against the Big Wolf.

And then there were two...

With a mighty blow from his sword, Rauffe finally did something! The Big Wolf fell before his savage strike! And just like that, it was all over. The Generic Medieval Fantasy warband had survived it's first battle. Barely. And I am going to need to work on that name...

Victory by a hair!

Survival was going to be pretty scary with seven people down. Frans used his special ability to try to heal Rosalind, and with a lucky 6 she survived without injury. With judicious use of medicinal herbs and a few Story Points to re-roll injuries, it turned out that everyone would be back on their feet for the next chapter. Everyone received some Experience points, but no one levelled up. And so they set out towards the Sunken Temple proper, slightly worse for wear but still motivated to find some treasure.

This game was the hardest I've played in quite a while. I am usually playing with Anasdiazi's Raft, and those guys have gotten very powerful. These wolves nearly shredded my new warband. So I am a bit nervous about the upcoming encounters.

Stay tuned for the second part of The Sunken Temple, coming soon!

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Interlude: Medieval Fantasy

Okay, so I decided to pull the trigger and do it!

I am starting a second "Five Leagues From The Borderlands" campaign, this time focused on generic medieval fantasy and using some of the fun optional rules from Nordic Weasel Games. I am going to play using the "War Band" challenge setting, which is the default for the game. My main campaign is set to the "Adventurer" challenge setting, which is a little easier. I am also pulling the town of Broadhill from that campaign (where it is masquerading as the village of Oraskat) and setting in this campaign instead.

The fearless leader of Our Heroes is Rauffe de Corilla, sporting his full armor, helmet, and sword. His sister Rosalind del Sur serves as his retainer, with her helmet, shield, and mace. They are accompanied by Arminel, a farmer-turned-guard who is good with his crossbow, and Kherir Runonlir, a dwarf crossbowman. Also with them are a Thadrunlir Boghaeck (a dwarf Outcast Drifter,) Bernaldo (a Stout Yeoman,) Arminel's sister Velasquita (a Deranged Wretch,) and the bearded Menedo (a Wily Rogue.)

The campaign will be played at the Warband level, which is the default for the game. Set on The Long Coast, the Theme is A Fistful Of Arrows; the warband is fighting against banditry and reptile-people (and banditry by reptile-people!) In the initial Region, there are only two Villages. San Remo has Threats of Outlaws: 3, Dark Secrets: 4, and Old Kin: 5, while Aveijo has Threats of Outlaws: 6, Dark Secrets: 3, and Old Kin: 3. Finally, the warband's starting resources are 5 Story Points, 22 gold Crowns, and 2 doses of Medicinal herbs.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Scary Skeletons Scattered!

Way back on June 19, I played my first game using The Silent Battalion, an exciting new Enemy pack for the game. And, I'll tell you, it was a pretty cool game.

It was great when it all began...

It started out simply enough. As the Raft had cleared all threats to the village of Oraskat, they were ready to move on to other things. But the people in the village were unusually hostile about the good fortune of having all these bad guys going missing from the surrounding territiory, which was a little odd and cost Our Heroes the opportunity to take an extra town action. They did some Labor to earn coin, called in some favors to do more Labor, and Puddles went fishing. All told, they brought in 15 Gold Crowns, and then spent a Story Point to ensure finding a Fine Bastard Sword for Pariwan Keetslander at a nice price of 13 Gold Crowns. And then it was time to blow off these ungrateful louts and move on to Berstavalb.

I thought it would be fun to keep a picture record of how many models were dead each turn

While on the road, they came upon a most curious stranger, a short squat person who seemed to be made of clay, with a animated stone head. Clad in fine armor and bearing a beautiful mallet, he was clearly one of the rarely-seen Mostali. While Anasdiazi and the Raft had their guard up, the dwarf seemed quite friendly after all. He explained that he was seeking a missing piece of the World Engine, and that his divinations had shown him that he would find it by accompanying the Raft (in game terms, the roadside encounter rolled was the Treasure Hunter; I had been thinking of a way to include a Mostali in the Raft and this seemed to be an excellent fit.) Gunjah the Treasure Seeker had joined the Raft, at least for now. Later, they passed a craftsman on his way from somewhere to someplace, who was wholly disinterested in them.

The end of Turn 2

As they passed a graveyard, they noticed a cloying mist around them. And then unnatural shapes moving near the vaguely-seen headstones. Upon investigating closer, they saw animated Skeletons, seven of them and what seemed to be their leader. Worse, it seemed that the infamous necromancer Tirian was with them! And if there was one thing that a bunch of durulz accompanied by a priest of Humakt hated, it was undead. The Raft attacked!

Pariwan Keetslander being a badass and totally not dieing for a change

The Silent Battalion started out with some among the headstones and some others wandering a bit further away. The Raft moved as a single group to investigate and bring battle to them. Contact was made almost immediately. Between the deadly archery and magical abilities distributed amongst the Raft, they accounted for Tirian the necromancer and four skeletons including the Lieutenant. But luck was not on Anasdiazi's side, as he went down beneath the sightless eyes and unfeeling bones, Quackmore valiantly falling beside him, and in a totally unexpected twist Gunjah the Treasure Seeker fell as well.

More Pariwan badassery!

Having seen Anadiazi fall, Mataw and Pariwan Keetslander leapt into action, accounting for another three of the Silent Battalion. The Raft in turn was unharmed, and somewhat awed by the ferocity of the duo as they tore into the undead enemy.

The dreadful duo

Pariwan easily cut down the remaining skeleton before him. Mataw and the Hanger-On moved towards the two skeletons behind them, and when those puppets advanced in return they cut down the Hanger-On. Puddles flew across the battleground to take a shot at the remaining skeleton, but he missed even at close range. He was now within the attacking distance of the animated bones! He managed to fend off the first assault by it, but would he be so lucky a second time?

Turn 3, the casualties thus far

In the end, the skeleton pushed Puddles back, who then used the opportunity to move even further away and shoot at the lifeless monster again. This time his arrow struck true and felled it. The battle had been won! But what of the fallen companions?

Puddles: Endgame

The first thing to do was to check the status of the casualties. Anasdiazi seemed quite dead, but a judicious application of some medicinal herbs showed that he was merely knocked out. Quackmore was lightly injured and would require three campaign turns. But three campaign turns is SO LONG TO WAIT! So I spent a Story Point to re-roll the recovery time, and he would only be recuperating for one campaign turn after all. Gunjah the Treasure Seeker was only knocked out. He stood up, brushed himself off, and was good to go. The Hanger On was quite dead, possibly from fright.

The final casualties

Searching through the bones (and the body of Tirian) the Raft found some evidence of what was going on around Berstavalb; this would reduce the highest Threat by one (this is an interesting situation, as Berstavalb is my Gloranthan stand-in for Hillshire Vale whose highest threat is Dark Secrets but it cannot be used as an encounter until the other threats are cleared.). The Raft had also reduced the Silent Battalion Threat by one as well. Assorted other finds were a Fine sword, a Fine longbow, and a shield. In Tirian's robes they found a scroll with the spell Trickster's Touch. Anasdiazi, Quackmore, Puddles, and the Nameless Priest Of Humakt all levelled up. Gunjah the Treasure Seeker was promoted to Hero status.

The last disposition

This was a really fun game. Ivan did a great job in creating the Silent Battalion. They are a bit more challenging to fight against than the regular run of losers that we have been facing. Losing Anasdiazi, Quackmore, and Gunjah right off was a little scary; I'd hate to lose my game Avatar, and I had just managed to acquire my long-sought dwarf. But it all turned out well in the end, and the Raft is safely in Berstavalb.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Two Witches Meet The Zombies

Yeah, so it was time for another game of Five Parsecs From Star Fleet starring the Star Fleet Grammas. I mean, no one was forcing me or anything, but I wanted to get another game in. As a bit of background, I added the "Bug Hunt" as a mission just for completeness, because it isn't a very Star Trek-like adventure. And I included Zombies because they were already on the Mission table and I didn't feel like coming up with something different even though I'm not much of a zombie fan. So, naturally, when I was rolling up the mission paramaeters, I wound up with a bug hunt featuring zombies. And since the zombies can kind of spawn randomly, I needed a batch of them. 42 Star Fleet Zombies later, I felt I had enough to play the game.

Magrat and colony militia on the left, Nanny Ogg and a Star Fleet securuity team on the right.

Now, the first thing I realized when I was setting up this game was that I hadn't make the tokens for a Bug Hunt. I had honest;y never expected to play this kind of scenario, and so I had to make do with what I had made for the other scenarios. So I set up the three Objectives using "Point Of Interest" markers, Tactical Locations using "Scout" tokens, and the Contacts using a combination of "Hazard: and "Contact: tokens.

Turn Three, with a bunch of zombies already dead and two looking to be dead soon

I was meticulous in documenting the game with pictures. And I didn't realize the flash was on because I have a spiffy new phone battery and the flash actually works now. So, of the dozen or so pictures I took, only about four of them turned out well enough to share.

Turn Five, and five zombies just spawned by the container...

The good news, of course, is that the game doesn't really need a turn-by-turn description. The first few turns saw both sides advancing, no one was turned into a zombie, and only one person was lost on each team. Towards the end, a lot of zombies spawned all at once, which was scary for a moment because until then it had been pretty smooth going... the colony militia really showed their stuff, though, and they killed most of the zombies. There were three Contact markers that split in two, and two that turned out to be nothing.

Final turn" everyone is ready for the Transporter to beam them up, and there are still two Contact markers wandering away

All the Objectives were met after eight turns, there were still two contact markers wandering away (there had been only one, but it split in two on the last turn,) and the crew all gathered to be beamed up. Success!

Afterwards, both Nanny Ogg and Magrat leveled up. Star Fleet was putting heavy pressure on them to get everything wrapped up on their mission to Pinkfluffdoodle IV, but that would have no real effect on the next game. They also came across a good business deal on the side, and managed to earn a couple of extra credits to add to their stash.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm not a fan of the Bug Hunt mission, and I'm not a zombie fan. But I really wanted to push through and see how the dice play out in making a Star Trek adventure. And, if Star Trek had zombies, I think this game pretty accurately reflected how it would play out. We lost a couple of the background people, and both of the heroes in this episode had a moment or two to really shine and save everyone. Magrat really did a good job, which suits her role as Chief Security Officer. I certainly hope I get a better mission next time! And I need to make sure I have all the right tokens and markers...

My Star Fleet hack of Five Parsecs can be found here.

Five Parsecs From Home and the supplements are available here.

Bold Brigands Beaten

So y'all know that Anasdiazi's Raft is getting a little powerful. On a day with good dice rolling, they can plow through an encounter five times stronger than recommended. And due to this, I have said that once they are done clearing all the Threat from the village of Oraskat, the difficulty of the campaign will be adjusted from "Adventurer" to "Warband" for hopefully some increased difficulty. This is the story of saving Oraskat for once and for all. A short story, but still a story.

Bugs, Mr. Rico! No, wait, wrong game... five Brigands and their Leader

The thing of it is, the residents of Oraskat can't figure out if they love the Raft, or hate them. It was all love and kisses and free beer, but then our fearless durulz go off and kill some slavers to prevent the village from being raided and suddenly everyone's mad at them. It's almost like the village was in on it with the bad guys, am I right? Anyway, the villagers were feeling pretty hostile to Our Heroes when they got back. Those fearless fowl did some tracking, and had a good lead on some Brigands operating in the area. Probably because the townsfolk were aiding and abetting the bad guys. But who knows? Oasasya got a good deal on a Quick warhammer, which was bought for Mataw. And then they went out looking for the Brigands. Unfortunately, the Brigands found them first, most likely tipped off by the fine folk back in Oraskat.

The Brigands had a plan for their deployment. Really.

The opening moves of the encounter yielded some amazing archery from the whole bow section, and then a little help from the Nameless Priest of Humakt ensured only one out of three Brigands an the left flank survived. Mataw and Pariwan surged forward to meet the enemy, and without much surprise the tall keet fell before the enemy and Mataw then dispatched two of them, including their Leader. The survivor on the left flank saw that only one of his compatriots was still standing, and decided that discretion was the better part of valor and ran away. Probably back to Oraskat.

Mataw is shown killing the Brigand Leader after he cut down Pariwan Keetslander

The end of the first turn's slaughter

One Brigand remained. He was within Mataw's charge range. And that was the end of him.

Bad guys go bye-bye; the end of the second turn.

So, after the dust had settled, it was time to check on Pariwan, his pink feathers crimson with his own blood. Again.He seemed somewhat injured, but as he had been feeling particularly lucky, he turned out to be just fine after all. Quackmore levelled up, with +1 to his Luck. A Balanced standard weapon was found amongst the Brigands and added tp the Raft's stash. The Outlaw Threat to Oraskat was NOT reduced, the die roll was "1;" but because the Raft had been successful in Tracking while still in the town, they were allowed to re-roll and scored a "5" thus reducing the Outlaw Threat by one and rendering Oraskat safe from ALL threats.At least for the time being, the ingrates. Because the Raft has eliminated all threats to the town, they gain +1 Story point and a Loot roll, which yielded 16 gold crowns. They are getting rich as well as experienced!

I thought my last game was fast at three turns, and now this one is just two turns. I can't wait to start dealing with increased danger when the Raft migrates to Berstavalb next turn.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Outrageous Outlaws Offed!

Way back in December 2019, Anasdiazi's Raft encountered some slavers outside of Garakt. That was their fourth outing in the campaign to rid the region of threats to four villages. Garakt has long since been safe, and the Raft as of late has been clearing the lands around Oraskat, And they have finally run into some more slavers, this time a group composed of professional people sellers as well as some hired military help from the Lunar invaders.

But first, a little bit on what has been going on for the Raft since they beat down the last of the Lunars and rendered Oraskat safe from the invaders for the time being. Upon their return to Oraskat, there was a bit of a bronze shortage, making it harder to acquire basic arms and armor. Anasdiazi, Quackmore, and the Nameless Priest of Humakt all recovered one further turn of their healing time. Mataw came out of her sleep from the Winter's Flask, with an increase of one each in Agility, Speed, Combat Skill, and Toughness. She has become a true melee monster now! There was much foraging done with a result of three dose of Healing Herbs. Puddles caught two gold crowns' worth of fish. And then every able bodied member of the raft went out adventuring and found nothing to meet or fight. And si they went back to Oraskat. In game terms, I rolled a "2" for encounters, meaning neither a Roadside nor a Combat encounter would be involved. And so we rolled on to the next campaign turn...

Our Heroes. Y'all should know them by name by now.

The people of Oraskat have been very happy with Anasdiazi and the Raft, so much so they they were showered with gifts of food and ale. No Upkeep costs this turn around! Even better, Anasdiazi, Quackmore, and the Nameless Priest of  Humakt were all healed up and ready to fight. There was some Tracking, and the Raft thought they had a real good idea where to find some Outlaws. There was some laboring done, to the effect of six more gold crowns in the Raft's coffers. And Puddles went fishing but caught nothing.

The bad guys, with both old and new faces.

The Raft had no Roadside encounter. But their Combat encounter was automatically Outlaws, because both the Border Tensions and Dark Secrets threats had been reduced to zero for Oraskat. And who they encountered were a mixed group of eight, both Slavers and Lunar deserters (all using the Slavers profile, of course) as well as their overall Leader. Worse, while tracking down the Slavers, the Raft found themselves tracked down and attacked while they were investigating a copse of trees!

The Raft, effectively ambushed in the woods

The first run saw very little happen except the Slavers advancing towards the Raft in two groups, and in turn Our Heroes trying to get out of the woods to either get a clear shot or Lay The Smack Down. Seriously, only one shot was fired and it didn't hurt anyone.

The first turn of movement, shooting, and no effect

The second turn, however, saw what a true combat monster Mataw had become. She personally felled three of the Slavers. In other news, Pariwan Keetslander didn't go out of action, and archery was again useless. Anasdiazi and Quackmore held their own against some other Slavers, over on the other side of the woods.

Mataw shows her new moves in Turn 2

The last turn saw some nice archery from Trackquack the Guide and Oasasya, Mataw killed the fourth Slaver over on her side of the woods, Anasdiazi and Quackmore killed some Slavers before Quackmore went down to a counter-strike, and finally the Nameless Priest of Humakt finished off the last two bad guys.

The end of the game sees nine bad guys and Quackmore down

In the aftermath, it seemed that Quackmore was suffering a serious injury, but he pressed his luck and turned out to be just fine. They found some battered weaponry, one basic weapon usable out of it all. They managed to reduce the Outlaw threat to Oraskat by one, to just 1. The original Threat level had been 1, so the next Combat encounter would not be a Last Stand. The Nameless Priest of Humakt leveled up, with +1 Agility. Finally, they found a Spring Vial on a corpse, which is a life-saving magical fluid.

This was the quickest game of Five Leagues From The Borderlands I have ever played. No, really, it was a whole three turns. I think it took me longer to roll up the encounter and get it all on the table than to actually play the game. I even tried to stack the encounter against them by sticking them in the woods so their heavy-hitting archery would be nerfed for a few turns. The Raft has gotten powerful. So powerful, in fact, that Pariwan Keetslander has now survived a few games. If they smoke through their next Combat encounter and reduce the last point of Threat to Oraskat, I am raising the difficulty of the campaign when they get to the next village.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Confronting Lunar Tensions Head On

So, Anasdiazi's Raft is in some bad shape right now. Anasdiazi, his retainer Quackmore, and the Nameless Priest of Humakt are all injured and recovering. Mataw is still slumbering from the effects of the Winter's Flask potion. Pariwan Keetslander, Puddles, Oasasya, and Trackquack the Guide are still committed to protecting the region, however, and begin to prepare for their next excursion beyond the walls of Oraskat.

Before going any further, Trackquack the Guide requests a gold crown in payment, because Pariwan Keetslander got one the last time they were all in town, and Trackquack rightly pointed out that Pariwan does nothing but get knocked out every time they wind up in a fight. Anasdiazi, in his delirium, approved this, and Trackquack pocketed his newfound riches. He then went studying with Oasasya, learning the skills of Organization, while the willowy woman learned nothing. Puddles, shaking his head at this drama, went fishing; he found a pretty decent spot; it was a nice day, the fish seem to be eager. It wasn't a bad day at all. He had a chance to catch three fish. He caught three fish for a total strength of 5, worth 1 gold crown. Oasasaya then went out bargain hunting, which turned up a Quick weapon available for  5 gold crowns, and a Luck potion for 8 gold crowns. She passed on the weapon, but bought the potion. Pariwan spent time rallying villagers to their cause; four fresh faces were willing to accompany them and protect the village.

They had not gotten very far into their day when they met a Scholar travelling on the road; she was a real jerk and treated them with disdain. Later, they approached a small family farmstead and spied some Lunar soldiers looting the family's goods. Pariwan, drawing on his knowledge from his previous life, recognized them as Auxilia rather than front-line troops, and decided that the Raft would do well to drive them off.

Our Heroes and some fresh faces

The skirmish opened with the three archers shooting at the two Lunar Auxilia behind the grain silo. Only Puddles found his mark, causing a Wound on one of the soldiers. The Lunar archer returned fire, but to no effect. The Lieutenant and his two bodyguards charged towards Pariwan and the villagers, who in turn closed the distance between them.

The end of Turn1

The opening volley by the archers in Turn two killed all three Lunars charging towards them. Nice shooting! The Lunar archer retaliated, but missed her shot. The Lieutenant and his bodyguards had no such issues, killing three villagers and Wounding Pariwan Keetslander. The Wound, however, was not fatal to him at the end of the turn. The Lunar Auxilia were unaffected by poor Morale.

The end of Turn 2, death is in the air

At the outset of Turn 3, Puddles missed the Lunar archer, who returned the shot and felled Trackquack the Guide. Pariwan Keetslander and the villager continued sparring with the Lieutenant and his bodyguards, with Pariwan taking another Wound. Oasasya then killed the Lunar archer. However, at the end of the turn, Pariwan did not yet succumb to his Wounds. The Lunar Auxilia were unaffected by poor Morale.

Turn 3 leads to archers dieing on both sides.

As Turn 4 began, Puddles moved between the farmhouse and the storage silo to take a shot at one of the bodyguards. His aim was true and the Lunar soldier dropped in his tracks. Oasasya took a shot at the other, but missed. Pariwan Keetslander sparred with the remaining bodyguard, neither of them finding a gap in the other's defenses. The villager, however, took down the Lieutenant with a lucky blow. Pariwan remained steady in the face of his Wounds. The Lunar Auxilia were unaffected by poor Morale.

Turn 4 becomes four on one

Turn 5 began with both Puddles and Oasasya shooting at the bodyguard, and both missing. Furthermore, Pariwan Keetslander and the villager were wholly unable to injure or kill him. This guy must have been some great warrior in his previous life! Pariwan still did not succumb to his Wounds. 

Pariwan vs. the Bodyguard in mortal combat!

Really? Nothing changed on Turn 5?

And then, in Turn 6, the tables suddenly turned on the Raft. Both Puddles and Oasasya missed some easy shots at the bodyguard. Parwian Keetslander fell before his might. And so too did the remaining villager as he tried to avenge the phoenic warrior's death. And now the nigh-invincible bodyguard turned his attention to the archers...

Turn 6 became a disaster! Will the archers survive?

But there was to be no worry, as the opening move of Turn 7 resulted in the bodyguard falling to Oasasya's bow. All that was left was to check on their friends and search the dead soldiers for loot.

Turn 7: Oasasya did a thing!

Trackquack the Guide looked like he might be seriously injured, but some medicinal herbs helped revive him. Pariwan Keetslander, having received two Wounds before going down, turned out to have just been knocked out. His Partial armor was going to need some repairs, though. Three of the villagers were outright dead. The villager that killed the Lieutenant, however, proved to just be knocked out. He would be joining the Raft as a Follower moving forward. Both Oasasya and Pariwan leveled up; Pariwan gained +2 Speed and Oasasya learned the Farming skill. The Raft recovered two basic weapons, a quality weapon, and a Fine suit of Partial armor, perfect to replace Pariwan's damaged one. And with that, they headed back to Oraskat to check in on their recovering friends.

One of my most consistent criticisms of the games I have played is that Pariwan Keetslander always goes down on his first contact with the enemy. This time around, he was the major melee player in the whole game! Another thing that we have not seen much of is Wounds; in this game, two of the bad guys were Wounded, but both were killed before there was a chance to test for death by Wounds. Pariwan carried two Wounds for quite a while, and never succumbed to them. Also, this particular game was not a foregone conclusion; by the end of the second turn, three of the villagers weredown, and with them, a lot of the staying power for the Raft had evaporated. There were also a long string of bad die rolls which looked like it might torpedo any chance of success they might have. In the end, though, they pulled through and removed the Border Tensions Threat entirely from Oraskat.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Three Witches Vs. Pinkfluffdoodle IV

My inaugural Star Fleet Grammas game of Five Parsecs From Star Fleet went amazingly well. I decided to run the bare bones of a crew for this mission: it was Captain "Granny" Weatherwax, Commander "Nanny" Ogg, and Commander Magrat accompanied by a four-person security team with phaser rifles. The command crew all had phaser pistols. I rolled a 5 for the Mission Assignment, resulting in a Salvage Mission. In fact, I prepared for this game so long ago that the Salvage Missions supplement wasn't even available yet, and I had set it up from the Salvage Crew game instead. So, I  used the information that I had kept for the game. In this case, our intrepid explorers set down on Pinkfluffdoodle IV (one of my three generic sci-fi terrain themes) and set about resolving the Points Of Interest and Salvage.

Our Heroes

The initial set up indicated three Points Of Interest and two Salvage sites. Once I had these set up, I picked my deployment edge of the game board, made a roll, and had to deploy on a different, random board edge instead. This was not starting off well...

Set up: pink tokens are Points Of Interest, and purple tokens are Salvage.

The first turn saw a general sweeping advance into the survey area. One of the Redshirts investigated a Point Of Interest; it was revealed as a Hazard: Risk and was promptly vaporized for his efforts. His movement also triggered a Contact marker in a nearby terrain feature (shown by the blue token.) Another Redshirt managed to recover one of the Salvage markers.

You can tell it's Star Trek when a Redshirt dies in the first game turn

The second game turn involved Captain "Granny" Weatherwax moving forward to investigate the Contact marker; it turned out to be a four-alien salvage team armed mostly with carbines but also an auto rifle. As they were brandishing their weapons rather threateningly, the closest Redshirt took a shot with her phaser rifle and stunned one of them. Commander Magrat and Commander "Nanny" Ogg tried to do likewise with their phaser pistols, but both missed. On the far end of the sweep line, one Redshirt triggered another explosive Point Of Interest (a Hazard: Risk again) and was wounded for his efforts. The remaining Redshirt took a shot with her phaser rifle but missed as well.

Turn two brings an injured Redshirt and Space Octopi to the general confusion

Turn three brought a disaster. The alien salvage team returned fire, and took out Captain "Granny" Weatherwax. The Captain was down! The Away Team shot back, but only one Redshirt managed to stun an alien. There were still two of them there, slishing slowly towards the remaining Salvage marker.

Where did the Captain go?

The fourth turn saw a small firefight between the Star Fleet team and the aliens. In the end, the aliens were defeated and the exploration could continue.

Turn 4 ends with all aliens stunned and neutralized

The fifth turn saw nothing but slow advancement towards the remaining Point Of Interest and Salvage marker. It was actually a little anticlimactic after fighting the alien salvage team.

Slowly the Away Team advances into turn 5

Turn 6 was the last turn of the game, and three things happened. First, no more Contacts were triggered in the remaining two pieces of terrain. Second, the final Point of Interest was triggered by a Redshirt; it was a third Hazard: Risk and it wholly vaporized him. And third, the final Salvage marker was recovered. As there were no further terrain stands that had not been checked for Contacts, the game ended and the encounter was Fully Cleared.

Another Redshirt dies in turn 6

Captain "Granny" Weatherwax had sustained a head injury from the attack by the aliens. She will be in Sick Bay for two campaign turns recovering, and has lost .5 Reaction permanently. Each Salvage marker was worth 1 credit, and each Point Of Interest cleared (three in total!) was worth 1 Rep.

This game succeeded better than I had hoped. It really did feel like a Star Trek episode, right down to the Redshirts dying from investigating stuff. I do wish I had rolled lower for Contacts; out of 16 terrain items, I only rolled a single "1" to trigger a contact marker. On the other hand, the team lost almost half it's strength from a single Contact and three Points Of Interest. And regarding the Points Of Interest, they are an exciting, dynamic part of this kind of mission, but I managed to roll the same result three times in a row. I currently plan to run four missions on Pinkfluffdoodle IV before I move on to another planet. But don't hold me to that, I may enjoy this place so much that we spend some more time here.

My Star Fleet hack of Five Parsecs can be found here.

Five Parsecs From Home and the supplements are available here.