The Lair Of The Scorpionmen!

You know, I've been a little disappointed in how easy my last few games have been. And as soon as Oraskat has been cleared of all Threat, I am advancing Anasdiazi's Raft to the Warband level of difficulty instead of Adventurer. I am literally at the point where I would rather see another Total Party Kill than another walk through the park slaying enemies with no fear of harm. So, I wrote a scenario that I hoped would be a bit more lethal. It wound up looking like this:

The scorpion men are in a cave with a 3” wide entrance that the characters move into during their first movement. It is roughly circular, about 16” in diameter. At the 7 o’clock position from the entrance is another entry point, also 3” wide. There are two large obstructions in the cave. There is one scorpion man between them, and one behind the left hand one, out of view of the entrance. Each time a scorpion man dies, roll 2d6: on a 8+ another scorpion man comes out of the second entrance during the Monster Phase. If the characters Hold The Field at the end of the scenario, they receive rewards as detailed on page 143 of Five Leagues From The Borderlands 2^nd edition, per scorpion man slain.

Deployment in the lair of the scorpionmen!

So, I have my cute papercraft scorpionmen all ready to go. I decided to use the profile for the Giant Spider as shown on page 146 of Five Leagues From The Borderlands 2^nd edition. And I set up the game, and got everyone deployed. I double checked a bunch of rules to make sure Our Heroes won't get away with anything. The Nameless Priest of Humakt casts his Battle Omens successfully, which helped to Seize The Initiative. And so they gaily traipsed into the cave. Puddles got a lucky shot right off, and now the scorpionmen had dice on their backs to show how many monster points they each had left.

Moving in after siezing the initiative

In the first turn, everyone moved towards the scorpionmen again. All three archers loosed shots at the scorpionman they could see, but to no avail. In return, the lead scorpionman charged at Mataw, and during their third exchange, dropped her with a mighty blow of his club. The other scorpionman scuttled around the other passage towards the Raft.

Mataw versus the scorpionman!

The end of Turn One

To start the next turn, all the archers loosed a volley at the second scorpionman coming down the side passage. Surprisingly, only Puddles scored a hit and caused the loss of one monster point. The Nameless priest of Humakt used his Sparrow's Flight to allow Puddles another shot that automatically hit; it pierced the armor but failed to injure the chitinous foe. So I spent a Story Point to re-roll that, and it still failed to get past that thick, chitinous hide! Then the Terrifying Trio of Anasdiazi, Quackmore, and Pariwan Keetslander fought the other scorpionman. They made no impact whatsoever against him, and he did no injury to them either. The second scorpionman attacked Oasasya, but at the end of the exchanges the only result as Oasasya was pushed an inch away from her antagonist (note that the picture doesn't show this, I looked it up after I snapped the shot.)

The end of Turn Two

Then it came down to the quick. The three archers loosed more shots, and finally Oasasya found her mark and killed the scorpionman that had so recently tried to sting her. By the scenario rules, it was time to roll and see if another scorpionman joined the battle. A roll of 6 on 2d6 didn't quite bring the reinforcement. Then, Anasdiazi and Quackmore both landed telling blows on the remaining  scorpionman. He was doewn to one monster point! It was all up to Pariwan Keetslander now, and his first blow fell true, slaying the monstrosity. And a 2d6 roll of 3 meant there would be no more scorpionmen attacking and the encounter was over. Once again, the Raft held the field. Or cave, in this case.

Pariwan, Quackmore, and Anasdizai against the scorpionman!

The end of Turn Three

So, I played through my special "killer" scenario. And I was honestly underwhelmed. No one in the Raft failed a single Terror test. The only time the Venom rule came into effect was when Mataw went down. And no more scorpionmen were added to the scenario. That part was very disappointing, but I am trying to let the dice fall where they may (except when I spend a Story Point!) That two monsters were killed in three turns shows that I need to switch out some dice; the pink dice I use for the Raft are clearly too good, and the yellow dice I use for the enemies just aren't good enough. If I were to re-play this (which I might, just to see) I would start with THREE scorpionmen, and have a another monster enter after one dies on a roll of 7+ on 2d6, not 8+ on 2d6.

In the Aftermath, everyone got a little bit of experience, but no one leveled up. Mataw rolled a "97" for survival, so was only knocked out. Loot was very kind! A total of 30 gold crowns and two medicinal herbs were recovered, and two Story Points were added to the total (for a net gain of only one, because I spent one during the game!) And finally, one point of Dark Secrets Threat has been removed.

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