Five Leagues Turns 1 & 2 - "A Strange Land"

The town of Winterborne came into view as the party came over the hilltop. A decent enough size for the borderlands - around three to four score houses and hovels clustered around a market square, church and an Inn. In places the town was protected by a ditch and palisade fence, and outside stretched fields and pasture, at least as far as a dense forest on the far horizon. Down the track a pair of labourers stopped trying to lever rocks out of the field and watched the newcomers.

“Well, that doesn’t look too bad” said Will.

“You’re more of a fool than I took you for then” sneered Robert “Ditch isn’t deep enough and there are so many gaps in that fence you could march a decent sized army straight in”.

“Lets hope it doesn’t come to that then” said Thomas. “Look at the fields beyond. See how they’re overgrown? No one’s tending anything within bow shot of those woods. There’s trouble here”.

Geoffrey meanwhile, had already started strolling towards the labourers in the fields, “Looks like hard work lads, need a hand?”, taking in the former monk’s stocky build, and the ease with which he shouldered his hammer, they welcomed him over.

Thomas sighed, “We’ll not see him for a while now. We should head into town and see about some lodgings. And maybe find out what’s ailing this place…”.


Our story starts in the town of Winterborne with the following threats:

Outlaws 6
Border Troubles 2
Dark Secrets 4

As expected, Geoffrey did spend the day labouring - clearing fields, fixing fences and delivering at least one lamb. All of which helped to ingratiate the band to the locals [Village Event: Supportive Locals] as well as securing a coin or two [+3 Marks due to Geoffrey’s Farming skill]. While Thomas foraged for Healing Herbs, Robert Fitzwilliam quickly found a card game, gaining another two Marks.

Settled into the Town’s small Inn, the band went exploring beyond the town’s pallisade, but came across nothing but a disinterested pilgrim on their way to the shrine of the lady, in the hills.

Returning to town, Geoffrey and Thomas paid a courtesy visit to the Town’s priest, but found only an old man of somewhat addled wits. While Robert practised his sword skills in the Inn’s courtyard, Will sought to engage a passing Merchant in conversation, to find out what he could tell them, but the merchant wasn’t interested in talking [Village event was ‘Supportive Locals’ again, so I had three town actions, not that it did much good].

Getting nowhere in Town, the band explored the road north, following rumours of Brigands harassing travellers…

The band trudged along the path on the edge of the woods, little more than a worn track across the thin grass. Robert was complaining about it being a fool’s errand, and while Will was wondering if the Inn would have run out of pies by the time they returned, when Thomas shouted a warning “In the woods to the right! Half a dozen or more men!”. The band barely had time to draw weapons and string their bows before seven armed men emerged from the shadows of the woods.

“Form a line!” bellowed Robert, “Archers to the right!, Wait for them to come to us!” [The party were being attacked by 7 Brigands, led by a Sergeant and with one archer].

The Archers (dum de dum de dum de dum...)

The leader is in the middle, with the big chopper and the feathered hat

Used to facing poorly armed farmer and pilgrims, the Brigand’s confidence was high and they charged straight at the party’s ragged line, their archer loosing a couple of arrows but to no effect before running out [rolled a 1 on his first turn]. One Brigand immediately dropped, felled by a well placed bolt from Jocelyn, “Beginner’s Luck” grumbled Will, who’s first arrow went wide. His second found its mark though, putting another outlaw out of the fight.

"wait for it..." 

"wait for it..."

“Now!” yelled Robert, as he, Geoffrey, Thomas, Oswald, Finan and Guy counter charged. With a clash of steel on steel and wood, the two sides met. Robert crossed swords repeatedly with the Brigand’s leader, stunning him and pushing him back, but could not land a telling blow even when Geoffrey came to join him. Thomas had no greater luck, being pushed back by his opponent’s blows, but Guy and Oswald both managed to overcome their opponents.

The dice show the characters acting in the 'quick' phase

As Robert and Geoffrey struggled with the leader, Jocelyn put a bolt into another Brigand. This proved too much for the enemy archer, who fled.

Outnumbered and alone, the Brigand leader decided that retreat looked the best option. Turning to hurl one final insult, but it was not to be, instead falling to the ground, gurgling around the arrow that Will had put through his throat. “What?” he said, looking at the others “it was just going to be something about how we’d ‘not heard the last of him’ or something”.

Will makes it clear what he thinks of the Brigand's leader

Searching the bodies afterwards, it was Thomas who made the grisly discovery just inside the edge of the woods. The butchered bodies of a group of pilgrims [this explained why their archer had run out of arrows so quickly]. “Poor souls” said Geoffrey, before whispering a blessing over the bodies. “Unarmed” said Thomas “and barely a coin between them. This was poorly done.”

Unable to carry the bodies with them, Geoffrey oversaw a hasty burial, marking the graves so that they could later be found. Recalling the tale back in town, the town Aldermen decided to start providing makeshift armed escorts to the pilgrims passing through [rolled ‘Victims’ and ‘Evidence’ for the loot rolls, resulting in the Outlaw threat being reduced by three]

The party escape unscathed from their first encounter, and with +2XP each. For his stellar performance, Jocelyn gained a skill, ‘Deft’(+1” to ‘dash’ moves and reduced penalties for obstacles).

I like the combat system in Five Leagues.  Combats are played out in a series of exchanges, which gives a nice feel of the fight going backwards and forwards.  I'm less sure about fighting multiple opponents - it feels like a rule designed for a slightly different activation system.  By moving one model at a time it resulted in the bizarre spectacle of the Brigand leader gradually retreating as one character after another ran up to him, until he'd moved too far away for anyone to reach him.  Next time I might move everyone into combat first, then play them out.

Sometimes the random tables really come up trumps as well.  During the game it seemed a bit random that the Brigand Archer ran out of arrows right at the start, but then came the Loot rolls.  'Victims' provided a perfect reason, he'd run out because he'd already used them in an earlier raid.  Then the next loot roll being 'evidence' fitted perfectly - the victims then became the evidence that led to the authorities taking the threat more seriously.

I've already played out the next encounter, and will get it written up soon.