Five Leagues Turn 15 - Someone think of the children!

I'm really behind with posting at the moment!  This is the second Five Leagues from the Borderland game from the 'Hen Night Weekend' (which was so long ago the wedding has now happened, the little miniature being a very proud bridesmaid for her Auntie).  This was a bit different for a number of reasons - bit the most interesting one was that the (now not so) little miniature joined me, helping set up the scenario and make choices for our brave heroes!

The turn started poorly, with the group waking up to find that some swine had swiped 12 gold marks from them.  A heated discussion followed as Robert accused Will of the crime, with Gregory and Thomas having to defuse the situation.  The situation was compounded by the band now being so large that they had to pay two more marks for upkeep, and another for more arrows.  Gregory put his skills to use earning back three marks helping out on the farms around the village whilst Giacomo visited the town healer to get himself back in action.

Almost back up to strength (Oswald still needed another turn to recover), our heroes went out adventuring, only for Thomas to come across something completely new: Monster Tracks!  Perhaps drawn by the chaos following the border incursion, two ogres had come down from the mountains and were preying on the nearby farms [I rolled up 'tough battle', which adds an extra enemy - I'm not sure it is supposed to apply to monsters but, as ogres are relatively weak, and the band quite strong, I went with it].

 

"Must be sumfink 'ere wurf eatin'.  Let's 'ave a butchers!"

(Mordheim Mercenary ogre and Citadel Ogre Brigand) 

Following the tracks brought them to a farmstead, just as the ogres closed in for the attack.  To complicate matters, Giacomo, Thomas and Gregory found the fleeing family who told them in a panic that they had been unable to get to the children, who had been playing in the edge of the woods! [I rolled up 'Fetch' as the objective, and thought it would be a good opportunity to us the Hasslefree Brats that I had painted up].

"Someone save the children! (keep up Grandad!)"

"and the sheep, if you can!"

The poor mites, busy pulling the wings off flies and blissfully unaware of what awaits on the other side of the farmhouse!

Thomas immediately volunteered to dash around the back of the longhouse to rescue the brats little ones, while the rest of the band would draw the ogres away.  Will, Jocelyn and Raymond would do their best to turn the beasts into pincushions while Robert and Guy, and Giacomo and Gregory, led two groups at each ogre.

The battlefield, beautifully (and convincingly) prepared by Rosa! (Heroes entering from the right)

"Over here foul creature, meet your doom on my sword!"

Robert and his faithful retainer, Guy, rushed forwards on the left; keen for the glory of felling the great beast!

But sadly, for Robert's ego at least, it was not to be; As two dead-on shots from Jocelyn saw the first ogre fall to the ground dead [I know that's not Jocelyn in the picture, but I didn't catch one of the momentous event], leaving Robert yelling in frustration!

On the right, the second ogre smashed aside the hay cart, to be met by Giacomo, Gregory and Finan.  The ensuing melee gave Thomas his chance to dash over the road to the farmhouse unseen.

Initially beaten back, another great shot from Jocelyn wounded the axe wielding brute, distracting it long enough for Giacomo to dart in and thrust his sword into the creature's black heart!

 

"Come with me if you want to live!"

Thomas finally reached the children, and successfully persuaded them to come with him, but by then the danger was all over.  At least he was able to hand them safely back to their worried families with no bits nibbled!

"Your children are safe!"

"Great, but what about the sheep?"

As if losing his 'kill' to an archer wasn't bad enough for Robert, he had now had to see Giacomo 'steal' the glory.  Another heated 'debate' between the knight and the archers broke out until Gregory was able to restore order!

The mopping up phase saw the grateful farmers dig deep and reward the adventurers which, along with some coins 'rescued' from the ogre's loot, saw the band regain all of the twelve marks they had lost at the start of the turn.

 

Other loot included a 'quick' light weapon, which Jocelyn took to replace his existing knife, and some torches .  The ogres had also clearly encountered some other brave adventurer who had been less fortunate as, stuffed in the ogre's bag with various unsavoury items stored (presumably) as a snack for later, was a full set of knight's armour and an enchanted weapon, a 'Heart Seeker'!

Five Leagues Turn 14 - The Haunted Stone

The missus was off for a couple of nights on her younger sister's hen do.  Time for the toys to come out...

Although there was an iron shortage in the village, it had little impact on the growing group of heroes.  Geoffery took Giacomo to the town healer, reducing the time he would be out of action, while the rest of the group did some trading, selling some excess weapons and the jewellery looted from the tower last turn, in exchange for light armour and a shield for Giacomo to use when he recovered (and 'get well' present?).

The old map that the party had also found in the old tower showed a old ring of standing stones on the edge of the forest, the map recently marked with strange and eldritch symbols pointing at it.  Convinced this could be the source of the dark forces plaguing the village, the party tooled up and headed out.

[I rolled up Dark Shadows encounter.  As this was the last points in this category it would be a 'Last Stand' against the 'Corrupt', including a Boss, Lieutenant, Sergeant and 6 corrupt, including a 'skulker'.  The encounter would take place on the edge of the woods around a haunted stone, with the Party's objective to eliminate the enemy].

As the party worked their way through the scattered trees on the edge of the dark woods, snatches of low gutteral chanting started to reach them.  Thomas shivered "Do you feel that? Like my blood suddenly ran cold.".  Geoffery hefted the hammer on his shoulder with his right hand, his left clutching the smaller brass hammer that hung on a chain around his neck, "Something wicked is near, we must not rest until it is wiped from this land, even at the cost of our own blood".

Will spat on the ground.  "Bloody knew you'd something like that" he said, but knocked an arrow to his string nonetheless. 

 

The party split up for their attack, the archers (Will, Jocelyn and Ray) on the left; Geoffery, Robert and Guy in the middle, and Thomas, Finan and Oswald on the right. 

 

Jocelyn drew first blood, dropping one of the corrupted creatures with a well placed crossbow bolt, then followed up with the corrupted sergeant. 

Meanwhile a desperate fight broke out on the right, started by the fast but deadly corrupt skulker.  Thomas wounded the vile creature, then finally cut it down, but not before both Oswald and Finan had been put down by other corrupt, leaving Thomas outnumbered.

In the centre, the bulk of the corrupt charged Robert, Geoffrey and Guy.  Guy struck one down swiftly, as did Geoffrey, while Robert engaged in a back and forth due with another.

On the right Thomas showed his metal, killing the remaining corrupt.  Guy fended off the Corrupt Boss, who was then engaged by Robert, allowing Guy to turn on and take down another creature.

As Will found his 'eye' and put a shaft through the Corrupt Lieutenant's heart, Robert gleefully dueled with the Boss - after serval back and forth exchanges the knight found a opening and thrust his bastard sword deep into the abomination, putting and end to the encounter.

Finan turned out to be OK (getting KO'd seems to be his default state!), while Oswald was lightly injured and would be out of action for two turns.  Searching the area revealed six gold marks, a shield and some medicinal herbs, and a prisoner that was immediately released.

As Geoffrey prayed to his god to cleanse the stones, and scattered holy water liberally, the others kept their distance.  Even with the corrupted creatures dead, the stone emanated a sense of unease and dread.  Will turned to Jocelyn "Happy to let the priest deal with that thing, I ain't going near it.  He looked around him at the bodies of the corrupted creatures, "at least this lot won't be bothering anyone no more".  Thomas looked at the archer, "careful Will, I might almost imagine you're starting to care about people".  "Yeah, well"  Will mumbled "just don't go spreading rumours like that around, I've got a reputation to maintain".

Ludwig Schwarzhelm

Some models take longer to complete than others.  I originally picked this one up back in 2011, when GW was mucking about with 'FineCast' as a material.

 

I think I then started to put paint on him a couple of years ago, doing a bit at a time.  Then, over the last couple of weeks, I decided to go for it in earnest and try to complete him.

General opinion is that I am pleased with the result overall, but it was not a pleasure to paint.  The material just didn't seem to like paint, for a start.  But also it's just so.. fiddly!  It's an issue I have with GW's output over the last decade or so - everything is just so covered in detail, and gubbins, and decoration, all of it requiring a painting project by itself.  Don't get me wrong, I think GW are still creating incredible quality minis, I just don't have the patience or time for this level of detail on anything more than an occasional basis.

It didn't help that the blasted sword broke off, then had to be pinned and glued back on.

Anyway, pictures...

Five Leagues Turn 13 - Tower Hill

The locals were so pleased with our heroes clearing the caverns of the Taken, that they plied them with plentiful food and ale [Village Event - no need to pay for upkeep].  A passing knight joined them, and in return for pie and wine offered to help them out if the opportunity should ever arise [Village action - Interact].  Unfortunately all the ale (and the subsequent hangover) put a damper on the group's attempts to study and no new skills were gained.

Instead of the usual adventuring, the party chose to follow up on the story told by their new party member, Wynn Stone [points if you can work out why he's named that ;-)], of a camp full of the Taken in an old tower in the fells to the north.

[The party would be facing 8 Taken, including a 'Captain', Skulker and Stumbler.  The terrain was rolled up as a ruined tower, with the 3 of the Taken within it and the rest randomly scattered around.  The battle would take place in fog, reducing all shooting to no more than 9"]

The ruin of an old watchtower loomed darkly through the mists that clung to the fells, the only other shapes those of scattered, ruined and dying trees.  The fog seemed carry strange sounds, that could perhaps be chanting, or just the wind through the trees.  Clothes and bow strings were damp, as well as spirits.  Will cursed, the mist would make it difficult for the bowmen in the party, "can't see a damned thing, anything could be out there, and it'll be on us before I can get a decent shaft off".  "You might even have to fight like a real soldier" Robert retorted.  Will was about to remind the arrogant knight about saving his bacon outside Winterbourne, when an inhuman howl came from the direction of the tower, and a dark shapes stumbled from the mists at the foot of the tower...

 

 

Dastardly goings on in the tower

  

 

"are we sure we want to go up there?"

Giacomo, Thomas, Oswald and Finan contemplate the watchtower

 

 

From left to right: Jocelyn, Will, (new boy) Wynn, Gregory, Robert and Guy

 

 

"There's definitely something out there"

Robert and Giacomo both stepped up and felled one of the Taken each, while one of Jocelyn's bolts found its mark in another.

 

As more rushed out of the tower, Thomas charged another on the right, taking him down after a protracted fight. Wynn's first outing was a success, shooting one of the Taken, while Will's arrows wounded another, only to be finished off by Robert's bastard sword.

 

But our heroes did not have it all there own way, as a particularly stubborn monstrosity beat down both Oswald and Giacomo, before finally being put out of its own misery by Thomas.

 

Oswald and Giacomo fall, while Robert and Guy take on the leader

In the centre, Robert and Guy engaged the Taken's leader, who proved to be made of tougher stuff, wounding Robert and pushing the knight and his retainer back.  Another creature charged at Gregory from behind the tower, only to meet a bolt from Jocelyn and then felled by a single blow from Gregory's hammer.

Now only the Taken's leader was left standing.  As a wounded Robert prepared himself to launch into the fight again, Will took aim, drew back his bow... and placed an arrow neatly into the once human's heart.

"That's another one you owe me", smirked Will.

 

eyeing up the target.  

It's unclear who the rude gesture is aimed at though

Oswald turned out to just be knocked out and nursing a sore head.  Giacomo had fared worse, his wounds were still light, but would put him out of action for three turns.  A rummage around the tower turned up three gold marks,some tarnished silver jewellery (no doubt taken from some unfortunate) an old map of the area, and several old swords and axes.

The tidy up at the end saw Will and Jocelyn level up Luck and Agility respectively, and the whole group gain a story point.

All in all, not a bad turn.  I liked the story beats, with the idea of the looming tower in the mist; and the way that the 'dark shadows' opponent rolls have come together to tell a story of a cult turned bad, and then worse.  However the action itself was a bit routine.  The party has become quite large and powerful, and the random enemy deployment meant that it was quite easy to overwhelm them in small numbers.  I might have to 'load' some die rolls in the next couple of turns  (possibly by spending some Story Points) to make sure of getting some variety in scenarios and opposition.  That said, I think I have also been lucky in not taking more serious harm, so I may need to be careful what I wish for!