Sepoys and Xenos

We had another double bill session on Sunday, with the first game being The Relief of Luckpore. I was too busy running the game and having too much fun to take photos, but fortunately my friends did.

We played a standard scenario, with the mutineers blocking the Grand Trunk Road by occupying a  village on one side of the road, while I commanded a bunch of badmash hidden behind a hill on the other side.

The British players approached the problem methodically, by first driving off the badmash, and then moving their artillery to occupy the hill, and then proceeding to bombard the village. The mutineers outnumbered the British, but with only one commander, they could not shift their forces to face the threat in time, and were soon routed.

Throughout the game we felt hampered by the command limitations imposed by the rules, which is probably realistic, and tells me that to be successful one probably has to be proactive in moving troops and applying constant pressure on the enemy. I hope to return to the rules again soon.

For the second game we played an 'Aliens'-themed scenario using the Xenos Rampant rules. The Colonial Marines had to evacuate all civilians from a settlement that has been invaded by xenos, and had 12 activations to do so before it would be nuked from orbit. I placed nine buildings on the table, and randomly decided what was found inside each building by using cards to represent civilians, aliens, and "empty"; in addition, one card represented the alien queen.

The Marines players (who played the British in our first game) once again approached the problem methodically, moving their heavy weapon to cover the main avenue of approach, and then moving their squads in mutually supporting positions.

Nevertheless, the aliens were too powerful in melee, with the Queen being almost invulnerable. The Marines lost more than half their strength, and the Queen was killed only when she charged the heavy weapon. The Marines retreated with two units of civilians and three activations to spare, but left three buildings unexplored - one of which turned out to contain civilians - and gaining a narrow victory.

Although I was a playtester for a few of the Rampant series of rules, this was the first time I played a full game against other players. The game was quick because we had only two troop types on each side, and the aliens had no ranged attack capability. The card placement mechanic gave the game an unpredictability that made it exciting for both sides.

The next wargaming session is scheduled for March, when we plan to play a Kings of War game. We are also planning to play Space Hulk, and a home-mod version of Gaslands featuring Orks and kitbashed Ork Trukks in the future. Stay tuned.

Dwarrowdeep #14

As the wealth of the thaig grows, so did its fame, and Lord Khundra was invited back to Orzammar as a guest of Prince Bhelen to once more plead his case for recognition by the kingdom. In anticipation of arrival of more settlers, Lord Khundra had ordered that the offices of the thaig be moved into the High Gate district, the work of which was left to Herald Lord Durrow, who was made regent in his absence.

It was a week after his departure that our heroes (see PC profiles here) witness a strange darkness envelop the main square at High Gate, which the torches could not penertrate. Lighting his Veilfire lantern, Bertil could see a shadowy form looming over a fallen child. The party sprang into action and attacked the shadow, who was soon joined by two more of its ilk. But our heroes prevailed, and when the last shadow fell, light returned, and they saw two more children on the ground, pale and near death. Bertil healed the children, and afterwards the party was summoned to meet Lord Durrow, when they learned that two other similar attacks occurred in the other districts at the same time: one was fended off by The Foxes, the Orlesian mercenaries, and the other by Zunn and the dwarven guards. Two dead dwarven guards were found at the attack where Zunn was at, and Zunn himself barely survived, and was much weakened by the draining touch of the shadows.

At all three scenes, broken red gems were found on the ground - gems which Zunn recognised to be the same as the cursed rubies which he pried out of the eyes of a demonic statue in the lyrium mines.

In the wake of the attack, Guard Captain Galdrin proposed that a lock-down be imposed, and that the power to search all dwellings be granted to the guards, but Lord Durrow agreed only to a curfew.

With Lord Durrow's assent, Bertil, Boggart, and Lorca decided to travel bck to the lyrium mines to find more clues. At the docks, they learned that the guards had lost a boat a week prior. Just before they set off, they were joined by Balkis, an apprentice Shaper, who was assigned to record their deeds as his prentice-piece.

The four then rowed the boat across the underground lake, piloted by Boggart, who skillfully steer the boat out of a whirlpool, and gained himself the epithet of 'the Mariner'.

Arriving at the dock at the lyrium mine, they found the missing guard boat, with guard provisions inside, but no oars. Retracing their steps, they found evidence that someone had spent considerable labour in establishing access to the mines, clearing cave-ins and repairing bridges. Following their trail, they entered the tunnels of the lyrium mines, where they were attacked by darkspawn, which they routed after a hard fight.

Here, in the mine chamber they found the dead bodies of two dwarven guards. There were mining tools next to the bodies, and in their packs our heroes found a few of the cursed gems. There were no wounds on the bodies of the guards, and Bertil did not sense the touch of the shadows on them, leading him to suspect poisoning as the cause of their deaths.

Venturing a little deeper into the mine, they came across veins of lyrium, as well as what appeared to be a red form of lyrium. Our heroes dragged the bodies of the dwarven guards back to the docks, and then returned to High Gate, where they reported their findings to Lord Durrow.

Afterwards, our heroes visited Guard Sergeant Fimar, where they learned that the two dead guards found at the mine had gone missing a week ago, with no apparent reason.

Our heroes then went to the thaig's tomb, where with Shaper Dromin's permission, they examined the bodies of the two guards found dead at the attack, and Bertil determined that they too did not bear the touch of the shadows and could have died from poisoning instead...

Prepping and Running the Game

The idea for this arc of the campaign came from a trio of scenarios by AAW Games, the first of which is Dark Days in Stoneholme. I had to of course change several details about the plot, but by coincidence the "dark-heart rubies" in the module matched the "cursed rubies" which I rolled up as loot in an earlier session, and which I have had difficulty finding a call-back to. This set up the lyrium mines as a location that we had to revisit, and of course the discovery of red lyrium, which will tie in with the final arc of the campaign.

My players are generally not good at mystery scenarios, and I suppose this one isn't too easy for them either. They have given me no indication of whom they suspect to the mastermind behind all the attacks and deaths, which means the next session is wide open and will be difficult for me to prep for.