The Thrappled Lemmings and the Menagerie of Doom (Rangers of Shadow Deep)

 I've not finished all the stuff I need for this mission, but here's the first part, and I hope to have the rest done in time to play the second part next week, if the Lemmings can survive a midnight assault while they were sleeping.

It had been a hard scouting trip through the Shadow Deep and the Lemmings were tired and hungry. Their supplies had run out the day before and several of them were complaining about the lack of food and decent water. They were a grumpy lot who bedded down for the night in the stone circle that seemed to provide the best cover. And the night was only going to get worse.

Onund hissed a warning to the others, "Incoming enemies!"

Bears and tigers and beast handlers

Aesc mumbled in his sleep, "Just five minutes more, Mum."

Temple Guardians

Kalfr rolled over and buried his head under his sleeping roll.

The enemy approaches as Aesc and Kalfr sleep on

Aethelwyrd, Aelfwyn and Incunabulum leapt to their feet and faced outwards from their camp. Lizardpeople were approaching from one side. It was hard to make them out in the dark but their hissing cries made it clear who they were. A bear, a tiger and other denizens of the Shadow Deep were approaching from the other. As they closed, it was clear that they were as surprised to find the Lemmings there as the Lemmings were to be so rudely awakened from their sleep and more of the Shadow Deep's beast handlers were following closely behind them too.

Fortunate it was that Aethelwyrd had slept lightly and awakened quickly, because the bear was on her in a heartbeat. As Aelfwyn shot an arrow straight through the heart of the oncoming tiger and raced to help Aethelwyrd, she roared a challenge to all approaching and cut the bear nearly in half with her sword.

Crikey, two critical hits in a row and two dead beasts! Let us hope this luck continues.

Then the leading Lizardperson was on Aesc, who stumbled groggily to his feet only to be cut down instantly before he had even got his bearings.

I guess the luck did not continue that much after all.

Meanwhile, two beast handlers were on Aethelwyrd and Aelfwyn. Aethelwyrd cut the first one down while Aelfwyn was winning the other fight but struggled to strike a telling blow. Incunabulum blasted the attacking Lizardperson with a magical bolt, grievously wounding it. Onund found himself hard beset by beast handlers and the archer he had charged. The fight was not going well for him. Kalfr had finally woken up though and ran towards him to help. And then another tiger appeared out of the darkness.

Aethelwyrd joined the fray and slew Aelfwyn's beast handler, giving him the chance to race over to help the others. Even though it was a hurried shot as he slid into cover behind a monolith, it still told. The Lizardperson archer was hard hit by his arrow but fired a solid shot at Aelfwyn that left him both bleeding and cursing. By this time, Onund had found his rhythm and was hurting his attackers right up until the Lizardperson archer smashed him across the head and felled him, while Kalfr was badly wounded by the Lizardperson attacking him. Incunabulum unleased a fireball at the archer nearest him, but hit everything around the archer, while leaving him unhurt by it. As all this happened, an Orc warrior appeared out of the darkness.

"Is there no end to these fiends?" muttered Aethelwyrd.

Incunabulum hurriedly enchanted Aethelwyrd's sword before haring off towards a promising looking pile of boxes. Unfortunately, all he found was Shadow Deep Temple uniforms, and not the food he was hoping for, and then the Orc warrior was upon him. Aethelwyrd charged towards the main fight on the other side of the camp. As she did so, Kalfr cut down a beast handler and fended off the tiger's attack for a short while, but soon fell to its claws. The Lizardperson archers' arrows flew wide of their mark but so did Aelfwyn's. The Lemmings were now reduced to half their normal numbers and their only seemed to be more enemies arriving as more Orcs emerged out of the darkness.

Things are not looking good for the Lemmings!

Aethelwyrd charged one of the Lizardperson archers and cut him down just as Aelfwyn took a careful shot at the other and put an arrow through his heart. The Orc warrior batted Incunabulum out of the way without missing its stride and rushed towards the remaining two Lemmings as the other Orcs headed towards the camp fire. The tiger turned its attentions on Aethelwyrd now, who managed to parry its strikes but could not find a gap in its defences. A roar filled the air as another bear emerged from the night.

The enemy charged as the tiger mauled Aethelwyrd. Fortunately, she was able to roll with the punch and was not as badly hurt as she could have been. The Orcs were all charging towards Aelfwyn, and more were appearing even as he fought desperately for his life.

A choking ash cloud suddenly blew across the battlefield. It mattered little to Aelfwyn, who had been cut down by an Orc, and Aethelwyrd succeeding in holding her breath long enough for it to pass even as she cut down an Orc sergeant and the tiger. However, she was no bleeding from a dozen wounds and not certain that she could hold out much longer.

Still, Aethelwyrd took up position between two standing stones and cut deep wounds in the Orc before her, but the bear behind her clawed her once more. The camp was filling up with Orcs waiting their turn to attack her. She fought heroically and slew Orc after Orc, but in the end their numbers told and she fell into darkness as the bear mauled her one more time.

Epilogue

The Thrappled Lemmings awoke in a dim chamber with rocks and rubble all around them. Checking themselves over, they realised that none of them were seriously wounded. Despite being overwhelmed, they had been lucky. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they suddenly found themselves blinded again by torches springing into life some distance away. The torches illuminated a door on a ledge on the far side of the cavern they were in. There was still hope. Then they spotted the skeleton warriors guarding the door and the flagstones behind where they stood started to drop into a great lake of lava below. They would have to move quickly.

Conclusion

That was a tough fight and the first proper defeat for the Lemmings. They started with some great dice rolls, but in the end they were overwhelmed by poorer dice rolls and being outnumbered by the enemy. Fortunately, all of the Lemmings passed their survival rolls with flying colours, so they are all ready to take on this next challenge. In retrospect, I should probably have withdrawn the Lemmings to stand in the centre and let the enemy approach, rather than rushing out to attack, but here is a reason they are known as the Thrappled Lemmings.

On the plus side, this diversion will give me more time to get things ready for the second scenario of the Menagerie mission. If the Lemmings survive the prison, they can head off and seek out what the Shadow Deep is doing with all these creatures.