13 Ambyrmont - Swept off his feet

 Broneslav pulled the door open. It resisted strongly, but he was stronger. Suddenly the door gave. Broneslav was swept off his feet by the weight of the water flooding into the room beyond. He crashed into the opposite wall and groaned as he felt a dozen new bruises emerge. Picking himself up, he looked around. This was not a huge room by the standards of the temple, but it was very much a dead end. There were no exits other than the one he had been swept in by. A small stone altar and several stone benches occupied the room. Broneslav knew they were stone because he had made their acquaintance in passing as he entered the room. Hanging from a stone hook near the altar was a mace that Broneslav recognised to be of good quality. He grabbed it and put it in his backpack.

"No option then," he said to himself resignedly, "Crab it is."

After surveying this room once more, he turned around and trudged through the water back towards the door where he had encountered the crab. As he did so, he saw the giant crab coming towards him. The door beyond it was in splinters and the crab was scuttling sideways as fast as it could in his direction. It had a friend with it.

Broneslav's first blow skittered off the crab's shell and left him open to the crab's attacks. Fortunately, he was able to block its wildly flailing pincers with his shield. Recovering his balance, he plunged his sword into the crab's face and it collapsed to the floor. It's friend clambered over it to get at Broneslav. Angered and bleeding, Broneslav split the crab's shell with his sword and it joined its deceased partner.

"Shit, that hurts," he grumbled as he bandaged his wounds. Then he headed into the next room. There were stairs leading down into the water and he could just make out stairs leading up on the other side to a blocked passageway. There was also a set of stairs leading up to another passageway out of the room.

The water looked deep. Good job he had a potion of levitation. Chugging the vile concoction down, the brave lad floated up to the ceiling and used his purchase on that to move to the only other way out. As he did so, he noticed a massive oyster some six feet in diameter just below the surface of the water.

"Good luck to you, fella."

The oyster was no danger as far as he could tell, so he floated over it and into the passage beyond.

As the potion wore off and Broneslav splashed to the ground, he heard chittering noises. Giant rats burst from small tunnels in the side of the passage and assailed him with all their furry fury. Taken aback by their ferociousness, Broneslav fumbled his attacks and took a series of nasty nips through the gap sbetween his armour plates as he slowly got his rhythm going again. Once he had got their measure, the rats soon died.

The passageway he was in ended in yet another door. Bracing himself, Broneslav opened it. There was no sudden rush of water this time and he was able to wade into yet another room with a goodly quantity of water on the floor. A door on the opposite side of the room beckoned. As he crossed the room, he felt a tug at his ankle. Suddenly the room filled with burning oil and he was covered. Broneslav leapt backwards, but the fire did not burn. He had forgotten the magical ring he was wearing would protect him from flames.

Backing away from the smoke, so that he could breathe, he waited for the oil to burn out, before going to the other door and opening it, again bracing himself. This time, water rushed out of the room and into the passage beyond. Despite being braced, Broneslav was swept along and fetched up against a portcullis that stopped him from being carried even further away. Just as well, because even as he spluttered and coughed and fought to keep his head above the rushing water, he noticed stairs at the end of the passage going downwards. Who knew how far they would take him?

Broneslav took a fierce pounding as he tried to climb the portcullis, be he survived and once the water had leveled out, he was able to stand easily. He felt terrible but was back on his feet. Looking around, he found a lever that opened the portcullis and a door to his left that led into a passage back to the original room he had landed in. The lever also opened the original portcullis that had forced him to go the other way initially.

By now, the young warrior was feeling distinctly woozy. He decided that he should head back to the village and explore further later, after he had properly cleaned his wounds and had a bit of rest to recover. He made his way back up through the hole in the floor and out onto the temple landing place, where he got into his canoe and started to make his way back across the lake.

About halfway, suddenly everything went black.

Gone to the Dogs (Forgotten Ruin)

 "Congratulations on your successful scouting and clearing of the Rye County Dungeon."

The L.T. was clearly in a good mood. She did not normally hand out compliments that amounted to more than a simple "Attaboy!" or "Well done, that chap!" Tiger Troop that this could not be a Good Thing. They were right.

"As you did so well, I have a milk run for you. Head out through the tunnels to Dog Bay and scout the area for us. We are planning on moving through to Helmland and it will be an important staging point. I know you had casualties on the last patrol and we are short on people right now, but Corporal Simms will accompany you this time around, while Adeyemi and Bonolo recover."

The beasts of battle await the outcome of the patrol, certain in the knowledge that they will eat well regardless of how it ends (It's a white-tailed sea eagle, if you really want to know)

There was nothing for it but to gather their gear and head out. The trudge through the dungeon was dank but otherwise uneventful and they emerged blinking in the sunlight into the ruins of Dog Bay. They identified the objectives quickly and prepared to move out, only to spot weird constructs ahead of them. The magico-mechanical creatures advanced slowly towards Tiger Troop, whose response was to unload everything they had at them.

Tiger troop held their position and focused on clearing the way as Pan took charge of the scouting job. The constructs marched and slithered inexorably towards them, oblivious of the their casualties.

It was slow going, but the incessant gunfire, and the use of the squad anti-tank weapon whittled the creatures down in the end until only a few got close enough to attack in hand to hand. Leaf responded by shapeshifting and tearing several apart.

As the troop applied its usual firepower-based approach to negotiations, Pan reached the first objective and recorded the information that the L.T. needed before racing off to the other one. Tiger Troop could handle itself and even Simms seemed to be doing a decent job. With the constructs deal with, the troop prepared to withdraw as soon as Pan gave the order. However, the manticore from the tunnels had followed them up into the light. Spray spines from its tail at the troop, it charged.

Tiger Troop responded by forming up in a crescent and firing back. The manticore charged Wigbert, who stopped it in its tracks, and Leaf raced in and gutted it, before starting to eat the delicate parts of its innards. Meanwhile, Pan had scouted the rest of the area. She ordered Tiger Troop to withdraw just as more constructs approached from the Helmland side of Dog Bay. Tiger Troop willingly obeyed.

Conclusion

The constructs were tough and hard to put down. It did not help that Tiger Troop needs more time on the range. Their shooting was below average. Then having the manticore turn up was an interesting twist. The dice clearly meant for me to have to deal with it, having ducked out on it last time around. Between the hand to hand with the constructs and the appearance of the manticore, this mission cost me a chunk of story points to keep the troops intact, but it was worth it.

I also got enough points for another character to transform. It turns out that Tarquin is the troop's Scoundrel.

Cartaventura Vinland: The misadventures of Leif Erikson in Iceland

Cartaventura Vinland is a choose-your-own-path adventure with cards instead of a paragraph book. It comes in a little box about 10cm x 10cm x 3cm and is highly portable. All you need to play it is a space to lay out the cards. There are 70 cards which are stacked in order. You start with Card 1 and follow the instructions, picking cards and laying them out, or discarding them, as instructed.

At the start of the game, you are Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red. You are heading to Iceland, to the Althing to argue that your father was unjustly banished to Greenland. You worship the old gods and have the favour of one of them at the start. You will need this to survive, and even then you could die with your mission unaccomplished.

As you begin the game, you lay out the cards and pick the options you wish to pursue. You are then instructed to turn over other cards, discard some options, add new options, and so on. As you do so, you build a little tableau on the table. The artwork appeals to me, and the only thing I found that jarred was the transliteration of Icelandic terms. I am too used to the Old Norse, so that is on me.

The Saga of Leif, son of Eirik, known as Mummy's Boy

Leif went to Iceland to prove that his father was innocent of the brutal crimes he had committed. He approached the law-speaker and learned how the parliament worked. Seeing two crows, he took that as an omen and followed them north, where he encountered a wine merchant in a broken wagon. He helped the merchant and was rewarded with a bottle of wine, but the gods guided him and revealed that it was poisoned. Assassins were on his trail!

Worried that they might seek him out in the heart of the assembly, Leif camped away from the mass of people in hiding. Next day, he tried to find merchants willing to trade with him. Alas, most shunned him because of his father. A Christian merchant helped him, and introduced him to the ambassador from Olav Tryggvason, whose goal was to convert Iceland to Christianity. Leif agreed to help the ambassador. In return, the ambassador gave him a medallion depicting St Christopher.

The next day there was a vote on adopting Christianity. Leif voted in favour and soon found himself racing to his ship to escape the angry mob. He returned to Greenland, where he learnt that his mother had converted to Christianity and was building a church in Brattahlid. His father had gone to the northern settlement in a sulk. Leif's sister wanted him to support her in attempting to return her mother to the path of the old gods. Knowing that she was a psycho, Leif refused and sided with his mother. He was baptised and went on to rule the settlement in peace for the rest of his days. The End.

Conclusions

There are several endings to achieve here, and the game gives instructions for resetting it after each game. These include options where some cards get turned over to provide different options and outcomes next time you run through, a sort-of legacy mechanic, although it can be fully reset if you wish. So, next time around, I can try a different path and see how it all goes.

Being easily portable, it can be taken along when travelling, which is better than most of the games I have. I am not sure how much variety you can get out of it ones you have achieved all the endings, but I'll find out with time. My first run through only used about a quarter of the deck, meaning that there are still a lot of cards I have not seen, so I still have a fair bit of new stuff to encounter. It's a fun way to spend 45 minutes or so while waiting for the washing machine to finish. I had better hang the washing up now though.

13 Ambyrmont - After the flood

 After a five minutes of searching, Broneslav worked out how to open the secret door. Triggering the mechanism, he pulled the door open and was suddenly hit by a flood of water that blasted him across the room and would have taken him on down the corridor, if the portcullis were not there. He spluttered and spat filthy water as he cursed the new bruises he had acquired [3 DAM] and pulled himself to his feet again.

With the door open, he was able to wade through the flood and enter a corridor beyond the secret door. He was at a crossroads. A short corridor ahead of him led to a door. He could see the iron bars of cells lining either side of that corridor. To his left was another short corridor leading to a door. To his right, the corridor extended beyond the light given off by his shield.

He decided to check the cells out first and was quickly disappointed. There was nothing in them. He opened the door ahead of him with difficulty because of the water, but found nothing in the room beyond either, although the floor of the corridor and the room was littered with small objects that caused him to have to walk slowly or stumble. He was glad that he had thick armoured boots to protect his feet here.

One thing that struck him in this new room was the ceiling. Remembering how fragile the trapdoor had been, he realised that this rooms roof was similarly fragile. The wooden beams looked rotten and ready to give way. If he wished, he might be able to bring the ceiling down and get back up to the upper level from here too. He noted that and moved back to the crossroads, where he waded through the water to the other door.

He pulled the door open and was immediately confronted by a crab that was eight feet wide and stood as tall as him. The crab seemed as surprised to see him as he was to see it.

"SHIT!"

He slammed the door again, figuring the crab might smash the door but was too large to fit through it.

"Right, the other way it is," he muttered and sloshed away as the door shook under the crab's assault. He could always come back this way if need be, and would be better prepared now.

As he waded through the water, he came to a corner turning to his right. Ahead was a raised platform with steps up. The dry platform would be a blessing. Hopefully, everything beyond would be dry too. He could feel his feet wrinkling in real time now! The steps up to the platform were slippery and slimy. A fungus grew on top of it that made the top part slimy and a bit slippery too. However, what grabbed his attention were the three trails in the water and the large jaws that opened as they approached him.

He braced himself as three crocodiles tried to make a meal out of him. His sword sliced through the upper jaw of the first one and it rolled over, spraying blood into the water, as he sliced the second open, but only wounding it. The wounded crocodile took a chunk out of his hand [1 DAM], but he blocked the third and then dealt a mortal wound to the already wounded crocodile. That left a single crocodile and a lot of blood in the water.

The young fighter's mighty thews bulged and he drove his sword straight through the head of the last crocodile. It died instantly, thrashing in the water in its death throes.

As he cleaned his sword, he examined the crocodiles with a practised eye. They were small for their species and looked emaciated. There was obviously not a lot for them to eat here. Broneslav was glad of this. Sure, it made them eye him up as a meal, but it also made them weaker. With a merchant's eye, he also noted that their hides would not be worth much. They were in poor condition from the beasts' poor diet.

"Well, it's either deal with the crab or check up ahead."

He waded down into the bloody water and headed towards the end of the corridor, where a door led into the unknown. He prepared to open it, hoping he was ready for anything.

The Bestial Sound of the Underground (Forgotten Ruin)

 "We need you to scout the route to Dog Bay and Helmland, so that we are not completely reliant on local fishermen for crossing the fjord."

Tiger Troop groaned internally, each and every one of them. They had known this was coming at some point, because they got all the crap jobs, but this would be damp, dark, and confined. That meant that the enemy could probably close with them before they knew it, if there were any there. Who were they kidding? Of course there would be hostiles there. It was only the other Troops that did not encounter hostiles on their patrols.

Eldritch inscriptions, and fresh enough that some still retained the traces of their paintwork

And, as if that were not bad enough, it looked like those hostiles had marked the entrance with eldritch designs. This boded, and, as Pan knew well, things that boded were not good. They advanced down into the underground tunnel network and split up as usual with each team taking a separate route towards the objectives and Pan following a central path. They needed to scout the routes through the tunnel, and their contacts suggested that the denizens of this place had important intel, so they had to recover that too.

As they pushed on into the tunnels, they were assailed by a musky scent and could hear bestial roaring ahead of them. It quickly became obvious that the tunnels were inhabited by beastpeople. Worse yet, the hostiles were heading in Tiger Troop's direction. As they advanced further, A-Team espied a horde of a dozen beastpeople led by a larger, well-armed type. B-Team faced fewer hostiles, but it would be a hard fight in these narrow tunnels.

At the first chance, A-Team let rip with everything they had and cut the enemy numbers in half. B-Team did the same, but it was not enough. The hostiles closed with them and cut down Chidubem and Vesela in short order. Leaf was incensed by this and shifted into her wildcat form. Her close assault was ferocious and shredded the hostiles, leaving Selcuk feeling a queasy at the sheer brutality of her attack.

A-Team's own fight was not going well either. Both Justice and Wigbert had been felled in close combat, and it was only by the application of excessive firepower that Mary and Tarquin managed to avoid the same fate. With the enemy dead, they ran forward and checked the body of the largest beastperson. The intel they needed was on it, so they withdrew towards the entrance to await their comrades.

Over on the other side of the complex, Leaf and Selcuk raced towards the objective and scouted it, before retreating again at full speed. Pan was doing the same for her objective. It was well she had moved fast, because a new group of beastpeople emerged where she had been only moments ago. The beastpeople headed towards Mary and Tarquin, who cut them down so that the bodies formed a pile barely a metre from the two plucky soldiers.

As they waited, Pan arrived to join them and ordered Tarquin to get the intel home. Tarquin did not need telling twice. Pan and Mary waited for Leaf and Selcuk, who raced to join the others. The four of them helped their wounded comrades to escape just a a lion's roar resounded through the tunnels. A manticore had found them. Their job done, the battered remnants of Tiger Troop fled.

Conclusion

I should never have said that the game felt too easy at times! My dice must have heard me and decided to knock the stuffing out of me. For the first two turns, barely any of my shots hit, and when they did, they bounced off tough beastperson hide. From turn three my shooting improved but my close combat rolls were terrible. Even with a +3 spear, Chidubem lost the melee and was KOd, for example. I should really have used a story point or three, but I keep forgetting I have those.

On the other hand, my low rolling carried over to the Aggression rolls, which meant that enemy reinforcements were slow to arrive. Just as well really, especially when the second roll resulted in a Manticore arriving on the table. Luckily, that was the same turn that the mission ended.

In the end, and thanks to remembering my story points, Chidubem and Justice were only lightly wounded and will miss a mission, while Wigbert and Vesela will return next mission sporting a few bruises but nothing worse.

Full Throttle Lemmings GTO (Battletech)

 "All Lemmings report to the briefing room!"

The Lemmings groaned in unison. This could only mean work was going to interrupt their play. They dutifully, if unwillingly, put down their card decks, dice, drinks and other diverse devices, and wandered over to the briefing room.

Jennie was already at the podium.

"Good news, Lemmings!"

The assembled crew doubted that very much.

"We have just taken delivery of some new scout vehicles."

A picture of four battered Savannah Master hovercraft appeared on the screen behind her. The Lemmings peered at these weird, non-mech-like contraptions. They were tiny! Worse yet, they had neither arms nor legs, and there appeared not to be a PPC among them. Several Lemmings scratched their heads in confusion.

Yellow takes the lead, closely followed by Green and Red with Blue tailing in fourth place

"Ok, Lemmings, pay attention! These are our new scout vehicles. They are 5 ton hovercraft mounting a single medium laser. Our techs tell me that it should be possible to retrofit ECM in place of the laser if that is operationally required, but for now they are stock Savannah Master hovercraft. They have several advantages over our light mechs as scout vehicles, not least of which being that they are a fraction of the cost of a single Locust. With how you lot manage to get your mechs damaged every time you take them out, and the cost of those repairs, I have decided that we need something cheaper for scouting duties. Therefore, all of you will familiarise yourselves with piloting these Savannah Masters. You may need to hop into them in a pinch and I need pilots who know what they are doing with them."

The mech pilots among the assembled crew all groaned. This was like being put on the naughty step.

Jennie continued, "I have drawn up a roster for training in the use of the Savannah Masters and it has been sent to your comm units. Report at the designated time for familiarisation. Dismissed!"

The Lemmings sloped out of the briefing room.

A few hours later, familiarisation was well under way. Jennie could hear the howling of the Savannah Masters' turbines as they were driven at full speed through the training course. All of the Lemmings pilots were present and cheering on their fellow pilots. Occasionally, some of the watchers cursed as the training session ended, but all were present.

"So, Anna," Jennie turned to her number two with a big, satisfied smile, "How are you doing?"

"Heh, I'm up quite a few C-Bills now. That was a genius idea getting some of the mechs to bet on the results of getting round that training course. I doubt the pilots will even be angry that they were conned into enjoying this, when they find out. Looks like Savannah Master racing is a hit, and should stand the pilots in good stead when we need to use them as scouts."

It should come as no surprise that the first thing the Full Throttle Lemmings would do when given high-speed, light hovercraft is to find a way to race them and bet on those races. It just stands to reason. It also stands to reason that the Lemmings would buy Savannah Masters. They seem to have a griefer-like reputation among the Battletech community, and the Lemmings are a bit like that in my head.

These Savannah Masters are from the CGL salvage box. In the box, you get four vehicles and two plastic bases, which is a tad disappointing. The idea is clearly that you put two vehicles per base, but that feels wrong to me. I looked for hex bases of the right size, but none were readily available without paying a fortune in postage. As an alternative, I glued 2mm mdf bases together to make extra bases of the right thickness. This way, I could base the vehicles individually.

I have had these little beauties a wee while now, but felt the urge to slap some paint on them the other night, encouraged by completing the mechs from Scouring Sands and thinking that they will be perfect scout vehicles for that campaign.

These Savannah Masters will appear in future Battletech games, but right now I am wondering if I can set up a micro-Gaslands game with them, or if statting them up for Car Wars would be a better option. Are there other automotive combat games that they could be used with? Better yet, ones with solitaire modes?

13 Ambyrmont - A Hiss and Tell Story

 Looking around the room he had just fallen into, Broneslav saw statues lining every wall but the exit. A quick glance up showed the remains of a trapdoor that he had fallen through, but what grabbed his attention most were the large snakes curled around four of the statues. Worse yet, they had all reared up and were looking at him hungrily.

"Shit!"

He grabbed his sword from where it had landed after his fall and prepared for the worst. Meanwhile, the worst prepared to make a meal of him.

Fortunately, it was cold down here, so the snakes were a little sluggish to start with. Unfortunately, Broneslav was slow to shake off the effects of his fall. His first swings were clumsy, although not so clumsy that he did not manage to crush the head of one snake with his boot, and to crush another between his shield and the statue it was curled around. The remaining two snakes reared up and spat poison at him. Broneslav ducked his head behind his shield and blocked them. Then he took a quick breath, stepped in close and decapitated both snakes before they could do any more.

The room was quiet once more and he had time to look around. The statues lining the room depicted a variety of subjects: a young woman holding a child; a fearsome monster of a type that he was unfamiliar with; a serpent but with feathers covering its body; a graceful fluid creature that almost appeared to move in the light from his shield; and several others, all well-made but showing the ravages of time. And all glistened an unwholesome green and red in the light. There were small puddles of water around the floor, and a larger one in one corner of the room. This area must not have been used in a long time.

The young warrior was curious about where he was. The open doorway and the corridor beyond could lead to the treasure he sought. Thinking of treasure, he suddenly realised that one of the statues still had a gem in its eye socket. He pried it loose and put it in his pouch.

On lithe feet he strode towards the opening to see what lay beyond. A flagstone gave under his foot and he dived backwards as a portcullis slammed down to block the exit, deafening him in the process. Broneslav cursed. He had a choice now. He could try to lift the portcullis or use his grapnel to get out of the room the way he came in. There might be another way down that he had not yet found, so it would not be totally giving up to climb back up and seek a different route down again. He tried the portcullis, but even with his mighty thews, he could not lift it.

A thought occurred to him. The large puddle in the corner was an anomaly. Nothing else in the room suggested that water had an easy way in, at least not to that extent. Searching the area around the puddle, he spotted small gaps and had soon worked out that there was a secret door here. He sought a way to open it...