5 Sviftmont - The Dragon's Lair

 The night passed peacefully and Broneslav was woken by the biting insects once more. He readied his pack and set out. He knew he was in the right area to find the dragon he had been told about, but was not sure quite where it was. Fortunately, as an experienced outdoorsman he was able to spot the signs of the beast's passing. His tracking led him to a low stony hill in a clearing in the jungle. A broad opening in the side of the hill gave access to the interior, and the hard-packed dirt and tracks in front of it showed that a massive beast used this area a lot.

Pausing at the mouth of the cave, Broneslav heard the heavy breathing of a massive creature coming from within. The regular, slow nature of the breathing suggested that the beast was asleep. His heart was in his mouth and the adrenaline thundered through his system as he drew his sword and advanced carefully into the cave. Just visible ahead of him was a mound of treasure and in the small amount of light that reached the mound, he could make out the form of a dragon. He knew that this would be a tough fight, so he contemplated turning around. He dithered, and in that moment it was too late.

The dragon's eyes opened and it huffed out a puff of noxious green gas.

"Who dares disturb my slumber?" it roared, "Wait, no, I don't care. You woke me and you shall pay!"

The dragon launched itself at him faster than a beast that size should be able to. He cut at it but his blows seemed to bounce off its armour, barely drawing blood. It belched out a huge cloud of poisonous gas that left him choking and weak despite managing to hold his breath just in time. He rolled out of the cloud of gas and leapt to the attack again. His cut was deeper this time, but not by much. The dragon raked and battered him with its claws and bit it him with razor sharp teeth that left gaping wounds. Seeing no chance to escape, Broneslav surged forward once more. This time his sword bit true and glistening ichor sprayed from a huge wound in the beast's side. The beast fought frenziedly, its claws and teeth tearing chunks out of the young hero. Desperately, he swung his sword at it once more as it drew in a breath to launch more noxious gas at him. His first cut bounced off its scaly hide. The second cut a small gash.

Suddenly he found himself surrounded by poisonous green gas again. He choked once more and rolled away, his lungs painfully labouring under the assault of the chlorine. He could barely stand but had no choice. He leapt in under the dragon's head once more and thrust with his sword. It skittered off the heavy scales, but then suddenly caught and pierced the body to the hilt. Blood sprayed once more and the dragon looked stupidly down at him as its eyes filmed over. He rolled to the side and narrowly avoided getting crushed under its corpse.

Exhausted he lay there a while before bandaging his wounds, of which there were many.

"Why did I think this was a good idea?" he muttered to himself as the adrenaline left and the pain took hold. "Well, it is one less creature of Chaos, so there is that."

With his wounds bandaged, he searched the cavern, not that it took much searching. Thousands of coins lay in a pile in its middle, and the dragon had been sleeping on them. There was far more here than he could take with him, so he picked out the most valuable pieces that he could carry without slowing him down too much. Then he began the slow process of skinning the dragon and taking as much of the skin as he could carry and which had not been damaged in the fight.

By the time he was finished, night had fallen, so he lay down to rest in the lair. Nothing else was likely to challenge the dragon, and nothing should know it was dead yet, so he felt safe enough sleeping an exhausted sleep.

That was tough. Broneslav's dice rolls were really poor and I had to use the Defy Death mechanic for him to take half damage from the dragon breath each time. His combat rolls were not much better. He got one good strike in and the rest of the damage was in increments of 1 or 2 from the Fray Die. Meanwhile, the dragon hit him every time with every attack, and he finished the fight at 2 hit points. I really did wonder if this was going to be his end.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us! (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 "We believe Sender will head for his main base," Tom informed the assembled Lemmings, "so we are going after him and the base. Scouts tell us there is artillery there and have identified one artillery position, but there might be more. The Apolakkians have come up trumps too. They will be manning a couple of guns from the convoy. We'll be following a route in that should see us turning up on their doorstep unannounced. Once there, we are going to split into two groups. Ironwood will take one group right, while I lead the other group left. Take out the emplacements first, and then engage the Falcons. Juggler will be going in with the J. Edgar to scout and snipe from the margins. Cherry, work with her. Any questions?"

The assembled Lemmings indicated that they had no questions and were ready.

"This is it, Lemmings. Good luck."

Tom turned up the volume on the player in his Devastator DVS-2 and grinned as a mellow tune kicked in.

"Oh yeah, we're gonna ace this base and make this a happy planet soon."

The Falcons caught napping in their base

The Devastator moved forward with Goldfish's Timber Wolf into the nearby woods and both laid down fire on the nearest emplacement. Autocannon fire pinged off his armour as he and Goldfish turned the emplacement to rubble. On the other flank, the Centurion, Archer and Wolfhound did the same to the emplacement nearest them, while Ironwood took the Phoenix in close to the base, ready to hop over the walls and Cherry circled round behind.

Juggler raced the J Edgar into the base to scout it, finding only pain, but also getting off a good volley into the back of the enemy Summoner.

"Dodger, watch out, they've got your range!" Tom was frantic as he saw the massed Falcons focus on the Patton tank commanded by Dodger.

The warning came too late. Hatches popped on the Patton and the crew raced to get out. They were carrying their commander.

"Medevac, we got crew down. Get in here ASAP!"

Tom would have to wait to see if they had lost anyone. He focused back on the main fight. The Lemmings had the base encircled and were moving in. The enemy were being picked apart one mech at a time and the Lemmings' advance seemed inexorable.

"Mop it up, Lemmings!"

"Roger that, Headcase."

The chorus of voices over comms was unanimous. Cherry and Ironwood had taken out the last of the artillery. The Locust had fled, the Marauder and Summoner were down and all that remained was a lone Rifleman. But not for long. The massed fire of the Full Throttle Lemmings turned its armour to slag and cored it.

"Ha! All your base are belong to us, Sender."

Focused fire and a willingness to take a few hits ensured that the Lemmings destroyed each threat quickly and took commensurately less fire as they advanced.

Also, recon paid off. It's always worth spending points on recon if you can afford it. It identified one of the artillery units, while the other was removed because of the earlier assaults on supply dumps and convoys. The one artillery unit that did manage to get shots off missed and the shot drifted onto their Marauder, which amused me immensely, even as it pained me to mark damage on my own troops that were also in the area of effect. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

Now to see what that git Sender gets up to next.

Negotiations (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 Following the loss of his supply convoy, the Jade Falcon commander Star Captain Conrad Sender sent a communication in clear. He was willing to meet and to negotiate. In his own words, the Full Throttle Lemmings had made themselves "unignorable".

The local merchants showed themselves to be brave as they strapped into the APCs to head for the meet. The Lemmings respected that and were determined to see that the merchants returned home safely at the end of the negotiations.

Tom was listening to some cheerful music in his Devastator, as he and the rest of the Lemmings stood guard over the merchants of Apolakkia. He and the rest of the Lemmings had developed a lot of respect for the citizens they had met and a lot of sympathy for their plight. They had been mercilessly abused by the Jade Falcon commander. Agapito, the mayor they had met on their first day on planet, had lost his grandfather and his surname to the Jade Falcon occupiers. His father had suffered losses that had broken him. Other citizens had similar stories to tell. Their contact with the locals had made this personal for Tom. Like all of the Full Throttle Lemmings, all the way back to their founders Jennifer Raytor and Anna Daptor, they hated injustice and supported the underdog. He mused on what an underdog actually looked like as he observed the proceedings and listened in to the negotiations. Presumably, it was some sort of old Terran creature that was low on the food chain, but he had never seen a picture of one.

Tom's attention returned sharply to the negotiations as voices were raised and the Falcon Star Captain started getting angrier. This did not bode well. It was with both horror and a sense of the inevitable that he watched explosives detonate under the APCs as the merchants sought to broker a deal.

"Bastards!" yelled Tom, "Lemmings, take that shithead out, and help our clients get out of the combat zone."

He slammed the power on in his Devastator.

"You dezgra surat," Tom broadcast to Conrad Sender's Thunderbolt IIC as he sighted and fired, "I'll fry you and eat your wings!"

"Lemmings, roast that freebirth scum!"

Red and green beams of light blasted out and washed over Sender's Thunderbolt. Autocannon and missile fire exploded against it. Its armour melted like slag as the APCs with the Apolakkians in raced for shelter behind a nearby bluff, where the Lemmings' medium mechas had gathered to protect them.

Shrapnel showered down on Tom's Devastator as a full volley from the Bane crashed into the canopy over his head. Only a few missiles actually struck the massive mecha to damage the armour plating.

The new guy, Dendros "Cherry" Tree, took his Spider and jumped in behind the Bane, landing a crashing volley into its rear.

Sender ran for home, pausing only briefly in the tree line to fire a wild volley at the Lemmings. His mech was limping badly and trailing smoke as he fled.

A Baboon pilot briefly joined the fray, but quickly decided to demonstrate the better part of valour after seeing the Lemmings fire take down the Thunderbolt in a single volley. He took his mech in behind a cliff and did not come out again. A Locust did join the battle but soon regretted it as "Ironwood" Skogen's Archer focused fire on it and Cherry quickly brought his Spider in behind the Locust. The Summoner stepped out from behind the cliffs and got a warm welcome, while the Bane found itself outmanoeuvred by the lighter Lemmings mechs and the J. Edgar hovertank. Their efforts were not enough.

"That cowardly shitweasel Sender has run off," Tom was irked, "and we have these others here guarding his tail for him. I'm ordering a fighting withdrawal. Let's get the Apolakkians home safely and then we can take the fight to the psycho chickens."

That went a lot more quickly than expected. Sender's Thunderbolt went from whole to zero in a single turn as almost every single Lemming fired at and hit it. Shame he could not be killed right there, but there was plot armour to let him get away for a final showdown later.

The Bane was a nasty shock too; 7 points of indirect fire is a lot! As it turned out, Tom's Devastator was the main target for all the Falcon attacks, so I got lucky because it can take a lot of hurt before it starts breaking and they simply did not have enough time to do any real damage.

4 Sviftmont - In the Land of the Big Lizards

 The following morning, the triceratops lumbered off. Broneslav tidied up and sorted out his possessions which the massive beast had nosed through. Fortunately, nothing important was broken, and he was soon on his way into the hills and towards his goal. The journey through the hills was easier than through the mountains, and he made good time, while avoiding unfortunate encounters with local wildlife.

As he camped for the first night in the jungle beyond the hills, the sound of crushed undergrowth woke Broneslav. He readied himself in the cover of a tree and watched as a lumbering beast three times the height of a tall man pushed past near his camp. It was a remarkable creature, walking on two legs but having a bill like a duck. He marvelled at it as it disappeared once more into the night, obviously unaware that he was there.

"A True and Accurate Representation of a Duck-Billed Giant Lizard" from the journals of Broneslav Torenescu, Merchant Adventurer*

The next day, Broneslav marched on through the jungle, cursing the large, bloodsucking flies that seemed to be everywhere. Distracted by them, he did not see the massive, sail-backed lizard that bore down on him and only barely managed to avoid getting swallowed whole. As it was, he scored a tiny cut in the beast's flesh as it bit at him and he only just got his arm out of its mouth before it took it off. It was lucky that he had such good armour! With his scattered wits gathered, he focused better on the fight and was able to block the creature's bites with his shield, while simultaneously cutting hard at its neck. Several hard blows saw its head fly from its body.

He leapt back to avoid the spray of blood and looked around for more of the creature. Luckily, this was a lone beast that had fancied a snack, and not a hunting pack of them. Broneslav bandaged his wounds and carried on.

* Historical life restoration of Edmontosaurus annectens (referred to as “Trachodon mirabilis” in the original figure caption): William H. Ballou: Strange Creatures of the Past – Gigantic Saurians of the Reptilian Age. Century Magazine 55(1):15–24 (1897)

Ambushing a Convoy (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 Tom was pleased they had found a new pilot for the repaired Spider. He would have been happier if Finn had survived the mission. It was not the way of the Lemmings to howl and moan when one of their number bit the bullet, but they all grieved just the same and the pilots detailed for the mission were all determined that the Falcon's would pay for Finn with their own blood.

The noob was Giorgios Tree, a LoaderMech pilot from the town and an enthusiastic hunter. It turned out that he had a yen to hunt Jade Falcons now. Like almost everyone in town, he had good reason after the Falcon occupation. He was pleased to be coming along on this mission.

1. Devastator DVS-2 (Tom "Headcase" Skalle)
2. Mad Cat (Timber Wolf) B (Anne "Goldfish" Rikke)
3. Archer ARC-5R (Turi "Ironwood" Skogen)
4. Phoenix Hawk PXH-9 (Noel "Brickyard" Atterli)

"The mission is as simple as we make it. Goldfish and Brickyard chase them into the waiting arms of Ironwood and me. Don't take chances, but stop those transports. We'll need to focus on the escorts first, so do that, unless the transports fall right into your laps. Then stop the transports escaping. Everyone clear?"

Nods all round.

"Mount up!"

Headcase and Ironwood were waiting with their mechs powered down to prevent the enemy convoy from spotting them. Goldfish and Brickyard were steaming in behind the convoy but the Falcons did not seem too bothered. They had not detailed anyone to address the pursuing mechs. Perhaps the Falcon commander suspected an ambush and was going to try to fight through.

Tom clicked his tongue impatiently. He really hated the waiting part. His hands hovered over the control board waiting... waiting... waiting

"OK, LIGHT 'EM UP, LEMMINGS!" he roared over comms. Matching actions to words, he fired up his Devastator and slapped play on the tannoy system. Old Earth music blared out.

"Let's take this convoy down!" he called to the other Lemmings as he sighted on the oncoming Jade Falcons and let loose with everything he had.

Ironwood's Archer and Headcase's Devastator moved out of concealment and fired volleys at the oncoming Marauder. Brickyard's Phoenix used its superior agility to bounce around and fire into the backs of the enemy, while Goldfish rained missiles from her Timber Wolf onto the hostiles. The psycho chickens fired back but their fire had less effect because it was scattered between the Lemming mechs, while the Lemmings focused their fire and quickly had smoke pouring from the enemy.

Brickyard took his Phoenix Hawk over the top of the enemy and was able to slam a massive volley into the rear of the Summoner. Meanwhile the Howler felt the full effect of Goldfish's ire, and Ironwood managed to catch an APC out on its own. Unfortunately, it was transporting an artillery crew, which dismounted from the burning APC and began their own attempt at retribution.

It did not take long before the escorts were dead, dying or nearly so, and the Lemmings were able to focus their fire on the transports, which suffered as a result. With all its armour gone, one of the Fulcrum Hovertanks ditched its load and ran. The others were not so lucky.

Surrounded by Lemmings, the Jade Falcons fought and scored solid hits, but the Lemmings were tireless in their assault and soon all the enemy mechs had been destroyed with the remaining transport units following quickly after. The Lemmings held the field and the supplies. The Jade Falcons would be hurting now.

Afterthoughts

This scenario took me a couple of goes to win. The first attempt with a slightly different force make-up so three of my mechs destroyed on the first turn, thanks to a series of ridiculously lucky dice rolls on the part of the Jade Falcons. I swear that my Jade Falcon-themed dice almost never roll less than a 7, while my merc dice almost never roll over a 7. The second attempt went much better, although I kept forgetting to roll for motive unit hits on the APCs and hovertanks, so perhaps it could have gone better still and I might have stopped all of them from escaping. Next time, eh.

The Ice-Heart Court: Fey folk for Five Leagues from the Borderlands

The Ice Heart Court are the Unseelie for Five Leagues from the Borderlands; Fair Folk who are at odds with humanity, and they can take many forms. It is they who steal babies from their cradles, replacing them with changelings. They lure unwary travellers into their mounds, only for the traveller to emerge a hundred years later into a world they do not know, thinking that but a few days have passed Occasionally, they engage in open warfare with the people of Utavoll, or their hunting parties just decide that passing adventurers are fair game. Stories of these encounters with the Wild Hunt are many and rarely end well for the human participant.

Goblin raiders

I'm sure you recognise these figures from the 'Roadside Encounters' and 'Lurking Foes' lists. When they are not out raiding on the roads or defending dank dungeons, these Demonworld Goblins can be found hanging out with the rest of the Court. They are the least of the Fey Folk but their numbers make up for their quality. Many an unwary adventurer has come a cropper because they underestimated the Goblin raiders.

The Rank and Vile

Leaders

Forest folk

The denizens of the forest fight alongside the Ice Heart Court. Many different peoples live in the forests, but all are skilled hunters and trackers, who are likely to spot you before you spot them. If they are peaceful, this will not be a problem for you. If not, then they are likely to be leaving you to feed the trees while they take your goods home with them.

Forest folk melee troops (Two Dragons peasants)

Forest folk missile troops (Two Dragons and Alternative Armies)

Elfin hounds

The Elfin hounds in my world are actually giant, supernatural cats (Nekomata cats from Alternative Armies). I was going to use the same figures as I used for the Dust Hounds in the 'Roadside Encounters' section but could not resist buying giant cats instead. It's nice to have a bit of variety.

Elfin Battle Cats are preternaturally stealthy, hyper aware and clearly not of Midgard. Their senses extend beyond the mortal world to other planes, making them almost impossible to surprise. It also seems like they travel through the other planes at times, being literally in two places at once, which means that they often take adventurers unaware, while being substantially immune to magical attacks because of not being quite where they appear to be.

Elfin battle cats (Nekomata from Alternative Armies)

Spider-touched

The spider-touched are a strange sect. They worship the great spider gods that once inhabited Utavoll and are personally dedicated to the Fey Queen.

Elven spears and archers (RPE)

Time-lost warriors

The world of the Fey exists in parallel with with the physical world of Utavoll and intersects at key points like burial mounds and the so-called faerie rings. Many are the stories of people who accidentally cross the boundaries between the two and return hundreds of years later to find that everything they knew has gone. Time runs differently at the Ice-Heart Court. For these warriors, only a week has passed but a hundred years and more have gone by in Utavoll since they crossed over.

Melee troops (Two Dragons)

Missile troops (Two Dragons)

War dryads

The tree spirits known as dryads are normally peaceful, but lately people have been chopping their homes down and now they are understandably irate. They are well-armed and well-armoured, and make formidable foes.

4217A Ice Witch Temple Guards (RPE)

Tree wardens

There are many spirits at the Ice-Heart Court and many that can be called upon to defend it. Even the trees of the forests will stand against intruders if the Elves call upon their services.

Haunted Trees (Ral Partha Europe)

Tree warden heroes and leaders (Ral Partha Europe)

Fey spirits

Fey spirits can take many forms. Some amuse themselves by appearing as small, cute beings that are nonetheless deadly, while others adopt grotesque forms to scare the beholder from their wits. In the end, it does not really matter though. Whatever form they take, they will happily slaughter you and sing while they are doing it.

Fey spirits (RPE)

Fey Soldiers and Winter Legion

Elven soldiers are a sight to behold in their glittering silver armour and their colourful clothes. Mere humans look positively drab in comparison.

Elven spears and crossbowmen (RPE)

Fey Knights

These are the flower of fey chivalry. Riding to battle in a gay cavalcade with a song on their lips and ribbons in their hair, they present a beautiful sight even as they slaughter you.

Wood Elf knights (RPE)

Queen's Own

The Queen's Own are the best of the best. These Elven blade dancers have perfected their art over many human lifetimes. Well-armed, well-armoured and with combat skills honed to perfection over hundreds of years, they are foes against whom even the stoutest of hearts will wilt. As elves, they completely lack humanity or feeling for those whose lives are so short that they are gone in the blink of an eye.

Elven blade dancers and supporting missile troops (RPE)

Going on a Raid (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 "Right, Lemmings, we're going on a raid. I'll be leading this one with Goldfish as my 2IC. Together with Ironwood and Dodger, we'll be the door openers. Random, Alf and Brickyard, your job is to secure or destroy the supplies. The scouts report a couple of points of Toads, a Rifleman and a Summoner as the defending force, together with some emplacements. Leave the fighting to the door openers and scoot with the loot. I don't want the lights mixing it up with those guys, and I would prefer you to secure the supplies and skedaddle quickly if you can. They will come in handy later. Scouts have identified a route in that should get us close enough without the chickens seeing, and they have also marked a couple of the caches. I have pinged the approach routes and battle plan to your noteputers and synched with your mech's onboard systems. Note that the supplies are inside a mountain cave system, so DO NOT trigger your jump jets in there if you have them! Mount up and let's move out."

1. Devastator DVS-2 (Tom "Headcase" Skalle)
2. Archer ARC-2R (Turi "Ironwood" Skogen)
3. Mad Cat (Timber Wolf) B (Anne "Goldfish" Rikke)
4. Spider SDR-8K (Finn "Random" Feil)
5. Wasp WSP-5A (Alf "Alf" Dusin)
6. Phoenix Hawk PXH-9 (Noel "Brickyard" Atterli)
7. Patton Tank (Lene "Dodger" Stolen)

The Lemmings had successfully negotiated a series of canyons that led close to the opening of the cave complex where the supplies were cached. By approaching from this direction, they only faced a single emplacement, although signatures from a Summoner could be detected a little further into the cave.

They advanced out of the canyon and the Summoner came to meet them. Moving as a group, the Lemmings divided their fire between the Summoner and the emplacement. The latter was reduced to rubble. The Summoner kept coming despite smoke pouring from various holes in its armour. Standing in the middle of his force, Headcase found himself the target for both the advancing Elementals and the Summoner. His armour melted like slag under a hail of fire that would have annihilated any of his other lance mates.

"You're welcome," he muttered to no one in particular as he thumbed the firing stud as fast as his weapons would recycle and reload.

"Withdraw and make them come to us. Be ready!" Tom hoped to draw the enemy out and then deal with the emplacements within the cave, which had managed to get a bead on Random in his Spider and now Random was no more; a hail of autocannon fire had shredded his cockpit.

The plan worked and the Summoner died in a hail of fire, followed shortly by the Elementals, their battle armour cut to ribbons. That left only the Rifleman that had been further into the cave. The remaining Lemmings advanced.

"Alf and Brickyard, grab those supplies. We'll deal with this Rifleman."

The two pilots did as ordered and soon had two crates of the cached supplies. The others focused their fire on the Rifleman and reduced it to a broken husk. The pilot never even considered surrendering. Meanwhile, Goldfish and Ironwood had got behind the two interior emplacements and reduced them to rubble with a hail of concentrated fire.

As they did so, new signatures appeared on the Lemmings' displays.

"Reinforcements incoming," Tom called to his team, "Deploy near the cave entrances and use them as cover. He and Dodger did just that and waited.

The reinforcements turned out to be a Locust and a Baboon, but they were too little and too late. That did not stop them trying though. Tom's Devastator took a further pasting, but both mechs were on the receiving end of more firepower than they liked. They ran, trailing smoke and fluids.

The Lemmings had the supplies and had destroyed the supply garrison. They left nothing standing within the caves. Back at base, they reviewed their BattleROMs.

"So, it looks like there is another exit to these caves." Mari Nert was the company's intelligence officer on this mission. "It's not big enough to get mechs through, but you'd easily get trucks in and out as needed. We've checked the supplies and intel you recovered and everything points to another supply convoy incoming. We've also been able to identify a chicken recon post."

"Great job, Mari. We'll aim for the supply convoy first. They won't fight as hard with empty bellies and running out of ammo. How's the salvage gone, Vegard?"

Vegard Beider was the unit's head tech, "We got the Spider up and running again, and managed to sluice Random out of the cockpit before giving him a decent burial. The company is going to raise a glass to him later. We all intend to be there. He may not have been with us long, but he was still one of our own."

With that, Tom closed the meeting and went to toast his fallen company member.

Conclusion

Scouring Sands is set up as a branching campaign. At the end of a sortie, you get given options for the next sortie. It is in the Lemmings' nature to seek the fight rather than to wait for it to come to them, so I chose the raid mission over the defensive mission option. It just seemed natural.

Unfortunately, I made a mistake in not including more mechs with hands, although the higher firepower mechs did come in handy (pun intended). I should have included the Wolfhound, but I wanted to have all my Named Pilots along, and Dodger is a combat vehicle pilot, so there is that.

In the end, it turned out to be an expensive mission. The Lemmings earned a lot, but they also had to spend a lot on rearming and repairing their mechs. Finn "Random" Feil turned out to be dead after the explosion of his mech, so he also needed to be replaced. That said, my Named Pilots are growing in experience and we have a full roster for the next mission too. We're going chicken hunting.