14-19 Ambyrmont - Interlude

 The young hero lay unconscious for several days. He groaned in his sleep and twitched a bit, but those were the only signs of life. When he did come round, he was weak and drained.

Where are the dinosaurs?

Broneslav sat up on the sleeping mat and immediately wished he had not. He felt dizzy and like a grey fog lay between him and reality. The chattering of excited children reached him, but as if from a distance.

"See! He is alive. I told you he was not dead."

"Well, he sure smells dead."

"Let us fetch Umlat."

The patter of small feet racing off. Peace for a while, and then a heavier tread alongside the two lighter sets of feet.

"So, you are awake once more, Broneslav. It was clear that you had been fighting from the wounds on your body."

Broneslav struggled to focus on the words.

"I have healed your wounds, and cured the infection that ravaged your system. You were lucky that our fishermen spotted your canoe and ferried you here or you would almost certainly be dead now."

"Uh, thank you."

"Now rest and we can talk later."

Broneslav lay back down and slept for an age watched over by the children of the tribe, who were not used to this much excitement, and by the ancient priest Umlat, whose skill had ensured Broneslav's survival. Food and rest helped his strength return over the next few days and soon he was up and moving around again. He told the tale of his adventures in the temple to Fano and Umlat once he felt strong enough. Their eyes grew round at the various trials and tribulations he had encountered, but they were grateful for his help.

"Although I drove off those headhunters, I must return to the temple to see if any have themselves returned," he announced, "I shall do so tomorrow."

Fano declared, "We are grateful for your help and sorry that you were so hurt in helping us. If there is anything you need, just ask. It is yours."

Broneslav thanked them and prepared himself for his journey back to the temple, before ensuring he got a good night's sleep. He wondered what lay down those stairs he had last seen.

Some thoughts

Broneslav encountered a diseased rat and failed his save versus poison when bitten by it. Fortunately, he did not suffer instadeath, managing to roll high enough not to do so, but the disease did massively debilitate him. Being also wounded and down to just 8 hit points, it was only reasonable that he would return to the village to recover. One thing not in the rules was how quickly the rat's disease would affect him. I made it quite quick for narrative purposes. Scarlet Heroes has better guidelines than the D&D Cyclopedia on how disease progresses: I like the repeated saving throws that see the character either improve or deteriorate gradually. The D&D thing of "you just die" if you roll too low seems a bit harsh. Having diseases be progressive feels like it gives the character more agency in their own death.

Another thing that occurred in the temple was that I actually remembered the magic items and rings that he carries, and used them. I keep forgetting that he has these things. I shall try to do better!

One more level to go and that is the temple fully explored. What will Broneslav find there? And what should he do after that? It is in the nature of D&D parties to explore every hex of the adventure area and every room of the dungeon, and there is much that he could find, but is that what he would actually do as a real person? How should he arrive at the other encounter areas, or do I write those off and send him off on other adventures after this (assuming he survives)?

What a Complete Cult! (Forgotten Ruin)

 "I think we are getting there now."

Thruppence Cholmondley-Warner, the L.T. as she was most commonly known, was feeling upbeat and communicating that to the troops.

"Our next goal is to establish a bridgehead on the other side of the fjord in Helmland. Tiger Troop will take point. The rest of the platoon will follow up after. There will be a more detailed briefing later, but be ready to move at short notice."

Not technically Helmland, but close enough! View towards Jørpeland from Ullandhaug. Hjelmeland is on the other side of those hills.

Tiger Troop shipped out. As they rode in the fishing boat towards the far shore, they had ample time to view the forested lower slopes and snow-covered hill tops of Helmland. The also had ample time to wonder about what they would find there.

Selcuk: "Ok, who reckons it will be more Orcs? Anyone? What about Elves? Tell you what, we'll run a sweep. Whoever gets it right gets the pot. Anyone in?"

Pan scowled but kept quiet. She knew that this was just a way to ease the tension as they headed for yet another fight. She had an idea.

"Count me in!"

The rest of Tiger Troop looked at her, all of them with jaws dropping at this unexpected turn of events.

"I'm betting psycho cultists and wizards."

With this approval from their leader, the rest of them pitched in with their ideas and the pot was soon full. Not much longer afterwards, they landed and began their approach to the ops area. They would have to hold out long enough for the others to get across the fjord, while grabbing anything that looked interesting. Unfortunately for Tiger Troop, there were not enough boats will to make this trip, so the whole platoon would be ferried over one troop at a time. For Tiger Troop, it was some comfort that they had been allocated a shit tonne of extra ammunition by the L.T. for this purpose.

All too quickly, they reached the ops zone and deployed. There was a clear objective on a hill that they needed to reach and investigate, but otherwise it was just a case of pacifying the area until the rest of the platoon could reach them.

"Sarge, did your god tell you what was going to be here?"

"I would never cheat, Private Immaculada! Now get on with pacifying those cultists and that wizard!"

Tiger Troop was a great fan of the peace-through-superior-firepower doctrine, and they applied it with a will. The cultist numbers were cut in half during the first 30 seconds of the firefight. Of course, that involved using up all the extra ammo they had with them, but it was a price they were willing to pay. There was a dicey moment when Justice almost fell to the enemy wizard's spells, but Pan reached out with a mystic shield and deflected the eldritch energy. A single cultist made it close enough to Mary to assault her but was downed with a sword cut to the face, although the cultist's blow left Mary reeling for a second, even though her armour took the brunt of it.

In very little time at all the cultists were dead. However, where there is one cultist, there are always ten others lurking around. A group of them raced onto the battlefield carrying the stuff that Tiger Troop had been told to retrieve. The application of more firepower saw them cut down and Chidubem was able to gather up the intel, before racing back towards the rest of the troop.

While this was going on, more cultists had emerged from a rocky area near Pan and A-team. The mystical energies of this area were stronger than usual and Pan made use of them to blast the new cultists. Between her spells and the firepower of A-team, the cultists did not last long, although one healthier looking chap with a massive sword got within a couple of metres of them all before being cut down. By now, B-team had made it back and Pan ordered everyone to withdraw. They had achieved all their objectives and the rest of the platoon would pick up the load.

As Tiger Troop withdrew, an evil conjuror appeared.

"Leave her be! The rest of the platoon will sort her out."

Tiger Troop were happy to obey their leader. They withdrew to the new camp, where Pan claimed her winnings.

Conclusion

Cultists fall easily, but there are always more of them. The support I rolled for at the start came in handy or it could have been worse. It was logistical support that allows extra dice rolls for three shots. Cultists have a special ability that can result in reinforcements happening more often than against other foes. However, it is dependent upon how many survive on the table. I guess killing them dissuades the others and the support helped me do that by cutting their numbers in half on the first turn.

In other news, I remembered that Pan can cast spells and used the high magical aura of this area to good effect with several ice blasts. I also remembered that Pan has a Divine ability to prevent damage, which is the only reason that Justice was not cut down by a cultist sorcerer's Bleeding Curse spell. I'll get there with remembering all the troop's abilities before the end of this campaign, you know!

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.