1 Flaurmont 1000 AC - Elyas' Tower

Broneslav led Baik down to Ular-Taman's room, where he showed the snake creature the pendant and the ring.

"I have both pendant and ring," he announced, "How do I make them work?"
Ular-Taman hissed a reply, "With both ring and pendant joined, as I see they are, you must speak the word on the back of the pendant, and it will create a circle of power that prevents all evil magic from working. In this way you will be able to defeat the witches."

Broneslav grinned. He had read Rahasia's name on the back of the pendant. Now he knew its significance.

"Come, Baik, we must enter the wizard's tower and defeat a great evil. Riches and glory will be ours for the taking."

He led the way through the treasure room and into the corridor leading down to the tower that lay encased beneath the mountain. As he did so, he wondered if it really counted as a tower now.

The rough-hewn corridor they followed opened into a dark, dry cavern. In the wall opposite was an opening leading to another rough-hewn corridor, presumably that used by the Rahib. The walls of Elyas' tower blocked the cavern off, rising up some 60 feet to its roof. Rubble was strewn everywhere as the tower's upper levels were destroyed by the spell that encased the rest of it in the mountain. Dark, stained doors with curious engravings were visible in the middle of the wall. It took the combined might of Broneslav and Baik to open them. Beyond the doors, a corridor stretched off into the distance. The only light here was the torch carried by Baik. The torch cast eerie shadows in the vast, vaulted corridor. Seeing no danger they advanced slowly forwards.

Suddenly two men leapt out of the shadows with chilling battle cries. One sliced through a gap in Broneslav's armour (2 DAM). The other cut a wicked slash to Baik's head (1 DAM). Put off by the sudden attack, Broneslav fluffed his sword thrust, but the boot that followed it laid the man out cold. The other man missed Baik, but was not so lucky in return. A quick search of the corpses, after bandaging their own wounds, turned up two bottles of wine labeled: Wizard of Wines Winery, Purple Grapemash No.3, 14231241-S. Both men also had full purses which found their way onto Broneslav and Baik's belts. The heroes left the men's short swords, shields and armour behind. They were obviously of poor quality and well-used.

The corridor ended in a large octagonal room that had obviously been tidied up. The roof in here had collapsed but now all the rubble and debris was gathered in its centre. A quick search showed the room to be empty. Corridors led off to either side and double doors lay in the northern wall. When they checked the corridor to the east, Broneslav and Baik could see double doors at its end, as well as branches heading north and south. This was a big room, so it seemed likely that it was an antechamber to another important room. For this reason they decided to try the double doors to the north first. Neither Broneslav nor Baik could hear anything through the doors, so they pushed them open ...

Character
Broneslav Torenescu (S16, D14, C15, I12, W10, Ch14, F1, HP 9, AC4, Sword 1d8+3, Bow 1d8)
Human (Traladaran)
XPs: 1028

Traits:
Torenescu Family Member 1
Hunter 1
Keen Vision 1
Good Education 1
Empathy with Animals 1

Goal: Prove that he is an adult following the Shearing Ceremony
Goal: Slay a red dragon
Quest: Deliver a parcel to Merisa in Gray Mountain Village
Quest: Rescue Sylva and Merisa
Quest: Undo the greater evil under Kota-Hutan Temple

Allies
Baik Telor (HD 4, AC 4, ATK +4, DAM 1d8)

Roll of Honour
Alki (Level 2 Elven warrior brutally slain while helpless by the Rahib)

1 Flaurmont 1000 AC - Return to the temple

After a good night's rest, Broneslav felt much better. The Elven healer's work had been good and we was ready to return to the temple and finish the job he had started. Baik Telor agreed to accompany him on condition that he was given a full share of any treasure they found. Baik Telor had seen the treasure that Broneslav had already accrued and liked the colour of it. He equipped himself with a shield and the pair set out once mor, clad in robes previously worn by the Siswa. The journey to the temple was quick. Broneslav returned to the statue with the pendant on it and managed to work out that he needed to insert the black jade ring into the pendant to release it. Armed with the tools necessary to destroy the evil, although unsure how they worked, he and Baik headed through the portal to the middle temple level. He had not fully explored it before and explained this to Baik, as well as his reasons for not doing so. Together they decided that it would be best to clear it of enemies before moving deeper into the mountain.

Scouting the corridors soon showed that the ends of each of them was a portal just like on the temple's outer level. South of the Great Temple, where he had first seen the Rahib, Broneslav found double doors in the wall. This led to a corridor with open alcoves off it. The alcoves contained primitive cots for sleeping on and little else. As the pair approached one cell, they heard chanting coming from it. Approaching completely unnoticed, the pair found three Siswa chanting around a candle. Their chant meant little to the two heroes who used their stealthy approach to soundlessly overpower the Siswa. They tied and gagged them before moving on.

As they rounded the corner of the corridor, they could see stairs rising into a room to the south-west and two guards ahead by a double door. The two Siswa guards stood patiently watching as the heroes approached. Suddenly one of them yelled something and both leapt to the attack. As they did so, Broneslav wondered why he bothered with the disguise when everyone seemed to see right through it. The guard parried his blow and countered with a thrust that cut Broneslav's arm badly (2 DAM). Beside him, Baik also missed but fended off the guard's blow. As Broneslav and the guard countered each others' blows, Baik cursed when his opponent slipped a blow through his guard (1 DAM). Suddenly the corridor was alive with Siswa as ten more came storming out of the dark alcoves along the corridor. Broneslav and Baik swung wild blows at the nearest enemies, felling two of the new arrivals as they retreated to get their backs to a wall. Side by side and backed into a corner, no more than four of the Siswa could attack them at once. The plan seemed to work. The guards followed up, aided by the new arrivals but could not get their weapons past the heroes' shields. Broneslav knocked one guard unconscious with the flat of his blade, as Baik slew the other, and a wild swipe of Broneslav's shield left two more Siswa on the floor. The six remaining Siswa pressed the attack but the heroes were able to hold them off as Broneslav knocked out four more of them. Of the remaining two, one turned to run while the other attacked Baik. Baik blocked his blow and counter-attacked but failed to hit the Elf. Broneslav launched himself at the fleeing Siswa and brought him to the ground. A swift punch to the side of the head left the Elf snoring as Baik cursed once more at being hit. Fortunately his armour held and the blow did not cut him. With two heroes versus one Siswa, the end was not in doubt and soon eleven Siswa had been captured and tied up, while only one lay dead on the floor. Broneslav was not happy about this, but it was too late now. He had briefed Baik, but Baik was more concerned with surviving himself than with looking out for the Siswa. With Baik's wounds bandaged, they carried on.

The remaining alcoves were empty, and the two corner rooms had stairs leading up to the surface. Light could be seen at the top of the stairs. Broneslav chose not to sortie up the stairs but to continue on. In one alcove they found a chest next to one of the crude cots. The two warriors clustered round the chest and opened the lid, only to have several darts fly out at them. As the dart struck him, Broneslav collapsed to the floor. Baik remained standing. When Broneslav came to twenty minutes later, Baik informed him that he appeared to have been hit by a sleep dart, and that the chest had contained 50 silver coins and a bottle of wine. He shared these coins with Broneslav and they packed the wine in their packs.

N.B. Baik is Lawful and will usually act that way. I consulted the oracle to see if greed got the better of him, and it did! The chest actually contained 100 silver coins and 75 electrum coins. Baik chose to keep most of the treasure and share a bit because a trapped chest with no treasure would have been odd.

The two warriors then entered the central room in this part of the temple. It appeared to be a dining room with a long table down the middle and benches on either side. It had alcoves at each end, one with the work KESINI carved in the wall above it and the other with KESANA. The alcoves were empty and encouraged no further investigation there.With this part of the temple cleared and the enemy captured, Broneslav led the way down to the temple's lower level.

Character
Broneslav Torenescu (S16, D14, C15, I12, W10, Ch14, F1, HP 9, AC4, Sword 1d8+3, Bow 1d8)
Human (Traladaran)
XPs: 968

Traits:
Torenescu Family Member 1
Hunter 1
Keen Vision 1
Good Education 1
Empathy with Animals 1

Goal: Prove that he is an adult following the Shearing Ceremony
Goal: Slay a red dragon
Quest: Deliver a parcel to Merisa in Gray Mountain Village
Quest: Rescue Sylva and Merisa
Quest: Undo the greater evil under Kota-Hutan Temple

Allies
Baik Telor (HD 4, AC 4, ATK +4, DAM 1d8)

Roll of Honour
Alki (Level 2 Elven warrior brutally slain while helpless by the Rahib)

Ronin: Samurai Skirmish Rules Battle Report

We played the Osprey rules Ronin this week and last week. Both games were entertaining, and honours were even after two games.

The first game was a simple encounter scenario using small (100 point) forces. Steve had made a terrain board and some terrain for it, and we played in 15mm, halving all the measurements.

I sent Orange Power Samurai alone up the left bank of the river (big mistake). All my ashigaru advanced up the right bank, with Teppo Ashigaru holding back to take time to fire. Steve's force was split evenly between both banks of the river and initially things went well for me. Orange Power Samurai waded into combat with two of the monks and slaughtered both in one turn. Sadly, that was the end of the carnage that I wrought.

The Monkish boss and one of his retainers ganged up on Orange Power Samurai and cut him down to size. An ashigaru with yari tried to get there in time to help him, but was not quick enough. On the other bank, my ashigaru had killed one monk, but the other proved to be considerably tougher and took out all three of the ashigaru there. Yikes! One level 2 monk versus 3 level 1 ashigaru should not end like that, but at least it fits the heroic theme of the game.

Victory to Steve and a lesson learnt by me. One thing we thought we had learned from this game was that missile fire was not very effective. It was also interesting to see how few shots an chap with a teppo/arquebus could get off in a game.

Game 2 was on the same board. We played the capture scenario where an objective must be held or captured and carried off the board. This time we played with mid-sized forces of 150 points each. I used the extra points to buy a top grade Blue Power Samurai with a variety of awesome abilities like acrobatics and fast. Better quality figures in Ronin can have skills. While it seems like a no-brainer to give all samurai kenjutsu or some other weapon skill, the range of skills means that there might be good reasons for going with other skills instead.

The objective was in the temple. This time I grouped all of my troops in one corner of the board and advanced them together. Steve split his force between both banks of the river. He advanced one part up under cover of the buildings while his missile troops tried to flank me from the other side of the river. Both of my ashigaru with teppo hung back after the first turn and managed to do a fair bit of damage with just a couple of shots, wounding and killing the leading monks.

My black cat Victor likes to watch our games, and often parks himself next to the board. Surprisingly, he is very well behaved and does not chase the dice or eat the figures, unlike the kittens, who try to eat everything.

As the game progressed, Steve got a monk to the objective well before me, but my teppo fire had weakened his assault, so that when Blue and Orange Power Samurai reached the enemy, they were sufficiently weakened to be easy meat. Each samurai worked with an ashigaru partner to outnumber and cut down the enemy. This tactic worked really well, especially combined with effective fire.

In the end, Steve's monks were sent fleeing and my only casualty was one of the ashigaru with teppo, who succumbed to a good bow shot from Steve's monks.

All in all, yet another good game that took under two hours to complete, including in that time our usual pre-game nattering, tea making and biscuit eating. I like that the rules are cheap, well-produced and that there are few anomalies or grey areas in them. They are also clearly written and easy to learn. For the money they are excellent value.

We are going to try a mini-campaign next which means I shall have to paint up some more figures for my warband. I think I should also paint the Torii Suneemon vignette that I got from Two Dragons. It will make a great objective marker.