Starting Location: Mayor's Hat Delve (Hex 0709)
This delve uses the map Ruins of the Sorcerer's Keep from Heroic Maps on WargameVault. I rescaled it to 66% of its full size when printing it so that it suited my 15mm figures and that gives a playing area roughly 2'x2'. After playing the game, I think I should have printed out some doors to make the entrances clearer, but also added some secret doors where there are none marked so that the party had a choice of routes. As it stands, there was really just a single path through the dungeon with a couple of side tours into rooms. It worked fine, but was also a bit slow as I spent the first half of the game just moving everyone around until they finally met up.
Adventure
After meeting resistance on the way, the Thrappled Lemmings finally reached the ruined keep. The hat must be in there, so they knew they had to go in. The only way in was through the front gate, unless they fancied swimming or climbing the walls. They did not fancy either of those options, so they pushed aside the rotting timbers of the main gate and entered the first part of the keep. Lysanthir's skin prickled. He could feel the magic that had seeped into the very stones of the structure.
Fulrad was the party's scout, so he was volunteered to enter the keep first and check it out. He pushed gingerly past the others and into the keep's interior. It was dark inside in spite of the age and ruinous state of the keep. Something was keeping the structure together despite the best efforts and weather and age. Checking the entrance as he went, he suddenly spotted an anomaly. Checking further, he realised that there was a secret entrance here leading to a passage. It looked unused in a long time, so he relayed the information to the rest of the party and they prepared to move into the keep first.
This exploration result adds another unexplored area to this hex.
The group made their way into the keep along a long passage that was once probably a killzone for invaders. It was quiet ... too quiet.
Meanwhile, skeleton patrols were all over the other side of the keep. The skeleton captain and its squad reached their objective (2) and turned around to patrol on to their next objective (1).
The blue markers are Soldier IDs from Warfighter. They ones in the rooms on their own are exploration markers. The ones with the groups of skeletons (3 groups of 3 skeletons) are reminders of where they are going. The skeletons will patrol from one exploration marker to another random one until they are alerted to the presence of the party. If I had thought it through, I could have used a different colour of Soldier ID for this. The star counter represents the hat.
As the party waded into brackish water to explore further into the keep, another skeleton patrol reached its objective (4) and prepared to continue its patrol to its next checkpoint (3).
As the Lemmings waded out of the brackish water, the third patrol reached its objective (6) and turned towards its next one (4).
The party moved forward to a junction. Drogo and Sir Thiebault took up station next to a door, supported by Fulrad. The others headed along a corridor to what turned out to be a big room with mystical markings on the floor and a table with mildewed and rotting papers at one end. Onesipe was first in and found a Delver's Kit lying on the floor near the body of a previous delver. He grabbed it. The others took up station behind the warriors and waited for Onesipe to catch up. There was nowhere else to go, so they would have to go through this door. Meanwhile, one skeleton party had reached its objective (3) and got ready to turn around to head for its next marker (5).
One exploration marker down, two to go to achieve the objective, although the party will need to get to the hat and retrieve it or destroy all the skeletons to hold the field and recover it.
Drogo stepped through the door to the room and came face to face with a skeleton. His attack drove the skeleton back, but he was too surprised by the encounter to press his advantage. Sir Thiebault tried his hand next and crushed one of the skeletons with a single blow. Wido and Fuldar moved to the door to provide support. They could not push past Sir Thiebault and Drogo without causing too much chaos.
Drogo stepped in to face another skeleton but could not do more than push it back again. Sir Thiebault and showed him how it was done. Two skeletons down and he had done it so quickly, he had time to grab the armour it was wearing.
Sir Thiebault explores the exploration marker and acquires magical armour (Traitor's Harness) from the Exploration Marker. Two markers down.
The skeleton captain stepped in to attack Sir Thiebault. The captain was a tougher opponent and smashed Sir Thiebault to the ground. Fulrad stepped into the room and smashed the captain up with his arrows. Three skeletons down.
The Thrappled Lemmings formed up to take on whatever other horrors this keep might throw at them and to protect Sir Thiebault. It was as well they did, for more skeletons marched through the door at this point.
Wido moved to one side to give Onesipe a shot. He hit the skeleton and wounded it. Onesipe fired a second shot as fast as he could and took out the skeleton while the others marched inexorably towards the party. Drogo charged the rearmost skeleton and once more failed to hurt one of the undead monstrosities. Wido joined him and wounded the foremost skeleton but was driven back by it. Fuldar shot and missed once more.
Fuldar shoots at the wounded skeleton but realises he is out of ammunition. The skeletons turn on Drogo who is knocked back, stunned by a blow to the head. Onesipe then does him a favour by destroying another skeleton. In all this, Lysanthir has been cheering from the sidelines, unable to push past Onesipe.
The remaining skeleton attacks Drogo and clubs him to the ground. Onesipe shoots and wounds it. Fulrad charges up to support Wido who crushes the skeleton. Meanwhile, the last skeleton patrol has reached its objective (4) and turns around to march back down the corridor again.
As the skeletons march closer, Wido opens the door to the next room and sees the floor covered in sticky goo that will be difficult to move through. He chooses not to.
Three exploration markers cleared. Delve objective achieved. Now for the hat.
Onesipe shot as the skeletons got to pointblank range wounding the leading one. Wido charged in and finished it off. Lysanthir entered the fray and wounded the next one.
Both Lysanthir and Wido attacked the wounded skeleton but all they could do was drive it back in a flurry of blows that saw each of them giving ground in turn. The skeleton attacked Wido and he turned the tables, finally destroying it. The next skeleton attacked Wido and pushed him back. Fulrad stepped into the gap left by Wido. Slowly but surely, he whittled it down. Suddenly peace broke out as the Lemmings had once more held the field. They retrieved the hat and found out that there were stairs down into the vaults under the keep. They could check those out another time. First, they settled down to lick their wounds and camp for the night before returning to claim their reward for a fulfilled contract.
Post-Battle Resolution
1 Adventure point gained for defeating a captain.
Sir Thiebault was lucky and had just been knocked out. The party administered Silvertree Leaf to Drogo and it turned out that he too was only winded. I had to use a point of luck to keep Sir Thiebault alive here or he would have been dead, dead, dead. Drogo's first roll would have seen him out of the game for several turns so I used the last of my Silvertree Leaf and got lucky on the roll.
Advancement:
Lysanthir goes up a level and gains a Casting increase.
Wido goes up a level and gains a Combat increase.
Loot:
The party finds light armour and a helmet.
News Travels:
Being in the wilderness and off the beaten path, there is no news to speak of, unless you count Wido learning to belch a popular tavern song.
Final Thoughts
I keep forgetting that some of my characters have luck points and that I can use story points along the way. Had I remembered, I could have saved my warriors from the humiliation of being knocked out. That said, the way Drogo was rolling, he deserved it!
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