"Listen up, Lemmings. We need to get this Decanter back to base. Ash, you're the fastest of us, so you will be carrying it. Stay out of the fight and just run. We'll keep the bad guys distracted and will follow as quickly as we can. Any questions?"
No one had any questions. They were not even in the mood for a little humour. This would be a serious fight and that demon thing that had appeared was no joke.
"Form up, Lemmings, and CHARGE!"
Aethelwyrd led from the front, with Onund and Kalfr beside her.
"Hey, ugly! We're over here!"
The Terror Wing and the Orcs and wolves charged towards the small knot of plucky warriors as the rest of the Lemmings moved up into position too. Both sides fired but missed and a wolf appeared through the leftmost exit.
"On them, Lemmings, I call you all to action! Scrag the scumsucking sods!"
As Aethelwyrd, Onund and Kalfr advanced in close formation towards the Terror Wing, Aelfwyn fired at an Orc and missed. The Terror Wing charged. Its fearsome claws gouged huge tears in Kalfr's arm. An Orcish arrow pierced Incunabulum's breast and blood gushed out. He only just managed to stay on his feet. Another arrow winged Aelfwyn as the wolves and Orcish warriors charged forwards. Despite the pain, Incunabulum blasted out a fireball that badly wounded one of the Orc warriors and then heroically charged one of the wolves that was about to attack Onund. Ash threw a throwing dagger that lodged in the shoulder of an Orc and then raced for the cover of one of the shacks. As he did so, another wolf emerged from the leftmost exit.
Aethelwyrd launched a frenzied attack against the Terror Wing and left it just barely clinging to life. It responded by cutting Kalfr down and slashing huge holes in Onund. It then counterattacked against Onund, who managed to duck in under its defences and slew it with a wicked stab to where its genitals probably were if Terror Wings have genitals.
"Take that, you hellspawn of an incontinent goat's faeces!"
As Incunabulum engaged a wolf, an Orc ran in and stabbed him in the back. He fell to the ground unmoving. Doggo then fell beneath the teeth of a wolf.
"NO!" screamed Ash.
Despite seeing his new best friend fall, Ash obeyed orders and sprinted for the cover of a shack, where the archers could not reach him.
With the Terror Wing dead, Aethelwyrd laid grimly into one wolf and slew it, while Onund badly wounded another and then Aelfwyn slew an Orc with a shot right through the ears that cleaned out its earwax. The remaining wolves swarmed Aethelwyrd who slew one and was bitten badly on the leg by another that attacked her from behind, while she was slaying an Orc warrior that had also decided she needed dealing with. Suddenly the courtyard was looking quite empty.
Aethelwyrd focused on this wolf which mauled her some more and then took out Onund when he tried to help. The Lemmings were looking few and far between too now. The Orc archers now focused on Aelfwyn and Ash took this opportunity to race past one of them that had moved to a better position to shoot. As Ash ran, the wind picked up, blasting dust and debris around.
Aethelwyrd finally got the measure of the wolf as Aelfwyn slotted an arrow right through the eye of one Orcish archer despite the high wind that seemed to carry arrows wherever it willed. He and Aethelwyrd then raced off in support of Ash.
Aelfwyn fired at the remaining Orcish archer and then moved into the cover of a nearby pillar, while Aethelwyrd made herself an obvious target. The Orc's shot missed and Ash sprinted towards the farthest exit from the Orc. Aelfwyn's next shot grievously wounded the Orc while Aethelwyrd and Ash continued to sprint for the exits. Unfortunately, the Orc now seemed to have got the measure of the wind and its arrow found its mark in Aelfwyn, who grunted and stumbled, clearly critically wounded.
As the heroes raced towards the exit, a sudden calm temporarily came over the courtyard. An image of St Emilia appeared over the fountain. Aethelwyrd and Aelfwyn both felt great peace come over them as their many wounds knitted together and they felt reenergised and even more ready to take on the Shadow Deep.
Aelfwyn took one last shot at the Orc and put the arrow right through its heart, in spite of the wind that had arisen with renewed fury. The last of the monsters fell to the earth and the heroes were able to leave the courtyard with the Decanter.
A week later, the Lemmings straggled into their base. A week of dodging patrols in the Shadow Deep and the long climb up the broken stairs had left them exhausted. Along the way it had felt as though St Emilia was watching over them, but that help only went so far.
As they revealed their success to their comrades a huge cheer went up around the base and a small celebration ensued. Every success against the Shadow Deep was worthy of this. Ash did not celebrate though. He was normally the life and soul of the party, but this time he went off on his own to brood. Doggo had died in that courtyard, torn apart by a wolf even as he sought to save Ash and his comrades. Ash did not have the heart to celebrate after the loss of his best friend.
Why do my dice hate me? The early stages of this fight saw my party getting ripped to shreds. Until St Emilia showed up, Ash was the only unhurt figure, while Aethelwyrd was on 6 Health and Aelfwyn was down to 1 Health. Fortunately, things changed in the second half of the game as Aelfwyn scored a couple of critical hits. Aethelwyrd's Frenzied Attack ability taking the Terror Wing down to 1 Health was really useful too. Good job Onund scored precisely 1 damage to kill it! The worst thing though was rolling a 1 for Doggo's injuries. He did not deserve that dice roll.
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| Doggo, RIP. The goodest of boys. |
On the plus side, when it came together, it really came together and half the enemy force was slain in a single turn. Also, the surviving Lemmings recovered the Decanter and suffered no lasting injuries. It was an exciting and quite brutal mission that I am not sure the Lemmings would have survived if I had needed to search more areas for clues before working out where to find the Decanter.
Now I need to work out which mission they will take on next and what I need to make or paint for it.
RIP Doggo. A good character put to rest too soon :-(
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