A short distance further into the dark passages of the temple, the Thrappled Lemmings encountered a lone temple guard outside a door. The guard was dispatched easily. Onund broke the door down after Ash failed to pick the lock. They had found a store room and were able to eat and drink their fill of food that was mostly not mouldy. A healing potion, a dose of farlight leaf and a dose of ironbark powder were bonus finds. After chugging down the healing potion, Onund felt much better. None of the Lemmings were now worse off than a few scratches. Much cheered up, the Thrappled Lemmings carried on.
"Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go," hummed Atli to himself as the Lemmings marched deeper into the earth and closer to their destination.
Kalfr was chuntering to himself under his breath, "See the little goblin, see his little feet..."
Meanwhile, towards the front of the party Onund was singing to himself to keep his spirits up and to drown out the other's out-of-tune humming and chuntering: "I am a dwarf and I dig in a hole. Diggy diggy hole. Diggy diggy hole..."
It was unfortunate that he only knew those lines, but he made up for his lack of knowledge with an excessive willingness to carry on regardless.
Ash accompanied Onund on his banjolele as best he could, while Aethelwyrd and Incunabulum just looked pained. Or maybe they both had trapped wind.
Light appeared ahead of the Lemmings once more and Aethelwyrd hissed "Shut up!" at Atli and Onund. Silence descended as Ash was pushed ahead of the party to scout for the rest of them. Ash slung his banjolele on his back and crept forward to spy out the lie of the land. A short while later, he returned to the group.
"Nefarious doings to report. There's a big hairy fella with a massive chopper and some sorcerous type. The wizardy fella seems to be using a mirror as a spyglass to cast spells through. There's also more of those guardians there. Nothing we can't handle. It's a clear room so we just need to charge in and cut 'em to bits."
Aethelwyrd nodded. Sometimes the simplest plans were the best. She formed the Lemmings up into an orderly rank and yelled, "CHARGE!"
The Lemmings charged into the chamber. The sorcerer gestured confidently. A curtain of flame rose up in front of the Lemmings. Further down the chamber, a chain net curtain fell, blocking access to the sorcerer and his hirsute bodyguard.
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| Wall of fire crossed. I'm using the dungeon walls as the chain net and will remove each part as and when the fastenings are cut |
Unable to stop their charge in time, the Lemmings raced through the wall of fire before they realised what they had done.
All the Lemmings passed the Will test to run through the wall of fire unscathed first time! I am utterly gobsmacked! It also seems like the most Lemming thing ever. I can just imagine them wondering what they have just done as they realise that the wall of fire was meant to hold them up.
The sorcerer's jaw dropped as his first defence failed so thoroughly and so quickly. The archers in the centre of the chamber loosed arrows at Aethelwyrd, who was leading the charge. None hit and soon she and the Lemmings were on them.
Incunabulum unleashed a blast of eldritch power and destroyed the fastenings holding one end of the chain net up. As the fight heated up, the sorcerer chanted blasphemous words and Kalfr turned on his friends, only to be knocked out by Aethelwyrd. Ash sprinted towards the corner of chain net, only for Atli to shoot the fastening as he got there.
"That's how you do it!" yelled Atli.
With the sorcerer now open to assault, Incunabulum blasted him and his monstrous bodyguard with a fireball, singeing both of them. Aethelwyrd charged the bodyguard and Incunabulum charged the sorcerer, only to be hit hard by the evil spellcaster. The fight was on. Sorcerer versus mage and bodyguard versus Ranger.
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| Only one way to sort this out: Fight! |
Unfortunately for Incunabulum, the sorcerer was more physically able and smashed him to the ground as Ash repeatedly stabbed the bodyguard only to fall to a mighty blow from it as the bodyguard simultaneously fended off Aethelwyrd's attacks. Everyone but Atli on all sides were now bleeding heavily as a blood fly flew into the cavern, scenting its next meal.
Aethelwyrd and the bodyguard were very evenly matched, but in the end she landed enough blows to weaken the creature before caving its skull in as it stumbled. Onund tried to do the same to the sorcerer but was bludgeoned to the ground. Atli took careful aim and put an arrow through the sorcerer's ears, cleaning out the ear wax and incidentally killing the sorcerer in the process. The blood fly fled as Atli and Aethelwyrd panted hard to recover their breath.
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| All over bar the looting. |
Looking around, the heroes found a wizard's staff and a gold ring with the Lorenthian coat of arms on it. They hastily grabbed these items and turned their attention to the mirror, whose surface was clouding over. A face formed in it and began to speak.
"I have a tale of woe to tell you, but not much time. I was the plaything of young Princess Nyla of Dremmis. Tell people this. Make her name and story live. You must destroy me, but first I would know if you know the words or the song or the sign."
Aethelwyrd held up the golden ring.
"Yes, that is the sign. He who wore it yet lives."
The mirror cleared quickly to show a scene of a dark, dank dungeon. A child was crying in the corner. Suddenly, he looked up and his face became clear. It was Prince Ruthic of Lorenthia, the Alladorean king's own cousin. As the image was replaced by a pattern of stars, Aethelwyrd copied the pattern down, certain that it would lead the Lemmings to the Prince himself.
"Now," announced the mirror, "You must smash me so that I may not be used for evil again. And hurry for the enemy is rallying and approaching."
Aethelwyrd grabbed the huge bodyguard's hammer and crushed the mirror with a single blow. She and Atli quickly roused the remaining Lemmings, all of whom were fortunately only knocked out and not seriously wounded. They raced from the Temple as the forces of evil gathered behind them, certain at least that the sorcerer would no longer influence battles from afar. It would be a long trek home, but they had done what they set out to do, although at no little cost themselves.
That was an interesting scenario. It was a bit of a race against time as the sorcerer got a special effect at the end of each turn, and I did not want him to have too many of those, especially after the first of them confused Kalfr so he turned on his own people. Incunabulum and Atli were very lucky indeed with their shots to bring the chain net down. In fact, Atli's shot at it was the only critical hit of the game. I was lucky that none of the Lemmings was seriously hurt or killed, but I figure I deserved that luck after some of their combat dice rolls were so bad. They should have steamrollered the Temple Guardian Archers, but were instead cut down by them. Likewise with the melee with the sorcerer. The bodyguard was tough too but Aethelwyrd kept winning melees by one or two points and doing little bits of damage that eventually killed him.
One more mission in the Gathering of Heroes book left. Lets see if I have all the terrain and figures I need for it and then get it played. After that I shall be waiting for the newest scenarios to be gathered into a single book so that the Lemmings can take to the field again in Rangers of Shadow Deep.
