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.