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!