Thursday, 18 October 2018

Second Scenario for Sellswords and Spellslingers in Middle Earth

Hallas and his patrol have successfully given warning of the orc raid and troops are hastily being gathered. In the meantime there is a risk of the orcs raiding nearby farms and villages. Patrols have been sent out to warn civilians of the danger and gather them at places of refuge.

Save the Refugees
Hallas is leading a patrol directing locals to a fortified signal tower, which will be strong enough to resist any orcs in the short term. But a large party of orcs have been spotted, heading towards the tower. Can Hallas and his men hold the orcs back long enough to get the refugees into safety?

Terrain: A river runs east/west across the centre of the table with two crossing points. A road running parallel to the river along the southern table edge leads to the tower. Otherwise it is a flat area with rock outcrops bushes and clumps of trees.

A group of refugees is placed on the road at the western edge. There are two more groups of refugees who will enter on the Scenario Event card (I’m putting 2 of these in the deck).
Refugees activate at the end of the turn, after all the characters have had their go. They automatically move 8” each turn. If a PC is within 4” they will move as the PC directs them.
Unaccompanied refugees will either move eastwards along the road or, if there are any orcs within LOS and 8”, directly away from the orcs.

Foes:
● 1 randomly deployed Orc Chieftain with 3 Orc soldiers (bodyguards).
● 3 randomly deployed Orc Brutes.
● 2 randomly deployed horde of 3 Orc soldiers. A single horde is armed with short bows
● 3 randomly-deployed Orc soldiers.
Foes must be on the northern side of the river and at least 8” away from either crossing point.

(These are the foes I used for my solo game. If you are playing this scenario as a cooperative game use the following:
● 1 randomly deployed Orc Chieftain with 3 Orc soldiers (bodyguards).
● 2 randomly deployed Orc Brutes per player.
● 1 randomly deployed horde of 3 Orc soldiers per player. A single horde is armed with short bows
● 2 randomly-deployed Orc soldiers per player.)

Traps: There are no traps.

PC Deployment: PCs are deployed on any point to the south of the river AFTER all foes have been deployed.

Wandering Monsters: Roll d6. The wandering monsters arrives on a random table edge, d6 x d6” away from a random corner:
1-5 d3 Orcs (deploy as horde if 2-3 Orcs appear)
6 1 Troll (if the Troll is already on the table, ignore further 6’s).

NB: any orcs entering the table (except for ambush) can only arrive to the north of the river.

Victory Conditions: The mission is completed as soon all the villagers are safely in to refuge (or killed by the orcs), or if the orcs flee. 

If the orc chieftain is killed no more orcs will enter the table except on an ambush card. If the chieftain and all 3 brutes are killed, any surviving orcs will flee.

Experience rewards: The party gains 2 XP for each group of refugees that reaches the tower, or is on the table when the orcs flee.
Renown rewards: Killing the chieftain or a brute earns 1 RP each.

The problem with this scenario is that a viable tactic would be to hold the river crossings, but that could lead to a rather boring game as monsters need failed activations in order to move. To remedy this, after all the PCs have completed their turn there will be an additional Monster Frenzy phase. This will be the same as if a Monster frenzy card had been played, except this will only apply to monsters who have not moved or engaged in combat previously in the turn. 

I'm hoping to play this scenario through over the weekend.

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