Starstones Campaign Chapter One

 We got to play the first game in my new Starstones VSF campaign. Once again my ARSS team have been joined by a team from the Home Office, Lord Farquhar Bufton-Tufton with is wife Lady Amelia and faithful servant Singh. Ian has decided that Singh will be an immortal character in this campaign. If he is killed, rather than create a new character, he will re-introduce Singh with his original stats. By some mysterious means he will always illude death at the last moment !

CHAPTER ONE 

It was been reported that Kartal Nuri Pasha, a senior agent of the Ottoman Sultan’s court, has located a Starstone fall site after “interviewing” a local shepherd who witnessed the event. The Pasha is accompanied by the prominent Ottoman scientist, Professor Erman Gukay, together with a bodyguard of Ottoman soldiers.

HM government have intercepted Ottoman communications which pinpoint the location of the site, so your team have been tasked with assisting in the retrieval of the Starstone.

Set Up: Rural countryside with an area of rough ground/scrub in the centre of the Northern edge (where the Starstone is located), about 8” in from the table edge.

Deployment: Deploy all PCs along the southern edge, then deploy foes randomly but not closer than 8” to any PC (if a foe appears closer than 8” from a PC, place it 8” away).

Foes:

3 x Ottoman Dervish Swordsmen

4 x hordes of 3 Ottoman Soldiers.

Searching the scrub:

Hartal Nuri Pasha

Professor Gukay

1 x Bodyguard (Dervish Assassin)

Trap: There are no Traps.

Ambush: An Ottoman swordsman leaps out from the nearest cover and attacks the closest PC.

Reinforcements: 3 Ottoman Militia enter from a random table edge.

At Our Back: 3 Ottoman Militia.

Things Could Get Worse/Complications: An Ottoman Iron Man enters from a random table edge. Leave the card in the deck, the Iron Man acts as a normal foe for drawn cards, except it also activates if the Complication card is drawn. 

Game Event: Kartal Nuri Pasha and Professor Gukay have finished gathering the Starstone and will attempt to escape from either the E or W edge. Return this card to the deck, each time it is drawn activate Kartal Nuri Pasha and Professor Gukay. They will also activate on a Monster Frenzy card.

NOTE: Nuri will use his gas bombs if any PC comes within 9” (12” once trying to escape). 

Wandering Monster

1 or 2: 1 Dervish Assassin

3 to 6: 3 Ottoman Soldiers

Victory

The game ends if the Starstone is carried off of the table, or if Nuri, Gukay and the Bodyguard are dead; or if all PCs are off table or dead.

Game Report

It started off well enough, the teams moved onto the table and took up a firing position and took out 3 soldiers and a couple of swordsmen with their superior firepower,

As the group moved forward, a failed activation brought another 3 soldiers onto the table behind them (Wandering Monster).

But the Professor spun round and threw one of his exploding globes, which killed them all. Maisie sprang an ambush and took a wound from the crazed swordsman before she put him down and Lord Bufton-Tufton took and early wound from another ambush.

Bufton-Tufton rushed forward leaving his wife and Singh to finish off the enemies on their side of the table. Apart from the last 3 soldiers, he had a clear run at Nuri Pasha and his group, things looked good for our heroes....

...which is where things started to go wrong! Obviously some warning had been sounded because more foes started turning up by the bucket-load.

(We went through 3 or 4 turns with every PC failing at least two activations and drawing a Wandering Monster card almost every time!).

A Dervish assassin turned up on the group's flank, quickly followed by 3 more soldiers. Jack rushed up to meet the threat, gunning down the assassin and 2 of the soldiers. Maisie moved up to support him but took a lucky shot from the last soldier before she shot him.

Disaster struck as another ambusher leapt on Maisie and she fell to the ground. Jack swiftly dealt with the rogue and Lady Amelia rushed over to use her medical knowledge to deal with Maisie's wounds. She she knelt next to Maisie's body another ambusher rushed out, but Lady Amelia managed to parry his blow. Jack turned back to she Lady Amelia struggling with her attacker and 3 Militia closing in on the fight. 

What to do, shoot the militia and charge in to help Amelia? Of course, he's a hero so he did both (3 passed activations!). Jack gunned down 2 of the militia, then drew his blade and charged forward, stabbing the ambusher through the heart.

The Professor stepped up and shot the last militiaman with his trusty revolver.

Fortunately Maisie's wounds were minor (back in the fight with 2 HPs) and her uncle gave her a shot of Mrs Pinkman's Restorative Compound, which brought her back to full health.

 

More soldiers and assassins arrived on the northern edge and on a monster frenzy card the soldiers moved together to form a formidable horde of 6.

To make things even worse for the PCs, an iron man turned up and moved towards Bufton-Tufton, who put a bullet into the machine.

The rest of the party moved forward to support his lordship but a hail of shots from the nearby soldiers riddle Bufton-Tufton and he dropped to the ground.

As the iron man passes over Bufton-Tufton's inert form and crosses the rise, the rest of the party pour fire into the creation, but with no effect. Despite being hit by an Ottoman marksman, the Professor throws his last exploding globes, one to wipe out another group of soldiers moving up behind the party and the other to blast the iron man, which causes damage, but the monstrosity keeps moving.

 

Singh bravely draws the iron man away allowing Lady Amelia to move to help her husband as even more soldiers arrive on the table.

"They said an escort of soldiers, not a whole bloody regiment!"

With a cry of triumph Professor Gukay holds aloft the Starstone and Nuri Pasha leads his group away. Our heroes can do nothing to stop them, they are too far away and too many foes are between them.

A group of militia appear behind Singh and he takes a hit from the volley they aim at him. then the iron man closes in....

 

Valiantly, Singh battles the killing machine and somehow disables it so it crashes to the ground (but Singh has just one hit point left).

Lady Amelia reaches her husband's side, but it's too late, Lord Bufton-Tufton is dead! reluctant to abandon her husband's body, Lady Amelia starts to drag him towards the table edge. Professor Hodgeson joins her and takes up the burden, but then a group of soldier emerge from the nearby trees. The Professor shoots one, then takes a bullet in the chest and collapses. Lady Amelia empties both barrels of her shotgun into the last soldiers, then checks the Professor. He is still alive, but badly wounded. She helps him to his feet, them they continue slowly forward, dragging Bufton-Tufton's body between them.

 

As Singh rushes to join the party another volley from the militia drop him to the ground. Enraged, Jack runs up and blasts the rascals with is revolver, then scoops up Singh's body over his shoulder.

The party escape without further loss, Lady Amelia is the last to leave the table. As soon as they are safe, Jack lowers Singh to the ground and examines him.

"Bugger it Maisie, he's croaked!"

"Are you sure, Jack?"

Jack rises to his feet.

"See for yourself, he's not breathing and there's no pulse."

Maisie bends over Singh's form.

"Oh God! You are right Jack, he's dead!"

Singh opens one eye and weakly gasps "I think you are mistaken, Miss!"

Well that could have gone better!

Our dice rolling was dreadful, frequently Jack seemed to be the only character able to pass more than one activation roll! We were also unlucky with the cards, if felt like half the deck was Ambush and Wandering Monster cards. Had we got more single sword-armed assassins turn up instead of groups of rifle-armed soldiers, it might of helped a bit.

The amount of fire power the bad guys had was a problem as well. I had given all gun armed foes a "poor shot" trait, which reduced their DL, but the sheer number of them meant that it didn't really help. I will need to re-think how to handle guns for the next game. Despite all that, we had fun and are looking forward to the next adventure.