Sellswords and Spellslingers in Jotunheim

 

I finally managed to get a game with a "new" project I've been working on throughout the lockdowns. It's a setting for Sellswords and Spellslingers games loosely based on Norse mythology.

I was inspired by some old Heartbreaker dwarf minis, sculpted by Phil Lewis some 30-odd years ago. I liked the character of these minis but they really didn't fit in with any dwarfs in my collection (which are very much based in Tolkien's Middle Earth). So I decided to use them as Norse Dark Elves, or Dokkalfar. I then decided to use other Phil Lewis sculpts from the same Heartbreaker range for Alfar (elves) Sveltalfar (black elves, which I am interpreting as orc/goblin types) and Draugr (undead/zombies). I have had to resort to other manufacturers for some of the characters/creatures, but the bulk are Phil's Heatbreaker sculpts.

So here is my first outing in this new world! I didn't want to make the scenarios too basic, so I created a more experienced party of heroes. They are two groups with in the part. A Rune Priest (spells: Enhance Others and Knockdown) and a Sorceress (spells: Frost Blast, Death Cloud and Teleport Friend), each accomponied by a Huscarl and a Shield Maiden (I will start naming the characters if any survive the scenario).

 

Book One - Runestones.

Experienced Scenario: 5 XP per player plus individual XP rewards

 The adventurers are tasked with obtaining 5 mystical runes, which will unlock the secret of the ancient map that leads to the Lost Horde of the Dokkalfar King. The runes were inscribed into 5 stones in an icy valley, on the edge of the Hnitbjorg (The Clashing Mountains). They were placed there by a Dokkalfar sorcerer, who cursed the stones with dark magic and raised guardians to protect them.

 On the journey the adventurers were pursued by Dokkalfar warbands, determined to keep the location of the horde a secret. To add to the danger, the valley is deep in the territory infested by Greater and Lesser Sveltalfar.

 Terrain: An area of icy wilderness with 5 standing stones, 2 on the south side of the river and 3 to the north. PCs start along the Southern table edge.

 Foes:

2 Greater Svelalfar

3 hordes of 3 Lesser Sveltalfar (1 horde has bows)

 Ambush: 1 Draugr emerges from the ground in front of the nearest stone.

 Reinforcements: 3 Lesser Sveltalfar (1-3) or 1 Greater Svelalfar (4-6)

They are at our Backs: 4 Dokkalfar enter on the Southern edge.

 Traps: No traps in this scenario.

 Complications: The first time a Complication card is drawn 1d6 skeleton archers enter from the southern edge.

 Wandering Monster: A Guardian is summoned to protect the stones. It will appear at a random stone.

1-3 - 3 Draugr

4 – Ice Troll*

5 – Snow Ogre*

6 Ice Worm*

*Ignore these rolls if already in play.

 

Foes Interacting:

Dokkalafr and summoned Guardians (Draugr etc) will ignore each other and concentrate on the adventurers.

Guardians ignore Svelalfar, who are frighted by the summoned Guardians and will not move with 4” of any guardians.

Dokkalfar and Sveltalfar will attack each other, if they are activated within 4” of the other, and fight until one side is exterminated. Each time the fight is activated, roll 1d20 for each foe in the fight, on a roll of 11+ it is killed.

 

Victory Conditions: Leave from any edge with all as many runes as possible.

Other individual rewards: A PC carrying an out-of-action PC off the table gains 1 XP. Killing a Troll/Ogre/Worm gains 1 XP.

 

  

The table after the first couple of turns. On the hill in the botton right of the picture, a Shield maiden has reached the first runestone.

A group of Draugr arrive.

A Huscarl faces down two Lesser Sveltalfar...there had been three a moment ago.

The other Huscarl finds his way to the second runestone blocked by a Greater Sveltalfar, but he takes the beast down.

More foes move across the bridge.

Yet more Druagr emerge from the ground next to a runestone.

The two Huscarls gang up on a Sveltalfar.

Bugger, now an Ice Ogre has turned up!

To speed things up the Sorceress teleports a Huscarl to the second runestone, unfortunatly he fails his constitution roll and lands in an ungainly heap.

Yet more Draugr appear behind the party along with a bunch of angry Dokkalfar.

The Rune Priest tackled a Dokkalfar.

The party reach the bridge. The Huscarl having regained his wits and read the runestone, they now have 2 of the secret runes.

But more Draugr energe.

The Rune Priest and a Huscarl hold the bridge against the Snow Ogre.

Whilst the Sorceress has Teleported the other Huscarl to the far Runestone.

An overview of the action. The Huscarl now has 2 secret runes and one of the Shield Maidens has 1.

The heroes on the bridge fell the Snow Ogre, not both have suffered injury.

More Dokkalfar join the fray.

What's that large shape running towards the bridge? It's an Snow Troll! The Sorceress finds herself surrounded by foes, but eliminates most of the with her Deathcloud (lucky she made the roll!) and a Shield maiden knocks off the last Dokkalfar with a well aimed axe.

In the meantime the Huscarl makes his way towards the next runestone, drawing the attention of a bunch of Sveltalfar.

Things are hotting up on the bridge! Sadly both the heroes fall to the claws of the Ice Troll.

The Huscarl chops his way through the Sveltalfar, but takes a wound in the process.

The Sorceress teleports a Sheild Maiden to the last runestone and she reads the secret rune.

Unfortunately an Ice Worm pops up out of the ground and promptly eats her!

At this point we decided that, sod dying heroically in a saga, the survivors were off. With half the party dead and only 3 runes (the eaten Shield maiden had read both runestones before she became lunch!) we will need to regroup, recruit and see if 3 runes are enough to move the party on ib their quest.

Starstones Campaign Chapter 9

 Chapter Nine

 On arriving at their base camp, Professor Hodgeson was delighted to find a large crate awaiting him. After Jack had prised the lid off the Professor pulled out a strange looking leather hood and mask with thick glass eye holes in it and put in on his head.

 “Uncle, you look ridiculous. What on earth is it for?” demanded Maisie.

 “To protect me from splashes.” He mumbled in reply.

 “Splashes from what?”

 “From this!”.

In a cloud of sawdust, the professor pulled out a metal tank with straps. In his other hand he clutched a strange, gun-like device that was joined to the tank with a flexible tube.

 “It’s a device for shooting a mix of chemicals, similar to those in my exploding globes.” He explained.

 “Isn’t that dangerous?” Lady Amelia asked in a concerned tone.

 “My dear lady, I most certainly hope so!”

 Having re-supplied themselves, the party returned to the village at the foot of the eastern Accursed Mountains, where they had discovered the grisly remains of the Ottoman troop. Before departing their base camp, Professor Hodgeson also spent some time in the local church, once again in conversation with the priest. Singh had scouted ahead and reported that he had tracked the fleeing vampire to what had appeared to be their lair.

 “It’s just to the north of the village, a small stone-built house of some kind, standing apart from the other buildings”.

 They followed Singh until the mysterious stone building came into view.

 Jack groaned. “It’s a charnel house! Singh, why didn’t you say it was in the middle of a graveyard?”

 “You didn’t ask!”

 “I’m sure they find it very convenient, having so many spare parts close to hand.” Sighed Maisie, unshouldering her rifle.

 

Set Up: A graveyard with a Mausoleum in the N/W corner. Scattered within the tombstones are 6 table tombs, these are the initial spawning points for ambushes. The PCs must locate the vampire and destroy it.

 

Deployment: Deploy all PCs along the S/E, 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 hordes of 4 Ice Revenants

2 x Ice Revenant Wolves

 

Trap: A pit opens up at the PCs feet and an Ice Revenant emerges and attacks. Mark the spot as a future ambush point. Replace the card in the deck.

 

Ambush: An Ice Revenant emerges from the nearest table tomb/pit and attacks.

 

Reinforcements: 1-6 Ice Revenants enter from a random table edge or by a table tomb.

Roll 1d6 for location, 1-4= table edge, 5-6 = random table tomb.

 

At Our Back: 1-6 Ice Revenants enter along the southern edge (or 12” behind the rearmost PC).

 

Complications: Pack of 6 Ice Revenant Wolves enter from a random table edge.

 

That will come in handy: Nothing

 

Wandering Monster

Roll 1d6 for location, 1-4= table edge, 5-6 = nearest cover to centre of table.

1-2: 3 x Ice Revenants

3-5: An Ice Revenant Cossack

6: An ice Revenant Creature

Game Event: A Lesser Vampire enters from a random table edge or by a table tomb.

Roll 1d6 for location, 1-4= table edge, 5-6 = random table tomb.

 

Mausoleum

If a PC moves within 4” of the entrance and the vampire is not yet in play, the vampire will emerge from the mausoleum and attack the PC.

 

Victory

The game ends all PCs have left the table or are dead.

5 XP plus 1XP for killing the lesser vampire or carrying a comrade’s body off-table.

The party just enter the graveyard and the revenant ambushes start. Not a good time for Lady Amelia's shotgun to jam!

And more shambling undead enter behind them.

Yet another emerges from a hole that opens up at Singh's feet, but he swiftly crushes the revenant's skull.

A horde of revenant wolves enter the table.

In fact the western side of the table looks decidedly unhealthy.

The party start to veer to the east.

But Maisie is ambushed.

The lesser vampire enters from the eastern side and is blasted by Lady Amelia's shotgun.

Singh and Jack gang up of the creature of the night, Jack beheads it with a Power Blow.

With the Vampire destroyed the party can withdraw, but on the way the Professor is ambushed and wounded before he can use his Free Disengage ability and escape.

As the Professor and the ladies escape Singh holds back a horde of revenants.

Seeing his plight, Jack rushes up, his revolver blazing.

Between then the pair finish off the last of the revenants and make their escape.

A relatively easy adventure, despite the repeated ambushes. Three of the party suffered single wounds and two were unhurt. Mainly due to the luck of the Vampire entering close to the party whilst the hordes of foes came on from the far side of the table. If he had come on in the midst of the masses of revenants on the western edge it would have been a different story!

 

My First Kickstarter!

 I have finally taken delivery of my first Kickstarter project!

 It's Fantasy Series 1 from Blacklist Games, a staggering total of 201 fantasy minis, which should keep me going for a while! 

The box was delivered on Saturday, which was annoying because I was working, playing  medieval/tudor music around various sites in Aylesbury for Heritage Open Days, so I had to wait until Sunday to examine the contents.

Opening the box and sorting through the extensive packaging, some interesting comes into view.

Here's the goodies, the smaller is box is the original product of 70 minis and the larger one contains the stretch goals.

The contents of the original product, nicely packed for transit in trays that will also be very useful for storage.

And now the stretch goals, including some BIG minis.

So what are my first impressions? On the whole, I am very pleased, great value for money certainly. The quality of the plastic minis is good, not as crisp as some of the metal sculps I have, but no worse that a good number of minis in my collection. 

The humans are 28mm and seem to fit in with most of the stuff I already have. There are a few duff sculpts, the skeletons have either over-sized or shrunken heads for example, but mostly they are good poses.

It's a general fantasy collection, really intended for playing skirmish tabletop games in the style of D&D, rather than massed battles. There are minis I already have in my collection, skeletons/zombies/goblins, but some that I do not (and anyway you can never have enough zombies!).

Here's a close up of a robber, giant rat and zombie.

The troll from the larger beasties in the stretch goals.

One of the characters, a dwarf fighter.

Another character, a female half elf wizard.

Like I said, I am very please overall and can see most of the set being useful at some point, escpecially for things like Sellswords and Spellslingers.

It's just as well I like them, because I also bought into Blacklist games next two Kickstarters, Fantasy 2 and Horror!