Burn Out the Barrows with Sellswords and Spellslingers.

 Here's a Sellswords and Spellingers scenario you might like to try. It is intended for a moderately experienced party (Expert level in the original rulebook), say around 120-140 XP.

The party have found employment at a town that has been suffering problems with undead. The mayor had seemed somewhat harassed when he briefed you for your mission.

“I want you lot to go and clear out an old burial site on the North Road into town. A bunch of travellers got themselves killed on the road and we’ve had strange reports coming in from outlying farms up that way. The Merchant's guild are complaining about the interruption of trade and want something done. We have had an alchemist mix-up some flammable devices to burn the monsters out."

"The pay is 50 silver coins each and you can keep any loot you find in the old barrows."

"Oh, and do not open the chest with those fire bombs in, until you are well out of town."

" Apparently they are delicate!” he added with a grin.

Terrain:

This scenario is played on a 3’ x 3’ table.

There are 3 barrows (burial mounds) in each of 3 corners of the table, 12” away from the centre.

In the centre area of the table, is a small circle of standing stones with a rough-hewn sacrificial altar in the middle.

The PCs enter from the empty corner. The party have been equipped with a 3 containers of flammable liquids, with a warning to take great care in using them!

Foes: Place one wraith knight within 3” of each mound, not closer than 6” to one another. Place a horde of 4 ghouls within the stone circle.

CARDS

Remove:  Traps, He’s Loaded and 1 Wandering Monster card from the deck.

At Our Back:  1d6 ghouls

Reinforcements: 1d6 ghouls

Things Could Get Worse: A Succubus appears on the altar.

Scenario Event: The stones in the circle glow with eerie light. No spells will work within the circle and no magic can pass across the stones (including spell attacks, teleport etc).

Wandering Monster: A wraith knight enters from a random barrow.

Barrows: The PCs need to destroy the 3 barrows by setting them alight with their flammable devices. For Two consecutive actions a PC can prime and set fire to a Barrow.

If a PC spends an action searching the barrow before destroying in roll 1d6.

1: They disturb a wraith knight which immediately attacks.

2-6: Roll on CQB hideout table*.

 

Altar: If a PC touches the altar after the stones begin to glow, the anti-magic stops and the PC is filled with the magical energy absorbed by the stones.

A non-magic using PC will feel a strange tingling.

A magic item carried by the PC will gain a +2 to it’s effects for the rest of the game.

A spellcaster will gain +2 to casting rolls for the rest of the game.

 Experience

4 XP per player if at least 1 barrow is destroyed

+2 XP per player if all barrows have been destroyed

1 XP per PC who burns a barrow

1 XP per PC killing the Succubus or performing a heroic act (eg carrying off the body of a friend).

* Close Quarter Battles. If players do not have the Close Quarter Battles campaign book, roll 1d6

1-3 = 6d6 SP, 4 = Potion, 5= Scroll, 6 Random weapon +1 to hit

Foes 

Ghouls	DL 9	HP 1	DMG 1	MOVE 4”	LOOT None
Minion, Undead
Undead Nature: Immune to poison, disease, mind effecting spells. Poison: perform DL8 Constitution Roll to resist their poison or suffer -1” movement, if movement reaches 0 PC is paralyzed.

 

Wraith Knight	DL 10	HP 2	DMG 1	MOVE 4”	LOOT 2d6 SP
Loner, Undead
Undead Nature: Immune to poison, disease, mind effecting spells. Nocturnal: Immune to darkness modifiers. Shroud of Mist: All perception rolls and ranged attacks are at -2 whilst there are any wraith knights in play. If a Storm spell is cast, the shroud disappears, but will reappear if a new wraith knight enters play.

 

Succubus	DL 14	HP 3	DMG 1	MOVE 6”	LOOT 5d6 SP
Loner, Demon, Evil
Energy Drain: Any PC spending more than 3 turns in melee combat with a succubus without wounding her must perform a Will roll vs her DL or be unable to attack her anymore. If this happens the PC loses 1 HP and the succubus gains 1Hp and +2 to DL. Flying: Succubus ignores any terrain. Demonic, Vulnerable to Holy Water.

 

 Ian and I ran this with 2 PCs each, a Wizard, a Cleric, a Barbarian and a Fighter. We gave all the flammable devices to the Cleric and used the rest of the party to run interference while he set fire to the barrows. Here are a few pictures from our game.

It didn't start well, by the time we had burnt out the first barrow, all 4 PCs were down to 1 HP each! The Succubus turned up early and inflicted some damage before the Fighter managed to kill her. Fortunately we had a couple of healing potions, so two of the characters could regain some hits. The stone circle's magical exclusion zone meant that the Wizard's Teleport Others spell wasn't as much use as it might have been at this stage.

A Wraith Knight waits at the entrance to a barrow.

A pack of ghouls lurk by the altar.

The party assault a Wraith Knight, distracting it....

...whilst the Cleric sneaks around behind the creature to get to the barrow.

Once that barrow was aflame, the Wizard used a Teleport Others spell to move the Cleric on to the next barrow.

Which he quickly sets on fire. 

Unfortunately we had some unlucky combat rolls and both the Barbarian and the Wizard were knocked OOTF as we tried to escape. The Fighter and the Cleric managed to fight off the assailants and drag their comatose bodies off the table. 

If you do try playing this through, I would appreciate your feedback on how it went.

Trying Out Guards of Traitor's Toll Part 2

 Kirstie came over with her copy of Guards of Traitor' Toll, to run through the training scenario with me. We had three guards each, Kirstie had Bill, Ben and Weed (blue and white), while I had Andy, Pandy and Looby-Loo (red and yellow).

As this was my first experience of the game, I was a bit distracted so I forgot to take any pictures during the middle part of the game.

Initially Bill, Ben and Weed entered from the east and south edges, Andy, Pandy and Looby-Loo came on from the north and west. Word came through that smugglers had hidden contraband in a barrel, somewhere in the market square. We needed to locate the contraband before the smugglers could retrieve it. Each group of guards identified suspicious barrels and split up, each heading towards the closest barrel to investigate it.

Andy and Pandy move up on a suspicious barrel. Weed can be seen in the top right-hand corner, as he moves forward to investigate a possible contraband cache.

Looby-Loo spots another likely barrel. He seems to be surrounded by suspicious looking characters, a rough looking bloke in a dusty clock, a wannabe ninja/assassin type , and why's the guy in the blue shirt holding a knife behind his back?

Looby-Loo wandered down the street to check out the barrel. Started to look through it, but was distracted by the ruffty-tuffty ranger-type asking for recommendations for the local taverns (he failed his search roll!).

In the meantime Andy, Bill and Weed all moved up to their respective barrels but found them to be empty. The contraband had to be in Looby-Loo's barrel, if he ever found it!

Mingling with the crowd was one of the smugglers, who spotted Weed, rooting through the barrel. Enraged that the guards might find their loot, he drew his knife and rushed towards the unaware guardsman, stabbing him in the chest. Weed staggered back, shocked, but fortunately the blade did not pierce his armour. (We had drawn another plot token, which revealed a Violent Suspect).

Weed clumsily flailed out at his assailant, but missed him. Ben could see the fracas, so rushed to the assistance of his colleague, but stumbled on the cobbles and failed to reach him this turn. 

The commotion drew the attention of another smuggler, who decided that discretion was the better option and ran off through the crowd. (Another plot token, this time a Fleeing Suspect. Unfortunately he was within 6" of an exit point and promptly ran off the table before any guard could catch him).

Hearing the noise, Andy and Pandy moved through the crowd, when a sudden gap allowed Andy a view of the ongoing fight. Looby-Loo continued his discussion regarding the merits of the local ales with his new friend.

I activated Andy first in the next turn, who rushed forward in his eagerness to assist a fellow guardsman, or in his eagerness for a good ruck! He slashed at the smuggler with his sword wounding the villain.

A third smuggler also decided to get out of town and tried to sidle past Pandy through the crowd (our final plot token, this time a Sneaking Suspect). But he did not escape Pandy's eagle eye and the guard spotted the rascal. Moving swiftly, Pandy stunned the suspect by striking him on the head with the pommel of his sword. 

"Hold it Sonny, you're nicked" Pandy cried, kicking the fallen suspect in the ribs for good measure.

This action drew approving comments from onlookers in the crowd, who were always happy to see their taxes being put to good use.

Hearing the shouts from the crowd, Looby-Loo paused momentarily, but then continued with his praise for the One-Eyed Badger's dark stout.

Back at the fight, the smuggler stabbed Weed again, once more the guard was saved by the quality of his mail shirt. He struck back at the villain, but missed and embedded his sword in the nearby barrel. As Weed struggled to pull his blade free, he had to duck as a wild swing from Ben's axe missed the offender by a good hand's width and almost brained him!

Loudly yelling his despair at the lack of street fighting skills possessed by the younger guardsmen today, Andy lunged at the suspect, catching him under the armpit, sliding the blade through his rib cage and his left lung, before the point of his sword emerged from his back. Pushing on the man's chest, Andy deftly pulled his blade free, allow the suspect to drop to the floor, coughing blood, drawing a brief round of applause from the nearby stall holder and his customers.

Finally finishing his discussion on ale and arranging to meet his new friend at the One-Eyed Badger after his shift, Looby-Loo finally turned his attention to the barrel and discover the cache of contraband.

Game over!

Andy, Pandy and Looby-Loo had acquired 6 Gold coins from their successful endeavours, whilst Bill, Ben and Weed had gained nothing. Unfortunately we had also accrued 7 points of Discontent in the  course of the day (mainly due to Looby-Loo failing 4 consecutive search rolls), so we ended up sharing 1 point of Discontent.

It was great fun and I really liked how the progression of the game lent itself to storytelling.

I shall certainly be continuing to play Guards of Traitor's Toll in the future.

Trying Out Guards of Traitor's toll Part 1

 My first game for a month tonight! Kirstie is coming over to introduce me to the Guards of Traitor's toll game

Here is my layout for the Training Scenario.

A busy Market Day in Gallow's Halt!

The tavern's open!

And doing good business already.

I'm not sure this merchant intends paying tax on what she's selling!

But who is that shadowy female figure in the background, he's in for it when he get's home.

Batrep to follow.