Rangers of Shadow Deep: The Infected Trees

"Scenario 2: The Infected Trees

Examining the bodies of the zombies, along with the other clues from the village, left little doubt.

The village had been attacked by some horrific species of giant spider, whose venom reanimated the dead. Thankfully, such creatures move slowly. Likely, they will have retreated to the nearest shelter to slowly feast upon the missing villagers.

Your duty is clear. Taking just enough time to patch up your wounds, and make a quick pyre for the dead, you set off after the spiders, following their faint, but unique tracks. 

After nearly a day’s pursuit, the tracks lead into a small forest. Chances are the spiders are not too deep in the woods. You must find them, destroy them and any nests they might have made, and, if you are

lucky, rescue any survivors."

The MEGAforce finally got around to playing the second scenario in the first mission. 

All four of us were available, so we each chose one of our Rangers from our previous play-throughs of the first scenario and took either a Recruit or a Warhound from a previous game. The rationale was that all the earlier games had happened and the various Rangers met up on the way to the Trees. Four then took a Companion each to investigate, while the rest returned to base escorting the rescued Survivors.

L to R: Omoranti, Bostol,  Portus Fell,  Gendrin,  Ranger Bob, Wuffles, Valdar and Haflas

L to R: Omoranti, Bostol,  Portus Fell,  Gendrin,  Ranger Bob, Wuffles, Valdar and Haflas

The Infected Grove

I set the game up ahead of time, using my Nest Trees and pretty much all the rest of my tree collection. Sadly I didn't really have any other suitable terrain to provide cover and make the going difficult.

The Infected Trees with lurking spiders

We'd not got together for a while, so there was a lot of chat and too few pictures.  Here's a brief account of the action.

Opening Moves 

The Heroes advanced, already sighting Giant Spiders ahead. Early shots took out a couple, and Valdar was able to target one of the Nest Trees with a Fireball, burning both it and the Spider hiding in it.

The only setback was both Omoranti and Bostol being Poisoned by a Spider (Grim couldn't roll less than a 17 in the first half of the game, great when it was for his Heroes, less good when he rolled for the Spiders).

The first couple of Cocoons held corpses, but in the third was an elderly woman. At 87 she wasn't going to let mere spiders stop her!

The Heroes investigate, meeting venomous spiders and Nest Trees, and destroying them all

The End Phase 

The Rangers continued their mission. Wuffles was attacked by a Spider, but a rare shaft of light through the canopy drove it off. Sadly the noble hound then fell to a Zombie after sniffing one of the remaining cocoons.

The final cocoon held another villager, but it seemed the danger wasn't over. Two more trees were Infected, but Valdar dealt with one with a Recalled Fireball and as set fire to the other.

With no more cocoons to investigate, and any remaining Spiders hidden away, the Heroes returned to base, stopping only to help Valdar and Gendrin, who had managed to get themselves caught up in sticky spider webs.

All clear!

Aftermath 

Everyone gained a level. Portius Fell was already level 1 from the first game, so now she's improved her shooting (all that practice on poor helpless spiders).

The rest of us are now level 1 and have honed our Skills ready for Tor Varden.

And Wuffles survived his encounter with the zombie.

Summary 

Well that was a lot of fun. 

The Mission wasn't as difficult as I anticipated, and I set up for the Challenge Level after reading suggestions in the Rangers of Shadow Deep Facebook group.

Initially, everyone kept their Ranger and Companion together, but we soon got into the swing of things and had folk helping out where they were most useful.

My experience was, perhaps, jaded slightly by having both my Heroes Poisoned, so down to one Action a turn. I felt I added little to the game from that point onwards, it's a good job the rest of the company were up to the task.

Mistakes Were Made 

Although the system is an easy one to learn, I still got some things wrong. 

Despite using a Fast Play Sheet, I messed up the second move. This meant that we were moving far too fast (especially Ranger Bob and Valdar, with their base move of 7). We got to the Nest Trees too soon, and took the initial four out of the game relatively early (Fireballing a tree and spider was nicely cinematic though).

I was also rushing through the Event Card results, not reading them properly, so I missed placing the spider and treasure tokens along with the new Nest Trees. Doh! This would have delayed setting fire to them.

But the real reason the scenario seemed relatively easy was the 'spider shooting gallery'. This was down to my not placing any low cover. Bushes and such would have helped the spiders survive until they could contact the company.

If that sounds a bit negative, it's not meant to. Everyone commented on how fun it was, and the ease of learning the rules (excepting mistakes) helps the story to stand out.

Looking Forward 

T'Other One had to use the Barbarian for Bob, as I have surprisingly few male Rangers painted. I'll correct that soon.

I must also make more low cover, bushes, rocks etc; I'm sure they will add to the next scenario. 

I also need to start assembling the minis for Mission Two.

"Only hours after you arrived back from destroying the nest of spiders, you received a message from your commanding officer. Contact has been lost with the beacon tower of Tor Varden, and it is presumed to have been overrun.

You are commanded to round up what men you can and proceed with all swiftness to Tor Varden to ascertain the truth. If the tower has fallen, learn what enemy forces now occupy it and harass or eliminate them as opportunity presents."

October Monthly Challenge; The Lichemaster's Undead

October Challenge 

It's traditional in Hobbyland to either paint orcs in October (Orctober), or do something spoooooky ready for Halloween.

I've done a couple of Orctobers, last year sorting out 6mm orcs for Fantastic Battles and in 2021 trying to paint as many different orcs as I could.

Orctober

So with the maxim "a change is as good as a rest", I decided to do something Undead. After all, I've had plenty of practice recently with my D&D skeletons and zombies.

But what?

As an old Grognard with a liking for the second edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles scenario packs, the obvious answer is The Terror of the Lichemaster*. 

Ulterior Motives

Just as with my Orc's Drift project, this is really just an excuse to collect and paint some undead.

Unlike Orc's Drift, I'm not really trying to collect the recommended minis. Anything vaguely similar will do. There'll be several different manufacturers, and I don't think I'll find anything to match the main characters anyway. They do crop up occasionally at silly prices, but I'm happy to save my limited hobby cash for more, cheaper, stuff.

I don't know how far I'll get in one month, but it'll be fun to see.

Planning 

Here's a brief rundown of what would be required for the full campaign, should I be mad enough to try that.

The Assault on the Mine; Ranlac the Black (skeleton champion), twenty skeletons, Gimbrin Finehelm (dwarf hero), dwarf miners.

The Attack on Bogles Farm; Mikeal Jacsen (skeleton champion) ten zombies, the Bogles (five human settlers), Samgaff (halfling) and Fritzy (psycho dog)

The Defence of Frugelhoffen; Heinrich Kemmler (necromancer), Krell (undead hero), twenty skeletons, ten zombies plus the surviving undead from previous games, twenty spear armed villagers, twenty bow armed villagers and five additional characters, Rialta Snow (elf), Albi Shutz (human champion), Grimwald Calaco (human anarchist), Antonio Epstein (lovestruck human chancer) and Gim Grundel (halfling).

That's quite a lot for the final game, but the preliminary games should be quite achievable. 

I'm not really seriously planning on collecting everything, (well, not at the moment anyway) but I do hope to paint a small force of undead for games like Warlords of Erehwon, and if I can run the first couple of games using WoE, that's a definite bonus.

A True Tyke

In the spirit of saving time, money and effort, there's a lot of crossover with the Orc's Drift project. The Linden Way Militia will provide the spears and some of the bows for the defence of Frugelhoffen, the villagers provide the Bogels, and the dwarves from Ashak Rise provide Gimbrin's miners.

I've got the dwarven mine buildings already from the Second International Townscape Challenge (I've even got the mine head that I built when I first got the pack, it just needs a bit of fixing up) and I painted a suitable dog for Fritzy when I was experimenting with hobhounds (the recommended mini is a different one of the four AD&D Blink Dogs, I'm sure Fritzy won't mind).

I've also got an actual Rialta Snow, "Star of Stage, Screen and Warhammer Scenario", and suitable minis for most of the other heroes.

As for the undead characters, Antediluvian Miniatures do a pack of suspiciously familiar undead heroes. Tempting. 

The Bare Bones

Needs work

So here's the start of the undead, some random skeletons from various manufacturers. These include Citadel, Grenadier, and Prince August, the result of decades of random collecting and a couple of job lots from evilbay. I rather like the disorganised look with no standard of arms or equipment. They are different heights and build too, which helps sell the story that these are skeletons animated from all over the place, rather than a trained military unit brought back from the grave.

Many of them need repairs to get them battle ready, so it's off to the bits box for some weapons and other gear. I've got nine more that were more complete and are now primed ready for painting.

Altogether this lot should get me sufficient for the first battle.

Painting 

I'm aiming on keeping the painting fairly simple, after all,  many of the minis are little more than bones and weapons.  

I'm keeping it more 'traditional', in the manner of my old school orcs, so base coat, highlight and wash, with whatever extra detailing is required.

*I intended taking part in Dave Stone's Apocalypse Me challenge this month, and the undead hordes are ideal. But for reasons he explains on his blog, he's got more important matters to deal with. I wish him well; think of this as continuing his great work in the hobbysphere.

Warlords of Erehwon: Troll Hunt

Bodvoc and I played a game of Warlords of Erehwon recently, continuing our 'not campaign' of orcs vs goblins. 

We'd agreed to boost our forces to 1000 points, and Bodvoc mentioned trying out his newly painted goblin chariot. In response I painted my Old School Miniatures orc chariot. If he was trying out the chariot rules, it made sense if I did too.

As host it was up to me to come up with the scenario. I struggled a bit, but since I'd recently painted up some trolls, but couldn't quite squeeze them into my army, I decided to make them an objective instead. 

Note: both Bodvoc and myself are quite rusty with the rules, we may have made mistakes,  but we're getting more confident. 

Also, we're using home made order dice, partly because, having no gunpowder weapons, 'FIRE' is a meaningless term.

I'm not giving a full turn by turn report, but here's some highlights. 

Opening Moves 

The two sides advance, wary of each other, but more interested in the potential trolls. 

The goblins are first to search troll holes, but the first two are empty.

Bagrat the orc shaman, still nursing bruises from their last encounter, creates a magical portal in front of the goblin dervishes, sending them right back, much to their frustration.

The two sides advance towards each other

The orc spears prod a troll out of it's hole, but the vile brute comes out fighting and drives them away and off the battlefield.

The goblin force as they march in

The orcs as they advance

Troll hunting is a risky buisness

The goblins find an occupied troll hole. It's not friendly.

The goblins think they've got the beast, but it's wounds knit back together and it runs off.

Middle Phase 

The goblin dervishes slog towards the action, only for Bagrat to send them back again (absolutely the best way to deal with them, although I have an even more cunning plan for next time, mwah ha ha haaa).

The orc archers move up to the wall, ready to shoot, while the orc swords advance. The guard approach a troll hole, hoping to get there before the goblins, but it's empty.

The goblins in the woods abandon their empty hole and the gobbledogs eye up the guard. A tasty snack?

That's the way to do it!

Hagar Sheol and his ladz uncover and slay a troll. The chariot sights the troll that dealt with the spears and rides it down.

The chariot claims a troll

The dervishes advance and the goblin chariot rides towards the troll that slew so may goblin halberdiers.  Alas, it rides through a strange magic portal and finds itself back at the baseline.

The battlefield mid action

The bulk of the goblin infantry

End Game

The goblin chariot shamelessly copies the orcs and ride down the troll that caused so much damage to the halberdiers.

Goblin chariot vs troll

 

Hagar Sheol and his ladz drag their troll trophy away out of the woods. On the right flank the goblin spears charge round the wall and into the orc guards, peppering them with javelins as they go. The stoic orcs hold, and despite minor losses they wipe out the goblins. 

The orcs then charge the gobbledogs and send them packing too.

The goblin wizard targets the orc swords, causing them to lose heart (aura of timidity), the goblin bows then loose a volley and wipe them out.

Gurk now targets the archers who also lose heart. 

Bagrat then shot his fiery balls at Gurk, incinerating the gobbledog guards. Gurk himself only survived through sheer luck (Tough reroll saved him, but the extra pin).

Despite their magical timidity (order test at -6, rolled a 1), the orc archers shot back but Gurk had had enough and scarpered.

The orc chariot driver cracked his whip and charged the goblin chariot, the two vehicles lock together, but neither gain the upper hand.

Chariot on chariot action

Brave halberdiers watch on

Conclusion 

Well, a great fun game.  I'm not sure if my rather complicated special rules helped or hindered,  but I enjoyed hunting down those trolls.  In hindsight,  it was theoretically easier for the orcs to kill a troll than for the goblins.  That said, I did lose my unit of spears to a troll. 

As for the chariots,  they were great fun to use, and looked great. I'm not sure that our chariot duel was that good an idea, they seemed a bit too equally matched,  struggling and failing to cause any damage to each other. I'm sure we're missing something here. 

It did take us a little while to recall the rules, play speeded up during the day. 

If you're interested, I gave out VPs as 10% of a unit's PV and +35VPs per troll.  Bodvoc won by a few points, a minor victory, but has we fought on I suspect that the orcs would soon have broken.

In the end, the winners were both of us.

Final Thoughts

We are certainly enjoying Warlords of Erehwon.  It's not perfect, (I don't think there is a perfect set of rules), but they give me the old school feel that I'm looking for. I'm sure they are here to stay, and we'll be playing more games in the near future.

I do have one complaint though, the counterintuitive nomenclature.  I'm sure they are good reasons for this, but it adds a layer of confusion for new players (and, perhaps, makes it harder to introduce them).

I'm looking forward to Bodvoc's next scenario, will we benefit from the troll trophies?

Kings of War; Orcs and Undead Clash

I had a quick game of Kings of War with my son recently, my orcs vs his undead. As it was some time since either of us had played, we went for a small 500 point battle (Ambush in the current parlance). The aim was simple,  eradicate the enemy. 

The Undead, revenants, a couple of necromancers, skeleton spears and a troop of wraiths

The Orcs, gore riders, two regiments of ax and a krusher

Opening Moves

One regiment of ax rush straight forward, keen to get to grips with the enemy, the other regiment is slowed somewhat to avoid the wood. On the flank, the gore riders carefully manoeuvre through the village.

The undead advance with the revenants taking the lead while the wraiths approach the village. At the (s)urging of their masters, the revenants and wraiths move further forward.

Orcs and Undead advance

The first orc ax regiment charges the revenants, but fails to break them.  The other ax regiment moves up and the riders continue picking their way through the village.

The skeletal spears take the opportunity to charge the orc flank. Between them, the two undead units cause some casualties, orcish armour (and stubbornness) isn't up to the task and the first unit is destroyed. The wraiths move towards the rear of the riders and both necromancers use their magic to repair some of the damage done to the revenants.

The armies clash

The first melee

From the undead lines

Middle Phase 

With the first unit of ax destroyed,  the second steps up. They charged the spears,  but didn't do much damage. Meanwhile,  the gore riders round the cottage,  sure they saw something green and glowing. 

The revenants take advantage of the exposed flank, and between them,  the undead repeat their earlier performance against the orcs.

The undead start to thin out the orcs, where's that krusher off to?

The krusher advances towards the necromancers, eager to try his ax on them, and the gore riders continue their ride, hoping to cause havoc in the undead rear, but the wraiths are surged into their flank, fortunately causing only slight damage. 

With the orc infantry wiped out, all the action is behind the undead lines

End Phase

The gores turn to face the wraiths and contemptuously disperse them, then turn to face the rest of the undead.  The krusher catches one of the necromancers; despite some nasty wounds, the wizard holds.

Only one orc regiment and the krusher left

The krusher is stuck in melee with the spears, but does little damage.  The gore riders take the opportunity to charge the revenants,  but fail to break them (by one point!).

In response,  the spears skewer the krusher,  but the revenants make little headway against the gore riders. 

And that was it. Fate decreed no more hostilities.

The end of hostilities

Aftermath

At the finish, one regiment of gore riders remained, facing the revenants, the spears and a necromancer. We both felt that had we played another turn, the gores would have finished off the revenants and turned to face the spears.  Whether the skeletons could have prevailed, we weren't sure.

But that's not what happened, and the undead claimed victory. 

Final Thoughts; Luck and Tactics

This was a great fun game,  reminding us both of why we enjoy Kings of War. 

The game seemed to go very much for the undead in the first few turns, but the orcs,  as they often do, began to turn things around.  Just not enough soon enough. 

My luck was mostly OK, but my son was distinctly luckier.

Revenants need a 4+ to hit

Just need to Surge 2 inches

He was also canny enough to face my infantry two on one with flank charges, this pretty much does for a regiment and I was lucky that the first lot of ax survived their first turn of melee. 

I managed to get stuck manoeuvring around terrain, and the flanking manoeuvre, though it seemed like a smart move, was really a waste of time, though I suppose it kept the wraiths busy and eventually did for them. I'd have been better keeping them as either a mobile reserve, or as a first strike unit, as they might have been better able to break individual undead units on first contact.

The krusher was poorly used. Initially I kept him nicely between the infantry units, forgetting that he doesn't have Inspiring. He'd have been better adding his three attacks to the combats, as there were several instances of failing to break the enemy by one or two points.

The necromancers, on the other hand, were played very well, using Surge and Healing to great effect throughout the game.

This gave both of us the impetus to play more games, and also to paint more troops (though I have something a bit different planned for October).

I've certainly got plenty of unpainted Kings of War orcs, and it's about time I rebased my original army to match the newer stuff, plus the odd bit of repairs.

I understand that there's a new edition due in December. The Mantic News page has Alessio Cavatore's blog where he teases some of the changes, I'm excited to see what they've done.

Old School Miniatures Orc Chariot with Boars

A while ago I showed my recently acquired Old School Miniatures Orc Chariot. It's a nice model, but I wanted a boar chariot, not a wolf chariot. Fortunately, I bought a pack of boars at the same time for just this purpose.

The boars are slightly smaller than the old GW boars, but I'm fine with that. I might look at using the spares as mounts, if I can find suitable orc riders. 

The Old School Miniatures Orc Chariot, comin' right at ya!

Preparation 

The boars have no harness or other equipment, so I decided to add a bit of something, just to make them look right as chariot pulling beasts.

I wound some thread around their bodies at the point where the chariot yoke would be attached. I also gave each boar a bit, one required drilling a hole in the mouth to take it. The bit is simply a piece of wire, bent at the end for reins to fasten on to.

One of the boars had a bald patch on its rump, this was quickly fixed with a bit of greenstuff (the slotta bases are simply for easy handling during painting).

The boars ready for chariot pulling 

Building The Chariot 

There's not much flash, and what there is is easy to clean up. Assembly was straightforward, only four pieces, not including beasts and crew. I found that gluing the wheels a bit away from the body looks better, but there's still a bit of axle sticking out. 

I wanted to add some blades, an option in Warlord's of Erehwon, and I think also in Warhammer. I pondered using spare blades from the old Fantasy Regiment set, but they were far too big. In the end I chose curved knife blades from the Oathmark goblin sprue. I cut a slot in each the end of the axle, and they fit right in. 

Fantasy chariots usually have scythe blades curved the other way, but the knives were sharp on the outside of the curve. I could have easily shaped them, but I don't think orcs are that bothered by convention. Besides, it works to push victims out of the way, making for a slightly smoother ride. Orcs don't go in much for suspension.

The chariot built with added blades

Painting the Boars 

I started with a coat of Vallejo German Green Brown Surface Primer, then a wash of Army Painter Strongtone everywhere except the rope. 

I wanted the crest and along the spine to be much darker, nearly black at the top, so I tried a wash of AP Darktone on these areas. Unfortunately, this just looked a bit wishy-washy, so I gave the same areas a coat of Vallejo Game Color Scorched Brown while the Darktone was still wet. Much better. 

There's a temptation to paint the hairless bits in pink, but a bit of research suggests that wild boar tend to be dark grey.  So a coat of Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Charcoal on the ears, trotters and pads, and lips.

Finally I gave all the fur a light dry brush of VGC Earth, just to make the fur seem more realistic. 

Painting the Chariot 

Painting was straightforward.  After priming and picking out the various metal bits,  I gave all the wood a base coat of VGC Desert Yellow. Then it all got a wash of Strongtone before picking out a few of the planks in different Speedpaints.  I find this adds just enough variety to the wood.

Then I decided that the front of the chariot should be black,  so VXO Charcoal followed by a black ink wash. 

The Crew

These were painted in much the same way as the rest of my Oldhammer orcs. I kept with the idea of them using spoils of war, so some of the colour choices echo previous minis.

Finishing Touches 

The base was cut from PVC Foamboard*, 50mm x 100mm and rounded off at the corners (it cuts very easily). I stuck a piece at the back of the base for the wheels to rest on and cut small pieces with slots to take the pegs on the boars.

The boars were glued in place, then the base was textured to fill in around the extra bits of foamboard using acrylic modelling paste. I sprinkled sand on the wet filler for a bit of extra texture, then the whole lot got a coat of builder's sand. 

The base was then painted, drybrushed and flock etc added. 

The chariot was then pinned onto the base and pinned into the boars.  I disguised these latter pins with some plastic skulls, much more orcy decoration than fluffy dice!

Finally, I used more thread attached to the bits and threaded through the driver's left hand for the reins; fiddly, but worth the effort.

The chariot nearside

Eat our dust

Offside 

I'm very pleased with the chariot.  Its a nice model and paints up well. The little touches, like the reins and the skulls, help personalise it. 

I might at some point get another, I built this with the crew provided, but it might be fun to change them, either replacing or converting some of them. The main chap looks wonderfully goofy; check out the size of his skull, not a lot of room for thinking in there! He makes up for it with his impressive ears though.

The chariot is available from Old School Miniatures, the boars are available separately in a pack of four.

*This isn't the same sort of foamboard used to make model buildings, it's plastic throughout, and much tougher.  It's used in signmaking, among other industries, and can be bought as offcuts.

Artefacts From my Gaming Past - Initiative Tracker and Game Board

These don't look particularly exciting, but they were an important part of my roleplaying, including the long-running D&D 4E campaign. 

Game board and Initiative Markers

The little name tiles were used to track initiative.  They are magnetic and we used a metal note board, changing the order each combat, and sometimes during combat as folk delayed and similar. 

Whilst fairly humble, this board and the tiles were present every session from Winterhaven onwards.

The surviving names are Fyodor (NPC bard, briefly run as a PC and finally retired in favour of Switch, halfling rogue), Kathra (dwarf fighter with a complicated life and death story arc), and Ozzie (multiple resurrected wizard and school founder).  The red edged tiles originally simply read Creature 1 etc.

If the initiative tracker has been around for years, then the board is even older. 

I made it from one of the fold out paper mats that came with the first D&D Miniatures Game Starter Sets back in 2003.  It's similar to the card sheet included in an early Adventurer Magazine.

I glued it to 3 mm thick card salvaged from the skip at work and covered the surface with clear sticky back plastic. It handles both dry erase and wet erase markers.

The total size is 22 inches by 34 inches and it folds down to a quarter that size. 

It saw use in the Miniatures Game as well as during my 3/3.5 edition days and well in to 4th edition. Although I was printing out floor plans - I remember one of a wizards' tower from B10 Night's Dark Shadow (an excellent adventure), designed on Dundjinni, and printed out on many sheets and with lots of ink - but for most play this board did the job, and even provided the battle ground for the siege in the first chapter of B10.

It's real strength lay in the ease of sketching out an encounter area or battle-map on the fly, which helps avoid the DM's feeling of wasted effort if the players avoid an encounter with ready made floorplans.  It's quite liberating.

As always, this artefact post is really more about the memories than any actual value of the artefacts. These remind me of the fun I've had playing role playing games over the past many years.

Do you have any gaming related stuff that you've used over many years?

*EDIT* I just found a couple more trackers,  soon I'll have the full party.

Dungeons and Dragons Eight Week Project - Summary and DMs Comments

To finish off the D&D8W posts I'd like to give a brief idea of what I was aiming for, and, perhaps, what I might do differently next time.

As I mentioned previously, this was the first time this particular group had played face to face. Indeed, although everyone knew some of the group, there were first time introductions for several members.

It was great to finally meet up. Some of the players had never seen each other before, but there was a very friendly atmosphere from the beginning.

The Adventure 

I used the five room dungeon structure for the Crypt and I felt it worked very well. It was my first time consciously following this model, though I suspect I've included many of the elements in the past.

I'm not sure if Zarrel retreating to her crypt quite counted as the Reversal and I think the players were expecting to face a tougher final form. I'd have had her retreat to regenerate, but she never got the chance; the party can deal out a lot of damage now if they work together. 

Also, we were getting close to six o'clock, the nominal finish time, and another big fight would probably have been rushed.

Harrow's desire to face the vampire while her Spectral Guardians was still in effect really drove the pace, which was excellent. In case you're wondering, yes, she did have another third level spell slot, but she's keeping it free for any required Revivify.

Looking back, I missed the chance for some monologue from Zarrel. She's got a back story that she could have referred to, but I'm sure there are hints to it elsewhere. 

This is something I'm guilty of, not giving the opposition enough to say. I tend to get caught up in the tactics. To be fair, the party rushed in, spells blazing, and she wasn't around very long anyway.

Zarrel herself wasn't taken straight from the Monster Manual. That would have been too tough. Instead, I took the Knight stat block, boosted it slightly, and added features from the Vampire stat block that seemed to me to fit the story.

Non Scenery Prep

I prepared 5 x 3 index cards for every player's spells (they all have some spell casting ability now). 

I also made magic item cards, class and race features cards and spell slot cards. I noticed that the spell slot cards weren't used, but everything else was.

All this needs something to hold it, and I found wooden boxes at The Works (a UK chain selling discount books, crafts and other sundries) that nicely hold the various cards, dice and a mini or two. 

Harrow's box with just some of the cards

Harrow shows there's plenty of room

Roland's box with mini and cards 

The Deck of Discord 

The adventure as written is based around the Deck of Many Things. I've no problem with this as background in the original, but I decided early on in the campaign to switch this for something else. 

Partly because the 'find a card and get a minor extra power' is very fourth edition and doesn't transfer smoothly to fifth. Partly because it doesn't seem to quite match up to how I imagine the Deck to work.

There's also the fact that I lent my deck from the original adventure to someone many years ago and never got it back.

So I came up with the Deck of Discord. A very Chaotic artifact. It's purpose is to spread Chaos and change the behaviour of creatures. The powers are much more nebulous than the Deck of Many things, though the party have witnessed at least one instance of a card being used directly against them. 

Roland has been gifted a platinum box by Bahamut, with instructions to shut the cards away. So far they've done this, and resisted any and all temptation to use them.

All this means that I needed a Deck. 

There's plenty of options to buy or print off the internet, but I wanted something all my own.

I'd already sketched out some of the cards, or bone plaques as we are describing them. I'm aiming for a sort of 'Medieval' look in art style, though I admit, its very vague. 

I even found another wooden box, again from The Works, but sadly my existing cards didn't fit in, so that meant redrawing them all again, this time sized to fit and on white Mounting Board so they have the right sort of thickness.  

Sadly I didn't have time to paint the box silver, but I think the thing works as a prop.  Perhaps too well:  The players are keen to keep the plaques locked away, so other than a brief inspection, they never got examined all session!

The Deck of Discord 

Where Now?

The 'Heroes of Nentir Vale' will continue to adventure remotely; their quest to reclaim Gardemore Abbey is progressing nicely,  though there are some factions that they still need to deal with (including a potential one that they are unaware of!).

It would be nice to direct them elsewhere; a couple of characters have backstory hooks that could lead east, and there's plenty to explore there, including another official adventure, though in this case I'd be borrowing background stuff than plot.

I'm certainly hoping for another live session, but not for a while perhaps.  I'd like it to be another important goal, but I'm not sure what that's likely to be yet.

But, Minis?

You've seen the character minis, the skeletons and the zombies (which didn't get used, they were for an earlier version of the Garrison, but the Heroes have already done that area online), now here's Zarrel herself. 

Zarrel Gardrinsdottir

Zarrel again

I wonder if any of that gear is worth anything?

I didn't want to go for the standard Gothic lady vampire mini, this girl's a fighter, and should look like one. In fact I avoided undead minis altogether and used the Reaper Figure Finder for something elven looking.

Shardis, Female Elf Rogue (SKU 77741) was exactly what I wanted, and I already had the mini from one of the Reaper Bones Kickstarters in one of my boxes of unpainted minis.

I deliberately gave her very pale skin, VGC Elfic Flesh, and her clothing is based on VGC Jade Green, with dark green for the undertunic and yellow leggings.

So that's my random thoughts about a great fun gaming experience and the prep I did.

I'm busy getting the next online session ready, always working on the next one. I'm also getting something painted for my Old School orcs, which after working to a deadline for this is kind of relaxing.

Season of Scenery Summary

If you're a regular reader, you'll know that I combined my Dungeons and Dragons Eight Week Project with Dave Stone's Season of Scenery Challenge. 

Now with the eight weeks over and the game played, and with the end of August looming,  what did I get done scenery wise?

You can see most of the stuff in the Crypt of the Vampire Knight posts, but here's a bit more detail. 

Sticking to the Plan?

I did work out a bit of a plan, well more of a wish list really. Did it hold up?

Sort of. 

By the time I got around to doing the scenery I'd pretty much decided what the adventure was going to be so I could be a bit more focused.  I was building only the scenery that I knew I'd use, so I could put a bit more time and effort in to it.

Tombs

For speed (and because I really like them)  I used the Crooked Staff Terrain Print and Play Effigy Tombs.  To add variety I made a couple of different effigies,  and I made several tombs just with decorative slabs from Episode 5s Crypts and Tombs. These are probably the tombs of lesser knights of the Order. NB  the middle effigy in the picture below is deliberately incomplete.  It represents a new tomb (the previous Knight Commander) and hasn't been finished.  I see that the one on the right with the axe is missing its arms, this is an oversight. And there's a happy accident.  The first print I did had greyscale switched on, and it gives a pleasing dark grey texture.  Further,  the jar texture now gives a good extra texture for more tombs.

Three sample effigy tombs and six pillars

Altars

Essentially the same as the tombs.  I built them a bit smaller and had planned to add some sort of decorative element to indicate which god they were dedicated to.  This never got done, partly because I wasn't quite sure how to show this.  The blank altars worked perfectly well though. 

I used the textures from the pillars PDF, leading to...

Pillars

I built six of those, using Crooked Staff Terrain Print and Paste Dungeon Pillars.  They didn't actually get used in the game.  If there had been significant play in the main crypts, they'd definitely have been used.  

There absolutely should be pillars in the main temple, but I never put them in on the virtual map, so didn't want them suddenly to appear.

Rubble

I had a couple of ideas for the rubble, but in the end, I didn't make any at all. There's quite a bit of rubble in the temple, but this was just drawn on the floor plan. 

I did put some Terrain Crate rubble in my box, just in case, but it was already mostly painted, so doesn't really count for the challenge. 

Floor Plans and Tiles 

Initially I planned to draw out Floor Plans on Spot and Cross paper as required.  It's much better to have these prepared ahead of time, so I drew some out back in July. 

I drew them pretty much based on Chris Perkins' method (Mystic Arts has a good video explaining this if you can't find the original article). 

I drew out the Temple, which got used for the fight with the gargoyles, with the addition of the 3D altars, and the crypts below, which didn't see play. 

The temple map is pretty much taken from the original adventure, but the crypts are my own design, though they do incorporate elements from the pack.

But for the actual crypt I wanted something a bit more dramatic. 

I saw Crooked Staff's Dungeon in a Box and it looked impressive. I knew I could do something with it,  and it fits my brief of making stuff with multiple uses. I quickly downloaded the PDF and made my own set. 

But the largely square rooms didn't quite give me what I wanted,  so I looked at the 2D dungeons PDFs. Ideal.  Very easy to convert to the new style of 3D tiles,  and I've got the wide hallways I wanted. I also made some smaller doors using a texture I found on one of the bonus PDFs.

Gardrin's family tombs and the false vampire crypt

Built from scratch

Finally,  here's some pieces I made up from bit from my bits box.

Tharnak investigates the braziers

The braziers are two wooden beads stuck on a 20mm washer. The flame is hot glue on a length of barbecue skewer. The whole is painted as seen, I must admit that the photo makes the flames look better than in real life. 

Tharnak and the two snake fonts

The 'Snake Fonts' are toy plastic snakes glued to 40mm washers with an upturned button as the bowl. The buttons are metal and I had to grind out the bit that holds the thread with a rotary tool, which is why there's only two,  rather than the planned four. The whole lot is painted and the bowls filled with PVA glue mixed with green ink, partly to hide the rough interior. 

Combining the Season of Scenery and my Eight Week Challenge really helped me get the terrain ready for the game, I'll have to try this again.

Dungeons And Dragons Eight Week Project - The Crypt of the Vampire Knight Playthru part two

We left our heroes staring into a tomb, littered with bones, rags and desiccated flesh, but not the remains of a Vampire.

Race to the Vampire

Harrow was desperate to take advantage of her Spectral Guardians, and urged the party on and down. 

Despite her hurry, the more, erm financially minded party members insisted on searching.  After all, they might find important information. When they looked at the skeletons they were shocked to realise that they carried the gear of knights of the order. Could they have been placed here to prevent meddling with the vampire's tomb?

Closer examination showed that they had defaced their shields with the snake symbol of Zehir. Worse, some of them had deformed skeletons; elongated skulls, extra vertebrae and similar.  a puzzle, though the dwarf, grim faced, muttered "yuan-ti" under his breath.

When they at last descended, they became aware of a greenish mist hugging the floor and a stench of rotting vegetation, very different from the dry dusty air upstairs.

The steps led to a long corridor with side passages to left and right. Ahead the way was blocked by a sturdy portcullis.

The first side passage just held a sliver statue of a snake rearing up over a bronze bowl.  Green mist spilled from the bowl, so Tharnak upended it, hopefully stopping the poisonous murk.

Assuming the Vampire would be at the end of the corridor, the party advanced. They saw doors off to right and left, Kei jammed them shut in case any danger were lurking behind them.

Through the portcullis they could see a room containing armoured skeletons at guard.  To the right was a raised section, with steps leading up to it.  Somewhere up there a flickering green light issued out.  More of the green flame braziers?

The Court of the Vampire Knight

Roland heaved up the portcullis allowing the others to enter. 

Taryyn slipped in first, loosing an arrow at the undead. Kei then pulled the lever, locking the portcullis and allowing Roland to move, he took advantage of this by attacking another skeleton.

Timbers showed the dragonborn that he, too, had some mastery of magic, weaving a tune that snapped many of the skeletons' bones (shatter).

Harrow then moved in onto the steps, her Spectral Guardians finishing off the damaged skeletons. 

"Well that was rude", a woman's voice called from the raised section to Harrow's left.

Zarrel Gardrinsdottir at last.

"Well that was rude"

Looking round the tiefling saw a grand chamber lit by more of the green flames. In the far corner, beyond an iron grate, was a fine stone chair, it's sinuous design set with green stones.

Lounging on it was a woman, dressed in armour, and holding a sword and long knife. Her dark hair accentuated her pale skin, pointed ears betrayed some fey ancestry.

In front of her stood three more skeletons, a dwarf, an elf and a halfling. 

She moved towards one of the braziers as the skeletons advanced to block the heroes.

Tharnak rushed in, eager to destroy this insult to dwarf kind, while Kei used another new spell, conjuring a ball of fire to engulf the elf, the halfling and the vampire. The party cheered, but as one of the green flames went out, Zarrel seemed far less damaged than she should.  She showed a similar resistance to Harrow's Spectral Guardians, and was far faster than the heroes expected, dashing up and striking before they were ready.  

As the paladins took out the skeletons, on one instance both weapons sliced into the undead dwarf at the same time, neither knew who had dealt the killing blow, the more magical heroes concentrated on the vampire.  She proved no match for their combined might, succumbing just after the last of her skeleton heroes did.

Zarrel at last

As the blow fell, Zarrel collapsed, her body turning to mist which sped away down the grate. The remaining flame leapt up and became another of the ghostly spirits. 

The heroes quickly dispatched this new spectre then ran after the fleeing vampire.

The Final Tomb

Alas, the grate was locked and Taryyn took some time to open it.  Once opened the party were lowered one at a time, Harrow first.  

The shaft ended in green mist of indeterminate depth, though Roland had tried pouring Holy Water down to see if it made any difference.  A little way above the surface of the mist was a ledge, with a short passage of it, blocked at the end by another portcullis.

Harrow advanced and could make out a square chamber, dominated by an ornate tomb.  Hovering nearby was yet another spectre, and it wasn't bothered by the portcullis at all.  Harrow called for someone strong to open the way while the spectre hurt her through the bars.  It didn't last long against her Spectral Guardians though.

Roland descended and raised up the heavy gate, allowing the cleric to enter.  As she heaved open the tomb, the rest of the party made their way down.

With the lid opened, Zarrel sat up, eyes glowing with hate.  In a concentrated flurry of attacks, the party managed to keep her down long enough for Harrow to finish the job, smashing a vial of Holy Water over the undead.  The body rapidly decayed, leaving only the equipment.

The Heroes move in for the finale

So victory to the Heroes of Nentir Vale, and a great day of gaming.  We stopped at that point, carrying on would have seemed an anti-climax, and some of us had long journeys back home.  

There was much chat, of course, and a suggestion that we do this again.

I'll do a seperate post discussing some of the choices I made in designing the dungeon, and there'll be at least one more post wrapping up the Season of Scenery challenge, so check out the D&D8W tag f you want to read more.