Ghost Archipelago Campaign Game 8: The Eritherean Graveyards

A couple weeks and a vacation ago, we played game 8 of our 2018 Ghost Archipelago Campaign - The Eritherean Graveyards.  Only four out of our regular group of eight players were ale to make it with a couple last minute cancellations.  With four of us, we set-up the table with two graveyards set on either side of a small ruined temple building.  I was lucky enough to get first choice of starting locations.  I was surprised and glad when Fortrywn set-up across the table - a chance to renew our friendly rivalry.  To my left was the Heritor Molly Malone and to my left front was the villainous Heritor Herndon (whose name is still in the Book of Grudges).

Click here to read Fortrywn's Report

A view of the game table with starting locations (courtesy of Chris)

The Report


Skorri stepped out on the deck to observe Agger talking with several seagulls.  He fed them a couple of fat minnows and off they flew.  A few hours later, there was a pounding on his cabin door and in burst an excited Agger.  "My pets searched out and spied on some of the Heritors in the immediate area.  One of the seagulls landed on the lower spar of the aft mast where he had a bird's eye view.  He watched as Fortrywn was studying some kind of map that got him pretty excited and he changed course to the southeast.  Another seagull found the Heritor Griffon's ship, he was sailing in the wrong direction (Griffon was unable to attend game 8).  And a third seagull landed on the mizzen mast of Molly Malone's ship which looked to be recently careened and repaired.  She was tacking back and forth toward the southeast as well in some kind of odd search pattern." he reported.  "Hmmm, Molly hasn't been seen in the archipelago area for some time now, she must know something," mused Skorri.  "Well done Agger.  As you leave, please tell Kukala to set course to the southeast."

The following morning found the Raven's Beak near a large jungle island with no other sails in sight.  Hoping this was the right island, Skorri commanded the helmsman to turn into the wind.  With sailing flapping, he ordered the anchors to be dropped.  The heavy anchors plunged into the crystal clear waters and as the wind pushed the Raven's Beak to the leeward, the flukes dug into the sandy bottom.  When the ship stopped moving, Skorri ordered the boats to be lowered.

After several hours of cutting their way through the hot and sticky jungle, harassed by mosquitoes the size of vultures, the terrain opened up a bit.  Off in the misty distance, Skorri could just make out the top of a ruined temple towering above the vegetation.  There appeared to be two additional ruins, one to each side of the temple.

Part of the temple complex

Skorri and his crew slowly moved closer to examine the temple complex.  The ruins to the right of the temple consisted of crumbling walls interspersed with a few columns.  A hundred years ago this was probably a grand looking building.  Now it was a crumbled mess of stones.  Scattered throughout were piles of bleached and partially decaying bones belonging mostly to some large creature.  The overgrowth of vines and weeds made it hard to identify them.  There appeared to be a small chest sitting on top of a crumbling wall.  Skorri whispers to his crew, "I want that chest".

One of the graveyards with a chest on the wall

He then spots movement in the jungle on the other side of the ruins, looks like some of Fortrywn's crew.  As they move closer, a loud snorting or grunting could be heard emanating from behind a dense clump of jungle growth.

With his enhanced eyesight, Skorri spies a glimmer of metal in a bunch of thick brush to his front.  He steels himself for a quick dash as he feels his blood begin to burn (Surge).  Skorri then bursts forward.  As he passes around the vegetation, he spots the source of the noise they had heard, a creature with big flapping ears and a long trunk.  It was an Eritherean (placed there courtesy of Fortrywn's low initiative roll).  Skorri pulls out his bow, notches an arrow, and releases it - all without missing a stride.  Unfortunately he did miss his target.  The Eritherean let out a loud bellow.

An Eritherean appears near Skorri's crew

Seeing Skorri's actions, the other three bow armed members of his crew move forward one at a time and take shots at the Eritherean.  Between the three of them, all they managed to do is make the big creature mad by slightly wounding it (4 damage).  As Amrod releases his arrow, he is struck in the back by a cowardly shot from Fortrywn himself (8 damage).

Watching the dismal performance of the three so called archers, Agger closes his eyes and casts about psychically through the nearby jungle, reaching out to see what animals may be lurking nearby.  With his mind he can sense a screamer monkey sleeping in a nearby tree.  Agger mentally nudges it to wake up.  The monkey chitters as it scurries through the trees to join the crew (successful cast of Summon Animal).

Blue Boy moves forward into the dense patch of jungle near the Eritherean and reaches into his pouch.  He withdraws a Jade Figurine of a crocodile and dashes it on the ground.  With a loud "WHOOOSH" and a large puff of smoke, a crocodile materializes between himself and the Eritherean.  The crocodile rushes forward to attack.  After a couple of attacks, each creature comes away with various cuts and bites (Crocodile takes 11 damage, Eritherean takes 6 damage).

Skorri recovers a large urn

Skorri continues to move forward and reaches the shiny object he had spotted earlier.  It turned out to be a large sealed urn.  As he bends down to pick it up, he hears the "twang" of a bow string.  He looks up and sees Fortrywn shooting at Amrod.  "The nerve of him shooting at one of my crew" he thinks, which starts his blood to simmer.  As his blood burns, Skorri Surges and draws his bow to return the favor.  As he draws back and releases, Fortrywn's hunter steps forward from behind a pillar.  The arrow meant for her boss struck her in the upper thigh (7 damage).  She quickly ducks out of sight as does Fortrywn.

Alaniel watches as both Fortrywn and one of his crew move towards the center of the ruined temple.  He spies what they are after, the small ornate chest sitting on top of a crumbling wall.  The thieving scoundrels were trying to recover the one Skorri spotted earlier.  He pulls an arrow from his quiver as he observes the crew woman hopping up on the wall to retrieve the chest.  He pulls back and releases.  The arrow flies straight and strikes the crewman in the upper chest (8 damage).  The crew woman crazily windmills her arms to keep her balance but manages to fall on her butt atop the wall.

At the same time, Blue Boy rushes in to distract the Eritherean, deftly avoiding the crocodile's wildly swinging tail.  "Alaniel, we need some help" yells Amrod.  Alaniel looks to his left and sees Blue Boy engaging the creature.  He draws his dagger as he moves to assist.  Amrod also draws his dagger and runs forward to assist.  The Eritherean turns towards Amrod and swings at him with a large club.  Amrod nimbly dodges and goes down on his knees as he slides under the Eritherean's club.  He quickly leaps up and thrusts his dagger under the creature's trunk and into his neck.  The Eritherean stood there with a surprised look on its face for a couple seconds before toppling over into the jungle brush.

The Eritherean falls to the might of Skorri's crew...and a crocodile

Skorri notes the battle with the Eritherean and is proud when they defeat the large brute without taking any casualties.  He then notices one of Fortrywn's crew women crawling along the top of the wall with an arrow sticking out of her chest.  Skorri pulls out another arrow and smooths its feathers.  He carefully notches it and aims at the unsuspecting crew woman.  "This is not your day young lady" he thinks as he shoots.  The arrow strikes her hard in the leg just as her hand reached for the small treasure chest.  She teetered for a moment before falling off the wall and out of sight with a loud "Ooof".  Skorri saw Fortrywn scaling the wall to claim the chest.  "He's after my chest" he thought as he Surged and shot an arrow at him to discourage such action.  He wasn't sure if Fortrywn even noticed the arrow whizz by within an inch of his head as he dropped out of sight behind the wall (Skorri rolled a 24 shoot, Fortrywn rolled a 25).  Kukala (Hunter) moved forward towards Fortrywn's position to keep an eye on him.  He had our chest.

Things get interesting......

After defeating the Eritherean, Chen Lee and Wu spot a small chest lying among the piles of bones next to an old pillar.  They head that was trying to avoid getting stabbed or cut by the multitude of bone shards covering the temple floor.  As they arrived beside the chest, one of Fortrywn's crew stepped out from behind the pillar and unceremoniously cut down Chen Lee (hard to beat a 23 fight roll).  being surprised by seeing companion so easily defeated, Wu skidded to a stop.  Unfortunately, the scattered bones made for poor footing.  Wu slipped and thumped his head on the stone pillar.  He was out cold.  Fortrywn's mangy crewman bend down and picked up the chest.

Chen Lee and Wu challenge for a small chest

Chen and Wu are defeated and lose the chest

Taucher (Pearl Diver) and Hat Chet had been cautiously moving along the outside wall of the temple.  As he peered through a small archway, Taucher spots Fortrywn's Hunter.  She was looking the other way and appeared to be waving to someone out of Taucher's line of sight.  He immediately rushed forward and thrust his spear at her midsection.  The Hunter let out a scream as the spear caused a nine inch gash.  As she stumbled backwards, a screamer monkey pounced down on her head.  Thinking her neck was a banana, the monkey bit down hard.  As the Hunter dropped to the ground, the monkey chittered and jumped up and down on her in what looked like some kind of strange victory dance.  Meanwhile, Hat Chet discovers a small chest in the weeds beside one of the columns.  He quickly grabs it and heads back.

Kukala watches as Fortrywn turns and tosses the chest to one of his crewmen.  Fortrwyn then whirls around and strikes at Kukala with a speed you wouldn't expect from such an old man.  Fortrywn's sword puts a gash in Kukala's arm (7 damage).  "A little assistance please" he calls out in pain.  Alaniel (Archer), Blue Boy (Crewman), and the crocodile all turn and move towards Fortrywn.  Step by step they move closer (cue music from a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western).  Even though there are three crew members plus the crocodile, Skorri's men respect Fortrywn's Heritor skills.  Agger mumbles some words and points at the crocodile (cast Beast Strength, +1 fight).  With a feeling of strength rushing through it, the crocodile burst forward at Fortrywn, its jaws snapping tight around his leg.  The crocodile caused a lot of damage as it flailed about trying to bring Fortrywn down (roll plus adds = 28, -13 armor = 15 damage).  The other crew members joined in thrusting and slashing at the out numbered Heritor.  Kukala watches closely as Fortrywn parries and counters.  Seeing his opportunity, he thrusts his two-handed sword into his side.  Fortrywn falls into the mass of bone shards.  The crocodile continued to ravage Fortrywn for a few more seconds until Agger directed him to chase after the rest of Fortrywn's crew.  Alaniel, Blue Boy, and the crocodile move off across the temple floor.  Kukala salutes Fortrywn before following the others.

Skorri's crew takes down Heritor Fortrywn

Having finished off the Hunter, Taucher glances about for another target.  He spies Fortrywn's Warden hiding behind a pillar.  He stealthily moves closer and suddenly jumps around the pillar thrusting forward with his spear.  The spear catches her in the shoulder just as the monkey landed on her back.  The monkey bites and claws at the young Elf taking a piece of her pointed ears (6 damage).  The young Elf went into some kind of fit as she started to flail her arms wildly about.  Taucher stood back as he watched the monkey go flying off her back and land on the pillar.  Kukala ran through the piles of broken bones and skidded to a halt beside Taucher, "Skorri says to finish her off and help recover the chest".  With a screech, the monkey landed on her back again.  Kukala made a couple of feint strikes with his dagger to distract the Warden as Taucher thrust his spear forward again.  This time he lifted her off her feet as he caught her cleanly in the chest.  The Elf dropped to the ground in jumbled heap (Taucher rolled a 20 plus 7 adds for a 27 which became 28 damage due to his +1 damage weapon).  Taucher leaned down and checked on the Warden, she was still breathing.  But he knew she'd be in a lot of pain latter, especially when she looked in a mirror and saw her ear was now human looking.

Skorri's crew defeat Fortrywn's Warden

Skorri was watching Fortrywn's crewman run away with his treasure.  "What is everyone doing?" he thought to himself, "Guess I have to do everything".  Skorri drops the urn he was carrying as he called to his Warden, "Agger, come fetch this".  Without waiting for a reply, he moves forward to get a better shot angle as he drew his bow.  He tracked the crewman as he was cautiously picking his way through the graveyard.  He released and watched his arrow strike the crewman in the upper back.  He stumbled but kept going.  Kukala turned from the fight with the Warden and took a snap shot at Skorri's target but the arrow flew wide.

Disappointed by Kukala's poor bowmanship, Skorri moves forward again to get a clear shot.  He notches another arrow and shoots.  The arrow found its mark while in mid stride and the treasure thief dropped the chest as he tumbled forward to land in the grass (rolled a 15 +5 for a total of 20).  As the treasure carrying crewman fell, Skorri spied another one of Fortrywn's crew standing near the chest.  Surging, he quickly drew and shot another arrow.  "THWACK".  It hit her dead center, sending her tumbling to the ground (rolled a 19 +5 for a total of 24 - Skorri's dice were hot, Fortrywn was not amused!).  Blue Boy moved forward and claimed the chest which the rest of the crew moved forward to protect him.

Skorri - one shot, one kill...times 2

While all that was happening, Agger picked up the urn dropped by Skorri.  As he straightened up, he noticed a shadowy figure burst out of the jungle near him.  It was a Spirit Warrior.  He almost messed his pants remembering the beating the crew had taken from one these creatures during the last outing.  Agger turned and ran as fast as he could carrying the urn yelling out "Help, I need help".

Skorri turned to see what Agger was yelling about - it was a Spirit Warrior.  The same creature that had decimated his warband a few weeks ago.  Skorri turned, drew his sword, and moved to protect Agger.  The Spirit Warrior slashed at Skorri with a powerful blow.  Even though he managed to blunt the attack, the heavy sword still bit into his shoulder (causing 9 damage).  Skorri fights back using every technique he has learned over the years but once again the Spirit Warrior gets past his defenses with what appeared to be a fatal blow.  Kukala and Alaniel are moving to assist when they see Skorri struck down.  But Heritor's are hardy individuals.  As he went down on one knee, Skorri's blood burned more intensely then ever before and he managed to stand back up, staring defiantly at the Spirit Warrior (Skorri took 9 damage which would have been fatal since he only had 7 health remaining; he utilized Ironskin, reducing the damage to 5, plus 1 more for using a Heritor ability.  Skorri ended with 1 health point left).  Kukala and Alaniel rushed into the fight, engaging the Spirit Warrior from behind.  Between the two of them they managed to banish the foul creature.

The rest of the crew was preparing to chase down Fortrywn's crew when Kukala sounded out with the recall sign.  Being well trained, the crew obeyed the command and let the remainder of Fortrywn's crew escape into the misty jungle.  They revived Wu and Chen Lee who only had superficial wounds.  Skorri, supported by Alaniel, turned and headed towards the beach.

The after game picture

Back on board the Raven's Beak, Skorri was recovering from his wounds, confident that his Heritor constitution would have him up and about in no time.   He called for Kukala, the ship's Quartermaster, to come into the cabin so they could examine the loot:  two small chests, a sealed urn, and two pieces of unblemished ivory around 14 inches long.  Inside the two small chests they found a total 105 gold coins.  The urn had to be broken open; inside was a short sword of superior craftsmanship (+1 Fight).  The two pieces of ivory were judged to be worth around 50 gold coins.  Kukala made note of the gold in his ledger.  It was decided the sword would be given to Taucher for taking out Fortrywn's warden.  Skorri hoped Fortrywn and his young Warden were not badly injured but he did authorize increased rum rations for his crew to celebrate besting his old opponent.

Epilogue


It was another great and exciting game - although probably more exciting for Skorri then for Fortrywn.  Fortunately for Skorri, Fortrywn split his crew forcing him to fight most of the fights outnumbered (except for that one incident where I lost two crewmen in the same fight but who wants to talk about that.....).

Another run in with a Spirit Warrior was almost the doom of Skorri as he was left with only 1 health.  Fortunately that was when the game actually ended as the remnants of Fortrywn's crew left the table.  I embellished the story a bit at the end to provide a better narrative.

3D printed Erithereans (from Thingaverse), Boarman is a pre-paint