Ghost Archipelago Campaign 2019 Game 3: Isle of Dragons

A few weeks (okay, quite a few) back we played game 3 of our 2019 Ghost Archipelago Campaign.  This time around me managed to have 8 of our nine players available.  The scenario was recycled from a Frostgrave game involving dragons and all the treasure markers were corpses.

You can read more about the set-up here: Barley's Game 3 Report

As we drew tokens to determine our starting locations, I used the Compass I had obtained.  This allowed me to select a corner position which gave me one protected flank.  Plus the location had quite a few treasure options.  This resulted in Ragnam being opposite the Heritor Safar.  To the right was Heritor Barley and diagonally to the right was my old nemesis Barl (curse his name).  Before the game started, I used the Divining Rods obtained as loot from the last game.  They allowed one treasure marker to be moved up to 3 inches in any direction - so one treasure was moved 3 inches closer to my starting location.  I had also added a Tribal Guide to replace a Hunter lost in game 1 to Heritor Barl (curse his name).  The Guide has a skill called Pathfinder which allows him and one other crew member to deploy 3 inches further forward (and closer to potential treasures).

A view of the set-up

Another view of the set-up

The Report

"Dragons?  Hrrmmpp.  What tales have you been listening to Bengel?  Everyone knows dragons have been dead for quite some time." said Ragnam as he looked skeptically at his young Warden.  "But Master Ragnam, its true.  They say dragons still exist in the Archipelago.  Dragons and many other strange creatures." argued Bengel.  "Well, I don't put much stock in tales of mythical creatures.  We're still going to explore the island.  The compass brought us to this spot for reason.  Let's go find out why." replied Ragnam and he turned to go give the command to drop boats.

Ragnam and his crew stepped out their row boats onto the sandy beach.  A dense wall of vegetation started a mere 20 feet from the water.  Ragnam started to sweat just thinking about how hot and humid it would be once they entered.  "Dogba, take point" he commanded.  As with that, the crew stepped forward and were engulfed by the jungle.  Fortunately, once they had traveled inland for a hundred yards or so, the vegetation thinned out a bit - but not the heat.  Soon they were all dripping wet from their sweat.

After an hour of traversing through the thin jungle, a large stone carving was sighted.  Ragnam and his crew took cover behind some bushes to survey the area.  Off in the distance, he could spot some movement on the other side of the stone structure.  It looked like another crew was in the area.

Ragnam directs his crew forward

 Ragnam waved Dogba (Tribal Guide) and Kippen (Pearl Diver) to move forward a bit more (Pathfinder ability of the Tribal Guide).  After carefully watching for a few more minutes, Ragnam moves forward to a small clump of bushes.  Once there, he spots an the remains of an unfortunate adventurer.  As he pokes at it with his boot, the corpse arises as a Ghoul.  Seeing the Ghoul, Knurrig (Crewman) charges forward to protect his Heritor.  With the momentum of his charge, Knurrig's sword smashes through the Ghoul's defense and strikes deeply in its side (hits the Ghoul for 8 damage).

Ragnam and crew engage a Ghoul

Bengel hunkers down behind a small stone statue and casts his favorite spell - Summon Animal.  Off in the distance he hears the loud howl of a Screamer Monkey.  It was shortly followed by another similar howl.  "Could there be another Warden nearby summoning animals?" he thought to himself (Barley's Warden also summoned a Screamer Monkey).

Dogba and Kippen

Watching Ragnam's advance, Dogba moves forward with the stealthiness of only someone born in the jungle.  Kippen followed behind, a bit more noisily.  As they approached a clump of bushes, Dogba wrinkled his nose at the smell of a decaying body.  Looking under the large leaves, he sees the body of a half eaten corpse.  A short sword in a fancy tooled sheath was still fastened to its belt.  Using his hunting knife, Dogba deftly cuts the belt and retrieves the sword. 

A thick mist starts to settle in reducing line of sight (Safar's Warden cast Cloud Cover).  The mist would continue to get worse as time progressed.  In teh end, it was of little hinderance to ragnam's crew.

Ragnam swings his sword at the Ghoul but his attack is parried.  The Ghoul manages to strike Ragnam on the left shoulder, drawing blood (Inflicts 6 points of damage).  The ghoul attempts to push him out of comba so it could face Knurrig alone.  Drawing upon an Heritor ability, Ragnam remains planted in place as he feels the burn race through his veins (Used Stand Firm).  With The Ghoul focused on Ragnam, Seppl moves forward to assist and strikes fast with his axe.  The Ghoul's head flies from its body and lands somewhere in the dense brush.  Knurrig notices a leather satchel and removes it from the corpse.  Bengel cast Water of Life on Ragnam.

Pimpel finds a corpse laying in the brush. Looking closely, he discovers a leather pouch containing 50 gold crowns.  Pimpel picks it up.  Seeing some of Safar's crew nearby, he slowly falls back, keeping an eye on their movement.

Pimpel finds a treasure

Seeing movement to the right, the archer twins move in that direction to check it out.  Teflin paused to let loose an arrow at two of Barley's crewmen, one of whom was dragging a large sword (All swords are large to halflngs).  Much to his dismay, his arrow whizzed between the two halfings missing them both.  Around the same time, Bengel's Monkey pet ran through a thick patch of jungle only to discover another Monkey waiting on the other side (Summoned by Barley's Warden).  The two stared down each other for several minutes.

Everyone pauses for a moment as they hear the sound of giant wings flapping.  Even through the dense mist, a Dragon passing by and is quickly lost in the mist.  Bengel looked up in awe, "They do exist, I knew it."

Barley's Warden sends his Monkey to delay Ragnam,s crew

Ragnam decides that Safar's crew is in too strong of a position to contest their claim to any treasures they might find.  He notices his archers moving towards the right and turns to follow them.  As he passes by Bengel, his Warden sees his bloody left sleeve and casts Water of Life on him.

Teflin takes aim at the halfling dragging the sword.  He releases his arrow and watches it strike the back of the halfling's helmet, dropping him to the ground.  The other halfling barely stops as he grabs the sword and keeps moving.

Bengel's Screamer Monkey decides to attack his cousin.  He pounces but is smacked down hard.  Victorius, the other Monkey runs off to help out his crew members.Sensing the demise of the Monkey, Bengel once again cast Summon Animal.  This time he calls forth a Snapping Turtle from the direction Barley's crew was heading.  He commands the turtle to track down and attack halflings.

A snapping turtle harasses Barley's crew

The Snapping Turtle moves through the brush and sees a halfling heading his way burdened with carrying a large sword.  The turtle rushes forth from the thick underbrush to attack (Well, not so much a rush and a slow crawl).  The two exchange blows but the halfling manages to momentarily stun the turtle.  The halfling manages to get a a couple of steps lead on the turtle.  The last Ragnam crew sees as they disappear into the jungle is the halfling running for his life with the turtle snapping at his heels.

And with that last bit of excitement, Ragnam sounds recall and his crew fade into the jungle to make the hour trip back to the beach.  A hot meal and a pint of dwarven beer await their return.

Ragnam and crew with their treasures

Epilogue

Back on board the Iron Fist, sipping on a pint of ale, Ragnam reflects on the day's adventure.  His crew took no casualties.  In addition, they recovered three treasures:  a Superior Hand Weapon +1 Fight, some Magic Beans, and 80 gold crowns.  And a big plus, they all got to see a real live dragon.  "Tomorrow we'll study our maps for our next destination.  Tonight we'll celebrate" he pondered as he listened to the crew enjoying their good fortune.

Ghost Archipelago Campaign Game 2: Aranea Insula

The Game
Several weeks (maybe months) ago we played the second game of our 2019 Ghost Archipelago Campaign.  We had 7 of our 9 regular players in attendance, which meant we had 3 Central Treasures in play, spaced down the center of the 10’x3’ table so as to be equidistant from all nearby start zones.

We played a scenario called “Spider Island” that was designed by one of the guys in the group.  Besides the regular treasure on the table, each player placed 2 clutches of spider eggs (For a total of 14 in play (2 x 7 players =14).  These eggs, from various degrees of extra-large Tree Spiders, are considered a valuable commodity in magical circles, and for each one recovered the crew got 10 Experience Points and 15 Gold Coins.   We used a specialized Random Encounter table with the following results:  1-5: Roll on the regular Random Encounter table, 6-11: Tree Spider, 12-15: Large Tree Spider, 16-18: Huge Tree Spider, 19-20: Giant Tree Spider. 

A view of the table

To the left of Ragnam's crew was Heritor Cassilda Blackmane, and her Earth Warden, Quartz.  To the left front was Heritor, Arkhan the Cruel, and his Beast Warden Tyril Tallguy.  And immediately across and slightly to the right was my old nemesis Heritor Barl and his Warden Lorria. 

Prologue

Ragnam sat on the top deck of his dwarven ironclad, Iron Fist.  He had sold most of his holdings in Vadglim to purchase the ship.  It was an older ship but still quite seaworthy, or so he hoped.  It should prove to be maneuverable enough in the small islands chains he had heard about.  The islands he was sailing towards.

Ragnam had a good dwarven crew (of course are dwarven crews are good) to man the ship and provide for a shore party.  He had managed to recruit two elven archers who turned out to be twins (All elfs look alike) and a human who claimed to be a highly skilled swimmer and diver (Pearl Diver).  He had recruited a Hunter but unfortunately, Liraft fell to the Heritor's Barl's crew on his first expedition.  Ragnam knew he would probably need to replace him sometime soon.  And just as he was leaving Vadglim, and old friend had talked him into taking his son along on his adventures.  The boy's name was Bengel, and he had developed an ability to use magic.  So far it involved sending rats into the houses of people he didn't like, or rabbits to eat their gardens.  His father felt it best if he got away from the town for a while and experienced life in the real world.  So Ragnam hesitantly agreed after Bengel promised to follow orders and not torment the crew with his critter spells.

As the crew efficiently went about their duties, Ragnam's thoughts turned to his next destination, an island called Aranea Insula.  No one talked much about the place except to tell him to stay away.  "Stay away?  Hmmm....wonder what could be hiding on the island.  Maybe a clue about the hidden pool." he pondered.

"CAPTAIN!" a lookout called to him.  "I prefer to be called Ragnam" he replied.  "Okay Captain, whatever you want.  There's a ship trailing us.  We can spot its sails when it crests the waves.  Any orders Captain?" Ragnam sighed and replied,  "Maintain our course and keep an eye on them. ...and ready the aft gun crews, just in case they are needed."

The next day arrived without incident as the Iron Fist entered a grouping of small islands.  The other ship was still nearby but they lost sight of it as they threaded their way between the various islets.  When they reached what Ragnam hoped was the right island, he dropped anchor.

Ragnam and his crew ready for action

The Report

Having rowed ashore, Ragam and company moved through the jungle towards the center of the island.  With the death of his hunter, Liraft, he brought along Lahm (Crewman) to round out his crew.  After a couple of hours, they stopped to get their bearings.  As soon as they did, they could hear the sounds of other groups stomping around off in the distance.  Far to the left Ragnam could see the ruins of a large temple covered in thick spider webs.  To the right was a tall obelisk with what appeared to be a small sack sitting on top.  And just about everywhere he looked, he saw what had to be spider webs - big spider webs - gigantic spider webs. "Spiders!" Ragnam says to no one in particular as he spits on the ground.  "Of course there are spiders, what do you think Aranea Insula means?  It's Spider Island." offers up Bengel.  He continues, "Aranea, a genus of common orb-weaving spiders.  That means they build spiral wheel-shaped webs, just like those over there. (Pointing to the left)  They grow from very small all the up to several feet acro..."  "Enough lad!" interrupts Ragnam, "We get it, big, ugly spiders everywhere. Stay alert."  With that, Ragnam directs his crew to cautiously move forward.

Bengel casts Summon Animal and hears a goat braying in the distance.  He calls him to move forward.  Lahm (Crewman) spots a treasure and quickly moves forward.  He picks it up and places it in his backpack.

As they slowly move forward, Ragnam could just make out a crossbowman hiding in the brush a ways off.  He identifies the man as one of Barl's crew.  Ragnam is surprised to see him here after the mauling he gave Barl and his crew last time they met.  "I wonder if his ship was the one following me?" he thought as he surveyed his surroundings.  As he watches, the crossbowman raises his weapon and aims towards his crew.  Ragnam quickly aims his bow and releases an arrow.  "THHUUNNNKKKK!!!!", it strikes the crossbowman hard in the chest, dropping him to the ground.  While that happens, Snoz (Crewman) runs forward and picks up a treasure.

Kippen (Pearl Diver) is nearly scared to death as a huge spider jumps out of the brush.  Its fangs raked across his arm, an immediate numbing sensation wracks his body - he was poisoned (He also suffered 8 damage).

Ragnam takes out an easy target

Looking around, Ragnam spies one of Barl's crewmen moving towards a small chest hidden in a small cave under some ruins.  He motions to several of his crewmen to follow him.  Ragnam, with three of his crewmen, then gang rush Barl's crewman.  Ragnam easily dispatches him in what can only be described as extreme overkill.  He can see more of Barl's crew moving towards him.

Kippen and the big spiders

Meanwhile, Bengel had heard Kippen's call for help.  He manages to cast Control Animal on the huge spider as Kippen backed away as far as he could.  Good thing too as another huge spider suddenly appeared out of the dense brush.  The two spiders stared at each other for a moment before ferociously charging into combat with each other (This fight would continue for several turns).

Bengel casts Control Animal on one of the big spiders

Ragnam's archers take down Heritor Barl

Teflin and Teklin (Twin elven archers) see Barl running in the their direction.  They simultaneously raise their bows and release two arrows.  Barl manages to dodge one while the other ended up embdded in his shoulder (caused 6 damage).  The arrow didn't slow his charge as he slams into contact with both of the archer twins.  The archers lept to opposite sides of Barl, twirling and slicing with their daggers.  Teflin stumbles slightly on an exposed root.  Barl grins at the opening this posed and drew back his sword for a quick kill.  Teklin sees an opportunity and thrusts his dagger at Barl's neck.  To his surprise, and Barl's, the dagger connects and slices deeply.  With one hand grasping his throat and look of bewilderment on his face, Barl slowly sank to the jungle floor.  Teflin leans over to check on him, "No pulse.  Looks like he is gone.  Never seen a dead Heritor before."  (Barl rolled a 1 for his recovery roll.  But luckily his crew had recovered some Lingenberries which allowed them to revive him)  For the two twins, justice had been served - they had both been one-shotted during the last encounter with Barl's crew.

Ragnam and crew fighting off Barl's crew

Having dispatched the crewman, Ragnam now moves to fight Barl's Freebooter who had run up to contest the treasure.  To his amazement, the Freebooter strikes him hard in the side.  Ragnam calls upon his Heritor abilities to assist but they fail him.  The blood burn was so fierce that he stumbled back a couple of steps (Ragnam took 9 damage, tried to use Ironskin to reduce the damage.  Failed and took 3 additional damage from the Blood Burn.  The Freebooter than pushed him out of combat).  Knurrig (Crewman) continued the fight and managed to avoid getting hit by the Freebooter.  Pimpel (Crewman) is able to fell the Freebooter when his sword glances off his opponents shoulder armor and whacks him up side the head. 

The fight continues but there are casualties on both sides

Knurrig is struck in the thigh by an arrow (takes 7 damage).  Ragnam moves forward and easily strikes down the archer.  Bengel casts Water of Life on Ragnam to heal some of his previous wounds.


Kippen has moved to the base of a large obelisk to watch the spiders continue their deadly dance.  He glance up and spots something lying on top.  He slowly starts to climb up (Reduced to one action due to the poison).  Barl's Warden sees what Kippen is doing and uses some kind of magic spell to fly to the top of the obelisk.  Obviously hoping to steal the treasure before Kippen can recover it.  Watching from some nearby cover, Teklin sends an arrow towards the Warden striking her in the shoulder (caused 6 damage).  She wobbled a bit but maintained her footing atop the obelisk.

Ragnam shoots at another of Barl's archer (causing 8 damage).  Teklin shoots the same archer and takes him out of action.

Knurrig picks up a sack of spider eggs. Teflin picked up some eggs.  Teklin picks up some eggs.  Snoz picks up some eggs.  Its like an Easter egg hunt, everyone is finding and picking up spider eggs.

Bengel cast Water of Life on Kippen, curing his poison.  With a surge of energy, Kippen climbs to rest of the way to the top of the obelisk to engage Barls's Warden.  After a short fight, he manages to unbalance the young warden.  She falls to the ground with a loud thud and doesn't move.  Kippen grabs the sack he had spied earlier and starts to climb down.

Seeing the remnants of Barl's crew fleeing through the jungle underbrush, Ragnam calls for his crew to return to the beach.  Its been a long and rewarding day.

Ragnam's crew and their loot

Epilogue

Back on board the Iron Fist, Ragnam puffs on his pipe as he contemplates the day's events.  All of crew had already recovered from their ordeal, helped along by his young Warden's healing spell.  His crew recovered 40 gold crowns, an Episcean Helmet, a Superior Dagger (+1 damage), a Bag of Holding, and a set of Divining Rods.  They also gathered up five spider egg sacks that were worth 75 gold crowns.  "It might be time to sail back to port" he mused.

Back in port, Ragnam inquired around for a new Hunter but none were available for hire.  He did manage to recruit a Tribal Guide who had been abandoned there by another crew.  He was than eager to sign aboard and get away from the port town.  Ragnam had another bit of luck while searching for old maps in an Antiquities Shop - an old ship's compass.  It should prove to be useful.


Well a great game and a nice haul of loot items.  It has taken me way too long to get this report finished.  I still have the report from our third game to post and as well as the fourth game which we just completed.  Time to get busy writing.

Ghost Archipelago Campaign 2019 Game 1: Ragnam's First Adventure

Last month we played the first game of our 2019 Ghost Archipelago Campaign.  We had 8 of our 9 regular players in attendance.   Since everyone was test driving new crews, the scenario was just a straight up game with no special rules or events.  For more information about the scenario and game set-up, read another game report here:  Ghost Archipelago '19, Game 1: An Unexpected Excursion

A view of the table Ragnam set up to the left

A view of the table from the other end

Prologue

Ragnam Eichenherz was a self made dwarf, an orphan who had worked hard to parlay his talent into a lucrative business making and selling hardwood charcoal for use by the many smithies in his home town of Vadglim.  Vadglim is a bustling dwarven fishing and shipping port - various ores, metal goods, and even ship building abounds.  And they all need forges and smelters which consume lots of charcoal.

Until recently, Ragnam lived an unassuming life, some might even call it dull.  But for the past few months, he suddenly found himself performing strange feats that he had never been able to do.  Once he stumbled and fell on the street and found himself inside another dwarf's house - with some explaining to do.  When one of his employees injured himself at work, a touch from Ragnam's hand miraculously healed him.  A couple weeks after these events started to occur, Ragnam heard tales about a group of mystic isles.  The isles were reportedly known as the Ghost Archipelago.  The tales told of a magic pool that granted great abilities to those who drank its water.  Abilities much like the ones that he had recently been exhibiting.  And some said the mystic islands had reappeared a few months ago.  Putting two and two together, Ragnam started to think about who his birth parents had been.  Could his real father have visited the mysterious islands long ago?  Its an orphan's dream to think that they had famous parents.  So many questions were running through his mind....he needed answers. (to be continued.....)

Cut to the present....

Ragnam looked out across the sea from the top deck of his dwarven ironclad, surveying the small island as they approached.  He was making his first excursion into the misty isles in search of his heritage.  During the past several weeks, he had encountered others such as himself and learned that he was a Heritor.  As such he possessed numerous unlocked latent abilities, some of which he was just beginning to fully explore.

The Report

Ragnam decided to move forward and signaled his crew.  He had detected other crewa stomping around nearby.  He utilized Wraithwalk to quickly cross a stream and move effortlessly through the underbrush.  The burning sensation caused from using an ability still surprised him - would he ever get used to it?  As he pondered the thought, Ragnam found himself struck by a crossbow bolt that penetrated his armor (caused 9 damage). "Pay attention" he chided himself as he searched for the source of the attack.  He couldn't spot the crossbowman but he did spot someone wearing shiny black armor moving through the brush.  The way he carried himself, he must a fellow Heritor - which meant a fellow opponent.  He heard one of his crewmen call him Lord Barl.

Bengel (Beast Warden) cast Summon Animal.  A large snake slithers out of the jungle, heading towards Barl's crew.  He then moved forward to assist Ragnam.  As a low mist drifted in (Cloud Cover was cast by one of the nearby wardens), lots of arrows flew through the air without causing any noticeable damage to either crew.

Kippen (Pearl Diver) quickly moved forward to what looked like a treasure chest laying in the middle of a small stream.  Kippen dives down and pulls up the box.  It looked important so he turned and swam down the stream, heading towards the rendezvous point on the beach.

Kippen grabs a treasure

Ragnam watches as Barl reaches down under a small bush and pulls out a small leather satchel (a central treasure).  As Ragnam draws his battle axe, Bengel cast Water of Life.  Without giving notice, Ragnam charges out of the brush and engages Barl in melee.  His heavy axe was no match for Barl's feeble little sword.  He strikes him hard on the shoulder, the force dropping him to one knee (rolled an 18 +6 modifers, caused 12 actual damage to Barl).  Ragnam calls forth his Deathstrike ability (usuable since he rolled an 18) but fails to properly control it.  He winces as the burn takes its toll (2 damage due to an unsuccessful ability roll).  Barl then makes an attempts to Evade but he fails also (must be a Heritor ability free zone).  Once he realizes he can't escape, Barl counterattacks.  Parry, parry, CHOP ....Ragnam's axe bites deeply into Barl's side, dropping him to jungle floor (Barl would later fully recover).  The leather satchel slips out of his hands and rolls to Ragnam's feet.  Bengel once more casts Water of Life on Ragnam.

Ragnam defeats Barl in hand to hand combat

Ragnam defeats one of Barl's crewmen

Ragnam claims a treasure

Seeing their Heritor fall, Barl's archers look for some revenge.  Two shots equals two of Ragnam's archers laying on the ground.  One of Barl's crewmen charges Ragnam.  "Such folly" he thinks as he easily dispatches the crewman.  And Bengel again casts Water of Life on Ragnam.  Ragnam momentarily raises his axe to salute the fallen Heritor Barl.  He then reaches down and picks up the satchel. 

Barl's archers revenge their Heritor by taking out two of Ragnam's crew

The large snake is pin cushioned by one of Barl's archers.  The next crew member to feel the pointy end of an arrow is Ragnam's hunter, Liraft.  Two arrows hit him and he falls into the vegetation, never to rise again (rolled a 1 for recovery).

Meanwhile, Knurrig has spotted something wedged on top of a hut built out of large petrified animal bones.  He carefully climbed to the top and grabbed a small elongated box.  While he was up there, he saw the two archers fall to Barl's archers.  He quickly hopped down and ran into the jungle underbrush.

Ragnam calls upon Wraithwalk to quickly cross the stream and move into some heavy brush.  The remainder of his crew slowly fall back to cover him.  Bengel turns to move back.  An arrow whizzes by on his left.  A crossbow bolt flashes past on his right.  He home free....then another arrow strikes him in the back of his his helm knocking him out cold.  Two of the crewmen pause momentarily to pick him up before they continued to move towards the beach.  Eventually they faded into the fog and were safe from any further attacks.

Ragnam's crew pose for a photo

Epilogue

Once back on board ship, Ragnam takes stock of his crew and the treasure they recovered.  Bengel and the two archers will fully recover from their injuries.  However, the hunter Liraft did not make it back.  The crew raised mugs of ale in memory of their fallen comrade.

The leather satchel Ragnam won from Barl contained a pair of finely made shark skin boots (Boots of Swimming).  Inside each shoe was 5 gold crowns.  Knippen's chest contained 75 gold crowns, while Knurrig's box contained 30 gold coins and finely made sword (Hand weapon +1 fight).

Not a totally bad result for the first game of the campaign.  Hopefully the lost of the hunter (and his bow) will not negatively affect the crew's performance next game.  Hopefully Ragnam will able to make a trip to port after game two and hire a replacement.