Wednesday, May 8, 2019

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.


1 comment:

Marc said...

another great write-up.