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.

Ghost Archipelago Campaign Game 9: The Abandoned Mine

A few weeks ago we played the ninth installment of our 2018 Ghost Archipelago Campaign.  We used a home made scenario called "The Abandoned Mine" which was inhabited by a clan of vampires and their minions.  Fortunately several of our players have extensive dungeon terrain sets which allowed us to set-up a 7' x 3' cavern layout.  We drew numbers for starting locations with Skorri getting first choice.  He chose a corner location to lessen the number of other Heritors he would have to face.  As it happened, his two old nemesis', Fortrywn and Griffon ended up to his direct front and his left side.

You can read Fortrywn's account of the action here: Fortrywn's Report Campaign Game 9

A view of the Abandoned Mines

Another view of the mines

The Story
His ship, Raven's Beak, lay anchored off an uncharted island that boasted a fishing village with a decent sized bazaar.  The previous day the helmsman had stumbled upon an old magnetic compass in one of the stalls.  The thing appeared to work correctly so he paid an outrageous price to buy it (Ship upgrade Compass).  At the stern of the ship, Skorri (Heritor) was examining the compass.  Off in the distance he could make out the masts of several other ships, one appeared to look like Fortrywn's garbage scow

Skorri sent his crew ashore for R&R as well as to procure supplies - and to spy on Fortrywn.  Skorri and Agger (Warden) remained aboard to continue practicing some new abilities.  Skorri had finally managed to master control of a latent Heritor ability that allowed him to speed up his movement for short periods of time (Gained Sprint by reaching level 15).  Although he had to suffer through the blood burn as he mastered the ability, he knew it would be worth the effort in the future.  Likewise, Agger was practicing another spell for calling forth beasts of the wild - Beast Cry.  Even though he wouldn't be able to outright control the animals summoned through his new spell, he hoped they might cause trouble for opposing crews.  And who knows, he might be able to cast Control Animal on them if they threatened his crew.  Agger had also build a kennel to house his pet fox that he found a week or so back (Ship upgrade Kennel - allows the addition of a warhound to the crew).

One of the rooms with a vampire coffin

Later in the day, Skorri was standing on the quarter deck watching his crew go about their daily duties to maintain the ship.  Kukala (Hunter) makes his way up to Skorri, "Hey Boss, I caught wind of Fortrywn's crew looking for information about an abandoned Drichean mine up in the hills.  A couple of the lads saw some of his crew down in the market poking around and then rushing off quickly.  They must have gotten a lead on some good treasure."  "Its worth checking out, nothing much else to do here.  Gather the lads and we'll discretely follow Fortrywn's crew to the mine" Skorri replied.

Fortrywn's crew enter s the mine

A short while later, Skorri and his crew were following the trail of Fortrywn's crew.  It led through the jungle, upwards towards a high ridge.  Watching Fortrywn's crew clear an entrance way, Skorri told Kukala to find another way inside.  "No problem Skorri" he said as he faded into the brush.  A short time later he returned, "Found it."  "Great.  Lets move and get inside and see what my old nemesis is after.  It must be a map stone, surely the Crystal Pool isn't here." said Skorri.

Skorri and crew prepare to enter the mines

As soon as the crew reached the hidden entrance, Agger pulled his Divining Rod out of his pack.  He pranced back and forth near the entrance pointing the device one way and then another as the rest of the crew looked on in amusement.  He finally stopped and told Skorri, "There, I think I moved some kind of treasure item closer to our location". (The Divining Rod allows you to move a treasure up to three inches in any direction once all the treasures have been placed)

Heritor Robin Duck and his merry crew of quackers

"Well if you are through playing around, let's get inside," Skorri said as he led his crew underground.  Prying open a narrow door, they entered the underground mine complex.  Dust laid heavy on the rough stone floor as remnants of spider webs hung from the corners.  An occasional whiff of bat guano drifts across the senses along with the a fetid stench of mold.  No one appears to have walked these halls for some time, at least no one living.

Agger enters and immediately tries to discern if there are any beasts nearby who he could call to assist the crew (successfully cast Summon Animal).  He can sense several animals nearby.  He awakens a Snapping Turtle a short distance down in the abandoned mines.

The archers scanning for targets

Alaniel (Archer) looks down a passageway and sees members of another crew moving around.  "That's not Fortrywn's crew.  It looks like some of Griffon's scurvy swabs."  He quickly shoots an arrow, hitting one of Griffon's archers (caused 5 damage).  The injured archer attempts to pull out his bow and return fire but an eerie mist seeks into the passage limiting his line of sight (Gregorius' Warden cast Call Storm).  The mist also prevented Amrod (Archer) and Kukala (Hunter) from firing at Griffon's cursed crew.

Griffon's men off in the distance

The Fox (Warhound) darts forward, rounds a bend, runs through a partially closed door and hides behind a large, burning brazier.  The fire must be of arcane origins given the lack of any sign of living occupation.  As the Fox entered, a large coffin in the middle of the room slowly creaked open.  The putrid smell was almost overwhelming as a creature arose from within.  As Skorri reached the door, the creature's head turned in his direction.  Eyes as black as coal stared out from its pale milky white face.  Skorri pulls his bow and fires off an arrow.  The arrow strikes hard but the vampire doesn't appear to notice as it steps out of the coffin and soundlessly glides across the floor towards Skorri (Scenario rule - the arrow only does half damage resulting in a loss of 3 health).  The vampire in on Skorri in a flash.  He drops his bow and pulls out his sword which glows with blue light.  The two engage in a series of attacks, feints, and blocks.  In the end, they have both struck mighty blows upon other but neither have gained the upper hand (they tie with a 20 fight roll, Skorri takes 9 damage, the vampire takes 8)).  They stand there staring at each other preparing their next moves.

The Vampire awakens

 Meanwhile, Agger and Kukala move forward and turn down a passageway to the right.  They see two large cave spiders.  Agger quickly mumbles some words and one of the spiders moves away (Successfully cast Control Animal).  With his hunters instinct, Kukala notches an arrow and hits the other spider in its weakest point, between its many eyes.  The spider collapses into the dust (rolled a 19 +2 fight +2 for Hunter ability).  "Where did the other spider go" Kukala asked.  "I sent it to find my turtle and guard the tunnels" Agger replied.  Kukala nodded and continued down the passageway.  Agger, hearing the sounds of a sword fight, turned the other way, following Taucher.

Two cave spiders appear at the same location

Chen Lee (Crewman) moves forward towards an old rusting mining cart containing a load of long ago mined ore.  Sitting on top of the ore is a small chest.  As he does so, Alaniel sees Griffon emerge from the mist.  With an arrow already notched, he pulls back, and releases.  The swirling mist must have obscured his sight as the arrow flew wide.  Griffon picks up a large chunk of coal ore and effortlessly tosses it at Chen Lee (Heritor ability Hurl).  The coal struck him on the left side of his head, knocking him out cold (or is that coal.....sorry).  Leaning around his boss, one of Griffon's archers shoots at Alaniel but he aims poorly and misses.  As he notches another arrow, Alaniel watches one of Griffon's crew picking up the small chest.  Carefully aiming, he releases his arrow.  "Thuuuunnk", a clean hit.  The crew man sways for moment before dropping the chest back into the ore cart and falling to the floor of the passageway.  Amrod also fires an arrow down the passageway but none of Griffon's men are kind enough to jump into its path.

Chen Lee moves forward

Chen Lee falls to Heritor Griffon

Seeing Skorri locked in combat with the vampire, Taucher (Pearl Diver) and Hat Chet (Crewman) move forward to assist.  At the same time, the Fox charges out from behind the brazier to nip at the vampire's heels.  With the arrival of the additional attackers, the vampire hesitates slightly.  That is all Skorri needs as he swiftly swings his sword down, nearly cleaving the vampire in two (Skorri only rolled a 12 but with +5 fight, +1 from  magic sword, and +6 for adds, he ends with a 25 fight).  The vampire collapses to the floor.  Seeing Skorri looking a little battered, Agger casts Water of Life to restore some of his health..

Skorri engages the Vampire with some help

Meanwhile, Blue Boy (Crewman) had been climbing up a series of handholds he found in the wall near the entrance.  They led to a small wooden walkway.  Once on top, he spies a small chest and moves forward to pick it up.  Wu climbs up after him in case he needs help.  Wu continues past him and sets up to block the walkway.  As Blue Boy reaches down, an arrow pasts above his head.  Fortrywn's archers are letting themselves be known.

Blue Boy recovers a treasure

Out of sight, the cave spider and the snapping turtle have found a place to wait in ambush should any other crew try to sneak up on Skorri's crew (It works because Fortrywn's crew members decided to turn around, must have been arachnophobia....).

Wiping the gore from his sword, Skorri prepares to enter the large room.  He can see a large coffin in the center begging to be searched but Skorri's eyes are drawn to movement on an elevated walkway off to the right side.  He quickly pulls out his bow and shoots an arrow which just nicks his target.  He then notices the door across the room slowly opening; couple of faces peer inside.  Skorri realizes he is outnumbered.  As he backs out of the room, he sees the Fox scurry across the floor and through a side door. Agger follows Skorri and casts Water of Life on him again to heal the wounds sustained from fighting the vampire.

Meanwhile, back in the corridor with Griffon's crew, Griffon's herbalist tosses something towards Alaniel.  The small bag hit the ground and burst open.  Immediately, vines and other vegetation pops out of the ground and quickly grows to completely fill the corridor, all line of sight is blocked.  Griffon's crew is able to escape (Magic Beans).

The Fox finds a treasure

The Fox has entered a room containing another treasure.  While he is sniffing around it, the door opens and one of Fortrywn's crew women charges into the room.  A scuffle ensues resulting in the Fox backing off after receiving a small cut in the left side.  Agger's cave spider scuttled into the room and pounced on he crew woman - or at least it tried.  Fortrywn's s crew woman was too fast and slew the spider with a quick thrust of her sword.  Taucher joins in the fight and comes out on the losing end (takes 9 damage).  The Fox catches the crew woman unaware and ferociously forces her back towards Taucher.  Then Fortrywn kicks open the door and enters the fray. He pulls out his crossbow and unceremoniously puts a bolt into the poor animal, dropping him to the floor. Fortrywn then drops the crossbow and draws his sword.  He charges towards Taucher just as Taucher takes down his crew woman.

Taucher faces off against Fortrywn

In the outer corridor, Analiel and Amrod are engaged in an archery contest with Fortrywn's archers.  Arrows fly back and forth at an amazing pace with few finding their mark.  In the end, both crews lose an archer.  Wu (Crewman) moves forward and engages the Fortrywn's other archer in a defensive stand-off as neither crew member decides to attack.


Skorri hears the sounds of the melee and runs at full speed through the corridors to hep his crew.  He bursts into the room and sees Fortrywn trading blows with Taucher.  With a sharp burning sensation, blood runs from his nose as he Surges and swings his sword at his old adversary.  Skorri was a bit too hasty as Fortrywn easily parried his swing and his riposte cut deeply into Skorri's side (caused 13 damage, how did Fortrywn roll a 19?) making him take a step back to reassess the situation.

The snapping turtle finally makes it into the room and lunges forward, his powerful jaws just barely missing Fortrywn's leg.  In return, Fortrywn slices down at the turtle.  His attack bounced off the thick shell and managed to cut through one of the turtle's legs, forcing the turtle to stagger back a step or two.  Taucher, weak from blood loss, maintains a defensive stance (refused combat).

Skorri vs Fortrywn

Following Skorri as fast as he could, Agger moves forward just in time to see Fortrywn strike Skorri.  He immediately casts Water of Life (He will continue to follow Skorri and successfully cast Water of Life on him for the next three turns).  Kukala manages to make it into the room carrying a small treasure chest he had pick up.  Closing his eyes for a second, Skorri winces as he draws on his power of Intuition (allows him to automatically gain the first activation).  He then motions to his crew to attack again.  The snapping turtle hobbled back into contact as Kukala jumped on its back to engage Fortrywn.

Skorri 18, Fortrywn 1

With Fortrywn distracted, Skorri grins as he slices hard and quick at his unprotected side.  The blade appears to cut deep (Skorri rolled and 18 +12 fight to Fortrywn's roll of 1; Fortrywn's armor of 13 makes it 17 damage).  Before his eyes, Skorri can see the wound healing itself (Fortrywn used his Heritor ability Mitigation to reduce the total damage to 5).  Skorri's anger gets the best of him and his blood starts to burn.  With a mighty Backswing, Skorri hits Fortrywn again in almost the same spot.  Fortrywn felt that one as he fell to one side (caused 10 damage as Fortrywn failed his Heritor roll for Mitigation, which is good since Fortrywn shouldn't have  rolled for another Heritor ability since he had already used one during Skorri's activation).  While he is still reeling from Skorri's strike, the snapping turtle clamps its jaws on his leg, nearly breaking the bone.  Fortrywn again attempts to Mitigate the damage but fails.  He slumps to the dusty floor (Turtle rolled a 20, +1 fight, +6 adds = 27 fight, +2 damage = 29 damage - 13 armor = 16 damage to Fortrywn).

Skorri gets the best of Fortrywn

Skorri smacks the turtle to make it let go of Fortrywn's leg, "Leave him be.  Taucher, grab that treasure," he directed, as he peered out the door into the vampire's lair.  He saw one of Fortrywn's archers in a stand off with his crewman Wu.  He slowly and quietly moved up behind her.  Spying a wooden chair, he grabs it and beans her on the head.  As the chair shatters, the young archer drops to the ground.  With that, Skorri signaled to his crew to withdraw from the abandoned mines.  Pausing momentarily to pick up the fallen, they headed to the exit encumbered by three treasure chests.

Skorri picks up a chair........

and beans Fortrywn's crew woman on the head

 Once back on ship, Skorri examined the day's treasure.  "I knew Fortrywn was after a map stone" he exclaimed as he unwrapped one of the fabled stones.  They have proven hard to find.  This was just the second stone Skorri had recovered.  The other treasure consisted of Armor +1, some Fury Leaves, and 30 gold crowns.  All of the injured crew members, including the Fox, would completely recover.  Skorri decided to give the crew one more night in the village before raising sails the next day.  He has a chain of small islands he wants to explore.

End game photo shoot

Epilogue


The game lasted for 10 turns, the longest GA game we have had thus far.  This was probably due to the limited number of exit points which made it harder to get treasures and crew members off the table to end the game.  Once more I faced off again Fortrywn and his crew (and his unlucky dice).  This time I lost the central treasure and a treasure to Griffon by splitting my crew into three groups.  Nothing good happens when you do that - just ask Fortrywn!  Griffon and his Magic Beans prevented my archers from getting some more revenge upon him and his mangy crew.  It was great tactic that I did not anticipate.  Maybe next time.....