Previously in the Aristrax Marches, the Ravens of Gadun explored the Bronzewood tunnels, and cleared the first level of imps.
Turn 29
No Camp Events were rolled. The Upkeep was at 3 Gold Marks, and I decided that we should Live off the land as one of the Campaign Activities. Caldas has 1 more recovery turn remaining. Bolga also tried to Forage for herbs and failed. Finally, after considering it carefully, I decided that we should further explore the tunnel complex delve of the Bronzewood forest.
Omac looks at the weary Ravens. He’s wondering if they should head back to continue with their quest, or delve deeper. ‘We’re here now‘ he thinks, and gives the order to pack up and search the tunnels further.
Combat
Our first move revealed that the Foe Lurks, and I’ll add an additional Unknown Enemy Marker at the middle of the table. As for the enemy, it’s 8 Tomb Shades and their captain. We can’t seem to get rid of Undead.
Ghostlike visages that cling to the last places of the living world. Their attacks are accompanied by bone-chilling howls.
Round 1
The tunnels open up, to a place that looks like catacombs. Skeletal remains, and items of old are placed in recesses at the walls. An eerie feeling overcomes the Ravens. The smell of undeath fills Bolga’s nostrils, and the Duskling jumps forward. As he enters a crossroads, trying to avoid the rubble beneath his feet, wraiths move in from the North, South and East. His blade at hand, he’s ready to send them back to their resting place.
Round 2
Bolga closes in on one of the shades. His sword hits, but doesn’t manage to slay the entity. It charges back at him, but his reactions are doubled. He counter attacks and finishes it off. One of the shades, wearing a crown around it’s head howls at Bolga who’s not afraid at all. He avoids the blade, and strikes back, with one swift hit, he cuts the crown in half, and the shade vanishes in nothingness, the crown dropping down with a loud clang. The wraiths close in on the duskling from all sides, and he can’t repel them all. One by one they wound him, once and twice, and the mighty warrior falls.
Round 3
The shades and the rest of the warband close in on the corridor. “Let’s hold them off there! there’s too many of them, it’s our only chance!” Omac shouts. Temir shoots an arrow at one of them, but despite finding it’s target, it goes through without hurting the being.
Round 4
Temir blocks the corridor, and a wraith reaches him. Being the most skilled warrior of the warband, and yielding the Heart Seeker, he quickly makes short work of the undead. He steps forward to attack another one, and wounds it, cutting off an incorporeal arm. Omac tries to follow up with a spell to finish it off, but he makes an error in the incantation, and mixing his words, nothing happens. Myrick though, standing beside him, takes aim with his bow, and the arrow goes through the wraith’s head, destroying it.
Round 5
Temir attacks the wraiths who now, have blocked the other side of the corridor, and with a quick strike, he cuts one in half. They come at him, and one by one he kills two of them, with each kill moving forward until he’s almost surounded by them. Two more attack him, and he wounds each one of them as they push him back towards the warband. Myrick comes with another ranged assist and kills yet another wounded wraith. Omac casts the spell successfuly this time at one of the wounded wraiths, but it seems to have no effect, as the wraith’s missing parts slowly reappear.
Round 6
With the rubble between them and the remaining wraiths impeding contact, Temir and Myrick both take shots at the undead who close in. But their arrows go through them without causing any damage.
Round 7
The shades goe through the rubble against Temir and Brobern, wounding the brave young man. A chilling feeling goes through his injury. Temir jumps to the rescue, and hacks down the tomb wraith. Yet another arrow by Myrick is goes through the shade without effect.
Round 8
Temir is locked in combat with a shade, exchanging blows, but there is no clear victor, while Omac prepares a healing incantation, and Brobern’s chilling wound disappears. Two more shades attack Temir, but they don’t manage to overcome the sword master’s defenses.
Round 9
With Temir pushed back, in the melee the shades now attack Omac. Cornered, he’s wounded, he parries wit his staff, but the next strike brings him down. “No!” Screams Temir as their leader is downed. Brobern, cornered in the other side of the corrider, is attacked too. He’s no match for the shades, and despite being armored like a lobster, he’s wounded twice and falls as well. Temir charges at one of the shades, pushing it back, but not managing to destroy it. Now Myrick draws his own Heartseeker and charges in the fray, killing one of the two last remaining wraiths.
Round 10
The last wraith and Temir are locked in combat. One after the other, they try to get an opening, but tired as the Ox is after all the fighting he doesn’t score a hit. Myrick though, comes from the side, and slashes at the shade, finishing the battle.
Before leaving the dungeon, the two warriors explore some of the rooms, and they find a fine wine, yet another ranger’s cloak in very good shape, and a handful of coins.
‘Note: the unknown enemy marker was revealed by Bolga at the start of the battle, and was equal to 2 enemies.’
Resolution
Since we killed an enemy Captain we were awarded 1 Adventure Point, and we’re at a total of 18. Rolling at the Injury tables for Bolga and Omac I was relieved to find out that they only got Knocked Out. Unfortunately Brobern got a result of Dead, and I spent my last Story Point, to get a result of Item Damage which ended up to be his Warhammer. He’ll carry a Fine Standard Weapon in his next battle. Temir and Myrick earned 2 XP being the sole survivors. Bolga earned 2 XP as well, as he killed the Tomb Shade Captain. Omac and Brobern only gain 1 XP from this encounter. Bolga reached Level 6 earning 1 Will Point and Myrick reached Level 4 earning a Combat Skill increase. He, like Temir, will become a Sword master. With their twin Heart Seeker blades and +3 melee, they’re a force to be reckoned with. Since they both carry a Ranger’s cloak, I’ll be changing their minis to something relevant (on hindsight I forgot to update Temir’s miniature which I had said I’d do). Though I’m seriously considering equiping both of them with a Shield instead of a Bow, making it even harder for them to lose a melee. In that case, I might change their miniatures once more! Our 2 Something Hidden successful Scout rolls earned us the Fine Wine and Ranger’s Cloak I described before, and a couple of Springwind Berries. Our Unusual Finds was a handful of coins worth 2 Gold Marks. News Travels resulted that the Duke’s forces reduced a Threat in the area, thus the Gnawling Horde is down a Threat Level of 4.
Their injuries being only flesh wounds, the Ravens of Gadun step out of the tombs. They collect themselves and tend to their gear and loot. A bottle of fine wine for a special occasion, a ranger’s cloak given to Myrick, a handful of coins and a couple of Springwind berries. Brobern’s warhammer was damaged in the fight, and he switched back to his axe. “Our task is clear.” Omac said as the Ravens gathered around their camp fire. “We’ll clear this dungeon no matter how deep it goes. The evil of Bronzewood will be done once and for all.”
Session Summary
As I finished the session I realized that for every round I cast a spell, there was a chance that another Tomb Shade might appear. Lesson for next time to remember. Loved this session. Though I must say I’m a bit worried at the number of Delves. Considering that I have 5 active Delves, and only cleared 0-2 levels, it might get too repetitive. After clearing (hopefully) the Bronzewood Tunnels I’ll consider spicing up the Delves with some different rules. Maybe using theme generators or procedural generation, and perhaps different floors in the same delve level. I’ll need to think, test and play. With regards to the campaign, the warband is getting stronger and stronger. I’m thinking it might be a good time to either go back to the Quest or try to finish the Gnawling Horde Threat. In any case I intend to finish the Bronzewood Tunnels delve first.
Finishing my only-games pile is the Knights with Spears. These have clear inspiration from Renaissance era full plate armour with Greek Hoplite parts (Hoplon shield, Helmet). Lovely sculpts, my only gripe is that they’re big! Much bigger than my already big Demonworld 18mm miniatures. So I think their only use on my table will be as Armour Golems of sorts.
Knight with SpearKnight with SpearKnight with spearKnight with SpearKnight with SpearSize comparison
Continuing on my Duncan Shadow sculpts printed by only-games.co, here are some not-chaos warriors, aka Plague Knights.
For the paint scheme I went with a reddish purple cloths, flesh with a yellowish tint, and metallic silver colour for the armour. Loved the concept, loved the sculpts, loved the end result. Only slight gripe is the print could have been a tad bit cleaner, as some print lines are visible.
I’ve gotten some resin 3d printed miniatures from only-games.co. Loved the sculpts and they had some fantasy ranges in 15mm that I wanted, so I decided to try them out. Duncan makes some great designs and it was really fun to paint these cultists with flails. They’re quite chonky so they’re on the high end of heroic 15mm (18mm), quite on par with my Battle Valor miniatures.
I went with a red cloak and ochre rope belts. Simple paint scheme but striking result.
Cultist with FlailCultist with FlailCultist with FlailCultist with FlailCultist with Flail
Took me a while to paint this Savage Lizardmen warband using Sampler Packs (1 of each pose) from each type of Savage Lizardmen infantry from the Hordes of Things range of Alternative Armies.
I wasn’t sure about the paint scheme, but since I’ve already painted some blue Lizardmen from Blighthaven, I went with a classic green colour scheme and earth tones altogether. Sandy base with brown sand and brown grass.
These took a while to be painted because I batch painted the entire score of them to ensure that I use the same colours and they look uniform. There are warriors, blades, pole arms, spears, with shields and archers, four of each type.
Ps. Now that I look them all together I can see that there is a double pose of a spearman and I’m missing one pose from the sampler pack. I realised it too late though, maybe I’ll have to order a new pack in my next order.
Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
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