In the Aristrax Marches – Ep01
Intro
I’ve long awaited, and finally the third edition of Five Leagues from the Borderlands (5L3e for sort) has been released in pre-order by Modiphius! Pre-ordering means getting the pdf version (prior to any errata) at the time of the order, and that’s what I did.
Now, this isn’t a review as I prefer to establish my thoughts after I discover topics that arise during gameplay, but I’ll do an exception and share some initial impressions.
As was the case with the Modiphius version of Five Parsecs from Home, this one too got a huge facelift. The layout is just beautiful and clear. The artwork is really evocative and I found myself at times just scrolling through the pages to look at it. I was also glad to find an index at the end of the book, which -old school me- I used, despite having pdf navigation. This will be really useful at the final printed version.
The Warband
So I went ahead and read through the character generation and rolled up my warband. The standard size now is Four Heroes and Two Followers, a sizeable decrease compared to the 2nd edition, but one which I find necessary. Fielding 8 warband members in the past edition made the game a bit cumbersome at times, and easier than my liking. Of course, there are options to increase the size of your warband should you wish, with rules for balancing encounters and upkeep costs.
Since I’ve spent a sizeable amount of time in the past few months prepping for the release by painting scores of miniatures, I decided to roll the warband randomly and go from there.
So the results for the heroes were a Halfling, Two Humans, and a Duskling. I decided the humans would be a Mystic, and a Noble. I rolled for all the heroes their background options and rolled the descriptors for my followers as well. Assigned equipment and decided who my Avatar would be.
I pondered a lot on which miniatures I would use to depict my party and used several generators online to find suitable names and nicknames as well as the warband name. I didn’t use any of my previous miniatures for the Wardens of Gahyrst because I wanted a fresh and unique look.
I think it’s pretty clear in the above picture as to who is who, but let me introduce them more properly.
“Boots” Caldas, Halfling. +1 CS, +1 Agi, +2 XP. Fine Sling, Light Weapon (Dagger).
Myrick, Human, Wily Rogue. Self Bow, Light Weapon (Dagger).
Bolga “The Butcher”, Duskling. +1 Agi, +1 XP, Wilderness Skill. Bastard Sword (Big Cleaver), Partial Armour (Brigandine).
Lady Liana of Trenne, Human Noble. +1 Agi, +1 XP, Crafting Skill. Standard Weapon (Sword), Throwing Knives, Partial (Plate) Armour.
Omac “Beard” Gadun “the Raven”, Human Mystic. Avatar. +1 Casting, +1 XP, Alchemy Skill. Staff, Bastard Sword, Full (Plate) Armour.
Solas, Human, Studious Apprentice. Standard Weapon (Sickle).
Backpack: Bandages (3), Silvertree Leaf (2), 4 Gold Marks.
I’ve rolled on the Avatar table and got a result that an old drunkard told me to come to a specific place (unexplored location) and visit a strange rock.
A short note on the various Origins, and more specifically now on Dusklings. Dusklings are on purpose of the miniatures-agnostic nature of the game, not defined as something specific. They can range from the high fantasy Orcs, to Dark Elves, to low fantasy Barbarian tribes.
For my theme I am thinking to incorporate all of these. A collection of different species all of a warlike, nature. Maybe they would unite under a strong leader. But for now, I'm keeping the Orc part under the "Duskling" Origin, and will see if I'm going to accomodate the rest in the future or not.The Land
5L3e has a point crawl map system. There are map areas that may contain one or more locations, but travel between any of the map areas takes one campaign turn. The campaign turn is an abstract unit of time so you can come up with any sort of narrative explanations of travel time and distance as you see fit during the game.
I went ahead and generated the settlements, and came up with four settlements as follows: (town, manor), (village, manor), (village, market town), (hamlet, market town).
To generate the lay of the land I went to the Perilous Shores procedural generator by watabou. I generated a few until I got something that fit, and decided to keep the names of the locations as given.
I found out that porting the map over to powerpoint made a huge difference. I can add points of interest and information and even depict time and movements through the use of different slides and arrow connectors.
According to the rules, I added two unexplored locations (one due to core rules and one due to the avatar backstory) and one Delve. Delves are the 5L3e terminology for Dungeons. I also added three camps, one for each enemy threat.
The enemy threats is a known concept of 5L. They represent the types of enemies one might face. What is different in 5L3e is that now there are 8 different threats to choose from (or roll randomly). Two threats from the Foes Within table and one threat from the Fors Without table.
Initially I went ahead and rolled the threats, but I changed one result as I felt I really wanted rat-men in my games (these Ben Siens sculpts from Splintered Light miniatures are just awesome) and switched the Ruin Within threat to be The Gnawling Horde.
Overall here are the three threats of the region along with their levels.
- The Gnawling Horde /6
- The Whispers from Beyond /5
- Duskling Warbands /5
And here’s the final map of the region, called The Aristrax Marches, from which I’ll name my Campaign.
Turn 1
“We have been tasked!” Omac told, in his pompous fashion. The Ravens looked at their leader.
“The Beard” as they called him, “the Raven” as he wants to be called, is man who spent his life in pursuit of the arcane. He prefers to declare himself a mystic, but depending on the local sentiment, he may be seen as a devout healer or as a heretic to be burned in the pyre.
During his research, he has found that there are forces of evil constantly trying to consume this world in darkness. The borderlands are the only place that stands as a barrier against evil, and risk to be the first to fall.
The petty baron princes, greedy aristocrats and corrupt mayors that rule these lands, don’t care much for their people, nor for the hinterlands. Unless it’s in their direct interest to combat the threats, best case, they’ll do nothing against them.
Omac Gadun has taken it upon himself to fight this evil wherever it may come from. But he knows he can’t do it alone, so with the promise of gold, glory and fame, he has called up to friends and adventurers to join him.
“The Aristrax Marches is where we’ll go. My sources tell me of rat-men poisoning the towns and spreading disease, restless dead rising from their graves and tormenting the living, and dusklings raiding and marauding the countryside. The people in these lands need us the most, and we won’t abandon them, or they’ll abandon hope.” Omac finished his speech. He looked them one by one in the eye. “Boots” Caldas, the halfling ranger closed his eyes in an affirmative fashion. Liana of Trenne did a small bow in acceptance. Bolga, “the Butcher” as they called him due to his big cleaver, punched the ground with his fist and shouted “Aye!”. Myrick and Solas nodded.
Omac looked to the distance as if considering the things to come.
So for the first turn of the game you start at the edge of the map, I rolled randomly and got that the Ravens approach from the West.
As the first action I have to travel to the nearest settlement. I chose Langecliff as the destination, rolled on the respective table and got Uneventful Travels.
The non uniform band travelled the ragged path towards Langecliff. The road went through a valley between two mountain ranges, and Langecliff is in the middle of the valley.
The village is small, built around the manor of the local lord. No one payed a lot of attention to the newcomers as they met the innkeep to arrange accommodations, but a few who looked at Bolga with disdain, only to be met with a low growl forcing them to return their attention to their table.
Turn 2
So a normal turn starts with the preparation stage. Rolled and so the story went on the local events table, adding 1 Story Point to the total.
Followed up with the upkeep cost which would be 2 Gold Marks, but I decided to Help the town guard as a campaign activity, negating the cost, and chose Meet the locals where I rolled A brief chat.
Decided to not perform any trading as coin is low at the moment,
On the Research step, Rolling for connections yielded no result.
Finally as the adventure step I’ve decided on something simple to get started: Ride Patrol, and outfitted the warband by placing the bandages and silvertree leaf in the backpack just in case.
The warband gathered around the table in “The Weary Knave” – weird name for an inn, Omac thought.
“I know we don’t go way back between us, but even more so with the Aristrax Marches. We’re strangers here, newcomers. We’ll need to earn the trust of the locals. Coin is low, so we’ll help out with whatever tasks we can find, suitable to our skills.” Omac told the group.“A quick glance of the status of the town guard, tells me they will need help with a few pairs of arms. Even at the sight of Bolga, the drunkards will become sober. Let’s see if we can earn some favors there.” Boots proposed.
“Excellent proposition Caldas! Now, anyone not involved in bashing drunkard skulls, I want you to talk with the locals, see if there’s any rumours floating around. Ring to any connections you have. We’ll meet in a few days here, to ride out for a patrol, see what the countryside around Langecliff is like.” Omac added, and the Ravens dispersed.
A few days later, they joined up again to report. Solas, Myrick and Bolga brought enough crowns to the table to pay for their stay.
“Any news from Langecliffe?”, the Beard asked Boots, but the halfling shook his head.
“Any contacts?” he looked at Lady Liana of Trenne. “None.-” Liana responded.“Then we head out tomorrow.” He said sternly.
At the adventuring stage, the ride patrol result was that we met up with a wanderer who says that they have seen something odd. I added an Unexplored Location at the same area. I decided to explore this directly since I didn’t want to head back empty handed, and find that a wanderer tells me about an old ruin, crawling with fiends. The Unexplored Location thus becomes a Delve. I rolled up a name using the oracles from Ironsworn and got the name of Longhaven. I rolled up a Traveller encounter, which turned out to be a Young Runaway whom I’ve decided to let join the warband. Pushing further, I decided to enter the Delve, starting the game with a bang!
For narrative economy, I’ll consider that all the above different persons are the same one, since it has no mechanical impact if I do so.
Just a bit further than the eastern outskirts of Langecliff, the warband comes upon a young man, running, trembling and mumbling. Myrick stands in front. “Hold up young sir! Is there something wrong?”
“Y..ye..yes! I was just in the entrance old ruins, and I could swear something was watching me. I ran away as fast as I could.” The youth says.
“Does your mother know you’re out here playing in the ruins? Don’t you have chores to help with your old man? Go! back to your home. We’ll investigate this ruin…” Omac replies.
“No, I can’t go back to them. I’ll find somewhere else to go.” The young man says.
Omac pauses to consider for a short while. Then he sighs. “Hold up. What’s your name?” He asks.
“Brobern, sire.” He replies.
“Alright Brobern, you can come join us for smart company, a hot meal and a lousy bedroll every night. If you promise to stay out of trouble, that is, knowing that we are after trouble, and trouble is after us as well.” Omac offers.
“Yes, yes kind sir. I’ll join you.” The youth smiles.
“Now, my name is Omac Gudan, and we’re the Ravens. Time to bring some tranquility to these torn lands. The rest of the band will introduce themselves. Now tell me, what do you know of this ruin?” Omac smiles back.
“Tis Langecliffe sire. Used to be a manor of a lord of old. It’s been derelict for years and I thought I could spend the night here…” Brobern says.
“You stay here, and whistle if you see anyone approach. We’ll go inside” Gudan says and draws his blade.
It took me a while to get a grip of how the Delve should be run. I had to go back and forth between three-four different spots in the book. Encounter Locations, Delves, Site Battles and Lurking Foes. Despite going back and forth several times, it was very easy to get a hold of all the required information, and for a first timer, I must say it wasn’t very problematic.
So in 5L3e, Delves have an interesting mechanic. One party member does a complete move forward and then you roll on a random table, and then you deploy the enemy. This all makes this first move really suspenseful. There are more interesting things in delves, like having exploration markers that also double as patrol points for the unaware enemies, and which give random results when explored, additional rules (limited LOS, movement, can’t dash), but we’ll see them in practice as the dungeon is explored.
So Boots took the first movement in the dungeon, with a result of A quiet entrance. Afterwards I rolled up my enemy forces from the Lurking Foes table, and got a result of Giant Bugs, and a total number of 9. I have only 8 giant spiders miniatures, and two gigantic ones, so I was considering between using a Facehugger for the ninth bug, but instead I went with the gigantic one, but without making it any stronger. Our objective is to explore 3 markers, and then we can end the mission at any time.
For the dungeon, I used the tiles I have prepared from the Gamemaster Dungeons Set, which I found to be very easy to make. Unfortunately I hadn’t had the time to prepare many more different tiles that I wanted, so I had to make do with what I had prepared. I added various pieces of scenery from 15mm Fantasy Battle Valor Dungeon Accessories set, and for the doors, I had to make do with paper standees from my ancient Dragon Quest TSR board game. I really need to make some new doors, as I felt like this was the only part that felt out of place.
Two more spiders come from the north, and Omac Gadun shouts an incantation in an unknown tongue.
As if caught by an unkown hand, the three furthest spiders remain bound in place, unable to move.
Lady Liana of Trenne comes to Boot’s side. With her exquisite fencing skills, she confuses the spider just enough time, for her to find an opening and drive her sword deep in it’s belly. The spider is down. Another spider comes from the western corridor and jumps at the lady warrior. She dodges the attack and finds herself behind the beast, slashing at it’s torso, killing it with one swift strike.
Boots has loaded his sling with a lead bullet, he swings it, and with the momentum, the bullet lodges itself deep in the skull of another spider.
Boots climbs on top of the table and takes a shot at the creature, hitting it, but merely wounding it.
The spider doesn’t move, still bound by the sheer will of Omac, who still seems concentrated on the spell.
Myrick draws the string of his bow and shoots at the spider. The arrow finds its target, and another spider is down.
Seeing the massacre, one spider that was coming closer from the corridor, now turns and flees.
The Ravens have cleared Longhaven from the creatures, now they can explore.
As Liana finds herself in the middle of the western corridor, she hears footsteps approaching. She keeps her blade at the ready.
Solas is close by.
Liana comes in to the rescue, but she’s too late. She hits the spider with fury, her blade digging deep. The spider is dead.
She then goes to explore the opening that Solas found, as Boots tends to their fallen teammate.
Searching through a pile of bricks she finds an interesting potion, looking magical in nature. It’s in a glass flask with a dragon’s head as it’s opening. A swirling flaming red liquid splashes inside.
Having lost two members, the Raven gives the order to step out. They’ll search for anything of value on the way out, as they carry their fallen friends and get them to safety.
I decided to not proceed with searching the last two exploration markers, as I find the risk too high.
On the resolution stage I rolled for injuries. Bolga was just knocked out, but Solas had his sickle damaged.
On the experience and advancement, survivors got 2 XP, while the casualties earned 1 XP each. Boots advanced, and I rolled an increase to his Combat Skill, reaching +2.
The warband earned a loot roll, and they found a suit of partial armour.
On the last resolution step, news travels, rolled a result that a letter needs delivering from Newhorn to Langecliff.
Just outside the ruins, the warband gathered again. A quick look at their wounded companions, and they saw that it was nothing but a scratch. Solas was unhappy because as he fought with the last spider he hit his sickle on a rock and got it broken. He’ll have to repair it.
Boots found a nice chain mail shirt in his size, and quickly took possession of it. It would protect him well, hidden beneath his clothes. It was the first time he fought with a sling in such dark and close quarters, but he took knowledge of the lessons learned.
“Gather round!” Omac spoke up. “It was a successful endeavour. We cleaned up the old ruin. At least the top part. I’m certain there’s more to it, but we’ll come back a later time. For now, back to Langecliff for drinks and rest!”
As they reach the inn, the innkeeper eyes the group closely and gestures for Omac to come close. “I see you’re men who aren’t afraid to face the dangers that roam the countryside. I have family over at Newhorn. If the road ever gets you there and you send me word back from them in writing, I’ll make it worth your while.” The Raven nods and smiles, as he buys a round of ale for his company. They have earned it.
Outro
First of all let me state that I’m biased, and this is not a completely objective review. Nevertheless, I’m still entitled to an opinion, and here it is, with regards to the my first session of 5L3e.
In two words, my feeling of the new edition is that It Rocks!
The random tables are everywhere, but they’re intertwined, and what started as a simple Ride Patrol, ended up with my warband searching deep into a Delve!
The Delve mechanics are very well thought of, with the unaware enemies going from marker to marker. Even though my dungeon wasn’t the biggest possible, there was this one spider that was generated after exploring a marker (Footsteps result) and it never went the direction of the warband. Instead it kept roaming in the darker caverns. Looking forward to continuing the Delve, though I’m eager too for some overworld action.
The preparation effort I placed in the past months with miniatures and terrain seems to have paid off, but I still feel like there’s a 15% more that I want for completion.
I still haven’t settled 100% on the way that I will be presenting my posts, as I am constantly evolving my style.
As to the tools I used, I really like how I can use powerpoint to depict changes on the map over time, add new places and notes. I think this will be a game changer for me as to how I keep my notes. Now I just need to updated it all with the latest results and prepare for the next turn of endless adventure!
I intend to focus mostly on playing 5L3e on the coming time, and I’m really excited about it!
Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
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