Chapter Four – The Beastmaster
Marek receives word that a band of merchants lost a Weirdstone whilst traversing the woodland to the West near the border with forests of the High Elves.
He quickly fills in Holvand’s crew of this fact and they are riding within the hour, rested, re-equipped and hungry for a little more action.
On arrival they begin their search, unaware that an Elven Beastmaster is nearby, also intent on locating the Weirdstone.
Set up:
The party enter the woods from anywhere along the Eastern edge of the map.
The Beastmaster is positioned at a random point along the Northern edge the map accompanied by a horde of 3 Hoar Cats; he will always choose to move to cover and avoid direct conflict with the Party.
There are 2 hordes of 4 Manaworms placed randomly.
The Party need to traverse the map looking for the Weirdstone, there are a number of ways it can be found: -
Search the shrubbery - For each place they search roll a D20, on an 18 or more they find it. On roll one use a modifier of 1, add an extra 1 for each subsequent search.
He’s Loaded – The Monster (loner) nearest the PC finds the Weirdstone and needs to be killed to claim it.
Scenario Event – The Beastmaster finds the Weirdstone and will need to be put out of action to claim it.
That May Come In Handy – The PC spots the Weirdstone is the nearest patch of terrain.
Traps: There are no Traps - remove the card.
Wandering Monster: one of the Beastmasters creatures appears from a random table edge and activates.
Roll D6 -
1-2 - Cojo – War Gorilla
3-4 – Razorspline Rattler
5-6 – Sabretooth Cerberus
If the Wandering Monster rolled is already on the table then there will be no new monster and the one rolled will activate.
Monster Activates: If the activated monster is the Beastmaster then he will choose to move to cover if in danger and then call for another beast to spawn, again roll D6 and apply as above.
If his call is to a beast already on the table then that beast will activate.
If his call is to a beast already defeated then nothing happens.
If the Beastmaster is put out of action then he will flee the field then a Monster Frenzy occurs prior to all other creatures leaving the field.
The party can loot any bodies remaining at their leisure.
Victory Conditions:-
Find and claim the Weirdstone then escape off the map in any direction; regroup by the horses that are hidden in a nearby wood.
6XP for successfully completing the scenario and 1XP for putting the Beastmaster out of action.
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P1190079 by
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P1190080 by
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Turn One – Olvir rolls 3 dice with 2 successes, card is That May Come In Handy and the Weirdstone is in the bush next to him. He picks it up and walks off the field of play.
Game Over.
Reshuffled the deck and started again.
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P1190076 by
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Turn One – Olvir moves towards a patch of shrubbery and searches it. There is nothing of interest there.
Plissken moves towards Olvir’s position as the nearest horde of Manaworms, alerted to the party, start to move towards them.
Holvand teleports Wicked Lester to some nearby bushes then moves forward himself. Lester is quite disorientated by the move and falls to the ground, it takes a little while for him to regain his feet.
Turn Two – Olvir moves forwards again and searches another treed area, again coming up empty handed.
A Monster Frenzy ensues with Hoar Cats scattering and Manaworms continuing their advance towards the heroes. A Wandering Monster, a Sabretooth Cerberus, appears to the North of the group.
P1190083 by
markndebs, on Flickr
Plissken takes a hurried shot at the emerging beast but his bowstring snaps, he has another but no time to restring the bow at the moment.
As Lester eyes the approaching Manaworms it starts to rain, reducing the potency of ranged weapons, and a cry is heard from the location of the Beastmaster; he has found the Weirdstone.
The target for the party is now the Beastmaster, they can forget searching the shrubs and greenery and be as unconcerned as possible about the Sabretooth.
Unfortunately he is at the most Western end of the area, as far away from the party as is possible.
Lester attempts a shot at the Manaworms and his crossbow breaks – that’s both ranged weapons out of action in no time. Plissken can restring his but Lester will have to repair his after the battle.
Holvand attempts to Teleport himself to stand alongside Lester but the spell fizzles out.
Plissken takes some time and restrings his bow as the Beastmaster calls another beast to the field, this time a huge Razorspline Rattler appears on the Southern edge (Note I actually played Plissken twice this turn but seeing as it lead to another Beast being called it was no advantage to me).
P1190084 by
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Turn Three – Olvir is ambushed by a Manaworm which erupted from the ground at his feet. Luckily his fast reactions felled it with a single hammer blow. Flushed with success he rushes the horde of nearby Manaworms and destroys them all with Whirlwind of Steel.
Unfortunately this has put him within scent range of the Rattler. As it turns towards him Olvir notices that ‘He’s Loaded’ and the scales have a tint of gold indicating double the value – worth killing for.
The Razorspline Rattler hurries to Olvir and receives a crushing blow from his hammer but it managed to deflect the blow with it’s ‘Iron Scales’.
Holvand moves to get a good line of sight to rescue the dwarf with Teleport Friend for his next action.
Plissken has other ideas and moves into range then fires at the creature, sure of not hitting Olvir as he has the ‘ Fire into Melee’ skill. If both shots hit then it will be dead and the team can get a move on towards the Beastmaster as quickly as possible; only one hits though, taking the snake to it’s last HP.
As the other horde of Manaworms closes on Wicked Lester he moves away from them and towards the others.
P1190085 by
markndebs, on Flickr
Turn Four – As a further horde of 4 Manaworms appear behind them Plissken just freezes. The Razorspline Rattler moves back up to 2 HP ‘That’s a Big One’.
As Lester stumbles the other Manaworm Horde advances again; he regains his feet and prepares to fight.
Holvand advances to the West again and the rain stops, increasing Plissken’s chance of hitting things greatly.
Another horde, this time of 5, join those recently entering from the East – that’s a horde of 9.
Olvir and the Rattler trade blows, Olvir wounds the great beast again but then is forced to deflect a particularly savage strike by the creature.
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Turn Five – Plissken coolly releases an arrow into the melee and the Razorspline Rattler is no more, he then moves up the field way from the Manaworm hordes and towards the Beastmaster.
P1190088 by
markndebs, on Flickr
Olvir rushes to take the valuable scales of the snake, stumbles and has to spend time regaining his feet.
Meanwhile Holvand Teleports Plissken into shooting range of the Beastmaster, Plissken wasn’t quite ready for that and, although standing, is very disorientated.
Wicked Lester moves to the Rattler, draws his knife and removes the valuable scales – 38 Silver Pieces worth.
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Turn Six – Plissken shakes off the effects of being teleported, aims and shoots at the Beastmaster but misses by a mile – obviously some effects are lasting longer than he thought.
Seeing the Beastmaster under attack the Sabretooth finally moves towards the attackers, seemingly too late (Wandering Monster card).
Panicked by the shot from Plissken the Beastmaster moves to cover and calls for another beast; he gets Cojo who appears between him and Plissken.
P1190091 by
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The gorilla charges Plissken and delivers 2 wounds to the Snakeman.
Holvand tries to teleport Plissken away but, again, his spell fails whilst Olvir moves forward but can’t get to the fight in time.
Wicked Lester also advances but is attacked by a Hoar Cat which he dispatches with haste.
Turn Seven – Monster Frenzy allows all the creatures to advance except the Hoar Cats which scatter.
It also lets Cojo attack Plissken but the sneaky snake delivers a blow of his own to the gorilla with his knife, Olvir joins the fight and inflicts one more wound to the large beast.
A Manaworm moves ahead of it’s horde towards Holvand, but doesn’t quite make it. Holvand takes the opportunity to teleport Lester into contact with the Beastmaster and Lester causes a single wound.
Another Monster Frenzy!!
2 Manaworms are killed and Plissken is taken Out of Action by Cojo who inflicts a huge wound with his claws.
The Beastmaster swings for Lester but suffers another hit himself.
Turn Eight – Olvir strikes a mighty blow to the gorilla and Cojo falls stone dead, he then moves towards Lester to aid in slaying the Beastmaster but is ambushed and takes a wound.
Lester and the Beastmaster trade blows and wounds leaving both of them with only a single HP each.
Holvand fails to react and is caught by a small Manaworm horde which wounds him badly.
Things are looking a bit tricky.
Turn Nine – Olvir disengages from the solitary Manaworm using his Shield to block it’s attack, runs to the scuffling figures of Wicked Lester and the Beastmaster and delivers a blow reducing the Beastmaster’s HP to zero.
At this point he flees to field calling for one last effort from his creatures (Monster Frenzy). Only a small number of the beasts are able to reach the remaining heroes and they are all killed, any surviving now leave the area to safety.
The three standing adventurers run over to Plissken and check his condition – he’s dead. They then move to the Beastmaster to claim the Weirdstone and finally to Cojo to collect the silver ring which is worth a few Silver.
Sadly they carry their companion away to the tethered horses, contemplating how they might get him to a Temple for resurrection in the required time.
Loved this scenario though was tricky near the end, two characters with only one wound left and one dead.
At least they accomplished the mission and now have 2 Weirdstones; almost half way there.
06 December 2020, 03:52:07 PM