Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars 14 - Desperate Frenzy Decapitation Journey

 And thus it was time to face Kritza the Rat Prince... 

A bit about this scenario... As with all the Decaptiation Journeys in the Night Wars campaign, the journey begins with a Haven Defence scenario - where the Vampire Lord lashes out at the Heroes and sends their minions to Haven to hunt them down. In this one the Heroes are attacked by a Vargskyr(!), a group of Deadwalker Zombies, some Corpse Rats, and THE ABHORRENT SWARM!!! (suddenly wished I'd gone with the LARGER option). The special rules for the swarm is it FILLS the room it is in, counting as having a hostile figure in every space in the room - so heroes cannot move INTO the room with it. If the Swarm moved into the room, all other models have a move of one (and can presumably move through spaces to get out!). The swarm counts as having 15 wounds and if it is destroyed returns to the table as reinforcements on it's next activation. At the beginning of each turn, just before the determine if the scenario is over step, the swarm deals two damage to any hero in the same room as it, and one damage to any hero in an adjacent room. If on its activation it starts on the table and there aren't any heroes in the room it is currently in... it moves to an adjacent room, moving towards the closest hero...

The swarm has to be destroyed four times to win the Haven Scenario.... all while being hunted by a Vargskyr, that just keeps coming back (66% of the time) any time it is destroyed, and being harassed by zombies and corpse rats... 

IF the Heroes survive that... they track Kritza back to his compound and have to kill him... Kritza always tries to run away from any heroes. and he is FAST... and has a LARGE estate... AND every time he takes ANY amount of damage, he bursts into a pile of rats, and reappears at a random spawn point somewhere in his estate... AND the Heroes only have SIX rounds in which to kill him, or he escapes!!

Wow... 

So here's where everyone started... 

Qulathis stormed into the square where Brutogg and a Vargskyr were staring each other down. The Aelf put a half dozen arrows into the hulking beast (the Vargskyr, not Brutogg!) and down it went! 

Glaurio advanced on a square where a horde of Deadwalker Zombies had gathered and started shooting them. 

Octren snorted some gravesand and started staring down the Abhorrent Swarm. rats started bursting everywhere - like a kettle of popcorn - but splattering gore and viscera everywhere!

(Octren Glimscry has an ability called "Hollow Stare" - it's a ranged attack, he stares at things and deals them damage! He also has an ability where he can deal himself damage and then his hollow stare deals EXTRA damage, for the rest of the turn... we've always joked that he either snorts gravesand - the realmstone of Shyish - or pours it into his eyes to do this... something BOTH... doing this and then doing three Hollow Stares dealt the horde enough damage that it destroyed it! Or perhaps did enough damage that the remaining rats fled... only to return again with friends the next turn!) 

And return the Abhorrent Swarm did... in the same room that Glaurio was in... with zombies... and rats... 

(Amanda was, not unjustly, concerned that this might be end of Glaurio!!)

Brutogg came running, stomping on groups of Corpse Rats along the way... 

From the doorway he started stomping and smashing rats by the fistful, there was no end to them.. 

Octren snorted another dose of gravesand and stared down the Abhorrent Swarm again... bursting hundreds like giant horrific pustules! 

Qulathis joined Brutogg and started shooting the remaining Corpse Rats and Zombies! 

The Vargskyr returned... or... another one did...? ALONG WITH the Abhorrent Swarm!! 

Glaurio covered in gore and blood escaped the room he'd been in... it was unclear how much was his and how much was just from being showered by exploding rats! 

AGAIN, Octren approached the Abhorrent Swarm

Qulathis stepped back out of the room and shot many arrows into the Vargskyr. Meanwhile Glaurio found himself surrounded again! 

Brutogg, after finished off the Vargskyr came running to help out poor Glaurio! 

When the Abhorrent Swarm appeared again, for the last time, it was Qulathis' turn to destroy it... She fired so many arrows into it, catching a dozen rats on every shaft it disrupted the nigh endless tide of of vermin and sent the rest scattering to the winds! 

The remaining zombies and rats shambled away, defeated... and our heroes followed them back to their master's abode! 

On to part two... we took a little break while I put away the haven tiles and set up Kritza's Mansion... 

It was a LARGE place... lots of space for the Vampire Lord to run around and disappear into! 

The Heroes arrive on his doorstep! 

Brutogg is the first to go... He charges forth, past the Vargskyr and to some Deadwalker Zombies, blocking his way. He doesn't even hit them, though, he just Shoulder Barges past them all! 

Then uses a Destiny Die to take one more step and take a swing at Kritza the Rat Prince. The blow connects, solidly - Kritza having failed to dodge - and deals FIVE damage (Kritza had only nine health!). The Vampire lord dissolves into a pile of rats that scurry off in all directions and... 

... reappears elsewhere in his mansion... 

Which just happens to be close enough for Glaurio ven Alten III to dash forth and blast Kritza with one of his pistols... AGAIN the Vampire Lord fails to dodge! He is dealt three more damage and bursts into a swarms of rats that scurry off into cracks, under furniture and behind curtains... only to reappear... 

RIGHT BEHIND GLAURIO!!?

Glaurio still had one more action, so he turned around and shot Kritza in the face... BLAM! The Vampire Lord, once again, dissolved into a pile of rats and scurried off, never to be seen again... well... until the final boss battle... 

Are... 

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?!?!

This is the SECOND TIME the heroes, faced with what looked on paper like a rather challenging scenario, KILLED THE VAMPIRE LORD ON THE FIRST TURN!?

WTF!?!

It took me longer to set up this mansion than it took them to play through the scenario and kill Kritza... 

They didn't even have to get to an Extraction Zone in this one.. at the start of a turn if Kritza was killed and it wasn't past Round Six, game over, players won... That did mean we had to finish out the round... 

So the Vargskyr did attack Brutogg... Brutogg just shrugged off its menacing blows... 

Some Zombies joined in... but they were even more useless... 

An extra Zombie appeared right in the Landing Zone and attacked Octren... who ignored it... 

The corpse rats were too far away to get to any of the Heroes - even with a charge!

And... that was that... 

All three Vampire Lords have been stripped of their power base... Now to face them all ONCE AGAIN in a FINAL BOSS BATTLE!!

That will be next week, though... 

Wow... I guess I better get painting the Warhammer Quest: Darkwater stuff!!!

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars 13 - The FINAL Pillage Journey

 After the success of the first two Pillage Journeys, a third was mounted... 

This time, however, at the entrance to the Teeming Warrens, they met its master, Kritza the Rat Prince... just waiting there for them with a Kosargi Bodyguard. 

Qulathis stepped in and put a couple of arrows into him. Then Brutogg charged in, bashed into the bodyguard, stunning it, and then took a swing at Kritza - his blow connected solidly, but the form of the Rat Prince collapsed into a hundred small rats that went skittering off in all directions! 

Brutogg then moved to block the Ulfenwatch from swarming into the square, so they would not be held up there as The Abhorrent Swarm could be heard not too far behind! 

Octren moved in and finished off the Kosargi Nightguard. 

Glaurio moved in, took a few shots at the Ulfenwatch beyond Brutogg... 

Then lit the room on fire! 

Pushing past the Ulfenwatch and burning more rooms... they then encounter zombies and Vyrkos Blood-Born, and MORE Ulfenwatch! 

Brutogg barrelled through the crowd to make way for the others behind. 

Glaurio stepped in and blasted vampires with his pistols! 

The vamprires and Ulfenwatch were destroyed and the Prince's holding set ablaze and they moved on - always just a few steps ahead of The Abhorrent Swarm! 

With the swarm just at their heels... they encountered RADUKAR THE BEAST! (and two of his Vyrkos attendants!). Qulathis started by putting a few arrows into the brute. 

Glaurio stepped up and unloaded his entire brace of pistols into the hulking behemoth! 

Octern then stepped in and finished off the teetering monster... 

Brutogg pushed past them all to have a snack... 

Filled up on Corpse Rats, Brutogg pushed on while the others burned the Rat Princes buildings.

More rats and bats and Ulfenwatch... 

STILL more rats and bats... 

Brutogg was getting a bit of a tummy ache from all the rats and bats he was scarfing along the way! 

Getting nearer to the end, they encountered MORE patrols of Ulfenwatch, and a flight of Fell Bats.! 

One large Fell Bat swooped in...

.. and carried Octren away to where it and the other Fell Bats could gang up on the frail little wizard... 

They soon learned he wasn't so frail... 

Brutogg pushed through to help his little friend.

Bats Cleared away.

As were all the Ulfenwatch! 

It was time to burn the last few buildings before the Abhorrent Swarm caught up to them! 

Everyone made it to the Extraction Zone!

And that was another successful Pillage Journey. Surely they were getting the Rat Prince angry enough that he'd make a mistake and strike out, exposing the whereabouts of his secret lair... 

Finally reread and figured out where we had gone wrong with the Special Rules for Kritza... so there was a bit more variety in encounters! Facing Kritza right at the start (AND the Ogor, AND a large patrol of Ulfenwatch) kind of slowed the group. Then encountering Radukar slowed them a bit more. This kept the Abhorrent Swarm a LOT closer behind them that the other two Pillage Journeys, which definitely added to the tension!

Now it is time to face Kritza the Rat Prince! The next Journey will be the Decapitation Journey!

Assuming that's successful, there is ONE MORE final boss battle, where the heroes will face ALL THREE of the Vampire Lords one last time!! and then... that's it! End of the Campaign and we move on to Warhammer Quest: Darkwater. 

There is a small part of me that is a little sad I was never able to track down a copy of Nemesis - the third campaign for Cursed City. But mostly I'm ready to MOVE ON!!