Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Seven - Deliverance Journey

After the previous evening's Scavenge Journey debacle... it was decided we should take the same group of Heroes through another Deliverance Journey - partly to bring the FEAR Level down - but also, it probably had the least potential for DISASTER in a game starting after Nightfall! If successful, this would also bring this group of characters to Level One and we could attempt the first Decapitation Journey NEXT WEEK! 

Once again, Amanda played Qulathis the Exile and Cleona Zeitengale and Finnegan played Dagnai Holdenstock and Octren Glimscry.

Oof! It was a rough start with THREE Hostile Groups in the first two rooms! All of them EMPOWERED due to nightfall! 

Dagnai Holdenstock started things off by charging into the first building, with perilous holes from whence bodies had been exhumed and turned into Zombies. There he battled swarms of bats! 

Qulathis joined him, but so did a massive swarm of Corpse Rats! 

Before Cleona and Octren could even leave the Landing Zone, a trio of the Ulfenwatch had charged in and were attacking Qulathis and Dagnai - and blocking their exit from the Landing Zone - and their escape from the Suffocating Gravetide, which would soon be upon them! 

Cleona and Octren made it out of the Landing Zone, just as the Suffocating Gravetide came roaring in... 

It was STAGGERING to see how many rolls they completely missed, when their chances of failure was 12-25%... 

Eventually their foes were vanquished and Octren and Dagnai rushed ahead, shouting warnings to the locals to get out of the way of the Suffocating Gravetide, which entered the first room, while Cleona and Qulathis were still in it... 

Glimscry opened a door into the next chamber, only to encounter a lumbering  Kosargi Nightguard right there... and Gorslav the Gravekeeper just entering from the square beyond!! 

Qulathis rushed forward and shot the Kosargi Nightguard full of arrows... which seemed to not bother it in the least... Qulathis grumbled to Glimscry "The worst thing about these is, not only do you have to kill them again, but you have to knock them over too!"

Cleona had pushed past the pair, to gain a foothold in the room, only to be charged by Gorslav the Gravekeeper

"WE NEED TO MOVE NOW!!" cried Octren Glimscry, as the Suffocating Gravetide bore down on them! 

the Kosargi Nightguard was bowled over and Qualthis and Octren pushed past the others into the chamber, as the others were still fighting Gorslav the Gravekeeper

Dagnai and Cleona took down Gorslav, even as the ground beneath their feet began to tremble signalling the arrival of the Gravetide! 

Qulathis had pressed ahead and cleared the way for the others to move through the square and into the next building, which had been occupied by a pair of Zombies

Beyond the chamber the zombies had haunted, was another square filled with swarming bats... and Watch Captain Halgrim. 

Glimscry pushed past Dagnai and beat the Watch Captain with his bewitched staff, cursing him and then crumbled the Captain with his deathly stare! 

Out of the and into the next building - there had been more zombies and just SO MANY rats... Qualthis had pushed her way in and been injured by their relentless assaults (two grievous wounds, and two diseased counters!!) 

Dagnai opened the way into the next square and Octren moved past... 

... and attacked the skeletal warriors of the Ulfenwatch that were lurking in the next building! 

Cleona and Qualthis, bot injured at this point, barely made it out of the building before the Suffocating Gravetide consumed the last of the Corpse Rat swarm! 

Octren moved through the building to see what was in the square beyond... Meanwhile a fancy mirror caught Dagnai's eye and he felt the need to investigate! 

In the square there'd been a Vyrkos Blood-Born vampire waiting in ambush! 

All had caught up by that point and their combined efforts took down the feral vampire, quickly and efficiently! 

Everyone rushed into the court to escape the Gravetide that had, once again, caught up with them! 

They barged into the next buiding, beyond the courtyard and smashed a pair of Ulfenwatch out of the way... 

and then knocked down more zombies in the street beyond... 

The next block over they found MORE Ulfenwatch!

and then MORE Zombies!?

All while warning citizens of he Suffocating Gravetide following hot on their heels! 

Glimscry was briefly trapped by a Zombie that pinned his ridiculously loan goatee to the ground! 

Then, who should appear again!? Gorslav the Gravekeeper!? 

They'd gained some space ahead of the Gravetide, so it wasn't as big of a panic... 

Dagnai held off Gorslav and a few Ulfenwatch that came to his aid. 

Cleona Zeitengale used her Staff of Celestial Devastation to blast Gorslav from afar... the bone-shrapnel from detonating Gorslav took out on of the Ulfenwatch as well. Luckily, Dagnai dodged the flying bits. 

Qulathis pushed past Dagnai and took down the last of the Ulfenwatch... 

It seemed the Gravetide was petering out and they crew decided to call it a night. 

Dagnai quickly searched on Mysterious Object... 

And then another... 

Meanwhile, Qulathis had summoned the Adamant for Extraction. 

And all made it out in one piece! Phew!

And with that the Journey was successful! The Extraction Event involved saving an apothecary who provided them with a healing potion for their next journey - no more starting at NIGHT!? All four characters gained experience and are now Level One - along with all the others! Some Armour upgrades were bought with the Realmstone acquired and given to Jelson Darrok! 

The Successful journey also lowered the Fear Level (but the Influence grew a bit more...)

Afterwards, I read through the description of the first Decapitation Journey, so everyone was clear on how it worked. Then there was a pretty vigorous discussion on which Heroes should be taken on the Decapitation Journey. Ultimately, I think it was decided that Finnegan will likely go back to playing Brutogg Corpse-Eater and Jelson Darrok, and Amanda will continue playing Cleona Zeitengale and and bring back Glaurio Ven Alten III - partly because the Monster's Lair is in old Ven Alten crypts! 

We will be playing this first Decapitation Journey next week on New Year's Day! 

Boxing Day at the Dragon's Den

Okay, I went out and bought a few more things on Boxing Day... 

It was a nice ride... Clear, which often means FUCKING COLD around this time of year, but today was quite mild (as it has been for a few days now)

I arrived four minutes after they opened and the store was already packed with people and the line went from the register all the way to the back of the store! (Not the longest line up I've seen in there on a Boxing Day... but still!) 

I just grabbed a few things and was on my way home within 20 minutes, most of that was standing in line! 

There was a PLAN for all the purchases. I went in looking for specific things, got those and got out! 

I got a box of Tree-Revenants (which can be built as Spite-Revenants) to have a second unit of Spite Revenants. With those, I can field the Lost-Song Spirits Regiment of Renown - which includes a Treelord and two units of five Spite-Revenants. The Regiment can be included in Soulblight Gravelords or Nighthaunt army! (or Idoneth Deepkin, or Ossiarch Bonereapers, or Flesh-Eater Courts - but I don't have any of those!) 

The box of Deadwalker Zombies I'm splitting with Orion. Units of Deadwalker Zombies are fielded in groups of TWENTY. Warhammer Quest: Cursed City only comes with ten. So I suggested we could split a box to add to our Cursed City zombies to each have a unit of twenty in our respective Soulblight Gravelord armies! 

The Arkonaut Company is to make up the crew of the Grungi's Face (and later the Grund) - Kharadron Overlord skyvessels the player characters encounter in the first few adventures - and if all goes according to plan, become recurring allies!

The Magister on the Disc of Tzeentch I picked up because Tzeentch is going to be a regular foe in the campaign (as ALL the player characters met because they were chasing down a Sorceress of Tzeentch)... but also this model leads the Disciples of Tzeentch Spearhead Army... and isn't normally available on it's own anymore (not on GWs online catalogue) and I DON'T want to buy a Spearhead Army box to play a Disciples of Tzeentch Spearhead army... because I just don't need MORE Kairic Acolytes or Tzaangors. I would also need to pick up some Flamers of Tzeentch, at some point, to finish up the army... But as Tzeetch are going to be recurring opponents in the campaign... I'd probably pick those up at some point, anyway... 

The book, Blackened Earth, is an adventure for Soulbound in the city of Greywater Fastness in the realm of Ghyran. Most of the antagonists are followers of Khorne and Skaven - both of which I already HAVE a lot of! And Sylvaneth also show up in the game (maybe allies... maybe opponents) but I have some of those already, as well! 

Probably getting ahead of myself as the campaign is currently heading towards Brightspear, a city in the Southwest of corner of Aqshy... and I have other adventures and an entire campaign (Shadows in the Mist) set in Aqshy... but I have high hopes it will be a fairly regular, on-going thing! 

After I got home we started playing ANOTHER game of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City! I'll be posting a game report of that later this evening! 

So this should be IT for the year... and hopefully shouldn't need anything else for a bit! 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Six - Another Scavenge Journey

Because Crises and Events had risen both the Influence and Fear levels for the campaign, Finnegan suggested possibly doing another Deliverance or Hunt Journey... but I pointed out that it was right back where it was at the beginning of the campaign... so it was decided to continue on with the original plan of doing a Savenge Journey... 

(Of course, it is suggested, when starting the campaign, to start with a Hunt Journey, to immediately start bringing down the Influence level! Ha!) 

As with the previous game, Amanda played Qulathis the Exile and Cleona Zeitengale and Finnegan played Dagnai Holdenstock and Octren Glimscry. I played all the hostiles and kind of kept the game moving forward. 

Because of the previous game's Extraction Event - where the Adamant was forced to land and do repairs - this adventure was played with the nightfall token in the Night position - the entire game was played after nightfall, and the hostiles would be considerably stronger!!

This was a somewhat larger map to play on.. Which didn't seem so bad. There was room to maneuver and get away to recover and take a breather...?

The Hostiles were alerted to the scavengers arrival, and were marching towards the drop zone before any of our heroes left it. The ulfenwatch fell in behind Watch Captain Halgrim. 

Octren Glimscry was the first to encounter them... 

Glimscry called out; "Ah, we meet again Captain Halgrim... my how quickly your masters have reconstituted your decrepit bones! You must be good and obedient little LAPDOG!"

Glimscry shot back a Gravesand Tincture and shuddered... "Now let me look into your cold, dead, empty eye sockets!" and unleashed his Hollow Stare... and the Watch Captain, once again, crumbled to dust... 

(the tincture damages Glirmscry, but the rest of his attacks deal WAY MORE damage for the rest of the round!)

Qulathis the Exile rapidly caught up to the strange old man and started shooting down Ulfenwatch. 

Dagnai joined them and took down another... but in their haste to chase down the Ulfenwatch and claim the first treasures... they'd left Cleona Zeitengalem at the drop zone still adjusting her equipment.  

She was quickly overwhelmed by swarms of bats that savagely attacked her! 

Qualthis came back to help... 

Octrem Glimscry was the first to explore a Mysterious Object... 

And THAT is where things started to go downhill... 

The search triggered a CRISIS

The Crisis involved a Gnawbone Stray showing up on the board and began a horrid yowling... 

...in the furthest corner from the Heroes!

While the undead cat meowled away, all of the Heroes were Fatigued and could not recovered until it was removed! FAtigued meant all Activation Dice rolled by the heroes instantly turned into ONES upon their activation... which meant NO running and NO special actions of any kind!! (other than with Destiny Dice!) 

The injured Zeitengale was chased down by swarms of Corpse Rats and further damaged and infected by their bite!

Unfortunately, the Stray stood right by the lynchgat that was also furthest from the heroes, and therefore the one where all reinforcements were arriving - so the Heroes would have to fight through any reinforcements that arrived, until they could get close enough that another was further away... 

They were first attacked by Bats and Zombies... which aren't so bad... except that zombies, at night time, ARE pretty nasty - they move twice as fast and do nearly double the damage and hit way better! 

... and then one of the Vyrkos Blood-Born vampires showed up as reinforcements... 

it was quicly followed by more Zombies... 

Qylathis and Dagnair fought off the feral vampire... 

Octren finally showed up to give aid. 

and the beat down the zombies 

But other reinforcements arrived - including a Kosargi Nightguard and chased down Cleona... 

Qlathis made it to the Gnawbone Stray and put it out of their misery... 

By now Cleona had four Grievous Wounds and was hanging on by a thread - only able to use Destiny Dice... and there were a few rounds were there was only one, on NO Destiny Dice! 

Octren came to help her. 

Qulathis decided to try and quickly run around on her own and grab treasures... She found some Realmstone, but as she approached the next Mysterious Object location, she found her path blocked by Deadwalker Zombies... and their master; Gorslav the Gravekeeper! 

While Gorslave the Gravekeeper is on the table, all Deadwalker Zombies almost always activate TWICE - once on their own activation card, and again as part of  Gorslav's activation.

(Did I mention that Zombies are WAY MORE DEADLY at night!?) 

So Qulathis quickly ran back to help the others try to deal with the Ulfenwatch and Kosargi Nightguard, before the Zombies and Gorslav could catch up... 

The ulfenwatch were easy enough to deal with... but the Kosargi Nightguard turned out to be a LOT tougher than the others they faced (Holdenstock hit it three times with his axe, rolling crits - which should have dealt nine damage, which would have just about killed it... but it reduced all three attacks by two, taking only a total of three... )

Then Zombies just started popping up all over the place... and dealing damage to everyone faster than they could recover... 

And then Gorslav caught up... 

The Kosargi Nightguard his Holdenstock with a crit, dealing SIX damage, which Holdenstock was not able to save against... which took him out of action! 

(in the confusion of the melee, however, the critically injured Holdestock was able to sneakily crawl away into a dark corner and then escape while no one was looking!) 

Gorslav pushed through and finally took down Cleona... a Zombie struck down Octren Glimscry... 

Qulathis decided there was zero chance of success and decided to make for the extraction point.. but she was too weak an injured (three Grievous injuries) to do much other than stagger away from the combat... 

The Deadwalker Zombies easily caught up to her and took her down... 

(While all were busy pursuing her, the injured Glimscry dragged away the unconcious Cleona Zeitengale!) 

Somehow 

Wow.... so our first UNSUCESSFUL Journey! There had been a Crisis in amongst all the action that had been successfully dealt with and dropped BOTH Fear and Influence during the game, so when they rose again at the end, they were pretty much back where they started... 

Checking for survival, luckily ALL the characters survived the ordeal! 

However, when we rolled for an extraction event, the Adamant was forced to land and make more repairs again! So, once again, the NEXT game would START after nightfall - when all the Hostiles are super deadly! 

Most disappointing was the fact that this group of heroes did not gain experience and make it to Level One!? I'd really, REALLY hoped (and, honestly, kind of expected!) that ALL the characters would be at Level One and we could attempt the first Decapitation Journey - going after one of Radukar's Lieutenants - and be able to pick out a team from all eight of the heroes... 

We did discuss the possibility of just doing a Decapitation Journey anyway, with the first four characters we'd played with... but for a number of reasons, decided just to do another one of the basic Journeys with this crew and (hopefully) get them all up to Level One... There were other reasons for this (partly because we had a limited window in which to play on Thursday, and I wasn't entirely sure we'd be able to get all the way through a Decapitation Journey in that time (there are two parts to each, which are, themselves, probably going to take as long as a regular mission...)

Everyone had been feeling that the first five Journeys had seemed... a little on the easy side... (with the exception of the first Deliverance Journey - but that was because I'd done a number of things WRONG, which had made that a LOT harder). I assured the others that with each level, they'll get considerably harder! The game starts off easy - so players have a chance to learn the game before it gets super deadly... 

This mission there were just a BUNCH of things that all wend wrong at the same time... Starting the game after nightfall (all the hostiles were nasty right from the get-go, rather than only getting really nasty near the end). The crisis that reduced them all to Fatigued... and could not recover (normally fatigued reduces all your activation dice to ones for a round, then you recover... and often it's only something affecting ONE character... but this was ALL of them... and they were fatigued for multiple rounds...) and then they couldn't get TO the Gnawbone Stray to resolve that crisis, because there were so many hostiles that blocked their way... then the Kosargi Nightguard AND Gorslav AND SO MANY Zombies all showed up at once... yeah... Kind of a "Perfect Storm" situation! 

Hopefully, going forward, everyone will all be a little more cautious and a little less cocky and inclined to go charging off on their own! The Journey was a wake up call. It can seem like it's all going so easily... until it isn't and things very quickly snowball out of control! 

Still good fun! Looking forward to playing again tomorrow... or... later today...?