Sorry for the delay in posting, but we’ve been too busy playing to write up our latest battle reports until now! Here’s the summary of our second mission, the Tor Varden campaign, as usual there’s loads of pictures and Sarah our second player has no idea what will happen in each scenario…
You can read the story of our first mission here!
You can read the hero’s backstories here!
Tor Varen – Part 1: The Bridge Guards!
After burning the infected trees to the ground, Tristan, Freja and their companions began the grueling hike back to Tallis. As they approached the capital city of Alladore, it was clear that something was amiss, the streets were a hive of activity, with soldiers bustling around the gates and the clamour of townspeople evident on every street. As the weary rangers reached the Raven’s nest, Sir Bron was in the courtyard, barking orders at some Auxiliaries, noticing the hurried approach of the rangers, Bron stepped forward. “Well met my friends, glad to see your safe return, but as you may have noticed, you may not get much chance for respite, reports are coming in of a full-scale invasion across the border to Lorenthia, well what was Lorenthia. All available men are being mobilised to rush to the front lines. The king has ordered the Ravens to ascertain what has befallen the Tor Varden watchtower”. Turning to Arrin, the hardy knight spoke again “speaking of which, he wants to see you in the council chambers immediately Arrin “.
As Arrin rushed off to the emergency war council, Sister Genima, the Raven’s healer, a concerned look on her face, walks into the courtyard and escorts the exhausted Matheas, towards the infirmary to dress his wounded arm. Over the next couple of hours, the Freja and Tristan frantically put together an emergency party of all those who are available to investigate Tor Varden…
– Ilyse, embittered and hotheaded Conjuror.
-Freja, Ranger hero (Sarah’s character).
– Rejinalt, former city watch solider and hardy guardsman.
– Thressalia, trained Raven named after an ancient queen of Alladore.
-Tristan, Ranger hero (Tom’s character).
– Mikael, archer recruited from the ranks of the Alladore army.
– Ollaine Thatchwright, disgraced foot sergeant recently pardoned by the king.
Here’s the team for Mission 2. You can read their backstories in full here.
Before we continue with the rest of the bat-rep, here’s some photos and notes on the table setup!
As the Ravens neared the end of their arduous hike through the mountains, they approached the familiar surround of the Scree, a maze or rock cliffs leading to the Enthel river. As they cautiously reach the top of a small hill, Tristan silently signals to the party, having spotted Gnolls on the horizon, guarding the old stone bridge across the Enthel. Moments later braying and guttural laughter rebounds across the valley and Thressalia, shifts restlessly on Freja’s shoulder. The element of suprise belongs to the Ravens and they draw their plan of attack…
After hearing the sound of her hated foes, the Gnolls, former foot sergeant, Ollaine Thatchwright seemed to have slipped into a silent anger, as the Ravens prepared to advance, she immediately breaks rank and charges off among the winding paths between the rocks. Cursing her insubordination, and nervous about how his leadership will be perceived by the others, Tristan darts after her. Sticking with the plan, Freja and Ilyse hurry forward using the cover of the nearest cliff face to mask their approach, as Thressalia flies overhead.
Unaware of the approaching presence of the Raven, the gnoll’s continue their patrol. One of the gnolls, bored after hours on guard, climbs down from his vantage point to rest by the river bank. As the Ravens approach, a hard rain begins to fall.
Tristan finally catches up to Ollaine and they took cover behind a thorny bush. Berating her impulsiveness, Tristan tries to reason with Ollaine. “You don’t understand” she retorts with barely supressed rage, “They’re inhuman animals and they must all die”.
Sensing some disturbance through keen hunter instincts, or catching some faint smell on the breeze, the Gnoll chieftan seems suspicious and leaves the bridge and marches towards the Ravens …
Taking his lead from the chieftan who barks orders for his pack to remain alert, one of the lightly armoured archers makes his way round the edge of a large boulder, as he does so, he sees Freja crouching in the distance and readies his weapon!
Realizing the element of surprise will soon be lost, Freja draws her sword and rushes towards her quarry, batting away a crude arrow that flies towards her with her shield.
Spying the gargantuan Gnoll chief over the top of her hiding place, Ollaine, shankes off Tristan, draws her sword and charges the beast, shouting furiously. The gnoll Cheiftan unleashes a mighty blow from his axe, but Ollaine raises her shield just in time to block the blow, almost buckling under the force of the assault.
The rest of the Ravens rush on the offense as Freja quickly dispatches the archer with a blow from her sword. First blood is drawn and the battle ensues… Now within sight of the bridge and far away from cover, Freja is an easy target for another archer who quickly notches another arrow and fires. Sensing the oncoming arrow a second before it strikes, Freja dives for cover (heroic ability) and dodges the shot.
With the clamour of the battle ringing out across the valley and rockfaces, the gnolls empty their camp, rushing across the ford or towards the bridge. Spying his moment, a bedraggled survivor from Tor Varden, a soldier of Alladore named Terrin crawls out from under a bush and prepares to sneak into the camp.
As the gnolls begin to rush forward, Mikael shoulders his bow and climbs to the top of a rocky outcrop overlooking the bridge, hoping to bring his bow to bear on the enemy.
Pressing her advantage, Freja leads a charge towards the stone bridge, with the hardy Rejinalt beside her and Ilyse following behind, frantically preparing a spell. As they step onto the bridge they prepare to meet the charge of the gnolls.
As an archer readies his bow to shoot at the heroes, Ilyse fires a hastily prepared magical bolt, destroying the Gnoll’s arrow in mid-flight but missing the target by mere inches…
Meanwhile on the left hand flank, Ollaine batters aside the Gnoll chieftans blows, as she becomes more overwhelmed by the sheer strength of the chieftan, Tristan runs in to her aid, making a furious attack, he slides past Ollaine and slashes into the chieftan’s leg. As the beast recoils , Ollaine brings down a mighty blow, cleaving his helmet in two and ending the monster’s life…
As the heroes take to the bridge, the gnoll pack charges into battle.
Sensing her chance to outflank her enemy and scout ahead, Thressalia flies across the river, easily dodging the clumsy arrows of her foes…
As Ollaine pulls her sword from the body of the Gnoll chief she turns to Tristan, to admonish him for interrupting her fight, however, before she can speak the pair are charged by gnolls, who have rushed across the ford to defend their camp.
After reaching his vantage point, Mikael begins loosing arrows at his foes, though none find their mark. Drawing the attention away from the heroes on the bridge, the gnoll archer fires as Mikael but the arrow bounces of the rocks.
Meanwhile, emboldened by the sounds of battle, Terrin plucks up courage and rushes into the gnoll camp, finding it empty, he quickly grabs a familiar looking box and begins ransacking the camp.
Tristan and Ollaine beset by the gnolls begin a vicious melee, with blows struck on each side.
Meanwhile on the bridge, the gnolls continue to try and overwhelm Freja and Rejinalt. Ilyse quickly imbues Freja’s sword with magic before running back into the cover of the rock face. Rejinalt and Freja are hammered by a flurry of blows from the furious gnolls and fight desperately to hold the line. Seeing her opportunity Freja slashes out, her blade crackling with magical force, easily cuts through a gnoll’s weapon and strikes him dead. Meanwhile Rejinalt ducks a second too late and catches a blow to the side of his head, dropping his shield and slumping to the floor unconcious. As Rejinalt falls lifeless to the cobbles, the gnolls circle around to surround Freja, who now stands alone on the bridge!
Seeing the action unfold from his vantage point, Mikael realizes the desperate situation Freja faces. Saying a quick prayer to the saints, he stands above his cover. As an arrow from another Gnoll whistles over his head, he focuses, draws an arrow and fires! Striking the circling gnoll on the bridge straight through the head, the dying monster collapses on top of Rejinalt. (CRITICAL HIT!)
Drawn by the action, an enemy scout arrives on the table, a vicious red winged vulture. Set on flying ahead to the tower of Tor Varden and warning its evil comrades of the oncoming attack. Catching sight of the bird, Ilyse shouts a warning to Mikael.
As Mikael continues to fire back over the rocks at the Gnolls, he hears Ilyse’s warnings and moves back to try and shoot the vulture down.
Meanwhile, Terrin continues to ransack the camp, underneath a pile of rags and bones, he finds a handwritten journal or poems. Immediately recognizing it as belonging to one of his fallen comrades, the tender hearted soldier Merinck. He stashes it away in his bag.
Having dispatched their enemies, Ollaine and Tristan advance further, towards the ford. Lowering her shield, Freja finishes the combat on the bridge with a final strike from her magically enhanced sword on the last hapless gnoll.
Sensing the close of the battle drawing near, Ollaine rushes forward and fighting alongside Tristan, forces one of the Gnolls into the freezing water of the Enthell. Tristan makes a break across the bank, over the ford and into the camp where he finds the solitary soldier of Alladore.
Mikael looses arrow after arrow at the Vulture, however, the rain and the Vultures swift flight mean he has little luck in his efforts…
The next few turns end quickly, as the Ravens move across the conquered bridge, Terrin and Tristan escape with the chest from the gnoll encampment and Ollaine forces another Gnoll into the river.
As more Gnolls arrive in the scree, they panic and rush amongst the carnage ineffectively as the ravens make their escape. Though he was unable to bring the vulture down, the heroes escape the battle before the Vulture has time to reach the tower.
Freja and Mikael carry the wounded Rejinalt between them propped up, as they escape the bridge, however, the hardy warrior awakes. It seems the blow from the gnoll had rebounded off his helmet, though he was knocked out, he is uninjured and after a few minutes, seems back to his normal self and runs alongside his friends.
Thressalia, having scouted ahead, leads the party across the next section of the mountain pass. Over the next few hours, they avoid some further patrols of gnolls and as the dusk begins to set in, they make a rough camp in a rocky cave, Tor Varden visible on the distant skyline.
OUTCOME:
Though we were unable to effectively use the element of suprise, some lucky rolling meant we took the upper hand on the bridge. Isolating the Gnoll hero meant he was an easy target for Tristan and Ollaine. Thressalia took off the board quickly earning us some XP and Terrin was able to raid the camp. The treasure token resulted in an explosive cocktail which will surely come in use. Though Rejinalt fell, he was fortunately un-injured and will return full strength for the next game. Plus our rangers levelled up!
In the next chapter, The Ravens attack Tor Varden!!
Ravens of Alladore 
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