Harried and exhausted, the Ravens of Alladore attempt to escape the Shadow Deep, will they make it back to safety with the Lorenthian refugees?
Welcome to the fifth and final part of our mission 5 narrative battle report, in our ongoing Rangers of Shadow Deep campaign! You can read the campaign from the start here!
The challenge with this battle was to try and set the table up in a similar fashion to Mission 3 – Scenario 1. Once again I got out my granite effect table cover and a big bag of blue slate, excited to see how the battle would play in reverse! Here’s some pictures of the table set up…
Return to the Broken Stair:
After escaping across the swampland, the Ravens stopped for a brief reprieve on a small plateau at the foot of the terrible incline that stood between them and the sanctuary of Alladore. Drenched through from their swim across the black waters and exhausted after their flight through the darkness, the company stood around a small fire, trying in vain to dry their clothes. Ilyse sat collapsed on a rock, looking pallid, her fever evidently worsening. Having shouldered his weapons, Rejinalt stood with the widow Siarah and tried to comfort her young son. Kiera leaned in to see Siarah’s baby in arms, who seemed sickly and quiet. “How is she?” Kiera asked tentatively, “Not well. If we don’t find help soon, I fear she will…” Siarah trailed off, choking with tears.
The rest of the Lorenthian’s seemed gloomy and sat in silence, Lady Ailice lost for words and Greta and Ren clutching each other close. Robirt and Grieg counted the arrows they had left between them and divided them up. A short distance away from the others, Kris examined the stairs in front of them with a frown. “What is it Kris?” Freja enquired, stepping towards him. Kris replied, “Its strange milady, the landscape seems to have changed, subtly. At first I felt it may have just been rockfall from above, but the stairs seem to have shifted slightly…” Kris’s musings were interrupted as Arthir returned from scouting behind them. “Best get moving Tris, I can see more gnolls amassing on the other side of the waters!”. Tristan turned to the assembly, “One last push everyone, come on, we have to leave now!”.
The company draws together and prepares to ascend the steep slopes to the top of the cliff. Tristan and Freja take the lead, with the Ravens forming a protective guard around the refugees. Kiera and Arthir bring up the rear.
No sooner had they begun their advance, than the familiar and maddening buzzing of giant flies could be heard. For a brief second, Freja’s heart sunk with disappointment before her warrior instincts and the resignation of battle set in. “On guard everyone, watch above us”! The raven’s cast their eyes about warily to try and spy their quarry before they attacked…
Within a few seconds, the first of the bloated beasts flew into view, divebombing the head of the column. With a deft side step, Freja slashed upwards, her blade wounding the giant insect before it circled around to face her again for another attack.
Drawn on by the shouts of the refugees, two more giant flies advance towards the column from directly in front of them.
As the panicking Lorenthians press against her, Ilyse is momentarily distracted. Seeing an opening amidst the rocks, she thinks she can spy one of the holes from where the flies are emerging from. Steadying her shivering arm, she recites a familiar cantrip and casts a burning mark by the opening.
As the fly circles round again to make another pass at Freja, Tristan springs forward slashing his sword, as the giant insect wheels around the flat of his sword catches it at full force and with a sickening crunch is swatted out of the air and dashed on the rocks.
Glancing around, the heroes at the head of the column see the next two flies buzzing towards them, steadying themselves on the uneven slope they ready their shields and usher the refugees back behind them.
Still focusing on the hole, Ilyse grins as she sees another insect crawl from beneath the rocks. Almost instantly, her spell activates and the monster is incinerated in a sudden explosion of fire. A small shower of pebbles and dust is thrown into the air and clatters on the cliffside.
Another giant fly tries to attack from the right, Robirt and Grieg quickly notch arrows to their bows and fire. “YES! GOT ONE! TAKE THAT YOU BASTARD!” shouts Robirt as an arrow finds it mark and a fly is cast off the side of the cliff, skewered by the shot. Knowing it was actually his arrow that slayed the beast, Grieg decides not to correct his comrade and merely smiles.
Breaking into a haphazard run across the shingle and uneveen scree of the cliff path, Rejinalt and Freja charge the next fly. As Rejinalt’s shield batters it to the floor, Freja steps in and slices it in two with her sword.
Having defeated the immediate foes, the heroes press their advantage and steadily move the column forward up the cliff face. They still have a long way to go before the summit.
As they cautiously step forward, the earth beneath them begins to tremble, a small fissure to their left cracks open another inch and is it does great plumes of black smoke drift up from inside. Caught off guard, the company is engulfed in the thick and poisonous smoke. Tristan sets about clutching his side, coughing and spluttering. Trying to shout out and warn Siarah and her children, Rejinalt gasps as he inhales some of the smoke. Ahead of him he sees Siarah desperately trying to cover her baby, as her son begins to cough. Doubling over with pain, Ilyse collapses to her knees.
Covered by the thick cloud of smoke and the cloying fumes, the company halts. Covering her mouth with her arm, through squinting and stinging eyes, Freja sees the form of another fly hurtling towards Tristan. Jumping forward with her sword slashing out before her she meets its charge and cuts it down.
As the smoke begins to dissipate, the Ravens recover and take stock. As the company begins to resume their climb, Tristan jumps onto a nearby rock to see if he can see any more flies before they suprise the party.
The company advances further round a bend in the path. As they do so, Freja casts another burning mark to protect their flank and urges the refugees on-wards.
Disturbed by the presence of their enemies, more flies crawl out of the holes and set their sights on the heroes.
Arthir shouts out in alarm as he is caught unaware by another fly, which dashes out from behind a rock to pounce on him. Reaching the bounds of Freja’s spell, the burning mark explodes. As the dust clears, Arthir curses as he sees the fly is still alive and poised to attack. He quickly pushes the nearest Lorenthian on-wards and readies himself.
Through the dust of the explosion, Kiera and Kris see another pair of flies emerge from another nearby hole. Fearing they might be caught and overwhelmed, they bark orders at the whimpering Lorenthian couple, Ren and Greta, who manage to find some extra strength to hurry upwards. Kris fires towards the enemy but misses his mark.
As the Lorenthian’s struggle further up, Tristan pushes back through them and forms a defensive line with Arthir and Rejinalt, finding their footing on the loose rocks. Tristan draws his bow as the veteran warriors line up their shields.
A fly divebombs them from the right, but Arthir and Rejinalt strike it down with keen blows from their weapons, before quickly reforming their defensive line.
The next two flies prepare to strike. Watching his quarry with his keen eyes, bowstring pulled back and arrow drawn at the ready, Tristan fires and the force of his shot downs the first monster, which falls limp to the ground.
“You keep going Tris” Rejinalt shouts above the buzzing, “We’ve got this last one, make sure Siarah and the others are safe”! Tristan nods and rushes off up the cliff after the others. As the next fly crashes into them, Arthir slices off it’s wing and the twitching insect falls prone to the floor. A few quick and angry stamps from Rejinalt and its twitching ceases abruptly
While the defensive line at the rear valiantly defends the column, the heroes have managed to edge closer to the summit. Lady Ailice, stops to lend a hand to the elderly Greta, as they step up over the rocks. Casting her eyes about, Kiera suddenly panics. As Lady Ailice has turned towards Greta, another huge and hideous fly has sprang up from the rocks. “LOOK OUT!!”, she shouts and rushes in to block its deadly charge.
Turning around in alarm, Ailice flinches as the form of the fly rushes towards her, just before it strikes, she sees a blur of black as Kiera comes barreling into it from the left. Crashing into the fly, she knocks it off course, but is thrown on her side precariously close to the edge of the precipice. As Kiera struggles to stand, the angry fly circles around and rushes towards her, striking into the prone apprentice with tremendous force. Ailice gasps in horror as Kiera staggers backwards and plummets off the edge of the rocks, tumbling down the cliff side before landing hard on the rocks below…
Lady Ailice, draws her dagger in desperation as the fly turns towards her to pounce once again. Below them over the edge of the cliff, she can make out the black clad form of the apprentice ranger, lying lifelessly on the rocks.
Seeing the events unfold, the feverish Ilyse, steadies herself, her eyes burning and her legs weakening below her. In desperation, she widens her stance, draws her palm up before her and starts to chant. The giant fly circles round ready to charge into Ailice again. Time seems to stand still for Ilyse as the final words of her chant turn into a shout. Pouring the last of her magical energy into the spell, she feels the power course through her outstretched arm. With a sudden burst of electrical fire, a beam of blue light arcs out of her hand into the fly, disintegrating it instantly. As the beam dissipates, Ilyse feels her weary legs give way and collapses to the floor.
Meanwhile at the reverse of the column, Rejinalt and Arthir hear the shouts of alarm from above and see the arc of blue light pierce the darkness. Rushing forward Rejinalt tries to push his way forward through the crowd of heroes. Arthir turns to follow him, but before he can, out of nowhere, another fly attacks him from above.
Quickly, turning, he slashes out with his sword and sees the edge of his steel blade slice into it’s abdomen as it flies towards him. Dead in the air, the lifeless fly bounces off him before falling harmlessly to the ground. Before he can find his footing again he wheels round as he hears more buzzing behind him.
Desperately, trying to find his feet, the next fly rushes him, bitting into his arm. Staggering backwards, Arthir falls flat on his back and before he knows what is happening, is rolling down the side of the hill side, tumbling over jagged rocks towards the edge of the cliff. Grabbing hold of the nearest rock in a mad panic, he sees his shield plummet past him into the depths below…
With fear for his comrade in his heart, Tristan rushes towards the back of the column as he sees the flies swarming towards Arthir. A calm comes over him as he draws an arrow. Silently and without thought he fires with impossible and expert aim. The arrow flies true, interrupting the flight of the insect and sending it careening off headlong into the rocks, dead.
Though his arrow flew true, Tristan despairs as below them, more flies move in on Arthir’s position. Desperately, the aged man at arms clambers to his feet, bruised, battered and covered with cuts and grazes from his fall. He winces as he picks up his sword to desperately defend himself. The two flies fly towards him with dizzying speed and Arthir tries in vain to slash at them clumsily with his sword. One of the flies bites into his side and he loses his footing. Staggering backwards, the other fly crashes into him and he falls backwards over the cliff edge, plummeting out of sight into the darkness below.
“No!” shouts Tristan, rushing back along the path, before being stopped in his tracks by Kris, “No Tris, there’s nothing we can do for him now, we need to press on, get these people back to safety”. Tristan nods in sad agreement and turns back towards the column. One last fly rears itself up over the rocks, as if in spite, but is quickly squashed by Robirt the Lorenthian archer…
Freja rallied the heroes at the head of the column and ushers the refugees forwards over the summit. The heroes climb over the summit into Alladore, staggering onwards into the nearby woods, Tor Varden loomed above them on the horizon as they collapse into the grass.
Epilogue:
After ten minutes or so, Tristan drew himself to his feet. Kris looks up enquiringly and Tristan meets his gaze, “Kiera… she might yet live. We have to go back…” Kris nods and stands up and they head back towards the cliff edge. As they reach the treeline, they see a black clad shape crawling towards them. Breaking into a run, they reach the bloodied form of Kiera. She looks up, knowing that against all odds, she has made it to safety, before she slips into unconsciousness. Kris and Tristan quickly pick her up to carry her back to the others.
An hour or so passes before Freja hears branches breaking in the woods ahead of them. Still vigilant from their ordeal, she jumps up and draws her sword before relaxing her guard as the familiar form of the archer Mikael pushes through the scrub line, his black Raven garb striking a contrast with the blue uniforms of the soldiers from Tor Varden who fall in behind him. “By the saints!” he shouts in joy, ” We’ve been patrolling every day awaiting your return. It’s been nearly three days, we’d almost given up hope! I see you’ve not returned alone either!”. “Come lets return to Tor Varden, it looks like you’ve tales to tell”.
The company begins a weary and slow walk back towards the outpost of Tor Varden, filled with relief and hope. As they continue, Freja catches nervous glances from Mikael. Drawing him to one side, she speaks to him quietly as they walk on “What is it Mikael?”. “Your pardon milady, there’s something else. Something happened while you were away, something with Ollaine… I don’t know how else to put this milady, but Ollaine, she, well she’s killed another one of us. Killed another one of the Ravens ………”
Outcome:
Wow, what an amazing end to our run through Mission 3. We weren’t sure just how this scenario would play in reverse, but it proved desperate and deadly. Trying to guard all the civilians on the narrow path was difficult and despite the flies being normally manageable enemies, the risk of falling on this scenario makes them extra deadly. Just as we approached the summit both Kiera and Arthir fell to their doom!
Luckily, both of them recovered without injury. However, we couldn’t figure out how to get Arthir back with the others story-wise. For now he will remain missing and presumed dead, but hopefully we’ll find a way to bring him back into the story at a later date…
Next:
- Its Raven vs Raven as Ollaine fights for her life in a custom companion scenario REVENGE AND RETRIBUTION!
- My long awaited tutorial on how to make COBBLE STONE BASES!
- Tristan and Freja are sent on an errand to the front-lines but encounter more than they bargained for in BLOOD MOON!
Ravens of Alladore 