Well Monday is here and that means another adventure. This week I’ll be experimenting with something new for me, perhaps old for others but it should be fun regardless.
This week is heavily inspired by two things, a book in the novel series by Adrian Tchaikovsky and an army faction in Warhammer Age Of Sigmar, the Idoneth Deepkin. So with that in mind let’s set sail on this adventure.
From the deep
11MoDo
As the party travelled along the road the crisp, refreshing salt air of the sea washed over their senses and sore muscles. As the dusk sub painted the seemingly endless waves of the southern seas with a pink and orange glow the party looked upon the citadel they were approaching. Large and foreboding the stone tower dominated the countryside. The keep itself was surrounded by impressive buildings and walls that separated the city from the outer buildings, homes and smaller shops that made up the city of Arciryas, or Nobel Ship in elven.
The party waved to passing by guardsmen who patrolled the roads near Arciryas as the party began to set up camp for the night. Despite the roads being famed for their safety they were not expected by the lord of the keep until tomorrow and they didn’t wish to travel through the night if there was no need.
The spring night air was warm and sweet which complimented the meagre stew they cooked up nicely. As dusk lost its duel with night the sky was flooded with stars and only the moonlight cast a silvery net across the ocean, not 200 feet from where the party camped after the low tide swept out.
An hour after dinner the party was woken up by Zandar who was on guard. Several figures had been seen leaving the water and stalking towards the campfire.
Quickly casting a cantrip to look like the party were still huddled around the fire, or asleep, the group hid behind a low sand dune and waited.
A spray of magically created water flew fourth causing the fire to splutter and go out as several lean and lithe figures darted out of the shadows to surround the illusionary figures.
The party snapped into action and spang from their hiding spot, the figures being caught in a trap charged into an aggressive counter attack. After a brief fight one of the figures lay dead at the feet of the adventurers and the other humanoids had fled into the shadows and waves.
Investigating the body of the attacker they identified a kind of elf. Fine scales covered its skin and small gills were located just behind its ears. It’s armor was dark and leathery whilst its weapons looked to be made of extremely sharp shells, teeth and bone.
Wrapping it in cloth they set it close to the fire and went back to resting.
In the morning no trace of the body could be found as the tide had taken any trace of footprints with it.
The party approached the city of Arciryas to the scene of a large portion of the occupants of houses outside the wall in despair. When talking to the townsfolk they all reported the same thing.
One of their loved ones was found dead in the morning.
One person, a human male, came forth having heard a shriek of alarm before walking into the room his wife was in. A lithe shadowy figure was seen standing over the body of their wife, a silvery blue light being drawn from the now lifeless body into a strange stone held in the hand of the figure. When he charged the figure, his fish gutting knife held ready to impale the figure leapt through the window just in time, narrowly avoiding the now widowed man’s attack. He did, however, leave a strip of clothing that the man’s blade cut from him. A dark shark leather.
Taking this info to the ruler of the city, Lord Blake Trevally, he requested the party join him in private where he quietly reported that the attacks were happening up and down the coast. When the party recalled their encounter the night before he confirmed that similar skirmishes with the seafoll had occurred. He had recently requested a wizard of some renown research a way to take the offensive but he hadn’t heard from him in a lighthouse to the north.
If the party is willing, Lord Blake requests them to check on the wizard and perhaps be willing to look into the matter further upon their return.
That’s all we have for now, thanks for joining for the start of the week and the start of a new adventure. Come back tomorrow to look at a few NPCs and lets start this week off to a good start.
Don’t forget to let me know if you like the content, if there are things you want more of or things you hope for this week. And as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
Saturday is here and for me that means going a smidge off script. As some of my posts in the past have indicated D&D, well TTRPGs, isn’t the only gaming system or genre I have in my life. Yes, I am in a relationship with something that isn’t normally thought of when you say that you are a Dungeon or Game master. I adore Warhammer.
Not the sci-fi goodness with the pew-pa-pew lazers and such, but the fantasy heavy version complete with dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, undead, and of course, humans.
For me though it isn’t just a nail biting 30+ minute game of tactics and strategy involving the movement between 5 and 200 miniatures, but for me it’s the sparks of inspiration that come from them.
Currently I have a sizeable force of Nighthaunt; tormented specters that haunt the mortal realms, a burgeoning force of Slaanesh; the worshipers of chaos and all things in excess, a small swarm of Skaven; my beloved crazy rat-men, and enough Flesh eater courts for a few people to have full armies from just my collection alone.
The reason for the choice in these armies isn’t really tied to their effectiveness on the battlefield, most of them currently are predicted to see a podium spot in tournaments at the moment, but for an aspect of the army that just brought me in.
For Nighthaunt it’s the grim-dark nature of the army. A endless procession of tormented spirits bound to the great necromancer Nagash, cursed for forever do his bidding as a vindictive punishment against those who lived their mortal lives so frivolously. Their ghostly forms ‘floating’ across the battlements of the game table brings back that feeling when (spoiler ale… no if you haven’t seen Lord of the Rings, return of the king by now it’s your own fault) the hundreds of cursed warriors, now horrible specters swept from their pirated ship and lay waste to the armies sieging Minas Tirith. The armies of evil including Orcs, monstrous elephants and other worshipers of Sauron fell to the ghostly men their incorporeal blades cutting through the flesh and armor of their enemies easier than they would have in life. For this one feeling alone I would collect hundreds of miniatures to bring to the table, but the models are not only used for warhammer but used for D&D as well. The battles, such as one last weekend where the swarms of spirits marched to meet an army of mortals and daemons of Khorne, the chaos god of blood, war and murder, met me in the middle of a battlefield where my ghosts swarmed, pined down and dragged the chaos worshipping zealots to their graves. The ghostly form of my army, and luck from the dice gods, saw key bottlenecks holding firmly with my army of specters until only the dead was left on the table.
These battles give me the desire and inspiration for not only writing stories of these wars, battles and characters but also for encounters – such as the banshee in the woods from a few weeks back (what calls from the woods) as well as a few other sessions yet to come, if the party ever escape from the ghoul nest they are currently calling ‘base camp…’
This leads me to ghouls. Now I love flesh eater courts – not for the sheer amount of gore that the army is normally portrayed to be involved in, or the grisly nature of the army but because of the creation story, and the lore behind them.
Let me set a scene.
Sir Reginald Fauxhammer stood with his brothers and the hundreds of men at arms in front of him. Patting his white mare trying to calm its nerves as the barbaric creatures looted a village just ahead he rode in front of his men.
“Today we teach these invaders that this is our land, our people and that we will not take this any longer. For too long have we allowed these creatures to trespass onto our land and slay our people – almost content enough to leave villages and towns filled with the corpses of men, women and children. To this I say today is your last day, we take the battle to you and then you shall have a war! King Krull in his heroic bravery has announced that he will lead the charge, fear not Percy – he is on Snapjaw, his dragon. None shall slay our king. Not if we, the Nights of Hallowmourne have anything to do with that.” He laughed at this, his men laughed to. For many battles their king was never seen without his knights and today would be no different.
A shriek and a blast of fire could be seen in the diming light, the smell of battle on the wind.
“I do believe, the king calls for us! ride forth brothers. To the king!” Sir Reginald kicked his mount into a gallop, so in tuned with his steed he could feel his own legs pumping in time with the beasts.
– Across the field –
Thomas has just put his daughter to bed, his wife, Chrissy was washing up the dishes in the sink. The pale light from the sun setting over the forest to the west made it difficult to see the sprint colours across the meadow – but today the setting sun caused strange shadows to seem to dance across the pastures and flowers. Giving his wife a kiss and closing the door behind him he set off to take first watch at the edge of the town – rumors’ of late had spread of a dark shadow spreading through the land. Probably just a messengers tale, they had not received one for quite a few days and they were now sorely overdue. News from the capital had said that crusades into Shyish were going well, that the cannibals and nightmares that called that unholy place home were meeting blessed steel and that even Sigmars chosen, the Stormcast eternals, had been seen entering cities and towns as of late – brought down from Azyr in blinding bolts of lightning.
A whistling in the wind gave warning to the beast before the smell did. A corpse, a rotting mass of bones and flesh fell from the skies just in front of him. Large nightmarish wings spread out wide and the Zombie dragon belched forth a plume of rot that killed a dozen people instantly in front of him. Throwing himself against the wall of a nearby building the zombie dragon strode forward, barreling down the city streets and into a crowd of people who were too stunned to move. The figure on its back, large pointed ears, fingernails nearly as long as the dragons teeth and the blood, it was covered in blood. Body parts, taken from its victims seemed to adorn the creature like a mantle, a crown of fingers seemed to almost be sewn into the creatures head as its mount bounced, like a massive killer puppy, into the crowd of people. As the Dragon bounced and ate the creature howled and screeched into the setting sun.
That’s when Thomas heard it. The thundering of feet. Turning to look at the now visible tree-line what he thought were shadows were figures, hundreds of figures darting forward naked apart from the gore that covered this pale forms. Larger beasts seem to barrel past then, their large powerful legs seeming to gallop across the ground, at the head of the pack a particularly wicked looking monstrous figure ran, snarling at the others, the sun causing its white skin to glow in the failing light.
Oh Sigmar save us, the flesh eater courts had arrived…
To themselves the Flesh Eater courts are noblemen and women. They fight for their kings and have grand feasts in their lieges honor. To everyone else they are a raving mass of mad cannibals. Driven insane by delusions of grandeur that stem from their ghoul kings (so delusional that their very presence brings insanity to normal man) these ghouls, the small ‘serf’ or larger ‘knights’ of the courts don’t see themselves eating piles of dead corpses – they see magnificent feasts piled high.
For me these armies, inspiration for the ghoul pit my party currently find themselves in, are another source of inspiration, miniatures for the table and fun which gives me the recharge time I need so that I can write more, or come up with newer and more exciting adventures for my party.
Thanks for jumping on today, getting a brief introduction to another source of inspiration for my games and maybe walking away wanting to investigate warhammer yourself.
Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the final writeup of this weeks adventure, and as usual don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
A quick writeup for a 2000 point game of warhammer age of Sigmar 3.0.
The armies
Skaventide (Moulder) – The Brazen Wolfe
A bit of a long list to get in a single image (on a phone) but there it is. Normally I try and run with a Warlord battalion for an extra artefact/free 1 command point. The idea here was for the board with meaningless (sorry rattos) chaff and play the objective game. I hadn’t used rat ogors before in 3.0 but remember them being mediocre. So I was going to use them with my hellpits as a counter punch once my giant rats failed.
Was also hoping to use unleash more more beasts command trait multiple times per which meant making sure that they would be dying in every phase
Blades of Khorne – Josh
A pretty scary list with a focus on stacking +1 attacks on the bloodthirster and bloodletters to try and dish out scattered mortals. Having dealt with bloodthirsters of Insensate rage a few times and having witnessed them butcher armies before I was a bit worried. I mean the thing is only 280 points!
A big difference in drops here so skaven was my ever going to get the choice. With that in mind lets talk about the battle plan.
Power in numbers
An interesting battle plan. 6 objectives 3 just in each players territory. You score 2 points per tactic you complete but only score VP when you burn and objective (starting at round 2) which is worth more points the longer you have hold it. 2 points if you just nabbed it, 4 points if you held it the turn before the current and 8 points if you held it since turn 1.
Deployment
Deploying a wall of giant rats across the entire front of the battlefield with rat ogors as a second wall followed by heroes, support units and hellpits to ensure that the bubbles from the master moulders, pack masters and bell had good coverage for buffs.
Khorne had heroes up front to lead the charge with the blocks of letters covering the three objectives. Wrathmongers and Bloodsecrator auras overlapping to give the majority of army giving a bonus +2 to attacks. The bloodmaster was positioned within teo blobs of bloodletters to get them to fight straight after him.
After deployment I selected my hellpit on roids to be loved by his daddy master moulder more, adding 1 to his already impressive 14 wounds. Karanak selected my bell as his target of affections.
Josh gave me 1st turn.
Round 1
Skaven turn 2.
Tactic: Ferocious Advance (2 units of giant rats and a 2 man unit of rat ogors)
I tried to generate an additional command point for my master moulder with rabid crown but failed as I rolled 2. My opponent bloodthirster gained an additional unbind with heroic willpower.
The bell tolled and rolled a 2, giving myself 2 mortals and killing 1 rat from my 12 rat shield and dealing 3 wounds to my master moulder near my bell. No shrugs were made. I then tried to cast warpgale but failed with a double 1. Rerolling with the generic command trait master of magic i re-rolled the casting attempt getting double 1s again. Oof. Suffering 2 mortals (non shrugged) this ended my hero phase… The great horned rat was obviously mad at me
Running my up units I made a line to prevent my opponent from getting any where near my objectives whilst I set up for a counter charge if he fid made his way here. I scored 2 vp
Khorne turn 1
Heroic will power went off for his bloodthirster and I healed 1 wound on my screaming bell.
He then ran up most of his army to push into the middle of the field, shooting with his flesh hounds borks at my giant rats on the left flank.
The skull cannon shot at my bell and failed to wound
They fell to the dogs attack (2 models died). The dogs then charged the rats and they died easily to 12 attacks. Spending a cp and rolling a 5 I summoned the 6 man unit of rats into his backline threatening his left and middle objectives.
Round 2
Skaven turn 2
Selecting monstrous takeover i knew id be able to keep one of my hellpits on the objectives away from the bloodthirster. Opting to heal my screaming bell (heroic recovery) I rolled a 6 and healed 1 wound.
Casting spells I managed to get warpgale off dealing 1 mortal to his blood thirster but halving his move,run and charge characteristic. My second spell, mystic shield, was unbound by Karanak dealing 2 mortals to my bell.
Moving my giant rats up to screen my forces and backing them up with rat ogres, moulder support and hellpits I moved a bit too close to his bloodthirster so he redeployed closer to my rats and out of sight from 2 of my rat ogor warp guns.
My screaming bell went down one gnawhole on my right side of the table and to the left to support where the majority of my troops would be.
Shooting, not much. Dealt 1 wound to bloodthirster. No charging was declared as I braced for the khorne charge.I
Scored 2 points this round. And opted to not burn
Khorne turn 2
Ok. Pain town. Battle tactic was broken ranks, picking my 12 man unit of rats near the bloodthirster and 20 bloodletters. On the right of the map. Healing bis bloodthirster to full he moved to get army wide charges on my forces, but. He ignored my 6 man unit of giant rats on his left objective – moving off it so I gained control.
A small misplay on my behalf, I redeployed my rats when the first unit got within 8 meaning his bloodthirster could still move to get to 3″ away. I rolled a 1.
Shooting, a pot shot from his skull canon missed when targeting my screaming bell.
Charge phase. Oof. bloodthrister rolled a 8 (halved to 4) and just made his charge. If he had failed Josh would have struggled to get his battle tactic. Everything else made the charge into my rat walls and engaged all my rat ogors and my suped up hellpit
Well well. The giant rats all died, except my left wall who only suffered 3 casualties from the 6 bloodletters who attacked.
The bloodthrister attacked and killed the giant rats, the master moulder and a rat ogor model. Luckily it was only one proc of outrageous carnage.
My rat ogors (6 man unit) engaged. Killed the bloodmaster and 4 wrath mongers with only 3 models being within range to fight. Wow.
My 6 man giant rats on the left flank, protecting my pack masters and hellpit from being charged, managed to kill 3 blood letters well done rattos! They also shuffled along so that they would block his skullgrinder from getting anywhere near my hellpit. The bloodletters retaliated and killed 3 rats, leaving a gap for my hellpit. The hellpit killed the rest of the bloodletters (oof) and the skullgrinder. He earnt his points in that one combat.
The last 4 rat ogors (2 units of 2) piled into the central blob blood letters and killed them down to 6 models from 20. Considering 1 of them was out of range the rat ogors when supported by pack masters AND a master moulder with rabid crown was brutal.
I tried to bring back my 12 man unit of rats but failed with a roll of a 3.
Battleshock. All his units that suffered casualties fled. All of them. My rat ogors who suffered 1 loss stayed around, phew, but my giant rat pack on my right side fled.
But a cp and they were brought back to capture his other forgotten objectives. I now controlled 5 of 6 objectives. That was until he burnt his middle objective scoring 5 points for the round putting him on 7 to my 4. I then controlled all objectives.
Round 3
The rats did it. Rolled a 6 and kept turn order. No scary double turn.
Skaven turn 3
Start of round I selected aggressive expansion, I already controlled the two objectives in his territory so it was already a thing. I healed my rat ogor packs, rolled a 8 for the bell and splashed mortals across his entire army. That felt good. I also healed my bell, rolling a 4 i tried to heal d3 and got a 1. Sad rat.
Spells. His bloodsecrator was within 16″so I tried cracks call. A 4″ move meant surely he would die. Rerolling the success into another success I was then unbound my the filthy bloodthirster. Dam nit. Then casting warpgale to stop the bloodthirster from getting away i got a 13″. Being within 1″ of gnawhole is Precious. But he rolled a natural 8 and I suffered 4 mortals and failed my cast. Damn it.
He kept the theme of extra unbind for heroic action and spend 8 points for exploding 6s army side. A bit terrifying.
Movement. I ran my rats up using their vanguard once per game 6″ run to get near his altar to prevent future summoning as I planned on leaving him heroless soon. I moved my bell home to be near the thirster and provide battleshock immunity where there would be the most rat casualties.
Shooting I did nothing. Feels bad.
Charging, I got everything in. My suped up hellpit on the left flank got into the wrsthmonger unit and flesh hounds, sending everything. into the wrathmongers. My 6 man rat ogors charged into
My regenerative hellpit got into the bloodthirster and started swinging with Titanic Duel. Sending avalanche of flesh into the remaining bloodletters next to their king(?) I managed to deal 4 mortals out of 5. The hellpit dropped the bloodthirster down to 4 wounds from 14. Close.
Spending a command point he made his thirster fight at full profile. No 6s rolled to explode, and 2 misses. Then only a single 6 on the wound roll into my 6 man (now 5 man as a deadly check on the charge killed one…) feral rat ogors. This left my rat ogors on a single wound on a single model left.
My 2 man rat ogor unit on that side moved up and piled closer to the thirster to wall off my last feral rat ogor model and slew all but 5 bloodletters from that unit. Not bad for 2 models outside of buff range.
He swung with his skullcannon, killing my poor 3 man unit of giant rats (charged in as a unleash hell deterrent)
My hellpit opened up a can of hurt on the wrath mongers leaving none alive.
My feral rat ogor attacked the bloodthirster and after the bloodsettled the leader of the khorne forces was over-killed by 2 damage!
Mop ups continued and at the end only 9 flesh hounds, Karanak, 4 letters and the skullcannon (on 1 wound) was left standing. Burning all objectives and completing my tactic AND killing a monster saw me gain 19 points and leaving no objectives left on the field.
Losing all my giant rat packs, re-summoning 2 of them though, 5 rat ogors from my original 6 man pack, 1 from one of my 2 man pack and 2 from my 4 man pack most of my field was battleline. My screaming bell was feeling the hurt, but he kept my forces from running, both my hellpits had suffered some wounds that they would heal and be fine with in the end and losing 1 master moulder (nearly 2…) It was a close battle until the fighting beasts of moulder got into the fray.
At the end of the battle I have a new respect for rat ogors.
Thanks for listening to my writeup! It was a tense game at points there.
For a bit of a shake-up in what I normally post about I have a Age of Sigmar 3.0 battle report to writeup tonight.
Warhammer, particularly fantasy or Age of Sigmar, has always drawn me in and interested me.
I blame my little brother who started this Warhammer journey when he was 13 or so. I remember for his 12 (I think.. it was 17 years ago..) I bought him Warhammer Battle match and we fell in love with the army control, the models and fight scenes and the races depicted. If you read my “what lies beneath sparrows rest keep” post from a few weeks back you can probably guess what my favourite faction is of all time. In 2017 whilst on a training course for work I stumbled across battle reports on YouTube that made it look just so damn fun. When I got home from training I went and bought my first box of crisp grey plastic and I haven’t really looked back.
Leaders Bladebringer, Herald on Exalted Chariot (265)* – General – Command Trait: Delusions of Infallibility – Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom (Universal Artefact) – Host Option: General – Lore of Slaanesh: Hysterical Frenzy Dexcessa, The Talon of Slaanesh (280) – Host Option: General Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (265)* – Host Option: General
Battleline 22 x Blissbarb Archers (360)* – Reinforced x 1 22 x Blissbarb Archers (360)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Hellstriders with Claw-spears (135)* 5 x Hellstriders with Claw-spears (135)*
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Knights Excelsior – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Lord-Castellant (155)* – General – Command Trait: Envoy of the Heavens – Artefact: Mirrorshield Lord-Relictor (145)* – Prayer: Divine Light Lord-Imperatant (175)* Yndrasta, The Celestial Spear (320)
Battleline 10 x Vindictors (260)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Vindictors (260)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Decimators (215)* 3 x Annihilators (200)* 5 x Retributors (235)*
With Stormcast winning the roll-off they decided to be the defender letting my deploy first.
Hedonites deployment
Breaking up my heroes with hellstriders on the left and right flanks, blissbarb archers ready to take the left and middle objective with Dexcessa backing up the left flank, Sigvald holding the middle and the Bladebringer, Herald on Exalted Chariot on the right.
Stormcast deployment
The castle was built with the Lord-Imperatant, Yndrasta and Lord-Castellant behind all the Vindictors (2*10 man units) with the decimators taking up his left flank. The 3 annihilators, 5 retributors and Lord-Relictor ready to drop down.
Round 1. Objective 3 (my left, opponents right) was randomly selected as the prime objective
Hedonites took 1st turn. Choosing Aggressive expansion because I knew that I could run and shoot with my blissbarb archers to generate some depravity and to get both units on the objectives. Getting Mystic shield cast from my bladebringer on itself to get the save to 3+. My heroic action was to get an additiona command point for my Blade bringer. My opponent selected heroic action, however they were unsuccessful. My hellstriders moved up both flanks to secure the objetives while both Blissbarbs claimed the left and middle objectives. Shooting 41 times each unit into the two units of Vindicators. The unit holding the middle objective received all out attack and their target received all out defence to make them a 2+ save… oof. At the end a handful of Vindicators were slain. Sigvald backed up the middle blissbarb unit and Dexcessa charged forward towards the front lines. Failing a charge from all hellstriders, my chariot and only making it in with Dexcessa I tried to take out the vindicators, she also suffered a Unleash hell from Yndrasta as I charged in (was in range by .4″ doh) suffering 5 wounds. Dexcessa managed to take out a few Vindicators but died very quickly to the pointy spears.
At the end of the turn I scored 6 points in total but lost Dexcessa.
Stormcast turn 1.
Selecting Slay the warlord my opponent quickly planned to throw everything at my Bladebringer. Hero phase I selected finest hour on my chariot (3+ save with a +1 to offset rend). At the end of the movement phase several stormcast had droped in to surround my general. Shooting phase saw several Blissbarbs die to Yndrastas spear but the main phase was charge phase. As the decimators charged into my general and the Annihilators charged my remaining Hellstriders. The decimators attacked first, but not before the lawnmower commenced and blended up one of the Decimators bofore they swung. Being the selected children of Sigmar for this turn the decimators used their once per game ability to gain +1 attack. 26 attacks later, and another all out defense saw my general suffer 3 wounds but not die. My hellstriders sadly did not fair as well.
At the end of the round no real casualties had been suffered by the stormcast but my general was looking very beaten. Stormcast has scored 2 points to my 6.
Round 2. Hedonites won priority (yayy)
Healing was the name of the game and I healed my Chariot-general as my heroic action this round. I selected broken ranks and used both sets of Blissbarb archers to move up and shoot at a single unit of 6 Vindicators – I also brought up Sigvald to the fray and he managed a massivd 15 in charge into the side of the vindicators – avoiding the spear shot from Yndrasta. Charging my seeker chariot into the decimators I tried to shake them off with mortal wounds – but they failed the impact damage and the decimators quickly cleaned them up. My left flank Hellstriders tried to take out the back-door Retributors and Relictor but they were unable to punch through their armor and dealt no damage before dying. Sigvald was fine.
At the end of the round I had my generals, two units of blissbarbs and a had managed to complete my tactic.
Stormcast turn 2.
Gaining an additional command point for his general my opponent selected conquer and decided to take my middle objective – which he did easily. Moving up and taking down the middle objective and a few more blissbarb archers (by the handful) this saw him punch through a lot of my battleline and start threatening my heroes more.
At the end my opponent scored their battle tactic.
Turn 3 – Slaanesh still owns priority
Selecting to heal Sigvald and to take back the right objective by selecting conquer (and with the prime objective still remaining in control of 22 blissbarbs).
My goal this round was to shift my forces to the right, I used my depravity points to summon in a keeper of secrets and shoot down the pesky lord-imperitant that was keeping Sigvald from fighting Yndrasta. Making my blissbarb achers charge Yndrasta and soak up her spear shot I also charged back in with my bladebringer to deal impact mortals to the previously impervious decimators and also to turn the lawnmower back on. This left the decimators dead after activating once after Sigvald managed to get into Yndrasta with an 11″ charge (Thanks to +3 charge.) Sigvald only managed to deal 3 wounds and a total of 3 damage to Yndrasta and despite rolling 6 sixes on my Blissbarbs in melee I was unable to damage her further due to her 2+ save and 4+ ward.
At the end of this turn, even managing to kill 2 Vindicators with a hysterical frenzy the hedonites were still dwindling in numbers. Even with the arrival of a Greater demon
Turn 3 of Stormcast selected aggressive expansion and healed Yndrasta for 1 wound. This turn was very quick. Movement and no charges. Yndrasta retreated away from Sigvald (understandably so) and the turn was ended with Stormcast completing their objective and scoring 5 points.
Round 4. Slaanesh was thirsty and got priority again.
A simple round, I Cast acquiescence on his general, selecting savage spearhead as my tactic which was easy considering my placement of Sigvald and my blissbarb archers. Running my Blissbarbs to get into 9″ of his general I then peppered it with arrows until he only had 3 wounds left. Making the charge of my bladebringer into yndrasta and the ann annihilators I did enough impact hits and the lawn mower to make Yndrasta in deep trouble of dying. I left one Paladin left on 1 wound. At the end of the charge Phase my Keeper of secrets decided to just step on his general and send him back to Azyr. Not the best end to a mighty general but was satisfying to see monstrous rampaging making a bigger difference. As part of my movement I summoned in an exalted chariot but it failed its 9″ charge into his back lines. As the blood mist settled my opponent was left with a 5 man unit of Retributors, a relictor and 6 Vindicators.
Scoring my tactic at the end of the round it was calculated that there was no chance for my opponent to come back from this.
Turn 4 for Stormcast he focused down my exalted chariot and selected broken rankes to get rid of my remaining unit of 6 blissbarbs. Moving up and charging the blissbarbs easily died but I was still very ahead on points.
Surrendering at he end of turn 4 and acknowledging that we would both score our grand strategies the final scores were…
Thanks for checking up on what I wrote up today – it ended up being one of my larger writeups and I decided to cut out a lot of it to save one space and time. In the future I want to capture more details, key dice rolls and anything else of note that was game defining.
As always, thanks for reading and keeping up to date on what goes on here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop. Let me know if you want to see more Warhammer stuff and I can plan to alternate my weekends between DnD/RPG heavy or laces every now and again with warhammer.
Todays battle report was managed on Tabletop Simulator.
Thanks for joining and don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Sunday already, a bit of a delay in getting this out this weekend as the day after a D&D session normally finds me quite tired and brain numb. But I am pretty excited to present what we have today and hope that it finds everyone ready to roll some dice.
Sparrows Rest
The party find themselves approaching the quiet town of Sparrows Rest in the afternoon after hearing that their mayor was offering a tidy sum of gold for adventurers to come to the town and solve a problem with discretion.
Upon reaching the town they are greated warmly by everyone as if they were old friends, making their way to the Dusty Spade, the local Inn, they soon find out that it’s just how the people are in this town, friendly and welcoming to a fault.
The Innkeep advises them that the Mayor was called out to a farm near the keep around midday and that he will seek out the party when he returns from assisting the farmer. The party settle down in the inn for a meal, hungry and not wanting to have rations after eating them over a few days travel and they begin to see the townsfolk trickling in to avoid the afternoon sun.
A loud, prudish boy on the verge of manhood struts into the Inn, several villagers cheer his name, Tim, as he saunters yup to the bar, pushing a few gold pieces over to the Innskeep, Rose Longhammer, as he buys a round of drinks for all present.
He begins to tell a tale of how he lost his grandfathers sword in the belly of a cowardly monster the size of a horse up at the keep at dusk the night before. Several villagers console him but braise his bravery at fighting something that large. His ego seems to swell and another tale almost begins before he notices the party watching him. He approaches the parties table, ordering more ale for them as he does, and sits down without asking. Announcing that he is Tim Carpen, pausing as if expecting applause he continues when none issues forth from those at the table.
He has lost his sword and he wishes the Party to return it to him. He is about to start retelling the tale of his heroics when the Inn door bursts inwards and in steps a weathered but rather unremarkable man. He takes a hat off and wipes sweat from his brow before nodding to Rose and making his way over to the group.
“I would speak to you at my residence if you would be so kind to join me.” he whispers to the party as he waves off Rose returning to the table with several tankards of ale, purchased by the now displaced Tim.
The plot
The Mayor has a problem, crops keep disappearing and every morning something else is missing from the farms in Sparrows Rest. It started a few moons back but it’s become more apparent and they have a holy day approaching that the mayor is concerned will be ruined if the village loses any more of the potential harvest.
The farms crops keep disappearing, sheared off at the ground as if a great scythe had swept in and reeped the crop. It started with a few bags worth of wheat, but last night an entire field disappeared and before that another farmer lost a herd of goats.
The farms closest to the ruins of the old keep appear to be hit first and hardest and even a villager or two has gone missing but no other adventurers who have come to aid the town have been successful. The mayor asks the party to find whats happening to the crops, the livestock and the villagers before its too late. They are to start at dawn and they can have two chests of gold (1500gp) if they can save the village.
The people
Rose Longhammer
When the party return to the inn Rose would put them up free of charge as instructed by the Mayor. After a meal, a few ales and the other patrons disperse Rose tells the party how her she runs the inn by herself now, he daughter used to help her a few months back but thats no more.
If the party investigate it turns out Rose’s daughter and Rose’ brother were the first to disappear, vanished overnight with no sign of struggle at their house. The door was found open and the remains of their wolf-hound was found a day later near the ruins, little more than bones and a few scraps of fur left. She requests that if they do find any information about her brother or her daughter, Susanna, that they bring it back so that she can have closure.
Tim Carpen
Potentially displeased by the Mayor taking the attention from the newcomers ignores the Party and publically states that they must be adventurers of very little renoun to be so poorly equipped to assist the village. His parents are perhaps the most influencial family in the town as Lady Carpen’s (Tims mother) ancestors once defended the lands from what is referred to as “the culling” as massive battle that saw thousands of lives lost, and their bloods, bone and flesh has now enriched the soil.
Tim, secretly, is a coward. Having been at the ruins looking for Susanna, his boyhood crush, had seen something in the ruins and fled, losing his blade as he ran.
Mayor James Goodfellow
A great man with a large heart, he only wants what is best for the town and its people.
The Encounters
The Inn
As the party sleep that night they are woken to a scratching at the wall and something dark on the streets. A few torches and lamps are lit but they are slowly being put out, lamp by lamp.
IF they investigate the party wound find Rose returning from the direciton of the Keep towards the Inn. As she sees the party a furred hand would clamp down over her mouth and drag her between houses.
The culprit is a four ratling skulkers, small by human standards but cruel and fast.
Dusk, if the party approach the ruins at night they would find their way uptowards the keep before they are ambushed (see over-keep map) at point of interest (POI) 3. If more than 50% of the attacking forces are salin then they retreat back to the trap door and disappear down it – revealing the entrance to the lair (point 2). Each time the Party return to the keep without finding the trap door change the ambush site and the composition.
Nightly attacks will happen on the city if they Party dont uncover the source of the Ratlings at the keep. Dusk or during the night.
The underkeep (see map) should have encounters of a few warriors or skulkers at POI 9, 4.
The Encounter of the black rat will be in POI 8.
In POI 7 there should be the brooder encounter but also Rose Longhammers daughter is in the pit, bound with manacles and tending to the rats.
The outcome
The party once defeating the ratlings can return to the village with Rose’s daughter. Decide if the party find Tim’s sword as well.
Once the party return the mayor will give them their small chests of gold (1500gp) and will decalre that the party will always have a place in Sparrows Rest. If the party return to sparrows rest in the future there will be a furnished house that is dedicated to them and a few acres of land that is tilled for them.
Thanks for joining for this weekend’s write up, hope the adventure brings your players some enjoyment.
As always don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Happy fightnight all! With Friday comes something I have been excited to reveal – some stat blocks created in Tetra-cube.com with assistance from Kobold fight club to make sure I didn’t have things too difficult for the players. We are here to challenge them, not kill them.
As with the adventure below – if you want to be able to describe these monstrositiesI would recommend looking at the inspiration for this week’s adventure, Warhammer and in particular my favourite faction, the Skaven. Everyone’s favourite, insane, egotistical and fundamentally broken race of ratmen.
For this week lets assume that we have a party of 4 level 2 PCs. Since are are into our 3rd week surely they have had a level by now 😉
Proud parents and their Brood
03FrRS1 + 03FrRLB1
A combo that many dread. A ratling brooder is never alone, you generally encounter 2 or 3 of them and they generally have a swarm of rats that they have raised since infancy. And trained to kill on the smell of their favourite fermented food.
The Ratling Brooders will always try and open with a salvo of their fermented Goo, at which point the Rat swarms burst forth from the baskets their keepers carry on their backs or sides and race towards whatever is covered in their favourite treat, eating it and the still living thing underneath.
Ravenous Rat Swarm
Ratling Brooder
To reach our ideal “Challenge rating” we want to have 4 Ratling brooders and 2 Ravenous Rat Swarms. this is a medium encounter (but lets not forget that rats are never alone). The encounter idea here is that the good would come out and then the rat swarm would use it’s movement to run at the target hit by the goo and immediately begin to eat it.
Ratling Warrior Caste
03FrRLSk + 03FrRLWa + 03FrRLSl
During the initial encounter with the Ratling humanoids there should be a few ratling Skulkers leading the pack, investigating and positioning themselves to ambush the party. The Ratling slaves then rush in, prodded and provoked into fits of madness that see them rush headfirst into the enemies whilst the slightly better equipped ratling warriors move in behind the slaves to hopefully see their enemies easy pickings once worn out from the initial waves.
Ratling Skulker 03FrRLSk
Ratling Warrior 03FrRLWa
Ratling Slave 03FrRlSl
When looking at balancing out the above, you want the waves of Ratlings to feel very overwhelming. It’s a horrific sight really for any player. A bunch of dark dwelling small-human sized rats rushing at the party with sharp rusty weapons and even sharper teeth.
We want this to feel tough so let’s go with 2 Ratling skulkers that aim to attack from the flanks once the party are engaged in melee (targeting the ones at the back of course), 4 Ratling warriors and 6 Ratling slaves that will run as fast as they can to get to the party, followed closely behind by the warriors.
Leader Caste
03FrRLBW
The Black furred ratlings, or those blessed with the ability to chitter the very weave from their crooked and bent teeth are the highest of the caste, these rats are generally heavily guarded by several guards (Ratling Warriors) and possess no small amount of magical abilities.
Ratling Black fur
The final fight, probably somewhere deep underground in one of the chambers that are there, the Ratling Black Fur should be a hard encounter. For this purpose we have it guarded by 2 ratling warriors and 6 ratling slaves (who act as its body guard, and will throw themselves at the enemy one by one to give their magical master time to weave it’s evil spells.
Thanks for joining me for another day – hope these few stat block and encounter size directions hope to jump start that creative spark we all have so that you can have a great adventure this weekend.
Don’t forget that with any Dnd 5e stat block or monster, with a fresh new name, a brand new description these ratling (Rat men / Skaven) could be slugmen or roach-men. With some very simple tweaking and a bit of creative flair it’s very easy to create your own content in DnD.
Please have a good weekend and join me for the full adventure hook this weekend!
And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage! The Brazen Wolfe
Thursday has come, and gone for me by time I am getting around to typing this up. This week we look at the map of the keep which was sketched on paper then hand crafted on Inkscape.
Inkscapeis a useful tool for creating a bunch of artwork and it’s free. Check it out.
Sparrows Rest Keep
Just a single map this week.
Had a bit of fun messing around in Inkscape. It’s free software for creating images. By some simple tweaks you can get it in isometric grid mode which is what I played around this week with. It’s by no means the best but with practice and some dedicated time the outcome could be a staple in your GM toolbelt.
The idea here is that the trap door (right of the map) is hard to find. It should be revealed when the encounter happens and the party find the thugs or humanoids coming out from hiding.
A worn ladder lead down to a small 5ft room where stairs descend into the darkness beyond. With a door to the left that leads to a small room that may have been an office.
The rooms below ground (with exception to the secret room and passages) all look like they would have had storage for food or the like. Now its pretty barren.. or not.. a decision to make when using the map.
The secret room is the one that leads to the stairs that go down to the altar room. This shouldn’t be hard to spot as the keeps been in ruins for years and the creatures that inhabit it now likely could have found it.
The altar is 5ft x 5ft and appeared to have a deity on it at one point. Its ruined remains litter the room.
The very right (south) rooms look to be cells, and something has burrowed into the very back one which leads into the warrens to the east (bottom left) of the map
The warren passage ways are big enough for people to crawl through single file. Should create some tense situations but nothing too frightening.
I’ll see if I can upload a better copy of the image since the grid also didn’t upload. Otherwise It’ll be there for this weekend’s adventure so look for it then.
Update: – added the Isometric grid version, and some files to download if you choose to use them for your own adventure!
As with every post, use what you want, comment below your thoughts on whats there and let me know how it’s going. Staying connected in times like these is important.
What else is important is catching up with friends and family, so don’t forget to check in with them and see how they are going.
Don’t forget to check out the other posts for this week, or the last and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage! The Brazen Wolfe
Wednesday already. Today we are looking at expanding out plot, refining the core mission or quest to create that secondary hook or twist that leave the players wanting to stay up later or move your fortnightly session a week early just so they find out what’s behind the hidden door.
So without taking too much time.. a disclaimer.. I know what I want to happen and this week.. I’m also probably going to start on the map tonight too as I’m anticipating something a bit bigger for this weeks adventure. I am also working towards somthing that I hope to implement next month – so stay tuned for that announcement.
Not all that glitters is gold…
The aim of the setting this week is to get the party to the ruins. The party have come at a perilous time where darkness is coming under the chitter of a hundred paws. So this isn’t really a twist more a path that the adventure moves down one or the other.
The keep itself is mostly ruins. The outer walls that used to hold a courtyard have been ransacked for their well carved stone. There is little patches of grass that surround the ruined walls and archways, almost as if the grass itself was cut out.
The only sounds are the occasional gust of wind or the rattle of a stone falling from a long forgotten rampart.. The attempt to investigate such noises leaves the curious puzzled and as such the ruins are believed to be haunted.
03WeMa1
The keep is currently home to a group of thugs, they have sent some of their members to Sparrows Rest to scare the townsfolk into leaving so their presence is not known.
The thugs are currently excavating a long lost passageway looking for the treasures that may lie beneath Sparrows Rest Keep.
Main plot. The cause of a lot of issues for the Adventure
Hostile group discovered and main antagonists
03WeMa2
Investigating the keep at day finds it empty and devoid of life, even the grass and animals know better to dwell near the keep
At night the ruins are filled with Chittering humanoids with their red bulbous eyes almost glowing in the Torchlight.
They are almost endless in numbers and seem to burst forth from a hidden trap door among the stones.
If not thugs it’s these. Party either encounter them at night in the city or at the ruins.
Main antagonists
The party will either way venture into the tunnels beneath the ruined keep.
The weddings off
Kat Baker…
03WeKB1
Kat Baker is and still is heavily devoted to Percy, she found out that he had been sneaking upto the keep to practice dark magic with some dark master at night and challenged him about it, threatening to break off the engagement if he didn’t cease learning dark magic. Which he agreed to.
The next day he was dead, Kat went off to find Percys dark master for revenge.
To progress the story and not have Kat as the culprit. Have this during the day after the body was found (the party were approached during the following day and asked to investigate)
Party catch the investigate during the day and find Kat’s horse mostly devoured and Kat holed up a busted tower severely wounded. She mentions the thugs/humanoids that came from the ground.
03WeKB2
Kat Baker is and still is heavily devoted to Percy, she found out that he had been sneaking upto the keep to practice dark magic with some dark master at night and challenged him about it, threatening to break off the engagement if he didn’t cease learning dark magic. Which he agreed to.
The next day he was dead, Kat went off to find Percys dark master for revenge.
To progress the story and not have Kat as the culprit. Have the players enter the town at late afternoon and have them beseached to go after Kat now. This will land the Party there at night.
If the party get there at night they see a lone figure climbing stairs up the tower with a torch and sword drawn. Humanoid figures (thugs or otherwise) chase her up the steps.
A good blade is one in a million.
Timothy Carpens blade – he is revealed to be a coward.
03WeTC1
Tim Carpen fled and dropped hissword on the ground, his blade lays where it landed. It was said to be an enchanted sword given to his family to protect them against evil as a sign of appreciation from the king at that time.
This blade however is not that, it is a fake and anyone with a keen eye for smithing could reveal that (or a dwarf as there is well etched dwarven runes in the blade but they reveal that Tim was a fraud and coward.
If Tim approaches the party requesting aide to find his families sword then this is a possible choice
If hte party returns during the day then the Mayor may greet them (roll % and <50) he asks to see the blade and then reveals that it is very poorly made. A dwarf could also reveal this information.
If Tim’s mother finds out then it should be revealed that Tim lost the real blade in the ruins weeks ago when he went in search of treasure – he found a hidden trap door and something spooked him so he dropped it in the door. This time he didn’t even make it to the door when he was approached and he threw the sword and ran.
03WeTC2
The sword is indeed fine, and its burried in the chest of a man/humanoid thing with black fur.
The blade shines like bright daylight when revealed at night and during the day it gives of a soft humm that sets anything with an evil disposition upon edge.
Not needed but could drive the story forwards more
Party can retreave hte blade but the presence of the body should alert them to whats under the keep.
If no options are desired, but the quest is obtained then the blade is found on the grass, it is a fine blade but no trace of beast can be found. The party then either encounter thugs or the humanoids depending on 03WEMA1 or 03WEMA2.
People of Sparrows Rest
Twists for either Rose Longhammer or James Goodfellow.
03WeRLH1
Rose Longhammer is actually the mother of a daughter that went missing at the keep a few weeks back. Each day she goes looking for her daughter and finds nothing.
Rose would ask to employ the party to try and find what happened to her daughter. She says that she has had no luck thus far but she is rather poor at tracking or looking around ruins.
New quest for the party
03WeJG1
James is actually in league with the Thugs/humanoids. He has grown impatient at the villagers lack of respect and wishes to bring doom to the village so he can save it and earn enough glory to be given lands and a title at one of the three kingdoms he has been currying favour with.
The thugs leader or the “surprise NPC” reveal that James is the person they are working with.
The party has the choice to extort the mayor, reveal him or do nothing. But they know what the Mayor has done now
Well the plot thickens, and much like a good stew there is meat and hidden flavours to be found. With these additional twists or even additional quests there is more information to work and develope our adventure. There is a strong warhammer feel/vibe I am working on for this weeks adventure as I am quite passionate about many tabletop hobbies and warhammer is another one that I am yet to touch upon.. yet.
Don’t forget, if you like one of the twists above feel free to use it in your own adventure and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
The hardest thing to do these days is to put yourself out there regardless of consequences, to that purpose I am creating this blog.
Who am I…? Well I am Ben, but will go simple as The Brazen Wolfe. For me being actually and my thoughts heard is a daunting prospect, which is funny as I have been a dungeon master (not the red room kind) for upwards of 23 years as of writing this post.
I love to tell stories and have got quite good at it, or so my players tell me. This blog will be a mix of things, but primarily it will cover tabletop games. Roleplaying and the wargame side of things too.
I hope people can resonate with ideas, get involved where possible and hopefully take something away to kindle a passion in anything tabletop. If I can get one person to take up the mantle of Dungeon Master (or equivalent) I will call this blog a success.
Dont forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 
