Vecna: Eve of Ruin (#3) - The Mines II

The party got together again last night and we carried on with our exploration of the Dwarf Mines so that we could get to the bottom of the mystery.

The Mines - Day 3 (Dawn)

There were no incidents overnight that affected the watches, so we awoke refreshed and fully healed. It was still raining and the water levels had risen overnight. The sky was still gloomy and overcast; the sun barely making its presence felt. We decided that we would systematically search each of the remaining caves in this area outside the mine before plunging into the cold, wet depths of the torrent pouring into the entrance.

It was a bit of a chore to get ourselves across to each of the intervening islands between the one we were on and the one in the north-east as the current was still swift and the jumps were too far for everyone bar myself and the magical boots I was wearing.

We managed to get onto the northeast island without incident and was greeted by the sight of many more dwarf bodies. Taking our cue from what the dwarf warriors had told us earlier, we began to place the bodies into the water. After the second one slipped below the surface, the rest began to stir and we heard a series of groans from behind the rocks in front of us.

The number of zombie dwarfs was quite large, so Gladreth launched a Fireball into their midst destroying most of them. The groans appeared to come from a red haired dwarf female warrior in plate armour. We took no chances, hit her a few times and threw her into the water. She sank under the weight of her plate armour.

The remaining zombies managed to hold their own against us for a while and then suddenly Drakkon could no longer move. At this point the red-haired dwarf warrior woman pulled herself from the water and tried to get into combat with the remaining zombies shouting a war cry in her own language that Gladreth understood; she was not a zombie, but on our side!

Several more zombies emerged from the cave we were headed towards, so to cut them off I ran forward and tried to destroy them with my god's radiant holy powers. It had no effect on them whatsoever, and I was swamped by the horde.

The Entrance to the Mines (second cave)

Luckily, the dwarf warrior stormed to my rescue, taking many hits that should have struck me. I was feeling terrible for striking her earlier when we did not know she would be an ally. At some point in the melee, a weapon appeared out of thin air but I managed to duck in time to avoid injury. Not knowing what this new threat was, I cast my single Fireball spell and destroyed a large number of the zombies; Druss and Navda destroyed the remainder.

Unfortunately, just as we thought that we could lick our wounds and take a rest, a drow sorceress appeared and tried to Hold me. My god was with me this time and I shrugged off the charm but she ran back into hiding within the cave as a fresh wave of zombies bore down upon us. The fighters in the party managed to down a few but even more appeared. This was becoming ridiculous. We must have fought and seen at least thirty or more undead dwarfs in this cave alone. Luckily Gladreth still had a few spells up her sleeves and her last Fireball destroyed most of them.

Drakkon, annoyed by the drow priestess as she had charmed him twice, managed to get up close and finally dispatch her with Druss's help. Dharion and the dwarf warrior maiden completed the demise of the remaining zombies.

When the last zombie fell, I Healed the party as much as I could, including the dwarf warrior. She was grateful for the attention and opened up a little by telling us that she was with a couple of other fighters sent to liberate their countrymen. We mentioned that we had seen the other two and had rescued them from the island that they had got stuck on.

We searched the drow priestess but only found a few useful items: a very nice warhammer, a spider emblem round her neck and spider rings on her fingers, as well as two vials of what looked like Potions of Healing. We stuffed these into our sacks and got ready to move on.

Midgard Heroic Battles : Britannia - miniatures update 1

Following on from a recent post stating that I need to get cracking on some figure painting, I decided to chance my arm at daubing some paint onto the remainder of the unpainted Midgard Heroic Battles : Britannia Celts in my collection. I played the whole campaign with many of the British units unpainted or partly painted - my thoughts at the time were that I would rather play a game with unfinished models than not play at all. It worked for me then, but now I have an itch to get painting again as I would like to complete this particular army for future gaming and also to get me in practice for the many other armies I would also like to start working on over the summer.

Here is a full list of all the Celtic figures that I have in my collection and their state of play...

List of all Celtic figures that were based for Midgard...

• 4 bases of standard warriors (40 figures)
• 2 bases of elite warriors (20 figures)
• 1 base of female warriors (10 figures)
• 2 bases of mounted warriors (8 figures)
• 2 bases of archers (8 figures)
• 2 bases of slingers (8 figures)
• 2 bases of skyclad warriors (8 figures)
• 1 base of hounds (4 figures)

And here is a list of all my other individual figures...

• 36 standard warriors and elite warriors still on their sprues
• 7 leader types
• 4 druids
• 8 spearmen
• 2 mounted warriors
• 2 slingers
• 3/6 chariots and crew

Over the coming weeks I am going to try to paint as many of them as I can in readiness for starting on my other unpainted legions for a variety of settings. I am hoping to get my eye back in so that I can begin to improve on my last few attempts. I am never going to be able to paint to Golden Demon levels (I have never had that level of skill by any stretch of the imagination anyway), but failing eyesight, limited time, patience and energy means I will try to do what I can. I am more of a looking reasonably good at tabletop distance standard type of painter, so if I can match that ethic again then I will be happy.

Here are the only completed bases/units so far - they were painted many moons back when I first bought them. Going forward, I am hoping to match their style and neatness if I am able to, but will cut down on some of the colour work - basic paint jobs only for them. There are a few more figures that were painted back in the day but I have not photographed them yet as the bases are not completed. Once those bases are completed, they will appear alongside the newer painted ones.

Picture of the, so far, three completed Celtic units...

Three bases of already painted Celtic Warriors

Here they are individually. I think I have mentioned previously that the shields got a bit washed out with the matt varnish spray - if anyone has an antidote to restore them to being a little brighter I would be happy to hear about it....

Base 1 of Warriors

Base 2 of Warriors

Base 3 of Warriors

I am going to try to complete a unit/base per week if I can, so I have lined up a few easy wins to begin with. I will then move onto some of the smaller units (4 figures per base rather than 10) so I can complete some bases more quickly and feel that I have at least achieved something each week. Then I will checkout the 10 man bases again to get a few of them done. Let's see how I get on over the next few weeks.

Hopefully, by the end of the next week, I will have a dog handler completed to add to the base of hounds I have already painted.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin (#2) - The Mines

Last night saw the regular D&D crowd get back together on Fantasy Grounds to play the next installment of the new campaign, Vecna : Eve of Ruin. It has been a few weeks since the last game as real life has taken priority, but hopefully we are back now for another run of games.

The Mines - Day 2 (Dusk)

We approached the dwarven mines by heading downhill alongside a torrent of water. The entrance to the mines had flooded from what we could see, and the water was very fast flowing. On many of the raised areas of drier land just outside the mine entrance we could see a number of dwarf bodies lying strewn around where they had apparently been slain.

Whilst we checked the bodies to see if any were still alive, and for clues as to what might have happened, we began to hear chanting coming from beyond a clusters of rocks. Some of the bodies began to slightly twitch so we moved forward to investigate further. A dwarf magician emerged from behind the rocks and Held Navda in place with an enchantment. Gladreth let fly a Fireball that reduced half of the rising bodies to ash. A short-lived fight ensued wherein Druss killed the dwarf mage, but he managed to throw an enchanted red gem at the floor that exploded into a Wall of Force causing a great deal of harm both to the party and to the remaining dwarf zombies before he died. The remining four dwarf zombies were quickly dispatched by Dharion, Navda and Gladreth's Firebolt.

Just as we finished off the last of the zombies, we heard the final clattering of a combat emanating from a small island a short distance away. The two dwarf warriors had just defeated a small number of adversaries. They beckoned us over, but I was the only one who could get there, using my Boots of Striding, without being swept away by the swift current. They explained that the dead dwarfs should be placed into the River of the Gods (the waters around our feet apparently), and that the river held powers over the dwarf dead. They also explained that the flooding and rain would stop if we could defeat the evil wizard. The strong current in the surrounding waters led directly to the mines.

As we didn't currently have the means to rescue the dwarfs we said that we would return and save them later. We placed the dead dwarfs reverently into the waters as requested and left the two living warriors on their island. We headed towards the north-west where we found a small entrance that led into a very dark cavern. Inside, Dharion's superior dark vision could make out movement but not a lot else. Fearing that it would be more zombies, I cast Light on a large stone and hurled it into the cavern.

Entrance to the Dwarf Mins

The light from the stone allowed us all to see the numerous zombies within the cave. I rapidly moved in and called upon the grace of Pelor to return these souls to their proper place, and four of the undead collapsed to dust whilst another four retreated from my god's awesome power.

A tall, very thin humanoid, whose head was covered in spiders emerged from behind a rock and also moved away from me, but not without first firing a poisoned arrow. The rest of my comrades moved in and combat ensued. Gladreth's Lightning Bolt made short work of the zombies but the drow was made of sterner stuff and did not appear to be affected by the lightning. A few moments later another drow dropped from the ceiling and blew a strange powder into Dharion's face, blinding and poisoning him. Dharion and I were able to remove those curses from him using our spell-craft, but moments later the drow did the same again to him.

Druss, in a Rage, charged the drow located deepest within the cavern and was treated to a cloud of the same dust, but it had no effect on him. In a few moments he had cut the drow down, whilst Dharion (even though still blinded), Navda, Gladreth and I dealt with the other drow in short shrift.

As we searched the body of the first drow, the spiders from around his head tried to run away, but we crushed them all under our boots. On the two drow bodies we found two capsules of powdered malice, four poisoned crossbow bolts and some very nice studded leather armour. We stashed everything away for future use and returned south to see about setting the two dwarfs free from being stranded.

A quick return to the camp outside where Drakkon kept watch allowed us to grab his water breathing helm and a length of rope. We pulled the dwarfs across and through the waterway one-at-a-time and bid them farewell.

As night was now rapidly approaching we made camp and set watches for a long night's rest to heal up and recover our spells.

Framlingham and Orford Castles

On Wednesday, in the scorching 33 degree heat of the English spring, I was able to take the kids to a couple of castles in Suffolk: Framlingham and Orford. I usually visit these two castles on the same day as they go together historically. I have visited these castles on a couple of occasions previously, but not for at least 30-35 years! The sites have been thoroughly modernised in the intervening years and there is more to see at both sites than I remember seeing when I last went. 

Framlingham Castle was originally built in timber by Roger Bigod in 1101 after being granted the manor by King Henry I. The Bigods were a lowly family when they arrived with William I to conquer England, but rapidly rose to power. The first stone castle was built around 1154 by Roger's son Hugh who, via a variety of machinations and side-swapping during The Anarchy, eventually became powerful enough for King Henry II to want to reclaim East Anglia for himself to reduce the Bigod's power. The king confiscated the castle and all of the other Bigod holdings in Norfolk (this included two other castles (Walton and another) I think) in 1157, but he returned Framlingham in the 1160s. Hugh Bigod did not learn from his mistakes and supported a rebellion against the king in 1173 which was defeated, so lost teg castle again. He died on pilgrimage to Jerusalem around 1176.

Framlingham Castle

Framlingham is also famous for housing Queen Mary during the Lady Jane Grey fracas; it was here that she gathered support and later learned that she was to be crowned the first female monarch of England.

Orford Castle was built by King Henry II to counterbalance the power of Hugh Bigod in East Anglia whilst he reasserted his authority in the region.

Orford Castle

From the top of the castle you can see why the position at Orford was so strategic - the views over the Ness are amazing; you can see for miles. In fact, on a good day and without a few trees in the way you should be able to see Framlingham Castle.

Song of Blades and Heroes - Dragon!

My youngest son was with me over the Bank Holiday weekend just gone so we decided to play a quick game of Song of Blades and Heroes. I was in the mood to try something a little different from normal so decided upon using a dragon figure I painted up several years ago to see how fielding a single big monster would affect the way the game plays.

My son used one of his old warbands again, and to make up the points I added a ghoul to the 268 point dragon to make my warband the 300 points required. To be honest I didn't really want to and it nearly cost me the game at one point.

The dragon and the ghoul...

268 points of dragon (and 32 points of ghoul)

The humans...

The barbarians

The humans won initiative and moved up to try to grab the magic item tokens before the dragon could do so. The dragon rolled three successes and due to its Long Move quickly landed on a token that turned out to be the treasure (a Belt of Strength - that could be used in the next game if we so choose). The ghoul followed on slowly to give support and maybe to carry the treasure off the board in case something went awry.

The humans moved up to attack the dragon in the hope that they could wrest the treasure from its steely talons.

The barbarians, not being susceptible to Terror, were able to charge the dragon and ghoul and give combat. Despite the huge advantage that the dragon had in combat it could only manage to push back one of its opponents this turn.

The following turn, however, this changed and the first of the barbarians fell to the dragon's magical abilities.

Over the next few turns the barbarians began to fall at a rate of one a turn. However, at one point the ghoul was killed and, as the dragon's army had reached 50% of its original size, had to take a Morale check. This got me worried as I only had to roll a single one on the three dice and the dragon would have to retreat a Long Move, which would have taken it off the board and granted victory to the humans. Luckily I didn't roll a one but it did make me ponder how to use small-sized armies in future.

The dragon steadily mopped up the barbarians until they had to take a Morale check for the loss of their leader. One or two retreated away (one off the board) and directly after that they took another Morale test for hitting 50% of army size due to the desertion. Two more ran away leaving just a couple of archers. One advanced to take on the dragon from a vantage point at the ford on the river - he was turned to steam by its breath weapon along with half the river. Somehow the last remaining archer avoided retreating despite the Gruesome Kill and tried his best to attack the dragon, but the Initiative roll for the next turn went in favour of the dragon and the archer was stomped on.

So, it was a victory to the dragon with the entire barbarian army being killed or routing.

Observations from this game:

• During the entire game of 10 turns, I (the dragon) only won Initiative 3 times, and then not until the 7th turn!
• Ganging up works, as does volley shooting (unfortunately not well enough to take down a dragon)
• 268 points for one figure is a lot to spend, but it seemed to work
• Keep to the middle of the board if you only have a few warriors on your side to prevent routing, especially with a Long Move figure

Going forward, I think a dragon should be a solitary creature - the ghoul nearly cost me the game. I also think at this level the game becomes a little unbalanced. Maybe the opposition needed to have more men or the values of the warriors against the dragon needed to be more heroic with Traits that negate some of the dragon's abilities (e.g. barbarians are immune to Terror, which really helped)?

My son was not upset at all by losing this game - he was happy to see how it played out as he wanted to find out how a dragon would fare too. I guess he will want to take a dragon next time we play.