Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal - Session Eight - the Sorcerer's Lair

The FINAL final chapter... 

I'd hoped we'd have finished this last week, alas...  

The Heroes have passed through a Realm Gate found in the back of the House of Venargo Auction Hall. The gate has taken them to the Sorcerer's Sanctum. Their lair that they believe to be under the city of Hammerhal Ghyra.

Arvios Sunhelm - Lord-Castellant of the Hammers of Sigmar - started things off exploring the door on the right, finding a library within that contained the most foul of texts.... He did find a very powerful artifact, that was handed off to Golnir Coalbeard (as he was the only character, at this point, that did not have an artifact!) and then it was never once used in the game... Ah, well....  

Golnir Coalbeard went next and explored the door on the left and found a "museum" of strange and horrible artifacts. He also was successful in his quick search and found a few treasures that were distributed among the group. Some of these DID get used during the game!!

Alnaryn - Aelven Loremaster - went next and... 

WOW!!! What an amazing activation roll!? Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could power with all these sixes... there hadn't even been any hostiles encountered at this point... 

She did open the remaining door in the room... and that reavealed EVERYTHING ELSE (well... almost everything else!) 

So Alnaryn charged off and attacked the Blood Warriors in the room off to the left! hoping to use the door as a bottleneck and trap them in there! 

I think she used a stunning blow and stunned the Blood Warrior in the doorway! 

Vizrin Kyre - Black Ark Fleetmaster - likewise tried to charge across the room and engage the Kairic Acolytes at the entrance of the room opposite! 

Archimaine - the Lord-Castellant's loyal Gryph-hound - tried to block the Putrid Blight Kings in the other room... 

The Adversaries all went and dealt some serious injuries to Visrin Kyre and the Gryph-Hound. 

In the following turn Kyre and Alnaryn fell back to try and hold a line back near the entrance that the fighty people could hold at, and the shooty people could stand behind and blast adversaries from behind... The Gryph-hound was SO injured it didn't have any activation dice to even fall back... and so had to stay where it was... 

Sunhelm had enough actions that he moved up, took a swing at a Blood Warrior, before falling back into line... 

And then everyone poured out of the rooms... 

Archimaine was knocked out by the Putird Blight-Kings, but an Elixir of Life (one of the treasures found in the Museum) was used to bring them back! 

Kyre slashed at Blood Warriors with little effect, their blades just glancing off the Khornite warriors heavy armour... 

Then it was Finnegan's turn to roll a BUNCH of sixes for ... (and a further six from the Destiny Dice pool was used!) One was used to power Sunhelm's Healing Light ability, another was used to Warding Lantern (which stunned three and injured one of the Blood Warriors...

Then he made use of the Ring of the Slumbering King TWICE - which dealt even MORE damage to the Blood Warriors!

The Coalbeard went and blasted away a number of the wounded Blood Warriors (all the ones that weren't stunned) and, I think, the remaining Kairic Acolyte..? 

So in the Adversary Phase all the Putrid Blightkings lumbered out to attack! (All the remaining Blood Warriors were stunned and unable to do ANYTHING!?). 

They dealt serious damage to Vixrin Kyre again... luckily the Healing Light helped with that at the end of the turn and Kyre's magic beans (They had some Treasure that was a back of magic healing... something... that they could eat in an End Phase and pass to any friendly adjacent warriors!) 

Things looked dire... but they all had ANOTHER round of just amazing rolls and coordinated attacks and wiped out the Putrid Blight Kings! 

Then Kyre charged up and attacked the Chaos Sorcerer! 

Before I could even flee with the sorcerer, he was surrounded... 

and then slain, refusing to be taken into custody alive!!!

And there was much rejoicing! 

With the Cult Leader slain and the rest of the cult killed or disbanded and dispersed, Hammerhal was safe once again... for the moment.

I had a LOT of fun playing through this campaign! I'm SUPER STOKED about starting Warhammer Quest: Cursed City next week! 

Cursed City plays quite differently - it's a lot more like Blackstone Fortress. There are custom dice with one, two, or no pips which indicate success, critical success, or misses... there are d6s, d8s and d12s... the better your skill the higher the dice you use (which had a higher proportion of successes and critical successes to misses). There isn't a Player Phase, followed by a Adversary/Hostile Phase, there is an initiative track and, I think, each turn the cards are dealt out onto it, so the order of everyone going is constantly changing and hostiles are mixed in with the Heroes. Gambits can be used to switch positions with enemies... 

Should be a lot of fun! (assuming I can get rats and zombies finished in the next week!). We'll be playing on Wendesday next week, though, because we're FINALLY starting a game of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound (the Role-Playing Game!) on Tuesday! If all things go according to plan, that will be every other Tuesday. The alternating Tuesdays we will play Cursed City, and on the weeks where we are playing Soulbound on Tuesday, we will play Cursed City on Wednesday! 

(This seems a little convoluted... but I wanted to keep up the momentum and play Cursed City every week, if we could, so we can get through it... but also wanted to keep running SOME of them on Tuesdays, to keep open the possibility that John might be able to join in - as he's really only available on Tuesdays...) 

Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal - Session Seven - The Auction Hall

In this penultimate session our Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal campaign, our heroes have chased the Chaos Sorcerer behind the strange cult that has gathered followers of all the Chaos Gods together and tried to wreck havoc in the city of Hammerhal! They uncovered and foiled a plot to redirect the flow of magma below the city to flood Cinderfall and the surrounding neighborhoods, potentially killing tens of thousands and destroying much of the industry in the city!

In their final assault on the cult in the catecombs - during the ritual that would have realized their dastardly plans - the Chaos Sorcerer escaped... but a clue was discovered that led them to the House of Venargo - an opulent merchant's mansion built in the classic Azyrute style, that contains auction halls where arcane artifacts are auctioned to a select clientele.  

I'd initially hoped we'd get through the Auction Hall AND the Sorcerer's Lair this evening... alas.. we got started a bit late and fighting ALL THE THINGS in ONE ROOM takes a lot of time!! 

The adventurers set up outside the gilded Auction Hall of the House of Venargo... and the Enemy lurking within. 

Arvios Sunhelm - Lord-Castellant of the Hammers of Sigmar - was the first to enter. He used his Warding Lantern and stunned three of the enemy - and damaged two of them - including one of the Chaos Sorcerer's Bodyguards! 

(The Chaos Sorcerer could not be targetted until the two bodyguards were slain!) 

Archimaine - Sunhelm's loyal Gryph-hound - bounded to his side and chewed on some Kairic Acolytes!

Golnir Coalbeard - Cogsmith - burst in and blasted a few away with his guns!

Alnaryn the Loremaster entered from the North door and cut down a few of the Kairic Acolytes!

Vizrin Kyre - the Black Ark Fleetmaster - charged into the thick of things and got themselves into a spot of bother - finding themselves engaged with two Kairic Acolytes, the Bloodreaver Bodyguard, and the Chaos Sorcerer themselves!! The first three dealt the Fleetmaster three wounds. The Chaos Sorderer then attacked with both Runestaff (one attack d3 damage) and Runesword (two attacks, 1 Damage) - both hit on 2+ - and I rolled THREE ONES!!! 

The Kairic Acolytes, however, in addition to making a few attacks, summned a PINK HORROR!!

Coalbeard and Sunhelm cut down the rest of the Kairic Acolytes... 

Alnaryn blasted the Pink Horror with their arcane bolt, blasting it apart...  

into two Blue Horrors!

Their final attack hit the Bloodreaver Bodyguard, which Vizrin Kyre then finished off... 

Lord-Castellant Sunhelm then stepped up to attack the Putrid BLightking Bodyguard! 

The Chaos sorcerer cried; "FOOLS! YOU THINK YOU HAVE WON!? YOU HAVE FALLEN INTO MY TRAP!" and with that the doors to the Auction Hall were flug open to reveal MORE Kairic Acolytes at the doors ready to charge in! 

Alnaryn blasted a Blue Horror apart... and it burst into two Brimstone Horrors! 

Vizrym Kyre charged in and stamped one of the Brimstone Horrors out and cleaved the other Blue Horror in two, procducing TWO MORE Brimstone Horrors! 

Meanwhile, Coalbeard blasted away at the Karic Acolytes just outside the door he was standing by, taking down two or three of them...? 

The Kairic Acolytes swarmed into the Hall, surrounding Coalbeard and the Lord-Castellant!

Coalbeard actually hit someone with his axe! Rhe Lord-Castellant struck down a few of the Kairic Acolytes! But the Chaos Sorcerer called for even MORE reinforcements and four more Khorne Bloodreavers burst in through the North door attacking Alnaryn! 

Coalbeard and the Lord-Castellant fought off the Kairic Acolytes while Alnaryn dealt with the Bloodreavers... With the two body guards out of the way, Vizrin Kyre and the Gryph-Hound started attacking the Chaos Sorcerer! (and dealt it some serious damage!) 

Bloodreavers try to come to the Chaos Sorcerer's aide, swarming Vizrin Kyre! 

The battle seemed desperate, but eventually the last of the Sorcerer's minions were dealt with... 

But the Sorcerer ONCE AGAIN slipped away through a secret door, evading the Heroes justice! 

Our Heroes located a secret door that lead to a chamber... that lead to a REALM GATE! It was clear the Sorcerer had fled through the Realm Gate and through it they would pursue! But... maybe not that evening! 

At this point it was after 10pm and we decided to call it a night and would finish up the last bit next week... meaning I have TWO more weeks to get enough done to start Cursed City! 

I've been listening to the audiobook of Hammerhal and Other Stories, but I might re-listen to Cursed City over the next two weeks to keep the motivation up (and refresh my memory of some of the background)! 

Tune in for the exciting conclusion next week when our heroes face the Chaos Sorcerer in his own LAIR!!!! 

Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal - Session Six - The Grinding Gear

For a second week in a row, Amanda and Finnegan and I sat down to play Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal! We are getting close to the end! 

To start off, our heroes found their way down to the bottom layers of the catacombs... and there they found Archaime! The Lord-Castellant's Gryph-Hound that had gone loping off on it's own in Session One!

The Lord-Castellant led the way, choosing to take the passage to the right. Golnir Coalbeard, pushed past him and opened the next door, finding four Putrid Blight Kings huddled together having a discussion about something... they all turned to look at the Cogsmith in the doorway. 

Before they could react, the Loremaster charged in their and lobbed the excavation Charge they'd axquired in the Previous Session! BOOM!!!

Vizrin Kyre danced in and cut down one of the Blightkings. 

Archimaine loped in and took a chunk out of another. 

The Gryph-Hound has a special ability, that if an adversary is adjacent to it, they MUST attack the Gryph-Hound! So the remaining Blightkings healed themselves - because of all the corrupted icons carved into the wall of the chamber and then attacked the Gryph-hound... but did not kill it!!

Kyre took out another Blight King... 

Then the Lord-Castellant stepped in and finished off the last of them. 

Rooms were searched, gold was found. 

Then Kyre and Sunhelm moved into the next chamber and opened the door to find a bunch of Kairic Acolytes and a Chaos Sorcerer lord in the middle of some sort of ritual in a room with large grinding gears that Golnir Coalbeard recognized as having sometihng to do with the flow of white-hot magma below Hammerhal and that disrupting and redirecting the flow could lead to the deaths of thousands... TENS of thousands, possibly! 

The rest move up, Archimaine charged in and Alnaryn slipped in the side and started blasting Acolytes! 

The Acolytes surged forwards and attacked the Gryph-hound taking them out of action! Other magic bolts were thrown at Alnaryn, injuring them! 

Vizrin Kyre had an Elixir of Life and bought Achimaine back immediately. 

At the beginning of the next round, when the Destiny Dice were rolled, there were NO DOUBLES and so a Unexpected Event took place - EXPLOSION! Three of the heroes were pretty seriously injured (2-3 wounds each) this was NOT the time for that to happen!! Luckily, they all survived the next round - and used all those destiny dice to recover. 

The other time Unexpected Events take place is when ALL the destiny dice are discarded as they all have doubles (or triples, or whatever). THAT would have been DIRE!!!

All piled in and started attacking the Acolytes. 

The Lord Castellant used his Magic Lantern and stunned a bunch of them. 

Then Alnaryn used the Amulet of Mist to just dance right through the lot of them... 

...and into contact with the Chaos Sorcerer Lord! 

On the Adversary Phase, one of the Kairic Acolytes at the rear of the mob did come back to try and help the Sorcerer... but coudln't attack... 

Also, at the end of the second Adversary Phase since the Chamber of the Gears was entered, all the Bloodreavers realized something was up and came running! 

Yiiiiiikes! 

But then in the next Hero Phase, Alnaryn cut the Sorcerer down! 

Just before the Sorcerer pulled a "This ain't over yet!" move and cast a spell disappearing... But no longer doing his ritual, the city was saved! 

The heroes just had to mop up the minions and fight their way out! 

Alnaryn cut down the Acolyte that had run back in a vain effort to save the Sorcerer! 

The others moped up the rest of the Kairic Acolytes While Sunhelm blocked the Khorne Bloodreavers from entering the room! 

With the last of the Acolytes despatched, they heroes moved to engage the Bloodreavers. 

Sunhelm moved into the room and used the Ring of the Slumbering King to attack all of them and dealt a bunch of damage to the ones in the room with him. 

The rest of the heroes charged into the room and took the rest of them down! 

Everyone levelled up once during the adventure and gained new skills. 

A clue was found indicating the Sorcerer may have fled to the House of Venargo... So they Heroes left the catacombs beneath Cinderfall and made their way to the House of Venargo, to hopefully confront the Sorcerer there! (But along the way, they made stops at Baugren's Bountiful Bazaar, the Guild of Certified Thaumaturgists, and the Chapel of the Shattered Blade, to collect a few magic items and have Archimaine's greivous wound healed... and Coalbeard made a quick trip to the GAMBLING DEN!? 

Next Week - Our Heroes will check out the House of Venargo and see if they can find the Chaos Sorcerer there! 

We are getting so close to being finished this... I'm going to have to switch gears and get some stuff done for either Silver Tower of Cursed City. To be honest, I'm kind of thinking of skipping Silver Tower for now and moving on to Cursed City. We discussed the possibilities, briefly, after this game. When I explained the general plot and Characters and their motivations and their adversaries, Finnegan got pretty excited. When I told him about the prequel novel, he got even MORE excited. 

So I guess I better get painting the rest of the Cursed City heroes and villains!