May Games

Here are the games we played in May of 2025. We did not play so many games this month. There's been a lot going on. It's a long story... 

Tuesday, 6 May 2025

On the first Tuesday evening in May, we continued the Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes campaign - the Campaign for Ravensflight. In this adventure, our heroes tried to track down the ratlings that had attacked the hamlet of Gromlet. While tracking them they were ambushed by Ratling Assassins, who were all despatched, and then they successfully found the Ratling camp and slayed more of the survivors of the raid... but there was clearly a larger base of operation deeper in the mountains and it was decided it would be best to return to Gromlet and try to raise a larger force to attack the ratling base of operations! 

You can read all about it (and see more pictures) here:

Campaign for Ravensflight - The Pursuit of the Ratlings

Sunday, 11 May 2025

The next journey planned for Warhammer Quest was a Decaptiation Journey, which tend to be a bit longer, so we decided not to play on Wednesday evening and held off until the following Sunday when we'd have more time... 

We played through the Whispers in the Dark Decapitation Journey - to take out Torgilius the Chamberlain! The Journey was a success as Torgilius and all his phylacteries were destroyed! 

There might be a Game Report at some point... I'm just a bit behind on those.. I did take pictures, though...

Tuesday, 13 May 2025

The following Tuesday evening we played another game in the Campaign for Ravensflight. In this game the retinue had returned to Gromlet to raise a larger group of conscripts to march on the Ratlings lair deep in the mountains... it... did NOT go well... 

You can read all about it here:

Campaign for Ravensflight - Assault on the Ratlings Lair! 

So disastrous was the outcome, that we needed to just start a whole new campaign!

Maybe... I'd like to... but with all the other stuff going on, it was hard enough to get the Warhammer Quest games in... and June is a VERY BUSY month for Orion... Perhaps later in the Summer. 

(Maybe I'll get some solo games in throughout June!?) 

Wednesday, 28 May 2025

It wasn't until almost the end of the month that we FINALLY back to playing Warhammer Underworlds! Amanda and Finnegan decided they wanted to go on one more Scavenge Journey before facing the Ven Alten Trio... to tool up with some badass vampire-slaying enhancements... it was largely a success, though there were a few tense moments! 

So... yeah... Not lots, but fun was had. 

After getting in this game of Warhammer Quest, I'm feeling a bit more positive that we'll get playing games again. As I mentioned, Orion is very busy through June, but hopefully we can get back to weekly Warhammer Quest games and maybe I'll FINALLY get in that next game of Five Parsecs from Home that I've been sitting on for over a year!?

Campaign for Ravensflight - Assault on the Ratlings Lair!

This is a game report for this week's adventure in our Campaign for Ravensflight - a tabletop adventure campaign using Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes!

After Pursuing the Ratling Raiders to their camp after the Defence of Gromlet, Lady Ismira Ravensflight returned to Gromlet to raise a larger force to assault the Ratlings lair, deeper into the mountains. Some were deeply saddened by the loss of their friends at the hands of the brutal Ratling Assassins that waylaid the party during the pursuit. Many more were buoyed by the tales of Lady Ismira's daring and bravery - and the number of Ratlings slain - at the Ratlings camp. A number of additional farmers and woodsmen volunteered to join the expedition. More importantly, two retired warriors were recruited! 

Karl was a soldier from the Vale of Ravensflight that marched off to war with Lady Ismira's parents over two decades earlier, campaigning with them for a dozen years or so. Ten years ago he returned to the Vale with a husband he'd met and married while on campaign and the two settled into a farmstead near Gromlet! Not the most deadly or well armed of warriors... They were definitely a step up from the farmers armed with pitchforks!  

Preparing to assault the Ratlings Lair... 

Lady Ismira and her retinue enter the Lair of the Ratlings... 

Erik charged after a Ratling slinger that had been harrying the party, pelting them with stones... unfortunately every time Erik took a swing at the filthy little beast, it would duck and slink back further into the shadows. 

Lady Ismira, always one to lead from the front, was attacked by a Ratling Assassin! It leapt upon her stabbing deeply into her neck! The group panicked and about half of them fled out of the cavern. Luckily a few had teh wherewithal to drag their wounded Lady with them! 

Kark and Erik continued trying to take down the Ratling slinger. Two of the woodsmen/archer remained along with Megan... 

Raloros regained his wits and returned to help out, though things were getting increasingly desperate! 

MORE Ratlings kept arriving - drawn by the sound of fighting! 

A pair of them assaulted Raloros. One tackled his legs bringing him down. The other lept on his chest stabbing him repeatedly while Raloros screamed... 

So... in Song of Blades and Heroes combat is worked out by each player rolling a d6 and adding or subtracting any modifiers and comparing rolls... if one character doubles the other, they have taken their opponent out of action - though the character taken out of action can roll for survival later to see if they survived their wounds... If one combatant triples the result of the other it is a gruesome kill... the character dies instantly and all friendlies within a certain distance make an instant morale check... 

Raloros rolled a one... to which nothing was added because his combat ability was cancelled out by being outnumbered and the powerful blow the Ratling dealt... 

The ratling attacker ended with modified roll of EIGHT.... so... EIGHT TIMES what Raloros rolled... so he was SUUUUUPER DEAD!? 

At this point it was decided to cut losses and make their way out... 

Unfortunately a Ratling warrior cut down Karl as he retreated. 

The Erik was knocked down while he tried to retrive his fallen lover... 

He briefly got up again, but was overwhelmed by Ratlings and cut down... 

After the battle Orion rolled to see if Lady Ismira survived her injuries... and rolled THREE FAILURES... and died... 

and... that was it for the campaign!? 

With Lady Ismira dead (along with Raloros...) there was no real point in continuing... 

It was decided that Megan and Amelia decided to settle on a farmstead near Gromlet and give up on their life of adventure. They adopted young Yorrick and raised her as their own. Amelia's sister Luciana stayed on with them for a time, but eventually heard the call of adventure and had to move on. 

We decided to reboot the campaign with a party of Dwarves that would enter the Vale of Ravensflight from the Northwest - tho opposite direction from which Lady Ismira and her retinue had approached. They would be tasked with recovering some artifacts which had been gifted the Ravensflight family, now that the last of their line had passed... 

And that's the Campaign for Ravensflight Game Reports all caught up! I still have three to do for Warhammer Quest and one for Bolt Action... 

Campaign for Ravensflight - The Pursuit of the Ratlings

This, finally, is the game report for the games played last week in our Campaign for Ravensflight - a tabletop adventure campaign using Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes!

After the Defence of Gromlet, Lady Ismira and her retinue decided to pursue the surviving Ratling Raiders hoping to track them back to their lair and destroy that threat once and for all... 

They were not able to pursue instantly... They waited for morning and quickly tried to press a number of Farmers and Woodsmen into service! They ended up with only a handful and left shortly after lunch... 

The progress was slow, but the tracks were clear and easy enough to follow. 

As evening approached it was decided to set up camp for the night. Watch shifts were detailed and those not standing sentry tried to get a few hours of fitful sleep. 

During the last shift before dawn, Raloros - the Spellcaster (Played by Finnegan), was standing guard with two farmers - brothers; Jake and Elwood. Jake and Elwood had secretly got into the supply of spirits and had gotten quite drunk and fallen asleep. 

A few Ratling Assassins snuck into camp and before Raloros could do anything or wake anyone, they struck - killing several of the farmers! So horrified was Raloros, they ran off into the woods in fear! 

Lady Ismira Ravensflight is a light sleeper and was one of the first up and fighting back against the Ratlings. 

Raloros also regained their composure and aided by Lady Ismira by making the Ratling Assassins fall into a magical slumber... 

Luciana killed one of the assassins with her crossbow! 

Ratling Assassin desperately tried to wake up his sleeping compatriot... but was cut down before he could! 

Teh following day the remains of the retinue buried their dead and continued tracking the ratlings... 

They came upon their raiding camp and approached it under cover of darkness... A lot more Ratlings were awake at night! 

Luciana shot down one of the sentries. 

Lady Ismira charged out into the camp, cutting down ratlings left and right! 

The others were bewildered by her insane bravery!?

Most hung back and shot at the scrambling Ratlings! 

Megan, who was STILL recovering from her initial injuries... was injured again... eventually the Ratlings were overpowered and when the Ratling Commander and Wizard were slain, the rest melted into the woods... 

The party scouted ahead and discovered this was not the Ratlings main base of operations, it was mearly a forward raiding camp. Though they did not go all the way there, it was clear there was a more permanent lair deeper in the mountains. It was decided they should return to Gromlet and raise a larger contingent to march on the Ratlings lair! 

Campaign for Ravensflight - The Defence of Gromlet!

I've gotten a bit behind on these as well... so... 

A few weeks back, the Retinue of Lady Ismira Ravensflight buried their companion Yodrick and continued along their way to the Hamlert of Gromlet. Along their way they noted abandoned farmsteads. It was difficult to tell what had become of the inhabitants. 

Had the families died of plague? Had they been murdered by raiding ratlings? Some had been burned down. Other simply abandoned. Some were abandoned long ago, others more recently. 

When they finally came upon an inhabited farmstead, they discovered they were very close to Gromlet. There were quite a few farmsteads now packed in tightly around the hamlet. Indeed, the hamlet itself was a small cluster of a half-dozen or so farmsteads with a small community hall and dilapidated chapel and a blacksmith.  

The community was ambivalent to the arrival of a feudal lord returned to reclaim their ancestral lands, complaining that they'd already been taxed twice this season... and it wasn't even harvest time! The tax collectors claimed to be the King's tax collectors, though when leaving the capitol, the King himself said taxes had not been collected from the region for many years and stated that was one of the main reasons he'd urged Lady Ismira to return to her lands

The community was shocked and dismayed that the retinue had encountered ratlings on the road, which they had slain, and now feared reprisals. The Ratlings had been a nuisance for more than a few years now, but the villagers had discovered if they put up no resistance and let the ratling raiders steal the occasional livestock (or small children) they wouldn't kill too many of villagers - to them it was just ANOTHER tax they had to pay. 

Originally, Lady Ismira had planned to continue her march to Ravendown, but stayed on to pacify and show she was willing and able to protect her peoples against the scourge of the ratlings.

As the villagers seemed to think they ratlings always came from the East, they camped out in the farmstead furthest to the east for the first night, saying they would sound Lady Ismira's war horn as a signal for all of the villagers to come to the defence of the town... Luckily, nothing happened. 

It occurred to them however, that there was likely little chance that anyone in the region would HEAR the warhorn in their farms, spread out over several miles, and fewer would bother to answer the call. The next day, they arranged for a group to stay each night at the community hall and some would keep watch and if there were signs of a raid, would march out from the central location. Some were not impressed with this idea - as it would mean the outlying farms - in which ever direction the ratlings came from would surly be razed (and possibly occupants killed!) be the response group could possibly get there... but they also could not be sure where the ratlings would come from and which farm would be hit first. 

A very small group of farmers and a woodsman armed with a bow gathered to stay at the community hall. As it turned out the second evening the ratlings did attack. The sentries keeping watch alerted and woke up the group in the hall after they spotted a fire off to the east. Shortly thereafter, farmers and their families from the eastern farmstead came running into the hamlet proper fleeing the ratlings. 

The group marched out to meet their foes... 

The met the Ratling Raiding Party near one of the farmsteads east of Gromlet! 

The defenders quickly took up positions at a hedge surrounding the farmstead.

The Ratlings attacked! 

The Ratlings had a wizard who was throwing fireballs around, lighting up the night! 

The Ratling Wizard (or "Rizard", as the players kept calling it?!) made the mistake of getting too close to Granny... 

pelting it with stones, the Rizard was taken out of action! 

(I think it might have been a Gruesome kill and half the ratlings failed morale and fled...? this is what happens when I write game reports three weeks after the fact...) 

Ratlings attack the other hedge line and Lady Ismira fights the Ratling Commander! 

At one point, Lady Ismira was knocked down and things looked a little perilous... 

But she got back up and cut that Ratling commander down and the rest of the Ratlings fled into the night! 

Of the Raiders, only about half were slain and it was decided that they should raise a force to track them back to their lair and deal with them for good!