*Crunch crunch*
The creature grazed on
the fungus that lined the walls of the cave as Aeon peered out of the tunnel
mouth. She leaned forward a little to get a better look, but paused as it turned
it’s large head towards her.
She stiffened, slowly
reaching for her wand, but the beast simply grunted before turning back to it’s
feed.
“I was right about the
tracks,” she whispered to her apprentice, who squeezed into the tunnel behind
her. “It’s a Devourer – very rare in this time period and extinct in mine.”
Brunhilde frowned. “Extinct
in y-?”
Her question was cut
short as the Devourer shifted it’s bulk and began to burrow through the rock.
“C’mon!” urged the
Chronomancer. “You don’t get to study a live Devourer every day – let’s follow
it!”
After inadvertently triumphing in the last game, we had time
to try out another ‘Breeding Pits’ scenario, and rolled the ‘Mating Season’. In
this scenario the warbands track the huge, but normally docile Devourers.
However, once these creatures meet during mating season, all hell breaks loose!
The table was set up and treasures placed as normal. I had
the standard three tokens to put down, while Giles had managed a Fool’s Gold
spell and placed four.
Once again I split my warband in two, with my wizard, the
Chronomancer Aeon Flixx leading half of the team. Re-reading the rules after
the game, I realised I’d been making a mistake here, as the dungeon exploration
rules state that the warband must deploy 6” from one doorway, not two.
My mistake! Regardless, the other half of the warband
deployed near the other doorway on my side of the table, led by my apprentice
Brunhilde. Both spellcasters were confident following their previous encounter,
which had netted them a nice pile of loot back at the inn.
Opposite me, Giles’ illusionist Shazam deployed correctly
from one doorway. After the previous game he had been forced to hire a new
apprentice – the previous one having suffered a smashed jaw – and as such was
somewhat embarrassed for funds.
With worrying familiarity, the first treasure claimed
brought forth a wandering creature – in this case an ice spider (once again
using a swarm model as a proxy. I do have single models but this was the first
one that came to hand!)
Soon another treasure was grabbed, which spawned another
creature! This time it was a violent fungus, which quickly wandered into the
path of Shazam’s captain and his companion. The soldiers easily slew the
toadstool, but were both infected by it’s spores, reducing them down to a
single action apiece.
It was the end of the first creature phase, and as the
scenario dictated a Devourer lumbered onto the board on each player entry side.
They slowly began to burrow towards each other, ignoring the warbands that manoeuvred
around them.
Aeon’s band headed for another treasure, but was stymied by
the ice spider swarm. One of the infantrymen stepped forward to splat the bugs,
only to find himself on the receiving end of a poisonous bite. He too was now
reduced to a single action.
With the giant Devourers in their midst, neither side felt
the need to complicate matters further by attacking each other as they probed
the centre of the board, but that didn’t stop one of my archers from dropping
one of the opposition.
More treasure was claimed, which attracted a pair of giant
rats. These puny creatures spawned out of sight on my right flank and wandered
randomly away from the action. I paid them no heed, for it was unlikely that
they would affect the proceedings in any meaningful way.
While one infantryman still battled the spider swarm,
another pushed forward, covered by an archer and a Wizard Eye. With both
wizards lying low, this was a rare attempt by Aeon to cast aggressively, as
most of the time she and Brunhilde contented themselves with casting Fleet Feet
on nearby comrades (the effects of which I promptly forgot about).
Hoping to take advantage of the enemy captain’s infected
state, a thug and warhound made their way along my left flank to attack him.
However he had been quickly healed by Shazam, who had found a wand of healing
during the previous game. Back at full capacity, the warrior knocked out my thug.
By now the two Devourers were almost within sight of each
other and would soon turn aggressive as they fought for dominance. Not wishing
to get caught in the melee, Aeon’s warband began to back away. Brunhilde the
apprentice ducked behind a wall on the right flank…right into the path of the
two giant rats I had forgotten about… (Note: this picture has been blurred due
to it’s graphic content).
The rats pounced! Brunhilde went down! This was my own
stupid fault for forgetting about the rats and moving my apprentice within line
of sight of them. As a starting level apprentice, Brunhilde was hardly a
fighting machine, especially against pack animals that activated together. Oh
bugger…
To make matters worse, the Devourers finally reared up
against each other, turning from docile giants into huge killing machines. My
still-poisoned infantryman, having eventually dispatched the spiders, had been
sent forward as a forlorn hope, thus allowing everyone else to get out of the
way. Two gobbets of acid spit later and he was a screaming mess on the floor.
Most of the soldiers of both warbands were now hightailing
it out of the arena with whatever treasure they could carry, but my warhound
was still locked in combat with the captain. Alas, no lucky 20’s this time.
The discovery of a secret passage led to one last chance to
get the better of Shazam, as my surviving infantryman stepped through a wall to
engage his retreating treasure carriers. He managed to defeat the warhound
rearguard, but was not fast enough to catch up with the rest of them.
The game ended up honours even treasure-wise (which perhaps
reflected the cautious play of both combatants), but alas Brunhilde did not
survive the post-injury roll, thus balancing out the result of the previous
game. Luckily I was able to sell enough loot to hire a new apprentice, and
replace the wounded infantryman to boot.
Aeon Flixx watched as
the Brunhilde’s corpse was hauled onto the cart. So this is what her premonition,
or perhaps future memory, was about.
She wiped her tears,
telling herself that her apprentice knew the risks when she’d volunteered to join
her expedition, but it did little to make her feel better.
Sighing, she carefully
placed the last scroll into the sack of loot and handed it to one of the
soldiers. “Take this to the Sisterhood as recompense for the loss of their
acolyte. Pass my respects to the Mother Synchronous along with my request for
another apprentice.”
She watched as the
cart slowly disappeared out of sight and was about to return to the inn when
one of the scouts suddenly raised the alarm. Squinting through the snow she saw
a figure staggering towards the inn. Fishing out her wand, she and her two thugs
cautiously advanced, their pace quickening as the stranger collapsed to the ground.
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