Five Leagues From the Borderlands: The Tale of Reggie's Lads

[Tom]

Battle on! A ruined town in the forest harbours the nasties.



The bugs spread across the table, and aiming to scout their objectives sharpish The Lads split into two groups, Reggie, Ophelia and Helga heading down the left flank to scout out a crypt while Saek, Rivali and Hugo head for a more central ruin.

The left flank quickly reaches their objective and engages a couple of bugs. Helga and Reggie manage to splat one each.



The central party however quickly realise that the rest of the bugs are heading for them, and not fancying an outnumbered fight with the giant spider dubbed the bug 'leader' they send the speedy Rivali on 'Operation Kite.' He pelts it for the far corner of the table with a horde behind him while Hugo and Saek circle around to their objective trying to avoid an ominous rustling (unknown enemy counter) that is heading for the centre of the table.



As Rivali reaches the edge of the battlefield Saek is forced to make a dash for the objective (if you haven't achieved your objective then running off the table means a roll on the risky 'Flight in the Dark' table). This takes him too close to the unknown enemy, which turns out to be four more spiders! Bad news.



At the start of each turn you roll for initiative by rolling as many d6 as you have party members. These are then assigned to models, with rolls below or equal to their agility allowing them to go before the enemy, and rolls above meaning the enemy go first. Saek is agility 1 like most models but Rivali is a 2 which is what has kept him ahead of the bugs up to now. So if I can roll a 1 and a 1/2 on six dice then both can escape and all is well.



Bugger.

Rivali is off but Saek is going to get jumped. He's probably ok though. Only a couple of the spiders are close enough to attack this turn, and he can fight defensively to hopefully run away.





He is not okay. The first spider utterly beasts him. Seeing the writing on the wall the rest of the Lads scarper before the bug horde can close on them. We achieved our objective but did not hold the field.



A couple of factors that made sticking around to finish this fight not a great idea were that the faction rule for the enemy table the bugs were rolled on is that every time I cast a spell it might attract more enemies to the table (hence zero casting from me) and that the bugs are fearless and won't run away whereas usually the enemy will start to flee as you kill them.

[Tom]

Aftermath.

1) Collect Adventure Points.
Nope. Nothing qualifying happened I'm afraid.

2) Check for injuries.
1d100=29 Seriously Injured. Needing [2d6 pick highest] campaign turns to recover. 2d6=1, 1 Get in! Saek's Duskling heritage clearly grants him some kind of spider venom resistance and he only needs one turn to recover.

3) Advancement
Heroes all get 2 XP for surviving and completing the objective (Saek only gets 1 as he was downed). This is enough to get Reggie a level up! [1d100=2] Speed increase.

Followers don't get XP but get a roll on the Flash of Insight table.
Helga [1d100=12] Nothing
Hugo [1d100=99] Become a hero and get an instant level up! Wow. The things you learn spending a game missing bugs with your bow and then running away. [1d100=72] combat skill increase.

4) Loot
For achieving the objective we get a roll on the loot table. [1d100=22] Weapons [1d100=68] A Quick War Spear.

5) Unusual Finds
If we'd Held the Field (killed everyone) we'd get a roll on this table, but we ran away so we get nada.

6) Settle In
The battle interrupted our journey and though we've reached the same region as our destination and won't need to travel again to reach it, we have to camp in the wilderness tonight.

7) News Travels
[1d100=86] A stranger is visiting Camp Beastival. If we visit within 2 campaign turns we can roll a Traveller Encounter.

[Tom]

Campaign Turn 3:

Camp Event [1d100=93] Infected Wounds. 9+ Scholar test to help, [2d6=4, 4], nope, Saek gets 3 turns added to his recovery time

Campaign Activities x 2
We'll Live Off the Land to negate our upkeep costs this turn as I reckon saving for armour is my current priority.
And Rivali can do some training as it gets him a level up. [1d100=1] Speed up. More kiting in his future then.

Roll for Connections [1d100=99] A messenger finds us on the road and tells us of a Quest we have been offered by a mysterious benefactor! These are like contracts but multi-stepped and with extra rewards. [1d100=73] At a new unexplored location in the wilderness [1d100=9] we need to locate an artefact. We've got a job on for now but this will hopefully be worth pursuing in the future.

Adventure
On to the Night Market to complete our delivery! We're already in the right region so make it there without the need to roll, deliver the package and gain our 4 marks to take us to a stash of 6.

Having arrived without incident we get a bonus shopping opportunity. I'm buying a shield for Rivali for 4 marks (mainly as the model has one) which means he has to pass his crossbow on. Hugo can take it now he's a hero, along with that fancy spear we found in the crypt during the last battle. Hugo's bow will go to Helga. Also a sling for Reggie for 2 marks as it's the best ranged weapon he can carry with his shield.

News Travels [1d100=16] news of a new unexplored location in the wilderness reaches us.

[Darkson (Simon)]

Liking this so far.

[Tom]

Note to myself: finishing the contract got me an adventure point.

[Tom]

Campaign Turn 4:

Walking the Streets of the Night Market, Reggie is bumped into by a suspiciously coordinated crowd and spins around to see an urchin running off with his coin purse. Eventually he stops laughing that it was entirely empty anyway. (I had wondered if it was a good idea to spend every penny I had last turn. Now very glad I did!)

Due to the lack of ready cash, the Lads hep out what passes for the local authority, guarding the gate against troublemakers. Not glamorous or profitable but it at least covers living expenses. Feeling the lack of funds, The Lads find other odd jobs to do with the rest of their time while waiting for Saek to recover, earning a couple of marks aided by Rivali's Crafting skills.

Reggie decides to save the money to potentially recruit some more manpower for the Warband in the future (You can take a max of 6 models to a fight. Increasing membership will raise living costs but will also give us some cover for when someone is in recovery).

Hoping to avoid a fight on the road while Saek is out of action, the Lads head to the military Camp Beastival to see this stranger they heard was apparently looking for them. Travel is indeed uneventful and they arrive without incident. However on asking around it turns out the stranger is just a Loud Drunkard who was shooting his mouth off. Declining the opportunity to escort the wretch back home to the Night Market where he just came from, Reggie tells him where to go and he staggers off into the night. At the close of the turn, word arrives of another stranger in the camp who wants to see us tomorrow? Coincidence or mix up with the chatty drunk? Who knows, we'll find out later.

[Tom]

Campaign Turn 5:

An auspicious start to the turn as a promising youth, clearly fed up with military camp life, offers to join the party. (As I was planning to recruit a follower this turn, that was a nice random event). An Outcast Drifter follower (name to be determined) joins the party.

Passing time in town the party once again works odd jobs to pay upkeep and attempts a bit of self improving study, to no great effect (small chance to be able to generate a random skill for someone who doesn't has one). Some bandages are procured at the market for battlefield patch ups.

Before deciding on what adventurous activity to attempt, Reggie tracks down the other stranger asking around camp about him. Tracking down a Hunter who people swear was asking after Reggie, the guy denies everything and is entirely disinterested in talking any further. Reggie is losing interest in tracking down vague rumours of strangers who want a chat.

With their new recruit in tow, The Lads leave Saek recuperating and head out on a Patrol. A quick scout around the area for troublemakers (and a theoretically easier end of the enemy pool if we end up in a fight). However they bump into a much nastier than expected Robber Baron Patrol! A petty noble doing some tax collection by shaking down anyone who can't resist. (I tried to re-roll this with a Story Point and got the exact same result...)

Having seen the brigands swooping down on a defenceless traveller, The Lads make themselves known and the hapless fellow dashes for cover. If they can't defeat the enemy, The Lads can at least try to rescue the traveller and maybe there'll be a reward on the cards? (This is me flavouring up a 'Fetch Something' objective).

There are four brigands the party can see and more are suspected to be hiding nearby, they seem fairly well armoured and two seem to have crossbows which could be bad news. Even worse it seems one them must have some level of magic as he summons an Infernal Spawn! A crawling mutant terror from beyond the barrier between worlds. (I made some shocking enemy rolls here!)

I'll get this fight set up and see how viable the objective is to reach, but strongly suspect I may be running away pretty quick here if I don't get lucky.

[ErebusMort]

This is fascinating stuff to see how the ā€œFiveā€ series of games works, looks like great fun.

I now have five klicks in a virtual basket along with another couple of solo games that look very good

[Tom]

The Robber Barons and their Infernal Spawn line up.



And Reggie and compatriots unleash hell.



Turn 1: Helga the brave village instantly bursts the spawn's vile eyeball with a precise bow shot, and Reggie downs an enemy crossbowman with some amazing sling action. Rivali runs out to grab the traveller and at the end of the turn another of the bad guys runs away. A great start!

Turn 2: A second enemy crossbowman is pretty well ensconced in cover so Hugo makes a flanking move, hoping to get initiative next turn and use his own crossbow shot in first.



Turn 3: He fails to get initiative... but the enemy misses and then Hugo gets his man. On the other flank one of the bad guys flattens Helga. Ophelia makes a spirited attempt to attack the bad guy in revenge, but despite magic and allied support barely escapes without being killed herself.

Turn 4: Turn 4: Reggie moves in and finishes off the last enemy model on the table, but then the unknown marker randomly rolls to head straight at him way and pops into... the maximum of 5 more guys! Ophelia summons up a floating skull for in preparation, though one bad guy runs away immediately. We only need to kill two more and the remaining two will automatically run. This seems very doable!

Turn 5 - 9: It all goes wrong. Hugo splats one who got drawn off on his own, but the rest stick together in a mob supporting each other and are simply better fighters than Reggie and the lads. The battle ends with Rivali as the last (bird)man standing, but his extreme speed at least allows him to run off with the rescued traveller, getting me a technical victory on the objective. All three remaining bandits are wounded and at least four times a single d6 roll going my way would have kicked off the bad guy's run away condition. Alas it was not to be.






In the aftermath, miraculously nobody is permanently hurt but Reggie and Ophelia are going to take a while to recover and a couple of folks manage to damage their daggers somehow in the escape (these are fairly pointless back up weapons so I rolled very luckily when determining random equipment to damage).

The rescued traveller digs out some fine light armour that used to belong to her father and offers it as a reward so it's not all bad. Plus killing the Spawn and a technical objective victory get us 3 adventure points. There's a smattering of XP about but nobody levels up. Annoyingly Helga being a mere follower can't get the XP reward for killing the Spawn.

We limp back to the camp for a likely quiet few turns of resting up.

[Tom]

Actually, as we now have 6 adventure points, I reckon it's time to spend some. You can use them for a few things, but they all requiring spending between 1 and 6 points and rolling equal to or under that number on d6 to do the thing. Fail and the points are lost. Being a coward I will spend all 6 on a guarantee of Helga the sharpshooter getting a heroic promotion for her Spawn slaying! No stats changes but she can start earning xp and carry better weapons.

Quiet Turn 1:
A chance encounter with a wandering healer knocks a turn off Reggie's recovery time. Town Guard work pays the bills and the upright band members attempt to recruit a new follower (seeing as the warband upkeep bracket is 7-8 models we might as well get an 8th!) but nobody bites and they just waste some coin. The damaged daggers can be sold for a couple of Marks as they aren't really worth repairing. The Lads decline to go hunting for more quests or contracts while Reggie is laid up in bed.

Quiet Turn 2:
Saek has recovered from his bug beasting! Supportive locals give us an extra campaign action this turn, clearly word of our traveller rescue has spread and is paying off. More Guard work. Successful interviews for a new warband member result in another Brave Village follower joining up. Saek celebrates being back on his feet with a bit of training which gains him an XP and a level up for a combat skill increase. That's very much what we need as a team. We'll also buy another sling as ranged attacks seem to be very handy.

This does mean I now have 6 able bodies. Should we try riding patrol again? *duck* it, let's go for it, on the promise we'll run away if things look dodgy.

Of course they ride straight into trouble. A small handful of Roving Fiends. Only 3 of them plus an unknown enemy marker, though they are lead by a Master Thief who is making them braver. This seems... not too bad? Especially as our objective is only to investigate the area. Let's see.