Return to Shadow Deep ~ Burning Light

 Burning Light ~ The Gatehouse

After their retreat from Shadow Deep Hwyll and his band rested to regain their strength following their ordeals. Gawne the archer has been nursed back to health and Malaka the guard captain laid to rest. The new recruit Carryl has been sworn in as a ranger and given the rank of Arcanist due to her previously unknown knowledge of ancient lore. She hopes one day, to become a conjuror.

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Now that the party are restored Hwyll has been summoned and told of the ruin that has befallen the Convent of St Emelia and that the famous Decanter of Burning Light that is held there. It has fallen on Hwyll and his band of rangers to venture, once again into the Shadow Deep and retrieve this healing artifact.

For eight days they have travelled and finally come to the ruined convent after much hardship. Mouni the tracker has found three entry points: The main gatehouse, a ruined chapel or a breach in the outer wall. Hwyll has decided to enter through the gatehouse.

As she's scouting, Mouni spies an Ogre guarding the main entrance. The party wait until it leaves to investigate another area before they enter. Once inside the gatehouse they survey their surroundings. (Mouni made a TN10 Tracking Roll to move the ogre from the center of the main room and into the side area.)

Hwyll, Carryl and Osimund the Mage move cautiously into the main hall. Ahead they see three bodies that have been chained to the ceiling. There is a door to their right and the room is filled with scattered debris. A noise from a darkened corner, and a ghoul crawls forth from the shadows. Gawne quickly lays the corpse back to rest with a well placed arrow.

As they advance the ogre returns from what ever it task was doing in the other room. At that same moment a pile of refuse erupts into a thick swarm of flying insects. They seem to center around Vlaka the thief and a former member of Hwyll's band of rangers who has returned to duty, Guardsman Joco . (All characters had to make a TN10 Will Roll - Vlaka and Joco failed. Both characters lose their next activation.)

Gawne moves forward and again takes aim with his bow, this time at the ogre. His arrow hits home and wounds the brute but that just seems to aggravate it. The hulking creature starts to lumber towards the archer.

Osimund moves to examine one of the hanging corpses. As he gets close he can see it is one of the convent's guards. It then open's it's eyes and lunges for the startled mage. Zombie!

Hwyll has to make a decision and decides to go to the mage's aid. He strikes quick and hard and the zombie is once again a laid to rest.

The ogre advances on Gawne and the archer fends off it's attack. 

Carryl, seeing an opening, wades into the fray but the ogre is a veteran and is having none of it. A casual swing of its hefty club strikes the arcanist on the side of the head and she falls to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

(As usual - Blue is for the Good Guys and Red is for the Evil Doers!)

With the young arcanist down the wild tracker, Mouni rushes from the other side of the room to help take down the ogre. She gives it a good stunning blow with her quaterstaff but takes a hard hit in return. (The combat was a draw so they both took damage.)

Right then a hideous howl echos around the ruins, it's source unknown. It send shivers down the spines of the party but they all carry on with their mission. (All characters had to make a TN10 Will Roll - All passed.)

Seeing that the fight with the ogre is going against his friends, Osimund decides to cast his Magic Bolt spell at the brute. It strikes home and the massive creature falls to the ground. 

Both Osimund and Hwyll then go to examine the two remaining bodies hanging from the ceiling. Hwyll finds a golden ring with an unusual symbol which could be a clue and the mage finds a message satchel. As Hwyll examines the ring a rasping growl comes from a darkened corner and as ghoul leaps out.

Taken by surprise the elfin ranger is sorely wounded by the creature before he can get his defences up.

Now that he is no longer underattack by insects, Vlaka sneaks into the room vacated by the ogre. In the far corner he spies something glittering in the darkness...

Creeping forward, the thief hears a flapping of feathers and a loud croaking call. He turns to see that a large black raven has flow in through one of the holes in the upper walls. It's evil eye is upon him.

(In the scenario a vulture appears. I don't have an appropriate vulture figure so it became a big raven.)

Aware of the ghoul attacking Hwyll, Mouni and Gawne move up to give him support. 

Gawne steps into the fray and overcomes the dead thing.  Hwyll is sore wounded and he can see that Mouni is also hurt so he cast a Healing spell which revives both of them. (One of Hwyll's Heroic Actions is Split Cast which allows him to cast 2 instances of the same spell. So Mouni and himself get the benefit of the one spell. He also carries a Holy Item which makes his Heal spell more effective.)

Feeling revived, it's time to see what is beyond the door. Mouni picks the lock (TN10 Pick Locks Roll) whilst the elf ranger and Guardsman Joco stand ready.

The brave tracker opens the door and looks within... 

From the darkness guttural growls, slavering and scuffling sounds are heard as several ghouls charge at the door. There's also something in the far corner.

Vlaka tries to edge his way to the treasure he spotted but the raven caws at him as it takes to the air and swoops for his eyes. He manages to keep the bird at bey and sneaks past the pillar. He grabs the treasure as the raven swoops in again. This time the thief is ready and he spits his adversary on his poniard.

The rangers fall back. Hwyll and Mouni loose some arrows as the ghouls erupt from the doorway. Osimund casts a Burning Hands spell which only manages to cause a slight scorching to one of the undead creatures.  He then reaches into his pouch and draws out a glowing potion which he quickly drinks.

Joco is the first to react and charges in to attack. Gawne shoots an arrow which misses and then he too charges in. Hwyll and Mouni put away their bows and ready their weapons. From out of nowhere a blackened chain shoots out of the darkness and tries to snare Joco. Luckily the guardsman manages to elude this unseen and unexpected opponent.

Before Hwyll and Mouni can charge into the fight a bright flare bursts forth from Osimund as he casts another Burning Hands spell. (The potion he drank was a Cordial of Spellfire which allowed him to recall one previously cast spell.)

As the ranger's clear their eyes, they see that all of the ghouls have been reduced to piles of skeletal ashes. Only a lone zombie that stumbled from the darkness remains.

Hwyll moves quickly to the ghoul room to retrieve the item Mouni spied within. Osimund leads the others through the door into the convent's courtyard as an earth tremor shakes the building.

Mouni and Gawne put the last zombie to rest before picking up a groggy Carryl and following the mage and the others though the doors into the convent.

Stepping into the room behind them another ogre laughs out loud and calls for his friend. The tracker and archer decide to fade into the shadows and escape.

Seeing the corpse of the first ogre guard, and suspecting trouble, the newcomer stands trying to ponder his next move. He doesn't see the danger lurking behind him in the shadows as Hwyll, the Ranger of Shadow Deep, draws his great bow...

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The party move into the courtyard. Carryl has been revived, Her wounds are not life threatening and she will fully recover in time but, at the present she's only a half strength. The rangers are not sure what is going on at this place. It has clearly been attacked but the extent of the destruction of the buildings and the people is yet to be determined.

What is that in the gloom? Before the rangers can recover they are once again hard pressed by the mysterious Shadow Deep.

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After a rest from RoSD, I've been wondering when I should get back in to the saga of Hwyll. It took a while longer than I expected and, to be honest, I didn't know what to do after the initial missions. Should I try the Burning Light mission (which is in the deluxe edition of the rules) or should I try something smaller. Well you can see my decision.

Once again, I really enjoyed the game although I did need to do a bit of brushing up on the rules before I got started. That was pretty easy. I needed to go through the character sheets and tidy them up so I did my brushing up at the same time.

I was surprised about something when writing this up: Due to the way the phases of the game flow, it seems that sometimes certain characters seem to be taking a larger part in the action. As above where Osimund cast his Burning Hands spells. He was able to react so quickly because in one turn he activated last and in the next turn phase he was the first figure to activate. While playing I didn't notice it, but putting the game into words it comes across very differently.

I like how that happens. 

Also: if you're wondering, the dungeon walls are cardstock terrain. I made it last year and it's proved really handy. It took a couple of days of printing, cutting and gluing but, at the end I hade a whole bunch of dungeon pieces.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.