Burning Light ~ The Courtyard

After a respite from their previous mission Hwyll and his companion rangers have set forth on another mission into the heart of  the Shadow Deep. They have made the arduous journey to the the Convent of St Emelia to retrieve the Decanter of Burning Light, a renowned artifact of ancient healing. They have entered the convent via the main gatehouse where they had to battle for their lives with undead and living guards.

Back in the main gatehouse, Hwyll and his band of rangers see to their wounds and take stock of the situation. The gatehouse leads into the courtyard via a short passage. Osimund the mage and Vlaka the rogue have scouted and seen that more undead creatures guard the area. Most of the party are unscathed and Carryl the Arcanist has been revived. She is still injured but able to go on.

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The courtyard seems empty except for a fountain and two small storerooms. But undead skeleton warriors and skeleton knights lurk in the shadows guarding the way.

Mouni the tracker moves to the left keeping her distance and loosing and arrow at one of the skeletons to no effect. To the right Hwyll and Joco advance. A well aimed arrow from Hwyll's bow strikes the closest skeleton and reduces it to a pile of dusty bones.

The remaining skeleton guards advance on unsteady leg bones. Mouni and Joco meet them in combat. The ancient, dead warriors prove tougher than they appear. The guardsman is halted but Mouni is seriously injured by a thrusting spear.

Gawne shoots first without any effect before drawing his own sword and moving into combat. Osimund, Vlaka and Carryl make their way to the Fountain of St Emelia at the center of the courtyard where vital clues may be waiting to be discovered.

The skeletons, although unsteady and fragile, put up a stiff resistance (because the heroes can't seem to hit them) and more of them emerge from the dark shadows and into the courtyard.

Some of the undead ride on the carcasses of skeletal horses like knights from the realms of the dead. With each plodding step dust and dried horse flesh falls to the cobbled floor of the courtyard. (These are Skeleton Knights - I used these figures just because they look good).

One of the skeleton knights attacks Hwyll whilst another stalks Osimund and the others, trying to prevent them from approaching the fountain.

Seeing the danger of being overwhelmed Osimund casts his Burning Hands spell. The magical power reduces a skeleton and one of the dead knights to dust. The effect is not as spectacular as the last time he cast it but his efforts have prevented the undead from overpowering the group.

Mouni helps Gawne to overcome his opponent which leaves the archer free to help Osimund. The pair now make their way to the first storeroom.

Vlaka investigates the fountain. As he looks it is almost as if a book is opened before him (he had to make a Perception Roll with a +3 ~ the higher the better. He rolled 18 +3 - the best possible result). Amidst the fouled and putrid waters he can see one of the hands of the statue has been purposely  removed and placed so that it points the opposite way than it originally did. Directly towards one of the buildings off the courtyard. Directly at...

"Ayup!", shouts Carryl, "Joco needs aid." As she rushes bravely into the fray once again and striking down a skeleton. As the once dead warrior falls to the ground in a pile of dusty flesh and bone, a black essence seems to flow around the courtyard giving vigor to the undead enemy. (This was an event card drawn following Carryls activation at the end of the turn. All enemies get +1 Fight for the remainder of the game.)

Simultaneously Hwyll hews down one of the mounted knights and, as the bones clatter to the ground he makes his way to the second storeroom.

Only to find it locked.

From the shadows another mounted skeleton knight and several on foot clatter forward awkwardly. Guardsman Joco rushes forward, heavy spear in hand, to drive the undead back into darkness.

Another skeletal knight stalks an injured Mouni but the tracker keeps ahead of the creature and lures it on.

Gawne reaches the storeroom first but is thwarted by the locked door which is too solid to be budged with muscle alone.

Osimund moves to the door behind him and, using more subtle skills, opens it with ease. Within, chained to the wall is a ferocious hound. It doesn't seem likely to attack but neither the mage nor the archer are willing to take that risk.

Joco and Carryl stand fast and prepare to defend their leader whist he attempts to open the storeroom door to reveal the treasures within. 

A small broken horse cart sits nearby and above it a shimmering ghostly apparition of a Tortured Soul appears. Its mournful and plaintive cries seem to sap the very will of all those who hear. (-2 to all Will Rolls while the Tortured Soul remains on the table.)

Hwyll finally opens the door to the storeroom and see that it's full of tools.  Nothing useful. In frustration he charges straight into the advancing skeletons followed by Guardsman Joco and Carryl. Joco's two handed heavy spear brings a skeletal horse and rider crashing to the ground in a dust pile.

On the other side of the fountain the other skeletal knight finally catches up to the elusive Mouni. The combat is inconclusive as the undead trooper presses hard on the wounded tracker.

Gawne steps in to help Mouni vanquish the knight but is worsted when a long dead hand thrusts with a rusted spear to pierce his light armour. The archer takes a serious wound.

Vlaka sees a message written on the wall beyond the fountain. He rushes forward to investigate.

With Mouni and Gawn both badly wounded it falls on Osimund to try and lay the skeleton knight back to rest. With the foe distracted by the archer and tracker, the mage's staff slips through with a solid hit which collapses horse and rider back into the dirt.

Having slain his foe, Hwyll approches the Tortured Soul. The elfin ranger is not afraid of the souls of dead men. Raising his hand and speaking ancient words of power and command the apparition is released from its eternal pain. (The Tortured Soul can't be killed in combat but a character can try and get rid of it using their Leadership ability to win a TN20 Leadership roll. Hwyll has Leadership +5 and also wears an Amulet of Leadership +5 for a total of +10. So he was able to banish the creature.)

Carryl, on examining the wrecked cart, can see a body trapped beneath but she does not have the strength to move the wreckage. A ghoul has emerged from the shadows and flings a large piece of bone in her direction. She calls to Joco to move the wreckage and runs to help Vlaka. (She failed a TN12 Strength Roll to move the cart. Joco has +3 Strength so he has a beter chance.)

Vlaka attempts to read the writing but it is in an ancient style that he is unfamiliar with. He hears movement to his left as, out of the shadows two skeleton horsemen emerge.

The riders are uncoordinated in their attack and come at Vlaka one at a time. Although he is not a warrior, the rogue is quick and he darts in, knocking the bones of the horse and disturbing the magic that holds the beast together. It begins to topple taking the rider with it.

The second skeletal rider plods in and meets the same fate as the first. (The Skeleton Knights have +3 Fight stat and good armour but they still only have 1 HP. If they win they can hurt a character but they are vulnerable and fragile. Vlaka got lucky twice in this case.)

During a brief respite, Hwyll has cast his Heal spell to heal both Mouni and Gawne (he has the Split Cast heroic ability too). Gawne, feeling refreshed moves up to shoot at the ghoul in the shadows but misses with his first shot.

Joco moves to the wagon but he can't seem to budge it. Mouni steps in to lend a hand and, together they are successful. The body underneath is that of one of the Sisters of St Emelia. She is beyond help but she carries a Healing Potion which Mouni takes as it could come in useful later. (A nice bit of D&D corpse looting never hurt anyone!)

Hwyll, is moving to the shed to attend to the chained hound when three skeleton warriors emerge from the darkness. "Is there no end to their numbers?" He looses an arrow which has no effect.

Hwyll moves forward and, confident with his recent victories, Vlaka stands side by side with the elfin ranger facing the undead. 

Carryl reaches the mysterious writing and using the skills which gained her the rank of Arcanist (+5 Read Runes) she easily deciphers the message therein: "It has been moved...", it reads.

Mouni and Guardsman Joco run to the aid of Hwyll and Vlaka when suddenly two figures erupt out of the dark, murky water of the fountain.

Taken by surprise, a pair of zombies waylay the two heroes keeping them from reaching their beleaguered comrades.

The skeletons attack. Hwyll takes down one opponent but is still fighting off the attacks of the other, taking a minor wound for his efforts. In the background Osimund also moves in to help.

His luck used up, Vlaka is struck a severe blow by his undead foe, He falls to the ground with blood pooling around his head. (The dice don't lie: 20 add the skeleton's +1 Fight = 21. Vlaka has armour 10 and 11 HP: 21 - 10 =11 ~ That takes him to 0HP in one hit!)

Her zombie opponent laid back to rest, Mouni charges in to avenge the fallen Vlaka. Her attack is thwarted and the skeleton continues to fight. Hwyll dispatches his foe and goes to rescue the chained hound. 

Osimund moves in to lend aid to Mouni but gets in the way more than anything else and is sorely wounded for his efforts. Jaco charges into the fight and smashes the bony warrior to flinders and stamps the bones into the cobbles for extra measure. Enough is enough!

Hwyll, frees the dog and using his Leadership again has gained a new companion for the foreseeable future. It's time to leave this place to regroup and consider of their next move. They lift Vlaka and seek shelter back in the gatehouse. (Hwyll had to make a TN 12 Leadership test. If he won they party gained a free hound for the rest of the campaign. With +10 Leadership he was unlikely to fail.)

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Well that was Burning Hands Area C ~ The Courtyard. It seems like the concept  is working although I'm not really sure what's happening. In a way I guess that's good because it does keep up the essence of a mystery. I haven't read through the whole campaign. I'm only reading what I need to know as I go along or as I get to it. My only gripe is that my scenery is all very bland. It's all set in a ruined castle and I don't really have the terrain necessary to create a full-on set of interesting ruins. I might need to use my Frostgrave terrain for the next scenario. We'll see what happens.

Hwyll is level 7 now and slowly making his way to level 8. And yes! He does have very high Leadership thanks to the Amulet of Leadership that he gained in one of his first games. I gave him Leadership +5 when I first created him to gain Recruitment Points and it was great that his high Leadership came in useful for this game.

What happened with Vlaka? I'll leave that until the next scenario. I'm not sure which one I'll do next. I do have some good clues as to the location of the Decanter of Burning Light thanks to Vlaka's great deduction of the clues (or you could say good dice rolls).

Thanks for reading.

P.S. The hound's name is Arffa.