Shadow Deep: The Plague Cult - Mission 1, Scenario 2

After last week's initial adventure, the Rangers headed back into the fray. We've had a fourth player join us, and I've allowed the gang to monkey around with their lists a bit in light of the initial learning experiences (but any lingering effects - such as disease - will stick around. We're also playing around with slightly more Recruitment Points - it's easy enough to ramp up the difficulty by throwing a few more monsters into the mix, and everyone enjoyed having a competent henchman backing them up. Of course, with this scenario, more heroes might prove problematic...

Scenario 2: The Priory

The mayor begs you to save his friends and neighbours and tells you that the cleric who has brought the villagers under his influence makes his home in an old priory in the woods beyond the village. With his pleas ringing in your ears, you set off, finding the ramshackle building at the edge of a clearing rapidly being overtaken by the forest. You spot a flicker of movement, then light glinting off a spearhead – the place is guarded…

(Note that the rescue of the mayor in the previous scenario kickstarted this fluff - other options for progressing to the next mission were available - the mysterious tracks or any other survivor. Had the players fluffed all of them, I'd have defaulted to concluding the scenario with something like "the remaining wretches break off their attack and flee, heading north at some pace...")

Notes

Inspired a fair bit by Mission 2, Scenario 1: The Bridge Guards (RoSD, p.100), with a fair few tweaks. Key to note:

• Cult Templars have the same stats as Gnoll Fighters.
• Cult Hunters have the same stats as Gnoll Archers (bows).
• The Head Guard has the same stats as a Gnoll Sergeant.

Set-Up

3x3 board, with a large building – the priory – at the centre of one edge. The heroes deploy at the centre of the opposite edge. The table is covered in trees, scrub, rocks, etc.

Place an alarm bell 12” in from the centre of the board edge containing the priory. Place four cult templars on the board, one 12” away from the alarm bell in each cardinal direction, then place one cult hunter 6” in from each table corner adjacent to the priory.

Place 5 clue markers around the board. Place one clue marker 12” in from each table corner on a line with the centre of the board. Place the last clue marker next to the alarm bell itself.

Special Rules

Before the scenario begins, the players should select one figure to make a Stealth Roll (TN10). If successful, they may move up to three heroes up to 6” in any direction.

At the start of each turn, each player may choose one of their heroes to make a Stealth Roll (TN10). If successful, they may move one guard up to 6” in any direction. If unsuccessful, the guard makes an immediate move towards the target point. If a player chooses not to attempt the roll, there is no effect. This lasts until the guards are alerted.

The target point in this scenario is the alarm bell. If the guards are alerted and one activates while in contact with the alarm bell and not in combat, it will use its first action to ring the bell. If the bell is rung, two cult templars and two cult hunters immediately appear from the priory.

Until the guards are alerted, heroes have the element of surprise and get +4 to all attacks against them.

A guard is alerted once they activate with a hero in LOS, or another guard within LOS takes damage. Once the guards are alerted, players may no longer choose to make Stealth Rolls at the start of the turn.

If a hero moves into contact with a clue marker, it ends its current action and immediately rolls on the Clue Marker Table. Each result is unique, so re-roll any repeated results.

Clue Marker Table
Die Roll	Clue
1–4	Snap! You step on a branch – the nearest guard immediately moves 6” towards the noise.
5–8	Dead cultist. You don’t know what this body is doing out here, but its cult robes seem to be relatively unsoiled and might make a useful disguise.
9–12	Half-buried amulet. You spy a glint from something hidden beneath the undergrowth. It is an amulet of some strange design. Make an immediate Ancient Lore Roll (TN12). If successful, you identify the markings as resembling the holy language of an ancient death cult.
13–16	Fugitive. You come across a figure huddled behind a tree, sobbing in terror. They appear half-staved and bear the marks of whip and manacle. Clutching at you, they beg you to take them to safety. A hero may accompany the fugitive to safety (any board edge), using the same rules as for a treasure token to ‘pick up’ and ‘carry’ them (ending the game with the fugitive being ‘carried’ also counts as being taken to safety). If the hero chooses to leave the fugitive, or the fugitive is ‘dropped’ for any reason, they will make one random move of 6” in the Companion Phase as they desperately look to escape. Guards spying the fugitive will be alerted and the fugitive will count as a viable target for them. Move 6, Fight +0, Armour 10, Health 5.
17–20	Pit. You fall into a small pit, clearly intended for trapping small animals. The noise causes the nearest guard to immediately move 6” towards the pit. The hero immediately suffers a +2 attack. If the attack would do damage, the hero does not lose Health, but will suffer -1 Move for the rest of the scenario as a result of a sprained ankle. The pit can be easily climbed out of at the cost of one movement action.

The scenario lasts a maximum of 8 turns, or until the priory is reached and all enemies on the board killed. Draw an event card at the end of every even-numbered turn (2, 4, 6).

Event Card Table
Card	Event
Red 1	Returning patrol. A two-man guard patrol made up of one cult templar and one cult hunter appears at the centre point of a randomly determined board edge.
Red 2	Sudden downpour. Heavy rain reduces visibility and covers noise. Heroes’ Stealth Rolls are reduced to TN8 until the end of the next turn. All line of sight is reduced to 12” and shooting attacks are at -2.
Red 3	Changing of the guard. Two cult templars and the head guard appear from the priory.
Red 4	Suspicious guard. One randomly determined guard, acting on nothing more than gut instinct, moves 6” towards the nearest hero.
Red 5	Plaguetouched. A hulking monster appears in one random board corner – clearly there are worse enemies about than mere cultists…

Plaguetouched

Swollen by pestilence, the plaguetouched are produced when one of the cult faithful is possessed by a plague demon. Part demon and part human, these monstrous opponents care not whether they fell their enemies with the rusted, filth-encrusted blades they wield or with the virulent diseases they carry… Any figure wishing to move into combat with a plaguetouched must first pass a Will Roll (TN10). If they fail, they stop 2” away and their activation ends.

Plaguetouched						XP	8
Move	Fight	Shoot	Armour	Will	Health	Notes
5	+3	+0	12	+0	14	Large, Two-Handed Weapon, Horrific (TN10), Disease (TN14)

Outcome and Experience

Assuming all the rangers have survived, proceed to Scenario 3. All figures that survived regain their full Health. Rangers gain experience points for the following achievements:

• +3XP for each guard killed.
• +5XP for acquiring a disguise.
• +5XP if the fugitive is discovered.
• +8XP for killing the plaguetouched.
• +6XP for each clue marker uncovered.
• +8XP for discovering the amulet.
• +15XP if the fugitive is escorted to safety.
• +20XP if the alarm bell is not rung during the scenario.
• +30XP if the guards are not alerted during the scenario.

The Game

As before, this isn't really a battle report, more a collection of notes and observations on the proceedings.

First off, I didn't have a bell model to use in the scenario. I considered using a token, but five minutes with Photoshop, a bit a glue, and a scrap of card, and I had this...

Not my finest work - it's a little crude, but it looks like a bell, which is all that's really needed for a single scenario!

Set-up-wise, I really need to invest in some more scrub and small rocks. Trying to break up LOS just with these trees was a challenge.

(1) Cult Templars, (2) Cult Hunters, (O) Clue Markers, (O) Alarm Bell

The cult templar directly in front of the priory is a little closer than he should be, RAW. The priory itself should sit on the table edge, but I wanted to have it on the board, so he's about 4" closer to the alarm bell than he should be. Oh, well.

The rangers used a tactic I wasn't expecting - rather the drawing the guards away from the bell and ambushing them, they pulled them into towards the bell, giving a relatively easy approach to the halfway point of the board, and then just launching an all-out assault. Perhaps I overestimated their capacity for subtlety... Still, the mechanics worked well, and, with a bit more scatter terrain to block LOS and force awkward routes, I think they may well make a return in a few missions' time.

The fugitive is discovered. In hindsight, this would have worked better with fewer players, where there were more companions to go around and one could be spared to escort the panicking figure off the table. No-one took the option of killing the fugitive in order to preserve their stealthy approach - they're heroes, dammit... and not very stealthy ones at that...

All the players got a few more points to allow for slightly better companions, and one still chose a hound. Fair play. It did nothing, but it's a good doggo nevertheless.

The plaguetouched that lurched onto the table at the end of Turn 2 drew a lot of attention (and rightly so!). Dubbed 'Fat Stanley', he swaggered towards the bell, ignoring a valiant attempt by the hound companion to draw him away from the other heroes, and mixed it up with the only melee-oriented ranger in the game. He went down eventually, but it was pretty close until a couple more heroes arrived to lend support.

With the death of Fat Stanley, the rangers advanced to the priory, completing the mission by the end of Turn 6. In hindsight, I think the difficulty is probably alright, but they were really successful in keeping guards away from the bell when it mattered. They may have been alerted sooner than I expected, but the alarm was never raised, which made all the difference.

The heroes grabbed all of the clue markers, but only saw two of the three possible events (damn their efficiency!). Here, an archer grabs the final marker, uncovering a cult disguise, right at the very end of the scenario.

All told, it seems to have gone well, but I wish I'd thrown a couple more cult templars onto the board alongside Fat Stanley. I'm not sure the scenario needs updating with that, but I should probably have used GM's discretion with the way this playthrough went. Fun was had, though, and the heroes gained a level and came perilously close (1XP!) to gaining a second.

Next up, the exciting* conclusion to our first mission...

Scenario 3: The Vaults

(*actual experience may vary)

*** 

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