Further Adventures in The Scarlands - part 3, Ley Lines

"Since that incident with the three-eyed dragon the Scarlands is now riddled with geoglyphs and ley lines of prodigious power." said Krashhart to the Swordfyshes as they disembarked from their sky-ship. "Kaptain Mogrum wants us to see if we can find a way of tapping into the Ghurrish energy and syphoning some of it off." 

"Which, there will also be fighting, right?" asked Barnacle Nog, with a furrowed brow. A few if the Ardboyz looked up hopefully.

"Aye lad, I reckon there will be half-a-hundredweight of wretches, curs and blaggards what will try to be stopping us." said Krashhart with a toothy grin. There were guttural laughs from the crew.

Krashhart had brought more ladz this time. He wanted a better chance of outnumbering anyone they met. So the Swordfyshes set off into Raventalon Wood, east of the Spirit Crowns, where there seemed to be a high concentration of geomantic energies. Mogrum had given them some big chunks of crystal, that he said could absorb the ley line power. They just needed to be placed in the right spots.

Krashhart could also feel the heartbeat of Ghur, drumming loud inside his head. He knew that he and the crew would spill blood that day and that it would empower and invigorate them.

~ ⦽ ~

Dramatis Personae

The Swordfyshes

• Lord Krashhart - Warchanter Explorer
• Kaptain Battendown - Ardboy with a cloak and a squig-parrot
• Sinka - Brute with red bandana
• Hook - Brute with a hook hand (!)
• Flotsum - Brute with blue bandana
• Mr Flea - Ardboy Drummer
• Dakmeff - Ardboy with a barrel on his back
• Barnacle Nog - Ardboy with a bag of bones
• Seatun Fall - Ardboy with Snappa, a mechanical choppa

~ ⦽ ~

Skargat's Ironforged Ogors were after the same power. As both warbands arrived in the valley Ghurrish energies flooded in and the central and south-eastern ley line intersections awakened. Focal points of the Ghurrish geomantic power that was flowing across the region. Another three points where ley lines crossed were still dormant but the potential for them to awaken was definitely there.

Hook, Seatun Fall and Barnacle Nog headed straight for the central intersection. Battendown and Dakmeff went to the south-western one, while Flotsum to the north-western. A fight broke out in the centre as a massive ogor announced that he was having it. The Swordfyshes disagreed!

Krashhart, Flea and Sinka crept-up on the ogor guarding the south-eastern intersection who was accompanied by an allied orruk with a crossbow.

But as they did, another pair of ogors arrived in the north-west, behind the rocks at Flotsum's back.

The north-western intersection point suddenly awakened and the fight for the central one intensified. Barnacle Nog was smashed to the floor.

The south-western nexus awakened and Battendown sent Dakmeff to help in the centre. 

Krashhart and his mates smashed into the Ironforged ogor and orruk in the south-east and another bitter fight broke out there. Mr Flea clambered up onto the rocky outcrop, ready to pounce.

After taking out Flotsum one of the ogors, from the north-western ley line nexus, charged into the centre, Hook and Seatun Fall were both brought down. just after they took out the ogor they had been fighting.

The ogor at the north-western ley line intersection struggled with a quandary - he was missing out on a fight in the centre but he was supposed to stay where he was to guard the ley line nexus.

Krashhart had moved to take control of the south-eastern intersection but the Ironforged orruk held onto it by clobbering Mr Flea, who had impetuously leapt down on him moments before.

As things came to a head Battendown abandoned the south-western intersection, safe in the knowledge the ogors couldn't touch it now.

He leapt up onto the rocks and taunted the oaf, too late to help Seatun, but he stopped the ogors taking over control of the central ley line intersection.

But the Swordfyshes couldn't secure enough ley line energy to snatch victory from the ogors. They had already siphoned off too much geomantic power for the orruks to be able to change that. The bold move by Battendown meant it remained a narrow win for Skargat's Ironforged, but that wouldn't make much difference to Kaptain Mogrum... 

~ ⦽ ~

Deployment and Victory: Ley Lines (Core rules free PDF)

Twist: Feeding Frenzy (WD473, Thondia rules)

This was a really close game - Viktor won the game but only by the margin of a single Victory Point!

In Round 1 we scored 1VP each.
In Round 2, I got 1VP and he got 2VP, so he pulled ahead by a fraction.
In Rounds 3 and 4 we both scored 2VP each.

So the final totals were 6VP to me, and 7VP to Viktor.

If he had abandoned guarding the north-western Objective and reinforced his fighter at the central one he would have scored one more VP in the final Round, and I would have scored one less, so the final total would have been 5-8 to him. On the other hand his Attack dice for the orruk attacking Mr Flea were phenomenal, with just a few worse rolls that fight could easily have gone the other way and I might have won 7-6!

~ ⦽ ~

This was our first game with Warcry 2nd edition, using just the free PDFs from downloaded from the WarCom site. I think we both really like the rules updates. We both have high hopes for 2nd ed - we are already rolling a few ideas around for a new narrative campaign.