The Rotmoons and the Starwood Compass, part 1 - Into The Jade Vault

Ghyran; the Naiad Archipelago.

In the humid dark of the Jade Vaults, where a sprawling ancient city fell to ruin hundreds of years ago. Where the trees grow to a thousand feet tall. Where the leafy canopy far overhead is so densely interwoven that barely any light reaches the forest floor...

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A volley of heavy crossbow bolts slammed into the green stone ruins sending a shower of stone chips and dust over the orruk pirates hiding within.

"By Gork, that was a close one!" muttered Kapitan daLeeva.

The Kapitan and the Rotmoons didn't want to get pinned down, so he slapped the nearest of the crew on the shoulder and pointed across the street.

Percy Percy sprinted from the cover of the ruins and ducked down behind a stone buttress, on the opposite side of the rumble-strewn street. Seeing this movement a Gutrippa, from the same band of Kruleboyz who were shooting at them, approached the Rotmoons. They assumed the pirates were keeping their heads down and tried to take advantage of it.

But daLeeva stepped out in front of them, casually swept their spear aside with his blade and thrust under their shield.

Dragante, Geedo and Deestro saw their Kapitan attack and moved forward.

The Boltboyz drew a bead on the Kapitan.

The Kapitan twirled his blade as a second Gutrippa ran toward him.

"Alright ladz, he's all yours." he laughed and took a step back, toward the shelter of the ruins.

Something else moved in the green-hued darkness. The Guardians of the Jade Vault had been awakened and slowly gathered to take a stand against the uncouth invaders.

"You talking to me?" The Gutrippa looked slightly confused by the Kapitan's comment.

"No mate. Which he was addressing us." said Bortagno from behind him.

The Kruleboyz hired blade, a hulking Ogor Tyrant, moved to try and outflank the Rotmoons. But he met an unexpected end in the depths of the Vault.

Percy Percy got a shock when he was the first to encounter the Jade Vault's unexpected residents.

The Kruleboyz leader, a Swampcalla Shaman, thought he was out of sight and safe from harm. But El Doctoro had seen him and unleashed a raging flood of green lightning at him. The Swampcalla's defensive charms and trinkets were broken and scattered by the flood of primal arcane energy.

Geedo joined the Kapitan in the ruins.

"What's occurring skipper?" he asked breathlessly.

Percy Percy charged one of the strange skeletal Vault guardians. Nadirite overcame orrukish steel and the pirate orruk cried out. Bold Rikk appeared, drawn to the plight of his shipmate.

Tambor took down the confused Gutrippa and moved ahead of El Doctoro as the shaman unleashed another sorcerous blast.

The Swampcalla tried to flee but the blast caught him in his back and he dropped; a tangled, smoking heap. At this the rest of the Kruleboyz mob panicked: broken, they ran pell-mell into the darkness.

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A few days before the Rotmoons had made their way to from Shyish to Ghyran. They travelled via the Persephonyx Skygate after they had, purely by chance, stumbled upon and taken-up a prize: the Havelock a small merchant sky-ship out of Bataar. The merchant had had no guns and it tried to make a run for it downwind. The Rotmoon had given chase and being in prime condition, as she was after the refit she'd just had, was able to easily able to catch-up and board them.

Much to the disappointment of the orruk crew the Havelock had no cargo aboard. But the captain's logbook had detailed records about a trio of paying passengers they had recently transported: Adventurers searching for an artefact called the Starwood Compass, some kind of thaumaturgic device of exceptional quality and accuracy.

Kapitan daLeeva and El Doktoro had cross-referenced the course of the Havelock with the charts she had on board and the maps they had. They concluded (mostly because it just felt likely) that the Starwood Compass should be in an area only marked on one map as the Jade Vaults, in the Naiad Archipelago.

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But before the Rotmoons could celebrate, the greater threat became apparent. The Jade Vault was guarded and there was to be no easy victory that day.

The towering giant Mortisan that led the Bonereapers revealed himself. Deestro and Geedo gawped at their first sight of his imposing silhouette.

The pirates had to rapidly change their strategy - even at first glance the Mortisan looked a formidable duellist, but it quickly became apparent he was a powerful sorcerer as well.

He seemed to blur and swept straight through Bold Rikk in the blink of an eye; the orruk had already been injured but the Bonereaper leader's charge defied perception.

Geedo roared and ran between the smaller bone constructs, Mortek Guards who had rapidly advanced to stand at their leaders side.

Bortagno ran up the steps, leapt and slashed double-handed at the Bonereaper lieutenant while he was mid-air - the bone wizard was taken entirely by surprise by this acrobatic assault. He exploded into component parts and became a tumbling rain of bones, before Bortagno landed on the street again.

Geedo scored one or two good hits on the bone giant but fell to a dismissive sweep of his axe. Deestro steeled himself by swearing creatively and got ready to follow Geedo's example.

Bortagno was a little to proud of his spectacular leaping kill and didn't spot the counter-assault that took him down.

Kapitan da Leeva and El Doctoro exchanged a grin. The shaman raised his staff and green arcs sparked around the icon-topped artefact.

The Kapitan was fairly badly injured - he took a moment to catch his breath and looked around, looking for the best location to make a stand.

As the Rotmoons closed their defensive ring around him.

Dragante fell to a combination of Nadirite arrows and blades.

El Doctoro stepped in front of the bone giant as he strode toward the Kapitan, he swung his staff and the Mortisan blocked with his axe unleashing an explosion of green light.

But the giant was not distracted - he was still able to focus enough to release a deadly lance of dark energy at daLeeva! The Kaptain fell and with that the Rotmoons grabbed their wounded mates and fled.

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A few days later, aboard the ship and sailing-easy above the Sanctum Isles, east of the Naiad Archipelago.

El Doktoro entered the small cabin, where the Kapitan was recovering and had only just regained consciousness. In the light of the small lantern the big orruk boss looked furious.

"Good morning Alunzo, I wish you joy, sir, of your prodigious great victory." said the shaman, with a chuckle to himself.

The Kapitan's brow creased as he stared daggers at El Doktoro, assuming the shaman was making sport of him. El Doktoro realised his peril immediately and changed tack.

"Don't aim no ire at me sir, upon my honour, I speaks in earnest. We may have lost the battle to that unexpected flank attack from the Ossiarchs, but we won a thing much greater in its stead!" After a moment or two of watching the visible confusion he'd caused, he resigned himself to a direct approach.

"Which we found the blasted compass, after you got knocked on the head."

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This was a 3-player game of Warcry, using the Triumph and Treachery battleplan "There can be only one".

Kapitan daLeeva was the only leader who started on the board (the Swampcaller came on in Round 2 and Mir Kainan in Round 3). So he was targeted by everything in Round 1 and had to hide for much of the game using Respite to claw back some health. My Ability Dice were pretty poor for most of the game too.

He rushed forward and smashed into a Gutrippa in Round 1, took some wounds in reply and downed the orruk in Round 2. He fell back to the ruins, while being pelted with fire by two Boltboyz.

El Doktoro took down the Swampcaller (who had already been wounded by Mir Kainan's archer) with a Foot of Gork and two Sorcerous Blasts, while the Ossiarchs occupied the Kruleboyz allied Ogor Tyrant.

After the Kruleboyz and their beefy friend fled, I fed Mir Kainan one Ardboy at a time, chipping away a few wounds in each exchange. They had to be careful not to charge in and attack Bonereapers who had any Actions left, as the bone-boyz were making good use of their Reaction to dish-out very reliable damage.

El Doktoro turned his attention on Mir Kainan, sending several blasts of green lightning at him. But Mir Kainan can throw Sorcerous Blasts too and focused everything at daLeeva, and pretty soon the exchange of wounds went against the Kapitan and the Ossiarchs won the day.

Kapitan daLeeva's Doom Tally = 1