The story so far...
The Rotmoons had made their way 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 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 catch-up and board them.
The Havelock's logbook had detailed records about recently transported passengers: Adventurers who had failed in their search for an artefact called the Starwood Compass, some kind of thaumaturgic navigation device of exceptional quality and accuracy.
Their interest piqued, Kapitan daLeeva and El Doktoro cross-referenced the course of the Havelock with the charts she had on board and their own. They narrowed-down the likely location of the Starwood Compass. After battling Kruleboyz and Ossiarch Bonereapers, the Rotmoons escaped the Jade Vaults with it in their possession.
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El Doktoro looked closely at the arcane device they had discovered. The
surface was engraved with interlocking and rotating geometric lines and
circles, marked at regular intervals by hundreds of tiny glyphs. It was
strangely easy to understand and read the symbols, even though the shaman had
never seen anything like them before. Shimmering ethereal lights danced across its surface and El Doktoro was mesmerised by them.
He led the crew to a ruin-littered forest clearing in the Sanctum Isles. He
wanted to make navigational readings using the Starwood Compass and get a
bearing for the next leg of their journey.
But the shaman's careful study was interrupted by a band of duardin
Flameseekers.
As he made the first of four readings, a Shieldbreaker came out of nowhere and
hit Tambor hard. Tambor hit them back almost as hard. Geedo, Dragante and
Deestro rushed to help.
Kapitan daLeeva, waiting where El Doktoro had asked him to, became impatient
and moved toward the shaman. The Flameseekers seemed to be heading that way
too.
Bortagno and Tambor stood guard between El Doktoro and the Flameseekers as the
shaman made his calculations.
Bold Rikk and Percy Percy discussed their plans for supper and didn't notice
that a duardin crept through the shadows behind them.
As daLeeva rushed closer to El Doktoro, and the Site of Significance where
his reading was to be taken, the shaman blasted another Shieldbreaker.
"They messin' if they think they can chase-away us easy." the Kapitan
muttered to himself.
The Flameseekers' Runefather attacked Deestro, the orruk stumbled back under
the ferocity of the blows. Geedo pushed forward behind the duardin, hoping to
force a fight and keep them from attacking the shaman.
More Flameseekers rushed into the forest clearing, but the pirates held
their ground.
El Doktoro shifted the Starwood Compass to a different position and started
to take his second reading.
Bortagno was about to ask a question of the Kapitan, when a duardin roared a
challenge and charged from the trees.
It was a Drothblood Thane, and they rained axe-swings onto daLeeva, landing
several heavy strikes. His armour took some, but by no means all, of the
damage. The duardin was in a Berserk Rampage!
But the Kapitan was quick to reply. He swept his armoured forearm up to
deflect the axe head and struck low with his oceanic blade, the Shipwrecka: he
took the Drothblood's leg off at the knee! But even as he did so, he felt the
Shipwrecker's Doom weighing heavier upon him.
Just behind the Kapitan, a Scalebreaker took Tambor down.
But El Doctoro avenged the drummer with a sputtering arc of green lightning!
Sparks of the dissipating Waaagh! energy fizzed and popped around the shaman's
hands as he moved toward the site where the third reading had to be taken.
Dragante and Bortagno moved with him on his flanks.
On the way, Dragante took down a Shieldbreaker.
Another Shieldbreaker rushed forward and hit daLeeva, who was by now heavily
injured - the blow finally took the Kapitan down!
Bortagno charged that Shieldbreaker, hit them once then returned to the
third Site of Significance and the shaman.
The Drothmaster recited the Creed of Flame to the Kyndledroth, who bounded
onto the Sight of Significance and mauled Bold Rikk.
Bortagno leapt over a fallen column and impaled the Kyndledroth.
A Scalebreaker moved with Blazing Impetus onto the Site of Significance.
Percy Percy clambered over ruins and felled the Shieldbreaker who had pulled
down daLeeva.
El Doktoro charged and took out the last Scalebreaker with an onslaught of
physical and sorcerous attacks. This gave him the breathing room he needed to
take his final navigational reading.
The Drothmaster who had taken Percy Percy down was surrounded by Bortagno and
Deestro.
Bortagno turned also hit a Scalebreaker, who withdrew by simultaneously
jumping backwards throwing an axe at him!
The last couple of wounded Flameseekers disengaged and withdrew, flinging axes
at the pirates as they went.
When the Kapitan came-to El Doktoro informed him that they were on a course to the
Ur-River and they would reach it with a week of fair
sailing. They only needed to pass through three Realmgates and two realms en
route.
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Deployment: Lightning Raid
Victory: Secure the Ritual Site
Twist: Hidden Threats
The Rotmoons faced Flameseekers this time. We used the battleplan cards from Pyre and Flood and they made a fantastic game! Pete chose to be the attacker,
I grouped the four objectives into two pairs, where my fighters were going to
be deployed.
At the end of Round 1, I realised I had been reacting to what his fighters
did, rather than being proactive myself. So I switched focus to taking down
all of his 12-wound non-heroes so he wouldn't be able to easily contest the
objectives. This became even more important from Round 2 when he took down
Kapitan daLeeva (with a combination of two activations of amazing attack dice
and an insanely good triple that did 25 damage altogether!)
But that wasn't enough for them to get the upper hand. The Rotmoons ground
them down and crowded them out. They retained control of all the objectives
every round it would have taken some amazing luck in the last round for the
Flameseekers to win.
(We did play one thing wrong though - and it was my fault: I hadn't realised
there was an FAQ that specifically referenced it! When an Ability gives bonus
actions to another fighter, those bonus actions happen
immediately and not, as I had thought, when that fighter is activated.
Pete was very cool about it though and we definitely won't forget it again.)
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