Back on the Quest with the further adventures of the Fellowship of Destiny! You may recall that the fellowship did not have an auspicious start! Their Barbarian Nonak was killed by Varag during the Trial! However, Mentor was able to locate a replacement in Neo-wulf. With the Fellowship reforged, the Fellowship was entreated by Prince Magnus to rescue his advisor Sir Ragnar. Ragnar had been kidnapped by the foul Orc warlord Ulag. Led by Allathusa of the Green, and joined by Hamilcar Margos, Aerlin and Neo-wulf the adventurers managed to free Sir Ragnar and battle their way through the horde of greenskins to safety. The Fellowhip was handsomely rewarded for their efforts.
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| The Fellowship of Destiny! I decided to go with the Classics |
After freeing Sir Ragnar, the Fellowship had enough gold to update their equipment. Hamilcar and Allathusa picked up some helmets to help protect themselves from harm. Aerlin had a fine staff crafted for him, giving him enough reach to support his fellows with more than just magic! Thus equipped, they received word from Mentor. A new challenge awaited them. Price Magnus had deemed the kidnapping of Sir Ragnar a great offense. He offered a reward for Ulag's head! Using Loretome, Mentor was able to divine the location of the warlord's stronghold. Thus armed, the Fellowship of Destiny made haste to smite Ulag and recover the reward.
The Lair of the Orc Warlord
Our heroes descended into the Orc Warlord's stronghold. They set-up a kill zone at the first door, and were aghast to find it heavily guarded by Goblin sentries. Despite the tactical advantage the goblins were able to apply serious damage to Neowulf and Hamilcar with some lucky hits as they stormed into the fortified room. 1 room down and the Fellowship was all ready in rough shape!
Before the Fellowship even made it to the first hallway, Hamilcar and Neo-wulf were down to half wounds. Despite the injuries, the party split up with Neo-wulf and Aerlin going one way, while Hamilcar and Allathusa went the other. The Elf advised against such a strategy, but Neo-wulf wrecklessly pushed forward, heedless of the Elf's words.
Aerlin used his magic to heal just as Neo-wulf was jumped by an Abomination in a weapon's room! That was close! However, the pair did find a trusty wooden staff there. It was not as nice as the one Aerlin had commissioned, so Neo-wulf kept it incase it was needed.
Meanwhile Hamilcar and Allathusa battled their way through a few Orc guards. Again, the Orcs were able to leave Hamilcar heavily wounded, and Allthusa and Aerlin were out of spells to help! Allathusa's helmet had paid off, as she blocked multiple crude orc sword blows with her head! However, the battle had taken a long time, and Neo-wulf and Aerlin were able to return to help, their scouting leading to a dead end.
Despite his injuries, Hamilcar barreled ahead and slew goblin warriors guarding a cupboard. There he found a health potion and eagerly gulped it down. His wounds slowly closed and the severe bleeding stopped as the magic coursed through his veins and knitted damaged tissue back together. That was just what Hamilcar needed to keep going!
As the leader, Allathusa took the lead. Her efforts led the Fellowship right into a room full of danger. Orcs and Abominations filled the room.
Hamilcar, reinvigorated; leapt into danger and attacked. However, it was all the others could do to keep Zargon's forces from overwhelming them. Aerlin's Ball of Fire hit the Abomination but the magical flames seemed to have no effect on the beast. However, Allathusa's Tempest spell held him up long enough for Neo-wulf to arrive and help out. It was a tough fight, but the Fellowship pulled through.
However, what they found in the next room was even worse! There, they found Ulag in counsel with a vile Dread Warrior in ancient and corrupted armor, a foul stench emanating from his bloated form. Hamilcar was enraged by the foul beast and attacked, while Neo-wulf tried to thin Ulag's goblin guards. Allathusa took on Ulag in a duel, but her skills with a sword were sorely tested by the Orc Warlord.
Things were looking perilous for Allathusa, and she used her magic to escape; only to fall into a pit trap protecting a treasure chest in the other room. Apparently, Ulag had yet to be paid by the Dread forces of Zargon as the chest was empty!
Neo-wulf mopped up the Goblin guards and roared a challenge to Ulag! The Orc Warlord could not turn down such a fierce opponent and squared up. The Dwarf and Dread Warrior's duel was also an epic battle, with both exchanging punishing hits. However, the Dread Warrior seemed to shake-off the hits with ease! He even managed to tank one of Aerlin's spells!
Finally, Neo-wulf managed to off-balance his foe. As Ulag over-corrected the barbarian spun is sword in a wide arc and lopped his head from his body. Aerlin blessed Hamilcar with Courage and the Dwarf managed to dodge beneath the Dread Warriors' blow and strike him a fierce blow beneath the arm of his armor. Aided by Aerlin's magic, the blow was fatal!
The forces of Zargon had been bested once more. The bruised and battered Fellowship managed to reach the surface once more, and collect the reward from Mentor on their return. Ulag's head was all the proof Mentor needed to convince Prince Magnus that the deed was done.
Post- Battle
Wow! Zargon's forces were rolling really well this game. I was taking triple hits from Orcs pretty regularly. The Elf's helmet paid off in spades, and the Dwarf's extra armor was enough to keep him alive. To make it worse, the forces of Zargon did pretty good rolling black shields as well, so the battles were hard fought. I think the Fellowship took something like 20+ wounds in this dungeon. Everyone made it back in one piece, but only by the skin of their teeth!
With our gold, I was looking to see if we could get a few Potions before going to the next Quest. However, I am only finding a Potion of Speed available, as well as armor and weapons. I think other Quest packs expand the offering, but I am going to keep it to the core rules for now and not offering any others yet.
Prince Magnus' Gold
Having proven themselves useful to Prince Magnus, the royal lord has reached out to Mentor to help him with another problem. Royal gold was stolen by a group of marauding orcs and their Dread Warrior master, Gulthor. Mentor has offered the services of the Fellowship of Destiny to help retrieve it. With a reward being offered, the Fellowship strap on their arms once more and make their way to the bandits hide-out. Before heading out, Hamilcar picked up a shield to boost his Defense to 4.
The Fellowship entered the catacombs with care, and were confronted by Orc and Goblin sentries. One tied them up in a long hallway, and Allathusa used her magic to get past him, while Hamilcar shrugged off the Orcs attacks. However, the dwarf could not finish the enemy.
After finally besting the Orc savage in the hallway, the Fellowship continued their search. The long hallways and spread out lay-out of the bandits stronghold was stringing the Fellowship out. They were becoming separated, as the labyrinth was probably designed to do. As Aerlin the Wizard searched a room for treasure he was ambushed by an Abomination! Thankfully he was able to fend off the creature long enough for Neo-wulf and Hamilcar to finish it off. However, the Wizard did not escape unscathed.
From there, traps took a toll on our intrepid Fellowship. Neo-wulf and Hamilcar both fell victim to Pit traps, learning the hard way. Neo-wulf also fell victim to a trap while searching for treasure alone. The monsters had failed to hurt them too much, but the traps were hurting. As they explored another long hallway, Hamilcar took the lead and put his learnings to use. He detected and disarmed a trap.
From there, Neo-wulf flew into a rage at the dishonor of all the traps and went storming far ahead of his companions, who failed to catch-up. He burst through a door to face several Orcs. He tore into them, and by the time the rest of the Fellowship caught up, the Orcs were in disarray. A final shot from Aerlin through the doorway with his staff finished the last of them. Neo-wulf failed to learn his lesson and stormed off again with Aerlin barely keeping pace. Allathusa and Hamilcar were trailing far behind!
Neo-wulf sighted an orc guard and cut it down in moments. He then impetuously stormed into the center room with a roar of defiance! There, he found Prince Magnus' gold, as well as the vile Dread Warrior and his gang! The bandits grabbed their weapons, and attacked but not before Neo-wulf and Aerlin stormed the room and killed a Goblin guard.
They were quickly surrounded! An Orc warrior guarded the door as his friends attacked the impetuous invaders, Neo-wulf and Aerlin. Aerlin found himself faced with the Dread Warrior, Galthor. He smashed the poor wizard with his shield. However, the Wizard kept his wits around himself enough to heal Neo-wulf.
Hamilcar fought valiantly at the doorway, trying to break through the Orc defender. However, the Orc held long enough to keep reinforcements from arriving. Allathusa managed to cast sleep on one of the attackers through the doorway, relieving some of the pressure. Seeing Gulthor bear down on him again. Aerlin used Pass Through Rock to escape the Dread Warrior and the room of death.
Neo-wulf hacked down more of the gang in his battle rage, but was taking damage at an alarming rate. Hamilcar defeated the Orc at the door, and he and Allathusa rushed in to aid their companion. A Rock Skin spell helped keep Neo-wulf going, but the Abomination and Gulthor were slowly tearing him apart.
Finally, Hamilcar was able to get the drop on Gulthor and sink his short sword into a soft spot in the Dread Warrior's armor. The Dwarf claimed a second Dread Warrior kill! Neo-wulf and Allathusa managed to clean-up the rest of the bandits after that.
From there, the heroes managed to lug the treasure chests to the stairs and escape. There Sir Ragnar's men meet the heroes, and gathered the gold to take to Prince Magnus. They compensated the Fellowship with their reward as promised.
Post-Battle
This was a close run thing. Neo-wulf had been reduced to 1 Body after healing once. Hamilcar to 2 Body after being healed once, Allathusa also down to 2, and Aerlin was also down to 1. The Pass Through Rock spell had kept him alive! Thankfully, I had enough spells at the end to keep me going.
The monsters were not getting triple hits like last time, and I was rolling pretty well for defense the first half of the game. The second half..... not so well. The traps really took a toll on my team. It seemed like the order of operations kept having me fall into traps as I was moving into new areas, beyond where I had all ready searched for traps. I am still getting the hang of how to make sure traps do not whittle my Fellowship down early.
The quest has a cool, carrying mechanic; but by the time it comes into play; it is mostly useless. It just makes it take longer for pointless rolling to escape the dungeon and it takes twice as long now. However, if we took the chests and scattered them around the dungeon, this could have made things more exciting as there would still be foes to face off against.
When all was said and done, I did manage to walk out of the dungeon with a Potion of Strength and a reserve Healing potion for Allathusa. We also had enough gold to buy some more defensive equipment for Neo-wulf and Allathusa going forward.
Until next time as the Fellowship of Destiny continues their quest.
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