Historical Holiday Interlude - Rhodes

During the first half of July this year, my partner and I decided to take a trip to Rhodes. We had already been to Cyprus in March and taken in lots of (pre)historical goodness in the way of ancient tombs and Greek and Roman remains, so this time would bring us a little more towards the present day with the most intact medieval city in Europe. It also linked nicely with the Knights of the Order of St. John.

Not knowing much about Rhodes other than the story of the persecution of the Knights Templar in 1307 and the subsequent fiscal attacks on the Knights of Rhodes in the aftermath of that act (apparently to break the financial power of the two orders), we decided to explore a bit of the old town to find out more.

From the couple of museums we visited we discovered that the city of Rhodes is one of the most intact medieval cities in Europe and that the old town and the Grand Master's Palace are the two main attractions in the north of the island - we didn't get to see any of the other fortresses and towers on the rest of the island as this was to be mostly a holiday of relaxation (sun, sea and sleep).

City Walls (as seen from the harbour)

 

The Harbour defences

 

 

 

Grand Master's Palace (as seen from the harbour)

Anyway, without going into all the details, we explored a lot of the old medieval town, palace and city walls and learned a lot of the history of the island and the Order of the Knights of St. John. These details may come in handy for future gaming with knightly orders in their historical context, or for fantasy versions in an imaginary world. Often, a real institution's history and organisation can be a great place to start to base a fantasy one on.

Surprisingly, other than appearances on a few tee-shirts and fridge magnets, not much is made of the Colossus of Rhodes. I wanted to find out a little more about this Wonder of the Ancient World, but other than it fell to an earthquake in ~226/225 BC, I only really found out that it didn't straddle the harbour as I always thought but was situated to one side. It represented the sun god Helios, and was apparently 33 meters tall and made of bronze. It was raised to celebrate a victory over Demetrius of Macedon. Sadly, the remnants were gathered up in the 7th century and melted down. What a sad way to end its life.

Being a mostly fantasy game player, I thought that the machinations of the order and their enemies could make for a great political game, especially if I could use the iconography of the Colossus as part of the set-up. Then, when I found out that they had their own dragon myth I got even more excited about gaming possibilities. Apparently around the year 1332 a dragon terrorised the people of Rhodes. Many knights went to Mal Paso (Bad Pass) to slay the enormous, long-tailed beast with scales of metal that no arrow or spear could pierce, but none returned. As a result, Grand Master Helion de Villeneuve forbade anyone else from attempting to slay the monster, but, as always in these tales, a young knight, Dieudonne de Gozon disobeyed the order and set about defeating it. To cut a long story short, he took a year out from his knightly duties to fashion a replica of the dragon at his father's castle in Languedoc to get his horse and dogs used to the sight of such a beast. Having also learned of a small, vulnerable unplated part of its underbelly, he set off to slay it. When he encountered the dragon, he was knocked off his horse by its long tail. However, he was able to pierce its soft underbelly with a spear, but the monster's dead body fell on him, trapping him beneath. He was hauled out by joyous villagers and taken to Grand Master Helion de Villeneuve who was going to punish him for disobeying orders, but let him off due to the cries of the populace and promoted him to Grand Master instead. Apparently the dragon's head was on display on the Sea Gate until at least the 17th century when it was written about by two travellers!

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (session 12) - The Lizardfolk (Day 14)

One of the players could not make the session tonight, so we dropped his character (Drakkon) from this encounter - we agreed that he had returned to the lizardfolk to guard our stake in the venture whilst we explored the cave system.

As the ripples approached the party, Navda threw a fist-sized stone at where he thought an underwater being might be. The stone splashed heavily and the ripples stopped. The area went very still and quiet and we all held our collective breaths. Suddenly, the water erupted right in front of me as a massive snake reared out of the water. I managed to cast a Warding Flare to stop the beast, but it was either cast too late or had no effect on the reptile as it bit me.

Navda managed to shoot the creature with his bow, but not before a second snake emerged in front of Dharion. We engaged the snakes in combat, but even above the din of the fight and the resultant splashing water, we all noticed the centre of the pool had begun to bubble and move.

The snakes attacking us suddenly dropped from sight as we looked at the moving mound and dreaded what might emerge from it. A huge alligator burst from the weeds and detritus and headed straight for us. We managed to form a battle line but the beast was so fast it managed to bite me and render me unconscious before I could get a strike in. I remember none of the remainder of the battle, but this is what I was told afterwards when my comrades brought me round...

The fight was a close run thing. The huge alligator managed to cause several grievous wounds to my comrades in arms, but they eventually destroyed it using a combination of magic and sheer brutality. As the fight went on I slowly slipped towards death as my blood flowed from my wounds in a torrent unstopped. Luckily, the beast was slain just in time, and Navda's medicinal skills stabilised me so that I could then be properly Cured by Dharion.

Noticing that the party was in dire need of medical attention, I cast a Prayer of Healing that managed to undo most of the damage caused by the encounter with the great crocodilian. We made sure that the alligator stayed dead.

We took stock of our situation, mostly making sure that there was no sign of those two snakes that we had encountered just prior to the alligator, and began to explore the rest of the open cavern. We found a small entrance to a cave system and proceeded through.

Saltmarsh lizardfolk cave system

We kept to the more shallow waterways where we could wade through rather than swim, or the areas of dry land. Unfortunately this meant that Navda managed to set off a number of traps; the final one being as we approached a dark cave in the north-west corner.

After Navda, and then Gladreth had been hit by a number of darts from a trap in the north-west sector, we heard a voice emanate from the darkened cave. Sir Riley of Aradora introduced himself and was quite joyous at our arrival. As it was dark in the cavern, I cast Light on one of my holy symbols so that we could see who we were talking to. It turned out Sir Riley was a skeleton that had been pinned face down by a column of rock that had dropped from an overhead trap and had landed on his pelvis and upper legs. He explained that he was able to use his magics to keep himself alive, but at the cost of his body slowly rotting away - he had been there a very long time. This explanation rang alarm bells for me but I couldn't put my finger on why his story did not ring true to me. The rest of the party were more believing and proceeded to rescue him from under the stone. Although he came out in two parts, we placed his bits together and he was able to restore his skeletal body to wholeness; again this rang alarm bells in my mind.

Whilst being rescued, Sir Riley told us his story; he and his comrades had been hired by the governess of Saltmarsh a few decades ago to explore this area and to establish a new habitat for the town. Unfortunately, he was caught by the various traps and finally ended up under the rock. He asked about the alligator as he and his companions had had a run in with the beast all those years ago but had not been able to slay it. We affirmed that it had been killed by our own hands. He then asked us to look around the cave system to find his effects. We willingly obliged, finding a robe and backpack which he gladly received and put on, and a wooden staff with a ruby red gem at the top, which I refused to give back to him. I was still unsure of his motives despite him being very friendly.

Sir Riley's ears pricked up and he looked like he had heard something. Upon asking him, we were told he could only hear reptilian voices. We decided that we would head out of the caves to take stock of our situation but Sir Riley took a detour to examine the body of the great alligator. He murmured a few strange words as he pulled two of the alligator's teeth and cast them into the marsh either side of the party. He then thanked us for our help...

Ghosts of Saltmarsh - The Wreck of the Tammeraut II (Days 10-14)

It has been a fair few weeks (months?) since I last posted a write-up of our D&D Saltmarsh campaign. Unfortunately, due to real life and holidays getting in the way each week we ended up with a bit of a hiatus in the campaign. We managed to get back round the virtual table on Thursday to remedy that.

 

 Day 10 (Continued) - The Wreck of the Tammeraut

The underwater combat continued on with the appearance of more zombies emerging from the wreck. This was not helped by the fact that we could also hear some very low-pitched moaning emanating from within the remains of the ship, indicating that something large was still in there.

As the fight at this point was now limited to just a few remaining zombies, Dharrion was able to sneak past the combat to see what was inhabiting the wreck. The water turned extremely cold as he approached the large being within; it looked remarkably like a sea captain but much larger (maybe 10'-12' tall), with a suction-cupped tentacle for one arm and a great sword held in the other!

As the last of the sea zombies were put back to rest by the fighters in our group, with a little help from Gladreth and I casting some offensive spells I might add, the fight moved into the wreck. The giant sea zombie cast about with its great sword and tentacled arm with great devastation, causing me to heal many wounds to my fellow adventurers, but it was not only physical damage it caused; the cold and sense of fear emanating from the being eroded our confidence that we could defeat this being. Druss was hit for some nasty, permanent necrotic damage that put him out of the fight, but that diversion was just enough for me to cast Burning Hands and for the rest of the party to re-double their efforts to allow Dharion to finish off the entity with a hit that critically damaged it. It fell and turned to sludge and seaweed in a matter of seconds leaving no trace of it ever being there other than the great sword it left behind.

As we gathered together to assess our situation we realised that all the effort had caused our underwater breathing abilities to begin to wear off as we began to struggle a little for breath (except for Gladreth as she joined us later). We had just enough time to search the inside of the wreck, and discovered a huge treasure chest (the treasure that the pirate crew of the Tammeraut were going to bury somewhere safe), and to block the stone plug over the orifice to the otherworld with the magical immovable iron rod.

We returned to the surface with hands and pockets full of whatever treasure we could carry and climbed onto our boat just in time as our underwater breathing abilities ran out. What to do with the remainder of the treasure was quickly discussed and we returned to the hermitage on Firewatch Island.

Days 11-13 

Over the next few days we returned to the site of the wreck and sent Drakkon down wearing his magical helm to recover the rest of the treasure and returned it all to the island. Whilst this was going on I was able to repair the permanent necrotic damage to Druss with a Minor Restoration spell and he made a full recovery.

During the afternoon of the thirteenth day, after assessing the value of the treasure, we made a small number of, what we hoped were innocent looking, boat trips back to the main harbour town to transport our newly found wealth. We rented a large room in a quality inn and set about converting what we could into large denominations of currency in the form of gems and jewellery. This still meant we had a number of chests full that were too heavy to carry by any one individual. 

Day 14 - Return to Saltmarsh

The next day, as we had nothing else to keep us in town, what with Morley having gone missing again, we decided to return to Saltmarsh. We packed our rented cart and headed back along the coastal path towards the city.

Several hours into our journey, we discovered that the road had been completely wiped out by a mudslide with no easy way around it. We decided to leave the cart and horses in a safe place and went looking for a way around the road blockage.

It was very heavy going in the surrounding marshlands, and after a number of minutes we began to hear reptilian screeching coming from the woods ahead of us. As we edged forward to investigate, the ground erupted beneath the party and everyone but myself was swept up into the trees in a huge net trap. This drew the attention of the lizard folk, who ran to investigate what their trap had caught. I tried desperately to hide but I did not act quickly enough and was soon surrounded by many lizardmen pointing their spears and darts at me.

They were convinced that we had come to steal them away and kill them like we had the others, but as the discussion went on it became obvious that they had mistaken us for the real evil-doers and that they saw all humanoids as the same. I was able to stall them in their discussions of wanting to eat us (they had even begun to build a cooking fire which I kicked apart before they had the chance to light it) long enough for my companions to cut themselves free of the net trap. This evened the odds a bit and eventually we were able to find out what had happened to their tribe and offered our help in stopping the perpetrators. It appeared that humans captured the lizard folk and took them to a cave from which they were never seen again.

We were asked to leave all of our shiny stuff as collateral to force us to return after investigating the disappearance of their families. We managed to negotiate with 50 gold crowns, but my offer of a Light infused coin was met with scorn as their shaman showed that he could do the same trick. They would keep the shiny stuff for one day and then assume that we were just like the other humans and had just run off without helping them.

After the shiny transaction had taken place we were shown to the cave a short distance away where all of the other lizard folk had been taken into and had never returned. We were left at the entrance to the cave by their trackers, who then headed back to their tribe, and headed into it.

It turned out that it was not really a cave entrance as such, but an opening into a shallow valley dominated by a sixty foot diameter pool full of black water, surrounded by very boggy ground with the occasional small islet piled with what looked like reptilian bones that were maybe several weeks old.

Saltmarsh Cave

As we approached one of the small islets after wading through some of the bog, we noticed the water began to approach our position from both sides in a rippling motion.

 

And a final update: due to the aforementioned everyday stuff getting in the way, the Midgard : Britannia campaign also took a hit time wise recently. The next scenario is almost ready to go but it is finding the time to get the table set up and a game played. I think I have the forces and scenario sorted, plus some newly bought scenery (river sections - still unpainted - to replace those my cat destroyed a number of years back) to allow it to happen. Hopefully I can get the next scenario sorted in the next couple of weeks, and the next game played, although I do still have a lot of real life stuff to deal with first.

Midgard : Scenario 2 : Aftermath

The Encounter in the Mist saw both sides take very heavy casualties; in fact, the Romans were almost wiped out...

The Britons' losses (87pts):

• 2x Warriors 3 (44pts)
  
• 1x Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 1x Slingers (10pts)
• 1x Skyclad (16pts)
  

The Roman losses (137pts):

• Marcus Aurelius Bellator 2 (25pts)
  
• 1x Legionaries (34pts)
• 1x Cavalry (20pts)
• 2x Archers (58pts) 

• (1x Legionaries (34pts) from previous game Hors de Combat due to reduced Stamina)

The last battle left a big hole in both armies' forces, so I have upped the reinforcements this time round to make sure that I have a couple of decently sized forces for the next game, with a mind to attempting a last-stand type scenario where one side is outnumbered by the other. So, here are the reinforcements that I rolled (in the order I rolled them) for the next game...

The Britons' reinforcements (150pts out of a possible 150pts):

• 1x Archers (15pts)
• 1x Archers (15pts)
• 1x Skyclad (16pts)
• 1x Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 1x Slingers (10pts)
• 1x Hounds (22pts) 
• 1x Mounted Warriors (16pts) 
• 1x Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 1x Warriors 3 (22pts)

The Roman reinforcements (53pts):

• 1x Centurion 2 - replacement (no cost)
• 1x Auxiliary Archers (29pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Spearmen (24pts)

Going forward I will change the numbers of reinforcements back to the amounts from the last post on that subject - Britons = 100pts plus % based on size of victory, Romans = either Legionaries or two rolls on the auxiliary tables. I may change the table somewhat as I am rolling too many "specialist" units and really want more warriors types. I will have a think on that again over the next few days. I have decided that the Romans, like the Britons, should get automatic replacements for their lost leaders; a bog-standard Level 2 Legionary Centurion, except if cavalry are rolled and a new mounted Decurion or somesuch can be added. I will allow any reduced Stamina units to make up the numbers on the tabletop if needed.

The Britons' army for scenario 3 (97/209=306pts):

• Bellicus 3 (47pts)
• Maviloduus 2 (32pts)
• Catuarus 1 (18pts)
• 1x Warriors 3 (22pts)
• 3x Warriors 2 (51pts)
• 1x Female Warriors (16pts)
• 1x Mounted Warriors (16pts)
• 2x Skyclad (32pts)
• 2x Archers (30pts)
• 2x Slingers (20pts)
• 1x Hounds (22pts)

This force is now back to a smidge over the 300pts starting value - what I was aiming for to enable me to play None Shall Pass (Scenario 2 from the rulebook).
 

The Roman army for scenario 3 (85/121=206pts):

• Lucius Valerius Corvus 3 (43pts)
• Gaia Pomponia Thrax 2 (21pts)
• Marius Pollux 2 (21pts) 
• 1x Legionaries (34pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Archers (29pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Spearmen (24pts)
• 1x Legionaries (-1St) (34pts)

The Romans are up to 200pts now which allows for the None Shall Pass scenario to be played properly (correct points sizes; 300:200). I am amazed at how these numbers are turning out if I am honest. There is no dice fudgery going on, just pure chance.

 

For the above scenario to become playable on the tabletop I need to create a few more figures bases. I will need a unit of Hounds for the Britons, plus a new centurion and unit of Auxiliary Spearmen for the Romans. I have all the figures required, so I will just need to paint them up and/or supply sabots for them. Now, what do I go for, mastiffs or wolfhounds, and how many on the base? I have a dog handler to go with them, but will need a different style of base as these dogs are mounted on 2p pieces and the handler on a 1p piece.

Mastiffs

Wolfhounds

The scenario also calls for a couple of items of scenery that I do not have, so I will either have to buy something that fits the bill or use an everyday item to allow me to proxy that scenery like in the last game where I used a couple of cork dining place-mats as rough ground. I will also try to get some more paint onto some more of the unpainted figures.

Representing the horrors of Cthulhu without giving the game away

I decided on a change of pace today, and amended the style of post. This is a break in form from the last few months' of D&D and Midgard game write-up offerings. I am harking back to a mini-series of related posts from 2021 wherein I discussed various ways I used to run fantasy gaming sessions. They can be seen again below if you wish to take a look...

Dungeon Dwellers' Tactics - 23 Jan 2021
Henchmen and Hirelings - 7 Jan 2021
Dungeon Ecology - 6 Jan 2021
Dungeon Parties - 5 Jan 2021

Continuing on; this is a post on how I think it may be better to represent the Cthulhu mythos and other similarly associated gribblies on the tabletop without stat blocks getting in the way - i.e. keeping a sense of awe and horror without reducing everything to numbers.

Whilst reading a book, or watching a film or TV show, I love the feelings of suspense and dread that the authors/screenwriters give to their creations and the protagonists' encounters with them. I would very much like to represent those feelings in my tabletop games.

Cthulhu Mythos Calamari - free download

I have played Call of Cthulhu on and off for many years, over several different versions, including the Dark Ages and Invictus settings. I have also played a number of one-off humans versus monsters RPGs and tabletop games like All Flesh Must Be Eaten and Broken Legions, but what has prompted me to write this post is my recent-ish acquisition of the Osprey Publishing book When Nightmares Come. It got me thinking that I often find that the horror of Lovecraft's creations are not given any justice once they make it to a rules set, because once they have stats associated with them and the players get hold of said stats, then the horror element has essentially gone. So, how do we represent unnamable and indescribable things in tabletop and RPG games?

I think the first thing we need to look at here is whether we are going to Role play or Rule play. Obviously all games require rules to make it fair for everyone that takes part and they provide the guidelines on how to play, but sometimes rules can get in the way of a darned good narrative. Most of the RPGs that I have participated in as a player have been theatre of the mind style - no miniatures, no props, just good story telling by the GM and the level of immersion into the game instilled by the players. From this, would it be too much of a stretch to have monster abilities that the GM makes up on the fly? The GM can work out what will cause harm to the creature based on pre-game thoughts, or maybe ingenious role playing by the players - that is, if a player thinks of a great ruse to disable a critter, then it should be rewarded with game-world changes by the GM. That doesn't mean to say that the next time a similar monster is encountered it has to have the same vulnerabilities.

When I play a game I try not to look at any stat blocks or monster descriptions so I purposefully don't know what each critter is capable of. Obviously stats are required for game play's sake, but if they are used, they need to be kept secret so the players do not know what they are up against. Unfortunately, having played many RPGs and having read many fantasy, sci-fi and horror novels I, as a player, kind of know what most creatures are by their description and then know what their traditional weaknesses and vulnerabilities are. This leads me towards a bit of rule playing knowing that such-and-such is a 2 HD monster, cannot be hit by mundane weapons, but is vulnerable to silver. I wish I could forget all of this whilst playing. That said, even though I, as a player, know this, unless a particular gribbly has been encountered previously, my character does not know what it is. This is where the Role playing comes in.

So, here is where a good GM comes into their own. Why should a particular monster look like the stereotypical form of that monster? Why can only certain weapons harm them? Why can they not come out during the day/night? Although it would turn any "real life" mythology on its head, in a fantasy or sci-fi world these vulnerabilities can be different. A monster might just be a particular species that is just very hard to kill. Use the rules in the Bestiary of whatever game world you are playing in but amend it slightly. In a fantasy context, maybe ghouls are not undead but are a race that live in crypts and darker environs as sunlight harms them (it does not kill them but slows them, blinds them etc.). They can be killed by mundane weapons but due to their metabolism they regenerate swiftly or their biology dictates they need very little blood in their system, so as a result a cut will very likely not bleed (or not very much at any rate) hence all hits only cause minimum damage.

Using the above as an example of how we can mix things up, means we can use more horrific creatures in several new and different ways. Like the ghouls mentioned above, maybe zombies are also not undead, but are afflicted by a virus (as per many Hollywood movies recently), or are beings subjected to a fungal spore infection (as in my own Doggerland D&D campaign). Do they move quickly or slowly? How do they feed and what on?

Before a monster is encountered properly for the first time in an adventure, have signs and clues to its existence; stories told around camp fires or in the local inn, spoor (fur, scales, slime, ectoplasm), the remains of its previous victim(s), a strange smell in the area etc. Build the picture slowly but enticingly. The next encounter should be just as the monster has wreaked havoc amongst, but not been killed by, another group of NPCs (maybe make these NPCs warriors or adventurers so it ups the perceived threat level). Next, have the heroes encounter the monster but have them not be able to kill it quickly (reduce all hits to maybe the minimum damage, let it take several hits and then escape). Finally, have the heroes meet the monster face-to-face. Use its normal stat lines but try to work the combat encounter so that one of the heroes deliver a death blow using a particular kind of weapon (a silver blade, a magic item, etc.) or only bludgeoning hits cause damage etc., to make them think that is its weakness. If this killing blow can be emulated in other encounters with the same type of creature, then the players may think that the beings can only be overcome by certain weapon types; the mythology will build itself. 

These are just a few options for consideration when running horror style encounters in your RPG. Unfortunately, this is a little more difficult for a tabletop wargame as both sides need to know the beings' capabilities (although I can think of one or two ways around that). Maybe I can have a think on this subject further and use the idea for a future post?

Midgard : Scenario 2 : Encounter in the Mist

Today is the second UK Bank Holiday for this month, and I was able to get onto the dining room table again to play the second game in my Midgard : Britannia campaign. The table size limit of 6' x 3' did not hamper the set up of this scenario either.

This battle report is for the second encounter between the Romans and the Britons in the campaign game - Encounter in the Mist. Again, I am playing solo, so will be using some of the last game's pre-determined tactics. That said, I learned a lot from the last game and will amend the Briton's tactics a little, as well as using a few things I missed from the rules last time (I will be looking more into the Support rules).

Both armies are evenly matched despite the casualties taken in the last game and the number of reinforcements.

Britons (243pts):

Total Points = 243 (Heroes 97pts, Units 146pts)

Total Rep = 27 (6 3 2 4 4 2 4 2)

Rep Tokens = 8

• Bellicus 3 (47pts)
• Maviloduus 2 (32pts)
• Catuarus 1 (18pts)
• 2x Warriors 3 (44pts)
• 2x skyclad (32pts)
• 2x slingers (20pts)
• 2x Warriors 2 (34pts)
• 1x Female Warriors (16pts)

Romans (245pts):

Total Points = 245 (Heroes 99pts, Units 146pts)

Total Rep = 25 (5 4 2 6 6 2)

Rep Tokens = 8

• Lucius Valerius Corvus 3 (43pts)
• Marcus Aurelius Bellator 2 (35pts)
• Gaia Pomponia Thrax 2 (21pts)
• 2x Legionaries (68pts)
• 2x Archers (58pts)
• 1x Cavalry (20pts)

For this battle, I used Scenario 4 from the main Midgard rulebook : Encounter in the Mist

The playing area is 6' by 3', but, as mentioned above, I was able to get the deployments to the correct distances on the table.

Intended army deployments

I rolled that the Britons would be the defenders again (they are guarding the way between the Roman retreat and their next destination - a small Roman encampment) and they took Deployment Zone A. Therefore, the Romans are classed as the attackers and took Deployment Zone B.

The two armies are divided into three contingents, a vanguard, a centre and a rearguard, and will be subject to the pre-game random adjustments after initial deployment to take into account the foggy conditions as per the rules.

Briton contingents...

Vanguard: Maviloduus, Warriors 2

Centre: Bellicus, Warriors 3

Rearguard: Catuarus, Slingers, Skyclad, Female Warriors

 

Intended Briton deployment

 

Roman contingents...

Vanguard: Lucius Valerius, Cavalry

Centre: Marcus Aurelius, Legionaries

Rearguard: Gaia Pomponia, Archers

 

Intended Roman deployment

 

After the retreat by Bellicus, Lucius Valerius set a watch and ordered his men to search the burned watchtower for signs of the century that was stationed there. There were just one or two blackened bodies in the ruins, and the tower and its outer defences were pretty much destroyed. Lucius Valerius wondered what might have happened to his legionaries but that thought had to be put aside for a while, until the remainder of his small force had dug their customary marching camp and posted sentries.

A few hours into the early evening watch, just before dusk, he heard a commotion and feared the worst. A few minutes later, he could hear some cheers from the soldiers outside that gradually rose in volume. He stood up from his field desk where he was writing the day's report, and stepped outside of his tent. He was greeted with a wondrous sight. An almost full century of legionaries came marching into the camp.

He called for his senior officers to attend him and listened to the report of the missing unit. According to the centurion of the unit, Septimius Fulgencio, the bulk of them had gone on patrol, leaving a skeleton crew behind. They got back to find the watchtower completely ruined, so decided to march to the next encampment. Unfortunately, their way was blocked by the army that had destroyed the watchtower, so they moved deep into the woods and watched the enemy movements until they had passed from sight. The scouts then followed the Briton army, saw the battle between them and the cohort begin, and rushed back to inform their centurion of the situation. Septimius Fulgencio started back to the ruined watchtower in order to aid the rest of the cohort but, alas, arrived too late to aid in the battle.

Lucius Valerius, listened to the tale and decided that Septimius Fulgencio had done all he could to heed the safety of his men. He decided he was not a coward, but he was not happy that he was not there to support the cohort in its time of need. As a result, Septimius's century was put on guard duty for the rest of the night.

The following morning, a thick fog had arisen from the nearby river valley. Lucius Valerius decided that they must join up with more of the cohort if they were to make it back to civilisation, so struck camp and began their march early. All went well until they were within a short distance of small village on their side of the river. The scouts reported back that they had heard a large party of warriors approaching their current position. It seemed as good a place as any for a battle, so Lucius Valerius deployed his troops to meet the oncoming threat.

The wounded from the previous battle at the ruined watchtower were sent on their way, via a small path through the forest, with most of the supplies in the hope that the forthcoming battle would distract any of the Britons from attacking them. The prefect hoped that they would make it to the encampment to warn the forces there of the cohort's impending arrival, and to tell them to prepare for evacuation.

Bellicus had returned to one of his main villages and recruited more warriors to bolster his forces. A minor chieftain named Catuarus added his small force to Bellicus's army and they marched back to find the Romans in order to finish them off.

The warband arrived early morning at the village, but the fog had caused the warrior bands to become split up somewhat and they all seemed to arrive at different times and not where they were supposed to. Bellicus hoped that the fog affected the Romans in the same way.

Actual army deployments due to the effects of the fog

The Romans arrived more or less where they intended, but more dispersed than they would ordinarily have deployed. Bellicus's skirmishers arrived way off to the left of their flank and would have to contend with a bit of boggy, rough ground in order to have a say in the forthcoming battle.

As the fog was too thick to see through properly, any challenges prior to the battle were not forthcoming. In the grim, eery silence the two forces advanced upon one another in the hope of surprising their enemy.

Turn 1 (Reputation B8, R8):

Each army could partially see each other through the mist and desperately wanted to come to blows. The Romans advanced cautiously in order to keep their lines, but the Britons streamed ahead where they could; the rough ground and woods slowed some of the skirmishers and young blood warriors meaning that their lines began to fray.

Turn 1 - The Britons' advance is hampered by many failed Command Tests

Turn 2 (Rep B8, R8):

As each side  advanced towards the other, the fog showed no signs of abating. Lucius Valerius took advantage of the Britons' troubles with the rough ground and charged into one of the slinger units that looked like it was on its own. Although the skirmishers were able to get off a volley of shots, narrowly missing Valerius, the impetus of the cavalry mowed them down to a man.

The rest of the skirmishers in the rough area split to achieve different objectives. The second unit of slingers shot a volley of stones at the cavalry, but the bullets that hit just pinged off of the Roman armour. The female warriors, seeing dozens of their men falling at the swords of the Romans, advanced to where they thought the cavalry would attack the remaining slingers. The skyclad, meanwhile, saw the opportunity to flank the Roman centre and advanced through the rough ground to make their presence felt, but the warband split after some confusing orders from the new chieftain Catuarus.

In the centre, Marcus Aurelius's legionaries came to blows with Bellicus's household troops. With a mighty crash of shield upon shield, the two forces fought for dominance of the centre ground. Bellicus's noble warriors were of a different mettle compared to their younger, more impetuous brethren the legionaries had faced in their previous encounter, and the Romans were forced back by the force of Bellicus's will and the defenders' skill at arms. Warriors fell on both sides and Marcus Aurelius took a mighty blow during the initial exchange.

Bellicus, sensing an easy victory with the Romans' retreat, spurred his men onto greater efforts and the Britons followed up the melee. There followed a gruelling test of strength with the Romans just taking the edge in the combat overall, but Bellicus's elite troops managed to kill the Roman Primus Pilus. His final actions, though, saw him and a few trusted legionaries destroy the remnants of Bellicus's warband with a cry of "Though I die, I smite thee!" as he fell.

On their left flank, the Roman archers could not make out the enemy approaching until it was too late. With whoops of anticipation the British warriors ran headlong into the last-second Roman arrow storm, but this did not stop their charge. Maviloduus and his warrior band pushed one century of archers back into the rough ground with ease. Gaia Pomponia was able to halt the attack on the right, but not without picking up another injury; the cuts and bruises she had amassed from the battle the day before had taken their toll on her.

Turn 2 - An intense melee ensues but the Romans just survive the Britons' onslaught

Turn 3 (Rep B7, R9):

As the early morning wore on, the fog still showed no signs of abating. Lucius Valerius saw that he was being flanked by a number of enemy skirmisher warbands, but no matter how hard he tried he was unable to get his men to turn and face the enemy. More slingshot rattled against the unit's armour as the warrior women charged closer.

Hoping to keep their advantage in the centre, the Roman legionaries stepped up their assault on Bellicus's elite warriors. They pushed through the destroyed warband, forcing Bellicus into the other unit of warriors, and pressed their advantage. However, the Briton leader's carp's tongue sword carved its way through his enemy's ranks with ease, forcing the hard-pushed century backwards. The Roman legionaries left in the centre saw the rapidly approaching skyclad warriors and fought for their lives against a renewed British assault. Unfortunately for them, Bellicus's Legendary Weapon proved to be their undoing and the century was destroyed.

The combat in the rough ground to left of the Roman lines was beginning to take its toll on both sides. Maviloduus and his warband of youthful warriors pushed the Roman archers back further into the rough and finally destroyed them as a unit, but the Britons' left flank in the rough had crumbled allowing the other archer unit to escape the melee and regroup.

Turn 3 - the tide of battle turns slightly in favour of the Britons

Turn 4 (Rep B5, R3):

The fog still refused to clear, even though the sun was trying to burn it away. The misty conditions were obviously beginning to favour the British forces as they were more used to the damp, cold weather.

Hemmed in and desperate to break free, Lucius Valerius got his cavalry moving and charged the oncoming female furies. A flurry of javelins took down half of Valerius's force before the iron and hooves of the remaining cavalrymen forced back the howling banshees facing them. Lucius Valerius decided to Hold Fast rather than be charged from behind by the slingers lurking in the rough ground to their left. The slingers, encouraged by seeing such a large number of cavalrymen fall to the javelins and knives of the warrior women, cast another volley of stones at the mounted troops. The last remaining cavalrymen either fell or ran off never to be seen again, leaving the Prefect to fight on on his own.

The legionaries in the centre of the field turned about and were about to charge Bellicus's warband from behind when the skyclad warriors hove into sight, running towards them at top speed. They decided that it would be easier to charge the naked fanatics and let Gaia Pomponia's archers take care of the Briton elites, but their charge fell short. The skyclad warriors pressed their charge home but many were impaled on the swords of the legionaries.

Gaia Pomponia's archers let fly but their arrows went awry in the mist; they just could not pick out their targets well enough to make their arrows count.

Turn 4 - Lucius Valerius rides alone and the Romans are on the back foot

Turn 5 (Rep B5, R3):

As more warriors fell to the swords and shafts of their enemies, the sun began to win its battle against the fog. Patches of mist began to tear away, but would this save either side from defeat?

Lucius Valerius decided that caution formed the better part of valour and charged across the battlefield in order to join with one of his remaining units of troops. The surprise of the slingers' small victory over such a superior force momentarily stunned them and they were unable to move, but the enraged female warriors spun around and headed off in pursuit of the cowardly Roman chieftain.

The legionaries, seeing their commander racing towards them renewed their attacks on the skyclad and cut them down to a man.

Gaia Pomponia ordered her century of archers closer to the depleted elite warband of Bellicus and ordered them to loose their shafts. This time their arrows flew true, scything the last of the elite warriors down. However, her grin turned to a grimace when from directly behind the fallen elite, Bellicus formed up the last of the skyclad and charged home against the archers. The archers fell back just enough so that they wouldn't get attacked in the rear by the rapidly approaching young warriors.

Turn 5 - The last moments for the Roman archers

Turn 6 (Rep B4, R3):

The sun finally broke up the mist and the carnage of the battlefield could be seen by all. So many men and women had laid down their lives for the glory of Rome or for the honour of their tribe.

The Roman leader galloped over to the last remaining century of legionaries and ordered them to about face whilst the maiden warriors and slingers continued their pursuit.

Gaia Pomponia had no choice but to keep fighting, but with Bellicus and Catuarus in the fight they were being pushed further and further back, taking more losses as they went. She prayed to the gods that help would arrive soon, but her century was overwhelmed in a melee that they were not used to. The archers were cut down as her unit was surrounded, but she survived with just a handful of troops.

Turn 7 (Rep B4, R0):

The thunder of hooves and the roar of a fully fit, victorious century of legionaries approaching from the rear caused Bellicus and his warriors to stop advancing to finish off Gaia Pomponia and her remaining handful of archers; it made them pause long enough for Gaia to make her escape. Seeing that she was safe, the rest of the Romans left the field to the Britons.

Turn 7 - the final retreat

This game lasted six of the seven turns allowed, but it was a longer, more hard-fought battle than the previous one. The Britons managed to scrape a Narrow Victory, so some honour has been gained back by Bellicus and his warriors, but I think if deployment went a bit more in their favour this could have been a crushing victory - maybe the Romans could have been completely wiped out, thus ending the main characters of the story (although there are more Romans left from the cohort that could club together to fight on). Both sides took a lot of casualties again, which means the next game will take some thinking about to get the numbers back up for a decent skirmish.

Campaign Score: Romans 3 Britons 1

Midgard : Campaign Scenario 1 : Aftermath

The first battle saw both sides take heavy casualties; the Britons many more than the Romans...

The Britons' losses (132pts):

• Luconianus 1 (18pts)
• 4x Warriors 2 (68pts)
• 2x Archers (30pts)
• 1x Skyclad (16pts)
  

The Roman losses (88pts):

• 1x Legionaries (34pts)
• 1x Cavalry (20pts)
• 1x Legionaries (34pts) Hors de Combat due to reduced Stamina
  

I wasn't expecting so many units to be destroyed during the course of the game, but now that I am aware of the casualty rates, I may need to amend the numbers of reinforcements going forward. These are the reinforcements rolled from the tables in the previous post...

The Britons' reinforcements (68pts out of a possible 75pts):

• 1x Level 1 Leader - replacement (no cost)
• 1x Female Warriors (16pts)
• 1x Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 1x Skyclad (16pts) 
• 1x Warriors 2 (17pts)

Briton Warrior Women

The Roman reinforcements (34pts):

• 1x Legionaries (34pts)

Luckily the numbers match up again for the next scenario, although the forces are below the 300 point mark. Going forward I may up the numbers a bit if the armies were to become too small. I would have to adjust the narrative; maybe for the Romans I will keep their reinforcements at the same rate, but up the amount of Britons to make the game harder, and more desperate for the Romans, at each stage.

The Britons' army for scenario 2 (243pts):

• Bellicus 3 (47pts)
• Maviloduus 2 (32pts)
• Level 1 Leader (18pts)
• 2x Warriors 3 (44pts)
• 2x skyclad (32pts)
• 2x slingers (20pts)
• 2x Warriors 2 (34pts)
• 1x Female Warriors (16pts)
  

The Roman army for scenario 2 (245pts):

• Lucius Valerius Corvus 3 (43pts)
• Marcus Aurelius Bellator 2 (35pts)
• Gaia Pomponia Thrax 2 (21pts)
• 2x Legionaries (68pts)
• 2x Archers (58pts)
• 1x Cavalry (20pts)

1x Legionaries (-1St) in reserve

For the new lists, I will need to arrange for a new level 1 leader figure and base up the unit of Female Warriors for the Britons. I will also try to get some paint on a number of the unpainted figures in time for the next game to at least make them look better than just the plain black/white/flesh undercoats.

I also managed to collate and undercoat two units of Celtic Cavalry for possible later use. I am also working on some more movement trays to carry the new warrior units.

Briton Cavalry Unit 1

Briton Cavalry Unit 2

Other than putting together the two new versions of the armies, I also need to work on the story of the Roman retreat to pick up their stargglers and choose which scenario to play next based on numbers available etc. More on this in the next post hopefully.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh - The Wreck of the Tammeraut

Day 10 - The Wreck of the Tammeraut

Luckily for us, the night posed no more threats after the immense noise from the collapse of the tower floor alarmed us. We awoke to daylight pouring in through the gaps in the fortified windows. After a quick breakfast, we took stock of our surroundings. The undead had been rummaging around the hermitage again but there was no sign of them this morning, other than a few blood smears where the floor of the tower had collapsed.

The rope we had secured for easing our crossing of the unstable floor was still there, so we were able to shimmy down it and leave the tower. We explored the rest of the island over the next hour to see what we could find but there was no sign of anyone, or anything of interest; even the nest at the top of one of the mounts for that flying being that attacked us when we first arrive held nothing of value.

We decided that we should return to the main land to gather ourselves in readiness to return and investigate the wreck and fissure we had read about. Jenna became worried that we would not return but we assured her that we would; we just needed to prepare for an underwater venture. She called one of her carrier birds and a message was sent to the mainland. An hour or so later a boat arrived for us, piloted by none other than the half-orc who brought us out here a few days previously.

Around mid-morning, we arrived in the harbour and set about evaluating our finds. The magical practitioner we saw last time assisted us again, for a price, by identifying that the helmet would indeed allow its wearer to breathe underwater, and that the three potions were also for just that purpose (two doses in each vial that allowed for several hours of underwater breathing). The metal rod, we found out, had a small button on it, that when pressed, it extended and stayed in place - totally immovable - no matter where it was placed, even in mid-air, until the button was pressed again. The apothecary tried to sell us a few more potions as we mentioned that we might need spares, but at 250 Gold Crowns a vial we decided that they were too expensive. Anyway, Jenna said that she could make some small cookies that would do the same job, last a lot longer, and not cost us anything.

We left Morley at a local hostelry, with the promise that we would be back for him once we had returned from investigating the ship wreck and portal. The rest of us returned to the island, where Jenna created the magic cookies for us. We double-checked the co-ordinates on the map and headed out to sea. We tasked Jenna with creating some more of the water breathing cookies whilst we were gone, in case we had to return to the wreck later .

The Wreck of the Tammeraut

As soon as we got to the place shown on the map, Drakkon jumped straight overboard and put the helmet on. When he resurfaced he proclaimed that it worked perfectly well and that he would scout around and try to find the wreck. He came back up again after about ten to fifteen minutes and said that there was a  wreck almost directly below us about 200 feet down. I cast Light on several personal objects and passed them around so we each had a source for visibility down below if needed.

All of us, except Gladreth who decided to stay behind to protect our escape, ate the foul tasting cookies and joined Drakkon in the water. Gladreth kept the three potions and one dose of cookies just in case we needed them later. Luckily, Jenna's formula worked well and we were able to breathe under the water. After a couple of minutes planning what we would do, we all swam down into the murky depths.

The water got much colder than it should have done naturally as we swam down, and when we were only a short way from our target we noticed that there was a strange source of light. It appeared to be coming from some kind of hole; most likely the rift mentioned in the journal. We took a look at the hole first and saw that it was about three feet in diameter and looked extremely deep. We tied a rope to Drakkon and he tried to swim down it, but some magical cold force stopped him going down too far. He returned to the seabed where we were waiting. The large stone beside the hole was big enough to fit over the hole and after a lot of effort we manhandled it and lowered it into position covering the rift. We were unsure whether to put the immovable rod over it to magically keep it permanently sealed.

As soon as the hole was covered, the water began to warm up again to a more natural temperature for that depth. Unfortunately, as our attention was firmly on plugging the rift, we were suddenly attacked by a number of the sea zombies.

Drowned Ascetic - courtesy of Fantasy Grounds

They took us by surprise and managed to inflict a lot of harm on the party before we were able to rally and begin to fight them off. A quick Prayer of Healing managed to repair most of the damage we took, and the fighting resumed with Navda and Dharion taking out a couple of the zombies in quick succession. I quickly followed that up with Radiance of the Dawn which caused a lot of harm to the remaining sea demons. Drakkon destroyed another zombie with one blow of his magical sword, just as we were joined by Gladreth. She must have sensed something was wrong and decided to join us on the seabed to see if she could help. Her timing was perfect as more zombies appeared around us.

Battle for the Tammeraut

Ghosts of Saltmarsh - Firewatch Island (Day 9 continued)

Day 9 - The Hermitage (continued)

After "seeing" the invisible entity escape towards the distillery tower, we followed to see what it might do there, and to see what might be cackling. Navda followed the invisible being thinking that it had gone up the steps of the distillery, only to be frightened out of his wits by what we assumed to be a demonic being contained within. We could not get a word out of him and he was frozen on the spot with fear.

The rest of us got closer to see what was in the distillery that caused Navda such a fright, and we espied two hideous, sea-weed covered, blue-skinned women. I asked them where they came from, but they just laughed at us. I was pushed to the ground by the, again, invisible entity so the rest of the party attacked the hags.

Dharion attempted, via one of his spells, to befriend them but they just laughed at his attempts and attacked Druss, who was nearest to them, instead.

Sea Hag - courtesy Fantasy Grounds

Outside, Gladreth swung her staff in vicious circles and managed to connect with the invisible entity which caused a hiss to come from one of the hags in the distillery. This caused the being to become visible, so I Sacred Flame it and Drakkon finished it off with his trusty sword. This caused the hags inside to curse and snarl; we had caused them to become incensed by destroying their servant.

Invisible Stalker - courtesy Fantasy Grounds

Navda, was just beginning to come out of his frightened daze when the hags cursed him again. I pushed past the frozen Navda and cast Guiding Bolt on one of the hags, which caused her a great deal of harm. This encouraged my companions to re-double their efforts. Dharion managed to pull Navda out of harm's way, which in turn allowed me to pass by the vacated spot, run up the steps to the distillery, and finally kill one of the dreaded sea demons. Gladreth and Drakkon managed to slay the other entity, who, using her dying breath muttered "Why did you not let us return to the sea?". We all had plenty of answers to that question but we turned our attention to Navda who was now slowly returning to normality from his afeared state.

We quickly returned to the pool to see what we could find within its depths, but the items turned out to be just wish-pennies. We stuffed the few copper coin into our pouches, declaring to ourselves that the wishes would have been granted, or not, by now.

Time had begun to run away from us by now, the sun had passed its zenith a number of hours ago, so we returned to the kitchen to collect Morley and Jenna. We headed around to the south side of the island where we had espied a small rowing boat the day before in the hope of escaping the island as soon as we could. Unfortunately, when we got there we noticed that it was half full of water and had a net draped over its gunwales that seemed to be pulling it down.

We pulled the net out of the water to see if we could unsnag whatever was causing the boat to ride low and realised that it contained several of the hermitage's religious monks. It was only when the net was fully pulled from the sea that the bodies began to move. We hurriedly collected a mound of driftwood and set to bashing the un-life out of the corpses. We then burned them in a pyre. It was then that we realised that there were eight of us but the boat would only carry six. No matter how we thought about getting off the island we couldn't work out a way without splitting the party too much and have the boat return for us before it got dark. We decided to settle in for a second night in the hermitage.

It was decided we would barricade ourselves in on the third floor of the tower. It was a good defensible position and we would be forewarned in plenty of time of any attempt to get near by a new wave of sea zombies.

Tower - third floor

Navda, being the most acrobatic amongst us, did most of the climbing and sent back ropes that would make the path to the third floor (across that burnt, unstable wooden flooring of the second floor) easier for the rest of us. Dharion had a slight mishap with a fall through the floor, but was able to save himself from too much harm.

In the chamber on the third floor, we cleared out all the rubble, filled the hole in the tower wall, wedged the tables and chairs against points of egress, and set watch at each of the windows. We doused all lights in readiness for a long and fretful night.

Day 10 - The Hermitage (continued)

An hour or two after sunset we began to hear noises similar to what we had heard the night before; doors being forced open, movement to and from the sea and around the rest of the hermitage. We kept as quiet as we could be in the hope that the night would eventually pass without us being found as there was no sign of the undead passing this way the previous night.

Then, about halfway through the night, there was an almighty crashing sound as if something extremely heavy had smashed something. Then there was silence.

Midgard : Britannia - Reinforcements

I made a quick ready-reckoner about reinforcements in an earlier post, but it was not set in stone. Here is an updated version that I will use for at least the first scenario's end game...

Romans in battle against Celts (Wikimedia Commons)

Losses and Reinforcements:

After each battle calculate actual losses to each surviving unit that took Stamina damage:

• Remove figures from each unit as a percentage of Stamina lost - for example, on a 4 Stamina unit...
• 1 Stamina loss = 25% loss of figures (if a fraction, round down results for all losses)
• 2 Stamina loss = 50% loss of figures
• 3 Stamina loss = 75% loss of figures
• 4 Stamina loss - unit should have been removed from table already
  
• For partially damaged units, roll a d6 for each figure lost...
• 1-5 they are lost
• 6 the troops managed to survive (lightly wounded, dazed, fled), so they can be returned to their original unit or to another unit of the same troop type that is understrength
• If a unit is completely wiped out during a game, then it is lost
• If two or more understrength units can be combined to make a whole one, then they will be, otherwise they will be put aside until multiples of understrength units can combine to create whole ones - all understrength units will be played in the final scenario at their current strength though
• All leaders that are killed are replaced by one of the same Rank. Allocate new Traits for each one but keep points values to within a few of the original leader
• All leaders that are injured regain 1 point of Stamina between each scenario
  

Before each battle, calculate reinforcements:

• The Romans start the whole campaign with 6 centuries of legionaries, 6 centuries of auxilia and 4 turmae of cavalry. The initial starting force consisted of 3 centuries of legionaries, 2 centuries of auxilia and 2 turmae of cavalry. They will gain reinforcements depending upon which Roman camp type they are nearest to...
• Marching camp = 2x random units (roll d6) until all are used up (4 auxilia and 2 cavalry left)
• 1-4 Auxiliary Spearmen (up to 4 units)
• 5 Auxiliary Archers (up to 2 units)
• 6 Cavalry (2 units left)
• Watch Tower = 1x unit of legionaries (3 units left)
• In the final battle they get an onager and/or a scorpio unit in addition
• Depending upon how casualties go, they may get a boost from the rest of the legion that has come looking for them for the final battle
  
• The Britons can recruit from a limitless pool of warriors...
• All removed units are lost
• All damaged units are automatically returned to full strength
• An extra 75 points awarded to spend on new units (any points left over are lost). Roll 2d6 on the table below to realise troop type, and an additional d6 if a Hero is rolled...
• 2 Hounds (22pts)
• 3 Female Warriors (16pts)
• 4 Skyclad (16pts)
• 5 Archers (15pts)
• 6 Slingers (10pts)
• 7-8 Warriors 2 (17pts)
• 9 Mounted Warriors (16pts)
• 10 Warriors 3 (22pts)
• 11 Chariots (24pts)
• 12 Additional Hero
• 1-3 Level 1 (18pts)
• 4 Druid Level 2 (27pts)
• 5 Level 2 (32pts)
• 6 Level 3 (47pts)
• If the Britons win, depending on their level of victory, they will gain a bonus number of reinforcement points equal to the level of victory (0-3) x10

The reinforcement totals are in favour of the Britons: firstly, they are on home turf and are expected to be able to recruit more troops, and secondly, they are expected to take more casualties as the Roman troops are better quality unit for unit. If this proves to be a little unfair I will adjust the amount of times that recruitment can take place; maybe after battles 1, 2, 4 and prior to 6 if the numbers are too uneven?

Ghosts of Saltmarsh - Firewatch Island (Day 9)

Day 8 - Continued)...

Just prior to bedding down for the rest of the night, we decided to collect up the remainder of the "dead" zombie bodies (about half were left after the second wave of zombies arrived to carry them away), carry them into the large stone tower along with as much of the broken furniture as we could find, and set light to them. This would both stop the sea zombies from being able to collect them and reanimate them if that is what they do, and kill off the green slime stuff that had accumulated there in the tower.

We set watches for the rest of the night but it passed without any further events.

Day 9...

We had a long rest, and began to stir around mid-morning. We decided that we should explore the rest of the hermitage, so told Jenna and Morley that we would lock them in the kitchen again, to keep them safe, and return for them once we had explored the rest of the upstairs of the building.

We headed up the main staircase and entered the room to the right at the top of the stairs. This room happened to be a hallway with a couple of doors along its length. We opened the door to the right as we entered the hall to find a room that resembled a scriptorium; lots of paper and books were scattered all over the room and tables, as well as a very large pile in the north-west corner.

Gladreth and I began to investigate the huge mound of books, paper and cloth in the corner but were surprised when it began to move. Navda, who was covering us, shot an arrow into the pile which then began to hiss frantically. Suddenly, three very large coral snakes erupted from the pile and began to attack the party. The rest of our comrades rushed into the room and we made short work of the snakes, but not before a few of us took some nasty bites.

Once the snakes had been dispatched, we were able to carry on exploring the rest of the room. Most of the papers and books were damaged beyond repair and readability, but we did garner a few snippets of information from the piles on the tables that were covered in spilt ink : a few words about a ship named The Tammeraut and something about a rift.

We decided that any further searching of this room would not reveal any more clues and treasure, so we headed back into the hallway and tried the door at the end of the corridor. This opened out onto a crenellated walkway that led to the large stone tower.

The door to the tower opened easily but a massive billow of smoke emerged as we opened it - the fire we had lit earlier had produced a lot of fumes. When the smoke had cleared, we realised that the floor had been badly damaged by the fire (but at least the slime and zombie bodies had been destroyed) and extra care would need to be taken if we stepped upon it. Luckily, Navda, the party's rogue, was very light on his feet and was able to make his way across the room to the stairway opposite.

Alone, he climbed the stairs and reported back what he observed on each floor. The third floor contained a continuation of the spiral staircase, as well as a big pile of rubble and nest materials, and a couple of tables. The nesting materials were from a natural source, seagulls and the like, so he poked around in it and found a back-pack which he sent down on a rope for us to take a look through; it contained some old clothes and three potions. The first table he investigated contained a leather-bound book, a metal rod and a small pouch containing a goodly amount of gold coins. The smaller table had more papers from which he could pick out more mentions of the sunken Tammeraut, a rift below and The Drowned.

3rd Floor of the Hermitage Tower

Navda climbed the next staircase towards a fourth floor. Above his head at the top of the staircase he encountered a trapdoor. He was able to push it open easily and climbed out onto a belfry platform with a circumference wall containing arrow slits. In the middle of the platform there was a large bronze bell with a rope attached, and a body ripped apart with its head missing; presumably Jenna's lost Aaron? However, by the body there was a message scrawled by hand in chalk and blood that said "Beware the sea killers".

3rd and 4th Floors of the Hermitage Tower

After searching around for more treasure and clues, but finding nothing more of interest, Navda returned to us on the walkway. We returned the way we came and attempted to open the last door on the floor that we had not investigated yet. There was a horrendous metallic screeching sound made as we pushed the wooden door open caused by a large mace head that had been used to stop the door. The room appeared to be some kind of bed chamber with an accompanying table and chair, and a chest. The table held what turned out to be an upturned bronze helmet, a straight razor and a very dirty, broken mirror. In the unlocked chest we found a couple of blocks of amber and a round religious icon linked to the same sea god we had seen in other rooms of the hermitage. The icon had what looked like fourteen diamonds embedded in it, so we kept it for future reference.

Upper floor of the Hermitage

After completing the search of the upstairs floor, and with our interest piqued with all of the sea god and sunken ship references, we decided to head to the library to investigate these clues further. We found many more interesting snippets but then decided to ask Jenna what she knew about the ship and the rift. After asking her to confirm that the body in the belfry was Aaron's (it was), we asked her about the clues we had found. It turned out that she held quite a bit of knowledge about the local history.

Apparently, many years ago, the Tammeraut, a famous pirate ship, began to store its riches on Firewatch Island. One day, a storm sank the ship and it was never seen again. However, many years later reports of pirates rising from the sea and attacking the hermitage became more common. A local priest began to investigate the tales and he managed to find out about a magical rift under the sea that connected a demonic portal and our world together.

We looked in the leather-bound journal we had found on the third floor of the tower with renewed vigour and discovered a few more clues. It mentioned word of a disaster; the pirate ship approached the island but was sunk in a violent storm about two miles to the south.

Putting all these clues together, we decided another trip to the library was needed now that we knew what we were looking for. We didn't find much more that we didn't already know, but we did spot, hand scrawled in the margins of a few of the books, a number of prayers and fragments of details written for the purpose of worshipping a sea god, the name Scarlet Harbinger and lines about being scared of death that awaits and a passage for safe harbour were found but they didn't mean much to us at this point. Regarding the pictures and tapestries on the walls with fresh eyes led us to find items that we had missed the first time around; I removed a picture of a galley at sea from the wall and a piece of parchment behind it fell out, which turned out to contain a map of the island and hermitage with a large X marked to the south of the island with a bunch of coordinates. Details of the sea god appeared everywhere. It is not a god I know of but it is a well-known sea god in these parts that, apparently, many ships' captains say prayers to for safe journeys.

Looking at our gathered treasures with this knowledge at hand, we thought that the helmet may be magical and the potions may be for some kind of underwater usage. We will get them assessed when we get back to town later though to confirm our suspicions.

Hermitage gardens and pool

All this talk of sea gods and treasures in a tangential way reminded me of the oval pool in the hermitage's garden. I talked my companions into having one last look around before heading back to pick up Jenna and Morley. Something had piqued my interest but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

We made our way past the distillery and into the gardens and began investigating the pool and its environs. The pool was about three feet deep, with fairly clear water, and there were a few objects not quite discernable in its depths. Out of the corner of my eye, whilst looking into the pool, I caught glimpse of a shadow behind me. I quickly turned but could see nothing. I mentioned this to my companions but no-one had seen anything. It was then that I spotted a trail of footprints that led to the copse of trees behind us.

Gladreth and I went to investigate what we might find hidden in the undergrowth, but I was struck hard from behind and fell to the ground. I could make out no adversary when I looked around, so I asked whoever it was to show themselves. For an answer, Gladreth was also struck by this invisible being.

Meanwhile, Dharion, Druss and Drakkon clambered into the pool to get a better look at the items in its depths, and also for the water to be an early warning in case anything invisible with mass also got into the pool to attack them - they would be able to see the ripples of the being making its way toward them and they would be better able to gauge where to strike.

I was still listening and watching to see if I could see what had just attacked me. I grabbed a large handful of dust and leaves from the ground and threw it in a random direction. It just so happened to briefly outline a being that would otherwise be invisible. The shape took off at a run towards the distillery where it emitted a loud cackle.