Week 5 The Grimoire!
After the brazen attack of the cultists on the sons of Count Faulkenheim, the city has fallen completely to the warring forces of chaos. The streets run red with blood and green with wrydstone as the forces of Johann and Lothar battle in full blown warfare. City squares are covered in corpses and the wails of the dying echo through the alleys of the city of the damned.
It is clear to your warband that this is coming to a head. The fate of the city will soon be decided. What will you choose? Regardless of your path forward, whether you will attempt to flee the city, purge the forces of chaos, or attempt to harness this evil for your own ends, you’re going to need some help.
At your camp, the old ninety-niner was regaling you all with rambling stories around the campfire. But one of these tales peaked your interest. An ancient grimoire, lost in the city, that the old one had seen long ago… a book of demonology. Maybe this tome can help you chart a path out of this chaos… or to the heart of it!
This week our brave warbands entered the city of the damned, which is awash in blood. They were searching for ancient Grimoires of demonology scattered through the ruins. With these books, maybe they would gain the edge they need to confront Johann and Lothar, the aspiring chaos warlords ruling over the city!
This is our penultimate game- next week will be our final entry and a huge multiplayer bash! This is the last chance for the warbands to gain loot, turf, and glory before the showdown.
This was a simple one- a modified treasure hunt, with a special themed reward to the winning warband! No random events, but at the end, the warbands can choose to read the Grimoire to learn how to slay demons … or how to gain their powers!
Next week we will find out who seeks to destroy the powers of chaos, and who wants to claim them for their own!
We have 6 players on 3 excellent boards assembled by Afatblackcat!
Game 1: Skylar (Skaven) vs Machkurry (Black Orcs)
The two warbands squared off by the Palace, drawn by rumors of the Grimoire in the ruins. This was a tight board, with an underground area, but they would be starting right on top of each other! We discussed whether they should have shortened deployment zones, but they said to hell with that and wanted to get stuck in. The Pestilens skaven lined up their horde, and the bar-crawling black orcs (this thing has really gotten out of hand) had a significant numerical disadvantage. The Skaven started the game summoning additional giant rats, and the black orcs braced for some stomping. Both sides moved in rapidly, with Machkurry’s hero locating the treasure! Woo hoo! But the Skaven were closing in- with giant rats swarming over the orcs. To my great delight, the skaven rolled our first miscast of the campaign! This was followed by a roll of a 10- so the warlock cast a random spell from their list, which summoned even more giant rats! If only all miscasts could be so cool. This then became a total bloodbath, with rats and orcs swarming over each other, and many, many rats getting stomped (especially with 6 bonus rats now running around). In the end, the Black Orcs routed (hard to have so few models), but both sides had lost over 50% of their forces! Skylar recovered the Grimoire and opted to gain the strength of the demon, allowing the corrupting forces of chaos to flow over the warband. However, it was a pyrrhic victory- two skaven heroes were captured, and the warlock died of his wounds! Skylar picked up 5 warband XP for winning and went to tier 3, gaining the strength of the gods! Their bloody ways have gotten the skaven a killer reputation. The Black orcs did lose yet another nutta, but ransomed back the two heroes after getting them properly boozed up and gifting them commemorative mugs (these black orcs are on an out of control bar crawl, after all!).
Game 2: Cheeg (Black Orcs) vs Afatblackcat (Pit Fighters)
This began with a quick catch up from last week- Cheeg’s hero needed to fight a pit fighter. It was a nailbiter, but after being knocked down, the black orc got back up and won! Glory!The two warbands deployed near the walls around the Temple of Morr, seeking the old grimoire. After set up, Afatblackcat immediately found the treasure in his deployment zone! But the two leaders decided to fight for a bit, with Afatblackcat’s hero holding the treasure in reserve near the board edge for a speedy escape if needed. The pit fighters had their own pit ogre, and had also hired a mercenary ogre to join their warband! Two ogres! This went up against Cheeg’s troll, so it was a battle of the big boys. The warbands clashed in the middle while the grimoire was safely out of the way. The ogres moved up to tangle with the troll, as wounds flew back and forth. In the end, the black orcs were brutalized and had to rout. But this was not before the Black Orcs took out not one, but two ogres! That’s a record for big boys going down in our campaign. Unfortunately, they still only count as one. In the end the Black orcs were not too worse for wear, a bit better off than the drubbing from the week before, and still managed to do some exploring. The Pit Fighters hit tier 3! They gained an extra strength for their pit boss from their warband upgrade.
Game 3: DungeonBuddy (Orc Mob) vs Bonespoon (Witch Hunters)
On the other side of the Palace of Count Gottleib, the Orcs and Witch Hunters followed their own lead on a demon grimoire! The two warbands clashed near the dried out river- we decided for our purposes that the bridges and the mausoleum were also searchable. The orcs got the first turn and searched their buildings in the deployment zone, again immediately finding the treasure (whoops shouldn’t have made the odds so good, haha)! However, the goblin was along and bogged down trying to drag the heavy chest (and failed animosity ones) containing the book, it would take a few turns to reach the board edge! Seeing a small window of opportunity, the witch hunters sprang into action, as the goblins poured over the bridges. On the center bridge, the goblins and troll mauled the screening line of dogs, sending three to their doom! The greenskins carried on- in the center they charged the captain and flagellants, but on the left flank were charged by the warrior priest, pit fighter, and zealot! Witch hunter shooting was ineffective as the frenzied witch hunter chased after the chest-carrying goblins (it didn’t help that two crossbow carrying witch hunters were out of the game for an old battle wound and drinking bad well water, oh well). In the center, the troll and flagellants got in a big scrum, while the goblins took out another dog and the witch hunter captain (with his holy relic!). On the left flank, the warrior priest finally cast soulfire hitting all three goblins… to do no damage! No worries, they took care of this the old fashioned way, bashing some goblin noggins! However, the goblins ran the chest off the board and pushed forward, overwhelming two of the flagellants holding the troll back. With the captain gone, the Warrior Priest Wolfgang looked and decided that it would be best to withdraw- the foul orcs held the grimoire, there was no more use in fighting. The Orcs went up to tier 1! They read the grimoire and also decided to take the demon’s strength, which would give them a bonus on the charge.
Next week will be our final showdown, when the warbands converge on the source of the wyrdstone spewing into the city and confront Johann and Lothar! Will they defeat the forces of Chaos? Die Trying? Or seize the power for their own? Find out next time on Blades of the Damned!
The standings:
- DungeonBuddy’s Orc Mob- Brutes, 2 win, 3 losses, Tier 1, with 3 turf locations
- AFatBlackCats Pit Fighters- Brutes, 4 wins, 1 loss Tier 3, with 4 turf locations
- (Bye Week) Rockfists Dwarf Treasure Hunters- Smugglers, 3 wins, 1 loss, Tier 1, with 3 turf location
- Skylar’s Clan Pestilens- Cult, 2 win, 3 losses, Tier 3, with 2 turf locations
- Chegg’s Black Orcs- Smugglers, 1 win, 3 losses, Tier 1, with 2 turf location
- Bonespoon’s Witch Hunters- Cult, 3 wins, 2 loss, Tier 2, with 3 turf locations
- MachCurry’s Black Orcs- Brutes, 1 win, 4 losses, Tier 2, with 1 turf location