The Blackbarrow Chronicles, Episode 2 -The Gauntlet Part 2

 The Blackbarrow Chronicles Episode 2 The Gauntlet – Part 2- The Game

The Blackbarrow Chronicles is an ongoing series  of report on fantasy games played on my Village of Blackbarrow Table, which has been a decade long project  that’s finally come fully realized as its own little 28mm old school fantasy microverse in my basement.

Picking right up where we left off, on Sunday we rolled the dice and played “The Gauntlet” out.

I wont rehash  the preview much here, so please read that, for the Scenario setup and background.

I’ll start with the teams and there statistics and a quick shot the Bandits who were missing from the preview, I will go over various rules as we re- hash how this all played out.

Initiative –

Initiative was rolled with several key players failing,  those passed were ordered by their Dexterity stat ties were broke by the amount their roll passed by. The Sheriff and his men act in unison at their specified points , if forced into combat they are added to the bottom of the order based on their Dexterity stat.

Reynard

Riff

Scorpa

Hugo

Gwayne and Wynn

Henfrey -driving the Ox Cart

Thrum

Black Mott

Treeble

Rob Roy

Zilchus

 RULES STUFF

Weapons

Crossbows-  may shoot only once a turn as your attack action, may be reloaded  as your move action

Ignore 2 Armor Points on Hit, damage is per class.

Reach Weapons ,  Halberds , Spears, etc. may attack “nearby figures” not in base contact, figures with reach weapons cannot be charged.

Aiming-  sacrifice move action for a single ranged attack at +2 to hit

Racial Traits- 

Half Giant-  1d12/1d10  , Knockdown, Slow

Knockdown- STR test on charge when engaged with smaller based figures or be knocked down.

Knocked down figures take normal damage, and are the Prone (Vulnerable)

Slow-  Disadvantaged on DEX tests,

Bandit Gang, L-R  Scopra, Riff, Rob Roy, Treeble, Black Mott (front)

DEPLOYMENT 

The bandits are deployed throughout  the town waiting to strike, the Merchants guild gathers and leaves from its side entrance

Hiding in the Shadows literally.

Merchants Guild Team Start

Rob Roy and Treeble plan on  sneaking up from the rear

Sheriff is looking on waiting to screw this whole thing up.

The Castellan and some of his troops eagerly look on.

TURN 1

Reynard-   Moves 4 inches under porch, casts Shield upon himself, rolling  an "18" for Intelligence Test, keep the spell in his memory. And giving him an additional 6 armor points

Riff- inches forward to edge of shadows

Scorpa- Inches forward to edge of shadows

Hugo- Moves 6 inches

Gwanye and Wynn - - Moves 6 inches

Ox Cart- - Moves 6 inches

Thrum- Run about 8 inches to middle of road guarding rears of the group.

Black Mott- Bandits attack!!! Mott the Assassin striking from concealment in Bushes at the Inn,  fires a poison crossbow bolt at Hugo from the merchants guild leading the team,  his high dexterity stat gives him an easy base to hit of “5” plus this counts as sneak attack, (surprise attack -2)  he chooses not to aim which sacrifice his move action so he can reload, he doesn’t really need to hitting  Hugo on a “3” or better. He rolls a “15” hitting him for 9 points of damage (Assassin Sneak Attack Damage 2d6 + level , in this case 2) The crossbow bolt ignoring 2 Armor points it eats up 2 of his 4 points getting through for 7 damage, Hugo now must make a poison save or take another D6 damage….his CON is a “9” he needs a 12 and rolls a “12” the poison didn’t take but he has a sucking chest wound.  Black Mott Reloads as his move action.

Black Mott, Assassin  Hidden set up at game start.

Treeble-  Easily the dumbest of the Bandits decides to take a Crossbow shot at Thrum standing in the middle of the road, the 9 foot tall 500 pound behemoth is an easy target  Treebles base is a “8” he choose to Aim -2, Range is about 10 inches so no penalty, and being on 40mm base as a large target give him an extra -1 , he needs a “5” and Rolls a “12” Treeble is a D8 with the Crossbow  but it’s a “3” tearing off some of the Barbarian shoulder Armor  (AP 6  drops down to 3)

Firing arrows at the Thrum maybe not the best idea in retrospect should have taken out the easy men at arms.

Rob Roy- alerting Thrum to their presence Rob Roy follows suit with a flurry of Arrows as a Ranger he can shoot three times but cannot Aim , he fires three quick arrows, the first two barely missing but the third hitting home, as Ranger Rob Roy get a D10 against the usual suspects (Giantkin, Goblins, etc)  he rolls another “3” removing the remains of Thrums light armor.

Zilchus- quickly moves to as near to the wounded Hugo is, Zilchus is easily “nearby” and casts Cure Light Wounds on him giving him back 4 Hp..Zilchus passes his WIS check to retain the spell with a  “15”

Usage Die checks for Bandit Quivers- all pass on the D10.

The Sheriff and his Men  now take 1 of their 2 turns here the other being at the top of turn 4.

The three guardsmen move out in the road to stop Thrum from advancing on Rob Roy and Treeble

“hold it there bigun, we aren’t starting a brawl in the streets here today, besides you are not even wounded!",

Guard Intervening, bottom of Turn 1

The Sheriff and Scower move and block Gwayne and Wynn from advancing, stopping them in their tracks hoping to delay them back from the rest.

Caravan on the move, the Sheriff steps in.

End Turn

 TURN 2

Reynard- moves about 3 inches trying to stay near the rear corner of the moving wagon,  He can easily see Black Mott in the bushed ahead and lets loose some magic missiles  which hit home blowing through mott’s leather armor and wounding him for 5 damage (9 total)  Reynard  rolls a “13’ on his INT check to retain the spell

Riff and Scorpa  choose to DELAY their actions

DELAY : you may pass on your initial turn choosing to go later in the order but you must pass a DEX test to activate..otherwise your turn is lost.

Hugo- Energized by Zilchus’s Healing spell he follows the Guildmasters orders to march ahead carrying his chest..he moves another 6 inches.

Gwayne and Wynn choose to also DELAY thanks to the Sheriff they can get around the Ox Cart and need to wait for it to move.

Henfrey in the Ox Cart moves 6 inches.

Gwayne and Wynn  now try to move but  Wynn FAILS his DEX test so they are stuck, thanks to the damn Sheriff!..

Delayed, and no purposely.

Scorpa decide to activate and easily passes his DEX test with a “12” , he rolls a 15 on his attack hitting with the poisoned Crossbow Bolt on poor Henfrey, the wagon counting as soft cover didn’t help him Henfrey  whiloses his Armor gets knocked down to 5 hp, he does make the poison save also rolling a “12” or he be in worse trouble.  Scorpa Reloads

 Riff – decides to activate passes his DEX test easy with a 17….HE Runs to the next alley over cut off the Merchants.. (Move 12 inches)

sticking all these old building of mine together works and small alley ridden section of the village here the bandits and strike when ready and avoid being seen.

Thrum is quite annoyed at his situation with the Guard, I think about having him he barrels them over with non lethal or improvised damage as per the “the black hack”  but don’t want a 5 on 1, so I have him run around them which has room but not the range, so he uses a throwing axe, Thrums low DEX make it a challenge but the dice comes up high with a “19” and Treeble takes a big 10 damage, He did have much armor to begin with.., Thrum can Throw a second Axe and he does  at Rob Roy but Rob Roy easily dodges it, (I miss with a “2”)

Black Mott- Now is only 4 inches from the wounded Hugo walking down the street and melee attack would be easy but could get him attacked by at least 3 Merchants before he goes again, he decides to move up 6 inches but some market table and fire the Crossbow again and this time he Hit Hugo with a “20”!  This isn’t a sneak attack but its double damage and I roll on the crit chart, the low roll does nothing extra but the double damage on the d6 rolls of “5” makes its 10 damage, blowing past his armor leaving Hugo with 1 Hp  but of course he now has to save versus poison , failing this time taking another 4 damage putting him OUT OF ACTION.

Black Mott probably should have waited till he could have shot, then moved. taking out Hugo with the chest was key but he paid dearly for it.

 Treeble- Returns fire on Thrum who is looming pretty close to him, its disadvantaged shot, being within 6 inches but he still manages to hit the Barbarian with the bonuses…Thrum  takes 8 damage and that just gets him mad…Treeble had to Aim so he is stuck there. And cant reload to next turn.

Rob Roy, -Not an idiot, Rob Roy isn’t going to stay there to engage in melee with Thrum, once the reason Rob Roy has been caught is his handy CLOAK OF INVISIBILTY, which operates with a D4 Usage Die every 24 hours (meaning as long as he doesn’t roll a 1 or 2 on the D4 after a use, he can keep using it)

Rob Roy goes invisible and scoots away from Treeble 6 inches..

the clear marker is showing the Invisibility Cloak is in effect, If that had burned out after one use which was a 50% chance I think we would have had a different ending.

 Zilchus runs to the fallen Hugo to safe guard the chest taking over carry it himself

(I put a treasure chest marker on the board) the move is too far for him to do anything else unfortunately.

Zilchus saved his own team, getting that smaller chest in Cart and hopping on board!

Usage Die, Mott pass, Rob Roy’s Cloak pass, Scorpa Pass, Treeble Fail, drops to D8.

End Turn

TURN 3

Reynard-  Reynard doesn’t need to move far to get eyes on  Black Mott, he does and lets the Assassin have another round of Magic Missiles in the face.. the resulting 9 damage is enough to put Black Mott down and we have our first bandit go OUT OF ACTION.  Unfortunately for Reynard he flubs the INT Test with a “2”  so he loses his last 1^st level spell slot,  he can only cast his level two memorized spell at this point Web…until he can rest for 8 hours (see page 13 of TBH for an explanation on Spellcasting)

Fun with Photo editing tools variations on my favorite filter with some home made spell effects.  Reynard throwing out the Magic Missiles that take the Assassin out. 

Riff – DELAYS

Scorpa-  Shoots Crossbow at Zilchus whose  standing over the fallen Hugo and his Chest,  lining him with an aimed shot  to offset the fact he will be disadvantage for the close range, base to hit is “8” this is a Sneak attack as Zilchus has his back to him so he only needs a 6 he decides to aim to drop it to a 4. We roll 2 D20, we get a “12” and a  “1” FUMBLE!,  the result is weapon dropped, Scorpa fumbles his crossbow in the excitement and has no move action to pick it up

Riff , tries act , Fails his DEX test....losing turn...oof.

Vintage Citadel AD&D thief waiting to move on the cart, one the few figures I use regularly that I have had since the 1980's!

Gwanye and Wynn, move 6 inches

The Ox Cart moves  6 inches

Thrum-, cant charge Treeble because of the terrain but easily gets to him within 6 and unleashes his fury, his base hit in melee is only a “3+” and we rolls 19,18 and 2!  The resulting 19 damage puts Treeble very much OUT OF ACTION.  Thrum probably would have thrown him in the River, except for the fact this guy is worth a bounty…

This was so brutal, poor dummy didnt stand a chance

Rob Roy, Invisible moves 12 inches closer to the chests..

Zilchus, is now standing directly behind the cart . He use his action to pick up the smaller chest that Hugo was carrying and put it the cart , for his movement he  gets in the cart from Henfrey allowing them to fight from the cart.

Longview of Zilchus and Henfrey in the Cart, Henfrey gets killed right after.

Usage die,  Scorpa  Fails,  D8..

TURN 4

The Sheriff and his men get to make their big move,

Sheriff and Scower are a couple inches away from Gwayne and Wynn

They decide to just beat them senseless and take the chest to “protect” it..

The Sheriff is a 5^th level warrior with 5 attacks even the D6 no lethal damage, he pummels Gwanye OoA after three hits

Scower gets 3 misses but lands a critical on Wyn which leaves OoA and Bleeding.

Rob Roy invisible waiting to steal the chest.

Reynard DELAYS

Riff attacks Henfrey in the Cart as.. rolls a 4  Miss

Scorpa Does the same the Cart has two chests with it taking it over would be huge , for Scorpa coming up behind this is a sneak attack, he rolls with Advantage we keep a 16, he rolls 8 damage Henfrey only had 5 he also fails the poison save  OoA, Zilchus is the lone Merchant standing..

Scorpa and Riff trying to take the cart.

Renyard Acts..passes his DEX test to do so with a 14,  He goes ahead and “Webs” the whole area around the Sherriff, Scower and the Chest hoping to tie them up..

Rob Roy- who is right there becomes visible steps up and grabs the chest, he has to save versus the “webs” and does easily with a 17, he grabs a check but it’s a large one so his move with the chest is reduced to half.

 Zilchus pulls the cart away from  Scorpa and Finn , 6 Inches… and cast Protection from Evil which is going to seriously help him here making giving the advantage against any incoming harm from an evil source for 1 hour

No Usage Dies to check

Turn End

TURN 5

Reynard

He’s not sure what to do, Rob Roy has a  Chest-  but IF  he can stop Scorpa and Riff going after the Cart Two chests will most likely escape, He pulls out his Sleep Scroll and casts it on Scorpa and Riff

We rolls 3D6 (1 per level) for Max HD it effects we get 6 which enough for both, they get  WIS test to save Scorpa fails and falls asleep for 3 turns,  Riff Passes on the nose with a 10…..

Riff continues chasing the cart its getting close to the bridge and if he cant start hurting Zilchus now he wont be able to stop him alone,  he attacks no disadvantaged, and misses  a (4)

Thrum

Decides to charge the guards and get through, non lethal damage, he could charge all three of them  and use his  size difference to knock them down…he cant charge the Halberd guy, but he can the other two.  He moves into base contact as a charge,  and attacks both hitting easily due to the size difference they have to make a STR test or be knocked down, Prone figures are Vulnerable and any damage caused is at an advantage for the attacker…and the knockdown itself is its own damage roll… Guard with the Club fails..he’s knockeddown talking 10 damage right off the bat, then on the Vulnerable Damage  from the attack, I roll a 12 and 1, we take the 12 which becomes a 14 with the charge..and the GUARD IS OoA, the other Guard with the Sword, makes his STR test stays standing and takes 10 damage with the +2 leaving him at 12 hp and no Armor.

The Guards arent push overs, I dont think Thrum could have taken out all three of them and then had fight the Sheriff, it was best to stand down, I like the flexibility of Lethal or non lethal damage at any point.

 Rob Roy, Turns Invisible with the chest and starts dragging it away 3 inches at a time

Zilchus, attacks Riff but misses with a “7” he then moves the cart ahead another 6 inches. This give Riff a free strike for leaving combat, but Riff disadvantaged from the Spell also misses..

The Sheriff -Standing in the Web, tries to break free and does easily with STR test

And moves towards his men fighting Thrum.

Scower- isn’t even close thou and is stuck in the web

Reynards Casting of Web, if only its tied up the Sheriff or Rob Roy.

Guard with Sword attacks Thrum missing with a 2

Guard with Halberd attacks Thurm hits with a 14, doing only 3 damage..

USAGE DIE, Rob Roys Cloak D4 fails..so Rob Roy cannot turn invisible again after this.

Turn End.

TURN 6

Reynard- Nothing he can do about Rob Roy, since he cant see him, he Delays hoping there is something he can do..

Rob Roy escaping with what turns out to be a decoy chest , we dont know that at this time thou..

Riff- realizes he cant stop Zilchus even with a Critical….he Flees in order not to get caught.

Reynard tries to act to get close to sleeping Scorpa to try to capture both for the bounty

But fails his DEX Test..oof..

(OoA figures down are captured or killed depending if the game ends  they are within 6 inches of only an rival faction

Thrum seeing the battle is over and Sheriff about to engage stands down,

We don’t see many CHA tests so I have him make one to see if he can end this battle with Sheriff peacefully or be forced keep fighting and face arrest himself …Thrum needs a “9” rolls an ‘11” - ..success!

Thrum  hasnt killed any guards yet and the cart is across the Bridge time to Stand Down.

Zilchus -Reaches the Bridge, it will actually take another turn to get completely within the Safe Zone but the Bandits are down or have retreated

He's made with two chests all by himself.

Combat Ends.

We Roll a D3 to see which chest contained the Castellans Gold.

1- Hugo’s Chest

2 -The Ox Cart Chest

3- Gwayne and Wynns Chest (which Rob Roy Stole_

I roll a “2”  soi Zilchus has prevailed a delivered as promised but at what cost,

The Castellan is pleased.

 

Victory for the Merchants, kind of they have two team members to replace.

OUT OF ACTION ROLLS

Merchants

Hugo, has to pass poison save to even make the OoA check roll, fails DEAD

Henfrey- Same  Fails  DEAD

Gwayne rolls  “4” Cracked Bones- OK

Wynn- Rolls “5”  Fat Head- OK

(these are temporary effects more suited toi multiple battle scenario)

Bandits

Treeble – Rolls 1, DEAD

Black Mott, Rolls 6- KO’d – OK

Scorpa _  OoA due to Sleep Spell OK

Both Assassins Black Mott and Scorpa are Captured- to the Castle Dungeon

EXPERIENCE 

Team  Experience

Surviving the Battle, +1 

Not being knocked out of Action +1

Getting the Gold to Castle or Stealing it +3

Individual Experience

Each enemy put Out of Action +1

Stole a chest (bandits only) +1

Team Bonus Goal  +2 xp

Merchants – Rob Roy

Bandits- Steal all 3 Chests

Gold  500 Gp to winning team (Split Merchants/ Mercenaries)

Gold 100 to losing team (Bandits)

Bounty’s paid on Bandits   - Treeble, Black Mott, Scorpa  150 gp (Mercenaries)

Merchants with Mercenaries

Zilchus  XP  +5 

Gwayne +4

Wynn +4

Thrum +7 XP

Reynard  +7 Xp

Bandits (Lowlander gang)

Rob Roy + 3 XP

Black Mott  + 2 XP

Scorpa +2 Xp

Riff  +2 Xp

Sheriff's men (combat only) 

Sheriff and Scower + 2xp

Guards + 1xp

Final Thoughts

Well this was a fun one, trying to figure the Sheriff and his men in was a challenge as I didnt want full 1 vs 1 vs 1 , it didnt make sense to have the streets totally empty and its alos a pain to weave a bunch of civilians into a skirmish like this, so we were happy with how it worked out.

Obviously Thrum and Reynard did all the work and mission ended up more a "guard duty" mission for them than a actual mission for the Merchants Guild considering they got slaughtered pretty bad but still won.

The Black Hack (TBH) basics seem to work pretty well here as combat mechanic, I am definitely flying in ALOT of my favorite house rules from various miniatures games to make this work and TBH is very rules light when it comes to this sort of thing and in a miniatures game its the opposite.

There a couple of wonky thing I am going to have to dial back as the Characters get more powerful

the 1 attack per level thing is going to get stupid fast , it was already borderline with the Sheriff with 5 attacks!, Ill probably cap it a three (one every two levels up to level 6 for warrior types. we will see how it goes

Moving ahead- Episode 4 a bunch of rookies from at the Wayside Inn, get goaded into going to explore whats going on at the Fellcross Ruins, Strange Lights, Missing Guardsmen, etc..

its heroes vs monsters scenario, Episode 5, will be first good old fashioned Dungeon Crawl

so keep on dropping by!