Chapter III : Red Dawn - The Adventure

The scenario for this adventure can be found here.

Gann chose, as his objective, to occupy building n° 3, which was the western half of the chapel.  

The eastern half was building n° 4, and the two wooden buildings were, from north to south, n° 1 and n° 2.

View from the north edge of the table

 

Rashar began the game in building n° 4, hoping, thanks to his "Concentration" ability to search for artefacts before the wave of undead could reach him.  Johanna the Ceorl was there to protect him.  Chimène defended the northern wall, planning to leap over it and smash into which ever group of Undead were looking the most dangerous.  Cadmendin was stationed near the chapel, waiting to see how things went.

The Undead took down the southern wall fairly quickly, and swarmed into the chapel, whilst Rashar, evidently panicked, was unable to find anything useful.  There was a lot of hard fighting at the door between Johanna and the enemy, before the ceorl sadly perished.  Cadmendin has sprinted off to building n° 2 to try to find the grimoire or sacred treasures.  The plan was that Rashar, once he had useful items in hand, or some quests, use his "Inversion" spell to change places with the warrior monk.  Unfortunately, the Priest was getting nowhere fast, and was now surrounded by the undead clutching at his green robes; he decided to abandon the search and fall back to the western half of the chapel.  Gann decided not to order his zombies to pillage the building.

Chimène was still on hold, on the other side of the wall, waiting to see which one would crumble first, and also threatening Gann.  This was a fairly effective threat, which kept the Overlord guessing.  The Warrior Nun finally smashed into Gann and his bodyguards, but was woefully ineffective against them, leaving the necromancer clearly with the initiative.

Don't mess with Warrior Nuns

 

A stream of Undead now began to enter the north-east corner of the Aifreweia, led by their necromancer; they reached building n° 1 and found two sacred treasures there.

Cadmendin, keeping a very cool head in difficult circumstances, managed to locate one sacred treasure in building n° 2.  Rashar had also had much better luck in the western half of the chapel.  By now, the Heroes were both certain of Gann's objective, and also sure that the Grimoire was...unfortunately in the eastern half of the chapel.  They had also chosen, as their own objectives, to send Cadmendin with this Grimoire to building n° 2 and building n° 4 to perform the rituals.

The living dead flock to the chapel

Cadmendin left the sacred treasure where it was, trusting to Chimène to keep the undead in the courtyard tied down.  With his assistance, Rashar was able to get back into the eastern half of the chapel, which was by now overrun by the Undead.  The two men engaged in a ferocious struggle, with no less than seven zombies surrounding them at one point.  In the end, Rashar, who had not managed to locate the Grimoire in the gloom and the chaos, fell.

The situation was looking dire indeed for the Heroes, but Rashar's fall galvanised Cadmendin, who crushed his foes over two turns of fighting.  At the same moment, Chimène faced off with Gann, and slew the two zombies protecting him.

I warned you not to mess with them

After a brief hesitation - the sound of fighting from within the nearby chapel was audible to the Warrior Nun - she decided to go after the necromancer and, with one mighty blow, nearly slew him (1 Life Point left).

The tide had begun to turn, for the Overlord had to protect Gann, making it difficult for him to push for victory.  The Overlord's goal was to have characters in the western half of the chapel, but the ranks had been severely thinned.  In the end, he decided to send Gann there, using his remaining energy on Yajur's Awakening to provide him with a hastily raised bodyguard, joining another wandering zombie already present.

Time was, however, running out for the Heroes.  They had never managed to find the Grimoire, rendering impossible the two objectives they had chosen.  In fact there was now only one, slim, hope for victory - enter the western chapel, slay Gann's two bodyguards, search the zone to reveal, from amongst the two remaining cards, the "slay Gann" mission already known to be there...and then accomplish the mission by finishing off the Necromancer, which would also deny the Overlord his own objective to control building n° 3.

And that is precisely what they managed to do, Cadmendin striking down one zombie, Chimène the second; Chimène finding just what they needed, with "Support" from the monk; and Cadmendin striking the killing blow with his very last energy gem.

 

So, uh, how many times do I need to say this ?

The Overlord chalked up 2 VP (+1 VP for 3 wall sections destroyed, +1 VP for possession of a sacred treasure); the Heroes scored 5 VP (+4 VP for objective E, slaying Gann; -3 VP for failing objectives C and D; +4 VP for two sacred treasures in a hex devoid of Overlord characters).

Another amazing game of Conan.  I playtested the scenario beforehand as it is a complex one; the playtest led to me adding 2 extra turns and tweaking a few rules.  As the real thing was played out, I realised that having four Zombie Champions activated by two tiles was OTT, so I awarded the Heroes two full rerolls to compensate.  In the end it went right down to the wire.

Rashar failed to gain any XP, and took 4 wounds, the skillful healers of the Aifreweia fighting and succeeding in keeping him alive.

Chimène gained +1 XP, and suffered 1 wound.

Cadmendin came out of the fight with +2 XP and was unwounded, although he certainly had a lot of dents in his armour...

None of the heroes had time to pick up any equipment !

Having pushed back the forces of evil, the Aifreweia was able to take care both of its brave fighters, and also a group of wounded heroes that came to their walls four days later [2 Recovery Attempts].  Rashar's wounds will, however, require a much longer period of recovery (none recovered).  Chimène, less badly hurt and also younger, quickly healed (-1 wound).

As for the visitors, Rudraige was completely healed (-2 wounds) - miraculously, says he - by Chimène's care.  Ygritte, whose wounds had infected during the long journey to the refuge, was less fortunate (none recovered, and an unfortunate roll caused +1 wound).