Turn 0
On the windblasted western coast of Manaansport sea, a few hundred kilometers north of Marienburg, a ragged group of survivors pant for air after a terrible struggle against the elements. In front of their eyes, the ship they had passage on breaks up and dissapears below the waves. A few lost souls scream for help, but there is nothing the lucky few survivors can do for them. Manaan is hungry.
The lucky few surviors:
Ulrike Schneider – Stirland frontier hunter (avatar) “Ulrike”
Irilel Nightshade – Laurelorn Elf Mystic (hero) “Shade”
Orzad Ironbeard – Zhufbar Dwarf (hero) “Ironbeard”
Nathilda Kara – Strigany townsfolk (hero) “Kara”
Odo Kohl – Bretonnian hopeful youth (henchman) “Odo”
Rosabella Hertz – Ostland scholar (henchman) “Rosa”
Taking stock of their situation, the six survivors try to get their bearings. Wet, cold, and with practically no supplies, the group quickly gathered around the charismatic Ulrike, a hunter from Stirland, used to surviving in the wilds, and with a basic knowledge of the Wasteland. Following her lead, they decide to head north, out of the cold swamps to try to find the remote town of Fort Solace. luck
Luck is with the group, as after two days of wandering, wet and cold, through bogs and rotten forests, they found their way to the walled town of Fort Solace. (Travel event: nothing of note) Two sodden guards grudgingly let them in.
Turn 1
The two long days of travel through the bogs built somewhat of a cohesion in the mismatched group. They decided to stick together until they could get back on their feet. The next day, the burgomeister found his way to the group. A short man with a big belly, and very pompous clothes for the bleak town, he wasted no time in getting to the point.
“I welcome you to Fort Solace. The last town for five hundred kilometers. As I am sure you all know, you owe us for the hospitality, beds, food and drink you have consumed.”
He let the words sink in to the sullen group, letting his eyes wander from one to the other, his eyes resting on their weapons.
“I understand that you might be low of funds at the moment, so I have a proposition to you…. We are currently facing some…. difficulties. You lot seem to be a group that knows how to handle themselves. If you can aid us with… some difficulties, I will personally pay what you owe for your lodgings.”
Stuck in an unfamiliar town, with no money to secure passage by boat, and hundreds of kilometers from the nearest town, the group agree to the burgomeister’s demands.
“I knew you would be reasonable. We have received a messenger from the manor house of Coldham. Some kind of beastmen have been preying on their villagers, and the last few weeks, the attacks have closed in on the manor house itself. They have requested reinforcements, and those reinforcements will be you lot!”
Travelling along the eastern road out of Fort Solace, they spotted something.. unnatural out in the dawnmarsh. They noted it down on the map they had procured from the burgomeister, but continued on their way to Coldham. (travel event – unknown location)
Nearing Coldham, they spotted smoke just off the main road. Moving cautiously through the woodlands, they spotted a smoking woodcutters camp. Amongst the trees around the camp they spotted them, hunchbacked creatures gathering loot from the raided camp, many of them. The group were about to sneak away from the large enemy party when they spotted a bound and shackled man. The beasts sometimes tormented the man, poking him with sticks or slapping him with their hideous tails.
“We can’t leave a fellow man behind with these beasts!” Ulrika whispered. The others nodded their agreement, some more enthusiastically than others. Moving cautiously forward, they almost reached the man before the rat-things noticed them.
“To arms! Grab the prisoner!” Ulrika shouted as they were spotted.
The skaven charged forwards to protect their loot. In their midst, a huge rat ogre crashed out from the woods. Ironbeard led the group in a charge to free the man, while Ulrike and Kara supported the others with bow and crossbow from a small hill. Slingshots pelted off Ironbeard’s shield and armor, but nothing could stop the dwarf. He charged a skaven warrior in their path, smashing the beast’s skull apart with a single blow of his hammer.
With Ironbeard covering her, Rosa reached the shackled man and started to pull him away through the bog. A stone from a sling struck her hard, but she kept going, and Odo staunched the bleeding wound. Kara shot one of the charging ratmen, while the rest of the group shielded Rosa, holding off the ratmen. Shade weaved powerful magics, holding the massive rat ogre and some skaven at bay by making the roots of the forest hold them in place. They were held back just long enough for Rosa to be able to usher the man away from the beasts. Unfortunately, one of the slingers managed to find a weak spot in Orzad’s armor, and he went down. (after tanking about 15 slingshots) Kara pulled him along, covered by Ulrike.
The group fought a fighting retreat until they reached the road and could see Coldham in the distance, when the skaven suddenly gave up the pursuit. Catching their breath, the group made their way inside the walls of Coldham manor with their rescued woodsman and wounded dwarf in tow.
Commentary
This was my first attempt with the “Five leagues from the borderlands” ruleset. It is a ruleset for procedurally generated semi-rpg tabletop gaming. The initial impression of the ruleset is very good. At least so far, the story has been easy to build with the results, and fairly easy to convert over to a warhammer fantasy setting.
The map tool I found from a cool blog really helped in building a setting and a narrative. I edit it to add more locations as the narrative progresses.
When I have played the sci-fi version of this ruleset, “5 parcecs from home”, the big issue has been the simplistic and too easy combat. In this fantasy version, that did not immediately seem to be an issue. Enemies seem a lot stronger, they will very often outnumber you, and there are dangerous leaders and monsters that can show up. The scenario objectives are also seemingly better than the sci-fi version, allowing for more tactical gaming, and I have seen there are rules for dungeon delving, going into monster lairs etc.
Where the sci-fi campaign has fizzled out from the boring combat gameplay, I can see this campaign going on for longer.
Converting the setting to WFB felt easy. The rules seem to do very well with portraying just the gritty and grimdark atmosphere I enjoy with warhammer fantasy. The heroes are very much fairly normal people at first, who can die to a rock slung by a skaven slave if they are unlucky.
The races transfer to WFB fairly well: Humans and halflings are of course what they are. “Fey blood” are elves. “Dusklings” fit as dwarfs IMO. “Feral” is a mutant, were-man or beastman type. I struggled a bit with “Preen”. I ended up making it a Strigany, the WFB gypsies. They are human, but have a totally different culture than the rest of the old world, are very poor and probably somewhat malnourished, and they have some vampiric ancestry / connections that can explain their rules.
The monsters / threats are also mostly very easy to convert from a quick skim. Orks, skaven, cultists, chaos warriors, dark elves ++ are all there with an easy re-skin.
mandollies.com 