Ruined Hamlet – ABlight Survival (Tabletop) Scenario
Backgroundof blight Survival:
Toril, Cormyr, Beginning of Marpenoth in the Year 1358:
A mercenary regiment with the name of “Redwater” has been assigned by the crown of Cormyr to deal with a peasant uprising West of the Vast Swamp region which is located to the East of Cormyr. When the regiment arrives it becomes clear that the problem is not merely an uprising of downtrodden folk but an outbreak of a fungal disease which turns humanoids into mindless zombies. However the source of the outbreak still remains a mystery.
Most members of the regiment have either fled the region, been killed, fallen to the disease or assigned to guard duty to vital landmarks in order to stabilize the area. As such the task to unveil the mystery of the enigmatic affliction rests on the shoulders of three of the most senior members of “Redwater”:
- Colonel Brunhilde von Königsmark
- Lieutenant Hildegard von Königsmark
- Lieutenant Gretchen von Königsmark
Ruined Hamlet:
A plethora of ruined hamlets dot the landscape near the Vast Swamp. These settlements have been ravaged by either banditry or fungal zombies raids and the player characters will have to explore them in order to find clues of the origin of this dreadful disease. Though these locales have been locations of violence and murder, they are also worth a search to look out for magic mushrooms which are a rare breed of fungal organism spread by roaming bands of zombies. The mushrooms are valued highly by alchemists as they constitute the ingredients to the most powerful potions known to mankind.
MissionObjective:
Collect at least one “Magic Mushroom” token and extract with it from the battlefield. There will be one “Magic Mushroom” token present for each player character chosen for this scenario.
Setupof objective markers:
Five objective markers (yellow-green dice) will be spread across the battlefield and each one will have a Blight Zombie adjacent to it. Each marker needs to be at least six inches away from any table edge, another marker and be placed adjacent to any terrain model or scatter terrain. Once an objective marker gets revealed by a “Search” action (Simple Action) a dice needs to be rolled what the player character discovers:
1: Blight Zombie (is placed in a prone state onto the battlefield).
2: Loot (represented by a treasure pile).
3: Loot (represented by a treasure pile).
4: Magic Mushrooms.
5: Magic Mushrooms.
GameRules:
The rules for Blight Survival Tabletop have been taken from Freebooter´s Fate (1st).
Noise:
The noise system from “Last Days” written by Ash Barker has been used. This means there is a chance of a Blight Zombie appearing depending on the amount of noise tokens the player characters generate through the scenario. In addition to that an extra Blight Zombie appears from Turn 20 onwards for each successive round irrespective of any noise markers representing the fact that the overall noise of continuous mayhem attracts unwanted attention.
Blight Zombie Cap:
There is a cap of 20 Blight Zombies for this scenario. Once this threshold is reached no more can be spawned. Once their number drops below 20, noise and game length can add more to the game as usual.
Player Characters and Blight Zombie:
The player characters´ background have been taken from my RPG session “Bauernaufstand in Cormyr” (Translation: “Peasant uprising in Cormyr”) from a few months ago held at a RPG convention. The stats of the characters have been inspired by existing Freebooter´s Fate models of the first edition though only the first two will be used as Gretchen is still unavailable for purchase:
- Brunhilde von Königsmark (Brahyn; Mercenary armed with double-handed sword & Capitan Leon; Imperial Armada officer clad in Plate Mail).
- Hildegard von Königsmark (Capitana Roja; Mercenary Captain armed with blunderbuss).
- Gretchen von Königsmark (inspired by a couple of models armed with rapier, pistol and throwing knives).
- Blight Zombie (Sansame; Cult voodoo victim with added Blight, Mob and Zombie trait).
Game Sequence:
- Noise
- Blight Zombies
- Player Characters
Blunders:
I have created the stats for the characters and the zombies yesterdayand started to play the scenario late in the evening. As such a few blunders happened.
Soggy Ground (Special Rule)
The most obnoxious one was that for an unexplainable reason the notion occurred to me that the standard movement for all models was the left movement stat but this one is only reserved for the instance once a model´s legs have been crippled. This mistake was noticed by me after a couple of turns and I wasn´t in the mood to restart the game. So this meant the ruined hamlet was not only a desolate place but the ground was also really soggy from an earlier furious rainfall making fast movement practically impossible. This also had the result that the scenario became much more dangerous for the player characters as they can no longer outrun the zombies with ease.
Blight Zombie Fatties
I also forgot for the first turns that the double-handed sword of Brunhilde had the trait of knocking down zombies whenever at least one damage point was scored. Later on the knockdown rule was used .Not using this special rule was a huge advantage for the zombies and can be explained by the fact that the ghoulish cannibals encountered early in the scenario have gorged themselves for weeks to such extreme body proportions that even mighty sword swings couldn´t knock them down.
Just a Flesh Wound
Brunhilde suffered a critical hit to the abdomen for two points of damage in Turn_12. Critical hits decrease a stat permanently for the rest of the scenario. Though I forgot to treat the damage as acritical hit and instead checked if the sustained damage would cause a critical hit by drawing an event card like it´s always been done after receiving damage and the result was that no critical hit had been scored.
Battle Report in pics (61 in total):
Ruined Hamlet — Postimages
Battle Report (Pic of Turn_20 is missing)
Turn_1:
Brunhilde and Hildegard start in the upper right corner of the battlefield (corner was randomly determined at the start of the scenario). Both mercs move toward the nearest house. A single zombie spots them and moves towards the two women. The other zombies starting play adjacent to the objective markers stumble around in a random direction.
Turn_2:
Both mercs move closer to the house. The lone zombie closes distance to the mercs. The other zombies stumble around in a random direction as before.
Turn_3:
Another zombie spots the mercs and moves towards them as does the previous zombie. Both mercs prepare for combat in the following round as they stand next to each other.
Turn_4:
Brunhilde charges the Blonde and cuts her rotting legs straight from her torso by dealing a whooping 16 points of damage (Blight Zombie shave 11 Health) with her flamberge. Hildegard chooses to fire a Single Shot (only once per game) from her blunderbuss at the Red and scores four damage to the head which turn out to be a critical hit thus killing the zombie instantly (critical hits to the head which cause at least one damage kill Blight Zombies on the spot).
Turn_5:
The noise from the blunderbuss (generated a single noise marker)attracts a Brunette (D6 roll plus noise markers needs to be equal to seven or more in order to spawn a zombie closest to the model with the noise markers) which spawns near Hildegard and stumbles towards her. All other zombies on the board move towards the noise. Brunhilde charges the Brunette which just entered play from the edge but her swing has been parried by the walker meanwhile Hildegard stays on the spot and reloads her blunderbuss (heavy weapon needs a Complex Action to be reloaded).
Turn_6:
Another zombie in the form of a red-haired woman enters play (rolled another six! LOL!) close to Hildegard. Brunette attacks Brunhilde and scores zero damage to her torso. Hildegard uses first her blunderbuss(grape shot) and then one of her three pistols to shoot a Brunette.First shots cripples abdomen for five damage and second shot crippleslegs for five damage leaving the zombie a broken mess with one Health remaining. Just bad luck! The two shots added two more noise markers and now Hildegard has three noise marker sin total meaning she will attract a zombie on the roll of 4+ in the next turn.
Brunhilde uses the ability “Flurry of Blows” (FoB) (Complex Action: three attacks against same target with an attack score of 2)against Red. First attack damages the legs of the corpse for three damage and the next chop slices through the abdomen of Red for nine damage which removes the red-haired menace.
Turn_7:
A new zombie appears and engages Brunhilde in melee (Blight Zombie shave only one action point and can thus only do a single Simple Actions per turn). Brunette attacks Brunhilde, hits her legs but scores 0 damage. Hildegard shoots her second pistol at the severely wounded zombie and scores a head shot taking out the walker with impunity! This adds of course another noise marker to Hildegard (now four in total).
Brunhilde uses FoB against Brunette. First attack scores a critical hit against left arm for seven damage and the second one scores five damage points to the torso reducing the walker to a broken carcass.
Turn_8:
Blonde attacks Brunhilde and scores a critcial hit to her torso but scores 0 damage thus cancelling the critical hit. Hildegard shoots Brunette with her third pistol, hits torso but does no damage. Mercs gain a Special Card “Premonition”(special cards are gained whenever a faction draws an event card with the treasure chest icon).Then Hildegard reloads pistol (she now has five noise markers after her latest shot).
Brunhilde uses FoB, hits torso of Blonde for 0 damage (draws “Extra Motivation” special card), second attack is parried by Blonde but the third attack cleaves the skull of Blonde with a critical hit.
Turn_9:
Brunette appears and engages Brunhilde. Red scores a critical hit on the head of Brunhilde but does no damage thus cancelling the effects of a critical hit. Hildegard wants to help out Brunhilde who is being bothered by an unending stream of new zombies from the board edge.
So she charges Red using “Extra Motivation” (gain +2cm to a single move) and caves in her right arm with the butt of her pistol causing 12 points of damage thus eliminating the threat.
Brunhilde uses FoB, hits legs of Brunette for nine critical damage points and also draws “Rage” special card. Her second attack is parried but her third attack hits the legs for 10 critical damage points shearing them cleanly off from the fungal walker.
Turn_10:
Blonde spawns and engages Hildegard. Brunhilde turns around, charges Brunette with “Rage” (adding two damage points to a single attack) and scores a critical hit on the legs for nine damage points thus knocking down the zombie (Here I noticed for the first time that previously forgotten to use the knockdown rule from the double-handed sword). Hildegard attacks with the butt of the pistol but the attack is being parried. Her second attack does no damage to the abdomen of the target.
Turn_11:
Red appears near Hildegard and engages Brunhilde. Blonde attacks Hildegard but the attack is being parried. Brunette stands up from Brunhilde´s vicious blow of the previous turn. Brunhilde tears off the mangled leg of Brunette removing her from the game and turns her attention to Red by using her second action for an Attack Action but this attack is being parried.
Hildegard lands a critical hit on Blonde´s head and thus caves in her skull removing her from play. Then she moves towards the tree stumps with second action point.
Turn_12:
Brunette appears near Hildegard. Red scores a hit on the abdomen of Brunhilde for two points of damage. Brunhilde strikes back with FoB, first attack does no damage to abdomen, second strike scores acritical hit to torso and third hit finishes off the prone zombie with ease. Hildegard makes a double move to the objective marker 4.
Turn_13:
Blonde spawns near Hildegard. Red engages Brunhilde. Brunhilde uses FoB, hits Red in the torso with seven critical damage points and the second attack sends off the walker´s head flying into a random direction. Hildegard approaches objective marker 4 and reloads one of her pistols.
Turn_14:
Red appears near Hildegard. Brunette engages Brunhilde. Brunhilde attacks Brunette and scores a critical hit for nine damage on th etorso. The second attack dispatches the prone zombie.
Hildegard reloads her blunderbuss.
Turn_15:
Brunette appears near Hilde. Several zombies move now towards Hildegard. Brunhilde moves closer to the house wall. Hildegard searches objective marker 4 and finds magic mushrooms.
Turn_16:
Blonde appears near Hildegard. Zombies move towards the mercs. Brunhilde charges Blonde and sweeps her off the ground by cutting off her legs in one blow dealing 14 damage!
Hildegard runs towards objective marker 3 positioned adjacent to the gallows.
Turn_17:
Red appears near Hildegard behind the gallows. Red engages Brunhilde. Brunhilde scores a critical on Red´s head but deals 0 damage and draws “Miraculous Healing”. Second attack is being parried by the zombie. Hildegard moves closer to objective marker 3 and reloads one of her pistols.
Turn_18:
Blonde appears near Hildegard behind gallows. Red hits abdomen of Brunhilde but scores 0 damage. Brunhilde scores three points of damage against the torso of Red using FoB and her second strike dispatches the zombie as the strike caves in it´s skull with acritical hit. Hildegard investigates objective marker 3 and it turns out to be loot.
Turn_19:
Brunette appears near Hildegard behind gallows. Red scores a critical hit on Brunhilde´s torso but scores 0 damage. Brunhilde scores eight damage points on the legs of Red with her first FoB strike and the second one destroys the walker. Hildegard runs towards objective marker 2.
Turn_20:
Blonde spawns near Hildegard (behind peasant house). At Turn_20 and with all following turns an extra zombie will be spawned and this will be near to the other player character. Brunette spawns near Brunhilde. Blonde engages Brunhilde. Brunhilde uses FoB and her first attack gets parried, the second one causes nine critical damage to the right arm and the third attack removes this threat.
Hildegard moves towards objective marker 2 and investigates it. It turns out to be a prone zombie (Green).
Turn_21:
Red spawns near Hildegard (behind peasant house). Blonde spawns near Brunhilde. Green engages Hildegard. Hildegard disengages (Simple Action: draw an event card and reduce 2cm for each opponent in base contact; also halve the result by 2 due to Soggy Ground) and moves towards objective marker 1.
Brunhilde runs towards objective marker 5.
Turn_22:
Red spawns near Hildegard and Brunhilde. Brunhilde runs towards objective marker 5 and Hildegard runs towards objective marker 1.
Turn_23:
Blonde spawns near Hildegard. Brunette spawns near Brunhilde. Brunette engages Brunhilde. Hildegard finds loot and moves away. Brunhilde pushes Brunette away (draw event card and add basic strength (left stat) to it. Opponent is pushed away the difference but attacker obviously needs to score higher) for 3cm and investigates objective marker 5 which turns out to be magic mushrooms. Now it´s time to leave the battlefield.
Turn_24:
Red spawns near Hildeagrd and Brunette spawns near Brunhilde. Brunette engages Hildegard and Blonde & Brunette engages Brunhilde. Hildegard disengages for 3cm and moves further away with her second action. Brunhilde disengages for 1cm and moves further away with her second action.
Turn_25:
Blonde spawns near Hildegard. Red spawns near Brunhilde. Red, Blondeand Brunette engages Hildegard. Now it´s going to become dangerous! Blonde engages Brunhilde. Hildegard disengages for 1cm (very lucky!) and moves further away with her second action. Brunhilde disenegaes0.5 cm and moves further away.
Turn_26:
Brunette spawns near Hildegard and Brunhilde. Blonde and Brunette engage Hildegard. Red engages Brunhilde. Hildegard fails to disengage(looks very bad!) on two attempts. Brunhilde disengages for 2.5 cm and moves further away.
Turn_27:
A Blonde spawns near each merc. Blonde hits left arm of Hildegard but scores 0 damage. Brunette hits her torso for three damage. Blonde &Brunette engage Hildegard. She has now four zombies in contact with her. Very bad situation! Brunhilde is being engaged by three zombies. Brunhilde disengages for 0.5 cm and moves further towards the board edge. Hildegard shoves away Blonde for 3cm but fails to disengage from the remaining three zombies in contact with her. Looks bleak!
Turn_28:
Maximum amount of zombies reached on the battlefield which is 20! So no more spawns. Brunette hits abdomen of Hildegard and scores six damage points. Hildegard draws “Steady Hand”. Hildegard does not panic as the damage she suffered demands a test (draw of an event card; if the value of event card is equal or lower than the number in the Health bracket then the panic test has been passed). Blonde hits her left arm for 0 damage.
Red and Blonde engage Brunhilde. Hildegard fails to escape on first try but draws a ten on her event card with her second try (10 – 8 =2 / 2 = 1cm escape distance) which is enough to escape from the board. Brunhilde fails to disengage on first try but manages to do soon second try.
Discussion
This was a very narrow victory for the mercs though the main contributor for the difficulty was the low movement allowance. In other scenarios things should go more smoothly. Another thing which made it worse was the noise mechanic. Apparently noise markers don´t go away even when a model stops shooting for the rest of the game as was the cases here. I reread the rules and it was as I stated. You cause a ruckus with guns early on and you will make things harder for yourself for the entire game though it must be said that the mercs were really unlucky because a zombie was spawned on EACH turn as soon as a noise marker entered play. I don´t know how to feel about this rule but maybe it is necessary to keep the pressure up.
On another note it would have been more prudent for the mercs to NOT shoot their guns though then this would have resulted in a very boring game as only five zombies (the starting ones beside the objective markers) would have been the entire opposition. Speaking of opposition how high was the kill count? Brunhilde killed 13 zombies and Hildegard 4. So the mercs wouldn´t have broken a sweat, if they hadn´t used their guns.
In regards to the XP system and economy of the game I haven´t made hard and fast rules yet. So I will have to study the rules of Frostgrave and Last Days to come up with a system. Both mercs have been wounded during the game (Brunhilde 2 damage and Hildegard 10damage) and so I checked, if they contracted Blight disease as this was one of the traits of the Blight Zombies. You have to draw an event card and if the number is equal to or below the amount of damage you have received during the scenario then you contracted Blight. And guess what happened? Both contracted Blight. LOL! So they will have to spend a significant amount of their found loot to pay for a cure. Or maybe I will create a scenario in which they need tofind an alchemist first. This has not been decided yet.
All in all the Freebooter´s Fate combat system is really good to simulate video game melee as you know what kind of limbs are getting mauled.
Anyway, that´s all folks!
Last edited:
