Eilif explores

Well, time passes and Eilif receives orders from king Einar to go on exploration to the North East border to find suitable places for more settlers incoming from MIrholme. Those places are meant to be uninhabited due to their proximity to Zog Rot, the land of the Goblins.

But when Eilif and his new companion Markus (Rep 4 AC2, shield and axe) are about to set off, they are intercepted by a thief who attacks them from distance with his sling (Involuntary Confrontation Encounter). He hits Eilif but his armour stops the pellet and he ducks back. Then Markus charges the thief and makes short work of him with his axe. The party gains one sling for Markus and one Increasing Rep die for killing the thief that Eilif uses to pay Markus' wages for the following mission.

After this short encounter, they move to the border to explore. In the Encounter Explore, PEFs' (Possible Enemy Forces) resolution works differently to other Encounters in WHAT as it is used a specific table for this scenario. The objective is to resolve at least 3 PEFs from a 2+3d3 possible PEFs.

In the picture below we can see our heroes entering the map on section 9 (top left corner) and three generated PEFs (I scored 2+1 PEFs that were deployed randomly on sections 1, 3 and 6 -the map is divided into 9 sections-).

So in the first turn Eilif party activates first and they keep moving on the road to try to resolve the closest PEF.

But then it's the PEFs' activation and the closest one moves first and it is resolved as soon as they can see it. It is some food that can be gathered. They are some rabbit traps that someone set and now they take them (gain 1d6).

The second closest PEFs also moves forward and when it comes out from the woods in turns into a group of Goblins! They are probably the owners of those rabbit traps. Eilif is Twilight alignment (neutral) and could interact with them who are Black Moon (evil), but the fact that they are outnumbering Eilif and also being Markus Red Sun alignment (good), makes them immediately attack (they gained the initiative and acted first).

The Goblin archers shoot and hit both targets who result unharmed but shocked, and run for cover behind a hill. Then the leader of the Goblins (Rep 4, AC4, sword) and two of his warriors Rep 3, AC2, charge. The warriors make contact but their leader moves slower because of his heavier armour and doesn't make it.

Goblins warriors are Lightweight and Rep 3, so they are easily dispatched by both Eilif and Markus. Their leader witness how his warriors are slain but he doesn't flee.

It's next turn and Eilif and Markus don't activate but Goblins do. The leader charges at Eilif whereas the archers move to get a position to shoot at them. The last PEF also moves forward but stays out of sight behind the hill's crest.

The leader is rather tough for a Goblin as he is knocked down two consecutive times in the melee before he is finished. When the leader is down one of the archers flee but the other looses an arrow and hits Eilif who again ducks back behind some bushes. Then Markus charges the archer and kills him (I forgot to take that last picture). 

The last PEF resulted to be more rabbit traps that gave them another Advancement Rep d6.

So they successfully explored the area and got one 2d6 from some food gathered plus 1d6 for mission accomplished and also 3d6 more from the looting of the dead Goblins. Regretfully, their weapons and armour couldn't be recovered for being too small.

Eilif has now 12 d6 in total so he thinks it's time to move to the Capital where Einar's castle is to report back of his exploration and spend some cash as well.