[WIP] Red Sand Purple Sky. Chased in the woods.

Beran had been walking through the dense woods for a week and running for his life since this morning. It was still dark when he felt an evil presence stalking near the camp. He quickly packed his things up, and run southwards trying to escape from whatever was chasing him. He soon heard the howling of several beasts calling for the hunt.
After a couple hours of pursue, Beran spotted a ruined woodcutter hut and decided he had enough. He had about half an hour advantage over his pursuers, and without wasting time he set up two traps on both entrances to the hut and then he laid in wait inside, hoping the house would mask his smell. He was ready.
After a few minutes of waiting, he heard noises of something running through the wood, but then the sound vanished. Again, he thought he had heard something, but nothing happened. (the two first PEFs resulted to be false alarms). After a few more minutes of tense waiting, Beran was about to come out from his hiding, when suddenly a nightmarish creature came out from the vegetation. Beran almost jumped on his place when he saw it, and the werewolf instantly spotting him, dashed for the closest entrance.
Beran moved to the entrance to lure the beast into the trap, but the werewolf noticed it and with an evil growl he jumped over it and attacked Beran (it passed the test and detected the trap). The other wolf closed to the second entrance.
The werewolf gripped Beran's shield with one claw and the with the other ripped Beran's chest, heavily wounding him! Beran desperately attacked the monster but it easily dodged him. The other wolf failed to see the trap at the back door and was deadly wounded.
Now the werewolf heavily bashed Beran's shield and knocked him to the ground, where he attacked him again trying to bite off his throat. Beran blocked the attack with his shield; then the beast tried it again, but again Beran could stop it on time.
The werewolf swiped at Beran's head but his quite battered shield blocked it again. Beran took advantage to rise on his feet again and stroke powerfully the beast's left arm, almost breaking it. The monster fell to the ground in pain but Beran did not know to finish it.
Then the werewolf stood on its paws and attacked Beran again, but weaken by the wound, posed no threat for the barbarian who easily stood his place for a couple of rounds, until the beast fainted and fell to the ground spent where Beran smashed its head repeatedly with his morningstar. He made it alive by a hair's breath (only one die pool remaining).
Looking at the dead beast he noticed a golden ring on one of its paws and took it. Immediately the werewolf turned into human shape of a skinny bearded man, perhaps the woodcutter? Not daring to use the ring, Beran put into his bag and resumed his way to the South.
Beran gained 25 APs and now has a total of 64.

[WIP] Red Sand Purple Sky. Undead night attack.

Beran came back to his village and told them what had happened. The villagers listened to him in awe but also very scared, thinking of the possible retaliation from the undead. Beran explained them that their leader, the witch, was slain, and the menace had disappeared. But that night a horrible scream woke up everybody in the village; they were surrounded by the undead. The monsters without the guidance of their master, and very hungry, had headed en masse to the village for a late dinner.
Beran, the chieftain and some warriors quickly armed up and dashed outside to face the attackers. They heard strange noises coming from the north, so they run towards it but found nothing; they advanced a little more and again found nothing. But the creeping noises kept coming from the dark outside the village, so they dare to go even further in the night and suddenly discovered a horde of zombies led by an ill pale eater of the dead, a ghoul!
One of the warriors of the village madly charged without second thought and smashed against a wall of dead flesh which effortlessly engulfed him. As the warrior disappeared, Beran wisely decided to step aside and wait for the rest.
Half of the zombies were attracted by Beran whereas the other half was still devouring the fool, when all the warriors charged and clashed against them. The chieftain sliced off the guts of one zombie and one warrior nailed the ghoul's head with his spear. Beran lose his melee and one zombie hit his groins, causing him a serious wound and forcing him to give ground.
The undead kept pressing but were not able to penetrate shields and armour with bare hands. A veteran warrior killed another zed, but most of the zombies were now behind Beran. Fortunately for him, they were so slow that only two of them could attack him at the same time. Beran spent four dice and managed to kill one and kept at bay the other one. That was close, but he was running out of dice very fast.
The zombies were resisting the warriors (many draws and pushing back and a few knocks down) and Beran desperately needed to brake from melee and drink a healing potion as he was only one die left from the pool. He was barely holding and waiting for help.
Finally the warriors could overcome the zombies and run to help Beran, who could drink his potion and join the fight to help to finish the rest of the zombies.
Beran killed two zombies and then moved apart and let the warriors finish the remaining ones. The village was safe, but the villagers blamed Beran for awakening the undead and bringing them to their homes.
The council decided to exile Beran immediately, and only let him to take with him the battered shield of the fallen warrior and a new healing potion of 5 dice pool that the healer of the village gave him.
Beran left the village without never looking back and headed to the forests of the south in search of new adventures. He had gained 20 APs in this encounter.

[WIP] Red Sand Purple Sky. A new hero is born!

What I am starting here is a personal campaign project. I love Two Hour Wargames (THW) rulebooks and I'm enjoying at the moment the Einar's saga campaign with Warrior Heroes Armies and Adventurers (WHAA) and just finished the Spartacus one with Red Sand Blue Sky (RSBS). Another game that I loved a lot was the computer one "Diablo" from Blizzard.

This new project is about that. I want to play a fantasy campaign of one hero ala Diablo; a barbarian who hacks and slashes and accomplishes short quests whereas gains experience, skills and better weapons and armour.
To do this I am using RSBS for the melee, with its dice pool system to represent the stamina of the hero and enemy bosses; plus Legends of Araby (LOA) to interact with NPCs and get quests, and also some new things from CR 3.0 and WHAA like PEF markers and new missions. All this together with a lot of house rules of my own to fills gaps and give coherency.
I baptised the monster with the temporary name of Red Sand Purple Sky (smart, isn't it?).

So I picked up a GW's plastic Marauder and painted it with its head and arms separated, and stuck with blu-tack to later swap them with heads with different helmets and a variety of weapons and shields, as the character progresses in the campaign and gains new items and skills.

Our new hero will be a Northern barbarian, a little bit more beefy and taller than his neighbours (XL size), with starting Rep 4, armed with a crude morning star, some light armour on his lower legs and belly, and equipped with an amulet (+1 against some magic spells) and some healing herbs (+3 dice pool when taken -one use-). His armour total weight is 36 so he is allowed to move up to 5 inches.

The story starts in his village. There have been some strange missings, the last one a child; also cattle devoured and weird noises around the streets of the village during the night. The villagers gossip that something uncanny is happening in the far and now desolate former village, where the cemetery is. Thus, that night, Beran heads for the cemetery with the intention to unveils the mystery.

I borrowed all the terrain from two friends but miniatures are all mine. As usual, all pictures are clickable.

At the top of the picture below, our hero is about to enter into the ruined and haunted village. The zombies you see are PEF markers representing possible enemy forces.

Beran advances and meets the first PEF, but it results to be a false alarm. Perhaps he is a little bit nervous, being a superstitious barbarian and all that.

Our hero entering into the unknown

The second PEF resulted to be a lonely zombie who seemed very surprised of seeing somebody alive in its neighbourhood. The zombie does not reach Beran (it moves only 3 inches).
In the next initiative Beran attacks it but fails and has to fall back and burn 1d10. Now it is zombie's turn but he fails as a zombie he is, and Beran smashes with the morning star into the zombie's chest and he is out. In this short encounter Beran has spent 5 dice pool and so he still has 15 left.
Beran keeps advancing without resting and as he enters into the cemetery, he spots a woman with a floating book in front of her, surrounded by opened up tombs, and chanting some spooky litany that although he cannot understand it gives him creeps. The witch also spots him and gestures her hand to casts a spell.
She tries "Shield of magic" but fails. Then she tries again with "Air of Strength" on her before the barbarian gets closer, but once again she fails and moreover, she suffers a Backslash that leaves her dazzled and with 5 dice pool less!
Seizing the initiative Beran charges her, but somehow she manages to stop him for now.
The witch is still dazzled but nonetheless she tries a new spell. She tries "Suggestion" on Beran, who fiercely fights it off and escapes unscathed. Now Beran counter strikes and smashes her left ankle, knocking her to the ground.
The witch is lying on the floor totally spent and begs for mercy, but the barbarian with a mighty blow, squishes her skull and spills her blood all around. -DIE WITCH!
The mystery now looks solved. The tiny necromancer was unresting the old dead from the abandoned cemetery. Beran picks up the witch' spells book and goes back to his village to explain everything.
He has gained 19 Advancement points.