Einar's saga. The end of the way.

After fleeing from the dungeon where Fafnir lost his life, and escaping from a several days pursuit by the Orcs, Einar and his friends reached the frontier of the Border Kingdoms. From there they travelled to the heart of the country, avoiding enemy patrols, healing, and looking to fulfill Einar's prophecy, foretold by a witch in Mirholme more than a year ago; that he will become king when he got the sword of power and taken with it a castle by the force of his arm.

It was November of 897 when they finally spot a small castle on a hill. The castle was dissapointingly small, but Einar's barbarian sense of humour quickly overcame it; at least it was bigger than his father's meadhall, and made it in solid stone!
The castle was infested by Orcs, so Einar and his men hid in a wood and from there spied Orc's movement.

Half of the day had already passed when Einar accidentally met some local peasants who were hiding from the marauding Orcs. They told him they were servants of the lord of the castle who had been slaughtered together with his family and most of the inhabitants of the castle, by a large party of Orcs commanded by two monstrous Ogres. Nobody has survived but them.

Then Einar told them his intention to kill all the Orcs and retake the castle for himself, and seeing his noble and bold appearance, they promised to swore serfdom to him as the new king if he fulfilled such heroic deed. Then they told him about a secret passage that could lead them inside the castle and offered to go with them.

The game starts with Einar and the Dwarfs Brythnot and Uri entering into the castle, while Rialto with some peasants come out from a nearby hill an run for the gates to secure them.
One enemy PEF is deployed inside the castle and is revealed as soon as Einar gets in; the other two are deployed outside the castle at random.

Click on the first picture and enjoy the show!

After the fight I rolled for possible Rep and Hardiness advances: Einar raised his Hardiness to four but Rialto downed to 2. Uri recovered from the Out of Fight but with a minus 1 to his Rep.

Well, this is it. The end of the campaign, a successful end because Einar got his sword and his castle and now he is king, but also and more importantly, because I had hours and hours of fun.

The campaign started more than one year ago and it has lasted more than a year in the Einar's world as well. Einar lost dear friends but gained new ones, he met all kind of creatures and monsters, travelled great part of Talomir, made raids, rescued people and explored dungeons.

All this exciting high adventure thanks to Warrior Heroes Armies and Adventurers ruleset from Two Hour Wargames, the best fantasy skirmish ruleset out there IMHO. Now I will sat and patiently wait for the second release of WHAA with the new mechanics from CRFV and new adventures in the world of Talomir!

In the meantime, Einar will send word to his father to move all his people from the North to the Border Kingdoms, and from his castle to conquer the land of the Orcs and found a new kingdom...but that's is a another story.

Escape from the dark. Einar's saga chapter eight.

When Einar regained consciousness he found himself lying on the floor in a filthy and very dark room. The unbearable pain on his head grew even worse when he remembered how his childhood friend Fafnir had died in the hands of that troll. He was in Valhalla now and he should be avenged.
There were muffled voices gossiping in the dark, but when Einar raised his head they silenced, and then he felt some eyes fixed on him.

There was his friend Rialto, thanks to Ymir, and next to him two miserable dwarfs with long beards and fire in their eyes, gazing at him fiercely. They quickly stood up and introduced themselves as Brythnot, chieftain of the Eroded Rock Clan, and his assistant Uri, a dwarf warrior. They told Einar they were the last survivors of a war party sent to recover Soul Reaver, his lost sword; but they were ambushed and captured by the Red Sun Dwarfs, and give them as a tribute to the lord of this dungeon, a powerful wizard who was also very interested in Einar's sword.

From the Dwarfs' tale Einar learnt that Soul Reaver is a very powerful tool that the Undead Lord wants it to unite the evil forces and make a total war crusade against the civilized nations. The sword was on his way when Einar's party intercepted and snatched it from those evil Dwarfs.

Thank to the all the gods that the master of the dungeon was out on a trip, but he was to return soon. Brythnot and Uri sworn in front of Einar to help him to retrieve Soul Reaver and keep it away from the Lord of the Undead. Rialto told them he can easily open the door of the cell and so they plot to escape that night, before it was too late.

After many hours of waiting, Einar, Rialto and the Dwarfs finally came out from their cell and went straight ahead, ignoring lateral doors without knowing exactly where they are and where was the exit.

All pictures are clickable

They hastily opened the door in front of them and bumped into one Black Orc and one Orc archer who were on sentry duty. With an animal shout Einar charged them and they dropped their weapons and routed in terror without even thinking of sounding off the alarm. Einar's group kept striding forward to the next door; behind it there was a narrow corridor with a hidden trap in it, but the expert eyes of the Dwarfs quickly detected and disarmed it.

Then they entered into a new chamber with some tombs and coffins, and boxes full of skulls; but without any living creature to be afraid of.

After that, they faced a new door in which Rialto had to use all his ability to open it. Once they trespassed it, they reached a great room panelled with shelves and shelves of rare books, and in the centre, an altar covered with black stains of victims' dry blood. They could also glimpse in a square on the floor their lost equipment, and Soul Reaver! But there was something else in the room...

Maybe the Lord was not at home, but he had left a guardian dog. From the dark shades of the front wall emerged a terrible monster. It was like an Ogre but with the body of a dragon. Uri muttered in fear its name, an Ogre Dragon. They were doomed.

Without uttering any sound, the terrible creature jumped onto Brythnot, swinging his brutal two handed axe towards him, but Brythnot reacted on time and evaded the hit by stepping aside. Rialto let slip a moan of pure terror, but Einar got over and charged the monster, with Brythnot and Uri who, jumping onto the altar, managed to hit the dragon's spine and stun it while the other distracted it. The creature fell back in surprise and then Einar delivered such a killing stroke upon it, that all its armour and hardiness could not stop it!

The group stood in silence around the agonizing monster, still not believing what they have done. When the creature finally breathed its last liter, they run for their things. Einar drop the rusty Orc scimitar and took up his sword again, whereas Rialto found many many interesting books, and among them, the one he was looking for. Brythnot discovered a magic axe of ancient Dwarf manufacture.

When they exit to the next room they realized it was the one where they had fallen in ambush. From there they could find the exit without further trouble and fade away in the dark of the night.

Well, Einar and his new group managed to escape from prison and with the sword, but still they have to avoid pursuit and capture. They run as fast as they can towards the Border Kingdoms.

Einar is now Rep 5 as he had to Cheat Death in his last encounter. His Hardiness has also fallen down to 3 due to his severe wound and conditions in prison. His Social Standing has also dropped to 8 as it was not very popular Fafnir's death, nor being captured by Orcs.
Brythnot raises his Rep from 5 up to 6 as well as his Hardiness to 2. He also found a magical weapon with a +1d6 in melee. Uri raised his Rep to 5. Both Dwarfs are stumpy, stubborn and has developed a hatred against Orcs (as if Fanatic all melee turns against Orcs).

Down into darkness. Einar's saga chapter seven.

Einar, Fafnir and Rialto are travelling East, deep into the land of the Orcs, avoiding the evil Dark Elves and towards the Border Kingdoms. They travel keeping low profile and avoiding all contact with the Orcs, but as they cross the border and progress into the country of the Orcs, Rialto becomes restless, and when Einar inquiries about the matter, he confesses that he joined him as a mean to travel safe and retrieve a very important arcane tome lost in the hands of an Orc raiding party. He then asks Einar for help to find it as he feels it is near.

Einar feels a bit treasoned but also feels in debt with Rialto for helping him to get his sword, so he decides to help him in the end. They start to search the area and soon discover a hidden corridor that goes down into darkness.

As usual all pictures are clickable.

As soon as they entered they sprung a trap, but they managed to avoid any harm. Then the corridor turned right and they spotted a door at the end of it. The door was locked but Rialto, a resourceful magician, picked the lock easily.

Beyond the entrance they could see what it looked like a sentry room, but it was empty. The chamber had another trap and three closed doors. Rialto quickly pointed at the central one, a thick door made of stone. This one was also locked and proved to be more difficult to open, but again Rialto picked the lock without much effort.

Then they entered in a new corridor wich also had another door at the end. As they advanced towards the new door, Einar wondered in surprise why they had not met anyone so far; where the hell were the Orcs?

The group commenced to relax as nobody appeared; with a bored expression on his face, Rialto started to pick the lock of the new door once again. But Alas! Suddenly they met face to face with a huge band of Orcs, and with some Trolls too! They were waiting for them, it was a trap!

Einar reacted faster than anyone and led a charge against the brutes. He engaged with one Black Orc whereas Fafnir charged the Troll to his left. Rialto casted a domination spell on the Troll to the right, and convinced him to attack one Black Orc next to him. Pushing back and forward and exchanging blows fiercely they tried to kill each other, but the lack of room avoided any serious injuring.

One Orc close to the door tried to escape and sound the alarm, but Rialto spotted him and swiftly kill him with a "Steel Wind" spell. Another Orc joined the enraged Troll of the left to help him killing Fafnir, who managed to slain him in return but at the cost of losing all his Hardiness.

A new Orc tried to sound the alarm and this time Rialto could not stop him. Then the Troll engaged with Fafnir, released a devastating blow that almost ripped off Fafnir's head, smashing him against the wall instantly dead! Rialto, shocked in horror, tried to dominate the Troll, but he was not concentrated enough and suffered a backlash, falling to the ground out of combat.
Einar killed another Orc but then he was totally surrendered, outnumbered and outmatched.

A tremendous hit on his head left him unconscious and out of combat. Einar and Rialto were taken prisoners then and locked up in a deep and dark chamber.

Well, what can I say? This was totally unexpected. I painted a whole dungeon with lots of furniture and I have not been able to use it properly because the suckers fell in ambush too soon. Now what? All these months of Einar travelling distant lands, fighting fearsome enemies, losing dear friends and comrades, and finally getting the sword of his prophecy, for nothing?
We will see it in the next chapter ;-)

Jackals pursuing wolves. Einar's saga chapter six.

Short time after seizing the sword Soul Reaver, Rialto tells the party they are being followed. Einar gives an order and the party starts to run northwards. After a couple of hours Rialto tells them they are about to be caught and Einar puts a faster rhythm, but Tiku cannot keep up with them.
They are running for their lives, nobody looks at Tiku and she says nothing.

After a couple of hours more, the Dwarfs are closing again and they have to go even faster. This time it is the archer of the group who sit on a rock and watches in silence how the rest disappears in the distance.
Now the party goes faster but the Dwarfs are in their territory and know all possible shortcuts, and after a couple more hours of hot pursuit, they are finally caught and have to stop to fight for their lives.

You use the lower Rep of each group to check how the pursuit goes, and Tiku had Rep 2 and delayed the whole group, so I decided to drop her. Then I start again to check and this time Einar's party had same Rep as Dwarfs (4), so they could escape more easily. But luck was with the Dwarfs and after a couple of rolls I had to drop the archer too, to try to definitely escape, as the next lowest Rep in the group which was 5. Well, even having the Dwarfs worse Rep than Einar's group, they managed to catch them anyway, so now Einar had to fight with only two men against a horde of vengeful Black Moon Dwarfs.

As soon as they could see the Dwarfs, Rialto casts spell "Fear me!" on them which is intervened by a Dwarf caster, who fails and becomes dazzled; half of the Dwarfs are now terrorized.
The Dwarfs charge as fast as they can but none of them reach close combat yet; the arquebusiers miss their shots.

The Dwarf caster resulted to have Rep 4, like his predecessor, so he could badly do anything against Rialto. When he tried to stop Rialto's spell he failed and got dazzled instead, losing one point of Rep to cast, and going the same way during all the encounter until reaching Rep 1.
Ignoring the pathetic efforts of the Dwarf caster to stop him, Rialto successfully summons an skeleton to use it as his bodyguard. Now all the Disciples of Null reach hand to hand combat. Fafnir barely holds but Einar quickly slain one Dwarf and engages the Big Bad, a Rep 5, AC 6, H 3 with a two handed axe. In an epic fight, the Dwarf leader resists many blows by Einar and falls stunned several times until he recovers and hits Einar, but without harming him. The summoned skeleton resists and successfully defends its master from a Dwarf attack.
Rialto summons three wolves in his aid, right on time as the tentacled Dwarf kills his skeleton.
Einar finally kills the Big Bad, and Fafnir runs to help Rialto. But now the rest of the Dwarfs arrive and Einar is charged by four of them. In a very heroic style, he instantly kills two of them and puts in flight the other two!

Einar with Rep 6 and Hardiness 4 and Soul Reaver (produces terror) has become a fearsome and almost unbeatable opponent. It is time for him to search for bigger enemies such as Trolls and Ogres, but we will see this soon as they are heading towards the land of the Orcs. Also, Rialto unbalances all games with his powerful magic so far, so I definitely need to include more powerful opponents in future encounters.
A straggling band of Dwarfs arrives but now Rialto casts "Flee you fools!" and suddenly eleven Dwarfs run away from the battle! Einar and Fafnir quickly dispatches the three remaining Dwarfs and once again they win the day.
The Dwarfs are so terrorized that they will not chase them again, so they can peacefully head towards the Border Kingdoms, through the territories of the Orcs. Einar has kept the Sword and has raised his Social Standing to 9. Also, Fafnir has raised his Rep to 6!

In the land of the Dwarfs. Einar's saga chapter five.

After the disaster of Treyine, Einar and his men travel East towards the lands of the Black Dwarf. During winter they cross the north frontiers of Hykar and Mirish, avoiding all possible contact with unwanted patrols until they reach their destine.
It is Spring of 897 and it has passed more than a year since Einar started his quest to find a sword of power to build his own kingdom, but they finally arrived.
The land of the Dwarfs is dominated by great dark mountains and desolated wastes. They start searching for anybody or anything which may help them to find what they are looking for, but they find nothing and keep moving towards the heart of the country. After a month of travelling Eastwards, Rialto's senses warn him that a group is approaching by the road behind them. As they are in unfriendly territory and also they have to "borrow" the sword, Einar decides to set his group in ambush.

As soon as Einar arrived at the Black Dwarf territory, I rolled in the Quest Table to see if he has found the item of his quest. I roll 5 and 1 which meant there was nothing there. Einar's party then move inside the country and again I rolled the dice but this time I got 6 & 6! The object was finally found and I had to go to a Raid encounter. I rolled again and the Raid was to have place at a village; as I did not know how a Dwarf village is nor had any suitable building to represent it, I chose to play the Raid in the wilderness and changed the raid for an ambush.

I'm playing with 10 mm. miniatures in a 60 x 60 cm. board and with all distances halved and rounded up. As usual, all the pictures are clickable.

After being hidden in the rocks for almost two hours, they finally spot a caravan of Dwarfs led by what it look some kind of priest or sorcerer, wearing ceremoniously a long sword sheathed in a barbarously jewelled scabbard, the sword of his quest!
Now, according to the rules my party was of 120 points of CV and this means that I had to fight against 60 Dwarfs approximately, which was absurd; Einar alone worths 40 points of CV so go figure. Therefore, I decided to use the How many of them chart from LOA instead, in which they use a number of figures instead of CV; but as 6 figures was going to be too few to fight against, I used the Hardiness of each character as a number of figures; so Einar's party had a total of 16 "figures".

As soon as Einar sees the sword he jumps on his feet and let the Dwarfs spot him. The Ambush is spoiled.
The Dwarfs came down the road and when they were near the ambushers I rolled to see how the ambush worked. I rolled 5 dice for the Dwarfs and 3 dice for Einar's party (Tiku had dropped her Rep down to 3 in the last encounter). The Dwarfs passed 2d6 more and the ambush went off early and surprise lost. Ambushers were revealed and Activation dice were rolled with the battle going on as normal.

Einar's party activates first but only Rialto and the archer accompanying him. Rialto casts Fear me! and the Dwarf caster tries to intervene. The Dwarf caster tries his best but fails miserably, suffering backlash and remaining dazzled until his next activation.

Rep of Dwarf caster was yet to be determined, so I rolled to see which was and I rolled 3 and 1. The Rep was 4, not very good. He lose by 3d6 more in the test of magic, but saved his life by a hair's breath and only resulted Dazzled. Rialto produced Dread on the first eight Dwarfs with his spell.

Then, the nearest Dwarfs react and charge Einar, Fafnir and Tiku, but two of them stop in the last moment due to the dread Rialto casted upon them. Einar easily parries his opponent and Tiku kills hers outright, forcing the nearest disciple of Null to retreat.
Two Dwarfs at the bottom and armed with harquebuses, fire at the far archer, who covers behind the rocks and returns fire, killing one of them and making two more to retreat.
The Dwarf caster keeps Dazzled, holding the magic sword with his arms and incapable of doing anything else.
The Dwarf caster finally recovers and tries a spell, but is intervened by Rialto and Dazzled again. Now the rest of the Dwarf warriors charge en masse but are rejected once more as Einar and Fafnir kills one warrior each, while Tiku with her two swords holds for the moment. The harquebusier misses.

Fafnir kills another warrior and Einar defeats their leader, the Big Bad, producing some break offs and routs from the battlefield. Then Rialto spells Blinding light and all the remaining Dwarfs get Dazzled; Tiku takes the opportunity to kill her blinded opponent.
The archer fires and hits without further effect.
Rialto casts now Steel Wind and perforates the poor unarmoured Dwarf caster, converting him into pink mist. The remaining Dwarf with harquebus routs and Einar slays the last of the Disciples of Null.
Piece of cake. Mission accomplished, return to base.
Indeed it was an easy encounter, but this was mainly due to the Fear me! spell that Rialto casted in the first turn. More than half of the Dwarfs had dread and failed tests of charge, crisis, leader lost, etc. as well as having worse performance in melee. Then it came Blinding light and the remaining Dwarfs were helpless and doomed. Also, the Big Bad resulted to have only Rep 4 and the Dwarf caster did not have a high Rep neither.

So Einar finally got his magic sword to to become king, according to the prophecy made on his childhood. He passes it to Rialto to check it and he explains to the group that the sword has a name, Soul Reaver. This sword is evil and greedy of souls and carnage; it will help to conquer a throne, but not to rule it. The sword produces terror in the enemies of the wielder; it also adds +1 to impact when used in melee, and +2 against magical creatures and +3 against Daemons. Once a month, the wielder has to roll 2d6 against his Rep; whenever he passes 0d6 he will move one step towards Black Moon worship. So for example, if Einar who is now Twilight alignment, passes 0d6, he will be Rising Moon, and if he fails again then Full Moon. The sword attracts evil.

After designing the sword I proceeded to roll for the Einar's party advancements: Einar raises his Rep to 6 and Social Standing to 8, Fafnir also raises Rep to 5, but Tiku falls to 2 (something must be happening to this wild creature). Rialto raises his Hardiness to 3 and the archer downs his Rep to 3.

After the ambush and looting the corpses, Einar and his friends decide to move directly northwards to the lands of the Orcs as fast as possible to avoid retaliation, and also as the shortest and safest (avoiding the Dark elves) route to the Border Kingdoms where to find their own army, castle and lands.
I will see you all in the next episode of Einar's days of high adventure!

The fury of the Northmen. Einar's saga chapter four

Einar and Fafnir finally reach the city of Gartenmeerstadt, at the very south of Altengard and in front of the Sea of Stryfe. Looking for a passage to Treyine they are told of a long boat with people from the north like them, which is expected in a few days; therefore they decide to stay in the inn of the Dry Anchor at the port, where those northmen use to go for a drink, and wait for them. In the meantime they get some rest and take the opportunity to recruit some more men to accompany them in their quest to the lands of the Dwarfs in the far East.

As the word is spread that they are looking for men, a young and wild looking woman appears in the tavern. She presents herself as Tiku, an adventurer expert in the Two Heaven Sword Sisters Fighting School from Valkae. Lilu is a Valkae Rep 4 fighter and she is armed with two twin curved swords. Fafnir smiling like a horse, gives her a warm welcome before Einar can say a word. Later that night, a mature man with grey long hair and bear gently introduces himself a Rialto, magician and healer, and ask to accompany them in their journey for while. Rialto is equipped with his staff and a knife, his Rep yet undetermined.

After two weeks of patient waiting, the long boat arrives, and soon a noisy group of tough looking men dash into the inn demanding some drinks. Einar shouts a scream of joy when he recognises the leader of these men as his cousin Egil. After a week of drinking, telling tales and causing trouble to the city, Einar and Egil reache an agreement. Egil will take Einar and his men in his boat to Treyine, and in return they will help Egil to raid the temple of Rania, the mermaid goddess of the Sea of Stryfe, where it is said their worshippers hold a huge treasure in silver. Thus they set sail to the temple of Rania in the north coast of Treyine.

As they don't know well those shores, the ever vigilant monks of the temple spot the ship before they can avoid it. The surprise attack is now spoiled so they set direct course for the village whereas the alarm is sounded. Egil's men get angry as they see how all the cattle, women and valuable items are taken away towards the castle of the lord of these lands. But they get mad as they approach when they witness how all the men of the village, together with the monks from the temple, prepare themselves to fight them off. How they dare!
Rialto, giving a step back, observes how Einar, Fafnir and even Tiku fall in this same mood, and how all the crew now starts to beat their shields with their swords and spears, and sing about blood and death.

The village peasants lead by the monks await for them behind the walls and fences to gain some advantage in the melee, with some arches interspersed and ready to shoot as many arrows as possible before the inevitable clash. As soon as the drakkar prow reaches the sand, the northmen jump out and dash towards the village. Egil and most of his men on the left flank whereas Einar with his companions and a few Egil's men go for the right flank.

The board is 2'x2' (60x60cm) and all measures are halved. All pics clickable

Egil and his men charge like mad dogs towards the peasants, and so not giving them a chance to shoot their arrows; four of them and the monk who was leading them, fall in the first clash. Two more peasants rout horrified of the massacre and of these blood thirsty sea wolves.
On the right flank Einar and his group does exactly the same and with similar results; although some peasants and one monk gather some courage to charge them, but only for the monk impaling himself into the spear of a north warrior.

Storming the first line of defense. Left and right flank

The defending villagers and monks from the temple are mercilessly slaughtered without the raiders suffering not even a single casualty. On the left flank Egil keeps pushing and reaches the second defending line, whereas in the right flank Tiku chases the last remaining peasants, as the rest head for the temple.

- Kill 'em all!

Now there are only two remaining monks defending the only access to the temple, determined to stop the savages from the sea, and praying to Rania for their Lord to come in time to save the temple and kill the heretics. But the monks are quickly dispatched and the raiders enter the temple and start to loot it.

-Get out of our way, old men!

But suddenly the lord and his retinue arrive, and a cry of anger rises from the guards as they see all the villagers and monks slayed. The raiders quickly come out from the temple and run for their lives to the boat. Einar forms a shieldwall in the beach to allow the stragglers to reach safely. A spearman positions himself to stop the charge of the lord on his warhorse whereas the berserker hides in ambush behind the house. Meanwhile, Egil, Tiku, Rialto and many warriors run down the road as fast as they can.

- To the boat, run!

The lord has brought with him seven infantrymen and nineteen archers who quickly start to spread in a long line to shoot at Einar's shieldwall, whereas the lord and the infantry charge towards the stragglers. But the charge is stopped as the spearman manages to halt the charging knight, and Rialto casts a spell and puts fear into the hearts of all the infantrymen (Rialto's Rep is now revealed and is seven but is lowered down to Einar's Rep, which is five).

The lord kills the berserker but the spearman holds the place. Some men from the shieldwall falls to the arrows while his mates keep runnning.

-We cannot hold any longer, faster!

The spearman finally dies and the knight and the infantry charge the raiders, whereas the archers release a final salvo of arrows. Some raiders fall but the majority holds. Now all depends on who activates first. Miraculously the raiders activate first and can leave the battlefield and flee in their boat, although they had to leave behind eight men, some of them still alive.

The raiders didn't have time to get the treasure and lost eight men. Egil keeps his promise and brings Einar and his friends to a point of the north coast of Treyine, and then heads back to the Dry Anchor to lick up his wounds.

Einar raised his Hardiness to four, but Fafnir lowered his Rep to four and Hardiness to two. Tiku also lowered her Rep to three but raised her Hardiness to two. Fafnir and Tiku didn't like much to run and leave their comrades at the hands of those bastards. Also Rialto raised his Rep to 6 and his Hardiness to two.

One of the men of Egil (Rep 4) decided to go with Einar's group and he was given the magic bow they had gained in the last encounter.

The group starts walking East, crossing Treyine and heading to Hykar, the land of the horse people.