Verrotwood Game 11 - Slaughter them as they sleep

Introduction

Desperate to gain some lost ground on Wisentii, the cultists of The Uncoiling of Beiysss have been granted a miraculous opportunity.  Their dark deity, the Great Serpent Beiysss has guided them to their hated foes' camp.  As dawn breaks in the Verrotwood, the cultists of The Uncoiling creep closer to the slumbering Wisentii as they aim to slaughter them as they sleep.

Set up

This game is based on the Ambush  encounter from Verrotwood: The Old West.  The only changes are using forest rather than Old West themed terrain.  The game is played on a small board 24x24 inches over four rounds.  There are no additional creatures, but for an extra twist when the cultists are within 3 inches of any of the conifers on the board, a roll of 6-10 will designate this as a piece of Vicious Terrain as detailed on page 35 of the Verrotwood rulebook.

One Victory Point (VP) is awarded for each enemy cultist taken Out of Action.  Any Wisentii that manage to exit a table edge with more than half of their Health remaining gain one VP.  The cult accumulating the most VPs at the end of the fourth round wins 100 Favor and 1 Point of Power.  The losers gain 50 Favor.

Starting positions

Round 1

SerpensNadrew Moves forward and then performs the Existential Dread Ritual.  Targeting Shield of Wisentii his INT overcomes his target and Shield takes 5 DAM.  That's not a good way to be woken in the morning.  The only good from this is that Shield is awake and able to Activate.

Wakey, wakey!

Horns' token is drawn next.  She passes the INT test specific to this scenario and awakens.  Her first action is to stand from being Prone.  She then performs the Berserk ritual, running directly at Nadrew, she attacks the veteran Uncoiling cultist.  Her attack gets through and due to his low Health after so many brushes with death, she puts him Out of Action.  This entitles her to make another Run action which she does to take her almost into contact with SerpensEnirethec at the edge of the board.

It's night, night for Nadrew as Horns despatches him

Shield who was so violently awoken by Nadrew, uses his activation to Run towards the edge of the board.  He's in no shape to want to fight.

It's SerpensLeachim's turn.  Edging forwards round the stand of trees he's adjacent to, he gets a bead on Shield and fires his crossbow.  He hits and with the Damage he's already taken, the heavy bolt puts Shield Out of Action. 

Leachim takes care of Shield. Permanently.

SerpensLezal Moves forward and fires her crossbow at the sleeping Rage.  Her bolt thuds into the ground next to the Wisentii cultist failing to meet the target.

Breath activates next.  He passes the INT test to awaken straightaway.  Always ready, the veteran archer jumps to his feet and in one fluid motion grabs his bow and looses an arrow at Lezal.  He scores a Critical hit and Lezal doubles over as the arrow hits home.  The ambush isn't going as planned.

Breath pings one at Lezal.

With a crossbow bolt thudding into the ground next to her, and Breath shooting Lezal it's no surprise to find that Rage awakens first time.  Jumping to her feet she charges straight at Lezal.  The conifer she is adjacent to is tested and is not Vicious Terrain, but she doesn't need it as she rolls a 10 for a Critical Hit.  The hammer comes down and Lezal is knocked Out of Action. 

The hammer comes down.

The final cultist to activate is SerpensEnirethec.  He's not much choice of action but to engage with Horns.  Before attacking he performs the Existential Dread ritual to try and weaken her.  He succeeds and she takes 5 DAM.  As he is using a Polearm, she's within his range so he doesn't need to use his second action to move, he can use it to make a Melee attack.  Both his STR rolls are 10s, which overcomes her two DEF die and she takes a further 6 DAM.  Enirethec is leading the fight for The Uncoiling.

Enirethec leads the fight for The Uncoiling.

Round 2

Round 2 starting positions

Rage is first to activate.  Having seen off Lezal in Round 1, she turns looking for her next victim.  Spotting Leachim, she performs the Berserk Ritual and then having worked herself into a frenzy charges at The Uncoiling crossbowman.  Leachim's DEF is too good for her attack and that's the end of her actions for this round. His token is drawn next, and he fires his crossbow point blank at her.  Rolling a 10 amongst his three DEX die, it's too good for her DEF and she takes a whopping 9 DAM.   Being a poisoned bolt, Rage will have to test next turn to see what effect it has on her.

Rage takes a crossbow bolt point blank.

Taking a chance, Breath makes a Ranged Attack on Enirethec, while he is in melee with Horns.  His experience and skill is evident though as his arrow hits The Uncoiling cultist for 5 DAM.

Breath lets fly at Enirethec.

Mustering all his endurance the wounded Enirethec presses home his attack on Horns.  It's two die each but Horns' DEF is too good for him.  And the final action of the round sees Horns return the attack.  She moves inside his swinging polearm, and quick as a wasp she sticks him with one of her daggers.  That reduces his Health to -1 and it's the end for yet another of The Uncoiling faithful.  Two rounds in and they've got only one cultist left.

Horns finishes off Enirethec.

Round 3

Round 3 starting positions

Leachim, the last Uncoiling standing.  performs the Existential Dread ritual on Rage.  Fortunately for her as she has only 1 Health point left, it fails as her INT roll is greater than his.  Rage's token is drawn next and as she was hit with a poisoned bolt, we need to check the effect.  Her roll is a 2, meaning she's still poisoned and the 1 DAM is enough to see her fall to the ground and go Out of Action. 

Rage succumbs to poison.

Being heavily wounded, Horns decides to save herself for another day and exit the board.  Breath likes that idea, but his Run action doesn't quite get him to safety.

With Breath trailing behind, Horns escapes.

Round 4

Round 4 starting positions

Leachim is first to activate.  Not wanting the Wisentii to profit even more by Breath (who if unwounded when exiting the table will gain a victory point) escaping, he Moves slightly forward to get line of sight and then fires at the retreating Wisentii.  One of his rolls is a 10 and Breath feels the full force of an Uncoiling bolt thud into his back and with the +1 for the Critical Hit this inflicts enough damage to put him Out of Action.  Wow, what an end to the game. 

SerpensLeachim, last man standing.

Conclusion 

What a great game that was.  It started all so well for The Uncoiling, but events rapidly went against them.  In the end though they recovered, and both cults lost three cultists Out of Action, with SerpensLeachim of The Uncoiling taking down the last Wisentii and being the only cultist standing at end of the fourth round.

When toting up the Victory Points, both sides put three opposing cultists Out of Action for 3VPs to each cult.  One Wisentii escaped from the ambush, but they had lost more than half of their Health so didn't score any VPs.  The game was therefore a tie, with 50 Favor awarded to each side.  Feeling generous I awarded a point of Power apiece. 

There was quite a bit to work out in the Post Encounter Phase with three of each cult's member's needing to roll on the Post Encounter Injury table.  Wisentii had a mixed bag of results: Rage gained 25 Favor from being hardened; Shield suffered a concussion so won't be able to perform Rituals next game; but Breath lost an eye which as their only archer puts him and his cult at a massive disadvantage of having his range reduced by half.  The Uncoiling did rather better with both Nadrew and Enirethec having nothing further happen. Lezal suffering a broken leg with her movement being reduced by 1" from now on.

With only one cultist still standing on each side, it was easy to determine who would complete the Into the Forest phase.  Horns of Wisentii drew the Jack of Spades and ended up getting poisoned, which is how she'll start the next game.  SerpensLeachim did better, drawing a six of Hearts and on the subsequent roll finding a crossbow.  That means The Uncoiling will be able to field three crossbow armed cultists, just when Wisentii have had their archer's effectiveness significantly reduced.  That's the cruelty of the Verrotwood.

The overall score is Wisentii have now accumulated 7 Power to The Uncoiling's 5.  They're now only two points away to unleashing their dark deity and ruling the Verrotwood, as the campaign will end when either Cult gets to 9 Power.