Verrotwood game 12 - The Reapers' Scythes

Introduction

"It is spoken that during the Conjunction at the place where the trees thin, beyond a veil of mist, there lies a majestic golden field, where brave fools can harvest Favor as easily as if it were oats or barley.  But beware The Reapers' Scythes."

The Cultists of The Uncoiling of Beiysss and Wisentii, have left the Verrotwood and found the Field of Favor.  Paused at the edge of the field they begin the harvest.

Set up

The game is played on a small board 36x24 inches over four rounds.  Uniquely for a game of  Verrotwood, the only forest terrain is placed at the edge of the board.  All the action will take place in the open field.  A Cultist can go Prone to gain cover, but there is no other cover.  

Four Reapers guard the field and begin the game stationed at the four cardinal points.  These are Greater Reanimated, as per the main Verrotwood rules.  However, they move at 6 rather than 4 inches.  Additionally their scythes are treated as heavy bladed weapons with a 2 inch reach.

The Cultists must move through the field harvesting Favor.  They do this by making a Move action (not Run), and making a successful roll against their INT pool, which counts as another action.  Rolls of 1-5 are failures and 6-10 a success.  A success means they harvest 20 points of Favor.  A failure roll results in the nearest Reaper becoming activated.  The Reaper will automatically move towards the cultist that activated them and attempt a Melee attack.  Once a Reaper is activated its token is added to the bag and activates as normal in all following rounds.  If a Cultist is within six inches of a Reaper it will also automatically animate and move towards the nearest Cultist.  To gain the Favor of a successful harvest requires the cultist to have reached the table edge by the end of the game.

One Victory Point (VP) is awarded for each successful harvest of Favor and each enemy cultist or Reaper taken Out of Action.  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.  In addition any Cultist that exits the table edge with a successful harvest keeps that Favor.

Starting positions

Round 1

Breath of Wisentii activates first and Moves into the field.  His INT roll is a success and he gathers 20 FAV.  However, he's passed within 6 inches of the Reaper of the West who automatically activates, and on reaching him attacks.  Breath manages to defend himself and is unscathed.  

Breath and the Reaper of the West

Shield of Wisentii repeats his fellow Cultist's actions: moving into the field; successfully harvesting 20 Favor; and triggering a Reaper.  The Reaper of the East moves towards Shield and attacks.  The difference is that this Reaper succeeds and Shield takes 8 DAM from the massive scythe. That leaves him with only 1 Health point left.  Not a good place to be in from the first round.  

Shield has a taste of a scythe

SerpensNadrew is the first of The Uncoiling to activate and he smoothly moves into the field, harvesting his 20 Favor without any incident.  SerpensLezal follows his fellow Cultist but fails his INT which brings the Reaper of the North into play and on Lezal's trail.

Nadrew and Lezal go a harvesting

Horns of Wisentii activates.  She is still poisoned from the after encounter phase and fails her Poison roll taking 1 DAM.  Maddened by this, she forgets all about harvesting Favor and Moves in and makes a Melee attack on the Reaper of the East.  She hits but as it's not a Critical hit, she just knocks the reanimated Prone.

Horns puts a Reaper down

With all the nearby Reapers activated and otherwise engaged, SerpensEnirethec has a clear path into the field, but being a bit thick he fails his INT roll and fails to harvest any Favor.

SerpensLeachim moves alongside him, but rather than harvest makes a Ranged Attack on Shield.  He rolls a 10 (Critical Hit) and neither of Shield's DEF dice come close.  With only a point of Health left, the massive 9 DAM he takes sees him fall Out of Action.  

Leachim (top left) takes aim at Shield

The final action of the turn sees Rage move and harvest 20 Favor without any trouble.

Round 2

Round 2 starting positions

Breath activates first again, and uses an action to successfully Disengage and move away from the Reaper of the West.  He then attempts a Ranged Attack on SerpensEnirethec.  Even though he lost an eye in the last game, he's an archer of no mean skill and Enirethec feels the shaft hit home.  However, in evading one reaper, Breath has unwittingly activated the last one, the Reaper of the South.  The greater reanimated swings his awful scythe and inflicts 8 DAM on the Wisentii archer.  

The Reaper of the South swings into action.

After being plugged with an arrow and failing to harvest any Favor, SerpensEnirethec decides to prove that he's not so daft.  He spends his actions moving and this time successfully passes his INT roll to harvest 20 Favor.  Keep it simple stupid!

The Reaper of the West moves and attacks Rage.  Her DEF is much better though and the attack fails.

The Reaper of the East activates, but being Prone has to use this turn to stand upright.

Nadrew takes aim with his crossbow and fires at the back of Breath, who is fighting the Reaper of the South.  His DEX dice exceed Breath's DEF dice and the Wisentii archer falls with an Uncoiling bolt sticking from his back to go Out of Action.

The end for Breath

Not having any good targets, Leachim decides to try his hand at some Favor harvesting.  He moves across the field, but his INT roll is poor and he fails to collect any.

The Reaper of the North attacks Lezal.  She can't defend against a 10 and takes a whopping 9 DAM, leaving her in the precarious position of having a single point of Health left.

Lezal is hit for 6, well 9 actually

In desperation she fires her crossbow at the Reaper, but misses.  She then manages to Disengage and move away from the deadly creature. 

Seeing nothing to be gained from sparring with the dead, Horns Disengages and moves. However, she's now close to another Reaper.  

Taking a different approach, Rage elects to attack the Reaper of the West, but her hammer blows are blocked by the great scythe.

Rage in action

Round 3

Round 3 starting positions

SerpensNadrew is the first to activate.  Not wishing to lose the Favor he has harvested, and being aware that he doesn't want to stray too far to the Reapers, he decides to deal with the nearest undead.  And deal with it he does, as he lands a mighty Critical hit which puts the Reaper of the North Out of Action.

Nadrew does for a Reaper

In desperation for how badly the encounter is going for her cult, Horns performs the Beserk ritual and Runs at SerpensEnirethec. With one of her dice being a 10, Enirethec has no answer and the brutal attack sees him crumple Out of Action.  

Horns sticks Enirethec

Under the nuances of the Berserk ritual, having taken an enemy out, she can do the same again, this time targeting Nadrew.  Although both cultist roll a 10, the attack strikes home and he's reduced to only 3 Health.

And then does the same to Nadrew

The Reaper of the East activates.  The nearest cultist is Leachim and the Reaper sets off in that direction but he can't reach him.

With only a single Health point remaining, SerpensLezal can't take any risks.  Whichever way she moves to a fresh path to try and harvest Favor, she'll be near a Reaper.  She decides to turn and attack Horns.  Her roll is a healthy 7 with a +1 for a Flanking attack, but Horns rolls a 9 so the attack is  knocked aside.

Horns in an Uncoiling sandwich

Rage succeeds with her attack and floors the Reaper of the West.  This should facilitate her escape next round.  

Rage floors the Reaper of the West

In the very next action, the Reaper of the West rights itself from Prone, but can do no more this turn.

The Reaper of the South activates and  Moves up behind Lezal.  Although it doesn't quite reach her, the reach of the scythe allows it to attack.  Although the STR rolls are poor, Lezal's best DEF roll is even worse and The Uncoiling Cultist fall beneath the scythe.  

He's behind you!

With discretion being the better part of valour, Leachim decides to move away from the approaching Reaper of the East and retire to the tree line.  

Round 4

Round 4 starting positions

The veteran SerpensNadrew with his vast experience, uses one action to successfully disengage from Horns and his final action to Move to the tree line, with his Favor safely secured.

Leachim, the other surviving Uncoiling cultist, decides to take a parting shot at Horns before retiring from the field.  His attack hits and she takes 8 DAM.  He then follows Nadrew to go back into the Verrotwood.

A parting shot for Horns from Leachim

Rage Disengages from the Reaper of the West, but failing her roll she takes a wound.  However, she manages to retire to the (relative) safety of the Verrotwood, pursued by the reanimated who are forever bound to the confines of the field.

Come back, we aren't finished!

The Reaper of the South's token is drawn next.  It instantly attacks Horns. Disaster for the veteran Wisentii as her DEF lets her down and she falls to the scythe, going Out of Action.  

The end for Horns

The last Reaper has nothing to attack and the game ends.

Nadrew and Leachim exit the field

Conclusion 

This was a really absorbing game.  With the four Reapers spaced along the perimeter of the field, careful movement was always going to be needed, and going first was no advantage for Wisentii, as they drew the reapers onto themselves early on.  From that point The Uncoiling had a bit more space and could pick their moves.

When toting up the Victory Points, The Uncoiling were clear winners.  SerpensNadrew was the stalwart, gaining three VPs by putting both an enemy cultist and a reaper Out of Action, and harvesting Favor.  Wisentii gained one VP for putting one enemy cultist Out of Action.  The Uncoiling earned a point of Power and 100 Favor for winning, to add to the 20 Favor gained in the game.  Wisentii gained 50 Favor.

There was a lot to work out in the Post Encounter Phase with three Wisentii and two Uncoiling going Out of Action and needing to roll on the Post Encounter Injury table.  Wisentii had a mixed bag of results: Breath who had lost an eye in the previous game, suffered a Grievous Wound which reduced his Health by 5; Horns suffered no further effects; but it was the end of the line for Shield who succumbed to his wounds and died.  For The Uncoiling; Lezal suffered a Grievous Wound reducing her Health by 5 and the old veteran Enirethec rolled for a Flesh Wound reducing his Health by 1.

The Into the Forest phase saw Nadrew have a near miss and escaping from the pyre to gain 22 Favor.  Rage had a less intense experience finding some Incense!

For the campaign, the overall score is Wisentii have 7 Power to The Uncoiling's 6.  The Uncoiling have been crawling (or should that be slithering) their way back in the last few games, having now reduced the gap to 1 point.  

I've put together an index page for all the cult information and AARs for the campaign here.

Note. This adventure was inspired by "The Garden of Nelms" encounter by Carlos Pandiella in Verrotwood Cultist Creations Vol 1, and the song "Reaper's Scythe" by the incredible folk metal band Green Lung.