Dark Alchemy - The Spreading Flames

The Spreading Flames – The third and final scenario in the series.

“Where the hell are we” was the first thought that went Signy Freyasdatter mind, followed swiftly by “it must be Rufina’s fault” What was that huge explosion, then looking around her she realised that things had taken a turn for the worse.

Where is Thanda…. Where the hell is Rufina….. Where the hell are we.

Of all the members of Thanda’s Household the three looking back at her were the maddest and wildest of the bunch, great in a bar room fight but not the sharpest knive’s in the drawer. Well apart from Valeria the Vixen, she wasn’t the sharpest knife but she carried the sharpest knife, four of them at least. Mad as they come, completely fearless she kept her knives sharp enough to shave the hairs on you leg should anyone be daft enough to do that. She can throw them at you, stab or gouge you, slice lumps off you, well you get the point, or maybe the edge.

She will attack without provocation, wild eyed and howling for blood but her enemy has usually fled before she closes for the wild close dirty in fighting that she adores. She feels no pain when in this berserk fighting fury, wounds don’t slow her, only in the aftermath of blood letting does she rest, exhausted and weary, her energy spent.

“What are we going to do” asked Ayesha in that Northern truculent tone she used so often. Signy didn’t have much time to think about how to answer that because some metal machine was approaching them quickly and it didn’t look friendly.

Spurting a stream of fire the machine indicated its intent and Signy was hit hard by the blast. She was from the far north, where the wind and ice hold fast, pale as death, wild as a wild thing, Signy learned to survive by stealing what she needed. Her parents were killed by Frost Giants, her family dead or scattered she had to survive alone.

Her skill in moving silently, or gaining the trust of the most boorish guard had always been her stock in trade, when that failed she had Fang, her small but deadly sharp knife hidden deep in her clothing, she could strike with the speed that a Rattlesnake would admire but she’d never come up against a metal machine spouting fire and she fell hard.

Valeria you know, but Astrid gloried in battle, she fought berserk (without a shirt!), swinging her axe like a wild thing, nothing would stop her. She rushed into the centre of any fight no matter the odds and had always emerged victorious. Another Northerner like Signy but not as pale as death, she was as bronzed as an eagle’s wing having travelled extensively in the southern lands where she was held in awe by the men and women alike.

Two of the best warriors in the known world would surely make short work of this metal monster.

Apparently not as Astrid fell beneath the weapon of the metal monster.

Another one trundled into the combat and the odds shifted from 2 to 1 in favour of the wild women to 2 to 1 in favour of the metal monsters.

Would Valeria back off? Of course not but she glanced over at Ayesha fighting one on one with another of the metal beasts.

Ayesha is a warrior born and bred, she’s a warrior with an attitude…..a bad attitude. Born and brought up in the wild, wild north west she quickly learnt to fight to take and keep what she needed to survive.

Young, beautiful, fast and swift, like all superb warriors she distains armour in favour of speed. Her right arm guard acts like a small shield and she carries an enchanted bronze sword. “Blitzen”. Sharper than a razor and twice as deadly, used in Ayshera’s off hand this proves too much of a challenge for most warriors.

Unfortunately these metal machines are like no opponent the girls have ever encountered before and she falls beneath its attack.

With a titanic effort Valeria tips one of her opponents onto its back and it whirls and buzzes before becoming still.

This is going really badly, I’m 3 warriors down and have defeated one Fire Flinger, there’s 3 still to go, can Valeria defeat 3 of the beasts. I doubt it very much.

It’s not always a good thing to be proven right, as Valeria is the last to fall but fall she does.

I don’t really understand the 3 scenarios, are they linked, as I read it, not really. You can use any of your Warriors, Wizards or Apprentices with some constraints. So it’s not like the same four starters continue throughout the campaign. After the 1st game you can chose a new band. I was originally going to use the same 4 throughout but decided to spread out the Xp and Gc’s throughout Thanda’s band of reprobates and so started 4 new characters in each game.

If that’s the case, how do they all exit the factory? It all seems a bit nebulous so having had a disastrous series of dice rolls in this game I decided that I’d bring them all into the final compound to try and make their escape before the Factory blows up.

The game had lasted 5 turns so far, so there are 5 more turns before it all blows to hell and beyond.

Drawn by the noise Rufina leads her band towards the open area and sees that Signy and the wild woman are all down. She sees the metal thing looming over Signy and digs deep, summoning an Elemental Bolt spell. Fuelled by fury and fear it swells in her arm before blasting out of her right hand like an avenging Angel. It hit the metal machine hard, igniting its fuel container and there’s a huge explosion that sees flames reaching high in the sky and that’s the end on that adversary.

Meanwhile Thanda had seen the metal monstrosity about to administer the coup de grass to Aysha she had immediately cast a leap spell on it, worried that anything more deadly might damage Ayesha. The metal machine was heavy but her magic knew no bounds as it was lifted and dropped many yards away from its lift off point.

Then the forth Fire Flinger appeared round the corner of a container and daringly flings fire at Thanda. It is close and she takes some damage which only serves to inflame her anger more. She lifts her left hand, raising her forefinger and starts to chant.

If the Fire Flinger had been a sentient being it would have known fear, if it had been a sentient being it would probably run off and hidden but it wasn’t sentient and it just exploded in a ball of flame as the Elemental Bolt of energy hit it.

Don’t mess with me….little thing, Thanda muttered.

Rufina’s crew knew what they had to do, well Red Sonia told them what to do, which is similar.

Believing the area was unstable, ready to explode at any minute, they ran forward to rescue the members of Signy’s band before it all went to rat shit.

Sonia and Ashara were able to pick up two of the fallen but Tina was having a lot of difficulty with Valeria and could barely manage to drag her along. That only left Aysha, to the left of the picture, she still had to be rescued but was close to the centre of the area and it would be difficult if not impossible to get her off in time.

The Metal monster that Thanda had cast over the containers, rushed around befuddled, it couldn’t see any enemy and moved off in the wrong direction.

The first good thing that’s happened.

With three of the Flame Throwers out of action and the fourth moving away from the action.

Akira had almost made it but had become distracted by a bright shiny gem stone and was in a dilemma, which to rescue, Ayesha or the Jewel.

I really should has been thinking more clearly when I gave all these figures names, far too many beginning with A and all sounding similar.

Thanda helped her make a decision by casting a leap spell on Ayesha that dropped her very close to the fire, but them immediately cast a second leap spell, throwing her off the edge of the compound and to safety.

A little bruised and battered from the landings but better than being blown up when the Compound explodes in 3 moves time.

Encumbered by their burdens Rufina’s mob are making slow progress, it will be touch and go for them until Rufina was able to cast a Leap Spell on Valeria and threw her clear.

Tina and Rufina were then able to help carry Astrid and they were able to make the edge of the compound with 1 move spare.

Thanda was encouraging her warriors to get out of Dodge before realizing they were all faster than she was, they’d also managed to liberate a couple of treasures so quite a profitable venture so far.

Akira, relieved of her difficult decision had grabbed the jewel and was legging it for the edge, she made it on the 10th move, the explosion accoutred on the start of the 11th move and by that time everyone was safe.

After the eruption of the exploding Compound it was discovered that the four casualties were just banged about a little with no lasting damage and so Thanda was able to find the secret passage that led back through the Worm Hole in Space and Time. What do you mean, you don’t remember a Worm Hole, that’s how it all started at the beginning of this 3 game campaign.

Anyway they all made it home richer and wiser and ready for their next adventure but I’ll not be using D20’s to resolve combat or magic in future.