As the Golden Hour slowly faded to dusk, the Fox Force was settling down in their camp for the night. A series of ruins in a small glade had attracted them, on a fine pavement and an ancient mosaic had distracted the mage. A nearby well had provided a welcome drink, while the fire crackled and sang. Little did they know that they had been followed to this locale by a band called the 'Regulators', Royalists, led by the notorious swords dog, Rufus The Hound, but missing their muscle of Hartley Hare.
"It fascinates me, how these creatures could ever have survived.." She mused about the figures depicted on the mosaic, as the warrior fox prodded the fire and the rest of the force busied themselves getting ready to cook and rest after many miles on the road.
The ranger sat up suddenly, whiskers and nose twitching, ears scanning the horizon, "Grab your gear, we have company!"
Scrambling to reach the long chest in which all their equipment had been stored, the Ranger snatched up her bow, and an arrow thrummed out towards Woody the Pug, only scratching him. The new Agent scooped up her pistol and sword, and leaped deeper into the ruins to draw a bead on the enemy mage Lady B, winging her with her first shot.
The knight, hoping along, buckling up his greaves, had grabbed his great axe, was waiting in ambush behind a tree, uttering "Cummon, cummon!" as The Rabbit With No Name, Woody the Hound and Ruby Rabbit approached warily, stopping and sniffing , aware of danger, but not being able to put their paws on it. The rogue hiding by the ruins, waiting for the trio of Rufus the Hound, Tufty the Squirrel and Little Red to approach. All known swords masters with interesting tricks up their sleeves, this was going to be a tough ask. The warrior fox, after removing the food from the fire so it did not burn, tried to reach the store, but getting tangled up in the boxes and sleeping bags, crashed to the ground with an 'OOF!"', failing to reach his equipment. The hare mage Lady J sent a lightning bolt sizzling towards The Mage, but the magic fizzled and died before it could reach the fox dark mage. In return, green life force was sucked out of Woody the hound.
The knight, growing impatient as the RWNN, Woody and Ruby to advance, as all the trio failed to spot him, dashed through the shade of the tree and laid into Woody with his mighty axe (with a name like that, and an ax, what else could he do?).
Having finally gathered his kit, the fox Warrior moved to assist the Rogue, who had charged pel mel into the awesome swordsman of Rufus the Hound, who baulked at the sight of the shield of fear the Rogue carried, but still easily parried the foxes strikes Tufty the squirrel and Little Red were soon to join in, bringing their considerable fighting talents to the show.
Lady J sent bolt after bolt of lightning at the Mage, joined by Ruby Rabbits arrows. This took her to the edge of consciousness; causing the Ranger to scream "Protect her!" at the Agent. Arrows and bullets flew back at the Regulators magic user. However, the Fox mage's scarred face soon grinned beneath her mask, and green tendrils of life were sucked out of the hare, who collapsed down behind the ruined walls, the fox stood taller, licking her lips.
"Essence of Hare, so tasty!"
Arrows kept coming in at the Mage, the Regulators obviously wanted something of her. Whether it was because she was the gang leader, or because she was a mage. However, the combined firepower of the Agent and the Ranger was telling on the rabbit, along with distilled delicious rabbit essence being sucked out floating through the ether to reinvigorate the Mage.
To be honest, the Ranger spent all game standing still, either doing one wound on her targets, or throwing dice like these (accurate with d8, yum).
This soon saw Ruby Rabbit slumped behind the hedge she had been using as shelter, twitching slightly, clutching her head and groaning, pierced by arrows too
The fox Warrior piled in to the right hand brawl, after initially missing Tufty the squirrel, a killing blow floored him. Little Red the mouse, not fearing the rogue, had beguiled him with her cuteness, and inflicted massive wounds on him, while the Rogue and Rufus swapped fairly ineffectual blows, Rufus parring blow after blow, despite being in dread of the Rogue's shield, and his own blows falling short.
From the ruins, with no viable target to shoot, she Agent vaulted the walls and moved to take on Little Red.
To the left, the Knight landed a crashing blow with his axe on Woody the Out, who was fuelled like an oak, leaving the RWNN isolated.
With over half their band out of action, the Regulators broke away, dragging their wounded with them. All would recover, and a few pennies were made.
The Fox Force, despite winning, only found three pennies scattered about the floor (three ones on d8s, really!). This was no great hardship as each fox gained 2xp for isolating the RWNN, another for defending their camp and another for winning, meaning all but the knight gained skills. The Agent gained 'Expert Shot', the Rogue (who already had d10 movement): 'Burst of Speed', the Warrior started studying the dark arts of apothecary, the Ranger increased her aim to d10 while the Mage gained the 'Rage' spell.
The next morning they set off wandering, the Mage tried her luck in a gambling den, to no avail, the Knight, the Agent and the Rogue between them took down a local Royalist run 'toll booth' on the road North, 'liberating' 51 pennies. The Warrior had a lovely chat with the local postmaster, gaining all sorts of information about the next area they were to pass through, while the Archer said her prayers at a local forest shrine, where the gang will boost their concelment for their next encounter. She also picked up a master crafted sword for the rogue for only 9 pennies!
A few post game thoughts:
Superb game, thanks Mort.
I don't normally do this, but this game, the flavour and synergy of the gang really came together. The three vixens (the Mage, the Ranger and the Agent) worked brilliantly together at range, because they started centre table, they did not have to wait long for the Regulators to be in range.
We rolled the scenario, then placed terrain. Normally we do the other way round!
I started with a rating of 80 Vs Mort's 90, so two technically even warbands (I ended with 95 as five foxes unskilled).
The Rangers shooting was extreme, at either end of the damage markers, one or two wounds Vs 15!
Despite both the Mage and the Rogue being hammered by different attacks, they both stood up to them really well. The Life Eater spell did five points damage to the Mage herself, but caused 21 points on others (a perfect roll helped), bringing her back to health with a definite bunny hop in her step .
The Knight standing up to a hound and a rabbit was impressive, but the Warrior's killing blow seeing off Tufty really saved the Rogue's brush!
Great game Vs Mort. His band has some very hard hitters and some much weaker characters, as you can expect from a mature band, and could cause a lot of damage, but the fear shield was worth it's weight in pennies. He was really missing Hartley, his hare, who had come off worse against one of David's Badgers previously. It would have been a much harder fight otherwise.
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