Hawk the Slayer #3: Deserters

After a flurry of activity last weekend, I sat down this week to roll up the next campaign turn keen to get another battle under my belt.

However, Five Leagues From The Borderlands had other ideas, and despite my enthusiasm for thrilling more thrilling adventures, the game seemed inten on giving me anything but adventure...

Campaign Turn 3

After camping on the edge of the Fey Woods, the group took their ease. Dana studied maps of the area the former nun had picked up in Lakesmouth, and with this information, Hawk was able to scout a route back that would avoid unnecessary problems.

This was fortunate as Breda was injured whilst foraging, so Hawk's (gained scouting skill) well chosen route allowed the party to return to town quickly with the information they had retrieved, complete their contract and get paid.

Whilst in Lakesmouth, Hawk learned that there was a caravan arriving in High Home, and so he purposed to head their first.

Campaign Turn 4

Realising that time was running out on his promise to help Gethir recruit more men to help the Town Guard, Hawk was determined to set out to the other settlements in the area quickly.

Before departing, Dana consulted a renowned scholar about routes and shared what she had learned with Gort (gained scouting skill).

En route to High Home the group travelled with and befriended a somewhat sociable villager called Sampson. A somewhat pessimistic soul, he told them of the enemies patrolling the area, specifically a band of deserters from Lakesmouth, who had taken to robbing vulnerable travellers on the road south.

Determined to complete his current task, Hawk made an oath to deal with those cowards before long.

Once in High Home, Hawk set about encouraging able bodies men to join Gethir's militia in Lakesmouth whilst the others perused the goods available for trade on the caravan. Crow purchased a talisman that he claimed would keep his soul safe.

Campaign Turn 5

An evening spent meeting the locals and helping the town guard recruits train passed before the party headed north on the final leg of their journey to the Vale.

The journey north was uneventful, largely because much of it was by boat. However, Gort was intrigued by the islands, an unexplored location, in the middle of the lake and loudly considered the possibility of them being home to all sorts of treasure and monsters.

Campaign Turn 6

Upon arrival in the Vale, they found it inhabited by supportive locals, who eagerly listened to Hawk as he sought to help the Town Guard recruit, toake up for those that had deserted, complete Gethir's contract.

Gort headed straight to a tavern to meet the locals and got talking to a garlic farmer named Greg, whose sheep had run amok. Greg told Gort of his grandfather's lost sword and wondered if the adventurers might search it out (contract, locate item), however with no information on its whereabouts, Gort made no promises.

Meanwhile, Crow went foraging for herbs and came back with Springweed Berries.

Heading south again, Hawk decided to make good on his oath to confront the deserters-turned-bandits whose cowardly behaviour had set them off on this adventure in the first place...

As you can see, the random tables in the game seemed intent on providing me with uneventful travels across the region as I efficiently completed tasks, gaining gold and skills as I went.

Therefore, after finishing the Guard Captain's contract, I decided to take matters into my own hands and go looking for trouble.

The Deserters in question had popped up as a result of a 'news travels' roll and were currently reducing the amount of Adventure Points I could gain from my escapades. They also fit in nicely with completing the  recruitment narrative, as these guys running off to become bandits had caused the problems I'd rolled up on turn one.

I had to fight a meeting engagement and hold the field at the end of the game to remove them from the map. Conveniently, I gained the eliminate the enemy objectives, which meant I had kill at least four of them within six turns.

When it came to generating the deserters, I got only seven of them without a leader. Two had slings, but after dealing with all those goblins, I was fairly confident I could handle them...

Well that almost went horribly wrong. I advanced Dana too far forward when she is the least capable fighter in the group. She may be a hero now, but she almost came a cropper and was fortunate to roll a knocked out result for her injury.

However, the rest of the fight went as expected. Two of the Deserters ran away quickly, causing the rest to become fearless, but they really couldn't match blades with Hawk, Gort and Breda. After his first killing shot, Crow was quiet in this game, as was the Woman (who can't actually teleport, I'm just using that to explain why she moves so fast) despite both being invaluable in the last game.

The loot was minimal, just some battered weapons and a crossbow, whilst the news travels roll revealed a letter that needs delivering further a small reward.

I've got no definite plans as to how to proceed, so I may just get on with that and see what happens. 

Gort really does want to go to the island though...