Gaming - Rangers of Shadow Deep - The first scenario

Last weekend the boys and I played our second game of Rangers of Shadow Deep, though we just played the first scenario a second time. We each had a ranger and two companions. There were a couple of times things got tense, but nine of us seemed to make short work of the zombies, rat swarms and giant bugs that had infested the village.

Starting positions

I've made some progress on getting our rangers painted. I also completed all of the monsters needed for this scenario, right up until the card pulls demanded too many zombies. I'll work on some more, I have plenty.

Owyn checking his phone. He's so grown up.....

The party had reached the village if Vikra, seeking the company scout, Aventine, and checking on the status of the villagers. Arbach, Tytus the Grim and Steele Crow Caller were each leading two companions for this scouting mission. Arbach was flanked by his faithful giant wolf Thingol, tamed in the mountains of the Trasimene border, as well as Peter, a roguish legionnaire who could be counted on to find anything worth finding.

Tytus, a giant of a man with an equally large sword, had brought Beorn, a tracker and Sister Sybil, a priestess attached to the Legion. Steele had also brought two companions, Boris, one of the rank and file legionaires (man-at-arms) and Sammy, a swashbuckling former sailor with a fondness for strong drink and sharp blades.

As they had entered the village Tytus spotted something on the edge of the village square and moved towards it, only to see a swarm of rats come pouring out of the village inn towards him.

The rat swarm flows towards Titus.

Beorn, the tracker, fired several arrows into the approaching horde, killing several rats with each shot and sending the rest fleeing into the morning mists.

Arbach is attacked by a zombie as he approaches the clue on the ground.

Meanwhile Arbach had moved to investigate the item on the edge of the village square. As he approached a body, laying near the foundation of a building, rose up and moved to attack. Arbach was a seasoned warrior but he had never seen the dead rise before. He was able to push it back, striking blows but not felling his foe.

Steele locates a survivor and offers to take her to safety.

While Tytus and Arbach were facing foes, Steele saw movement in a nearby tree and moved to investigate, wondering how the newly dead could climb. It turned out to be a survivor of the village, a young woman who had the courage and intellect to survive when so many of her fellows had died.

Another swarm of rats approaches.

While the three rangers were occupied, Beorn spotted another swarm of rats approaching the square. This time he missed more shots than hits and the rats continued to approach.

Thingol and Arbach take on a zombie

Thingol, stalking at Arbach's side, smelled the foul rot of an approaching zombie and attacked. He quickly learned that fighting the un-dead would require different tactics and assumptions, as he was wounded, assessing this new foe. Arbach finished the zombie to his front and, leaving the clue on the ground, rushed to assist Thingol.

Sister Sybil moves up to support Arbach and thingol, since the zombies seem to be thickest there.

Sammy moved up to support Beorn, as another zombie came out of a village house, behind Sybil. Meanwhile Peter had picked the lock on one of the houses and went inside, finding another survivor hiding in the rafters. He led her out and pointed her towards the center of the square.

Sammy kills a zombie.

Sammy had, meanwhile, moved forward and killed the zombie that was approaching Beorn, while Tytus killed the rat swarm, dancing a macabre dance as he stomped and stabbed them.

Boris, fearlessly attacking two zombies.

Boris, meanwhile, had moved to search the southern most house. Shambling out from behind it came two more zombies. He gave a yell and attacked, striking down the first one and bracing for the attack of the second.

A zombie with an arrow in him. He seems to be un-impressed.

While Boris was carving his way to the house, Thingol downed his opponent and Beorn fired at an approaching zombie, hitting it but not returning it to death.

Thingol and Arbach standing over a newly re-dead un-dead.

As Thingol and Arbach, both wounded, stood over the now dead again zombie, Sister Sybil moved up to heal Arbach. He shook his head and pointed to his wolf. "Him first Sister." With that the sister held out her hands and healing magic flowed into the giant wolf, who gave her a "friendly" smile.

The ruins of the house.

As the three of them stood over the body of their foe, the house next to them collapsed. Peter, looking back, was glad he'd gotten the survivor out, but even more glad that he was not in the house now.

Another zombie taken down.

On the other side of the square the un-dead continued to approach Tytus, Sammy and Beorn. Beorn fired, and missed. Tytus unlimbered his bow and fired a single arrow, striking the zombie in the head and dropping it on the spot. "That's how you do it Beorn, calm yourself."

Steele moves up to support Boris.

After rescuing the villager, Steele saw the predicament that Boris' bravery had gotten him into and rushed over to help his man-at-arms with the zombie, allowing Boris to kill the zombie to his front.

Peter finds a treasure.

Peter, meanwhile, had seen the glint of something shiny, partially hidden in a pile of scree. Moving up to investigate he discovered a recently, and poorly, hidden treasure chest, which he started dragging towards the center of the village. At the same time that Peter was discovering the hidden treasure, Arbach noticed some rare herbs near the collapsed building and plucked them for later use.

Boris moves to investigate the southern most house.

With his path to the house clear, Boris moved to investigate, shouldering the locked door open.

Steele finds another survivor.

Steele, seeing more movement prepared to fight again but the approaching form was another villager. The women of Vikra were made of hardy stock, clearly. This was no damsel in distress but a small woman with a large sword, stained with the ichor of the zombies.

Tytus killing another zombie with his bow.

Tytus had left his sword sheathed and was standing ready with his bow. Truth be told, he was a tad unnerved by the zombies and wanted to keep his distance until he understood this new Thing better. As he stood guard another zombie and a swarm of rats came around the corner of the inn and approached. Tytus, again, loosed his arrow true and brought down the approaching abomination.

Beorn and Sammy killing another zombie while Sybil watches warily.

To Tytus' flank, Beorn had been trying to down and approaching zombie, watching in horror as it absorbed his arrows and kept coming. Sammy rushed over to aid him as he dropped his bow and engaged it with his dagger, finally striking it in the eye and dropping it at Sammy's feet.

Peter freezes in the square, unable to take his eyes off of the walking horrors around him..

Throughout this entire episode, Peter had been keeping his eyes on his task and not looking around too much. As Beorn and Sammy finished off the zombie to their front, Peter stopped and took in exactly what was happening. The horror of it overwhelmed him and he stood, motionless and staring until Sybil was able to rouse him and get him moving towards the center of the square, and the three rescued civilians.

Thingol kills another zombie.

After being healed, Thingol had started to patrol around the village houses, looking for anything of interest. Coming around the back of one of the buildings he discovered yet another zombie villager, and attacked, bringing it down and moving on almost without breaking stride.

Another rat swarm flows out of a basement window and attacks.

The battlefield had quieted down and Arbach was checking on Thingol for wounds when another swarm of rats came boiling out of a basement window. The ranger and his wolf made short work of the new threat as silence fell over the village.

This was a great game. The boys have taken no time to understand the mechanics and they are D&D veterans enough to appreciate the role playing and character building aspects of the game. Our party is probably too powerful for the number of opponents we had, so we may need to up the challenge in the next scenario.