And we’re back…kind of…

Okay…first off, we never really went away; we just went somewhere else (over here at Fat Rat Games’ Pathfinder Campaign Blog). Since this site went quiet, we’ve been doing a couple of different things. We’ve been playing some Pathfinder as well as doing some stuff that I can’t talk about…pesky non-disclosure agreements. 😉

I’m also looking for some new players to join our group soon. A couple of players are leaving town and so we’ll have some open seats at our table. If anyone in Tallahassee is looking for a game, get in touch with me.

We recently took a break from both of the above projects and got some more Hellfrost in! Only Rachel, Jamie, and Todd could make the session so we had the return of Wulfwynn, Cuðbert, and Taranis for a session. This is one of the things that I love about Savage Worlds…it is so damn easy to throw a game together on short notice. Hellfrost makes it even easier with the Hellfrost Encounters book! I grabbed a couple of encounters from the book…What Goes Up (Encounter #1) and, sort of, Hold the Line (Encounter #24) so guess what…

Spoiler Alert: There are spoilers from the Hellfrost Encounters Book 1…encounter #1 and #24 to be specific.

Unlike most of the other posts about our sessions, I wrote this instead of one of the players. Oh, we haven’t played Savage Worlds (much to the chagrin of some) for about five or six months so we were a bit rusty. 😉

We started by moving our previous Hellfrost campaign into a possible future. During Hellfrost Session #17, Nissa and Karaphos had spotted a lone orc traveling in the wilderness while they were searching for herbs. Although the party never saw that orc again…or any others…Cuðbert was convinced that this orc was just a scout for a much larger force and emphasized the need to seek them out (he really hates orcs). The rest of the party, however, convinced Gaupa’s Host that they had more important business to attend to and so the orc sighting was left unresolved.

I took that and decided that the orc had, indeed, been a scout for a much large force (not that this will necessarily be the case if we ever pick up that campaign for real). Orcs had been harassing and attacking the Járn Vale in force and so, as leaders/heroes of the Vale, Wulfwynn and the others had taken to patrolling the Vale and hunting down orc war parties. This was the context for the first encounter for this session.

Wulfwynn, Cuðbert, and Taranis were leading a group of warriors on one such patrol. As the patrol was passing through some hilly country, a desperate individual sprinted up from behind them and into the safety of the group. Recoginzed as a messenger based at Ölfun’s Trading Post, the party quickly asked him what was wrong. Despite being out of breath, the messenger was able to breath out, “Orcs,” and point in the direction he had come from. At that, a group of orcs riding dire wolves crested a hill and a battle ensued with no quarter given nor asked for.

Here are a couple of pictures of the battle…click on the pictures for a larger scale image.

I didn’t have any Orc riders on Dire Wolves and so used the figure flat for Goblin Riders on Wolves (from Triple Ace Games’ adventure module, Shadow of Darkness). Sure would nice to have some figure flats for orc riders though. 😉

Cuðbert charged up atop one of rocky outcroppings to engage one of the “foul Dargarsworn orcs” who had been shooting at the party. Unfortunately, Jamie’s dice rolling didn’t quite match Cuðbert’s enthusiasm for slaying the orcs.

That’s the lower part of Jamie’s face in the background. I think he might have been impersonating the facial expression on Cuðbert’s miniature to give his dice some better mojo. And that’s Wulfwynn under the tree…definitely not hiding…and putting her Entangle power to good use (as she often does).

The party took out the orcs without much damage to themselves. One of the warriors was dropped by the orcs but it turned out that it was just a nasty bump to the head and he turned out to be fine (I really like the simplicity of Savage Worlds’ Aftermath rules).

With the battle won, the party turned to the messenger to find out what had brought him out, alone, in such dangerous times. It turns out that a pretty crucial caravan had not yet arrived at Ölfun’s Trading Post and was days late. The caravan was bringing foodstuffs as well as lumber needed to expand the post’s fortifications as Ölfun’s had become something of the vanguard in the defense against the orcs. This made the missing caravan something of a bit of a big deal and so the party ended their patrol to retrun to Ölfun’s with all due haste.

Heading out on a rather not so fine morning from Ölfun’s (it was drizzly though not too cold), the party hoped to find out what had happened to the missing caravan. The trio of player characters were accompanied by a number of warriors again. After about a half day’s travel towards Dalsetter, Cuðbert spotted a trio of wagons on the side of the road. It was clear that they had been attacked by something. There were burn marks on the wagons and, as Cuðbert approached closer, he spotted a dead body that had been burned. Patches of ice were on the ground even though the weather was relatively balmy (around thirty-six degrees Fahrenheit).

Taranis was concerned that coldfire might have been involved. The whole party approached closer to further investigate. Wulfwynn and the warriors were bunched together when another wagon was spotted above the group and dropping quickly. Only Wulfwynn, who succeeded on an Agility test at -2, was able to leap out of the way of the falling vehicle. All of the warriors were crushed beneath it (and, since my players were quite curious what the damage was, I’ll share it here too…4d6+8…ouch!). Following fast behind the wagon was a Hellfrost Dragon!!!

The dragon breathed coldfire a couple of times as it swooped by and, each time, Wulfwynn attempted to entangle it in Eostre’s ropey embrace (aka her Entangle power with a vine/plant trapping). Taranis ran for cover and Cuðbert headed for the back of one of the wagons containing lumber. Cuðbert lugged out one of the large, pointy logs previously destined to be part of the enlarged palisade at Ölfun’s and shouldered it up against the wagon…pointy end up, of course. I believe he had hoped to skewer the dragon as it flew by or landed.

Sadly for Cuðbert, the dragon landed and went after Wulfwynn. Dragons ain’t stupid…it didn’t like the idea of getting caught in those vines while flying (and it was too smart to get easily skewered anyways). The battle raged on. Wulfwynn largely attempting to entangle the beast…though it would quickly break free…while Taranis continued to toss bolts of electricity at it and Cuðbert made periodic attacks with his axe. At one point, the Forest Lynx mistook the dragon for a tree and climbed up the dragon and grabbed its head (aka Grappled) but the dragon shook him off quickly.

In the end, Taranis nearly died before Wulfwynn struck a massive blow that gravely wounded the dragon. The beast fled from the scene leaving the party with dead soldiers (I didn’t even bother with Aftermath given the damage they had taken) and wondering why the dragon was here. Was it working for someone who had brought it here or encouraged it to come here?

Here are some pictures from this battle.

Dead warriors (poor Extras) and Cuðbert’s caber (couldn’t resist the alliteration).

A close up of Cuðbert and his caber…good thing we had those bamboo skewers in the kitchen (although they weren’t nearly thick enough to properly represent the log).

Wrestling a dragon…not quite as easy as you might think and not quite as easy to get the miniature to balance up there either. 😉

That’s pretty much it for the session. The party hustled back to Ölfun’s to get some horses to hitch to the wagons and recover as many of the supplies as they could. The dragon had already taken the foodstuffs but the lumber was still there. Oh, and to return the bodies of the warriors for a proper funeral service.