Dungeon Chef: Quest For Meat Part 1 - Mushroom Appetizers

Units of Orcs and rumors of the Undead approach!  Princes Ulther and Helfast are ordered to harass and delay the enemy.  King Kazador is fortifying the defenses of the fortress outpost known as Easthold.  Even the civilians are doing their part to help the war effort.  Twelve Dwarves are tasked with gathering food supplies for the upcoming siege of Easthold.  This is their story...

Hello, dear readers to yet another 3-part Battle report!  Im still using Warhammer 1st Edition for this.  This time its a bit smaller in scope, and gives us the perfect scenario to help introduce some secondary characters in Easthold.  Im using a card deck to determine this scenario's enemy appearances - they will arrive randomly after turn 4, in groups of 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8.   A Dwarven reinforcement card is also in the deck.  On top of that, six tokens are placed on the board for the Objective locations.  These tokens are numbered and represent a dungeon denizen that the Dwarves are hunting for food supplies.  Each of these have their own stats and abilities, but also have their own temperament rating.  Some are aggressive and charge the Dwarves, some are indifferent and remain stationary, and others will bolt and run from the hunters.  The tokens are revealed by rolling a die when a Dwarf is within range of it.  Some dwarves have modifiers that help them when rolling on their temperament monster rating check.  Once a monster has lost all its wounds, it is considered to be "Bonked" - a good thumping to its noggin will tame the beast and it will move at the speed of any Dwarf that leads it.  Each monster has a dungeon meat rating, which are worth victory points.

Victory table is:

Dwarf Major victory - Bring back 7 or 8 points worth of dungeon meat and have no Dwarven losses.
Dwarf Minor victory - Bring back 5 or more points worth of dungeon meat and have no more than 3 Dwarven casualties.
Draw - Above conditions not met.
Enemy victory - Dwarves have 5 or more casualties

These victory conditions will affect the Siege of Easthold scenario.
 

And now we bring you to the action....

From left to right:  Mochi the Dwarf Ninja, Ratcatcher, Chumley, and Dudley the woodcutter

"Be vewwey vewwy quiet, Im hunting wabbit!"

Mochi, being a ninja sneaks forward towards the first counter!  Chumley in his armor makes a racket and decides to hang back while the more stealthy Dwarves move into position ahead.

Getting closer, the stunties should be able to identify the target any second!
Penny, a female Dwarf from the Reaper Clan also comes forward, using her crossbow to cover Mochi and Ratcatcher.

Penny:  (whispers)  What is it, Mochi?
Mochi: OMG!  Its... its...

I turn over the counter and its revealed to be monster meat number 2...  Myconid.  Myconids are a race of sentient fungoids.  Some of them can release dangerous spores when attacked.  Luckily, this is a "garden variety" Myconid.  It is worth 1 Dungeon meat.
Its indifferent to the Dwarves and just stands there stupidly.

Mochi: Cowabunga!

Ratcatcher: (slaps forehead)

Penny:  Cut him some slack.  Yeah, maybe he isnt teenage or a mutant, but he is a ninja.
 
Mochi jump kicks the creature, excited to add mushroom cuisine to the larders of Easthold!
Ratcatcher has his hands full, holding back his frisky rodent companion.
And the Dwarves have their first success, as the Myconid is quickly Bonked into submission.

Bertha, the cook wrangles it and has it follow her to the main tunnel entrance.

Sleepy Dwarf is elected to watch over the captured creatures.

Bertha: Dont let them get away, Sleepy!  Or else!

Overview of the game board.  The southern tunnel at the bottom is where Sleepy is.
The center bridge is where the first token was revealed.
There are five more: southwest, northwest, north, northeast, and south east.
The corners are where possible advancing enemies may appear.
All captured creatures and Dwarves must exit from the southern tunnel only.
A Dwarf that stands sentry at the corners provide a modifier when enemies appear there.  This represents the early warning a sentry provides.  A drunk dwarf will only provide a +1, but a more vigilant Dwarf provides a +2

The Dwarves know that enemies are approaching quickly and must decide to spread their forces thin and explore as many locations as possible or play safe and move slowly and surely.  They decide to risk it and spread out!  Good luck little stunties!

Ratcatcher and Valdor the Slayer team up and head to the southwest location.

Penny and Bertha head to the southeast location.

Mochi, Rope Dwarf, Dudley the woodcutter, and Chumley head over the bridge to the northern locations.  While the 4 party Dwarves (2 are drunk) stay near the main southern tunnel as a flying reserve.  They will act as guides for Bonked creatures, guard them and also act as sentries for corners when they are captured.

Ratcatcher and Valdor the Slayer approach the southwest counter.

Its revealed to be number 4.  A Grick! 

Gricks are aberrations from another dimension.  They are wormy tentacled horrors that have a sharp squid like beak.  It is worth 1 Dungeon meat and has an aggressive temperament.  It charges the Dwarves!

Valdor:  Are you sure this is edible?

Ratcatcher: Wrapped in seaweed and dipped in soy sauce, it makes a great sushi roll!

The Grick is quickly Bonked by the power of Valdor the Slayer!  Im thinking making Valdor a great hero might have imbalanced this game in favor of the Dwarves.  Ah well...

Two party Dwarves show up.  One leads the Grick away, and the other...

is now the sentry for the southwest corridor.
Unfortunately, he is a drunk Dwarf.  But any lookout is better than none.



Next post:  Dire Pork Luau Party