The Battle of Carn Vorn, Part 3

 The conclusion to the Battle of Carn Vorn!

Tragedy strikes! Adeline is slain by an Orc at the South West shield wall. She gives her magic torch to Prince Arioch. Now Arioch will have the power to stop Trollish Regeneration. Malekith uses his Siphon spell on another Orc yet again.

Malekith the Dark Paladin: If only I could Siphon enemy lifeforce and pass it to her...

Adeline: Its ok Malekith. You guys carry on without me. Im passing the torch... *faints*

The River Troll charges the heroes alone.

The River Troll is ganged up on by the heroes.

The Owlbear, frustrated by Mordecai's pushing joins the River Troll.  

Owlbear: That Jedi Butler is a bully! Let me help you out, friend River Troll. 

Prince Arioch hits the River Troll with the torch in the kitchen. Clue reference, folks! The River Troll can no longer use Regenerate.

The Orc who was Mind Controlled returns to wake the Beholder and succeeds without being Mind Controlled again.

Beholder: Now... prepare for Disintegrations and Mass Sleep!

Balthazar casts his 'once per game" big spell. The Void Rift hits 2 Orcs, the Slaad and the Beholder!  The big monsters are wounded. But the 2 Orcs are killed, dragged into the Negative Dimension Zone.

Side note about his long history: Balthazar was one of the "three wise men from the east", hunted Smurfs, but then repented and now wears blue robes, was one of the "Final Five" Cylon agents who looked human but were "Toasters".  But is he still a sleeper agent? And for Mordor?

Miles to go before I sleep...

Slaad wounded by Lenore the Valkyrie and the Void Rift is now below 4 wounds and promptly Decapitated by Karnov. Lenore kills another Orc. 

Karnov the Barbarian: *points at fallen Slaad's body at his feet*  The purging is at last at hand! The Day of Doom is here! You have been cleansed!

With the River Troll unable to regenerate, Prince Arioch leaves the others to fight the Troll and the Owlbear and charges the Beholder. Seeing this, Lenore the Valkyrie and Karnov the Barbarian also join in.

Prince Arioch: We cannot let up on this Beholder! Pummel him and dont let him cast his spells. We can mop up the others later.

The Beholder then realizes he cannot cast spells while in base contact! 

Beholder: But...we were doing so well! We concentrate our forces on one end of the enemy line and roll up their flank. Our beautiful game plan has been foiled! How?

An Orc kills McGirk the Sellsword.

Malekith vs the Owlbear. Mordecai the Butler and an archer pepper in shots to help.

Beholder is slain by a flurry of blows from all the heroes with help from 2 archers and a knight.

Beholder: I never even got to fire off any of my spells! They're killing us! And we don't have a chance, and that ain't fair!

Balthazar the Blue:  Niagara Falls, Frankie Angel.

Without his ability to Regenerate, the River Troll is slowly battered and falls. The heroes cut him to shreds!

 Owlbear: Oh dear!  Those savage heroes killed my buddies! All my friends are dead... Wait did Beholder blink his eye? No. All my friends are still dead...

Mordecai the Butler teleports into melee with Owlbear and is slain. Never underestimate a cornered Owlbear. Malekith Siphons a wound from the Owlbear further weakening it. The Owlbear hits the "hero archer" twice! Will his luck hold out? He succeeds one armor roll... but not another. He almost pitched a perfect game!  

In death, a member of Project Mayhem has a name... his name is Robert Paulson

Archers pepper the owlbear with arrows. Then Malekith delivers the final deathblow to the Owlbear.

Balthazar the Blue: Good job everyone!

Owlbear: You call yourselves heroes? You're all just a bunch of fratboy bullies.  *dies*

Malekith the Dark Paladin: *closes Owlbear's eyes*  Hertz Donut!

~~~

The Survival rolls are made for the fallen heroes. Mordecai the Butler survives. As does McGirk the Sellsword. But... Adeline fails! She is now permadeath'ed. First mission and the lady with the Magic Item is out of the campaign. Ouch.

Also, the hero players realized they forgot to use their 3rd trap! The Spike-Trap was in a bush near the Beholder's final resting place. They could've used that. Not really though, the heroes outmaneuvered him and slaughtered that poor Beholder. He should have kept his distance and blasted the heroes with spells from afar. Ah... hindsight.

So thanks to Joe P. and Steve B. for playing that game. I really thought my superior strategic plan from the start would lead my monsters to victory. But like Tyson said, "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth". And now the defenders of the forest have been defeated and Rohan logging camps will continue their crimes of deforestation against mother nature unabated. But the mystery remains. Who has imbued the Slaad and Owlbear with Troll-Nature? Kinda like Buddha-Nature but less Zen-y. I guess we will find out when the heroes return to Tharbad. Oh, did I say that out loud? I did. Indeed, a Return to Tharbad (AKA Carcosa) is coming to a blog near you. (For those that want to catch up on that older part of my blog history, see here: http://mars-miniatures.blogspot.com/2016/09/tales-from-beer-cart-part-3-breaking.html).  Ahh... the Beer Cart Campaign, I remember those days - when the blog was young and the world seemed brighter and the beer.. hoppier!

Though first, we might get another battle with the Far Easterling heroes - House of Red Dragons. But I also have some painted minis that need posts of their own. Those painted mini posts have been ready for a photoshoot for a long time now. 

Cheers,

Mar

The Battle of Carn Vorn, Part 2

 The Battle of Carn Vorn continues...

The heroes in the South East corner make a strategic withdrawal. They back up slowly still in formation. Arioch has been wounded and is down to 1 Wound! Prince Arioch carries a Vial of Vitality and can heal some wounds. Should he heal himself or Adeline who is also wounded? Adeline has a magic torch - the Torch of Fae-Fires that can stop the Trolls from regenerating. Prince Arioch heals himself. Adeline falls back even further with Mordecai the Butler and some henchmen. Malekith the Dark Paladin uses his Siphon spell killing an orc and healing a wound for himself.  

Malekith the Dark Paladin : You should move to a small town - where the rule of law still exists. You will not survive here. You are not a wolf. And this is the land of wolves now.

An Owlbear arrives in the center of the Eastern board edge along with more Orcs!

The Owlbear charges an archer. This heroic archer hits in melee! Then makes his To-Save roll from the Owlbear's attack! He should have surely been smushed. The Valar are watching over this henchman. The heroes watch in horror as the Owlbear's wound heals itself! What manner of sorcery is this? Same thing happens with the Green Slaad.

So the Owlbear and Green Slaad seem to be exhibiting the regeneration ability of a Troll. As if they have been imbued with Troll-Nature. How did this happen? What mad wizard or god would do such a thing? Who knows why madmen do what they do.

 The Green Slaad moves around the South West corner's hero blockade and comes out towards the center of the Southern board edge. 2 Orcs follow him. The monsters are shifting their attack!

Balthazar uses his Control Mind spell on the Slaad-Troll and has him run off the table. Of course the Slaad returns the next turn, but it buys them some time to stage a defense on this side.  Lenore the Valkyrie and Karnov the Barbarian hold the line against the monsters.

Balthazar the Blue once again casts Mind Control on the Slaad and has him run off again!

McGirk and a knight watch the Slaad in amusement.

Playing those mind games forever
Pushing the barrier, planting seeds
Playing the mind guerilla

I'll be playing those mind games forever
Some kind of Druid dude, lifting the veil
Doing the mind guerilla
Some call it magic, the search for the grail

Keep on playing those mind games together
Faith in the future, out of the now
You just can't beat on those mind guerillas
Absolute elsewhere, in the stones of your mind

Yeah, we're playing those mind games forever
Projecting our images in space and in time

Karnov the Barbarian: You done running around? Good. I guess this is what we are doing. Bring it!

In the North West corner the Owlbear-Troll and 2 orcs are caught in a trap. Strangle-Vines erupt out of the ground and immobilizes them. An archer who was in combat with an Orc runs off from the now immobilized orc and shoots that Orc killing it! It is the heroic archer that survived the Owlbear's attack earlier! He deserves to have a name. If he survives this game, Im sure he will be known as more than "archer henchman".

The Owlbear stands, breaks free of the Strangle Vines and is immediately force pushed away by Mordecai the Butler's Telekinetic Push spell.

Eye-dea the Beholder arrives! And he comes in from the center of the Southern board edge.

Heroes beware! Its time for Disintegration and Mass Sleep spells!

The heroes prepare for the Beholder. 

Hold the line!

And as the Beholder and his Orc guards get into range. A trap is sprung! Sleep Spores make the monsters go night-night. A fallen log behind the monsters was hiding the trap (not shown in pic, but trust me it was there). No wonder the heroes seemed so smug and giddy...

 An Orc goes to wake up the Beholder,  but before it can, he is mind controlled away by Balthazar and heads back towards the Green Slaad.

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head will collapse
But there's nothing in it
And you'll ask yourself

Where is my mind?
Where is my mind?
Where is my mind?
Way out in the water
See it swimming

 

The mind controlled Orc charges the Slaad and stabs him in the back!

Karnov nearly beheads the Slaad. He wounded the Slaad, who rolled a "1" on his To-Save. Which would mean instant kill due to the Decapitate skill of the Barbarian. But it only works on enemies that currently have 4 Health or less. Karnov needs some help to make this happen.

Karnov the Barbarian: Riddle of Steel! Crom hear my prayer or to hell with you!

 The "hero archer" kills yet another Orc!This fellow needs to buy a lotto ticket or something. 

 

 Mordecai the Butler continues to play the Jedi push game with the Owlbear delaying him again and again. 

Mordecai the Butler: Judge me by my size, do you? For my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is.

Next post: The conclusion of the Battle of Carn Vorn!

The Battle of Carn Vorn, Part 1

 Hiya buddies, here is a battle report that took place earlier this year in February(?). Better late than even later, eh?  

With the recent disaster in Moria, the Cthulhic Invasion of Middle Earth had begun. (see Battle of Hollin Gate here: http://mars-miniatures.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-battle-of-hollin-gate-part-1.html) Mortimer the Brown's team took a beating and are recuperating and busily preparing the defenses of Rohan. So it is up to his fellow Istari Wizard, Balthazar the Blue to step up and investigate rumors of cultist activity in the forests of Carn Vorn. The last thing the nations of the West need are local sources of belligerents that the tentacled invaders can conscript from. Better to nip these pesky cultists before they become active insurgents...

Left to Right: Mordecai the Butler, Malekith the Dark Paladin, Prince Arioch of the Grey Havens,  Adeline the torch bearer, Balthazar the Blue, Lenore the Valkyrie, Karnov the Barbarian, McGirk the sellsword

Being the newly formed and untested junior varsity team, they are anxious to prove their mettle.

Adeline: *leading the chant* We're Number Two! We're Number Two!

Balthazar the Blue: Yeah, great. Celebrate mediocrity.

With the team are sent these redshirt henchmen. "To do and die and not question why" is their motto.

Rohan Archer #1: I dont like that motto, in fact I am wondering why the Breelanders or House Stark arent investigating this area. This forest is as close to them as it is to us?

 

Left to Right: River Troll, Green Slaad, Owlbear, Eye-dea the Beholder, and Orc cultists behind them

And a glimpse of the monsters hunting our heroes. There is something strange about the River Troll, Green Slaad, and Owlbear. Have they been magically transformed or mutated somehow?

Eye-dea the Beholder seems to be the ringleader here and the Orc cultists are his minions. He is a young Beholder as far as Beholders go. And his full powers havent fully matured. Beholder puberty. Yuck!

Overhead view of the hero player's setup and defense.

The villain player decides that the South and West board edges are his deployment and reinforcement zones. The hero players take that into account as they setup their traps, a makeshift wall, and their deployment. Seems like they setup an "Alamo" area in the North East corner to fall back to if necessary.

 ~~~

THE BATTLE OF CARN VORN

Summary
The White Tower has sent the newest adventuring team to the forest of Carn Vorn in Minhiriath to investigate the disappearance of woodcutters in the area. Is it environmental cultists (terrorists) protesting against Rohan's unsatiated need for more and more natural resources? As the heroes enter the heart of the forest, they realize they are being hunted by forces unknown. Balthazar the Blue, leader of the expedition, decides to create a trap for the "predators". Who is the hunter and who the hunted?
The heroes: "There's something out there and it aint no man. I want a defensive position on this ridge, trapped with everything you got."
The villains: "You too can stop forest genocides!"

Board Setup
- Before setup starts, villain chooses 2 board edges that enemy reinforcements will be coming from. (1 long and 1 short edge)
- Both players alternate placing up to 4 terrain pieces each: a tree, shrub, or rock but not within 4" of each other or board edge.
- Hero player then places one wall terrain piece anywhere on board without a distance restriction from other terrain.
- Hero player sets up 3 trap tokens secretly hidden under terrain pieces. The hero player decides when trap is sprung, once at least one enemy is within 6" of it.
- Spike-Traps: cause 1 damage each on up to 3 enemies.
- Strangle-Vines: cause Immobilized effect on up to 3 enemies. Affected figures must pass a Resolve test at start of its turn to remove Immobilized effect.
- Slumber-Spores: cause Sleep effect on up to 3 enemies. Affected figures will wake once attacked or woken by adjacent friendly figure (action to wake)

Deployment
- Heroes may deploy anywhere on board. The heroes also receive 8 human followers: archers or knights.
- No villains are deployed at start.

Reinforcements
Turn 1 - River Troll & 2 orcs
Turn 2 - 2 orcs
Turn 3 - Slaad Troll & 2 orcs
Turn 4 - 2 orcs
Turn 5 - Owl Troll & 2 orcs
Turn 6 - Eyebeast

Special Rules
- Adeline's Torch will stop a Troll's Regeneration ability once she wounds it.

Victory Conditions
- Game ends once a victory condition is met:
- Hero victory: Eliminate the 3 Troll brutes and the Eyebeast.
- Villain victory: Eliminate all 6 heroes (not counting followers)

 The game begins! 

A River Troll and 4 Orcs arrive in the South East corner.

River Troll: Ok my teal colored Orc minions...  like the Beach Boys said we gotta shut them up and shut them down.

Adeline and Lord Arioch go to investigate.

Lord Arioch: Lets go investigate! A kiss for good luck?

Adeline: Id rather not, Balthazar says you have mono.

Balthazar senses the presence of more "Troll-ish" creatures approaching.

Balthazar the Blue: I sense a disturbance in the Force... as if more terrible monstrosities roared in anger and hunger. Yes... they are quite "hangry".

Its a Green Slaad and 2 Orcs who arrive in the South East corner. They are massing in that corner of the board!

Green Slaad: "Wow" is the word you're looking for. Prepare to be amazed!

Where is the River Troll?  The Orcs accompanying him close in on Prince Arioch and Adeline.

Malekith brings an archer and knight to help reinforce the South East corner.

Malekith the Dark Paladin: *chanting a death dirge* I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter. Dancing through the fire.'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar. Louder, louder than a lion. Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

 Knight: *looks at Archer* Im not sure how I feel about his choice of song... 

Archer: You'd think as a Dark Paladin that he'd use some type of metal. But no, he subverts our expectation and uses cringe pop. Frankly though... it makes me even more frightened of him.

Where are the bigger creatures... hiding? 

No they arent hiding, they are biding their time! Waiting for more reinforcements and when enough force has been gathered, they will pour forth like a deluge, a tsunami of unstoppable monstrosities! Our heroes and their henchmen are stretched out in a line. It seems the monsters are concentrating their power on that flank and plan to destroy the hero forces piecemeal! So, now that the heroes suspect the enemy plan, should they hurry to reinforce that flank. Or perhaps the monsters wait for the heroes on the western board to move and then have reinforcements pop up in that sector? Oh what to do?

Balthazar the Blue: What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power? They're animals!

In the meantime, the Orcs begin their assault on the heroes.

Get some!

Next post: The Battle of Carn Vorn continues in part 2!