The Legion is outside of Westlake.
PRIMARY:
Operation: Village Go
Type : Supply
Reward : Laborers and +1 Supply
Penalty : None
Westernesse is a village of artisans north of Westlake. They need to evacuate and get behind the capital city’s walls and are willing to offer some supplies and laborers to have a military escort to the city.
I made a map. Janaki asked intel questions about what the
most powerful enemy present would be, the enemy’s position’s weakness and what kind of stuff could they find on the way to the mission. It took me a while to figure out a good answer for the weakness.
Weakness
Players helped and we came up with the idea that Zora would be giving them hell and holding them off and they weren’t ready for that kind of power in their face.
Stuff
I said that there was stuff in the castles that were abandoned by river knights after the Battle of Ettenmark but they could decide what was there through flashbacks. Not making that up was really a weight off.
Big Bad
The Black General was in the house.
There were a few rolls to get the villagers of Westerness moving right along. The rolls for the first 3/4’s of the game were overwhelmingly successful. Jim had his Heavy spend 4 stress to have found barges in one of the river castles and loaded up the villagers and travelled by river. They decimated their clock and it looked like they were going to get the villagers to Westlake with only a small engagement with the enemy’s scouting party.
Then Zora spoke to them through the campfire. She asked if they had Crimson Shot. The sniper did. She asked if they wanted their names to ring out in the annals forever.
They did.
They drew straws and sent one of the NPC soldiers with the villagers. The rest went north to rendez-vous with Zora, who was badly wounded from Black Oak lances and spears but was still moving.
The clocks were about getting the sniper a clear shot and Zora going down from terrible wounds. Despite the NPC soldiers being wiped out from a rough Desperate roll, they got the shot off and killed one of Render’s Lieutenants, General Mihkin. It was an amazing success but also the first deaths they’ve had in-game.
We realized while doling out XP that Crimson Shot has an advance necessary to have access to it. We made a mistake but we took that advance and rolled with it, not wanting to retcon the whole mission.
They also engaged in a conflict to get the Guild Elders of Westerness to vouch for the Legion and give them a tick on their Enter Westlake clock. Smart move.
SECONDARY:
Operation: Skydagger Tome
Type : Religious
Reward : +2 Morale, +10 Points
Penalty : -1 Morale
Some Rookie has been spending too much time among the Lorekeeper’s scrolls and has found evidence of a tome written by a legionnaire about how to best defend Skydagger Keep. The church is way behind enemy lines but that information might be worth the risk.
I’ll ask some questions about the secondary mission and bring that to life more next game. We’ll be starting with back at camp scenes.
NOGO:
Operation: Archer Boom
Type : Assault
Reward : +4 Morale
Penalty : +1 Pressure
Zenya the Black Archer has been wreaking havoc in Westlake; word is she has trained up some cultists to work as terrorist assassins in the Cinder King’s name, destabilizing the city by killing those who see best to its defenses.
Zenya’s still out there. I’m kind of interested to have her meet the Legion’s now-legendary killer sniper now that they’ve taken down a Threat Level 4 baddie.
Mental note: I need to offer Corruption more often as a Devil’s Bargain. Charlotte has suggested I write down a few solid Devil’s Bargains and I need to have that jotted down with a few other general Devil’s Bargain ideas.
The structure is making it easy to get to this game after weeks or more than a month away, which is nice.