Once upon a time in the Barony of Windhaven, there arose rumors of foul deeds occurring at the graveyard beside the old church. In the mornings, the caretaker would find graves defiled, coffins unearthed, tombs opened, and corpses mangled and chewed. After three days of such horrors, the Baron decided to send a team to investigate.
He choose two stout warriors, Onyx the sturdy dwarf and Rowan the valiant crusader, and the friendly sorceress Griselda Romero.
On a night when scudding clouds obscured the wan light of the moon, our heroes ventured forth into the ghastly graveyard. Entering through the main gate, they had barely entered when 4 figures shambled toward them.
Rowan called out "Identify yourself!" but the only answer he received was from low moans.
"Zombies!" warned Griselda.
With that, our heroes launched themselves into battle. Onyx and Rowan each struck down one of the walking corpses. One of the others clawed at Griselda, wounding her. The warriors then finished the job.
The warriors then readied to push on, but Griselda held them up.
"Some lovely gravestones for my rubbings," she explained. Rowan just grumbled under his breath.
Once Griselda was ready, the trio pressed onward. The jumble of gravestones and overgrown shrubs forced the party to turn left and then right. In this next section of the graveyard, a foul, clawed figure jumped them. It rushed at Onyx but he could not act; he was paralyzed with fear. Rowan's service as a crusader, however, had steeled him against supernatural horrors. He stepped forward and felled the abomination.
The party then wound through the graves until they came to a mausoleum. The family crypt of the Barons of Windhaven!
Rowan opened the gate and was greeted by low, inhuman moans. Griselda pushed Rowan aside and tossed something inside. There was a loud explosion; a gout of flame erupted from the tomb, singing Rowan.
"Next time a little warning!" Rowan scolded.
Two zombies, engulfed in fire, burst forth. Rowan cut one down. The other attacked and wounded Onyx before Griselda smashed it with her staff.
Finding nothing else unusual in the mausoleum, the party debated which way to go. Griselda released her raven, which circled and then headed left. They followed, and soon could hear the sound of digging. Rounding past some tall grave markers, they noticed a suspicious character unearthing a grave.
Onyx immediately recognized the figure as a necromancer. Before the enemy knew what was afoot, Onyx raced forward and clove him in twain with his axe!
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| The party looks upon the vanquished necromancer |
Game Notes
- This adventure marks the start of a new adventure, using a new/old set of rules that I call Kevin's Krawl.
- The party consisted of my character Rowan, my wife's character Griselda. We added Onyx because our cat Onyx was messing with the game pieces. Clearly he wanted to play! We choose the dwarf because we showed him the box of figures and he sniffed that one first.
- Defeating the boss was a bit anti-climatic. Onyx (the cat not the character) jumped on the table, knocked the necromancer's figure down, then shoved him off the table. According to house(cat) rules, that figure is considered out of action. Game over, necromancer!
- Like Four Against Darkness, character creation is quite simple (and somewhat free-form). Players simply choose a class, which has set starting equipment. Each class has certain abilities - like the sorceress' spells. I let my wife choose which spells her character got. She wanted to heal but also have a fireball, so I gave those to her. The raven was an ad hoc addition based on the figure (which I need to finish painting). Character level and armor determined attack and defense bonuses. And with that, we were ready!
- I created the adventure a week ago, using a template I created for Four Against Darkness. It results in relatively short adventures - perfect for my attention span!
- The picture above shows the set-up. I used 2 boards; one where I drew the "dungeon" map and another that I used as a battle board.
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