Having barely escaped the witch king we headed back to town using this time to rest and heal our wounds, I volunteered to be there bearer of Frost-Myre. I figured after my previous encounter having a weapon that I can’t loose my grip of would be of great benefit,

On the outskirts of town we split into, two party’s the stealthier members staying outside of town guarding the key we recovered, while the rest of us headed into town to track down our contact,

After a couple nights we were able to find our contact, who after being horrified, over his partners death and the events that caused it, he asked us to wait a couple more nights for him to come up with a way to get the money.

We take this opportunity to bring in the rest of the group into town, and contract the city watch who we convince of the danger that we had uncovered.

Settling into the Inn that we had arranged to meet our contact in and waited…

That’s when all hell is let loose having retired for the evening when our contact did not show we are woken by sounds of screaming and panic, the witch king had arrived and was laying siege to the town, we grab our gear, and  try to decide what to do.  When our contact burst through the door, he hurriedly relays the information that he had uncovered, which was only the city our benefactor had last been too before hiring us. Not wanting to hang around he run back out on to the street to escape in the mass of refugee’s

We quickly make our plan to escape to the river and make for the next town to continue our investigation. We get halfway across town when we run into the,  a forward party of the witch king’s soldiers, leading a troll. Pulling out Frost-myre I charged in, this time a lot more successfully, between us we quickly dispatch the guard’s and take down the troll.  We get to the river, and commandeer a boat with out further incident, escaping the clutches of the witch kings forces.

As you can tell, it was a lot of fun, and i am looking forward to our next session.

Our benefactor unlocks the Chest with the vault key  which swallows the key, now leaving us trapped inside. Opening the chest to  reveal another another chest with four locks.

After studying the four statues surronding the chest we recover the needed key’s  and get the chest open.  our Benefactor gathers up the artifact and packs it away.  We debate whether we should take the obvious exist from the vault or, explore some of the chambers attached when our benefactor makes that decision for us .

He takes the exit setting off a trap, dropping a portcullis tearing his pack and leaving us on one side with the artifact and him on the other.

Like I said previously to Easy !!!

We quickly agree to meet him on the outside and start exploring other chambers to find our way out.

We locate a passage out of the vault, and start to follow it, leading us to an observation room, where we can view soldiers wearing the witch kings livery searching a library. We stop to see if can work out what they are looking for, when  they drag in our employer in front of a tall man armored head to to, we can hear a gasp from the prisoner. For this is the Witch King.  We learn that he is searching for the object we had uncovered, which we learn is a key.

Our klutzy cleric, once again give away our position, with his dying breath our employer yells us to run !!! Which we do.

In our wild flight we fail to notice the state of the floor that gives way and lands us into  what seems to be an older crypt that the one we have been exploring has been built over.

We are faced with a decision  left down a dark passage or right, into a chamber giving off an eerie blue light.   With the loss of your employer and potential pay cheque we decided to search for anything that may make us money.

Searching the chamber where the light was emanating we uncovered a tomb housing a rather unique sword, that after being drawn, refused to un-attatch it self from our wizards hand. which in turn released, the tomb defenders a group of skeletons. which we quickly dispatched, where we learned that Frost-Myre the magic sword we recovered can only be sheathed after it had drawn blood. deciding that we need to find a way out we, went back and took the left hand passage.

Arriving at a cavern with a murky lake in the center, we choose to head straight for the exit, in our haste we failed to look up, as we disturbed, a bunch of giant bats. This turned out to be something of a challenge, with our magic users starting to run low on spells.  I finally got to have a front row seat, pulling out my axe I waded in, which led to a spectacular and run of bad luck. Loosing my axe and shield, with them both going into the lake, Where I made the memorable decision to dive in after them, primarily to recover, the only weapon I had brought with me.

After the last of the Bat’s was dispatched,  We exitedhe cavern and the tomb structure, and decided to head back into town to see if we can find a way to track own our benefactors, employers to  get our money and to warn the town on the return of the which king.

To be Continued,,,,

Our party was pretty varied consisting of:

Half Orc Druid (Kevin)

Elf Paladin (Brett)

Elf Wizard (Dan)

Halfling Ranger (Michelle)

Dwarf Fighter (Myself)

Gnome Barbarian (Justine)

and a Cleric (Derrick).

So with all our bases covered the adventure began, as with any high fantasy adventure it began in a Inn withour party meeting for the first time after being hire seperatly to help recover an artifact from an anchient tomb that is now a monument to the glory of the former inhabitants, of the land. After some debate over the legality and the terms of our contract we set forth with our employer to recover the artifact.

We arrive, at the site of the tomb, with expectiation of having to get past the caretakers and guards using the ruse as a repair crew, only to find the place deserted, with no signs of a struggle or tracks sugesting where the occupants amy of gone.

Based on this discovery, we deem its best just to grab what we came for and get out fast, heading in to the tomb.

On entereing the tomb we start exploring the reception room to find hiden away four stripped down body’s. becoming more and more weary we head eeper into the tomb.

Progressing deeper in we come across four guards trying to get through the door that leads into the main chamber. With very little supprise the guards upon seeing us decide to charge in and try and take us down, the group makes short work of them mainly thanks to our druids animal campanion, a very viscious bird.

Noticing the disheveled look of the guards and that there is also the same number as the bodys that we found. We take the time to go over the remains. to uncover makings on there under cloth’s that our benefactor identify as belonging to the with king that no one has heard from since the war over a hundred years ago. This seems to have a bad effect on him, as the further we have progressed the more depressed he is getting. He pulls out a key and unlocks the main chamber, which closes behind us as we enter.

In the center of the chamber we find the chest containing the relic that we have been hired to retireve. To easy I hear you say, theres more to come.

Pathfinder is a derivative of the OGL of D&D 3.5 many of my group refer to it as D&D 3.75 and rate it much higher than the D&D 4.0 ruleset, having not played D&D 4.0 I am not really able to Comment.

Due to a change in circumstances these days I’m, all about recyling what I already own, to use in as many games as possible, with that in mind, I decided to play a dwarf fighter, based on the large number of warhammer dwarf’s I have and the small but slowly growing collection of Dwarf’s from Reaper Minatures.

During the charector creation session we had, some one as a joe sugested I should play a female dwarf warrior, . Which I was said no porblem, as I had just picked up one for Warlord .

So Freya the Dwarf Fighter was Born .

The concept for Freya was a dwarf maiden who left her home land to seek her fortune,  as a way to prove that she is just as capable a any man.

As seems to be the norm of late me an Brad once again squared off, while the others played Warlord (A system i will cover at a later date).

Brad decided for a change to gun his goblin crew, while I decided to give my Sonia crew a run, as they have been having some success o late.

Brad with some conviction had me convinced that the goblins were the worst crew in the game and that I would have no problems dealing with them.

The first couple of turn’s were pretty slow with us trying to get into vision, so that we could get the drop on the other. Unusually we were playing with out schemes and strategies. So it was going to be a straight up fight.

With this in mind I divided up my forces to deal with Opheilia who was advancing on my left flank with a witchling and a Death Marshal. While Sonia, Hopkins and my other Witchling moved to intercept the war pig. Alas in the critical turn, not only did I have a control hand where the highest card was a 5, but I also lost the initiative even with burning a soulstone.

Brad used the war pig’s special action to charge multiple models, first devastating Hopkins and killing the Witchling.

I used my opportunity to rapid fire the war pg and kill it, only to have Hopkins finished off by a goblin in the next activation, my other flank no better with my other stalker being shot down by a boosted goblin, with Ophelia finishing off the Death Marshal. Left with just Sonia I was not feeling confident.

I lost the initiative, which at this point cost me the game, Sonia in a vane attempt to stave of the inevitable but the sheer amount of fire power that Opheila can put out with her companion just blew poor Sonia apart

We both again reprised our roles, with me leading my Isengard hosts, whilst he once more led his horse lords onto the field.  Once more we selected 500 point lists. We both made changes based on our lessons learnt from the previous week.

For, myself that meant, dropping all my Bow armed Uruk-hai scouts and taking another Warg and a lot more Orc’s to bolster my numbers, as I found last time it was my sheer numbers that allowed me to win. so Orc’s with spears were added to my mix, to provide supporting attacks, my plan was to try an create a 3 deep line of battle, the idea being that i can present an Uruk-hai or Orc warrior with a shield, who would then be supported by a spear and a pike.

Brad for his part dropped a lot of his throwing spears and took  a Captain of Ronan, to increase his available might.

My Host ready to wreck havoc on the horse lords of Rohan

With our forces selected, battle commenced, the first couple of turns saw both of us advancing very cautiously towards each other,  I knew that his riders pretty much get  the first charge in, so with that in mind I started to form up a defensive line as i described earlier, pretty much the equivalent of forming square.

Brad quickly worked out what I was doing, he’d just finished off my wargs to the loss of two of his riders and now very warily circled the rest of my host, seeing the large number of outwardly facing pointy sticks, he did not want to risk impaling his riders in a mad charge.

The waiting game began with my passing on priority to try and force him in to taking first move, but this was where my lessons learnt came to bite my, instead of charging, he held back and started to try picking at my host with his bow’s and of course left me of only Lurtz to respond to any shooting,

This pretty much spelt the end for me with Theodan now flanking me and my line closing up to fill the gaps left by the onslaught of arrow’s, I was forced to sally forth and try and slow down his flanking force, as expected Theodan and his royal guard made short work of my break out force also taking down Ugluk.. With this success  the riders took advantage of the gaps in my line and swept in, the rest of the game turned into a huge melee,  Even with dragging Theodan to his death, it was not enough to stem the tide. Only one poor Uruk-hai pike mane made it off the field to report this massacre to the master of the white tower.

So for me my man the match was the lone surviving Pike man, who survived multiple attempts at being run down during has flight off the board, as well as killing at least two riders,

Brad’s man of the match was his Captain, with as much as he complained at the start of the points cost, the extra might it gave clearly made up for it, allowing him to declare heroic moves that gave the ability to charge in my priority was pretty much the game winner,

Lesson’s learn

Yargh !!! Bow’s again, as much as they are pretty ineffective, this encounter showed that there is still a place for them,  Next time, I will have to figure out the most cost effective way to get some Bow’s into my army, I’m thinking Orc’s instead of expensive Uruk-hai, we shall see, but I do know the Horse Lords of Rohan, has not heard the last from the The hosts of Saruman

So I elected to go with a force from Isengard,  for our 500pt game, which was to seize an objective on the center of the table.

I decided to go with three minor Hero’s Lurtz, Grishnak & Uglak. my host consisted of 20 Urak-hai warriors, 10 with pikes,10 with shields, 8 Urak-hai scouts bows, 3 Warg’s 2 with throwing spears, with the rest made up with Orc’s with shields.

My opponent, took Theoden, Eomer  as his Hero’, 5 Royal Guard and the rest of his army a mix of riders of Rohan.

We set up in table corners the Objective, in the centre of the table, in some ruins, the first few turns nothing really exciting both our forces closed in, on each other, some bow shots, were exchanged with the the only result after 3 turns of shooting was one dead force.

By now we had reached the midpoint of our game, The riders held the objective, and were charging into lines, my poor Wargs tried to hold up Eomer on my left flank,but the dice gods were against me, as had been happening through out the game,  I could not win a round of priority or a combat to save my life.  My right flank was collapsing under Theodan and his royal guards.

I was starting to get concerned, both my flanks were in danger of collapsing, Lurtz had just been put to the sword,my host was crumbling, I finally won priority, which finally allowed me to charge into the riders on my flanks taking away his extra attacks. With the change in Priority also saw a change with my luck with the dice gods,  Eomer was finally pulled off his horse and cut a part.. My left flank now seemed a lot more secure, and there were now some holes appearing in the Rohan line with me being able to consolidate my centrem with the help of Grishnak and Ugluk. Theodan still rampaged through my right flank Uruk-hai’s left bleeding with every blow.

`Again I won priority, giving me the chance to use my superior numbers to overwhelm, his riders, the battle was starting to turn, with the last of his riders on my left flank being surrounded and cut down, in a frenzy of blows. My centre had now also re-aligned to be able to meet Theodan and his guard.the last of the Rohirran forces, The remains of my force braced for the charge. Theodan launched a final desperate charge, where the last of my uruk-hai led by ugluk surrounded and dragged to his doom.

The lessons learnt, Bow’s in this game are pretty ineffective, I feel I would of been better investing the points else where. My Man of the Match had to be Ugluk, his extra point of strength made the difference in many of his fights.

The setting is a newly discovered island/continent that each race of the old world has sent a force to explore.

Right now the expeditionary forces consist of Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts, Goblins and my Dwarfs. Each army has a predefined lord and three hero’s to lead a banner, which is an allotment of your points, very similar to the mighty empires.

My first turn I formed up three banners with my initial 3000 points, and sallied forth to carve out my kingdom.

The only real excitement during my first turn was encountering a native (Celt) village, who decided not to submit to my rule. Which lead to a more aggressive negotiations that involved Axes and cannons.

After causing some pretty heavy losses on the villagers and my only real loss was a organ gun that misfired. They have agreed now to re-negotiate,let’s see what turn two brings me.

Malifaux has pretty much worked its way out of no where to pretty much my primary game, with me having painted pretty much every crew box out right now for the Resurrectionists, the only one i havn’t painted up as of yet is the new Molly crew, which i’ve had an order now for a while at my FLGS

I did also complete two fleets for firestorm armada, along with my faction for Infinity, and assembled more things than I can shake a stick at.

All in all I did accomplish a lot, so I am not disappointed in my accomplishments. Now where did those dwarves go.

I have to come to really enjoy every aspect of Malifaux. the fluff is fantastic,  with a clear progression of the story though out the books, which as almost like reading a connected series of short story’s with some rules thrown in. The miniatures are fantastic and with the need to paint only five to eight models, that are all unique is far more inspiring than even painting one unit of Marines or Long Gunners,

The rules are very slick once you have the duelling mechanic down the rest is easy which allows you to play a couple games easily in a single evening,

So all in all I still have great things to say about Malifaux,

I have been playing the Resurrectionists pretty consistently and I am proud to say that over the last month I have painted every model that i own for this faction, which includes the Nicodem, Seamus and Kirai start box’s. which shows you how much I am enjoying the game,