Relicblade is coming up strong right now as we close out July. After a few games in person and on virtual, both Friend Mark and Friend Sean and I have decided to do a campaign (separately, I’ll be doing a campaign with each of them). Due to my limited models and lack of creativity, I’m starting both campaigns with the same load out.
The Gnomes of Greyrock have rallied around D’Chro, a mysterious Seeker advocate looking to uplift the wee folk to greater glory and help right the realms. Taking over a non-descript outpost on the edge of the frontier, D’Chro quickly built up a band of capable specialists to assist his valiant followers.
Three heroes join the call to adventure. Teklin, the gnome grenadier (left), Grenben, the battlesmith (center), and Keltin riding trusty Nok (right), fill out the Greyrock roster in this campaign opener.
To outfit this valiant crew, Nok was taught the ways of Combat Mobility while Teklin was given Quicksilver Bangles. Both options allowing the heroes more movement options during battle. With session 0 complete, it was time to start the campaign in full.
Before we could begin however, a band of rogue cats decided to crash our party. These curious guys decided we weren’t done planning.
While one decided to enjoy my new snow map, we finalized Mark’s group. He was starting off with the Deep. In his Seeker’s group, Mark had a Shark Warrior, a team of Giblin Fishers (“hookers”), a team of Shrimp Harpooners (“pooners”), and an Eel Sorcerer. Evil is ubiquitous so they need no names. Quicksilver Bangles were popular and were given to the Shark Warrior along with a sling to give him some ranged threat.
With the rogues seeing we had no petting to give and no food, the cats eventually moved on and I set up a table for our first mission, the Ancient Waystones. We’ve played this mission a few times now but we were hoping to start fresh and get an idea of how the campaign will play.
Winning initiative, my gnomes struck out to the large ruins and found cover. The gnomes were under activating and outnumbered so I wanted to take a cautious approach against the terrors of the Deep.
With the Eel Sorcerer providing extra movement, the Deep had no problem already spreading to the middle. Both hookers and pooners took advanced positions, ready to clobber any gnome foolish enough to make a play for the center waystone. This mission’s objective is to activate the waystones each turn. A successful activation gives you a victory point. Five points ends the game in victory. Unlike other missions, your campaign reward is tied to how many victory points you earned.
The second round sees all discipline cast aside and the hookers make a play for the central waystone. They fail and Grenben, Battlesmith, run out to take the hapless hooker down. Keltin and Nok decide not to get engaged by the Shark Warrior at the upper Waystone and instead, take cover under. The Shark Warrior loses sight of the original Waystone goal and jumps down to engage Keltin.
The surprise move works and Nok is helpless against the vicious onslaught. Both mount and rider go down to a flurry of blows. Team Greyrock is shook by the sudden fall of one of their heroes.
Teklin answers the call to battle and disables the Shark Warrior. He could recover and spell instant doom to poor Teklin but the tide is surging and the Greyrocks need to push the numbers to their favor.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. The Pooners soon jumped in and disabled valiant Grenben. It was down to Teklin now, fighting alone against the Deep.
In classic Teklin style, he steps up and downs both Pooner boys. If I had an army of Teklin, I could rule the world. As it were, I did not and the Eel Sorcerer quickly finished off Teklin and took the field to victory. While I was busy scrambling and clawing my way out of the jaws of defeat, the Deep were able to activate the Waystones four times. Forced to deal with the Deep full time, the gnomes were unable to activate even one Waystone.
The Deep Wins! 4 – 0
The Deep’s team of Pooners were destroyed so they rolled on the injury chart and were fine. Grenben and Keltin/Nok were destroyed as well. D’Chro searched the battlefield and found Grenben to be fine and seemed to find a heroic purpose to his defeat (gained one valor). Nok seemed to not fair as well and one of his horns was crushed by the Shark Warrior (most powerful attack is at -1 damage).
Word of the battle spreads and the Adversaries gain 20 influence for activating 4 Waystones and the Deep secured 2 gold for their dark master. Activating zero Waystones, Greyrock was forgotten and gained zero influence but Teklin hid a gold in his boot before being taken down. We felt that result was a little harsh for a first game so we decided the loser would get half the influence of the victor. Word of the gnomes complete defeat but complete survival proved that D’Chro was not as weak and inconsequential as previously thought.