Christmas Games 2022 part two

Our second Christmas game (or more precisely games) this year took place on 30th of December when Jamie and I were joined by five other gamers for the latest incident in the Song of Pavis campaign entitled A Treasure for Whitewall.

Regulars here may recall previous episodes. On the other hand, it's been so long since the last game, perhaps a reminder is in order. 

Protect and Serve - Jaxarte Whyded accidentally interrupts an incident on the streets of Pavis.

Raid on Ogre Island - a confused melée in the Big Rubble.

A Foggy Day in Pavis - yet again, Jaxarte finds himself involved in events he doesn't understand.

Part of the challenge of organising these Christmas games is that I often don't know how many players I'm going to have and not all games systems work perfectly in a multi-player environment. Song of Blades and Heroes works fine with two or three players but if you have to wait for five other players to finish their turn it can be a bit pedestrian. I decided I would run two or three linked one-on-one games simultaneously. These would be as follows:

1. Orlanthi rebels raid a warehouse in Pavis - they have a guided teleport matrix that will take one of them to a nominated location. Unfortunately for some reason it will only take them to a cave in the Vultures Country.
2. Another party of rebels will travel by boat down to the Vultures Country to intercept the escaping rebel from game 1 who hopefully will have stolen the Battle Banner of the EWF.
3. A third party of rebels will guard the riverside camp of the party in game 2. If attacked they'll be reinforced by Ostrich Rider mercenaries returning after guiding the game 2 party to the cave.

Game 3 could be played if I got five or six players or dropped otherwise. If I got a seventh player unexpectedly I would add the long-suffering Jaxarte Whyded as a further complication in game 1.

Game 1 was set on the streets of Pavis

The game 2 rebels approach the cave entrance led by the
Ostrich Rider mercenaries

Only a small number of rebels were left to guard the boats

In game 1 young gamer Josh ran the rebel raiding party. Unfortunately they never got close to overcoming Jamie's Lunars. It was almost as if the Lunars were expecting them and had strengthened the guards in and around the target warehouse!

 

Game 2 was much more one-sided. I'd hoped that the Trollkin bandits who had taken over the cave system would have been able to put up a better fight for their home but Mark, in his first game of SOBH, took a bit of a pounding from Andy's rebels despite the presence of a spirit of darkness in the tunnels.

It was nice to get some of my newer and more detailed dungeon sections into use. Resin casts from Zitterdes and Scotia featured.

Game 3 was also a bit one-sided, this time against the rebels. The thinly guarded camp was overrun by Morokanth (led by young gamer Sam) who made off with plenty of loot despite Gus's attempts to fight them off long enough for the Ostrich Riders to save the day.

In the end, the rebels failed to get into the warehouse. This didn't make too much of a difference as it turned out the banner they were after was a fake, planted by Lunar spymaster Gimgim the Grim to draw out previously unidentified rebels.

The rebels did manage to capture the caves and discovered therein a prize of great value - the missing sword and helm of Vingkot. These artifacts of the Gods' Age would be vital to the defenders of the besieged city of Whitewall if only they could be got there! However...

The rebels' riverside camp was overrun by Morokanth and many of their supplies were stolen.

Will the rebels be able to re-enchant the amulet to take the treasures to Whitewall or will they have to trek there across the trackless wastes of Prax? Find out (perhaps) in the next thrilling episode!