12 – Phantasmic Spheres

Following our encounters with clouds of green gas, our warbands took a break to rest and then ventured deeper into the Catacombs of the Evrenbright. There we discovered clouds of phantasmic energy drifting near treasure in a cluster of chambers. For this game we played the 2nd scenario from the Catacombs of the Evrenbright mini-campaign from Spellcaster 1 – Phantasmic Spheres. The scenario features three circles of phantasmic energy that drift randomly and force Will rolls from anyone who comes into contact with them.

Things started off in my wife’s favor with our pre-battle spellcasting. I failed to cast Animal Companion with both of my spellcasters and only successfully cast Brew Potion once. Failing to cast Animal Companion was a big hit since it meant I’d have two fewer figures in this fight than her. Both of my wife’s spellcasters were successful casting Awareness to give her a big advantage on initiative.

Feeling disadvantaged from the start, my goal for the battle was to claim at least two treasures. Given the layout of the board, my plan was to grab the closest treasure to my starting edge and then use crumble to access one that was in a chamber only otherwise open to the central chamber. In order to make sure I’d have time to grab those two, I’d also have my wizard lead a group cautiously towards the central treasure and then my tracker and second thief would put a bit of pressure on a treasure token on the other side of the central treasure.

Needless to say, that plan didn’t really survive contact with my wife’s warband. One of her rangers got a lucky shot against one of my thieves leaving him wounded, and she got close enough to the isolated treasure I was hoping to use crumble to collect that it was no longer going to be easy to claim.

Worried about how the battle was going, I took a gamble and charged my barbarian into her wizard. Luckily, it paid off big with a critical hit that took her wizard out of the fight. That felt like a huge swing in my favor.

My wife wasn’t going to give up easily though. My barbarian was soon outnumbered three-to-one. Two zombies wandered on to my battlefield edge that removed my safe route off the board. My apprentice also went down to a crossbow bolt from my wife’s demon hunter. My tracker was also stuck in hand-to-hand combat with my wife’s fast moving war hound.

My barbarian managed to hold his ground for a while and even take out one of his assailants, but he then went down to my wife’s remaining man-at-arms and mystic warrior. Meanwhile, her demon hunter was closing in on the door that I had opened with Crumble, and my tracker escaped from the war hound only to fall to an arrow from her ranger.

While my archer was on track to escape with one treasure token, I was holding two others, but my odds didn’t look good for actually getting them off of the board. I split my two treasure carries up a bit in hopes of my wife splitting her pursuing soldiers too while keeping them close enough for my wizard to help a bit. My wife’s apprentice used Fool’s Gold to nab the treasure token my thief had been carrying away, so my thief went on the offensive to buy my apothecary and wizard time to flee. She got lucky and stabbed my wife’s man-at-arms with a critical hit, but didn’t last much longer against her ranger.

As my wizard and apothecary continued towards the board edge, their last real obstacle was my wife’s demon hunter. My wizard cast Strength on himself and charged into hand-to-hand combat with his staff to ensure my apothecary could escape with the treasure. Luckily, he managed to take down the demon hunter and walk away from the brutal fighting.

In the end, my wife had collected three treasure tokens, but I managed to hit my goal of securing two of them. Both of us had a lot of injury rolls to make and they didn’t go great. Three of my wife’s specialists (demon hunter, ranger, and mystic warrior) ended up badly wounded. My barbarian who has been with me since the beginning of the campaign died from his injuries.

For treasure, my warband found a grimoire of Write Scroll, a Ring of Teleportation, and 40gc. My wife’s warband recovered a grimoire of Planar Tear, a two-handed weapon giving +2 Will, and 260gc.

The Druid’s Warband

• Audric Silverbeard the Druid (+3 levels: +1 Health, improved Animal Companion, learned Wizard Eye)
• Roslin the Apprentice
• Jormund the Barbarian (dead)
• Nils the Tracker
• Dimitri the Archer
• Red the Demon Hunter (now recovered)
• Rhane the Thief
• Raven the Apothecary
• Lucia the Thief
• Jarl the Bear
• Diego the Treasure Hunter (new hire)

I’m still planning to cast Animal Companion before the next game to add a Snow Leopard and a Wolf to my warband. My base has a kennel to accommodate the wolf, and Lucia will stay at my inn if I manage to add back a snow leopard.

The Trickster’s Warband

• Freya the Trickster (+2 levels: improved Telekinesis, learned Mind Control)
• Ophelia the Apprentice
• Emilia the Ranger (badly wounded)
• Ronald the Ranger
• Keima the Mystic Warrior (badly wounded)
• Jack the Demon Hunter (badly wounded)
• Draco the Man-at-Arms
• Dany the Woman-at-Arms
• Scarlet the Assassin
• Annabelle the Thief
• Thaddeus the War Hound