Connor, the Baron's Game Warden in Candlewick village, stepped out of his half-timbered house as the sky began to get lighter behind the trees to the east. The mayor was walking up the lane toward him. Connor set his gear down on the porch and greeted the mayor with a nod.
"They didn't come back?" Connor asked as the mayor stepped up.
"No." The mayor looked at the bow, quiver and haversack at Connor's feet. "You sure this is a good idea?"
Connor shrugged. "I'm just going scouting. Nothing else." Neither of them knew what had happened to Sir Titus and Alaine. Only that they should have returned by sun-up. "I'll be back for supper," Connor added.
"And if you don't come back at all?"
Connor grinned. "Then you'll know you have a real problem."
Connor knew in which direction Titus and Alaine had set off. Following their trail wasn't difficult. He came on the ruin a little before noon, and the tracks went from a simple marching pattern into the frenetically scattered dance indicative of a fight. No tracks led away from the ruin. "Damn."
Connor examined the tracks more closely, and saw that Alaine's had gone as far as the shadowy arches of the ruin itself. "Double damn," he muttered between clenched teeth.
Even in the bright noon-day sun, the ruin gave him the creeps. He didn't know for sure what he'd find inside, but since all the tracks from the fight belonged to Titus and Alaine, he had some idea. Their adversary had left no tracks at all. No living thing he knew of could do that.
Maybe enough midday sunlight would reach down into the ruin so that whatever it was wouldn't want to stir from its dark slumber. He nocked an arrow as he stepped into the shade of the arches.
"I'm just going scouting," he thought. "Just going scouting."
Once inside, the only place to go was down a narrow stairway that opened into a large underground chamber. As he had hoped, sunlight somehow filtered through openings high in the chamber walls and pierced the gloom like rays of sun coming through a cloud, rays that glittered and sparkled on the motes of dust that floated through them.
In the center of the floor, in the middle of a circle of strange figures traced on the stone, lay Titus and Alaine, side by side, pale as if in death, but still slowly breathing. Their weapons lay at their feet.
Connor cautiously began to move toward them, when he heard the scrape of steel on a scabbard, and the clicking of boney feet on the flagstone floor. At least he didn't have to face the horror Titus and Alaine had the night before...
Dungeon Tile by Fat Dragon
The Board:
The scenario uses a 24" x 24" board set up as per the diagram.
Characters, Factions and Abilities:
Sir Titus (Barony) and Alaine (Barony): Both begin the game unconscious. At the end of each turn, each of them gets to make a will test. If successful, s/he breaks the sleep spell and can pick up her/his weapon to help Connor fight the next turn.
Game Warden Connor, Lowland Archer (Barony): Dead-Eye (gives him an improved chance to hit with his bow); Luck Shot (gives him an alternative improved shot with his bow); Dodge (allows him to try to avoid an attack made against him).
Two Skeletons (Bloodlord Undead): No special abilities.
The Wraith, though a formidable opponent at night, lies dormant during the day and will not come out in the sunlight, even within the ruin. It is his spell however that keeps Titus and Alaine asleep at the start of the game.
Game End: The game ends at the close of turn 10.
Victory: Based on VP. The Barony characters get 1 VP for each skeleton killed, 1 VP for each Barony character that escapes the ruin alive. The Bloodlord Undead get 2 VP for each Barony character still in the ruin at game end.
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