Fantastic Scuffles - How to slay your dragon...

*Record Scratch* *Freeze Frame* "Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation …"

Andrew and I continued our gnomes and goblins campaign this week with another encounter. I had spent some of the loot accrued over the last two glorious victories to hire a new minion for the bog goblins, this time a little chap with a net and the trapper trait. Otherwise, the parties were the same as previously: Clachtoll the unstoppable wyvern and his little gobo jockey, Nigg, along with their two minions (archer and trapper), against the gnomes, Hrolf, Haakon and Hans, and their two fox minions. 

Rolling for objectives, both parties ended up with NPC focused missions. The gnomes had to keep the peace, ensuring no NPCs were slain, while not making the first aggressive action. As for the goblins, they were trying to win over the hearts and minds of the local populace, striving to convince them the join the boggy gobby side rather than the notoriously nosey gnomes. 

Due to the objective requirements (and Andrew's high rolling), we ended up with 14 NPCs scattered across the table. With not enough other suitable figures, the NPCs manifested as kobolds, scurrying around the country side, presumably foraging for food and scavenging for shiny things.

Early on, the wyvern's impressive resolve and presence helped convince some nearby kobold NPCs to join the goblins, while the puny gnomes were much less convincing. 

As the gnomes moved up the table, the trapper went forward to interfere with the campaign of gnomish propaganda, forgetting that the gnomes were ephemeral and really had to catch. Sadly, the gnomes managed to persuade a few more kobolds to join them and then Haakon caught the goblin netter unsupported and dispatched him. 

Meanwhile, the goblin archers was skulking by the trapper's trap, loosing inconsequential arrows in the general direction of the gnomes.

His moments in the party were also sadly numbered, as Hrolf and the foxes closed in and took him down.

Throughout the encounter, Clachtoll was trying to use his bilious blast to maximise casualties among the clumped gnomes and kobolds. Over five turns he only managed to launch a single blast which caused major havoc but failed to take anyone out of action.

As the goblin minions fell, the gnomes and their increasing horde of kobold NPCs converged on the wyvern. He bravely fought on, Nigg managing to take one fox down (although the critter would later recover), but the pair could not hold back the jibbering horde of little stabby beggars.

Clachtoll fell, then Nigg fell to the ground - unwounded thanks to his own heavy armour, but now completely alone. At that point, he bottled and the encounter well and truly went to the gnomes. For what it's worth, Clachtoll recovered with only horrific scarring...

This game really put the NPC auto-activation rules through their paces and resulted in a few small changes and clarifications being written up. Again, three games into a campaign and we are feeling the lack of loot to allow the parties to grow (although Clachtoll has now earned enough experience to buy a new trait), so there will be more changes working into the post game sequences to facilitate more rapid growth.

Onwards and upwards!