Widowers Wood, Chapter 3.5

Winter, dear friends, is creeping up upon us... and here in Japan, that means that It. Is. Cold.  Brrrrr.  No central heating means that inside the house it is only nominally warmer than outside.  Good news for your models, I guess, since there is no danger that you may accidentally leave them near a heating vent and come back to find them a bit droopy... bad news for pretty much everything else.  It's hard to work up the motivation to start painting when you don't want to leave the protection of your warm spot on the couch.  Luckily I'm looking like I won't have too much to work on.  I'm almost finished with the Testament of Menoth, and then I need to finish one more warcaster, a few solos, and maybe one unit, plus two and a smidgen models for DTB that I've been working on.

So, to chase the chill away, gather close, and listen in to the continuing tales of our heroes of the Widower's Wood, and we impart on our next step in their story... and I have only two exciting words to describe the next chapter.... Kickstarter.  Exclusive.  WOOOOOT!  That's right, when I got my kickstarter for Widower's Wood, it came with a zillion goodies, and several of them were extra adventures, three for Widower's Wood and another three for the Dead Man Walking expansion.  The Widower's Wood exclusives came with a additional chapter for after the 3rd chapter, the 5th chapter, and a floating extra that can go anywhere before the finale.  We've been rolling a die after each chapter to see if we're going to play the floating chapter, but no luck so far, and so here we are, chapter 3 finished, and time to bring on Chapter 3.5, Treasure Hunt, our first kickstarter exclusive.  But before we jump into it...

Announcements:
We have the next set of dates for the Fukuyama Gaming Club!  Yes, it's going to be a great new year!  New Year in Japan is a busy time, but this is definitely something to look forward to through the trying times ahead!
December 17
January 21
February 11
And that will bring us to the end of the winter!  Also, the Saijo Gaming Club in Hiroshima City will be meeting for the last time this year on December 10.  And don't forget about the Las Vegas Open January 26-28 that some of our good friends from Iwakuni Air Base will be attending!
And a quick announcement about the new skirmish game from Privateer Press, Company of Iron.  Now, I don't really know much about Company of Iron, but after reading No Quarter Prime #1, I'm pretty excited to learn more for one very, VERY good reason... Agata, the Farrow Slaughterhauser that I've been playing in Widower's Wood, my piggy princess, IS A MAIN CHARACTER IN COMPANY OF IRON!!!  Squee!  And she is known, now and forever, as the "Queen of Carnage."  So, if you've fallen head over heels for our porcine heroine, you may want to check it out!

The Story so far...
Last time we met, our intrepid heroes had stopped the Gatorman ritual to raise an army of Swamp Shamblers that Rasheldonak, the power crazy, water fearing Gatorman Witch Doctor was going to use to take over the swamp.  Continuing their way to find Rasheldonak, our team moves along the river in the falling rain and comes across a team of Gatormen and Swamp Gobbers trying to free crates of weapons from the muddy embankment.  Certainly those would do more good in our hands than theirs, so it's up to us to get to the crates first!

As usual, the Queen of Carnage came to me (I'll bite the fingers of any who try and take her from me, HA!) DTB took over Olo, and Leland got both Vaskis and Skarg.  We had quite a bit of XP saved up, so Agata picked up Meat Thresher, Skarg got Marksman, and Olo took Wily, Outrider and Trailblazer, all of which will make him "Side Quest Guy."  We got the Side Quest bug last chapter, and now we must have more!  And Olo is just the Croak to get them for us.

Chapter 3.5, Treasure Hunt (KICKSTARTER EXCLUSIVE MISSION)
At the bottom of the game board is a chest marker for each column on the map.  As we play, these "promising locations" will be moved up their respective columns.  It's us against the two Gobbers to check the locations to see if they hold either of the two chests.  We need to open both chests before the Gobbers can leave the board with either one of them to win the game.  Woot!  This is a great chance to pick up some goodies!  But there could be some trouble... reoccurring Bokors... that could be a problem... And we lose if even a single crate makes it off the board... the good news is that there are only two Gobbers, and they don't respawn after they are killed, so looks like we might want to take them out first... then we just have to worry about Bokor and Gatormen and Tatzelworms, oh MY!!  Well, better get to work!

Bokor sure are a pain in the ....

 We started the game at the bottom of the board.  Since we didn't know where the promising locations were going to end up, Olo took advantage of his new abilities to go after the nearest of the side quest cards, just on the other side of some impassable terrain from us.  Everyone else tried to just move out towards where we might be helpful in later rounds.  Round 2 brought some High Water as our event card, flooding the board and making it hard for all of us except Olo to move around... and as Olo tried to keep going towards the Side Quest, of course he got jumped by no less than two Gatormen and a Tatzelworm!  Poor Olo!  Agata charged another Tatzelworm, using her great power that allows her to ignore rough terrain, and smushed it into fish food!

Choppa choppa into fish food!

Luckily for Olo, Skarg's got an ability that lets him shoot into a melee combat without having to worry about hitting his friends, and cleared out some of the awfulness that was threatening Olo, freeing him up to get closer to the side quest card...

Round Three saw the waters recede and the Swamp Gasses come out, making us take hazard rolls if we charge this round.  A Gatorman near Agata moved a space, and the Slaughterhauser used a feat card to immediately charge and kill him, and passed her hazard roll to take no damage from the gas!  Skarg and Vaskis got a little stuck in the back field, but they were doing a good job of killing Gatormen and Bokor to keep them off of Agata and Olo, who finally made it to the first side quest card.  Turns out, this side quest is actually a QUEST!  It's the first of a set of three cards, and it came with a ton of XP... the other two cards may show up in later games!

Skarg lets loose!

One of the Gobbers made it to the first of the promising locations, but after digging around for a moment, realized that there was nothing there, and the first of the six location tokens vanished from the board.  And this brought us to this games' first Menacing Ripples event card... sigh.  At least we didn't tie.  The second Gobber tried a location chest and it vanished as well, but not before he was dangerously close to Agata, who promptly killed him for his efforts.  This left her a little exposed and alone, but hey, she can handle it, right?  Another Mendacing Ripples card, the second in a row!  WTH?  And of course, this time there is a tie... between Skarg and Vaskis!  Uh-oh, they look like they could be in trouble!  Vaskis is pretty slippery, though, and instead of getting stuck in a huge melee, he whisked away and checked another location for a chest that promptly vanished... three locations left, two of which have chests!

Don't worry, Skarg's got this

Agata found herself in a little bit of trouble now, surrounded by two Gatormen and a Tatzelworm... with a Bokor just a space away, egging on the Tatzelworm and literally standing on one of the location markers... she does have her great power that allows her to take a melee attack against every character in her space for every attack she makes, but this might be a little out of her ability, and she started taking some pretty heavy damage... though she did manage to kill off one Gatorman and the Tatzelworm, leaving one in her square and the Bokor staring over her shoulder.  Vaskis started making his way her direction to help out while Skarg continued to bring the pain to all the villains around the back of the board.

Hey guys!  Nice weather, eh?

Olo made it to one of the remaining markers, and not only did he find a chest in the space, but managed to break it open and found an Orboros Dagger hidden inside!  Ooohh, that's a good find for Olo!  It'll help him a bit in melee where he's a little bit weak.  Only two possible locations for the last chest left!

Loot!

Round seven... only three rounds left... still one Gobber left on the board... but we're in not too bad of a shape.  Except for Agata, who is in a bit of trouble.  The event card gave us one we haven't seen before... Buzzard Beetle Swarms!  They attack any character who is in a space with another character, making those people take hazard rolls.  We all made it out okay, but it could have spelled the end of the line for Agata if she had rolled badly.  Vaskis moved into Agata's square to help withstand some of the punishment she was getting.

You got this one, Vaskis?

Skarg made it to the location marker near him, but turned out to be another red herring, leaving the marker next to Agata definitely containing a chest!  The Bokor charged into Agata and Vaskis' space, but because of the targeting priority, he attacked Vaskis, who, sneaky little Blackclad that he is, managed to evade the attack.  And lovely Agata waltzed out of combat, passing both of her combat checks, and found the final chest!

Looky what I found!

 In the same action as finding a chest you can make a strength challenge to break it open, and, of course, Agata is strong as only a Farrow Slaughterhauser can be, and broke it open no problem.  Inside, amazingly, the perfect loot for a Farrow, the Bone Fetish!  I mean, what are the chances that she would find the card that fits her background story that well?  It must be fate!

More loot!

And with that, our heroes claimed the victory!

Conclusion:

We got a bit scattered!

Bokor are sure a pain in the booty... three wounds each (guaranteeing that a single character cannot kill them in one round), beast master to push nearby beasts to greater ferocity, and a magical attack that makes you lose feat cards.  But you do get a lot of XP for killing them.  And we killed a LOT of Bokor this game.  By the end of the game, our treasury tile was full to bursting! 

Yummy XP, drool drool

 Looks like the start of next game is going to see all of us getting some new abilities that will help turn the tide in our favor!

Anyone who's looking for a game, we'll catch you on the 17th!