RPG Rumble in the Jungle

A couple of nights ago I had "my" roleplaying group round to continue the Warhammer Fantasy RPG "Death On The Reik" adventure. As usual a good time was had. I thought the PCs had finally started to weigh up odds at the start of the evening as they decided to re-capture their barge from a group of local guardsmen. Granted there were 12 longbows aimed at their heads as the remaining guards seized the boat, but the only confrontation involved some taunting and a (thankfully for them) poorly aimed response before deciding that disgression was the better part of valor and let the boat away. There have been nights where I'm sure they would have just waded right in - fate points to the fore! That may have been due to our usual Dwarven player (by that I mean he plays a dwarf. Weebaldy may be many things, but he's no dwarf!) calling off ill - but who can say?




My anticipation of the dawn of a new age of roleplaying as soon put to rest by the next main action where there was the opportunity of an impromptu ambush of some enemy forces. As ever all the genius ideas were pulled out of the hat and put into action all at the same time. The Thief cleric Grendal went off on a flanking move. Unfortunately no-one backed her up and she moved upwind of the scout beastman alerting the enemy force and leaving herself alone and outnumbered. Kislev (one of the groups warriors) decided to spend more than half the battle putting a cloak further down the forest trail to a place that the enemy forces never reached. Everyone else did the standard ambush tactic of hiding except the Heinrich, other human warrior, in the party who climbed a tree to get in a surprise attack from above.

The battle quickly broke down to 3 areas:
1)

 Grendal, all alone and outnumbered, was quickly hacked down. But somehow managed not only to remain conscious but also kill one of the guards with a mace whilst failing to stand up every round, much to everyone's bemusement.





2)

Up in the tree tops the Heinrich waited for his opportunity to pounce. And waited, and waited, and waited before finally leaping down onto his unsuspecting foe, missing completely and injuring himself (que hilarity round the table). To his credit he did manage to get back up and wade into the fight with good results.



3)

On the Path. Geddi, the dwarf, promptly charged in, killed the beastman and battled with a portion of the foot soldiers. The leading black knight had taken to battle with the new fresh (and unpainted) member of the party whose inexperience was showing as he tripped over tree root after tree root to reach his position. Fortunately the mage helped him out with a constant stream of fireballs (which always seem to be way too powerful for a Level 1 Battle spell!)


With their leader gone the remaining enemy foot soldiers fled, only to be mopped up some carefully aimed arrows from Kislev, who had finally made it back to the battle scene after leaving a cloak or rancid dwarf handkerchief further down the path. Better late than never.

With all the action, half baked plans (which mostly came off to some degree) and hilarity at our fellow players expense it just reminds me why this is so much more enjoyable than playing on the computer. Roll on next session...