As the group walked the streets they saw a huge half orc beset with an imp, flitting about just out of range of his greatclub.   Springing into action, the heroes ran down to assist, only to be ambushed by the imp’s friends.  Many blows and stabs were turned aside by the infernally imbued skin.  However, the barbarian seemed to do well with mighty, two handed, downward swings.

Full of poison and with Olgun on the ground, the battle seemed to slowly be turning to the party’s favour as Tusk slowly but methodically smashed the imps into the ground.  Half a minute after the skirmish broke out a flight of pseudo dragons flew in to lend a hand against the hated imps.  With a few parting shots the party watched the little devils flee at top speed with a group of pseudo dragons hot on their heels.

Introductions were made with the Half-orc.  “You have any shiny metal?”  It seemed the brute wanted to buy some slaves. No, wait, he wanted to buy a friend out of slavery. Well, that’s pretty noble, he’ll fit right in with this party.  Agreeing to stick together the group made their way to the church of Sheylyn to deliver a holy symbol they recovered from Lamm’s stash.

The entire church was converted into a field hospital, with wounded civilians lying all about the floor.  Even though they were a bit too busy to worry about a returned symbol, the priests appreciated the gesture. Young Justin, offered to cure the party of their ailments, and get their sluggish, gluey blood to run smoothly again.  The offer to stay overnight was gratefully accepted.

The bleak, gray dawn revealed a tense, quiet. The looting and rioting had abated somewhat, but smoke still lingered in the air, and pockets of fighting could still be heard sporadically.

The doors of Acadamae were shut tight, with a dome of energy extending above the walls.  Signs in all language brusquely told everyone to leave or face painful death.  A more profession message written in magic informed all students and faculty that they are locked out until “the flower showed the way.”

Turning away the group noticed a group of labourers hassling a young noble and his servant.  Watching from a short distance was a man in leather armour and bow.  With an arrow nocked and ready for any trouble that might spark. Perhaps to save the noble, or maybe to rob him?  In any case, Lazarus approached the cluster of thugs and convinced them that all Varisians needed to stick together at times like this and taking out their anger on a random noble wasn’t going to solve anything.  With grunts of accent the commoners skulked off.

Amin Jagger of House Jagger was very appreciative of the rescue, but only had a paltry few platinum to pay the party in recompense.  They were happy to do it and offered to escort him safely home.  A friendly contact in House Jagger might come in handy. At this point they talked with the watching archer, Zack, who seemed like an alright sort of person.  He was watching the noble from a distance, hoping to keep him safe.  Together they struck out for the far side of the city.

Not much farther they heard the deep, hollow reverberations of a Hell Knights speaking from within their fearsome helmets.  They were stopping an old woman and her teenage granddaughter, accusing them of stealing apples.  Without any regard to the Hell Knights’ capacity as law enforcers and with deep contempt Tusk charged the group and bashed a knight a little bit.

“Violater!” “criminal!”  The Hell Knights fell upon the barbarian and cut him up badly, nearly dropping him.  The rest of the party rushed in with liberal applications of grease and touch attacks. A long and deadly combat broke out.  The Hell Knight’s armour was frustrating, but ended up being a huge liability to the knights as they struggled to stand up in the puddles of grease that surrounded them.  Frustrated and desperate the knights couldn’t do much else than cry out their contempt, “law breaker!”  “Liberal!”  “Hippy!”

The group fought together like a well… greased… machine.  Olgun proved his worth, by keeping the knights on the ground with his grease spells.  Malthus managed to nickel and dime on knight to death by splattering him repeatedly with acid.  Lazarus made a few daring reaches to touch the knights with magical attacks.  Zach kept harrying the knights with his arrows, incurring their wrath, and keeping them too busy and pinned down to chase after the magic casters.  Tusk and Raphael played a curious game of yo-yo, with half-orc repeatedly dropping and getting healed up again.  His orc fury took an unusually potent form and sustained him throughout the battle instead of just once.

With a crushed skull, a face scarred with acid, and arrows through the back, three knights lay dead.  One was still breathing shallowly.  Raphael decided to do the right thing and stabilized him, refusing to finish him off, knowing that the knight would report them. Hopefully, someone else would come across his body and finish him off…  The party tried on the fancy full plate armour, but realized how foolhardy it would be to walk around in Hell Knight armour. Even a helmet or a shield would draw unwanted questions.

Turning around, they realized that the old lady and girl were long gone.  So was Amin Jagger.  Apparently, he didn’t have a desire to be affiliated with cop killers.  Somewhat dejected at losing their noble contact, the party headed off to the church of Callistria, which is sometimes mistook for a brothel.  They returned the succubi, ivory statuette that they recovered from Lamm.  Supermodel Gloria gratefully accepted the returned item and healed the party from the wounds and afflictions.  They also accrued some goodwill and were allowed to spend the night and partake in personal rites with a priestess of their liking.  It was a magical night, sexual and religious and unlike anything any of them experienced before.  Some party members gained insight and learned to better align their masculine and feminine selves to make themselves more persuasive with women.

In the morning Lazarus revealed that they killed some Hell Knights, at which point they were politely kicked out of the church.  But they were told to try some of  the nearby stores to sell their loot.  A polite knock on the door might get the shop owner to open up. After one or two unsuccessful attempts to assuage some suspicious shop owners, the party got a friendly reception with Otto.  His family was sitting around the table eating breakfast, with a distant relative of theirs, Elmo.  Unfortunately for everyone, Elmo was drunk and in a talkative mood.  He mistook Lazarus for his buddy from Sandpoint.  Through his barely coherent ramble about fencing, training, missing fingers and some teenage bitch Malthus finally placed the face: he was a popular Captain of the Guard. He’s liked for his evenhandedness and resistance to the encroachment of Hell Knights on various jurisdictions.

At one point, Tusk badly offended Otto and nearly got kicked out of his shop.  “How the Abyss should I know how much slaves cost, you dirty greeny?  Go back to your swamps and take your slaver ways with you, snaggle tooth!”  The rest of the party was able to explain Tusk’s noble task of freeing his friend from slavery.  Somewhat mollified, but still disbelieving Otto dealt with the party and gave them advice to sell their magic loot.

Coming and going between two shops, buying and selling magical goods and mundane, the party realized how much Elmo was imposing on Otto and his family.  And besides, this was no place for a Captain of the Guard.  He should be on duty at a time like this.  They reminded Elmo of this oaths and duties.  With a glint of intelligence piercing his sodden expression, he nodded dully, and got up with one more for the road, and headed off to report in.

At this point the party decided to try their hand, and return the amulet to the queen.  Perhaps the Palace Corps would let them in, they might as well try.  They made their way up the huge pyramid, on the Great Ramp.  At the door some Palace Corps challenged them.  They didn’t mention anything about any fallen Hell Knights, so far so good.  After showing the amulet they were eventually allowed entry.  They were briefed by Sabrina (the teenaged bitch) who was resplendent in gleaming full plate and long sword:  companion, advisor, bodyguard, and rumored lover of the queen.  Somewhat patronizingly she ushered them into the nearly empty throne room.

Thanking them for returning her pretty bauble at such distressing times the queen offered the reward of 12 ingots of gold inside a fancy silver box.  The party noticed that the ingots were all stamped with a likeness of the queen.  Although suspicious, some of the more wise characters realized that with two days and the assistance of magic, it was somewhat reasonable to expect new minting this early.  It could just be another way that the queen is trying to establish her control of the city, amidst the all the power plays that must surely be broiling beneath the surface.  In any case, the queen sensed the moral and upright character of the group of heroes and asked them to report to the local guard station to assist in maintaining order.

After being safely escorted to The Citadel, the party met with Field Marshal Lara Croft: A busty, woman with a long pony tail, shiny mithral armour and twin pistols at her hips.  Only citizens of Alkenstar have firearms, and even then, they don’t usually take them outside of that country.  Croft either obtained those guns above board, or under the table. Duel, theft, assassination, diplomatic gift, smuggling?  Regardless, it speaks volumes that she would brazenly display them.

Lara Croft tasked the heroes with tracking down Vince, a member of the guard who went rogue and pulled a few of his companions with him.  His desertion must be dealt with, hopefully with non-lethal means.  If it comes down to it, Croft understands if the party needs to defend themselves with deadly force. After all, Vince brought this down on his own head.

Stepping out of the Citadel’s door and heading out to All the World’s Meat, Malthus recalls something he heard lately while speaking with shopkeepers.  If you ask for ‘the night’s special cuts’ you can hire out the Cow Hammer Boys as thugs, to take care of your problems for you.  Interesting side businesses for ex-guards: butchery and hired muscle.

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Cygnar won the toss and opted to deploy and move first, as soon as Cygnar started casting multi shot, fast move horror spells I got a sinking feeling in my gut and sure enough the trenchers lined up to take… hmmm 20 odd shots into the Khadorian deployment zone… as luck would have it I’d deploted deep. The only models in range were the Kayazy’s (well in range but not in range), the widowmakers and the Shocktrooper. The Cygnar sneak attack collapsed with only 2 widowmakers and stray Greylord and Holt (killed by an errant grenade) . With the trenchers under the effect of temporal accel, they were done for two turns, the Assassins rushed forward and made a right mess of the counter attack, doing little damage. Meanwhile Fenris lopped off Maxwel’s head and booted it back where it came from.

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Turn 2 Cygnar advanced, did little damage other than blowing Fenris into the air with a Mule hit, sadly for the lancer he lander right next door and it had already activated.  The main Cygnar army moved up, considered popping feats and opted not to. Khador continued the Trencher mop up, the Witch charged into combat killing three trenchers and getting some nice soul food.  Gorman popped some smoke and the widowmakers made rather hard work of not doing much damage to the cygnar cavalry under Arcane shield. Fenris stood up and made very short work of the Lancer.

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Turn 3 Cygnar didn’t really lead to much, with the trencher sneak attack failed they were lacking in a back up plan and the Cavalry was bogged down in rough terrain facing the Behmoth widowmakers and Aiyana. The mules fired, missed and did little damage, more consideration to feats, decided against and then all hell broke loose.. The last trenchers died.  Sorcha moved up and it was a whole world of icey pain, catching both casters, both Mules, Laddermore and the Piper. This was followed by a tempest and it was time to clean up . Gorman popped smoke, scrappy slipped through the secret paths and sprang on Haley, Frozen she was easy meat and swiftly pinned and reduced to a few hitpoints, Fenris cleaved off the arm of one of the Mules and the Shocktroopers blew the cannon arm of the other one.

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Turns 4 to the end saw the Cygnar army in pannic as they failed to kill scrappy, Haley, and her support group were polised off and suddenly there was just bart, three StormLances and the fake Aiyana & Master Holt left. The Old Witch popped her feat to ensure no Cygnar stragglers got over excited. Bart held out, but was frozen every turn and while his Armour kept him alive, it was only until Eyriss arrived to stop that and the the Demo boys moved in splattered him all over the floor.

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All in all a massacre, Khador casualties amounted to a few scratches here and there and one unit of Greylords. Cygnar were left realing from the loss and review the trencher sneak attack as a viable attack option. For Khador it was stunning success, the synergy between Sorcha and the Old Witch was devestating. Scrappy once again did an awesome job but the hero of the day was Gorman who set up the cloud that enable Scrappy to jump into the frozen heart of cygnar and take out Haley.

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FIona’s spells proved to be marginal in the battle other than her pow 12 strike that should have won the game when Vlad was left exposed but crappy dice saved Khador.  Vlad on the other hand used his Wind spells and Impalor to great effect, shutting down the Mule until it was engaged and using his wicked frost spell to cause the Behemoth’s armour piercing attacks to do horrific damage.

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Once the mercs were enagged the battle was never really going to go the mercs way, though after the Beserket killed the Mule and then Blew up, there was a moment when it looked like they had a chance, then the Behemoth killed another Jack to put the melee battle beyond dispute.

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At that moment though Vlad was left exposed with no focus left and no BoK running, hit twice by Fiona’s pow 12 spell, once with a boosted damage, he was very lucky to be still standing. Turn 5 Khador he returned the favour to Fiona, charing up and impaling her with his first attack.

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Another battle that I could have lost,  bad roll on Fiona’s attack saved my over confident arse from being defeated.  350 battles are really becoming very fast, I remember reading the rules when we first got them and thinking “15 Minutes!! are they insane!” . Now if only I can beat those bloody trolls at 350… then I will be happy!

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Round 3 “What!” cries the Cygnar player, demands to see card. Cygnar retreat… Haley activates Temporal Barrier , trundle trundle.  Everblight activate, shuffle around a bit, Saeryn discovers Breath Stealer… zap zap and the Cygnar Jacks are reduced to shuffling too…skip to round 5 Everblight, the past rounds being very much the same thing and the only thing to die was a Shredder that get too close to Haley’s gun.

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Round 5. Raek had ShadowStalk active on a Jack, as it shuffles around, he moves 3″ to get a nice line on  Haley. Haley keeps one focus, not expecting too much trouble with Temporal Barrier running but does want to stop all her Jacks being slowed by Breath Stealer, so has a focus handy for blocking at least one spell.  Everblight have other ideas… Saeryn targets Haley,  first attack blocked, second boosted and hits. The Raek then advances and latches on to Haley hits with his jaw, and strikes twice with his tail, hitting twice and getting just enough penetration with the last attack to bring Haley to her knees coughing up blood.

Kris did an excellent job of shuttigng down the Khador Jacks, they spent most of the game on the floot, system locked, netted or generally out of the game and the Devestator ended the game with no damage and no kills either. Butcher spent most of the match disrupted and his only contribution being to kill Eyriss on turn 5 after she had driven him even more insane through four turns of disruption. Many attempts to kill Eyriss failed until the Butcher had her kiss Lola.

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However this left Vlad free to give Khador “S&P” love on a constant basis and that really made the difference. The Battle was very even, and though the mercs locked down a good half of the Khador army with a combo Magnus / Bart feat , by turn 5 both armies were still pretty much intact with only the odd solo and unit on each side destroyed. However Kahdor turn 5 saw the Rocketeers move up and nail Magnus. Two hits and he was dead. 2 Jacks shut down and suddely Bart was alone.  His Jacks got nailed the same turn, two loosing their guns and he got hit by the Khador Eyriss meaning he was disrupted with no focus for his last turn, not an ideal situation.

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Turn 6 the mercs advanced and though they killed a couple of winterguard they did nothing more than clear the charge lane for the Man-o-War Drakhun to charge Bart. Three flying steel attacks were called for and it took just two to cut down Bart and bring victory to Khador. Neither Khador caster seeing much action and Vlad only attacking in the last turn to take out the Mule. The Mule it must be said, once again prooved to be a beast!

1. Wuffy – Cryx
2. Chris – Khador (P2 / W 2 / L 0 / D 0 )
3. Steve – Khador (P1 / W 0 / L 1 / D 0 )
4. Kobby – Trolls (P2 /W 1 / L 1 / D 0 )
5. Kris – Mercenaries (P1 /W 0 / L 1 / D 0 )

So far, no challenger has won a battle in any ladder match!