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The World of Georic 1989-Present

Monday, September 21, 2020

(SAVAGE MICE) #3 The Deserted Halfling Village

In the last episode, The Olde Farm, Wakanda had encountered a pair of halfling archers, who pleaded for someone to help them with a great evil that had befallen their village.

Unfortunately, the halfling duo told their tale of woe to the leader the Snakes, a notorious group of bandits.  Fortunately, none of the Snakes could keep their traps shut and word quickly spread to the Merry Mice and the G'ba Goblins.
The halfling village, stone watchtower already engulfed in smoke and flames. 
Tired from the fighting and wary of yet another ambush, all the leaders decidedly separately, to send an advance party to investigate these claims.

For the Merry Mice the leaders themselves, Robin Mouse, Mouse Marian, and Friar Buck took the journey (all Wild Cards/Heroes).
The front row of the Merry Mice (Maja - age 11)
The Snakes were a little short on "Hero" material, so Wakanda, Pinky the Archer, and a random Snake minion took the northern approach to the village.
Pinky and Wakanda (front) Minion is back row 2nd from left. - Millie - age 9
The Blue Goblins were a trickier situation, their leader, the shaman G'ba, hand been badly hurt in the last two raids, so the idea of him leading the advance party moments after the last raid might have sounded foolish.  It did to his second-in-command, Patches, who refused to follow.  Perhaps he was preparing to assume command of the gang once the shaman finally bit off more than he could chew.  

But accompanying the shaman was a goblin minion and the great Troll mercenary Wipes.  If the troll couldn't handle things, it would be a problem for all parties involved.
Front Row: Goblin minion and G'ba.  Back Row: Wipes the Troll (pretty obvious) - Dad - Age Too Old.
All the groups could see two things:  First, the halfling stone watchtower and smoke and flame pouring out of it.  Second, the village appeared to be completely deserted.

The Merry Mice spread out across the fields to enter the town, to not attract too much attention.  

Robin and Marion dashed over to the small mushroom farm for cover and came up with a large discovery (objective #1).  The mushrooms that they were growing were fireproof and might be used to help put out the tower fire. 

Friar Buck walked down the main road from the Olde Farm into the village.  As he passed the church, he could hear the solid *THWUNK* of an arrow lodging itself into the fence he was walking alongside.

The village was not completely deserted.

The Snakes entered from the north with completely different plans.  They liked bread, and raiding the wheat field seemed a much higher priority than saving some stupid village.

The smoke coming out of the field looked like a bad sign.  The hellhound pacing back and forth inside the field was good enough reason for Wakanda to look at other crops.
So, they hastily crossed the road, ran behind a house, prayed the creature had not seen them, and began plundering watermelons.
They're still in season?  Sweet!
 The goblin approach from the south seemed safe, no objectives, but the fire was a good distance away, and obviously no hellhounds to fight.

"We helps the stupidz halfling and we get a reward, then we take extra for the good job we did," G'ba the Shaman told the others as he passed a barn.

Suddenly the barn doors burst open in flames as not one, but TWO hellhounds emerged!
(Edit: Best picture of the game, and I forgot to add it orginally. Do'h!)
Back at the church, the Friar ran up the stairs of the belltower to investigate, only to be met by a rain of arrows coming down.  He decided retreating was the better form of survival and dashed out of the church and around a corner, out of sight from the belltower.

At the barn, G'ba's magical staff was completely ineffective as he kept stumbling back away from the hellhounds.  The troll was distracted by the scene of two giant mushrooms with feet running across the lane (The Merry Mice carrying mushrooms to the flaming tower).  His minion was far better, slaying the powerful beasts in one hit (with three raises for damage).

The second hellhound moved closer to the shaman, but two arrows from the direction of the church hit it in the head, and the creature dropped.

"Mushrooms with Legs" running across the lane.  
The hellhound from the field finally meandered over to the watermelon patch, trying to figure out the new scents it had detected.
Friar Buck stares in disbelief as the inevitable is about to happen.
 Realizing the gravity of the situation, the barbarian mousling took a watermelon, sliced it in half with his battle axe, and chucked a half of a watermelon at the monster.  It slammed into the hellhound's head, meat-side of the melon first.  The creature wailed in pain.

"It doesn't like watermelon! Chuck more at it!"

Quickly a rain of watermelon befell the beast, and before it could escape, the monster perished.
Robin Mouse caught sight of the burning barn and told Marion to continue to the tower.   There, he applied the mushroom to the fire... to no avail.
"No, no, stupid mouse," the goblin minion yelled.  "Don't rub the mushroom on the fire.  Carefully blot it out!"   Following the oddly knowledgable goblin, the barn fire was out in two rounds.

Wipes the troll was strolling up the lane when he discovered arrows sticking out of him.  Greatly upset, he walked right up to the church, climbed the tiny staircase, and yelled at the two halflings holed up in the belltower.

"Stop trying to hurt Wipes!  Wipes strongest of all!"
 Realizing the Troll was with the oddly helpful goblins, they thank him, apologized for making him target practice, and gave him two pies (their rations).  Wipes wandered out of the church, content.
A useless objective.  Obviously there was no bucket for the well.  
With all of the magical creatures dead, and the watchtower deemed a total loss, Robin Mouse ventured over to the village well to draw some water possibly save the fields.  Alas, he could find no bucket.

G'ba wandered over there to chastize the mousling, but he took could find to bucket to use to draw water.

The village was (mostly) saved and now we certainly have halflings in the game world.

Scenario notes:  Four objectives for the teams to look for were the Mushroom farm, the well, the church, and a cottage by the wheat field.  The Snakes ignored the wheat field on their weird adventure.  Everyone failed their objective roles on the well, the Merry Mice obviously got the mushroom, and those scared halfling archers in the belltower of the church were largely ineffective towards those visitors not associated with the Snakes.  Thank God they were awesome shots against the hellhoud, less G'ba could possibly bite it in three straight scenarios.  

For objective points, dead hellhounds, and fires put out (1 for each accomplished), I actually won!    The Goblins earned 3, the Merry Mice 2, and the Snakes got one for hellhound death by watermelon!

This scenario was initially inspired by "Deserted Village" on   Phil and Kati's Epic Wargaming Adventures

Here are the stats I found for a Hellhound in Savage Worlds.  I didn't use the creatures to their full potentials (I also didn't need ice to hurt them.  Watermelons did the trick.)  The Hellhounds were out of a Magic: The Gathering board game and painted by committee here.

Hellhound
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d10
Skills: Fighting d6, Notice d8, Stealth d10, Survival d8, Tracking d8
Charisma: -; Pace: 7; Parry: 5; Toughness: 9 (2)
Edges: Level Headed
Special Abilities
• Armour +2: Reddish-brown fur.
• Bite: Str+d4; Fire.
• Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
• Scent: Can navigate, track and detect creatures by scent (range 6", halved for upwind and doubled for downwind, doubled again for very strong scents). Only adjacent creatures can be pinpointed accurately.
• Extraplanar: Not native to the material plane, and can be targeted by Banish.
• Fast Runner: Roll d8 when running instead of d6.
• Evil: Affected by powers and abilities that work on evil creatures.
• Breath Weapon: All targets within a Cone Template must make an Agility roll at -2 or suffer 2d6 fire damage.
• Immunity: Fire.
• Weakness: Cold (double damage).

Next: Save the Dinos!

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