The fortress had begun to slowly descend for several days, pulsing with eerie green light as it neared the ground. It had become clear where it was heading on the third day, as it began to revolve above the abandoned mausoleum.
The campaign had been hard-fought, territory fought over, won, lost and regained again. Much blood had been spilled, but none of the eight races vying to gain access to the fabled tower had established a significant breakthrough. Yet.
As the fortress came to a halt, looming like a malignant shadow over the land around the mausoleum, five of those races came to try and force their way inside.
Surrounding the castle, was a vast wrought-iron fence, draped in skulls, fetishes and cobwebs. The fence had one single, enormous gate. And it was locked.
However, pinned to that gate was a bronze plaque – containing the following words:
Whomsoever finds the bronze key, shall unlock the first of the fortress' mysteries three
Welcome all - here is an abridged write-up of the end of the first season in our campaign. High elves, wood elves, tomb kings, vampire counts and orcs&goblins descended on the mausoleum, in search of a bronze key to unlock the gate.
We played across a 8x4 table with a little border to focus the armies in the middle. The goal was to get one of your named characters within 6" of a fulcrum in the centre of battlefield. You could then attempt to perform a ritual to teleport that character to an ancient graveyard, to search for the key.
The tomb kings were not allowed to do this, largely because their general (me) knew where the key was. But I could spoil the others fun!
One side of the board were the orcs&goblins (left flank), high elves (centre) and tomb kings (right). They were faced by the wood elves (left) and vampire counts (right).
It was a pretty crazy battle, as the outcome on the field didn't matter, all that was important was getting your character to that graveyard. Somewhere among the crypts/graves was the key.
The orcs & goblins were given the run around by the wood elves, as the giant tried to come to blows with a treeman ancient. However, the goblin shaman was the first to successfully perform the ritual and reach the graveyard, as the little critter rummaged through the effects of the dead.
On the right, the vampire counts were given short shrift by their tomb king nemesis, as Lahmizzash I enacted revenge for deeds performed centuries earlier. However, that sneaky vampire lord also managed to perform a successful ritual and escape to the graveyard.
The high elves - surrounded by orcs and tomb kings - were beleaguered and despite their best efforts, the high mage was forced to flee after failing to perform a ritual (sorry Andy!). The wood elves were also thwarted and couldn't summon the power to teleport to the graveyard, and the scramble for the key went down to the goblin and the vampire.
It was the undead who prevailed, finding the bronze key at the bottom of an unassuming box after much searching.
That key allows the vampire counts a great deal of information as they search for a way into Fozzrik's Flying Fortress, but it has not locked the door just yet.
It also catapults the VC into the lead in the campaign, despite their lack of territory.
As we move into turn 4 and the summer season, here is the leaderboard as it stands (dark elves have sailed back to Naggaroth sadly):
Vampire Counts - 19 relics
Orcs & Goblins - 14 relics
Tomb Kings - 13 relics
Wood Elves - 10 relics
High Elves - 8 relics
Empire - 6 relics
Dwarves - 5 relics
All to play for!
