Inter Arma 'The Valley' campaign concludes

Part 1 is here; Part 2 is here.

Most of the bandits defeated in the area (or so they thought), our adventurers sat down around a campfire and began thinking about further matters. 

The end of this convent was that they would attack the BBEG in the northern mountains and deal with him/her/it forever. 

The room was too dark and most of my homemade equipment is shown below on the photos. We played two WW2 games and a quick course of SDS (Sharpe's got beaten after shooting 4 Frenchmen, nothing to be seen) but then I dropped the camera and the memory card fell out, so no pictures to be found. Shame. The use of the camera flash, on the other hand, gives these photos a good old-fashioned look.

Arriving at the lair, a pack of cultists was beaten easily, the boss not so much. Sadly, in the moments of action, I missed the photos of the big bird. Because, well, he was the mastermind of all this robbing and thieving and murder. As I said there.

A level 6 Magic user has a lot of tricks, especially when he can fly too. The Boss Bird knocked the melee fighters back, exchanged bolts of magical energy with the party's mage, Disoriented the Paladin, then wounded two party members in one turn... Then he took a fatal hit and fell. A short but sweaty fight.

However, a magic automatism, as soon as the Boss Bird died, blew the horns up the mountains and a large group of cultists, bandits and dentists launched their final attack on the Valley. 

Here's a welcome to Mike Reynolds a.k.a. The Dark Templar, many awesome things going on his blog.

70 followers, another nice number, and so close to 20,000 hits too, sometimes I believe I achieved things. 

Lord Troglos, the ruler of the valley called to arms every able men, mercenaries and knights. Camping together near Trollsbridge (where, in Episode 2., the party killed the last two trolls, apparently) meant a series of quarrels and duels and inspections. Later that day, the battle plan was forged on a meeting of the chiefs of the different parties.

Next morning the enemy arrived and the battle through the river began.

Bandits on foot cross the river, the regular infantry awaits them. The bandit cavalry, though, crosses a ford and strikes at the other group of allied foot.

Skirmish screens deploy with the support of a good many of archers. The good guys' reaction is to send the battle-hardened mercenary party against them.

Looking the battlefield at its length from the allied right flank. Brave Bolska and his men plus some mercenary crossbowmen hold the eastern ford against overwhelming odds in the foreground.

The units crossing the bridge act poorly (we have the man for poor dice rolls).

In the end, it is nothing but a slaughterhouse for the Good Side. The bridge is blocked by the pile of corpses as the crossbowmen on the hill send volley after volley raining on the bandits. Their light cavalry fails to break the mercenary foot, while the party of heroes charge the evil pyromancer and the cultist commander and finish them. Lord Troglos' cavalry treads down the Cultist main force, then scatters the enemy bowmen on the right.

Only a handful of bandits are captured alive. 

A bloody battle well fought and an epic ending to this mini-campaign. The rules work definitely well but of course always require some mending.