Daemon Swamp

Things have gone a bit quiet over the winter months in the City of Islands & Bridges. Sascha's River Brigands came and went in a lightning raid along the Reik!

One of the most fun parts of our campaign has been expanding the adventure beyond the confines of the table top. We have been developing two chapters allowing players to make more of the post battle sequences. This is based on the principal that each Hero gets an action after every battle. This is traditionally spent searching for a Rare item.

By forgoing the search roll, a Hero can pursue another scheme. The 1st chapter is a series of alternative 'safe' locations in the Marketplace that can be visited by Heroes. The 2nd chapter is a selection of 'unsafe' locales found in the underworld. These dens of iniquity and other dangerous spots are collectively known as 'Infamous Haunts'.

When Joao and Bob joined the campaign, they brought Goblin and Fimir warbands to the setting. Very few of these new locations are particularly relevant to outland raiders like Beastmen, Greenskins or Skaven. Chris 'Frogprince' Kneller & I had already set about roleplaying some alternatives for his verminous armada using a new dice chart system for 'Undertown'. Skaven Heroes can skip their search rolls to instead go scouring subterranean locations beneath the fish-stinking man-warrens known as Marienburg! This results in a dice roll being made on the 'Undercity Chart'.

The next step was to enhance the schemes of ambush parties who seclude themselves out in the marsh. Below is an outline of how we have gone about doing this. If anyone has any ideas to expand the content for any listed entries them feel free to drop us a line.

Daemon Swamp

Townsfolk spend their coin at market while other creatures are abroad in the Daemon Swamp. After a long day haggling over exotic wares in the Craftsmarket, most Marienburgers will retire to the customary comfort of a waterside tavern to conclude business by exchanging rumours about foul monsters threatening trade routes. Tales of dashing Marsh-watchmen battling mutants of Chaos or thwarting swamp-goblin raids are recounted. News spreads quickly after reaching the ears of gossiping fishwives!

Instead of searching for a rare item during the post battle sequence, one or more of the Heroes in a Beastman, Fimir or Goblin warband may spend it pursuing sinister schemes in the bogs. Roll 2D6 on the Bog Chart to find out what happens. Apply a +1 modifier to the roll for each Hero beyond the first to comb the boggy mire.

Bog Chart
2D6 Result
2 Red Pox. Very bizarre result here…
3 Basilisk. Bizarre result here…
4 Octopus Hunt. Terrible and/or fantastic result here…
5 Marsh-Watch. Terrible result here involving an encounter with a Marsh-Watch patrol…
6 Leeches. Each Hero receives a Strength 2 hit from leeches. No armour saves are allowed. Any Hero suffering a Wound receives a -1 Toughness modifier in the next battle.
7 Weeds. Each Hero must pass an Initiative test ferreting in the quagmire or receives a Strength 1 hit from insects. Undead and daemons are immune to insects. If a Hero passes the initiative test, then roll on the Herbs & Potions Chart. Herbs are found in multiples equal to how many Heroes have passed.
8 Snotling Set. The party stumbles into a snotling set. Snotling dung is so potent that once it has been collected from a snotling set it can be used as a disguise from foes and a deterrent from greenskins and larger predators alike! Manure stench is an unpleasant and highly effective way to mask a warrior's scent. A bag of Snotling Dung can be emptied onto a Hero before the battle. Once smothered in dung the Hero becomes desensitized to the stink. Any model must pass a Leadership test in order to charge the warrior. Any model in close combat with the affected model suffers -1 to hit. Undead and daemon models are immune to its stench.
9 Foragers. Daemonkin are twisted creatures akin to beastmen, mortal enough in their fashion. The creatures used to be scouts for a herd that has scattered after being destroyed by the Imperial military.
10 Poison Feast. Putrid result here…
11 River Brigands. Result here… (hopefully inspired by Sascha's piracy!)
12 Profaned Shrine. Result here...
13 Goblin-Hole. Result here…
14 Banditti Camp. The Heroes encounter bandits encamped in the marsh. After meeting with the outlaw chief…
15 Troll Hollow. Cautiously approaching a sump the party encounters a friendly River Troll wallowing in the muddy pool. The troll can be baited out from its sticky pit using provisions to join the warband.
16 Daemon Familiar. A batrachian daemon is a small noxious creature with malicious, multi-faceted eyes, long talons and too many tongues – Small toad-like creature, fanged imp.
17 Merchants Charter. Best possible result here – refer to plot objectives.

How would you roll anything over a 12?

Thanks

The rules say that each hero that searches after the first grants +1 to the roll. That means that if all 6 heroes survive and all search the bog then that allows for +5 to the roll of 2D6 allowing for a maximum of 12 + 5 = 17. It also means that the minimum possible to be rolled in that instance would be 2 + 5 = 7 which eliminates the bad options so it would seem a good idea for heroes to stick together when searching in the swamp.

Thanks! This actually came up during a game yesterday. The question was about chaos armor (rarity of 13), then we looked at items that went as high as 15. We hadn't seen that rule and were wondering about it.

Where is the official rule for that located (for future reference)?

Quote :

Rational: That means that if all 6 heroes survive and all search the bog then that allows for +5 to the roll of 2D6 allowing for a maximum of 12 + 5 = 17. It also means that the minimum possible to be rolled in that instance would be 2 + 5 = 7 which eliminates the bad options so it would seem a good idea for heroes to stick together when searching in the swamp.

The basic concept is just that. It would appear at first glance that devoting a larger party is always better because it does eliminate the obvious risks. Safety in numbers! At the same time we fancied offering a tactical choice in this by including a few unusual encounters that could be considered desirable. These appear in the lowest scored entries. That way a player needs to consider sending a lone scout which in turn frees up more Heroes to go search for items as normal.

Quote :

Arli: This actually came up during a game yesterday. The question was about chaos armor (rarity of 13), then we looked at items that went as high as 15. We hadn't seen that rule and were wondering about it.

Where is the official rule for that located (for future reference)?

The matter of items being Rare 13 (or greater) is a separate matter. But it does still relate to using modifiers. When a Hero is rolling to search for a Rare 13 item he will never find it without a modifier. There are skills and effects that give plus modifiers when searching for rare items. ie, the Academic skill 'Streetwise'

Regards,

Werekin

The item that started the debate was chaos armor. I read in the chaos armor entry that +1 is added for each model the searcher took out of action. Would you also allow the +1 for additional searchers in that case?

Thanks

I think the rules you are referring to are part of the Border Town Burning supplement. Damn! That campaign seems like a long time ago.

Chaos Armour is manufactured by Chaos Dwarfs.

Erm, I think that there are plus modifiers available based on how many Heroes are working on the armour.

Interesting... Now about those battle reports you promised to post...

Er... Sascha?

Sure, blame the other guy...

looks like twisted fun for followers of darker paths.

And also looking forward to the battle report