Before the Gate of the Labyrinth

Author: Commander Gawyn © 1998

A Chronopia Scenario for 2-7 players
Hoblin fled for his life, over the shifting dunes of the southern dessert. The sun was long past midday and in a few hours the temperature would be dropping. Not taking notice of the heat, he shrugged. After him where the forces of the One King, which had banned him traitor and sentenced to death by a Judge. His crime was serious, he had stolen certain maps which showed the location of a secret ill guarded gate into the dwarven lands. With an assuring pat he checked that the maps still where there..
His first plan had been to give the map to the dwarves of the Talon gate. Then he had been forced to take the help of Devout spies to steal the maps, he´d easily betrayed and slayed them ofcourse. But they had somehow been warded magically, and their dark masters knew of their death the very minute his dagger stole their life. And no one double crossed the Devout, they where comming for him too, and in force.
The Talon gate wasn´t located long from their stronghold. Now if he only could reach the Talon gates, then his kinsmen would surely defend him.

As you might see Hoblin is in big trouble. Four forces might be after him. And his only hope is to reach the Dwarven talon gate.
- The Firstborns want to execute him for treachery. And ofcourse to get back the maps.
- The Devout wants the same, and might as well turn him into a nice dwarven skeleton.
- The Elves spies have brought the news to one of the Houses, and they also want the maps.
- The Stygians is quite upset that their Dessert is violated, and is therefore comming to feed the dessert with more bones.
- The Dwarfs could ofcourse try to send Hoblin some sort of escort to protect him long enough for him to reach the Talon gate.

Mission objectives

Firstborn: Try to catch Hoblin so your Judge can execute him. All attacks against Hoblin except from the Judge is meant to bring him unconcious. He can therefore never lose his last wound from any firstborn except the Judge. If Hoblin only got one wound left your missile troops won´t fire at him, because you want him alive long enough to be executed. After he is executed bring the maps to your deployment zone, the maps is carried by the Judge or the one who killed the last person to carry the maps.
Mission points:
- Caught and executed: 1000 points
- got the map: 300 points

Dwarves: You may chose any none mount/Totem dwarven unit to be Hoblin. (Totems or mounted units would destroy the game a bit :). All forces except Hoblin starts inside the Talon Gate, and you might not proceed a rescue mission before Hoblin is in Line of sight of another dwarf. This means only scouts can move outside the gates.
Mission points:
- Hoblin and the maps safely inside the gates: 1000 points
- Only got the maps: 500 points
- Only got Hoblin: 500 points

Devout: Try to catch Hoblin and bring him to your Necromancer/warped lord which will transform him into a nice servant. The unit who manage to make Hoblin unconcious will carry the maps. Bring the maps safely to your deployment zone.
Mission points:
- Hoblin transformed: 500 points
- Got the maps safely away: 500 points
- Managed to make atleast 10 new risens: 200 points

Elves: Try to make Hoblin unconcious so you can "borrow" his maps. You cannot use any kind of harmful magic or missile fire on hoblin because of the risk to destroy the maps. All kind of firebased attacks is also illegal against Hoblin. Bring the map to your deployment zone.
Mission points:
- Got the map: 1000 points - (obsidian only) for each dwarf(hoblin included) brought unconcious to the deployment zone: 100 points
- (Helios only): If Hoblin is brought back safely to the talon gate: 300 points
- (Helios only): For each dwarf killed: -50 points (your supposed to be allied!)
- (Crystal only): For each Judge/Chronomancer killed: 100 points

Stygian: The other races have violated your borders, try to kill as many of them as you can. You may although not enter the Talon gate, since the pristress doesn´t want to waste numbers to conquer the dwarven realms yet..
Mission points: Add the points of each killed enemy to your mission points, the mages spellpoints is included, example Warped lord+Vortex=68+10=78 points

Special rules

As stated above most of the races cannot kill Hoblin. In that case an ordinary succesful attack that take away his last wound will make him uncouncious, and you might drag him 1"+ST for each action spent with a unit. Note that you cannot drag him faster than you can normally move. So a Troll CAN NOT move him 5" per action!!!!

In the beginning of each turn Hoblin is uncouncious he might try to wake up, if he makes a 1-6 on a d20 he wakes up and automaticly stands up and makes his move first of all.

If Hoblin is uncouncious a figure who stands next to him may take the maps(takes on action). The same applies to any dead figure who carries the map.

If Hoblin is Transformed by the Devout he becomes either an Undead knight or a Demon knight, this depends if it´s a Warped lord or a Necromancer who transforms him.

Terrain and Deployment

First of all you´ll need a Talon gate, or some sort of fortress to work as one.
The climate is a dessert so a few sand dunes might come in handy, If you don´t have ´em a few hills might work as good.

The Dwarfs start within the Talon gate, except Hoblin ofcourse. He start roughly in the center of the battlefield.

The firstborns should start 10-20" behind Hoblin, this should make it a most interesting run. Since they should be able to tag along a flee footed Repulsar or two.

The Devout starts at the one of the sides, and should be able to intercept Hoblin in his path within a few turns. Say 20" from the shortest road to the Talon gate.

The Elves should start directly opposite the Devout, If there are more than one elven house the Obsidian serpent start alongside the devout, and they have then a permissive truce until one of them lays the hands on either the map or Hoblin.

The Stygian may lay their deployment zone anywhere next to the end of the Table/battlezone.
This is after all their dessert, and their scouts have seen ther rest of you for days.

Starting points

Well well, all forces should be roughly equal except the stygians which have had the time to muster a bigger army.
Say 1000 points each and a Stygian army of 1500-2000 points depending on how many of the races who is participating. Feel free to adjust the points to what you feel good though, It´s supposed to be fun after all :)

Comments

This scenario has so far never been tested, atleast not by myself, so feel free to change any numbers/points, you think should be different.
I really tried to avoid setting up to much terrain for ya. The scenario could be played many times If you set up a different kind of terrain. And if you don´t have any Stygian player, you don´t have to play in a dessert. It could be the northern wastelands for all I care, but I haven´t bought the SOK so I couldn´t make such a battle myself yet...

The main object with this scenario was to make a fun and exciting game. The more players in it the more fun! Since the battle for the precious maps will get more furious if more opponents are there to fight for them. I must admit it´s sort of a "capture the flag" game, although this time the flag can move on its own and even strike back if you aint careful. And most dwarven players would probably make Hoblin a Keeper or Dark Tusk hero or something. The basic idea did also include a thought to not make this a basic kill all the rest battle, but to make sure you got some mission objectives which must be done if you should have a chance to win. Ofcourse, you cannot let the enemy do his objectives undisturbed, can you?

When the battle is over you count your victory points and see who won.

And oh, the reason for House obsidians "Dwarf captures" is that they want more Dwarf slaves..(he he)

Hope you´ll find this scnario as fun as I have.

Gawyn
First version from 23.03.2008. Last version from 24.03.2008.
Article from ChronopiaWorld.com