We’re no strangers to Rangers of Shadow Deep on the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast. If you’ve followed along so far, you’ll have heard our campaign progress as we played through the Deserted Village and Infected Trees scenarios that made up Mission One.
Gnoll’s House Party: The lads prepare to toast some marshmallows around the campfire
Now it was time to kick off Mission Two (The Beacon Tower) with its first scenario, The Bridge Guards. Here, we see the introduction of the Gnolls, and those were a mixture of beastmen and goblins on our tabletop.
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The gnolls were guarding a bridge (hence the aptly named scenario) over a fast-flowing and very cold river, which we needed to get across on our way to Tor Varden.
The stage is set
I took Joe McCullough’s “wooden blocks” advice on this scenario. The table had to be strewn with rocks, boulders, and general cover – the idea being that the Rangers have the element of surprise (at least, until one of my guys manages to blow our cover pretty early on!).
A Vinny the Vulture-eye view of the table
I even used these blocks to build the bridge itself. Sure, it doesn’t look ultra-realistic, but suspension of disbelief quickly kicks in the minute the first dice is rolled.
The well-guarded bridge
We upped the challenge level by adding in a “Gnoll Lord”, who basically took the stat line of an ogre. We also gave ourselves some extra backup with the addition of ‘Goatsy’ – and he had a very interesting afternoon indeed!
Goatsy: Will we ever see his like again?
Keeping the Joe McCulloch theme of this episode, I also wanted to chat about a book I recently bought and read through – Frostgrave supplement Perilous Dark. This excellent solo/co-op guide combines pre-written scenarios with a lot of how-to advice on creating your own scenarios and campaigns of this nature. Big thanks to friend of the show Mark on our Discord channel for the heads up about it!
More Photos From The Bridge Guards
This episode is sponsored by Midlam Miniatures. Three of the miniatures used in this scenario were bought from Midlam – Goatsy, Boarus, and the big lizardy lad playing the role of the Gnoll Sergeant on the bridge. You can see pics of the Kraken Cult, Grim Reaper, and Headless Lady miniatures mentioned in my post about Populating a Lovecraftian Dungeon.
Harald Half-Orc. Boarus, and Vinny
Fun Gus, Grubb, and Count Gunther
Quite literally the bridge guards. Note that the Gnoll sergeant is too tough for clothes.
One last shot before all Hell broke loose.
Remember, we have similar reports from the Deserted Village and Infected Trees scenarios on the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast, too.
A big thanks to Midlam Miniatures for sponsoring this episode!