by Michael Eckenfels, 5 January 2018
PART 3: TURN 1 ADVENTURE PHASE
When we last left our Heroes, two of them were bound to slow-moving transports taking them basically nowhere for the turn. Unfortunately, this is both Grant and Nigel, whom spend this Phase doing nothing but waiting for time to pass.
We have Doctor Zhukov (MASSTEERRRR OF SCIIIIIENNNCEE) who’s about to go toe-to-toe with some dirty Nazi scum in an ancient Greek Temple, and in Siberia, Li Mei is about to dive into a dangerous adventure to find The Jar of Hades. We’ll start with Li Mei, as the combat in Greece might get a little messy for our Bolshevik scientist.
The Jar of Hades has a Danger of 4, which means Li Mei has to pass four Dangers in order to claim the Artifact.
Each Danger grants a certain amount of Glory for passing it, but this Glory cannot be collected unless you Camp Down, which ends the Adventure phase. Failing any Danger means immediately going into a Cliffhanger situation, which is resolved in the next Adventure Phase. There’s a certain ‘press your luck’ element here, and with four Dangers, that’s a lot of luck to press. But for now, let’s see how Li Mei fares. We’ll draw our first Danger card.
An Ancient Puzzle awaits Li Mei. Good thing her Lore is – oh. Yeah. Her Lore is a 2. This Danger requires one – just one – Success using the Lore skill, getting a 5 or 6 on her two d6. Fortunately (and completely out of character), I roll TWO 5’s, so Li Mei simply smirks as she solves the puzzle and pats if affectionately as she moves on to the next challenge. This Danger is worth 2 Glory, but cannot be collected unless Li Mei gets through all four Dangers, or decides to Camp Down. For now, we’re going to push on.
Li Mei’s success is now challenged once again; her Lore skill is going to get another chance to prove itself. This Ancient Trap Danger requires three Successes; she’ll need a 4 or higher on a d6 to get a Success. You might ask, ‘okay, well, she needs three Successes, but only has a 2 Lore skill, so she can only roll two d6s. How can she get three Successes?’ Why, I’m glad you asked that, Exposition Person. Thing is, even if you get ONE Success result in a die roll, you can keep rolling. If you had a Lore of 5 and only had one Success, but need four, you can gather and roll again. As long as you keep getting at least one Success, you can keep rolling. If you don’t get any Successes, it’s Cliffhanger Time. So let’s roll.
A 5 and a 6. TWO Successes! She thinks she has the hang of this ancient trap stuff; whatever people put these together, she thinks, are no match for a nightclub singer from Hong Kong. Let’s roll again.
A 3 and a 6. That’s one more Success, so we now have three Successes. One more is needed to pass this Danger. We’ll roll one more time…
A 1 and a 4. One last Success means Li Mei manages to get past this Ancient Trap, which was a bit more complex than the last one. This is worth 2 Glory as well, so she now has 4 Glory banked up. Should she continue? Of course, she should. How boring would it be if she Camped Down right now?
This one is going to be a little tougher. Li Mei is now in a part of the ancient structure that’s starting to fall apart, so it will require quite a bit of nimbly-pimblyness to get past. In fact, she’ll have to pass an Agility of 4+ with three Successes, and a Cunning of 4+ with three Successes. Her Agility is 5, so that’s great; her Cunning is 3, which isn’t too shabby. I’ll start with the Cunning and see what we can do.
My first roll is three 4’s, so the Cunning part is out of the way; Li Mei expertly surveys her surroundings and finds the most promising path to take. Now, let’s see if she trips…
No problem. Two rounds of dice-rolling and she’s passed with flying colors; two Successes in her first roll and three in the second give her more than enough to pass this one. This is also worth 2 Glory, so that’s 6 total now she can Camp Down on. But we’re ONE Danger away from the Artifact – she can feel it, it’s so close! Why give up now? Let’s press on!
Huh. Well, one of the interesting (odd?) things about Fortune and Glory is, the Dangers don’t always make sense when you play them from a random deck. Thus far, Li Mei has done well going from Ancient Puzzle to an Ancient Trap, then Crumbling Ruins. I think part of the fun of this game is, in fact, figuring out your own dialogue here.
In this case, I think Li Mei finds the Jar of Lost Souls, a rather nondescript-looking squat thing but as it is alone in the chamber past the crumbling ruins, and veritably thrums with power (and kind of glows purplish a little – I mean, it IS of Hades, after all), she manages to recover it, and finds an exit. The exit leads to a long tunnel, not used in centuries, which happens into a drainage area near a remote airfield. She quietly approaches the airstrip, looking to commandeer one of the biplanes there…when she spots a couple of Nazis speaking with the locals. They spot her at the same time. The chase is on.
In this case, Li Mei’s Agility of 5 is being tested – we need one result of 6, and with five dice…surely this means she’ll succeed…right?
Well…a 1, 5, 5, 5…and a freakin’ 6 mean yep, she makes it! Li Mei manages to pilot her little biplane through the cold Siberian mountains, evading the Nazis and escaping into the void. Her next stop is probably going to be a major city so she can sell the Jar for 3 Fortune and get us on our way. Since the Jar’s not a bladed weapon, it’s not going to do her Personal Mission any good.
Now that the Jar of Hades has been plucked, we have to add another Artifact to the map. This time, it’s the Ring of the Golden Mummy, a 4 Fortune/3 Danger Artifact, located in…the Heartland (United States).
Of course, it’s right next door to the not-so-Secret Nazi Base.
Now that three of our Heroes are done, we still have the good Doctor to look at. As he is in the same space as a couple of Nazis and a Nazi Villain, he has to Fight them first. In this case, since there’s a Villain present, Zhukov is only fighting the Villain himself; the two henchmen give the Villain a +2 to Combat and 2 extra Wounds they can take, essentially. These two get knocked out before the Villain suffers any pain, unfortunately.
Also, there’s only one Fight Round with a Villain. This means it’s highly unlikely Zhukov will knock Herr Teufel out of Greece. At best, he’ll give Teufel a bloody nose, but they’ll probably tussle more than a few times as Zhukov delves into the Mine. Let’s see what happens.
Since Combat is simultaneous, everything happens at once. Zhukov has a 4 Combat Skill, and his roll result is 1, 2, 5, and 5. That’s two Hits (and two Glory for Zhukov!). It also means both Nazi Henchmen are taken out; Doctor Zhukov has shown them on their way to whatever fascist occult god they worship! Doctor Zhukov got lucky, actually, because his Academic label means he only hits on a 5 or 6 instead of a 4, 5, or 6 like normal.
However, Herr Teufel has a 4 Combat Skill as well, with +2 dice due to the two (not yet knocked out) Henchmen. He rolls a 1, 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. That’s three Hits on Doctor Zhukov, whom has a Defense of 1, which removes one of the Hits. This gives Zhukov two Wounds.
Herr Teufel, however, has bigger fish to fry, and leaves in a rude huff (as Nazis do, you know). Doctor Zhukov is left, for the moment, to delve into the Mine to find as much Fortune as he can – hopefully before Herr Teufel can!
Will Doctor Zhukov find Fortune before the Nazis? What will happen on the Villains’ turn? Find out in the next episode!
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