Rangers of Shadow Deep First Campaign Conclusion

This is a further report on my solo Rangers of Shadow Deep campaign.  With this set of games, I've played through the basic scenarios in the rule book.  So without further ado, here's the conclusion of the first set of scenarios:

Our heroes, Bogdan the Barbarian, Kyra the Red, Hanali the Wood Elf, and their companion/charge, Sir Osmer, have descended into the crevice leading down into the Shadow Deep which has overcome the neighboring Kingdom of Lorenthia.

  They spot several large insects emerging holes in rock walls. (The rule book calls for giant flies.  Since I didn't have any available, the menacing creatures became Giant Hopping Ants but using Giant Fly stats from the book.)

 The first few the party encountered were easily dispatched.

During the descent, Bogdan and Hanali discover the corpse of a Lorenthian soldier.  On it they discover some herbs and poignant love letter from some unknown sweet heart.

As they go further into the fuming darkeness, Hanali hits upon the idea of throwing a torch down the Hopping Ants' nests.  This seems to deter the creatures.

The ease with which they dispatched the Ants lulled the party into a false sense of security and they split up. Bogdan found himself surrounded by several of the creatures.  With great ill-fortune, one of the barbarian suffered a terrible strike (12 points damage!) from one of the Ants' pincers.

The rest of the party rushed to his aid and soon killed his tormentors. They also discovered a magic brooch, lost no doubt by some now-dead Lorenthian.

More wary of the Ants, the party stayed together and fought their way to base of cliff, placing torches in each nest they came to, slowing for a while the teeming horde of Ants.

At the foot of the cliff, they came to a flooded plane, deep with noxious waters.  Several approaching undead showed that the water depth lessened further on.

Bogdan and Kyra advanced to engage the undead.  Sir Osmer, not the best of swimmers, had to be rescued from drowning by Hanali.  However, the time spent in the foul water played havoc on her Elven constitution. (She failed her role to prevent getting Diseased from the water.  As a result, she was at a disadvantage through this scenario and the next.)

As the rest of the party finished off the undead, Sir Osmer found another corpse, bearing an ornate silver signet ring.  They soon after discovered strange flowers growing from the shallows.

They had been followed.  Several of the bolder Hopping Ants come after them.

More undead added to their troubles.

By keeping close together, the heroes managed to batter their way through.

And managed to extricate themselves from the flooded landscape.  Hanali took a parting shot at an oncoming undead, downing the unnatural creature.

As what dimmed light faded into night's darkness, the party found a ruin in which a handful of Lorenthian suvivors had gathered to make a stand against the strange creatures that had overrun their lands.  They were led by a knight, Sir Rombys, who had two archers with him.  Four armed peasants and several noncombatants represented perhaps the last survivors of the recently proud Kingdom of Lorenthia.

The survivors rejoiced that help had arrived and that the entire world had not yet been engulfed by the Darkness.  The heroes promised to aid them in escaping to Alladore.  However, with night falling, it was decided to stay in the ruin rather than attempt to travel the dangerous countryside by night.  Soon, however, horrific sounds indicated that they had been discovered and every sort of foul creature in the area was converging on their refuge.

Suddenly, the floor of one the rooms split asunder and huge Borrowing Worm emerged.

Before the creature could extend to its full length, Bogdan and Sir Rombys struck at the creature.  The Barbarian landed a powerful blow on the worm, ensuring its quick demise.

At the same time, the roar of a fearsome Troll could be heard coming from the yard at the back of the old farmhouse.

Hanali, using Farlight Leaf to steady her hand weakened by illness, led the archers in a volley that struck down the Troll.

This was not too soon as party of Gnolls streamed out of the nearby ruined woods and flung themselves ferociously against the party's defenses.

One even attempted to climb through the roof but was killed by trap the heroes in their forsight had placed there.

The relative quiet of the other room was shattered when a giant spider slipped through a hole in the wall.  Fortunately, Sir Osmer was able to lend his had to the two sturdy farmers defending the room.

As the party was finishing off the Gnolls, the pursuing Giant Ants arrived and joined the general assault.

A larger and better armed party of Gnolls advanced on the far side of the farmhouse while another Troll appeared in the front yard.

Leaving the archers to duel with Gnolls, Bogdan and Hanali led a sortie against the second troll and managed to defeat the huge being.

The Gnolls having lost their archery duel with the heroes, there was a brief respite.  Sir Osmer took advantage of it to investigate a object sparkling in the rear yard...

...while Bogdan did the same in the fore yard retrieving some type of treasure.  As a dim light was returning to the sky, the barbarian saw a group of undead approaching.

As the heroes emerged to fight this new threat, they saw more Gnolls approaching from the east. Deciding that the dim morning light coming through the noxious clouds of the Shadow Deep was sufficient to attempt an escape, they called for the survivors to begin the retreat.

With Sir Rombys in the lead, the survivors quickly fled the ruined farmhouse, the heroes acting as a rear-guard. 

With the heroes' knowledge of the way out, the whole party managed to avoid further dangers and emerged from the dark underworld of the Shadow Deep. Although battered and ill, they had accomplished their mission of scouting the Darkness and had rescued what pitiful few humans who had survived.  A small first victory in what promised to be a long and terrible struggle.

To be continued...

The heroes were pretty successful throughout and ended going from level 0 to level 5 by the end of it and having acquired a number useful magical items.  I have most of the published ROSD materials so you will be seeing more of their adventures.