I allowed the players to use any of their surviving gladiators plus they could make (recruit) one new one. I also said there would be an extra weeks rest to allow some injured gladiators a chance to recover.
So, we checked to see if any of the injured recovered; Aximae miraculously recovered all three wounds, as did Hipp O’Potomus!? Monotonous recovered two of his three wounds.
Game On!
Represented this week were Ludus Amanda, Ludus Davidus, Ludus Patrician, and Ludus Rick. It was an every team for themselves the last team standing wins.
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)
With four Ludi represented each took one corner. On the left is Ludus Davidus, at the top is Ludus Rick, and over on the right is Ludus Amanda. Ludus Patrician is just off the bottom of the picture.
There’s Ludus Patrician in the corner facing off Ludus Davidus
On turn one Dimus Daius shouted “Follow me!” to his blind brother Darkus and dashed towards the gladiators of Ludus Davidus. Noobus, of Ludus Davidus, went sprinting past going the other way. Before Dimus realized what was happening or could shout a warning to his brother, Noobus had raised (a couple times) on his stealth roll vs. the blind Darkus Daius (even with -4 for running?!) and so I gave him “The Drop”
Noobus took down Darkus Daius with one mighty blow.
Dimus was then swarmed by the remaining member of Ludus Davidus – well… those that could get to him…
Meanwhile, at the other end of the arena… The members of Ludus Rick were still praying as the gladiators of Ludus Amanda charged towards them.
The following turn Dimus found himself fighting three of Ludus Davidus’ gladiators…
The gladiators of Ludus Amanda pinned the (still praying) gladiators of Ludus Rick in the corner. Strangely I had been thinking earlier in the day about possibly penalizing combatants that were trapped against a wall or in a corner… but thought it not the best time to implement such changes lest anyone think I was fovouring anyone… (the old Gamemasters Girlfriend Syndrome).
… make that FOUR of Ludus Davidus’ gladiators…
The following turn saw TWO jokers come out… and just to make things interesting when jokers came out I had a few random events lined up. First any time a joker came up the Sagittarius would shoot at a random gladiator with his bow. As it turned out the Sagittarius was a bit of a misogynist because EVERY time he took a shot it was at one of Amanda’s gladiators!?
Also I had a group of convicts that were sent out a random door.
The convicts were easily taken care of by Ludus Davidus but it did provide a couple of his gladiators with a couple turns worth of distraction – which kept Dimus in the game a few more turns…
Oh and those first jokers also brought out a lion…
Taking care of the convicts…
One by one they fell…
… and, finally, so did Dimus.
Ludus Amanda took down the lion and Aximae, but Rick’s new gladiator… whose name I didn’t even note down… was proving a bit of a tougher nut to crack.
After dealing with Ludus Patrician and the convicts the gladiators of Ludus Davidus formed a battle line a slowly advanced across the arena…
One of Amanda’s damage rolls – hit, with a raise, only to roll three ones!?
Were they just keeping pace with the slow one or were they waiting for Ludii Rick and Amanda to do as much damage to each other before entering the fray…? There was also a lot of smack-talking to gain as many intimidate/taunt bonuses as they could before entering combat with the girlie gladiators.
Seeing the end draw near – and wanting to get in while they were still distracted by Rick’s slowly dying gladiator – Noobus did his amazing sprint-from-one-end-of-the-arena-to-the-other-and-wild-attack moves…
The next turn another joker (or two…?) turned up and another lion entered the arena.
Noobus, not wanting it to be attacking them from behind while fighting Ludus Amanda, sprinted back across the arena to engage the lioness.
Ludus Amanda and Ludus Davidus square off.
Noobus is mauled by the lioness and will remain shaken for the rest of the game – due, mostly, to a d4 spirit!?
The gladiator so Ludus Davidus and Ludus Amanda pair off and beat on each other ferociously!
Things started going downhill for Ludus Davidus
Finally all four of Amanda’s gladiators were beating on poor Hipp O’Potamus (though two of her gladiators had three wounds, and another had two!?)
The finally took him down…
On the same turn the Lioness finished off poor Noobus.
Ludus Amanda won – and, miraculously, all of her gladiators were still standing, thought just barely. Two of her gladiators had taken three wounds, and another had two!? Even more strangely Sonja had no wounds and still had three bennies!?
The campaign was fun… and I'd definitely run a similar one again (with a few tweaks)… but I’ve had enough of it for now and I’m ready to move on.
Next week we’ll be beginning a new campaign – a sprawling fantasy saga: the original Dragonlance campaign! It’s been around so long and spawned so many other adventures and books and novels it can’t be THAT bad… can it…? Anyway I’ve tracked down most of the original modules and have ordered a couple of other books… I’m even reading through the original Chronicles novels (that were tied to the campaign modules).
