"Something Rotten"
A Flintloque Scenario by Craig Andrews
The legendary hero of Los Diablos returns in this whip cracking tale in which El Lupe must sneak into Governor Jamon's hacienda to find an important document to free his friend.
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Armand looked down at the heavy iron shackles on his wrists. How did it come to this, he had been overseeing some work in the groves when the soldiers came for him. He wasn't even sure what he was supposed to have done. He glanced through the bars in the small window and looked up at the clear sky and sighed. He heard someone approaching from inside the jail and turned to see who it was, perhaps now he'd get a explanation.
An elegantly dressed Elf walked into the room and sneered, it was Governor Jamon, the tyrant who claimed to have the best interests of the people of Los Diablos in his heart. Armand knew this not to be true, never had he known a more avaricious and self concerned individual.
“What is the meaning of this Jamon?” shouted Armand not bothering to hide the contempt from his eyes.
The governor laughed, “You should never have spoken out against me Armand, when you did that you annoyed me and became an unwitting pawn in my plans.”
“Pawn!” said Armand, the tone of his voice raising, “I am one of the local gentry here, I had as much right to speak out against your unlawful taxes as anyone else.”
“That you did, however, I needed someone to use and because of your ill chosen words you fitted the bill perfectly.” He drew a sheaf of papers out from his jacket and started idly glancing over the pages. “You see, someone in Los Diablos has been funding an illegal mining operation outside of town. This would usually be a local matter and dealt with by myself, however seeing as I am the owner of the mine I'm hardly likely to arrest myself am I.” he laughed again.
“However, somehow the Federal Bank has found out about the mine and they have written to me stating their intent for a full investigation to begin next week.”
“They intend to look for the paper trail. Proof of the payments to the dynamite companies, the horse traders, that sort of thing.” he stopped shuffling the papers and seemed to focus on some detail which Armand could not see. “Luckily I have already found the paper trail.” he turned the page round and Armand saw a perfect forgery of his signature at the bottom of the page.
“That's preposterous! No one will believe those papers are real. I will tell people that you are behind it all.” Armand's voice seemed to crack slightly, finally realizing his predicament.
Jamon returned the papers to his jacket and moved closer to Armand. “Ah but they will, what with your recent actions speaking out against me and the taxes, someone of your status could easily have arranged and funded a mining operation. The papers too will pass any scrutiny they receive as they are the real thing, I have simply had the signatory page duplicated, the original safely locked away in my hacienda.”
Armand's gaze fell to the floor, his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Good day to you Armand. Thank you for your help in these matters." with that the Governor spun around on his heels and walked out the door of the jail, laughing as he went.
“Armand!” came a quiet voice from the featureless grey walls.
Armand sat up and looked around in bewilderment. Had he just imagined someone saying his name.
“Armand?”
He realised it was coming from above him, from the window of his cell. He stood on the bed and looked through the bars. Down on the ground, crouched close up against the wall was a tall, lithe figure dressed entirely in black clothing. A half masked face looked up at him and smiled.
“El Lupe!” exclaimed Armand.
“Quiet my friend,” replied the masked hero of the people. “You would not want to bring the guard down upon me now would we.”
Armand winced and glanced around the cell, checking for signs of movement.
“Lupe, they are trying to frame me, they ha…” Lupe silenced him with his hands.
“I know, I heard it all. The Governor does like to gloat doesn't he. Fear not Armand, I shall ride out to Jamon's hacienda this evening and find the original page and ensure it gets to the right people. We'll have these charges dropped and you free before you know it!” He whistled a strange bird like sound and a powerful black horse came into view, Cycloné, Lupe’s faithful steed trotted around the corner of the jailhouse.
“Good luck Lupe” said Armand, a smile finally playing on his lips.
El Lupe leapt up onto his horse in a single fluid movement and he met Armand’s gaze, “A wise wolf makes his own luck. Till tomorrow then," with that he shouted "Hyah!", within seconds there was no sign of him or his horse.
~
Scenario Objectives
El Lupe
Lupe has managed to get hold of relatively detailed drawing of Jamon's villa in the hacienda along with the regular patrol patterns of Jamon's soldiers stationed there. Lupe's goal is to sneak his way through the villa to Jamon's bed chamber and then escape out of the building and off the board.
Jamon's Guards
Sangre and the other guards are stationed through the villa as Jamon has become a very suspicious Elf of late. It is not the best of guard details but at least it keeps them far away from the fights that keep breaking out throughout the region with that infernal menance, El Lupe.
Jamon himself, sick of the company of the common soldiers, has drunk quite a lot of Catalucian Bandy before bed and as a result does not wake during the scenario.
Scenario Forces
El Lupe
El Lupe is a Legendary Dark Elf Light Troop.
He is armed with a Saber (+2), a Whip, a Knife (+0) and 2 loaded Ferach Duelling Pistols.
He has the new skills Expert Swordsman and Master of Stealth (see the Special Rules section below).
The down-trodden peasants of El Dorado cried out for a hero to release them from their oppressors and their calls were answered. Known only as El Lupe (pronounced loo-pay), this dashing, masked avenger rode forth to right the wrongs of the cruel Acalde of Los Diablos. Trained by the finest swords-elves in Catalucia. His secret identity, known only to his deaf-mute manservant Manuel, is actually that of a local gentle-elf: Don Diego della Toyota. Don Diego presents the facade of a scholarly Elf with no interest, whatsoever, in local politics. The Acalde has been completely fooled by this pretense and is at a loss to explain who is perpetrating these cunning raids.
Cycloné, Lupe's legendary steed, is a Light Horse. See the Special Rules section for more on this extraordinary animal.
Jamon's Guards
Corporal Sangre, the commander of Jamon's guards, is a Veteran Dark Elf with the Militia troop type.
He is armed with a Sword (+2) and a Standard Pistol. Not expecting trouble the pistol is not loaded.
He commands a squad of nine Dark Elf Militia, each is armed with a Standard Musket. Their experience is determined as required by the standard solitaire rules.
Map and Setup
There is no map provided yet for this scenario. You should use floorplans or any terrain you have to create a villa with an interior layout as well as several outbuildings, preferably with an exterior wall. Sangre and the other soldiers begin play in randomly determined points throughout the villa. After they are placed El Lupe and Cycloné can begin play anywhere on the table but it must be at least 20cm away from the villa itself. None of the guards move at first during this scenario, they have become a bit remiss in their duties patrolling after many many nights of nothing happening. They are moved as per the 'Soldiers' special rule below. All soldiers (except Sangre) start play with their muskets loaded.
Victory Conditions
The player wins if El Lupe manages to get the paperwork from Jamon's bedroom and then escapes off any table edge. If El Lupe is knocked out of action or removed from play then the scenario is lost.
Special Rules
New Skills:
Expert Swordsman: Characters with this skill get +2 in hand-to-hand combat when fighting with a sword.
Master of Stealth: See the special rules below.
Rendering the Guards Unconscious: If El Lupe engages an inactive guard treat them as having a melee score of half their base racial melee stat rounding down. The guard, if it loses, immediately takes Wounds equal to the Hits shown by the Steady Check. This means they can be immediately taken out by El Lupe. If they are not taken out they activate immediately.
Spotting El Lupe: Jamon's Villa is lit with low light throughout, as a Master of Stealth El Lupe can move at walk speed right past the half asleep guards. He may not move closer than 5cm to any guard though, to do so activates them as normal. Each turn a guard must, as a special action, try and spot El Lupe if he has moved in what would normally be thier line of sight. If El Lupe is running, the percentage to spot is 75%, if walking 50% and if crawling 10%.
Sneaking Past the Soldiers: All the guards begin the game inactive. If El Lupe fails in a sneak attack or is spotted (as per the rules above) that guard becomes active and is controlled using the standard solitaire rules using the Defensive profile. All soldiers in the same room/area become active. If a weapon is fired all the soldiers in the game become active but use the location of the gunshot (place a token to mark it) as the enemy referenced in the solo rules. The guards do not shout out to others as they are worried they may wake Jamon (not to mention attract the attention of the famous El Lupe). The exception to this is Sangre, if he spots El Lupe he will shout out activating all the guards.
Leaping: El Lupe is a bit of an acrobat, he can try to jump onto any relevant object and swing heroically from a piece of terrain to land in a place better suited to heroic acts (like behind an inactive soldier). To do this Lupe must perform an Improbable Action (shown below). If successful El Lupe can be placed on an object equal to his height if he moved half step or up to twice his height if he moved at slow march or further. He can also move across gaps equal to his half step if he moved over his quick march distance. If a failure is rolled whilst doing this on the on the second floor of the villa then 2 wounds are inflicted instead of the normal 1. Any failure generates a noise marker is placed and treated as an enemy where he lands and all soldiers in that room/area activate as per the gun fire rules in the 'Soldier' rules above.
El Lupe's Whip: The whip attacks like a throwing knife in ranged combat. However the player can opt to attempt to use it to disarm his opponent. This must be stated before the attack roll is made. If the attack is successful no wounds are applied and the targeted weapon flies off D10cm in a random direction. The rules for Throwing Knives are in Alternative Armies supplement “Distractions & Asides 2. Thrown Rocks & Knives” which can be found in the files section of Alternative Armies Notables Yahoo group.
Cycloné: Lupe's horse is a character in his own right. A powerful, intelligent, dark black creature, his statistics can be approximated by those of a Light Horse with a +2 ability to attack in melee combat. Cycloné can also perform simple tricks, such as coming when called and attacking on command. As a special actio El Lupe can issue an order to Cycloné. The players should assume that he is capable of doing anything he's seen a horse do on television or the movies. If Cycloné moves closer than 20cm to the villa all soldiers should be activated and Cycloné is now treated as an enemy on the solo play chart.
Initial Carving: When he wins a melee combat Lupe may choose to carve his trademark initial "L" into his opponent's uniform instead of making the recipient make a Steady Check. This does no damage, but the dazzling display of swordsmanship causes his opponent to immediately take two Shaken Tokens. All normal rules for them apply and in most cases they can only be removed one at a time as per the rules.
The Improbable Action Roll: The original release of Flintloque included a cracking rule called the Improbable Action Roll. This rule is intended to cover those jumps from bedroom windows onto horses waiting below, swinging from chandeliers, leaping chasms and much much more. Specfically in this scenario it is use for leaping from windows onto a waiting horse, and jumping and swinging on poles and torch brackets around Jamon's hacienda.
For a character to perform an improbable action they must make a base percentile roll to succeed. If they fail, they automatically suffer one Wound.
Raw Character 10%
Average Character 20%
Experienced Character 30%
Veteran Character 40%
Legendary Character 50%
Scenario Notes
This scenario is an Orcs in the Webbe original and was first published on the 21st December 2013 as part of it's 2013 Advent Calendar.
A Little history - Most of the article was actually written back in 2008 when I first published a series of original scenarios for Alternative Armies' Fliontloque supplement Frontear. It would have originally appeared on (or around, my notes are a bit hazy) the 14th March 2008. However the article was marked as 90% complete, I think it would probably have been the map that gave me pause as originally the acrobat rules included the placing of green arrows on certain places of the map, showing where El Lupe could jump and climb - sopmething I think I borrowed from the Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine computer game, standing in certain places triggered the ability to use the whip.
El Lupe and Cycloné were both created by Mike Baumann and first appeared on his Filbanto Stew website.
The improbable action rules were written by Steve Blease and Mac Coxhead and first appeared in both the original Flintloque and Dresda rulebooks.
The sneaking and spotting rules are based on those written by Simon Evans that first appeared in Orcs in the Hills in the scenario, "I Was Wheeling Turns Double".
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