HEROSCAPE "TRIAL OF THE TRIAD" KICKS OFF

In a short but exciting first playtest of Game 1: Quest For The Map of the TRIAL OF THE TRIAD, an original HEROSCAPE MINI-CAMPAIGN (now being run by Charley Elsden at his apartment in Brooklyn Heights) the Orcs tore victory from the grasp of the Elves, and killed one of their great wizards while doing it. The great Ulginesh, mounted on his faithful flying horse, got to the ruin site and picked up the map revealing the hiding places of the three Stones of Power: The Blue Stone of Bran, The Red Stone of Rhiannon, and the Yellow Stone of Ymir. Inside the ruins he was sheltered by any advancing Orc archer. But hot on his trail was an Orc Swog Rider (sabre tooth tiger), who engaged him in hand to hand combat. Meanwhile, a squad of expert Elven Aubrien Archers and Master Archer Syvaris shot and killed two powerful Orc Champions, Brunak (ridden Allosaurus) and Tornak (ridden Velociraptor). As the monsters fell, squads of heavy and regular Orc infantry advanced to the river boundary between their lands.

Taking only one wound, it seemed that the wise Elf would easily disengage, while taking possibly one hit, and then fly off with his prize. Yet he did not reckon on the skill of the wily Orc Archers, who now advanced on the road across the bridge to outflank him! Jumping up on foothills of the snowy ridge behind them, they gained line of sight into the ruins, and pierced the Elf with many arrows, so that he became grieviously wounded! Then his attempted disengagement from his foe failed, and he died suddenly of what earlier would have been a trifiling hit. The map fluttered from his pocket. It was quickly snatched up by the fast Swog Rider, who ran quickly back to the bridge, as the Orc archers formed a screen behind to protect him.

Meanwhile, the Elf archers finally came up and formed near the river upstream from the bridge. They shot down most of the Orc regular infantry, as the Orc heavies backed off to the heights above. But there was no way to catch up with the swift Swog rider, and he escaped with the map!

Now a larger force of Orcs and Elves are assembling for Game #2. The Orcs know the location of the three hidden Stones. They must uncover and unite them somewhere on the board, as the Elves shadow the Orc parties to await opportunites to seize the Stones once they are found.
Will the Elves be able to recover, or will the Orcs recover the Stones, and use them to found an Empire after this second and final game? Only time will tell...

***