A close run thing!

After a dreadfully busy half term of teaching, I finally made it to the holidays - and that wasn't the only close run thing today! Mini-Rab #1 asked if we could play with "knights on an adventure in a dungeon". But of course, my little man; grab your dice and let's have at it!

So, out came the ready-to-share-as-soon-as-I've-got-the-multiple-combat-rules-properly-explained version of Goblinquest and we were off. This time, our gallant heroes (one knight, one spear-armed retainer and one retainer with a crossbow) had tracked down to their fortress the goblins who had kidnapped the king's youngest daughter. Time for some chivalric deeds of arms...

Heading in to the fortress, our heroes were instantly ambushed by four goblins. Sadly, the keenness of the crossbow fellow to push to the front for a clear shot (which he stuffed up badly) left him exposed to the wicked blades of the gobbos and unprotected by the knight [marching order does matter!]. His death was swiftly avenged by his more melee-oriented fellows. Tears were very nearly shed by Mini-Rab #1, but he stiffened his sinews; after all, there was still a princess to rescue!

A short encounter with a troll (who was brutally double-teamed by our still-grieving duo) later and the discovery of a strangely glowing key, and the princess was found and released from her shackles upon which the key melted away. Now for escape, but the way was blocked by a further gang of gobbos...

Can you spot the revised character sheet, top-middle? Worked really well.

 Two of the goblins promptly cut down, the other two ran off into a side room (where the key had been found earlier, for those of you who need absolute completeness). Keeping the princess behind them [marching order lessons learned], the fighters hemmed them in.. but what's this? They're behind us!
 

The knight slammed the door shut on the two they'd been chasing, while the spearman stepped round the princess to deal with the new threat. Unfortunately, the knight wasn't able to hold the door closed and had to get his blade bloody once more. The spearman was not faring so well, being wounded greivously and near unto death...

 Not to fear, though, the knight rescued his valiant retainer just in time [the spearman managed to hold off the combined score of a pair of d8s with only a single d6 for three rounds of combat, and actually slew one of them - definitely man of the match], and guarded the rear as he and the princess made it out of the fort and back to safety, pursued by the fortunately slow-moving brother of the slain troll.

All in all, a grand outing with ultimate triumph tempered by sorrow and loss - gloriously chivalric. I was impressed that the lad held his obvious upset at the death of his crossbowman in check and played though the rest of the hour-long session. He was pretty inventive, too, with some of his tactical planning after the initial error and I'll be encouraging that for future OSR-type roleplaying in a few years time. He is only five, after all.

I hope your geeking is proving as pleasurable and sociable,
Rab


EDIT - I forgot to welcome my latest 'followers', Dreamfish and The Convenient Skill: welcome aboard, chaps.