also melancholic night-before-the-battle mood.
While the soldiers talk, they are joined by a bearded man in sim-
The war against the skeletal horde has been dragging on for months.
The army of the king is making a stand at a large river, will they be
able to stop the onslaught? And who will eventually dare to venture
beyond the pile of bones left behind after the battle to bring this war to
an end?
This is a dark fantasy tale about heroes in a desperate world who
risk everything to defeat evil. The heroes should be Seasoned
rank and include at least one cleric or paladin.
Setting Rules:
◼ Conviction
Nine months ago, the world of the peaceful people of Ar-
duja was shattered. It started in the capital of
Gleamfist. The dead rose from their graves and
formed what is now called the skeletal horde,
an army of the undead, spreading destruction
and chaos. Gleamfist fell and the people fled.
Now they attempt to make a stand at the Long-
bow river. The heroes are part of the army of the
king led by King Kendreth of Arduja himself.
The tale begins with the heroes sitting around
a campfire. It is the night before the battle.
Scouts have reported that the skeletons are
approaching. Nobody knows if the wide
river (wider than a longbow can shoot,
hence the name) can stop them.
Let each hero in turn tell the tale of why
he or she is part of the army of the king
and how they joined. They are caught
up in the ages-old ritual of soldiers
trying to talk away their fear. You
want this scene to create a tense but
Written By: Philipp Christophel
Art By: Dennis Darmody
Savage Worlds License
Agreement
This game references the Savage
Worlds game system, available from
Pinnacle Entertainment Group at
www.peginc.com. Savage Worlds and
all associated logos and trademarks
are copyrights of Pinnacle Entertain-
ment Group. Used with permission.
Pinnacle makes no representation or
warranty as to the quality, viability, or
suitability for purpose of this product.
ple clothes who listens quietly. With a success on a Common
Knowledge roll at -2 they recognize the man. It is the king him-
self. On a raise the hero remembers, that the king has lost his
daughter, Elisa, his only child and heir, shortly before the rise of
the skeletal horde.
The king will listen to the hero’s tales but will not come forward
with who he is unless one of the heroes addresses him directly.
Play the king as a sad but wise man who encourages the heroes
to face their fears and motivates them to give their best. He is a
much more tragic hero than most people know. When he leaves,
he looks every one of them into their eyes and says: “We will
find a way. We must.”
King Kendreth of Arduja: Use the stats for Soldier
from Savage Worlds but add Battle d10.
Use the Mass Battle rules to play out the epic
battle with the skeletal horde. The army of the
king is led by the king himself. The horde is led
by the will of a mysterious lich. More about that
later, for now you can assume him to be a Wild-
card and have Spirit d10 as well as Battle d6.
The horde’s battle plan is to freeze the river
with a mystical fog that will rise as soon as
the battle starts.
Let the heroes make their own plans and
decide where in the battle they want to
fight and what kind of preparations
they take.
There are a lot of skeletons, so the
Horde gets 10 Force Tokens and the
king’s troops just 5. The river grants
the defenders a bonus of +4 initially.
But as the river slowly freezes over
this reduces to +2 after the first round
and to +1 after three rounds.
If the battle is won, the horde’s advance comes
to a halt. But the kingdom is still half con-
quered. If the battle is lost the living must re-
treat even further away from the capital.
Regardless of the outcome of the battle
it is likely that the heroes caught the
king’s eye, either from their talk the
night before or their actions during the
fighting. They are summoned to the king
and his advisors as soon as they
have sufficiently recovered
their strength.
He says to them:
“It’s time to bring an end to the plight that haunts my lands. I send
you on a dangerous mission beyond the pile of bones from the last bat-
tle. To the royal crypts you must venture and face the lich that is the
reason for all this.”
When they ask for more details the king will explain that accord-
ing to the scholars and experts the phenomenon of the skeletal
horde can only be explained by the presence of a powerful lich.
There are several reasons to believe that this lich rose in the
royal crypts and that he can still be found there, controlling the
horde from afar. If pressured he will admit that they have sent
other adventurers before but have not heard back from any of
them.
Before they leave the high priest will take the group to the side.
He has written down a Prayer of Cleansing that should be able
to weaken the dark powers of any lich the heroes might encoun-
ter.
The Prayer of Cleansing
The prayer requires a hero to perform a three round Dra-
matic Task and gain five task tokens. The skill used should
be Faith but Perform (Singing) or even Common
Knowledge (Religious rites) could do in a pinch. Remind
the players that they can Support the player saying the
prayer with any skill they can explain.
If successful, the prayer dispels all lich magic, meaning a
lich can’t cast spells anymore and loses his magic armor. His
Death Touch special ability and any already raised skele-
tons are not affected by this.
If the Dramatic Task fails, it can be tried again but the task
tokens reset to zero.
The wasted land beyond the river is completely devoid of living
beings. Take some time to describe the strangeness of this situ-
ation. Ripe apples have fallen off the tree but not only has no
farmer picked them up, they were also not chewed on by ani-
mals and there are no flies swirling around the half rotten ones.
The trip to the capital takes 10 days. Use the Travel rules or pick
encounters from the list below. You can spice up days without
an encounter using Interludes, if the players are in the mood for
it.
Spades—Enemies: One bone giant, a group of skeletons, or a
large pack of skeleton dogs. These could be played as Quick En-
counters using Fighting to defeat the enemies or Stealth to avoid
them.
Hearts—Strangers: The remains of a previous group sent out to
defeat the lich. No bones or bodies can be found, just their
clothes and equipment, among them a scroll with the Prayer of
Cleansing.
Diamonds—Treasure: An apothecary’s hut has been plundered
but with a successful Notice roll there are 3 potions of healing
and 1 potion of warrior’s gift (Level Headed) to be found in the
rubble. Drinking a potion means the power is cast with an auto-
matic success on the Arcane Skill roll.
Clubs—Obstacles: A collapsed bridge, an area full of aimlessly
wandering skeletons, or a terrible thunderstorm. These could be
handled as Quick Encounters.
◼ Bone Giant (1): Use the stats for Ogre from Savage Worlds
and add the Undead Special Ability.
◼ Skeleton Dogs (3 per player): Use the stats for Dog/Wolf
from Savage Worlds and add the Undead Special Ability.
The royal crypts lie in the shadow of the now completely de-
serted royal castle, surrounded by the likewise deserted capital
of Gleamfist. The area is infested with many skeletal creatures
that the heroes need to avoid (for example using a Quick En-
counter), but the graveyard itself is strangely empty and quiet.
The royal crypt can easily be seen at its center.
The entrance to the crypt leads down a wide stair that ends in
the middle of a large room (20’’ by 20’’) that is filled with sar-
cophagi and monuments to the dead kings. As the heroes en-
ter, they see a sunken down figure sitting on one of the sar-
cophagi, quietly sobbing. The figure turns towards them and
they see that it is a female skeleton in fine clothes. She begins
to speak:
“Has my father finally realized that my un-life is not what he
wanted? Yes, HE had me raised from the dead, HE has damned me to
this unholy existence. It should be HIM who puts me down. But he
has sent you to do the dirty deed. No, he won’t get out of this so eas-
ily, I will just kill you and wait until he manages to face me himself.”
Then skeletons will rise from the piles of bones on the edges of
the room and start advancing towards the heroes.
With the tragic backstory revealed it is possible that the heroes
decide that it is not their role to slay the princess. Escaping
from the crypt and the graveyard should be enough of an ad-
venture. It is also possible that the heroes choose to fight Eliza
but get into trouble. Elisa is a formidable foe and if they don’t
manage to say the Prayer of Cleansing they will have trouble
beating her Toughness (note that against undead they can’t use
Called Shots to increase their damage). In that case or if you
want to generally up the drama a bit you can let the king show
up. In that case he is plagued by his bad conscience and real-
izes he must slay his daughter himself. Once he appears Elisa
falls to her knees and awaits his sword. The heroes than need
to cut a path through the skeletons and let him deliver the
deathblow.
Once the lich princess is Incapacitated all skeletons disperse
into piles of bones and the kingdom is freed from the skeletal
horde. It’s up to the heroes to decide how much of what really
happened they want to tell the world. The king will be more
than generous in his rewards but also afraid that the heroes
might taint his flawless reputation.
Elisa, the Lich Princess: Use that stats for Lich from Savage
Worlds.
◼ Skeletons (3 per player): Use the stats for Skeleton from
Savage Worlds. Incapacitated skeletons will return at the be-
ginning of the next turn on the edges of the crypt unless the
Prayer of Cleansing has been completed.