So next session (thursday) I'm gonna have a chase between my two dwarf PC's trying to catch up with a corpse cart ridden by a necromancer. They'll try to reach him before he reaches a ruined castle in a swamp in the great wood.The necromancer is hurrying to deliver a warpstone to his master who is a vampire and need it for a ritual to create an abyssal terror and there's a long story there (the Pc's don't know about the vampire and are not gonna fight him directly this time, but they know the necro has destroyed several villages in the vicinity hence the chase). What the PC's (and the necromancer) don't know or only have the slightest inkling about is that a skaven warband is tracking down the stone and want it for themselves (as skaven do). The whole chase is going down in the swamp. there is an old cobblestone road winding through the swamp with several wooden and stone bridges spanning small islands. the waters in between are impassable to the dwarves and the cart.

So I was thinking of running it with a progress tracker. I haven't used one before so this is an experiment. it's build is Start-T-T-T-E(vent)-T-T-E-E.

Both the necromancer and the PC's start at the beginning and try to reach the last E first.

I'll have the dwarves roll a resilience check in between descriptions of the road they are taking and the cart will also roll each time they roll. I will make sure to make the descriptions colourful so it doesn't just feel like a game of dice.

The dwarves will be rolling on resilience 4 with 1 reckless die and the cart will be rolling the same except with a conservative die instead of reckless. If they choose they can add another reckless die.

Dwarven results: (only 1 roll for party on lowest resilience unless they want to split up)

Success: dwarves move 1 step

Failure: dwarves don't move, cart moves 1 step

Chaos Star: a dwarf slips on the cobblestones or gets a leg stuck in the wooden bridges, or I'll add another zombie to the events (see below)

Drop: PC's gain 1 fatigue

General Boon/bane applies (fatigue)

Cart results:

Success: cart moves 1 step

failure: cart don't move

Chaos star: cart gets stuck, PC's move 1 step, zombies falls over edge into swamp

Delay: Cart and PC's move 1 step

If the PC's reach 1st event before cart the necromancer will leave 2 zombies behind to delay the PC's. Each combat turn gives another track roll to the cart. (thats about two rounds)

When the PC's reach the 2nd event the skaven token is placed at the start. PC's make observation check to see if they hear the breaking of branches and chitter chattter of the skaven each time the skaven move a step. The skaven move 1 step each time the PC's move and each round of combat the PC's spend with zombies. Also if the PC's reach the 2nd event before the cart reaches 3rd event the necromancer will release another 2 or 3 zombies to delay the PC's. (when the skaven reach the 1st event they are automatically spotted)

3rd event: If reached by the cart first the necromancer will release a few zombies to delay the dwarves at the last bridge before the castle and cackle delightfully before entering the courtyard of the castle, delivering the warpstone.

If reached by the PC's first they will catch up with the panicking necromancer and engage the cart. The warpstone (in a sack, glowing) is taken by a ghoul to be delivered while the necromancer fights the dwarves. I will try to get the necromancer to flee into the castle before they kill him as it would make for the best finale later.

When the PC's fight at the last bridge they will realize that they are about to be overtaken by a skaven warband of 30+ including a warlock and 2 rat ogres. That should hopefully get them going towards the castle quickly killing any zombies or bashing them out of the way. At that point they can either enter the courtyard and find the 'gentleman' and 20+ undead waiting (their focus will be on the skaven and the PC's can escape to the left and into a tower) or they can run to left around the corner of the castle wall to find a postern leading to the same tower. Inside the tower they will find the necromancer and slay him while glimpsing the battle below between the vampire and the skaven.

So this is more or less 4th session with my group. There's more to the story of course and maybe I'll write it in whole later.

any tips and thoughtful comments appreciated.

So for those it might interest:

The chase went well. I did shorten the track by two to keep it more tense and to the point. They felt the pressure went the skaven horde came swarming over the bridges heralded by roars, squeeks (of killkill and quickquick) and the breaking of branches. They ended up fleeing into a tower via a postern gate only to stumble upon the necromancer. They tried to sneak up the stairs and ambush him, but (rolling a chaos star each) he was onto them and after one dwarf horseshoed the other on the floor behind the necromancer in an attempt to sneak attack him, the necromancer turned around facing them with terror amassing around (Veil of fear) this shocked the sneaky dwarf and he missed his chance to attack and was consequently surrounded by rising skeletons and zombies that lay hidden among debris along the wall. After an intense fight with the zombies that nearly overwhelmed the ironbreaker he managed to kick the last of the zombies down the stairs while turning around and throwing his axe straight into the shoulder of the necromancer nearly severing his right arm, the necromancer had failed miserably in his spell castings and channelings, but at that moment he managed to curse the ironbreaker, while the other dwarf hacked at him. The necromancer was on his knees with one axe in his right shoulder and another chopping into his left arm as he feebly tried to fend for himself. It was then the Ironbreaker walked up to him, grabbed his axe in the shoulder and pulled the necromancer into a headbutt which threw the necromancer over the edge of the tower and into the courtyard, drawing the dwarves attention the mighty battle that was ending there.

The vampire cut down one ratogre before being smashed into an oaken gate by another and then fleeing in bat form. the skaven retreated with the wyrdstone and left the dwarves to peruse the diary that was dropped by the vampire in the heat of battle.

This was a really exciting session though a lot of it was combat. The players are discovering the power of 'Perform a Stunt' trying to shield bash zombies of the bridges or down stairs. This is definetly the beginning of very innovative combat/actions and descriptions. I let them try anything they wanted to encourage the line of thought and told them what kind of consequences it would have if they failed or rolled bad dice.

Next up is warning Bolgrad. The town that the vampire has sworn vengeance upon and in which one of the dwarf's relative lives.