Once upon a time I had three kids with me, aged 10, 12, and 14, and I offered to try a game of Electric Bastionland, the newer edition of Into the Odd. The concept of debt was a bit alien for the younger kids, so I dropped it and let them make their own motivation.

Kung Fu princess

They created three characters, a princess called “Tiny Heart”, fugitive from an overrun country, who knew Kung Fu and felt a burning desire to avenge her parents, plus her former court wizard, a bearded spellweaver called Olfonso. One more partner was a shapeshifter called Liag, who could turn into a wolf, a parrot, or a squid. They also hired two NPCs, Pablito and Carlito.

In order to reclaim her birthright as queen, “Tiny Heart” sought a magical artifact, the Sword of Justice, which belonged to a wizard living in a tower without a door. “Tiny Heart” counted on her friend Liag to overcome that problem, and they set out to find the tower, which was deep in enemy lands, obviously.

Mercy

The party was waylaid by a gang of bandits who called themselves “Guardians of the Road”, but the princess and her entourage made short work of them: Inside one combat round, four robbers were critically wounded, one was hurt and surrendered. The group applied First Aid to save the downed bandits and sent Pablito to bring them to the guards.

When they made camp at night, during the princess’ watch a riderless horse appeared. She caught it with a lasso and tamed it, so now she rode while the others walked, as befits a princess.

They encountered two roadblocks manned by the same army that had overrun “Tiny Heart”s kingdom. The party deceived the first guards by pretending to be tired travellers, while the horse was led around them. The only trouble was, the soldiers confiscated their swords and rifles.

Mercy

At the second roadblock they all went offroad and sneaked around it. Thanks to the shapeshifter they were forewarned regarding a snipers’ nest. They attacked the snipers from behind and overcame them with a combination of spell attacks from Olfonso and the princess’ Kung Fu. Both were critically wounded, so once again the party had to provide medical aid for their fallen foes to prevent the worst.

Finally they reached the tower without a door – and were promptly shot at by three goons with bows and arrows who had apparently taken over.

And mercy

Carlito and Olfonso were wounded, but Olfonso still fired at them with a pistol to distract them from parrot-Liag, who flew up to the roof and found a rope on the balcony. While the goons peppered Carlito and Olfonso with arrows, she let the rope down so princess “Tiny Heart” could climb up. Together, they attacked the goons from the rear. The princess struck down all three of them. Then they cared for their foes again (as well as Olfonso, Carlito and Liag, who had also taken a hit in the melee).

Then they searched the tower and found the wizard bound and gagged. Princess “Tiny Heart” freed him, and demanded the Sword of Justice as a reward, which he granted her, of course.

Happy End … no fatalities.

And “Tiny Heart” eager to carry the war back to her enemies.

Image:
from page 57 of “The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, baronet; ed. with a careful revision of the text” (1888) CC: No copyright restrictions.