No ambush, but what do you know - Anne Marie goes back to that passage and manages to find …
Book of Medicine (Item): At the end of each of your turns, you may choose one Hero in your space (including yourself) and make a Cunning 5+ test. For each roll of 5 or 6, Heal 1 Wound from that Hero. This can also be used at the start of each Showdown Fight Round.
Without wounds or more Investigation, that is it though for you other than to prepare for the Hound of the Barghestvilles.
And finally, on to Isabella (@RogerBW) - with 6 movement spaces, where do you wish to move to, or do you also wish to linger?
Sadly no, as in this case the Hound will head towards the Hero with the highest Honor, which is Anne Marie. More on those encounters shortly.
Isabella heads up to the Windmill and searching there, she finds …
Pitchfork (Item) which gives her +1 Combat. In addition, once per Fight Round, the wiedler can reroll one of their Fight Dice. If that reroll is a 1, you must discard the Pitchfork.
Not the most ladylike of weapons perhaps, but needs must. However, with no Wounds or Investigation to do anything about or with, evil now strikes as the Mystery Phase begins.
Firstly, at the start of the Mystery Phase, the two Barghest Hounds hunt. The one at the Covered Bridge will attack Thomas in the Olde Woods, and the one in the Fields will go to the Manor to attack Anne Marie.
Combat begins! A quick reminder how this works: we’ll go round by round but I’ll roll the Fight Dice for the first round for both fights together to save time. After each Fight Round you can consider escaping if you need to.
Each Barghest Hound has 4 Fight Dice and 2 Wounds. Thomas has 3 Fight Dice (Combat) and 3 Wounds plus his charm which allows him one reroll per Game Round so you can use this here (although it doesnt specify so I’m assuming you could use it for any or anyone’s roll) and Anne Marie has 4 Fight Dice (2 Combat + 2 from her newly found Book) and 3 Wounds. Each dice rolled will hit and cause a Wound on a roll of 5 or 6.
Thomas (@RossM) causes 1 Wound to the Hound but not enough to kill it, however the Hound obliterates him and he will be KO’d.
Anne Marie (@COMaestro) and her Hound cause 1 Wound to each other.
Thomas has one reroll but sadly it wont save him - although you could spend it to either reroll one of your Fight Dice or one of Anne Maries to try to kill one of those Hounds. For being KO’d, you will lose 1d6 Investigation, Items or Allies so you there’s a 2/3 chance that you’ll lose your charm anyway - might as well use it now. What do you wish to use it on?
If Anne Marie’s Hound remains, she can choose to continue her fight or escape, moving one space away from the Manor in any direction. What do you wish to do?
Nice call! Since Militia adds 1 Combat, you should get one more die roll. If it hits, you could try rerolling one of the Hounds hits on you, and assign one Wound to the Militia if that reroll misses, which will take them out but keep you alive.
If the Militia misses, then you can still try to save yourself, or have another crack at eliminating the Hound.
Or you could help me out…
Anne Marie will go for broke and fight another round.
@gmwhite999 asked for a die roll:
Oh excellent point - teach me for trying this while still half asleep - and they could also take one of your wounds, killing them.
Right - so they will take a wound anyway and die - so you could either reoll one of your Fight Diceto try and kill that Hound, or reroll one of theirs so you could stay in the fight for another round or to escape?
I will check but technically you defeat the minion so gain the reward, even though you wake up in the town hall badly gnawed.
Update: yes, if the Minion is defeated the Hero gains the reward even if they are also KO’d. Similarly, in a Showdown with the Villain Heroes win the game when the Villain is defeated and reduced to 0 Wounds even if they are KO’d in that final round.
So if you reroll a Fight Dice and kill the Minion, you’d gain the extra investigation before going for a lie down - albeit a brief one as you get up almost immediately.