In this installment of the Widower’s Wood developer diary series, we’re looking at the unlikely leader of the swamp’s fearsome villains.

Rasheldonak, or Sheldon to his friends, lives in Widower’s Wood and has been known as a member of the wild community for many years—though he’s a bit of an outcast, especially among his own tribe. As our story opens, he’s been acting more erratic than usual. (Read the prologue to the game’s fiction here.)

Unbeknownst to Olo and the rest of the story’s heroes, Sheldon recently acquired a large amount of magical power, which he is using to seize control of a tribe of gatormen as well as other tribes to build an army.

In the first scenario, the heroes are ambushed by bog trogs—a fierce but otherwise unambitious swamp tribe, now bent on murder. If the heroes defeat the bog trogs, a couple of burly gatorman bosses step into the fight.

Once these gatormen are defeated, the leaders of the bog trogs, now free from Sheldon’s control, plead with the heroes for help. They want to flee Widower’s Wood, but some gatormen have surrounded a number of their bog trog kin, who are desperately holding out. In this scenario, the game introduces a new concept: allies. Allies are enemies that fight the player’s other enemies, not the player. If the heroes rescue enough bog trogs, they are granted a favor that benefits them in future scenarios!

After saving the grateful bog trogs, the heroes come face-to-face with the dark ritual the gatorman bokors are conducting to fill the ranks of Sheldon’s army: slain bog trogs are raised from the dead and turned into mindless, horrifying swamp shamblers.

If the heroes survive wave after wave of swamp shamblers and defeat the gatorman bokors, they will have the opportunity to learn more about Sheldon’s plans by capturing swamp gobber pirates Sheldon is using as messengers.

After intercepting his messengers, the heroes learn that Sheldon is attempting to bring one of the most powerful creatures of the swamp under his will: an immense but reclusive tatzylwurm and its nest of young. Unfortunately, Sheldon has already managed to turn the smaller lethal viper tatzylwurms into his warbeasts. If he adds the larger tatzylwurm to his forces, Widower’s Wood won’t be the only region to fall under the growing might of his army!

As in the second scenario, the heroes attempt to keep the tatzylwurm from Sheldon’s forces, but they must be careful. The tatzylwurm will attack both players and enemies to defend its young!

Interfering with Sheldon’s plans for the large tatzylwurm will deprive him of a powerful weapon for the next scenario, where the heroes must stop Sheldon from finishing a ritual to awaken a new horror—something that cannot be killed.

That covers the basics of the game’s story. Next time, we’ll talk about how players can use elements of Widower’s Wood with the previous game in the Iron Kingdoms Adventures Board Game series, The Undercity, to add that much more re-playability to both games.