Weekender 2026 - the wisper if Sneiten
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Dagfinn / Deng Ham AdminArcworlde weekender 2026 narrative campaign
Note: the campaign have been modified after feedback form the weekender.
What to bring:
A Warband, costing 600 GP, from one faction.
Each Warband get 5 free arcanite tokens. These tokens are one use only across the entire campaign.
Printed stat cards/ warband roster for your Warband,
4 spare NPC models on 30mm bases.
3 objective markers,
Dice, tape measure, tokens and other gaming accessories.
If you're able, please bring town marked terrain, mountain obstacles and loads of scatter / decorative cityscape objects.
Campaign Prologue:
The Whispers of Sneiten
The winds howling off the peaks of the Njorsvald Mountains and the suffocating scent of pine drift up from the depths of the Mildaark forest. Nestled in the shadow of these sits Sneiten, a ramshackle frontier settlement built on the bones of old stone and desperation. It is a place of rot-resistant timber and tight-lipped locals who look at outsiders with eyes full of suspicion. Sneiten is the end of the civilised world. To the warbands gathered around the hearths of smoky taverns, it is the beginning of a fortune.
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Dagfinn / Deng Ham Admin
Scenario 1: Scramble for supply
For months, Sneiten has heard nothing but rumors of monsters and ill omens, even as the brutal thaw-storms of late winter begin to crash down from the peaks. But on this evening, a seasoned fur hunter brings word of a lifetime: a recent avalanche has uncovered a long-abandoned mountain fortress. Hidden deep within Skredskar, a treacherous mountain pass, the stronghold once belonged to a forgotten lineage of Njorsvald warlords. Its vaults surely hold a hoard of ancient relics, gold, and powerful sternstal weaponry, untouched for generations.
A secret that grand cannot stay buried forever.
As winter's grip has loosened just enough to lay bare the mountain trails, the race is on. Inside the cramped, tense taverns of the settlement, eyes lock across the smoky rooms and hands drift toward hilted weapons. The truce in Sneiten is razor-thin, held together only by the grim reality that the wilderness ahead will swallow anyone who travels alone.
Before the climb into Skredskar can begin, however, supplies must be gathered. A wealthy trade caravan, which overwintered in the town square, is heavily laden with the vital gear, maps, and provisions needed to survive the frozen heights. What begins as a tense, quiet scramble as leaders dodge each other toward the merchants, quickly erupts into absolute chaos.
The market square is about to become a battleground.
Scenario 1
Setup & Deployment
Three warbands clash in a bustling marketplace. The goal is to secure as many valuable goods as possible from the market stalls before they are picked clean.
Setup
The Map: Place 7 market stalls (use objective markers and NPC) one in the middle and the rest 6” from the center of the gaming table. See map.
The Warbands: Three warbands deploy in their own zone, no model closer than 14” from the center. Roll off to see who choose
Objective: Securing Goods
Warbands can secure goods from the stalls in two ways: Narrative Feats (Diplomacy, Trickery, Agility) or Brute Force (Attacking the stalls).
Each stall can only yield goods once per game. Once a stall has been successfully looted or bargained with, it is depleted. Goods secured by a warband are safe -they can never be stolen by rival warbands.
Method 1: Narrative Feats
Instead of attacking, a model can attempt a unique narrative action to secure goods. The reward depends on the difficulty of the feat. Any character may receive a free dice on the feet, if the controlling player acts out the attempt.
Feat Difficulty
Goods Rewarded
Medium feet
1 good
Hard Feat
2 goods
Legendary feet
4 goods
No two feats of a player may be identical on the same stall. Players must use a creative, new approach each time (e.g., you cannot use basic haggling for 5 consecutive turns).
Method 2: Brute Force (Attacking Stalls)
The stalls are protected by local guards. Warbands may choose to attack a stall directly using basic attacks.
Each stall never rolls to save damage dealt to it, has no armor and 15 Health.
The guards strike back using all the power rolls that failed. The characters get to save as normal.
Example: a character attack with power 6 attack, rolling: 1, 2, 2, 4, 6 and 6. This gives the Stall 5 wounds. Then the guard take the 1, 2 and 2 to attack back. The guard roll: 3, 4 and 6 doing 3 damage to the character. The character roll to save and avoid the first but fail the second and take 2 points of damage.
If a stall's health is reduced to 0, it is destroyed. The destroying warband loots the ruins for 1 goods.
Combat Between Warbands
Warbands are fully allowed to attack one another to control space around the marketplace or prevent rivals from reaching the stalls. However, remember that successful attacks on other players will not steal their already-secured goods.
Game End
The game ends immediately when one of the following conditions is met:
5 game rounds have been completed.
All 7 stalls have yielded their goods/been destroyed.
There is no winner or loser in this scenario. The goods secured in this game will be used in the next.
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Dagfinn / Deng Ham Admin
Scenario 2: The Ascent into Skredskar.
With packs stuffed full of looted supplies, stolen maps, and rationed provisions from the bloody chaos of the Sneiten marked, the warbands slip out of the settlement and begin the brutal climb. The air quickly turns bitter, biting through fur and armor alike as the trail steepens into the jagged teeth of the Njorsvald Mountains.
For days, an uneasy, unspoken truce hangs over the column of climbers. The warbands march in single file, close enough to watch each other's breath mist in the freezing air, but with hands never far from their weapons. They despise one another, and every leader knows their ultimate goal would be much easier if their rivals simply stopped breathing. Yet, the howling wind, the blinding flurry of the thaw-storms, and the constant threat of getting hopelessly lost force them to tolerate each other’s presence. In this frozen hell, an enemy’s campfire might be the only thing keeping you from freezing to death.
Until one day. The column finally emerges onto a massive, exposed mountainside. Below them is a sheer drop; above them, a steep, unstable slope of shifting dirt, loose rock, and massive walls of heavy, melting snow. The ground groans beneath their boots. This is the heart of Skredskar, a notorious choke point prone to sudden, violent avalanches.
As the warbands look across the treacherous slope, the exact same thought strikes every commander. You don't need to fight a bloody, prolonged battle to eliminate your rivals. You just need to push them into the path of the mountain's wrath. The truce is officially over. As the snow begins to slide, the race to cross the pass becomes a fight for survival.
Scenario 2
Setup & Deployment
The Board: The table represents a steep mountainside. All warbands deploy within 3” of the same table edge (the Starting Edge) and must fight their way to the opposite table edge. The optimal table size 3x3 feet.
The Grid: Divide the battlefield into a 6x6 grid using standard coordinate rules. Each of the 6 vertical rows spanning from top-to-bottom represents a potential Slide Zone. If playing on a 3x3 feet table, then each square in the grid will be 6"x6”.
Hazard Mechanics: The mountainside is a shifting hazard of snow and dirt slides.
Before the game begins, randomly place one Slide Token (any token will do) in each of the 6 vertical rows using a D6 to determine its starting square (1–6). There can never be two tokens in the same square. If a token would enter an occupied square, it stops in the square immediately preceding it.
Avalanche Escalation (Turns 2+):
At the start of each turn, starting on Turn 2, the hazards intensify:
Move every active Slide Token D3 squares forward along its row.
Spawn D3+1 new Slide Tokens. Roll a D6 for each to determine which row it enters, starting at square 1 of that row. Reroll duplicate results.
Surviving the Slide
Any character standing in a square that a Slide Token occupies, or passes through during a turn is caught in the avalanche and must attempt to escape on their activation.
The Escape Test: The character must attempt a feat to dive out of the way. They get a 3" free movement for every level of feet difficulty. They must get enough free movement from the feet to get out of the side zone for the feet to be a success.
Any character attempting to dodge out of a slide may use goods gained from the previous scenario to add D3” to their free move. Goods can be spent after the feet is attempted and after other goods have been used. Once a goods is used, it's gone.
A Character's normal move can not be used to escape the slide.
Prone Characters: Characters who are currently Prone have to use 3” movement (one feet level difficulty) to stand up, before they dive out.
Failing the Test:
If a character fails the Escape Test, they are swept up by the debris. Move the character model into the square where the Slide Token stopped this turn, and place them Prone and their activation ends.
Falling Off the Mountain:
If a Slide Token moves off the edge of the table, any characters currently caught in that slide are removed from the game.
Summoned creatures who fall off the edge, can't be summoned again.
Victory Conditions:
The game ends after 6 rounds or all characters have left the table. Calculate the total gold value of all surviving warriors who successfully moved off the Escape Edge.
Win: 150 gold more than the opponents
Draw: Both warbands are within 150 gold of each other.
Loss: Less than 150 gold of the opponent.
A character who summons and the characters it summons have to be no further than column 5, in order for the summoned creatures to score when escaping the board.
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Dagfinn / Deng Ham Admin
Scenario 3: the unabandoned fort
The roaring thunder of the avalanche finally subsides, leaving behind a scarred mountainside and a trail of battered warriors. Those who survived the shifting rocks and snows of Skredskar drag themselves over the frozen crest of the pass, gasping for air in the thin mountain wind.
There, nestled against a backdrop of sharp, jagged cliffs, sits the ancient fortress. The stronghold is spectacular, a relic of a bygone age of conquerors. But as the warbands look closer, their blood runs cold. The fortress is not abandoned. Columns of smoke rise from the courtyard, and guarding the ramparts are heavily armed Njorsvald warriors, axes gleaming in the winter sun. High above the stone battlements, catching the fierce mountain wind, snaps a massive, dark red banner emblazoned with a white ice crystal cube. The rogue Njorsvald have claimed this place as their own, and they intend to defend it fiercely.
A sudden, desperate rush grips the commanders. After surviving the trek, the marked square, and the mountain's wrath, no one is turning back now. The fortress must be taken. The mountain has already exacted its toll. While the victors of the pass charge forward with momentum, getting far ahead into the valley, other warbands are not so lucky. Limping, battered, and delayed by the crushing snowslides, the less fortunate warriors trail behind, forced to start their assault from the very edges of the valley.
The stage is set. The Njorsvald watch from behind their fortifications, weapons ready, as the fractured warbands race forward to storm the walls. Whoever manages to usurp the fort's protectors will claim the legendary sternstal weaponry within for their own.
Scenario 3
Setup & Deployment
The fort: Choose one corner of the gaming table. Set up a fortified camp forming a quarter-circle with a 12” radius from that corner. Leave an open gateway midway, with room enough for one character to pass through.
The Defenders: Place a rogue warband of 8 Njorsvald Hallguard inside the fortifications. They are equipped with sternstal light armour, shields and throwing weapons.
Players deploy their models on one of either of the two table edges that do not contain the fortified corner.
Placement Order: Players alternate placing one character at a time. The player with the least favorable results in the previous scenario goes first, at a tie you roll off.
No character may be deployed within 12” of an enemy player's character.
Deployment Zones: Your performance in the previous game determines how far into the battlefield your warriors can deploy from your table edge:
Previous Winner: 12” or more from the fort.
Previous Draw: 15” or more from the fort.
Previous Loser: 18” or more from the fort.
Storming the Walls
One character at a time can fit within the gate. The defenders still try to block it, without getting cover, standing two abreast
To cross over the barricades into the fort, a model must successfully perform a feat. The difficulty depends on the unit type:
If a model attempts to breach the walls while already locked in combat with one or more Njorsvald defenders inside, the Feat difficulty is increased by one level (e.g., Medium becomes Hard, Hard becomes Legendary).
Unit type
Feet difficulty
Flyers
Easy feet
Infantry/other on 30mm or 40mm
Medium feet
Mounted and monsters.
Hard feet
Norse Throwing Weapon
(Ranged) Shot: Power 4
Special Rules: 6” range.
Sternstal (optional)
Weapons bought from the Common Armoury by Character with this Trait have an
additional +1 Power on their first Attack each Activation. If their Armour is ever broken,
roll a D6. On a success, the break is disregarded. If Sternstal Equipment is ever stolen from a Njorse Character, their Bravery stat is halved and they are unable to use their Commander’s Bravery stat until it is returned to them.
Shield Wall
If a Character with this Trait is equipped with a Shield, they may re-roll one more Defence
Roll per Round for each friendly Character in base contact that also has this Trait and a
Shield.
The Njorsvald warband follow these rules:
The Njorsvald goes last when rolling for priority. Randomly decide what character activates on the Njorsvald turn.
The defenders will never leave the boundaries of their fort.
Fortified Position: Njorsvald warriors always count as being in Cover when targeted by attacks from models outside the fortifications.
When activating they use this order of priority.
Attack models in base contact.
Charge models in range, including one Leg it. But not if they would leave the fort.
Move to fill gaps on the battlements. Defending the gate will take priority.
Shot twice with a throw weapon.
Victory Conditions
The game lasts for 6 rounds or ends immediately if all 8 Njorsvald defenders are taken Out of Action.
Warbands earn 1 VP for every defender they personally eliminate and 1 VP if they have more gold worth of their Warband inside the fort. Whoever has the most VP wins the scenario and claims the fortress.
Campaign Epilogue: Spoils of the Stronghold
The desperate fight for the mountain fortress finally falls silent. The snow around the barricades is stained crimson, and the dark red banners of the Njorsvald Faction have been torn from the ramparts, cast down into the freezing mud.
For the victorious warband, the heavy iron doors of the inner keep are thrown wide. Inside lies the prize they braved the wilds to find: chests of gold and racks of legendary, gleaming sternstal weaponry. Secure within the thick stone walls, huddled around roaring hearths, the victors tend to their wounds and drink to their survival. They have conquered Skredskar, usurped the defenders and claimed the loot.
But for those who failed to breach the walls, the mountain offers no mercy. Shut out from the warmth of the fortress and empty-handed, the defeated warbands are forced to turn back into the biting wind. Battered, bruised, and freezing, they begin the long, agonizing crawl back down the treacherous mountain trails toward Sneiten. The frontier settlement they left in a flash of glory now waits for them as a grim refuge of failure.
The fortress has a new master, but for how long. Surely the Njorsvald will come too reclaim what is rightfully theirs. Then they are as everyone else, at the mercy of the biting cold of the peaks and the long memory of a fortune lost to the snow.
