The PCs battle guards at a fortified checkpoint, such as on a wilderness road or at the entrance to an unwalled town.

A road flanked by unpassable terrain (such as thick woods or cliff walls) is fortified with a wooden barricade that blocks progress.Attempting to move through the barricade requires nimble motions and a bit of climbing to avoid the mix of spears and planks. Such a move requires the entity to perform an Acrobatics roll vs. 1d6. Failure results in suffering 1d6 damage and canceling the Move. Since the barricades aren't a strict wall to be climbed, Tools and other Gear that provide climbing bonuses have no effect on the barricades.

The barricades may be destroyed. Each blocked section border has such a barricade, with 6 HP and Fire Weakness 1. The barricades play a Reaction having Defense: 1d4. Area Attacks on either side of a barricade may target the barricade if desired.

All entities gain +1 dice level to Miss entries that pass through a barricade. Adversaries inside the blockade are positioned on raised platforms, preventing their targets from enjoying this effect (allowing them to fire on the PCs unimpeded unless they move out).

The road stretches on following the same pattern in both directions for as long as is needed.

0       0
    0
0       0
    0
    -
    B      <-- blockade, with barricades on the north and south section borders
    -
    0
0       0
    0      <-- PCs begin here
0       0

• Rookie Guard
• Rookie Sharpshooter
• Vigil

• Rookie Guard x2
• Rookie Sharpshooter x2

• Foot Soldier
• Rookie Guard
• Rookie Sharpshooter
• Vigil x2

• Archer Cadet
• Foot Soldier
• Rookie Guard
• Rookie Sharpshooter
• Vigil

• Foot Soldier x2
• Archer Cadet x2

• The PCs begin three sections south of the blockade (see map)
• Ranged Adversaries begin inside the blockade on raised platforms
• Melee guards begin immediately south of the blockade

Melee guards will move to engage the PCs, trusting the barricade to protect the ranged guards. Ranged guards will focus fire on incanting PCs first, then ranged PCs.

The guards are defeated. It's probably best to have them flee so that the PCs aren't able to loot a large amount of valuable weapons and armor from their defeated corpses. If the guards aren't on the side of evil, the PCs may simply be aiming to have them surrender and let them pass, which also works. If you do choose to let the PCs kill and loot the guards, consider having the looted Gear branded as official guard equipment, which the PCs can only sell on the black market at greatly reduced prices (and if they choose to use the Gear, they may get into some serious trouble later on if the brands are identified).

The PCs are forced to flee. If you want them to try again or consider a new approach, they flee back the way they came and are unable to pass through the checkpoint. If it's vital the PCs get through and you don't want them to have to retry, allow them to flee through the checkpoint, but each suffer 1 Injury in the process from losing the skirmish.

Not all checkpoints will enjoy the protection of Vigils. You could swap them for Agitated Farmers or Street Toughs reflavored as gruff, ill-equipped guard recruits. If the terrain allows it, you could also include Insect Clouds which attack indescriminately. This scenario is easy to boost to Level 2 by including more of the same Adversaries or adding a Petty Officer to the mix.

More level 1 combat scenarios