It was my pleasure to play against Andy. This scenario was Loot the Cart. A broken down cart in the center of the table with 4 Death Cultist guards. The cart contained 4 treasure tokens. Two other tokens (one each) were placed on the table by us players.
Because we're playing at the club and our resources are a little bit limited, our table was somewhat... greener than the expected frozen, stony ground of Felstad (Frostgrave). So, in order to compensate, I have decided that a 1980's wargaming magazine atmosphere was required: thus slightly out of focus, badly set up, B&W photos are the order of the day.
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Into the Frozen City...
The Magus Mandrax has sent an imp, summoned from the very depths of Heck, and sent it out to watch the comings and goings in the frozen city. It has found a treasure cart broken and stranded guarded by naught but a handful of Death Cultists. The imp reported back to it's master but also reported the approach of the Warrior Wizard, Elric of Melnibone and his band or neer-do-wells.
Hmmm... I've heard that name somewhere before!
Mandrax's warband at the bottom of the pic and Elric deployed at the top table edge.
Before the game I cast some "out of game" spells: Familiar - Both Mandrax and his apprentice Joquettes were successful and both gained a familiar and 2 extra Health Points (HP). Mandrax was also able to cast Summon Demon and Bind Demon because I added a Summoning Circle and Arcane Candle to his Wizard's Lair following the previous game. As a result I gained an imp as part of my starting warband.
Both parties were aware of the other and approached the treasure cart with caution.
Surrounded by archers, Elric the albino sorcerer urges his warband on to loot the treasure cart.
The hobbits Ned Undersack and Maximus Stinkfoot lead the way the the treasure.
To show the Melnibonean the extent of his magical power, Maximus ascended some high ground and cast a Bone Dart spell at his enemy. With a successful hit of 13 HP the red eyed albino was sorely worsted and forced to stagger into cover and use his own magical powers to heal himself.
With the, so called, White Wolf and his men cowering in fear of the Magus Mandrax's impressive spell casting, the treasure was his for the taking. In the center the two hobbits approached the cart. Undersack took out a Death Cultist with a well paced arrow whilst Stinkfoot grabbed a treasure and prepared to withdraw. Mandrax sent the imp of Heck to protect the successful thief.
Meanwhile Joquettes lead a smaller group around the other side of the cart. He cast a Telekinesis spell and drew a treasure token closer to his own men. As this was happening Goz Lame, the other thief in the party, took possession of another treasure and began hauling it back to safety.
Feeling the surge of magic in the air, and understanding that his apprentice was employing the stratagem designed by the master, Mandrax also cast Telekinesis and drew forth a treasure for his men to retrieve.
Hired thugs, Bert and Ron get stuck into the thick of it.
Then below, the apprentice Dyvim Slorm, braver than his cowering simpering master, stood forth and cast some sort of elemental power spell at the Magus and smote him heavily (7HP) staggering the wizard. "I'd better get off this bloody hill." he thought.
And so... throughout the game so far, Elric's archers, including the famed Rakhir the Red, had shot dismally with every shot going awry. The archer with a bald axeman, saw his friend hewn down by the hairy thug but decided to run forward, take a precarious aim and loose an arrow at Joquettes the Magus's apprentice: 20! (+2)... 12 points of damage and the apprentice went down with a strangled cry. Errrrrghhhh!
In the center, the thug Bert charged Rakhir the Red and hewed him to the ground with mighty stokes of his axe. He turned to the now healed Elric who had come out of hiding, only to be beset by a Death Cultist who he threw back with a bloody wound.
Seeing that all was going well, Mandrax set Bert and Undersack to hold off Elric's men whilst the rest withdrew with the treasure. Mandrax himself retreated into cover and aided the ranger Thursen with a Leap spell to get him out of danger (only because he had a treasure).
In helping the ranger to secure the treasure, the Magus Mandrax had sacrificed an opportunity to either heal his wounds (healing potion) or escape from the area. Instead he fell back to some cover... What a noble gesture.
Do you see that archer waiting in the top of that building?
Neither did Mandrax.
This is what the archer saw: Straight ahead. Dead center...
Right at the very limit of his bow range... And these archers don't have a great track record...
And he rolled a 20! (+2)... Another 12 points of damage, and the Magus Mandrax fell to the frozen earth with an arrow jutting from his breast bone and breathed his last...
In the center, holding the rear guard were Doug the Thug and his mate Bert. Doug fought hard and sorely wounded the templar that charged into him but was no match in the end and was smote to the ground.
Bert, after fighting off the Death Cultist was brought low by the crushing power of Elric, who struck him down with Stormbringer! The Black Blade itself. And Bert saw no more. (Andy cast Elemental Hammer on the sword to emulate its power).
Somewhere around this time a swarm of ghouls had arrived and charged into the warring parties (They should have arrived at the end of turn 3 but Andy and I - without the campaign source book - got a bit lost. So they arrived at the end of turn 4). My surviving men were falling back to consolidate their treasure. The Melnibonean's men led by a certain, Moonglum, were trying to chase them down to loot their dead bodies. But the arrival of the animated dead bodies of the ghouls drove into them and forced them to also fall back after Moonglum was beaten down by one of the undead creatures.
Ned Undersack, leads the thugs Ron and Ted out of the ruins and back to safety.
Thus ended this dramatic and somewhat bloody affair.
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Aftermath...
It was a bit of a bloody game. Andy and I both lost 4 men, and two of mine were my wizard and apprentice. We rolled for casualties and for Mandrax I rolled... a 1!!!!
No. It was 11. But for a moment there I thought... So Mandrax the Magus drew another painful breath and staggered back to his lair.
He was okay. Joquettes rolled 8. A close call and he lost all of his items (a sword and healing potion so not too much). All the rest were okay except for the thug Bert who did roll a 1. This was a bit of a shame because he did well during the game. He beat Rakhir the Red archer, beat up some cultists and got the chance to go toe to toe with Elric. But the black rune-blade ran him through and ate his soul and he died a grizzly death. I guess it was appropriate really.
Mandrax was fully healed and okay. He didn't gain a huge amount of experience points but enough to lift him to 4th level. Whist my guys beat up the majority of the death cultist, it was Andy's guys that delivered the final blows in all but one instance. Being out of the game my spell casters couldn't cast more spells and gain more xp. Also, my remaining troops didn't kill any ghouls because they just ran.
I left the table with most of the treasure (4 out of 6) and now Mandrax is quite wealthy and has an abundance of magical grimoires. Lucky his lair is set in a library.
Because the campaign ranking is done by XP and not wealth Mandrax, with 410xp, is currently sitting at 6th place in a field of 8.
Edit: Again, because I lacked the campaign book and because of my general inexperience with the game (only my 3rd game) I calculated my experience incorrectly. I now sit on 530xp - 5th in a field of 8.
Because the campaign ranking is done by XP and not wealth Mandrax, with 410xp, is currently sitting at 6th place in a field of 8.
Edit: Again, because I lacked the campaign book and because of my general inexperience with the game (only my 3rd game) I calculated my experience incorrectly. I now sit on 530xp - 5th in a field of 8.
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As a result of this game I bought the pdf version of the Thaw of the Lich Lord. I figure I can print off the required scenario's as we play them so at least I'll know what the set up, special rules etc, are on the night. Because we also had to jump a scenario due to a lack of the correct terrain, I figure I can also read ahead and try to make some of what's needed, or at the least, provide things from my own terrain collection.
P.S> I almost forgot... Here are some colour pics stolen from Russel. They'll give you and idea of how green our Frostgrave really was, as well as some of the other players games going on at the same time.
Great write-up!
ReplyDeleteThanks Joe. I enjoy doing AAR's.
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