Monday, 24 October 2016

Mother Goosegog and the Silent Tower


“But I don’t understand! Why don’t the wizards all just get together and share the treasure out among themselves?”

“Because young ‘un, they’re stupid!”

Mother Goosegog winced, her shoulder throbbing from where the necromancer’s bone dart had struck. She turned to her wide-eyed apprentice  and forced a smile.

“Never mind eh? This tower is supposed to be a centre of null energy. If the sickness is magical then it’s worth looking at, but usually no self-respecting wizard would go near such a thing, so we should be left alone to-“

She stopped at the sound of raised voices in the distance.

“Never mind,” she sighed, “fetch the others…”

After obtaining the necessary permits from She Who Must Be Obeyed, a day’s gaming was in order. With Giles bringing out his new-ish level 10 Enchanter warband, and club member Alan coming along with an untested (also Enchanter) bunch, I decided to give my Witch warband another airing (it being more sporting to field her level 2 gang as opposed to my usual level 24 Summoner band.)

As we were at Giles’, we used his Mordhiem scenery, with my Pringles tube Silent Towers lurking in the middle of it all. Mother Goosegog, having hired an extra tracker, also boosted her small band with a snow leopard, ice toad and a raised zombie.

Having rolled for table sides, I found myself facing Giles’ band in opposite me, with Alan’s too close for comfort on my left. Most of my warband thus took cover in a coaching inn in the centre of my deployment zone, with my dwarf crossbowman clambering up to get a better field of fire.

My right flank was  not threatened, so my ranger and a thief, watched over by my apprentice, headed there in search of treasure.

Alan’s band moved towards my right, going for a treasure chest that I also had my eyes on. By way of discouragement my snow leopard raced forward, supported, courtesy of a Leap spell, by my slow but deadly ice toad.

As my slow leopard went down fighting, my zombie also shambled forward for a bit of zombie-on-zombie action. My embattled left flank was by now screened with a wall of fog, but this wasn’t enough to screen my crossbowman, who was badly wounded by one of Alan’s archers. With only one action per turn, the dwarf was now practically useless, considering that to move into cover, reload and then fire now took three whole turns.

Meanwhile the rest of Alan’s band lightly probed on Giles’ flank, leaving him relatively free to advance on the tower.

Fighting on my left continued to rage, buying Alan enough time to snag the coveted treasure. With my snow leopard dead, ice toad wounded and zombie soon to crumble into dust, any thoughts of a strong advance on this flank where swiftly disabused.

However fortune is known to favour the brave, so thief, knight and tracker moved into the fray. Could my knight, complete with a recently purchased magical weapon, cleave his way through to the treasure?

Giles’ warband continued towards the tower, nabbing any treasure within easy reach whilst screening themselves from any harm with Wall spells.

Gile’s captain was the first to reach the top of the tower! With most of my warband tussling with Alan’s (staying alive thanks to a freakish run of critical hit 20s) I was in no position to stop him.

Knight and thief continued to carve their way through Alan’s band, but the treasure was slipping away…

Finally I felt safe enough to advance to the tower. The treasure (worth a whopping 3 rolls on the treasure table) was firmly in Giles ‘possession, but I could still get experience from climbing up the tower. Therefore my Witch, accompanied by her tracker bodyguard, reached the base of the tower whilst one of my thieves distracted the opposition on the walkway.

Mother Goosegog climbed the outside of the tower rather than bump into any enemies descending inside. Surprisingly spry for her age, she got to the top and admired the view (with the exception of the gaudily dressed captain hauling away the fabled treasure!)

The fight on my left slowly died away, as did the combatants. Thus the warbands sloped away, some in triumph, others (well, mine to be exact) in defeat. Giles’ batrep – part 1 and part 2 – can be read on his blog.

Mother Goosegog only managed a single treasure, easily taken from the right flank by my ranger. Alas the treasure roll result was pretty meagre. Alan took two treasure while Giles, wisely leaving us to squabble amongst ourselves, nabbed four, including the one on the top of the tower – in total a whopping 6 rolls on the treasure table!

Luckily all of my band survived except the snow leopard, though I ‘sacked’ the ice toad – my plan of leaping him into action and using his triple damage attack failing dismally. In retrospect I should have made a move on the tower sooner, relying on Fog spells to screen me from harm, but hey ho, next time maybe!

Despite the poor returns, it was a great game, with plenty of thrills and spills – but the fun wasn’t over yet…

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