Mother Goosegog Keeps on Trying

Mother Goosegog winced - more from the red raw look of her apprentice’s skin than the pain left by the bone dart in her side. Still, it was no worse than those poor folk back home, still succumbing to the deadly disease that obliged her to journey to this frozen hellhole in search of a cure.

“Must keep going…” the witch muttered, as before them the air shimmered above a strange stone dias…

On to the next game – The Keep! Once again I was opposed by three other warbands: the necromancer, elementalist and an old face, Holbron Toddlebrew the sigilist.

Despite my witch, apprentice and much of the warband going down in the last game, they all survived their injuries. This meant that Goosegog still had her invisibility potion, looted from the alchemical factory, with her…

Escorted by the tracker, ranger and crossbowman, her first move is to down the potion, and stroll unmolested towards the nearest teleport disk. With luck she can gain some hefty experience by being teleported around the board unnoticed, while the rest of the band fend off the other three warbands and hopefully nab some treasure.

On my left, my apprentice heads for a vantage point to support the knight and thieves. My intention is to take the fight to the enemy on both flanks, and on my left I had unfinished business with the elementalist…

On my right, my zombie, warhound, bear and javelineer; a nice and beefy force to worry the necromancer, have similar plans.

Invisible witch, ranger and tracker head forward. Alas my crossbowman falls to some sneaky sniper before he has time to load his crossbow.

Thieves sneak up on the left towards the enemy. In the centre, Goosegog reaches a teleport disk and… nothing! Rolling high (for a change), she doesn’t budge!

My apprentice surveys the left flank, smiling with satisfaction as someone takes out the elementalist wizard. Both elementalist and sigilist bands do not hang about and soon begin a fighting withdrawal.

Throwing caution to the wind, the ranger and tracker head straight for the two treasures in the centre while the opposition squabbles over the teleport disks.

To my right, and treasure-laden enemy soldier appears on a disk. I send my zombie forward to harass him, although the necromancer’s gang are also on their way.

My bear and javelineer wreak havoc among the necromancer’s men on my right, although my warhound doesn’t help much on account of being killed. Further up the table the necromancer’s band is also being menaced by a wild boar.

Goosgog jumps repeatedly on the teleport disk, but still doesn’t move! Giving up on the idea, she decides she’d better get casting some spells and screens the ranger and tracker with fog (thus rendering herself visible).

Argh, it’s happening again! A wandering monster – in this case a white gorilla – wanders onto the table directly behind my warband! With the elementalist withdrawing from my left flank I’m able to send the knight and thieves to face the ape.

The necromancer’s apprentice arrives with a mob to sort out my bear and javelineer. A well-aimed javelin downs one of the underlings.

The sigilist’s captain, having being teleported nearby, decides to spoil my treasure-snatching party. Ranger and tracker, laden with loot, strain every muscle to escape.

The javelineer goes down, but my bear continues to rampage, mauling the enemy apprentice into the dirt.

That bloody gorilla chomps through my warband, with one of my thieves for starters.

Goosegog urges her minions to run for it, but does little to help out, opting instead to bone dart the sigilist opposite. She hits and wounds, but doesn’t kill the wizard.

The gorilla, having had his fill of thieves, goes for something more substantial. My knight manages to cleave the beast with his final stroke, before collapsing to the ground (the round of combat was a draw, so they both took damage).

The bear takes on more enemy underlings, but eventually they gain the upper hand.

My apprentice leaps the ranger out of harms way as the tracker races to catch up. With the gorilla gone, the line of retreat is clear. Thus, with time running out, we end the game and I claim two treasures.

Yet more mayhem! The chaos of having four warbands battling against each other was further mixed up by having figures popping up in unexpected places throughout the game. Luckily a good run on the dice mid-game saw me able to make some headway, despite most of my warband eventually biting the dust when the rolls returned to normal.

With two treasures and most of my warband surviving the post-game rolls, Mother Goosegog was a happy (and more importantly, alive) witch! Giles' report can be found at https://thelostcityofcarcosa.com/2017/01/26/fg-the-keep-revisited/