Mother Goosegog: The Lady Without the Lamp

Mother Goosegog still searches for a cure to the plague that stalks her people. She’s heard tell of a genie somewhere nearby – maybe he could grant her a wish or two?

The Hereford Wargames Club were kind enough to allow me to put on a Frostgrave game last night. Four players on a 3’x3’ board – this’ll be interesting!

Once again I brought out Mother Goosegog and her warband, whilst my mate Alan fielded his Dwarf enchanter, Rinsesoap Washbag. Newcomers Liam and Kieran took control of a couple of my ‘spare’ warbands (give or take the odd figure) – necromancer (slightly boosted from previous games) and illusionist (brand new at level 0) respectively.

I chose the Genie in a Bottle scenario (with extra treasures, seeing as there were a lot of players), then suddenly realised that said genie is immune to normal weapons, putting the new chaps at a distinct disadvantage. Therefore I let the guys choose a figure to give a magic weapon to.

And so, taking a corner apiece, we began… Goosegog and co. move forward, with the witch, bear and treasure hunter taking the right flank under a fog screen, supported by the crossbowman who had climbed the nearest ruin. On my left, Meg the apprentice moves to secure the flank with the help of the tracker and ranger. Soon they would be popping off shots at the advancing illusionist’s henchmen. In my centre, the remainder of the band head towards the nearest treasure.

In the meantime the necromancer and illusionist sre slinging spells and arrows at each other in a duel that would last for most of the game. The enchanter is making full use of his telekinesis spell and is dragging treasures away, making it harder for my advancing soldiers to catch them. On my left I'm having better luck, with my bear and treasure hunter closing in to seal off his escape route and hopefully intercept the stolen treasure. However an invulnerability potion ensures that at least one chest would make it back to the enchanter’s base.

The illusionist’s men grab another treasure on the left, finding the fabled magic lamp and releasing the genie! Luckily their knight is armed with a magic sword and so battle commences.

My hound races forward and happily savages one of the enchanter’s archers. However this doesn't stop the Dwarf from pulling the treasures into the hands of his underlings. On my left, my apprentice is being menaced by illusionist thugs. I'm confident that my ranger and tracker could deal with them, until one of them is transposed with a tougher man-at-arms.

All this treasure grabbing is sure to attract some unwelcome attention eventually. This proves to be the case, with two snow trolls wandering in behind the enchanter’s warband. They quickly catch the scent of his men and lumber towards them, huge fists flying.

This interrupts the Dwarf’s treasure hauling exercise somewhat. Could I race forward and steal some treasure from under their noses? I move soldiers forward to get close, but not too close lest the trolls turn on me. To keep the wizard occupied I send my warhound to attack him, but alas he is no match for the gnarly enchanter.

As the necromancer and his minions look on, the genie dispatches the knight. The evil wizard casts bones of the earth, gripping the genie in place (we decided that the spell could be cast on genies). As the genie is still within 1” of the lamp, it couldn’t be picked up.

The illusionist’s man-at-arms battles my ranger and tracker, who are all that stand between him and my apprentice. The tracker goes down and the ranger is reduced to 1 health! Thankfully the next round of combat sees my ranger take down his opponent. He hurries back to the apprentice for some much needed healing.

In the centre, having seen off any rivals, a fog-screened pairing of thief and javelineer try to grab some treasure but are intercepted by a thug from that pesky illusionist. The henchman soon downs the javelineer, with the thief following shortly.

By now the bear and treasure hunter have worked their way up the right flank and are closing in on the enchanter’s band. The enchanter himself is now trapped between my bear and one of the trolls. The troll batters his ranger bodyguard, but Mother Goosegog magnanimously saves the Dwarf from being troll and/or bear fodder by bone-darting him instead.

By now it's looking unlikely that I would get any treasure, for one of the trolls decides to head for my advancing crew, allowing the surviving members of the enchanter band to escape. But could I gain the mantle of genie slayer? My treasure hunter, suitably armed with magic cutlass, has worked his way across the board and attacks. Alas he fails dismally.

At last the genie has prised it’s way out of the bones of the earth spell (allowing the necromancer to nip in and steal the fabled lamp), and heads for the nearest victim, the illusionist’s apprentice! It is the final round of the game. Dice are rolled…

Two 20s! Two critical hits! By rights both should go down, but who had the magic weapon in the illusionist’s band? Er… we weren’t sure… well such luck can’t go unrewarded, so I allowed the apprentice to have the magic sword on a roll of 19-20. Alas the roll was 18…

So the genie is free to stalk the ruins, the illusionist lost his apprentice but gained a treasure, the enchanter was bone darted but gained 4 treasures, the necromancer claimed a treasure and the lamp, whist I had to content myself with a shedload of experience (one wizard kill and 13 spells cast).

Another brilliant game of utter madness! It was nice to see so many different spells in operation (telekinesis is now firmly on my list of must-have spells), improbable dice roles and in general lots of fun.

Alan has very kindly written an account of the scrap from a Dwarven-eye view:-

Game 3 – Tuesday 24th January 2017. At Hereford Wargames Club, The Swan, with JP,Liam,Keiran
 Warband comprised :-
Wizard Level 4 of Enchanter School with two-handed weapon and 10 spells –
Telekinesis (6), Strength (10), Control Construct (12), ; Enchant Weapon (8)  from Enchanter ;
Curse (10 +2) and Animal Companion (8 +2) from Witch ; Furious Quill (10 + 2)) from Sigilist ; Leap (8 + 2) from Summoner ;  Heal (8 +4) from Thaumaturge ; Raise Zombie (8 + 4) from Necromancer
 Apprentice with two-handed weapon
 2 Archers ; 1 Ranger ; 1 Barbarian ; 1 Infantrymen ; 2 Thugs ; 1 Thief.
 Before the game Wizard (Rinsesoap Washbag) cast Animate Zombie spell but Apprentice (Clompar McGillicaddy) failed to cast Animal Companion Spell.
 Wizard and Apprentice successfully cast Telekinesis Spell several times to move Treasure Chests closer, until Thief was able to remove one. Barbarian picked up another then drank Invulnerability Potion enabling it to pass Bear and Treasure Hunter, which had killed Archer and Zombie respectively. Infantryman, despite being hit by Archer, was able to pick up and remove another Treasure Chest. Thug was killed by Bear, and Wizard fought off Warhound, which was pushed back into Ranger, who finished it off. Second Thug picked up Treasure Chest but like the second Archer was killed by two wandering Snow Trolls which suddenly appeared as a result of another Treasure Chest being opened elsewhere. Apprentice retreated but Wizard and Ranger were trapped between Snow Trolls and Bear. The Ranger died defending his master and the Wizard fled behind a wall, out of sight of Trolls and Bear, but unfortunately within sight of JP’s Wizard, who felled him with a bone dart attack. As the Apprentice held her breath the Trolls luckily decided to head towards a wandering Zombie, leaving her time to Telekinesis the dropped Treasure Chest close enough to retrieve and carry off.
 So 4 Treasure Chests gained and 10 spells successfully cast, but Wizard, 2 Archers, 2 Thugs and Zombie lost. Fortunately in the after-game reckoning Rinsesoap Washbag narrowly survived, but lost the two potions he was carrying. The 2 Archers also survived, but 1 Thug died and the other was seriously wounded, meaning he would miss the next game.
The 4 Treasure Chests contained 300 Gold, 2 Magic Weapons, and 2 Grimoires, for the Restore Life and Curse spells. 300 Experience were gained, in addition to the 20 for returning to the Laboratory to do more research.  Another successful, though somewhat bloody, outing for Rinsesoap Washbag and his merry men.