“Come on boy! We
cannot hide like frightened rabbits!”
Thaddeus Daemoncall
strode onwards with, Oddleigh thought, an exaggerated air of bravado. They had
both experienced strange dreams the night before – half remembered but somehow
all the more terrifying for that. It was as if some malicious entity was
lurking just out of sight…
Still, the Summoner
insisted that they carry on with their explorations, his thirst for knowledge overriding
his misgivings. That was, of course, before the sky started to go dark…
“Um, perhaps master we’d
better pause for a moment? Maybe try another day?”
Thaddeus looked up at
the blackened sky, shielding his eyes to watch the sun slowly being eaten away.
“An eclipse? That’s
strange… There’s nothing in the almanac…”
A shout from across
the ruins interrupted his musings as Halfinch the Hobbit thief returned from
his scouting and scampered towards them.
“I’ve just taken a
look ahead my lord. It’s Toddlebrew and his men!”
The Summoner grunted.
“Well, whatever’s happening,
I’m not letting that old fool get the better of me – onwards I say!”
It’s gaming time with Giles again as we kick off the Thaw of
the Lich Lord campaign! At present everyone is blissfully unaware of the horror
that’s awakening, but the eclipse forebodes something unpleasant.
Oddleigh takes the left flank with the infantrymen and a
crossbowman. The crossbowman takes a default position up in the higher levels,
but cannot see very far.
The quicker members of the band are on the right flank,
covered by the marksman, who is also finding it difficult to spot any targets in
the gathering gloom.
Toddlebrew and his minions appear opposite. Do they share
the same sense of unease as Thaddeus and his brave explorers? Only time will
tell.
Toddlebrew takes an early lead as his men race forward to
claim the nearest treasure tokens. One such action attracts a skeleton, which
clatters onto the board behind the sigilist.
The skeleton is joined by a hungry ghoul. Thaddeus is having
difficulty casting his spells and his crossbowmen are unable to see anyone to
shoot, so perhaps this is the break he needs.
The undead pair advances toward Toddlebrew’s band. A quick
couple of dice rolls to see who they attack has the skeleton targeting an
archer, whilst the ghoul attacks Toddlebrew himself!
With the sky darkening and my crossbowmen unable to see
anyone, they climb down from their respective vantage points to get in closer.
Meanwhile Toddlebrew dispatches the ghoul in hand-to-hand combat.
Thaddeus’ men continue forward as the summoner manages to successfully
cast a spell and summon a minor demon. Opposite, Toddlebrew’s archer sees off
the skeleton. Giles is rolling well and me… not so well.
On the left flank I finally snag some treasure. The
pilfering infantryman is screened off from the opposition by way of a trusty
wall spell. In the centre, Red Sandra the captain, having done very little in
previous games, is determined to take down at least one enemy soldier and leads
the charge.
Grabbing another treasure attracts the attention of a
strange animal/human hybrid known as a Rangifer (using a Gnoll as a stand-in).
It wanders on, sniffing out the nearest prey, which happens to be Thaddeus and
Oddleigh!
As the enemy grabs treasure in the centre, Red Sandra tries
to reach them. Close by, Toddlebrew’s knight engages my demon and zombie. The
zombie is slain and the demon wounded whilst I’m frantically going through my
dice in an attempt to find one that rolls high.
After my marksman fails to put it down, Sir Pierre the knight is leapt back to head off the
Rangifer. I must admit I don’t like the look of the official Rangifer figures
(sorry Northstar!) so I’ll be using my Gnolls as proxies during this campaign.
Thankfully I roll decently for a change and Sir Pierre runs his
magic sword through the creature. As it gets darker, Red Sandra is determined
to prove her worth and, with demon and barbarian in support, launches a furious charge at the enemy
knight.
Who rolls a 20! Once again my captain is defeated
spectacularly. To be honest, I had to laugh at this point. You know when you
have a figure that you’re sure is unlucky? Well poor Sandra is that figure for
me, so it makes sense that she’d go down to a critical hit.
Giles’ terminator knight continues to cut a swathe through
my warband, sending my wounded demon back to whence it came.
By way of an encore he then defeats my barbarian, cheered on by his comrades.
Meanwhile my treasure hunter and thief are making their way along the right
flank towards some treasure. Toddlebrew sends some minions to head them off.
Acting as vanguard, Fluffy the warhound bounds forward and
slows them down, but pays for this delaying tactic with her life.
My warband is rapidly depleting as the sun continues to
disappear. Thaddeus orders an infantryman and crossbowman to outflank Toddlebrew’s
band on the sigilist's right. Meanwhile Sir Pierre races forward to get back into the
fray. On my right, thief and treasure hunter are trying to reach the treasure
before the enemy.
As Toddlebrew’s ranger and warhound approach, they are
stopped in their tracks with a wall spell. This buys Halfinch and Goldtooth
enough time to make a run for it with their treasures.
On the left, my crossbowman finally sees a target and knocks
out a thug. The sun is now completely covered and the eclipse is total. What
strange sorcery is this? The spellcaster’s hands suddenly crackle with raw
magic as arcane power surges through them!
Using his new-found power, Thaddeus summons a major demon.
The creature lumbers forward – will it reach the opposing warband? No.
Judicious use of the push spell keeps the fell beast away.
In the centre, my infantryman is confronted by the
invincible knight and an equally tough captain. Oddleigh can just about see the
knight through a hole in the ruins. Surging with energy he casts a mind control
spell, causing the warrior to suddenly turn on his comrade.
However, even with this surprising turn of events, the
captain still manages to down the infantryman. The caprices of the Dice Gods
are bewildering and numerous.
Toddlebrew dispels the mind control, allowing the knight to re-join
his comrades as Sir Pierre and a newly-summoned demon enters the fray. Sir
Pierre follows his colleagues’ example and is defeated.
As is the minor demon. Luckily for me, Toddlebrew is content with the three treasure tokens he had collected and decides that the
time is ripe for him to withdraw. As the sky begins to brighten, Thaddeus gathers the remainder of his band, and carries his three treasures
back to base. So honours even treasure-wise, but I have lost far more men than Giles, so a win for him.
Despite me bitching about my dice rolls in this report, it was
actually a really fun game. It was amazing to watch Giles’ knight slash his way
through his opponents, despite being outnumbered 3:1 at one stage (of course
the minute I had control of him he fumbled every strike!)
I really had to laugh when my captain went down, if only out
of relief – she had cost a lot of gold, despite stubbornly remaining at level
0, but I had invested too much in her just to sack her from the band. It
should come as no surprise that I rolled a 1 for her survival roll – bye bye Sandra.
Thaddeus Daemoncall
was surprisingly upbeat after they returned wearily to the Cloven Hoof Inn.
Despite the bloodshed suffered, the treasure haul was rather meagre, but there
were one or two useful trinkets to sell. Even the death of one of the
infantrymen cast little gloom – while his fellows mourned him as warriors do
for their comrades, there were plenty of tribesmen willing to fill his boots.
Oddleigh watched as one
of the soldiers cast a torch onto the funeral pyre of the captain Red Sandra.
Uluk the marksman clapped him on the shoulder. “She promised much eh boy? Then
cost us even more before leaving us with nothing.”
He gurgled a rough
tribal laugh. “Such is the way of women!”
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