Golem Hunt at Alan’s: Part 2 – Field Research

Perched high on the exposed top of the wizard’s blasted tower, Illusionist Extraordinaire Miss Mazement once again gazed into her crystal ball. Something had been responsible for the devastation she had witnessed and she knew she had to find it…

…ah, there it was… Interesting...

Unlike the other wizards that roamed the frozen ruins, her magical education had been informal at best. Perhaps it was time to remedy that and do some proper studying…

Time for our second game at Alan’s grotto of wonders . There’s a mad golem on the loose and some field research was in order!

The rogue granite golem raged in the centre of the board as all three warbands (Miss Mazement, Giles’ summoner the King in Yellow and Alan’s wizard Hashpot Dribbleweed) cautiously advanced towards it. We needed to get close enough to study it, interact (i.e. fight) it and experiment by casting spells on it, without actually destroying the thing.

Protected by an invisibility spell, Miss Mazement calmly walked towards the golem, sending her warhound ahead while she took notes. The rest of the warband, having recovered from their injuries and reinforced with a zombie, began to search for treasure whilst avoiding the other two bands.

With no targets in line of sight, the golem moved in a random direction, thumping right into the path of the KIY and his crew! The band of cultists scrambled to snatch whatever treasures they could.

On the left flank my apprentice and Dribbleweed played telekinesis tug-of-war with a treasure chest until Dribbleweed’s archers dissuaded my thugs from claiming it, sending a zombie forward for good measure.

My apprentice evened the score a little by bone-darting one of the archers, while my wounded thug continued to advance menacingly (or as menacingly as you can when you’ve got an arrow sticking out of you).

The thug managed to dispatch the zombie, in stark contrast to the last game when it took the combined efforts of three heavy-hitters to down one!

On the right flank my archers attempted to hold back the KIY’s men while the captain and man-at-arms advanced towards some nearby treasure. Alas the archers were soon out-shot by return fire.

While the KIY scurried away from the golem, letting his apothecary face it’s fury, his troubles were compounded by the arrival of a hungry bear.

Ever the helpful wizard, Miss Mazement sent her warhound forward to attack the golem, furiously scribbling notes as the granite monstrosity stepped back and trod on the unfortunate hound, barely registering it’s presence.

My captain went down in a hail of arrows as he tried to shield the remaining archer while he fished a treasure chest out of the rubble. Unsupported, my man-at-arms decided to pull back and nab an unclaimed treasure hidden behind him.

On the left, my wounded thug took one chance too many as he engaged an archer in combat and was defeated. In the centre, an invisible Miss Mazement got close enough to the golem to make a detailed study. So far I’d managed 3 out of the 4 extra experience criteria.

With a paltry haul of treasure, the KIY began to pull back from the enraged golem, spraying out imps and demons in an effort to cover his retreat. This backfired somewhat as one of the imps intended for me turned on them when the original target got out of sight.

Dribbleweed’s men are also pulling back, having gained a reasonable amount of treasure. To help them along my mystic warrior charged forward, shrugging off a steal health spell to attack and defeat the pesky archer.

It only remained for my now invisible apprentice to get within line of sight to use his mud scroll on the golem, thus completing the four experiments. Much experience was gained by these studies (somewhat offset by the lack of spells cast whilst invisible) and a nice haul of treasure was taken, enabling me to replace any wounded or killed soldiers and buy another, extremely useful, grimoire…

A joint win for me an Alan by my reckoning, but more importantly a cracking day’s gaming at his place – thanks to him and his good lady wife for being great hosts!

Giles' version of the tale is on his blog, starting here.

Golem Hunt at Alan’s: Part 1 - The Attack Site

Miss Mazement, illusionist extraordinaire, climbed to the top of the ruined tower and with the stars aligning around her, gazed into the crystal ball and saw…

The Orc warlord ducked as another dismembered limb flew over his head. Cursing the day he had decided that plundering the frozen ruins would be a good idea, he snarled.

“No bugga gets the better of Skazog Skull-Stompah, not mattah how big ‘e is!”

He gripped his cutlass and, yelling a blood-curdling battle-cry, hurled himself at the hulking brute as it disembowelled a screaming Goblin. The thing turned and, roaring a roar like a rockfall, swung a massive fist.

Miss Mazement blinked as green blood splattered the inside of the orb, before the vision swirled into nothingness. Strange things were afoot, but then again, in this place, wasn’t that always the case? Time to ready the men for another expedition…

Time for another game of Frostgrave at my chum Alan’s man-cave. Having recently bought the Frostgrave Folio, he was keen to try out the Hunt for the Golem mini-campaign, so duly sent an invite to me and Giles.

First off the Attack Site scenario. Lacking corpse markers, we used some of Alan’s Orc minis instead – quite a crowded table considering all three of us had to place five corpses in addition to the extra treasures placed due to us all having the Reveal Secret spell.

Being a three-player game we deployed in a Y-shape, with me on one edge and Alan (playing Rinsesoap the Enchanter) and Glies (with summoner the King in Yellow – who is slightly more evil than my own summoner and must therefore be destroyed even more) taking the opposite corners.

Soon treasures were being picked up and corpses searched, with most of them revealing themselves to be shambling zombies! The start of the game looked more like a game of Zombicide than Frostgrave as each warband battled these undead creatures.

Most of the zombies were quickly dispatched, but on the right flank my thief was having difficulty defeating the one that'd been awakened by his investigations. Looting corpses can be bad for your health!

No matter, my captain, group-activating with the man-at-arms and newly-hired mystic warrior, would see off the rotting cadaver! To help out the poor thief, Miss Mazement dropped the captain into his place with a transpose spell.

In the meantime my apprentice, nicely protected from attack by a high-value beauty spell, casually climbed the ruins to get to a treasure (the zombie rolls now all used up, searching the corpses was a low-risk business).

The captain was finding the zombie hard work, and things were made worse by two imps, courtesy of the King in Yellow, skittering into view. By now I was even using my archers to carry treasure and was being outnumbered.

Another imp, attracted by the sounds of battle, appeared behind my lines and made it’s way towards my thug and warhound, who were closing in on another treasure. 

The warhound was sent back to deter this creature, but soon fell under it’s claws. Wherever these imps were being summoned from, they breed ‘em tough! The KIY now had the advantage in numbers, being able to summon demons and raise zombies, whereas Alan and I were using up soldiers to carry off treasure.

Another wandering monster, in the shape of an ice spider, crawled in behind Rinsesoap and headed for the nearest members of his band – a treasure carrying soldier and a more gamey-tasting zombie.

My man-at-arms was felled by the zombie as the two imps also approach. These two pests notwithstanding, the other two wizards seemed more intent on battling each other than disrupting my illusionist’s treasure grab.

The mystic warrior and captain finally managed to destroy the zombie, earning my captain some rare experience. This is further boosted by slaying the imps. This allowed the warband to probe the right flank, which is mistaken by the KIY for a flanking manoeuvre. In reality, with my band depleted by casualties and carried-off treasure, I was more interested in nabbing as much loot as I could before weight of numbers turned against me.

On the left flank, imps and spiders made treasure hunting difficult. My apprentice surveyed all from his elevated position on the far left, but failed to spot the Rinsesoap’s bear ambling towards him on the ground.

In response to my supposed flank attack, the KIY summoned more imps to bother Miss Mazement as she moved forward, protected by both beauty and invisibility spells. They made short work of my captain and thief, leaving my flank exposed.

On my left, my mystic warrior raced to assist as my treasure-laden apprentice and thug withdrew in the face of an angry bear. Thankfully the KIY intervened by summoning more imps, causing those on my right flank to disappear. Would the bear pounce on my men, or could I turn the situation to my advantage?

As for Rinsesoap, well he was next on the ice spider’s to-eat list, after defeating two of his soldiers. The enchanter faced the arachnid in combat, and prevailed! All of the treasure had been accounted for, save the golem notes, which fell to the KIY, despite him sustaining losses in retrieving them.

My mystic warrior was felled by an imp, leaving the apprentice and thug unsupported. Enemy critters from the other two warbands thus converged on the unfortunate thug. By this stage, both wizards had noticed my treasure haul and were determined that it didn’t increase.

But a quick transpose spell from my apprentice changed the situation. The thug swapped places with an imp who being an uncontrolled creature, joined it’s mate in attacking the bear!

Frantic transpose spells from both wizard and apprentice kept the imps in contact with the bear. Eventually the bear was slain! Very tough imps these! This quick re-jostling of positions allowed the remainder of my warband to withdraw with a grand total of 5 treasures – not a bad haul. However the King in Yellow, summoning imps with wild abandon, probably came out on top by finding the golem notes. (Check out Giles' version of events, starting here).

Thankfully all casualties survived the injury rolls and I rolled rather well on the treasure table, giving Miss Mazement enough gold to buy a new grimoire, raise zombie, in an attempt to reduce the disparity in numbers. And she’d need to too, for now it was time to find, and study, the cause of all this destruction…