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…
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