Forget Me Not (1920s style) Part 1

So here's the write up of our first Call of Cthulhu RPG session back in the winter of 2018 (originally published in the Yog-Sothoth forum on my 'A Pretend Terror' blog), as narrated by my character, Harry Harrison.

WARNING: Spoilers!

The Diary of Harry Harrison: Mystic

19th September 1922

Oh how the spirits must laugh at the living; entwined as we are with the fickle hand of fate!

One minute I am providing spiritual succour to the bereaved souls of New York’s elite, the next I’m covered in mud and lying in an upturned truck in the middle of nowhere!

How I got here I have no recollection. Neither do I remember teaming up with my three companions, or they me. All we have discovered is that we have been exploring the town of Clio, Michigan – most notably the old Cooper farmhouse: a place notorious for grisly murders and mysterious disappearances. We also found photographic equipment and wax audio recording among our effects – clearly we meant business!

It appears that there was also a fifth member of our party – a red-haired lady by the name of Lynne who may have been more acquainted with one of us than the others. It was in her room that I found a notebook, detailing the locals we had apparently been quizzing about the Cooper House – possibly by way of producing a movie and/or on behalf of the ‘Second Sight Co-operative’, whose card we have discovered in some of our motel rooms (a place, I might add, we have no memories of booking into!) Lynne however has since gone missing and her whereabouts is unknown.

If this wasn’t mysterious enough, we have also been afflicted a terrible condition that the local doctor has been unable to diagnose (X-rays serving only to baffle him). Eating and drinking holds a particular terror - it hurts to swallow and some of us have been vomiting copiously. Also, how shall I put this, I have been evacuating my bowels in a spectacular fashion. I have suffered greatly from this malady, and I swear that, in the resultant issue, something moves!

Normally friendly dogs hurl themselves at us, while our investigations, not to mention our maladies and the resultant mess, are making us less and less welcome in this small town. Impromptu dance sessions do nothing to alleviate our misery and serve only to compound our woes.

Moreover we have been tormented by terrible dreams and visions. Mysterious figures leaping at us from the cornfields, monsters and creatures that Hell itself would refuse entry, things been forced down our throats… Our sanity has suffered as a result and I begin to wonder whether I will survive another night in this accursed town!

Yet survive I must, as my companions and I must unravel this mystery - for the sake of our own peace of mind if nothing else. Tomorrow we intend to stock up on weapons and supplies, having had our truck repaired. We have arranged to visit the Cooper House – a place built by one Edmund McCumsey: an English scholar and author of the esoteric tome Before Daedalus (a copy of which we have been unable to find at the local library).

It was in this house that John Cooper disembowelled his entire family to get rid of things he claimed were ‘inside them’. I fear that such things are also inside me!

I await the night with fear and trepidation…

OOC notes:

Playing location: A vault under a 17th century half-timbered building.

Whatever happened to JP?

So, my last post was on the 3rd of March, a couple of weeks before this whole Covid-19 stupidness kicked off. Our children were sent home from school, businesses had to hurriedly readjust, social distancing became a thing and civilisation all-but collapsed for the want of a supermarket delivery slot. 

Terribly, our next game of Frostgrave was postponed and I was obliged to work (and teach my children) from home, which meant any tables I might have been eyeing up for some lockdown painting and solo-gaming were instead requisitioned as makeshift offices and classrooms.

Meanwhile we struggled to keep our nerve while my significant other, a member of the medical profession, watched and worried as her colleagues began to test positive for the virus and we spent a fraught couple of weeks looking out for symptoms in the household.

Alas the crisis is not yet over, although restrictions are slowly being lifted and we no longer have to scavenge for nuts, berries and click & collect appointments at Morrisons, but the dining room table is still groaning under the weight of laptops and textbooks.

So, no wargaming for me, but happily I have been able to continue with my roleplaying sessions; something I had been getting into a lot pre-Coronavirus.

Our monthly-ish face-to-face Call of Cthulhu sessions have moved to a bi-weekly slot over the internet, using Roll20 for dice rolling and Facebook Messenger for voice (Discord is apparently the chat server of choice but I and a couple of my fellow gamers have issues with the sound quality).

I have also really got into Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th edition) – basically a grim and gritty alternative to D&D in which PCs start off as squishy low-level plebs (something all CoC players will appreciate). Again, we use Facebook Messenger for voice, but use Foundry VTT for the dice rolling etc. (we originally used Roll20 and it looks like the makers of WRFP4e are in talks with the folk behind this platform, so we may migrate back).

Both games are great, seat-of-your-pants fun as we avoid getting killed, maimed, driven insane or otherwise subjected to unpleasantness, whilst trying to solve whatever mystery and defeat whatever horrible fiend is laid before us by our erstwhile GMs (Sean and Ad respectively, who must both be congratulated on doing a fantastic job so far).

All this leads me to a question for you, dear follower. I have been publishing accounts of our Call of Cthulhu games on the members-only Yog-Sothoth forum (keeping notes is quite useful in our investigations). In an attempt to add some more semi-regular content on this blog, would you like me to copy these reports onto Tales of Frostgravery?

I’ve not been taking notes during out Warhammer Roleplay sessions, but I could always dredge my memory and write the occasional summary of them too. Again, would this be something you’d like to see?

Until next time, stay safe, follow your local guidelines and don’t book the 3:30 PM delivery slot!

Leap Day Extravaganza Part 2: Out of Time

Once every four years, a leap year occurs and there is another day in the calender. Felstead is no different, but has the added complexity that the Chronomancers carried out many of their experiments on that day; some of which are still in operation even now and the thawing ice have uncovered them.

Your wizards and entourages are searching the area of ruins, colloquially known as Tindalos, on just such a day and stumble across one that is a work in progress, huge Time Crystals have thrust up through the ruins, complete with the mysterious beasts known as Chronohounds.

So read the introduction to Giles’ homebrew scenario for the second session of the Leap Day festivities. Unless the wizards could destroy the crystals, the vicious and relentless Chronohounds would just keep on coming.

As if this wasn’t incentive enough, with just one treasure each on the table, the crystals would also yield up two treasures each if destroyed. My Sigilist, Sister Sans-Serif, took to the field on the ‘purple table’ against Giles’ Chronomancer Rassilon and Gavin’s Elementalist.

Meanwhile, my former opponents Alan and Glyn faced another Chronomancer in the form of Rob’s wizard on the ‘yellow table’. With each crystal boasting an impressive armour value of 16, who would prevail?

Each Chronohound started off next to a particular time crystal. Soon they would leap into action, hunting down anyone within range, their special affinity with time allowing them to see their prey through any terrain. If they were defeated, they would simply reappear at a random corner until their parent crystal was smashed, causing them to disappear completely.

Unlike the previous game, we opted to deploy on a table edge as per usual. Perhaps it was the swirling eddies of time, or perhaps it was just the fact that I couldn’t be arsed to move to another table edge after the first game, but I found myself flanked on both sides by my opponents.

Undaunted, my warband moved forward. Once again my laziness was my undoing, for my warband placement meant that the nearest uncontested crystal was at the opposite side of the table. On my right flank, my soldiers were beset by a Chronohound, which appeared behind them after being defeated by Giles’ band.

The rest of the Chronomancer’s men converged on a crystal and began to chip away with it. On my part, I tried to plough through the opposition using the old Wizard Eye/Grenade combo once again (my Sigilist really must learn to try out some different spells).

On my left flank, Gavin’s warriors also advanced towards a crystal, attracting the attention of a nearby Chronohound. It leapt towards them, slavering and howling. Oh, I forgot to mention that each phase was timed, giving each player three minutes to declare their actions, lest they lose them!

Back to the right flank and my soldiers were still battling the Chronohound (stats for this creature can be found in the 'Perilous Dark' supplement by the way) while, a little ahead, Giles’ team chipped away at the crystal.

Gavin’s soldiers found such crystal-bashing hard going; the eldritch eddies of time emanating from the thing causing his warriors to fall withering to the ground (each crystal had a fight of +1).

Meanwhile, the Dice Gods smiled on Giles and a crystal was shattered into pieces. Luckily this also released my men nearby from the threat of the attacking Chronohound as it vanished into the time vortex.

With my own rolls being somewhat lacklustre, it was looking increasingly unlikely that I would reach any crystals, let alone destroy them. Cutting my losses my thief made a run for it with a treasure token he had managed to dig out. Alas, an Elemental Ball up the jacksie put paid to his thievery.

Freed from the Chronohound menace, the thugs on my right flank moved up to engage Giles’ warriors, cutting one his treasure hunter with a timely critical hit.

However the tide soon turned and the counterattack began to overwhelm the team. During all of this, my wizard (and apprentice, when she rolled well enough) stuck to the unimaginative tactic of hiding away and lobbing grenades through their Wizard Eye spells.

Once again my warband was being whittled down. Outflanked and with little to be gained by hanging around with all those Chronohounds, it was time to limp away with my single treasure and allow Gavin and Giles to share the rest of the spoils between them. With Giles being the only player to smash a crystal, he was the overall winner on our table (bizarrely, on the other table the crystals were all smashed in short order!)

Giles’ scenario was a challenging one, but great fun. In hindsight I should have paid more attention to warband and crystal placement. Fighting the opposing warbands was also a bad idea as I should have mobbed the crystals instead, but hey-ho; all-in-all it was a cracking day’s gaming with some good chums. Thanks Giles for organising it!

Leap Day Extravaganza Part 1: The Silent Tower

My old pal Giles organised a Frostgrave gaming day last Saturday, which of course was February 29^th -  Leap Day. And so, with the laws of time in flux (and me running late due to car issues), let us jump into the first game without further ado!

Most of the guys had already given their warbands a run out or two, so I brought my level 3 Sigilist warband (last seen here). Thus, Sister Sans-Serif found herself pondering the Mysteries of the Silent Tower. After placing two treasure tokens each and plonking another on top of the central tower (worth two rolls on the treasure table) we kicked off.

With three players per table, we (Alan, Glyn and I) agreed to deploy in a Y-shape – in other words Alan and Glyn deploying in a triangle formation at adjacent corners with me deploying in a small rectangular formation at the centre of the opposite side. Note I have 12 figures, thanks to having an inn as a base and an illusory soldier in the ranks.

My Sigilist (and barbarian bodyguard) edged forward, casting Wizard Eye on the nearest flat surface. Through this she cast Explosive Rune in an attempt to mine the approaches to the mysterious towers. However a little later on I realised that this was a touch spell, so I sheepishly moved the MDF marker to the base of the eye.

Alan’s wizard, using a combination of Telekinesis and Raise Zombie, snagged a treasure early on in the game. I can’t remember what school his wizard belonged to I’m afraid.

Glyn’s warband also pushed onwards. Again, I can’t remember what type of wizard he was fielding – sorry! (Edit: it was an Elementalist - cheers Glyn!) All the terrain was Giles’ by the way – saved me having to lug all my stuff around!

One of my thugs and an archer moved up into position, only for the warrior to get himself shot. My other archer had taken up position on the upper floor of a ruined building, overlooking the towers and connecting walkways.

Seeing his comrade fall, the archer drew a bead on Alan’s captain and fired, scoring a critical hit! Thus the mighty captain was killed, much to Alan’s chagrin.

Here’s a quick photo of the other table, where the here other players (Giles, Gareth Gavin and Rob) fought spooky wraiths in the Haunted Houses scenario. Apparently Giles had the **** beaten out of him!

As our warbands exchanged blows and shots, we each eyed up the special treasure atop the central tower. Two if my soldiers reached the towers first, causing Alan to send across his bear, which had previously been menacing my wizard on my left flank.

The avenging archer went down; bad news, for the only shooty ranged attack spell my Sigilist had was Grenade, which she would lob through her Wizard Eye. Consequently I relied on my archers quite a lot.

Alan’s wizard and his retinue contended with Glyn’s warhound. Things followed the standard pattern, resulting in one dead dog.

Alan’s bear lumbered towards the tower wherein my soldiers and clambering. Thankfully the old Wizard Eye/Grenade combo splatted the beast into a rug, allowing them to scamper across the walkway to the central structure.

A bird’s eye view of the action. Note my archer at the bottom centre-left, enjoying an unrivalled view of the towers. The pencils lying on the table are not us being messy, but were actually stand-ins for Wall spells (we’d all forgotten to bring walls with us).

Alas, as the other players’ warriors set foot in the towers, my soldiers were soon ejected (one, luckily the illusory one, falling from a gantry thanks to Alan’s horn of destruction). Alan’s archer got treasure first, with Glyn’s men-at-arms in close pursuit.

For most of the game, Alan and Glyn had a gentleman’s agreement not to attack each other’s wizards. This didn’t stop Alan wresting a treasure from Glyn’s warband or, as the game edged to a close, shooting Glyn’s wizard as he unwisely poked his head around a pencil wall.

Deciding to redress the balance, my remaining archer took a pot-shot at Alan’s would-be treasure-nabber atop the tower. The shot struck home, allowing Glyn’s men to grab the fabled loot.

But could I now grab the treasure for myself? I was worryingly low on soldiers, but sent my somewhat battered treasure hunter forward to intercept Glyn’s soldiers as they descended the tower. However Alan’s men got their before him and mugged them first.

With casualties mounting and all treasures claimed, it was time to limp away from the silent tower. Alan was the clear victor with four treasures; giving him five rolls on the treasure table (albeit, unfortunately for him, all low ones. I'm afraid to say I felt more than a little schadenfreude at this). I could boast a respectable two, while Glyn had to content himself with one.

Time for a quick level-up and then on to the second scenario of the day. It being a leap day, Giles had written a scenario especially for the occasion. Would Sister Sans-Serif survive the dreaded time crystals or would she run ‘Out of Time’?

Hacked Off!

I'm sure you know the feeling: you have the house to yourself, a copy of the new solo supplement Perilous Dark on the shelf and a small case full of miniatures in the car. Happy days! But oh no - no terrain! That really hacks me off!

But wait, wasn't there a mini game in the last edition of Spellcaster Magazine? Don't you have the board printed out and taped together somewhere? Oh yes, it's time for Barbarian Hack!

This seemingly simple game puts a hero figure in the centre of the board (where an innocent victim is tied to an altar). At each corner is a bad guy (Gnolls in this case). The hero moves as dictated by 2 D6, while the bad guys move diagonally towards the altar one square at a time.

If the hero's moves take him past a bad guy, that bad guy dies. If the bad guy's move takes him past the hero or the altar, the hero or innocent victim dies and the game is over.

We start with our hero as he tries to undo the chains that bind the imperilled maiden to the bloody altar. But suddenly, the sound of guttural snarling can be heard from all sides...

The first rolls are low and our hero can do little more than edge towards one of the Gnolls as they slink forward, slathering in anticipation.

The second round and the rolls are better. Our hero moves 4 spaces across and 6 spaces down, taking out two bad guys. The other two still survive however and warily scuttle on.

Round three and another couple of low rolls. Our hero lumbers back towards the altar, but the Gnolls are closing in. Who will get there first?

The fourth round and the rolls are a mixed bag, but they're enough. Our hero moves 3 spaces diagonally, taking out one Gnoll, before racing horizontally 6 spaces, slaying the final Gnoll along the way. Our hero prevails!

A fun little game to while away a few minutes, which can be found in Spellcaster Magazine issue 5 - check it out!