Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Frostgrave Campaign Day 7


Saturday we played the seventh game of our FG campaign.  We had seven players show up, to include one new addition to the campaign.  As usual, we picked two scenarios and combined them together on the table:  Silent Tower and The Mausoleum.  With the number of players, we also doubled the scenario guidelines, i.e. two towers, two mausoleums, double the skeletons, etc.  You can find additional information in Kodak's game report.

View from the harbor area

Middle part of the table
Prior to setting out, Knabe and Vogel successfully cast a couple of spells: Raise Zombie, Animal Companion - Leopard, Brew Potion - Teleport (Daggit the thief), Brew Potion - Invisibility (Pilum the ranger).  The attempts to cast Reveal Secret both failed.  Knabe took a Potion of Chameleon from the vault, just in case, and Vogel grabbed a Potion of Healing.  Some magic items had been purchased and they were handed out as well:  Boots of Speed to Faenger (Treasure Hunter) and Crossbow with +1 shoot to Fritz (Marksman).  Things were looking good.  The weather, while chilly, was clear of storm clouds.  It should prove to be a great day in the ruins.

Other end of the table
Knabe and his warband slowly moved through the outer ruins, heading towards the frozen river and boardwalk area.  Rumors of a sunken treasure ship (Mausoleum) sounded too good to pass up - even though Knabe hates the harbor area.

The Doctor's warband
As the group moved into position, Knabe could tell the magical energy in the area was high.  There were definitely several other wizards here today.  He could also detect a negative magical void emanating from a nearby ruined tower.  He could see Kodak's warband off in the distance; also in the harbor area.
Kodak's warband
Right from the start, Knabe noted several items that looked to be treasure sticking out of the snow and ice.  He immediately cast Telekinesis to move a treasure from the sunken Mausoleum towards his warband.  Vogel attempted to do the same but misspoke his words and failed.  Knabe directed the zombie  to fetch a nearby treasure item and it lumbers away.

Knabe set up and ready to go
My menagerie (bear, snow leopard, fox aka warhound, and owl aka blood crow) was sent towards the ruined tower to cause as much trouble to the Doctor (Chronomancer) and Buck (Sigilist) as possible. (In hindsight, they would have been better used to control the treasure laying in the harbor area.  Oh well, its easy to over analyze while sitting in the tavern with a cup of hot mead)
The menagerie moves towards the tower

Pilum put an arrow into Kodak's mangy mutt but failed to take him down.  No worries though, as a wandering skeleton finished him off.  Vogel cast Fog to block Kodak's minions.

Fog placed to block shots from Kodak's archers
Daggit (Thief) used a Potion of Teleportation to transport himself out of the harbor area to a piece of treasure on a distant hilltop.  He was instantly set upon by several members of the Doctor's warband who had snuck up the back side of the hill.

Seeing that Daggit had jumped into a hornet's nest, Knabe cast Leap on him to get him out of harm's way.  But that didn't last long as Daggit was then attacked by Kodak's treasure hunter.  Kruger (Treasure Hunter) rushes to join in the fray. 

A medium construct creature appeared near Knabe and lumbered into contact with him.   Faenger, seeing the danger to Knabe, moves to engage the beast.  He inflicts serious wounds to the creature but it doesn't go down.  Pilum moves in to help and finishes the job.  Knabe is then free to cast Bone Dart at one of Kodak's thieves but fails to cause any damage.  Vogel then cast Bone Dart and takes out Kodak's treasure hunter.  And Fritz puts a bolt into Kodak's archer as he was picking up a treasure item but only caused a flesh wound. Before he could get off another shot, the archer rapidly moved out of sight - must be some kind of magic.

Daggit and Kruger on the cliff (Picture by Kodak, pun intended)
Meanwhile, up on the cliff, a knight teleports into combat and Daggit is pushed back .  The knight takes out Kruger just before the knight is thrown through the air and into the remains of the sunken ship.  Then, the sky darkens as a multitude of crossbow bolts fly through the air:  the fox drops from the tower, the owl is killed, and Daggit is skewed by a couple more and crumples into the snow.  The Doctor's name goes into the book once more.



The fox starts to climb the tower
Uhlmann (Owl Master) finally reaches a treasure chest, picks it up, and heads out of the ruins.  Legio gets a blank look on his face momentarily but shakes it off (Kodak fails his attempt at Mind Control).  Knabe casts Bone Dart and once again fails to cause any damage.  Vogel copies his master.  Meanwhile, Faenger had been slinking through the ruins and managed to get out with some treasure.

Over at the mystical tower, Bobo (Bear) is beset on all sides by three members of the Doctor's warband.  Even the mighty bear couldn't surivive such an onslaught and fell in the end to a knight.

On the top floor of th tower, Fleck III (Snow Leopard) attacks Buck (Sigilist Wizard) but the wizard beats him back - even while holding a treasure item in one hand.  Buck then turns, takes a running leap, and jumps off the top floor of the tower.  As he clears the tower, he slowly floats to the ground and eventually runs off into the ruins (Buck had a Ring of Slow Fall that activated once he was clear of the magic nullifying effect of the tower).
Terrain eye candy

Uhlmann suddenly turns around and starts to head the wrong way - with my treasure (Kodak's apprentice successfully cast Mind Control with a  19).  Legio was lining up for a great shot on the Doctor's warband when he suddenly turned around and moved towards Uhlmann (Kodak successfully cast Mind Control with a 20 - ouch).  Knabe quickly cast Fog to block Kodak's line of sight as does Vogel (Note to self - should have done that earlier).  He then moved to intercept Legio.  After a quick exchange of blows, Knabe pushes the ranger back, bloodied but still alive.  Knabe really didn't want to kill his own man.  Fritz however didn't feel that way about Uhlmann.  He engages and beats him into the snow; recovering the treasure.  A wandering skeleton attacks Knabe and is quickly dispatched.

Off in the distance, Pilum is seen sliding backwards across the ice.  As he told the story, Kodak's apprentice cast a spell on him just as he was lining up a shot at an archer carrying a bag of treasure.  That archer had a charmed life; many arrows and Bone Darts flew her way without striking home.
Fritz, with treasure in hand, heads towards safety.  Knabe casts Leap to help him get there faster; and keep him out of sight of Kodak and his blasted mind control spells.  Vogel casts another Fog to cover the battered warband's withdrawal from the ruins.

The zombie gets his treasure back to the rendevous point and then crumbles to dust.  Once again, the zombie minion brings home a chest of gold.  this time it was 375 gold coins.

Uhlmann survived his beat down from Fritz, none the worse for the experience.  Daggit and Kruger also recovered with no ill effects.  All of the animals eventually made it back and should be fully recovered for the next adventure.
End of game photo with treasure; skulls mark the group that died.  Fortunately they all recovered.
The treasure haul wasn't too bad:  555 gold coins, Ring of Teleportation, and a grimoire containing the spell Familiar.  Knabe will be studying that spell straight away.  The added health bonus will be helpful.  Knabe may go looking for additional magic items to enhance his warband, or maybe purchase a Scroll of Dispel to counter Mind Control.  And then there's the possibility of promoting Daggit from Thief to Treasure Hunter.  Hmmmm, lots to think about before the next adventure..

Other stats from the game for those that like to look at such a thing:
XP = 3 x 50 (treasure) and 11 x 10 (successfully cast spells) for a total of 260 xp

My spell casting summary:  11 out of 12 spells were successfully cast.
Knabe 6 out of 6
Vogel 5 out of 6
Telekinesis  1 out of 2
Leap  2 out of 2
Fog  4 out of 4
Bone Dart  4 out of 4

Another fun time was had by all.  Already looking forward to the next game - but first I have to paint some Frost Giants.  Well be running them next time around, so almost everyone is busy painting, or making terrain.

 

Monday, August 29, 2016

Battleground at Cold wars


Another post that languished in my drafts folder.....

At Cold Wars I hosted two Battleground WWII games.  The first was the Fight for St Manvieu.
The village of St Manvieu
The British attack (with my scratch built Crocodile trailer)
The Churchills move forward
More Churchills
And more.....
British attack the farm house complex
The Crocodile flamed the farm house and the infantry moved forward
The attack on the British left flank
The second game was titled: Bloody Maltot

Bloody Maltot
The village of Maltot, the British objective
Another view...
The British view of their objective
Another British view of their objective
The British attack commences
Supported by some unusually accurate artillery smoke
The British roll over the German outpost
I didn't get any other pictures as I was too busy performing game master duties.  Both games went well and were great fun.

NashCon 2016


Finally got around to posting my pictures from NashCon 2016.  This was in my drafts folder and forgotten about - till now.....

My Battleground WWII Pacific Island Game
A view of the initial set-up
Another view
A close up view
An another view....

A bunker's eye view....
The Marines approach the village
The Marine deployment
The Marines taking fire from the Japanese
Marines assault a Japanese position
Marine assault the bunker

The Game Master and half the players
A great looking Naval game


Another shot of the Naval game
An one more view....
My troops in Doc Dave's WWI Trench Game
Doc Dave explaining the rules
Carnage in front of the trench
Combat Patrol game being played on same table, same scenario
Another view of the Combat Patrol game
A 15mm Battleground game set in Normandy
Great looking terrain
A view of the Kings of War tournament area
Another  view of the Kings of War tournament area
A view of the War Machine tournament area
A view of the 40K tournament area
A 20mm Battleground Game set in Russia
The German armor masses for the attack
An aerial recon photo.....
The fighting gets intense....
  NashCon is a great convention.  This was my third trip from Maryland - and all three trips have been great.  The few photos I've posted here doesn't do the convention justice.  A lot of great looking games were hosted through the three day event.