Frostgrave Game 12 - Christmas in the Frozen City

A week or two ago we played the twelfth and final game of the 2017 Frostgrave Campaign.  Unfortunately, only five of the players were able to make it, but we had cookies, coffee, and some small gifts.


A view of the set-up

The scenario we did we called Red Sled Down, and featured St Nick’s sleigh crashing over Felstad, scattering packages throughout the ruins.  Also, St Nick and Mrs. Nick had survived the crash, and are stranded in the ruins.  To add a little more challenge to the mix, we also added two teams of six goblins who were trying to gather up the packages for themselves.  They were ruled to move towards the closest unclaimed packages first.  If there were no unclaimed ones nearby, then they would try to get claimed ones.  More information an be found in Quail's report: Frostgrave Campaign '17, Game 12: Red Sled Down, or, The Last Excursion

Jolly St Nick stuck on top of a ruined tower

Mrs. St Nick on top of some ruins

One of the groups of goblins looking for presents

Bemis' Report

Nigel rushed into the study, "Master Bemis have you heard? St Nick's sleigh has crashed somewhere in Felstad.  Rumor has the crash site near the goblin territory.  Some of the wizards are hastily preparing to go out and salvage whatever they can.  Should I alert the lads?"  "Yes Nigel, please prepare to go at first light" replied Bemis as he rose from his reading chair, Agarn and I will start our preparations as well."

Bemis and Agarn retired to the laboratory where they both were able to brew potions - Invisibility and Teleportation.  They then entered the scriptorium and prepared two scrolls - Drain Word and Awareness.  With that completed, they both retired to get a bit of rest before the morning's exertions.

Gru and his yellow creatures

It was an usually clear morning as the warband set out to search for the downed sleigh.  The lads were in good cheer.  Shadow VIII bounded along through the snow with endless energy.  At one point, a snow bunny emerged from the rubble, saw him, and took off at a fast hop.  Shadow sprinted after him for while but quickly gave up the chase as Agarn whistled him back.  The dwarven contingent started singing several refrains of the bawdy Icicle Bill the Delver song.  When their voices started to carry a bit, Nigel had to quiet them down.  But they all remained in good spirits.

Bemis guided the party unerringly towards their destination.  As they got closer, things took on a more serious note.  The friendly banter died off as everyone was on alert, both for other warbands searching the ruins as well wandering creatures.  Slowly creeping up behind a small ruined house, Bemis and Nigel spread out the warband using well rehearsed hand and arm signals.  Settling down, the sounds of other parties moving around the ruins could be detected.  Bemis could detect the slightly nauseating tint of necromantic magic which portent the presence of Missy and her evil undead worshipping followers.  Far off in the distance, flashes of yellow could be seen darting among the ruins - Gru's odd minions were also in attendance.  Bemis knew Quail was out today even though he couldn't detect her warband.

The goblins have collected a present

Carefully scanning the area, Nigel spotted a group of goblins directly in front of his position.  They chatted together in their guttural language while struggling to pull a large wooden sled through the snow.  As he watched, they stopped and excitedly hoisted a package onto the sled.  It must be one of the packages rumored to be carried by St Nick's sleigh.  Looks like Bemis brought us to the right spot.  Bemis spotted the goblins and their sled as well.  He leaned over to Agarn and pointed to the package, "That one is your responsibility."

Bemis cast Telekinesis on a package laying on the second story of a nearby ruin and managed to draw it closer to his warband.  Shadow and Hatch move forward to retrieve it.  Likewise, Agarn sees the package Bemis had pointed to and successfully casts Telekinesis to pull it off the goblin sled.  Kleppo immediately dashes forward and picks it up.

9Toe teleports to the top of a nearby tower

9Toe looks around the area and sees a duck fly up on top of a nearby tower.  With a quick gulp of his potion, 9Toe popped up on top of the tower's crenellation.  "Never give an inquisitive dwarf a Potion of Teleportation," mused Bemis.  9Toe barely gains his balance when a bone dart whistles by his head.  Momentarily surprised, he doesn't see the crossbow bolt that hits his helmet.  Knocked unconscious, he teeters at the edge before falling to a small platform several feet below his perch.  His feet get entangled in the rotting boards and later when he wakes up, he finds himself hanging upside down.

9Toe takes a tumble

Diesel Vin takes a peek inside a small ruined building, he spies a package lying inside .  He climbs through a window and quickly stuffs it into his backpack.  Niko moves forward and searches around a fallen column.  He finds a small treasure chest - right where Bemis had predicted.  With a bone tingling howl, a wild wolf announces its arrival.  Piko moves to intercept it.  Scurrying out of a nearby ruin, a giant rat skitters across the snow and lunges at Bemis like he is made of cheese.

Bemis turns and with a speed that defies his age, thrusts his sword out and neatly skewers the rat in mid leap.  He then moves towards Piko to assist him with the wolf.  With Bemis' assistance, Piko is able to defeat the wolf.

Bemis aids Piko in fighting a wolf

Agarn spots some of Gru's yellow creatures off in the distance.  They appeared to be moving towards the warband.  Agarn conjures up some Fog to block their line of sight.  To the right, Nigel and Vale head towards a tall ruined tower.  Vale reaches it first and begins a long climb to the top.

Vale climbs up a ruined tower

As they reached the package, Shadow and Hatch are each attacked by goblins.  Hatch, trying to guard a package, manages to successfully fight off and damage a goblin.  Shadow is not so lucky.  The goblin swings his club and bonks him hard on the head.  Shadow drops to the ground, never to rise again.  Hatch suddenly finds himself facing off against both goblins.  One goblin feinted towards his right side.  As Hatch blocked the attack with his dagger, the other goblin smashed him in the head.  The two goblins gleefully ran to the package to claim it.

Bemis had observed the goblins abusing his warband members.  He reaches down and grabs a large rock.  Quickly enchanting it, he hurls it towards the two goblins (Bemis cast Grenade).  With a loud bang, the rock impacts a goblin, immediately killing it.  Fragments injure the other goblin.  Agarn again casts Fog to block the line of sight of other goblins as well members of Missy's evil necromantic warband.

Bemis cast a Grenade on the goblins

Bemis grabs another rock and incants the spell for Grenade.  He throws it well but the rock explodes with a weak whimper and without causing any damage.  Diesel pulls out his Horn of Hellfire.  He points it at the remaining goblin and plays a short note.  A burst of magic hits the goblin and fries it to a cinder.  Piko runs over and picks up the package.

Diesel uses his Horn of Hellfire to take out a goblin

Meanwhile, over at the tall ruined tower, Agarn sees Vale has reached the top level.  Thinking that he might be too exposed up there, especially with Missy lingering nearby, he casts Fog to protect him.  Vale finds a package laying in the rubble.  He picks it up and places it in his backpack.

Vale finds a treasure at the top of the tower

With four packages and one treasure in his control, Bemis signals his warband to withdraw.  As they fall back, Bemis and Agarn throw the odd spell or two at anyone they can see to try and disrupt there activities - to little real effect - except maybe one.  Bemis observed some bright flashes of magic power over where he thought Quail might be located.  The magic appeared to be coming from Alfred the Unready.  In an attempt to help out his fellow sigilist, he cast Fog way across the ruins to block Alfred's line of sight.  Whether it actually did any good or not, who knows.

The return trip was uneventful.  All the warband was in good cheer despite the loss of Shadow VIII.  9Toe and Hatch were slowly recovering even though they were both a bit groggy.  It would be nice to get back to the warmth of the library - and a pinto of beer or two.

Bemis had hardly made it back to his library when he received word that his fellow sigilist, Quail, had been cut down during the fighting that day.  Taking Nigel along, he quickly hurried over to Quail's base to check on her condition.  To his relief, Quail had only taken a hard knock and seemed to be okay.  "Quail, my old friend, it may be time for two old codgers like us to retire from adventuring."  After a quick cup of tea, Bemis bid her farewell, with a promise to write to her at her university post.

As for Bemis, he intends to remain in his library near Felstad for a while longer.  The old library still has quite a few tomes and scrolls yet to be examined.  Nigel was planning to hang around as well; for the time being.  Agarn and the rest of the warband decided they would head to warmer environs.  Rumor has it there is adventuring to be had sailing some ancient islands - for those brave enough to try it.

End of game photo op

Epilogue

Another great game to close out the 2017 campaign season. The loot turned out to be 230 gold, 2 grimoires, and 7 scrolls.  For experience, Bemis received 420 and Nigel a mere 20.  With this, Bemis ends the campaign at the grand level of 50 and Nigel ends at level 4.

After the game, we exchanged gifts based on how many treasures each player obtained during the game.  I received a couple of miniatures and a pot of Nuln's Oil wash.  We then ate some lunch and set-up to play a test game of Ghost Archipelago.  It was the first time any of us had actually played the rules.  Unfortunately I did not record the events of that game nor did I capture any pictures - was too caught up trying to learn the new rules (fortunately there are not that many differences).  The Heritors play completely different than the FG wizards.  I think they will prove to be extremely interesting to learn to play.  We all enjoyed the game and look forward to using GA for the 2018 campaign.

For those who have read my posts - Thanks.  I hope you have found them to be entertaining.

Have a great holiday season and tune in next year for more adventures.