Frostgrave Campaign Game 10 - Knabe's Report

Here's my write up from our tenth campaign game - albeit a little late getting it published.  Been busy making bookcase and books.

Other write ups can be found here:

Kodak's Report

Elsa the Elementalist’s Account:  Another Day in Frostgrave

Keinegnad

"I want the job" said the gruff looking dwarf standing in front of my table.  I looked up from the meal I was enjoying with my young apprentice Vogel in the local tavern.  The dwarf standing in front of me looked like he had just finished a long, arduous journey.   His clothing was damp and his boots were caked with mud.  But his armor appeared to be well maintained. 

Knabe's new Captain

As I assessed the one interrupting my dinner, I could detect the magic emanating from what appeared to be a warhammer wrapped in oil skin slung across his back as well as from several items in his pack.  This caught my attention and told me he had been around for awhile.  And he probably knew his trade well to have survived and gained such quality kit.

I invited him to sit.  "You look a little parched Master Dwarf" and yelled for the barkeep to bring more ale.
"Now what is this about a job?" I asked.
"Word about has it that you are looking to hire a weapons master to train and help lead your warband.  I've traveled a far piece to get here - I'd like the job."
"Well, I have been contemplating obtaining someone to augment my band....someone with the requisite skills to increase their fighting skills and overall ability to survive encounters with the creatures of Felstad and other warbands.  What qualifications, or references, can you provide?", I replied as I packed my pipe for an after dinner smoke. 
"Well, my most recent experience was with an outfit out of......." The dwarf droned on about his skills, foes he had conquered, and how many skirmishes he had survived.  The list was quite extensive, as was his thirst.  He downed numerous pints of ale.  I wondered to myself, why would a dwarf of his skill and experience want to join a small warband rather than a military unit - but was hestitant to offend him.  That question could wait until a later day.  I was impressed with the dwarf, as was Vogel who hung on every word.  And with the warband down one member, I was considering the services of someone to assist with leading and training my warband in martial matters.  Then I could focus more fully on my magical studies.  I have several grimoires I have yet to open, plus many spells that need additional focus.  Plus I would have more time for the continued training of my apprentice.

I decided to hire him as the Captain of my warband.  I hoped he would work out well.  At least he had one fan - Vogel.

I looked up, "Master dwarf, I'd like to obtain your services.  We can settle on the particulars later tonight.  For now I assume you'd like to meet the rest of my band.  Vogel here will show you to our base."
The dwarf drained his mug, stood up and offered his hand, "I accept, pending our final discussion."
"By the way, what's your name?" I inquired.
"My name is Keinegnad but I am called Keine", the dwarf replied.  With that, he and Vogel departed the tavern.

I smiled as I contemplated the meaning of the name.  Yes indeed, he would do nicely......

With the addition of a Captain to my warband, I suddenly had a lot of extra time to devote to magical studies.  This enabled Vogel and myself to improve our casting of several spells: Reveal Secret, Fleet Feet, and Bone dart.  We also decided to dabble into the dark arts and learned how to cast a spell to call an Imp from the demonic planes.  While not entirely comfortable learning this spell, it may come in handy to harass or slow an opposing warband (Knabe chuckles at the thought of Kodak being chased around by an Imp). 

Remembering how some of his band had been mind controlled during past trips into the ruins, Knabe was able to find an old retired Sigilist who transcribed a Scroll of Dispel for a modest price.

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Knabe likes the new temple

A few weeks after hiring Keine, Knabe began preparations for another foray into the frozen city.  Attempts were made to Brew Potions and to scry for clues to hidden treasure (Reveal Secret) but to no avail.  Right from the start, it seems fate was conspiring against him.  At least Knabe and Vogel were able to call forth their Familiars.

A view from Knabe's end of the table

The chosen day was a bit more chilly than usual and a slight mist hovered over the ground.  As Knabe and his party moved through the outer edges of town, one could hear a slight moaning sound as the wind blew through the upper ruins.  It raised the hair on the back of Knabe's neck.  He wondered if this was a portent of something unpleasant today.


A view of the center of the table

A view from the far end of the table

The Doctor and his warband

 Finding a likely spot to use as a starting base, Knabe arranged his band into three groups.  He then scanned around in the early morning light to see what was nearby.  Once more he could detect the magical traces of his old nemesis Kodak as well as the tingling that he had come to associate with the Doctor.  Their presence in the ruins today might make things a bit difficult.

Knabe's nemesis - Kodak

Right off the bat, Knabe spots a chest nestled inside an old stone arch - and he noticed some of Kodak's henchmen moving towards it.  He skillfully draws it closer, and out of their reach, using Telekinesis.  He directs Daggit and Faenger (both Treasure Hunters) in that direction (Treasure Hunters) along with The Fox (warhound).  Keinegnad and Bobo (Bear) follow behind them
Vogel attempts to cast Leap on Uhlmann (Owl Master) but in his haste ends up burning himself instead.  Fleck (Snow Leopard) swiftly moves through the ruins and leaps through the window of an old building.

Knabe's warband

Fritz (Marksman) moves into a covered position and looks across the snow covered ruins.  He spots what looks to the The Doctor's apprentice, River, moving across an open area.  He takes careful aim and drops her with a well placed bolt.  He barely has time to say "Did you see that shot?" before he too is knocked cold by one of the Doctor's Marksmen.

Fritz adds another notch to his crossbow - River (Apprentice) falls prey to his marksmanship....just before he is knocked out

Other members of the warband move forward, trying to stay in cover.  Bobo climbs a small cliff and looks up at the top of a ruined tower.  Detecting Kodak at the top of the tower, he casts Leap on Bobo, placing him a few inches away from his old rival.  Kodak's hair stands straight up as he sees Bobo appear in front of him.  He quickly grabbed something off the floor and dove over the edge.

Faenger picks up a treasure and immediately hears the spine tingling roar of a White Ape.  The Fox bravely engages the ape to allow Faenger time to drag the treasure out of danger.  One treasure chest had to be left behind as two Ice Trolls could now be seen on the other side of a pile of rubble.  Daggit wisely ducks down out of sight.

My treasure hunter and some of Kodak's henchmen ponder whether to risk trying for the treasure

The owl was circling around the top of the ruined tower and spotted Kodak feverishly trying to maintain his precarious hand hold.  Screeching loudly, the Owl dives down, claws and beak at the ready, to peck at the old wizard.  Between the clawing and biting, and the powerful flapping of his wings, the Owl knocks Kodak's from his perch and watches as he falls a good distance to the ground (8 inches and takes 12 damage on top of the 4 from the Owl).  Kodak lands like a sack of rotten potatoes.  Amazingly, Kodak is still moving and manages to hobble away.  That old wizard has some stamina (shows the value of pumping up your health stat).

The owl dives on Kodak

Over by Fritz's body, an Ice Troll appeared out of the mist.  Pilum (Ranger) fights him off, and takes a step back just as a wall of Fog appeared between himself and the troll.  Confused, the troll heads towards the Doctor's warband.  Pilum is then set upon by two giant rats that appear out the rubble.  But out of nowhere, he is set upon by two giant rats.  They are quickly dispatched.

Another wandering monster appears near Pilum and Vogel (and Vogel's honey badger familiar)

A strategically placed Wall of Fog

Uhlmann picks up a bag of treasure and turns to flee as he notices Kodak's minions bearing down on him.  He doesn't even get one step before he is dropped cold by Kodak's Marksman and his bag is stolen by Kodak's Thief.  Witnessed by Knabe, he immediately prepares to cast Bone Dart.  But he must have rushed the casting process for he failed miserably, not once but twice as he used his Fate Stone without success.

Vogel sees Kodak's mangy mutt madly rushing towards him.  He casts Bone Dart but the dog jinks out of the way.  If magic fails, there's always cold steel.  Vogel's training sessions with Keinegnad pays off as he takes the dog down in hand to hand with a single deft strike to the head (pun intended).

Vogel takes out Kodak's mutt

Over by the ruined tower, Keinegnad sees reinforcements heading his way.  No problem, swollen with confidence, he attacks Kodak's Treasure Hunter.  Even with his many years of experience, and much better weapons and armor, Keinegnad is knocked backwards and is severely wounded.  Even his lucky runic rock (Fate Stone) failed to protect him.  What evil sorcery could this be?  Even with his injuries, Keinegnad throws himself into the rubble to support Bobo.  Inside the tower, Bobo has managed to charge Kodak's other Treasure Hunter who is encumbered carrying a large chest.  Bellowing out his battle growl, and swinging a huge left claw, he fells Kodak's woman with one swipe.  He hears the sounds of several people climbing through the rubble and turns to face the new threat.

Bobo triumphant and Keiengnad moving in to assist

The White Ape takes out Daggit

 Having only recovered one of the two treasures, Daggit sees Faenger's exit is in jeopardy from the White Ape.  He quickly assesses his chances against the ape - and charges into contact anyway.  Seeing Daggit engage the Whte Ape, Faenger struggles with going to his assistance, or getting the treasure to safety.  "Thanks Dags", he yells as he make good his escape.  Daggit manages to hang on just long enough to allow Faenger to get away before the ape slams him to the icey ground and he loses consciousness. 

Fleck leaps through a window

Meanwhile, having entered a nearby ruined building, Fleck spots one the Doctor's treasure hunters dropping to the floor after climbing through a window.  With a snarl, he pounces on him.  A viscuous fight ensues drawing in Legio (Ranger) and another of the Doctor's minions.  While Legio manages to hold his own for several rounds of combat, however Fleck is pummeled to the ground.  The Doctor's man grabs a bag of treasure and attempts to flee.  Legio is unable to interfere as his hands were full with another of the Doctor's men.  He does hear some cussing as Pilum squeezes through a window in the backroom - just in time to hear Knabe's recall signal.  Legio gives the Doctor's henchman a quick salute with his sword and exites out the back with Pilum covering his withdrawal.

Hearing the triumphant roar of the ape, Knabe knows it is time to leave.  Between the Doctor on his left, Kodak to his front, and the unusual number of creatures roaming around, things are getting a bit too hot for comfort.  He casts one more wall of Fog and then signals the for warband's recall.  Feeling tired, Knabe turns to leave - a very disappointing excursion.

At the end of the day, all Knabe had to show for his warband's troubles was one measly treasure chest.  It did contain 120 gold coins and a Raise Zombie grimoire.  At least the grimoire could be sold for a nice profit.  The grimoire reminded Knabe that he had received a map supposedly showing the location of the forgotten Felstad library.  The library was rumored to contained a treasure trove of information about old spells and forbidden incantations.

Epilogue
Two Ice Trolls, Giant Ape, another Ice Troll, two Giant rats, Large Construct, and an Ice Toad all appeared with within 12 inches of my warband.  Fortunately, some of them followed after Kodak's warband.  While Knabe and Kodak ended up with the majority of the random monsters in their area, I liked the automatic generation concept.  Definitely made things more interesting.

Knabe and Vogel managed to cast eight spells but they were almost all utility spells.  The one successful casting of Bone Dart failed to caused any damage.

My expensive Captain did not impress on his first outing....maybe next time.

Well, back to making more books and then some more books for the Library scenario next weekend.

Frostgrave Campaign Game 9

Here is my latent report from our ninth Frostgrave campaign game - from two weeks ago.....

Kodak's report can be found here:  Kodak

We were short two players but we did have Chris' new tower.  For this session we decided to play a home-made scenario based around random zoo critters spawning and rampaging around the table along with The Complex Temple.


Chris' new tower

The Narrative

Before the warband moved out, Knabe promoted Daggit to Treasure Hunter.  While everyone was congratulaing him, Knabe and Vogel set about casting their pre-adventure spells.  Knabe successfully brewed a Potion of Teleportation.  Vogel failed to brew anything other than a cup of tea - and not good tea either.  Knabe successfully cast Familiar and a honey badger scurried up to him.  Reveal Secret and Summon Zombie were failed casts by both.  Things did not appear to be looking good for using magical energy today, only two successful casts out of eight.  "I have a bad feeling about this" thought Knabe.

A view of the table



A view from the other end

Vadoon's warband

Kodak's warband

Necromancer's warband

Knabe's warband

The trek through the snow covered lanes to the frozen city was uneventful.  As they approached their pre-determined search area, Knabe could detect the magical energy of his nemesis Kodak.  He also picked up a new magical force he had never noticed before.  What he didn't sense was the energy of The Doctor.  That would make things a bit easier today.  Slowly picking his way through the ruins, Knabe noticed a large rhino creature within charging distance of his warband.  He decided to try out his new spell Animal Control.  He hadn't had much time to practice the casting requirements but he couldn't let any doubt disturb his incantations.  Fortunately, he successfully cast the spell (with an 18) and the animal was now under his control (and would remain so for the rest of game, all Will rolls failed).  Knabe told the animal to head off to the right and attack anything it found on that side of the ruins.  The rhino, after trying to shake the thought from his head (failed its Will roll vs 18), trundled off looking for someone to attack.


Daggit in the tower

Daggit, full of pride at being promoted, looked around the ruins for a likely place to check for treasure.  He was determined to repay his his good fortune by recovering some gold or maybe a magic artifact.  His eyes were drawn to a strange tower that could have only belonged to some long forgotten wizard.  "That looks like a good place to search" he thought and immediately drank his Potion of Teleportation.  With a slight "poof", Daggit found himself inside the tower.  A careful search revealed what appeared to be a bolt of fine cloth and a bag of coins.  He quickly grabbed both, stuffing them into his backpack.  Peering down around the tower, he noticed several large animals roaming around; plus he could hear the twang of bows and crossbows, and the strange crackling of magic spells being cast.  Daggit decided he would hunker down in the tower until things below looked a bit safer.

Fritz cautiously moved into a hidden position near an old aqueduct bridge structure.  Peering through the chilly morning air, he spied a figure off in the distance slowly ascending up the side of the aqueduct. Taking careful aim with his enhanced crossbow, he put a bolt dead center of the person's back.  As the body fell to the ground, Fritz recognized the face of the young human girl - the same face he had saved from a frost giant a few weeks back.  Such is the fortunes of Frostgrave. Fritz hoped she survived.

Vogel, seeing a body fall from the side of the aquaduct, looked up and noticed a chest on top of the structure.  Speaking the words and weaving his hands properly, he use Telekinesis to move the chest towards a tower structure where hopefully one of his warband could retrieve it (Unfortunately the Sigilist's warband recovered it).

One of Kodak's thieves climbs up a tower to get Vogel's treasure

Knabe successfully casts Raise Zombie and sends the creature off to his right, following Speck (Snow Leopard) and the Fox (War Hound).  Knabe then gets Vogel attention, "Sent me over towards that strange column."  Vogel casts Leap on him allowing Knabe to land inside a ruin near the column.  Vogel hoped it was one of the legendary columns that contained treasure inside - like a piñata.  Meanwhile, Bobo (Bear) and Faenger (Treasure Hunter) entered the ruined building the hard way - climbing through the windows to join Knabe.

The two rangers, Legio and Pilum, both fired arrows at a nearby ostrich causing minor wounds.  Legio notched a second arrow.  Aiming well, he managed to take down the creature.  Kruger (Treasure Hunter) moves over to check out the dead bird but doesn't find anything worth keeping except a long feather which he stuck in his hat.

Knabe decides to test the rumors about the strange columns encountered in this area of Frostgrave.  He struck it once with his sword.  The statue immediately crumbled into dust, leaving behind a large bag of coins sitting atop a leather bound book.  Faenger dusted them off and placed the items in his pack.  Bobo, sniffing the air, decided to crawl out a window on the other side of the ruin.  Once outside, Bobo sees Fleck and The Fox racing towards what appeared to be a Necromancer and some of his minions.  He decides to join in the fun.

Knabe contemplates attacking a statue

In the ensuring fight with the Necromancer's band, Fleck is killed by bowman.  The Fox charges into contact with the Necromancer.  Additional fighters join in the melee and The Fox is soon stretched out on the snow covered ground.  Bobo collapses from an extremely lucky Bone Dart cast by the Necromancer's apprentice.

Bobo and Fleck lay in the snow

Meanwhile, on the left flank of the warband, Fritz fires a bolt at Vadoon.  Its a hit but it fails to drop him.  He is then set upon by Vadoon's Man-at-Arms who snuck up behind him.  Fritz is knocked unconscious by a low blow from behind.

The Zombie found itself fighting a vicious Snow Ape.  It held out for a couple rounds before being pounded back into the ground.

Out of the corner of his eye, Knabe spots movement on top of a distant ruined tower.  Knowing none of his warband are over there, he casts Push on the unsuspecting individual.  With the proper words and hand motions, he successfully sends a magical burst of air towards the tower.  The Push spell is remarkably successful.  The sneak thief, clutching a bag to his chest, is hurled up into the air to a great height.  He plunges down out of Knabe's sight, but not his hearing - SPLAT!!!!!  Knabe chuckles to himself as he envisions the poor fellow desperately flapping his arms all the way to the ground.  Vogel, witnessing the enire event, congratulates his Master, "Nice cast Master, the guy didn't even bounce; he just splattered all over the place."  Vogel, then being distracted by the magical feat his Master just achieved, completely misdirects his Bone Dart at one of the Necromancer's minions. 
The treasure chest was now laying up on a walkway.  Kodak's apprentice Teleported to the location only to attract with a flurry of Bone Darts, arrow and bolts. In the end, no one is able to recover that treasure item as it remains hidden under the unmoving body of Kodak's apprentice. 

An ape climbs up after Knabe - time to go!

Knabe and Vogel spend some time casting Bone Darts at the Necromancer's warband.  After having zero success, they decided to reconsider their options.  The shadows were lengthening fast.  It was time to regroup and head back to the safety of our home base.

(We managed to play through eight game turns.  The last three turns were extremely fast given that several wizards and apprentices had fled the ruins to safety).

End of game group picture with treasure and dead warband members

Knabe pondered the number of losses he sustained from his latest outing.  While the expedition had been profitable, it had also been costly.  Though granted, some of the losses could be replaced by successfully casting Summon Animal, that doesn't change the fact that members of the warband were still lost.  Pilum, Fritz, and Kruger were taken out; Kruger could not be revived.

With the warband down one member, maybe he would consider looking for the services of someone to assist with leading and training his warband in martial matters.  Then he could focus more fully on his magical studies - and the continued training of his young apprentice Vogel.

Knabe had recovered a couple of grimoires (Imp and Elemental Shield) along with a Banner of Courage and three potions (Heal, Invisibility, and Burrowing).  Total gold collected amounted to 420; added to the treasury holdings of 1185 made for a hefty sum.  Maybe it was the right time to hire an expert.


Generic action shot

Epilogue - The following evening while enjoying a drink at one of the local taverns, and recovering from being sucker-punched from behind, Fritz receives word that the young human girl had died from her injuries.  He didn't think he had hit anything critical, and she hadn't fallen that far.  She should have survived. He paused momentarily.... and raised his mug of ale in a silent tribute to the fallen girl. 

Why was this human girl's death bothering him?  He had taken down many other warbands' members over the years - plus frost giants, ice spiders, wild dogs, and many others.  He had survived combat with a wraith, been burned by a hot geyser, had beaten one of his own warband members senseless after Uhlmann had been mind controlled (saving a treasure chest in the process;  fortunately Ulhmann survived and Knabe rewarded him with a magically enhanced crossbow). what was it that was nagging him?  Was it his own mortality? "Nah, I'm a dwarf, still many years left in me."  Even so, maybe it was time to consider retiring from active adventuring.  But he had been with the wizard Knabe right from the start - and had profited well.  "Let me think on it with another pint of ale, or two - BARKEEP!"

Post game notes:
This was the most successful magic casting game I have played, if you discount the pre-game spells - 17 spells attempted, 17 successes.  However, out of nine Bone Darts successfully cast, seven failed to do any damage (I think Chris touched my dice).

At least I was able to recover four treasures as detailed above.

It was also the game where I lost the most number of warband members in this campaign: Pilum, Fritz, Kruger, Bobo (Bear), Fleck III (Snow Leopard), The Fox (War Hound), the Owl (Blood Crow), and my summoned Zombie.

Anxiously awaiting the next campaign date.....

Frostgrave Campaign Game 8 - There be giants here.....

 

For this month's game, we combined two scenarios, The Keep and the Invasion of the Frost Giants.  For The Keep we used 8 teleporter disks; only 7 have treasure on them.  We made the disks "magic null" zones to reduce the effectiveness of telekinesis, invisibility, and teleportation.  The treasures did not teleport meaning you had to teleport to a disk with a treasure already there for you to pick it up.  And the other rule was you couldn't exit and enter a teleporter during the same activation.
 

Our teleportation disks

For the Invasion of the Frost Giants, we may have over extended ourselves.  We placed 14 Frost Giants on the tables using the same rules for placing treasure.  Seven of the giants had treasure, the other seven had nothing.  You didn't find out which treasure tokens were actual treasures until after the game.  For the first three turns, the giants could not random move off the table.  They would turn around instead.  We didn't want potential treasure exiting the board too soon.

Our Frost Giants

And finally, each player placed one treasure using the normal rules.  We then had the lowest level wizard pick his starting point and arranged the other wizards along the table according to level.  That way a level 20 wizard wasn't opposite a level 1 wizard.

With the preparations complete, we started the game...... 

You can go here to read  Kodak's Report

Legend has it that a long dead wizard had managed to permanently embed a Teleportation spell into a series of disks or pads.  But the spell wasn't perfect and he never figured out how to control where he ended up once he teleported.  The the cataclysm occurred and his research was lost.  Knabe was hoping to find out more and so into the ruins they went.

The Doctor's warband to the left of the tower

Prior to leaving the safety, and warmth, of the Inn, Knabe and Vogel attempted four different spells: Reveal Secret, Brew Potion, and Raise Zombie which were all unsuccessful; while Familiar was successfully cast cast by both.  Knabe ended up with a beaver and Vogel with a honey badger.  Knabe grabbed a Potion of Invisibility from the vault, gave Vogel a Ring of Teleportation, and rewarded Pilum (Ranger) with Boots of Speed.

Kodak's warband

With weapons in hand, Knabe lead his band of followers through the snowy paths into the ancient city.  The sky was clear today but Knabe still had a foreboding that something was awry.  As the band rounded the corner of a tumbled down building, he saw several large creatures moving off in the distance - Frost Giants.  What were they doing here? After moving a bit further, Knabe found himself standing less than 10 feet away from one of the fearsome beasts.  As each stared at the other, Knabe's group was the first to react.  Like choreographed swimmers, Bobo (Bear), Fleck (Snow Leopard) and the Fox (Warhound) all moved as one to engage the Frost Giant.  Bobo swung left and right; although he out fought the giant, he failed to cause any damage.  Fleck threw himself into the fray, clawing and biting.  The Fox did some ankle biting, hoping to hamstring the giant (Each managed to cause 10 points of damage).

Knabe's Warband

While his pets were keeping the giant busy, Knabe successfully managed to cast Raise Zombie; adding another warband member to the group.  And placing another body between him and that giant.

Fighting a Forst Giant

Uhlmann (Owl Master, aka Crow Master) managed to climb into the top portion of a nearby tower and spied a bag of treasure laying in the corner.  The Owl (aka Blood Crow) flew to another nearby tower to get a better view.

Vogel feared that the noise of the combat might attract more giants, so he attempted to cast Fog to screen the warband.  He was not successful.  Vogel's fears were justified as another Frost Giant appeared from behind a nearby ruin and attacked Bobo.


Another Frost Giant joins the fight

Faenger (Treasure Hunter) moved into combat along side Knabe's pets and attacked the giant's blind side.  His sword struck deep and Fleck jumped to the side to dodge its falling corpse. The newly raised Zombie moved into contact with the dead giant, searched it, and grabbed a bag off its belt.

Fleck launched himself at the other Frost Giant to assist Bobo but was easily forced back by a swing from the giant's sword.

Knabe painfully miscast Bone Dart followed by Vogel once again miscasting Fog.

Legio (Ranger) put an arrow into a boar which appeared out of the mist (A result from a random monster roll).  The party would be enjoying some fresh meat for dinner.

Legio saluting his boar kill

Fritz (Dwarf Marksman), crouched behind a pile of old barrels, peered out and off in the distance noticed a Frost Giant busy beating the crap out of somebody. He took careful aim with his crossbow and fired.  The bolt struck the giant dead center in his back. After a few seconds, the giant wobbled and fell over dead.  A lovely face (for a human) peered out from behind the giant's corpse. Fritz blew her a kiss before ducking down to reload his weapon.

Fritz's view of the dead Frost Giant

 A cry of "Help" rang out from the nearby tower.  It was Uhlmann, he must have seen his shadow. Regardless, Knabe decided to help him by casting Leap on Fleck allowing the leopard to jump up into the tower.  Uhlmann was actually locked in combat with Kodak's new apprentice who had arrived via a Teleportation spell.

Kruger jumps into the fight with the frost giant but the giant tosses him backwards with no problem.  Faenger also attacks the giant and manages to get in a good hit.  While the giant was distracted by the two treasure hunters, Bobo moved in for the kill.

Bobo takes out a Frost Giant

"And a crashin' blow from a huge right paw sent a frost giant on to an early thaw...Big Bear...Big Bear...Big Bad Bear......"

After the frost giant had fallen to Bobo, Knabe yelled for Kruger to climb up the tower.
Up in the tower, things were not going well for Knabe's warband.  After orienting himself, Speck spots the young apprentice cowering in the corner.  He charges in without hesitation and takes a tremendous blow to the head.  Speck drops to the floor like a rock; out cold.  Uhlmann is now so shaken he can hardly concentrate on the apprentice. As he cut his eyes one last time towards Speck splayed out on the floor, the apprentice rewards him with a crack upside his head.  He falls to the ground, dropping the bag of treasure he had in his hands.

Kodak's dog's last moments....

Elsewhere, Legio manages to put an arrow into a thug who suddenly appeared on a nearby teleporter pad.  Daggit (Thief), treasure chest under one arm, swings his sword around himself to keep Kodak's dog at bay.  Legio then turns and places and arrow in the dog ending Daggit's worries.  Daggit waves at Legio and yells "I'll have a mug of mead waiting for you" and then scurries out the ruins as fast as he can.

Back in the tower, Bobo comes flying into the fray thanks to a Leap from Knabe.  The Kodak's apprentice immediately attacks him.  Bobo must have been feeling a bit cocky after killing the giant that he didn't perceive the apprentice as much of a threat. As he fell to the floor he realized he was wrong (For those keeping track, that's three of my warband taken down in melee combat by Kodak's apprentice).  Kruger entered the tower room.  He was taken back by the utter carnage that had taken place there, and in the center of it all was a diminutive little girl wearing robes.  Although it was inconceivable to his dwarven mind, he approached her with the caution he would give the mightiest of warriors.  Kruger moved in slow.  The apprentice's attack was easily parried and Kruger's follow through dropped her to the floor.  He saluted his fallen foe and quickly moved to the corner to grab the treasure.


All this carnage from a single Apprentice?

Up on a nearby cliff, a teleporter pad was attracting other warband members.  Knabe cast Fog to shield the pad from unfriendly bowmen.  He then tells Vogel to Leap him to the top of the cliff.  Knabe's leap took into on the teleporter pad and poof - he was gone.  Legio followed Knabe up the cliff to provide support but found he wasn't there anymore.  The Fox also made it to the top of the cliff, spotted an opposing warband member, and charged him - right across the teleporter pad.  The Fox was mighty confused when he re-materialized halfway across the ruins.  Legio put an arrow into the thug standing on the teleporter pad.  The thug fell to the ground and rolled off the pad.

Up on the cliff - death and treasure

Fritz had been dodging crossbow bolts from Kodak's warband ever since he killed that frost giant.  That's gratitude for you.  He spotted another frost giant off in the distance near another tower.  He put a precisely placed bolt in that giant's back but failed to drop him.  The giant moved off in the distance towards Kodak's band so he let him go.  They weren't that grateful when he killed the first one.  Looking around, he sees the crossbowman that had been plinking at him and hits him with a bolt.  He didn't drop but he did stop shooting at Fritz.

As dusk was getting close, Fritz spotted a treasure hunter (or maybe a thug or a thief - who can tell) on another teleporter pad picking up a treasure chest.  He didn't recognized with warband he belonged to but he knew it wasn't Knabe's.  It was a long shot (23 1/2 inches) but Fritz took the shot anyway.  The bolt flew perfectly straight and caught him high in the chest.  The treasure fell from the Treasure Hunter's hands as he was thrown backwards to lay still in the snow.  Fritz looked around but no one was there to see his accomplishment.  Well he thought, it was still a good shot even if there were no witnesses.

A fellow wizard made good use of the Fog spell

Vogel called to the other members of the warband, "Time to head back."  Legio replied, "What about Knabe, he's not back yet."  "He'll be okay, lets head out" replied Vogel.  So the weary band slowly withdrew from the ruins, constantly looking back, hoping to catch a glance of Knabe.
Back at the Hungry Shark Inn, Vogel had the warband warming themselves around the fire as they took turns standing watch outside.  Uhlmann slowly wandered in - "Where's Knabe? Have you seen Knabe?" the rest of the warband asked.  He shook his head no.

Bobo and Fleck came back together, a bit battered but nothing a couple days of rest wouldn't fix.  Still no sign of Knabe.

Finally, just as the morning sun was trying to peer over the horizon, Knabe, with the Fox, staggers into the Inn - his hair singed and his robes still smoldering.  Vogel came running in "Master, what happened?  Are you okay?"

"Bring me a mug of ale to wet my throat and I'll tell you what happened" Knabe replied.  After a quaffing back a couple sips, Knabe tells his story:

I landed on that verkakte teleporter pad and found myself on the other side of the ruins, face to face with an archer.  The archer must have been just as startled as I was since his arrow flew wide.  I attacked him but was still disoriented from the teleport jump, how else could he have bested ME in hand to hand combat (fight +8)?  As I reached into my bag to grab a Potion of Invisibility, an enormous bolt of elemental energy hit me from behind.  While my body was absorbing the attack, I glanced back and spied a snotty nosed apprentice staring at me from behind a crumbling pillar.  As I collapsed, my final thought was "I let myself be taken by a kindergarten magic user" (The apprentice was level 1, I was level 21).

Knabe is taken down

As I fell, I must have landed down behind some ruins. When I awoke it was pitch black and I thought I was drowning.  But it was just the Fox licking my face.  How he got there I have no clue. I rested a few moments to recover my wits and then we started back to the Inn.  It took us most of the night since there were still a few frost giants moving about.

In an attempt to make Knabe fell better, Vogel showed him the loot the warband had managed to recover.  Two bags and two chests had been obtained.  One bag only contained some cheap tin wear, a couple shiny stones, and piece of string.  The others contained a total of 400 gold coins and two grimoires: Fleet Feet and Leap.  The two spells were already known.  Knabe would sell those and add some more gold to his coffers.

Partial view of the table

Commentary:
Knabe's fate during this outing is why I like Frostgrave so much.  Besides just being a great game system, even high level wizards can be knocked out by lower level wizards - or in this case, an apprentice - despite 20 levels difference (The apprentice rolled a 28, d20 of 20 +8 for elemental bolt).  I initially thought we had overloaded ourselves with frost giants, especially with armor 15 and 25 hit points.  But the XP spread for killing them varied by level.  My warband killed three frost giants but only ended up with 75 XP (25 each).  The lower level wizards received 100 xp per giant.  Most of us were too busy either fighting or avoiding frost giants to focus much attention on the other warbands - unless someone teleported in front of you.

The teleporters added a new dimension to the game.  Of the seven wizards, only three actually braved the teleporter pads themselves.  Most sent at least one warband member through in search of treasure.  One wizard lured a frost giant across a teleporter pad in an attempt to have him teleport himself somewhere else.  The random roll resulted in the frost giant landing back on the same pad.  So the wizard then threw up a Wall so the giant wouldn't have line of sight to him.

Overall great fun was had by all.  Except maybe the new necromancer who lost both his wizard and apprentice but I'll go out on a limb and say he had fun also.

Local Game Store Frostgrave Campaign Game 3

Over the weekend, we had another Frostgrave session at the local game shop - Critical Hit Games, Abingdon, MD.  Our play date this month ended up on a Saturday which caused some of our wizards to miss the outing.  We ended up with three wizards - a Necromancer, an Enchanter, and yours truly - a Summoner.  So we set-up a 4x4 table with the game store's terrain and decided to play the scenario Well of Dreams and Sorrows with the well in the dead center of the table.  We rolled off for choosing starting positions and got ready to play.  Hope you enjoy the story.....

Zauber's Warband ready for action

Zauber pulled his robes a little tighter around himself as he gazed into the blustery snow falling around him.  He was still upset with himself and his apprentice for failing to brew any potions before heading out.  He noticed the wind was picking up a bit, causing the snow flakes to swirl around in mesmerizing patterns.  The wind and reduced visibility would prove to make things difficult for his ranger's bow shots as well as his magic based shooting spells.  Hopefully the other wizards would fare worst from the weather effects (light blizzard - max LOS reduced to 24", all shooting attacks receive a -3 modifier).

Necromancer's Warband

Enchanter's Warband

 Rumors had been circulating of a mystical well that granted those brave enough to take a draught from its depths some kind of magical insight or knowledge.  This in itself had been enough to draw him to the ruins today, in spite of the weather conditions.

View of the table with the well in the middle

As Zauber moved his warband forward into the frosty ruins, he cast Leap on his Templar to move him closer to a treasure.  His apprentice Gretz cast Leap on a treasure hunter to provide him with back-up support.  It would prove to be a futile effort as the Enchanter's warband beat him to the prize.  Using Telekinesis, the Enchanter's apprentice moved the bag of treasure into the arms of one of his thugs.  Other members of Zauber's warband moved forward, their heads low to wards off the effects of the driving snow.

In an attempt to delay the Enchanter's minions, both Zauber and Gretz made dismal miscasts, causing damage to themselves.  One of Zauber's thieves managed to grab a nearby treasure chest and a thug killed the Enchanter's mutt.  And another thief started climbing up the ruins of an old collapsed tower.

Off in the hazy distance, Zauber could see the Necromancer slowly making his was through the snow fall.  He was surrounded by his undead creatures.  As he watched, Zauber saw the Necromancer stop and lean over.  He must have found the magic well.  Zauber tried to cast Bone Dart at the Necro... and again miscast... and again damaged himself.

Gretz flung an Imp towards the Necromancer's group in an attempt to hinder their movement.  The Imp didn't prove to be much of a deterrent as it almost immediately died at the hands of the Necromancer's warband.

Zauber's other thief finally made it to the top of the ruined tower but found himself exposed to lots of bow fire.  Fortunately, the snow and wind combined to thwart the Necromancer's bowmen.

The red-shirt thieves move forward

Two of Zauber's thugs saw the Enchanter creeping along behind a wall.  So they charged into combat with him hoping to finish him off.  One thug was killed by the Enchanter's treasure hunter who came to the wizard's rescue.  A Woman at Arms joined the combat as well - things were not looking well.
Zauber successfully Leaped the remaining thug out of the mismatched combat (The thug was down to one health).  Gretz cast Fog to protect the thief in his exposed position on top of the tower ruins where he had pick up a piece of treasure.  Zauber's dawg joined in to help the thief by attacking one of the Necro's archers.  That didn't work out too well for the dawg.

Zauber once again tried to cast Bone Dart at the Necromancer; once again he miscast; once again he caused damage to himself (For the third time).  To add insult to injury, first the Enchanter's crossbowman was able to hit him with a glancing shot for some additional damage.  This was followed by the Necromancer successfully casting Reveal Death on Zauber who was unable to resist the effects of the spell (And losing his next activation).

Meanwhile, Gretz cast Telekinesis on a treasure that ended up being moved around by all three warbands' magic users until finally Zauber's Ranger grabbed it.  Gretz was able to cast Leap on the ranger with the treasure just yards ahead of the Necro's henchmen tackling him to the ground.  Zauber then had to cast Leap on Gretz to save her from the Necro's treasure hunter and several bowmen.

The Necromancer's apprentice attempted to cast a spell on Zauber.  She miscast badly, killing herself in the process (This got lots of laughs from around the table, even the Necromancer had to chuckle at that).  Zauber then killed one the Necro's treasure hunter with a successfully cast Bone Dart (The Necromancer didn't chuckle at that).

Templar finishes off a Treasure Hunter

A second Necromancer Treasure Hunter tried to intercept Zauber's Ranger as he headed towards safety with a treasure chest in his hands.  Fortunately the Templar was able to intercede, killing the Treasure Hunter.

It was about this time that all three warbands decided to break contact and head back to the safety, and warmth, of their lairs.

Now for the day's tally:
One of the Thug's will have to be retired from service but the dawg made a full recovery.
The warband managed to get back with four treasures consisting of 780 gold, a Grimoire of Embed Enchantment, and a Ring of Power (1).

Rumor has it the Necro made off with three treasures and the Enchanter with two treasures.

Not many pictures but hope you enjoyed the story.