Frostgrave Campaign 6

Ah, Frostgrave campaign day has finally arrived.  Six of our group was able to attend  plus one new member.  So seven intrepid adventurers would be setting forth into the frozen town in search of fame and fortune.  We would be playing the Genie scenario (with the potential for three Genies) plus adding in a homebrew scenario involving random hot spring geyser eruptions.  As a level balancing thing, the higher your level, the more likely you could trigger a geyser and suffer a +5 scalding water attack.

My warband will enter at the bottom left

A view of the table center

A view of the far end of the table

Knabe's Story

As I surveyed the ruins, I could feel my ole bones longing for the warmth of the fireplace and the taste of heated honey mead.  But today, the surrounding area seemed to be charged with energy.  I hoped it would be a successful foray into the ancient city.

I had paid good gold for rumors of magic lamps once existing in this part of the city.  The rumors mentioned some unknown threat as well.

My warband ready to enter the ruins

I managed to summon up an undead creature.  My young apprentice failed to summon a snow leopard companion for this trip, so our band would be one short today.  Luckily, we had both been successful with brewing some potions; invisibility and teleportation which I handed out to Fritz and Faenger.  I took an elixir of chameleon from the vault and gave a potion of healing to Vogel - just in case.  I attempted a new magic spell to locate nearby treasure items but both myself and Vogel completely failed in our attempts.  More training in this area is definitely a must.

As I entered the ruins, I detected my old adversary Lingzhu moving off to my left.  I also noticed his crossbowmen moving to good firing positions - in my direction.

Lingzhu to my left

I also notice Kodak's crew moving around to my front.  Another worthy opponent.  This should prove to be an interesting day as we all jockeyed for an advantage.

Kodak's warband to my front

I decided to make thing interesting right from the start.  I cast Leap on Uhlmann (Owl Master) and propelled him to the top of a nearby tower to check it for loot.  His owl followed him up there as well.  Vogel successfully cast Fog to protect our movement to the front.

I directed my undead creature to head towards some loot and return it to base - I then left him on his own as other things occupied my time.  I found the way to my left completely covered by crossbowmen and marksmen from both the previous detected warbands.  This was quickly proved the hard way when Donan (treasure hunter) leaned out for a peek and was shot dead right through the eye for his troubles by Kodak's crossbowman.  That new hire didn't last long.



Slowly moving forward

 I drank my Elixir of the Chameleon and stepped out in the open.  I could hear cries of frustration ring out as the shooters knew I was there but couldn't draw a bead on me to shoot.  I like this potion!
Kodak's apprentice leans around the fog and tries to cast a spell on Vogel.  He responds with a Bone Dart but the dart harmless ricochets away.  My fox darts left, then right, then starts nipping at Kodak's apprentice's shins.  That'll prevent her from casting spells for a while.  Uhlmann sends his owl over to an adjacent tower where he discovers Kodak himself searching for some loot.  I would have thought rooting for treasure was something the hired hands did but there's no discerning some people's tastes.  At least the owl will keep him busy for a while.

Kodak's man looking in the geyser crater

One of Kodak's men darts out of the fog wall and roots around in the bottom of a small crater.  Suddenly in a puff of smoke, a Genie appears, attacks, and easily takes down Kodak's man.

A genie appears

I looked around for Fritz to direct him to engage the Genie but he had disappeared. (For some reason, he drank a Potion of Invisibility and was running through the kill zone towards a distance piece of treasure - I 'm still not sure why I did that)  A geyser erupted with boiling water and I heard a slight yell; that must have been Fritz.  A short time later, Faenger drinks a Potion of Teleportation potion and appears way on the other side of the town (Back at the tavern he says he thought saw a treasure item - it turned out to be a rock).

I saw a member of Lingzhu's warband out in the open so I threw a Bone Dart his way, causing minor injuries.  Vogel realized he did not have any spells that could hurt the Genie.  So he cast Push on him and successfully flung him through the fog a good distance (14 inches).

I attempt to cast another Bone Dart at Lingzhu's thug but fail.  Vogel has the same luck as he fails to Push Kodak's annoying archer off a nearby ledge.  Then things turned in my favor.  Bobo (bear) burst through the fog and knocked Kodak's apprentice out of the fight with one swipe of his mighty paws.


Kodak's apprentice takes a nap

The fox had done well keeping the apprentice engaged.  Vogel spots a snow gorilla in the mist and directs the fox to keep it busy.  Vogel had noticed the gorilla heading towards our undead treasure hauler.  So the fox engaged and managed to force the gorilla back while the zombie makes good his escape with a large chest.


The little fox wins his fight with the snow gorilla and steps back

I once again fail to cast Bone Dart at one of Lingzhu's minions.  Vogel successfully hit the same guy by does minor damage.  My new thief takes a crossbow bolt to the chest and drops like a rock.  Kruger manages to take down Kodak's archer.  And the brave fox tries to rejoin the group only to get boiled by a spout of boiling water.

Then the fateful moment arrives - not for me and my warband.  I spy Lingzhu attempting to leave the ruins.  With extreme focus from my Gloves of Casting, I manage to cast Bone Dart at him.  The successful spell hits him hard and he drops to the snow covered ground.  Unfortunately, I later heard that he succumbed to his wounds as did his apprentice.  A worthy adversary has passed away.

With that last act, my warband and I headed back to the warmth and comfort of our tavern base.  My two new hires lay crumpled in the snow, both victims of crossbow bolts.  I need to remember to cast more fog to cover our movements.  Kruger scooped up the fox as Vogel rooted around in the steam pit.  The boy found the Genie's lamp; I'm sure that will sell for a good amount of coinage.

My summoned undead minion lumbered into base dragging a large box that turned out to be filled with 425 gold coins.  This marks the third time that one of these creatures has made it back some kind of loot.  They may be hideous to look at, and smell worst then a full night soil pot, but they do mindlessly obey orders.

The rest of the treasure items include: three scrolls (Leap, Fools Gold, Reveal Death); two potions (Elixir of Chameleon, Fairy Dust); 505 gold coins; and the Genie lamp worth 300 gold coins.  Not bad for a days work, even with the two lost warband members.

End of game group photo

With my new found wealth, I may have to browse through the market place and see what goodies may be on sale.  Maybe some new robes or a couple pieces of jewelry or a grimoire or a......decisions, decisions.....  Of course, I also have two vacancies to fill as well.

Till next time......

Historicon 2016

Well another Historicon has come and gone.  I hosted four games and played in two.  The drive down from Aberdeen, MD was pleasant without any real traffic problems.  I arrived around 1130 and the parking lot looked to be mostly full.

I made a pass through the main gaming hall and took a few pictures before heading to the dealer's hall and stimulating the gaming economy.  There were some great games in progress.

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Another great looking game

A good looking Bolt Action board

After the dealer's hall, I headed to the HAWKs room to set-up the rubbled city table.  We would run seven games on this table throughout the convention with five different game masters. 

The HAWKs rubbled city table

Tanker's Challenge aka World of Tanks - Tabletop Edition

 My first game was at 7 pm Thursday evening - Tankers Challenge using Battleground WWII.  I had 12 players broken out into four teams.  Everyone started with an early war tank.  As they got destroyed, they got an upgrade to something better.

Panzer 38t takes a hit.

British Cruiser and Italian M13/40 slug it out at point blank range.

 

Churchill VII rolls through the wreck cluttered street

Panzer III attacks Italian 13/40 from the rear

British Cruiser gets a flank shot on an Italian Semovente

Sherman engaging a STuGIIIb

More tank action

An more.....

 My next game was Friday morning at 9 am:  Trouble in the Rubble.  Another Battleground WWII game pitting elements of the 29th Inf Div trying to take a portion of St Lo from elements of the 352d Inf Div.

A panzerschreck pops up in ambush...but misses the M8 Armored Car.

US recon teams fan out in the rubble hunting the Germans.

A view of one rubble filled street

An "88" covers the main street and has a Sherman in it's sights

Next I played a game of Look Kaiser, No Charts;  the 1914 Battle of Maissin.  I played the German right flank.  My mission was to protect the town of Maissin and slow the German advance.  It was a great game with lots of friendly smack talk on both sides.

Next I played a game of Look Kaiser, No Charts

German artillery on a ridge

A view of the artillery position from an observation balloon

A view of the town from an observation balloon

  After thrashing the French, it was time to set-up my evening scenario, River Crossing at Arnaville; another Battleground WWII game.

US troops have crossed the river; engineers are working on a pontoon bridge

A view of the US lines

German view

German troops advance to reduce the bridgehead

US smokescreen drifts across to cover the bridging site

 The evening game went well - for the Germans.  They managed to delay the bridging operation long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

I managed to get a couple pictures of some other game board set-ups.

Almost looks real

Nice little town

Another view

A PAK-40 on the same table

 A Force on Force game being run on the Rubbled City table:  Chechnya War scenario.

The Battle of Grozny

Russian tanks cautiously move forward

Russian tanker's vi

 The final game I hosted was a Muskets and Tomahawks scenario.  The French and their allies were raiding a British outpost.
 

The French close in on the British outpost

A unit of Rangers fall to a party of Hurons

 Sunday morning I managed to get into a tabletop version of the Source of the Nile.  The game was fun but by then I was ready to go eat lunch and head back north home.  So I meet several of the HAWKs at Wegmans for lunch.  The drive back home was slower but the traffic never stopped moving.

Had a great time as usual.  Didn't take as many pictures as I should have, and didn't record the names of the games I did capture digitally.  Will have to do better next time.

 After a short rest, it'll be time to start planning for Fall In.

Frostgrave Campaign Game 5

Well its that time of the month again - that's right - Frostgrave campaign day.  Our campaign group got together on Saturday, 25 June, for our monthly game.  All seven players showed up.  We were using some modified scenarios that would prove to be interesting.

A view of the table layout

On to the day's events.....but told in a different manner than usual.


An extract from the recovered journal of a dwarf named Denim....
Finally my fortunes seem to have made a turn for the better.  I was able to secure a position with a wizard who goes by the name of Knabe.  I had heard of his fame but never thought that I would one day be counted as a member of his powerful warband.

It all started as I entered an obscure looking inn, looking to rest my weary legs and warm my frozen body.  I ordered up a pint of ale and settled in near the fireplace.  I must have dozed off for I awoke to a thin elf tapping me on the shoulder.  "Pardon me kind dwarf but you have the air of an adventurous soul about you.  Would you perchance be looking for some work?"  I was taken aback, both from being woken up, and secondly from an elf speaking politely to a dwarf.  After a minute or so, I replied that I was indeed seeking employment. "Fine, fine....I am called Vogel.  My master is a noble wizard who is in need of replacing a couple chaps who recently abruptly left his service. Would you be available tomorrow morning for an interview?" 

And that is how I came to be in the service of Knabe and his strange band of adventurers.  Besides a couple elves, there were several other dwarves (no relation) and a human.  But the oddest members were his menagerie consisting of a bear, a leopard, a fox, and a roost of snow owls.  This should prove to be an interesting work environment...and from what I hear from the others, quite profitable.
Today, after just a week of getting acquainted with Knabe and the rest of the team, we are heading into a new area of the frozen city.  Supposedly one of the most wealthy warbands had disappeared there many months ago.  Knabe was hoping to find their remains and pick up some easy loot.  I like the sound of that.

Another rumor being spread is the return of dragons.  One of the regular sots was telling this tale to anyone who would by him a pint.  Pfffttttt.  Time to move out, more later.

I was just thrust upwards by one of Knabe's spells to the top of an old tower.  Upon entering, I found a sealed chest.  Huzzah.  Success on my first outing.  I can here sounds of fighting off in the distance, but its quiet in here.  I'll take a little time and catch my breath before climbing down.  Strange, I hear a loud flapping sound, I wonder what th


As heard in the tavern called The Smelly Skunk....
Surrounded by a ragtag bunch of patrons late one night, a dwarf sat at his table drinking a pint of ale.

"I tell ya, today was a serious rush.  Knabe runs a good group of lads.  We entered the frozen ruins early in the morning.  Vogel, that's Knabe's young apprentice, handed me a Potion of Teleportation. telling me to use it wisely.  I was proud that he would place such trust in a new hire.  Obviously he must have heard of my reputation."

As the dwarf finishes his ale, another is quickly placed in front of him.  "Thank you lass...now where was I......oh yeah.  Things started slowly as we cautiously moved through the ruins.  Knabe wanted to search for the corpses of a previous group that had gone missing months ago. 

I move off to the left, following Knabe's animal companions.  The snow leopard spots a war hound sniffing around what looks like a corpse; snarling it charges and pounces on the hound.  The fight was over fast.  As the leopard paused to clean itself, a crossbow bolt comes out of nowhere and skews him - he dropped a rock.  A few moments later, a fog arises screening our movement and protecting us from any more shooting attacks.  Uhlmann, some kind of bird handler, moved over an searched the corpse; coming up empty handed.  Bah, bird handling, what kind of a job is that for a dwarf?

As I was glancing around, I noticed a wizard appear out of thin air on top of a nearby tower.  As I pointed him out, Vogel cast some kind of spell on my leather jerkin.  Never one to back down from a challenge, I quickly quaffed down the potion and suddenly found myself on the tower watching the wizard pick up a chest.  A wall of fog appears beside me - must have been Knabe protecting my backside."

The dwarf pauses to take a sip of ale.

"From over my left shoulder, I hear a slight flapping sound as a snow owl screeches by me.  The owl engages the wizard and slightly wounds him.  The wizard flails about and eventually kills the owl.  Just as I get ready to charge into contact, the wizard drops the chest, salutes me, and quickly climbs over the wall.  I guess he knew of my reputation as well.  I thought about chasing him but the lure of what the chest contained was too great.  I opened it up and saw a sword and a bag of coins.  I stuffed them into my backpack.

From my lofty height, I can see a couple of my fellow warband members engaged in a melee with a wizard.  It looked like Vaaron but I have only seen him once, so I could be mistaken.  With a mighty growl, I watch Knabe's bear charge Vaaron only to be struck down.  Ten an orange streak races in an takes out Vararon.  Who knew that a fox could be that deadly.  Faenger kills a male warrior only to be incapacitated himself by a female fighter.  I then saw Knabe's thief get shredded by a wild wolf.

I heard someone shouting 'Dragon.'  That was enough to get me to stop sightseeing and get moving down the tower.  I'm not afraid of many creatures but even a dragon makes me think twice about hanging around.  What good is finding some loot if you don't make it back?  Besides, I hear Knabe killed it with one magic attack.  I think I have found a great warband to join.  If any of you slackers think you have what it takes, you should seek him out.  He is looking for a couple more good lads, or lasses."

About that time an elven ranger enters the tavern and the place goes quiet.  You don't see elves out socializing much.  

"Kruger, Knabe wants everyone back early tonight."

The dwarf nods, drains his mug, and heads out into the night.


Knabe's Tale
While wandering around one of the communities that has sprung up on the outskirts of Felstad (aka Frostgrave), I came upon a man performing tricks with an owl.  After his show, I invited him to have some food and drink.  I was interested in how well an owl could be trained - and would a trained owl be helpful as my warband and I went about searching and exploring the ancient city.  The owl master, who goes by the name Uhlmann, convinced me to hire him.  And even got me to put out funds to build an owl roost behind our inn to provide a place for him to train and house his owls. hopefully this expenditure will pay off - I'm finding out that trained owls are not cheap.

I was also able to entice two treasure hunters to join me - Kruger and Denim, both dwarves, and both seemed highly capable.

Prior to leaving the inn, Vogel and I both tried to brew some potions for the outing - but we both failed miserably. 

Knabe's warband ready for action

Once we arrived at the point I had chosen to enter the ruins, I tried to divine the location of any nearby treasure items.   Once again, my magic failed me.  Hopefully this would not be a portent for the rest of the day.  The only highlight was Vogel raising up a zombie to assist the warband and calling a snow leopard; who he promptly named Fleck II.

Shortly after entering the ruins, I detected Buck's group to my immediate front and Vaaron's men off to my left.  Based on the rumors pickup in various bars and inns, I knew there were others here as well.

I decided it was time to test the meddle of Denim, my newly hired treasure hunter.  I cast Leap on him, propelling him into a tall tower to check it for items of interest.  Up he went, disappearing inside.  What seemed like a short time later, I hear and feel a tremendous flapping sound as large dragon settles itself on the same tower.  I thought to myself, "What foul sorcery is this?  Are the rumors true, dragons have returned?"  But there was the proof.  The sounds of a short fight could be heard and then crunching noises.  I could see the dragon's head bobbing up and down as it made a meal out of my new hire.  The dragon flosses his teeth with Denim's belt, belches, and flies away.
Seeing this, I then attempted to cast Enchant Armor on Faenger (treasure hunter) but the trauma of from the dragon must have distracted my casting.

The dragon that ate Denim

Kruger, Faenger, and Diebin use Fog to mask their move while Fleck II engages a warhound

Off to my left, I see Vaaron's crossbow armed minions taking up positions to shoot into my warband.  I easily created a wall of Fog to block their attempt.  Since the dragon had left, I cast Leap on Fritz (marksman) and threw him on the same tower where Denim had met his end. 

I then noticed Kruger teleporting himself to top of another tower.  What is he up to I wondered?  He was in an exposed position so I placed a wall of Fog to protect him from attacks.  He's another new hire treasure hunter, hopefully he lasts longer than Denim.

Off in the distance I heard someone shouting "Dragon".  So I changed position and climbed up a small cliff to get a better view across the ruins.  I could see a dragon off in the distance but closer was a member of Vaaron's band trying to make off with some loot.  A quick Bone Dart ended that attempt as both man and loot fell into the snow.  I shouted the location to Faenger hoping he could intercept.

The dragon Knabe killed = fighting the Doctor

 I then turned my attention to the dragon.  It looked like it was getting the best of the Doctor and his band.  For a moment I considered letting the dragon kill the Doctor but how often does one get a chance to attack a dragon from a position of safety.  I carefully prepared a Bone Dart and concentrated on flying it straight.  Of course if it hit the Doctor, that would not be bad either.  Fortunately the Bone Dart flew straight and true.  It pierced the dragon's skin - seconds later the dragon bellowed once and fell; throwing up a small storm of snow and ice as it hit the ground with a loud thunderous noise.  I could not help but cheer, as did Vogel who was standing by my side.  My successful cast must have motivated the boy for he then cast Bone Dart to take out one of the Doctor's marksman.

About then, the light was starting to wane.  Not wanting to get caught here after dark, Vogel and I started to head back to meet up with the rest of the lads.  Even if we didn't gain any treasure from this outing, I was still pleased - Knabe the Dragon Slayer has a nice sound to it.

As we regrouped. I assessed gains and losses for the day's activities.  In addition to Denim, Diebin (thief) and Speck II (snow leopard) did not make it back.  Diebin had been one of my first hires when I started my warband, he'll be missed.  As for gains, we recovered 100 gold coins, two magic swords (one +2 fight, one +2 damage), and a magic leather jerkin (+1 armor).  I successfully cast five spells and Vogel was able to cast three.
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Sorry for the lack of pictures, I was busy trying to record all the action.  I hope you enjoyed the report.  Now I have to wait a month for the next campaign game.