Four months

That's how long it has been since I completed any models sitting on my painting table. (Well, table, really.)

Things have been happening and re-appearing in my life right now, and I've found it difficult to find time for hobbies.

To serve as a motivational piece for myself, I'll just leave this right here.

An imp and two thugs for Frostgrave, a mutant and a tick-like critter for This is Not a Test, a couple of ruin sections from Mars Attacks -modular terrain kit plus Hutchuck and Maximus for Minions.

Frostgrave campaign game fourteen

Oh dear, it's been over a week since this game was played. July can be so busy sometimes.

So, this game was the last game of Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign. My circus folk were attacking the floating island of the Lich Lord together with Sigilist warband.

I took a picture of the board before deployment was made. There's a lot enemies around for sure, so fighting against each other wasn't definitely main priority between warbands.

Quite a few enemies went against Sigilist warband. I almost felt sorry for the guys, but at that point I didn't know better...

Surely there was the Lich Lord disguised as an Armored Skeleton that attacked my warband. At best that skeleton was surrounded by three soldiers of mine. And yet - that Armored Skeleton took down Barbarian, Apothecary and Rangifer plus dealt the Wounded status on my Captain. Well, okay, I don't remember exactly if that skeleton dealt the finishing blow on each of these soldiers, but without exaggerating Apothecary, Barbarian and Captain suffered their fate against that Armored Skeleton from hell.

Lich Lord's minions weren't exactly easy on the Sigilists either. I guess the amount of rolls of 20-19 and 1-2 were at least very close to the average. It just happened so that NPC's took all the maximum values...

Next one Wraith Knight started to close in against each warband. The one who got against my circus proved to be an annoying nuisance that Jack (my wizard) had to eventually come and butcher up with his Fight +10 against undeads.

Though my Wraith Knight dragged fight for several combats, I must say Sigilists took the harder Knight this time. I think opponent had stacked something like +11 or +12 for his wizard and yet the Wraith Knight killed the Sigilist wizard with just one attack. After that other sigilists fell to it's blade, too.

It started to look like Lich Lord might be the winner here.

I had been advancing closer to Lich Lord under Fog spells. Opponent had cast Draining Word on Elemental Bolt and had tried to pepper the Lich with missile fire. The archers and/or crossbows removed Elemental Shield from Lich and caused five damage points in.

Lich Lord's performance started to look very, very suspicious when it had already failed to cast spells so many times that it had taken three damage points in from miscasts only. What was this guy? An Armored Skeleton in fancy clothing?

Sigilists eventually succeeded to take down the Wraith Knight. Jack had taken whipped himself into a maniacal rage (Fleet Feet, Possess, Leap spells, everything...) and was rapidly getting close to Lich Lord. He really wanted to challenge the Lich in melee.

One dream came true when he did exactly that.

And, uhm.

If there was any question about the real Lich Lord, they all vanished now. Lich Lord died to just one hit.

The untrustworthy circus folk robbed five treasures out of the eight present in this scenario.

My apprentice had been injured at some point, had a movement value of 5 and was stuck in difficult terrain. There were only three turn left to escape when Adon the Apprentice finally got out.

Sigilist wizard rolled "1" on the injury chart and, well, died. That was pretty critical 20 that had been rolled, seems like.

Well. We'll see if these warbands continue their existence beyond this Thaw of the Lich Lord. Not in any organised way at least for sure.

However, if Jack ever continues his exploits, I still kept the details about the campaign as detailed as possible:

--

Jack Saturn is level 45 with 4570 experience.
He has levelled fight by +3, Will by +4*, and health by +6.
Fleet Feet spell has been improved by +6*, Elemental Ball by +4*, Leap by +2, Possess by +2*, Spell Eater by +2*, Imp by +1 and Fog by +3.
He has learned Plague of Insects, which has been improved by +3.
He has learned the Reveal Secret spell, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned Willpower spell, which has been improved by +2.
He has learned Plane Walk spell.
He has learned Planar Tear spell*
He has learned Bind Demon spell*

Home base is Inn with Crystal Ball, Sarcophagus of Healing, Carrier Pigeons (+2 gold) and Kennels
Reputation: (personal) Death of Lich Lord

Vault has Magical two handed weapon (+1 damage modifier), 2x Sword of Undead Slaying, Magical bow (+2 damage modifier), Club of Battering, Hand Weapon (+1 Fight)
Amulet of the Ghoul King
Book of Rangifer
Ring of Power (1)
Eyes of Amoto
Fire Heart Gemstone
Horn of Hellfire
Grimoire: Poison Dart, Control Construct, Furious Quill, Enchant Weapon, Shield, Miraculous Cure, bought: Planar Tear
Grimoire of Lichdom
Quiver of the Soul Seeker
Scroll of Planar Tear
Ivory Scroll (Familiar)
Ring of Slow Fall
Boots of Leaping
Unbreakable Orb
Robes of Arrow Turning
Gloves of Casting


Unspent gold: 181.

Warband roster is worth 1520 gold (level 45 apprentice is 650) and includes:
Apprentice has Smashed Leg
Barbarian
Marksman
Ranger
2x Treasure Hunter
Apothecary
(miss next game) Bard
War Hound
Rangifer
Captain: Stat increase: +1 Move (cost so far: 185 gold), leather armor, sword of undead slaying and dagger, Amulet of the Ghoul King, 150 experience
- Tricks of the trade: Sprint, Furious Attack (+3F before attack rolls are made)

Frostgrave campaign game thirteen

Scenario was the Bone (stone) Wheel, where treasures were riding human ponies like a carousel, and there were two ticket inspector banshees around, too.

Scenario had an interesting deployment scheme, where players deployed in corners instead of along board edges. Additional scenarios like that would be most welcome, as it makes the board feel bigger.

We used random encounters in this scenario for some extra challenge. I was against Sigilist warband.

For some reason I didn't check my detailed notes here, and my wizard sheet was a bit of a mess. I remembered someone was supposed to miss a game, but I had marked two such soldiers. I wagered it was my ranger instead of my bard - and of course it was the other way around. Oh well, I suppose losing ranger hurts more.

It took quite a while before I started taking pictures. For example, there are no more banshees around at all. First one fell to a shot by my Marksman, who had Quiver of the Soul Seeker equipped. Second banshee went to torment Sigilist warband as it chose the worst possible direction to go. Something like six models had to take the Will check.

Sadly the wail did only a few stray points of damage here and there instead of anything that really mattered. Then it died to a barbarian with magic weapon, who was aided by Blood Crow. I guess well trained birds can distract incorporeal ghosts. Why not.

Now we're slowly getting to where first picture is. Rangibear has both Possess and Fleet Feet on, a combo that is replicated in the Barbarian also. A Treasure Hunter has Fleet Feet.

Two explosive cocktails have killed a war dog from between Rangifer and Captain. I don't think anyone else, other than the dog, took much damage.

The turning mechanism of the Bone Wheel was funny brought an additional treasure token close to my warband. Blood Crow that has often been blocking treasures had been called elsewhere, so Captain was able to take the third treasure. Random Encounter roll was 16+, but spawned only two Wild Dogs. But... they were dogs, after all. Caution is advised whenever dogs threaten you in Frostgrave.

Dogs spawned closer to me, and of course they started to approach my treasure carrying soldiers (a treasure hunter and rangifer)

Closer to the Bone Wheel some sigilist Treasure Hunters had been creeping to, perhaps, snatch the treasure from Captain, or just to cause general anxiety and uncertainty in the Circus.

Using Leap on Captain would have been too obvious and easy (even if there was Draining Word upon that spell), so Jack blasted both of the Treasure Hunters away with a well placed Elemental Ball. Or, that was the plan. Casting that spell almost dealt more damage to Jack than to the 'hunters. First one took nothing, but at least second one was wounded.

I didn't dare to bring Barbarian and the other Treasure Hunter to aid in the fight because there was enemy Barbarian behind the REAL threat: a war hound. Somebody needed to guard the bottleneck. So instead Bard and Apothecary came to protect Jack.

Adon the Apprentice cast Plague of Insects on the healthier enemy Treasure Hunter.

This plan backfired a little when the Treasure Hunter gave the penalties for my troops also, and once I brought Barbarian to the fight, road was opened up for enemy war hound or something. It could attack Apothecary with Apothecary having effective Fight -4. Somehow Apothecary still held fast.

After my Marksman fell the banshee, ranged attacks were jinxed for both warbands. Bone Darts really did nothing or did not succeed at all, and none of the mundane ranged attacks did damage, often rolling sub 5's.

And it was proved that Wild Dogs are not lesser dogs in any way compared to War Hounds. I thought that a Rangifer with Possess could attack one of them alone even if it was carrying a treasure. Wild Dog rolls 20. How else.

Now, the dogs were sent to their graves easily enough when Treasure Hunter came to help. But not before Rangifer actually suffered the "wounded" status. This was the moment when I finally stopped fooling around with my Wizard and Apprentice, and started casting Leap.

My wizard escaped the battle with four hit points remaining, and apprentice did the same with only one hit point remaining. I may have a problem with unnecessarily empowering spells...

So.

Scenario was over and treasures had been evenly shared. Cruor et Caedis found 210 gold, Ring of Slow Fall, Grimoire of Miraculous Cure and Ivory Scroll of Familiar.

Now that is one pretty rad Ivory Scroll. After levelling Jack's hit points to maximum value, he can automatically begin with 22 health. Plague of Insects and Willpower spells gained a level.

Jack got 310 experience points. A War Hound was badly wounded, so it had to be put down. I got a new one right away, bringing my total benefit from Carrier Pigeons to two gold coins!

Captain took her share from gold again, this time taking a little bit more as she is level 1 now.

I bought a Grimoire of Planar Tear for future use.


Roster details:

Jack Saturn is level 38 with 3835 experience.
He has levelled fight by +3, Will by +3, and health by +6*.
Fleet Feet spell has been improved by +5, Elemental Ball by +3, Leap by +2, Possess by +1, Spell Eater by +1, Imp by +1 and Fog by +3.
He has learned Plague of Insects, which has been improved by +3*.
He has learned the Reveal Secret spell, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned Willpower spell, which has been improved by +2*.
He has learned Plane Walk spell.

Home base is Inn with Crystal Ball, Sarcophagus of Healing, Carrier Pigeons (+2 gold) and Kennels

Vault has Magical two handed weapon (+1 damage modifier), 3x Sword of Undead Slaying, Magical bow (+2 damage modifier), Club of Battering, Hand Weapon (+1 Fight)
Amulet of the Ghoul King
Book of Rangifer
Ring of Power (1)
Eyes of Amoto
Fire Heart Gemstone
Horn of Hellfire
Grimoire: Poison Dart, Control Construct, Furious Quill, Enchant Weapon, Shield, Miraculous Cure, bought: Planar Tear
Quiver of the Soul Seeker
Scroll of Planar Tear
Ivory Scroll (Familiar)
Ring of Slow Fall

Unspent gold: 476.

Warband roster is worth 1450 gold (level 38 apprentice is 580) and includes:
Apprentice has Smashed Leg
Barbarian
Marksman
Ranger
2x Treasure Hunter
Apothecary
Bard
(re-hired) War Hound
Rangifer
Captain: Stat increase: +1 Move (cost so far: 160 gold), leather armor, sword of undead slaying and dagger, Amulet of the Ghoul King, 120 experience
- Tricks of the trade: Sprint, Furious Attack (+3F before attack rolls are made)

Metamfiezomaiophobia

So, here's two imps, a treasure token and... for some unfathomable reason... a zombie mime.

If my Frostgrave wizard ever learns the "Raise Zombie" necromancer spell, this will be the model I will place on the table.

I hope Jack never learns the "Raise Zombie" spell.

The two imps are Hordling miniatures from Reaper Bones line and the mime is from Hasslefree miniatures.

Dark Alchemy solo campaign

Well, since I bought the Dark Alchemy mini-expansion for Frostgrave, I have to play the campaign at least once, no? Also the board was all set up, as we continued the actual Frostgrave campaign just a day before.

I'm not a big fan of solo wargaming, though. Or who knows, I don't think I've ever actually tried. Only a couple of solo games of A Touch of Evil come to my mind.

So, my initial warband for this three scenario mini campaign was thus:

-Soothsayer Wizard with Staff
Spells:
Combat Awareness (12), Wizard Eye (8), Will Power (10)

Blinding Light (12), Teleport (12), Fast Act (10)

Push (12), Steal Health (14)

- Apprentice with Staff
- 2x War Hound
- Thief

- 2x Infantryman
- Javelineer
- Captain with leather armor, hand weapon, shield and Furious Attack trick of the trade.

I didn't want to tailor the wizard into beating the campaign too easily. I didn't read the scenario rules (except for the first one before I realised I don't want spoilers), but still picking Teleport as one of my spells seemed a bit cheesy. Perhaps it wouldn't be that bad if I didn't have any proper damage dealing spells? Steal Health is the only spell that deals any damage at all, and it's capped.


Alchemical Monstrosity

In first scenario I chose following party:

- Wizard
- Captain
- Javelineer
- Infantryman

Game started with initiative 10 for my wizard. Javelineer and Infantryman took one flank. Javelineer got sight of Alchemical Monstrosity and lobbed a spear at it. Roll was good, but so was the monstrosity's, too. Captain took another flank, and wizard unsportingly abused Teleport right away and teleported to one of the doors. Roll was 10, so he or she had to Empower it a bit. Alchemical Monstrosity lurches forward to Javelineer.

Then initiative rolls "1".

Angry giant rat appears and attempts to gnaw on my wizard, but wizard rolls 19. Monstrosity, on the other hand, kills Javelineer right away with just one attack. Damn. So much for buying a little extra time.

Infantryman runs to hide in a building, outside of Monstrosity's line of sight. Wizard tests if the door on left would let them out - it didn't. All he or she could do now was to go into contact with one of the treasure tokens nearby.

Next turn initiative is seven. Wizard beats one more rat, and then Alchemical Monstrosity goes after Captain. Captain picks up a treasure and tries to run out of sight.

Now initiative is five. Blech. Alchemical Monstrosity takes a double move to engage Captain, and Wizard beats one more rat. On his or her own turn wizard advances a bit closer to duel of Captain and Monstrosity and tries to cast Combat Awareness, but fails. Infantryman picks up a treasure.

Then it's time for me to finally to get 8+ initiative. Wizard ditches captain all alone when I check Monstrosity's hit points. Brave captain, your sacrifice shall not be forgotten. Monstrosity hits captain for ten points of damage.

I win initiative. Infantryman opens up the escape door. And a miracle happened! Despite being wounded, Captain staves off the Alchemical Monstrosity, dealing in no less than four damage points!

Then it's time for initiative to go to enemies. Giant rat almost ties up the wizard, as it rolls nine, and wizard rolls eight plus fight value. Treasure lowered that by one, so it was a tie. Rats had such a low armour that they died, while wizard took no damage from the simultaneous hit. Monstrosity butchers Captain and moves closer to wizard.

I won last initiative, which ended the game. I carried off two treasures, which incidentally was also the number of survivors.

Warband found 10 gold (nine thanks to Captain), two potions and a magic weapon/armor.

Potions were Potion of Healing and Explosive Cocktail.

Weapon was Staff with +1F modifier. Couldn't have been better!

I got enough experience for one level, which went into improving Push by one.

Skeletal Run

Second scenario started with following party:

Soothsayer with Staff +1F, Potion of Healing and difficulty 11 Push-spell.
Thief with Explosive Cocktail
War Hound
Infantryman

Game started easily enough. First wizard cast Combat Awareness on the Infantryman, and then tried to Push the skeletons a little bit farther. Of course one inch more would have put wizard out of burning reach of the skeletons, but nope. Good thing infantryman was able to force one of them dead. I thought I might as well force combat with wizard against the other skeleton but, well. That wasn't a very clever thing to do. Wizard was down to five hit points remaining. Next turn, though, the skeleton was blown to bits and wizard drank healing potion.

Lots of skeletons spawned at the back end of the board. During my journey there wizard cast Combat Awareness on him- or herself, and thief. Infantryman and thief were carrying treasures.

Skeletons are dying left and right, but then there was this one particular martial artist. It was being engaged by +5(+9 with support) Infantryman, +4(+6 with support) and +3 fight value thief. Now, by then wizard only had eight hit points and infantryman had also taken few stray points in. But still... the skeleton killed infantryman and wizard, and dealt some damage in to thief.

Suddenly I felt far less confident in finishing this scenario with top scores. If I was going to finish it at all, that is. All the skeletons that were shambling at the back edge unanimously decided to come to the board edge my both survivors were attempting to get into and escape.

Thief tried to lob explosive cocktail on a couple of skeletons, but they were burning already and didn't care.

Before I'd get to activate War Hound, at least one skeleton would engage it. Thief looked like he was doomed, no matter what happened.

But as far as the War Hounds in this game go, this one was not an exception. It bit the engaging skeleton in half and sped of the board.

Even thief shaped up and killed a couple of skeletons. If it wasn't for one damn skeleton that spawned exactly where it shouldn't have, I believe thief might have escaped with a treasure.

But as it was, no treasure for me. Also, wizard would start next scenario with only ten hit points. And a smashed leg.

Wizard got 130 experience from kills and spells, and upped fight stat.


Spreading Flames

Last scenario I took wizard, apprentice, infantryman and thug. I didn't quite like the fact that if you're so inclined, you can run off the board on turn one. I guess the point in this scenario is just the amount of personal challenge and risk you're willing to take.

For some reason this was fastest scenario to play. It was a bit anticlimatic, too. On first turn wizard cast teleport to get close to treasure token on the hill. Three other soldiers moved to lure one Fire-Slinger away from guarding the closest treasure. This Fire-Slinger accomplished nothing with it's attack.

Turn 2 wizard moved in contact with treasure and picked it up. The three bravos wrecked Fire-Slinger. Apprentice got Combat Awareness off to infantryman.

The two Fire-Slingers moved to shoot wizard, but didn't do any damage. Last Fire-Slinger entered the smouldering field and would now have sight for my soldiers.

Turn 3 wizard casts Blinding Light on closest Fire-Slinger, and rolls 20 for casting roll. Ha-ha, useless Fire-Slinger. Wizard exits board.

Thug picks up treasure and infantryman enters fight with the Fire-Slinger in the cloud.

Fire-Slingers come to shoot thug, and unfortunately manage to make him wounded. The Fire-Slinger with Blinding Light rolled 20 for Will-test. So much for my moment of triumph.

Turn 4 infantryman finishes a Fire-Slinger, and starts speeding up mid-field. Wounded thug continues to move treasure token, and apprentice valiantly steps between Fire-Slingers and him.

Turn 5 infantryman takes aim at a treasure token at 32" mark. Thug moves. Apprentice enters melee with closest Fire-Slinger, since they're worse fighters than shooters. Or so I thought. The thing butchers my apprentice.

Turn 6 infantryman picks up treasure token. Fire-Slinger shoots thug dead.

Turn 7 infantryman exits board.

Scenario gave 130 experience points. For completeness sake treasures were 30 gold coins and four potions.

Burning batches of ground seemed inconsequential. I rolled one or two for initiative a couple of times, but really they just did nothing. Better system might be that you place additional circular area token instead of moving the original. That way the flames would actually spread, and not just move around.

So. What to say, on the whole? Campaign took around five hours to play, though I did write this report at the same time. First scenario was the most exciting one. Twenty hit points on the Alchemical Monstrosity means that you're not going to one-hit it even with an amazing roll and the playing area was so tiny that you couldn't easily outrun the enemy either.

Second scenario was, uh, I don't know. Maybe I was overconfident there and paid a harsh price for it. I was picking up treasures, which slowed me down. But if one skeleton wouldn't have rolled 18's and 20's many times in quick succession, I'm not sure if there would have been enough challenge in the scenario. Maybe that's the thing, though. So many usually worthless skeletons are bound to roll good one time or another. Their extra burning rule was nice addition. It put some pressure on the warband, as damage was slowly trickling in. Lack of different enemies made the encounters a little boring, though.

Last scenario was lackluster. It needs a loss condition and something extra. Perhaps the flames might really spread, as I proposed earlier. Another "climatic" event comes to mind that if the player didn't kill Alchemical Monstrosity, it bursts from the centre of the board at the start of turn six, or something.

Overall there was very little warband progression. For true solo gaming it was too slow, though I guess three to five levels is a good start for a new warband that has to catch up more experienced warbands a little.

Hunt for the Golem mini campaign could be relatively easily converted into co-op/solo format. It kind of already is. Story there seems a bit goofy. "Now, we both wizards are here to study that arcane marvel, but also we're fighting, because of reasons."

Addendum:

Heck, I wrote this conversion myself in a brief moment of dodging responsibilities. Go and take a look if you're so inclined.

Frostgrave campaign game twelve

Scenario was Dark Cauldron, number eight from Thaw of the Lich Lord.

Summoners were fighting over the zombie pot.

Jack succeeded in casting Reveal Secrets. I started planning on grabbing four treasures, then. I could get into contact with all four treasures close to my side, and pick up three of them. Oh boy.

If it all could have been as easy... None of my spells succeeded that turn. Two death cultists engaged War Hound, and opponent's wizard or something shot Captain very dead.

Next turn Jack tries to cast Elemental Ball to clear the melee that had my War Hound and two death cultists involved. Failed. Next Adon tries to cast Elemental Ball somewhere where there was a couple of enemy warband members close to each other. Failed.

Hey, let's not give up just yet!

Well, my apprentice gets tied up in melee with war hound and knights and what else. Jack casts Possess on bard and goes to help Ranger, who got into a fight with zombie from the cauldron. Bard brutally slaughters some hapless enemy warband member.

Enemy apprentice binds that bard, though. Since she's a demon now. Nooooo! After Jack dealt with the zombie, it was time to turn his blade against the bard. This bard is notorious for killing everything almost as regularly as War Hound. And make no mistake - she dealt damage in to Jack. Next turn, though, Jack gets angry and lops off her head.

Apothecary and a Treasure Hunter are speeding to the board edge with treasures. One Treasure Hunter had already escaped. Looked very much like I was going to get three treasures after all. Adon the Apprentice was reeling with only two hit points remaining, but that didn't stop him from defending himself twice from knight, and almost nailing enemy wizard, who entered melee combat. If it wasn't for those meddling Fate Stones... ah well.

Ranger was fighting valiantly against a greater demon. Enemy warband had long since toppled over the cauldron. There was no longer anything to win, but still everything to lose.

Any stray bullets and/or arrows didn't drop any of my treasure haulers and once they had passed over the border, Jack cast Leap on himself and leapt to safety.

During the course of the entire game I succeeded in casting two spells. My warband killed one zombie and one death cultist.

190 experience points gave two levels. Treasures were 100 gold (90 after captain), third Sword of Undead Slaying, Hand Weapon with +1 Fight modifier and Grimoire of Shield. No too bad. Still I decided finally to sell a two-handed weapons with +1 extra damage modifier. Gained another 90 gold, captain another 10. With these I dismissed Ranger that was badly injured, and got a new Ranger. Bard will just have to wait for a game. Traitor.

Adon the Apprentice rolled a smashed leg.

This was the worst performance of Cruor et Caedis, ever.

Roster details:

Jack Saturn is level 35 with 3525 experience.
He has levelled fight by +3, Will by +3, and health by +5*.
Fleet Feet spell has been improved by +5*, Elemental Ball by +3, Leap by +2, Possess by +1, Spell Eater by +1, Imp by +1 and Fog by +3.
He has learned Plague of Insects, which has been improved by +2.
He has learned the Reveal Secret spell, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned Willpower spell, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned Plane Walk spell.

Home base is Inn with Crystal Ball, Sarcophagus of Healing, Carrier Pigeons (+1 gold) and Kennels

Vault has Magical two handed weapon (+1 damage modifier), 3x Sword of Undead Slaying, Magical bow (+2 damage modifier), Club of Battering, Hand Weapon (+1 Fight)
Amulet of the Ghoul King
Book of Rangifer
Ring of Power (1)
Eyes of Amoto
Fire Heart Gemstone
Horn of Hellfire
Grimoire: Poison Dart, Control Construct, Furious Quill, Enchant Weapon, Shield
Quiver of the Soul Seeker
Scroll of Planar Tear.

Unspent gold: 798.

Warband roster is worth 1420 gold (level 35 apprentice is 550) and includes:
Apprentice has Smashed Leg
Barbarian
Marksman
(re-hired) Ranger
2x Treasure Hunter
Apothecary
(miss next game) Bard
War Hound
Rangifer
Captain: Stat increase: +1 Move (cost so far: 138 gold), leather armor, sword of undead slaying and dagger, Amulet of the Ghoul King, 100 experience
- Tricks of the trade: Sprint, Furious Attack (+3F before attack rolls are made)

Cruor et Caedis Chapter IX

Earlier chapters:
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII


---


Delirium.

And madness.

He was Jack Saturn, the ringmaster of world renown circus Cruor et Caedis.

He was... nothing. At least that's what his father would have said before. Not so much any longer. Not even when Jack saw him in his dreams or ghastly apparitions of troubling nature while awake. Constant high pitched shriek from the inanimate Siamese head of his brother had ceased to be a terrible reminder of nightmarish past. Rather it was an acknowledgement of triumph over their father.

Recent experiences had brought the crew's ability to greatly surpass any artistic merit his father had ever been able to make Cruor et Caedis achieve. The circus didn't perform their numbers any more, nor establish their carnival wherever they arrived. They lived art. They breathed art. They ate art. Hell, they even shat art. And when it came down to it, even their death was art.

And the world followed.

Something had been set loose upon the world in the sinister area that had been surging with strange power that had attracted many... gifted individuals to the same place at the same time. And now the dead were walking upon the earth in their current state of decay, creatures that were neither beast nor human had awakened and were traversing the same broken streets of the once great city as Cruor et Caedis was. Even time and space were on the verge of collapse, as not all doors were guaranteed to lead to next chamber.

Madness.

And delirium.

And Jack knew very well how to navigate insanity.

If they had been humans once, this was no longer the case. They were Cruor et Caedis. When they became stranded in the frozen city, they needed to consume the flesh of the undead to keep themselves nourished. At first that had not been a very healthy thing to do. They also ate their fallen; this way no member of Cruor et Caedis would truly leave the crew. They were a continuous unity. Jack had needed to bolster the mental resilience of the circus so often with powers from beyond the mortal realm that others had grown nearly as great attunement to sinister presence in their mind and in their body as Jack had cultivated during his time as the ringmaster.

Getting possessed and re-possessed over and over again with or without willingness had left their souls leaking. This caused many kinds of unexpected and unnatural side effects. The acrobat twin brothers could no longer tell which one was which. Occasionally other members would find themselves looking through wrong pair of eyes. All thoughts were not their own. Sometimes they were coming from the person closest to them, if they were coming from any person at all. After cannibalizing their own dead, memories and thoughts of the deceased could briefly enter the attention of participants of the banquet. During their sleep, their identities and personalities were drifting through one physical vessel to another.

A true unison emerged from the shattering of the mind, a crack in the soul. How beautiful was that?

All of this, in turn, lead to a bodily unification. Though demonic powers were knitting wounds unnaturally fast, many of their brethren had received mortal wounds on stage. Somehow they had survived as long as they weren't too far from their kin. It was marvelous. And it was painful. To test the limits of their coherency, Jack had ordered himself to be flayed alive. That might be a terrific new circus freak number in the future - a man without a skin.

Resulting pain had been tolerable. Everyone else had tolerated and felt it as well. This had happened yesterday.

In this brief moment of respite Jack was smiling masochistically. Or maybe it was sadistic. Nobody would be able to tell.

And he didn't stop smiling until he encountered his brother and his other head, Ís. For Ís was smiling sadistically. Or maybe masochistically. Jack was not able to tell.

And Ís spoke: "Darling"

And Jack attacked Ís. That voice was no longer part of his life. He had killed that voice once, and would do so again if need be.

Frostgrave campaign game eleven

Last Thursday the Frostgrave campaign continued to Thaw of the Lich Lord scenario seven, Lair of the Ghoul King.

Ghoul King definitely hadn't thought this ambush through very well. I mean, both wizards were competing who'd get to lure the king to his warband! I decided to sacrifice my Captain in this attempt. She used Sprint trick of the trade and was the closest model to Ghoul King when the creature phase began.

There was this one pesky ghoul who fell from the ceiling. It single handedly killed my Bard (how can that be? She has beaten even enemy wizards!) and even tied up Jack. Jack had cast Possess on himself and he was carrying the Sword of Undead Slaying, and he had a friendly warband member in melee with the Ghoul. That's a +13 attack. And yet Jack didn't score a kill. Nonetheless it's quite rare to deal five damage points in to a target when you roll "2" for attack roll...

Anyway. This distraction combined with Ghoul King refusing to die made it look like Necromancer would snatch both treasures in the middle without any contest whatsoever. Loyal War Hound had to run to the throne to block treasure picks.

Necromancer warband got their very own elite ghoul to stall them, which probably saved war hound for a turn or two.

But the Ghoul King. I had Possessed Rangifer, my captain and barbarian beating him for multiple turns. I decided to use drastic methods and cast Plague of Insects on my own Treasure Hunter, who then ran within 1" of the Ghoul King. Of course the casting roll was 18 or so, so getting rid of it would be difficult. Eventually Ghoul King fell thanks to the -4 Fight from insects and it was the Captain who scored the kill. For a moment I was worried that she'd keep the Amulet to herself, thanks to Captains not giving back items that are given for them.

Well. Back home I kind of found it very fitting for the theme of my warband if Captain did steal the amulet. So I gave it to her anyway.

Once I had taken down the King, it looked like I overwhelmed Necromancer completely in the middle. Four treasure tokens and the amulet looked like they'd fall easily to my greedy hands. But how things change when you become too overconfident.

A couple of (finally) good damage rolls from enemy warband killed my Barbarian and Marksman. War hound had only one hit point remaining and Rangifer would soon be all alone versus three enemy models. Oh, sure, there was my Trasure Hunter with Plague of Insects on him... but I considered him useless. He was tying up two enemy soldiers with success, though.

If it hadn't been for the super ghoul that ate enemy Apprentice, I would have probably lost both treasures. I had started to fall back with Captain, as I didn't want to get her killed with the amulet. Ghouls had been slowing down and damaging my apprentice. Once Rangifer fell dead, both Jack and Adon tried to barrage a dense group of three enemy models and my own war hound with Elemental Ball. Results weren't too inspiring though both spells succeeded. Two models died. Only one enemy model, though.

Ranger went and picked up one of the treasures on the throne - just in time, as the Treasure Hunter who had Plague of Insects was finally put down.

I won a critical initiative and was able to Leap away with treasure carrying Ranger. Opponent had more than enough models to pick up the other treasure in the middle. Necromancer soldiers had also been pulling the levers to open doorways, and there was a door in both of our deployment zones. Game was pretty much over then, as the LoS was only 12" in this scenario. Both players seemed to be more interested in securing a treasure than to wreak havoc.

So, it was a clean 3-3 game. My warband had killed Ghoul King, Jack had escaped through a door and quite a few ghouls had been put down. Jack got 400 experience points from this scenario.

Treasure rolls were lackluster. I got 220 gold, a Grimoire of Spell Eater, a +1 damage modifier dagger and Quiver of the Soul Seeker.

Grimoire and dagger were sold right away, with Captain insisting on her share of the loot.

War Hound died from roster and Marksman and Rangifer need to miss next game. I bought Grimoire of Plane Walk for Jack.


- - -


Roster details:

Jack Saturn is level 33 with 3335 experience.
He has levelled fight by +3, Will by +3*, and health by +4.
Fleet Feet spell has been improved by +4, Elemental Ball by +3*, Leap by +2, Possess by +1, Spell Eater by +1, Imp by +1 and Fog by +3.
He has learned Plague of Insects, which has been improved by +2.
He has learned the Reveal Secret spell, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned Willpower spell, which has been improved by +1*.
He has learned Plane Walk spell.*

Home base is Inn with Crystal Ball, Sarcophagus of Healing, Carrier Pigeons (+0 gold) and Kennels

Vault has Magical two handed weapon (+1 damage modifier), 2x Sword of Undead Slaying, Magical bow (+2 damage modifier), Club of Battering
Amulet of the Ghoul King
Book of Rangifer
Ring of Power (1)
Eyes of Amoto
Fire Heart Gemstone
Horn of Hellfire
Grimoire: Poison Dart, Control Construct, Furious Quill, Enchant Weapon
Quiver of the Soul Seeker
Scroll of Planar Tear.

Unspent gold: 717.
(I've forgotten if I have included sold items to the collected gold, so I'll ditch it from these statistics from now on.)

Warband roster is worth 1400 gold (level 33 apprentice is 530) and includes:
Barbarian
(miss next game) Marksman
Ranger
2x Treasure Hunter
Apothecary
Bard
War Hound (re-purchased)
(miss next game) Rangifer
Captain: +1 Move and Sprint trick (cost so far: 118 gold), leather armor, hand weapon and dagger, Amulet of the Ghoul King, 90 experience

Frostgrave campaign game ten

Despite forgetting my own models home, we played the next scenario of Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign. Scenario six, the House of Longreach. I was afraid that it would be an awkward scenario to play because of the small area you might get teleported into. After all it worked out quite fine and didn't devolve into figuring out poorly explained rules and unexpected rule interactions.

I'm going light with pictures because I forgot my miniatures home, but I'm including one that gives out the position of treasures and magic portals.

Sigilists succeeded in casting the Reveal Secrets spell. That treasure, as well as treasure #4 were easy grabs for Sigilists.

I had my greedy eyes on treasures 1-3. The number one was an easy one for me, but there was more contest with #2 and #3.

Opponent sent (accidentally, through a portal) some soldiers behind my lines that were nearing #3, but I had outrageous luck with dice there. At the same time Sigilist war hound had entered the treasure chamber through a magic portal. These dogs are a thing in this game. The pup single handedly... pawedly? took down both of the Frost Wraiths that were guarding the treasures! Possessed Jack entered the area right after, and even he was terrified of the dog. Instead of engaging in melee, he shot it down with empowered elemental ball.

On turn three some death cultists and zombie troll entered the board. By this time I had seized both treasure #2 and #3, and though Sigilists were peppering my troops with archer fire, they weren't actively threatening those treasures. Now and then some Sigilist soldier took his chances to teleport right into my troops through a magic portal, but those plans didn't yield fruit.

In the treasure chamber, however, was Jack who had cast Possess on himself and Fleet Feet. He picked up the special treasure. In the chamber at the very same time was the Sigilist wizard, who was invisible. The death cultists were moving towards the portals, so the chamber might get crowded very soon. This in mind Jack picked the special treasure so that Sigilist wizard could be able to pick the other treasure up without Jack denying it - if I had walked next to both treasures, a battle would've ensued with just about one hundred percent chance.

Thankfully Sigilist wizard deemed it better to get one treasure for sure than try to attack Jack.

Two death cultists entered the treasure chamber. Jack fought one and killed him. Sigilist wizard used this time to pick the second treasure and start casting Invisibility on himself again.

Now, Jack only had nine hit points left thanks to my extravagant empowerments. If the last two Death Cultists entered the area and ganged up on Jack, they might actually kill him. Because of this my Possessed Treasure Hunter attacked the death cultist and zombie troll party to buy time for Jack to escape.

It worked, kind of. Kind of, because opponent succeeded in bringing one Treasure Hunter of his own to the treasure chamber, and suddenly Jack was there, outnumbered by enemy warband members instead of +0 Fight death cultists.

But hey, no problem, really. Jack only needed to cast Leap on himself and leap to the magic portal and enter the main board from some safe location. Easy.

Well, only half of that was "easy" (Jack entered main board from just about the best portal he could - in the middle of my treasure carriage #3.) The casting roll had been "1". Draining Word was raising the difficulty of Leap to ten, so Jack didn't have enough hit points to empower the spell to succeed.

With a heavy sigh Jack drained all empower points from his Orb of Power [8] that he had found last game. I surely hadn't planned to use such an artifact of great power to empower... Leap.

Game started nearing end. Sigilist warband was the one to kill Zombie Troll. My Possessed Treasure Hunter had just been a short-lived practice target for the troll. As an added annoyance, an archer shot killed Jack's apprentice.

My captain, whose debut last game had not been anything to write home about, did a little better in this game. She killed enemy blood crow and managed to flee the scene even if she was injured from some arrow by an archer. That was +30xp for her.

Treasures were four for Summoner warband and three for Sigilist warband, so that was pretty even.

- - -

Apothecary and War Hound died, but there were no other casualties. Apprentice rolled fourteen, and the troll-beaten Treasure Hunter survived without a scratch.

In this game Jack gained a total of 370 experience points, which gave him four levels. Treasures included Fire Heart Gemstone, Horn of Hellfire, Dagger with +1 damage modifier and 320 gold coins. Make that 288, thanks to Captain. After replenishing losses, gold gained was 180. Let's just hope that Fire Heart Gemstone will be worth an Orb of Power (8) in the long run...

Since none of my soldiers use daggers as main weapons, I sold the magic dagger I found for 90 gold, greedy captain taking that 10 gold from the trade.



Roster details:

Jack Saturn is level 29 with 2935 experience.
He has levelled fight by +3, Will by +2, and health by +4*.
Fleet Feet spell has been improved by +4, Elemental Ball by +2, Leap by +2*, Possess by +1, Spell Eater by +1, Imp by +1 and Fog by +3.
He has learned Plague of Insect, which has been improved by +2*.
He has learned the Reveal Secret spell, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned Willpower spell.*

Home base is Inn with Crystal Ball, Sarcophagus of Healing, Carrier Pigeons (-1 gold) and Kennels

Vault has Magical two handed weapon (+1 damage modifier), 2x Sword of Undead Slaying, Magical bow (+2 damage modifier), Club of Battering
Book of Rangifer
Ring of Power (1)
Eyes of Amoto
Fire Heart Gemstone
Horn of Hellfire
Grimoire: Poison Dart, Control Construct, Furious Quill, Enchant Weapon*
Scroll of Planar Tear.

Total gold that has been collected is 2880, unspent gold is 656.

Warband roster is worth 1360 gold (level 29 apprentice is 490) and includes:
Barbarian (with the club of battering)
Marksman
Ranger
2x Treasure Hunter
Apothecary (re-purchased)
Bard
War Hound (re-purchased)
Rangifer
Captain: +1 Move and Sprint trick (cost so far: 83 gold), leather armor, hand weapon and dagger, 40 experience

Frostgrave campaign game nine

Last Tuesday I played a game of Frostgrave.

It was part of our campaign. Scenario was the number five from Thaw of the Lich Lord, Run of the Rangifer.

Game was played on a suspicious part of Felstad, where technology of times long since gone still show signs of surpassing the mechanical advances of these days. There were six rangifers on the board (or were they descendants of a tribe that had had far too much radiation leaking into their lineage?) kind of guarding the treasures. After game ends, each wizard would gain extra experience for all rangifers that had not been slaughtered, chopped to pieces, had their heads bashed in, bled out or life force being drawn out.

On first turn a death knight wraith thing would appear to hunt them also, so they would be in danger even if two wizards didn't cause enough collateral damage.

I marked treasure locations to the first picture. Two treasures with no number I gave to opponent without contest.

The #1 treasure was, by far, the easiest to grab. The rangifer was put down easily enough, though I think I played Plague of Insects incorrectly - spell gives the penalties to each model within the range, even to my own models! But since the rangifer was already wounded from a bolt fired by Marksman or Crossbowman, I doubt it would've changed things that much. Though, rolls of 20 are always rolls of 20.

Then. My sellsword captain.

Tresure #3 was guarded by a fierce rangifer indeed. It held its own against both captain and treasure hunter, and even dealt damage in to captain. In the process the rangifer became wounded.

Later I brought bard into combat with it, but didn't make attacks because I wanted extra experience for the captain.

Well. Wounded rangifer in combat with three uninjured warband members still managed to kill captain. Just as planned.

Fleet feet on a Treasure Hunter, clouded by a Fog made a quick rush to treasure #2 after the rangifer had wandered off, wounded from missile fire, and had a little encounter with my Possessed barbarian.

Leap made for an easy retreat.

Eventually rangifer at treasure #3 died and someone started to move the treasure away. Player interaction had not been much of a deal in this game aside from some ineffective archery.

Opponent had secured the two treasures, but #4 was still unclaimed. Opponent started rushing for it, and it would nigh impossible for me to get there before enemy summoner would just cast Leap on the treasure carrier.

Except...

My possessed, uninjured barbarian might be able to Leap twice to get on top of the roof! Nobody would stop my possessed barbarian! Especially when opponent didn't have any war hounds!

After first Leap enemy wizard tried to cast Bind Demon on the barbarian. What? First use of that spell, like, ever. Casting roll was really poor, I think opponent boosted to get the minimum result for a successful cast. Bard right next to my barbarian saved the day, and he passed the Will check.

Then then Adon cast second Leap on the barbarian, and he stood right next to treasure #4. Enemy apprentice tried to cast Bind Demon on the barbarian and... and... and he failed. Noooo!

Well. There was no way for me to contest treasure #4 now. It was a clean 50/50 game. Opponent had killed the wraith knight and exactly one (1) rangifer had made a peaceful retreat from the zone.


- - -


Post-game Jack found 260 gold, Orb of Power, Eyes of Amoto and Grimoire of Enchant Weapon. Jack thought he doesn't need such amount of eyes, so they were sold off. Greedy and useless captain took her share, so total gold gained from this game was 369.

Captain survived and bard died.

Since captain screws up the gold coin amounts, I bought Carrier Pigeons for home base for five gold. Bard had died, so I got a new one for 99 gold. I wanted to wait for the crossbowman to die of... natural causes, so to speak. But I ditched him and got a Ranger in his place for 99 gold.

Jack gained two levels, and I got so scared of Bind Demon that I raised Will by another +1 and levelled Spell Eater by one.

Roster details:

Jack Saturn is level 25 with 2565 experience.
He has levelled fight by +3, Will by +2*, and health by +3.
Fleet Feet spell has been improved by +4, Elemental Ball by +2, Leap by +1, Possess by +1, Spell Eater by +1*, Imp by +1 and Fog by +3.
He has learned Plague of Insect, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned the Reveal Secret spell, which has been improved by +1.

Home base is Inn with Sarcophagus of Healing, Carrier Pigeons and Kennels

Vault has Magical two handed weapon (+1 damage modifier), 2x Sword of Undead Slaying, Magical bow (+2 damage modifier), Club of Battering
Orb of Power (8)*
Book of Rangifer
Ring of Power (1)
Eyes of Amoto
Grimoire: Poison Dart, Control Construct, Willpower, Furious Quill, Enchant Weapon*
Scroll of Planar Tear.

Total gold that has been collected is 2560, unspent gold is 636.

Warband roster is worth 1320 gold (level 25 apprentice is 450) and includes:
Barbarian (with the club of battering)
Marksman
Ranger
2x Treasure Hunter
Apothecary
Bard (re-purchased)
War Hound
Rangifer
Captain: +1 Move and Sprint trick (cost so far: 41 gold), leather armor, hand weapon and dagger

Cruor et Caedis Chapter VIII

Earlier chapters:
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII


---


"Bravo! Bravo!" Jack applauded when the acrobat brothers showed him what they had been able to teach to the dogs in their improvised kennel. Sure, it was nothing when compared to their earlier animal whisperer, but considering the circumstances, Jack was proud of their accomplishments. The dogs had been left slightly more aggressive than what Jack had been used to, but this didn't bother him. He liked a little bit of ferociousness and passion in his crew. And dogs were part of his crew now. And the bear.

Bear had appeared some time ago, scavenging on the outskirts of their inn. Once Jack knew of the beast, he ordered everyone to catch the bear and shackle it. It was to become their new dancing bear. It was not a cub any more, so it would be quite a challenge. But challenge wasn't something Jack was afraid of. Once caught, the bear was put to rigorous training. The bear and the dogs were often trained together at the same time, which had a toll on their supply of wild dogs.

Sometimes the bear would become enraged and attacked the dogs, and any member of the circus that was too close. Mighty blows tossed dogs around like rubber chickens. This gave Jack an amazing idea. As the bear looked like it had a tendency of throwing living things, perhaps it could be taught to juggle the dogs?

That proved to be a mistake in the end. They had too few dogs available. But perhaps in time it would work out, somehow... When they would make it big on the stage, once more...

"Have they drugged the bear?" Ennu asked from behind of Jack.

"I don't know. Maybe. Whatever they did, it looks like it's balancing quite well on the barrel. Or perhaps it is afraid of the flames around the barrel?" Jack was wondering aloud, not directing his word exactly at Ennu.

"Reminds me of the old times. Not exactly the same... but I feel warm inside."

Jack turned to face Ennu, and said: "Oh, I know what you mean! Every circus needs animals. They're as important as everybody else, if not even more so. In circus they are ascending from their animal state to higher beings. That's more than any of us has done." Except, of course, when Jack's summonings became permanent.

"I think we should expand our repertoire of animals" Jack continued.

"Oh? What do you have in mind, mister? Please keep in mind the capabilities of our current trainers..."

"Yes, yes... I don't think they can handle anything more. And once we get back to the civilization, we need to recruit some real animal trainers. Meanwhile I don't think we can find elephants or parrots here. It's too cold. But I remember a funny little flea circus that played some tunes in a music box. There should be all kinds of insects everywhere. I might take responsibility of transcending them personally to perform wonders beyond human comprehension."

Ennu didn't say anything.

"I know, it isn't very grandiose... but I miss the real show. This is all just practice here while we wait... I'm growing slightly bored."

"It's yours to decide what to do. Yourself, and us as a whole. We could leave."

"No! I haven't found my ring yet. And I don't think the southern lands have settled yet, the uproar was nothing like we've seen before. We need to stay."

"As you wish, but others are also missing the stage."

"I know! I know!"

"Also, this morning an outrider entered this inn. Apparently some patrolling king's men are approaching the inn with the intent of holding up the law of the land and chasing off brigands. Surely we are not brigands, but I'm not entirely sure how the law feels about our circus, at least right now."

"Is that so. Sounds like a perfect time for a little tour. Nothing too fancy, not yet. Perhaps we should go and take our meagre menagerie with us. Just to see if they react well to people they don't know yet. And if they remember any of the new tricks they've been taught when they are in unfamiliar surroundings. Yes, I like this idea. We'll go tonight."

"As you wish."

---

"Ennu, please tell me. Do the good folk there, who have crashed with their cart, look like they'd enjoy a show while they're waiting for repairs?" Jack asked politely. He was genuinely interested.

"Hmm. Perhaps. Should we send someone to ask?"

"Oh, why bother. Let's surprise them! I'm sure they will love it! I think I might even début my flea circus..."

"An armed group seems to be closing in from the west. Are they coming to rescue the cart?"

Jack started to cackle maniacally: "But why would they need rescuing? It's only a show, you know! I already began. See that man in robes? I ordered my flea circus to entertain him a little!"

"Jack... they look like giant spiders. And I think they're trying to eat him."

Jack smiled and said with an unearthly voice: "Yes. The show is on." He raised his hand and saw thick streaks of blue liquid running up and down his flesh almost as if it was alive. Where the streaks had travelled, Jack vanished from sight. Eyes wide from surprise told Ennu that this had not been a part of their show tonight.

"Jack has gone missing" Ennu whispered. Oh, great. The bear had forgotten absolutely everything it had been taught, and was already attacking the supposed caravan retinue. Chances for a peaceful retreat had vanished as surely as Jack had done.

"Jack has gone missing! Our master is missing!" Ennu started shouting and running around, trying to gather everyone together. There was fighting in the distance there where the broken cart laid. Perhaps the approaching armed men were actually just filthy, plain robbers only? And now they thought Cruor et Caedis was coming to help the cart haulers? The fools!

"I don't know. We should go. Everyone retreat! Shoot the bear with sleep dart or something. We can't handle this without Jack" was the message Ennu wanted to tell, but there was no proof everyone got it the right way. Eventually Ennu just decided to take a run, orderly retreat wasn't one of their strengths. During escape, Ennu noticed Adon just standing idly. In fact, Adon had his eyes closed. The other... face... thing? had her eyes open, and they were looking sternly to the distance. Ennu poked Adon multiple times and tried to make him understand to run away. Eventually Adon opened his eyes, and Ennu took running off running again. Perhaps they followed. Or maybe not.

---

Few hours later almost everyone had found themselves together hiding in one of the ruined manors of that particular district where they happened to be. Curious thing, that instinct of theirs. Truly the bond between members of Cruor et Caedis was deeper than that of a close family. Nobody had really ever gotten lost from others during any of their many, many escapes and retreats. Come to think of it, none had ever really been able to escape Cruor et Caedis, either.

But here they were. Their dancing bear had been sedated and brought in the coffinmobile (that's what Jack called his sarcophagus with wheels). A few of their dogs had either died, or weren't here yet. First possibility was more likely by now. And here they were. Injured, bleeding, clobbered and insane. And... without Jack.

Adon had fallen asleep, but the other face was still looking somewhere that was beyond the sight of anyone else. The face refused to look anywhere else. If Adon was turned around by force, the face would turn back right away.

Soon they would need to get going. As there might be a connection between Jack's location and Adon's other face's direction, remains of Cruor et Caedis let it guide them. It only lead deeper into the ruins of Frostgrave. Their medical supplies were exhausted, but there was no reason to go back without Jack. There was hardly any reason to live without Jack.

After travelling for a day or so a snowstorm had started hampering their advance. The reasonable thing to do would have been to start falling back to their inn - visibility had been hampered so that it would be next to impossible to spot Jack, even if they reached his general whereabouts.

Then they came across an eerie opening, where the air itself was rippling with unknown power. Adon's other face seemed to pay special attention to this place, so Ennu ordered a more thorough searching. Soon it became clear that they were not alone.

"Curses. We must retreat. There are so many of them. Clearly we haven't been the only ones who've been drawn to this place! We will never find Jack this way" Ennu was lamenting, even if nobody was listening.

"Well, you don't really even need to", said a familiar voice nearby.

"Jack! Everyone, Jack is back! Jack is right here!" Ennu tried to inform their camp.

"Be quiet. Here lies a great power. Do not disturb it. I will capture it and harness it. See that stonework? Some sort of pillars, but they're not supporting anything. I don't know what will happen, but it will happen soon", Jack said and put his index finger in front of his lips with a soft "shh."

"Jack! Where were you? And have you... my apologies if I'm being too inquisitive, but have you found your ring? Can we leave Frostgrave?"

"Oh, this" Jack snorted scornfully and raised his hand in front of him for a better view of his own fingers. "This is trash. I thought it was the ring that would make a ringmaster, but this thing must be a crude joke. It is not my ring, but I will keep it as it has some minor... powers. Where I was if of no concern. It was freak accident, I believe. A vial had shattered in my pocket. It somehow... placed me. Somewhere. Somewhere where I could see this place and it's power. It should not happen again, I assure you, my loyal minion."

Ennu was about to say something, but suddenly Jack look alerted.

"Now! It starts now! Everyone, let's get moving! Kill everyone in sight, this wonderful secret shall be mine alone!" Jack ordered. Then he muttered to himself: "A glimpse... I can almost see it... the veil is so thin. Tear it down..."

Truly something was happening in here. Mighty beings out of this world were moving in the maximum reach of their vicinity. The living dead were walking towards the opening lead by a dark figure. A demonic entity was approaching the area from another direction along with its diabolic master. An invisible, terrifying presence could also be felt closing in.

Jack was fixated in observing the pillars when their group was attacked from within the snowstorm. It would be a fight unlike any before. Jack didn't care, but their group was injured, undernourished and exhausted.

"Jack. This is not natural. And we are outnumbered. We can't do this. Please, reconsider!" Ennu begged.

"Hah! For sure it is not natural! This is the most important event we have ever witnessed. We won't fall back, you coward. And look, they're fighting among themselves. There are more sides than two here today."

Ennu shook head, but submitted.

Until a green explosion of energy filled the clearing, and ghastly creatures rose from beneath the banks of snow and piles of rubble. It was pure hell on earth.

For a moment Ennu was sure that this was the end of them all. Cruor et Caedis would be no more. Everyone would die here today.

- - -

Next chapter.

Frostgrave campaign game eight

edit: Oh, whoopsie. Forgot the pictures.

Last Thursday I played in a Frostgrave campaign game. It was the fourth scenario of Thaw of the Lich Lord, Storm of Undeath.

Since it was a four player game, the number of skeletons inside the pillars was doubled. There were also twelve treasure tokens on board. Well, actually thirteen, since Jack succeeded in Reveal Secrets. That's second time in a row. Let's make this a tradition, shall we?

The crude yellow stars mark locations for treasures that weren't in the middle. I forget where the last one was, but somewhere between Necromancer and Sigilist would be my guess.

I sent a treasure hunter, a war hound and a thug to get treasure number two, and hoped to get the treasure number one with the use of Leap spell. Sigilist had cast Draining Word on Leap, though.

Since scenario special rules were quite hostile for shooting attacks, a crossbowman walked off the board with reveal secrets treasure.

Sigilists sent a treasure hunter with boots of leaping to treasure #2, and along with blood crow from crow master they killed my treasure hunter. Shoo, bird! Shoo! Oh well. Jack the Wizard was right under the building close to treasure #2, so I didn't worry about it too much. War hound and Thug were supposed to keep Sigilist troops in check so that Jack could come to help after making apothecary leap to treasure #1.

But then, alas... Adon the Apprentice failed to cast fog to screen the movement of the main body of the warband. This wasn't so bad in itself, but it made me cautious. Summoner had his apprentice there on top of the little bride section. Elemental Bolt would still be Shoot +4 attack even in the snowstorm. The summoner had also succeeded in calling a major demon to the field. I had envisioned that I'd scare off summoners from treasure #4, and with some luck escape with four treasure tokens from the game. And now there was a big question marks on #2 and #4.

So, I tried to continue with the original plan and went to contest #4 with my rangibear before opponent would have the opportunity to snatch that treasure with leap spell. Too bad that the enemy punched the bear down to one hit point remaining. That only made the bear angry, though - once major demon came in for the kill, the bear dealt some five damage in or so.

On turn three the skeletons arose in the middle, and my apothecary had finally been able to pick up the treasure #1. Thug and the war hound that were trying to get #2 had failed in their attempt, and necromancers and the summoner had been cleaning up the middle from treasure tokens. Things started to look rather bad, and I became over-protective of my apothecary. Jack cast leap on apothecary, but rolled exactly one. By expending Ring of Power and all but one hit point Jack was able to leap apothecary to relative safety. I didn't like the word "relative", so Adon the Apprentice also cast leap on the apothecary. He also failed to cast it and empowered the spell so that he got three hit points remaining.

Invisible sigilist wizard had collected easy 50 experience points from the scenario. And now the wizard was after Jack! And that particular wizard was a monster in melee combat. I think he's +7 or something, where Jack is only +6, plus he was wounded. Hmm. Now I remembered that at some point Jack had beaten a war hound in melee. That was probably the soldier phase of turn 2. Anyway. The point here was that everybody around Jack had suddenly died, both friends and enemies alike. It was between Jack and the enemy wizard now. Adon and his buddies closer to the middle were unavailable to help, too, as there was a more pressing huge fight going on with knights and major demons and what else.

Jack lives for unreasonable risks, but not that unlikely rewards. So, instead he cast leap on himself. He needed 12+ to succeed thanks to being injured and suffering from draining word. If he rolled below 8, he'd die. Roll was exactly 12.

But then sigilist wizard uses scroll of time walk or whatever the spell is that lets you activate again on soldier phase. Nooo! Even after his gambit he was not safe!

In the apprentice phase my bloodthirsty bard clears the fight, dealing killing blow to knight. This freed Adon to open Eye of Amoto on Jack and cast leap on him. He effectively needed 14 to succeed. Roll was 11. Eh. Choices, choices...

But losing an apprentice isn't as punishing as losing a wizard, so Adon spent his last three hitpoints on empowering the leap. Both spellcasters disappeared from the board.

After that it was pretty much all-out rout for me.

I had managed to bring only two treasure tokens in for me. The other one was a little bit of gold and a grimoire (Elemental Ball) and another was Club of Battering. Total experience was 240, which wasn't too bad when I only got two treasures.

Rangifer died from roster and a thug would need to miss next game. I sold the grimoire, bought a new rangifer and dismissed the thug.

Thug was replaced with a captain from Sellsword mini-expansion. To go with the circus theme, I gave my captain speed 7 and Sprint as a Trick of the Trade. She's equipped with leather armour, hand weapon, dagger and bow.

Story piece for last game and this game can be found here.

Roster details:

Jack Saturn is level 23 with 2305 experience.
He has levelled fight by +3, Will by +1, and health by +3*.
Fleet Feet spell has been improved by +4, Elemental Ball by +2*, Leap by +1, Possess by +1, Imp by +1 and Fog by +3*.
He has learned Plague of Insect, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned the Reveal Secret spell, which has been improved by +1.

Home base is Inn with Sarcophagus of Healing and Kennels

Vault has Magical two handed weapon (+1 damage modifier), 2x Sword of Undead Slaying, Magical bow (+2 damage modifier), Club of Battering
Book of Rangifer
Ring of Power (1)
Eyes of Amoto
Grimoire: Poison Dart, Control Construct, Willpower, Furious Quill
Scroll of Planar Tear.

Total gold that has been collected is 2150, unspent gold is 470.

Warband roster is worth 1360 gold (level 20 apprentice is 400) and includes:
Barbarian (with the two handed weapon from vault)
Marksman
Crossbowman
2x Treasure Hunter
Apothecary
Bard
War Hound
Rangifer
Captain: +1 Move and Sprint trick.

Frostgrave campaign game seven

Last Thursday we continued Frostgrave campaign with all four players. We played Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign scenario three, Loot the Cart.

We tinkered the scenario rules a little - instead of four cultists in the middle, there were eight. And instead of four ghouls from one random table edge, we'd have two ghouls from the middle of every table edge. These modifications were made because we had four players, when the scenario had been written for two.

My circus was lucky to succeed in 15+ Reveal Treasure spell, so I'd get at least one treasure from this game. Especially when we played this spell wrong - Within 6" of deployment zone means actually the 0-6" zone area beyond deployment zone. Spell description was a little confusing.

Again first picture shows treasure locations. There are four treasures inside the cart in the middle.

There is a paper slip close to the bear, and that one is a fog template. It blocked line of sight to a treasure hunter who went and picked the closest treasure from the building, so that treasure was an easy grab.

Second picture attempts to show that there was indeed a fourth team on the table. The building corner on the left is the same building where my closest treasure was. Jack had cast Plague of Insects on the necromancer's apprentice, because I was a little worried about his maxed out Bone Dart. Necromancer himself was shooting death cultists there at the fallen cart.

So, a huge brawl starts to form up between me and necromancer. That one fight must have been the biggest I've seen yet, and it was thanks to all models refusing to die even when they were injured. Now, let's see... There were my rangifer, war hound, bard, apothecary and barbarian from my side, and opponent got a knight, infantryman, zombie and something else there when the fight was at it's biggest.

Sigilists and Summoners were mostly fighting between themselves with Summoners slowly gaining the upper hand. Of course I don't know the difficulty levels Sigilist wizard needed to pass for a successful cast, but still at one point it wasn't even comical any more how many spells completely failed for them.

Necromancer warband reached the cart. I think there were only three or two cultists remaining there at that moment. Ghouls showed up and caused a slight distraction. I wanted to bait the ghouls with my sharpshooter who was on the building, but during later turns I realised that once the ghouls were standing on the bottom floor, the marksman was no longer in their line of sight! One ghouls sprang to my treasure hunter, who was still carrying a treasure. It didn't get to combat, but it did get within 1" of the treasure hunter, so it would force combat if he moved.

Another one made it into contact with Adon the Apprentice with double move. Adon had tried to blast them with Elemental Ball earlier, drawing Line of Sight from a window.

I had to send Jack to deal with the ghoul who was going to harass my precious treasure. My forces finally won the fight between me and the necromancers, but it had stalled me from coming to the party in the middle. Unless...

A streak of really bad luck had devastated Sigilist warband, and the final nail on the coffin was a cheap shot by Summoner warband that killed uninjured soldier who was carrying a treasure for the Sigilists. Sigilists were unable to get it back, and Summoners were carrying astonishing number of five treasure tokens. Necromancers were falling back. There weren't that many of them even alive any more.

There was only one way I could make a meaningful move within the game that would have any impact on the big picture.

Jack used his potion of teleportation and hopped to the other side of the table. He didn't get killed, so right next he casts Possess on himself. That's +8 Fight wizard right there. Jack had only around nine hit points left or so. Well, Jack surely was pretty intimidating there, but I didn't want to risk it. I strongly implied that my level of aggression would drop dramatically, if one treasure token would be left on the ground by the retreating summoners.

A deal was struck, but I still tried to cast Plague of Insects around. Perfect disarmament spell, that doesn't damage any models. Well, it's a shame that Jack repeatedly failed the spell and was taking a little bit of damage from the miscasts.

But in the end my rangifer (who had been healed by apothecary) ran to get the treasure token. Sigilists continued to harass my retreat throughout what was left of the endgame, but no additional damage was done to any side.

From the three treasures I found yet one more Sword of Undead Slaying (yay...) a Ring of Power (1) and nothing but gold. I didn't take any extra experience from my Reveal Secrets treasure, as I wanted to balance it out somehow that it was even easier grab than it normally would be. Spells and treasures gave Jack two levels this time.

Sigilists had been so unfortunate that they didn't get even one treasure token. But I'm not too surprised that it eventually happened (I think this was first game I've witnessed zero treasures for anyone?) in this scenario - the amount of treasure tokens was very limited, and most of them were tied to one location. All it required was a cheap shot and another failed melee at another treasure token early in the game.

I had almost started to think that the section of our house rules that limited post-game sequence a little bit was nearly redundant, but this game showed at least that it's good to have some sort of safety net if D20 decides to really screw somebody over.


Roster details:

Jack Saturn is level 20 with 2065 experience.
He has levelled fight by +3, Will by +1*, and health by +2.
Fleet Feet spell has been improved by +4, Elemental Ball by +1, Leap by +1, Possess by +1, Imp by +1 and Fog by +2.
He has learned Plague of Insect, which has been improved by +1.*
He has learned the Reveal Secret spell, which has been improved by +1.

Home base is Inn with Sarcophagus of Healing and Kennels

Vault has Magical two handed weapon (+1 damage modifier), 2x Sword of Undead Slaying, Magical bow (+2 damage modifier)
Book of Rangifer
Ring of Power (1)
Eyes of Amoto
Grimoire: Poison Dart, Control Construct, Willpower, Furious Quill
Scroll of Planar Tear.

Total gold that has been collected is 1880, unspent gold is 410.

Warband roster is worth 1360 gold (level 20 apprentice is 400) and includes:
Barbarian (with the two handed weapon from vault)
Marksman
Crossbowman
Thug
2x Treasure Hunter
Apothecary
Bard
War Hound
Rangifer