In a shocking feat of productivity, it’s time for another game of Frostgrave!
Having previously discovered directions to a believed lost underground library, it was time for Tim to plunder it.
I set up the board using dungeon tiles, to represent the winding corridors between miles of bookshelves. I stole this idea entirely from someone else who did it long before me, but I can’t remember where I saw it to give full credit. I did briefly consider using Jenga pieces to represent the shelves, but that looked naff so I rapidly abandoned that idea. I tried to set up a library like layout, with a main reading room surrounded by various storerooms, annexes and corridors, with plenty of connection points so that I couldn’t just block one bottleneck and win cheesily that way. I do have some more library suitable scatter terrain, it it wasn’t painted, and I was keen to play (one of the benefits of this scenario being that unlike a lot of them, Rangers of Shadow Deep included, there isn’t any special terrain that I need to build to play it, so no year long waits while I build rivers and hills and bridges and a bandit camp and…). I would have liked to have more rubble on the board, but for the lift of me couldn’t find the rest of the rubble that I made ages ago, so settled for the two pieces that were in the most frequently used scenery crate and got on with the game.
First of all, once the board was set up I rolled to see whether Tim’s Mortal Enemy would be making an appearance. Luckily, I rolled low enough to avoid her, although part of me was a little disappointed S although she is a real hazard to his health and happiness, her appearing to ruin his day at his moment of triumph would have been nicely thematic.
For this game, I decided to start using fewer Treasure Tokens each game - while the set up for most scenarios states to use 5, this is for games with more than one player, so I figured three felt more appropriate - we’ll see if having his forces less split feels like it’s better or worse for the game!
Then it was time for monsters - there are four doors onto the board, one on each edge, and I rolled for monsters to be at each door except the one that Tim and the gang were entering through. The Wandering Monster table furnished us with two imps by the doors to the left and right, and a pair of skeletons at the door in the opposite table edge. In hindsight, I wonder if I shouldn’t also have had some monsters starting in the middle of the board, or at least one roll to have something defending the central Treasure Tokens, but we live and learn. As usual, I’d roll for extra monsters to enter through random doors at the end of every turn (including the door that the gang entered through), but also the first time each Treasure Token is picked up.
Before the game kicked off in earnest, Tim and the Apprentice cast their pre-game spells - 2 successful Brew Potion spells furnished the with a pair of Healing Potions, which went to the Apprentice and the Barbarian. Attempts to raise a zombie are unsuccessful though, despite being a much easier spell!
With all that done, Tim kicks the door in and heads in. He’s mixed up the usual groups a little today - as always, he has the Apothecary as his shadow for emergency healing, but also has the Knight in his group, as he needs someone strong to hack the central Treasure Token out of it’s icy prison, and the Tracker, as he figures it could be handy to have a sniper in the most central room to plink off arrows at enemies down hallways. Speaking of somebody strong, he tries to cast Strength on the Knight, but fails.
The Apprentice, accompanied by the Barbarian, Man at Arms and Thug, instead heads down the corridor to the right in search of other treasure. Due to the narrow corridors, they end up clumped up somewhat in a bit of a bottleneck:
The Apprentice’s original plan was to go wide, following the external corridors of the library to get to the storeroom, but he soon realises that the room with the Treasure a token that he is heading towards can also be accessed from the central room (that Tim and co are heading towards), so figures it is probably better to push from there supported by the rest of the gang if needs be, rather than exposing himself to unnecessary risk. Feeling that he could probably actually do with even more support, he tries again to raise a zombie, but fails so badly this time that he actually hurts himself.
Rolling randomly for monster movement (as they couldn’t see any of the gang… yet) the first Imp unerringly homed in on the poor Tracker, giving him quite a surprise.
Meanwhile, the skeletons clattered their way into the central room, while the other Imp moved into the room with the Treasure Token that the Apprentice was heading towards - where is some luck when I need it?
One benefit to the majority of the monsters seemingly homing in on the central Treasure Token is that it left the leftmost passageway (and the treasure beyond it) clear, so the Captain, Thief and Warhound started making their way up it as stealthily and quickly as they could.
At the end of the turn, a single skeleton emerged from the door furthest away from the one the gang had entered through, and then it was back to Tim.
Annoyingly, the poor Tracker was too far ahead of the rest of his group to activate in the Wizard Phase, so Tim sent the Knight and Apothecary running forward to protect him. Tim meanwhile again tried to cast Strength, and again failed - since successfully brewing potions before the game, not a single one of my spellcasting rolls had managed to come up in double digits. My luck returned somewhat when it came to fighting the Imp though, which was rapidly sliced to pieces by the Knight.
Over with Team Apprentice, the Barbarian and Thug rush forward to engage the other Imp, while the Man at Arms sneakily moves towards the central chamber to try and sneak behind the now occupied Imp and grab a Treasure Token.
The Apprentice then uses his Gloves of Casting to cast Strength on the Barbarian, and as seemingly happens every time he uses this magic item he rolls well enough that he didn’t actually need to use them. Ah well, successfully buffing the Barbarian is the important thing, not how!
In the Monster Phase, the Imp attacks the Thug, but both sides roll the same which means that the Thug’s better fighting skills (and bonus from ganging up on it with the Barbarian!) mean he wins, cutting down the Imp in short order!
The skeletons that had been emerging from the topmost door, now with the Man at Arms in sight rush towards him, but aren’t quite able to make it into contact this turn:
Team Speedy on the leftmost side continue their advance - the Warhound is fast enough to reach the room containing the Treasure Token, but the Thief and Captain lag behind, ending their turn risking next to a door…
In the centre, the Tracker bursts into the room and takes cover behind a fallen chair:
He quickly looses an arrow at one of the skeletons menacing the Man at Arms, but he narrowly misses.
Tim then enters the central chamber, and the Knight rushes ahead to the centre of the room to secure the treasure. Tim cast Control Undead on the skeleton that the Tracker had just failed to harm, and it turns its weapon on its former companion! While this is all happening, the Knight uses his expensive magic sword to hack the ice away from the treasure, freeing it to be collected next turn.
The Apprentice moves forward cautiously to the central room, and successfully raises a zombie to defend the Man at Arms in case the skeleton menacing him somehow manages to immediately cut down the newly controlled one:
Which it obviously does, and then hurls itself at the Man at Arms before the zombie can interpose itself between them.
Over on the left flank, the Thief dashes forward and grabs the unattended Treasure Token, as an Ice Spider scuttles through the doorway that the gang originally entered through.
The Tracker then again tries and fails to shoot a skeleton, so the Captain (seeing that the Thief seemingly has things in hand over here, having secured the treasure and with no monsters anywhere near them) moves into the centre to try to help out. Unfortunately, Tim is blocking her shot, so she spends her second action climbing round him. The Warhound also sprints into this room - the Thief will probably be fine on her own, right?
The zombie, finally springing into action lurches forward and easily dispatches the skeleton attacking the Man at Arms, leaving him free to move up and engage the last skeleton on the board, which he handily destroys rolling a natural 20!
Over on the right, the Thug moves up and secures another Treasure Token - as they do, a Wild Dog enters through the door alongside the Ice Spider. It looks a lot like
an Intellect Devourer, because I haven’t painted any dog miniatures yet…
The Barbarian, with no enemies within carnage range, is a little unsure what to do, and so loiters near the Thug lest any more enemies appear through a nearby doorway to threaten him.
I roll very low at the end of the turn though, and no more monsters enter the Library this turn.
Being much speedier than the Knight, the Captain nips in and grabs the central Treasure Token that had recently been chipped out of the ice. As she does this, two armoured skeletons enter through the door nearest to the now alone Thief…
The attacker, seemingly determined to actually do something this game, stepped behind Tim and planted an arrow right through the eye socket of one of those skeletons.
Tim, however, thought it had been far too long since he had blown anything up, and having heard tell of a potent venom that can be harvested from the fangs of Ice Spiders for fun and profit sent a flaming skull flying down the hallway towards the dog and spider (he cast the Grenade spell, but in my mind it’s actually a skull stuffed full of explosive magic that my spellcasters hurl at their enemies). While the roll to cast the spell was successful, rolls to actually damage the creatures were not, as I rolled a 1 and a 2!
The Apprentice, figuring that it was probably high time to get out of here, tried to cast Leap on the treasure carrying Captain to aid them towards an exit, but failed. Shaking his head in disappointment, he motioned for the zombie to head back down the corridor he had originally come up to clear the way for his escape.
With a surprising turn of speed, the Wild Dog charged up the corridor towards Tim and the Apothecary, but was not quite able to reach them. The Ice Spider, on the other hand, sped off down the corridor towards its right where it found the gang’s zombie waiting.
The now lone armoured skeleton, seemingly ignoring the corridor that had recently materialised an arrow that destroyed it’s companion, instead shambled down the corridor towards it’s left, where it found a very alone Thief…
Seeing this, the Warhound sprinted back into the storeroom to rescue the Thief, and smashed the skeleton to pieces before it could even raise its weapon against her. The Thief, pausing briefly to nod her appreciation to the faithful hound, then sprinted back down the corridor and left, treasure in tow, through the door that the armoured skeletons had entered through.
In much less danger due to the lack of monsters present over on the right, the Thug took this opportunity to take a leisurely stroll out through the opposite door, taking another Treasure Token with him. The Barbarian, however, could hear sounds of fighting echoing down the corridors, so dashed back into the central room where her master awaited. When she reached the apprentice at the edge of the room though, she had a decision to make - carry on into the room proper where Tim was, with a Wild a dog inches away from him, or head down the corridor towards the Ice Spider attacking the zombie? She figured Tim was probably more capable than the zombie, and plunged off down the dark corridor.
The Knight, meanwhile, feeling miffed that the Captain had grabbed the treasure that he worked so hard to free from the ice was determined to grab some glory for himself, and so strode forward and cleaved the dog brain thing menacing Tim in two (rolling a natural 20). He gave a deferential head bow to Tim, and then stood at ease.
As he did, another dog brain thing entered through the door on the leftmost side that the Thief had recently exited through.
Calling for the Knight, Apothecary and Tracker to follow him, Tim started down the hallway towards the door:
He successfully cast Bone Dart on the dog/brain, but was unable to damage it. Looking a little sheepish, he gestured for the attacker to try putting an arrow into it, which he duly did.
The Apprentice, lacking any better options, fancied a Grenade spell might be worth a punt, lobbing it high over the head of the zombie engaged with the Ice Spider down the corridor ahead of him. As ever, while the spell was successfully cast, it failed to actually do any damage - apparently me rolling high enough twice in a row is seemingly impossible! Maybe Tim needs to find some spells that do damage without needing a roll, if such things exist…
Seeing this, the Barbarian rushed forward and attacked the spider. Despite outnumbering it (and, well, being a barbarian) the spider managed to slash her, dropping her to 7 Health and leaving her Poisoned. The zombie, on the other hand, was able to splat the spider, and set about harvesting its valuable venom for it’s master.
Over on the right, the Captain dashed towards the exit door ahead of her, the Man at Arms moving up to stand between it and her in case any more monsters were to appear, while the Warhound did the same with the leftmost door. No more monsters did appear though, leaving the gang able to make their way out through various exits, to later regroup back at their base.
Post-game:
Unusually, no one actually got taken out of action this game, so it was straight onto working out experience!
Between all of the monsters and treasure, Tim managed to gain 258 XP. This was the first time I can remember that he hadn’t hit the 300 cap, and makes me think that lowering the amount of treasure was maybe the right decision. He immediately learns the spells from the two Grimoires that he acquired last game, learning Shield and Draining Word. Yes, they are both very difficult for him to cast (and in the case of Draining Word, almost useless in solo play), but Tim doesn’t let logic get in the way of his decisions, he ventured into the frozen city to be viewed as the cleverest, most handsome wizard, and the way you do that is by impressing people by knowing more spells than all of your rivals! He briefly considers making Shield easier to cast, but settles for Strength instead this time, figuring that it doesn’t matter how strong your defences are if you’re strong enough to never lose a fight. Finally, he increases his Health by 1 - less because he plans to get his hands dirty, but more because that’s a valuable resource that can be sacrificed to improve his chances of successfully casting spells!
The Captain, on the other hand, didn’t really do anything that would net them experience, having not actually killed a single monster this game, and so only gained 20XP, not enough to level up. This will need to be discussed at her next Performance Review.
Then, treasure, the real reason Tim had plundered this library (as the rules for this scenario mean that you re-roll any results that don’t include any Grimoires or scrolls, so there’s a good chance Tim would be able to learn even more spells in the near future). Once everything was tallied up, Tim had found some gold, scrolls of Elemental Hammer and Heal, and a pair of Grimoires: the first contained the spell Wizard Eye, not the most exciting spell in the world but hey a new spell is a new spell. disappointingly, the second contained the Shield spell, which Tim had just learned, so was sold off.
A little disappointed with his haul, Tim headed off to get in touch with his black market contacts. Which in hindsight was foolish, as he wasn’t exactly rolling in cash. The first thing offered was a magical dagger, which he couldn’t afford. Next was a Cloak of Protection, which was even more expensive, and so he couldn’t afford it. Thirdly, a pair of scrolls, but a Tim already had a bevy of scrolls mounting up at home that he never even looked at, so turned his nose up at them (side note - I should probably double check how scrolls work in case they could actually be useful!). Lastly, something that actually caught Tim’s eye - a Grimoire containing the spell Animate Skull! Unfortunately, this was 500 GC, which was more than Tim had, but he was determined not to leave without it, and so set about selling items from his stash. After the Captain takes their cut, he was able to raise enough funds by selling off a few scrolls, and also his and the Apprentice’s Healing Potions (figuring that they can always just make more). This leaves him with a grand total of 24 GC left in his Vault - ah well, home improvements and upgrading the gang will have to wait…
Relaxing back at their base, Tim tells the Apprentice about reports of a giant golem that has seemingly emerged from the undercity and started rampaging through the frozen city, leaving a trail of destruction and dead bodies in it’s wake. Remembering how much fun he had previously taking magical control of Constructs and turning them against his enemies, Tim wonders out loud if this might be worth investigating… The Apprentice, meanwhile, wonders to himself if this might have had anything to do with the faded sign that he saw while leaving the Library that read ‘these premises are protected by golem security, any thieves will be prosecuted or executed, whichever comes first. To avoid any accidental maiming or injury, please ensure you collect your visitor’s pass from…’ and then the sign was violently ripped, so he couldn’t read the rest. Probably just a coincidence though, nothing worth mentioning.
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