After getting a positive lateral flow test this morning, I found myself at home rather than work, so while my son napped I ventured back into the frozen city for the second scenario of Dark Alchemy: Skeletal Run.
I had initially intended to model and paint some teleportation pads to play this scenario, but went with coloured beads in order to be able to play straight away.
I think I’m going to need to make some multi storey terrain and walkways in the future, but for the scenarios set underground like this mini campaign is what I have currently works perfectly.
Before starting, I ummed and ahhhed over whether I should be able to pick a base after the first scenario. Rules as written it’s a yes, even though it doesn’t necessarily tally narratively with being trapped underground - if you can’t cast out of game spells as you’re so pressed for time, how are you supposed to be able to nip back to your base? I chose a treasury as my base, and think of it as them finding hidden caches in this underground lab, that once they escape they’ll clear out and use as their secret base moving forwards, continuing to explore it to find a scrap of something worth selling to generate a handful of gold, and the occasional treasure. Rolling for my first income from my base, I roll a 20!
This is a magic item, which turns out to be Gloves of Casting, which should come in very handy given my habit of rolling very poorly.
My intrepid band of heroes made their way boldly up the centre of the table (figuring that it would keep the furthest from any suddenly appearing skeletons)
For the first spell of the game, Tim attempts to cast Strength on my Thug, which would make him as capable in a fight as the Knight that is having to sit out the rest of the mini campaign after getting knocked out last game. He even used his brand new Gloves of Casting, to make getting the spell off almost a sure thing and free up future turns for raising zombies and impressive displays of necromantic pyrotechnics. And then I rolled a 1.
Ah well, better luck next time. Tim managed to enhance the Thug with Strength before getting leapt on by a burning skeleton, but he quickly bops it with his staff. Plan A for Tim is always raise zombie (because it’s fun and easy to make friends when you’re a Necromancer), when I realise that there are two skeletons close enough together to get blasted by a Grenade spell. Which fails to go off, inevitably. Then so remember that one action each turn has to be a move, you can’t fight then cast a spell, so I take it back, but the failure still stings.
Tim then raises a zombie between himself and the encroaching skeleton:
Which bundles forwards to fight and is instantly cut down, leaving Tim looking a bit panicked. In hindsight, I should have just left the zombie stood between Tim and his foe to tie it up for at least a turn, but I think I got carried away after my zombie performed so well last game…
Speaking of things in hindsight, my Thug that I’d cast Strength on to make him as good in a fight as the Knight that was KO’d last game after throwing him into a combat that he should have easily won, when thrown into a combat that he should easily have won was immediately smacked down to one health:
And then taken out of action due to the skeleton being on fire:
It’s only of it happens one more time that it becomes a tradition right?
Everyone else continued getting bundled by skeletons, with Crossbow managing to win a fight and push off their opponent long enough to make a dash for it (only to get caught by a new skeleton unluckily appearing on the pad nearest to her), and Tim continuing to stave in skills with his staff, which seems to be more effective than his magic so far.
At this point I suddenly remember that I have the spell Control Undead, which could turn an enemy into a friend, and roll a 1 to cast it. The next attempt is more successful though, allowing me to send a skeleton to help the crossbow that has been bundled by two skeletons. On her lonesome she is able to take out a skeleton, but supported by a controlled skeleton and Tim, the controlled skeleton is destroyed, and the crossbow gets knocked out too.
Several fights later, after it looks like I might have to cut and run in order for Tim to escape with his life, I manage to whittle down the remaining skeletons to the point where I’m able to control one to haul a treasure off the board, and then Tim is able to raise a zombie to use as bait for the remaining skeletons while he and the Tracker sweep up the remaining treasure tokens and then leg it off the board…
In the after game sequence, I realise that I did it wrong after the previous game - if I’d done it in the correct order, I wouldn’t have been able to learn Strength until after this game, so I removed things to correct this (not that Strength made any difference at all to this game, so I don’t feel like I gained a huge advantage).
Rolling for injuries, between my Thug (free to replace) and my Crossbow (expensive specialist, model painted specially for this) which one do you think survived and which one died? That’s right, looks like I need to raise some more funds for when we get out of this labyrinth and replace a specialist… I had plans to hire an Apothecary too, maybe I should have done that from the beginning!
After that sad turn of events, it was on to my favourite part of the post game sequence, rolling for treasure. This time I found another handful of gold, as well as a couple of pricy potions that I’m likely to hold onto far longer than I should, and a Grimoire of Control Construct, as apparently I rolled the exact same random spell as I did for the scroll I found after the first game. All else failing, I can probably sell off some stuff to fund getting a Captain, Apothecary, and replacing my Crossbow - maybe with that nice Barbarian sculpt I have primed, but on the other hand my experience so far seems to be that getting up close and personal with my enemies isn’t working out too well for me…
Plans for the future did initially look like playing the next scenario tomorrow, but then both my children tested positive too…
Nicely done! It looks like you had fun! :D
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