The adventures of Tim the Necromancer: The Attack Site

Having successfully looted a lost library, Tim decided to follow up on rumours of a golem that has seemingly mysteriously emerged from the undercity and started rampaging through the frozen city, feeling like that was something he wanted for himself.

With that in mind, I set up the board to look like a camp set up in the shell of a destroyed building in the depths of the frozen city:

I also tried to have some corners of buildings facing outwards at the edge of the board, to make it look like this was just a slice of a much larger area, than my usual fare which has a bunch of buildings in a self-contained square, if that makes sense.

As usual, I rolled to see if Tim’s Mortal Enemy would make an appearance, and again it was a no. The thing is, each time they don’t appear, it becomes more likely they will next time, so it’s only a matter of time… with that out of the way, I went about setting up some monsters. I figured that it would make sense thematically to have a Ghoul starting in contact with each of the 5 corpse counters, then rolled randomly to see what would start in the centre of the three table edges that didn’t feature Tim and the gang. Left to right, I deployed an Ice Toad, a Pair of zombies, and an Ice Spider.

Then it was time for Tim and his companions to deploy, and as ever they split up into three groups - Tim, backed up by the Apothecary, Barbarian and Tracker in the centre; the Apprentice, with the thug Knight and Man at Arms over on the left; and the Captain, accompanied by the Thief and Warhound, making up Team Speedy over on the right.

I then remembered to cast Tim’s pre-game spells, and he and the Apprentice once again successfully brewed a pair of Healing Potions to replace the ones that they sold after the last game. Flicking through Advanced Spellcraft while setting up (as I’d belatedly remembered that I was planning to start using those rules once Tim had plundered the Library, but hadn’t actually gotten around to cracking the new book open), I learned that it turns out you can’t sell homemade stuff on wizard Etsy any more, so I shouldn’t have actually been able to afford that a Grimoire last game. Ah well, I also learned that I could have learned a Flourish on Shield rather than selling the duplicated Grimoire, so c’est la vie. To follow this up, Tim successfully raised a zombie to join the gang on their excursion, and then it was go time!

Tim kicks things up by advancing bravely forwards, positioning himself so that he can cast a spell on the nearest Ghoul whilst still shielding himself from other Ghouls by positioning his Apothecary between himself and them. The Barbarian and the zombie both also advance on the first Ghoul, just on the off chance spells don’t get the job done (plus, Tim feels like if anyone has to turn over a corpse to look for loot, it should probably be the easily replaceable zombie). Tim casts Control Undead on the Ghoul, and succeeds in bending it to his will, satisfactorily. 

The Apprentice then moves up, using the Thug as his own personal human (well, some sort of freaky toad-man) shield, and casts Leap on the newly controlled Ghoul, sending it flying over to the Ice Toad that was hungrily eyeing the rest of the gang. I originally thought I was being smart and could launch it directly into combat, but rereading the spell card revealed that wasn’t the case, so I dropped it directly in front of it instead.

In the Monster Phase, a couple of Ghouls could now see the gang and ran straight at them - it turned out that I had misjudged the distance somewhat, as one of them was able to get into contact with the Apothecary. Side note - in terms of the Ghouls activating, I decided that any Ghoul that didn’t have line of sight to a member of Tim’s gang that was on a Corpse Token would stay there, continuing to eat, rather than moving randomly). The wild zombies, however, couldn’t see anyone so largely shambled around ineffectually. 

The Ice Toad on the left however hopped forwards and attacked the controlled Ghoul that had just appeared in front of it, losing 1 Health for its troubles. At the same time over on the right flank, the Ice Spider, unable to see the group just the other side of a wall to it’s left and instead scuttles into the camp in the centre of the board, ending up near to the gang’s zombie.

Back with the gang, the Tracker takes aim at a Ghoul that is bearing down on the Barbarian, and scores a solid hit and drops it to 1 Health, a feat then replicated by the Captain over on the right flank with a Ghoul of their own. She and the Warhound then charge in to finish it off, which they do with ease - my dice luck seems to have reversed from the last game, and now the monsters were the ones only able to roll single digits! With the way now clear, the Thief moves up to take cover behind a wall, trying desperately not to get spotted by the Ice Spider.

At the end of the turn, a single Giant Rat enters on the same board edge as the gang did, leaving Tim and the Tracker at risk of being attacked from behind…

At this point in the game, I realised that I’d been mixing up the rules for Group Activation with being able to activate multiple figures in thenWizard and Apprentice phases - so my Tracker is hopefully going to become a lot more effective now that I didn’t think I had to move as his first action!

Tim motions for the zombie to attack the Ghoul currently trying to chew on his Apothecary, and it rolls a 1 in combat, and is immediately destroyed by the Ghoul. The Tracker feels torn - should he rush in to help the Apothecary, or trymtomfinishnoffnthenghoul he shot last turn? Now that I remember the rules correctly, he can try both, and takes out the Ghoul with an arrow before running over to engage the Ghoul attacking the Apothecary. The Apothecary, bolstered by this reinforcement, thumps the Ghoul with his staff, dropping it to 3 Health.

Tim, figuring that the Barbarian should be able to rush in and finish off the Ghoul in a second, attempts to cast the Strength spall and fails badly. He then also moves in to engage the Ghoul, figuring that if worst comes to worse they can hopefully drag it down with weight of numbers.

On the left, the Thug steps up to investigate the corpse at the Barbarian’s feet (again, he’s more expendable than she is) and he discovers a Treasure Token! Unfortunately, as he picks it up two wolves enter the board, just behind the Ice Toad, and suddenly things aren’t looking so hot for the controlled Ghoul…

The Barbarian, being more interested in hitting things with her massive sword than investigating, instead charges into the surrounded Ghoul by Tim and promptly cuts it down. Over on the left flank, the Knight and Man at Arms both sprint up to engage the Ice Toad, and in doing so block the advance of the onrushing wolves with their bodies.

The Apprentice is torn - at times like this, he would usually always raise a zombie, feeling most comfortable having as many bodies as possible between himself and danger, but on the other hand he suspected that if the Knight and Man at Arms fell there would be multiple dangers coming his way, so he clicked the fingers of his Gloves of Casting and cast Strength on the Man at Arms, so that he and the Knight would have an equal chance to survive their combats.

In the now slightly complex melee on the left (between and Ice Toad, two Wolves, a controlled Ghoul, and the Knight and Man at Arms), the Wolves charged into the Knight and Man at Arms - the Knight dealt a mighty blow to his canine foe, but the a man at Arms was unable to do anything other than furiously defend themself. The Ice Toad then clamped its powerful jaws onto the controlled Ghoul, taking him out instantaneously with a Critical Hit! This also unfortunately leaves the Knight and Man at Arms now separately outnumbered:

The Ice Spider, seemingly unaware of the life and death struggle happening on the other side of the board, scuttles forwards to attack the Captain and is killed for its temerity. The Captain then proceeds to harvest it’s venom (I should probably try to learn the spell Poison Dart at some point, as were building up a stash of these ingredients that make casting that spell easier). 

The Giant Rat that has snuck on behind the gang scrabbles through the rubble, and reaches the Apothecary.

With their way now clear, the Thief rushed up and investigated another Corpse Token, revealing a second treasure.

Unfortunately for her, a Minor Demon then appeared on the board to her right…

Figuring that this new threat was much worse than the single Giant Rat that they could otherwise see, the Captain ran up to the Thief and loosed an arrow at the demon, but to no avail. The Warhound then bravely ran up and interposed himself between the ladies and the oncoming demon. 

Seeing that his left flank looked to be on the verge of crumbling, Tim cast Strength on the Barbarian (using his Staff of Power to turn a failed casting into a success) and sent her to reinforce the Knight and Man at Arms, although she couldn’t quite make it into the combat. He then stepped back to help the Apothecary fight the Giant Rat, which unfortunately nipped the Apothecary for 2 damage.

In the centre, the Tracker was just able to see the Minor Demon, and while he was able to hit it with an arrow, wasn’t able to do it any damage. He lamented the lack of magic bows found in these parts so far! He then strode back to engage the Giant Rat fighting the Apothecary and Tim, in the hopes of being able to take it out in a later phase.

The Apprentice activated, but only had the Thug nearby, who took off and left the board, Treasure Token in tow. This left the Apprentice worryingly alone, which he wasn’t a huge fan of, so he clambered through the crater towards the swirling melee on the left and raised a zombie (although he had to expend the power from his Ring of Power and cut for 2 points of damage in order to successfully cast the easiest spell he knew). Hopefully the Knight and Man at Arms could hold out long enough for the zombie to be able to reinforce them!

On the right hand side, the Minor Demon and a Ghoul rush Team Speedy, but is unable to damage the Wolfhound, who pushes back the demon in order to give the Captain an opening to peg it with an arrow.

Back on the left, the two wolves attack their opponents - the Knight is able to cut down his wounded opponent, but the Man at Arms is less lucky and is bitten for 3 damage. He is luckier when the Ice Toad attacks him though, as a lucky blow manages to finish it off. With the big melee now looking a lot smaller, the gang’s zombie instead redirects to head towards a wild zombie that has almost reached the Barbarian:

The Knight steps up and cuts down the last Wolf, leaving the Man at Arms free to duck through the ruined doorway next to them and attack the zombie that our zombie was closing in on. He probably should have waited for reinforcements though, as it deals him a mighty blow, dropping him to only 4 Health.

While all this is going on, the Giant Rat attacks the Apothecary again, but is outnumbered 3 to 1 at this point and is easily cut down.

Back on the right flank, the Captain uses her Steady Hand skill to shoot at the Minor Demon, but I roll a 2, which even with the additional +3 isn’t enough to do anything useful. Resigning herself to her fate, she draws her sword and rushes to engage it. The Warhound sprints to join her, but I roll a 1 on that combat.

The Thief, deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, looks a little apologetic as she books it off the board with a Treasure Token rather than joining the fight, especially as there is also a Ghoul still closing in on them…

As the turn ends, an angry looking boar enters on the left, just behind the Knight. 

Tim, suddenly remembering that they were here to investigate, not get dragged into a series of knock down drag out fights, decided that he needed to get a bit of a move on. Firstly, he attempted to cast Control Undead on a lone zombie near one of the Corpse Tokens, but I rolled a 1, for a critical failure, a new rule introduced in Advanced Spellcraft. Checking the book, it just means that Tim can’t try and control this particular zombie again - fair enough, I had visions of it accidentally buffing it or something! He then heads off towards the right hand side of the board, taking the Apothecary with him, as it seemed like the Captain might need a little help against the Minor Demon. The attacker then trailed along behind him, loosing off an arrow at the same zombie that Tim failed to ensorcel, but wasn’t able to hit it.

On the left, figuring that it was better to attack the boar before it could bring it’s tusks into play against the Knight, the Barbarian charged in - both combatants dealt each other damage, leaving the Barbarian on 5 Health and the boar on only 1.

Meanwhile, the Apprentice tries to control the other zombie (the one currently fighting the Man at Arms) but failed, as after his negative spellcasting modifier his total was… zero. 

The Minor Demon attacks the Warhound and crits, taking it out of action, as the last Ghoul on the board closes on the Captain.

On the left, a wild zombie shambles to join its companion, while the Man at Arms is dropped down to 4 Health. The boar attempts to strike the Barbarian, but is chopped into bacon bits. The Knight rushes forward to join the beleaguered Man at Arms, as does the gang’s zombie, who is able to successfully cut down one of their foes. 

The Captain, realising that this is literally the definition of a do or die situation, uses her Furious Attack skill to attack the Minor Demon, dealing an impressive 11 points of damage to it, leaving it on a single point of Health. As I frantically double checked the warband sheet to make sure that I hadn’t missed a modifier somewhere, I realised that the Captain is wearing Gloves of Strength, which means that she does +1 damage whenever she wins a combat - the Minor Demon was dead! She then rushed back towards Tim to escape the clutches of the Ghoul that was all too close nearby.

For the first time all game, no new monsters came onto the board at the end of the turn. Reassured by this and surrounded by comrades, the Captain turned and smoothly put an arrow between the eyes of the last Ghoul. Shrugging, she headed towards the most distant Corpse Token, counting hope against hope that no more monsters were going to jump her. Seeing this, Tim cast Leap to send her flying towards it (although he has to spend 4 Health to turn his failed casting into a success). He and the Apprentice then advanced on the Corpse Token in the centre of the board. As they did this, the Tracker sprinted towards another Corpse Token, happy not to be noticed by the last zombie:

That zombie however shambles forwards onto the waiting blade of the Man at Arms, losing 1 Health, only for the Knight to step forwards and finish the job, and with no monsters now left on the board everyone takes this opportunity to consolidate their positions. 

The Man at Arms clambers up a ruin to investigate a pair of dismembered legs:

and finds the Golem Notes (that in hindsight I’d made a special token for). Another side note - I really need to make a proper Man at Arms miniature for the gang to replace this one that is actually borrowed from Tim’s Mortal Enemy’s gang!

At this point I suddenly realised that I’d accidentally skipped activating the Apprentice, which shuffled around a bit and cast Strength on the gang’s zombie, just in case anything untoward happened upon their investigating a Corpse Token. Having found the Golem Notes though, the gang decide to head out before anything else can menace them, as I realised that it’s only zombies or survivors left to find on the Corpse Token table, neither of which I was particularly fussed about. 

Post-game:

Another Warhound dies, and again Tim quickly replaces it with a new one before anyone can notice.

Between clearing the field, claiming two Treasure Tokens and killing a bunch of monsters, Tim walks away with 295 XP. He spends 300 to gain 3 levels, gaining +1 Fight, improving his Control Construct spell (as having seen the destructive power of the golem, Tim wants some of that!), then learns the spell Animate Skull from a Grimoire. I know that spell is kind of useless in solo play, as it spawns an uncontrolled monster that will just start attacking the gang, but one: it’s on theme, and two: if we can find another copy of that Grimoire, we can add a flourish to the spell that means it spawns a monster as part of the gang instead…

The Captain, having had a much more productive game than last time, gains 40XP and levels up to level 4, learning the skill Coup de Grace just in case she comes across any more demons that need slaying!

In terms of treasure, Tim finds a Ring of Power, which he swaps of his Ring of Will for, and a between the a treasury, selling a boar tusk and finding a small pile of gold - once the Captain has taken her (higher now that she has levelled up) cut, it leaves Tim 59 GC to put in the vault.

Not the most profitable expedition into the frozen city ever undertaken, but Tim is one step closer to being the proud owner of a weapon a magical destruction, he just knows it…

The adventures of Tim the Necromancer: The Library

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. 

The adventures of Tim the Necromancer: The Mausoleum

For the first time in over a year, Tim ventured back into the frozen city! 

After his last outing, Tim has heard tell of a fabled lost library filled with magical doodads ripe for plundering, but no one knows where it is (it is a lost library after all…). After some investigation, Tim the Necromancer realises that he has a unique advantage over other types of wizards, and sets about tracking down a deceased former librarian to ask for directions. 

Out of character, Tim wants to get to the library because he keeps getting enough XP to level up but not having any Grimoires to learn spells from, so is banking ridiculous amounts of XP! Also, I’ve bought Advanced Spellcraft but not read it yet, so finding a library full of advanced magical texts provides a nice narrative reason for why Tim might suddenly be able to do more complex stuff with his spells.

So, I set up a table that looked like a tomb complex, centred around the Mausoleum that I recently finished:

I set up the skeletons and treasure tokens as per the scenario, then rolled three times on the Wandering monster table to put some monsters on the other side of the board from Tim and the gang (and yes, I re-read the rules for wolves in Frostgrave and redeployed them together after taking this picture). Side note - for this game, I rolled for wandering monsters at the end of every turn, and also the first time each treasure token was picked up, having them enter in the centre of a randomly determined table edge.

As usual, the gang split up into three groups - a ‘fast’ group on the flank with the most treasure (the left side), the apprentice on the right with some tough fighters, and Tim in the centre with the Apothecary and some human shields. As he didn’t fancy having to walk any further than was strictly necessary. A zombie was summoned before the game, as is traditional, but non-traditionally, the Brew Potion spell actually came through, giving Tim a healing potion that he duly took for himself (because he and his apprentice traditionally take a bunch of damage from catastrophically failing to cast spells), then it was off to the races!

Tim strode forward confidently to kick off proceedings, planning to bend the nearest skeletal defender to his will with the Control Undead spell, but despite successfully managing to cast the spell the mindless skeleton turned out to be too strong willed, and resisted the spell. Feeling less confident, Tim ordered his zombie into its usual early game battle position, ‘Operation Human Shield’.

The Apprentice, leading his band of toughs, elects to try and Bone Dart a skeleton instead (as that’s a much easier spell to cast than Control Undead) and succeeds, blasting a skeleton into bones. The rest of the toughs then go up the board towards the mausoleum and it’s waiting treasures:

With a howl, the wolves, zombies and skeletons all make their way towards our intrepid troupe of grave robbers, but only the one that Tim failed to compel makes it into contact with the unfortunate Thug currently acting as Tim’s human shield, and it deals him a minty blow, dropping him to only 3 health!

Then it’s time for Team Speedy (also Team Shooty, technically) as they fan out with plans to pepper a skeleton closing on Tim with arrows, whilst the Warhound plans to go wide to try to draw away some of the threats bearing down on the group.

The Captain’s (in green, balancing artfully on a mobile ruined pillar) arrow flies true and destroys the nearest skeleton, but the Tracker behind her is less lucky, and their arrow clatters ineffectually into an intervening wall:

Drawn by the sounds of battle, two Armoured Skeletons lumber onto the board, luckily on the furthest table edge from Tim and the gang, so they weren’t an issue… yet.

Team Tim activates again, with the Knight originally part of Team Apprentice running forward to rescue the beleaguered Thug, the zombie shambling closer to the nearest Treasure token, and Tim and the Apothecary shifting slightly sideways to get a better line of sight on the skeleton that the Tracker had failed to take out last turn.

Thanks to outnumbering and the magical Sword of Wounding and Healing, the Knight is able to handily defeat the skeleton despite only rolling a 5. Tim tries to cast Control Undead again, but is successful this time, bending a skeletal guard to his will (and also transforming them from a regular human skeleton into a rat an one, for ease of em remembering which one it is that he has under his control).

Team Apprentice rushes up, ganging up on another skeleton, as another had just also popped out of that Mausoleum door:

The Apprentice, trailing behind them, narrowly fails to cast Strength in the Barbarian, so cuts to turn the failure into a success. You know what’s better than a maniac with a massive sword that’s frothing at the mouth? A magically enhanced maniac with a massive sword that’s frothing at the mouth!

Buoyed by this, the Barbarian easily cleaves the foe in twain, leaving the Man at Arms without an opponent, so he moves up to engage the remaining skeleton. 

It was at this point that I realised that I’d forgotten about the wolves lurking nearby in my excitement to have the Barbarian smash up skeletons (and also, they’re grey wolves on grey bases on grey rubble terrain). They leapt on her, and due to some terrible rolling on my part she was swiftly taken out of action:

My glass cannon probably needs some sort of magic item that gives her a little more Armour. Or even more Fight, I guess lack of armour doesn’t matter if you never lose a fight! (I know, mathematically that doesn’t work given how swingy d20 rolls are, but humour me for the sake of the bit).

The Man at Arms, on the other hand, coolly hacks down the skeleton facing him before turning to face the pair of wolves breathing down his neck.

Back in the centre of the table, the Thug grabs the first Treasure Token, and 2 Ghouls appear on the board, again luckily on the farthest table edge. 

The controlled skeleton (aka the new recruit) shambles forward to engage the Zombie that has finally managed to make its way to being a threat to the group, but poor rolls on both sides mean that they largely slap ineffectively at each other:

On the left flank, the Captain and Tracker both cautiously advance to try and take out the Armoured Skeletons bearing down on them just beyond the zombie, but the dice seem to have forsaken me and only deliver up single digit rolls, not enough to hit.

The Thief with them makes a dash up towards a Treasure Token, with the Warhound bravely shielding them from the encroaching Armoured Skeletons with his body:

This plan (Thief making a bold dash in to retrieve a treasure while everyone else smartly disposes of the monsters) is slightly scuppered by the door on the Mausoleum behind her opening, and a skeleton emerges…

Tim, meanwhile, steps forward and casts Bone Dart to try to remove the threat behind his faithful Thief, but despite succeeding to cast it frustratingly it is ineffective (I guess bones aren’t weak to other bones it turns out, a 15 against a 16).

As the gang have spread out to engage the enemy and grab treasure, there are now unfortunately only minimal models that can activate with Tim and the Apprentice - the Apothecary sticks close to Tim though, lest he require a Potion of Healing, while the Apprentice, alone, uses his Gloves of Casting to attempt to cast Grenade on the wolves menacing the Man at Arms. He succeeds, landing it just behind them, but unfortunately I am betrayed by the dice again, and no damage is caused.

In the creature phase, things don’t go well for Tim - his hound and controlled skeleton are both taken out of action, and both the Thief and Man at Arms are wounded by their opponents.

Time for a comeback, he thinks - his Zombie grabs a Treasure Token, and makes a break for freedom. Just as 4 Giant Rats appear on the table edge just behind Tim. Nuts.

The Captain, always cool under pressure, dashes up and kills the skeleton attacking the Thief, who continues her run up to grab the unattended Treasure Token from under the noses (or lack thereof) of a Zombie, 2 Armoured Skeletons, and 2 Ghouls:

The Tracker, steadying themselves, manages to take out the nearest Armoured Skeleton, buying the group a more of breathing room. He then runs up and hides behind a low wall, hoping to be able to dash behind their enemies to grab another Treasure token (the axe leaning against a barrel in the picture above).

Over on the right, the Knight redirects from the centre and charges in to relieve the beleaguered Man at Arms, hacking down the first Wolf, while the Man at Arms chops the second Wolf down to only 1 Health remaining. This side of the field, which was originally looking a bit dicey when the Barbarian got taken out, is now looking a lot more under control! The Thug just behind them, seeing that things seem to be well in hand, makes a dash for the table edge with a Treasure Token in hand instead. 

While this is happening, another skeleton and a single Giant Rat enter the field. 

Tim, showing incredible tactical nous resists the urge to cast Grenade on the tightly packed foes bearing down on his Thief, instead casts Leap, catapulting her to relative safety away from the horde of monsters keen to sink fangs into flesh. This is slightly to the chagrin of the Captain, who now founds herself the nearest target to the aforementioned horde (she’ll probably be fine though, she has more magic items than Tim). Tim then notices that there is a skeleton and a pack of Giant Rats bearing down on him, and decides that discretion is the better part of valour and relocates to the safety of a nearby doorway:

The Apprentice, seeing this, instead casts Control Undead on the skeleton nearest Tim, turning it into a Valued Team Member tm instead. He then starts heading towards the left side of the field to support, as it seems things aren’t going so well there…

In the swirling melee around the Captain, the wild Zombie manages to deal 1 damage to the Captain, before an Armoured Skeleton joins the fight. Using a combination of her Dodge and Furious Attack skills, the Captain cuts it down. A ghoul then joins the ruck and the Captain takes more damage, leaving her on 8 Health. Things aren’t looking great for the girl in green…

Over on the right flank, things are going equally badly - the last Wolf snaps at the Man at Arms, dropping him down to only 1 Health remaining. 

In the centre, the pack of Giant Rats rush towards the Apprentice, but none are able to reach him this turn. In response, the newly recruited Skeleton flings himself at the pack of rats, quickly cutting one down:

Back on the right, the Knight dashes forward to attack the Wolf in the hopes of freeing up the Man at Arms, but a natural 20 takes him down to 1 Health. The Man at Arms, however, is able to hack it to pieces, but looks up to see a Giant Rat only an inch away with hungry eyes…

Over on the other side of the Mausoleum, the Tracker plunges in to assist the Captain, cutting down the wild Zombie. Emboldened by this, the Captain deals a grievous blow to one of the Ghouls, dropping it to 4 Health. Unfortunately for her, a skeleton then appears in the doorway next to that Ghoul…

Tim, again resisting the urge to cast Grenade, uses Control Undead to grab the as yet unwounded second Ghoul, and now it looks like the monsters are outnumbered! 

The Apprentice, on the other hand, has no such qualms and tries to cast Grenade on the sea of Giant Rats in front of them, but fails so badly that he manages to hurt himself in the process. He then dashes to his master’s side, away from all the Giant Rats, leaving his controlled skeleton to its fate. Seeing this, it feels somewhat less like a Valued Employee than in the previous turn, and is rapidly dispatched by the rats. Not so for the single Giant Rat menacing the Knight, which is swiftly cut down for its troubles.

In the ongoing melee on the other side of the table, the Captain succeeds in cutting down the wounded Ghoul, but is then wounded in turn by the recently emerged skeleton.

While this is going on, the Thief, Thug, and Zombie all manage to make it off of the table, securing a Treasure Token each, while the now free to move Man at Arms moves to secure another. Back in the melee, the controlled Ghoul takes out the skeleton, leaving the Captain and Tracker free to dash towards the last remaining piece of treasure. As the Captain grabs it, a single Ghoul appears on the right hand side of the board, too far away from the gang to really affect anything at this point in proceedings. An imp then appears, as well as another skeleton emerging from the Mausoleum,  it at this point it is too, little too late as the controlled Ghoul was able to block monsters, allowing the Captain and Man at Arms to escape with a Treasure Token each, while the Apprentice fails to cast Leap on the Captain and atom fails to cast Strength on the controlled Ghoul to give it a better chance against the pursuing monsters. When all is said and done, the Apprentice is the last to flee the board, closely followed by a gang of rats and a skeleton:

After a break to pick the kids up from school (during which I walked past a graveyard and suddenly realised that I should have dug out my gravestone scatter terrain to use for a scenario set around a Mausoleum), it was time for the post-game sequence.

Unfortunately the Warhound died, but the Barbarian was able to make a full recovery. Tim immediately bought another Warhound, as they are a lot cheaper than Barbarians to replace!

Having survived, cast plenty of spells and grabbed loads of treasure, Tim walked away with 379 XP, which caps at 300. He spends 200 to gain 2 levels, increasing his Health by 1, and making Grenade easier to cast (as it’s very handy when you’re outnumbered!). Unfortunately, he has no Grimoires in his Vault, so cannot learn any new spells this time, and banks the rest of the XP. The Captain, having survived and chopped down an assortment of monsters, gains 50XP, not enough to gain another level yet.

Scraping around the Treasury that they made their base in, the gang are able to scrape together 13 GC. Then, it’s time to see what each Treasure Token was. Oddly for the tomb of a former librarian, as well as an assortment of cash, they found 4 magic rings (2 Transference, which got sold as Tim already had one in his Vault, 1 Power, which went to the Apprentice as they are most likely to need help casting a spell, and a ring of Will, which Tim kept for himself). The final token came up trumps though, revealing a Grimoire of… Draining Word, a spell which makes other spells harder to cast, and is so functionally useless in solo play. Ah well, a Grimoire is a Grimoire, and anyway I guess it’s worth learning to potentially make things more difficult if his Mortal Enemy tries to jump him again…

Tallying everything up, after the Captain takes her 13% Tim finds himself with a tidy amount of cash, and feels torn - should he upgrade his group, maybe replacing his Thug with something a bit tougher? On the other hand, with 584GC, he could potentially afford to buy a Grimoire, so heads down to the Black Market. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot on offer - a pair of Boots of Speed (which the Captain already has a pair of) and a Grimoire of Shield, which he buys. It’s a Thaumaturgy spell, so will be needlessly difficult for him to actually cast once he manages to learn it, but the idea of eventually being able to have a Barbarian with both their attack and defence magically enhanced proves too alluring…

What’s next - the Library! And maybe upgrading the war and with the remaining money, as yet to be decided…

Mausoleum: a Frostgrave build

When last we saw Tim the Necromancer, he’d heard rumours of a hidden underground library, which sounded like exactly the sort of place he’d want to loot as his adventures so far has included a distinct lack of magical tomes. I imagined that for a valuable library to have remained untouched, it must be inaccessible in some way, or hidden, so decided that the next scenario I should play would be the Mausoleum: Tim is a Necromancer after all, so digging up a dead librarian to say ‘vee have vays of making you talk’ strikes me as somewhat apt (as well as explaining why other wizards haven’t already picked the place clean).

So I needed a Mausoleum. So I made one, and it looks like this:

So, last September, I set about making one. The scenario states that it should be 6 inches square with a door on each side, so I started with that base. I liked the idea of decorative columns to avoid it just being a plain box, and some wine corks made the perfect base for this:

As ever, cork sheet it my go-to for constructions like this, being light, easy to cut and glue, and also having a nice texture when it’s time to start drybrushing. 

I boxed out the corks, so that they could stand inset in the corners of the mausoleum:

And then made a template to ensure that all four sides were the same:

I also added some little niches to take bones or candles, to really sell the mausoleum angle. Yes, I know they look like eyes on a face at this point. One other fun fact - I didn’t measure the niches against a skull part, and just eyeballed it, and so they turned out to be a little on the snug side when I later came to install some bones…

When making a structure like this, if it’s going to be a sealed box (rather than having a playable interior) you can have all sorts of interior constructions, like the backing to the niches here

Or incautiously slapping some thin card across the back of the doorways to give a surface to build doors on

As well as adding some chunks of cork to help attach it to the base (as a single layer of thin cork isn’t much space for squaring it up and getting a decent bond with glue)

Then it was just a case of glueing it all together to make a many sided box, with masking tape holding it all square(ish) while the glue dried:

Then it was just a case of applying filler to smooth out the joints:

(Ably assisted by my children, at this stage)

Then I popped on a roof that was the same size as the base, and bob is your mother’s brother:

Whenever you’re waiting for glue to dry, it’s a good idea to give it a good squash to ensure a firm and even bond:

This still looked a bit boxy for my tastes though, so I set about fancying up the roof. Nothing too fancy, I just added squares of diminishing sizes to give a stepped effect (whilst still ensuring that there was space for any adventurous minis that wanted to climb up there during a game):

And again, clamps and squashing ensured that it was all nice and even:

Well, as even as it can be with my wonky cutting, but you know what I mean. To cap it all off, I added a dragon egg piece from a Game of Thrones Risk set (as it put me in mind of an architectural pineapple, a subject I read a book on twenty years ago randomly), then went at it with filler and sand to texture it up and make it look less than brand new:

Then I undercoated it black, gave it a misting of grey spray, and then… a year passed. It sat in a box, we moved house, it sat in a different box. But then I found myself unexpectedly having some time off work, and decided that I wanted to make some progress on the set of generic rock formations that had… also been sat in a box for months. And digging out my terrain painting supplies (which also involved a walk to B&Q, as my Wilko tester pot greys had all but dried out in the interim, and I can’t just nip to Wilko any more), I figured I could also paint my Mausoleum at the same time.

But then I decided I also wanted to play a game in my time off, and that meant that the Mausoleum got painted at the expense of the rocks, and now it looks like this:

Once the piece was painted, I set about painting some skulls and bones from my rapidly dismissing box of spare boney bits. I quickly realised that I had erred on the smaller side when cutting my niches, so some careful filing was required to get them to sit nicely in the slots, and painting individual bones before glueing them into place largely involved me getting more paint on my fingers than on the bones, but eventually it was done.

What’s next? The game I played using it!