The adventures of Tim the Necromancer: Field Research

Having previously found some clues to the whereabouts of the massive golem currently rampaging through the frozen city (that he may or may not have been the cause of), it was time for Tim to hunt down the thing itself and have a proper look at it.

As mentioned in my last post, this scenario takes part in a crumbling garden, full of low walls, fountains and statuary (which can be magically animated during the game), so I tried to set up the board to represent this as best as possible:

Some homemade weeping angels (so old they were painted before this blog was even a thing) stood in for statues (with the plan being that any that got animated would be replaced with the much nicer Weeping Angel miniatures made by Crooked Dice). I also set the golem up further back rather than in the centre of the table, as I figured that was mostly to have him equidistant from the two groups in a two player game, and figured it would be better to give him a turn or two extra of hurling rocks at my troublemakers!

I rolled to see if Tim’s Mortal Enemy would make an appearance, and again they did not. Then it was time to roll for monsters - I started with rolling for each edge of the board other than the one Tim would start on, and then also rolled for a monster to start in the centre of the table, to make sure that the game wasn’t too easy. I rolled a Wraith, 2 Ice Spiders, 2 Wolves, and a Bear. The only bear mini in the house is the one my daughter painted to use when her D&D Druid transforms, so on the table he goes! 

(The picture of him on the table was hugely out of focus, so here he is in a box instead)

As well as deciding that the Golem would activate between the Wizard and Apprentice phases, originally I had planned to have the Golem treat anything (including wandering monsters) as a target, since he is described as being on an out of control rampage, but then I decided not to, as I figured he’d likely spend all his time stomping the monsters while Tim idly sauntered over, which would make things a bit too easy!

Pre-game, Tim and the Apprentice (whose name is Sebastian, but Tim has never asked) crack their knuckles and set about casting their spells. Both fail to cast Brew Potion, and Tim even fails to raise a zombie, but the Apprentice manages to successfully do so. Come on lads, get the bad rolls out now before the game starts properly I guess…

Again, Tim varies slightly from his usual go-to setup. He enters in the centre, accompanied by the Barbarian, Apothecary, and Man at Arms, planning to march up the centre towards the Golem to give it a proper looking at, in the hopes of finding some weakness or override that they can use to claim it in the glorious name of Tim. On the left, the Apprentice is accompanied by the Knight and Captain (who both have magical weapons and so are some of the only people in the gang able to actually harm the Wraith ahead of them) and the Thug and raised zombie (who do not, but are frankly expendable). On the right flank, the Thief, Warhound and Tracker form a compact Team Speedy, hoping to nip in and grab a Treasure Token before rapidly getting back out.

As things commence, Tim strides through the doorway ahead of him, surrounded by his heavily armed comrades, and casts Control Construct on one of the statues in the garden, animating it under his control (although he has to use the power stored in both his staff and ring to turn a narrow failure into a success). 

The Golem, now having a viable target in range where it didn’t before, grabs a chunk of broken masonry from the ground to hurl and absolutely pulverises the newly animated statue (having rolled a 20). It then stomps forward to investigate the shards, leaving it looming unfortunately over the Treasure Token that Thief & co had their eyes on…

On the left, team Apprentice scramble through the ruins towards the Wraith, with the Knight running as far as his legs will take him, while the Captain holds back slightly to let the Thug edge ahead to lure the Wraith out. The Apprentice initially considers casting Grenade (as the one magic attack he knows, Bone Dart doesn’t count), but decides to cast Strength on the Captain instead, to make her as good in a fight as the Knight.

Due to the relatively clear nature of the centre of the board, every monster can see the gang and starts running/shambling/floating towards them (delete as applicable). The pair of wolves that started in the centre of the board attack the Man at Arms (mostly because I forgot just how fast they move), but he cuts them both down in short order. At this point in my notes I wrote ‘I must sort out a replacement mini for him’, but if you’ve read my last blog post you know that’s not actually the case. The Wraith makes it into contact with the sacrificial Thug, but this takes both actions so it’s not able to attack this turn (aha, right into my trap!)

On the right, the Tracker sends an arrow towards the Ice Spiders scuttling towards them but doesn’t manage to land a hit. He then hustles into the cover of a nearby broken wall, to take up a better firing position to try again next turn. 

I start to wonder if I might have made a mistake leaving the right flank so lightly defended, and deliberate for a while about what to do with Thief and the Wolfhound. In the end, the Thief decides to stick to the original plan and sprints towards the treasure, trusting that Tim and his group are on their way to engage the Golem.

(On this day, humanity received a grim reminder… ah, you either get the reference or you don’t)

The Warhound meanwhile takes up position hiding behind a tree, planning to pounce on the Ice Spiders heading towards the Tracker next turn. Last but not least, the zombie starts making his way across the broken ground towards the Wraith, where if all goes well weight of numbers should be able to pull it down next turn.

At the end of the turn, a Snow Leopard enters on the right - I definitely should have sent more soldiers over to that side!

Muttering ‘I don’t get paid enough for this’ the Man at Arms dashes past the Thief to engage the Golem. In hindsight, I wish that I had deployed the Thug in Tim’s group rather than the Man at Arms who is now potentially about to get splatted by a massive angry Golem, but I can’t turn back time (yet), so it is what it is.

Seeing enemies building up to his right, Tim attempts to cast Grenade on the pair of Ice Spiders, but as usual fails miserably. Assuming that the Man at Arms is going to be fine holding off the Golem (that to be clear has been leaving a trail of bodies across the frozen city) the Barbarian dashes off to the right to join the Warhound behind the tree, ready to ambush the spiders. Then I remember that she is a barbarian, and and so her second action is spent dashing directly towards them rather than skulking (which will hopefully also draw the leopard away from the exposed Thief).

Tim cautiously advances, just close enough to the Golem to get the bonus XP for having a good look at it, but also pushes the Apothecary in front of him, just in case.

Then it is the Golem’s turn, and it’s time to see what happens in its fight with the man at Arms. I roll the dice with bated breath… and the Man at Arms rolls a 20 and wins the fight! This deals 10 damage to the Golem, and he pushes it back in the hopes of being able to make a break for it and escape next turn.

On the left, the Knight, zombie and Captain all bundle thenWraith, figuring that overwhelming numbers is probably the safest way to take it out.

The Knight attacks it first, but is dropped to 2 Health (curse that double damage!). The Captain then has a crack at it, and also loses (as having a magic sword, magically enhanced strength and outnumbering the foe 4 to 1 doesn’t help when you roll a 1), but luckily is saved from taking any damage by her armour. This isn’t going as well as I had hoped! The zombie doesn’t bother to fight, as he doesn’t have a magic weapon, he’s just there to make up numbers and provide an outnumbering bonus. Behind them, the Apprentice is a little worried, but still hopeful that the group will prevail against the Wraith, so uses his Gloves of Casting to cast Control Construct on one of the statues, and rolls a 20! Consulting Advanced Spellcraft, a critical on this spell means that it doesn’t count towards the usual ‘max 1 controlled xxx in your warband’ rule - nice!

In the Monster Phases, the bear that has been inevitably making it’s way across the board pushes past the Golem to stand in front of the Man at Arms, while over on the right flank the Snow Leopard pounces on the Barbarian. The first Ice Spider scuttles up to join this fight, which the Barbarian wins, but due to a low roll is only able to drop the spider to 1 Health. The second spider then also reaches her and has better luck, biting her for 3 damage and poisoning her.

The Wraith attempts to finish off the wounded Knight, but a much better roll means that he is able to slash through it with his magic sword (that I only at this point remember also has a Healing Potion in the hilt) and banish it back whence it came. 

The Thug, suddenly finding themself no longer engaged in combat, takes this opportunity go haring off towards the leftmost Treasure Token.

Back in the centre of the board, the recently animated statue dashes (well, I say dashes, I imagine it’s more of a slightly jerky Harryhausen stop motion effect) to engage the bear that is closing in on the Man at Arms, whilst also making themself coincidentally the closest target to the Golem. 

On the right, the Tracker makes a risky shot into the combat swirling around the vastly outnumbered Barbarian, figuring that there are so many enemies that statistically they are mostly likely to hit a viable target rather than their comrade. Luckily, they do, their arrow striking the Snow Leopard, although unfortunately he isn’t able to damage it. He dejectedly holsters (stows?) his bow and plunges in to join the melee, as does the Warhound, which savages the undamaged Ice Spider and tosses away it’s broken body. The turn ends, and no more monsters enter the board - phew!

Tim, considering bigger plans for the future, tries to cast Control Construct on the Golem, but rolls a 7, much lower than the 14 needed. Figuring that he may as well go big or go home, he sacrifices 11 points of Health to empower the spell (as the target has to make a roll against the casting number, so bigger is definitely better) , a risky move as the Golem still gets +6 on these rolls - and the Golem rolls a 1 and joins team Tim for a turn! Seeing blood literally dripping out of Tim’s ears (he is only on 4 Health at this point if I recall correctly), the Apothecary dumps a Healing Potion down his throat, while the Thief dashes over to grab the rightmost Treasure Token:

As she does so, a Ghoul enters the board over on the left side, just in front of the group of heavily armed maniacs that just took down a Wraith…

Under Tim’s control, the Golem smashes its fists down on the Bear’s back, dealing it 5 points of damage. Tim then has it back away, hoping that he can position it to do the least possible amount of damage next turn when it manages to shake off his control, sending it off to hug a tree:

Team Apprentice on the left flank has the Captain loose off an arrow at the newly appeared Ghoul, scoring a critical hit and slaying it instantly. Satisfied with this, she then starts off towards the right hand side of the field to try to rescue the Barbarian, followed (much more slowly) by the Knight. The Apprentice tags along behind them, pausing only to cast Control Construct on the statue nearest to the Golem, hoping to use it as a sacrificial pawn to buy the rest of the gang time to grab the rest of the treasure and get out. Thanks to the use of his Ring of Power and sacrificing 3 points of Health, he succeeds.

Ahead of them, the beleaguered Barbarian is attacked by the leopard, but manages to slap it down to 1 Health - if only she had a magic weapons or some Gloves of Strength to have been able to finish it off! The remaining Ice Spider also attempts to sink its fangs into her, and is swatted in response.

In the centre, the Bear smashes the controlled statue to pieces, leaving it and the Man at Arms half an inch apart, while the Thug grabs a Treasure Token. Luckily, no more monsters appear at this point. 

Back with the Barbarian, the Warhound runs up and attacks the Snow Leopard, but isn’t able to land any telling blows. Seizing the advantage granted by this distraction, the Barbarian chops the legs out from under the leopard, slaying it. The Tracker, now with no threats in their immediate vicinity, takes the opportunity to attempt a tricky shot on the bear, over a low wall and past the Man at Arms which lands true, dropping the Bear to 2 Health. Seeing this, the Man at Arms who had previously been considering making a run for it instead charges in to try to finish it off. He probably should have made a run for it, as he loses the fight, but luckily does not take any damage thanks to his armour.

Finally, the zombie lurches forward to shield the Apprentice from the Golem with his body. The turn ends, and again no new monsters enter the field.

Seeing that there are very few enemies left, Tim feels like it is probably time to start wrapping things up. He attempts to cast Grenade to finish off the heavily wounded Bear, but fails badly enough that empowering the spell to turn it into a successful casting would leave him on the brink of death, so doesn’t. Somewhat sheepishly, he tucks himself behind a wall lest any more monsters appear and attack him in his fragile state. As this is happening, the Apothecary (having already used his Healing Potion on Tim) climbs the fountain ahead of them to grab the central Treasure Token, and as he does so a pair of Ice Spiders enter the table behind them, from the same edge that the gang entered on.

The Golem, managing to shake off Tim’s magical control, launches a rock at the statue recently animated by the Apprentice. Unable to destroy it in a single blow like the previous one, this time it charges in to try to finish the job:

The Apprentice suddenly remembers that they know the spell Slow, which is ideal for using on particularly deadly single monsters, and so probably would have been great to cast earlier. He figures at this point though it’s probably too late to make much of a difference, and initially planned to Leap the zombie into that combat to provide the Man at Arms some backup, but again I remembered that you can’t use it to enter combat. Checking Advance Spellcraft, you can actually learn to do that, so that might be something to consider for the future… he casts Grenade on the Bear (well, technically on a point about an inch behind it, but you know what I mean), and as ever despite the spell being successfully cast, it fails to do any damage. The Knight steps into the broken doorway in the centre, between Tim and spiders, backed up by the zombie and Captain.

Behind him, in the centre, the Bear rears up and delivers a massive blow to the Man at Arms, dropping him to 1 Health.

On either flank, the Thug and Thief both leave with a Treasure Token apiece. I wonder if I should start using the non-solo Treasure Token rules, where anyone carrying one is encumbered and slowed, rather than the rules from Perilous Dark I think where you aren’t? Something to ponder…

The poisoned Barbarian vaults the wall ahead of her and sets off towards the Bear, but is overtaken by the Warhound who is able to make it into combat next to the Man at Arms. The Tracker picks off one of the spiders bearing down on the Knight with a well-placed arrow, then moves off after the Barbarian and Warhound towards the Bear.

At this point I suddenly realise that I missed the spiders in the Monster Phase - and also remember that the Knight is only on 2 Health, so probably wasn’t the best person to hold the door! The spider scuttles up and almost inevitably bites him for 3 points of damage, taking him out of action. If only he’d used an action to drink the mini Healing Potion in the hilt of his sword (that heals 2 points of Health), but he’s so much slower than the rest of the gang that he ends up using all of his spare actions running to keep up!

Finding himself unusually alone and on 1 Health, Tim chugs his own Healing Potion and again tries to cast Grenade on the Bear. Again, he fails badly enough that he hurts himself for 1 point of damage - lucky he had that potion or he would have taken himself out of action!

Congregating in the middle of the board, the Apprentice sends the zombie to engage the spider now looking hungrily at the Captain over the body of the Knight, and while he originally planned to cast Leap on the Apothecary to catapult him vaguely towards the table edge and escaping with the last Treasure Token, but I realised that where he hadn’t activated yet this turn he’d actually get further under his own steam, so the Apprentice instead casts Grenade near the spider, finally succeeding st killing something with it.

The Bear attacks the badly wounded Man at Arms (which reminds me, I must remember to apply wounded penalties to models on 4 or fewer Health), but is cut down, leaving no monsters except the Golem left on the board.

The Apothecary scrambles down the fountain and legs it as fast as he can away from the Golem, and everyone else consolidates to facilitate making a fighting retreat while protecting the spellcasters. The plucky Warhound runs off in the opposite direction, towards the leftmost board edge, trying to draw the Golem away from the rest of the group while they make their escape. As he does so, a powerful Ice Toad hops onto the board just ahead of it.

In the next turn, the Apothecary books it off the board with the last Treasure Token, while the attacker makes an incredible long ranged shot and takes the Ice Toad out of action - unfortunately no one is near enough to harvest it’s webbed feet for spellcasting components, but sometimes the risk just isn’t worth the reward. 

Tim attempts to cast Control Construct on the Golem again, but this time it is resisted, and in response the Golem absolutely obliterates the Warhound with a thrown rock, before stomping up to poke at it’s broken body with it’s huge stone fists. The Apprentice then attempts to cast the same spell, and cuts to empower it to 18, and the Golem is controlled again! The Apprentice sends it stomping off in the opposite direction, and the gang use this chance to make good their escape.

Post-game:

Both the Warhound and the Knight survive - phew!

The Captain gains 30 XP, not enough to level up again yet. Tim earns 332, capped at 300, enough to gain 3 levels. He boosts his Will by +1 (as both Health and Fight are at their maximum, and he vaguely remembers his Mortal Enemy having a spell that requires a Will roll), learns the spell Wizard Eye from a Grimoire in his vault, and then makes the spell Brew Potion easier to cast, as they need to start replenishing their supply of Healing Potions! He should probably invest in a Giant. Auldron for his base, with that in mind… He had originally considered making the spell Control Construct easier to cast, as his immediate future includes plans to go and Control a Construct, but figured that the way the spell works the higher you roll the better, so making it easier to cast on the Golem is slightly counterintuitive.

Rooting around the dusty corners of the Treasury where the gang make their base turns up 11 GC, and the treasure gathered during the game turns up an assortment of lose change, a Grimoire containing the spell Bone Dart that can be used to improve that spell as they already know it, and a magic crossbow. He initially considers selling that last item, but instead stashes it in the vault - he had a cross bow user in the gang before who died, so maybe will again if someone else gets unlucky… all in, once the Captain has taken their cut, he is left with 194 GC, still not enough to invest in a Giant Cauldron…

Next time - Tim figures he’s probably got the hang of it now, and is surely a powerful enough practitioner of terrible magics that he can probably definitely succeed in bending the Golem to his will where so many others have failed, so he should probably go and do that…

Man at Arms, the updatening

Having played a decent amount of Frostgrave recently, I had gotten it into my head that my Man at Arms mini was borrowed from the retinue of Tim’s Mortal Enemy, who in turn just borrowed some minis from my Game of Thrones Starks. As he’d been fairly pivotal to my success recently, I set about updating his model, as I felt bad that he was a proxy (and sooner or later Tim’s Mortal Enemy is likely to reappear, and would need him back). 

So last night, I dug out a bunch of sprues and set about rebuilding him. I tried to match the pose and equipment, just updating his shield initially, but then I also decided to give him a nice kettle helm, because they’re cool:

Like the original, he’s a Fireforge body with Gripping Beast Viking arms. I had originally planned to give him a shield from the Frostgrave Cultists sprue, as he’s in the employ of a Necromancer, but they were much smaller than I remembered so he got a Fireforge shield instead. Also, I’m not sure if you can see it or not, but there was a slight casting defect on his groin, which I fixed with green stuff.

He’s even got a scabbard and pouch, just like the original mini.

Then I made the mistake of reading my own blog trying to work out why I had initially grabbed a mini from the Mortal Enemy warband rather than making a new one, and realised… I didn’t. The Wolf shield carrying Man at Arms was in Tim’s gang first, and is even narratively relevant to the campaign, as it turns out Tim hired him on the spot when he saw Tim leaving his sorceress mistress’ bedroom tucking something into his pocket. I’d apparently just forgotten this! In my defence, due to my intermittent gaming time it’s been over a year since the Mortal Enemy actually made an appearance on the table…

So I guess he becomes either the first mini of a Barons War project, or maybe the first House Bolton trooper in my ASOIAF project (which admittedly I do want to add to for the first time in at least a decade, to make some usable forces). Or perhaps both, when he gets to the painting table.

In other news, I also cracked the plastic on the boards in Sedition Wars, to see whether they might be useful for a possible 2026 project:

Fountains (of Wayne?)

Although the next scenario in the ongoing adventures of Tim the Necromancer doesn’t actually require a specific piece of terrain (unusually, most of my gaming delays are from having to build and paint something in particular), as it was described as being set in a ruined garden clogged with statuary and fountains, I figured I could dig out a GW Azyrite Fountain that I’ve had sat on it’s sprue for a while and get that painted relatively quickly:

It’s a GW piece, so there are a number of skulls and the word Sigmar on it, but not so many that it’s stands out when used in a non-GW-approved fashion. Building it without the weird orrery on top that it originally comes with helps it blend in more, I suspect. I was originally planning to paint some varnish in the bottom of it to make it look wet, but chickened out at the last minute and decided to leave it as a dry pool.

And her it is, being set up for the next scenario: 

What’s next? Watch this space…

Esprit de corps(e)

As you will have seen from my last post, needing some Corpse Tokens for the first scenario of the Hunt the Golem mini-campaign, I set about making some! I know I could have just used the laser cut exclamation mark tokens that I use for Rangers of Shadow Deep, but I figured these would be a nice little project (and I’m sure this isn’t the last scenario that I play that will have a need for corpses).

I grabbed some 25mm flat Renedra bases, as that is what I’ve used for the rest of my tokens, glued sand to them, and then set about rooting through my bits box for bits that looked like they could be used to represent the aftermath of terrible violence wrought on the human body by a massive monster with stone fists. A couple of half-empty Frostgrave sprues furnished me with some arms, one of which got a paper clip bone stump, but these were looking a little bare so I looked for some torsos. After a brief pass for thought where I considered what the worst miniatures I had that I didn’t mind sacrificing to the cause, I soon realised it was probably the sprues of Wargames Factory figures. Technically the redcoats are worse, but zulus would be a good generic body when suitably distressed - and yes, I guess the golem hit them so hard that their shirts flew off? Either way, it keeps them nicely generic, so I can use these in Frostgrave, D&D, anywhere where I need to gore things up basically. Once I’d hacked at them with a pair of clippers, I went in with green stuff to make any cut edges look more ragged (as well as making a generic glob of gore on one base that still looked a little bare), and ended up with a selection of tokens that looked like this:

The one at the bottom even got a pelvic bone added, which I used green stuff to meld with the torso:

Is it realistic? Probably not. Do I mind? Also probably not.

They then got a quick and dirty paint job, all pale skin and copious globs of TCR, and they were ready for their first outing in the frozen city:

Doeskins of which, I also painted up these tents from Renedra:

A quick grubby paint job, with plenty of sponging and drybrushing to try and make them look nice and textured and worn, but isn’t really worth a separate blog post of their own. I’m torn on whether I should go back and black line some of the creases - I still have the campfire piece to paint, so it may still happen. Good enough to use in a game already at this point though!

What else is happening? I entered a competition hosted by Wargames Illustrated, and won a copy of the book Assassins and Templars:

Handy, as I’m currently very tempted by some Third Crusade gaming (more on that in a future post, I hope).

Finally, the family D&D game has restarted after five months away, with a short after school session:

The party are rushing back to Phandalin in response to a message received by sending stone (the ringing sound for which is the sound of an old school Nokia vibrating on a table, thanks YouTube for fulfilling my weirdest sound effect needs) when they come across something unusual - someone seems to have set up checkpoints across the road, but there is no one to be seen… alive, that is (although I had to remove the corpse tokens from the board, as they were grossing my daughter out). ‘We should be careful, it’s probably an ambush’ my wife’s character warns, as the Dragonborn Paladin played by our son sprints headlong at the nearest pile of crates…

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.