Frostgrave Game 2

 Frostgrave Game 2

After being dealt an absolute thrashing by Robyn last game, I'm back with a new warband to challenge Father Christmas and Noah once again.

It seems Father Christmas and his band of no-goods have settled into a ruined temple and constructed a kennel in which to keep his new pet wolf, Chopper. The Apocathary is back with some new potions, Arnie returns and Neville the thief has cleaned his fingernails.

The ratlings are back, along with Snappy, now a permanent member of the warband, along with the treaure hunter and Noah, and of course Sluggers the Thug.

The opposing force is composed of Azmuth the witch and Swinton the Apprentice.
Azmuth successufully summons a bear animal companion to join in the raid and hires 3 thieves, a barbarian named Thruddy, two archers and has his own warhound named Fangs.

TURN 1

Wizard Phase

Father Christmas goes first and plods through the snow, attempting to cast Call Storm, but fails and gives himself temporary tinnitis. Arnie and Neville sprint to the middle of the zone, nearing the main treasure, followed by Chopper who guards another treasure.

Azimuth and Tantrum the bear shuffle forward, keeping cover behind a broken wall, while Robbie the thief sprints up to the first treasure crate.

Apprentice Phase

The tresure hunter climbs the ruined arches and stands next to another treasure, overseeing the terrain. Snappy wanders around the base of the ruins, searching for food, whislt Noah, once again casts the Call Storm spell and whips up a strong breeze, scattering snow through the air, making it harder for archers to hit their mark. Sluggers moves up to another arch and takes cover behind it. 

The hunchback moves up to cover Robbie and Gus the thug hugs the wall and advances. Swinton attempts to take control of Chopper, but fails his spell, the wolf mind threatening to devour his own.

Soldier Phase

The Treasure hunter grabs a treasure barrel and ducks just in time to aviod an arrow from Tintin the archer going through his fancy hat. 

This also calls for a creature roll, and an owlbear bashes through the trees in search of prey, close to Tintin. Bolger the thief grabs a treasure crate near Thruddy and a zombie wanders into the zone near Bobby. Fangs the warhound makes a dash for the zombie but cleverly leads it away from the thief.

We forgot about the creature phase. Oops.

Turn 2

Wizard Phase

Father Christmas attempts to cast Wizard Eye on the other side of the tower wall, but fails. The Apocathery stays close, hand on healing poition and Neville eyes off the main treasure. Arnie comes in to claim the treasure crate guarded by Chopper. He grabs it and two swarms of plague rats come charging in through the snow.

Azmuth raises a zombie from the ground in front of him, literally giving himself a meat-shield.

Apprentice Phase

Robbie grabs the treasure crate and heads sounth, but two skeletons wander into his path. Simmo the archer takes point and shoots at  Arnie, but misses. Swinton moves into the trees for cover, tries to cast raise zombie, but fails, coughing up blood.

Neville grabs the main treasure which alerts a nearby snow troll to the action.

The troll is pissed.

Soldier Phase

On the other side, Thruddy moves up to intercept the ratling theives that have snuck their way round the ruins in an attempt to claim more treasure, should their opponents drop it.

Creature Phase
This time we remember the creature phase and move all the uncontrolled creatures closer to their targets. There's a lot now, including a zombie, 2 skeletons, 2 rat swarms, an owlbear and a snow Troll, one for each treasure token.

Turn 3
Wizard Phase

Father Christmas decides that not having any proper line of sight is annoying him, so he climbs to the top of a rock formation. From here he sees many foes and casts Scatter Shot, raising many rocks into the air before hurling them at speed to each of his rivals where the rocks explode on contact. This injures a couple of the theives, and destroys the zombie. A meat shield indeed!

Unperturbed, Azmuth raises another zombie, but this time send it over to assist Thruddy.

Apprentice Phase

Bolger and the treasure hunter both claim a treasure tokent off the table and the score is even!

Swinton moves to see the rats and casts a spell that takes control of one of the swarms. He forces it to attack the other swarm, but it is defeated.
Also, Swinton doesn't care, as one of the rat swarms is now destroyed anyway.

Soldier Phase

Fangs chases Arnie up to a ruined platform but cannot climb after him. Robyn states "Iv'e watched Conan. I know how barbarians deal with wolves!"
Of course, Conan didn't have a snow troll creeping up behind him.

   

Sluggers decides he isn't going to simply wait around all day and joins the ratlings in their fight against Thruddy, Tintin and the zombie. With carefull planning and strategy, Thruddy forces the fight though the arches so that it becomes a one-on-one fight for each. The zombie is cut down by one of the ratlings.

Creature Phase

With a few minor wounds or armour taking the blows, they fight on, only to have the owlbear charge in and make an absolute mess out of everything, tearing Tintin's arm and most of his torso to shreds and knocking Sluggers unconcious into a wall with a swing of his arm. One of the ratlings is snatched by the owlbear's beak and tossed far into the distance. 

Turn 4
Wizard Phase
Tantrum climbs up the rock face to combat Christmas but the wizard expertly beats the shit out of the bear with his staff and the shoves him off the ledge. The bear lands with a crash, adding another bruise.

Azmuth cast Telekenisis on the main treasure and steals it away from Neville, yanking it through the air, with the thief wildly jumping and snatching at it in vain.

Apprentice Phase

Noah cast Fleet Feet on Snappy who waddles over to assist Arnie, as Fangs turns to attack Noah, injuring him in the leg and taking him down. Neville drives his dagger into the wolf's shoulder. Fangs races off, badly injured.

Swinton attempts another control of Chopper the wolf and fails once more.

Soldier Phase

Chopper the wolf hunts down the bear, but Tantrum is faster and stronger and swats the wolf to the ground with great claws. Arnie climbs down from the platform and drops the treasure to fight of the rats which he slices and stomps into squishy puddles until they are no more.

To the other side, where Thruddy the barbarian decapitates the last ratling.

Creature Phase

Thruddy takes on the owlbear, only to be bear-hugged into unconsciousness.

Arnie takes on the troll and wins the first round, but the troll's hide is thick and stony and the barbarian's sword does nothing to wound it.

Gus the thug proects Robbie from the undead, and smashes a skeleton to pieces, then the other and finally slices the zombie in half. Robbie escapes with the treasure and Gus runs to assist Swinton.

Turn 5

Wizard Phase

Father Christmas turns his attention to Tantrum the bear, who has tracked him down again. The wizard casts a fireball that singes the fur and flesh of the bear and burns down two intervening trees in the process.

Neville takes on the hunchback in a dagger fight, Neville takes a flesh wound and the apocathery joins in, clubbing the hunback over the head with his staff. Simmo unleashes an arrow into Father Christmas' back, causing the wizard to briefly stumble.

Apprentice Phase

Swinton casts Telekenisis on Arnie's barrel and rolls it down the snowy slope. Still fighting the troll, the barbarian grimmaces in annoyance, narrowly avoiding the swing of the giant stone club.

Soldier Phase

Snappy leaps in and bites the troll, but once again the troll's skin is too touch, even for the gator.

Creature Phase

The troll turns on Snappy and bashes him with his club and boots him solidly in the head.
Arnie takes the opportunity to lodge his sword into the beast's vulnerable armpit.

Wizard Phase

The apocathery jumps in front of Father Christmas to save him from the bear attack and pays the price with claw wounds that turn the snow red.

Meanwhile Azmuth takes the main treasure and escapes the battlefield.

Apprentice Phase

Swinton again casts telekenisis and rolls the barrel up the hill into the corner of the ruins.
Gus comes to help but is intercepted by Neville, who buries his dagger deep in the thug's chest, sending him face-first into the snow.
Swinton makes a run for it, but keeps his eye on the barrel and also the approaching owlbear.

Soldier Phase

Arnie leaps to Father Christmas' aid and punches the bear's lights out and spits on him.

Creature Phase

The owlbear comes crashing through the small trees and tosses Father Christmas high up into the air before batting him with a clawed fist, buriying him in the snow drift.

Arnie makes the quick decision to run for his life.

The owlbear then lumbers through the snow after Arnie to the last remaining trasure, now still unclaimed, scaring the shit out of Neville and Swinton. The monster dispatches both of them by flinging them far into the distant snows, their screams lost in the wind.

Terrified, Arnie makes a run for the hills, leaving the ferocious owlbear to guard the barrel.

We will never know what was in it, but apparently it was something the owlbear wanted very badly.