Play reports

Frosthaven – Automaton Uprising (59)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Following our success in the previous scenario we managed to get in front of the Orphan and were forced to make a tough decision: try to eliminate him and his fellow Unfettered or try to convince him to make peace with the outpost of Frosthaven. This time (unlike with the poor Algox) we chose diplomacy and much to our surprise, managed to be convincing as of our good intentions. Might be that he doesn’t know many adventurers ha!

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 4, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 8, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Solkan Innis the Pyroclast (Guillaume) lvl 3, the Floor is Lava

Of course it won’t be that simple. The Unfettered, contrary to what we could think, are not hive-minded and many choose to attack us and our new-found ally.

Thus, this is an Escort the NPC scenario featuring Infinitely Spawning adversaries to boot.

Things start badly as Robotic Boltshooters do heavy damage to all of us.
This one is cornered and soon won’t be troubling us anymore.
The Orphan does what he has to do but we have to protect him against incoming hostiles.
On his way to the second objective while we fend off a bunch of Ruined Machines and Flaming Bladespinners.
Britney: « We’ve gained enough time, now we retreat before we’re overwhelmed! »
Burning patches from the Pyroclast and traps from the Trapper should soften our foes while they try to get over this chokehold.
And now, onward to the last objective. We’re seeing hostile Steel Automatons in the distance…
The Pyroclast finishes off yet another Boltshooter and then hurries up to join us.
The Pyroclast blocks one way in but one machine manages to jump over.
But a barricade of traps and a tanking Bannerspear efficiently ensures the survival of our new ally.
A special item to collect, some looting and we’re done!
This is Victory!

Closing comments:

  • An Escort the NPC scenario featuring Infinitely Spawning adversaries could have been very annoying but I thought it was a nice and fun scenario.
  • It must be said that our team composition was uniquely well-suited for this one I think. It could have been a LOT harder on other circumstances.
  • Crowd-control from Trapper and Pyroclast was quite useful. Movement-allowance from the Bannerspear was also crucial, saving us several turns of discomfort.
  • We all played very well to our characters’ strengths I will say.

Frosthaven – The Orphan’s Halls (51)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Penultimate scenario of the Unfettered thread and the difficulty is ramping up!

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 4, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 8, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Solkan Innis the Pyroclast (Guillaume) lvl 3, the Floor is Lava

Onward in the rusty halls of the Orphan, this is a Capture the Objective scenario with many, many foes. But we’ve been provided with powerful machines-killing/EMP bombs to help us.

Automatons and Ancient Artilleries, should we use our bombs right there? Nah…
3 turns later… we’re still at the entrance are we not?
I finally open the door and… Oh shit!
That’s a lot of foes… The lil’ Trapper is leading the way, and runs farther (emboldened by Britney, +3 move), invisible.
And positions himself for…
KaBOOOM!!!
Two more bombs from his companions and the great Hall is almost quiet!
But not for long, Automatons and Ruined Machines keep appearing. There’s no defeating their number. Quick open that door!
We have to collapse the door behind us asap! Beware, more of them!
I still got one bomb, gnak gnak!
Ahh, that’s better!
The Pyroclast engulfs the door in fire and molten rock, that’ll do the job!

Closing comments:

  • We’ve wasted way too much time on the first room but once we were out things worked out surpringly well for us. Math was confident that we could and should cleaned it out and we mostly did in the end (his Bannerspear doing most of the job), but it drained a lot out of us to the point that I think it almost compromised our mission.
  • I gotta say, I’m quite satisfied with myself with how I did some nice combination of initiative-weaving and pulling, all while being invisible, so that I’ve managed to maximize the effect of my first bomb (it was decided that I was the one bringing two).
  • I feel like it could have been stun bombs instead of insta-kill ones and it could still have been a feasible (if harder) scenario.

Frosthaven – Overrun Barricade (43)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

We’ll soon reach the conclusion of the Unfettered thread. We know that these robotic beings are led by one of their kind who calls himself the Orphan. Is it the lack of good parenting that turned the Unfettered into murderous machines? Maybe we’ll know!

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 4, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 8, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Solkan Innis the Pyroclast (Guillaume) lvl 3, the Floor is Lava

An escape scenario this time, we must all reach the opposite end of the map in order to win. There’s many foes but we have been granted a special powerful attack that we each can unleash once per rest. A kind of EMP beam or something, given to us by the npc from the last scenario.

Of course there’s big piles of walking junk between us and our goal.
We slowly grind our way forward.
What’s behind that door?
A barricade. And behind? Again those damned machines.
The exit is just over here! The Pyroclast gets a bit excited and lava erupts from the floor!
A scene of utter destruction…
The inexorable flow of our triumphing will…

Closing comments:

  • Steel Automatons are tough customers but the scenario’s added boon more than compensated for their numbers.
  • The bigger worry was to reach the exit tiles whitout being overwhelmed by the infinetely spawning Ruined Machines. We had to time well our special attacks and then move quickly. It went well in the end.

Frosthaven – Scrap Pit (35)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Happy New Year everybody! I’m back at work and that means I’m back at blogging too. Still quiet on the ttrpg front but I’m behind on my frosthaven play reports. Here’s one from a session we’ve played a month ago.

We’re back on Unfettered territory with a new companion in our party, the Pyroclast. This time it’s a Protect the NPC scenario, only two rooms – pretty straightforward.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 3, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 8, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Solkan Innis the Pyroclast (Guillaume) lvl 3, the Floor is Lava
We’re accompanying this little fellow and need to protect him while he rummages through discarded scrap metal & stuff.
Junkyards can be dangerous places.
Follow safety rules at all times. Here’s an emergency kit from the Trapper just in case.
Living Bones and Ruined Machines make for unfriendly company.
Get out of the way will you! How much iron is selling right now pray tell?
The Pyroclast is losing patience, lava erupts from the ground!
But our little friend still hasn’t found what he seeks.
Found it! Just in time ’cause all this messing around was attracting dangerous Spitting Drakes...

Closing Comments:

  • Protect NPCs missions can be annoying but that was an easy one, no sweat here.
  • The Trapper is pretty vulnerable to flying enemies, it has one card that negates flying but it’s pretty awkward to use.
  • With that, we open up some more scenarios that lead to the conclusion of the Unfettered thread.

Frosthaven – The Face of Torment (68)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

We played this session four weeks ago, my laptop died and huh – me being me, it took this long before I defaulted to another computer…

This is the final scenario of the Aether Outpost personal quest.

The first one was Strong Foundation, the second: Elemental Cores, the third: Core Attunement.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 2, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 7, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blinkblade (Guillaume) lvl 7, Master of the 4th dimension

As befit a final challenge we’re now in a boss fight, against the Face of Torment.

Mr Face is accompanied by 2 regular, blue-collar Chaos Demons and we know that Fire Demons and Sun Demons will join them soon enough. No time to lose.
Mr Face is clearly a in-your-face type. Boson and Britney start to work on him.
The Trapper making sure that we won’t have foes at our back.
Boson stabbing Mr Face in the face like 20 times.
Britney efficiently pushes Mr Face in TWO traps behind him.
The Blinkblade is now in a worrying position, surrounded as he is
But Mr Face takes more damage and faceplants never to get up again.
One last treasure grab and we’re done!

Closing comments:

  • Our second Boss of the campaign and like the first one it took only a few rounds to kill it. The meta seems to go toward tense, quick battle in which unleashing potent damage is more important than safety for the characters.
  • We were quick enough but otherwise having to deal with the incoming Fire and Sun demons would have been painful.
  • Retirement of the Blinkblade, our strongest character to date I think.

Frosthaven – Core Attunement (67)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

We’re advancing once more the Blink Blade’s agenda with the third scenario out of four of his personal quest.

The first one was Strong Foundation, the second: Elemental Cores. This series has been very challenging to date and the trend did not change this time.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 2, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 7, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blinkblade (Guillaume) lvl 7, Master of the 4th dimension

It’s a timer scenario, we start in the middle and must protect the four pillars for 12 rounds as more and more enemies (demons) appear from both sides of the map to threaten us.

Four Chaos Demons are already there. Eager to fight us.
Thousand Teeth: « Give me time, I’ll put some traps around… »
our foes are closing in.
Boson quickly gets in melee on the left. Britney calls reinforcement.
Two Chaos Demons jump on the Banner Spear, will she be overwhelmed?
And more demons start to emerge from the corners.
Meanwhile the Trapper has been very busy.
The foes won’t relent.
But at least the pillars are still in good shape.
A litlle reshuffling of traps confuse the enemies.
Is the Trapper overdoing it a little? A Chaos Demon is stunned after having step on a trap and is the target of the archer.
This Earth demon hurls a huge boulder on the pillar and nearly topples it!
Fortunately, time is up, the Core as been attuned. Our job is done!

Closing comments:

  • Close call, we couldn’t have held on much longer I think.
  • The scenario item was on the bottom of the deck unfortunately. That’s annoying, I think we have earned it!
  • This scenario was the first to really made my Trapper shine with his ability to create a massive maze of traps. The monsters AI, as in the rules, make them never willingly step on a trap unless they have no other path. This can be exploited to make them wander around and around…
  • A few ranged attacks got through (and one 2x damage) but not that many.
  • One last scenario (next one) for the Blink Blade for his retirement. Always thrilling to see another character in play.

Frosthaven – Prison Break (99)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

We’re doing another optional scenario, this one unlocked by a town event. There’s no timer, that feels good.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 2, brings innumerable lethal or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 7, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blinkblade (Guillaume) lvl 7, Master of the 4th dimension

We have to break in this long-disused prison. Of course, it’s disused but not without its inhabitants.

« Hey, nobody told us anything! Still waiting for my paycheck you know! »
We can’t stay long on the main room as there’s robotic boltshooters above us, on each side, that will rain projectiles on us.
The Blinkblade quickly gets there with his teleport ability.
The Bannerspear has brought her mysterious longbow-woman friend.
Whilst the Trapper will try to eliminate the defenders above on the other side.
As both the Blinkblade and Trapper step on pressure plates, the locked door below opens, liberating rusty machines and a Frozen Corpse.
That will promptly get peppered by arrows from Britney’s teammate.
Meanwhile, the rusty machines slooooowly get out in orderly fashion.
And try to acquire a target.
Meanwhile the Trapper still hasn’t cleared his room and he’s barricaded himself behind all manners of traps.
The blinkblade jumps down just when a Steel Automaton managed to climb up.
With the last defenders falling under our weapons, we’re free to loot the place and get to the objective!

Closing comments:

  • That went incredibly smoothly. And it’s really nice to have time to loot after many scenarios where we couldn’t afford to
  • It took me three rest cycles to kill only 2 enemies, that’s incredibly long, but at least I was never in real danger.
  • Math had the PERFECT plan for this scenario, with his well-placed archer summon boosted by a banner of strength.
  • It’s great that a special rule of this scenario, specifically the one that allowed figures from above to make range attacks on the main room below without range limitations could also be used by the players to their advantage.

Gunderholfen – Bug Squashing – Session 5

David Skelector Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, RPG

I’ve mentionned last session that I thought that the boys relied a bit too much on their aunt when we play together so here’s a session with only the group’s two younger players, my sons, just to remind them how to be more active in the decision-making process.

short session, 1hr

Player Characters (PCs):

  • Aracyne (Isaac), Elf Hunter, Guild Leader
  • Forka (changed his name), (Edmond), Dogman Knight
  • Alfred (Me), Hobgoblin Fighter

Last time we ended up with the party having explored a good chunk of Level 2 and standind beside another flooded area. Three adventurers (I’ll be playing Alfred the Hobgoblin to help them a little) will continue to explore while the two others are resting or something.

Level 2

  • They can see another passage beyond the water but don’t have an easy mean to get across without getting wet. Whilst they think about it, two Walking Puffballs come on sight from the other side ot the water but Aracyne quickly dispatch them with two arrows.
  • They decide to backtrack a little and explore more to the south.
  • They get to the passage where they’ve fought a rats swarm, a Fire-Beetle is busy devouring a fireballed-crispy rat. The insect monster is kind of blocking their way so the PCs decide to attack it. Forka miss with his big hammer but Alfred plunges his dagger in a weak spot and kills the Fire-Beetle. Forka remoces its hard chitin carapace and takes it with him, not without some difficulty.
  • They get past the glowing mushroom area and take the south-east passage. They’re in a small room with crystals on the walls reflecting purple light. There’s a sense of calm in the place but the adventurers are worried that they’ll fall asleep if they linger. Aracyne takes one crystal and they move on.
  • They go further south in a large rooms with boulders here and there. Once they take a few steps in they’re suddenly ambushed by three Vilstraks.
That’s a Vilstrak in case you don’t know what it is. I didn’t.
  • These bipedal insectoids are not very strong but they’re well-armored. Forka misses his first swing and bend his hammer on the hard rock floor. He’ll have to fight with a weird-angled weapon from now on. Alfred slays one foe with a well-placed dagger hit. Aracyne dodges on attack. Three more Vilstraks get out from behind the boulders and several others within the next rounds. Fortunately, Forka, despite his damaged weapon (or because of it we’re joking), is very efficent and smash one foe after the other. Alfred hits more often than not and kill his share of opponents. Aracyne has to focus more on dodging as he’s already wounded from earlier. The last two foes try to flee but are quickly cut down.
  • « Hey boss » Alfred says, « we bleedin’ all over the place, might be a good idea t’make a strategic retreat? » Aracyne takes notice of their many wounds and gives the order to start their way back to safety.
  • They get to the grand hallway’s door without incidents but they can hear the humming of the stirges behind the door. They open the door, shoots down a few flying stirges and then dash to the stairway and upstairs into Hobgoblin territory.
  • The PCs made some dealings with the Hobgoblins. Aracyne paid a 10 gp fee to stay one more day in the territory (plus a room to rest). Forka paid a weaponsmith to unbend his hammer. They also learned that the hobgoblins don’t have food stocks for very long and are worried about that. The fact that they’re cut off from the outside (by the goblins) and don’t have easy food sources inside the dungeons is problematic.

Closing comments:

  • Fun session. There was one dangerous fight against the Vilstraks. Armor in Dragonbane substract damage, something that I’ve always preferred to the usual making you harder to hit. Combat is very fun in Dragonbane, I’m happy with it.
  • Edmond was very happy of his character’s martial prowess with his 2-h hammer. He kept hitting his target despite having a disadvantage with his damaged weapon.
  • Having more than one weapon become a lot more important in a system when damaging one’s is possible.
  • Isaac has thought of a clever plan to help the hobgoblins go through the goblin barricade. That’ll be interesting to see!

Frosthaven – Caravan Guards (116)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

Freed from the Spire at last! We decide to do the last mission of a series related to the establishment of a new trading path linking the now-booming Frosthaven outpost with the capital to the south.

Characters

  • Thousand Teeth the Trapper (David) lvl 2, brings innumerable deadly or helpful contraptions
  • Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 6, a great leader, might be related to Bruce
  • Boson the Blinkblade (Guillaume) lvl 6, Master of the 4th dimension

We’re basically protecting caravans in their first run on the new path through the mountains. Remember how we’ve blown-up rocks and, huh, animals blocking the way? Now all is set to a first try-out. Could it be uneventful? No, it couldn’t…

We see algox warriors on the distance preparing to attack the convoy.
I don’t know how he does that but the Blinkblade cross three quarters of the map almost instantly. The Bannerspear activates her strange magnet and covers the distance too!
Just in time to protect the first wagon.
More Algox arrive on the scene but the Bannerspear barks some orders and the two head wagons moves at double speed.
And now three angry Algox Archers (left) take out their frustration and decide to transform the poor frail Trapper into a pincushion. Ouch!
Meanwhile, the first wagon is out of danger.
The Blinkblade ruthlessly stab enemies one after the other.
And it seems like the other wagons will make it.
But another big wave of enemies dashes our hope of an easy success. Two wagons are quickly destroyed.
The Bannerspear to the survivors: « keep moving, faster! »
One kamikaze Algox stand in front of the last wagon but is simply rammed aside.
3 out of 5 made it. Phew. The price to pay for prosperity?

Closing Comments:

  • I had some apprehension on this one as the previous scenarios of this particular series were very hard and now I was starting with a new character, so it means I’m underlevelled and underequipped compared to my teammates. And, yeah, I almost died.
  • I’ve put some traps on each side that prevented some foes to pursue easily but the remainder of the time I was focused on surviving only. Tense.
  • Of course the Bannerspear and Blinkblade were much more useful than that, particularly the Bannerspear that could make the wagons move on her turn. I’d say it saved 2 out 3 wagons in this manner. Great tactic for sure,
  • Meanwhile the Blinkblade is an absolute killing machine and did his best but the fact that our town challenge added 2 hit points to all ennemies, and there was so many of them, meant that we still ended overwhelmed and were in a bad way when the last wagon crossed the line.

Gunderholfen – Stirges & Rats- Session 4

David Skelector Delicious in Dungeon, Dragonbane, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Short session ( 2 hrs). Isaac is mapping as usual. Edmond has decided that he’s taking notes, so he writes furiously in his little notebook. Olivier is mostly waiting for fights to happen. And Marjorie works hard to solve non-combat challenges.

Player Characters (PCs):

  • Aracyne (Isaac), Elf Hunter, Guild Leader
  • Malique, (Edmond), Dogman Knight
  • Hédralynn (Marjorie), Elf Mage
  • J. Lebeau (Olivier), Dogman Fighter
  • Alfred (Olivier), Hobgoblin Fighter

We start in hobgoblin territory (level1C). The adventurers had permission from chief Nerulf to rest before going to Level 2 and that’s what they do.

Hobgoblins accompany them until they reach the stairs that goes down. They tell them that the grand hallway that they’ll soon get into is infested with stirges. They also tell them that the passage after that has some sort of powerful magical wind activated when walked through.

Level 2

  • Down at Level 2, inside the grand hallway, the light of their torch doesn’t reach the ceiling above. The PCs eye suspiciously the dark corners but don’t see any stirges so they advance tentatively and inspect the double doors at the end of the hallway. There’s an inscription, it’s in old dwarvish and Hédralynn only manage to comprehend the general sense of the words – something about welcoming, politeness and cleanliness she thinks. Acting on that, she remove her boots and tell her companions to do the same but as they do they begin to hear a humming sound coming from the north-east corner. The stirges are coming!
  • The PCs hurry up and push the heavy doors together, quickly get in and close them behind them. They can see a stone visage carved that looks like a dwarf with puffed-up cheeks on the opposite door. Nothing happens, they get to the other side, opens the door and put back their boots on.
  • A bit further they see a stone mouth carved on the wall with its tongue sticking out. They mess with it for a while and discover a small coin-sized depression on the tongue. After losing a few gold pieces to it, they discover that it changes copper coin into silver and change a bit more than a hundred coins that way.
  • Thence, in the next room with a small crevice splitting it in the middle, two walking puffballs run towards them. Malique throws his cloak on top of one to cover it as Hédralynn shoots it with an arrow. It deflates with a hissing sound and stay still. Alfred tries the same manoeuver with his cloak but misses, Lebeau shoots it anyway, kills it, releasing a cloud of spores. Aracyne hurries to cover it but inhales some spores and feels sick.
  • After that, they get to a natural cavern filled with murky water. Hédralynn levitates and ties a rope with a grappling hook on the ceiling and then levitate some more to get herself to the other side. Aracyne get to the other with the rope but Alfred falls halfway and splashes into the shallow pool, disturbing four giant toads nearby. The toads miss their attacks and two get kill in no time. The others, wounded, dive back inside the murky water.
  • Now all across, the PCs continue their way in what is now a series of unworked natural passages. They see an old campfire, there’s graffitis on the walls.
  • Next, they get into a room with faintly glowing mushrooms and they try their best not to walk on them.
  • Thence, they get into a passage with three small tunnels on the side. There’s fur and droppings on the floor. Big rats get out of the tunnels and jump on Aracyne who gets many painful scratches. More rats are coming from the tunnels but the Mage let go of three fireballs, one for each tunnel, ending the threat instantly. Aracyne’s other companions help him get rid of his rat problem.
  • TBC…

Closing Comments

  • Edmond’s character has almost all the group’s torches on him, if he had get wet as Alfred did, their expedition would have suddenly getting much more complicated…
  • Walking Puffballs is my first nod to Delicious in Dungeon, more annoying than dangerous (on this level).