Frostgrave - Total Eclipse

FROSTGRAVE - THAW OF THE LICH LORD... scenario 1 - "Total Eclipse"

   We made a start on a new campaign with a whole new pair of level 0 warbands newly arrived in the frozen city. We are going to run through the 10 part "Thaw of the Lich Lord" book, which was the first expansion book published for FROSTGRAVE.
  
   Lizzy's new wizard is a Necromancer. Mine is a Summoner. Our wizard schools are aligned, so we have to take at least one spell from each others spell lists. To make things interesting we made a decision that neither of us would take the LEAP, TELEKINESIS or ELEMENTAL BOLT spells that we used so much in our last campaign...

   This first scenario is pretty straight forward; an Eclipse is happening, so the line of sight is gradually reducing as the game plays out.. we decided to use Ulterior Motive cards to add some extra flavour. I had "Draw the Line" which meant that I had to try and get two of my warband members in opposite corners of the table, and one of my spellcasters at a point between them, this would complete a mysterious ritual and an extra treasure would appear. I misread this...more on that later! Lizzy had "Payback" which meant she had a grudge against a specific member of my warband who had been bad-mouthing her Necromancer down the tavern... she chose one of my thieves, and if she knocked him out before the end of the game she would get a ton of XP...but if I managed to keep him alive I would get some XP instead...

The board set up and ready to go...

   As the game started to play out we soon realised that our level 0 warbands felt quite fragile compared to the level 30 ones we were playing with last time!! We both started to spread out across the board trying to secure the treasures... Lizzy's Necromancer summoned a zombie...and both of my Summoners managed to summon demons...unfortunately they were both the weakest sort of demon - Imps!
   Lizzy easily managed to secure two of the treasures, and I managed to get one... my thief who Lizzy had a grudge against, picked up another treasure token, but Lizzy cast a spell on him "Bones of the earth" which meant he was stuck struggling with a skeletal hand grasping his ankle! Meanwhile a couple of Ghouls had turned up on the board edge just behind him.... My wizard and an Imp went to help... one of the Ghouls and the Imp were killed, and then my Wizard managed to cast "Control Undead" and took control of the remaining Ghoul..

   Whilst this was going on, a big brawl developed in the centre of the board as everyone else was fighting over the last treasure token... Lizzy's necromancer produced a Demon in a bottle - so a Minor Demon appeared and joined in the fight...It was a bit of a blood bath - 4 of Lizzy's warband were knocked out, but her apprentice managed to snatch up the treasure token and limp off with it..

   Meanwhile...I had managed to line up two of my warband in opposite corners, and my Wizard got into position to complete his ritual... but unfortunately the two warband members were an Imp and a Ghoul.. and re-reading the Ulterior Motive card I realised that for the ritual to work they should be human members of my team who had brought special crystals with them onto the board at the beginning of the game! Doh!!

   My unfortunate thief was still hampered by the bony hand, so Lizzy's Necromancer ran over to try and take him out. This didn't go well for Lizzy, and my thief rolling highly walloped the necromancer out of the game. Splat. That was the end of the game as Lizzy didn't have anyone else on the board at that point.

   In the end I managed to get enough XP to go up to level 2, and I secured two treasures...getting some potions and a grimoir...one of my Thugs died. Neither of us completed our Ulterior motives.  Lizzy secured three treasure tokens - but then.... unfortunately rolled a 1 for her injured wizard, meaning he was totally dead!! Argh! - After all that? - how disappointing!  - So she is going to start again with a whole new (similar looking?!) level 0 Necromancer for the second part of the campaign.