Thursday, January 23, 2020

Frostgrave - The Coming of Ambronnax!

This past Sunday we had our 4th Campaign game of Forbidden Pacts. This scenario was The Coming of Ambronnax.


One of the guys was sick & unable to make it, however we did finally get Craig to the table with his Level 0 Wizard.

Kalaryn (Apprentice) - Level 1 Summoner


Roach Lvl 7 Witch


Tellia - Lvl 0 Summoner


Barden Lvl 4 Summoner


Maximus Lvl 5 Summoner

 
 The Scenario & modifications.

Once again the Wizards & their bands pass through the portals. This time its to confront Ambronnax & prevent his passage to the mortal realm. They enter yet another temple ruin. A central altar sits on a raised platform. Several Flailing Wretches can be seen near the platform.

Once starting locations are rolled.

As well a body lies on the ground, surrounded by 3 more Flailing Wretches. The glimmer of an Amulet of Constancy can be seen on the body.

Special Rules:
Once locations are determined for the wizards entry portals, a d20 & direction dice is rolled to determine where the body of Sven the Apprentice lies with an Amulet of Contancy.

At the end of the 2nd turn, Ambronnax appears at the beginning of the creature phase, near the altar. Beginning on turn 3, the winds of magic cause each member of a warband to perform a Will TN12 test. Failing, causes 1 point of damage. Anyone wearing an Amulet of Constancy is immune to this effect. If a warband member falls due to this effect, they are merely taken out of action & do not roll for injury.

Another affect that Ambronnax causes, is that it locks down all portals, thus once a demon arrives through an active one, they cannot be reactivated until Ambronnax is destroyed.

Treasure picked up risk summoning another Flailing Wretch. Starting at 16-20 for the first treasure, the number is lowered for each additional. Thus the 4th treasure would be on 13-20. Location of the summoned Wretch is D20 & random direction dice from the grabbed treasure.

Treasure / Experience
50xp if the wizard is on the table when Ambronnax arrives
25xp if the apprentice is on the table when Ambronnax arrives.
25xp for each standard treasure recovered
50xp for the special treasure being recovered (Ambronnax True Name & roll on normal treasure table)
100xp to the warband that kills Ambronnax 

Now onto the report





























So for the aftermath, here is what each warband gained & lost

Maximus (Scott) - 425xp, 100gc, Shroud of Foresight, Grimoire - Power Word

Barden (Chen) - 325xp, 20gc, Amulet of Stone Heart, Ring of Restoration, Belt of Animal Repellant, True Name of Ambronnax.

Tellia (Craig) - 195xp, 80gc, Fate Stone, Grimoire - Summon Demon (Sold), Perp killed, Tellia Badly Wounded.

Kalaryn (Andrew) - 140xp, 30gc, Potions - Elixer of the Chameleon, Restoration, Toughness

Roach (Terry) - 475xp, 50gc, Grimoire - Plague of Insects

So thoughts....well what can I say. Ambronnax died quick! He had been hit with a couple of arrows, then the Elemental Bolt on a 20 crit finished him. Even the wretches were not overly problematic. I opted to remove the 1 showing up every turn as we were using the portals & treasure guardians. The fact there were 5 warbands on the table, only 2 engaged Ambronnax. Perhaps adding Critical Immunity would have allowed him another turn to survive.

Another change I may make is to have the winds active at the very beginning. Besides the 1pt of damage, anyone failing also loses their actions for that turn. If in combat they would still fight back however.

 Fog of course is the go-to spell for almost every band, thus we have a table covered in it. We have discussed some changes to its persistance. Perhaps reducing the number each turn by 1 for it to dissipate. I will be looking forward to seeing if changes have been made in Frostgrave 2nd Ed.

I am sure everyone is happy to finally be able to replenish their warbands. The nature of the scenarious make it such that they are supposed to happen very quickly which does add a nice element to build anxiety. 

So thats it for this post. Thanks as always for taking the time to visit & read!

6 comments:

  1. One of my favourite reads, love the cinematic cut scenes at the end Terry.

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    1. Thanks Michael, glad for things like Google & Pinterest to find images to add to the stories!

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  2. Great aar and fun to read; loved he oveall f'feel' of the game but five bands seemed a bit overpowered even for the 'big' baddy. Table and set-u[ looked great too

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    1. Thanks Zabadak, I try to mod the scenarios for our larger warband numbers. Its a bit of a balancing act as I could easily overdo it. The fact he got hit with a crit (he was already down hitpoints) is what did him in. If we played the identical scenario & there was no crits, it could have gone totally different.

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  3. Absolutely incredible Terry! Great report on a brilliant looking game 😀

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    1. Thanks Ivor! Figured we would have had a greater challenge dealing with Ambronnax...perhaps next time!

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