Friday 11 May 2018

The Road To Arithdale

Finally! the belated Witchfinder General report that got delayed by work commitments and having to attack the 'Garden Rampant' (yes it's that time of year again!).

Concern has grown since there has been no communication from Arithdale for several days - have they fallen foul of the mysterious plague? Preacher Samuel of All Hallows, accompanied by the plague doctor Hugo and two local militiamen (and stout members of the preacher's congregation) Jacob and William, have crossed Skag Moor on their way to investigate.
The day is overcast and gloomy, with a low lying mist rising from the river making visibility even worse as they approach the bridge and meet a local shepherd.

I've introduced a variation on Two Hour Wargames PEF's so I don't know what the specific encounters will be, and these are the PEF positions. The number of markers was decided randomly, and produced four "static" and one "wandering" encounters (The wandering PEF is moving West along the road). The numbers under the markers (unknown to me until turned over) correspond to a numbered list of possible encounters.

Despite the shepherd's dire warnings of "strange goings on, in and around Arithdale", the group crosses the bridge.
Due to the gloomy conditions, it was impossible to see beyond the fringes of the wood which flanked the sides of the road, and it might have been the mist which caused them to move so slowly (or was it trepidation? - either way, they were moving at a snails pace!)
The wandering PEF continued its steady approach.......
....appearing through the swirls of mist on the road ahead......
.....and what looked for all the world like a walking corpse approached them from the direction of the village!
As the rest looked on, horrified by the apparition, Samuel stepped forward, brandishing The Good Book and muttering lines of scripture
Hugo and Jacob stepped forward (though Jacob made a point of also stepping to the side!) to support the preacher, the abomination never made a sound - it just grabbed hold of the preacher.....
........and BIT HIM!
Samuel's howl of pain was joined by Hugo and Jacob's shouts of horror, and no-one noticed things stirring in the misty woods, attracted by the commotion.
In fact, Jacob was completely focused on the task in-hand! He blew on his match, opened the pan, aimed at the creature and squeezed the trigger....
....the 'kick' from the matchlock raised the barrel in his weak grip, and the lead ball slammed through his targets head - killing it instantly, Just before a pair of Nocterlinger let out a vicious snarl and pounced on his back!
All hell seemed to break loose as Hugo assisted his wounded colleague, Jacob turned and began swinging his musket, and William gave fire at the nearest of the foul creatures......

.......completely unaware of the danger approaching (all together now - "It's Behind You!")
Jacob fell to the ground, killed instantly by the savage teeth and claws of his attackers and as the group started to back away onto the bridge, the mists lifted momentarily and the terrified group spotted the crouching nocterlinger to their left and saw yet more horrors approaching from the hill to the right (the PEF on the left hand hill resolved as "just a bad case of nerves")
The nightmare continued, as the survivors watched in absolute horror, the two walking cadavers crouched next to Jacob but instead of helping - they started EATING him!
They had no time to register just what was going on though, as two of the snarling creatures were approaching them faster than the wounded preacher was retiring.
Standing their ground, Hugo raised his pistol and fired as William desperately tried reload.
The plague doctor's shot found its mark, but didn't stop the foul creature. Both abominations charged home and a melee erupted on the bridge, as William swung his reversed musket and Hugo drew the hidden sword from his walking cane.

The fight was swift and bloody. William smashed the skull of his opponent but took a nasty wound himself, and Hugo was mauled by his attacker but also managed to land a killing blow as he stabbed it through the heart.
It was all too much for William and he turned and fled from the scene of carnage. Hugo limped back steadily, watching the third noctelinger advance, but convinced he'd be alright if he could just get back over the bridge.
Back on the West side of the bridge, William was making haste back towards All Hallows and Samuel was limping badly along the road. Hugo saw the hell-spawned beast atop the bridge.....

....and was somewhat shocked when it let out a ghastly yell and charged!
Hearing the unholy shout and the plague doctor's gasp of surprise, Samuel turned and rushed back to help his friend.
Wielding only a copy of The Good Book and shouting Holy passages, once again proved to be inefficient melee weapons., and despite Hugo managing to run their opponent through,  the preacher took another savage wound and died on the road.


By this time, William was nowhere to be seen as Hugo turned his back on the bridge and the road to Arithdale, then with a grim expression (well, a grim expression behind his beaky mask) began the determined walk back to All Hallows.

The PEF's worked really well in 'spicing up' the game for solo play, and due to the associated random encounter table, no witches or mercenaries (the vampyres primary 'guardians') turned up, and because the nocterlinger (who are much dumber than witches or mercenaries but still basically intelligent) all died, there's no-one to report the event to the Vampyres.

Thanks for visiting, and many thanks for reading - as ever, your comments are invited and more than welcome.



29 comments:

  1. Phew! That was great Wargame Addict and thoroughly enjoyable imho. I was rooting for the good Hugo, so was pleased to see him survive. The rules seemed to work very well too - great posting :-)

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    1. Glad you enjoyed reading it Simon, and I certainly enjoyed playing it - the "Possible Enemy Forces" blinds improved the solo experience no end :-)

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  2. Very tense, part way through I was sure you'd overdone it with the opposition and the forces of light and good would be overwhelmed, but they did well in the end.
    Did you decide to retreat in general or was that the rules?

    Excellent game, it seemed as if you were having a good time with sufficient uncertainties to make it interesting.

    Were the ghouls drawn by the noise made from the musket shot or did you have them moving towards the party anyway, and the combat seemed to work well, does each character have a number of "hit points or wounds" before they are killed?

    The plague doctor figure is great, I'm pleased he survived.

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    1. Thanks John, I'm glad it was worth the wait :-)
      The PEF markers represented individual, paired opponents and 'nothing', and were shuffled "domino style" face down on a table, and a dice selected the number (between 3 and 6). Depending on the draw, the game could have been a bit tougher or a LOT easier, so I was pleased with how it worked.

      To place the markers I rolled two coloured dice - one determined the starting position, and the other decided whether the PEF was static or "wandering / patrolling". For this scenario, all PEF's would be attracted by noise or sight of the party.
      The shouting and then the musket shot when they met the zombie (I've introduced "zombies" to the game) on the path attracted the PEF's attention.

      "Hit Points / Wounds" are 'Constitution Points' and the WfG rules also determine head, torso or limb wounds - limb wounds affect movement and fighting ability but not constitution.
      The rules also cater for "Self Control", so the decision to retreat was both rules driven AND the sensible course on my part ;-)

      The surviving militiaman might be a gibbering wreck, but the plague doctor appears to have developed a steely determination, and could well be looking for revenge! :-)

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    2. Cheers, thanks for the explanations. The noise thing can be a bit of an issue if you have static encounters as well as mobile ones, that's why I think zombies and in your case ghouls always work so well.

      You are inspiring me to move forward with a bit of horror of my own.

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    3. My pleasure - especially if it means I'll have some of your own horror AAR's to look forward to :-)

      Have you looked at the Ganesha Games "Fear and Faith" rules? I'm not implying they're particularly groundbreaking or anything, but inspiration CAN come from the strangest places ;-)

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    4. I have had Songs of Blades to read through for a few months now but I dislike reading rulebooks as they normally send me to sleep so have not started on it yet. They get a good write-up as do fear and faith and also their WWII rules.
      Presumably you have compared F&F with WFG and prefer WFG?

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    5. I had a "read-through" of several sets of rules to fit the period and genre, and ran with WfG simply because of the 'fluff'.
      WfG works very well, but think I'd be daft NOT to try out some of the others (when I get chance).

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  3. That was excellent, Greg. Very atmospheric and very tense, I could well imagine the horror of the four party members as the undead attacked from the mists and began feasting.

    Probably because I'm such a big fan of vampires in particular and the undead in general, I'm always rooting for the bad guys in these encounters. So the human intruders run back home with tails between legs - that's a good result in my book.

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    1. Cheers Bryan, the group never even made it to Arithdale, so it was a "win" for the vampyres forces - BUT there were survivors which the 'sentient' members know nothing about.
      "There may be trouble ahead........ Let's face the music, and dance" ;-)

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  4. I love the mapping system WA & thanks to it I know this is not the start of the story, so if you could post a link to that post please I can catch up while on my hols, that's if I have the net.

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    1. It's not the start of the story, but very early in the campaign Frank.
      I've been very slack at keeping the info together, but here's the first encounter intro:- https://thewargameaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/castigate-them.html
      The first encounter:- https://thewargameaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/half-century.html
      and the second one:- https://thewargameaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/the-fall-of-briskhill.html

      I hope that helps, and more importantly, I really hope you enjoy your hols :-)

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    2. Thanks mate looks like I'll have lots to read on my return :)

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    3. Thanks mate looks like I'll have lots to read on my return :)

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    4. I'm up to speed now & have to say I really enjoyed it the highlight been the suspended sentence that gave me a good giggle :) looking forward to more.

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  5. What a great encounter Greg, probably just as well the preacher died after being bit by a zombie, definitely a case of the sword being mightier than the pen on this occasion. All Hallows will know that something is not right in the area now, look forward to the next instalment

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    1. Many thanks Dave, and you're probably right about the preacher - but I can't stop thinking how cool a "zombie preacher" would look in my 17thC horde ;-)

      You're definitely right about word getting back to All Hallows, and the campaign should pick up in pace from here on :-)

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    2. nothing stopping you from raising the preacher as a zombie Greg, would be a cool modelling exercise

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    3. Hmmmmmm. I do believe you have a valid point Mr Stone :-)

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  6. This is superb Greg! I was interested to read how the PEFs would work and it sounds like they were perfect for generating the fear and uncertainty that they game relies on. Cracking read.

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    1. Thanks Michael, I'll write up a full explanation in a blog post as soon as I've tried a few tweaks :-)

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  7. What a very tense atmosphere you created with the opening sequence of the party crossing the bridge, I was fearful of their survival even then.
    With at least the doc surviving, there will hopefully be a stronger foray into the wickedness int the area.

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    1. Cheers Joe, I was thinking of borrowing Mrs G's 'steam cleaner' to produce a foggy effect in the photo's - then had visions of the paint coming off the minis when I moved them!
      Now THAT's horror gaming ;-)
      I'm pretty sure the excrement will hit the air conditioning unit as soon as Hugo gets back to All Hallows.

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  8. A great read mate, like Bryan I was kinda rooting for the bad guys...

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    1. Cheers buddy, I've obviously got to work harder and try to build a bit of empathy for the folk of West Erewash ;-)

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  9. That was brilliant Greg! It had all kinds of cinematic feel to it :) As I have always been a big fan of the "water escape" from danger I was hoping to see some more undead coming up the road from behind the group, so a jump off the bridge into the river was the only means of escape to save themselves lol!!

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    1. Many thanks Ivor :-)
      The Erewash valley is in the heart of the Midlands, and about as far from any coastline as it's possible to be in our little island - as such, back in the 17th century, only a very small proportion of the inhabitants learned to swim ;-)

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  10. Well, that could have gone better! I would like to see the survivors rouse the local country folk and descend on the evil place at the head of a mob of pitchforks and torches, but I suspect things won't go quite that way :-) .

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    1. They were definitely "up against it" Hugh - only 4 of them and gloomy conditions wasn't the best of starts.
      I reckon the plague doctor would have something like the mob you describe on his mind, or maybe even the local Trayned Band, but will he get them???

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