The Alchemical Factory

This tale picks up "The Dark Conspiracy" campaign from where it left off here.... The Quest Finale

After leaving Beska and his companions at the entrance to Maeldoraz's burial place, the court mage Nicodemus had travelled northwards to Kislev, "the land of the ice queen", on the next part of his mission. Unfortunately, when he arrived at the provincial town of Gerslev in the Southern Oblast, he was totally unaware of what fate had befallen the party of adventurers.

Nicodemus spoke to Shanaera Elaralei, head of The Order Of The Temple Of Our Lady Myrmidia, explaining that he had been made aware that cultist's serving the cause of Maeldoraz had gathered in number somewhere near Praag. He needed her to take a body of Templars and track down these servants of evil, and put a stop to whatever activities they were up to. (Which he was convinced were part of a larger, sinister scheme)

He himself had further pressing business to attend to in Couronne, but she should send news of her mission to Altdorf, where he would be returning at the earliest opportunity.

Shanaera bade her old friend farewell and immediately summoned her sergeant, Lena Duchannes, to assemble the other sisters and prepare to set off for the Eastern Oblast with blade maidens Gielda and Kyrene scouting ahead.
After several days travel, the main body of eight Templars reunited with the scouts, who had learned that the cultists had last been sighted at an old alchemical works on the outskirts of Volksgard, less than a day's march away.
The battle sisters arrived that same evening and approached their target cautiously.

After forcing an entry, the warband began searching through the works without finding anything but broken furniture and scattered papers. Then just as they entered a room filled with old potion bottles, an explosion rocked the whole factory, destroying walls and taking down what remained of the roof. (left to right) Cambric, Shanaera, Carbonel and Berta found themselves dropped through the collapsing floor of the room into a cellar complex.

Hundreds of potion bottles had shattered and spilled their contents across the floor, and a cloud of dust restricted their vision (16 inches). Separated from the rest of the warband, and with no way of climbing back up, the four servants of Myrmidia must find a way out of the cellars and reunite with their companions. Unfortunately, some of the randomly mixed potions caused by the mysterious explosion had also spawned something - something that now needed to feed.
The initial board se-up with the "Alchemical Monstrosity" out of 'line of sight' close to the centre, and four treasure tokens. A rat hole in the middle of the opposite wall to the party, and two doors in the corners - only one of which will provide a way out. 

The sisters advance looking for a way out and hear something large scuttling in the dust laden gloom not far away.
Each turn starts with a D20 initiative roll. The party 'loses' initiative on a 1 - 7 and two things happen. A giant rat swarm emerges from the hole, and any 'monsters' act first. 
The party won initiative on turn one and moved forwards. The Monstrosity couldn't see the party so moved randomly towards one of the doors - which turned out to be the same one that the party were heading towards!

Aware that they are not alone they split into pairs, Shanaera and Berta heading towards the middle of the cellar,

 while Cambric and Carbonel picked their way along the right hand wall.

With the party still out of sight the Monstrosity dices again for which door it heads for, and now sets off for the opposite corner. 

Distracted by the glint of something valuable, both groups detour and pause briefly to pick up two items of treasure, 

 

while the loud scuttling can be heard moving away from them.

Suddenly a pack of rats as big as cats appeared from a hole in the wall, (The party had 'lost' the initiative roll.)

 but for now, the Monstrosity remained in the far corner. (It is still has no line of site to any of the party, and its random move was again for this door, so it remained in position)

Shanaera stepped forward and cast an Elemental Bolt at the rats, destroying them but weakening herself in the process.
She is a Thaumaturgist and the Elementalist spell suffers -2 on its casting roll, which she failed by 4. A wizard can choose to expend health points to 'boost' the casting roll before calculating damage. In this instance, Shanaera lost 4 points of health to make sure the spell worked, and she killed the rats.

At this point Cambric had reached the door and found that it opened onto a stairway, but whether it saw Shanaera and Berta advance, heard the dying shrieks of the rats, or Cambric's shout - the Monstrosity was advancing!

Giving up on any thoughts of taking further treasure, Shanaera and Berta ran for the open door, Carbonel and Cambric saw them and took it as their cue to exit the room ahead of them, securing the stairs leading back up to the ground floor. The monstrosity continued to give chase,

and at that moment more rats appeared from the hole in the wall (The party lost the initiative roll!) and the tentacled beast attacked Berta, causing horrific wounds! (7 points of damage, reducing her to just 3 health)

Berta was badly injured and unable to retreat from the melee. Shanaera turned, determined to save her companion, and not knowing what strengths or weaknesses this strange creature might possess, she cast a "Push" spell (a low target number spell so it had a high chance of success) on the foul beast.

The monster was pushed directly backwards out of the fight and the wizard and her swordmaiden fled, slamming the door closed behind them. The party won the initiative roll and took to their heels!

Pausing on the stairs to catch their breath, the party examined the treasure they'd picked up before setting off to try find the rest of the warband.
Rolls on the treasure table : 3 potion (cordial of clear sight, poison and elemental absorption*),
a bag containing 25 gold crowns and a potion bottle of construct oil.
Experience points from the encounter - 30xp for the wizard exiting the door, 5xp for killing a rat swarm, 50xp for exiting with two treasure tokens = 85xp.

I have to say, I REALLY liked this introductory run through of the Frostgrave system, and the fact that I can weave the existing Olde World campaign around it so easily is a bonus.
The rules are simple but not simplistic - never seeming to "get in the way" of enjoying the game, and you can't ask for more than that!

I apologise  for the blurry photo's that intersperse the lucky 'almost in focus' ones that I managed to get - this is what happens when you're so wrapped up in the action that you lose concentration regarding the warzone correspondent phase!

If you've spotted anything I've done wrong as a newcomer to these rules, please don't shout at me, but feel free to leave a (quiet) corrective suggestion along with any general comments or questions you might have.
* Oh, and can anyone tell me why the B turns into a P when absorb becomes absorption??

Thanks for reading, stay safe and..........