Intro: Lao Xane and now Lao Jade (Warband Reboot Jul 06)

[Timeshadow]

Dark Alchemy Chapter one:

"I found a way in" Vandal yelled back to the others. They all hurried to his position. It was bitter cold outside and they all were eager to see what they could discover from this mostly intact complex they had discovered. Inside they found themselves in a storage room or vault. The walls were covered with shelves upon shelves of potion bottles. The vast majority had not weathered the elements well and many bottles were shattered or their contents dried out by the passage of time but a few seemed to be intact but before Jade could issue the order to begin collecting there was a huge explosion and it seemed the world learched sideways then the floor gave way and they all fell into the darkness.

Jade awoke and used her magic to illuminate the room. There in the darkness she found Vandal, Victor and Creed half buried in the rubble. They were all unconscious but other than some minor cuts and bruises they seemed alright. She would know soon enough if her healing magics were up to the task. As she began chanting she heard movement out in the next chamber followed by something roaring. Vandal was the first to recover.

"Are you alright?" He asked. "Yes but there is no time for questions now. Watch over me as I heal the others. Something is smashing around in the next chamber and I'd rather have everyone hale and ready before we are attacked." Jade was able to put Victor and Creed to rights. Both of them looked angry and ready for a fight. Their wolves very much showing.

Jade hoped the others were ok. They must have been separated in the explosion. After healing her own scrapes and bruses she cast a simple divination and discovered her apprentice Sasha, and the others were fine but were much in the same situation. Jade hoped Sasha was ready for this. She would need to lead the others until they were able to meet up again.

The four of them moved forward slowly toward the sounds of whatever it was rampaging. They came into a large chamber. Scattered everywhere were smashed bottles and the air was thick with an almost toxic mysima. Through the mist they finally caught a glimpse of the monstrosity. It was about 10 feet tall and over five feet wide at it's base. A vast blob covered with slime and tentacles. It had a shark like maw filled with rows of razor sharp teeth. It seemed to sense their presence as it lumbered about and began to charge forward toward them.

"By the contract that binds your soul to my family line I call upon you my faithful servant" Jade uttered the words of power and from the ether a form appeared in the path of the charging monstrosity. "Protect us James" Jade whispered. The form coalesced into a gaunt nearly skeletal man in a top hat and suit, that looked back quickly to Jade and with a nod turned, setting himself for the charge.

Vandal fired off a shot with his powerful crossbow. The bolt tore into the beast causing it to howl in pain. "Quickly Victor, Creed prepare to charge the creature once James intercepts it." Vandal directed, both Victor and Creed had fully transformed into their werewolf forms and were ready for a fight snarling they loved a good scrap.

As the beast slithered forward tendrils flailing it was unprepared for the furoricity of the small band's counter assault and their teamwork. James took the initial charge wile Victor and Creed flanked it, systematically tearing chunks out of it's gelatinous body. As it roared in pain Vandal thrust his sword deep into the center of the creatures body. It shuddered and died.

Wile the others dealt with the Alchemical Monstrosity Jade cast her senses out into the ruins looking for a way out. She not only found a pair of doors out of this room but the glint of gold and several other items of interest. She directed the others to these treasures and they quickly looted the room stopping briefly to dispatch a few maddened giant rats that charged out at them. Hopefully the others were doing as well as they were.

[Timeshadow]

Chapter Two:



Flushed with victory over the Achemical Monstrosity Jade and their small group take a few moments to look through what they had scavenged so far. Some potions and a scroll. A pair of Grimiours and a smattering of gold. Jade tucked a healing potion onto her vest pocket just in case and handed one that would allow the user to breath out a jet of fire to Vandal. The rest they packed away in her magical bag of holding (Don't leave home without it).

The crumbling corridors formed a maze filled with smoke and dust. Jade once again cast her divinations and was informed that Sasha and the others were not far away but trapped by a huge vault door they could not open alone. It was just beyond this hallway.

Suddenly there was movement both ahead and behind them as flaming skeletons began to pour into the hallway. "They must have been drawn by my spells. We must quickly get through this hall or we will be overwhelmed". Once again Jade called forth James the living impaired butler as they rushed forward. Vandal and Victor took on a pair wile Jade, James and Creed fraught another pair. Jade could feel the heat from the advancing undead. She quickly cast a spell of domination on one of the advancing terrors turning it to attack the other. As the skeletons flailed away at each other Creed was able to get into position and destroy the victor.

Speaking of Victor he and Vandal were not doing as well. They easily smashed one flaming skeleton but the second got in a lucky strike almost killing Victor and another strike badly hurting Vandal before he smashed the creature to bits. "Jade" he groaned barely standing wile helping Victor forward. Jade used the moment between waves of undead to heal Vandal's wounds but one look told her that Victor would need more than she could provide all she could do was stabilize him so he could walk but any strain and he would collapse, if it weren't for his lycanthropic nature he would surly have died.

As they battled forward both Jade and Vandal snatched up a few magical trinkets. Then they were swarmed again and were almost overwhelmed but James held them back long enough for Creed and Vandal to finish them. James was unfortunately burned to ash. Lucky for Jade James's body was just a shell created by magic and with a few uttered words he was reformed and ready for battle once again.

As they reached the end of the hall Jade saw another treasure tantalizingly close. There were just two skeletons in the way, after the dozen or so they had taken down how could these stand in their way..... She soon found out. As they engaged the monsters another appeared from the summoning circle right in front of them and cut down Creed the flames buring his fur. James pushed back the flailing undead giving them just enough time to flee out the door as James held the flaming hoard back.

Though they made it to the Vault door now both Victor and Creed were badly hurt and beyond Jade's ability to heal. Finally with a group effort they managed to get the Vault door open and reunite with Sasha and the others. Just in time too another explosion rocked the building causing hunks of the ceiling to fall and revealing the sky. It was another way out. Jade cast another divination which revealed the room ahead wile ablaze with fire had great treasures. She quickly decided, "Sasha, Korvak you two are with me and Vandal. Rhanie, Leina you take Victor and Creed out and wait at the fall back point. This place feels like it's gonna blow and we may need to run for it but there are magical treasures to be had and for once we don't need to freeze to get to them" she smiled. "Lets go and you four be safe. We will join you as soon as we see what else we can get before this place blows."

[Timeshadow]

Chapter 3

With minor explosions and fires breaking out all around them Jade, Vandal, Sasha, and Korvak entered the main lab looking for anything of value. As they searched being mindful of the fires they were accosted by a pair of fire spewing automatons. Vandal fired a shot from his trusty crossbow and the bolt slammed home with almost preternatural accuracy driving into the construct's fuel storage causing it to burst into flames consuming it from the inside out. (didn't even need to crit 18+2shoot+3trick+2crossbow damage=25-13 Armor = 12 exactly enough for one dead construct)

Korvak and Sasha were having less luck with theirs as Korvak's bolt just bounced off the beast's armored body and Sasha could not maintain her concentration to cast the domination spell injuring herself in the process. Further back they could all see two more flaming constructs beginning to approach undeterred by the flames. As the construct lined itself up to engulf Korvak in flames Jade cast her own Domination spell stopping the beast in it's tracks and sending it back toward the two that were approaching. With the dominated construct distracting the others Vandal and Korvak were able to quickly cut down the remaining beasts. As the flames grew higher and the heat began to become unbearable the four of them gathered much treasure and quickly fled the building. Jade smiled it was in impressive haul and it would set them up well in this part of Felstead.

As they left the ruins there was a massive explosion that leveled the building nearly knocking them all from there feet. "It's a good thing we got out of there when we did" Vandal commented. "I had no worries." Jade smiled, "I knew we would be fine, I had foreseen it."

[Timeshadow]

This was a very fun solo mini campaign. I very much enjoyed how it played out and how each senerio flowed into the next. I liked that each was unique and gave a feeling of danger and urgency.

My only critiques would be that senerios one and three are a bit easy and that #'s 1 and 2 could be farmed for xp as they have no set turn limit and theoretically unlimited monsters spawning that are worth xp.

My solution for this would be ether put a 10 turn limit on both senerios like the last one (you are racing to find your warband and escape an unstable ruin that is about to explode) or put a set max xp gain for each senerio ie max 300xp per senerio (for your wizard). This prevents someone from being a tool and using the first two senerios to get a bunch of extra lvls at little to no risk. Personally I prefer the 10 round limit as it adds the feeling of urgency and 10 rounds is more than enough to get through these senerios.

I really like the new potions table and the advanced potions(though I don't think anyone will fork out 3000gc to make an elixir of life (then roll a 1 and lose the cash) it's nice to have the option and makes finding these potions very fun. I also like that there is no or capped sell values on all the potions making them less of a cash machine. Finally I like the modified potions table and new effects for some of the potions. Demons in bottles were an issue and I'm not sad to see them gone though I wouldn't mind them coming back as an advanced potion that costs 200GC to make and has Summoning circle, Summon and bind demon as prerequisites.

All in all I am very satisfied with this expansion and I look forward to more as long as they stay affordable and of this quality.

Thanks Joe for an outstanding product.

[jp1885]

Stirring stuff - bravo!

[Dreadknot69]

Nice job, well done!  I'm happy to see a review of Dark Alchemy, I'm going to be starting my own campaign soon.

Where did you get the battle mat from?

[Timeshadow]

Nice job, well done!  I'm happy to see a review of Dark Alchemy, I'm going to be starting my own campaign soon.

Where did you get the battle mat from?

It's called a FAT MAT I bought it from my local gaming store.

and thx everyone for your comments. I love to write short stories about my warbands and the RPG games I play in so this is just fun for me :-)

[Timeshadow]

Jade sighed and nearly cried with frustration. Everything was gone, destroyed by what could only be described as a magical cataclysm. They were lucky really, if she hadn't had that vision they would have all perished.  Their home at the inn that they had originally settled into with her now deceased master was gone, burned away in a mystic cyclone that had torn through this part of Felstead. It had seemed drawn to her vault and all the magical treasures and her vision had told her that they must divest themselves of all magic or it would follow them and they would all have been consumed. Even the enchantments on Rhanie, Leena, Creed, and Victor allowing them to control their bestial natures one of the last great magics of her ancient homeland had been weakened and the four struggled with their lancrothopic powers more than ever. Thank goodness they had already learned to control their changes and to harness their inner beasts or this loss would have turned them into inhuman monsters instead of just weakening them considerably. Still it was a great loss and now they would need to begin anew in a new part of Felstead. As the ragged band moved on Jade thought about what other terrors and wonders they would encounter in this aptly named sprawling ruin known as Frostgrave.

Current state of my newly rebooted warband:

Wizard: Lao Jade (Soothsayer)
Apprentice: Sasha Myrr 200gc
Marksman: Vandal 100gc
Marksman: Korvak 100gc
Thief: Victor 20gc
Thief: Creed 20gc
Thief: Rhanie 20gc
Thief: Leina 20gc
Warhound: Snarl 10gc
Warhound Fang 10gc
Total:500gc
Spells: Reveal Secret, Mind Control, Wizard Eye, Leap, Heal, Raise Zombie, Fast Act, Beauty

[Timeshadow]

A small model update.

I painted a few wolves I got from the Dice bag lady (along with my Into the breeding pits)