A pyramid with hyenas

[Patrice]

A game we played one month ago, at a miniatures and scale model event in Lorient (Brittany, France).

It started as a medieval skirmish with no fantasy at all, somewhere in Egypt in the late 12th century
...but some of the players already had a hint that something very strange was going to happen…

We can see a small village; some ruins, and a lone pyramid; and in the background, a local town…







View from the town:



Four striped hyenas wander in the desert, looking for food:



Four small troops of European crusaders enter table
(one troop per player: Sir Theizu a crusader, Sir Zibelin another crusader, Sir Pyke another crusader, Cigismont a Templar knight; each of them had received different informations from the Game masters and were looking for different objectives).



Some local people (NPC) throw javelins at the crusaders who pass too close of the village.



One the the crusader leaders tries to negociate with local Egyptian warriors (NPC), but they refuse to hear him, and a fight begins near the ruins:



The troop of Templar knights deploys on the other side of the pyramid:



Some of the crusaders enter the pyramid. Inside, they discover stairs, and some of them begin to walk …downstairs?

…and when they begin to walk downstairs, a Game master puts more terrain elements on the table …underground terrain elements! …we had to put them somewhere, so they are displayed on the table and everyone understands that the tabletop "historically correct" battlefield has now no more importance in the game!

[Patrice]

The crusaders find some very old Egyptian tombs…



…and, a little further, they meet skeletons who want to fight them!





…and treasure rooms! with more undeads in them!









Meanwhile, outside the pyramid, the fighting continues. The crusaders who wanted to resist in the ruins suffer heavy casualties and their survivors must retreat inside the pyramid.



Four hyenas come near the pyramid.

They do not seem afraid. Three of them arrive near the entrance of the pyramid… and change into ghouls! (or, rather, into "ghûls" a traditional local variety, not undeads but lesser demons (djinns) who eat dead bodies and can take the appearance of hyenas).

The human local warriors prudently stay at some distance, but do not seem very surprised to see this.

…I said before that there were four striped hyenas in the desert at the beginning of the game; three have just turned into ghûls…

…the fourth hyena sits on its back, and whines sadly in animal language: "What, are you leaving me alone again? on, no! please stay with me, and help me to find more food, as usual!"





The crusader rearguard tries to defend the entrance of the pyramid against the ghûls, and manage to kill one but they must soon retreat downstairs. The ghûls don't follow them (they are busy eating the fallen crusaders).

[Patrice]

Meanwhile, the crusaders exploring the underground had discovered another passage, where they must walk knee-deep in water…and they arrive in a totally different place!

A Game master (yes we had three GM in this game, and one of them had imagined and made all this totally mad stuff in his own garage!) now displays a whole labyrinth on the table. This is pure medieval-fantasy now, nothing more egyptian or whatever historical.





A giant crocodile suddenly comes out of the water, and kills Sir Pyke (a player character!) before the other crusaders can do anything!



Unfortunately we don't have more pics of what happened later…

The players had found a large labyrinth, run by a mad necromancer who kept people prisoners to play with them and watch them fight.

The few surviving warriors of each player were able to free some of these prisoners and add them to their troop:
"Sir Theizu" (a player who likes to play halflings in fantasy games) found some halflings and a female magician;
"Cigismont" the Templar knight player met some paladins;
"Zibelin" another crusader player found a priest and some warriors.
"Sir Pyke", the player character killed by the crocodile, founds his spirit reincarnated in a subaltern necromancer who now must fight his former friends! (beacuse the GMs knew that this player likes to plays undeads so his sudden death was planned before the game but he didn't know it…)

[Patrice]

Ooops, end of story but I can't find the Delete button to delete this last post 

[Estarriol]

Looks great!

[Bloggard]

absolutely amazing table, both 'above' and 'below'      ... looks to have been as enjoyable a game as one can imagine this hobby providing.

[tomogui]

This is really great, especially the mid-game map changes and the GM catering to each player's gaming habits.

I agree with Bloggard - this sort of thing is the best that wargaming can be! 

[Hobgoblin]

This looks brilliant!

I've often thought the hybrid RPG/wargame - the sort of thing that RPGs grew out of - has the potential to be more enjoyable than the 'pure' form of either. This superb set-up only reinforces that suspicion.

[DeafNala]

FANTASTIC! That is a SPECTACULAR gaming table. OUTSTANDING WORK!

[Pictors Studio]

That looks fantastic and a lot of fun to play.  It is neat how they had the opportunity to explore the labyrinth on what was, otherwise, a pretty sparse table. 

Great job!

[Psychoflexible]

Amazing ! Great table and great idea of game ! What rules do you use for this ?

Salut les copains bretons !

[Patrice]

Thanks guys.

Um, I did not mention what the players knew... I didn't write the scenario, but as far as I know:

— "Sir Theizu" was just looking for treasure.
— "Cigismont" the knight Templar had a letter from the Pope, and a copy of another letter taken from an Egyptian prisoner messenger which said that there were "not-dead" people in this place; so the Pope wrote that if "not-dead people" could exist it meant that the Holy Graal was certainly in there! so the Templar player had to go and find it (...but he never found it... it wasn't even there).
— "Zibelin", another crusader player, was from the frontier town of Gibelet which (historically true) was trying to negociate with all religious factions; he had been ordered to follow the other Christian troops and try to know what they were all doing; he had more ability to negociate with Muslim NPCs, but in that case it was not helpful.
— "Sir Pyke" was given some half-burned parchments which said that there was something behind a "black beetle" painted on a wall... When this player understood that Sir Theizu was only looking for treasures, he told him to look for golden beetles!   so he always had some advance!  

Amazing ! Great table and great idea of game ! What rules do you use for this ?

« Argad ! » with adaptations and updates of the fantasy extensions.

[**GS**]

Absolutely stunning!

Am I allowed to steal the idea?

Cheers
GS

[Patrice]

Am I allowed to steal the idea?

  Why do you ask? It's what wargame forums are for: to steal [be inspired by] ideas of other players.

[Phil Portway]

Definitely inspired by!