Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => VSF Adventures => In Her Majesty's Name => Topic started by: agentbalzac on November 09, 2017, 06:32:59 AM
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Marlinspike Hall, November 189-
In the gloaming of an autumn evening, the trees stand mostly bare of leaves. Barely a light emanates from the provincial grander of the chateau, for the master is not at home. A few days ago Captain Cod, his friend the reporter Cancan with his small dog Icy, hurriedly left to rescue their friend the bumbling Professor Trigonometry, who lives and works on the estate.
Agents of malign foreign powers have deduced the potential usefulness of Professor Trigonometry’s new Acoustical Weapon, known as the Mk. I Katherine Büsche Device, and kidnapped him while he visits Switzerland. Forewarned of danger, the Professor wisely sent the plans for his device back to Marlinspike via carrier pigeon. It appears word of this despearate manœuvre has got out, and the Professor's enemies have despatched teams to Catch the Pigeon.
Awaiting the pigeon is Marlinspike Hall’s faithful butler, Nestor, with his trusty chamois cloth for polishing the silverware and his Arc Rifle to keep intruders away.
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Marlinspike Hall in the evening light:
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4543/38223714676_c8b8b05192_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/21eGwFo)
Having finished cleaning the crystal, Nestor takes a brief pause on the porch in the chill evening air.
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4562/38278700601_2ebe20078b_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/21jym5z)
A band of Ninja rise like shadows from the woodland and glide silently across the estate! There before them, resting on the fountain, is the Pigeon itself, resting after its long journey from the Alps:
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4554/38223715096_1706df91e9_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/21eGwNC)
But what’s this?! Crunching across the gravel and disturbing the neatly trimmed hedges are a band of heavies from the secretive Bordurian Navy’s ‘Z’ Section. So secret because few realise that landlocked Borduria even has a navy....
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4564/38278700781_479695f13a_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/21jym8F)
Crossbow bolts hiss through the twilight: a squawk and a cloud of feathers. The ninja Jonin ‘Hasegawa’ has grabbed the pigeon and stuffed it, half-senseless, into his black robes. At the back of the mansion, unseen, ninja Genin and Bordurian thugs trade shots from hand-crossbows.
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4519/38278700461_4ee30f904b_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/21jym3a)
Bang! The Bordurian marksman ‘Ловац’ (The Hunter) has bagged a ninja Genin with his hunting rifle. Nestor, pre-occupied dusting the household collection of ship models, is alerted by the shooting, and grabs his arc-rifle, heading upstairs for a better view of the kerfuffle going on outside.
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4540/38278701461_797697253d_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/21jymkp)
The Bordurians surge forward. One of the Assassins attempts to stop the Jonin, but the ninja leader evades his grasp, slipping away. He leaps across the forecourt, where one of his team throws down a smoke bomb into which he vanishes… The house facade is lit by the savage light of the arc-rifle as Nestor takes pot shots. A ninja goes down, silently dying as a Bordurian crossbow bolt finds its target. Field agent моста, leading the Bordurians, plunges through the smoke:
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4570/26502665629_b895428e94_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/GnX69R)
The chase takes the Ninja and their pursuers across the moonlit lawns. A wrestle results, and Ловац’s rifle does more deadly work, killing Hasegawa, the stunned pigeon clucking out of blood-spattered robes with the ninja’s dying breath. A brave Genin swoops forward to relieve the unwieldy target, but the dogged Bordurians are too close, and, among the looming shadows of a gothic folly, more fisticuffs ensue:
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4549/38223714986_6ff000aeb3_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/21eGwLJ)
Distracted by their life-or-death struggle, the combatants turn and glimpse in dismay as the pigeon squawks and flutters off into the dark…
*****
IHMN with my 12 y.o. son at the Perth Miniature Gamers Group last night. Great fun with 200 pt Companies on each side, plus Nestor, randomly appearing at one of 11 upper floor windows (or, on a 12, the roof) of Marlinspike Hall to take a potshot at the nearest of the protagonists.
Both Companies swooped in, mostly focussed on grabbing their feathered quarry, but well prepared to dish it out to their opponent with crossbow, fighting knife and naginata. The ninja were literally an inch away from making off with the bird, but it was not to be!
The ninja were a Company drawn from SDRS, and the Bordurians a slight twist on Le Cabinet Noir. The Bordurians’ training and tactics reflected a French influence, but with aid of a hunter, who brought years of experience hunting Austro-Hungarian overlords in the mountains.
It was a shortish episode, but a vicious skirmish nonetheless - with no quarter asked and none given.
Blistering Barnacles! I do hope you enjoy! ;)
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Nice set up and good idea for a scenario. Who doesn't like a bit of 'Les Adventures de Cancan'?
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A smashing adventure indeed sir! :D
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Great report and some nice atmospheric photos too. Love it!
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GREAT game concept, AAR, pictures, minis and scenery, CONGRATULATIONS!!! :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
OMG, all the names are really witty! lol
"Hasegawa" was the name of the evil ninja (played by Sho Kosugi) in the "classic" 1981's "ENTER THE NINJA" movie... It's a very clever reference, Sir! ;)
Please keep doing that awesome job of yours and bring us the next adventure! :D
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Very nice report! I am going to have another look at IHMN.
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Wit and eye candy all at once.
You do spoil us, sir.
:-* :D :-*
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Thanks for posting, a good AAR. Nice work on the pictures, I like those Ironclad Henchmen cool figures!