The Thing in the Well - a Pulp Alley desert fantasy game

[blacksoilbill]

An ancient, serpent-shaped evil is stirring. One band of heroes stands in the way. I kicked off a new Pulp Alley campaign last night. The Tomb of the Serpent, translated to the fantastic age of Hyboria.

In the first game, the heroes must retrieve an arcane relic from a well.

Our heroes, the Freebooters of the Skeleton Coast. Jubal of Punt: ex-gladiator who doesn't know how to wear his mask properly (but no-one's going to tell him that). Thrudd the Barbarian: it is said he has the strength of a rhino, the speed and agility of a jungle cat , and the intelligence of a garden snail. Elanora of Ophir, and Nikita the Red: no introductions; just here to get the job done.


The villains: the servants of Apohis. Mummy and cultists.


The servants arrive as the heroes approach the well.


The minor plot points: perilous scorpion, helpful goatherd, cryptic inscriptions, smuggler's booty. We almost completely ignored the minor plot points, but they do look nice!








Nikita is charged by a cultist, then the mummy.




The mummy is a beast in combat and Nikita is done for.


Elanora runs for the well while Jubal and a cultist go at one another with sharp implements.


Thrudd decides to turn up (he was delayed until turn 2). However, his impact on the game is not enormous. On spotting the mummy, he failed a horror test and ran off. Then the lowly cultist archer finished him off before he regained his courage.


Elanora climbs into the well while Jubal takes his turn to be chewed to pieces by the mummy.


Elanora has spotted the relic and begun to work it loose from the side of the well, when the mummy climbs in after her. In a nail-biting finish, she fails her final challenge to grab the relic and the mummy wrests in from under her nose!


The heroes are foiled this time, but they will be back!

Another fun romp with Pulp Alley going right down to the last roll of the last turn. It was great to get a new setting on the table, and the game certainly felt like a sandals & sorcery adventure.

 

[Sunjester]

A nice looking game!

[AKULA]

Thanks for sharing - really demonstrates that you don’t need your table stacked with terrain and figures to have a decent game.

 

[Grumpy Gnome]

Sounds like it was a fun game. The table looks great, sometimes less is more. What make are your cultists and mummy, if you do not mind me asking?

[blacksoilbill]

Thanks gents!

Rick, the mummy is Reaper: https://www.reapermini.com/search/mummy/latest/14242
The cultists are from Northstar's Rangers of Shadow Deep range. They are really nice figures.
https://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=280&page=1

[Grumpy Gnome]

Ah, great stuff, thanks! I think I will try a similar color scheme, it looks great.

[pauld]

Wonderful stuff.

It makes me want to do two things

a)  dust off Pulp Alley and play a game (it's been too long for such a fine rule set)
b)  get those Cultists, they looks great

Thank you and Damn you, sir (my thanks, my wallet's curses  )

[blacksoilbill]

Those both sound like mighty fine things to do!

[Chief Lackey Rich]

What a strange coincidence, I just (finally) got around to painting "Nikita" myself, and here she is dying horribly in proper "just painted" fashion.  I guess that trope applies even to other folks' figs. 

Neat looking scenario there.

[blacksoilbill]

What a strange coincidence, I just (finally) got around to painting "Nikita" myself, and here she is dying horribly in proper "just painted" fashion.  I guess that trope applies even to other folks' figs. 

This was her first game painted for me too: doubly cursed!