Strange Aeons meets Shadows of Brimstone

[Grumbling Grognard]

Stumbled across this old classic and thought of this thread!

Curse of the Undead(c1959)

[rcketscientst]

Cutting off the hand?  That would make a classic movie.  Wait.....

I too really enjoy the write ups.  Sadly, it made me acquire Brimstone.  More minis to paint.  Only I have been using my SA threshold as the Brimstone archetypes.  Kind of a John Ford meets Gats and Molls.

[Litebrite]

January was a write off for my buddy and I getting together to continue our adventures.  But things are looking good for next week. Here is the lead-in for the new campaign series for Clive, Clem, Joseph and Juanita.

The group made their way back to Brimstone after a few days rest at the Homestead.  Upon arrival to the town, Clive discovered that Threshold had purchased one of the buildings on the outskirts of town to set up a Station Office/Safe House in Brimstone. The party members of the group relished in the luxury of new abode.

Jacob Warrens (a Threshold doctor) had come out west from New Hampshire to minister to the wounded agents and aids. He immediately took Clem under his wing and ministered to his injuries. A letter from Director O'Shea informed Clive that he was being appointed as the Field Office's Supervisor and that a second team was being assembled to aid with the missions at Brimstone against the readily apparent growing threat of evil ever present in its environs.

Over the next month (as Clem convalesed), Clive organized the field office to his specific order. He was not plagued by any bad dreams and found the office work a nice relief in contrast to their recent field excursions.  But, the need for action grew within him as the time passed.   The desire was likely enhanced as the new team (Lead by a firebrand Irish redhead lady named Chastity O'Malley -- I am using the Solitaire deck and playing games with her and her team.  I might do a writeup for one of their scenarios in the not to distant future) returned from their misssions and made their reports to Clive to forward to head office in New York city.

Joseph during this period took the time to return to his home and visit his family. While there, the elder shaman of the village took him on a dream quest in which visions he saw that his ancestors were proud of the path he was on and would when possible continue to provide him with spiritual support. He discovered that his Totem is the Grizzly Bear and he would be able to call for its support from time to time during his quests when in dire need.

Juanita continued her Threshold training under the tutalage of both Clive and Jacob (who also is a seasoned investigator). Knowing her agility and dancing skills, she aquired the trained ability of being better at avoiding blows and being hit by ranged weapons from an opponent ( The skill of  "Duck").

After 5 weeks of inactivity (searching for and ferreting out evil that is), Jacob declared that Clem was fit to go out into the field again (although he should be careful). A number of reports had been arriving to Brimstone from San Miguel's Mission (located approximately 30 miles south of Brimstone at the fork in the Cowen River) about graves being disturbed and emptied as well as dark ghastly figures wandering the area at night. Clive, based on his research figured this sounded like a ghoul infestation that needed to be cleaned out and return peace to the holy location.

They departed on Tuesday morning and arrived at the mission on Thursday
afternoon.  Father Pedro greeted the group as they approached the entry to the church. He took them to the graveyard (to the side of the church) and it was readily apparent that about 1/3rd of the graves had been definitely disturbed. The group would stand vigil this night ( we will use the visability distance rule I introduced earlier on ) to see what came out to cause the horrible desecrations.

Juanita requested that she would appreciate a blessing from the Father, which he gladly granted. ( Since he is not a trained agent, Juanita's Resolve is considered Blessed {Religious Fervour} and thus reduced by one {4+} for this scenario )

The scenario being played is: Body Snatchers. The Lurkers have 35 BPs to work with for this Scenario .

Lurker Force: 10 + 25 = 35 points

Ghoul King (9 BPs +1 EP) added "improved Command" and a Meat Cleaver.
5 x Ghouls (20 BPs + 5 EPs) Each model has a Meat Cleaver.

Free Plot Point: Twisted Fate Deck

The adventure is on again.....

[Litebrite]

My buddy and I were able to get together today and play out the scenario. Attached you will have some teaser pics of the game.

Over the Christmas holidays, I purchased some printout paper buildings by Dave Graffam Models via Wargame Vault (I would love to have full 3D building like I see others have, but I have a very limited budget which primarily goes to figure purchases) . I printed them out and built them using cereal boxes as stiff backing. The Frontier Church you see in the picture is one I put together (Not a great job, but it provides me what I want for my gaming purposes).  I also made some cheap (Scrubbing pad) hedgerows.

The game was a close one. I should have a written AAR in the next 3-5 days.

Lembit

[Grumbling Grognard]

Over the Christmas holidays, I purchased some printout paper buildings by Dave Graffam Models via Wargame Vault (I would love to have full 3D building like I see others have, but I have a very limited budget which primarily goes to figure purchases) . I printed them out and built them using cereal boxes as stiff backing. The Frontier Church you see in the picture is one I put together (Not a great job, but it provides me what I want for my gaming purposes).  I also made some cheap (Scrubbing pad) hedgerows...

I can never bring myself to 'prefer' paper buildings.  But, when I look at pics, or use a mate's setup (he has almost exclusively all paper buildings) I wonder why.  They look great on the table, they are much less expensive, the choice is much wider and they can be assembled much faster!

One of my mates uses them almost exclusively, and I love playing on his tables...but for my stuff, I still like the "weight" of full 3d, models and I have no idea why...   Perhaps, I am just "old" and set in my ways.  

Yours, looks great!  Hell, I was wondering what model it was, and looking at the paint on it until I read it was a paper model.  

Scott

P.S. My hedgerows are nearly the identical as well.  I used my razor and hacked up the hedges a bit here and there and added bits of flock and paint as well as a mix of sand and flock on the bases to break up the uniform color of the scrub pads.  

[Litebrite]

The terrain board is shown in picture 1.  Because the Ghouls all have Sneaky, they deploy after Clive's team which setup on the opposite side of the church (See pic 2).

The Ghoul King and one of his Ghoul followers are setup in their start zone, while the other Ghouls  are deployed one per wooded brush area.( See pics 3 to 5) The Ghouls win initiative for the game. It is detemined that the Ghouls
have to desecrate 5 graves to win the game.

[Litebrite]

Turn 1
Visibility for the turn is 12"
The Ghoul King, the ghoul with him as well as the ghouls in the woods to either side of him activate and move towards the graveyard.

Clive, Joseph and Juanita move out from behind the Church. Joseph spots a
Ghoul to his front and takes a shot with his elephant gun, but misses. Clem will stay as the rear guard. (See pic 1)

Turn 2
Visibility becomes 15"

The Ghoul King bashes through the hedge and moves up to the target Grave infront of him. The ghoul following him makes it just through the hedge. The ghoul to Joseph's front moves into the graveyard and up to the grave through the opening. Clive takes a shot at the ghoul, but misses. The ghoul then kicks down the headstone while muttering the curse of desolation (1 grave desecrated -- Ghouls need to only spend one action to desecrate a grave).

Joseph loads his elephant gun and then shoots the Ghoul that just desecrated the grave. He gets a head shot (critical hit) and sees the Ghoul fall to the ground headless. Clive moves up to the hedgerow. Janita does the same and spots a Ghoul near her and takes a shot, but misses. (See Pic 2)

Pic 3 is a "View from the Trenches" shot.

[Litebrite]

Turn 3
A cloud comes over the moon and visibility reduces to 8"

A brain fog decends over The Ghoul King and he loses an action (Twisted Fate Card ) he then mutters the curse and kicks the Gravestove next to him over. He commands the one ghoul in to his front to desecrate the target grave and move onto the next, which it does ( That's 3 of the 5 graves desecrated). He orders the ghoul to his right to move out and kill the humans. It proceeds out  the opening moving towards Joseph. Clive takes an ambush shot at this ghoul with his Winchester rifle, but misses.

Clive looks up and swears at the cloud that has caused him to loose sight of the ghouls. He tells Juanita to shoot at the ghoul to her front. She shoots twice at the ghoul hitting it once and causing 1 wound. Clive takes his shot and wounds the creature, but it only falls to the ground.

Joseph reaches into his ammo pouch and finds out that a hole has somehow appeared on the bottom of the pouch and the bag is empty (Twisted Fate "Out of Bullets" card play), so he readies his Tomahawk to go in and get personal with the fiends of the Wendigo (in his mind). He charges the ghoul and in the ensueing melee, is able to chop the fiend to pieces.

Father Pedro having heard the sounds of fighting steadied his resolve and stepped out through the door to provide what spiritual aid he could for those brave people fighting the devil's minions.

(See Pic 1).

Turn 4
The cloud moves on and visibility increases up to 17".

The Ghoul King moves up to the grave infront of him. Clive sees this and attempts to shoot the Ghoul King, BUT, it is then that he sees a severed arm with a ring in the Ghoul King's right hand.  The Arm glows and Clive finds that he is unable to shoot at the Ghoul King for fear of hitting his arm (Twisted Fate "Divine Intervention" in which I added this campaign's variant effect). The Ghoul King then chants the curse and kicks the gravestone over (that's 4 out of the 5. The wounded ghoul stamds up.

Clive yells to Juanita to shoot the Ghoul King because he is being prevented. Juanita shoots twice hitting both times and causing two wounds on the Ghoul King. Clive then notices that Father Pedro has brought himself into harm's way and tells him to get over by him.  Father Pedro moves towards Clive past Juanita and attempts to give the people courage by saying prayers of blessing (which does not succeed). See Pic 2.

[Litebrite]

Turn 5
Visibility reduces slightly to 16"

The Ghoul King has the ghoul closest to the remaining target grave move to finish the job, but Clive is ready, and shoots but only knocks it down again. The Ghoul King orders the Ghoul in the wood to move out and attack. It moves toward Juanita, but is still to far away to engage her.

The ghoul who stood up moves towards the last grave, but Clive shoots, hits and does wound, but only a debilitating shot again (Face Down).

The Ghoul King moves up to the last target grave, but has no actions left to desecrate the grave.

Clive yells a warning to Juanita about the peril coming her way.  She shoots twice at the advancing ghoul, but misses both times.

Joseph is ready and charges the Ghoul King.  In the ensueing melees, he is able to knock down the King, but it still is alive.

Father Pedro attempts to bless Clive again, but with no success.

See Pic 1

Turn 6
visibility is 15" this turn

Joseph brings down his Tomahawk onto the Ghoul King and severes the head off the prone thing (critical hit). Clive's arm disappears in a flash of yellow light.

The ghoul by the church charges Juanita. Its huge cleaver decends onto her head (which she could not avoid, but did orient herself so that the flat of the blade strikes instead of the sharp edge.) She is severely hurt and is out of action (See Pic 2). Father Pedro seeing the vicious attack is able to maintain his resolve.

Clive draws his fighting knife charges the Ghoul and in the close combat guts the fiend eliminating it from the battle.

Clive shouts to Joseph to take care of the other prone ghoul. He charges the creature and easily dispateches it back to the gates of hell. He suddenly finds his foot stuck in a hole ( Twisted Fate reducing him to only one action) and he is unable to get it unstuck and move to help the others.

Father Pedro continues to pray to God.

See Pic 3

[Litebrite]

Turn 7
Visibility is 16"

The remaining ghoul moves out towards the graveyard and hides in the corner of the church.

Clive and Joseph charge the ghoul and in the melee, they are able to send him to the nether world. (See Pic 1)

The scenario was won by Threshold having eliminated all the Lurkers. It was close and the Lurkers could have won if fate had gone their way. We have to resolve the aftermath sometime this week  

Hope you enjoyed the AAR.

[Grumbling Grognard]

Turn 7
Visibility is 16"

The remaining ghoul moves out towards the graveyard and hides in the corner of the church.

Clive and Joseph charge the ghoul and in the melee, they are able to send him to the nether world. (See Pic 1)

The scenario was won by Threshold having eliminated all the Lurkers. It was close and the Lurkers could have won if fate had gone their way. We have to resolve the aftermath sometime this week  

Hope you enjoyed the AAR.

Very cool!  Nothing beats ghouls in this scenario IMO.  I thought the thresholders were done-for when the ghouls started ripping up graves so quickly....and the good guys would have been done-in if they had rolled like I do.  

Thanks for the read, always enjoyable.

Scott

[Litebrite]

After the end of the fighting, Clem came around the corner of the church to see the carnage of battle which he missed.  Clive rushed over to Juanita and bandaged up her bleeding head wound.  She was very grogy but agitated and he could tell the Ghouls had gotten to her (She rolled a phobia on the Major Wounds table which we both agreed would be about fear of Ghouls).

Father Pedro continued his prayer for some time after the fight. When he finally calmed down enough, he walked over to the group gathered around Juanita and proclaimed that "God has put me here to give his holy guidance to the people of this mission. You warriors of god have shown to me the power of his rightious glory. I thank you for this service and I am sure that my congregation will also be grateful to you for ridding us of these devil spawn. May god's blessing be with you always". At that point the father went back into the church.

Joseph and Clem searched the dead bodies of the Ghouls to see if they could find any clues as to where they came from. In the Ghoul Kings pocket they found a wallet that had papers and pointed out he had been a Sergeant at Fort Thompson (about 20 miles south of the mission as the crow flies).  They had heard about the fall of the Fort which occured about 6 months ago (burned down with all its 40 soldiers and 20 other inhabitants missing). Clive decided that they should go there (once Juanita had recouperated) to see if they could pickup any further clues as to what happened looking at the location with a Threshold perspective.

The automatic advancement roll was given to Clive. He rolled a skill and "Enhanced Command" was selected.  Clem also rolled successfully for an advancement and the skill of "Duck" was selected.

After recuperating for a couple of days at the mission, the group began their journey to the Fort. On the route they arrived at the small settlement of Seto's Mill. Word of their exploits at the mission had reached this settlement and as they approached the settlement, they were met by the owner of the Grain mill.  He informed them that over the last couple of months, his mill and the settlement had been plagued by a infestation of very large and red eyed vicious rats who would attack people and ruin food storage locations. The rats were always in packs and usually only come out at night. He asked if they would help the settlement and rid them of this problem.

Clive discussed the situation over with the group and they agreed to help get rid of the problem. He knows that the Rats must be coming from a Nest somewhere and that they need to find it and destroy it. The group heads out on foot (the Horses would likely become very skittish in the presence of many rats) into the country side.  After about 5 hours of searching, Joseph spots signs of vermin activity. They follow the signs for another hour until they arrive in the nest's area. A rat squeal is heard and they know they have been spotted. The fight is on.....

I will be using the mob rule for this scenario modified. There will not be a set template for the Rat Pack, but one rat will be chosen as the center point of the "mob/pack" and all other rats must remain within 2.5" of that rat. Thus the positioning of the rats is flexible and they can "flow" through narrow passages that a normal Mob Template would be unable to. All other MOB rules apply.

I am also introducing a new miniature model from Shadows of Brimstone. This is the Rats Nest. Here are its Stats:

RATS NEST BP Cost: 10

M      D      C     A     W      R
0       NA    7     0      5      NA

Skills: Command

Specials:
Spawning: During the Lurker player's Upkeep portion of the turn, he rolls 1d6 for each Rats Nest on the table. If the result is a 1-4, nothing happens. If the result is a 5, one rat comes out of the Nest. If the result is a 6, 2 rats come out of the nest.

Pack Building: The Lurker player can hold the spawned rats in contact with the Rat's Nest. Once 5 Rats have been Spawned (or gathered in contact with the nest --see below), it becomes a Rat Pack (Mob) and functions from then on as one. Another method for forming a Pack (or help to form one with spawned Rats) is for Lurker Player to  move individual Rats back into contact with the Nest and then become part of a new Pack/Mob once the condition is met.

Immunity to Bullets Rats Nest cannot be wounded by handgun or rifle bullets. Shotguns, dynamite (explosive weapons), and large Melee Weapons (Axes, Hammer, Cleavers) are needed to damage this Lurker.

NOTE: I have inserted this new Lurker to the first posting in this thread.

Next Scenario Title: INFESTATION

Lurker Build points: 37

Rats Nest 10 BP
13 Rats @ 2 BP/ea = 26 (There will be 2 Packs and 3 lone Rats {who are in contact with the Nest}

Free Plot Point:  Flesh Eaters

[Litebrite]

My buddy and I were able to get together today to play the scenario.  We had a good game.  Here is a teaser picture. I will be working on the write-up over the next couple of days.

[Litebrite]

Pic 1 shows the terrain board the scenario will be played on. Pics 2 and 3 show the setup for the Threshold and Lurker forces.

I have not had a chance to finish the painting and flocking of the Nest and Rats, but we really wanted to play the game so did so without finishing them. Hopefully over the next little while, I will get them done.

[Litebrite]

Lurkers won the Initiative for the game

Turn 1

One Rat emerged from the nest and joined the group by the nest.

The "Black" pack moved over to the woods to its right while the "Dark Brown" pack moved into the woods infront of them. (See pic 1)

Clive and the rest of the group moved forward cautiously along the edge of the woods. They knew that the nest was somewhere out infront of them. They hadn't spotted any rats yet. (See Pic 2)

Turn 2

No rats emerged from the Nest this turn.
 
The black pack moved out of the woods towards the woods separating them from the human intruders. The Dark Brown Pack moved forward closer to the edge of the woods to be ready to spring out at these intruders. (See Pic 3)

An uneasy feeling came over the group. They suddenly felt "oppressed". The group repositioned themselves to protect Clem. Clem readied a stick of dynamite with the wire detonator and placed it near where he was. All members kept as quite as possible so they could hear any noises, but the rats were lurking up with intent. See (Pic 3 as well)