Tremendously fun game of In Her Majesty's Name last night. Huzzah!
The action took place atop the dark slippery slates of a moonlit London, among looming chimneys, the dome of the Borough of Somethingfields Town Hall, and blank, staring windows. The buildings floated like ships adrift in a sea of a Thames Pea Soup fog which smothered and choked the streets below.
Forces from across the nether corners of London and beyond gathered on hearing the news that a carrier pigeon, long since posted missing presumed dead, had 'gone native' - back to the rooftops - and had been spotted! Could this be 'Olive', the messenger carrying the encrypted location of the fabled Amulet of Isis from the Parisian Archaeologist Hercule Le Puy? Perhaps it was 'Taube E-VIIB', of the Prussian Secret Service, and their missing plans for the construction of the Kaiser's Alpine Dirigible Fleet? Whatever it was, it was valuable to whomever held it!
Gathering out of their corners to catch the pigeon were:
- The Black Dragon Enforcers - Always on the lookout for an opportunity, the Black Dragon Tong sent out a Dragon Warrior Martial Artist, Two Boxers, and their terrifying Yeti!
- Borrage's Lad's - a special detachment of the British Army, led by Sergeant Borrage, aided by Private Davies, and a hand-picked rifleman
- Lady Felicity's Hunt - sent by Lord Curr himself, Lady Felicity was backed up by Curr's mighty manservant Mohan Singh and a sturdy duo of Incorrigibles
- The sinister Akhenaton, immortal God-King of Egypt, resurrected from a long desert slumber by foolish cultists
- A cell of masked agents of the conspiratorial French Le Cabinet Noir - two assassins led by the enigmatic Field Agent Dupont
- Trying to stop all these shenanigans was The Consulting Detective, ably assisted by the Good Doctor and a London bobby armed with the latest Edison Arc-Truncheon
As the curtain rises, the pigeon was spotted among the treetops in the square in the centre of the table, but soon fluttered to the ledge of the town hall. The Black Dragons leaped across to the town hall from an adjoining row of terrace houses, one of the Boxers swooping forward while, with a primal roar, the Yeti leaped to a nearby building to cut of Borrage and his men.
Meanwhile the Cabinet Noir glided from their starting point, pistols cracking, they could see the pigeon but it was beyond reach. The Detective led the forces of the Metropolitan police to intercept the dastardly Frenchmen.
Across the table, Mohan Singh led a comrade to deal Akhenaton a losing hand of bullets from his menacing brass machine gun, but was soon attacked by the not-so-Incorrigible he'd brought with him, who had fallen under the mesmerising sway of the ancient king's stare! Singh fended off the blow, but was almost instantly cut down in a flash of the mighty jewel-encrusted Khopesh of Osiris...
A boxer swooped on the pigeon, grabbing it by the legs like a Peking duck, but his triumphant exclamation turned to a death gurgle as a well placed shot from a Frenchman's pistol cut him down. The pigeon flapped free from his arms as he slid off the town hall and fell into the dank fog which muffled the thump of his body hitting the cobbles below.
The Detective led his small team over the parapet, and was soon trading blows with the French agents, but they had the best of it, as first the Great Detective was felled by a French knife, ending another chapter in his adventuresome life, and then the good doctor was flung to his doom, a barb of finest Lorraine steel in his gut - not even his own medical skills could fix this one.
As Borrage's men launched wave after wave of attacks on the berserk blue Yeti - whose angry roars echoed around the darkened streets - the pigeon lifted off and landed on the same building upon which the French and the Met were wrestling it out. It watched the fight with an impassive beady eye, as Lady Felicity emerged onto the table, and, using the cover of a chimney stack to block her from the malign intentions of Akhenaton, leaped with her 'personal' Incorrigible toward the fray, both her pistols blazing impressively yet ineffectually.
The pigeon squawked and flew to the very edge of our stage: immediately next to the Cabinet Noir entry point! Would they have time to move over and seize it? Could anyone stop them escaping back to the shadows with the prize?
The Frenchmen broke from their fight with the Met, and scrambled for the pigeon, which sat tempting them like a loose ball behind the try line. Though they were dogged all the way by the Dragon Warrior, who leaped upon them with a flash of his steel blade, they slithered free! In an unholy alliance with this denizen of the docks, the surviving bobby wielded his apparently spluttering arc-truncheon, and Lady Felicity blazed away with her pistols!
Across the chasm of the street, a Boxer kept up a volley of fire on the fight itself, as Akhenaton smoothly approached the scene, trying to catch the eye of a Frenchman with his mesmerising ankh-like stare.
Alas! Too late! In the kerfuffle the French Agent Dupont scooped up the pigeon and vanished over the parapet, to take the bird back to his hidden safe-house, expertly decrypt its coded message, and sit down to a delicious
pigeon à la crapaudine...
Where will the next chapter of the struggle take place? Venice? A dirigible? The dusty wastes of Egypt? Who knows?!
*****
This was a great experience. It was the first game of IHMN for all concerned (including myself
) but it seemed easy to pick up the basics quickly enough. Some Mystic Powers were invoked; a few talents went neglected in the rush (The Consulting Detective was bereft of his famous Erudite Wit!): but overall the rich flavour and intent of the rules and setting were entertainingly captured.
To run the game I used the fast play demi-companies developed for convention/demo play and furnished by the inimitable Tehet, a famous IHMN colleague and regular correspondent to these forums, to whom I and my guinea pig players are greatly indebted. The small 100 point-ish forces provide a colourful yet easily managed introduction to the game, leaving them begging for more and scouring the interwebs for IHMN resources. Many thanks again, Tehet, a scholar and a gentleman!
The mission was pretty much the 'Catch the Pigeon' scenario from the IHMN rulebook, set among the rooftops as also described in the same volume. The upper floors of a number of building provided the setting, the grey, swirling pea-soup fog the platform from which they reared... In terrain making terms it was a pretty ambitious setting, but scrubbed up OK and hopefully inspired all involved.
Overall I was well chuffed with the terrain, figures, game and sporting opponents. Thanks to all my gaming chums for a fun and entertaining evening of larks to round out my 2015 gaming year! Did I say 'huzzah'?!
Balzac
Some daguerrotypes below:
London Rooftops, on a foggy night, where we lay our scene...
...and again, another perspective.
Sgt Borrage deals with a denizen of the dark...
Despite the efforts of an unlikely alliance of opponents, the nefarious Cabinet Noir collect their prize.
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April 28, 2024, 11:18:24 PM
June 10, 2008, 09:52:45 AM