Frostgrave: A Massacre At The Museum

Following an excursion underground into the depths of a lost library, our adventurers are again back on the surface, amid the frosty ruins of the lost city of Felstad. This time they have heard tell of a ruined museum or temple that is badly in need of looting...

Two of the orc archers which made my life miserable...

I could see this was going to be a tough game as there were six statues in the museum, all with the potential to come alive. On top of that, we had wandering monsters to contend with. Ragnar was going with a relatively full and healthy party, and managed to raise a zombie in advance of the expedition as well as cast Illusory Soldier (a newly learned spell), creating in this case a third war dog which would look like the other two until damage was inflicted upon it.

The museum and its ancient guardians awaits the adventurers.

The statues were in a ring, which would also make things difficult. I still decided to adopt an aggressive posture, although it was the trackers and the halfling treasure hunter Bagbo Biggins who reached the ruins first. Long range arrow fire took care of one of the trackers very early in the game, which should have been a warning, but I ignored it.

Skeggi Boozehound, Nordgrint and Bagbo with a zombie friend.

My plan was to get into the ruined building, grab 3-4 chests and high tail it as quickly as possible, leaving the orcs to deal with the statues. My knight Sir Bartle Fere and the dwarf man at arms, Skeggi Boozehound, could keep the orcs busy. The orcs, however, had other plans, hanging back and subjecting me to ranged fire, including the odd mud spell and grenade. Bagbo grabbed a chest successfully and retreated early, which is his job, so good on Bagbo.

Sir Bartle Frere and a tracker run into a muddy problem.

Skeggi ended up in toe to toe combat with a statue - as they came alive, both my zombie and Skeggi found themselves with more than they could handle, and both were eventually taken down. Ragnar was struck by an arrow but managed to cast heal on himself.

Bagbo takes cover from the orcs as he plans his dash for loot.

I tried to attack around the flank and cause havoc with the orcs using my dogs, but they were all shot down in quick succession, as the orcs had three archers with good fields of fire across the whole environs of the museum and its grounds. My dwarf crossbow sniper, Brekin Sharp Eye, also set up in a ruined building with a similar plan, but found he could not see much as the blasted ruins were blocking everything. Then a wandering ghoul entered the building he was hiding in and assaulted him, ending the game for Brekin.

The ruins from the perspective of the orcs.

It was not going well - Sir Bartle tried his best to get at the orcs but they had obviously decided to stay well clear of the museum building and harass my efforts with arrows - as ever. One goblin managed to grab a chest and under cover of an invisibility spell tried to escape, but Ragnar revealed him with...reveal invisibility...and he was then pounced on by a statue. IIRC he was taken down by the same statue, but another goblin stole off with the chest regardless.

Orc archer gets surprised by a wandering wild dog!

Some wild dogs also appeared and seemed to keep the orcs busy, including attacking one of their archers and forcing the witch - shocker - to move location. But it just wasn't enough.

Bagbo and Skeggi run into some statue trouble.

Nordgrint burned a telekinesis scroll to try to drag one of the chests out of the museum, but his efforts were hampered by the mud and the ice and then he too was attacked by the statues and eventually knobbled.

My dogs get attacked by a statue as they try to outflank the orcs.

I was running out of people. Sir Bartle was poisoned by the witch's apprentice, almost totally immobilised, and eventually defeated. It was turning into my biggest rout in Frostgrave. With one chest off the board, Ragnar himself tried a desperate attempt to steal a second, but that almost led to a one to one interview with the orc's barbarian champion, which would not have gone well.

Bagbo on his way to safety, passes Nordgrint.

Ragnar decided not to risk it as the orcs were starting to focus their shooting on him, so abandoned the museum to the greenskins. This left Kelvin with the field, and a thumping 5-1 victory. It wasn't quite a massacre but it wasn't far off it.

Nordgrint now has statue trouble of his own...

My error was  to charge in blindly - this is a tougher scenario and it didn't work once Kelvin decided to hang back and make use of the cover. I placed Brekin in the wrong place and this handicappped him from the off. I know I have to make more use of my spell casters to earn XP and this means putting them a little in harm's way. But I should have been a little more cautious and perhaps worked out how some of my spells and scrolls will function in my overall game plan.

Ragnar in an unequal contest with an orc barbarian.

I lost a couple of dogs this time around but everyone else seems okay. I now have some slots open on the roster as a consequence, and it really boils down to a choice between buying some more dogs and using them as before to focus on keeping the orc spell casters busy, or counter the orc shooters with some shooters of my own. It's an either / or scenario - no point having just the one dog in the party, in my view.

Next time - the Coming of the Worm!