As alluded to previously, I was ready to play the next scenario in the continuing adventures of Tim the Necromancer, and so the Friday night before my wedding anniversary set up for Writhing Fumes, a solo scenario from the Perilous Dark expansion.
This scenario is fabled for being… challenging, shall we say. Even the author himself says that he might have misjudged the game balance for this one, and suggests using fewer enemies that the scenario as written. I figured I’d play it straight though, but remain mindful of the internet’s advice of ‘don’t forget that it’s not a straight up fight, remember the objective and get out of the door’.
I’d also bough the Mortal Enemies expansion since the last time I’d played, so dutifully rolled to see if the Mortal Enemy would gate rash this scenario, figuring that it was pretty unlikely as they’d only appear on an 18 or more, fully expecting that it just meant that they were more likely to appear in a future scenario. And obviously, rolled an 18.
Well, we’ll see how a maniac and their gang of merry misfits appearing at some point during the scenario affect the difficulty of an already famously hard game…
Tim, about to assault the alchemical supplies store that he’d heard so much about from his recently hired Captain, suddenly realised that he couldn’t remember how to cast the Strength Spell, which was his usual go-to for super-powering one of his beaters to clear a path ahead of him. That’s weird, he thinks, before shrugging and carrying on. He raised a zombie, his other go to spell, before he and his apprentice both failed to brew a potion. With that, the gang barrels into the alchemical supplies store, spying the door across the way that would lead them to a magic weapon shop, or so the story goes…
As the group split into three prongs (because, you know, tactics) the central group bumrush the closest slime, hoping to rapidly despatch it and clear a path to the exit, with nothing else worth doing Tim casts a Control Construct on a distant Ballista - and succeeds!
This, we have a stompy robot wearing kitty ears to denote that it’s part of the warband:
The bum rush unfortunately fails, with the ooze rolling a 20 in combat, smashing the Barbarian down to only one health remaining. It then destroys the summoned zombie, but thankfully Tim’s Bullywug Thug is able to best it in combat, although unable to damage it, and so pushes it back to give his allies a chance to regroup.
The left flank team heading towards a treasure token split up - the Captain and Man at Arms continue to sprint toward the treasure, while the much slower Knight moves to reinforce the centre, whose thrust up the middle has been mostly blunted.
The Apprentice, in what will become a recurring pattern throughout the majority of this game, fails to cast the Push spell, and hurts themself in the process.
Unfortunately for Tim’s new pet robot, monsters act before warband members, and a slime slams into it dealing massive damage, before it is finished off by the other Ballista’s cannon arm! RIP Stompy Robot, you dies before you really got to do anything.
Team right flank (a Thief, a Tracker, and the Hound, so a fast moving strike force) sneak up towards the other treasure token, while the apothecary moves up and heals the Barbarian. I wish I had some more health potions, at this point. Especially when another large Ooze masquerading as a Vapour Snake spawns right in the faces of Team Centre:
In an unusual turn of luck though, the Barbarian and Knight are able to hack it apart in short order, putting them back to square one, one ooze to defeat to clear the path.
Tim, starting to see that they need to not get bogged down and get a bit of a hop on, casts Leap on the Man at Arms, sending him hurtling over to the treasure token. Behind him, his Apprentice again falls to cast Push.
Operation Right Flank spread out - the Thief goes for the treasure, the Hound moves towards the centre of the board to lure away the slime, and the Tracker fans out to get into a position to shoot - which he does, but unfortunately the maximum damage that a slime can receive from shoring is 1, so 11 more of those to go before it’s dead!
Die to a slight positioning mistake on my part, the Apprentice finds himself getting jumped by an ooze, and so the Captain races back to save him.
The Captain expends the use of one of their special skills, but unfortunately rolls awfully, so while they do win the combat, they are able to do little more than push the ooze back. Which is enough to get the Apprentice out of immediate danger!
In the centre, the gang manage to batter an ooze down to having only 4HP left, but aren’t able to finish it off, and there’s a second one closing on them fast:
At this moment, the Apprentice suddenly realises that he should have raised a zombie to replace the one hat got taken out earlier rather than trying to cast Push - raising zombies is also significantly easier!
Over on the right, things take a turn for the worse as my keen tactical positioning is completely undone by the sudden appearance of two small slimes between the Thief and the treasure token:
Tim attempts to cast Control Construct again on the remaining Ballista, but fails, so cuts to make it a success, as he quite likes the idea of having his very own stinky robot to clear a path to the door. (Writing this post-game, Tim has a scroll of Control Construct, so could have just burned that to make the spell a success rather than sacrificing health, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes).
The Apprentice meanwhile summons a zombie between himself and the ooze that was previously trying to digest him, allowing him to then leg it after Tim towards the exit door.
The central group manage to dispatch the wounded ooze just as another leaps at the Apothecary, who manages to successfully fend it off. The recently summoned zombie takes a beating, but isn’t destroyed, so hangs in there tying up that ooze for another turn.
Things go worse for the Thief, who is taken out of action by one of the small oozes in one swing! The second then slimes its way over to the Tracker, but doesn’t have an action left to attack him this turn.
The Controlled Construct is able to lumber over and smash the exit door open first try though, which is nice.
The Knight bundles in to combat to rescue the Apothecary, but unfortunately rolls a 1 while the ooze rolls a 20:
Which takes him down to 2 Health. The Barbarian then tries to get involved, but only manages to get themselves smacked back down to 1HP. The Thug takes their turn whaling on the ooze, but also gets smacked in the face. At this Pont the ooze is now completely surrounded, but also seems to quite clearly be winning.
The Hound and the Tracker (all that remains of operation right flank) don’t fare much better either, and then to make matters worse, Tim’s Mortal Enemy suddenly appears on the left flank:
With a howling of wolves and gnashing of teeth, a group of lupine themed marauders stalk in. Behind them is a figure in a diaphanous gown, seeming to almost float behind them. Two human figures in the group carry wolf head shields that are identical to the one carried by Tim’s Man at Arms - coincidence, or evidence of betrayal? Further clues seem to be that they seem to be targeting that selfsame Man at Arms, who is currently trying to escape with some treasure under his arm…
Seemingly oblivious to this, Tim Pushes an ooze away from his dog as he calmly walks towards the exit door. The Apprentice, noticing the commotion behind them, tries to cast Leap on Tim to send him closer to the exit, but fails.
A couple of fights go the way of the gang, including the Barbarian finally being able to take out the surrounded ooze.
The Mortal Enemy gang all scramble after Tim and the Man at Arms, while the Lich casts Beauty on herself, calling out ‘do you not recognise me now, lover?’
(Cue a timely Evil Dead reference):
The Tracker over on the right flank manages to push back one of the two oozes on him, just as the Hound bounds over to try and take out the second one (in the hopes that the Tracker might then sneak over and snaffle the Treasure Token) but is immediately consumed by the living blob.
The Knight meanwhile chops down the ooze that had been haranguing the Apothecary, leaving the Barbarian and Thug free to then start moving up to catch up with the rest of the gang!
The Thug runs up to try to rescue the Tracker, and manages to push back the second slime, but for how long?
Seeing a horde of new foes now hot on his heels, Tim casts Slow on a pursuing werewolf, before turning tail and hot footing it towards the exit door.
Due to my tactical prowess, the Lith doesn’t have line of sight to anyone, so wastes a turn stomping around on foot.
Seeing the number of foes mounting up immediately behind them, Tim summons a fresh zombie to hold them up while the gang make their escape. It would have been better for the Apprentice to summon the zombie and have Tim cast something cooler, but frankly he didn’t trust that his student would be able to actually cast even that simple spell based on his performance so far, and couldn’t risk leaving their backs unprotected.
Speaking of the Apprentice, he fails to cast Push (again!) on the pursuing creatures - we really need to get better at that spell! Or, I guess, remember that he’s wearing a pair of magic gloves that can give a one-off boost to being able to cast a spell (not that that would help with my rolls, to be fair).
While all this is going on, the poor summoned zombie is doing his best Hodor impression in the doorway against an increasing number of enemies:
The Lich (who I really need to think of a name for, as unlike most of Tim’s nameless henchmen she’s likely to actually stick around for a bit) finally gets line of sight on her fleeing foes, and casts Bones of the Earth on the fleeing Man at Arms carrying the treasure token, causing a skeletal hand to burst from the ground and grab his ankle, stopping him in his tracks. ‘ Not so fast - You took something of mine, so I will take a treasure of yours in return!’, she cries.
Ahead of Tim, the Captain obliterates the last ooze between them and the door, leaving the Ballista free to step aside to blast the pursuing enemies - it manages to hit a werewolf square on, sending it flying backwards into the Lich, to her displeasure!
Tim is torn between making his escape, and having one last chance to do something cool. Obviously he chooses the less sensible latter option, pausing at the doorway to lob a Grenade spell (which I’ve always envisioned as him flinging an explosive skull) at a pair of enemy Men at Arms (being happy to have an enemy that he can actually do more than one damage to with his ranged spells) but unfortunately flubs the casting in his haste.
The Apprentice, finally remembering that he is wearing Gloves of Casting, finally successfully manages to cast the Push spell on one of those Men at Arms. Unfortunately I then whiffed the roll to see how far they were pushed, resulting in it only being a single inch…
It was around this point that my 5 year old woke up in the middle of the night, and took over rolling for the monsters, resulting in the Zombie (who at this point was in combat with about four enemies in the doorway) getting taken out at the start of the Monster phase, leaving everyone else that was previously held up by him free to bundle after Tim and his companions. Tim’s Man at Arms breaks free of the grasping skeletal hand, only for the Lich to immediately cast it on him again - she seems fairly determined not to let him escape with that treasure!
While all this has been going on, the poor attacker over on the right flank has been valiantly trying to break free, is surrounded by two oozes and two wolves, and finally succumbs to superior numbers (both of enemies, and on die rolls).
Back by the door, the Captain slashes the skeletal hand at the Man at Arms ankle, before leaping through the door herself, closely followed by the few remaining survivors - Tim, the Apprentice, and the Man at Arms still desperately clinging onto the Treasure Token, with Tim summoning another zombie to block the doorway as he escapes. The Apprentice tries to cast Bone Dart as he steps across the threshold of the exit, but fails to do so, making for a slightly anticlimactic ending…
Post-game, the Hound and Knight are both Badly Wounded, and must miss a game, but everyone else survives. It would have been better for me if it had been the Thug and Thief that had been injured, as they are free to replace, but the dice tend not to care for what is the best option for the player…
Tim gains 3 levels, and so lacking any Grimoires to learn new spells improves his Health stat (mostly to give him more blood to spend on turning failed casting rolls into successful ones), and then improves Push (for which the Apprentice is thankful!) and Control Construct (because Tim quite liked having a pet golem, and thinks he might like to do so again in the future). In hindsight, writing this post I think maybe I should improve Brew Potion, because they seem to always fail to cast this, and it would be good to have a supply of free healing potions beyond the one the Apothecary brings every game, but that’s a problem for a future game I guess.
And what was the treasure that everyone risked life and limb for? 40 gold, and two scrolls (for Curse and Suggestion). I always forget that Tim has a pile of scrolls, so that’s less useful than some of the other results - might have to raid a library at some point to see if we can find some Grimoires…
Hmm, spending 400 gold before this game to buy a kennel might not have been the most financially responsible thing to do, as Tim is almost flat broke. He searches around the Treasury that is their base for loose change, finding another 13 gold, taking them up to 200 - before the Captain comes up to him to collect her share of the profits. Ah well, silver lining, at least the Captain’s share of the take isn’t too much, thinks Tim.
He also rounds on his Man-at-Arms:
Tim: ‘why is it that those henchmen pursuing us have the same shield as you? Is there something you need to tell me?’
MAA [confused, eating a chicken leg]: ‘what?’
Tim: ‘are you a spy?’
MAA:’do you really not remember?’
Tim [taken aback]: ‘…what?’
MAA: ‘when you hired me?’
Tim: ‘…’
MAA: ‘Remember? I was standing guard outside the mistress’ bedroom, you walked out, and hired me on the spot when I saw you tucking-‘
Tim: ‘-okay that’s probably enough’
MAA” into your pocket, and you told me never-‘
Tim: ‘enough, enough, never speak of this again’
Meanwhile, in a crypt somewhere else in the city, Tim’s Mortal Enemy leaves up - she gains immunity to poison, presumably from having slurped up an ooze or two after the last encounter! It’s a little terrifying how a mortal Enemies level up- as well as gaining that ability, she also gains two magic items (a magic staff that makes her better at fighting and avoiding ranged attacks, and a magic lucky star), as well as upgrading one of her henchmen into an Archer!
Next - Ishtar’s Weapon Shop, the goal of this journey into the Frozen City, presumably with an additional Thief subbing in for the Knight who is going to spend a game taking a nap with the Hound while they recover from their wounds.
For the next scenario, I need a miniature closet - while I could have subbed in a crate stood on it’s side, I figured that was a quick and easy project, so quickly ate a box of raisins, both to give me the energy for crafting, but also to form the body of my closet:
Masking tape holds it all square, then I just glued wooden planks (from coffee stirrers and match sticks) directly on to make the boards.
I also dug out a small piece of wood veneer (that I believe was originally for sticking onto a phone to make it look like it was made of wood?) to make the doors, scribing a line down the middle of it to give the illusion of a pair of doors.
My youngest was also crafting alongside me making one of his own:
Although ‘making one of his own’ was mostly ‘stealing every bit of wood Daddy has carefully cut to length for his own model before he has a chance to use it’, but that’s just how these things go.
Once it was finished, it looked like this:
I might go back and add a base to make it a little more stable (as I think some of my side planks are a little too long, which is making it a bit wobbly, then it’s time for painting, which should be a fairly quick job.
Here’s the back, too, as is traditional:
The panel at the bottom could be purely decorative, or is it an access hatch to a secret compartment?
And here’s Brodie’s:
Looks pretty good, don’t you think?
