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THE Bathgate Wargames Club

Present our

Public Participation Game for 2010

See it and play it at Carronade, Wappinschaw, Claymore and Skelp

The Story

For three hundred years the undead Countess Zsofia has lived on the blood of her peasants in the Crackenwald. Now the Ottoman Pasha has authorised some British adventurers to remove her using her own magic Bogosigil spell. With her gone his nephew can take over and Antimony can be mined here. This will be for the benefit of the Free Bears Mining Company and William Britain who can make his hollow cast toy soldiers. The Adventurers, members of the Diogenes club are principally doing this for the glory of their own public schools and the British Empire. The Squad which achieves the mission, will be lauded in The Times by Witham Burchill. To get to Zsofia in her castle the adventurers have to pass through the perilous Werewald as dusk arrives and their escort is left behind. Only a woman can cast the Portal destruction spell which may do away with the Countess and the Grimoire, source of her magic.

Castle, Crackenwald & Werewald

Our version of Crackenwald Castle is almost all hand made, from simple materials by the veteran wargamer and skilled miniature architect John (Slim) Mumford.  Some proprietary scenic items were used or cannibalised. The main materials are compressed polystyrene, card, and so on all coated with emulsion paints. Crags from expanded polystyrene and the trees from several proprietary brands.
Castle layout
Crackenwald Castle The way to the castle The Castle Courtyard Chapel & Crypt
Cellar Kitchen and Hall First Floor The Werewald The End Game!

The Cast

The figures come from the collection of Slim Mumford from a variety of sources.  Most prominently Blue Moons’ ‘Things that go bump in the Night’ range. In fact it was the acquisition of these that initially inspired the foray into the ‘Victorian Gothic’ role-playing sub period..  

Eton & Harrow Adventurers Werewald Encounters Crackenwald encounters Castle Garrison Werewald Encounters Adventurers

Players Viewpoint

It is 1890 in the Ottoman Empire’s Carpathian Mountains, close to the Austro-Hungarian Empire border. (Also on the provincial borders of Wallachia and Transylvania.) Players’ parties begin outside the Tax-gatherer’s tower in the Werewald. They have spent the day getting here, whilst the Werewolves are safely in their human but not necessarily friendly forms. Within the tower is their Turkish escort provided by the Pasha and The Times Reporter Witham Burchill. The game objective is to destroy the wicked undead Vampire Countess Zsofia. When that happens there will be no obstruction to Antimony mining on her estate and William Britain will be able to start producing hollow-cast Toy Soldiers. For such an Empire-enhancing feat, the fearless heroes achieving it will get their names, plus that of their old Public School blazoned in The Times! The squads are each named after the public school their two gentlemen attended, Eton, Harrow, Rugby or Winchester. It is now dusk and the werewolves will be stirring. Squads are kept small so as to avoid raising the alarm! It is known that Zsofia employs Raven scouts. A Turkish peddler has reported the accessible breaches in the tower and two walls on behalf of the Pasha.  

   Players start by drawing cards for first (large) which squad, second for which route they are to take and third which lady is to accompany them. Their own stalwart TINSEL relatives having been lost in Istanbul, the ‘ladies’ have been hired for five golden sovereigns apiece. These were from the Order of St. Polycarp Hostel for Western travellers in distress. Each squad has two pistol-armed former Public schoolboys, two cudgel armed servants plus the lady assigned to them. The ruling Pasha Lotsmentas of Turcichute has given his firmans (permits) on condition that his subjects are not unreasonably harmed. It is vital not to raise the alarm in the castle, as the drumbeat will summon the Countess’ militia from the forest beyond. However the final approach through the Werewald has many dangers of its own. A shot or two may not concern the castle dwellers? Similarly a lit lamp may not worry them either, but moves are halved groping in the dark!

The objective for each squad is to find the Noxportal slabs in the castle. The Noxportals are used by the Countess to move around her castle. Only a woman can read out the spells, to move to another, or to destroy a Noxportal. If the Noxportal is the one with Noxia’s Grimoire beneath it, that is destroyed. Then the Countess and her magically preserved Bestandigen Sklaven Servants, will collapse in heaps of dust. Lesser Blut Sklaven, live servants bound to obey the Countess, regain free will. Sklaven can be recognised by the Bogosigil tattooed on their foreheads. Squads may destroy more than one Noxportal and this may indeed become necessary.

   From the historic account by the Countess’ lady’s maid Heike and her lover Helmut, it is known that there is a secret passage from a Werewald cave to a place in the castle. Which cave and where in the castle is not known but a magic vertical Noxportal in it speeds up any movement along it! Another cave holds the kitchen waste disposal chute and could be accessible. Each party has a grapnel rope, a jemmy, a sling rope, cords & gags for restraining prisoners, matches, one stick of dynamite plus a first aid kit carried by the lady. 

The unlife of this evil woman Zsofia stands between progress, British Empire prosperity, justification of the British Public School system and even more importantly your own personal glory! She has to die! 

 

 

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