THE Bathgate Wargames Club
Present our
Public Participation Game for 2010
See it and play it at Carronade, Wappinschaw, Claymore and Skelp
The
Story
Castle,
Crackenwald & Werewald
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!