Frostgrave: Alchemical Monstrosity (solo play)

A quick write-up/report of my first attempt at solo-play Frostgrave.

Warband: wizard (unaligned), treasure hunter, crossbowwoman, archer.

 

Table set up:

 

Deployment:

 

As the dust settles, the members of my warband can see two doorways in the distance, one of which they hope will lead to an exit. No sign of danger but, unbeknownst to them, something is lurking behind the large pile of fallen masonry directly in front of them. A vicious goose (alchemical monstrosity):

 

Turn 1. The crossbowwoman advances to the left and shoots at the goose, while the archer goes to the right and also shoots at the goose. Neither shot achieves anything. The wizard heads off to the left, towards one of the treasure tokens, while the treasure hunter moves right, taking up a position in front of the archer, trying to lure the goose towards him. This brave – or foolish – ploy works, as the goose charges towards him but, having to traverse some rubble, falls just short of reaching him.

 

Turn 2. The wizard advances down the left flank and picks up the treasure token in front of him. The crossbowwoman reloads and advances forwards, to where she had a potential shot at the goose (but no more activations this turn).

The treasure hunter decides that the goose is too close for comfort and discretion is the better part of valour, so he backs away – looking to move round a large ruined wall and towards another treasure – but not without taking damage from the goose’s tentacle attack. This leaves the archer exposed, so he retreats back towards the board edge and shoots at the goose with no effect.

The goose doesn’t pursue him, because it can now see the crossbowwoman and charges her instead.

Turn 3. While the goose attacks the crossbowwoman, the wizard advances down the left, in possession of one treasure and closing in on a second, and the treasure hunter moves forward down the right, picking up another treasure. Unfortunately, this also places him with range of a newly-spawned rat, which finishes the already-wounded treasure hunter off with a single bite.

The archer moves forward, into a position where he could shoot the goose, which is currently still locked in combat with the crossbowwoman (who is bravely focusing on keeping it tied up in combat for as long as possible).

 

 

Turn 4. The wizard, now in possession of two treasures, is able to reach the left-hand door (but not in time to try it this turn). While the crossbowwoman is still tying up the goose, the archer moves forward and shoots the rat, killing it.

Turn 5. The wizard tries the door, but it’s the wrong one. He moves across towards the other one, bringing him closer to the rat-hole. The archer moves forward, picking up a treasure token. The goose finally finishes off the crossbowwoman and then turns (after the below picture) to pursue the archer.

 

Turn 6. The goose charges the archer, but loses combat, so the archer pushes it back and retreats towards the right (and the remaining treasure token, that was dropped by the treasure hunter), taking a shot as he does so, but without effect.

Turn 7. The goose charges the archer again, but this time the archer rolls a natural 20 and finishes it off.

At the same time, the wizard – who is now stood next to the rat hole – is stuck fighting a series of rats, with a new one appearing every time he dispatches one.

Turns 8+. The archer, now in possession of two treasures, is able to reach and open the right-hand door while a break in the flow of rats allows the wizard also to head that way. One last rats appears, but only in time to see the wizard and archer disappearing through the doorway.

 

Aftermath:

The treasure hunter made a full recovery from his rat bite, but the crossbowwoman suffered fatal injuries after heroically keeping the goose in combat for several turns.

The four treasures recovered yielded 30 gold coins, a magic hand weapon (+1 Fight), two potions (Preservation and an Exploding Cocktails), and two scrolls (Glow and Construct Oil).

There wasn’t much experience. I hadn’t really chosen spells, so didn’t cast any! A total of 80, for getting out the door and for killing monsters (four rats, I think).