A Less-Than-Frosty Frostgrave

 I went out and met up with Set (the host of our fizzled Dracula's America campaign, with an absolutely awe-inspiring terrain collection) for a game of Frostgrave today - or rather, a game of houseruled Frostgrave, incorporating some aspects of "Ghost Archipelago" and in a homebrew setting. As you can see, there's not much frost on the table!

 I brought a wargame comprised of some of my recent samurai figures, whose snow-covered bases wouldn't have been out of place in the game's original setting. We had a multi-faceted mission - hobgoblins had been raiding caravans and taking captives, and the merchants were paying for dead hobgoblins, rescued captives and retrieved artifacts. Rather than "treasure tokens," there were investigative tokens strewn across the table  - once we interacted with these, they might yield treasure, a monster, or nothing at all. 

Early on in the game, one of Set's warband members interacted with one that yielded a monster, and a roll on the table yielded a pterodactyl that over the course of the game ended up taking out a third of his warband, including his wizard.

 Meanwhile, my crew accidentally brought a pair of armored skeletons and an ogre on to the table.

 I won't get into a direct play by play here, since a lot of the particulars of what happened when seeped out of my brain on the half hour drive home. But the overall gist is that we originally focused on our objectives - taking down hobgoblins and collecting treasure. One of my Thieves unlocked the cage the captives were in, and with the help of one of my Thugs, began ushering the two captives to freedom. 

And then we started trying to kill each other. I inflicted very little harm on Set's warband, only managing to kill his warhound, while he killed outright or at least finished off most of my warband (at least, those that the ogre didn't splatter!). 

 At the end of the game, I'd killed two hobgoblins, retrieved two parcels of treasure (one containing one of the artifacts we'd been hired to go after), and rescued one captive, while Set killed two hobgoblins, retrieved two parcels of treasure (both artifacts) and managed to make it off the table with zero captives. 

 

In the post-game, my treasure resolved itself into a grimoire containing the spell "Miraculous Cure," a magic dagger that gives the wielder +1 Fighting, and 250 gold coins when combined with the rewards for the artifact and captive.  Of those in my warband who'd fallen, everyone made a full recovery except for my Archer and my two Thieves, who will need to be replaced before next game, whenever that may be. My Witch gained two levels, which I used to improve her Fighting stat and made it easier for her to cast "Curse" in future games.

All in all it was a great game and I had a lot of fun. Hopefully this turns into a more regular thing - in part because I visit Set's house so infrequently that I keep making a wrong turn on the way home that adds an extra three miles to my commute and I'd like to get accustomed enough to the route to stop making that wrong turn! 

Living On This Island Earth

On June 10th, 1955, a humble little scifi B-movie hit theaters called THIS ISLAND EARTH. It starred Rex Reason and Faith Domergue as atomic scientists kidnapped by Exeter, a mysterious yet seemingly kindly man with white hair and a large forehead, and taken to his home planet of Metaluna. Metaluna was under attack by the forces of the planet Zagon, and Metaluna needed the earth scientists' aid to synthesize enough uranium to fuel their defensive screens long enough to evacuate Metaluna's population to Earth. While Exeter argues for a peaceful coexistence with Earth, the leader of Metaluna instead suggests a future where earthlings would be subservient to the "superior" Metalunans. The question is moot, however, as it's too late; Exeter and the earthlings narrowly escape as Metaluna, under heavy bombardment, transforms into a new star. However, a Mutant (or Mu-TANT, given the enunciation in the film), a synthetic species of humanoid insects used as slave labor on Metaluna, has stowed away on the flying saucer and attacks, delivering a fatal wound to Exeter before being destroyed itself. 

I'll be honest, while it's got its charm it's not an amazing film, and these days might be best known for being included in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie," which I used to have on VHS back in the day. I certainly tend to think of some of the jokes made by Mike and the Bots in that when I think of this film. 

The Mu-TANT, however, has achieved a degree of iconicness; because the film was produced and distributed by Universal Studios, it does get included with the Universal Monsters in some tie-in media (action figure licenses, etc), and coming just a year after the Creature From The Black Lagoon, I applaud the inclusion. Modernized version have also appeared in the films MEN IN BLACK 3 and LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION in scenes paying tribute to the sci-fi boom of the 1950s. 

Which is a long, roundabout way to explain who these guys are. BigMrTong did a limited release of metal figures inspired by the Metaluna Mu-TANT, and I picked up three of them. They're now available as an STL file through his patreon, but I got three of the metal release, bending the arms slightly to create some variation between them. They'd been sitting primed on my desk for a while, but on the 10th I saw a notice on one of the B-movie pages I follow on social media stating it was the film's anniversary, so I got my rear in gear and started painting. 

 

Nothing too fancy, and I avoided trying to paint the sculpted veins on the arms - I just don't have a fine enough brush and enough trust in the steadiness of my own hands not to bodge it up repeatedly.  

 While I was at it, I knocked out another bit of scatter terrain for my modern tables - a hot dog cart, ready to be parked on a street corner dishing out delicious street meat to hungry pedestrians. 

 This is a 3D print I got from Miniature Building Authority, given a simple metallic drybrush for that stainless steel look, and the hot dog and soda logos picked out in full color. 

"This kid's been back four times today... he's an eating machine!"

 

So let's get that tracker updated:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 149

Miniatures Painted: 129

Terrain Acquired: 4

Terrain Painted: 6

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 9

 

Majestic 13: Operation Out of Sight

 "The eggheads call it a 'Navite Warrior,'" the Lieutenant said. "Cybernetic organisms - a meat core surrounded by steel armor and robot limbs, armed with a big damn gun. They've got a couple different load-outs they cycle between - blinding shot, restraining shot, things like that. So stay frosty, kids, watch each other's backs, and put more rounds into it than it puts into you."

He scratched his beard. 

"I've been calling in favors, team," he added, sounding older than usual. "You deserve a hell of a lot better than Majestic is giving you. You know that, I know that. You're a damn good team and you're putting the hurt on FORCE better than some of the more militarized fire-teams in the field. And I'm damn proud of you, all of you. Let's kick some ass today, collect some monster samples, and remember I'm doing everything I can to get you the rewards you deserve."

***

The Last Liners converged on a busy city street. The gleaming orange and green metal of the Navite Warrior caught the summer sunlight as it crouched above the failing TeeVeeShak, its optical sensors surveying its surroundings.

 

 The Lieutenant opened fire on the creature, blood and oil spurting as bullets pierced the rubber sheathing covering its mechanical joints. Hank, his hands shaking with nerves, squeezed the trigger on his SAW...and missed! The Navite Warrior responded with its Scatter Shot ability, blazing away at every member of the Last Liners. Everyone took damage, and the creature scored a critical hit on Sarah-Jane, almost killing her. Becky was also temporarily blinded by the creature's attack. Its attack completed, the Navite Warrior leapt off the TeeVeeShak roof and scurried into the junkyard.

 

Maria darted across the street and, teeth gritted, pulled herself up the drainpipe on to the TeeVeeShak, taking a pot shot at the monster upon reaching the roof. Blinking away her blindness, Becky ran towards the junkyard gates, lining up a quick shot. Sarah-Jane shot the monster with her sniper rifle, then performed some quick first aid on herself. 

 

The Navite Warrior retaliated by firing a Restraining Shot at Becky; she ducked and dodged the spinning bolas of razor-wire, avoiding damage, only to have the monster somersault over her and shoot her in the back from the front steps of the pawn shop with its Focused Shot ability. The Lieutenant and Hank poured fire into the creature, and Maria called in a drone strike on the monster.

 Becky wandered into the junkyard, feigning polite interest in the conflict between the yard's manager and an unhappy customer as she collected a sample of the creature's effluvium. 

 The Navite fired its Scatter Shot again, hitting the Lieutenant and Becky, both of whom successfully resisted being blinded. The monster darted up on to the roof of the doughnut shop, firing its Restraining Shot at the Lieutenant who miraculously managed to dodge (his Dexterity is still low, and all of these attacks necessitated him making Dexterity saves). 

 

The Lieutenant rolled into cover behind the pickup truck (the driver of which was engaged in intense price negotiations with a hooker, and hadn't noticed the monster) and fired at the Navite Warrior. Hank tried to line up another shot, and missed again; the creature activated, firing its Scatter Shot, hitting the Lieutenant and Maria. Maria and Becky shot at the monster, dealing enough damage to send it into Extremis; from here on out it would take additional damage every time it activated. 

Sarah-Jane missed her next shot, and the Navite whirred into action, blood oozing from its joints as its servos overheated and systems began to fail. It fired another Scatter Shot, striking Maria and the Lieutenant, who failed his saving throw and was blinded by the attack, and leapt down from the doughnut shop roof, landing hard and spurting hydraulic fluids, its knees buckling from the strain. Activating again, then fired a Restraining Shot at Maria, who failed to dodge. The razor-wire ball struck her and expanded, encircling her and restricting her limbs. Bleeding profusely, she collapsed. The Navite tried to activate a third time, and its systems fully overloaded and failed, shutting down and dying.

***

The Lieutenant blinked sight back into his eyes. The Navite Warrior was quickly slagging itself, destroying all traces of FORCE technology to prevent it from falling into human hands. Hank and Becky were extracting Maria, unconscious, from the tangle of razor-wire as best they could. 

He cursed, and pulled out the burner phone. Thumbing a number in, he listened to the buzz as the call was picked up.

"We killed it fast and discreetly. These kids are the best there is in this goddamn fight, so don't tell me you can't give them some answers and some goddamn hope. I've got a soldier down and you're picking up the goddamn medical bill."

He ended the call without waiting for a response. 

***

 This was the smoothest game I've had yet. The pre-game Bureaucracy roll came up "No Event," I had no "FUBAR" events, and the monster died at the end of turn 3. Granted, I'm probably two games away from the game switching to "Phase 2," where the monsters' stats go up, so the challenge will go up again soon. 

Going into post-game...

Maria fully recovered from her wounds, and is ready to go for next game with no new penalties. 

I was one building shy of successfully completing the "Alien Tissue Collection" secondary mission I'd rolled up; if the monster had held on for one more turn I would have had enough time for someone to touch the doughnut shop and it would have been a success. As is, everyone but Maria scored 3 XP, and Maria scored 2. This allowed everyone to improve one ability. 

The Lieutenant boosted Dexterity again, while Hank, Sarah-Jane, Becky and Maria all improved their Combat ability by 1. Hank's Combat ability is now at 20, meaning from here on out it will cost him 6XP to boost that ability instead of the usual 3. 

As for post-battle gear requisitions...

Targeting HUD (second request)? - No.

Drone control pod for the base? - No. 

A prosthetic arm for Maria? - No. Apparently United Healthcare is involved with Majestic 13. 

***

As the team unwound after the fight with beers, the radio suddenly crackled and switched over from classic rock to a hollow, echoing voice.

 "Good evening, Lieutenant! Congratulations are in order for you and your team following today's performance. Majestic is very pleased with your track record against the bioweapons of FORCE. I'm given to understand that your team is dissatisfied with Majestic's dissemination of information, and I'm very sorry to hear that. Please understand that information regarding the ongoing war against FORCE is highly classified, even within Majestic, both for the good of the conspiracy as a whole and for the individual agents on the ground. There's very little I can tell you even if I wanted to. That being said, I do believe your team deserves to be thrown a bone, so to speak. Please be on the lookout; I'm going to provide a date, time and coordinates to you in the very near future through coded channels. Meet me then and there and I'll see what I can do for you." 

The radio hissed and returned to playing the Eagles. The Last Liners looked at each other. They could all feel it. Something big was coming their way.  

12 Civilians? No, 13!

 I finished a baker's dozen of figures for my modern collection last night after about a week's worth of evening work. Even better, most of them had large, well-sculpted faces and I was able to go in and paint eyes on them! 

 First up, a short order cook and a carhop waitress, complete with a tray of fries, shake and burger, from Killer B Games (purchased through Recreational Conflict here in the USA). Maybe slightly anachronistic for a "modern" game, given that carhops on roller skates seem to really be a thing of the 1950s, but my table is pretty consistently a blend of the second half of the 20th century up into the 2010s or so. My home city of Buffalo is often used as a shooting location for early 20th century films because so many local buildings haven't changed in a century; it's the Rust Belt, things hang around because we can't always afford to replace them. 

 A few more Killer B figures - a slobby guy in an undershirt with a newspaper, scratching his ass; a clerk I'm interpreting as a pharmacist or even a barber; and a "Sporty Girl" in shorts, high socks and a tight T-shirt with a Farrah Fawcett cut. I'm pretty pleased with myself for the piping on her shorts and the blue stripes on her socks. I gave her a grassy base versus a gravelly one because I can see her showing up in non-urban games as well. 

 Something a little spicy - a pimp and his stable of girls. Everyone but the rightmost figure here are from Reaper Miniatures, while the black madam in a red jumpsuit and white coat is another Killer B figure. I took some color cues from "A Pimp Named Slickback" on the animated show "The Boondocks" for him:

"No,no, not 'Slickback,' I'm 'A Pimp Named Slickback,' you have to say the whole thing."

 One of the guys in the group I hang out and paint with on Monday nights saw the feather in his hat the and the hook of his cane and said, "Oh cool, a pirate!"

Not...not quite, Darryl. You got the "pi" part right. 

 I am really pleased with the sheer stockings effect I got on the blonde, as well. 

 Pushing the bounds of "civilians" quite a bit, these two armed ladies are from Copplestone Castings. Not a whole lot to say here; I realize now I forgot to go in and put a dark wash over the metallics for their guns. 

So that's 12, but I promised you 13 - who's still to be shown?

 I'm a little bummed - I painted this Reaper Miniatures cat on the sprue (I've got three more cats left), so I wasn't able to test-fit him to this 3D printed cardboard box. So he's more concealed than I really would have liked, but it is what it is. Once varnished he's going to be glued to the sidewalk in front of one of my modern buildings.

 So let's update that tracker:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 149

Miniatures Painted: 126

Terrain Acquired: 4

Terrain Painted: 6

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 8

 

Here's Your Sign

 Another piece of terrain for my modern tables, this one has been sitting awaiting attention for a bit. This is a straightforward roadside billboard from Atomic Laser Cut Designs, that went together a treat, without too much sanding. 

 The base was sprayed cement gray and the sign itself a dark brown, before getting a dusty drybrushing of tan craft paint. The actual advertising was what I could knock out with my slightly-busted black and white inkjet printer at home; I'll probably end up doing at least two more of these and I'll make the trip to Office Max for color printing for those, with billboards for local defunct ambulance chasing lawyers and a used car salesman who had omnipresent ads and slogans for years.  

The base got some glue painted on it and dipped in some gray "fine ballast" from Woodland Scenics before getting tarted up with a few tufts and a 3D printed cardboard box. I've got a bag full of assorted little cardboard boxes a friend printed up for me and I think they add some visual interest.

My friend Chris and I are looking at getting some Fistful of Kung Fu in this month, and martial artists are actually something I don't have much in the way of; so I've ordered some street fighters and ninjas from Crooked Dice to flesh out life on the mean streets of Tabletop Town. And speaking of fleshing things out, I've got a dozen civilians (well, mostly civilians) on my painting bench at the moment, with most of them nearly at the point of just needing their hair painted. 

Time to update the tracker - and I've been going back and forth as to whether the billboard counts as scatter or full-blown terrain. I'm going to count it as terrain.

 

Miniatures Acquired: 149

Miniatures Painted: 113

Terrain Acquired: 4

Terrain Painted: 6

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 8

 

Another Monster and Some Terrain Faffing

 I had had every intention of starting work on some samurai terrain. And then a buddy started enthusing about the game "Five Parsecs From Home" and the next thing I knew, I had a bunch of 3D printed scifi terrain that I'd bought years ago and, at best, hit with a coat of pale blue-gray spray paint, sitting on my work bench. The rulebook for Five Parsecs From Home should be here Friday. It definitely does seem like something up my alley, and I'm trying to treat it as something I can use figures and terrain I already own for so it's not really a new project. 

We'll see how that goes.

But I did finish painting another monster for my Majestic 13 stable. This is another one of the Zombicide: Invader "Abominations" I bought off a friend, this one the "Stomper Abomination." I have no idea what any of it means in Zombicide, but it's a nifty sculpt that painted up well. I used the "Coconut Crab" painting technique across it's shell and I think it turned out really well, and was a surprisingly fast and easy process - I think I did most of the painting in a single evening.

 And I painted four pieces of scifi scatter terrain to my satisfaction. These are some scifi cargo containers, printed from STLs by "WArLayer" that I ordered off Etsy back in 2019 and have been sitting unpainted since then. I hit them with a coat of gunmetal gray spray paint, gave them an oily-looking wash, then drybrushed with silver craft paint before adding some striping and detailing the screens.

 While I had the silver craft paint out, I finished a bit of detailing on my 3D printed video store that my friend Dave printed for me last year. I'd painted the exterior before Wargames Among the Warplanes last year but hadn't gotten around to the interior until about a month or two ago. All that was left was painting the window frames on the inside and gluing some signage to the interior walls, so I got that taken care of last night.

Two of my favorite 80s B-grade horror movies!

 

I am still waiting on some furniture (a counter and some video shelves) to fully furnish it, and Dave has had the STLs for that for printing for a bit. I hadn't realized he only fires up his resin printer once every few months when he has a bunch of things he can print all at once. 

I did order a few more figures for Majestic 13 as well, so let's update the tracker:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 137

Miniatures Painted: 113

Terrain Acquired: 4

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 8

 

Majestic 13: Operation Wildfire

"Load up, kids," the Lieutenant said, passing out ammunition. "We've got special ammo for this mission. Something the eggheads cooked up - cadmium rounds. The same stuff they use in control rods for nuclear fission. Why, you might ask, are we being issued cadmium rounds?"

 "Because we're going after something radioactive?" Sarah-Jane hazarded a guess.

"Close enough! We're hunting a 'Cannonade' today - superheated plasma with a bad attitude. The good news is these suckers aren't particularly smart and can't take a lot of punishment compared to some of the other monsters in FORCE's menagerie. The bad news is they can dish out a lot of heat, and at fairly long range. This ammo should cool the monster's fire. Spread out, stick to cover, and I'll take you all out for ice cream after this is over."

*** 

Playing games of Majestic 13 always makes me want to play the next game of Majestic 13, which I think is the mark of a good campaign system. We ended on a fairly grim note last time, and hopefully this mission will give the Last Liners a much-needed morale boost.

 Due to a bureaucratic mixup, the Last Liners arrived via the northwest corner of the table instead of being able to deploy as they pleased. The Cannonade deployed opposite them on the large hill to the northeast, and the secondary mission, "Gear Collection," saw two weapons caches deployed - one right in front of the Liners, and one next to the monster.

 

The Cannonade activated first, spotting the Lieutenant and firing a blast of energy at him, only to miss! The scorching ray went wide, and the crew rolled out, with the Lieutenant leaping over the pickup truck and tagging the first gear cache. He opened fire on the monster, followed by Hank doing the same. 

 The cadmium rounds hissed and crackled as they froze the creature's plasma. Becky took off running, eager to take up a position where she could seize the second cache once the monster moved away from it, while Maria darted into a copse of trees - and disturbed a wasps' nest, getting stung for her trouble. She ignored the pain of the stings and fired at the creature as well. 

 The Cannonade floated down between Maria and Becky, hitting both of them with an energy wave - not dealing a lot of damage, but the actinic burst blinded Maria.

 Seeing her chance, Sarah-Jane squeezed off a round from her new sniper rifle, sending the cadmium bullet deep into what passed for the creature's torso. She winced as the creature roared and the blast of retaliatory fire off it swept over both Maria and Becky again. 

The creature darted for cover behind the old stone bridge, and the Lieutenant took the opportunity the spring forward and apply first aid to Maria. "Be careful!" he growled. 

 

"Or else what?" Maria blinked the blindness away and grinned. "I'll get cloned again?" She turned and ran across the woods, firing off another shot into the monster. Meanwhile, Becky made a mad dash for the gear cache, seizing it and completing the team's secondary objective.

 The Cannonade slithered forward, eyes blazing. Hank was in range, and it belched white-hot energy at him... and rolled a critical hit! Once damage was totaled, Hank was out of action.

 Maria, Sarah-Jane and the Lieutenant continued to fire on the monster, moving from cover point to cover point. Becky, her hands shaking too much to line up a shot, clicked the safety on the rifle Sarah-Jane had given her. The Cannonade saw her, almost seemed to sneer as it sprayed fire at her. It washed over her, burning hair and clothing, her skin blistering. It didn't matter; she stayed standing. 

That shot took her from full health down to just 2 HP!

 

She was stronger than it was. The whole secret war had seemed so overwhelming, too much for her. She was scared shitless. But right now, in this moment, she was still alive.

She knew what to do. The message was already keyed into the burner phone. Her thumb hovered over the "send" button, then pressed it.

The drone screamed across the sky.

"Everybody get back!" The Lieutenant shouted. "This thing'll explode! Keep going, keep going, run, run RUN RUNRUNRUNRUN-"

 

A spray of cadmium-tipped missiles erupted from the nose of the drone. The Cannonade screeched, it's alien voice something only heard in the hearts of stars. 

And then the whole world went white. 

 ***

The heat faded, and the Lieutenant pushed himself off the ground, shedding ash that had been trees before the blast. Everyone was caked in gray, coughing and spitting as they rose to their knees, then their feet. The creek had boiled away. Trees reduced to oversized burnt match heads. A few charred timbers remained of the cabin. The only trace remaining of the monster was its shadow burned into the ground. The Lieutenant pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. Slowly, he lit the cigarette.

Sarah-Jane coughed and tried to rub ash off her face with ash-covered hands. "30 seconds earlier and you could have skipped the lighter," she said weakly. 

"30 seconds ago I didn't need the cigarette," he replied gruffly. "Hey Becks, what was that place you were talking about last week, with the chocolate shell pinata filled with ice cream? You earned it." 

***

 That was a great game, and the kind of win (and morale boost) the Last Liners sorely needed. Playing smart did a lot to keep most of my team safe, along with taking opportunities for first aid wherever I could. The sniper rifle is not a huge boost in firepower compared to the regular rifle but being able to ignore cover is nice, and the damage does increase if the user doesn't move before shooting. I did play Maria more aggressively and Becky more cautiously based on the post-game results of last game, and I'm really pleased that the dice rolls and the decisions I made throughout the game led to a moment where Becky got to be a big damn hero without needing to make ability score checks and incur the penalty to her rolls that she'd garnered last game. 

Speaking of post-game processes, let's dive into this round.

Hank survived being toasted, but is now traumatized - he gains the -2 to all ability score rolls right as Becky is losing her penalty. 

The Last Liners have successfully requisitioned another kit of body armor, which will be going to Maria. Efforts to gain a Sighting HUD failed, but they did call in a few favors and gained access to Emergency Medical Facilities for their home base - which may be simply them getting to call on some of Sarah-Jane's veterinary associates for stitching and horse-tranquilizers with no questions asked. 

We did get some XP this game, and everyone got to raise an ability score. The Lieutenant began clawing back the Dexterity he lost, while Hank, Maria and Sarah-Jane boosted their Acuity scores. Becky added 1 point to her Combat score.  

All in all, a great game and a great end to my long weekend.