Rufina Grey Eye and the Grimoire of Life

 

Rufina Grey Eye has been sent by her Mistress Thanda the Grim to procure the Grimoire of Life, procure is rather a loose term that basically means steal.

 

After the last adventure that Rufina had been sent on, she has a lot to prove, although everyone else involved with the charade had basically stuck to the party line and so it was seen as a successful venture by their boss – Thanda. That was a good outcome for all concerned, Thanda’s wrath knew no bounds, see https://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/grook-and-princess.html

 

She was so pleased with Rufina that she had let her pick her own team to escort her this time, strangely no one from the first mission wanted to go and so she is out with an untried group of adventurers.

 

They were all introduced a couple of posts earlier than their first, or was it last adventure..

 

 http://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/thanda-grim-and-rest-of-band.html

 

There are a few fighters, a few thieves and only one archer to try and keep Rufina alive, they knew this was their main reason for being chosen. Indeed rumours had spread following Rufina’s first solo outing without Thanda’s guiding hand, well the guiding hand was more of a smack behind the ear if Rufina made a mistake, which strangely enough was quite often.

 

Sandra the Dancer has been sent on in advance of the main party to scout out the lay of the land.

 

Up ahead is a small log cabin, this is where they are told the Grimoire is hidden. She can see a few beehives off to her left, a laden donkey and a table with a large wooden chest on it outside the cabin and obviously a dunny to the right.

 

Further right is what appears to be a pig sty tended by a grubby peasant.

 

In the wooden compound is another peasant drinking from a bowl and stroking a small scruffy dog.

 

The obligatory drone view of the whole scene.

 

Sandra makes her way back to the rest of the party and tells them what she has seen. When questioned she agrees that there is no sign of anyone who might be the current custodian of the Grimoire of Life, maybe in the cabin is all she can say.

 

A plan of action is devised by Rufina and for once I agree with the plan. Helgi and Sandra will make their way through the woods and round to the back of the cabin. Rufina and the rest of the team will approach openly from the front and try and create a sufficient diversion to enable the other two to enter the cabin unseen find and escape with the Grimoire.

 

Sounds pretty good to me.

 

Helgi and Sandra have a long way to go so I decided on 1D6 +6 turns and then each turn roll 2D6 and

on a 7 they will arrive.

 

Rufina will decide when to start her approach to the cabin, too soon and she will have a long time trying to convince the occupants she is harmless, too late and Helgi and Sandra will almost certainly be discovered.

 

Ruffina decided on allowing 7 turns to pass before setting off.

 

Turn 8 and the group are hailed by Gormy Gilbert over by the pig sty. “Oi wat you want” Rufina gives him the weary traveller routine, just want some food and drink, maybe a bed, only one night, well maybe two, it’s been a long journey and we have a long way to go. Yes I know that you know the routine, so does Gilbert. However he gets an ambivalent dice roll on his brains test and doesn’t tell them to piss off, as most of us would.

 

The chap drinking and watching the food slowly cook also has an ambivalent brains test and so continues to watch the pot boil.

 

Rufina is thinking that her training as an Elimentalist has it’s downside, she could sent a lightning bolt into the cabin and burn it down, well she could on a very good day, but she is not trained in the finer skills of persuasion and so can’t get the oaf guarding the pigsty to invite her into the cabin for food and a rest. She doesn’t have the spells to achieve that and so falls back on her womanly guile, smiles sweetly and rolls against her charisma score versus Gormy’s Brains – nope that didn’t work either. It turns out he’s not as gormy as he might at first appear.

 

Helgi fails to arrive.

 

A demure young woman comes out of the cabin and says “mind the donkey, he bites” Ayesha raises her fist and whispers “ you bite me and it’s the last thing you’ll do”.

 

Rufina realises there is something not quite right about the appearance of the young woman, but can’t quite put her finger on it. There seems to be a slight shimmering, a slight aurora , but it could just be the heat. Basically a poor awareness check.

 

A good shot of Gormy Gilbert Grant.

 

A close up of the pretty girl and the drinking peasant as she tells them that her master will be home soon and he doesn’t like strangers, so they had better move on. Rufina tries her Charisma on the pretty girl but it has no effect at all.

 

On turn 11 Helgi and Sandra arrive, thank God for that, neither the pretty girl nor the drinking peasant are aware of their arrival and indeed you need to look very closely to see them. They are behind the clump of foliage centre left and at the far back of the scene.

 

They both make their stealth rolls and make it to the back of the cabin by the window. Well window is a bit of a misnomer it’s just a hole in the log wall, easy to climb through, and that’s when I thought about the wind and the dog, so a quick check on wind direction proves it is blowing towards them which is why the dog didn’t pick up their scent.

 

Peering through the window Helgi can see a small barrel on top of a large chest.

 

With the best possible stealth roll Helgi climbs through the window (hole in the wall) and examines the barrel. She sees a thin twine going from the barrel to a bell high up on the wall, well above her head and so she cuts the line.

 

Rufina outside is still engaging the pretty girl in conversation and continuing t feel that slight feeling of disquiet.

 

Helgi picks up the small barrel and passes it to Sandra who throws a 5 and 6, high is bad and she drops it.

 

 

Everyone rolls to see who reacts first to the loud crunching sound as the barrel hits the floor. The numbers indicate who reacts first. High is good except in Rufina's case when 10 means 0 and she froze.

 

Out of sight behind the cabin Sandra reacts like a striking scorpion and is the first to activate.

 

I give her a number of choices :-

 

Charge round the wall and attack the nearest person = roll 1

Grab the barrel and run = roll 2

Grab the barrel and tell Helgi to open the chest = roll 3,4

Grab the Barrel and tell Helgi to get out = roll 5

Climb into the room and open the chest = roll 6

 

She rolled 4 so shouts to Helgi “Open the chest and get the Grimoire.”

 

The Pretty Girl and Ayesha react next.

 

The Pretty girl transforms into the Red Woman a terrifying sight and Ayesha faints - WHAT!!!!!

 

It takes 4 turns before she wakes.

I'm using a set of Horror Cards I developed (stole most) for my Gothic Horror games.

 

Gormy Gilbert emerges from the pigsty as a Jinn and he moves towards the group, Ashara is horrified but her resolve is undiminished, indeed it is strengthened by the fear, she is determined not to let her companions down.

 

Patricia sees Ashara hesitate and runs at the Jinn to protect her friend.

 

The small farm dog transforms into a ravening slavering beast and jumping the log wall, attacks Rufina who has failed to react to any of this and she barely has time to pull out her sacrificial knife, her only defensive weapon apart from her magic which seems to have departed from her, hopefully temporarily.

 

Helgi inside the cabin tries to open the chest – it’s not locked, she pauses a second, and sees the trap – a blind funnel web spider, poisonous as hell but she squashes it with a well aimed blow and opens the chest.

 

Is the Grimoire in the chest – NO.

 

The peasant quietly drinking from his bowl jumps to his feet and turns into Alum Spellbinder, he raises his arm and muttering an incantation of power and throws a – nothing, no flash blue light, no explosive sound, but a skeletal hand reaches out from the chest and takes hold of Helgi’s right hand – tightly. Instead of panicking she has an aura of calm around her.

 

The donkey though is panicked and pulling hard on it’s halter breaks the tie and does a runner as fast as it’s little legs will carry it.

 

Patricia beats the Jinn to the ground and it fails to rise.

 

Rufina sticks her sacrificial knife a long way into the maddened dog and it falls to the floor whimpering.

 

Sandra runs around the compound intent on attacking Spellbinder but as she comes round the side of the cabin she sees the horrifying sight of the Red Woman, she attacks in a suicidal rage but the Red Woman is unaware of the attack until too late.

She is a Demon from the dark recesses of the world, and is used to defeating her enemies with fear and guile, she is not used to being attacked from behind by a sword wielding Amazon and she disappears into the void.

 

Spellbinder casts a singularly appropriate spell to defend himself and also give him a bit more time to summon allies, the spell takes some effort but is successful and a transparent wall appears around him. Rufina but has finally got her act together and puts a small Imp behind the wall, Spellbinder seems unaware of this.

 

Because he casts another spell that almost destroys him, a construct and a large one at that, This could change to dynamics of the conflict.

 

 

It leaps the wall and advances towards the remaining members of the party. They all prepare to meet their doom.

 

As over in the background Spellbinder turns on the small Imp and blast’s it back to Hades and beyond.

 

He can’t keep the wall spell going and as he is destroying the Imp the wall dissapears.

 

As does his construct when faced by 3 determined women warriors. However it was Rufina who created such a powerful spell that she alone was responsible for its demise.

 

Ayesha finally wakes from her faint, a thing she will deny to her dying day.

 

Just in time to see Pat of Selby attack spellbinder but he is too strong and she must retire but he can't summon enough energy to cast another spell.

 

He fails to summon any more help and three of the band return to the attack.

 

He is only a man after all, and falls beneath their swords. The Grimoire is finally discovered in the chest on the table in plain sight of any that cared to look diligently.

 

I’m not sure how the party will spin this to Thanda but I suppose it is more of a success that a failure, so maybe they will not need to face the wrath of the mightiest wizard the world has seen. Of course that’s her view of herself and no one in their right mind is going to argue.

 

Final overview of the table, - a small action, but plenty of it.

 

Well a quick write up of a game I played yesterday, I've been enthused reading a couple of games Greg the Wargame Addict has written as a co-conspirator and joint venture on another blog vaguly related to adventuring in a wizarding world, so I dug Rufina out of the drawer where she has been doing whatever little lead women do in the dark!! 

 

I'm off on my travels again today so the usual excuses about internet etc, but it's not been too bad so far, see how I go.

 

I've had two new chaps click on the follow button recently, the first for a long time - so welcome to you and please feel free to let me know you have read some of this drivel, even if you think it is drivel, just be polite. :)

 

Take care out there.

 

Cheers