WHEN NIGHTMARES COME - Balkans Case 1920s Game 3

 We managed to fit in our third game in the campaign quite quickly.

Scenario Three: Moonlit in Venice

The team have followed the evidence they gathered from the standing stone in the Croatian forests, which led them to the city of Venice.

Location: A small piazza in the backstreets of Venice with a few streetlights.

Time: Night – Lighting conditions are Dark (ranged attacks limited to 6”).  Streetlights provide illumination for 6” radius (anything within 6” of a streetlights count as well-lit).

Deployment: As the party have arrived together, deploy all Hunters on same edge.

DARK SPAWN DEPLOYMENT

Turn 1: 2 Cultists.

Turn 2: 4 Cultists

Turn 3: 2 Reanimated Corpses 

Turn 4: 2 Reanimated Corpses

Turn 5 1 Werewolf and 1 Reanimated Corpse

Turn 6 1 Werewolf and 1 Reanimated Corpse

The table set-up, the little red flashes are POIs and the yellow/green flames are portals. The Hunters will enter from the gondola at the bottom of the picture.

Turn One: Pip rushes forward to the nearest POI and finds a clue and Penfold runs further forward to the next POI. Roberto moves up to the POI nearest him and finds a second clue, while Sophia runs the length of the canal-side to reach the right-hand portal. Two cultists enter from the far portals, one is armed with a pistol and moves forward then fires at Penfold, but misses. The other charges into Roberto and stikes with his dagger, but Roberto successfully dodges the blow.

Turn Two: Pip guns down the pistol armed cultist and Penfold searches the POI, finding a third clue and triggering the appearance of the Nexus. Unfortunately it materialises back on the canal-side, close to where the team started, right next to a portal. Sophia runs towards the Nexus, as Roberto struggles with the cultist, eventually killing him. Four more cultists appear from the two far portals and move forward, those with guns firing at Penfold and Roberto, who is wounded by a lucky shot.

Turn Three: Pip returns fire, killing the gun wielding cultist on their side of the table, as he and Penfold move back towards the Nexus. Sophie reaches the Nexus and extracts some Arcana. Roberto quickly administers first aid, then returns fire but misses the cultist. The cultist shot also misses the mark, then the second cultist charges Roberto, wounding him. Two resurrected corpses enter from the far portals and move forward.

Turn Four: Roberto kills the cultist attacking him, fires at the pistol armed cultist, but misses, then moves towards the portal, intending to put himself between Sophia and the advancing resurrected corpse. Sophia casts a heal spell on Roberto, then concentrates on closing the Nexus with two auto successes. Pip shoots the last cultist on his side of the table, as Penfold moves to join Sophia and extracts Arcana from the Nexus. The last cultist dodges into cover then fires at Roberto, who narrowly dodges the shot. The two resurrected corpses rush forward. (At this point we paused for a discussion, technically Roberto was the closest target for one of the resurrected corpses, but we decided that keeping the Nexus open would be the priority for the Dark Spawn and move it towards Sophia and Penfold. Two more resurrected corpses appear, one by the footbridge and one (finally) comes through the portal next to the Nexus. All the corpses rush forward, triggering Terror tests, then Penfold, Sophia and Pip all find themselves locked in melee. Penfold is wounded, as was Pip, who used his Granite's Fealty esoterica to ward off the blow. Sophia managed to fend off her attacker. 

Turn Five: Penfold drops a Snare, then attacks his undead opponent but fails to wound him (Colin temporarily forgot that he had failed a Terror test in the previous turn, so only had two actions this turn!) Pip aims a blow at his foes head, crushing it's skull, then moves back to help Penfold. Roberto charges into the fray, killing the corpse attacking Sophia. Sophia takes advantage of the opportunity to close the Nexus, also shutting down the portals before a werewolf could join the action.

Turn Six: Technically we had won the game at this point, but as Hunters were still in melee with Dark Spawn, we decided to play the last turn. Sophia cast a Shockwave spell, which knocked the resurrected corpse off it's feet, unfortunately doing the same to Pip and Penfold. She then moved so that she could use her last magical energy to cast a Heal spell on Penfold, restoring him to full health. Roberto moved back to get a clear aim at the unengaged resurrected corpse, blowing the creature's head off. Pip leapt to his feet and a killed the last resurrected corpse, whilst Penfold climbed back on his feet. This left the final cultist. As he was in the shadows where he could not be seen, he was more likely to skulk off and report to his masters, rather than move closer to engage the Hunters.

Another great time with these rules. By turn 3 it was looking as if it would be an easy walk in the park to achieve the objectives, but the game took a sudden turn and we found the Hunters desperately fighting for their lives. We were certainly lucky that only one Dark Spawn entered through the portal next to the Nexus. Giving Sophia the Weaver Skill that allowed her to automatically succeed in rolls to close portals and Nexus has been a great help.

The more we play WNC, the more we are enjoying the rules, as we start to grasp the subtleties of the system and get a handle on the best tactics. Which is just as well as foes get even tougher from now on. 

WHEN NIGHTMARES COME - Balkans Case 1920s Game 2

 We managed to play the second game in our 1920s Balkans case.

Scenario Two: Howling at the Moon

The clues gathered at the gypsy encampment led the team to a stone circle deeper in the forests of Croatia. After several days travel, the team reached their destination in the early evening, a short time before sunset.

Location: A stone circle in a forest clearing. In the centre of the circle stands an altar, perhaps a sacrificial stone. Wolves can be heard howling from the forest depths.

Time: Nightfall – Lighting conditions are Well-Lit for turns 1-4, then Dark for turns 5 and 6 (ranged attacks limited to 6”)

Deployment: As the party have arrived together, deploy all Hunters on same edge.

DARK SPAWN DEPLOYMENT

Turn 1: 2 Cultists.

Turn 2: 4 Cultists

Turn 3: 2 Reanimated Corpses 

Turn 4: 2 Reanimated Corpses

Turn 5 1 Werewolf

Turn 6 2 Reanimated Corpses

The table layout. The POIs are the red markers, and the portals represented by the yellow/green flames. The hunters enter from the nearest edge.

Turn One: The tean split up, each heading for a different objective. Roberto rushes to the altar in the centre of the stone circle, whilst Sophia cut to the right, intending to close down the portal their, but stumbling, she failed to reach her target. In the meantime Penfold moves towards the left-hand portal and Pip aims for the nearest POI. However the terrain proved more difficult than they expected and both failed to reach their respective goals. Two undead wolves entered from the far portals and both rushed towards Roberto, closing in from either side.

Turn Two: Penfold and Pip manage to close their portal and search their POI, successfully finding a clue. Roberto searches the stone altar but finds nothing (perhaps distracted by the approaching undead wolves) then fires twice, dropping a wolf with his first shot, but missing the second creature. In the meantime Sophia harvests some Arcana from the portal before closing it, then moves forward to get a line of sight on the second wolf, but he revolver shot goes wide of the mark.

The last wolf charges into contact with Roberto, who keeps the creature at bay with his rifle butt. Four more undead wolves appear, two rushing towards Sophia while the other pair (moving more swiftly) leap on the unfortunate Pip. He successfully fends off their attacks with his whip.

Turn 3: Sophia demonstrated unusual accuracy as she dropped two wolves with two bullets! She then rushed forward to search the next POI and find a clue, triggering the Nexus to appear. It was on the far side of the table, but fortunately close to one of the portals they had previously closed. Roberto spent the turn locked in melee with an undead wolf.

Pip and Penfold shot the two wolves on their side of the table, then Penfold moved up to join Roberto. Two resurrected corpses appeared and moved towards Penfold and Sophia respectively.

  

Turn 4: Not a good time for the team, withe several failed actions and wild shooting with no effect. Both Penfold and Sophia were attacked by resurrected corpses, but both fended off the monster's blows. Two more resurrected corpses appeared from the last two portals.

Turn 5: The Hunters seemed to wake up this time. Roberto killed the wolf he was in contact with, then rushed over to help Sophia, scoring a critical hit on the corpse and destroying it outright. Sophia rushed towards the Nexus and managed to reach it with her final action. Penfold and Pip struggled with the corpse attacking Penfold, but managed to destroy it eventually. Another resurrected corpse entered the table, as did a Werewolf!

Turn 6: Pip and Roberto acted as rearguards to ward of any oncoming Dark Spawn, while Penfold moved back to join Sophia, extracting some Arcana from the Nexus. Roberto took careful aim and shot an oncoming corpse in the head (outright kill!) the with his last shot killed the raging werewolf. Great shooting!! Sophia used he three actions to close the Nexus before any more Dark Spawn to come through the portals.

Another great game and a lot of fun. The clues we found point to Venice, so our next game will be somewhere in the city of cannels.

WHEN NIGHTMARES COME - Balkans Case 1920s Game 1

 Colin and I have embarked on a new case using When Nightmares Come, again set in the 1920s, this time centred around the Balkans.

First of all to introduce the cast:

THE HUNTERS

 Roberto Gatti: Warden (Fighter)

A former Captain in the Italian Army and a veteran of the Battle of Monte Grappa in November 1917 and the Battle of the Piave River in May 1918. Whilst patrolling on the mountains in the final months of the war, Roberto and his unit were attacked by strange creatures that, quite literally, ripped his men apart. At the end of the war Roberto left the army and began his new crusade, monster hunting. He started by tracking the creatures that killed his men to their lair in the Italian Alps and destroying them. He met Sophia Richardson when they were both pursuing a demonic cult based in the sewers of Milan.

 

Sophia Richardson: Weaver (Magician)

Amongst the first women to receive a degree from Oxford University, Sophia was set for a career in medicine until the mysterious disappearance of her father, a renowned Egyptologist. Searching her father’s papers for a clue to his whereabouts she discovered his journal, which read like something from Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. The journal led her to a group of her father’s “associates” in Egypt and a terrifying encounter with a resurrected mummy. Since then, her hunt for clues to her father’s fate have led her deeper into the world of paranormal and bizarre investigations, which is how she encountered Roberto.

 

Pip Kingsway: Warden (Fighter)

The black sheep scion of a minor aristocratic family, Pip was expelled from Eton after a prank involving a goat and the headmasters wife went horribly wrong. Sent out to Africa to redeem himself on the family’s newly acquired farm he became a keen hunter.

He immersed himself in the local culture and was particularly fascinated by his dealings with the local witch doctor. Logic told him that the man had no supernatural powers but he saw many things that seemed impossible.

The outbreak of the Great war found him caught up in the fighting in East Africa. He raised a small troop to help in the pursuit of Von Lettow-Vorbeck and his German and Askari army. His belief in the supernatural was confirmed when he witnessed the disappearance of a platoon of Kings African Rifles at the hands of a German supporting witch doctor. The Witch did not survive long but he swore to root out practitioners of the dark arts.

 

Penfold Byron: Wright (Researcher/Artificer)

Penfold came from a family of engineers. Many of Victorian Britain’s engineering marvels had involved a Byron. As he grew up he heard the story of the the Tay Bridge Disaster. His grandfather had not only designed the bridge but was one of the 90 people killed that day. As reported by William McGonagall the deaths were the work of the devil Boreas. All his life he intended to use his scientific and engineering skills to seek out and destroy Boreas and similar creatures of darkness.

Aware of his own physical limitations he sought out a man of action to provide the muscular Christianity that he lacked. He met Pip Kingsway through a personal advertisement in the Times, liked the cut of his jib and they agreed to work together. An article in The Journal of the Society for Psychical Research led them to Gatti and Richardson.

 

The Dark Spawn

 

Cultists - Vermin class

Actions: Free Move + 1d6

Move 6”

Armour 4+ on 1d6

Traits:

Melee weapon=Savage – the first time DS moves into contact with a Hunter, they get a free melee attack.

Missile weapon=Count as pistol armed

 

Undead Wolves - Vermin class

Actions: Free Move + 1d6

Move 6”

Armour 4+ on 1d6

Traits: Savage – the first time DS moves into contact with a Hunter, they get a free melee attack.

 

Reanimated Corpse - Horde class

Actions: Free Move + 2d8

Move 6”

Armour 4+ on 1d8

Traits: Repulsive – all Hunters must make a Terror roll the first time they come within 6” and LO, Tenacious – Any hits except aimed or Natural Crits just knock the DS prone (-3 to Dodge Defend rolls)

 

Werewolf - Terror class

Actions: Free Move + 3d10

Move 6”

Armour 4+ on 1d10

Traits: Dreadful – Blows from this adversary count double against Hunters Resolve

Frenzied – When it attacks, target must pass two Dodge Defend rolls

 

No Atrocity as yet, we are going to how the first few games go and decide what the BIG BAD is going to be once we see what direction the campaign is heading in.

Campaign Background

 

In previous investigations the team have uncovered rumours of a mysterious cult that based it’s teachings on the research of Victor Frankenstein, who’s original work was thought to have been lost a century before. More recently the cult has been connected to reports of missing people and the sightings of strange creatures in the mountains of Croatia, which has prompted the team to travel to the region and investigate.

 

Scenario One: The Gypsy Camp

Travelling to the site of the most recent sightings, the team come upon a gypsy encampment.

 Location: A small clearing in the forest. In the centre is an open space with a scattering of tents, carts and wooden crates etc, proving areas of cover. Several gypsies can be seen around the camp, who react abruptly to the team’s arrival.

 Time: Mid-morning – Lighting conditions are Well Lit

Deployment: As the party have arrived together, deploy all Hunters on same edge.

 

DARK SPAWN DEPLOYMENT

Turn 1: randomly convert three gypsies to Cultists.

Turn 2: 2 Cultists

Turn 3: 4 Cultists

Turn 4: 4 Cultists

Turn 5 2 Reanimated Corpses

Turn 6 2 Reanimated Corpses

  

The initial set up, with the hunters closest to the camera.

Gypsies clustered around the caravan, but how many were as innocent as they seemed?

Turn 1: Sophia Richardson rushes to the nearest portal and shuts it down, having harvested some  Arcana first. Roberto Gatti races past her to search the first POI, finding a clue. Three cultists reveal themselves and two rush towards Pip Kinsway and Penfold Byron. The first fires at Penfold with his shotgun, but misses.

Turn 2: Pip fells his first opponent, then fires at the next with his pistol, but the vermin dodges the shot, while Penfold searches the nearby POI, but finds nothing. From the far side of the camp, Roberto takes careful aim and drops the shotgun wielder with a well placed rifle bullet. Sophia moves on to the next POI and finds a second clue, which triggers the Nexus appearing, fortunately close to Sophia and away from the majority of the cultists.

Turn 3: Sophia runs to the Nexus and harvests some much-needed Arcana. Roberto intercepts the only cultist threatening Sophia and dispatches him with his rifle butt, then joins Sophia at the Nexus, pausing to shoot another cultist advancing on Pip and Penfold. As most of the newly arrived cultists were on their side of the table, the pair have their work cut out fighting their foes off, which distracts them away from Sophia working on the Nexus. Even more Cultist appear close to the unfortunate Penfold, who is now wounded

Turn 4: Now Surrounded by foes, Penfold uses one of his Repellants to force them back, allowing Pip to thin their numbers with his revolver. Roberto frantically harvests Arcana from the Nexus, before Sophia uses her arcane knowledge to shut it down.

Turn 5: With the Nexus closed and the portal dispersed the hunters easily dispatch the three surviving cultists.

In the end this scenario went quite well for the hunters and seemed easy, apart from a rather hairy few moments for Pip and Penfold. Undoubtedly we were helped that so few of the Dark Spawn entered closer to the Nexus, which allowed Sophia to work uninterrupted. If the Nexus had remained open for longer and some Reanimated Corpses entered the fray, things might have been very different indeed.

The clues the hunters found lead the way to an ancient circle of standing stones, deep in the forest.

WHEN NIGHTMARES COME - Egypt 1920s Case - Game 4

 We played the final game in my 1920s campaign, bringing our case to a conclusion.

I forgot to take any pictures of the Game 3, which had been something of a disappointment, being allover in 3 turns! Good dice and coming on from both sides meant that we accessed three POI in the first turn, revealing the Nexus straight away. We were then able to close the Nexus before too many Dark Spawn showed up. We actually played the scenario twice, but got the same result a second time, an easy win the turn 3!

On to Game 4, which was a very different kettle of fish indeed!

The table layout, the hunters are shown entering from the left. The POIs and the small red markers and the portals are the yellowish flashes.

And the view from the bottom left corner.

Turn 1

The Hunters split up going either side of the pyramid.  Onur Turkay and Dr Doctor Ogley went right, Onur reaching the first POI and successfully searching it whilst the Doctor rushed forwards towards the next. 

Going left Emmett Swanson reached his nearest POI but was unable to search it this turn, Whilst Akil Malik was a little more tardy, probably slowed by the weight of his satchel full of tricks and gadgets. Two pairs of Minions of Anubis appeared, two of them charged towards Onur, whist on the other side of the table one of them seemed less keen to approach Emmett.

.

Turn 2

Onur cocked his tommy gun and let rip, cutting one of the minions down, but failed his next two activations! He ten moved towards the Doctor, who in the meantime had reached and successfully searched the next POI. Incidentally this triggered the arrival of the "Big Bad", the Mummified Pharaoh at the entrance to the pyramid. 

One the other side of the table Emmett downed one of his foes with a pistol shot, then quickly searched the POI next to him, before moving back to join Akil Malik. This caused the Nexus to be revealed in the opposite corner to the pair, nearby Doctor Ogley, unfortunately also within reach of the Pharaoh!

The surviving Minions of Anubis charged Onur and Emmett respectively, but both successfully dodged their foes attack. Two mummified priest appeared on the left hand side of the table and closed in on Emmett and Akil from both sides.

Turn 3

Akil pulled out his revolver, aimed and shot the mummy moving up behind him, them moved around the side of the pyramid. Emmett cut down the minion in front of him with his machete, the shot the oncoming mummy, but just knocked the Dark Spawn to the ground. He then rushed around to join Akil.

Onur moved to place himself between the Pharaoh and the Nexus, then aim and fired with his tommy gun, wounding the creature. Doctor Ogley ran past him to the site of the Nexus and started to shut it down, pausing to cast a Barrier spell to prevent the Mummified Pharaoh from pursuing him. 

The Pharaoh, blocked by the magical barrier, was forced to move around the ruins towards the Nexus, joined by a recently arrived mummified priest. Another mummified priest entered the portal closest to Emmett and Akil and moved to block their escape.

Turn 4

Emmett killed the mummy with a well-aimed blow from his machete, then he and Akil rushed on towards their compatriots.

Onur turned and fired an aimed burst at the Pharaoh, wounding the foe a second time, then fired a burst at the mummy beside him, knocking the Dark Spawn down. In the meantime the Doctor continues to work on the Nexus, failing two of his three attempts to close the nexus down.

The Pharaoh fortunately fails his activation and only has his free move to advance toward the Doctor. The prone mummy fails an attempt to rise before regaining his feet and moving to join his master. Two more mummified priests emerge from the portals and move forward to join the fray.

Turn 5 

Emmett and Akil continue to rush to bring aid to their embattled comrades. Onur gets between the Nexus and the Pharaoh and fires but the creature dodges his attack. The Doctor finally succeeds in closing the Nexus but inadvertently summons a Temple Guardian!

At this point we had technically won the game, but with the Mummified Pharaoh in play we decided that we should play on.

That was a mistake! Both the Pharaoh and his accompanying mummified priest successfully strike Onur, but he dodges one blow and utilities his Granite's Fealty to offset the wound. In the meantime the poor Doctor is battered by the temple guardian, taking three wounds.

Turn 6

Things are looking pretty dodgy for two of the hunters. But fortunately Akil Malik manages to get close enough to throw a Repellent into the middle of the scrum, forcing the Dark Spawn to break off and move away from their prey. As the Pharaoh tries to move away, Onur strikes him with the butt of his tommy gun, knocking the creature to the floor.

Doctor Ogley administers some first aid to himself the launches a magical Arcane Bolt at the Temple Guardian, killing it. Onur proceeds to riddle the fallen Pharaoh with his tommy gun and kills the monster.

Case closed -just in time!!!

Well, this had been a lot of fun! Although we had found some of the earlier games seemed a bit disappointing at times, often not seeming to be much of a challenge for the Hunters, this game really played to the strengths of this rule system.

We liked the basic mechanisms and will certainly be playing more games with When Nightmares Come. I think we will probably stick to writing my own scenarios for our games, rather than using the system in the book.