WHEN NIGHTMARES COME - Balkans Case 1920s Game 6 CASE CLOSED

 Scenario Six: Inside the Venetian Palazzo

 The Hunters located the hidden entrance to the Werewolf pack’s lair. After descending a long, winding stairwell they found a damp tunnel, rough-hewn from the rock that ran under the lagoon. Eventually the emerged at the end of the tunnel, finding themselves in a old long-abandoned Palazzo on the edge of the city.

 

Location: Inside an ancient Palazzo. Many of the windows are blocked or boarded up.

Time: Evening, Visibility is Gloomy.

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

 

Atrocity: When the Nexus is revealed the Alpha Werewolf will appear next to it.

 

DARK SPAWN DEPLOYMENT

Turn 1: 2 Reanimated Corpses

Turn 2: 2 Reanimated Corpses

Turn 3: 4 Reanimated Corpses

Turn 4: 1 Werewolf and 1 Reanimated Corpse

Turn 5 1 Werewolf and 2 Reanimated Corpses

Turn 6 2 Werewolves 

The entire layout of the Palazzo, the red flashes are POIs and the yellow/green flames are portals.

A walk through some of the rooms.

Turn One: Pip and Penfold rush across the hall to the closest POI, which Pip searched successfully and found a clue. Roberto and Sophia moved through the right-hand door into the corridor beyond. Then ran down the corridor to the next POI, but were unable to search it this time. Two reanimated corpses appeared and lumbered forward, blocking either end of the corridor that Roberto and Sophia were in. This triggered a Terror test for the two Hunters and between them they lost 3 action dice off of their next turn.

Turn Two: Pip moved through the double doors to the next POI in the corridor beyond and successfully searched that, finding the second clue. After tripping over his shoelaces, Penfold moved up to join him. Sophia zapped the closed corpse with a spell, then searched the POI next to her finding the third clue and revealing the Nexus. Roberto could not see the reanimated corpse behind him because of the pillar, so moved across to join Sophia and took a shot, but missed the creature. 

As the Nexus appeared the Alpha Werewolf emerged next to it! Fortunately the creature seemed to trip over it's own claws as it rushed out of the room towards Pip, getting into contact with him but not having an opportunity to attack.

Also two more reanimated corpses came through portals and rushed towards the Hunters. The corpse in the corridor charged into Roberto and swung at him, but Roberto blocked the attack with his rifle butt.

Turn Three: Roberto spent the turn locked in combat with the reanimated corpse, he hit the creatue twice, but each time it dodged his blows. Whilst Roberto kept the creature distracted, Sophia moved into the next room and crossed to the Nexus, to begin shutting it down. Penfold threw a Dazzler at the Alpha Werewolf, knocking the monster to the ground, then shot it in the chest. Pip then stepped forward to stand over the furry fiend and emptied his revolver into it's skull! One dead Atrocity!!! 

Four more reanimated corpses entered through portals and the undead closed in on the Hunters. Roberto now found himself fighting off two attackers and was wounded twice by the monsters, but used his Granite's Fealty to shrug off one of the wounds.

                                                  

Turn Four: Roberto broke off from the melee and threw his molotov cocktail at the two corpses, setting them ablaze, them moved into the next room to join Sophia by the Nexus. Sophia closed the Nexus down, then administered to Roberto using her first aid kit. Penfold moved back to the main hall and, spotting the copse shuffling across the flagstones, blew the monster to bits with a grenade. Pip dithered, before rejoining him in the hall. The remaining corpse kept advancing, three now broke into the room with Roberto and Sophia, while two more moved into the mail hall and closed in on Pip and Penfold.

Technically the Hunters had won at this point, The Atrocity was dead and the Nexus, and therefore the portals, were closed down. But with five undead between the hunters and their escape route, we decided to carry on.

Turn Five: Sophia drew on all the remaining magical energy and unleashed a powerful Elemental Fury spell from her outstretched hands, blasting the walking corpses to dust. She then passed into the corridor, moving towards the main hall. Roberto dashed past her, into the hall. Seeing the two corpses advancing on Pip and Penfold, he paused to aim, then blew the top of the skull of the closest. A well placed grenade destroyed the last of the creatures, leaving the escape route free for the Hunters.

Another great game and a lot of fun. There were several close calls and we were very lucky, especially with the Alpha Werewolf. It only passed one activation roll and failed every dodge/defend roll, with better dice it might have shredded Pip before Penfold could use his Dazzler, which would have made for a very different game.

We have enjoyed using these rules (although we do not utilise the Narrative Scenes) and will definitely be playing more cases.

I have also introduced these rules to another gaming friend,  Kirsty, who also expressed interest in playing them again. Perhaps I will have to organise an all-day multi-player case some time soon!