WHEN NIGHTMARES COME - Balkans Case 1920s Game 4

 Scenario Four: Can Werewolves Swim?

A notebook found in the previous incident indicted repeated visits to a small dockyard at the edge of the city, so the team decided to investigate the site. The Hunters split up, Pip Kingsway and Penfold Byron approaching by road, whist Roberto Gatti and Sophia Richardson would come in by boat, in order to prevent anyone (anything) escaping by sea.

Location: A run-down boatyard at the edge of Venice. On land there is a scattering of barrels, boxes and old rusted machinery providing cover. On the seaward side a network of broken jetties extends into the water.

Time: Night – Full Moon, LOS as normal.

Deployment: Sophia and Roberto deploy from a boat on the seaward side of the table. Pip and Penfold deploy on the opposite edge.

Scenario Special rules

Jumping a gap of 1” is as per the rules (-1” from movement). Hunters, Cultists and Werewolves can jump gaps between jetties/boats of up to half their move distance (reducing their movement accordingly), but need to pass a die roll. Dark Spawn roll 1d6, Hunters use their Body Primal Attribute. If they fail, they slip and fall in the water. Resurrected Corpses cannot jump!

Climbing out of the water requires a successful action. Figures can use their free move, but still need to pass a die roll. Dark Spawn roll 1d6, Hunters use their Body Primal Attribute.

DARK SPAWN DEPLOYMENT

Turn 1: 2 Cultists.

Turn 2: 4 Cultists

Turn 3: 2 Reanimated Corpses 

Turn 4: 4 Reanimated Corpses

Turn 5 1 Werewolf and 1 Reanimated Corpse

Turn 6 1 Werewolf and 2 Reanimated Corpses

The starting set-up. Roberto and Sophia enter from the gondola on the left-hand side, Pip and Penfold in between the purple and pink buildings on the right.

Turn One: Sophia rushes to the closest portal, but stumbles on the rickety gangplank  and does not have time to do anything else this turn. Roberto runs past her and just reaches the POI. Pip and Penfold advance together, moving towards the POIs on the bridge and on the boat on their side of the table.

Tow cultist appear, fortunately neither from the portal next to Sophia. The cultist with a pistol takes a shot at Pip and hits, but Pip uses his Granite's Fealty to shrug off the wound. The other rushes towards them and attempts to jump the gap between the jetties, but slips and falls in the water.

Turn Two: Penfold moves onto the boat and searches it, finding our first clue. Pip first shoots the pistol armed cultist, then turns and shoots the other as he is clambering out of the water. He then moves up to the next POI.

Roberto searches the POI next to him and finds a second clue, the moves up to the next POI, by the newspaper seller's stall. Sophia extracts some Arcana from the portal, then closes it down, before running down the quayside to join Roberto. 4 more cultists appear and all advance towards the hunters.

Turn Three: Pip successfully searched his POI, which caused the nexus to appear on one of the jetties. He and Penfold gunned down the two closest cultists, then advanced towards the nexus. Sophia and Roberto did likewise with their cultists, then also advanced towards the nexus. Two reanimated corpses appears and hurriedly staggered after the hunters.

Turn Four: Pip and Penfold both missed shots at the advancing resurrected corpse, then dithered a bit (lost activation dice due to failed terror rolls).  Sophia ran to the end of the jetty and leapt across to the moored boat next to the nexus, almost falling into the water, but landing safely (just made the pass on her die roll). Roberto aimed carefully and downed the corpse pursuing them, then ran out onto the jetty, following Sophia. 4 more resurrected corpses appeared and rushed forward, two of them contacted Sophia, but she fended off their attacks.

Turn Five: Sophia casts a Shockwave spell, which knocks the reanimated corpses to the ground, then steps over their prone forms and moves up to the nexus, pausing to harvest arcana before starting to shut it down. Roberto runs down the jetty and leaps into the boat, to block the undead from following Sophia once they reactivate. Pip takes careful aim and shoots the corpse in the boat, shattering it's skull! Unfortunately Penfold moves past Pip, towards the nexus. The fallen reanimated corpse gets to it's feet and attacks Roberto, who dodges the first attack, but is wounded by the second. More Dark Spawn appear, another reanimated corpse and a werewolf! The corpse lumbers slowly towards the nexus, but the werewolf is speedier. It charges down the dockside and catches the unfortunate Pip, but does not have the opportunity to attack him.

Turn Six: Penfold throws a Repellent from his satchel at the werewolf's feet forcing it to flee away from the hunters, then moves up to the nexus and extracts arcarna. Pip, relieved at his close escape from the werewolf's jaws, moves along the jetty to help Roberto in his fight with the reanimated corpse. As Pip distracts the creature's attention, Roberto smashes it's head in with his rifle butt. Sophia closes the nexus, shutting down the portals just before another werewolf can appear, then casts a Heal spell on Roberto. The last animated corpse lumbers down the gangplank and attacks Pip, wounding him.

Turn Seven: Technically the game had ended with victory for the Hunters, but with Pip engaged in melee and a werewolf loose on the dockside, we decided to play on. Penfold joined the fight against the reanimated corpse, but the creature dodged his attack. It was not so lucky against Pip, who killed the creature. This allowed Roberto a clear view along the dockside to the lurking werewolf, he took careful aim and put a round through the creature's head!

We had a lot of fun with this one! Although the Hunters only suffered two wounds it could have been so much worse, especially if the werewolf had passed his last action to attack Pip (or if it had entered from the portal closest to the nexus). There were several occasions when things looked desperate, such as turn four when both Pip and Penfold were down to 1 activation die each, after failing terror rolls caused by the reanimated corpses.

On to the next adventure, which the clues they found will lead the hunters to an abandoned islet at the edge of the lagoon.