GURPs: Mystery at Spider Keep, part 1

The spire of ‘Spider Keep’, originally called the ‘Castle of St. Perry’ was raised by the pious yet paranoid Lord Vicar Jan Elphinstone some 20 years ago at the conclusion of the Third War of Ascension against the country of Ankskaven, in the Province Hapsalog.

Recently this past fall the Lady Miranda Elphinstone, the favorite niece of the Vicar Jan, contacted Father Michaels because she too had not gotten a letter from her uncle for several years.

Father Michaels states:

" I smell something foul, and I am not going to forsake and old friend and mentor. So having secured permission from the Queen, he is dispatching a handful of Templars to Port Bax and if necessary to Spider Keep. This is considered to be a religious matter, and your inquires are to be concerned with any foul Druidic activity, do not, and I must repeat, do not get involved with the political side, we have no standing there, and if the Templars get a reputation for interfering with the political affairs of Duranor, our travels could become a matter of scrutiny from many quarters."

"You will, Sir Hiffin, along with Sir Father Wolfgang proceed to Port Bax to inquire with the Lady Miranda and if necessary proceed to Ankskaven. Take no more than a couple men. The House of Bruce has used the Civil War to negotiate a high level of autonomy from the rest of the Empire. They are known to have Druidic allies, and so you must exercise caution."

After a 6 week voyage from Saxony, the Templars arrive at the port of Narwalk.

Grand Knight Hiffin and Father Wolfgang go ashore while Mugabe mucks about with trying to get their horses off the ship.

Upon arriving they view a funeral rite in progress.

Suddenly a mob arrives, led by the local constable, the dead man's brother.  He accuses the daughter of using witchcraft to kill the man.  He is set upon casting he onto the funeral pyre.  Sir Hiffin, respecting the Templar mandate of no political interference, suggests to the constable that if he puts the witch into the bay without the proper incantations it could curse all the fish.  This doesn't sit well with the mob.  Sir Hiffin suggests that they could take the witch to the Bishop for proper "disposal"

The constable is happy to be rid of the girl, and the group sets off towards Spider Keep with her.  She is eventually released into the custody of some nuns.  After a days travel and some curious encounters, the Templars arrive the Hamlet of Greenkill where a cousin of the Bruce is being crowned the new Thane and lord of Hapsolog.  After the festivities are dying down, the Templars slip out of town and up to the abandoned Castle of St. Perry.

Upon enetering the keep they discover the undead remains of a band of looters.

"This is my bread and butter!" Shouts Father Wolfgang as he charges headfirst into the fray, his blessed mace swinging wildly.  "Good man"  encourages Sir Hiffin.  "We've got your back"

After passing through the doorway it suddenly slams shut, cutting Father Wolfgang off from the others.

"Arise, Sir Etheldstead!"  beckons a booming voice that trembles throughout the house.

"Coming, Master!  I'll deal with these uninvited solicitors."

As if that is not bad enough, the zombified corpses of the Castle guard come pouring down the stairs.  Father Wolfgang uses his holy words to scare some off.

Mugabe comes up with a plan:  "Let's use this table as a battering ram!"

"Good thinking, lad!"  1...2...3....crash!   "We're coming to save you, Father!   Oh, you're not Father Wolfgang...."

Sir Hiffin and Mugabe have a desperate fight in the doorway with the undead knight.  Mugabe splashes it with Holy water, Sir Hiffindeftly parries its deadly blade, sending it to the floor.  Mugabe quickly scoops it up, depriving it of its main weapon.  The creatures evil aura is slowly sapping the health of the Templars however.  Sir Hiffin grabs its shield to interfere with its defenses  "Hit it Mugabe!"  Their blows chip away at it slowly.

Finally Father Wolfgang returns from scaring away the zombie guards and knocks the fiend down with a blow to the back.  A few more rounds of combat until it is finally put to rest.  Sir Hiffin hangs onto the edge of consciousness and Mugabe is on his knees suffering two crippled feet.  They will recover quickly with Arken's healing.
Now the Keep is to be searched and and answer sought as to what happened to the Lord Vicar.

Warhammer Ancient Battles: El Cid

Click the pictures to increase viewing size.

Spanish on the left, Moors on the right

 

 

Spanish Jinettes on their left flank

 

Black Gurad infantry and the Emir and his Elite Guard cavalry

 

2 Mixed units Berber spear and bow

The Spanish Jinettes and Berber light cavalry clash, sending the Berber packing

 

They charge some Spanish archers, sending them home

They are in turn charged by Spanish spearmen.  Their "figned flight" turns real when I roll too high- sending them off the table. :(

The Spanish Knights line up on the Black Guard, suffering a couple of casualties from flanking Skirmishers



The Spanish Order Knights crash into the Black Guard, along with a flank charge from the Jinettes.

The Black Guard can't hold on, they flee the field.  Two other moorish skirmish units are so disheartened they also start to flee.  Things are looking grim for the Moors.

 

 

 

 

The Hasham Guard Cavalry routes the Cabaellors.

 The Emir’s Guard Cavalry crushed the massive unit of Spanish Militia cavalry and then sufficiently threatened the Spanish center as to draw off both their Knightly order cavalry and their Jintes. The result of said action was to contest one of the quarters of the boards while vacating one of the Moorish sector’s returning it to their control (a net swing of several hundred points).

In the center Moorish spearmen slammed into the flank of a massive Spanish Spear block that had redeployed to face the threat of the Emir’s cavalry. Moorish skirmishers then proceeded to so harry the routing spearmen that they were driven off board.

The valiant skirmishers then proceeded to so attrite the Spanish guard that it valiantly launched a near suicidal frontal attack upon the victorious Moorish spearmen.

At the game’s end the Spaniards force consisted of but two units (Crusaders and Jintes) along with contesting one quarter of the table.

The Moors had four units (two infantry blocks, the Guard Cavalry and some skirmishers) as well as complete control of three sectors and contested control of the forth. On unit points alone it was probably close to a major victory while inclusion of sectors would most assuredly have led to such a conclusion.-  (Thanks to Jay for this write up)

 

 

 



Across a Deadly Field: ACW game

15mm game using the new "Across a Deadly Field" rules from Osprey.  Our first go with these rules so it was a bit slow and hindered by multiple charts and unnecessary abbreviations.  By the end I think we got the hang of it and I think I see where the author is coming from ( and guiding us).

This game was basically a test out the rules slug fest and my vandalous nature made me try to break them by trying some absurd stunts.  The rules didn't accomodate such antics and I failed miserably.
Lessons learned:  the combat only gets very deadly when you get VERY close (as in try to charge into melee).  Probably works best with even amount of players to keep everyone involved (due to the reaction system).

GURPS: Attacked by undead pirates in limbo

Continuing the mission to rescue the King from limbo.  The party is aboard the strange gnomish ship traveling through the nether when they suffer an engine failure.  Sabotage?
As they ponder their options,  the undead pirates that have been trailing them this past week break from the clouds.
Their ships are lower tech, but there are a lot of them, and each ship has a chaos bomb capable of destroying the ship if they can get close enough to plant it on the hull.

The gnome ship is immobilzed in the nether due to engine failure.

Three pirate sloops race towards it, eager to plant their chaos mines.  The autocannon blows one apart.

The others flank around the gnome ship.  The pirate frigate manuevers to bring its broadside into range.

The frigate's broadside damages the gnome ship- jamming one of the autocannons and almost killing the gazool boy sensor operator.  There is no choice but to use the precious magma torpedoes.  Sampson guides it true and the second torpedo finds the magazine and destroys the frigate.

Big Jack, Sampson and Ingram go out on deck to repel the skeleton boarders who are trying to attach a mine.

With only one autocannon working, the PCs are slow to reduce the remaining pirate sloops.  One of them survives a barrage with one hull point left and manages to get its grappling lines attached.

At the last moment the autocannon smashes the sloops hull to splinters, spilling the skeletons into the nether.  In a last act of defiance they trigger their chaos mine.  Although not directly against the gnome ship it does cause some more damage and gives Sampson and Ingram some minor burns.

The pirates defeated, the ship waits for the rendezvous with the Mycanoids and the marooned gnome crew.