IN SEARCH OF: The
Necronomicon
The air was strangely
cold for midsummer night. The crickets were silent and only the
lonely howls of the Transylvanian wolves broke the eerie calm. The
group had gathered at the foot of the windy trail that led up to
Castle Dracula. Van Helsing had assembled the few people he could
trust; Father Crshenko from the local parish, Dr.
Seward, Miss Mina Hartley (accompanied by her faithful dog, Fluffy, an
Irish Wolfhound) and Lord Goldaming, a valiant nobleman
from a long line of vampire hunters. Five of the local constables
had been convinced to join in the search, they were terrified to enter
Castle Dracula, but smart enough to know that if the fiend was allowed
to go unchecked their village would be destroyed.
"As you know Dracula
has stolen the necronomicon,
and if allowed to plumb its unholy pages, the world as we know it could
very well cease to be. . ." Van Helsing's stare cut to the very core of
the small group. All of them knew the price of failure.
"alright, let's hurry to the castle, even now the fiend could be
hatching untold evil!" Van Helsing loaded the breech of his
Shotgun with double zero buckshot and snapped the weapon shut.
Under the full moon this handful of brave souls hurried up the slopes
of the Carpathian Mountains and were quickly enveloped by the darkness.
Dracula's castle lay shrouded in a strange mist
rising up from the moors surrounding it. Tall spires of blackened
stone stood in stark contrast against the giant bone white
moon. Father Crshenko shuddered and nervously fingered the
empty flask in his pocket, he had downed the last of the ouzo as the
castle came into view to steady his already jangled nerves. The
sight of Miss Hartley calmly striding ahead of the group shamed the old
priest and he forced himself to keep walking. . .
GAME
START: The five
constables, The priest, and Dr. Seward made their way towards the
castle gates in the center of the table. On our right just past
the river was a graveyard and a mausoleum. Knowing the Nercronomicon
could be in any feature on the board we decided to start our search at
the closest object rather than backtrack from where we were. Van
Helsing, Fluffy, Mina, and Lord G. headed into the graveyard. The first
few turns were all moves by the Vampire Hunters, the undead lay in an
uneasy state of stillness. . . It was our first time hunting vampires
so we were cautious. Fluffy was sent forward to sniff around the
Mausoleum and the 5 constables were forced into the lead to look for
booby-traps and ambushes. The only undead model seen was a
bride of Dracula, standing still as the grave atop the battlements of
the castle.
Dr. Seward adjusted his glasses, although the castle
seemed abandoned he could not shake the feeling he was being watched.
Nervously he scanned the empty battlements, There! In a pool of
moonlight, the silhouette of a woman. Seward stopped walking and
stared intently, the shadows moved and the figure stepped into the cold
lunar light. The sight froze him to the very core, something
beautiful and deadly all at once. It seemed as if she was
standing next to him not a quarter mile away, he could see the jet
black animal's eyes, the soft alabaster skin and as her blood red lips
parted into a fiendish smile he could see the curved sharpened teeth of
a wolf protruding from blackened gums. Seward shuddered and turned
away. When he looked back the battlements were empty . .
We found the
mausoleum empty and Van Helsing cut across the table as soon as the
door was opened and the crypt revealed nothing. Fluffy and Lord G.
poked around a bit making tests for hidden undead or the
Necromicon. As Van Helsing was crossing the ground from the
Mausoleum to the main gate a shot rang out from the tower.
Renfield with an old rifle was stationed up there and started taking
pot-shots (and would continue to fire from up there throughout the
whole game).
A shot rang out through the darkness, breaking the silence that had
bound the night since the mission began. Van Helsing could feel
the hot lead dance past his ear, if not for his cat like reflexes he
would have took the round directly in the sternum. The muzzle
flash came from the eastern tower and was followed by crazed
laughter "You cannot stop the Master! You hurry toward your
own doom! Hurry children! Hurry!"
Meanwhile the constables had made it to the main gate and as soon as
they set foot inside, five Cossacks leaped out from behind the walls
and charged. I assumed a goon was a goon, but my goons had
guns and the undead goons were built for close combat. Before I
could blink Curly Joe had been killed and Larry had been beaten about
the face, chest, and neck with a variety of farm tools. The
narrowness of the entryway made it impossible to bring our larger
forces (or Van Helsing's shotgun) to bear on the savage Cossacks. We
would have to wait until the melee thinned out. In the next
round of combat Larry had given up the Ghost and that allowed Van
Helsing to stride in and fire both barrels of the shotgun down the
hall. The shotgun hits everything within 1" of the target and
that meant ALL the Cossacks. I rolled a mighty handful of dice,
confident in the carnage I would cause. Sadly out of 7 dice I
scored only 3 goals ☹ I managed to kill only 1
cossack.
The combat continued with the Cossacks beating down the constables
until there was only one left (Moe Howard) surrounded by two
Cossacks. Meanwhile out in the field Lord G., Mina, and the
faithful Fluffy were hurrying towards the gate under constant (but
inaccurate) fire from the looney in the tower. Father Crshenko
and Dr. Seward watched nervously as the Cossacks continued to eye gouge
and nose tweak the hapless Stooges, er I mean constables!
In the
meantime the Undead were not idle. Dracula stepped out onto the
balcony, climbed down the wall surface headfirst, and turning into a
bat, flew across the entire board to land by the river. There he
transformed into a snarling beast and began stalking the vampire
hunters from the darkened shadows to their rear.
Unbknowst to
either side, Gamemaster Dave was randomly moving a third group around
the board. The mad doctor Frankenstein, his lumpy (and humpy) sidekick
Igor, and the Frankenstein Monster. The three models burst into the
castle courtyard, ignoring all the bedlam, and began running from door
to door, frantically searching for something.
MID
GAME (or when vampires attack.)
The melee at the
gates was lingering too long for Van Helsing's liking. Our last
constable (Moe) was struggling between two Cossacks,and the fracas
keeping the rest of the vampire hunters (who were the more productive
and less expendable members of the group) from gaining access to the
castle. VanHelsing leveled the shotgun squarely at Moe and fired. . .
. . .The sound of the shotgun in the hallway was deafening and in the
muzzle flash one could clearly see the three struggling men torn
asunder. The shock of the blast pitched all of them to the ground where
they laid, quite dead, in a pile of steaming gore. Van Helsing
cooly pulled a pair of shells from his hunting coat and fitted them
into the still smoking breech. . .
Before we could
continue, Lucy (one of Dracula's vampiric brides) came screaming down
the hall into combat with Van Helsing. Behind us The
Count(in beast form) leaped at Fluffy and attempted to tear the hound
to pieces. And to make matters worse, the second bride of Dracula,
Ethel, rose up from the grave and raced to help her master.
Renfield continued to pepper our stragglers with rifle fire.
It was decision time for the good guys. Lord
Goldaming could not bear to miss a duel against a vampire and charged
Count Dracula. This attack kept Fluffy from being torn apart by
the Count (in retrospect quite important to the game). We decided
to commit Mina and Van Helsing to fight Lucy in the castle gatehouse
(supported by a cowering Dr.Seward who stood back watching the fighting
take place, with a bagful of band-aids to patch up the injured)
Father Crshenko was sent back to use his holy skills against Dracula
and Ethel (a decision the old priest would soon regret)
Both combats teetered back and forth for a while as both sides expended
faith points (which allowed more dice to be rolled on tests). But
at the gatehouse VanHelsing and Mina managed to wound Vampire Lucy and
then using supreme effort (and a lot of fate points) drove a stake into
her heart. The vampire collapsed in a mewling heap. To
balance this victory the Count and his remaining bride Ethel, were
resisting all attacks (Fluffy managed to score two hits on the count,
but the count passed both tests to avoid damage from the rabid hound!)
and had found the weakness in Father Crshenko. The old priest was
slashed across the midsection and when he fell there was no one to help
him. . .
Van Helsing looked up from the frightening work of dispatching the
vampire bride. The stake sizzled in her unholy flesh and she began
shriveling like a piece of bacon in over-hot grease.
Horrific animal scream assailed his ears. But the desperate and
frightened bleating of Father Crenshenko made him whirl around.
The frail priest had fallen in the road outside the gatehouse and a
spectral vampire rushed towards the downed holy man.
"SEWARD! Attend to the priest!" Van Helsing shouted,
but the old doctor looked away, pretending not to hear. "Seward
damn you! Help him!" but it was too late the priest raised
his arm up over his face to ward off the coup de' grace. The
vampire bride fell on him like a ravenous beast tearing at its prey.
Claws and teeth tore out Crshenko's throat and he expired in a gurgling
mess.
" I must save my hound!" Mina shouted and raced out of the gatehouse
towards the fight.
"Mina! NO! Don't forget about. . ." a shot echoed from the
tower. The doughty damsel collapsed in a heap with a bullet
lodged deep in her back." . . .Renfield!"
Ethel looked up from the delicious flesh of the priest to see the girl
fall headlong into the road. Her vampiric senses told her that
the heart was still beating in this one, more blood to be had. She
floated above the ruined corpse of the holy man and began coursing
towards the weakly groaning Mina. . .
Against all
odds, Lord Goldaming (run by Joe T.) had scored more hits on Dracula
(run by Austin) forcing the foul Count to burn up all his fate
points. And the assault continued. Joe's dice were running
hot for Lord G. and Fluffy.
END GAME: Van Helsing and
Dr. Seward enter the castle. Good triumphs over evil, then is beaten to
the prize by amoral science and Renfield lives to fight another day
"Damnit it Seward, if we don't find that book, you'll be dead
anyways. Now come on!" Van Helsing pleaded with the Doctor and the two
began moving into the castle. Someone was moving around in the
courtyard. Heavy thudding footsteps echoed on the stairs.From the tower
Renfield Cried out "MASTER!!!! NOOOO!!!!"
Out on the road Lord Goldaming struggled to the
death with the Count. Fluffy the wolfhound tore at the
fiend's ankle and sent the nightstalker sprawling to the ground.
Goldaming struck with the speed of a cobra. In one motion he pounced on
the Count's chest, pinning down the arms and drove the stake with two
hands through the sternum of the tuxedo clad count. Dracula's
body dissolved into ash and the dazed Goldaming fell to his knees,
panting with exertion.
Ethel finished
devouring Mina's soul in time to see the Count getting disemboweled by
Fluffy and Lord G. and thought better of facing these two bad-ass
vampire killers. Instead she raced towards the castle to perhaps kill
Van Helsing and Dr. Seward.
Meanwhile
VanHelsing was dodging fire from Renfield in the tower and at the same
time trying to gun down Igor (whose hump proved to be quite damage
resistant). He got off a few shots and then found himself
entangled with the last Vampire (Ethel) while Frankenstein's crew
wandered the castle.
Dr. Seward
hobbled towards the cowering Igor and being
weaponless, buffeted the
stunted lackey with his medical bag with very little effect. Van
Helsing tangled with Ethel, neither one getting the upper hand.
Suddenly Fluffy bounded into the castle courtyard, leaped onto Ethel's
back, bearing the vampire to the ground, and with one mighty bite
decapitated her!
(ABOVE: Fluffy, against all dicing odds, savages the last vampire
bride to the joyful astonishment of Van Helsing and Dr. Seward)
Time
was running out. Dr. Frankenstein had found the Necronomicon and was
reading the pages. Van Helsing moved towards the stairs, blazing
away at Igor, and reduced him to a pile of gibbering hump. The
crazed Renfield shot down Fluffy (the MVP and hero of the Vampire
Hunters team) with a well placed rifle round. Van Helsing hurried up
the stairs, unsure of what he could do on his own to stop the
Frankenstein Monster. Lord Goldaming followed him,
delivering the death blow to the silently weeping Igor whose kneecaps
had been blown off by a shotgun blast.
Dr. Seward rushed to the downed Fluffy and delivered mouth to
snout resuscitation to our hero bringing her back from doggy
heaven. Fluffy managed to sign that she was feeling much better
and then was quickly struck in the head with another bullet from
Renfield (damn that looney!) Seward stopped the bleeding but
Fluffy was knocked out of the game. Suddenly In a flash of
light (dice) Frankenstein and Co. disapeared with the book, leaving the
Vampire Hunters unsure what would happen in the future. Van Helsing and
Lord Goldaming closed on Renfield's position in the castle tower.
"NOOO! Stay back you fools! I have powers. . . . You cannot
kill me! Master promised me immortality! ! !" Renfield
shrieked as he searched the room for more ammo, but there was none to
be found. Heavy blows rained on the old wooden door, splitting
the ancient timbers and rattling the hinges. The blood servant
recoiled into the corner of the tower. Moonlight glinted off the
blue black steel of Van Helsing's double barrel shotgun as he thrust it
through a rent in the door. Renfields scream echoed over the
moors and was drowned out in the weapons report. The Necronomicon
was gone, but revenge was sweet indeed.
In closing this was a great game. A lot of tense moments,
important dice rolls, and decisions to be made, but more importantly
everyone was having fun and laughing!
I would like to extend a hearty thanks and a pat on the back to Dave
MacRae who ran yet another great game! It had everything; a solid and
easy to learn set of rules, nicely painted figures and some really
evocative terrain (who'd a thunk he'd bring Dracula's Castle?!?!)\
I look forward to the next big game of Chaos in Carpathia!
Keep your garlic and stakes handy!