Custom Scenario PDF
Transcript
EXT. MILITARY ENCAMPMENT – TENT CITY – DUSK
Orange glows, fires, dot the muddy paths between the canvas tents stretching toward the dark forest beyond.
EXT. OTTILIE’S TENT – DUSK
Voices heard from inside the tent, which is lit internally by lanterns. A barrel stands guard outside the entrance flaps, a pair of hatchets embedded in the splintered side where a rough target has been painted with whitewash.
JOLANDA (O.C.)
Madame, would you leave scorpions to run wild in your kitchen? We must deliver fire and salt and light.
GASPAR GAGNEAUX steps up to the tent door but hesitates before entering.
INT. OTTILIE’S TENT – NIGHT
JOLANDA stands, leaning on her staff; OTTILIE sits on the edge of a cot, repairing a tear in a boot with leather cord. A small lantern sits on a footlocker.
OTTILIE
They won’t give us more soldiers.
JOLANDA
There is no need for more men.
Ottilie looks at her.
JOLANDA (CONT’D)
Not while we have those.
Ottilie follows Jolanda’s gaze to the footlocker, on which lies the shining silver dagger and the small golden icon she uncovered in the ruins.
OTTILIE
They want that delivered, for something down on the front line.
GASPAR enters, but the women hardly acknowledge him.
JOLANDA
And they may have it. After we conclude our ritual. I have sent Vermont to my excardinated Sisters in Lyon for the additional components.
Ottilie sighs. She picks up the silver knife, flips it casually between her fingers.
OTTILIE
You’re right, we can’t leave a vampire unchecked at our backs. Folly. Gaspar.
GASPAR
Yes ma’am.
Ottilie flips the silver knife again and offers it to him hilt-first. It gleams in the lantern light.
OTTILIE
Go find Felice, she’s with the grenadier and the infantryman. Give her this. And tell them all … we’re going back.
Intro
Greetings good humans and welcome to Tabletop Alchemy, where sometimes we’re setting up for Chapter 3 in an on-going saga where sometimes the characters we’ve created start demanding their own storylines! And we thank our patrons for all of their steadfast support in this crazy new year! I’m talking to you, you know who you are.
So this is kind of a story-heavy episode today. For any new viewers here we’ve been running Joe McCullough’s Silver Bayonet solo scenario chain, you can find the first two of those here <snap>, and I thought we’d just be jumping into the third scenario that’s in the book but the characters in our warband are starting to take the reins of this tale. Jolanda just wouldn’t leave me alone about this whole thing.
Jolanda Scaletta is our resident occultist and she simply could not stomach the idea of leaving vampires roaming around in the French countryside. So she’s got a plan – well, let’s continue the story, shall we?
EXT. MILITARY CAMP – QUARTERMASTER LANES – NIGHT
VERMONT ESCOFFIER and CLAUDE CELLIER push through roaming soldiers, their blue trench coats somewhat of a contrast to the mostly white uniforms clogging the muddy lanes.
CLAUDE
You’re off to find a horse, lad, so you can travel to Lyon in search of what now?
VERMONT
Salt. And oil.
CLAUDE
Really? Are we making a roast?
Vermont spots the picket lines full of horses ahead.
VERMONT
I’ll be back in four days, tell my aunt. Three if the weather holds.
And the supernatural investigator is off in a flapping snap of leather coat.
CLAUDE
(to himself)
Well, have a nice vacation, Investigator.
MALE VOICE (O.C.)
Is that Claude Cellier?! Who owes me several ducats?
Claude winces, turns slowly – but then his expression brightens noticeably.
A short, heavyset MAN waves Claude over to his massive pile of tents and crates and wagons. Hanging lanterns keep the shadows at bay.
CLAUDE
Quartermaster Lucille! You short bastard, I’ve been looking for you since Boulogne!
QUARTERMASTER LUCILLE
Yes, yes, I’ve been looking for you as well. If you have what you promised, I have what I promised. But first! Onion soup and goat cheese! Never turn down a chance to feast, aye?
Claude grins.
CUT TO:
EXT. TENT CITY – RAUCOUS DISTRICT – NIGHT
Fires blaze high in front of tents full of loud drinking and gambling. Soldiers stumble to and fro, bayonets flash in the firelight, laughter punches through here and there.
GASPAR pushes through the tassels and hats of the French army, searching. He frowns, noticing a clearing ahead, a tent the regular soldiers seem to unconsciously drift wide of.
The tent is well-lit and out front are three rickety tables, but only one is occupied. The brawny infantryman BAPTISTE MOREAUX barks at the pale cook working sausages on a griddle over a small campfire. Grenadier BRIELLE PELLETIER leans back in a wooden chair, boots kicked up on the table. FELICE ARMAND pours Brielle’s metal cup full from a basketed bottle she holds.
Gaspar looks at the soldiers wandering past, noting that all of them slide brief glances at the trio but look away equally fast, nervously even.
Gaspar wrestles an empty barrel over to the table and sits.
BAPTISTE
(raising his cup)
You’ve outdone yourself, kid.
Felice half smiles.
BRIELLE
Bordeaux and sage sausages? You work magic much better than that Italian nun, or I’m a worse shot than this lug right here.
She laughs at Baptiste’s growl.
FELICE
Wine, doctor?
GASPAR
(shaking head)
I have something for you, Felice.
He unsheathes the silver knife, both Brielle and Baptiste tensing slightly at the sound it makes. Gaspar hands the weapon to the vivandierie, who takes it with a small frown.
GASPAR (CONT’D)
Ottilie says it’s yours.
Baptiste grins and claps Felice on the shoulder, a bit too hard in his tipsy state.
BAPTISTE
You earned that.
BRIELLE
Aye, it shining just like your eyes. Make sure you keep em closed in the dark, lest you give us away, eh?
GASPAR
Ottilie also gave me a message for everyone.
They look at him, but a handful of drunk soldiers boisterously stumble over to fill in one of the empty tables.
SOLDIER ONE
Garcon! Wine! Oh and those sausages smell like heaven!
FELICE
That’s our meal, soldier, forage your own.
SOLDIER ONE
Oh, sweetheart, ain’t you a bright and shiny thing. Look, boys, we have guests to dress up our table tonight!
The rest of the soldier’s compatriots have grown silent. He notices their change in demeanor and wobbly tries to pinpoint what has soured the mood.
The soldiers stand and start to leave. One leans over and mutters to the Nightmare Hunters.
SOLDIER TWO
Apologies.
SOLDIER ONE
What is happening? Where are we going?
They drag him with them, all harsh whispers and mutters.
SOLDIER TWO
Les Chasseurs de Cauchemars. Idiot!
BAPTISTE
What’s the message, Doc?
Gaspar watches the soldiers go, their haunted glances over their shoulders not lost on him. One of them makes the sign of the cross as he slips behind another campfire. Gaspar looks at his fellow Hunters.
GASPAR
We’re going back. To hunt the vampire.
Slow push on their reactions. Baptiste groans. Brielle polishes off her cup of wine and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. Felice looks down at the silver knife, it’s shining reflection hitting her downcast eyes.
CUT TO:
EXT. LYON – LATE AFTERNOON
Sunlight slices across the city beneath dark heavy clouds. A bell tolls in the distance; smoke billows from fields far to the south.
EXT. COBBLE STREET – TALL GOTHIC BUILDINGS – CONTINUOUS
Winding tightly between stone buildings, sun cuts across the lane in slashes through which a figure approaches, coat flowing, tricorn hat punctuating the silhouette.
VERMONT ESCOFFIER ducks into an arch full of shadow. He knocks on a stout wooden door.
INT. STONE CHAPEL – CONTINUOUS
A musty back room, splintered floor, crates draped in dusty drop cloths. Colored light splashes in from a doorway. VERMONT crosses to that threshold and peers into –
HIS POV: a small chapel full of colored light and stained glass windows.
WOMAN’S VOICE (O.C.)
Investigator.
Vermont turns to SISTER MARGARET, a nun, emerging from a dark stairwell in the back room.
SISTER MARGARET
We have what you seek. Downstairs.
She turns and descends back into the shadows. Vermont follows her down into –
INT. CHAPEL BASEMENT – CONTINUOUS
Sister Margaret crosses to a massive oak table set with lanterns and candles and long flat crates banded with leather straps. Vermont approaches. The nun lifts the lid from one of the crates, revealing three covered wooden bowls; the lids are branded with the Holy Cross and three hovering circles.
Sister Margaret lifts one of the lids, revealing the bowl to be filled with salt.
SISTER MARGARET
These salts have been consecrated by the Archbishop’s exarch and his Gnostics. They must be sown into the earth by the hands of believers and then …
She holds up one finger, turns to another table and lifts a stoneware decanter and offers it to Vermont.
SISTER MARGARET (CONT’D)
The cleansing fires can be laid. Your aunt will know the prayers, Sister Scaletta is … well-versed in the armor and wrath of God.
Vermont looks from the flask of oil to the bowls of salt.
VERMONT
Then I must ride, time is of the essence.
SISTER MARGARET
When is it not, Investigator?
CUT TO:
EXT. LYON – COUNTRYSIDE – DUSK
A rider on horseback, silhouette, coat rippling in the wind, gallops into the setting sun.
SISTER MARGARET (O.S.)
When is it not?
CUT TO:
EXT. TENT CITY – DAY
Tracking with the long, narrow crate that we know holds the sacred bowls of salt; it’s moving down the lane between tents, obviously carried by someone holding either side of it. Soldiers approaching us (or being approached by us) look from the crate to the off-camera crate-bearers and step back to give a wide berth.
INT. OTTILIE’S TENT – DAY
Ottilie sits across from that small golden icon, studying it. She draws one of her pistols, turns it over in her hand, contemplating … then sets it down in front of the little saint statue. She draws the pistol’s sister and sets it down as well, arranging them just so before the icon.
OTTILIE
I shall anoint these with oil and bless them –
She looks skyward but with closed eyes.
OTTILIE (CONT’D)
and they shall speak with your wrath, if they speak at all.
CLAUDE (O.C.)
(from outside the tent)
Look what the mangy cat has dragged in off the boat –
Claude pushes into the tent, carrying one end of the bowl crate.
CLAUDE (CONT’D)
– and on a horse no less, a horse he didn’t even pay for. How’d you manage that, by the way?
VERMONT
Madame. Is my aunt nearby?
The men set the crate down beside the icon and the pistols.
OTTILIE
She’s administering Communion in the blood tents. She’ll return shortly.
Claude unslings his musket from his back.
CLAUDE
Take a peek at this ma’am, it’s one of the finest things you’ll ever see is my bet.
He shows off a brand new, shining brass scope that runs nearly half the musket’s length.
Ottilie takes the rifle and brings it up to her eye, aiming through the tent flap. Surprised at what she sees, she looks at Claude over the scope.
OTTILIE
This … this is very nice.
Claude grins.
CLAUDE
Yes it is. Brielle’s never gonna win any wager she puts against me now. Hah! Glorious.
So this is just super fun for me, I could just keep spooling out scenes kinda forever, so at some point, we just gotta, you know, move along right?
So while this batch of narrative has been fun and sorta free-for-all, what today’s episode is really all about is constructing our first custom scenario.
So we’ll use the existing scenarios as our template and I’m gonna use the same Pages document that I used for the House Rules home brewing extravaganza <snap> and copy the scenario layout from the main rule book. We’ll start with the scenario title.
The Cleansing
Hopefully the successful cleansing, right? And a little blurb that gives an overview of what’s going on. Something like:
Les Chasseurs de Cauchemars’ last encounter with the undead at the ruined chapel proved successful except for one nagging detail: they left at least one vampire roaming the ruins. The occultist Jolanda Scaletta convinces the warband’s officer Ottilie Bastarauche that they must return to stamp out the threat and reclaim the desecrated grounds with holy oil, fire and salt.
All right, now for the Set Up. We’re gonna have the same board terrain as the previous scenario, so that’s easy enough. Now, this scenario is all about a guaranteed vampire fight, there’s no way around it. And the revenants are still gonna be a thing too as long as the grounds haven’t been consecrated. But I’m going to adjust some of the numbers for the starting setup in this scenario versus the last one.
So the game will start with a vampire in the middle of the ruined chapel, that’s first. Second, we’ll place three revenants roughly circling the vampire at random tombstones. We won’t have any clue markers in this scenario BUT we’re going to have three markers for Unhallowed Ground and a fourth marker which is really just a reminder that goes in center of the ruins with the vampire, which we’ll call the Icon Marker.
All right, now for the Special Rules.
So, first off, we’ll keep the previous scenario’s special rule about sunlight being magically dimmed essentially and so Line of Sight is limited to 12 inches max and vampires suffer no penalty for being out in the daytime.
Next, the Unhallowed Ground markers. These must be removed from the table by sowing consecrated salts into the dirt. Salting costs 1 action and a figure must stand adjacent to an Unhallowed Ground marker to sow the salts. If any Unhallowed Ground marker is left on the table by the end of the game, the scenario has essentially been failed.
Now, the Icon Marker rules. So the golden icon – that little saint statue Ottilie found last time – must be placed in the center of the ruins, and that costs 1 action to do, and then holy oil must be spread across the ruins. This probably costs a figure’s entire activation, during which if they are attacked, the spreading oil activity is interrupted and requires another activation to complete. Okay I wrote that in there but then later I remove it, because it makes no real sense from a game mechanic stand point, there’s not really a way for anything to interrupt a figure’s activation. So you’ll see that bit get deleted in a minute.
Now we need some special rules regarding how enemies appear during the scenario, so first we’ll say that a new revenant appears from at a random Unhallowed Ground marker at the end of Turn Two and every turn after that.
Now in the previous scenario, there was a rule that said a second vampire appeared on the board at the end of turn 5. So let’s say that if any Unhallowed Ground markers remain at the end of turn 5, a 2nd vampire appears at a random corner. This might be a little generous, let’s make it turn 4.
Now, once the icon has been placed and the ruins have been drenched in holy oil, Jolanda Scaletta must conduct a ritual prayer that will bless and re-consecrate the grounds. This will cost her an activation, so no other actions can be taken while she does this. And she must be within Line of Sight of the icon to conduct the ritual prayer. That means within 12” because of the sunlight rule.
And last but not least, the holy oil must be set alight. This requires either a torch or a firearm shot. Technically speaking, we need a firearm shot that strikes sparks off something but we’re gonna stop right there and not get too technical. This is just a fun fantasy game right? So, a figure can spend an action to set the oil on fire with a torch as long as they are within 1” of the central ruins or a figure can make a Shooting Attack with a target number of 12 to set the oil on fire.
Now this can all be done with figures in the ruins, so any figure that is inside the flames suffers damage from a Melee Attack type of dice roll with the Power Die functioning as the damage die and any Undead figure that is inside the flames takes damage equal to the total of both dice, not just the Power Die. And this damage happens at the end of any turn a figure is inside the main chapel ruins.
All right, that’s a big old batch of Special Rules but I think they’re pretty easy to understand. We’ll fix any snags when we actually play it, no problem.
But we do need to set some declarations at the beginning of the scenario.
One: which figure carries the icon.
Two: which figure carries the holy oil.
three: which figure carries the bag of silver shot they found last scenario
We’ll just assume the sacred salts have been distributed amongst the warband members.
Now, there are some artifact special rules from the last scenario. The silver knife Ottilie gave to Felice functions as a Holy Symbol and lends +1 Courage to the wielder. Ottilie will carry the icon, which also functions as a holy symbol and grants a +1 to Courage for any figure within Line of Sight of it.
And finally we have the Rewards section!
Units receive the following bonus experience points for this scenario, starting with
plus 1 experience point if the warband kills 4 or more revenants
plus 1 experience point for each vampire slain by the warband
plus 1 experience point if at least 4 soldiers exit the table
plus 1 experience point if Jolanda completes the ritual prayer
plus 2 experience points if all Unhallowed Markers are removed from the board
plus 2 experience points if the holy oil is set alight with the icon in place
I basically modeled these after the previous scenario’s so it seems generally in the same realm of possible XP gain.
All right, I think that is it! Scenario 3: The Cleansing is ready to play! I’m looking forward to it, should be fun.
Until then, well, better get your game on, build a warband, roll some dice and tell a story.
See ya!