Frostgrave AAR: The Rats in the Wall (Into the Breeding Pits)

In this game, we used all of the rules from Into the Breeding Pits and played the scenario “The Rats in the Walls.” In this scenario, rats spawn whenever a treasure is picked up (rather than rolling for Random Encounters).

Here we have some Cultists taking on Barbarians. In the background is a War Hound and a Hell Hound (an Imp Proxy). Both are enemies to the Barbarians.

Above is a picture of the game in play, but let’s wind back to the start.

To begin, we set up the table very generically using TerraTiles. There are rivers on the table, but we played those rivers as standard terrain with no effect on movement. This is the most open table on which I have ever played Frostgrave.

The gaming table.

This Battle Report is the third from a three game campaign day that Randal, Dave and I played some time ago. We used the same Warbands, yet again, and the links to the previous games are below.

As with the previous games, Randal played a Sigilist (Sister Beatrice), Dave played an Illusionist (Beorncrom the Quick), and I (Jacob) played a Necromancer (the Undertaker). From the previous game, we improved our Wizards and spells, but made almost no changes to the warbands. The biggest change of note is that the Undertaker invested in Kennels and bought a War Hound.

We placed treasure around the table and then diced off for deployment. For the zones, the Undertaker deployed in the middle tile at the bottom of the board, Beorncrom deployed on the middle tile to the left and Sister Beatrice deployed at the top middle tile of the map.

Above is the deployment of the Undertaker’s Army. He was very lucky as there were three treasures really close to him right off the start. One of them is from the spell “Reveal Secret” but the other two were placed by the players before determining table edges.

Obviously, my thieves would make a rush for the closest treasures.

Beorncrom the Quick started by the river and made a mad dash for the treasures near him. Unfortunately for him, a Hell Hound (an Imp) was summoned by the Undertaker just behind his front lines.

Being extremely gutsy, Beorncrom teleported directly to one of the middle treasures and picked it up. A rat (we proxied Blue Blood Stone Zealots by Reaper Miniatures) scurried out of the treasure and locked him into combat.

Teleporting to that treasure put Beorncrom right into Sister Beatrice’s area and crosshairs. Sister Beatrice cast the deadliest spell in her arsenal (Furious Quill).

I must say it is a lot of fun and an interesting challenge to play a game were none of the Wizards took effective attack spells. Here, Sister Beatrice uses her deadlieset attack spell (Furious Quill). Furious Quill causes a magical feather pen to materialize and attack the target by tickling and annoying the enemy.

If we had of taken a lot of attack spells, an open table like this would be suicide for all that venture forth to collect its treasures.

My Thief grabbed the closest treasure and the Treasure Hunter quickly dispatched the giant rat that emerged.

My other Thief connects with the second treasure and a rat sneaks out. My Javelineer occupies the Rat while my War Hound circles around the creature and takes it out.

Meanwhile, Beorncrom is in a terrible situation. He is under the influence of Furious Quill, too close to Sister Beatrice’s warband, and, to make maters even worse, the Undertaker’s Apprentice cast Bones of the Earth on him. Bones of the Earth creates skeletal hands that grab the victim and keep the victim in place until they are destroyed.

Beorncrom is now also the subject of a Bones of the Earth Spell. He is in a world of trouble!

The Cultists and Barbarians engage in battle.

The War Hound in the background belongs to the Cultists and the Hell Hound (Imp) up close was summoned by the Undertaker. The Zombie moves in to take on the Crossbowman.

Meanwhile, Beorncrom’s men are doing excellent at claiming treasures. They have three of them.

A Barbarian moves in and takes out the Imp.

The Undertaker is unbothered by the death of his Imp. He just summons another one behind enemy lines.

Meanwhile, Beorncrom can’t cast spells because he is in combat with the rat. He can’t move naturally because of the Bones of the Earth spell and he failed to take out the rat in hand-to-hand combat. His enemies draw closer and tell him to drop the treasure, but he won’t. “It is mine” Beorncrom yells out to the 7 men approaching him.

One of Sister Beatrice’s men moves in to take out the rat. The rat rolls a natural twenty, killing Beatrice’s man!

The Crossbowman takes out the War Hound.

On the Undertaker’s soldier phase, the Javelineer and Treasure Hunter move in on the Crossbowman. The Treasure Hunter attacks with a +6 attack bonus versus a +2 attack and loses. The Crossbowman rolls a natural 20 and outright kills the Treasure Hunter.

On the next turn, the Javelineer is taken out.

At this time, the Undertaker’s Apprentice is carrying the third treasure for the Warband.

Knowing that there was nothing separating the Undertaker from the Crossbowman (except for one meat-shield Zombie), he casts Fog to block line of site and tells his warband to withdraw.

In the next round, Beorncrom is almost killed and concedes his treasure to Sister Beatrice so he can escape with his life.

In the end, the Undertaker’s forces and Beorncrom’s forces walked off the table with three treasures each. Sister Beatrice convinced Beorncrom to leave the fourth treasure behind and she exits the table with one treasure.

This time around, there were a lot of deaths around the table. Many of the soldiers that went in, would not make it out. The Undertaker spent most of his gold at the end of the game just replacing the people that he lost.

Overall, this was a fairly fun game and a neat way to end the night. The rats weren’t too tough, but if you don’t get the right rolls, they can be deadly.



It will be a lot of fun to continue on with this campaign in the future.

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