A Noob gets in her first campaign game!

My friend Sandy played her first campaign game for Frostgrave! In Frostgrave the D20 can be a fickle bitch! I had just played my first game the night before and had been decimated by one of the other campaign teams. (Thanks Dave! Next time could you use some lube?) My warband was depleted to the point of despair! I had to play this game without my apprentice since he was recovering from one of Dave;s men at arms introducing him to his axe! So I was down to bare bones warband wise. I had gotten some middling treasure money wise. (40gc) BUT I picked up two magic items! A Staff of Power (3) and a pair of Boots of Speed! I did not want to sell off my magic items but....facing a fresh warband with some thieves and my Siglist wizard did not enthuse me much! So I kept the Staff of Power and sold the Boots! The proceeds allowed me to semi replenish my gang and go into the game with something that resembled hope!

This was the board layout at the start. It was not as crowded as I would have liked but for the first game it was okay. 

So here is my warband such as it was at the start. My surviving thief " Jacob" from my first debacle and his trusty hound "Puggsly" take the left flank. My center consisted of my Wizard Akili and her shooters. There was Benjamin the crossbowman,another survivor, and two new archers! My replacement pool at the unemployment office had slim pickings!I got an elf named"Queren"and a halfling named "Bushwack Bill". To my right was the remainder of the "new guys". A human female thief  named "Insig" and another halfling rogue named "Waylay Willie". 

Here is the opposition. On my left were her man at arms and her apprentice. Her center consisted of a thief and a thug. She hadn't given them names as of then but as the game went on she started to.

To my right was her main force of heavies. She had her wizard and the fierce and capable barbarian! She also had her archer, which she named "Army Archer". I guess naming mouselings can be a rough job? She also had a thug there. The cool thing about mouselings is that they come in so many different styles. I found them adorable. Her barbarian had caused me much consternation in our practice games and I had him and his BIG axe on my mind right from the start!

As per our "Homebrew Campaign rules" we rolled for wandering monsters! So...To my immediate right sat a Snow Troll and a bear! There were practically right on my ass! I was like well this is gonna be a short game! I mean how much worse could it get right? I was sooooo wrong! It got much worse when the worm showed up! All on my side!

So as I nearly crapped my draws and laughed! Three bad monsters two to my right and one to my left! A lot of health to chp down for literally no gain! Things looked bleak indeed. 

On her side she ended up with two ghouls! I was like "Really???" So the game commenced. I won initiative and got things rolling. The treasure seemed to be spread out in a line almost thru the center of the board. As it turned out she was closer and since I had to maintain a small profile to stay out of LOS from the wandering monsters she was on the first treasure token almost immediately.

Things looked bleak for my Sigilist but then something happened that I did not expect. I took my head out of my ass and used it. My go to spell had been "Push" I used it all the time! It is really one of her only spells that can affect someone. I looked and saw her two guys advancing and I cast "Blinding Light" on her barbarian! It was a gamble and it worked! So he was blind and slowed. I then concentrated on getting my own treasure.

Sandy cast "Fleet Feet" on her barbarian and the next turn began. Of course my luck still stunk up the place and her barbarian used a WILL roll to throw off the "Blinding Light"! They were at the first treasure!

Meanwhile on my side of the board my two thieves played hide and seek with the Snow Troll. My female decided to lure old Snowy away and using the fact that they are slow drew him off. "Waylay" managed to get the treasure unmolested.

My crossbowman got to his treasure also but drew the unwanted attention of the bear AND the troll! I wasn't worried about the thief because she could out run him but the crossbowman with the treasure was gonna be interesting.

My thief attempted to attack her thief and clip the treasure! Um...did not go the way I hoped! Her thief had an easy time dispatching mine and was the victor!

Ya it looked bad for my guys when the bear decided to go for the crossbowman! However Akili was there with a push spell to keep him at bay!

Fortunately the Worm had not seen any of my guys yet and decided to move towards the center of the board. 

Sandy had her apprentice and a warhound waiting for it!

Queren the elven archer covered Jacob the thief as he approached the treasure sitting on top of the pylon. Its not in the picture but that worm is just off to the left and he looked hungry! Jacob was more than a bit concerned but performed admirably!

By this point in the game Sandy had removed three treasure tokens and was smelling blood in the water! I managed to get one off and I guessed I could get the second off. I thought of relinquishing the field but I decided to stick it out and try my luck! I wanted that third token and I wasn't giving up. The problem was that I couldn't see anything while I was there hiding so I once again used my head and cast "Wizard Eye"! Nice pic if you ask me.

Now I could see the whole field! SO the game continued onward!

The Worm bypassed my thief as he had no LOS and went straight for Sandy's Wizard! However...her barbarian was also there! A battle royale ensued and in the end the worm was dog food! That little barbarian is a handful. She got some good rolls but he showed his quality!

This battle consumed Sandy while I managed to get the last treasure token.

So in the end it was a draw. Much better than I thought and I got some nice stuff. When a game is new it is so much fun to look at your items and ponder the many options you have. I really like this game and I hope it will continue to evolve and get even better.