8 – The Genie in the Bottle

Following last week’s rout in The Keep, our daughter picked The Genie in the Bottle as our scenario. Our warbands would be looking for treasure and have a chance to stumble upon a genie trapped in a lamp.

Before the game, my wizard managed to brew a second dose of the Elixir of the Beastcrafter, and my apprentice brewed a Potion of Teleportation that I gave to my archer. My wife’s wizard got a critical success on Awareness, so even with her apprentice failing, she would have a +4 bonus to initiative.

Because my wife had two of her specialists sitting out of the battle due to their injuries, she decided to play it safe. She wanted to grab one treasure and get off the board quickly in hopes that I wouldn’t be able to grab all four of the other treasures before she ended the game. I’d then need to roll a 15+ to claim any of those treasures.

Knowing her strategy, I knew I’d have to move quickly to slow her down and buy time to claim at least a few of the treasures. I used a Scroll of Teleport and my new Potion of Teleportation to get my apprentice and archer across the battlefield during the first turn. The rest of my warband then spread out and moved as quickly as possible towards the uncontested treasure tokens.

On the second turn, her thief grabbed the treasure token and the genie was unleashed. She used cover and invisibility to stay out of sight of the genie. Not wanting to feel the demon’s wrath, my apprentice and archer needed to duck for cover, but beforehand my apprentice cast Petrify on her archer to hold him on the board a bit longer. I managed to pick up two treasure tokens during this round’s soldier phase which unfortunately resulted in a pair of ghouls entering the battlefield right next to my apprentice. My man-at-arms rushed forward to protect her.

On the next turn, her forces were almost entirely off the board, but they didn’t make it off entirely. That gave me enough time to grab the last two treasure tokens. Unfortunately, my man-at-arms took a critical hit from the ghouls. My snow leopard then moved in to shield my apprentice, and in the creature phase it managed to hold its ground and kill both of them.

On the fourth turn, my wife’s wizard tried to cast Fool’s Gold and cause my archer to drop the treasure he was holding, but she got a critical failure letting him move around the corner instead. Then her last figures stepped off the board, and the game ended.

My wife’s plan didn’t work out as well as she had hoped, but all of her soldiers walked off the battlefield and her warband will be at full strength for our next game. She also secured the genie’s lamp which was sold for 250 gold coins giving her treasury a nice boost.

My use of teleportation items and Petrify let me slow her down just enough to secure all four of the other treasures. Those treasures ended up containing 80 gold coins, an amulet of resistance, a potion of teleportation, a philtre of fairy dust, a potion of toughness, and a wand of light. My man-at-arms died as a result of his injuries, and I hired an apothecary to replace him. Since I already had a wand of light and gloves of casting, I decided to sell this new wand.

The Druid’s Warband

• Audric Silverbeard the Druid (+3 levels: +1 Will, improved Blinding Light, gained Beastcrafter II trait)
• Roslin the Apprentice
• Jormund the Barbarian
• Nils the Tracker
• Dimitri the Archer
• Red the Demon Hunter
• Magnus the Man-at-Arms (dead)
• Rhane the Thief
• Jarl the Bear
• Jaeger the Snow Leopard
• Raven the Apothecary (new hire)

The Trickster’s Warband

• Freya the Trickster (+2 levels: +1 Will, improved Fleet Feet)
• Ophelia the Apprentice
• Kate the Knight
• Emilia the Ranger (now recovered)
• Ronald the Ranger (now recovered)
• Jamie the Archer
• Draco the Man-at-Arms
• Dany the Woman-at-Arms
• Scarlet the Assassin
• Annabelle the Thief