Prelude to Albion Attempted

     It was two weeks ago that I ran a "Silver Bayonet" scenario for Wren and Nick on our kitchen table. I took the Scenario 4.8 ("Ghosts of the '45") and Scenario 4.9 ("Mounds of the Dead") and mashed them together more-or-less. I found these two scenarios on the TSB Facebook group and decided to use them, especially since Nick is originally from Glasgow and fields a team of Scots adventurers, mostly Highlanders with muskets and one with bagpipes which we'll talk about later. Wren likes to field a warband based on the Harvestmen listing also found on the Facebook group. Their warband is led by a changeling and includes a dark wolf, two pixies, two goblins, and two human bandits armed with muskets.

     We set the table with 5 clue markers set out according to the written scenario. For the burial mound, we used a model of an LOTR Hobbit hole which the family is holding for my son who is getting ready to move to a new house with some buddies. Some of the things encounted on the field were rather strange.

The Hobbit Hole serving as a burial mound.
It is a gorgeous piece of work.

One of Wren's bandits backs up a goblin approaching
a clue marker with the activated Trow present.
Off to the right, the dark wolf faces down another Trow.

Wren's "people" got to the clue markers first and each clue marker activated a Trow, a Scotish pixy of a sort that also had the special ability to bring on "Musical Bamboozle", a spell of a sort that stunned the opponent and caused them to move closer to the Trow. If you rolled your courage high enough in your next activation, you were no longer "banboozled" and now had a better chance of not being bamboozled again. (♫ "Won't get fooled again!" ♫) The bagpiper included in Nick's group permitted some simple help to the group. If the piper is playing, all of his group within 6 inches/15cm received a +1 to all courage roles and any monsters opposing those figures suffer a -1 on any appropriate terror checks. (This did not seem overwhelming yet appropriate. I've included a bagpiper in Nick's Highland warband and my own Irish rebel warband.)

The Irish piper from my 1798 Rebellion warbanc
(Trent Miniatures)

Nick's group advanced slowly and did not get "bamboozled" much. Because he received the first move more often than not, he advanced in "fits and starts." Wren moved their Weird Warband quicker.

A Trow/Pixie in a messed-up tree at a clue marker.

A Trow
I used a frog-ish sort of figure from my collection of oddities since it seemed right.

Trow vs. Goblin - three falls to cerfew.

Wren was slow to "investigate" the clues because a bamboozled character is unable to investegate for really do anything but move closed to the Trow that bamboozled it. There was a lot of back-and-forth over this. Finally one clue activated the big baddie of the scenario - a Hogboon who inhabited the burial mound. He activated yet stayed in the mound. 

Some AI's idea of a Hogboon.
Nick had actually heard of this weirdo.

The figure I designated as the Hogboom.
Never saw the light of day.

            

There was some firing back and forth between the bandits and the Highlanders and some wounds were exchanged. Finally Wren's changeling investigated a clue and found the journal of Lady Eustacia Morton, which was the goal of the scenario. That group high-tailed it to the table edge with the book and made it off the field. Meanwhile, Nick's group encounted the etherial Highlander from the battle of Culloden. Had the game gone longer, that ghostie would have joined the living Highlanders, but alas...

Nick's Highlanders, including the Isleman (with the battleaxe) and the Laird's Gillie
(in 'breeks' and tam), punish one of the Trow.
If I recall correctly, the green beads meant they had recovered from the bamboozle.

The bulk of Nick's force advances.
It was based on the British list with the "Highlander" renamed as an "Isleman" since
the whole group are Highlanders. The bagpiper is the third figure from the left.
The barrel was there just for laughs and served as some cover. I should have made it
a barrel of Scotch whisky so the Highlanders could have the TRUE goal of the game.

One of Wren's goblins surveys the clues, the Trow, and the Highland advance.
He soon turned tail and headed for the table edge.

Wren's changeling leader beats feet with the journal, signified by the white bead.
I tend to used these beads as morale/wound/situational signifiers. They're inexpensive,
available, and noticable.

Here's where the changling found the journal.

Since we all were a bit rusty on the game mechanics, we messed up a few things. However, this did not keep us from having fun... and isn't that the reason we play these games?

As for the bagpipe rules, they're my own invention. As I said they add something but don't overwhelm things. If you like them, go ahead and use them. I will... at least until "command authority" tells me otherwise.