"Gloire in Italy - The missing necklace (Long)" Topic

Hello again!

Here the scanario description.
This description, as well as the character sheets are available in the files section of Gloire Yahoo group.

link

Hope you will like it!

- The missing necklace –
- Marco Germani – ARES Milano -
Introduction

France 1625
Freely inspired by Alexandre Dumas novel.

At the ball of next week, the King of France proudly requires that the Queen wear the new gift she received from him: a precious diamonds necklace.
This suggestion came from evil Cardinal Richelieu, as he is well aware that the Queen has no more the necklace, as she gave to her lover: Lord Buckingham.
So she urgently asks to Lord Buckingham to send back the necklace.
But Lord Buckingham answers that the necklace was stolen.
Surely the thieves were Cardinal's men.

Desperate, the Queen calls the Musketeers, and ordered them to retrieve the necklace.
Some hints suggest the necklace is hidden in the Carmelite monastery, or the nearby graveyard and field.
She absolutely need the necklace because the ball will be on the same evening!

The Musketeers, as usual, cross the swords and shout "ALL FOR HER, SHE FOR ALL!!" (in Italian "necklace" – la collana – is female, so the pun is not translatable in English with the same –polite- meaning), jump on their horses and gallop toward the monastery!

The game

As it is a participation game, we used "Gloire demo version" slightly simplified.
As you can see in the character sheets each character has his own hero points.
We decided this way as in the participation game each player "commanded" just one character and he should be able to spend his HP as he likes to.
The modifiers of some special skills that modify permanently a skill (e.g. fencing) are already added in the character sheet. Musketeer character sheets are freely modified fron the excellent examples available at Gloire Yahoo Group.
Furthermore, to keep things plain and simple, there are no firearms or throwing weapons.
Of course you are free to apply each and every rule.
The gamers played the 4 Musketeers, the gamemaster(s) played NPC and "evil" characters.

The Musketeers have to split, as their goal is to find the necklace as soon as possible, and hopefully, before the cardinal Guards defending the monastery will be reinforced.
So one Musketeer will search in the graveyard, another one in the field, and the last two in the monastery.

Instead of "event chits" we used miniatures and scenic elements (the scarecrow, a cow, etc).
The players were told that these represents the areas to be searched.

- The graveyards (4 events, possibly resolve them in this order):
1) Nun – no hint. Exception: if the Musketeer is Aramis, and passes a Brain test, he is told that someone just entered the crypt .
2) Servant – Two Guards are hidden behind a tombstone! Resolve the fight.
3) Young female peasant – no hint. Waste next full turn looking sadly at the tombstone of an old comrade. Exception: if the Musketeer is Porthos, and passes a Brain test, he is told that someone just entered the crypt .
4) Nun – The Musketeer is told that someone just entered the crypt.
5) Final – While the Musketeer advance towards the crypt, Rochefort, the Guards Captain, is exiting!
Resolve the fight. If defied, Rochefort will reveal that the necklace is hidden in the well, in the middle of the monastery courtyard.

- The field (4 events, possibly resolve them in this order):
1) Young female peasant – no hint. Exception: if the Musketeer is Porthos, and passes a Brain test, he is told that someone is hiding behind the cabin .
2) Servant – Two Guards are hidden behind a haystack! Resolve the fight.
3) Scarecrow – The Musketeer stumbles in a root and falls disastrously on the beehives! Run away shouting and waving the arms for the next two full turns.
4) Peasant – The Musketeer is told that someone is hiding behind the cabin .
5) Final – While the Musketeer advance towards the cabin, a Guards Sergeant, jumps out!
Resolve the fight. If defied, the sergeant will reveal that the necklace is hidden in the well, in the middle of the monastery courtyard.

- The monastery (4 events, possibly resolve them in this order):
1) Young female peasant – no hint. Exception: if the Musketeer is Porthos, and passes a Brain test, he is told that strange movement is happening at the upper floor.
2) Servant – Two Guards are hidden behind a curtain! Resolve the fight.
3) Nun – Exception: if the Musketeer is Aramis, and passes a Brain test, he is told that that strange movement is happening at the upper floor
4) Peasant near to the stairs – Two Guards are hidden behind a curtain! Resolve the fight..
5) Final – Upper floor. While the Musketeer(s) advance in the room he is attacked by a Guard AND Milady, previously hidden behind a curtain, attacks from the rear with a dagger.
Resolve the fight. In the first turn Milady attacks normally, while the Musketeer defends using his Dodge skill. Following rounds are resolved normally. The Musketeers will try to immobilize Milady, so they will attack her with their Brawn skill and she will respond with Dodge. If Milady during the fight will escape in a different room/floor she will freely backstab the first musketeer that will enter in that room. EXCEPTION: if Athos is fighting with Milady, he has to test against Guts in order to attack her. When immobilized, Milady will reveal that the necklace is hidden in the well, in the middle of the monastery courtyard.

- The Well
Looking down in the well, after a Brain test, the Musketeers note a red velvet envelope hidden in a small niche.
It is NOT possible to reach the niche directly, someone must descend few meters in the well to get the envelope. The players have to propose the way to do that, and the gamemaster has to define which skills are involved. If the envelope there is the necklace!!! The Musketeers, again, cross the swords and shout "ALL FOR HER, SHE FOR ALL!!"

The –happy- end?

Triumphant, the Musketeers go towards the main gate, just to discover that the Guard reinforcements have arrived, leaded by the Cardinal himself! Deploy ALL the Guard miniatures and resolve the one-for-all! big fight!
The Guards are killed or flee, the Cardinal disappears, and our heroes gallops to deliver the necklace to the Queen! Horray!!
The Musketeers, guess what?, cross the swords and shout "ALL FOR HER, SHE FOR ALL!!"

I forgot to ask for your pardon because of my bad English!
Anyway, I hope that the scenario is understandable.

Marco

Dude,

Utterly brilliant! This is a top notch Gloire adventure and sounds like an absolute blast to play. Very nice work!

(And your board is beautiful too . . .)

link

Kudos!

Thanks so much for the great reports and the scenario! I wish you many more happy games.

I really don't think it's a proper Gloire battle report unless its been translated from one of the Romance languages. Good job all around. If were the one to make the terrain, I would interested in knowing how the ground was done in the garden. Specifically, the bare earth sections, i.e. the dirt.

Joey

Excellent story line; wonderful exposition! Bravo! The terrain is … well, beautiful is too often used, but with your figures so well-painted, what else can it be called? Beautiful! I salute you, sir!

Thank you, guys! :^)

Deathwing,

you're right.
It is more a scenario "how-to-do" description instead than a battle report. Maybe I'll write also that, as we had three battles.
I did all the buildings and scenic elements, and doing the dirt was very simple.
Actually it is sand, glued with diluited white glue and sealed the same way. Than it was painted dark brown, and then drybrushed yellow ocra, followed by an ivory light drybrush.
That's all, a matter of few minutes.
Hope it helps!

Marco

Who makes all the bits and pieces for the graveyard (walls, gates, headstones, etc) in this shot?

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