Forbidden Psalm Game 1: The Mad Wizard’s Tea
Posted: 08. 09. 2022.
We have played the first scenario of our campaign of Forbidden Psalm: a tabletop miniature wargame by Kevin Rahman, based on TTRPG Mörk Borg.
You’ve met the two warbands in a previous post: the Cannibals led by the vicious slaughterer Janos, and the Undeadites led by mummified barbarian Queen Heldu. Here are the warbands and their starting warband sheets (empty sheet is from the Forbidden Psalm book):
The warbands are rivals, both working for Vriprix, a mad wizard who lives in a twisted castle in the woods and never shows his face. Gives his orders through a small window in the castle door, and hands out rewards through a slit. Strange, but all is fine as long as he pays.
For their first mission, they were sent to the ruins of an old manor, whose owners are long dead. Vriprix wants black spotted fungi that grow on corpses, that’s all. He’ll pay 2 gold per mushroom.
Making the Corpses
This scenario requires six corpses on the board as objectives. Generic markers can be used, but I wanted something more atmospheric. I had a pair of corpses from Mantic’s Terrain Crate that I really liked. So I made the two into six. Oyumaru, or Blue Stuff, is a reusable thermoplastic material for making moulds. In my experience, it is best at replicating flat-backed objects (these corpses are a perfect example). Copying something more 3D is a real nightmare. My two corpses were already painted, but that was not an obstacle. Blue Stuff is softened by putting it in hot water, pressed on the original, and allowed to cool down. Then it can be demoulded. I made six copies out of Milliput yellow/grey. It’s just as durable and cheap as needed for this purpose. They were then quickly painted and sealed.
DEPLOYMENT
As per scenario rules, six corpses were places around the centre of the 2’x2’ board. This mission’s terrain was lots of ruins and a few trees, to represent the decaying house. In Forbidden Psalm, quantity of terrain for a scenario is determined by dice rolls, and in this case the rolls gave us maximum number of terrain pieces. There is an option to roll for weather, which gives extra rules to the scenario, but since it was our first game we decided to skip that to keep it simple.
The warbands deployed on opposite sides, positioning so that they are able to get to the corpses as soon as possible.
TURN ONE
The first turn’s initiative roll was won by the Cannibals, and they make an aggressive advance. Janos strides towards the centre of the battlefield and claims one of the corpses, trying to scare off the competition with his massive size and hideous visage. His smallest minion Dugnutt claims gold and a fungus from a corpse hidden away in a corner. Artanaro the Sly grabs the nearest corpse after Abathur fails his search attempt. On the Deadites side, Corpse paint advances into the ruins and successfully finds gold, a live snake, and a fungus. He promptly drops it on the ground because of his Vacant Mind flaw. No problem, as Waltz waltzes up to him and grabs the loot before the approaching Cannibal Maag comes near and swipes them. Maag was not interested anyway, as his Angry flaw makes him think only of slaughter. Queen Heldu, Torvuul, and Filth all fail their rolls trying to search the same corpse.
TURN TWO
A single Ghoul spawns on the edge of the board, attracted by all this activity in the otherwise desolate ruins. In the game, these are Disemboweled Ghouls, who entangle you with their exposed guts and don’t let you leave combat. I used one of the regular ghoul minis from my collection. It doesn’t have its stomach open, but I imagine it uses the meat hook it’s carrying to latch on to its prey.
In this turn: Janos strides over towards Waltz hoping to take away his loot. Rolls for attack and misses, but uses the Fate omen to re-roll: and it’s a crit! Waltz hits with his return attack. Janos causes 6 damage and Bleeding (his sword’s crit effect), which would be enough to take out Waltz. However, Waltz’s armour reduces the damage and leaves him at 1 HP, while Bleeding has no effect on a dried-up undead husk. Waltz in turn uses the Devastation omen to deal maximum damage to Janos, which would be ten, but Janos uses his shield to soak up the damage and remains unscathed. The shield is destroyed. On his turn, Waltz sees where this is going and disengages, running away towards the nearest board edge. Maag attacks Corpse Paint and does some damage. Filth uses the Confidence omen to automatically succeed at searching that difficult corpse, because the Undeadites have no time to waste any more actions on failing that. The corpse yields a fungus and a random Unclean Scroll (it was the one for summoning skeletons). Queen Heldu attacks little Dugnutt, who approached an unclaimed corpse, but does little damage. Artanaro shoots his crossbow at Torvuul, but misses. Torvuul must attack since he has the Angry flaw, so he swings his axe at Janos, but they both miss their attacks.
In the monster phase, the Ghoul attacks and downs Corpse Paint. The Grace omen is used to remove him from play and give him an automatic pass on the death save.
TURN THREE
Janos obliterates Torvuul, using the Devastation omen to deal maximum damage. Additionally, Torvuul fumbled his counterattack and dropped his great axe. Seeing that the bulk of her warbnd is downed or fleeing, Queen Heldu decides to withdraw. Successfully disengages and runs off, taking her doggo Filth along. Maag keeps bashing at the Ghoul, but it’s still standing. Dugnutt claims his second corpse, retrieving another 13 gold and a fungus. Artanaro repositions and wants to take a shot at the back of fleeing Heldu, but he forgot to reload his crossbow, so that can’t happen. Abathur spends the turn standing around with nothing to do. Waltz leaves the table with his loot.
TURN FOUR
Artanaro the Sly approaches the unconscious Torvuul with bad intentions. Janos and Maag fight the Ghoul, but it doesn’t give up. Heldu and Filth evacuate, leaving Torvuul for dead.
TURN FIVE
Artanaro goes through Torvuul’ pockets, looting his armour, helm, and the great axe he had dropped earlier. Janos and Maag finish off the pesky Ghoul.
TURN SIX
Janos successfully harvests the Ghoul’s organ (meat can be harvested from dead monsters, which can be sold for gold). Probably takes a nibble at him as well. Maag’s relentless anger makes him go strike the downed Torvuul. The attack is successful and the unfortunate Undeadite is killed. Savage move!
At the end of the game Artanaro gets a free roll on the treasure table due to his Swindler feat.
AFTERMATH
The Cannibals had a fantastic show, with no injuries or lost members. They sold two live snakes, 4 fungi, and a ghoul organ. Toghether with the gold they found on the corpses, and 10 gold for taking part in the mission, they earned 62 gold. Two of that was spent to replace Janos’ shattered shield. The warband got a total of 7XP. The armour, helmet and axe that were looted from Torvuul were placed in the warband’s stash.
The Undeadites had a pretty shite debut. They permanently lost a rather heavy-hitting member. They sold their two fungi and a live snake, and earned a total of 21 gold. Heldu’s crew earned 5 XP for their trouble. But they now have a scroll for casting the Bones, Them Damn Bones spell. So I’m thinking they might hire a spellcaster to replace their fallen friend. Summoned skeletons may be of great help in their future encounters.
THOUGHTS ON FORBIDDEN PSALM SO FAR
After playing this first game, I can say that I like it. The system is super simple, and the number of models per warband is a fixed five. I put all the models’ special rules on their stat cards with full explanations, and that made it even faster because there was less flipping through the book. My homemade stat cards also included an HP tracker, so we didn’t have a board full of d6 to count health as we often do in our games. The board size is 2’x2’, which is quite small and means the action starts right away. The Omens mechanic is great, they add a bit of extra control over fate if you save them for situations that really matter. I’m happy I made the cards for them, since we would have forgotten about the Omens otherwise. The characters can die easily, but the omens and death save can help them out somewhat. And if the players aren’t playing recklessly there don’t have to be too many permanent casualties. We’ll see how it goes in later scenarios when we face nastier monsters. Perhaps there will be reluctant collaboration between warbands.
How many original warband members do you think will make it to the end of the campaign? What kind of character should Queen Heldu hire to replace Torvuul? Let me know in the comments.
Big thanks to all of Gardens of Hecate’s patrons! Your support is sincerely appreciated. If you’re not a member, you can join here anytime: PATREON. The extra coin allows me to experiment with new ideas, tools, materials and techniques - and produce quality content for everyone to enjoy.
Comments
Thanks for your input Shane! Yeah, I bet she is not too happy right now and wants revenge.
OH, DESPAIR, FOR DEATH AWAITS THEM ALL.
THE ETERNAL QUEEN SHALL CALL FORTH THE TWO THAT BECOME ONE, THE CORPSE ENGINE OF UNDYING MIRTH.
Thank you for your grim prognosis, Tolenne the Preserved! That’s an interesting prompt for a character, if I don’t use it now I’ll save it for later.
Very cool to see the game in action, I think I might take it for a spin. As always your photos have such a cool atmosphere. Definitely agree a spellcaster would be cool!
Thank you Space Dinosaur!
Loving all your amazing models and scenery, as well as your great writeups!
A rules question I haven’t been able to figure out from the manual - do you play that monsters have -3 to attack back when they are attacked? I’m confused by the line that says monsters make “all tests at DR12 with no modifiers”
Thank you!
@chaosmos - Thanks! Yes, we play that that monsters do not have that -3 when retaliating.
With the loss of such a heavy hitter I can imagine a furious Heldu enlisting the help of a spellcasting grave digger, one who can replace such a loss with a pile of mud and bone.
By 7he_Blindman on 2022 09 08