Day Five of our annual Reindeer Wars found us visiting Fantasy Books & Games in O’Fallon, IL for two superbly crafted scenarios to entertain the gathered players.
In the spirit of the holiday season we trekked off to the shopping mall on Christmas Eve with a long list of gifts to be collected by our groups of Viking Warriors. Yes, it was Ray Gluck’s fabulous and hilarious game of RagnaShop. With his splendid 3D printed shopping mall complete with food court and escalators and fan favorite Fistful of Lead rules the teams found a parking space and headed in…
The action was fast and furious as the teams of Vikings hurried through the mall. Gifts were to be gotten for under the tree and nothing must stand in the way! (and really, who would be foolish enough to stand in the way of a Viking on a Christmas mission? Particularly on with a battle-axe.)
Sometimes the bargains were just “stunning” (or was that stun marker courtesy of another group of frantic customers?) as the shoppers made their way across the mall.
Shopping completed (mulligans and forces depleted) , it was time to head to the Reindeer pulled sled on the parking lot and craftily avoid some less efficient consumers who might have missed the great sales, but were intent on poaching a few purchases as they headed out. One wonders just what the after Christmas return day will be like?
Ray provided a post game report that just needed to be passed along to everyone. So we will turn it over to Ray…
“It was Christmas Eve and the Viking Bands were just getting back in town from a long season of plundering. It was time to knock out some last minute shopping! We had 5 players each representing a Viking Band of 5 characters, and each band had a shopping list of 3 items spread throughout the mall. Unfortunately, the store’s were down to their last few ‘Plunder Me Thor’ dolls and the last few ‘i-Spear 6’ spears”.
“The followers of Valgard (Joe) and Arni (Steve) both pulled their longboats into the front lobby. The followers of Gundlaug (Craig), Thorvald (AJ), and Thorgrim (Duane) ‘parked’ in the back lot. The mall was decorated in red, green, and other bright colors but soon red would be the dominant color!”
“Shoppers hit the first couple stores without incident. Meanwhile, Brage felt the call of the wild and relieved himself in the corner of Posh Paws. While the leader of AJ’s band took a leisurely dump, several other players made a bee-line to Hooked on Books. While the exact sequence of events is subject to question, and the stories will be sung around the campfires, either Narve or Egil fired the first arrow down in the first floor hallway, followed shortly by Finn running another shopper through with a spear on the second floor. After some back and forth, the followers of Valgard had their loot and made a run to the escalator. They ran into 12-year old Ulf and a major skirmish broke out between the followers of Valgard and Arni. Meanwhile, the followers of Thorvald were pretty much slaughtered by all parties, with the only survivor being the leader Brage who had just finished up down at the pet store. At the back escalator, the followers of Gundlaug and Thorgrim engaged in an extended bloodbath which left the floor of the back entrance foyer littered with gifts, blood, and gore.”
“After showing no mercy in defeating a small girl, the followers of Valgard broke contact with the followers of Arni and dashed to their boat. They had all 3 of their chosen gifts and were the first out with only 1 fatality. The followers of Arni and Thorgrim, while bloodied, finally had their 3 gifts as well. The sole survivor of the followers of Thorvald, Brage, had collected his 3 chosen gifts and was headed to the back balcony to jump to the first floor en route to his boat”.
Just over a table we found Dave Murvihill presenting his Steam Punk Era Wacky Airplanes for Steve T, Adam J, Steve K and Kevin F.
We are not sure about the aerodynamics of this flying Dragonfly, Adam handled it with great precision.
Occasionally we even had Dave scratching his head.
The magnificent men and their flying machines! Steve K and Kevin F maneuvering to look for an opportunity to get in a shot.
Dave helping guide Steve T’s movement.
We even got in an attempted ramming attack as Kevin pushed his balloon hard to collide with Steve T’s winged machine. We note that Steve cleverly out maneuvered this brash attempt at a fender bender.
While we did have players achieving their victory conditions, we all were winners having a chance to play in these two fun scenarios and get together to swap stories over the holidays.
Thanks to Ray Gluck and Dave Murvihill for their great game presentations. Thanks to all the players who came out to play. Our appreciation to the fine staff at Fantasy Books & Games in O’Fallon, IL for their continued support.
