A Thud & Blunder Chronicle; Big Trouble In Litte-Frottvenke

     The landlord of the Bishop's Mitre Inn wrung his hands in terror. Despite his pleadings the giant had insisted on more drink, having already made his way through three barrels of the landlord's best ale. "Drink and food, or you get squashed little man!" had growled the giant. The giant demanded that the landlord get his fire stoked up as he wanted the pigs he had herded towards the inn roasted, whole, the drink having made him hungry; that or have his inn "smashed down around 'is bleedin' ears, so 'elp me!". In a muck sweat the landlord had got the fire going while the giant began to choose which pig to spit first.

     Watching the mounted Border Guard messenger disappear in a cloud of dust that his horse kicked up, the mayor of Litte-Frottvenke, Guild Master Ludwig Fruebber, mopped his brow. Forewarned by the messenger from the Duchy of Langenwanger's Border Guard of the giant's approach and being made aware by that self same messenger that no help from the Border Guard would be forthcoming in the immediate future due to an orc warband causing bother in the area of the city of Langenwanger, Guild Master Fruebbe had sent out word asking for help from anyone and everyone.      

     By a stroke of great good fortune, word came back to him that not one but two bands of armed travellers camping nearby, one south of the town on the common lands near the river; the other to the north, where the Kings Highway entered the forest, had volunteered their services. Fruebbe had gladly accepted their offer, stating that a goodly reward would be paid to whichever one did away with the giant. 

Big trouble comes to Litte-Frottvenke in the shape of a giant
with a giant thirst and matching appetite

Big Yan, for that is how he is called, makes merry while his
lunch is prepared

"Dooby doo diddle, I's glad I ain't little.." the giant reveller sings
a song that is popular among his kind

      Peering from behind a bush towards the towering, drunken figure behind the inn, Tomaz Druise, nudged his fellow brigand "It's a simple plan, Hugo, and the simplest plans is always the best; we get the big fellow's attention and keep him occupied for just a few minutes. And whilst we has his attention, that mage fellow we's escorting to Langenwanger, he does his magic on the giant; knocking the giant on the head with some spell or other and we collects the reward and all gets equal shares; see, simple" Hugo looked skeptically at Tomaz and repeated sarcastically " We keeps him occupied whilst the mage does his magic on the giant" Tomaz, you're turning into a right muddle headed berk. For a start we only have his word he's a mage; just about any mage apprentice can conjure flame with an incantation to get a bit of a fire going but we ain't seen him do much else that could be called magical apart from that since we agreed to escort him to Langenwanger; besides I thought the plan was to knock him on the head and take his purse when an appropriate moment presented itself; that's what Boab said before we set off with him" Tomaz made to reply but his voice was drowned out by the roaring of the giant who had finished another barrel of beer and had thrown the empty barrel at the rear of the inn, shouting for food.
     "Must be good stuff to get a giant drunk that quick; reason enough to tackle him" mused Ludwig, another of the four brigands crouching behind the bush. "Shut up, the pair of you" said Tomaz "We're doing our bit or we'll have Boab to face; don't forget we have competition here, let's go! And remember to do as I said, Hugo, Ludwig!" The two spear men nodded grimly and so saying he drew his sword and  pushed the others forward in front of him and they made their wary way toward the giant.

Tomaz and his chums warily advance 

...but not warily enough as Big Yan catches a glimpse of them
from the corner of his bleary eye...

...and previous experience telling him that the armed men who
approach him are generally up to no good he let's out a drunken
roar and stumbles towards the brigands....

      "Steady now, lads" shouted Tomaz, as much to himself as to the others. The giant made an unnerving sight as it moved towards them. However, Tomaz  had previous experience with angry giants; waving his arms and shouting obscene names at the giant he edged away from the others. The giant, already incensed at having an enjoyable afternoon spoiled, became more incensed at the names the man in the blue hat was calling him. And he shouldn't be saying things like that about Big Yan's mum. The giant lunged for Tomaz and as he did so Hugo and Ludwig thrust their spears between the giant's feet, tripping him up. The giant pitched forward and, as it hit the ground, Tomaz smashed his shield into the giant's face, right between it's eyes. The giant lay sprawled face down, eyes closed and barely moving. Tomaz turned and smiled at his companions "See! easy!" His companions looked at him in awe, well not at him but behind him. 

     Closing his eyes, the young mage began to chant. As he did so, the hair on the nape of Boab's neck began to rise. Thank the gods he thought, maybe this youngster is the goods after all. The chanting continued, rising in volume and suddenly with a shout, the young mage opened his eyes, thrust both hands towards the giant as it made to lunge at someone out of Boab's sight and, with a flash, a small bush just in front of them caught fire. "What's this, mage?" cried Boab "Where's the fireball? Where's the doom laden bolt? Do something to take that brute down before he kills my lads!" The young mage looked crestfallen "Sorry" he muttered "must've mispronounced part of the incantation; I'll give it another bash". 

     "Look Boab, the giant's going down" shouted one of his men. Boab turned just in time to see the giant fall. "Well, get a bloody move on" Boab shouted at the mage "we're going to help Tomaz; you do your bit, mage, and don't fail" and so saying he and his men dashed off.

     

     Tomaz turned and uttered a groan of dismay. The giant was struggling to his feet, a look of dazed bewilderment fixed on its face. "Bloody hell; right lads, let's at him!" shouted Tomaz, running forward, swinging his sword as he did so, his fellows following on with a roar. They might not be the cleverest brigands Tomaz had known but they were certainly didn't lack courage when it came to a fight. As the struck at the giant's legs, trying to slash a tendon or rip a muscle the giant swung drunkenly at them. All at once there came a thunderclap from behind the giant followed by a flash of lightning that tore through it's body. The giant toppled backwards, crashing into the ground, dead before he hit it. "We did it lads!" shouted Tomaz, wiping his brow "Our mage must've worked some magic; and I thought we were goners there too". 

     "Not so fast, Mr Blue Bonnet!" shouted a strange voice. Tomaz looked around once more. Beyond the prostrate giant a menacing group of armed strangers, weapons at the ready, approached. In the middle of the group, a tall man who was wreathed in fast dissipating cloud of blue tinged smoke continued speaking in a mocking tone to Tomaz and the rest of Boab's gang. "The honour of slaying this giant belongs to us" Tomaz opened his mouth to reply but something in the stranger's demeanor made him close his mouth again. "Permit me to introduce myself and my companions; my name is Henrik of, well that need not concern you; my companions are men at arms from the retinue of Baron Tobias of Lenke and are well versed in the ways of war". Tomaz looked at the band of armed men; they looked as much like soldiers as he and his fellows from Boab's band, scruffy, unwashed and barbarous. The magician continued "My companions and I were in the area and we heard there was some trouble with this giant and we came to deal with him. Thank you for keeping him entertained while we were on our way here. We shall just go and collect our reward now from Master Freubber then be on our way; our thanks again, gentlemen" At this the armed strangers backed away, keeping a wary eye on the brigands as they did so. 

The giant is slain by the effective magic of Henrik, much to the
dismay of Boab and his gang.

   

     So there you have it; a chronicle of our first proper game of Thud & Blunder. And what a good laugh it was. My lads, led by the redoubtable Tomaz were really, really lucky in felling the giant (in the scenario it's actually a troll that's causing the bother but we didn't have a troll so Big Yan was substituted; we kept the troll profile though, to keep things simple) as their mage missed Big Yan in the shooting phase. In the combat phase they mobbed the giant/troll and managed to beat his armour rating by adding the three attacks of Tomaz's companions to Tomaz's attack, In response Big Yan duly rolled a 1 in his Destiny roll and down he went; hurrah!!.  Having the Invulnerable trait this merely meant he was knocked down not dead; hooroo....

     Of course, in the movement phase of the next turn he passed his Destiny roll and got back onto his feet. However he was back down again, literally in a flash and for good this time when Danny's wizard struck him with a Dart attack and Big Yan failed his Destiny roll yet again. This time his Invulnerable trait couldn't help him as the Dart attack was a magic one and the wound ignored his Invulnerable trait. 

    Brilliant stuff; an excellent game with plenty of laughs, drama and beer (on the tabletop, we made do with herbal tea 😁)

     Looking forward to more of this. 

Till then, pip pip

Jim Bob