A rather angry woman paces back and forth in her attic bedroom in the inn. She has been engaged thus for many hours. The bottles of wine have long since been finished and she has grown bored of shooting ( much to the horror of the innkeeper,his family and sundry guests) at the myriad rats entering and exiting a hole in the wall near the corner! It is,of course, the Duches of Saschen -Vindow...
She escaped potential troubles in the woods nearby and now awaits word form the King of Stagonia upon whose borders she waits. A noise ,outside in the inn's courtyard makes her stop in her tracks. Horses can be heard,shouting too and heavily booted feet are upon the stairs...
Dear Reader,if you are still with me, I have a task for you. Please suggest ideas of who has just arrived and what they do ( motives would be great too) in order I might include your ideas in my next post over the weekend...
12 hours ago
28 comments:
Stagonian soldiery is a noisy bunch - but so are most troopers.
Milady de Winter's Black Legion? She is lacking her horsemen, for the time being...
Whoever they are they can 'merely' be patrolling for smugglers / highway robbers / some local Robin Hood. Accidental meetings DO occur.
Or they can be the escort of the Queen-Mother (born de Sade) if she is still alive (?) [or a party led by Rotefort, her first henchman]. Rumours were that Ludwig (though certain of the opposite) was just a puppet and she was pulling the strings - she may be *very* unhappy with the competition, or at least wanting to gauge her.
Now, in any case, if really needed, in last resort you can count on the intervention of a mysterious young woman who would bring another brace of pistols, and very useful skills and experience, to ensure the escape of Her Grace.
Milady de Winter is in a most foul mood, because royals are falling left and right and she isn't getting any of the credit for it. She wants to know more about this upstart duchess, a potential rival perhaps? Or is the duchess a kindred spirit of evil, one with whom an informal alliance could be of mutual benefit.
Nobody in Europa has as extensive a spy network as Milady, so she has been following the journey of the duchess with great interest. She may have sent the Black Legion (which does have cavalry, the Black Hussars of course) to detain the Stagonians, while her band of Black Irregulars (Black Scorpion Pirates) move in on the inn to abduct the duchess.
I the riders are loyalist to the duke who are searching for the Duchess, she attempts to escape from the Inn the secret bandit escort fights with the dukes dragoons after the encounter the dragoons pursue her across the Stagonian border where the escort that the vile one sends encounter the dukes dragoons and all hell breaks loose.
Alternatively, if it were the Lady de Winter's black legion you might get der Alte Fritz to run a proxy game with the Duchess attempting to flee in Milady's coach with the Dukes dragoons in pursuit and/or ambush. As a plot line even if the dukes men catch the coach it could be a decoy if you want her to escape. Would be fun to see though.
Fritz beat me to the punch. I hope to see a battle report!! Huzzah!
Donatien de Rotefort: assumed name of Domitien Boutzizi, the 'black sheep' of a wealthy (converted Sepharadi) family of bankers in Avignon. Earned some repute as weapon master, soon professional duellist, then turned really rogue. Thanks to very diverse talents ended as the Stagonian Queen-Mother's "1st dagger", i. e. the leader among her "45", her forty-five fanatically devoted bodyguards - cum abductors - cum assassins. The Palace keeps an eye on them, but they rarely (and, as a rule, unsuccessfully) venture outside Satgonian borders.
Monte-Cristo could challenge the claim that 'Nobody in Europa has as extensive a spy network as Milady de Winter' - but, not being for hire, our agents avoid publicity.
Greatly disturbed by the occasional pistol shots issuing from her room, the Innkeeper dispatched one of the pot boys to bring a patrol of Stagonian Road Agents, that he knew were lurking in a local woods to break up a smuggling ring, back to the Inn and arrest the strange interloper. This would protect his current customers, and as the story grew, more people would come in to hear "the truth", thus increasing his custom. More importantly, the patrol of Road Agents would be out of the way, at least for a while, and the smuggling ring, of which the Innkeeper had a partial interest, could get back to business as usual.
Unknown to the Innkeeper, the "Stagonian Road Agents" are in reality, a half-troop of Pilfering FreiHussars led by the Raubenstadtian Agent, Mack the Knife. Mack has arranged this bit of theater to create an opportunity to whisk the Duchess away to the grim fortress of Felsigberg, where a cell and a possibly watery fate await. For as they say of the Felsigberg, "Mysterious strangers dressed in black check in, but they don't check out!"
Greatly disturbed by the occasional pistol shots issuing from her room, the Innkeeper dispatched one of the pot boys to bring a patrol of Stagonian Road Agents, that he knew were lurking in a local woods to break up a smuggling ring, back to the Inn and arrest the strange interloper. This would protect his current customers, and as the story grew, more people would come in to hear "the truth", thus increasing his custom. More importantly, the patrol of Road Agents would be out of the way, at least for a while, and the smuggling ring, of which the Innkeeper had a partial interest, could get back to business as usual.
Unknown to the Innkeeper, the "Stagonian Road Agents" are in reality, a half-troop of Pilfering FreiHussars led by the Raubenstadtian Agent, Mack the Knife. Mack has arranged this bit of theater to create an opportunity to whisk the Duchess away to the grim fortress of Felsigberg, where a cell and a possibly watery fate await. For as they say of the Felsigberg, "Mysterious strangers dressed in black check in, but they don't check out!"
A four-way struggle between Schinderfranz's chauffeurs, Mme de Winter's Black Legion, the Stagonian 45 and the Raubenstadter Frei-Hussars for the prize of the Duchess--herself armed and holed up in the inn would indeed be an entertaining skirmish scenario.
And whichever faction wound up with the Duchess could then have the fun of evading King Ludwig's dragoons in a pursuit scenario...
Or it could be a batch of blow hard young nobles heading to/from Wiener ... with a couple of healthy boys/girls present to catch the Lady's eye ....
Or it could be a troop from the Inquisition seeking accused heretics and they will want to search the inn ...
It could be the Countl'Beauphaup and a few dear assistants who are meeting with malcontents of Unter Gruntshuffen ....
But there are so many fun scenarios already!
:)
A
A troop of witch hunters that could mistake Her Grace for a witch?
A troop of vampire hunters that could mistake Her Grace for a were(she-)wolf?
Perhaps one of those few nobles loyal to Her Grace, come to inform her that the Duke has learned of her plans from one of those she invited to her prior meeting, and has some scheme underway to make her position back home more untenable in her absence?
What a devious band of rogues! lol
I will weigh in one last time, please, please, oh please, have someone play out a scenario for this and post it!! I am unacustomed at begging but please allow a small action scenario for this. Even with a predetermined outcome, her escape, etc. it will be fun to read about.
I like the idea of a skirmish game where there are 4 players trying to capture the duchess or escort her to safety. Everyone is against everyone else so mayhem and hilarious hijinks are bound to rule. Perhaps the game judge controls the Duchess.
Incorporating a form of matrix gaming could add some spice to the game, with each player having to present an argument as to why the Duchess should travel with them to apparent safety.
I will give this a little more though as to how this could be wargamed and see if I can talk Monsieur Chevert and Graf Frye into playing.
Do let us know if you need highwaymen painted up to serve as Schinderfranz's chauffeurs.
I'll probably have to do a batch for my own [nefarious] purposes, now that I've created them, so I'd be willing to put them to the front of my painting queue to send them off for the game. I'm looking at Blue Moon's highwaymen for that purpose.
In any event, I think the Black Scorpion's "Governor's Daughter" looks like a perfect token for the Duchess (at http://www.blackscorpionminiatures.com/product.asp?the_range=PIR&product=PIR15 )
Gentlemen
Such super ideas- thanks to all of you! I like Jim's thoughts re the gaming of it in particular. I do hope something gets off the ground with regard to a game...
Alan
A party of hunters, gone astray following some great stag or boar.
A priori nothing to do with the Duchess (and practically without shoulder weapons) but ready to help a beautiful young lady in distress...
Oh yes! A skirmish game with this scenario would be ideal!
Donatien de Roquefort in «The Queen Mother’s private rooms and dungeon service» uniform.
My governor's daughter is in the mail as we speak, I ordered her last week from Black Scorpion along with The Governor for my diplomats to Monte Cristo and Hesse Seewald. If you all would allow I could paint up the Governor's Daughter as the Duchess and supply her for the game. I could mail it or I will be at the SYW convention, we could play the scenario there that would give us some time to get rules forces together etc. That is of course if Jean Louis wouldn't mind waiting a bit for his diplomat.
A game like this would be a real hoot to participate in or even just read about! Cries of, "Who are those guys?!" echo in the night, as all sides strive for the prize. The best part would go to the side that "won" control of the infatuated tigress of a Duchess. Much like the dog that liked to chase carriages, "I caught one! Now what do I do with it?"
I throw myself on the mercy of the Group! This scenario begs to be played out!
For all I know the Black Scorpion's "Governor's Daughter" seems perfect indeed for the Duchess.
I think that we could gin up an appropriate scenario for Friday night at the SYW Association convention on March 20 and 21st.
Can you wait that long? Or you could go ahead and decide that the outcome has already been resolved, but we can play the scenario anyway.
On the other hand, while the Governor's Daughter is perfect for the Duchess in a Palace, her dress is not ideal for the situation (not that it matters at all for the game: the more appetizing the prey...). For instance we don't know if she was riding 'manly' or sidesaddle?
Shadowforge Minis in their 'Laughing Monk' range have three 'fighting women in tricorns' - of blatant 'Brotherhood of the Wolf' inspiration- that could look the part; Black Cat Bases offers a 'Pirette' in tricorn and riding boots; the Foundry has a (mounted only, and rather bland) 'Highwaywoman'', while Outpost Wargames Services propose a 'Wicked Lady' available both mounted (on a horse, I mean)and on foot (may be interesting for such a scenario?) but, unfortunately, with some kind of silly 'Zorro' hat -and a neck not very propitious to headswapping...
And if the organizer / umpire needs suddently a 'deus ex machina'...
NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Allow me to point out that time is EXTREMELY FLEXIBLE here in the "Emperor vs Elector" version of the 18th century.
Koenig Ludwig can certainly wait a few months to see what happens to the Duchess . . . there's no rush here.
And I rather like the idea of several groups fighting it out at the Convention . . . lots of planning needed to set everything up, of course . . . and a bit of time for those who wish to paint figures either to send or bring.
I vote that we go for the decision to be gamed out at the SYWA Convention in March.
Besides, what better forum to "advertise" the fun of "EvE"?
-- Stagonian Jeff
I second the motion. I will look into the highway women Jean Louis mentioned if that would be more appropriate. Do we continue to discuss all the issues, rules, minis, etc. here on this link? How do we organize this?
Jim,
I will volunteer to play in the game. I may even be able to paint up something.
Cheers,
Randy (Graf Frye)
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