The Scramble for the Gin.

[Mawdrigen]

"Come on now Girls!" Seamus shouted loudly over his shoulder, "The Prize is just up ahead! Whole barrels of Soul Gin my lovelies, now doesn't that sound like a party?"

"A Party! A Party!" squealed his diminutive copycat as it dragged it's flintlock along two handed, the barrel leaving a groove in the dust of the dry trail into the Gremlin village.

The Belles however said nothing, not even a groan as they shambled along in Seamus' wake.

The Gremlins had managed to steal several barrels of the potent brew from a cart as it headed out to one of the Contract towns. Stopping in the lee of a now smouldering Gremlin hut it was obvious to Seamus that they had brought the barrels back to the village and cracked them open to begin drinking. Almost none of the buildings were still upright, and drunken Gremlins lay scattered about where they had fallen over, even the pigs were drunk, one massive warpig flat on it's back with all four trotters in the air snoring like some form of steam saw.

Seamus had scouted the village earlier and located the Soul Gin, but with Molly elsewhere and only a few belles with him he had decided to wait until the gremlins were well and truly sozzled before trying to seize the prize. Now he looked on in horror at what had occurred...

Only one barrel remained, next to the remains of the Boss Gremlin's wrecked house. Given the house was both smouldering and glowing a baleful green colour Seamus guessed, that they other barrels might have had something to do with its destruction. Even worse magic would almost certainly be... unpredictable in that area, if it worked at all!

Overcome with anger at the stupid Gremlins, Seamus hurled his hat to the ground and jumped up and down on it. However he soon stopped as excitable squeals from behind him interrupted. Turning round he saw his copycat bouncing up and down on it's own top hat like a trampoline. Raising an eye brow Seamus slammed his battered hat back on to his head, as the copycat guiltily climbed down the hat and also put it back on.

"That's enough of that! We've work to do my pretties lets go get that Gin!" Seamus gestured behind him dramatically

"Ooh Pretty" exclaimed the Copycat

"Why yes it is my Boy the perfect drink for my Pickled Zombie plan!"

"Nah not the stinky Gin... Her! She's pretty!" The Copycat pointed behind Seamus.

Seamus whirled round, and there was indeed a very Pretty lady. A Very Pretty lady with a tiny top hat. A Very Pretty Lady with a tiny top hat and another lady with a giant Sabre. Followed by two other Pretty ladies and a pair of solid looking constructs.

"Oh No." Said Seamus, "Not Her AGAIN!"

Far across the Gremlin village Collette turned to Cassandra.

"You are not wrong, that does indeed look like the Mad Man himself. I'll teach him to make thralls out of Showgirls! MAke sure he doesn't get to the Wagon Cassandra, and we'll see if we can't gain ourselves that teeny tiny bounty on his head!"

"Be careful Colette, he's a tricksy one" replied Cassandra eyeing the figure now busy watching them.

"Tricksier than me? I don't think so!" Colette clapped her hands and a spray of ribbons shot from her sleeves.

"Why is it always HER!" Seamus groaned to himself leaning theatrically against a wall with his othe hand over his eyes. "No Matter let's go grab the Gin my lovelies, and with any luck I'll add her to my Collection"

"Ooooh yes!" exclaimed the Copycat leering at the far off women.

"Let's to it then!"

Seamus brushed dust from his coat and set off at a brisk pace towards the gin barrel. Despite the fact that the Belles were all deceased they easily kept up with Seamus and keeping up with their former Mistress Sybelle soon began to leave him behind, the copycat trailing along in the rear, huffing and puffing, while carrying it's pistol shouldered like an infantry man's rifle.

The showgirls of Collette Du Bois also began to move forward, but faced with the rapid advance of the undead "ladies of the night" they approached far more slowly. Colette meanwhile marched out in front followed relatively closely by her apprentice Cassandra.

Reaching the central open area of the Gremlin Village, Sybelle moved up next to the barrel and then called the dark haired belle up next to her with a drawn out groan. Shouting from the corner of the building Seamus ordered the Belle to grab the barrel and then set her off back to his hideout, and soon she was shambling back the way they had come. For a moment Seamus thought of leaving then and there having taken the prize, but looking over towards the rapidly approaching Collette he realised that he wanted nothing more than to kill her and finally rid himself of her meddling!

Spotting that Collette was considerably advanced from the rest of he group he commanded one of his Belles to act like a frightened showgirl and then removing his hat screamed in his best girlish voice, "Oh Miss Colette you Must Come Save me!

Fooled by his deception Collette was lured towards the Belle, who stood now by Sybelle, finally when he judged the distance was right he stepped round the corner and shot her with his pistol. The Boom of the gun echoed all around the village clearing, and Collette exploded into a blast of coloured smoke.

"That's strange" thought Seamus, then as the cloud thinned and revealed a showgirl giving a deep ironic bow he realised he'd been duped! Collette gave him a little wave from the back of the group of showgirls doffing her top hat as the performers Mannequin rushed to catch her up. Then he realised the purpose of the deception, in his haste to try and add Collette to his Harem he'd not noticed Cassandra getting far too close to his ladies.

"Why do I always fall for that?" he remarked to his side kick, as Cassandra marched forward, took a swig from a bottle at her side and engulfed Sybelle and the other two undead women in a roiling cloud of flame.

The copy cat looked up from sighting in it's pistol, "I dunno! He He BOOM!" and pulled the trigger bowling itself head over heels and ending up sat in it's own hat. It shaded it's eyes and stared down range then swore as it realised it had also missed the showgirl.

As the other showgirls moved closer Seamus realised he had to do something about Cassandra pretty quickly otherwise his harem would become a lot smaller although admittedly hotter.

"Right Damnit time to deal with the Extra!" He growled and gave Sybelle the nod as his copy scurried up next to him. The Belle behind Sybelle looked over at Cassandra, caught the apprentices eye, and then gave her a lewd wink! So stunned by this turn of events Cassandra forgot entirely what she was doing and walked closer to try and work out if she'd actually seen what she thought she had seen! She only stopped when she walked into the large leather clad bosom of Madame Sybelle.

"Ooops!" Cassandra then promptly fainted as Sybelles riding crop flailed in the air directly where she had been standing. Lying on the ground she opened one eye and glanced about herself before bounding to her feet, her fainting Southern Belle act having thrown the undead dominatrix into confusion. Whirling her sabre around her head she began to alternately hit Sybelle with the weapon then Breathe Fire over her and the other two undead women.

Seamus watched as Cassandra reduced his harem to so much scortched flesh and bones. As the the rest of the Showgirls moved forward to close in on him he stepped round the corner raised his gun and shot Cassandra square in the chest with it as his copy cat seemingly scurried through the smoke into cover. The magicians apprentice looked down and then toppled over.

The Showgirl who had previously pretended to be Colletteraised her derringer and shot at the top hat wearing figure, only to be very confused when Seamus the Scourge of Malifaux, gave out a high pitched squeak. Looking more carefully she realised it was actually the Copycat standing on a box, From which it fell off when it aimed it's pistol at her and fired again missing wildly.

Seamus peeked out from around the corner of the Gremlin hut and saw the Veritable horde of showgirls coming his way. Stretching out his necromantic powers Sybelle pulled herself upright only to dissappear in a puff of smoke as Colette strode past her at a wave of the magicians hand. She glanced at Cassandra, checking and finding that the girl was still breathing although she was completely unconcious with a neat bullet hole through her shoulder. Gathering her Showgirls around her, se marched round the corner and finding Seamus leaning against the wall discharged a soulstone at him, raising sparks from his clothes and hat. Even surrounded by the angered women Seamus seemed calm and collected.

"Looks like we've caught ourselves a bounty Ladies!" remarked Collette as the Showgirls aimed their derringers at the cornered murderor, "So are you going to come quietly?"

"Hmm Dear Lady could I first say just one word to you" responded Seamus idly examining his fingernails.

Colette wondered what the maniac was up to but played along, "Go ahead"

"Pig" Said Seamus.

"Pig? What are you on about?"

Seamus pointed behind her with a smile on his face, "Pig Dear Lady, PIG!"

Colette slowly turned round to see that the Gremlins Drunken Pig had finally overcome the effects of the Soulgin woken from it's drunken stupor by the sounds of combat around it. It looked at the various showgirls with bleary eyes before seemingly deciding on one to charge.

While the Showgirls were scattering from the Enraged Procine beast, and grabbing the unconcious Cassandra, Seamus slipped away pausing only to get the Belles back up on their feet and to stuff the copycat into his bag of tools. Whistling a little ditty to himself he ran off after the Belle carrying the Barrel of Gin.

"I wonder where Sybelle has got to" he mused as he caught up with her, and began splashing through the bayou to the muffled sounds of the copycat complaining in the bag.

OOC run through

Turn one and two was spent advancing. Seamus' Belles being in range of him were remarkably swift getting to the barrel in the middle of the table in exceedingly short time, with the last move being Sybelle moving up to Call Belle one of the girls close enough to manage to pick it up. Meanwhile Colette had been manouevering into position.

On turn 3 Seamus attempted by a number of chained Belle Lures to draw her into close combat range for Sybelle, it Almost worked, but she didn't get close enough due to resisting the second lure. At which point seeing the danger she switched places with a show girl, whose mannikin the rocketed over to join her as she tried and failed to shoot sybelle. The Belle Carrying the barrel started heading towards the starting area.

At which point it started going a bit wrong. Cassandra ran over to Sybelle and used Breathe Fire, catching the other two Belles up at the front in the blast. Having seen the amount of damage, one of the belles drew her into Sybelles Melee range but Southern Belle prevented Sybelle doing any damage.

The next round resulted in all three Belles exploding as she used Sabre strikes and Magicians Prop to Breathe fire on them. This however left her out in the open and Seamus shot her cheating up the hit and damage to ensure her demise. Then he ressurected Sybelle only to have Collette, Disappearing act her.

Stood out in the open was not a good place to be so the Copycat Mistakened identity Seamus into cover. However with the Showgirls approaching Seamus would have had difficulty surviving but at that point we had to finish for the night.

Seamus 4 VP for treasure hunt, 2 VP announced bodyguard 0 VP Army of the Dead.

Colette 2 VP announced bodyguard 2 VP announced hold the line.

[Doctor Amos]

How ressed Sybelle?

[Mawdrigen]

Can Rise my sweet not bring her back? If so we were doing that wrong (This is I should point out a battle report of my Second ever game, with someone else who was playing his third game )

[Doctor Amos]

Molly can raise Sybelle, but Seamus as far as I know cannot.

[Mawdrigen]

ahh fair enough will have to remember that for next time.

Of course it didn't actually have an effect in this game as she stood up then got dissappearing acted into oblivion

[Doctor Amos]

His card may be different from the book ruling. I own the latter but not the former. RTFM.

[Mawdrigen]

I did read the manual. However I must have missread it and due to the fact that I assumed Sybelle was also a "belle" (the same way that Cassandra is a "showgirl") thought that Arise could work on her. Given I now know that it does not I will not make the mistake again.

As I said this was the second game of Malifaux I had taken part in.

[Doctor Amos]

;

But, um, as I said, if you do want to raise her in the future, I do recommend Molly. Well, a proxi of Molly, anyhow.

[Mawdrigen]

heh I'm on a self imposed "Paint first Then buy more" with Malifaux and the speed at which I paint means probably no new stuff until 2011 (possibly 2012 )

[Doctor Amos]

Good philsosophy. Mine is "a painted model always looks better than an unpainted one, so paint as quickly as you can."