Battle at Count Seinhardt's Palace

Count Steinhardt’ Palace
By Andy Tabor



The Count used his wealth in excess. Hundreds would attend the masquerade balls and fill themselves on the sumptuous banquets where the Count would serve such delicacies as roast eagles, rump of Griffon. It is even rumored that the Count was responsible for the extinction of the lesser firedrake after he acquired the taste for their spicy eggs. His palace was not an exception. It is rumored the palace court was laid with gold bricks. When the great disaster struck the Count was in the midst of hosting the most extravagant party he had ever held. Over two thousand guests in costumes were in attendance and the finest musicians in the Empire played for them. The palace was left relatively unscathed by the cataclysm, but the partygoers fared less well. It is said that the Count himself soon succumbed to the warping effects of Chaos and his already sumptuous belly swelled to enormous size. Poxes and boils burst all over him, and he was so obese he was unable to move. Huge tendrils sprouted where once his arms had been and these writhing limbs reach out, grasping at the screaming guests. He then dragged them towards him and consumed them whole. (1)

Terrain
Each player takes it in turn to place a piece of terrain. The middle of the board should be marked for a larger size building that would represent the Count’s Palace. We suggest that the terrain is set up within an area roughly 4’ x 4’. See below for some optional special rules.

Special Rules
Once a warband reaches the Count’s Palace I would suggest moving the game to a 2’ x 2’ table and mark it off to represent the Count’s Palace, or you can use random tiles generated like in Warhammer Quest. The rules for this option can be found under the Mordheim Article section under: Khemri 2. The 2002 Annual also has some ideas on this called ‘Rivers of Blood’.

The Count will be placed in the middle of the room. The Count should take up a space that is at least 2” inches to 4” inches in diameter to represent his girth. You could use some modeling clay or green stuff. The tentacles could be made out off string cut to the desired length. Once the warbands arrive at the Count’s Palace they soon realize he is not dead.

Count Steinhardt M WS BS S T W I A LD
0 4 4 4 5 5 5 4 9

Obese: The Count is unable to leave his area. The Count become so obese from eating his guests and others he is unable to walk. Magic will allow him to move though.

Fear: The Count causes Fear from his grotesque changes.

Save: The Count has a 4+ unmodified save from all the scars and boils.

Tentacles: The Count’s 2 tentacles can reach out and attack a model up to 8” inches away(4 attacks no matter what). The tentacles have the ability to reach behind a wall and attack a model on a 4+ (as long as it is within 8 inches).

Immune to Poison: The Count is now a Daemonic embodiment of disease and pestilence. He is totally immune to all poisons and diseases.

Vomit Attack: The Count may in the shooting phase make 1 vomit attack. The vomit attack works like a blunderbuss but the range is 10” inches and at Strength 3.

Evil Minions: The Count is protected by D3 Minions per enemy warband. The Evil Minions are zombies and are set up within 2” inches of the Count. The zombies are controlled by the Count and will charge any who enter the Count’s chambers. The Count’s Evil Minions have the same stats as zombies from the Undead Warband.

Chaos Rituals: The Count has long since been under the control of the Shadowlord and knows all the Chaos Ritual Spells or Blessing of Nurgle. Please choose one set of spells before the game begins. He may only use one spell per each of his own turns during the shooting/spell sequence.

Warbands
Players use the normal warband set-up rules.

Starting the Game
Players each roll a D6 to determine who goes first. Play proceeds clockwise around the table.

Ending the Game
The game ends when all warbands but one have routed. The routers automatically lose. If two or more warbands have allied, they may choose to share the victory and end the game.

Experience
+1 Survives. If a Hero or Henchman group survives the battle they gain +1 Experience.

+1 Winning Leader. The leader of the wining warband gains +1 Experience

+1 Per Enemy out of action. Any Hero earns +1 Experience of each enemy he puts out of action.

+1 Per Wound taken off Count Steinhardt. Any Hero or Henchman earns +1 Experience for each wound he inflicts on the monster.

+5 For Putting the Count out of action: The Hero that puts the Count out of action gets a bonus +5 Experience.

The Winning Leader. The winning Leader(s) will be hated by all Possessed Warbands for the remainder of the campaign. The Count was a loyal subject to the Shadowlord.

The Count’s Treasure

Item D6 Result Needed
5D6 gc Automatic
Magical Artefact 6+
D3 +1 pieces of Wrydstone 4+
Suit of Heavy Armour 5+
Suit of Light Armour 4+
D6 gems worth 10 gcs 5+
D3 swords 4+
The Count’s Opulent Coach 6+



Designer Notes
Feel free to adjust this scenario as needed. I think the Treasure could have a lot more possibilities. This scenario is great to add to an existing campaign that includes territories or encampments. I would suggest that the warbands have some experience before go into the Count’s Palace. The Vomit Attack is like a Troll Vomit Attack. The whole set up and terrain will depend on your gaming group and what is available adjust as needed.

(1) Information taken from TC 23 by Space McQuirk and Mark Havener: Scenario Monster Hunt.

I would like to Thank Pancreasboy for his help and suggestions.

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Events from Tuesday Nights Game


Two dwarf warband's have located the Count's Palace in Mordheim. Each warband enters the palace from two different areas. It is dark and they are very unfamiliar with the layout of the palace. After several turns it seems they are going in circles (the Shadowlord blesses them with help) and they begin to find their way to the Count's lair.

The larger of the two dwarf warbands encountered little resistance on their trek, they brushed aside some traps and zombies who attacked. The other dwarf warband was smalller and was new to Mordheim, they only had six members and were attacked by a group of six zombies. This seriously set them back.

When the warbands had located the Count's lair the smaller warband routed from another zombie horde attack as their leader was taken OOA.

Only one Dwarf warband left to fight off the zombie hoard and the count.

The battle raged as the zombie hoard continued to shuffle towards the dwarfs. The dwarfs beat down the zombies and grouped together.

Once the zombies were destroyed the dwarfs decided to take "pot shots" at the Count with their xbows at some distance to avoid HTH> The Count laughed as the bolts were just bouncing off him but he took 2 wounds and became enraged. He called out to the Shadowlord and recited the Wings of Darkness spell and flew through the air towards the dwarfs but still could not reach them.

The dwarfs charged with vigor but one was scared. The battled rage on as the Count took out four dwarfs over the course of several turns finally after being surrounded and some epic wounds the Count was destroyed.

The Dwarf Warband basked in their glory as their received some treasure from the lair.

There was one serious injury and he will have to set out a game.

Great scenario ....fun special rules and atmospfere ...However, I do have one observation, that if used in a random scenario campaign ...its a bit unfair since the potential xp gain is much much greater than in the standard scenarios ...but that aside it does sound like great fun !

A really cool scenario!
I hope to test it somewhen in the future, it sounds really entertaining.

I agree with Boehm that the reward for killing the Count is very high- The hero would earn at least 7 (!) points of experiance (one for surviving, one for taking a wound off the Count plus 5 more for killing him).
Allthough I see the point in this, making every warband try to kill these guy, it might be enough to add another 2 XP points for killing the Count.

But nevertheless, very cool scenario!


Btw here's the profil:

Count Steinhardt

Code:

M WS BS S T W I A LD
0  4  4 4 5 5 5 4 9

Very cool scenario [does anyone besides me remember when these thingys were called "modules"? ]. I guess I've become more of a modeler than a gamer sometime over the last few [dozen] years, but the thing that most appealed to me was all the incredible modeling, converting, & painting possibilities the scenario presented. I've GOT to do up a Count Steinhardt!
So thanks for a bit of inspiration!

You guys are correct the experience was a bit much.

* I am going to change by taking of Experience for taking a wound off the Count
*Reduce to 2 Experience for Taking the Count OOA.


I am trying to find Warhammer Quest Event Cards to use to randomize bad stuff happening. I didn't have time to write up everything so we rotated between D3 arrows being shot from Traps and Zombies appearing. I am hopping to run the scenario again next week and work out a few bugs.

I am glad you guys liked it, I try to create different scenarios to do something different thank making the other warband route.

Please play it if possible and give me feedback and as all my scenarios always leave room to be adapted to your gaming group's playing style.

I had to bump up the D3 zombies for the count as that was not enough so I used 2d6.

Da Bank wrote:

I had to bump up the D3 zombies for the count as that was not enough so I used 2d6.

speaking of xp ...low grade opponents as zombies fighting on their own (in the corridors if I understood your setup) ...besides being a nuissance ...is also basically free 2d6 xp

ofcause they do cause fear ...which would be a pain for rats ...but then again they can just keep their distance and pepper them with stones ...

The dwarfs failed a few fear tests so this was interesting as it affected his strategy.

Missile weapons are not as effective in corridors as sooner or later the zombies and other things will catch you. With XBOWs unless you have nimble you must move sooner or later.

Give it a try and see what happens.

Don't forget someone will be running the Count and his group and can create "events" for those who take a beardy way to play.


This is Mordheim and nothing is fair.

Da Bank wrote:

This is Mordheim and nothing is fair.

MU hhahaha

Played the River of Blood scenario from 2002 Annual and this worked pretty good for Warhammer Quest Tiles.

I hope to post more info later.