3. Show Time

You heard right! Fresh from the ports of Brionne, Marienburg and Tilea, The critically acclaimed Ponzi family is bringing their hit travelling show, The Little Merwench, to Sartosa. If you’ve seen their productions Mutiny on Sigmar’s Bounty, Davy Johann’s Boneyard and Mouldy Deck, then you would already be lining up for tickets to The Little Merwench. This is the story of Mannan, God of the Sea and Waves himself. It tells the tale of his willful and rebellious daughter Calibri (Played by Tahoma Ponzi) and her desire to forsake her place alongside her people and join the heathen shorefolk. Her tempters are the jealous Ursula (played by Cruella Ponzi) and depraved Enrico of Tilea (played by Gaston).

Under the watchful gaze of the family’s Domnu, Triton Ponzi, and his wife Cruella, the travelling players have honed their craft. They produce the most convincing lucky charms, have the lightest fingers and can charm any simple-folk. They hold to their origins of Strigos and honour the memory of their deified Prince, Ushoran of the First Children, Lord of Masques, Celebrations and Festivities, by plying their trade as a travelling show. Being a river-dwelling family, they generally put on shows that tie into the old tales of the sea.

The rest of the Ponzi Family take on other required roles both in the show and supporting it, such as catering, stunt doubles, costume designers and crowd hustling. When not performing, the Ponzi Family sell trinkets, predict futures, run schemes and work to bring their Old Father, Captain Nanonsh, back to unlife.

The notorious Pirate Captain Nanosh of the Strigoi line, is their patron, sheltering them when needed and in return, they help press-gang unlucky civilians into the service of Nanosh upon the Unternehmung.

Recently, trouble has befallen Nanosh. His flotilla was caught up in a recent storm off the coast of Araby. In the unnatural squall the fleet was separated and Nanosh’s ship was smashed against the rocks of the Bittersea, just 20 nautical miles east of the Straits of Nagash. He washed ashore outside the ruined city of Lhamia where he was taken prisoner by the scions of the mother of Vampiers herself, Neferata.

The daughters of Neferata have ever detested Ushoran’s kind, and for one of his gets to wash ashore on their doorstep was like a gift from Neferata herself. For over 100 days Nanosh was tortured at the hands of the Llahmian vampires, until his crew managed to rescue him from the great pyramid. With his ships destroyed, and his body wrecked, his family had no other choice but to return to Mordkain on foot, where they could return Nanosh to the soil of his first grave.

I was toying with two different warbands in the lead up to this campaign. It was either these Strigany River Gypsies, or a Shallow Beasts warband (essentially a possessed warband that worship Stromfels, Mannan’s more evil rival). What tipped me over the edge was the stunning models in TT Combat’s Carnivale game. After finding those, I settled on the Channel Rats list, a Strigany River Gypsy warband. From there (probably also influenced by our previous circus campaign, even though I was steadfast against that terrible display of drunkenness and clownery) came the idea of a travelling show. The Little Mermaid was a pretty neat and easy conversion into the idea of a play to be shown in port towns. It has also sparked more ideas, an Arabyan Warband inspired by Aladdin, an Amazon warband inspired by the Jungle Book. A dwarf warband inspired by Snow White.

So I give you the Ponzi Family. A travelling Strigany warband who are using their show as cover to bring the weakened Strigoi Pirate King, Nanosh, back to Sartosa to rebuild his fleet.

I play this warband with some trepidation… In our last campaign, the Circus is Coming, I captained Messers Greifswald and Schleck Proprietors, a Mareinburg warband that featured several members of the Greifswald family, all of whom died in the opening few games. So bringing another family into the world of Mordheim doesn’t bode well for me.

One thing I haven’t worked out yet is what to do about injuries and deaths. With my last warband it was easy, they were almost all made from plastic, easy to replace and cut up models. But these are finer, slightly taller/thinner resin models. So fingers crossed they don’t suffer too many injuries, otherwise I might have to recycle models with new names and enlarged fake moustaches.

As far as gaming is concerned, I’m not super fussed on winning the campaign. I enjoy Mordheim for the post-game elements and watching the characters grow. However, the addition of plots and encampments in this campaign adds an excellent little objective for each player to work towards which is more than just the objectives of each scenario. My Plot, The Promise of Power is built towards returning a vampire to his full power, so I’ll be collecting a lot of cadavers. I’m also looking forward to playing this as a pushy gypsy troupe. I have a rule that allows me to try and swindle enemy warbands selling them fake lucky charms, I’ll be peddling these at every opportunity while keeping my eyes out for the watchmen. This rule even allows me to secretly steal an item from an enemy and I look forward to seeing the look on someone’s face when their captain goes to draw their pistol only to find its been replaced by a wooden replica. Let the show (and the scams) begin!