By Andy Mullington

We ran a participation game based upon the Legends of Araby rules at the Spring Offensive show at Stockton on May 10^th 2003.

What follows is an account of the final, climactic battle to rescue the Princess from the top of the tallest tower in the palace where she was in the clutches of the evil Vizier.  (OK.  So it’s not an original storyline.  But it works!!)

Both our heroes (Aladdin and a Thief) decided that the best way to get into the city was past the guards on the main gate, rather than scaling the walls, and so proceeded to bluff their way in.  Interestingly, both claimed that they were here to make a transaction with Honest Abdul’s Second Hand Carpet Emporium.  Although the guard Captain was not 100% convinced, she let them in with the warning ‘I’ll be watching you!’

Realising that their meagre forces would need some bolstering before attempting to rescue the princess, both heroes made their way around the city streets in search of funds and henchmen.

Aladdin managed to get 10 gold together to purchase a flying carpet from Honest Abdul – 5 from a down payment on a caravan guarding job, and a further 5 after beating up a group of locals who had tried to extort money from him as entry fee to their area.  He also recruited a couple of local Blackamoors with muskets, and a local street urchin to end up with a gang of about 7 including himself.

The Thief was not so fortunate, but managed to recruit a foreign mercenary to the cause before setting off to storm the palace.

Both groups were now on opposite sides of the palace square, warily eyeing the musket armed guards on the roof of the palace.

The Thief tried to sneak into the palace disguised as a palace servant, and to make it more realistic he pretended to be chased by the rest of the gang. It worked, and he was inside.

Aladdin decided that he needed a diversion whilst he used his flying carpet to reach the top of the tower, and so opened fire upon the Thief’s henchmen who were out in the open before loading up the carpet and flying up to the tower.

Whilst the Thief fought his way up the stairs, Aladdin came face-to-face with the evil Vizier, and both spent several turns hacking away at each other.  Aladdin had several opportunities to down the Vizier, but managed to fail each and every one.  The wily Vizier managed to get in a good blow, knocking Aladdin down just as the Thief who had finally reached the top of the tower hit the Vizier from behind, downing him as well.

Aladdin’s henchmen loaded both his unconscious body and the princess onto the carpet, and started to move away from the tower just as the Thief made a despairing lunge for the retreating carpet, managing to catch hold with one hand before pulling himself up fully.

Honest Abdul turned out to be slightly less than honest as the carpet he had sold to Aladdin turned out to more used than expected, and began to plummet to the floor through a hail of musket shot from the remaining palace guards.  In a fantastic display of skill, the Thief managed to turn the fall into a controlled glide and crash-landed the carpet in the middle of the courtyard in front of Aladdin’s sole surviving Blackamoor.

Aladdin’s henchmen picked him up, the Thief picked up the Princess (who had been knocked out by a stray musket ball during the descent) and they all started to run for safety, but the palace guard had one last shot as they ran.

With uncanny accuracy, both of Aladdin’s henchmen were hit, leaving the Thief to scurry away with the Princess to live happily ever after.