Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

The monster-man burst out of... was he wearing chain mail? Because that would hurt, if he wasn't already a giant five-armed zombie.

Good look with zombie-bashing, Panzer!

IC:

OK, so on the N-Dimensional Amorphic Threat Scale this thing rates high on solidity and intelligence, moderate on mass. Gotcha. Larric's just as glad; he was half expecting something like an aqua fortis elemental with option on a thickening agent.

He's not sure how the blob perceives its surroundings, but he remembers that trick Dleamthayaran pulled on Alfred and William back at the logging camp. He reaches up toward the tunnel roof over the blob's position, meshes into the Brownian dance of the air corpuscules, and pulls down- hammering it from above with conjured blast overpressure, to avoid needing a clear shot past the melee fighters.

Tamarin's within sword's reach of the beast, though. Better give her a hand.

[Kaelan]

OOC
So long as we don’t meet any white rabbits with sharp teeth we should be ok.

IC

Given the close proximity of our ‘allies’ dirt will switch to his axe, and look to do a fighting swap with the most fatigued and hurt fighter against the pod. Move in and act out the slow ponderous ogre, waiting for a typical heavy handed response from the pod and then move quick to try and severe one of the ‘arms’ so Larric and the rest of the mages present can try to work out what it is we’re fighting here (hopefully quickly).

“After this, we get maker. Stop playing with maker toys.”
This environment is starting to get a bit too familiar for comfort for Dirt...

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Funny you should mention that- actually, one of the bits of backstory is that a few years ago, Aburon who was young and stupid at the time did attempt to breed self- defending sheep. He felt that they were getting a raw deal, eaten by all and sundry, and a bit more ability to fight back...he didn't have the skills to pull it off or the maturity to do it properly, and it all went hideously wrong.

Anyway, no, it is not about to start using armour piercing judo.
Actually, wait, it is. One man swings for it, it moves inside hiom- gloopily- and grabs his arm, starts to twist; Tamarin hacks at the pseudopod, triyng to sever it- achieving some success- then she does something that seems largely counterproductive, shield barges it.

Don't throw yourself at the blob, right? In this case she steps out of the way of a raking pseudopod that would have swept her into it, leaves an impression in it and buys room for trying to duck and roll under the pseudopod and out of the way-
Larric's air hammer descends; not marvellously effective against an amorphous blob, but it wobbles it for long enough for her to duck back, and the man at arms she was covering for to be pulled free.

Dirt steps into his place, and the blob tries to hit him in the face with a bush, essentially- waves a bundle of thin tendrils at him, intending to thicken whatever one meets with no resistance into a grabbing tentacle.
Dirt tries to bash them aside with his axe; manages to sever a couple, the bits that land on the blob are immediately reabsorbed- so that's how it does it. The bits that are out of contact it tries to sweep up. There are ash- coloured patches on it's skin where it does this- it has a 'metabolism' of sorts, and reabsorbing takes energy out of it- it is actually being 'bled', but it has some ability to regenerate. This is one it would be good to fireball.

[Simon_Jester]

Anyway, no, it is not about to start using armour piercing judo.

That was the other thing on my mind. If the words "ominous hum" had appeared anywhere in there, I'd have had Larric yell "every man for himself!" and run for his life.

Aaaand there's a thunderstorm outside.

Dirt tries to bash them aside with his axe; manages to sever a couple, the bits that land on the blob are immediately reabsorbed- so that's how it does it. The bits that are out of contact it tries to sweep up. There are ash- coloured patches on it's skin where it does this- it has a 'metabolism' of sorts, and reabsorbing takes energy out of it- it is actually being 'bled', but it has some ability to regenerate. This is one it would be good to fireball.

Having bruised it with the air hammer, Larric is fairly close by. He finds a gap between the melee fighters, or shouts and tries to make one, then throws a straight-up lightning bolt in there. This one fans out sort of like the bug-zapper, rather than being concentrated like the arc cut he used on the force field man. He's trying to get a nice, big burn scar on the blob's surface.

[Panzersharkcat]

He tries to go for one of the legs. Even if it doesn't feel pain, the lack of support from it breaking is bound to help him. He yells to the other two of Kardren's men, "Get over here and help me!"

(OOC: Now I'm wondering if blunt weapons do extra damage to the undead like in Diablo II.)

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Probably depends on the undead. A sledgehammer would be a damn sight more useful against a walking skeleton than a sword would. On the other hand, if you're looking at a Frankenstein monster of reanimated flesh, or a stereotypical zombie, a bladed weapon's soft tissue damage will be very useful, whereas bludgeoning its flesh to a pulp won't slow it down very much because it's got no pain response.

And neither weapon would be all that helpful against a ghost, on which there's nothing to stab or smash.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Think about the physiology of that; and it's actually more or less a D&D- ism anyway. Why should non- living matter become more vulnerable to blunt trauma and only blunt trauma, now that it can no longer heal, has no circulation, can't repair itself in any way, is dried out and rotting?
Puncture wounds, yes- you can't get the dead to bleed out- but why shouldn't a dry stick of a, say, rib come apart much more easily when hit by a halberd or broadsword than living bone? It's basically a game-ism, and I see no compelling reason to go with it.

Try not to think too hard about the 'real' problems of trying to kill a thing completely without a metabolism- you're basically compelled to destroy the thing as an object, it's not enough to make it stop living because it already has. A maul would be about right for this, actually.

Alfred swings for one of it's kneecaps; manages to hit it, but too high- not quite in the joint, it was moving to block and he had to pull the stroke short to get it to land in time. (No giggling, please.)

It does start to fold and fall; from the other leg. Tamarin's archers put two longbow arrows into it, one in the head, one in the upper chest- broadheads, they do rip out some of the tissue, but that- ah.

Fifi bit it in the achilles tendon, severing it. Well done, that plant. (the luck on the dice...)

It's not going to stay down for long, though- drags itself half to it's feet and tries to lunge for Alfred off a club foot, two hands aiming for his neck and another two trtying to grab his weapon. The other two will act- after it does.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Think about the physiology of that; and it's actually more or less a D&D- ism anyway. Why should non- living matter become more vulnerable to blunt trauma and only blunt trauma, now that it can no longer heal, has no circulation, can't repair itself in any way, is dried out and rotting?

Puncture wounds, yes- you can't get the dead to bleed out- but why shouldn't a dry stick of a, say, rib come apart much more easily when hit by a halberd or broadsword than living bone? It's basically a game-ism, and I see no compelling reason to go with it.

Try not to think too hard about the 'real' problems of trying to kill a thing completely without a metabolism- you're basically compelled to destroy the thing as an object, it's not enough to make it stop living because it already has. A maul would be about right for this, actually.

Hm. You know, in D&D hit point terms those two issues might balance out.

An animated skeleton can't be killed, it has to be destroyed structurally, which would give it a lot more HP than a normal man. But it's also more fragile than a human body, which gives it less. Result? It ends up with d8 hit points like a normal person.

[Panzersharkcat]

He hops back to try to get out of reach. He may leave his right leg vulnerable for grabbing, however, as he used that leg to jump. If he doesn't get caught, he tries to counter with an overhead smash to its head. If he does get caught, he will try to catch his fall with his right arm and swing overhead with his left, and non-dominant, arm.

[Kaelan]

Look like killing the blob is magic time again! Unfortunately dirt has left his scroll of fireball home today, and the clerics in the party have yet to cast endure heat on everybody. So - alternate plan 2.

"magic axe!" dirt yells at Larric over the din of battle.

[Simon_Jester]

OK, so Alfred's fighting the five-armed zombie. Rohal would presumably be plinking arrows into it.

Larric will oblige Dirt at the first opportunity, but right this moment Dirt is locked in melee and Larric already had an action planned- that forked lightning thing.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Unfortunately this is how it is; magic has to be fought by it's own means- the spiritual discipline of a true knight is the next best solution, but it is essentially a living time capsule, preserving the old order.

Complicated things happen in blobland; it stretches out a tentacle for one of the people attacking it, to grab and try to use that person as a living shield against Larric's magic. The grapple and lift is successful- one footman tries to hack at it with an axe while he thinks it's distracted; the bolt Dirt fired into it earlier is thrown at the axeman- going through an eyesocket and killing him.

The lightning bolt has to be carefully pointed, the blob is delinerately encumbeirng itself- Tamarin tries to pull the grappled squire free, but she doesn't have the weight to do it.

The zap manages to miss them- mostly- and scorches the blob badly; it's not dead yet, but it's clearly a long step closer. Its' counterattack is going to be throwing the man- at- arms at Larric.


At the gate- Alfred tries to jump clear- but he is grabbed, actually it catches the haft of the maul. All three archers take called shots- two hits and a miss that fortunately glances off Alfred's backplate- shooting it in the arm with a dry crunch that Alfred uses to break free. it stumbles after him.

The two men who came with it are attacking it- one manages to miss, swiping at stomach height but missing as it scrabbles after Alfred, the other hitting it and slicing into it, but raising only dust.

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

"Whoa!"

Larric sees the blob winding up (presumably fast, giant thing made out of muscle after all) and on reflex, tries to dive out of the way of the ballistic corpse.

He does, you will note, have Dodge listed on his character sheet. Let's give it a workout, shall we?

OOC:

I wonder if the blob can reabsorb bits of itself on the area that's been burned. That might be worth checking- though so might getting that squire out of the blob's grasp before it eats him, come to think of it.

[Panzersharkcat]

He tries to dance around again and smash its legs some more. If he can break the bones, it'll severely hinder its movements and leave him free to attack the other limbs.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

The thrown man is not very well thrown at all; the blob makes a fairly hasty attempt at it, having too many other calls on its attention, and doesn't throw particularly straight.

What happens when he bounces against the wall is rather more worrying. The shelter hiccups; feeds power into him. He morphs, mutating through many forms- a thousand different faces in less than a second, not all of them human, tails, feathers, scales, tentacles, thick wrinkly hide- and enough loose body parts that whatever makes it to land and skid along the corridor (and is indeed dodged), it is very dead and not very recognisably human.

This may not be a good sight for Larric- incidentally, it's not a particuarly good one for the blob, who looks stunned in horror by it.


Alfred swings for the conjoined zombie, aiming for a leg; connects; there's a dry crack as something breaks. Arrows spike into it, hitting it in the back; damaged but not yet destroyed.



On an out of character note, I may have computer problems- AVG's rootkit detector came up with what I'm trying to figure out if it was a false positive or not. Claimed it found and killed something, then flagged the webpage I was browsing at the time as a problem. Microsoft's own malicious software removal tool drew a blank. Hmmm.

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

Not a good sight at all- consider the alchemist profoundly rattled as he climbs back to his feet. He's still trying to concentrate, but he's not at top form anymore.

How busy is Dirt? He wants a magic axe again, Larric can try, but can the ogre disengage long enough without the line collapsing altogether? And what about that grappled squire- Tamarin can't pull the young man free, but Dirt's got a lot more mass and muscle.

His next action hinges on what Dirt does- Larric's shaken enough that he's not taking initiative and trying something of his own quite yet.

OOC:

Try Malwarebytes- I've used it in a "silver bullet" capacity before. It's not perfect and you might want to think twice before deleting just any file it flags, especially registry files. But if it doesn't find anything and you can't see any actual problem with your computer, then tentatively it might not be a problem.

Depends on how much sensitive information is on the computer- how paranoid do you want to be?

[Kaelan]

Dirt slides his axe across the floor towards Larric (he's not going to need it for the next few moments). Moving by Tamarin he moves to grabs hold of the young man.
"Me pull, you hit"
When (if?) he gets the man free he will pull him out of the combat and retreave his axe and ready to enter the fray again.

[Simon_Jester]

Fighting the shakes, Larric carefully traces his cathode runes once again- a repeat of the earlier trick.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Malwarebytes running, so far Email is looking like the possible problem. Might be up for a few hours yet.


Tamarin hears and grasps what Dirt means- she's having more luck hitting it with her shield anyway. Uses her determination to resist hostile magic and wields the shield like a spade, using the edge of it to dig a gouge out of the base of the 'limb' it's using to hold its' prisoner;

unfortunately that means she's not got it to protect her when it lashes out. It reaches out a pseudopod and smashes her in the chest, bouncing her off the opposite wall- the shelter- hold doesn't fry her, but she has difficulty standing up; probably something broken. Dirt does manage to pull the prisoner free, let him reel in the direction of Larric and the covering party.


The druid and the sorceress are nowhere to be seen, but a green flash and cloud of dust reflected from the middle distance indicates they're leaving this to you and dealing with something else.

[Simon_Jester]

Hurrying, he finishes the runes- picks up the axe in both hands

["Oof!" but I figure that while an ogre-sized axe would be hopelessly impractical as a weapon or even a tool for Larric, it's not actually so big and heavy he can't lift it- more like a big heavy sledgehammer, at worst]

He brings it over to Dirt, holding it out to him from behind and to the right, handle first. "Ready!"

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Yes, there's a limit to how heavy even an ogrish weapon can be and still be fast enough to be feasible. Oddly, for human weapons the two handed long axe, or Daneaxe, is actually a much more flexible and agile weapon than a one handed axe; you can almost fence with the two handed axe, because you have the leverage and control over it, and can do all kinds of fancy feints and darts and complicated attacks that a one handed axe is too far out of balance to get away with. I know that from getting to play with one, and I think the same must be more or less true of the halberd- similar design.
I'd have to have a go with a naginata before I said anything about it, but gut instinct says no- not insofar as it is used like a spear, anyway. Used as a slashing weapon, maybe.


The runes go on very quickly and easily- something in the space of the cavern is resonating with them, though, and Larric isn't entirely sure that his {what is he using, anyway?} finger made the marks before they appeared on the head of the axe.

The female orc, Hara, is having a go at it now- using an axe and a sword, she's quite good. Covers Tamarin while she pulls herself together, anyway.

[Simon_Jester]

Wax stick- like before.

(see previous instance of this)

[Kaelan]

Dirt grabs the axe and swings for all his worth at "Mr Bobbly" (and braces for the hopeful magical phoom). If this doesn't work its getting close to running time....

[Simon_Jester]

Larric scoops up his crossbow (set down during the excitement) and starts reloading.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

The blob grabs another man at arms; flows around him, rips one of his arms off, tries to use that to parry Dirt's axe.

From the middle fistance a voice comes 'Haven't you finished that thing off yet- need help?'

Dirt hits it. Gouges a huge gash in it, then the plasma- hammer effect activates. It ripples wildly, goes grey and black, there's a hissing sound like quenching steel; it stops moving.

Lisanna's escort, the one she left behind, taps it gingerly with his sword. It crumples like overbaked clay.


'Oh well, never mind.' Aburon adds. 'We got the other three- come on, move before there are more of them.' That last bit is addressed to the column of scared people, who trample by- some of them stopping to help pick up the wounded.

Looks at Dirt. 'Have you checked with your plant in the last, oh, five minutes? No? Crap. Grab a handful of that blob and follow me.' Starts running, flanking and overtaking the column and heading for the main gate.