Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

It's pretty dubious for me, too- training night.

Anyway, Alfred's just bought himself a fair amount of trouble- the man whose face he's in refuses to back down- evidently fancies himself as a fighter- doesn't quite go to the length of wiping the spit off his nose with a handkerchief but close.

'Ah, obviously a country knight. If you prefer to rely on other arms then I suggest you put them to the test, Sir- I challenge you.'

Oh. Right. Obviously a setup then. Andrea';s more than willing to second him- what's Alfred doing?

[Simon_Jester]

OOC: Oh joy, a duel! So, does Alfred get choice of weapons?

[Kaelan]

William will approach the challenging knight before Alfred gets his reply in:
“Let me shake your hand sir. Never in my travels, both in the field and war and off it, have I seen such bravery. Many a night I have wondered if there were any knights left who would be able to challenge Sir Alfred. Indeed, I was beginning to despair that he would have to enter the service of the new countess as her sparring partner to keep his skill up.”

Looking the knight up and down in an apprising manner.

“You do look like much more of a veteran warrior than that former elf warrior, Dleamtheyaran I think his name was. Managed to lay a single handed siege to a fort south of here and the elves had to send a small party of their own to take him out.”

“Sir Alfred there took him down in under ten heart beats.” Hefting his coin purse in one hand “Do you think you can manage 15? Only I can get better odds to closer you can get.”

[Simon_Jester]

William will approach the challenging knight before Alfred gets his reply in:

“Let me shake your hand sir. Never in my travels, both in the field and war and off it, have I seen such bravery. Many a night I have wondered if there were any knights left who would be able to challenge Sir Alfred. Indeed, I was beginning to despair that he would have to enter the service of the new countess as her sparring partner to keep his skill up.”

Looking the knight up and down in an apprising manner.

“You do look like much more of a veteran warrior than that former elf warrior, Dleamtheyaran I think his name was. Managed to lay a single handed siege to a fort south of here and the elves had to send a small party of their own to take him out.”

“Sir Alfred there took him down in under ten heart beats.” Hefting his coin purse in one hand “Do you think you can manage 15? Only I can get better odds to closer you can get.”

This is nice- but is William in the same room, or even the same building? When last I saw him, he was talking to me...

OOC:

I love the idea, but I doubt you can get your words in before Alfred reacts.

[Kaelan]

To the rest of the crowd.
“Gentlemen, a challenge has been issued to Sir Alfred. Does anybody wish to second Sir.....”

Looking at the challenger.
“I’m sorry Sir Knight, I don’t know you name, could you provide it. Spelling as well, it makes my task easier when I have to have your stone engraved. Also, are there any particular words you want inscribing, or just the general brave knight spiel?”

Back to the crowd.
“Can anybody point me in the direction of the stone masons?”

Back to the challenger,
“Best to get this underway now sir, the aftermath tends to take longer than the fight to sort out. However Sir Alfred has promised that he would leave a recognisable corpse this time round, so an opencast funeral should be an option this time round”

[Kaelan]

OOC-
if it gets off fine.

Location wise, I thought we were all in the same room tormenting poor Radulf, as he's not being held in the cells.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

No, Sir Alfred was talking to Dame Andrea and his cousin about all that political stuff. They were, as far as I know, off somewhere else.

Also, Dame Andrea just volunteered as a second, if you read the DM's post closely. A second has to be someone of rank, so she's a lot more qualified than William.

So I'm not sure how well the speech fits the circumstances, though it's certainly amusing even if bits of it need to be retconned out and moved around in time until after Alfred's immediate reaction to the challenge.

[Kaelan]

I'm out the loop for the next few hours, so retcon away!
Also, I thought a second also had to fight in your place if you were unable to do so yourself - hence why William would not volunteer for the job.

[Simon_Jester]

Ah, point. Well, Dame Andrea seems rather fighty, so I'm sure she'd make a sterling candidate.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

It's easy enough to presume that after telling Radulf the good news, and bumping into Larric there, the rest of the party headed over to the keep to try to catch up with Alfred before something like this happened.

Oh well.

In terms of choice of arms- that belongs to a later and debatably more civilised time, at this point it's essentially free choice, bring whatever you feel yourself most effective with. There's usually some kind of arrangement between the employers of both knights- the people they're infeudated to anyway- and there should be a senior knight as a referee.

Sir Oliver (that's his name) looks to William, looks him up and down, seethes a little, controls himself- says to Alfred 'I fear you have let your ambition get ahead of you, setting up your own court- and starting with the fool. An hour and a half, in the western courtyard?'

[Simon_Jester]

If the rest of the party is back with Alfred- (crud)- Larric is going to try and keep out of this- no showmanship or passing of bets or anything.

[Kaelan]

"good, then it can be you and me here and now first"
William readies his axe.
"good to go, or just to scared?"

[Kaelan]

William took exception to the fool - squire, manservant, or man-at-arms he would have let slide.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Florian Geyer, meet August Reinsdorf...

The mood of the room is very much against William; couldn't really be anything else- however much the assembled people of rank might have laughed at that, and appreciate a bit of mad blather, they have a dignity to uphold and can't really afford to be taken the piss out of, not under the circumstances.

The Treasurer, old Tancred Owell, is there now- walked in in the middle of that- and was about to use his authority to call the entire thing off, a senseless waste of blood at such a time, but he can't do that now.

The thing is that the peasant class, the upper end of it anyway, actually have the balance of military power over the old knightly class- could do the swiss pikeman/welsh longbowman thing, within their grasp- if it wasn't for the thaumaturgy. You really need the old chivalric spirit and discipline to stand on that kind of field, against mages, horrors and monsters.

Both sides got it wrong over the winter, nobody- well, damn' few- covered themselves in glory, there's a lot of friction and mutual mistrust- William met quite a lot of it earlier- that's hurting both, and this is exactly what they don't bloody need. Some are too busy to care, some are groaning- a man at arms should be simply cut down for offering an open challenge like that.

The politics of the situation prevent that for now- most people suspect there's something more to the initial challenge than meets the eye, an attempt to pick a fight to silence Alfred for instance- but they can't afford to let him get away with this, not and keep the lid on.

If William wins, and comes out with another line like that, most of the people in the hall are going to jump him. Anybody- no, you didn't- keep one of those impeller blades? It's going to take a hell of a lot of spin to get this to a good end.

Sir Oliver was quite successfully wound up himself earlier; he's more than willing to fight, seems to fight with long and short sword, at least when not in armour.

Anyone doing anything before it comes to that?

[Kaelan]

Looking at alfred.
"let me take him sir. This is the sort of scum that you would rather burn your clothes than wash them if he touched them. He's not worthy of his title, let alone to actually waste your time with what he would call combat. Do you want me to kill him, or just beat him out of the room?"

[Kaelan]

OOC
If we're going to have challenges like this I'd rather make the defeat so total that future challengers will think twice about it. Who's going to want being thrown out like a petulant child rather than being taken seriously?

[Panzersharkcat]

"William, I thank you for the offer but this is between the two of us." He turns to the challenger. "I accept," he growls, still restraining himself from lifting the guy by the neck a la Darth Vader to Captain Antilles.

[Kaelan]

Florian Geyer meet August Reinsdorf

Can we form the black band?

[Panzersharkcat]

Florian Geyer meet August Reinsdorf

Can we form the black band?

(OOC: Later in Alfred's life, yes. That's his eventual fate in life, provided he lives through this.)

[Feralgnoll]

Turning to Larric: "Reminds me of a duel between an Alpha and a challenger... oh. I forgot to tell how I came across the alchemical leg. A wolf of immense strength from the alchemy was engaged with a powerful magic she wolf with white fur up in the mountains."

[Kaelan]

I don't intend to kill or maim Oliver, just badly humiliate him if Alfred agrees.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:



IC:



Larric, at this point amazed by William's sheer mindblowing anarchic folly (seriously, he's playing Chaotic Neutral bordering on Chaotic Stupid, total inability to function within a political hierarchy and grasp the idea that things like "rank" and "protocol" even exist, taking "Jack's as good as his master" to such extremes that the only place in society he can occupy safely is the headsman's block), continues to stay the hell out of it. Sir Alfred doesn't seem to be actively shaming himself, but if William looks as though he's about to get carved by a roast, Larric is damned if he can think of a way to stop it from happening that wouldn't totally ruin things.

He turns to Rohal.

"When someone challenges a- Wolf Number One, did you say?-* tell me, did you ever see a crazed rottweiler with delusions of grandeur yapping around their heels? Because I think that's about what's going to happen here..."

*"Alpha male" might not translate exactly into Kuquanese, so I'm playing around a bit with the terminology, in a Discworld-ish spirit

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

I wish I could think of something, but really, nothing is coming to mind. Wish White Haven were here, he might come up with something.

[Kaelan]

If Alfred says to stand down, William will stand down.

He recons that he has his best chance in combat here and now as Oliver is out of his customary armour and not in full control of his emotions. Why else would he want an hour and a half to prepare? He'll worry about the aftermath later.

[Kaelan]

OOC - stealth post from panzer , or I just missed it.

IC
William will secure his axe and back down and back off.