Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Panzersharkcat]

Angered by the whole "rodent with clothes" comment, Alfred says, "Fire."

[Kaelan]

Not wishing to be pedantic and say that he's not carrying a flintlock Dirt will loose his bolt at one of the humans (not the idiot bringing a farming tool to a fight). Then in his best orc to the goblins "flee and live".

Depending on range, he will then either reload, or switch to melee weapons. This is also dependent on if anybody charges. If so dirt will move to support.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric doesn't speak Svartalfven, and Alfred doesn't either as far as I know, so it would pretty much have to be Dirt giving the signal and Alfred interpreting it to give the command, or something like that.

Unlike Rohal, the yeomen and men-at-arms, or for that matter Dirt, Larric can actually obey Alfred's order literally.

So, as mentioned, he fires a lightning arrow at the dark elf with the whip from his current position, using that cathode-rune on the ground. Then he scoots aside a bit behind something (like the ridge) to reload the bow.

[Kaelan]

If Alfred is unable to give the signal dirt will simply say

"slavers"

The rest I suspect will be purely academic.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Right; let there be mayhem. Try to take a prisoner so you can aske them why they were being so stupidly aggressive, will you?

You can shoot a bow, you just can't fire it- the actual sequence is usually told as Nock, bring the arrow up to the string and seat the string in the nock at the back end of the arrow, Draw, pull the bowstring back to tension, and incidentally do your aiming now while you're about it, Loose. Crossbows, less formal.

In terms of combat speeds, who goes first and the order it all happens in, damn I've lost the list, but on the basis of what I can recall of it, it's actually Dirt, the dark elves, Alfred, Rohal, one of the elves' human minions, one yeoman archer, one minion, one yeoman, Larric, Tamarin's two footmen, the last two minions, Verone, Tamarin.

There is a mighty twang as Dirt's crossbow goes off- the target sells him a dummy, starting to move one way then diving flat and rolling the other. [Barely a hit on the dice- any success in dodge would have been enough, and they got quite a good one.]

'Leave the slab till last, he's stupid,' one of the dark elves orders the minions, which means Dirt probably will get a chance to reload. And may need to indulge in revenge.

The svartalf with the folding- fan shield does something complicated to it; pulls the locking pin out and throws the fan- blades like a swarm of shuriken at the archers and casters behind the rock. Decides that supression is more important. Much ducking and diving takes place- the archers are just going to physically dodge, are Larric and Verone doing anything fancy in defence?

The one with the rapier and whip underestimates and tries for a cheap shot on Alfred- whipslash across the eyes intended to blind and disorient followed by a lunge to whatever gaps in the armour there are. Lazy, overconfident- Alfred steps into it and the whip rattles off the side of his helmet, technically a hit but one with no effect whatsoever, and the rapier slides off the side of his forearm.

Actions? I have Rohal's and Larric's attack plans, Alfred, Verone?

[Panzersharkcat]

Alfred thrusts at the chest of the one with the whip.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

That was interesting- Alfred's using a warhammer, yes? They don't thrust all that well. Dice are miserable, and what actually happens is that the svartalf tries to get really fancy- dodge and riposte with a standing jump onto the head of the hammer, doing a Cuchulainn, followed by a kick to the face. Doesn't quite succeed.

Alfred may have the physical strength to manage this- to hold a svartalf aloft on the end of a stick- but not without warning; the svartalf mistimes it slightly, too, and ends up kicking the head of the hammer, wincing slightly, trying to turn the fall that follows into a standing backflip and pretending he meant it that way.

Rohal looks for the flank, and the one that moves out to meet him is the one with the micro- halberd and the shortsword; chance was not with him, and the only way I can explain the utter total failure of concentration and poise the dice represent is to assume he was thrown severely off his pace by the scent of the minion, who has apparently been bathing in wolfsbane. [Two fumbles. Attack a fumble redeemed on a reroll, but parried effectively anyway, defence a fumble redeemed on a reroll, successful. Two rerolls left.]

The minion suddenly blurs, unbelievable speed- the chemical cocktail that is making the werewolf so disoriented apparently acts as a stimulant; Rohal nearly runs straight on to the shortsword, twists aside just in time, his own attack is met and twisted aside by the halberd head, neearly swept away entirely- he has to twist with it to keep his weapon.

Puts enough distance between them that the yeoman archer next fastest has room to take a shot at the minion- who was apparently waiting for it and ducks and rolls using Rohal as a shield; the arrow flies wide.

The next minion to go attacks Tamarin with spear and axe, first feinting- a jab towards the eyes with the spear, intended to get her to raise her shield up to eye level so she doesn't notice the minion's hooking her leg and pulling her off balance with the axe;
that much succeeds- she half- hops towards him to keep her balance and blindly lashes out in roundhouse with her other foot, connects much more effectively than she had any right to with a pointed sabaton right on his ribs. She actually falls over, starts to recover, but the minion is worse off, spitting blood- not done yet though.

After the second archer pops back up from where he had ducked and puts an arrow through the minion's chest, then he is.

Larric has enough of an angle to take the shot without worrying too much about hitting Alfred- the actual arrow missed but passes close enough for a spark to leap from the arrow to the svartalf, who had been about to try showing off again- snatching the arrow out of the air with his whip and returning it; shock disorients and penalises for a second or two at least-

long enough for Tamarin's two men at arms to try to close him down and hack him to bits. The last two minions move to support him, of course. one of the men at arms shifts to block the minions- one of the minions ducks past and catches the footman's axe between the points of his trident.

The last minion takes a mighty swipe at the last footman's shield, cracking it and sending splinters flying, parries the return stroke on the hilt of the scythe.

Verone?

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Sorry but this is likely the last post I'll make for several hours, I've got a mess of grading to do.

Good fight, very interesting, and Alfred? Next time, don't try to stab someone to death with a sledgehammer.

IC:

Larric didn't grasp what was being thrown at him fast enough to do anything other than duck further down- he'd probably not be shooting from a standing position if he can avoid it; you can shoot a crossbow kneeling or prone, you just can't necessarily reload that way. It seems to have missed in any case.

As planned he pulls back a little to reload and pops up in a different spot. The shape of the fight may have changed substantially. His target priorities are as follows:

1) Put a bolt (lightning, crossbow, call it what you will, screw it it's still a lightning arrow) into anyone who's trying to finish off Tamarin while she's down, if she's in danger when his next shot is ready.

2) Put the bolt into anyone who looks like they've got any other party members down, particularly the dark elves. The reason Tamarin gets priority is that she's already on the ground.

3) If no one on our side looks like they're about to go down, put the bolt into one of the dark elves.

I don't have a clear idea of whether Larric could actually put a slug of magic into that fight without using the arrow to carry it. Is that possible? If so, noted, but it doesn't change the plan.

[Kaelan]

OOC last post for the night.

Dirt will drop the crossbow and ready his axe. Time to get some food for fifi!
He moves into the closest target, and will try to grind his way thru. Nothing fancy, just brute axe & shield. Also, what are the gobbo's doing?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Stabbing with a sledgehamer is at least possible- I saw one of the games club kids decide to set his spear (brace it to recieve charge) and then try to hide under it...

The gobbos are doing what they were told, waiting where they were told to wait. They're probably going to be a non- factor; may have some kind of contingency embedded in them, for less reliable slaves control through chemical dependency is not unknown. Being cursed to explode if their master dies is also not unknown.

It's Verone's action- and I'd also like a really flashy description of how he dodged that set of throwing blades, it was very close and the numbers were very low. Glancing off the brace in his hat close.

The random number generators just don't seem to like the character; nothing seems to work as well as it should for him, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if White Haven was getting a little fed up with it. Good ideas done boldly and with panache should break the jinx, get the flow of luck rolling.

[Feralgnoll]

OOC: I really miss judged how close these guys were.

[White Haven]

Blades and faces should not intersect. Verone believes this quite wholeheartedly, at least as far as his own face goes. This is going to take some precise timing and very, very fast work, but... First, generate a miss. Easiest to do via simply deflecting them, but that would spoil a perfectly good riposte; instead, he reaches out both physically and mentally, twisting and strengthening wind until the whole salvo of glittering steel begins to arc upwards, shifting from 'deadly' to 'I hope Verone remembered to pack spare feathers for The Hat.' There's a sound not unlike a rapier parrying a slash from a larger blade as one of the knives rides its way along the artfully-curved, formerly-concealed brace, cutting the long plume apart in a cloud of floating tufts. A far closer miss than Verone was shooting for, but now isn't the time to worry about that, he's simply too focused, too busy.

Complete the turn, with a firmer hand now that he has more than mere seconds to work with. The knives arc up around, over...back down. Now, time to make them more....interesting in the time it takes them to cross to attack range. The mage begins pouring energy into them in its simplest form: heat. Not much time, not enough to get them to a proper white-hot spinning death-blade status, but certainly enough that the returning projectiles glow a dull red as they hiss through the air. Now...for the final bit of aim to make sure they don't just spray the earth harmlessly. Again, not much time to work with, but he does what he can, easing the cloud of whirling blades down where it belongs, which more or less means any hostiles he can see that aren't in the middle of melee combat and aren't too far away from the course of the knives. For better or for worse, precise targeting isn't exactly in the cards...

OOC: Hat-brace, how'd you guess?

Let it never be said that Verone will choose the simple option when presented with a problem.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

The decision to let them get into talking range is what let them get that close; and also meant that they defaulted to 'we are the lords of the universe' thinking mode, incidentally.

Tamarin pushes herself back to her feet, can skip past that.

There is a middle round between simple and downright byzantine, you might not believe me but there really is...
Verone's parry/counterattack is a complicated, multipart casting, and the only obviously unencumbered target is the svartalf who threw them at you in the first place;

who looks at this thinking, he's obviously insane, a human arcanist would make an interesting pet, I think we brought enough brainfuzz drugs, that casting's a house of cards, none of the individual bits of magic dovetailing together are strong enough to be useful, what is this large green blur I was too busy paying attention to the mad hat mage to see coming?

the dark elf spends too much time watching what Verone's up to to react in time to Dirt; and what happens is very messy indeed. Axe to the chest- the longsword comes up to meet it but there's too much power behind the blow, batters through the svartalf's guard, the armour is effective at spreading and stopping the force of the blow, it's not as bad as it could have been but it still bites;

the first bit of the dark elf toi make contact with Dirt's huge castle door shield is his left knee, which cracks- he starts to fold, gets pushed to the ground and trampled on by a very large ogre.

Not as spindly as he looks, though. Suffering from multiple wounds and very blunt trauma, but not mentally defeated, he growls a war cry and starts to stagger back to his feet, 'I will not fall before-' which is when one of the red- hot blades arrives and just as he's starting to rise, it streaks straight in his left eyesocket.

That's enough. The svartalf slumps to the ground, and he's not getting up from that. The rest are not so successful, scattering wildly over the area including one into the back of Dirt's shield that Fifi has to duck, but hey.

The other one with the whip and rapier decides to disengage and deal with the archers first, tries to dodge past Alfred and do some fairly dramatic matial- artistic leaps and bounds zig-zagging across the field to get to them.

Alfred, Rohal?

[Simon_Jester]

Larric looses his next shot at the oncoming dark elf, roughly as planned. If said elf is still coming and it looks like he might be coming for Larric, he tries something new again: he stirs up ionization in the air, gets the currents flowing, and pull up a barrier of ball (ellipsoid?) lightning in an attempt to ward off an attacker.

[Feralgnoll]

After failing so miserably, Rohal will jump and roll to the left, getting outside of his assailants range. Using the momentum from the combat roll, he will pop up to a kneeling position and loose an arrow at point blank range.

[Panzersharkcat]

Alfred goes for the guy's legs when he tries to leap, grabbing them, pulling him down, and smashing him.

[Simon_Jester]

(obviously, if Sir Alfred succeeds in rugby-tackling the svartalf, Larric will not be shooting him with a lightning arrow and will shift fire to one of the human minions)

EDIT: This is probably my last post until 7:30 to 8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time or so.

[Kaelan]

One down, five to go.

Standing on the downed elf first, dirt will move onto the next closest target and threat to the party.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

It's very close range for Rohal, and difficult to get an arrow off without being interrupted; with a little liberty in adjudication (and a mix of still crappy and some quite decent resolutions)- it's asking for a broken bow to try to do anything like a combat roll with tension on it. It's going to have to be unslung, strung, arrow drawn- and the dark elf minion isn't going to give Rohal the time, move after him and try to close him down.

How the dice say it works out, and the best interpretation I can put on them, is that- you know that thing you're absolutely not supposed to do with a bow, which is physically hit someone with it, because if it doesn't actually break it'll almost surely crack or warp?

It happens. The minion leaps at Rohal, who with the bow in his hands shoves the end of it into the minion's face, getting him right in the mouth. As he's reeling, Rohal stabs him in the gut with the arrow. Two not- great wounds, but they buy enough time for Rohal to back off, string and ready to shoot next round. Bow doesn't look too badly damaged apart from a bit of blood on the end.

Alfred leaps for the dark elf, trying to bring him down, but it's like trying to catch a shadow- there's magic in there, evasive, elusive magic, and the svartalf easily limbos around him, and then does an extraordinary, incredibly stupid thing. He half- turns back to Alfred to sneer at him, express contempt for the inferior race- and what the hell, might as well do it all at once. Larric and the two yeomen archers all shoot him.

The lightning arrow hits in the chest, one of the longbow arrows in the back of the head, the other in the gut. The svartalf enters a state describable as 'carked it.' He is an ex- elf. Hit hard in all vital locations, gone before he hit the ground.

The last two minions waste their action, looking at each other in a state of absolute stunned horror. The footmen aren't quite sure what to do with them- easy meat, but...

Verone's and Tamarin's go, then Dirt at the start of the next round. She'll probably demand that they yield.

Further down the slope, the goblins are trembling and wailing.

[Kaelan]

Dirt will yell in orc
"sit"

With luck the goblins will comply out of habit and fear.

[Panzersharkcat]

He sticks his tongue out at the elf when the others shoot him. He gets back up on his feet, turns to the last two and says, "You are facing superior weapons and training. Submit!"

(OOC: )

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Waving the hammer in one's face seems to do the trick- the other one tries to die fighting, throws himself at Tamarin, and is met- she actually meant it this time- she's using a kite shield; hits him in the groin with the point of it. He starts to fold, her men at arms take him the rest of the way.

One of the goblins is now running in circles screaming, two have sat down and are just shaking uncontrollably, the other three are dithering. One moves as if to throw himself off a cliff.

That's more or less it for the hitting of things, but you have a lot of prisoners to secure- what are you doing?

[Panzersharkcat]

Alfred starts issuing orders to tie them up with their arms behind their back and on their knees with their ankles crossed. Makes it rather hard to get up. He starts questioning the nearest one. Stuff like what are you doing around here and whether you've seen what happened at those battle sites nearby.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric comes up. "Why are the little green men running around in circles and panicking?"

Then he looks at Dirt. "Oh. Right."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Alfred starts questioning the nearest minion- who apparently doesn't speak modern Kuquani, or at least not very much; and is not entirely sure if he has just exchanged one master for another or not. Apparently that's the main reason he's letting himself be interrogated, although you may need an interpreter.

Are you sure you want to keep a slave? He considers himself part of the spoils of war.

The other one- actually, I miscounted, two; there's the wounded one that was facing Rohal. Briefly. The other two try to run. Rohal drops one of them with the arrow he had planned to loose anyway, to the lower back.

The other one, I need an action for- what are you trying to do? Are you trying to stop that goblin throwing himself off the nearest cliffside- and they are not in short supply here- or doing what to them?

Rohal's nose is sending out alarms about them, anyway. So's Larric's for that matter- they smell unpleasantly alchemical.