Homebrew tabletop game system thread the II

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

For some reason, William thinks of his money pouch, one of them anyway- it seems to be lying slightly squinty in his pocket.


Down at the farmhouse-

'Could be. Depends who you are.'

From essentially right where you expected him (he has no stealth skills whatsoever), a figure steps out, and the group down at the farmhouse are looking at a much more terrifying sight.

He's certainly not an elf, unless they make them very differently around here. Six foot five, looks even parts LOTR and RFC, wearing a long blue-green wool lined buff coat over back and breast armour; broad across the shoulders, dark haired, sharp eyed and sharp faced- looks almost wolvish. Not a fool. A maniac, certainly. Pips on his shoulders, and the orange-yellow-red field sign ribbon of the Striking Phoenix.

He is, of course, an orc. He's also holding what looks like a one armed steel boomerang, and a bastard sword. The shutters of the farmhouse are pushed open, and there are four unnatural looking little green things, probably summoned- each of them holding a hammer and one of those boomerang blades.

That much, at least, Larric was right about. Dleamthayaran did, deliberately, lead his enemies into contact in the hope that they would kill each other for him- Chiaela says as much- 'he,' D., 'set us against him, there is a trap and it's him', the orc.

The problem now is that the orc might decide to blat you anyway.

[Feralgnoll]

Rohal will slowly walk to a spot where he can dash into a flank if need be. While trying to figure out this orcs motive (human perception)

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

He's not a bloodthirsty lunatic- probably- but he is associated with a bunch of them, knows it, and more than half expects you to react accordingly and try to kill him.

That comment of his- could be, depends who you are- follows on from "it's not the explosion". Pretty much sums up his attitude. He's outnumbered; ball's in your court.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric feels a sudden jumble of emotions- he has seen the Striking Phoenix in action all of once, when they partially sacked his town and burned his house down. The foot soldiers were, by and large, orcs. On the other hand, they were shooting first and asking questions not at all.

So his first conclusion is that this is obviously a mighty warrior, not to be crossed. His second is that he's going to cross us anyway, his third is that if he was going to, he'd have done it already. And we already have one mighty warrior to worry about, two is about one and three quarters too many. He's going to try and talk the orc out of going WAAAGH! at him.

Lowering his crossbow, holding it in one hand and pointed well away, Larric tones down his voice to the least loud that will readily carry the distance- audible, but as nonconfrontational as practical. He calls out: "Have you seen an elf ranger earlier today? Come up from around Caer Edric? Sneaky, murderous, vindictive bastard, was harrying the garrison down there? Likes to blow things up from far off? Name of Dleamth- ah, something like that. We thought it was him in here."

[Panzersharkcat]

Alfred gets up, wincing at the big bruise that his body is, and brushes the dirt off his armor. He takes a look behind him to about where the explosion came from and takes a look at the farm as well, trying to find the elf.

[S.L.Acker]

OOC:

Sorry, wasn't in much this weekend. I'll get caught up for Monday.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

As quick witted as he is, the orc picks it up at once. Looks up at the road, at the trees beyond it.

'So what have you done to him, to make him want to feed you to me?' he says, then adds 'I met him, if it's the same one up there now. There was an interesting outbreak of light and motion at the fort, just before his familiar blundered into me- suppose you give me your version.'

He doesn't talk like a muscle- headed thug; he's confident sounding, but how much of that is genuine and how much bluff- surely a ranking officer (the pips on the shoulder) of that murderous crew must know more than a little about hitting things?

If all of this is his, too, including the four unnatural little green things bashing metal for him- summoned minor daemons of his religion, which the unfamiliar magic wound around the air enchantments probably has something to do with- then it's little wonder D. couldn't get to the fort in time to save his sister.


Alfred's eyes are on top line at the moment; the blast and the impact seems to have helped him focus, and he can't quite see right through the blind spot down at the farm, but there is definitely a thing there made of metal, looks a bit like an arrowhead for an arrow a hundred yards long; at where the magic seemed to come from, and he can see a movement- a man/elf size movement that probably is D. getting ready to take a shot at him, or one of the rest of the party.

I've been assuming that Bryan has been cautious and not deliberately kicked anything off; monday will be fine.

[Agent Sorchus]

I'm going to quickly look for a piece of wood nearly the same size as the pebbles. If I can quickly acquire a such a thing, I am going to carve a quick rune of life (seeking) or two into the wood. Then if I have a cup put it in there with some water and use a little mana. This might be an idea that doesn't pan out with the limited time and resources I can put towards it now, but a life seeking compass could be quite useful.

[Kaelan]

Once the evil suicide squirrel has been dealt with william will quickly check the odd pouch and then go back to looking for D. from the roadside.

OOC - can he see what is happening in the farm, or is it out of sight from his current location?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

The farm is within arc of vision but about six hundred yards away from where William is- out of shot and too far away for detail really, it's possible to tell that there's somebody else standing there, a large being with a sword and wearing a greenish coat, that the window shutters are open, that nobody's moving much.

The squirrel, glazed fanatic expression and all, is between William and where he dropped the crossbow when the horse bolted. This could be slightly more trouble than it looks.


Sorchus, back a step- Eliska hasn't survived the explosion yet. The actions I needed initially were how she attempted to avoid, jump clear of, resist, or otherwise not get kaboomified by the blast waves; I still need that-
and then I'm going to modify that last action a little bit; a complicated crafty- type thing like that is probably best done from, say, the drainage ditch by the side of the road, under cover and out of bowshot.

Good idea, but first, what's the plan to not die?

[Kaelan]

-

[Kaelan]

OCC - error in posting; thought Tab would work differently.
IC

Hmm,
Me --> Psycho nuts --> Crossbow.

Options:
1 - Throw Randulf at it:
Potential to upset Larric & Co due to loss or reward\status.
2 – Send haybucket at it (after removing Radulf)
Will upset Alfred. Most likely not a good idea.
3 – Reach into my coin pouch on the belt and throw a coin at it (hopefully a copper and not a silver).

William will go for option 3. The intention is to try and disrupt the magic on the squirrel by getting it to react on a more basic instinct. If it works I’ll use the Mk1 Boot to move the squirrel and stone into the ditch away from us.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

William pulls the pouch out of his pocket; to find that- where's the money gone? It's full of rocks. Pebbles. Bloody elves. Chucking one at the squirrel anyway-
and it does a very strange thing; lands near the squirrel, and the pebble the elves planted on William explodes in a puff of black light, an anti- flare that, when it fades, leaves a very confused looking squirrel sitting on it's haunches and wondering what happened to it. It scurries off into the wood.

There are three more pebbles in the bag.

[Kaelan]

Right,
Get the Crossbow,
Go Elf hunting
Get a sling when back at civilisation,
Get a good tankard of beer.
The plans for today are sorted (maybe hand Radulf over at the same time).

[S.L.Acker]

Bryan has been following close to Chiaela, his attention focused on what could be coming in such a way that he isn't speaking. When the explosion goes off behind them, near where they were talking not too long ago he looks back and at a glance it looks like his traveling companions as well as the animals have made it out okay. Breathing a little sigh he turns his focus back to the farmhouse.

When he sees an Orc come out instead of the expected elf his reaction is one of immediate relief followed by a gut reaction to draw the arming sword at his hip. He might have had time to do something stupid had the Orc officer not been so quick witted. The extra moments to think allows him to relax from actually drawing his weapon, though his hand rests on the pommel at his hip.

After hearing the Orc out Bryan says, "We're just trying to get from point A to B. We just happened to get caught up in what was going on at the fort. Once we were in the state of things made helping those men still in the fort the only moral option.

As for what happened after that, well another elf, a female tried to spring a trap on us. I think it would have worked, at least if you hadn't been involved in that blunder you spoke of."

He's keeping the story short, and not going into great detail. He's hoping his time spent talking in circles with those of higher status will help him tiptoe around giving a full account of things.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

'I expect she got killed?' Presumably he gets the accurate answer, and goes on 'Should have been win- win for him then, he couldn't have expected you not to strike out, even in self defence, at a murderer and a monster...

Nobody willing to try it anyway- none of you of fanatic determination and no sense of self preservation? No? well if you do find anybody like that point them in my direction, would you, it's getting unreasonably hard to find voulnteers for test runs any more. I can always use a few daredevil loonies.

'Speaking of which, you're going to have to do something about that elf. Willing to take a risk?'

[Simon_Jester]

OOC MK I:

In response to the last question, which I understood well:



IC:

"After the last two days? Yes- it's him or us."

Larric privately resolves to introduce the orc to Eliska. Either she's exactly what he's looking for, or she'll do something daft which would at least be impressive to watch from a safe distance.


OOC MK II:
(Yes, this is likely overestimating Eliska, but after that stunt with the wire-fu jump, can you blame him?)

[Agent Sorchus]

Ah, how to survive an explosion. Well there is the classic duck and cover for those of you on budgeted time. There is running away from those of you quick, and with more time. Finding cover is best. I believe you mentioned a ditch? Hell that would help against arrows too, no point in being in the open if cover is available. I believe the best way to get in cover is a dolphin dive to hit the dirt and roll into the ditch from there.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Come to think of it,

...and goes on 'Should have been win- win for him then, he couldn't have expected you not to strike out, even in self defence, at a murderer and a monster...

Nobody willing to try it anyway- none of you of fanatic determination and no sense of self preservation? No? well if you do find anybody like that point them in my direction...

The underlined bit confuses me. I can easily imagine the orc having come to several conclusions in rapid succession, some of them either inaccurate or the product of confusion at "holy crap a smart orc" making people have trouble following what he's getting at.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

He's a ranking officer, how and why is another story entirely, in a unit which he knows full well is composed of homicidal psychopaths; he has an insider's view of the Striking Phoenix, and is painfully aware of how terrible their reputation is- and how they got to be that way.

He is there because his talents and abilities were in demand, and, well, you should get the explanation later but the short version lies in his precise job, Commander Air Experimental Unit. Anyone with a great deal of determination and no common sense, who tries to kill him and fails, may be worth, ah, experimenting on. Test pilot, crash test dummy, some days there isn't that much in it, and anyway he can't have all the fun himself.


Eliska dives and rolls into the ditch, avoids most of the blast but not all- caught in the overlapping shock waves, some of the blast is actually caught and channelled by the ditch; enough to hurt, but not enough to stop her- a grade worse than what happened to Alfred, she rolls with it as best she can. A broken bit of shrub stem lands beside her- good enough. That'll take a few moments to get all the bits and make the compass.


The orc decides Larric should go first, and thinks about throwing the metal thing he's holding at him, the short blade; then remembers it has sharp edges and lobs it gently at Larric's feet.

'What you do is, hold on to that- mind the edges-' it doesn't seem to be anything but edge, it's like a cross between a kukri and a shuriken; complicated patterns traced on it, bronze inlaid into steel, air runes and others Larric is having difficulty recognising- 'curl up into a ball, shout "help, oh my gods I don't want to die get me out of this"- it's not the activation ritual, it's just traditional by now- and use no powers, leave the rest to me.'

[Simon_Jester]

Larric scratches his head.

"Uh, right. Would you mind telling me what comes after that, or would that ruin the surprise?"

Somehow, he won't be surprised if the answer is "yes, it would."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

'You should land somewhere- best aim for the road. I had, I mean, don't try to control it or the vane'll revert to type and you'll arrive doing four hundred revs per minute. There's actually quite a lot that could go wrong, now I think about it-' and he makes a complicated runic gesture with his free hand, and Larric lands, more or less- with only a little momentum, enough to bowl him off his feet- beside Alfred up at the road.

Without having passed through the intervening space, which is not supposed to happen and leaves Larric dizzy- from thinking about what just hapened and straightforwad disorientation.

'Seems to have worked, no squish- anyone interested in troubleshooting recovery trials? No? trick question anyway. Who's next?'

Chiaela looks at him and says 'You are completely, totally, irredeemably insane.'

One of the green things throws it's vane at him, he catches it and underhands it to Chiaela- who manages to catch it, just, without taking her hands off. She just has time to look up at him before she, too, vanishes with a foop.


An arrow comes arching out of the woods- it was indeed D. and he's aiming at the landing point, where Alfred, Larric and Chiaela now are. All three dive out of the way- dodges made and succeeded, just- and the arrow flashes into a cloud of rapidly- spreading mist. it's on.

[S.L.Acker]

Bryan looks at the Orc and shakes his head in the manner of a man who knows that he's going anyway. He does ask the Orc one question though, "Did you see where the arrow came from?"

[Panzersharkcat]

He points towards William and two of the elves and instructs them to follow in pursuit. He instructs the other elves and Eliska to try to flank him. Fallard is sent to inform the others of where they are going.

(OOC: Even if the player dropped out, Fallard is still with us, right? Those are the only PCs available to me at the moment for me to command. If he isn't, he'll send William to deliver the message and go alone with the elves.)

[Simon_Jester]

Minor OOC:

I think it's fair to have Fallard "around" for the duration of the trip- he wouldn't have been able to do much in the fights we've gotten into anyway, and having one NPC who can be pointed at and told "you there, go deliver this message" is an incredibly useful thing for a party to have.