[December 14 – 2nd session for December 14 and the big fight I screwed up.]
[This game uses the Fifth Revised Edition of the Hero System rules along with the Fantasy Hero supplement. This session happened April 11, 2022.]
Player Characters:
Jala – human female – a person of discretion, studier of Pact Magic with a focus on shadows
Ozrel Runeweaver – human male – Pugilist and Rune Magician
Zarek the Red – fox male – Golem-mancer
Vorgand – human female – Guildmaster and Chief Combatant for the Delvers Guild
Ricky the Astrologer – human male – Newly-minted specialist in Magic Circles and Teleportation Gates
Non-Player Characters:
Torsten, Fish, Harek – ex-bandits, now The Torchbearers for the Delvers Guild
Lars – Chamberlain of the Delvers Guild
Unit: Z0-E – Zarek’s first golem, looks like a fox made of iron
Yggsday, December 14th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
Approximately 10:00 AM (Moon Manor Time)
[Paragraphs show phases, the players going on segments 3, 6, 9, and 12, the skeletons on 4, 8, and 12. The first paragraph is segment 12, where all combat starts.]
Realizing they were in for a tough fight, every adventurer took a swig of the potions of speed that Zarek had handed out earlier in the day. The ten blue flame skeletons advanced on the Delvers through the Stone Forest, triggering the two Lightning spells Zarek had pre-cast. One of the bolts hit the lead skeleton (skeleton 1) soundly. [Post-Segment 12 recoveries were taken.]
Ozrel advanced and attacked the lead skeleton, striking it for some damage. Vorgand advanced on the skeletons to the right and threw one (skeleton 7) into another (skeleton 6). The surprisingly dexterous skeletons were able to land on their feat and avoid most of the damage [both made Breakfall and Acrobatics rolls]. Jala threw her magical dagger at the lead skeleton but missed, the dagger returning to her hand. Ricky moved to a point in the middle of the adventurers and cast Dark Leaching at the lead skeleton, but missed. Zarek reset his Lightning spell [to Armor Piercing and Burst] and then cast it at the lead skeleton. Only the first bolt of the burst connected, but it was enough to shatter the skeleton.
The remaining skeletons as one lighted their flaming heads from their shoulders and flung them at the adventurers – 3 at Vorgand, 1 at Ricky, 2 at Ozrel, and 3 at Zarek. [The attacks are 2d6 RKA, Explosive, Personal Immunity, so the skeletons are targeting the hex the PC is standing in, which is DCV 3.] Vorgand dove for cover behind a pillar, avoiding the brunt of the three explosions targeting where she had been standing. Ricky was stunned by a direct hit. Ozrel dove for cover but was too slow to react – luckily one of the skulls thrown missed widely and he shrugged the effects of the other [low damage roll]. Zarek was hit by all three targeting his space, but a combination of high defenses and low damage meant he shrugged most of the effect [he took a little Stun].
Ozrel kipped up from being prone [which is how a character lands after a dive for cover] and punched the next skeleton (skeleton 2), hitting solidly. Vorgand also kipped up and swept the skeleton she had thrown (skeleton 7), hitting 4 times and destroying it. [Ozrel’s and Vorgand’s actions should not have happened as both had aborted this action to dive for cover when the skeletons attacked.] Jala shadow walked to a better position and threw her dagger, missing again. Ricky shook off the effects of being stunned. Significantly depleted of endurance from his previous attack, Zarek reconfigured his Lightning spell [to 0 Endurance, Burst] and cast it at the skeleton Ozrel was fighting (skeleton 2). Zarek hit all three times and destroyed the skeleton.
The remaining seven skeletons advanced on the adventurers, 4 attacking Zarek [identified as a spellcaster and therefore a priority target], 2 on Vorgand, and one on Ozrel. All three adventurers dove for cover, Zarek and Vorgand successfully, Ozrel not. Luckily the attack on Ozrel was weak [rolled low damage] and he shrugged the effects.
Ozrel kipped up and punched the next skeleton (skeleton 3) solidly, damaging it. Vorgand failed to kip-up and stood normally before performing a sweep attack on the skeleton next to her (skeleton 6), hitting all three times but failing to destroy it. [Ozrel’s and Vorgand’s actions should not have happened as both had aborted this action to dive for cover when the skeletons attacked.] Jala threw her dagger again and hit, but to no appreciable effect. Ricky stood up and cast Dark Leaching on the skeleton Vorgand attacked, hitting it and destroying it. Zarek flew to the right corner of the room to get some distance from the skeletons attacking him and cast his Lightning at a nearby skeleton (skeleton 10), hitting once for minimal damage. [Zarek’s action should not have happened as he had aborted this action to dive for cover when the skeletons attacked. This is when we realized that I had made the mistake and we corrected the issue going forward.]
[Post-Segment 12 recoveries were taken.]
Ozrel held his action to respond to the skeletons, as did Vorgand. The remaining 6 skeletons attacked the adventurers – 1 on Ricky (who aborted to a dive for cover), 2 on Ozrel (who used his held action to dive for cover), and 3 on Zarek. Ricky took a little damage [Stun only] from the attack on him and Ozrel avoided any effect at all, but Zarek was hit all three times and knocked out, falling to the floor deeply unconscious [all the way into GM's Option as to when he would wake up again]. Jala saw this and shadow walked to the fallen fox, scooping him up in her arms. Vorgand used her held action to advance and attacked an nearby skeleton (skeleton 8), solidly hitting it once.
Ozrel kipped up and attacked one of the skeletons on him (skeleton 3) and missed. Vorgand swept her target (skeleton 8) with three attacks, hitting all three times and destroying it. Jala shadow walked with the unconscious Zarek to the entry chamber and dropped him of with the Torchbearers before shadow walking back into the Stone Forest. Ricky stood back up and cast Dark Leaching against the skeleton Ozrel had swung at (skeleton 3), hitting and destroying it.
The remaining four skeletons attacked the delvers – 2 on Vorgand, 1 on Jala, and 1 on Ozrel. Vorgand mis-timed her dive for cover [failed the DEX roll] and was hit twice, stunning her. Jala also failed her timing but the attack on her was weak [rolled low damage]. Ozrel made his dive for cover and took minimal effect from the explosion targeting him.
[Ozrel and Vorgand aborted this action for their dives and so did not go.] Ricky cast Dark Leaching at his next target (skeleton 4), hitting and weakening it [Drained 7 Body].
The remaining four skeletons attacked – 1 on Ozrel, 2 on Ricky [who they belatedly recognized as a threat], and one clawed at Vorgand. Ozrel was stunned by the attack on him and his magic runes deactivated. The two attacking Ricky hit, knocking him out [but not stunning him]. The claw attack on Vorgand scrabbled off her helmet to little effect.
Ozrel and Vorgand both shook off the effects of being stunned. Jala shadow walked on top of Ricky and then shadow walked him out to the entry chamber, where he woke up [he took a recovery, which brought him back to a positive Stun total at the end of the segment].
Vorgand kipped up and ran away from the skeletons, heading deeper into the Stone Forest and off to the right, where she found some stairs down. She leapt down them to exit the chamber. Ozrel kipped up and ran to the breech between the Stone Forest and the entry chamber so he could see into the entry chamber. He then fire teleported into the entry chamber. The skeletons sought targets to attack in the Stone Forest and found none. Jala and Ricky both took recoveries in the entry chamber, doing their best to not draw the attention of the skeletons. The Torchbearers, following orders, picked up the very unconscious Zarek and started working their way down the well to the sloped gallery below.
[Post-Segment 12 recoveries were taken.]
Vorgand gulped air at the bottom of the stairs, catching her breath as quietly as she could [she took a recovery]. In the entry area, Ozrel and Jala did the same. [Jala has to push her teleport to move a second person with her and was very low on Endurance.] Ricky peeked through the breech into the Stone Forest and sniped one of the skeletons (skeleton 4) with his dark Leaching, turning it to dust.
The remaining three skeletons moved to the dust of skeleton 3 and looked for the source of the attack but could not determine its location [I rolled an 18 on their Perception roll].
Vorgand continued to recover her breath. Ozrel reactivated his runes. Jala used her shadow veil spell to look through shadows to find Vorgand. She was successful and shadow walked to her. Ricky tried to snipe another skeleton (skeleton 10) but missed.
The remaining three skeletons, finding no intruders, walked back into the darkness and out of sight of the adventurers.
[End of combat]
Over at the bottom of the stairs to the right, Vorgand and Jal looked around. They found themselves at an intersection. A 15-foot wide passage led to the west with stone doors along its length on both sides. Small passages to their left and right [north and south] each led to a long room or a wide galley. With the danger past, Jala’s curiosity resurfaced and she wanted to explore the area. Vorgand was much more level-headed [and concerned what fresh hells might be discovered] convinced Jala it was time to go back to the rest of the group, not explore further.
Jala shadow walked the two of them back to the entry chamber.
End of Session
Guild Postings
[This is the fight where I screwed up on the rules for Dive for Cover. I let the players dive for cover, an abort action, but then also let them take their next action, the one that they aborted to dive for cover. We noticed this at the beginning of Turn 2 of the fight and it led to the PCs fleeing as they no longer considered the fight winnable. I tried to explain that they fight might not be not winnable through the tactics they had been using (frontal assault) but they might work out other tactics that would work. It was late, so the discussion did not end with a resolution and not all the players were convinced the fight was winnable at all.]
[From an Old School perspective, this (the super tough opponent, not the rules mess up – that was entirely my fault) is not a bug but a feature. Encounters should be as tough as they need to be and not always winnable by the PCs _at their current level_. There are several possible ways to defeat the blue flame skeletons, but frontal assault with steel is not one of them. The players need to work up a better plan, possibly one with different means of attacking.]
[Also during this combat we discovered another change between the 5th edition Hero System and all previous editions. The Sweep attack maneuver has a cumulative -2 OCV for each target after the first. In previous editions, this negative modifier was added as you went, so the first attack was at full OCV, the next at -2, the next at -4, etc., until an attack misses or the PC stops attacking. In 5th edition, the attacker declares the total number of attacks up front and gets a -2 to OCV for every planned attack after the first, applied to all attacks. So if the attacker declares they are making 3 attacks, all 3 attacks have a -4 to OCV but the sweep still stops at the first miss.]
Delvers Guild
Arc 1
Arc 1 Landing Page – Links to all Arc 1 sessions
Arc 2
Arc 2 Landing Page – Links to all Arc 2 sessions, as they post
Last Session: Arc 2, Session 9
Next Session: Arc 2, Session 11
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