TURN 3 (GM wraps up the combat.)
He calls for everyone to start rolling to kill the spiders, just to see if anyone misses and gives Longlegs or Ogre a hit by mistake. They don't and Longlegs' spider goes down before it can do any more damage.
After the battle, Longlegs' seemingly mortal wound by the demonic giant spider of doom is seen to and he doesn't look that hurt after all. Almost back to normal. Strange that.
I get the skittish elfsies back in line after they start to argue about going back out. They said they would never have gone down here if they knew there were going to be spiders. I convinced them that the testers would never use the same monster twice, so now we only have easy opponents left and no more infernal eight-leggers or whatever they call them. They reluctantly agree. Oh, I almost forgot, in the chest was four gold bars, that I got to carry of course, but still. It improved everyone's spirits.
We move on, more corridors and then another darkness curtain. This time Tilly took the arbalest and Twirl called forth a soldier illusion to lead the charge. Tilly would stay behind and then use her hunting skills and sneak in on my command. Five persons in a test for a maximum of four persons might cause unnecessary doubt in case the enemies were smart. Oh did I forget to tell you that we got some nifty magic talking devices? Well we did, very practical, so we could stay in contact and time her entrance?
“The Silver Room”
We entered, saw some guys resting from their wounds in an otherwise empty room. My command was quick, “Attack!” I figured the Thorz needed decisive men of action and not smooth talkers and configured the test accordingly.
E no.6 ST13(8),DX12(10),IQ8 MA8 Leather, Halberd, Small Axe.
U no.13 ST11(10),DX13(11),IQ8 MA8 Leather, Small Shield, Mace
H no.7 ST9(4),DX13(15),IQ10, MA10 Javelin, Small Shield
https://imgur.com/2CxxJt8
Part-time Illusion: (F) ST11, DX13(9), IQ8 Chainmail, Tower Shield, and a Very Fine Shortsword 2d+1.
(There were some arguments about the attributes, talents and such. But the sword was allowed if it looked the part and was somewhat on par with the rest of the party.)
TURN 1
Party get a surprise and automatically wins initiative, they choose to go first.
G moves up and engage the middle man, a full move, in order to stop the enemy H from going around and get a charge on one of the others.
Illusion F did the same but cut off the more dangerous E halberd fighter from doing the same.
R takes one step forward, not especially interested in a halberd vs. halberd charge. Let the illusion soak the damage. R intends to fling his curvy stick. (He could have moved up to half MA but forgot that.
X moves around, intending to close with the javelin user next turn in combination with a defend action. The javelin has no reach so she is somewhat safe three hexes away even after a 1 hex step from H.
The enemies hold and H do a 1-hex too short “charge” against G.
R has an adjDX of 15, hits E for 9 damage!, and E takes 7 and is down to 1 and almost was knocked down, but have a -2 and a -3 DX penalty.
H adjDX13 hits but do no damage to Ogre heavy armor.
U adj11 hits the illusion for 6 dmg and F takes 1 after armor.
https://imgur.com/wTK7fV0
TURN 2
Initiative: 5+1 vs 6, reroll tie for 1+1 vs 1 Party wins and decide to go last.
U sacrifice himself a little and initiate HTH with F, the illusion, by moving on top of him. A 2 for defense means the illusion drops his shield and weapon, both disappear promptly. (Very suspicious!)
U could initiate HTH since he had an MA of 8 and the illusion only 6 due to armor.
The HTH move opens up for E to charge the artillery R, since F lost his ability to engage enemies when he fell prone for HTH. E hopes to engage Longlegs before he will have time to draw his Halberd and by doing so go before the next boomerang wound hit him. Seemed like a very sneaky tactic.
H moves one hex to engage G and distract him from the prone enemy at his feet. And then Disbelieves. (Unusual but since they have “proof” and that guy has a good IQ it seemed reasonable).
X steps in and attacks.
R quickdraws the Halberd and sets for a charge.
G attacks.
N gets the order to attack, steps in 1 hex, takes a knee and attacks with the crossbow.
https://imgur.com/QQlA2AZ
R succeeds with his quick draw at DX 11, original DX 13 -2 for a QD. But misses the set vs. charge at adjDX 13. (13 -2 for weapon size and +2 for a set vs. charge). Since it was a charge it went first.
E the other charge attack was made at a measly adjDX7 A last huzzah! 8!, close but no impale. And no bonus since he didn't have a set vs. charge. A hit would have been really nasty though. Maybe he should have aimed for the kneeling H instead, no charge but +4 adjDX with a jab.
U strikes the illusion F with an adjDX11 +4(HTH), hits but no damage through the Chainmail with his dagger.
H at adjDX13 rolls for the disbelieve 3/IQ, IQ 10, success! F goes poof!
X attacks with adjDX12 and 8. A miss and a 6 on the second attack, a hit.for 7 damage and H goes down at -1ST due to pre battle wounds.
N Tilly, shoots her Hvy. Crossbow. AdjDX 12 +1 for prone. 9 to hit, 11 damage! E gets a bolt through the chest that instantly kills him at -8! No need for N to roll to miss since the missile path never goes into R's hex.
G attacks with a +4 DX on the prone U, but still only has a auto hit to hope for. He misses.
https://imgur.com/6aSNFLA
TURN 3
GM wraps up since the last enemy will be attacked 3 times when he stands up and one of the attacks will be a halberd charge at +4 DX. And even if all those attacks misses there will be a few more next turn before U can fight back.
After the fight, the party rest up 1 fatigue and then moves on.
They find another three gold bars.
A quick and not so fair fight with only enemy and illusory blood spilled.
The crew was back in business, morale-wise. Maybe a little cocky. We searched the room and headed out the other exit. Onward to the next curtain. This time we tried to enter with Tilly's normal Lgt. Crossbow in hand and an illusion up front. The illusion casting was a success.