The High Road
They call me Ogre, I can understand why. I have never been anything else but clumsy, I stumble a lot and most of the time I act as a training dummy. But when everyone leaves the training field, battled and bruised, I still stand tall, though dwarf I am, with my shield raised high swinging in the wind. The better part of valor and all that aside; my job is to keep myself and my people safe. I fix their armor, I keep them placed right, I cover them with my shield and when they go down I carry them off to safety on said shield and stitch them right back up.
Lately, I've hatched a new plan. I and my crew took to the green-ways for a couple of weeks and helped ourselves to some peoples' riches. Sure there were some blood spilled, but we tried to be civil about it. Our earlier mercenary life was more or less the same, blood money is blood money after all. At least this time we could choose our targets with some care. And we did have a somewhat noble purpose. Get some decent gear and try for the Thorz's Guard! A respectable life and less hurting and killing innocents.
With me, I have the elven siblings. We all came from the same slums, the bottom of the pile so to speak. Some cities can be pretty human-centric and my drunkard of a father never even taught me the dwarven tongue. The siblings didn't even have parents but were partially brought up by a merchant trying to live above his station. He probably thought a trio of little cute elfsies would make for nice pets. When he ended up in debtor's prison, they joined me on the streets and we have been like family ever since. And later on, we served together in different outfits as sell-swords.
Longlegs and Tilly are both hunters at heart, but they have rarely seen a real forest. But they think they will fit in perfectly out there because they are elves by birth. I know better, the only place they will ever fit in, is in an alley or a military camp. Their youngest sister Twirl is running with the street performers and dreams of a life in the limelight. She is amazing with her fiery twirly sticks, and actually quite deadly. Few people can get a lick in without getting bruised all over first. She can create a cage of fire around her, very pretty, especially when it is dark. But that is not why I wanted her to come along, she also happens to know a few illusions that could come in handy.
Together we make a pretty good team. Me, an illusion and Twirl can hold the line, Longlegs can flank them and with his new shiny halberd, he should be able to deliver some devastating carnage to the enemy. He can also help out from the second rank if need be or fling one of his silly curved sticks. Tilly has both a good eye and a steady hand. Strong for an elf too. Her crossbow will come in handy and if we are in for a longer ranged fight I can always help her reload the arbalest. And when the enemies get bored trying to hit Twirl and change target, Twirl will probably surprise them and strike back. My own offensive skills are mostly verbal.
And they say we can keep all the gold that we find. What's not to like?
So we applied for testing and a rather bored official greeted us at the citadel. They went through the rules for the test, but we had heard most of them beforehand. No magic items, not too much gear, yadda, yadda. Maybe we were overconfident, but the whole guard detail seemed to go through the motions. They had probably seen a lot of hopefuls fail during the years. There were even some rumors about a new and improved test being set up, but we focused on this one. A handful of rooms, keep going as straight as possible, give and expect no mercy, don't leave people knocked out in the corridors and run for your lives if things get too bad. Those were the advice we manage to pick up from the rumor mill in town.
So down some stairs we went, and when we saw the first darkness curtain we started to arm ourselves. I cranked the arbalest for Tilly, Twirl lit up her two torches-on-a-chained-stick so we could see properly and Longlegs held his halberd in one hand and one of his curvy sticks in the other.
Ready, I asked?
They all nodded and we stepped through, all at once.
An empty room, except for a suspicious looking chest. We looked at each other and I slowly advanced up to the chest, Longlegs was a pole-length behind me, both hands on his halberd now, the others right behind him. After a quick search of the chest that gave nothing, except some insect noises and water drips from the ceiling, we got ready. I kicked the damn thing open, expecting it to blow up or something.
Out of it came a small army of plate-sized spiders! I swore as they started to crawl up my legs, too fast for me to stomp them away, but then again I am not known for my dancing skills. Then I heard the loud screams from the rest of my crew! I remembered that they had neither armor nor a backbone when it came to spiders. This could get dicey right quick, and the spiders never stopped coming!
https://imgur.com/9ANbBWV
The Crew:
(G) Orin “Ogre” Ironshield (Dwarf) “Poses as a traveling Blacksmith” (Brigand 250$ 5/12)
ST: 15
DX: 6 (AdjDX -1) (-4 with weapon attacks)
IQ: 11
MA: 6 (4 with loot)
Defense: -1DX (5die defense)
Armor: Plate 5pnt. Tower Shield 4pnt. Toughness II = 11 pnt.
Weapon: Morningstar 2d+1, Hvy. Crossbow 3d (Usually given to Tilly.), Plated Fists (1die, +2)
Talents: Human (0), Physicker (2), Tactics (1), Shield (1), S. Exp. (2), Toughness I+II (4), Armorer (1)
(R) Llongwylhighian “Longlegs” (Elf) “Poses as a Hunter” (Brigand 250$ 5/12)
ST: 11
DX: 13 (Halberd: 11, Boomerang: 15)
IQ: 8
MA: 14
Weapon: Halberd 2+1 (-2DX) , Boomerang 2-1 x3
Talents: Human (0), Running (2), Pole Weapon (2), Thrown Weap. (2), Boomerang (1), Q.Draw H. (1)
(X) Thirawhellynia “Twirl” the Pyro-dancer (Elf) “Poses as a Dancer” (Brigand 250$ 5/12)
ST: 9
DX: 12 (2 attacks 12/8, Shrewd 8/4, Spell 12)
IQ: 11
MA: 12
Defense: -1 DX (6 die Defense Action AND 4 point of protection.)
Weapons: Nunchuks 1+2 (0/-4DX), Shrewd 2+2(-4/-8DX). (Instead of a second attack, parry for 2.)
Talents: Human(0), Nunchuks (1), Nunchuks Exp. (3), Two Weap. (2), Pyro-dancing (1), Literacy (1).
Spells: Illusion (3)
(N) Gothilliawhellyn “Tilly” (Elf) “Poses as a Huntress” (Brigand 250$ 5/12)
ST: 12
DX: 11 (14) (Hvy. Crossbow 12 + aim)
IQ: 9
MA: 12
Weapons: Light Crossbow 2 (1/turn), Hvy. Crossbow 3 (“Ogre” cranks it.), 2-h Crowbar 1+2.
Talents: Human (0), Alertness (2), Det. Traps (1), Silent Movem. (2), Crossbow (1), Missile Weap. (3)
3 weeks of work: 2500$
Plate 500
Very Sharp Halberd 1400
Nice Looking Nunchucks w/ some pyro-stuff. Silver reinforced.
Physicker's Chest
Labyrinth kit.
Molotails x 6
Torches
“The Red Room”
TURN 1
12 Spiders take the initiative and attack everyone within 3 hexes equally, which probably means they have MA 4 and it cost one to get out of the chest. They auto hit and do 2 damage every turn and stick to their targets.
6 goes for Ogre(G) and the first one is actually killed with a 6 on the initiate HTH roll, the dwarf stumbles back one step, but the spiders keep coming, he is still in their movement range. Since there is a HTH already the rest get in automatically by joining in on the fun.
The other 6 goes for Longlegs(R) that is just within their MA range, he defends against the first HTH attack with a 3, no dagger for him, but fists will probably do nicely. The 5 remaining also climbs up his boots while he dances and screams like a little elfling.
Tilly(N) shifts a little to get closer despite her fear of the little creepy crawlers. Twirl(X) do the same.
The spiders can't attack Ogre(G) or Longlegs this round since they moved their max distance, even though the last third step was automatic from Ogre's HTH dodge step, does it count? (A GM's call.)
Longlegs(R) starts off by smashing one with his fist. +4(HTH) and -3(fear).
Twirl(X) hits one with her first attack (DX 12+4(prone)-3(fear), then her second attack misses twice (DX 8 +4-3), but the third try is a success and spider number 6 on Longlegs dies. Close call or she would have had to roll to miss her brother. 2 creepy crawlies down.
Tilly(N) hesitates but decides to drop her crossbow and gives the icky crawlers a one-two fist attack. With a DX of 11+4(prone)-4(2 attacks)-3(fear). She mirrors her sister's result Hit, miss, hit. And kills two more.
https://imgur.com/4BqKi4P
TURN 2
Party wins initiative. The spiders don't move, they have a ride and are happy with their victims.
Tilly(N) moves in to join her brother in HTH and get that juicy +4 HTH bonus to hit. But GM asks if she really wants to get that close them, and she changes her mind and keeps attacking from an arms-length distance. She is reminded that she still get the +4 bonus since the spiders are prone.
The spiders get no HTH bonus, they are too small to properly engage the characters.
Longlegs(R) goes first and quadruple miss; DX 13+4-4-3. At least he didn't hurt himself.
Twirl(X) do one attack only; DX 12+4-3, since she doesn't want to risk hitting her unarmored brother with a burning nunchuck. She hits the first one and kills it.
Tilly(N) DX 11+4-3 have the same DX as the critters, but since the party won initiative she goes first and she punches one and stomps on it when it hits the floor with a disgusted look on her face.
The five spiders on Ogre do their best but to no avail. 2 damage, even with a triple crit they wouldn't penetrate his plate and toughness. The shield doesn't count of course.
The single remaining spider on Longlegs bites him for 2 damage and Longleg remembered his own words; I don't need any armor, because the enemies will never catch me. And then comes the follow-up question; Venom?
GM answers, “No, not this time. Or maybe it is just slow working...”
https://imgur.com/Y9ph6kC