[Delvers to Grow] Shigran of the Flaming Spear

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

That's Kevin. Probably inspired by Bruno's tendency to play Minotaurs in various games. But players are players, and playing fun and/or highly synergistic templates (Both? Both? Both. Both is good.) means that you have a lot of half-monsters walking around town and drinking [insert what the heck IS that?! here] casually in the tavern. So "Eh, That's Just Grug" is really needed.

Upon first reading it, I actually thought "Y'know, this would be a good Advantage for those minotaurs Bruno seems to play." I didn't realize Kevin was involved in those games, but that makes perfect sense.

[Varyon]

So, I decided to take Shigran and two of the example delvers from Delvers to Grow (specifically, the Eldhud Swashbuckler Celinia Thibeault and the Human Knight Kaja Artursdottir) and throw them up against a group of five Nautamadr (Minotaurs) from Norðlondr Óvinabókin.

It was awesome.

I may do a prose writeup of it as a (very) short story of sorts, but here's the stats. First off, I decided to make use of the "Natural Variation" rules (which were an unexpected treat), to see if any of the nautamadr they were facing were different from average. Three of them were straight-up average, one was a step below average... and one was 1 SM smaller, but two steps above average (humorously, putting his strength roughly on par with the weak, full-sized one). I decided this one was special, the favored son of the chieftain (or whatever you call the leader of a nautamadr herd), and was thus better equipped - a mail hauberk (DR 4/2*) over his Torso, and armed with a Fine Dwarven Dueling Halberd (still scaled to SM+0 - the boy may be young, but he's got the strength for it).

I also lack DFRPG, so couldn't make use of the simplified Slam rules therein... so I just decided that a charging nautamadr who Slams with his horns does his normal Headbutt damage at +1. I also decided to try out my variant Backstab rules, which almost certainly saved Shigran from a messy death. For weapon breakage (which ended up being significant in the fight, although not quite in the way you might think), I used the rules from "The Broken Blade" (Pyramid #3/87). As a final (but accidental) departure from RAW, I handled Tactics by simply having Kaja make a Tactics roll at the beginning, allowing for uses of Luck equal to MoS, rather than having any sort of contest (this honestly worked against the characters, as even the genius child amongst the nautamadr had only IQ 10 and no Tactics skill). She had MoS 0, which I interpreted as allowing a single use, but this only gave 1 reroll, not 2. The actual description of the encounter is a bit too long for a single post, so it'll show up with the next one.

[Varyon]

Following the Tactics roll was an attempt by the characters to sneak up on the nautamadr. I decided Kaja could stay 10 yards away from Celinia to allow using the latter's Stealth skill in place of the former's rather abysmal score (technically, 7 yards would have sufficed). The nautamadr (specifically, the Per 12 youth) won by 2, so the beasts were alerted to the presence of the characters, and Celinia started 17 yards from them, and Kaja started 10 yards from that. Shigran, of course immediately used Backstab, and attacked the closest from within their group. He outright killed the target (dealt a total of 84 Injury with his Signature Move, which is just a bit shy of the -5xHP instant death threshold, but the nautamadr failed its second Death Check; as a spoiler, this was the only failed Death Check for the battle). He did well enough in the contest to be able to immediately vanish again, which is why I said above using the variant rules likely saved him from a rather messy death (showing up in the middle of a group of 4 angry nautamadr, with your allies 17 and 27 yards away, respectively, is a great way to get hacked to bits). Only one rolled well enough to not immediately go Berserk upon seeing their friend fall, and I arbitrarily set this as the young one (the Dwarven modifier on his weapon won't do him much good if he goes Berserk).

Celinia, Kaja, and the nautamadr all charged at each other. Shigran popped up again and instantly killed another foe with his Signature Move (96 Injury this time), but this time failed to vanish again; only the non-berserk youngster noticed him, and turned around to charge at him instead. He rolled well enough to hit with both horns, but Shigran Parried well enough to avoid both hits, and the nautamadr was incapable of rolling high enough damage with his charge to risk breaking the spear, so I didn't bother (just for fun, because the youngster did have high enough ST to potentially break the spear with a Slam by RAW, I did roll for breakage there - the spear would have survived if using those rules as well). Celinia used a Wait and threw her prepared vial of alchemist's fire at one of the nautamadr, setting it aflame (although the trickle of damage that resulted over the next few rounds didn't really accomplish much, thanks largely to the nautamadr's DR 2) while backing up a bit to give Kaja a chance to catch up; the average (and on fire) nautamadr and the weak one continued to charge forward.

Shigran attempted a 2-hit Rapid Strike against the youngster's Vitals, connecting with both; his foe failed to Parry the first, but Dodged the second. The hit only managed to get one point past DR, for 3 HP Injury - not even enough to risk Berserk. The youngster opted to swing its halberd, leading with the backspike (in a one-on-one fight, sw imp weapons getting stuck is a fine thing, particularly if you're stronger than your foe); Shigran Parried, but this time the damage was enough to break his spear... and the spear failed its HT roll. Shigran burned his Luck, the spear managing to survive once out of the three rolls (but that's all that was needed). Celinia and Kaja were now side by side (at least once Celinia Stepped back, and Kaja Stepped forward), and Celinia Fast-Drew her Rapier and prepared a Wait; Kaja, armed with her shield and spear (which, in retrospect, was a mistake on my part), opted for a Stop Thrust. When the flaming nautamadr charged in at Kaja, Celinia sliced up its neck with three slashes, but he just shrugs off the two Death Checks (a Berserk nautamadr - even the weak one - has to roll a 17 or 18 to fail such). Kaja uses her Stop Thrust to stab it in the Vitals, but it shrugs off that Death Check as well, and Slams into her, connecting with one horn. She initially fails to Block, but uses up her reroll from Tactics, getting a success this time. The weak nautamadr outright misses when he tries to Slam Celinia.

Since his last attack couldn't really get much through his foe's armor, Shigran changes tactics, swinging the butt of his spear into the youngster's leg twice; his foe successfully Parries, then Dodges. The youngster takes another swing, Shigran Parries, and this time the spear holds up (youngster didn't roll well enough to risk breakage). Things are looking a bit desperate for Shigran, so Celinia decides she needs to finish things up quickly - a 5-attack Rapid Strike, using 5 FP for Flurry of Blows (making it only -1 per additional attack, total -4), again swinging at the Neck. The first attack is a maximum-damage critical hit (and of course the nautamadr just shrugs off yet another Death Check), and it takes 2 more hits to finally drop it to -5xHP, killing it. The last two attacks go after the weak nautamadr, but aren't quite enough for Death Check territory. Seeing her spear isn't working so well, Kaja uses a Ready to switch to her morningstar. The nautamadr tries to hack away at Celinia, but she uses Sideslip (positioning herself a bit closer to Shigran's fight).

Shigran decides to go for the youngster's arm this time, and manages to connect, breaking it and forcing his foe to drop his weapon. His second attack (it was another 2-hit Rapid Strike) is to the leg, and also hits but fails to do enough damage to cripple. The youngster avoids knockdown/stunning, goes Berserk... and immediately gores Shigran through the chest with one of his horns (Shigran rolled a 16 on his Parry). Shigran fails his roll against knockdown/stunning (another 16), dropping his weapon and falling to the ground. Celinia and Kaja decide helping Shigran is more worthwhile than just double-teaming the weak nautamadr, so Celinia swaps her sword to her offhand (which I opted to allow as a free action with the use of 1 FP), fast-draws a flask of alchemist's fire, runs toward the youngster as fast as she can in one round, and flings the vial (Move and Attack). She connects, and I decide the fact the youngster is now covered in Shigran's flammable blood is good enough to boost the damage from alchemist's fire to 1d+1 burn per second. It doesn't even get past his DR (and just like before, what damage eventually does trickle through doesn't ultimately make any difference), but the youngster's attention is now on Celinia instead of Shigran. Kaja steps into the spot vacated by Celinia, bashes the weak nautamadr in the chest with her shield (doing minimal damage) and swinging her flail at its leg, breaking it. It shrugs off the resulting Death Check, but even a Berserker can't stand on a shattered thigh - it falls and tries to grab her, but she moves out of the way.

Shigran manages to recover from stunning, but is still required to Do Nothing (he's technically on fire, but that doesn't really mean much to an eldhud - particularly not one with Extinguishing Touch). The youngster charges at Celinia, who uses a Ready this time to shift her weapon back to her dominant hand, and steps back. Kaja leaves the crippled nautamadr on the ground to try to catch up and help Celinia; it crawls after her.

Shigran starts the process of standing up (he actually tries a kip-up, but fails), getting to kneeling. The youngster tries to headbutt-slam Celinia, but she successfully Parries both horns. She goes for a three-attack rapid strike - crippling the youngster's leg, then his remaining arm, and finishing up with a stab to the Vitals; naturally, her foe shrugs off the Death Checks. Kaja switches back to the weak nautamadr, bashing its thick skull with her morningstar, and it passes the Death Check. This time it manages to get hold of her leg, for 6 Control - uh oh!

Shigran grabs his spear (so exciting, the process of recovering from knockdown/stun), and again fails to kip up. The youngster awkwardly tries to hit her with its horns (not much else it can do, with both arms and one leg crippled), but she Parries. She burns yet another FP on Heroic Charge, using Move and Attack to hack at the weak nautamadr's elbows (arm joints) - she cripples one and outright severs the other, breaking its grapple. Kaja takes another swing at his skull, but this time the morningstar just bounces off. He decides to join the headbutt game, but she Dodges out of the way.

Shigran is finally standing, the youngster is crawling toward the women, and Celinia decides the best way to avoid the horns is to straddle the weak nautamadr, using her legs to grapple it, and establishing 6 Control. Kaja decides to join in, going All Out but only managing 3 Control. The nautamadr bucks her off, but Celinia keeps her hold.

Shigran, at half Move, makes his way toward the burning youngster, who is in turn still crawling toward the women. Celinia strengthens her grapple to 8 Control, and Kaja reestablishes her own, for another 6. The weak nautamadr fails to buck her off this time.

Shigran and his quarry keep moving (in fact, the latter is getting quite close to the women now). Celinia turns all 8 Control she's gathered into an attack bonus, and does a 5-attack rapid strike, stabbing her target's Vitals with a reverse-gripped sword; the resulting 36 Injury drops him below -5xHP. She ends the grapple and Steps back, away from the crawling youngster; Kaja does the same.

Shigran and the youngster move forward, the ladies step back.

Shigran finally catches up, and uses his Signature Move with a reverse-gripped spear; the resulting 45 Injury finally kills the youngster, ending the battle.

[Balor Patch]

Alchemist's Fire does 1d(5) so DR shouldn't have been a problem.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Balor Patch

Alchemist's Fire does 1d(5) so DR shouldn't have been a problem.

Armor DR protects at 1/5th value, but natural DR should protect fully (and the DR 2 that was the problem for the flames was natural DR - nautamadr have thick skin). I believe the reduced protection of armor is meant to represent the burning substance getting into gaps and the like. It's possible DFRPG simplified this to 1d(5) burn, but I'm going off of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. I did indeed have the alchemist's fire ignore the young nautamadr's DR 4/2*, but I never rolled very high for the damage there.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Varyon

So, I decided to take Shigran and two of the example delvers from Delvers to Grow (specifically, the Eldhud Swashbuckler Celinia Thibeault and the Human Knight Kaja Artursdottir) and throw them up against a group of five Nautamadr (Minotaurs) from Norðlondr Óvinabókin.

It was awesome.

I almost want to just stop here, and bask in it for a brief moment. :-)

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

I almost want to just stop here, and bask in it for a brief moment. :-)

Bask away - this test fight never would have happened without Gaming Ballistic's excellent products. One important lesson I learned from it - when up against foes with high (effective) HT, go for the limbs. Whittling down their HP to get them to -5xHP takes too long, unless you can reliably dish out pretty ridiculous Injury (Shigran's Signature Move - three stabs to the Vitals, with augmented damage thanks to Expert Backstabbing and a custom Technique - is a solid contender, averaging 94.5 HP provided all three hit... but that average goes down by 9 for every point of DR the target has over their Vitals (Shigran had really good damage rolls against the first two nautamadr)). And Berserk (and using All Out Attacks, provided you have high HT) isn't quite the death sentence I thought it was. It also confirmed my suspicions that, without my backstab variant (and without the character having a good result in the contest, to allow disappearing immediately), giving a character with Bloodlust and Impulsive the ability to backstab can be a fatal combination (Shigran nearly got himself killed fighting the youngster alone, and was probably only saved by Celinia's rapid response; if he hadn't remained concealed after dropping the first nautamadr, he likely would have been torn to shreds).

[Varyon]

I finally found the time to check out my copy of Artifacts of Legend (the Kickstarter is still allowing for late pledges, go get it; it also comes with Artifacts of Saga, which I haven't been able to delve into yet but I'm certain is just as good if not better), and decided to design a legendary spear for Shigran. I took some inspiration from the original Shigran, who used a weapon called Lancordyth that could shift between a spear, a sword, and a scythe (the name is an amalgamation of Lance, Sword, Scythe); it was made of a graphene haft and had a diamond blade. So, I sorta-kinda translated the name into Norse (I couldn't find a translation for "scythe" quickly, so I borrowed ljå from Norwegian).

Geirverðjå
Geirverðjå has a pitch-black haft studded with very small diamonds, giving purchase on its otherwise-smooth surface. The head - which appears to be made of clear glass, or perhaps carved out of a very large diamond - is long for a spear and double-edged with a slight curve to it, resembling a warscythe.

Powers
Geirverðjå is an Ornate 3, Balanced, Very Fine, Tempered Glass Heavy Spear. The haft can shift from being the size of a sword handle - in which case the weapon is usable with Broadsword (although typically for Reach 1 it's a bit longer and usable with Spear) - to a full-length Heavy Spear, and anywhere in between, freely as it is used, giving it Reach 1-3. Treat it as thr+4 imp, with a further +1 per yard of current Reach, and a final +1/die (on account of being tempered glass). It can also tip slash, making use of its sharp edges, for thr+3 cut (+1/yard, +1/die). The weapon is unbreakable, as though it were made of orichalcum. The weapon can also be used with Staff, as for a typical spear.

Flaming: Geirverðjå can burst into flame, converting its damage to Burning. This ability can be activated or deactivated as a free action at the start of the turn.

Hinged: The blade of Geirverðjå can pivot and swing down to be mounted perpendicularly to the haft, as for a scythe, but is still usable with Spear in this form. It can do this freely while in use. This makes its thrusting damage (thr+4 imp, or thr+3 for a tip slash) instead be based on swinging damage (sw+4 imp, sw+3 cut). Note it can get stuck if dealing sw/imp damage, but see Loyal, later. Against a foe who is unaware the weapon has this functionality, a Deceptive Attack imposes a further -1 to Block and Parry, as the user can pivot the blade at the last moment to get past the foe's defense (but this only works once, as after that the foe is aware of this functionality). Finally, while perpendicular the weapon functions as having an edged hook.

Loyal: If Geirverðjå is dropped or the wielder is otherwise disarmed of it, it returns to the wielder's hands at the start of the next round. The wielder can make use of this to remove it from a foe if it is stuck (thanks to utilizing Hinged) - let go of the weapon as a free action after making the attack, and it will pull itself out of the wound and return to your hands. Note Geirverðjå doesn't deal any further injury if it removes itself from the target in this fashion (to get the additional wounding you must wrench it out yourself).

Fireball: Geirverðjå can shoot fireballs, using 1-3 FP for an equal number of dice of burning damage. The fireball shoots from the blade; if it's currently pivoted to perpendicular, it instead shoots in the direction the blade is pointing, which makes Aim impossible but lets it fire to the Sides or Rear.

Weapon		Skill		Damage		Reach	Parry	Weight	ST	Notes
Geirverðjå	Spear		thr+4 imp	1-3	0	6	11†	[1,2]
		or		sw+4 imp	1-3	0	-	11†	Hinged; [1,2]
		or		thr+3 cut	1-3	0	-	11†	Tip slash; [1,2]
		or		sw+3 cut	1-3	0	-	11†	Hinged tip slash, [1,2]
		or		thr+1 cut	1-3	0	-	11†	Hook; [1,2]
		Staff		sw cr		1-3	+2	-	11†	Blunt pole; [1]
		or		thr cr		1-3	+2	-	11†	Blunt tip; [1]
		Broadsword	sw+3 cut	1	-1	-	12	[2]
		or		thr+4 imp	1	-1	-	12	[2]
[1]: Weapon gains a further +1 damage per yard of current Reach
[2]: +1 per die to damage

The Flaming aspect replaces him needing to tie a cloth to head of the spear and ignite it; the Fireball aspect lets him use Spear skill for ranged attacks, and is a lot more effective than a ball wrapped in burning rags anyway. Loyal is present because the original Shigran had telekinesis, so was impossible to disarm. Hinged is a novel trait that doesn't show up in Artifacts of Legend; I eyeballed its value at 15 points, based very roughly off of swing-capable from "Natural Weapons" (Pyramid #3/65), comparing it to some of the other traits (like Puissance and Unbreakable/shatterproof). Here's a write-up:

Hinged [15] - Only available for weapons with a thrusting attack mode; the weapon can bend at the far end while using it (so the character can freely switch between straight and bent), making its thrusting damage usable with swing instead. The first time this is used in a Deceptive Attack against a foe who is unaware the weapon has this functionality, it imposes a -1 to Block and Parry. This also makes the weapon function as having a hook, but only while bent in this fashion (whether the hook is blunt or sharp depends on how the weapon is constructed). Note a thr/imp weapon when used in this fashion can get stuck. If combined with Loyal, the character can have the stuck weapon remove itself from the wound (rather than needing to make an ST roll), but this deals no further injury to the target. Hinged is a Minor Ability.

All told, Geirverðjå has a total of 6 abilities (I was originally going to include Defending Weapon, Puissance, and Slaying, but decided to limit it to 6, as suggested in the book), - 4 Minor (Extending, Shatterproof/Unbreakable, Magic Bolt, and Hinged) and 2 Major (Loyal and Flaming). This makes it overall a Major Item, but it's well on the upper end (the best Major Weapon you can randomly roll has 3 Minor and 2 Major). Between Ornate 3, Balanced, Very Fine, and Tempered Glass, the weapon has a mundane cost of $8,280; it has a further $88,000 worth of abilities, for a grand total of $96,280 - might as well round it up to $100,000. We'll treat this as having a mundane cost of $12,000 (functionally somewhere around Ornate 7, if you could go above 3 there; if anything, that's probably cheap for something with a long diamond blade), boosting its value as a Power Item - it can hold up to 25 FP.