Assault on Bridgeton

The villagers of Bridgeton stare in awe at the blackening fire in the sky. From the tower come four men, two pikemen, an archer, and their Captain, to watch the violence unfold.

They are caught in total surprise when the watch tower explodes. The two archers standing on it disappear in the fireball and smoke. The wooden tower splinters, topples over, and catches fire.

Thunderhorse leads the charge towards the bridge, with Skullfucker and Fairhairson close behind him. The two bridge guards don't see them coming. They're too busy staring at the apparent spontaneous combustion of their tower.

Thunderhorse brings the nearest one to his knees as he pounds him with his axe. Skullfucker follows up, running him through and leaving him bleeding. The other guard turns to run, but is caught in the back by an arrow from Fairhairson's bow.

The rest of the party catches up, and everyone begins crossing the bridge. Doc has his megaphone out and begins shouting and screaming, whooping and hollering as he runs. The villagers scatter. Some of them run to the nearest hut, others take to the woods. One fisherman runs a ridiculous, indecisive circle around a hut then heads up river.

The Captain of the town guard, identifiable by his ornate tunic and shield, turns to see the party approaching. He orders his men to the bridge. The guards run towards it and take up defensive positions at it's edge. The archer flees for his life into one of the huts.

The guards block the edge of the bridge. Fairhairson runs towards them, readying a shot, followed by Mark who swaps the rocket launcher for his assault rifle. Skullfucker bursts forth from behind them and jumps off the apex of the bridge, sword first into the face of a guard.

Doc stands at the top of the bridge with his megaphone. "SURRENDER TO THE WRATH OF GOD!" he yells. "THE END IS NIGH, YOU WILL ALL PERISH IF YOU STAND YOUR GROUND! "

Thunderhorse comes running from behind Doc and swings his axe into the Captain's chain mail, badly bruising his shoulder. His surprise at this attack leaves him soaking with adrenaline, enough to dodge Fairhairson's arrow.

Mark takes a warning shot at them, deliberately aiming between their heads.

Thunderhorse swings again, but the Captain blocks with his shield. This allows Skullfucker to thrust his sword past his defenses and catch him well in the upper right arm.

Doc continues to yell at them. "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES OR HELL WILL COME UPON YOU!"

The remaining guard is broken. He drops his halberd and runs for it. Thunderhorse leaps and catches him across the back of the skull, dropping him to the ground. The Captain is done, too. He turns to flee. Skullfucker swings his sword after him but misses. Thunderhorse catches him in the chest as he swings his axe back from striking the pikeman.

The Captain spins and drops to his knees. He's breathing heavily and unable to defend himself. Before Doc can call him off, Fairhairson slits the Captain's throat with his dagger.

The Vikings roar in bloodlust. They look ready to tear the village apart and burn it to the ground.

Doc yells at them with the megaphone. "That's enough!"

They halt and stand down, panting.

And that's it. The village is empty, save for the lives cowering in their homes, waiting for them to pass. The wooden tower burns away, fighting back the return of the cold air. The rings of condensation formed by the blast above them turn to ice and gently snows back to the ground.

They pass an archer who got caught in the blast. He looks like a stewed tomato full of toothpicks.

"Damnit," mutters Mark.

"He would've shot at us," Doc consoles him. "Besides, you were following orders, right?"

"Right." It helps some, but he's still upset.

Aerkikson takes the helmet, sword, and shield from the guard captain. Fairhairson calls for him to catch up. He takes the heavy sword from the boy, but lets him keep the shield.

"That was a bloody brilliant fight! I've never seen anything like it!" He's obviously excited.

Doc continues hollering on his megaphone as they pass through town. "STAY HIDDEN OR GOD WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN." He yells at them in Norse and Latin. "YOU HAVE SEEN THE END OF THE WORD, FOR TOMORROW IT BEGINS ANEW, IN PEACE!"

10 comments:

ERR said...

Guard 1 blinded, frightened
Guard 2 frightened
Guard 3 shaken
Guard 4 deafened, shaken
Archer 1 blinded, deafened, shaken
Archer 2 deafened , shaken
Archer 3 blinded, deafened, frightened
Captain deafend, shaken

Round 0, Suprise attack

Mark attacks Fort w/ SMAW: 2 roll +7 atk +4 dead aim -4 use penalty +1 spotting light = 10 vs. 10 def Hit.
Dmg. 38 Archer 1 Reflex 12(13+1-2) vs. 18 Failed. Dead. Archer 2 Reflex -1(1+1-2) vs 18 Critical fail, dmg x2, Very dead.

Thunderhorse Charges Guard1 w/ Axe roll 4 + atk 7 + charge 2 = 13 vs. 13 = Def 11 + 4 armor -2 blinded, Hit 6 dmg. HP 0 disabled
Skullfucker charges Guard1 w/ Sword roll 15 + atk 7 + charge 2 = 24 vs Def 13, Hit. 5 dmg. -5 dying
Fairhairson advances x2
Doc advances x2
Aerikson advances x2
Broderik advances x2

Round 1
Initiative: Party 21, Guards 14
Fairhairson 2 steps, attacks w/ Father's Bow. Guard 2. Roll 18 + 9 atk vs 15 Def, hit. 8 dmg. Guard2 hp -2, dying.
Mark advances x2
Skullfucker advances x2
Doc advances x2
Thunderhorse advances x2
Aerikson advances x2
Broderik advances x2
Captain advances x2
Archer flees x2
Guard 3 advances x2, takes defensive stance
Guard 4 advances x2

Round 2
Initiative Party 4, Guards 14
Guard 3 maintains defensive stance
Guard 4 advances, takes defensive stance
Captain advances, takes defensive stance.
Fairhairson advances x2
Mark advances, changes weapons
Skullfucker advances, attacks guard 4 w/sword. Roll 12 + 7 atk = 19 vs 11 def + 4 armor + 4 stance = 19, Hit. 10 Dmg. Hp -2, Dying.
Doc advances. Doc uses megaphone. Intimidate check roll 15 + 4 cha + 2 synergy = 21 vs. Pikeman 14, success. XP+14. Pikeman frightened
vs. Captain 20, failed Xp +2
Thunderhorse advances, attacks Captain w/ Axe. Roll 16 + 7 atk = 23 vs Def 11 + 5 armor +1 dodge +4 stance = 21, Hit. 10 Dmg. HP 14
Aerikson advances
Broderick holds

Round 3
Init Party 20, Captain -3
Fairhairson attacks Captain w/ father's bow: Roll 4 + atk 9 = 13 vs. Def 21, missed
Mark advances. Fires warning shot.
Skullfucker advances, attacks Captain w/ Sword: Roll 17 + 7 atk = 24 vs. Def 21, Hit 7 dmg. Hp 7
Doc uses megaphone. Intimidate check Roll 7 + 4 cha +2 syn = 13 vs. Captain 12, success Xp +13. Captain frightened
Thunderhorse attacks Captain w/ Axe Roll 6 + 7 atk = 13 vs. 17 miss.
Aerikson holds
Broderik holds.


Guard3 flees.
TH AoO w/ battleaxe Roll 20 crit hit dmg 16. Hp -10 dead.
Captain flees
SkF AoO w/ Sword Roll 5 + atk 7 = 12 vs. Def 17 miss
TH AoO w/ Axe Roll 15 + 7 atk = 21 vs. Def 17 hit. Dmg 7. Disabled

Doc Charisma check roll 20 critical success vs DC 15, xp+30

ERR said...


XP awards:
Ver lvl 4 + Doc lvl 3 + Mark lvl 3 + TH lvl 3 + SkF lvl 2 + Fhs lvl 2 + Brdk lvl 1 + Aer lvl 0 = 18 winner lvl
vs.
Guard lvl 1 x 4 + Archer lvl 1 x 3 + Cpt lvl 3 = 10 loser lvl

Combat Xp award = 100*(Loser(10)*Loser(10)/Winner(18)) = 556 XP

Doc +46, total 602
Mark -1 RGAR ammo, -1 missile
FhS -2 barbed arrows


DOC LEVELS UP!
HP+5, Chi+4. Skill +5, Abilities+1
Pick an ability score to improve by 1, and your 5 other leveling effects (training, powers, combat stats, saves, etc)

Doc said...

Yeah us! We made it through and didn't kill too many people.

Head up the mountain and congratulate Brother Broderick and Aerikson on a job well done.

Now if I understand this right, I can raise one of my abilities (str., Dex., Con., etc.) by one. I pick Constitution in the hope that it will up my saves.

For my other five, I'll take one new power and throw the rest into my saves. I tried to find a list of possible powers to choose from but nothing sounded familiar. If I've misunderstood how this works, just do it up however you want and would work well for the character.

I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed this!

Doc

Doc said...

The powers that I have, are they like spells, feats, or psionics?

Doc

ERR said...

They're like psionics.

You can make up whatever power you want as long as it makes some kind of pseudoscience sense and kinda fits in with the development path.

ERR said...

Okay, I put 2 in Reflex, 1 in Fortitude, and 1 in willpower. Constitution is now 13, but the bonus increases on the even numbers.

Doc said...

For the new power, I have a few thoughts. I would prefer that you came up with the power, as only you could guage how well it fits in with the game and how best to implement it, but I did think of a couple of suggestions.

To best tailor it to the character it kind of makes sense to me to make it something psionic, but empathy or healing based. Doc is a dreamer and perhaps that is where his psionics come from and maybe that is what lead him to become a medic/doc in the first place was his gift for empathy.

Suggestions include:

Healing touch- at the cost of some chi, I can speed up the body's natural healing process and restore a small to medium amount of HPs, restore counciousness, negate poison, and within reason, restore enough HP's to bring a character to one HP even if they are at -9 or less. AKA Cure light/medium Wounds, sort of, and it only works if I can touch them skin to skin.

Calming Touch- Panic, madness, rage, and all extreme emotions are forgotten and the recipient becomes more receptive to my suggestions and treats me like a trusted friend.

Intuition- I can immediatly know the major driving forces behind someone and what motivates them, e.g. greed, lust, fear, anger, envy, desire to do good, etc.

Come up with any old thing. I'm sure it will be great.

Doc

ERR said...

Well, with your high treat injury skill you can pretty much do anything but bring people back from the dead. Even without a proper medkit, you've got a good chance of stabilizing a dying character or whatever.

Your Read Emotions skill is kinda like the intuition one; you can get a sense of what is currently motivating someone; whether they're acting out of fear, greed, or selflessness.

You can calm or enrage someone with the Suggest Emotions power at a distance; I guess the difference would be you would have to make a touch attack rather than let them make a saving throw.

Here are my suggestions, or you can improve the powers you have (# of targets,duration, and range of effect):

Mind and Body.: Transfer Chi to HP or vice versa. 1st level of this power has a 2:1 ratio. It costs 2 chi for 1 hp or 2 hp for 1 chi. Level 2 is equal transfer, level 3 is 1:2, and subsequent levels improve it by 1.

Read Thoughts. You can hear the surface thoughts of a target or targets, which you can use to gather information. 2 chi. Lvl 1: 1 target / 1d6 rounds or 1d6 targets for 1 round. Range 50'

Predict Reactions You can predict the reflexive actions of a target and effectively negate their Dex bonus to initiative, attack, defense, and reflex saves against your area-effect attacks (i.e. rockets, grenades, auto-fire weapons, painguns, etc). 2 chi. Level 1: 1 target for 1 round. Range 50'

Precognition. You can see the immediate future and gain a +2 bonus to any roll. 1 chi per use per power level, immediate effect. Level 1: +2 bonus for 1 chi, Level 2: +3 bonus for 2 chi, etc.

Doc said...

I'll take Precognition as I think it might prove the most useful, as 1 chi for a +2 to any roll sounds like a very good trade off.

I considered making my Suggest Emotion have more than one target but I think the Precognition will be more handy.

I kinda figured that adding one to my Con wasn't going to get me anything but it would set me up for the next time I level up. I do get one of these every time I level up, or is it only on the evens too?

Doc

ERR said...

Precog it is.

Ability scores go up 1 every four levels.