(079) What a Gnome Knows

[waysoftheearth]

Akbar is currently in the kitchen; see the mud-map I posted after turn two.

[coffee]

Karl draws his dagger and continues to fight the skeletons, hoping to get past them and sink it deep into the foul hag beyond.

[flightcommander]

Ah, my bad. Akbar will endeavor to make it to the mess hall, and then put the Hag in his sights.

[Tonneau]

"Ahr...about time", Zax growls at the sound of combat. He hotfoots it to the melee.

[waysoftheearth]

Dopey flees in a blind panic down the passage behind him (main passage or to pantry, whichever is easier).

Fleeing from combat will give them an unopposed shot at your back... yes?

p.s. took me ages, but I finally found my notes on the Bleakmass presents

[The Red Baron]

Fleeing from combat will give them an unopposed shot at your back... yes?

Sure, that makes sense that. Is it one attack roll with no shield bonus (which dopey no longer has anyways)?

[sirravd]

Gerhard, as is his wont, stays well back of the front lines...

[waysoftheearth]

Is it one attack roll with no shield bonus?

Dopey's movement rate is 7", which is just greater than a skeleton's movement rate of 6", so he can--in theory--flee the combat.

CM says: "For any man attacking from the rear in melee ... add one to the die roll of the attacker and give the defender no counter attack" (p25). +1 on 2d6 is approximately equivalent to +2 on 1d20.

ODD73 and ODD74 seem--as far as I can tell--to be largely tacit on the matter of rear attacks.

Holmes says: "If combat is broken off, the fleeing party must accept an attack without any return on his part, the attacker adding +2 to his die roll for hit probability, and the armor class of the fleeing party can not include a shield." (p21).

I'm going with one unopposed attack, adjusted by +2 to hit.

[waysoftheearth]

In the passage way the fighting carries into a brutal melee, with ghastly skeletons penetrating the party ranks and fighting on all sides. Dopey the Hobbet manages to flee out of harm's way while Karl, Leudigar, Wetzel and Zem the Dwarf put the remaining skeletons to the sword; literally smashing them apart. Within a minute the grisly work is done, but not before Wetzel suffers another stifling wound. When all is said and done, the one-eyed hag who caused so much harm has vanished from sight. Come to think of it... where has that pesky Hobbet got to?

Meanwhile in the mess hall; Fried and The Herald both charge the witch as Akbar and Zax reach the mess behind them. The witch has mistakenly assumed that The Herald will gallantly defend her; "Giv uzz a kizzz, me princezzz," she chortles as the men approach, her black and purple serpent-tongue slavering across her ghastly lips and yellow pegs. Her glee abruptly turns to fear as Fried dashes ahead, obscuring The Herald's deadly route, and stabbing her with his sword. She squeals, appalled, and manages to nick Fried with a crooked dagger pulled from somewhere within her shabby robes...

Combat Turn Three

In the passage we now have a general melee involving Karl, Dopey, Leudigar, Wetzel and Zem and six remaining skeletons. Dopey is fleeing, the others are fighting.

There can be up to three rounds of melee.

First Round
Zem has the advantage of reach, so will attack first.
The remaining players are at a disadvantage from sleep and sidearms, but the skeletons don't have reach weapons, so the ref will dice for initiative.

1d6; players=6, skeletons=1; okay the players have it.

four fighters (Dopey is fleeing) @Man+1 1d20+1=11, 13, 11, 3, so three hits! 3d6=3 (+1 for Karl), 5, 4 = 13 hp. (1*, 6*, 6* 2*, 4*, 2*, 1, 3, 6) Three skeletons are smashed! Three remain.

3 skeleton attacks 1d20=16, 7, 7. Whom is one the end of the 16? 1=K, 2=d, 3=L, 4=W, 5=z; 1d6=4, so it's Wetzel. 16 would hit AC 3, Wetzel is AC 3, so it's a hit. 1d6=3 hp damage. Wetzel -5hp.

Second Round
four fighters vs three skeletons. 4 @Man+1 1d20+1=21, 19, 16, 3. Three hits, 2d6=1 (+1 for Karl), 2, 6 = 10 hp. (1*, 6*, 6* 2*, 4*, 2*, 1*, 3* 1, 6*) Two more skeletons destroyed; 1 remains.

1 skeleton attacks 1d20=8, miss.

Third Round
Which of four fighters can attack? K=1 L=4 W=4 z=1, so it's Leudigar and Wetzel.

2 @Man+1 d20+1;12, 17, two hits. 2d6=7 hp.

The skeletons are vanquished!


Meanwhile, in the Mess Hall... Fried and The Herald both charge the witch, who has mistakenly assumed that The Herald will defend her. Fried moves quicker, and will reach her first, obscuring The Herald's route. Fried had to cover 8", more than half a move to reach the hag, so there's only time for one melee round.

First Round
Fried Man+1 d20+1 = 11, would hit AC 8; the hag is AC 9, so it's a hit. 1d6=2 so 2 hp damage.

Ref rolls hag's hp: 1d6+1=4, so she is not slain.

Hag attacks with a dagger: 1d20=15, would hit AC 4. That's a hit. 1d6=1 hp. Fried ignore the first half-hit of the melee.

The passage is too narrow for The Herald, or the others, to get around Fried.

[sully]

The Herald watches the melee impatiently, waiting for one of Fried or the hag to die so he can join in.