(01) The Approach

[ehiker133]

Goldwen breathes a sigh of relief as her willow branch glows with a bluish hue and Thanis's wounds start to mend. She knows she can't heal him completely, but it may be enough to get them through this fight!

But even as she helps Thanis recover, Goldwen sees Witherun stagger under another blow of a lizardman. She quickly moves to his side and, again, touches the gnarled willow branch to his shoulder while pressing her mind for the thoughts of healing this man needs.

[sully]

Having been so close to death, Thanis is grimly quiet, the only sounds coming from him grunts of effort as he swings his sword.

He attacks L8, hoping to help Tass keep the mage upright a little longer.

[mgtremaine]

"Hey now, Lizard guy, we have a strict rule "don't hurt the Wizard"." Tass happily chatters at the Lizard man while trying to kill it with his staff.

[rredmond]

"Ha! It would have been wiser to run, now meet whatever lizard gods you sacrifice to!" Garamon exclaims and presses forward continuing to attack L2.

Chainmail does have specific order rules for Attacking from rear or side which gives that attacker priority (page 25 middle of page) . Not sure if that muddies the waters so to speak.

Chainmail is definitely an interesting document. Not being a wargamer I don't grok a lot of this, but this unmuddies for me, thank you.

[Kozos]

"Through Virtue - Victory!" cried Stern disregarding his wounds. He could still stand and fight. Contrary to the lizards before him.

[waysoftheearth]

The mud-map now looks like this:

  Code:

.. .. .. ..
.. L2 .. ..
.. .| St-L5
.. Ga .. ..
.. .. Wi ..
.. Th .. ..
.. ..Gw. ..
.. Fl .. ..
.. Rw .. ..
L8 .. .. ..
.\Ts. .. ..

It would be practical at this point to simply handwave the remaining combat and say the lizards are slaughtered (as they surely will be), but I'll use it as an exercise to demonstrate how the deterministic initiative system works out:

There are presently three individual contests happening:

Garamon (spear) vs L2, L1's hench-thing (mace): L2 had the first blow in the last round, and was not hit. Thus, even though Garamon has greater reach, L2 retains the first blow position. Essentially, Garamon's reach advantage was overcome in the surprise segment, and never regained because he kept getting hit. So L2 is already inside Garamon's spear reach.

Stern (2h-sword) vs L5 (axe): L5 had the first blow in the last round, but was hit, and thus pushed back outside Stern's greater reach. Thus, Stern has the first blow position. It won't matter but, technically, if Stern were to hit and the lizard survive, it would be denied a counterblow because of Stern's superior reach.

Tass (staff) vs L8 (cleaver): L8 had the first blow against Wraislin in the last round, but was hit by Tass. Hobbets are small and Lizardmen are tall, so we'll say their weapons are of equal reach. Because Tass hit last round and L8 did not, Tass has the first blow position this round. Unlike Stern's position, even if Tass hits and the lizard survives, it will not be denied a counterblow because Tass doesn't have superior reach. In fact, even considering Tass' two-handed staff, the 6½ft tall lizard probably still has the greater reach.

Anyone else who maneuvers into contact (within the allowable 3" limit) will have the second blow position in the next round.

[Tonneau]

Wraislin uses the lasts of his flagging energy to club his attacker in the head with his staff; his echoing war-cry akin to that of an adolescent turkey.

Assuming the creature is focused elsewhere of course, otherwise he continues his backward defense

[waysoftheearth]

The alpha-lizard's hench-thing presses its attack against Garamon, but he has its measure now and its futile attacks go nowhere. In riposte Garamon skewers it mightily, hefting it wholly off the ground as he impales it, before throwing it back.

Simultaneously, Stern's last-standing foe is no match and falls under a brutal combination of cleaving blows. Alas, Tass cannot hold off the lizardman whose ire he has attracted, but as it looms over him Flin smashes it with hammer blows and Wraislin cracks it a good blow on the back of its noggin.

The lizardmen are vanquished!

Having explained the order of battle, I might as well go ahead and resolve it:

The only addition is that Wraislin and Flin will both go after L8, in the second blow position.

So, First Blows:
L2 (mace) vs Garamon (AC 4): 2d20=13,1 -> no hits.

Stern (2h-sword +1) vs L5 (AC 5): 5d20=4,14,16,15,17 -> 4 hits -> 4d6=2,4,4,2+1 -> 13 hp, L5 slain.

Tass (staff) vs L8 (AC 5): 2d20=2,3 -> no hits.


And,... Second Blows:
Garamon (spear +1) vs L2 (AC 5): 5d20=19,12,10,20,8 -> 2 hits -> 2d6=5+3+1 -> 9 hp, L2 slain.

L8 (cleaver) vs Tass (AC 7): 2d20=3,8 -> no hits.

Flin (hammer +1) vs L8 (AC 5): 4d20=6,18,18,11 -> 2 hits -> 2d6=4,1+1 -> 6 hp, L8 slain.

Wraislin (staff) vs L8 (AC 5): 2d20=6,15 -> 1 hit -> 1d6=6! Scons it on the noggin!


So that is nine dead lizardmen.
A post-battle rest is then called for (whereupon I will explain recovering hp)...

[rredmond]

“That was well fought,” Garamon says taking some deep breaths as he looks around at the carnage. They got any good stuff?

Really digging the OC commentary. Is this mostly OD&D, DD, or your new system? I’m thinking you are going to recap the HPs, pretty sure I have 8 left, but let me know if we should be tracking that in some way

[mgtremaine]

"Well that was fun!" Tass looks around at the battle field. Pokes the dead bodies with his staff to see if there is anything worth looking at.