(02) The Moat House

[mushgnome]

No longer in control of his own actions, Stern attempts to raise the portcullis!

[waysoftheearth]

What a time to have a split party With only spears for weapons, I'm not sure Garamon is the best misseleer for the harpies anyway.

Added drama

Spears are perfectly good missiles BTW.
They were arguably one of the most effective weapons of the medieval period---which is why practically everybody used them, all over the world.

That said, spears are (IMHO) underrated in CM's M2M combat matrix where they have the weakest hit probability of all listed weapons, averaged across armor types
It's perhaps fortunate that this anomaly vanishes in OD&D's alternative d20 attack matrix (unless one tries to apply GH's weapon vs armor attack adjustments, which attempts to transpose nuances of the M2M matrix into d20 adjustments).
In fact, spears have various advantages in OD&D combat:
They are one of the few weapons that function in both missile and melee combat.
They enable three men to fight abreast in a 10ft space (rather than two).
They have a reach advantage (over swords and axes) when determining who strikes the first blow.
They are the only weapon (in OD&D) that explicitly causes double or even treble damage when the impact is enough. Perhaps pike and lance implicitly have this too, but these rarely appear in D&D.
So... don't leave home without one


Meanwhile, any instructions for arms-master Flin..?

[rredmond]

... he trips Stern as he runs by.

This was a no-go? How about a tackle?

[waysoftheearth]

It's a goer. Looks like Garamon and Stern will prolly get into some kind of wrestling tussle....

I'm just waiting to hear from Flin, then I'll resolve it.

[rredmond]

Apologies! Misunderstood your post. I thought Stern was trying to lift it already!

[mushgnome]

This will be fun! Good luck rredmond. May he with the most muscle win the tussle.

[waysoftheearth]

Stern = strong; Garamon = hardy.
Fun that in DL#1, it is kinda the other way around

[rredmond]

I figured Hardy because we already had a Strong. Thinking now that was a miscalculation:)

[waysoftheearth]

...she tries to prevent Witherun from opening the portcullis by breaking the charm of the evil flying creature.

I'll assume that by "breaking the charm" this means that Goldwen will attempt to physically intercept Witherun to slap his face, or similar, in order to snap him out of it.

So orders for this next turn of events appear to be:

1. Garamon (hands over ears?) will attempt to barge/intercept Stern,
2. Goldwen (hands over ears?) will attempt to barge/intercept Witherun,
3. Wraislin will bury his head in bedding,
4. Flin (NPC orders from ref) will risk it--considering dwarfs have saving throws 4 levels higher than their actual level, Flin saves as a champion (7th level fighter)--and throw his hammer at the singing harpy to interrupt her singing.

DD's wrestling mechanics (based on the wrestling example in SR#1.1) are: each side throws 1d6 per man of FC. Because Stern is "strong" he will add one die.
The side with the higher total "wins" (meaning: progresses their objective).

For the harpies:
The text in both M&T and MM is super-brief on how the harpy song works. Other monsters with audible powers in MM and MM2 (sirens, banshees, greenhags, etc.) don't add much.
I have given it some thought, and decided the harpy has to maintain her song in order to continue to draw victims toward her. If she stops singing before a victim reaches her, the compulsion automatically ends. If the victim reaches her and she touches them, they are immediately charmed/subdued, and the singing need not continue. Meanwhile, the harpy singing can be interrupted in a similar manner to interrupting a M-U spell---except that interruption doesn't imply the harpy can't sing again in any subsequent turn.

[waysoftheearth]

The first two harpies, in front, squabble over one of the many grey corpses, pulling it in both direction. The third monster, at the back, continues to pine its sick-sweet chorus...

Stern responds to their call, striding purposefully to the portcullis winch. Garamon tries to barge his friend off course while covering his ears, but Stern is just too strong and casts Garamon aside. Garamon instinctively throws his arms out to break his fall, and is so transfixed by the harpy's spell!

Meanwhile, Witherun descends from the roof at a daunting pace, taking three steps to the stride. Goldwen intercepts him at the bottom of the flight, resisting the song's evil charm as she tries to catch him. But the hunter's lithe agility is too great and there is little Goldwen can do to slow him.

At the same moment, Flin plants his feet firmly before of the portcullis gate, and draws his throwing axe slowly back over his head. He stands steady as the noxious song washes over him, then cricks his neck first to one side, then the other, as he squints to hone his aim upon the foe, right between the portcullis bars. He throws. And Lo! His axe flies true to thump the awful creature in the chest. Her song is abruptly ended!

The three monsters claw at the corpses and hiss and spit at their spiteful opponents as Flin's trusty axe flies back to his hand. They look angry now!

The order of actions is quite tricky here.

We have a harpy singing, carrying over from last turn, which is both immediate and continuous.
For movement, we have Stern and Witherun compelled to move toward the harpies, but each being obstructed by Garamon and Goldwen, respectively.
Then we have Flin's missile fire, which (technically, btb) is resolved after movement but before melee.
Then we have two wrestling matches which (technically, btb) are resolved at the end of the turn in the melee segment. This is perhaps a tad awkward as, logically, these would occur more or less simultaneously with Flin's missile fire.

The ref notes that CM's simultaneous movement system has, for the MOVE segement: <<Both sides move ..., making one-half of the move, checking for unordered melee contact due to opponent movement, conducting split-moves and missile fire and taking any pass-through fire; then the balance of movement is completed as ordered.>> with the MISSILE and MELEE segments coming after.
The "unordered melee contact" seems to best describe our wrestling matches, which would mostly realistically be initiatived during the move segment, in much the same way pass-thru missile fire would be conducted during the move segment. However; life is not perfect. We simply have to imagine that everything is all happening at the same time, despite having to resolve things in a specified order.

Let's see how it goes...


--- end preamble; start resolving the turn ---


Harpies #1 and #2. MM says harpies are low intelligence, and U&WA says semi-intelligent monsters are distracted by food 50% of the time. Since the harpies were lured here by the scent of breakfast, the ref dices to see whether harpies #1 and #2 will go for the corpses or for the players. Odds=food, evens=players. 1d6=5, so feeding takes priority. Yhhhummy

Harpy #3 contains to sing her baleful song. And so...


MOVEMENT is divided into two halves, with pass-thru/split missile fire occurring between them, and unordered melee contact occurring at any point during.

Thus, Stern strides toward the portcullis winch and is intercepted by Garamon during the first half move (i.e., before Flin's missile fire, and thus before Harpy#3's song could be interrupted).

Witherun runs and jumps down the stair with all his hunter's grace, to be intercepted by Goldwen during the first half move.

The harpies make no meaningful move.


MISSILES
Flin draws back his axe, and aims his throw.... but firstly, will he resist the harpy song?
Flin saves as a champion so needs to throw 11+ and: 1d20=11! Exactly enough to save.

Flin (FC hero-1, THAC2 15) throws his magical axe +1 at the Harpy (AC 7) 1d20=9+1=10. That's... (ummm, math struggle)... exactly enough again.
Flin hits for 1d6=2+1=3 hp damage.
The harpy song is interrupted! But exactly when its compulsion effect ends is undefined... let's assume it will finish at the end of the turn.


MELEE
Stern (FC=4 men, strong=5 dice) will throw 5 dice.
Because this is all happening simultaneously with Flin's missile fire, Garamon (FC 4 men=4 dice) is still trying to block his ears. Thus he will be half as effective and initially throw only 2 dice. If this isn't enough to beat Stern's total, Garamon will instinctively and add his other 2 dice into the mix (bringing his to a total of 4 dice, but exposing him to the harpy song).
Stern 5d6 ⇒ 4,2,4,2,4=16.
vs Garamon's initial 2d6 ⇒ 3,6=9. That's not enough, so Garamon can't help but use his arms in the struggle, meaning he is exposed to the harpy song

In a similar process Goldwen (FC 3 men=3 dice) tussles with Witherun (FC 4 men=4 dice). Goldwen will throw 2 dice initially while protecting her ears, then add 1 more die when she frees her hands, if required.
Witherun 4d6 ⇒ 5,5,6,2=18.
vs Goldwen 2d6 ⇒ 5,2=7. That's not enough, so Goldwen too can't help but use her arms in the tussle, and is exposed to the harpy song

Garamon saves vs harpy song: He needs to throw a 14+ and: 1d20=7. That's not enough, so Garmon's struggle ends before he can apply his full strength.
Goldwen saves vs harpy song: She needs to throw a 12+ and: 1d20=20! She saves, so she can throw her full strength at Witherun.
Goldwen's final die 1d6 ⇒ 6! So her total is 7+6=13.
Witherun's total was 18, so alas Goldwen's efforts are not enough to stop her friend. But the struggle has at least delayed him (and Flin has interrupted the harpy song meanwhile).



Reaction Dice.
The harpies have each taken a missile hit. Their breakfast is proving to be far more prickly than they anticipated.
How will they react? 2d6=9.
Looks like they are keen to put up a fight for their morning feed...


What next?