(053) Moonshine

[danhem]

Ulric grins wider as he sees his missiles strike down three more goblins and wound a fourth. Ulric then feels teeth pierce his flesh once more. His head swims for a moment from the pain. Seeing their group now surrounded by wargs, Ulric prepares what may be his last spell. The words of the Anthracite Sufferance spill from his mouth and he focuses on the wargs around him doing his best to carefully guide the flames onto the enemy alone.

"Watch yourselves!"

OOC: Here we go. My apologies to anyone that gets singed or worse. I assume that we're not getting out this by being cautious.

[Tonneau]

Oblivious to the arcane circus going on around him, Gustave has (red) eyes only for the mangy, slobbering mutts that refuse to respectfully fall to his blade.

His stomach growls as he grunts and sends another flurry of defts strokes at the beast before him.

[waysoftheearth]

The melee ginds on, seemingly have a life and rhythm of its own. Dorgan throws his splintered shield and launches at the enemy with an enraged howl and his axe helded two-handed. Torben attempts to guard Ulric from further harm and Wen and Armando, likewise, continue to defend themselves and Desmond/Mondes who continues to blast upon his whistle, though nobody seems to notice...

Ulric continues to draw sorcerous forces from beyond with his dry incantations--but just how long can he sustain the unnerving trance?? Alas, the company are all in a disarray--and outnumbered what is more--and the wargs seem to be all over them wherever they turn. Torben's efforts are unwound; as one warg shies away from him another monster--a jet black beast with bright yellow eyes--leaps past him and bowls Ulric over! His everpresent chant is suddenly cut short, and he hits the ground with a choking gurgle as the monstrous wolf gores him in a horrible red spatter... the last thing Ulric knows is that warg breath is quite, quite bad. Then nothing.

But there's barely time to notice. Dorgan, Highbough, Gustave, Dieter, and Guntram still press the attack as wargs leap to and fro between them, their rider's (where they still carry them) blocking and sparring with shields and cleavers.

Our heroes press hard, but Guntram, Dieter, and Highbough earn themselves additional wounds by wargs and riders as they try vainly to push a line up. Highbough's spear attack runs right through one of the goblin cavalry fighters, but Gustave almost sprawls as he trips on a goblin body. Dorgan wildly clips wargs and goblins, pushing them out but not doing them much real harm. But Dieter hurts them--and he hurts them in his usual fashion, turning his back emphatically to march two steps through the churning din to unceremoniously behead the black warg that took down Ulric with one slooping stroke that spills a bucket of black blood over the sorcerer and leaves him buried beneath the stinking body.

In all the noise and chaos it is hard to believe that the warg riders have actually disengaged to circle the company warily, growling and spitting, just out of spear reach. Perhaps they are unaccustomed to facing such resilient foe-men?

There are 5 goblins and 11 wargs remaining (the unhorsed goblin scurrying back to find upon another mount).

"Yer wizard is ded," hacks one of the Goblins in coarse Illiberal, "Yer gonners. How 'boutcha throw in it, eh? Make it eassseee on us all, eh? Maybe yer'll live that way, eh?"


| Game mechanics for the round:

Ref checks enemy morale:
Goblin losses are now 13/19 (including the two that have fled).
13/19 > 2/3 so morale will be checked at -1 for loss of Him That Spoke, -1 for 2/3rds, and -1 for daylight. 2d6-3=9 (rolls spider eyes!) so the goblins are grimly holding on, allowing the wargs to finish the business off!

Warg losses are now 7/19 (including the two that have fled).
7/19 > 1/3, so the wargs need to check morale too.
2d6=8, so the warg pack is looking for leadership from the goblins--they'll fight anything that is not purely defending.

Initiative is rolled for these our five heroes who are engaging versus the warg-riders they engage; 1d6; PCs=4, warg riders=6!

The warg riders have the jump this turn, and one immediately goes to finish Ulric before he can complete his spell. Does it still have a rider [5,6=yes; 1d6=2, so no].
It's a jet black warg with bright yellow eyes seems drawn to the sorcerer, and leaps mightily at him, slavering jaws about to rip his neck open... Torben tries to block the monster [Ulric's AC is therefore 7].
The warg attack roll d20 vs AC7 = 20!!
Ulric's spell is ruined as he is bowled over and takes a potentially fatal hit.
The ref's heart is pounding as warms up a most significant six-sider for at least two-minutes before throwing it... knowing Ulric has a 50% chance of dying here... 1d6=3!!!!!!!!!! Ulric is gored into oblivion, incapacitated but not killed. Amazing!

The wargs attack our other fighters who are still pressing.
Do they have riders? [d6=1,6,6,4,5, so three of them do].

Attacks versus:
Dorgan AC5; warg=1, misses.
Highbough AC7; warg=9, goblin=13, one hit 1d6=2 damage.
Gustave AC3; warg=2, goblin=10, no hits.
Dieter AC2; warg=19, one hit 1d6=5 damage.
Guntram AC5; warg=7, goblin=18, one hit 1d6=4 damage.

All bar Ulric are able to respond:

Dorgan; 2d20=15,18, hits goblin and warg, for 1d6=1 and 1 damage.
Highbough; 1d20=12, hits goblin for 1d6=5, slaying it.
Gustave; 2d20=1,2, hopeless misses.
Dieter; 2d20=17,19 2d6=9. kills a wounded warg.
Guntram; 1d20=8, misses. |

[mgtremaine]

ooc: You have Highbough missed because the Goblins are defending but he was hit by a Goblin?

Wen takes the break in the action as chance to dig into Rufus pack and try to retrieve the Acid from the Lab in the Abbey. He would grab any vials he cam lay hands on and if Armando is near enough pass one to him. Wen would also faintly say "Dorgan your flask, can you can bring Josiane around?"

[ehiker133]

Tired, hungry, blind, and frustrated, Desmond quickly thinks on what he can do... and comes up with a plan.

In a low voice, he says, "Tend the fallen; I'll try and distract them." Then he passes the whistle over to Mondes.

Holding his sword out in front of him to make sure they don't trip on anything, the hooded halfling takes four steps forward. He stops, sticks his sword in the ground in front of him, then reaches up and pulls his hood back, revealing both heads.

Then, in his most annoying, whiney-pitched voice, he replies in broken Illiberal as loudly as he can...

"Easy on US? Master Blaster make easy on YOU!"

Both heads look in the direction of the goblin they heard speaking. Given their four ears, it should be easier to pinpoint direction and distance, even lacking signt.

"Snarks take doggies and go or snarks and doggies die. Talky Snarky die first. Master snap fingers," he holds up his hand, "make SPEAR of IRE stick in talky snarky back! Master wave hand, Blaster stab doggies in ears with magic. Snarky go, snarky live. Snarky stay, snarky fight Dieter Ogreslayer. Ogreslayer hungry. Eat snarky. Only warn once."

Desmond keeps his hand up in the air. If the goblin laughs or makes any sounds of insolence, he snaps his fingers, signaling the attack with the ire spear...

[mushgnome]

[Is my understanding of the situation correct? The goblins have disengaged and are bunched up at range, therefore there is no danger Highbough will hit friendly party members with his magic?]

Highbough stands defiantly alongside Desmond/Mondes, brandishing the Ire Spear threateningly. If the goblins do not comply immediately, then he will unleash the Torrefaction! He doubts it will kill them (since they are not wearing metal armor) but perhaps having their metal weapons/helmets/belt-buckles heated red-hot will be the last straw to break the goblins' morale or startle their mounts.

[sully]

In all the noise and chaos it is hard to believe that the warg riders have actually disengaged to circle the company warily, growling and spitting, just out of spear reach.

Nope, we're still surrounded.

We got 'em right where we want 'em. Just have Highbough pick a couple and fry 'em.

[verhaden]

Torben

Torben doesn't see the black beast until the last moment, only to have his bloody knee buckle as the warg lunges past and into Ulric. He momentarily loses his resolve as the Firestarter falls, but the grim death that is the Ogreslayer encourages him to fight on.

On the company's sign, Torben will loose his spear into the encircling riders with a mighty hurl.

[danhem]

"What? Noooooooooo!" gurgle...gurle.

[waysoftheearth]

ooc: You have Highbough missed because the Goblins are defending but he was hit by a Goblin?

True, well spotted. It's only fair that Highbough should have hit. I'll correct it now...