Homebrew system thread II, part 2

[Simon_Jester]

Larric's eye darts to the gate- oh crud.

A few questions- roughly how many men do we see? A few archers and men-at-arms, or battlements packed with troops? Is it a gate that looks like it's designed to drop down from above, or to be closed from the sides? Clearly the temple is a fortified building; the question is how much is it like a castle and how much like a relatively minor strongpoint?

Can Larric see any sign of the gate mechanism, or is it behind walls?

[Jub]

Bertram, just like the others, surveys the temple looking first at the men on the walls and then at the gate and walls themselves.

"If anybody has any ideas for how to get into this temple I'm all ears."

[Kaelan]

Spoiler

Well there was this orc with a flying machine a while back.....

Well it's just as well we have a mage who can shoot lighting bolts from his eyes and balls of fire from his arse - Larric front and centre.

As Simon said, we need a bit more detail first before I can make suggestions and declare actions.
- How many men on the wall and armed with what
- How tall is the wall and is it stone or wood.
- Main gate construction, and is it a basic gate or a fortified gate house?

One option is to make a temporary siege Mantle and have Dirt carry it to the gate house with a few chosen men under it to break down the door when we get there.

[Fiji_Fury]

Also, are there any Priests or Acolytes visible?
Any signs of activity around the temple green?
Archers? Crossbows? Spears? What are these men on the walls armed with?

Dale surveys the area carefully before taking action.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Well it's just as well we have a mage who can shoot lighting bolts from his eyes and balls of fire from his arse - Larric front and centre.

Now now, Dirt wasn't there for the incident with the alchemically distilled elvish peppers. That's in backstory.

[Sorry, couldn't resist]

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Apart from needing to write sometime, the kindle turns out to be almost pointless to post with- doesn't stay logged on for nearly long enough, drops connection for nothing, it seems. Fourth attempt at this, then-

Stone walls, about fifteen feet high, formerly patterned- different colours of stone creating a very large, blocky mosaic effect, but that hads been jumbled badly, knocked down and put bnack again you think. Crenellations, most of them ornamental- looking vaguely crown like- good to hide behind. Ten men visible on the battlements, could be more in cover. Crossbows, looks like.

Gate looks like it opens inwards. Bit fragile though, two different colours of wood-original blown in, this is a kitbashed repair. Not obviously fortified- probably would have been built that way if they could have got away with it, what's behind the wall- there probably are portcullises and murderholes and things.

Posting before anything else goes wrong.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric conjures a rush of fast, freezing wind running about ten to twenty feet over his head. Water-enhanced if Water can be used to make cold, but taking advantage of the season. The alchemist tries to blow that wind into the faces of the archers on the wall, hoping to distract them from aiming and interfere with the accuracy of their bolts.

He calls to Lisanna- "that monster, can you make it charge?"

[Jub]

Bertram, not able to effect the people on the wall, instead figures that he might be best served trying to ensure the militia is well organized. To carry out that goal he works with whatever leaders and officers and does what he can to get men with shields to the front and to get those with ranged weapons to the rank just behind them.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Bertram's logical and sensible attempt to organise things for a proper, disciplined, as safe as this situation ever gets siege sort of dissolves in a blur of mad wizards;
as Larric discovers that the popular mind has quite a lot to do with how magic works and water can be used to make cold, (most of the offensive water applications are some variation on ice, really- not many people think to play with the water content of the human body), and bombards the battlements, and Lisanna's controlled daemon charges straight through the gate, trailing a cone of chimeric magic behind it- erasing (temporarily) the murder holes and tripwires and firing slits.

She sets off, not far behind it. Most of the men on the walls are too busy hiding from the suddenly arctic blast to do much; there is at least one scream as someone falls off the inner edge of the fire step. Actions?

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

I take exception to 'mad!' That was an eminently sensible thing to do! The only mad part is the daemon, which is SO not Larric's fault.

P.S. I'd honestly half-forgotten if cold magic was associated with Water in your setting; Larric would know, see below.

IC:

Larric already knew that cold-conjuring magic is classed as "Water" by the prevailing system. It's just that he's not very good at "Water magic" of any kind, so he wasn't sure he could make it work when he tried stirring that into the mix.

On his list of odd and annoying quirks of the world's mages, this is far, FAR behind the fact that they class electrical magic as "Air" when by all rights it should be its own, glorious and beautiful, thing.

The alchemist shouts "Come on, we've got the bastards on the run!" and joins what he hopes is a general move toward the gate. He is NOT going to be the second entity to pass through that gate, nor the third if Lisanna is hard on the heels of her pet Efrodionoid daemon, though he may well be among the first dozen or so.

Crossbow at the ready!

[Fiji_Fury]

Dale bolts for the gate following the chimaera and Lisanna, thumping Bertram on the shoulder as he passes to encourage the man to follow. Two options (three) once through:
1) If the Temple entrance is nearby, bolt for it at top speed.
2) If the Temple entrance is hidden or at a distance, look for stairs up to the men on the wall. Those crossbows could be nasty if left unhindered.
3) Run into the 'surprise' that could be in the courtyard. Since we didn't get a great look this is a serious possibility.

Dale is looking to eliminate threats, so he's scanning the surroundings and looking for something/someone important or threatening to break. These Valdemironi, despite their scheme and spell-work, don't seem to have all that many people fully committed to their cause. Taking any of them out that is obvious may cause the others to break and run (which is good since less people die that way).

[Kaelan]

OK, mad rush for the door it is then (tell me again about that plan about going in quietly).
Dirt will move with the crowd (or is the crowd given his bulk) towards the gate, loosing a bolt from his crossbow on the way if a target presents itself.

Look like its either going to be a quite night once we've finished in the temple or things are just getting started.

OOC
We still need to work out what this is all about as a general open play for power does not seem to fit the bill.

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

Larric makes sure to suppress any visible evidence that he's a wizard (crackling magic auras, et cetera). Crossbowmen sheltering from the wintry blast behind the battlements will be shooting down into the courtyard, and he's in enough trouble for being an archer.

OOC, to Kaelan:

Yes. Definitely. I have my suspicions about it all based on stuff Larric doesn't know, that was said to Eliska by the Krylanyan priests back... about six days ago in game time, about a year to a year and a half ago in real time. At the very least the Krylanyans were trying to play SOME of the factions against the middle. And from the fact Larric does know, that d'Avariel was brought into a Valdemironi plot to have Dame Tamarin assassinated by her brother-in-law (more or less, I may misremember the identity of the relative).

Reading between the lines, I would guess that the Krylanyans associated themselves with the Valdemironi in an attempt to influence the 'new order' in Qulan after the baron disappeared. When the baron returned, they switched over to trying to eliminate any potential awkwardness... And they might well be trying to just expend the Valdemironi as a power base in town, or goad them into expending themselves, because they're strong but inconvenient. Plus they could implicate the Krylanyans in things that people would frown upon the Krylanyans doing.

One example of this was sending a Krylanyan paladin to help people assassinate a female knight in an attempt to transfer the knight's lands to her in-laws... which come to think of it sounds like a really stupid idea now that I think about it. If I wanted a female knight dead so that her brother-in-law could inherit, I would be trying to make there be less Krylanyan paladins around that knight, not more...

One wonders if the Valdemironi had help in coming up with such a stupid idea.

[Jub]

His attempts at leadership cut short by a sudden blast of magic effecting those on the walls, Bertram shrugs and looks to the rest of his new allies to make sure they're on the same page. As he looks about he feels a tap on the shoulder and sees Dale rushing towards the open gate. The only sensible thing to do is to run along with them, shield held up in case any of the archers recover more swiftly than he might hope.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Charging in then, the temple entrance is in front of you, directly opposite the gate, but the doors are closed, barred and by the shimmer over them warded.

There are a few people who were tumbled off the walls, and there is a surprise waiting. Two groups, one each side of the gatehouse, one led by a man in armour, the other by a robed priest- not large, and already seriously on edge. Things ahve already gone badly wrong for them to bring you here, and now it looks as if their allies have deserted them.

Two stairways up to the wall, most of the people on the wall cowering from the blast, not many ready to fire. Sort out actions in a bit.

[Simon_Jester]

The alchemist turns to one of the flanking groups. Larric's first split-second reflex is a lightning arrow- he hesitates a moment overriding that, possibly enough to lose initiative if it's a close run thing, then simply surges will and pressure into a focused cone, bellowing at full megaphone volume from his mouth to the priest's ear:

"LIAR!"

Weaponized Air magic, another one of those deafener-stunner attacks, hoping to put the priest out of commission and possibly shake that group's morale further.

Then he gets ready to dive out of the path of the predictable pointy stuff coming his way.

[Jub]

OOC: I just realized that we took a prisoner and then just sort of forgot about it. One of those things that happens in play by post games that doesn't happen around a table I suppose.

IC: Bertram, arriving a bit after Larric, takes a moment to survey things. If Larric gets to uses his stunning attack, and if it seems to work, Bertram will charge the priest aiming to remove another key piece from the battlefield.

If that sort of charge isn't possible, he'll do his best go toe-to-toe with anybody else that looks like leadership. In this case he'll fight defensively and see if he'll get the same support he had last time in dealing with a key threat.

[Kaelan]

As I don't feel like being peppered in the back from the walls Dirt will sprint up the stairs whilst the men are cowering from the blast. When up he will make like an ogre snow plow with his shield and storm down the battlements ( I am working under the assumption that the guard rails that we love under H&S are not present).

[Fiji_Fury]

Seeing the surprise in the court yard, Dale considers driving at the Valdemiron Priest. He's able to influence, reinforce and otherwise manipulate the defenders to the temple's advantage. He needs to be incapacitated.

Are there many men in the way? If so Dale is likely to follow Dirt onto the wall, then leap down at the priest's position and use the last bit of his mana to land without breaking his own limbs. If there are not men in the way (the priest is leading his pack from the front) then Dale will cut straight at him and follow up Larric's distraction immediately. Ideally, there will be an attempt to injure and incapacitate this time rather than martyring the bastard (which as per the Baron's court experience earlier in the evening can still play into the manipulative priest's hands). If things get too dicey though, Dale has little qualm about straight up murdering the priest with hard steel.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Sorry for the delay- I have been recovering from a winter bug, and between that and the fact that it has left me unable to sleep properly, lightheaded and woolly minded. (Not much change there, then.)

From the- hey, wasn't there supposed to be an initiaitive order about here somewhere? Dirt's move should resolve first. No, there are no guard rails. The opinion of that almost mythical Time Before the Dawn of Health and Safety is that it's up to you not to do anything stupid like try to go up on the battlements drunk or with only one leg, and if you genuinely try something that is beyond your abilities then it's your own stupid fault.

The dark age/mediaeval attitude to it all is very robust, the positive side of it being that determination to never give up, never say die. The down side is pretty obvious, though.

Dirt charges up onto the battlements, and begins to do the ogrish thing- warding off two attempts to spear him, and having a crossbow bolt thunk into his shield from the other side of the battlements. .


The Valdemironi priest is not leading from the front; that's not a job for a squishie.
Dale's move works because he did follow Dirt- if he had gone the other way someone would have tried to tackle him as he came up the stairway. He leaps off and lands on top of the priest- rather spoiling Larric's attempt at sonic beating-sense-into-numpties, but that quickly becomes more important a couple of seconds later, as it is mainly that strun that stops Dale from beign jumped on and cut to bits by the ten people aroud the priest.

Bertram charges forward to rescue and support Dale, and-?

(Your prisoner, incidentally, you moved too quickly to have time to do much with him there and then. he was taken in custody by the Ikhrani militia.)

[Simon_Jester]

Larric is genuinely angry and shakes his fist, at both priests in that direct. He then begins gesturing with his palms in sweeping gestures to the sides as he tries to create planar pressure barriers in the air and sweep them outwards radially away from Dale and Bertram. He's trying to batter aside anyone trying to hit Dale from behind or the sides. Perhaps his attitude is not so robust, because he'll at least try to protect his friend even if said friend does something nuts.

His rational faculties are large enough to keep at least one eye open for incoming pointy things, because this sounds like a time when some might get directed his way.

[Jub]

Bertram does what he can to get to and defend Dale while not exposing himself to more harm than should be expected given the situation. As he ducks, weaves, and shoves his way to his ally he hopes that there aren't more troops inside the temple proper.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Fiji, Kaelan? Waiting for your actions

[Kaelan]

?
OOC - I was under the impression we were waiting for your next post!

IC - trundle, trundle, trunde down the battlements until he reaches the stairs going down.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Really? Hm. Biggest problem the party has at the moment is Dale's having sufered a rush of heroism to the brain and charged off behind enemy lines where there are lots of people who can stab him repeatedly.

Larric's attempt to raise pressure barriers works absurdly well; the temple guard are pushed back from the priest and Dale and Bertrand. Fortune approved of that one. Two pointy things- a mace and a knife- are thrown in his direction; both are, to his surprise, dodged.

Dirt is running out of targets; there weren't that many people up there to begin with. Bertram is parrying frantically, hardly has room to get a blow in himself- takes a stab from a shortspear in the shoulder that doesn't go through his mail, but will leave a bruise.

Fiji?