A Keep On The Borderlands: Arrival

jkason · Aug 13, 2012

Bastian Sangue, human cavalier

Bastian draws in a gasp as he feels the beast's weapon ripping through armor to flesh. He forces the pain back, out of his way, focusing on killing the enemy. His heart pounds in his ears, mixing with the clash of steel and screams of men and beast alike.

Somewhere in the background, he hears Arcata's voice, directing her men. Good, he thinks. If they're listening to her, they're looking to her, and she can stay safe.

But not if they cannot win this battle, he thinks. Channeling pain and desparation, Bastian raises his sword again, hacking into Skurg flesh as easily as the Skurg did himself.

[sblock=ooc]Bless High Ground Power Attack Greatsword; Damage with Power Attack. (1d20+8=26, 2d6+6=16)[/sblock]

Dr Simon · Aug 14, 2012

Comoray and Greggory chip away at the left-hand skurg whilst Bastian levels a mighty blow at the right-hand skurg, cutting through the bone and muscle of its shoulder. The creature looks ragged and worn, and looks about it for a way of escape.

Meanwhile, Dack leads his group of Dulat troops around to flank the central mass of skurg and beastmen, closing the gap but causing no damage. On Bastian's left, near the keep, the Dulat men trade wound for wound with the beastmen on that side. A beastmean falls, but then so does Trooper Kwarto.

And then the doors to the keep burst open and a ferocious skurg charges forth, in its huge fist it clutches a curved, wickedly spiked hook-like weapon. It rushes down to the melee and hurls Trooper Otto aside like a rag doll.

"Where you champion?" it roars. "Aarach will crush!"

Elsewhere, as Arcata's magic missile hits the sword-carrying beastman atop the tower, and she gives the order to fire, Janson, at her bridle, casually drops his sword to stick point-first in the soft ground, raises and loads his crossbow and fires. For a moment it looks like the bolt is going to hit the beastman smack between the eyes, but it ducks aside at the last moment and is clipped in the ear instead. Barely has it reacted, however, when the three archers on the wall near Cassie and Sh'aah raise their bows and fire, all arrows winging the creature, and Tye, down at the base of the keep sends a bolt of his own. The beastman ducks inside the keep.

Sh'aah smashes into the oncoming beastmen, cutting one down, but more keep coming, slamming into the Dulat troops at the base of the keep and threatening to swamp them and Sh'aah. Neffer, Alf and Saxon all fall under the axes of the beastmen but Setto, already badly wounded, injures two more beastmen and holds his ground.

On the keep, there is crossbow fire at Arcata and at Tye, but all the bolts miss.

"I suggest taking cover, your ladyship," says Janson, managing to imbue the title with sarcasm rather than deference. "These f***ers are crap shots but it only takes one to get lucky..."

[sblock=OOC]
7 Damage to Comoray from Skurg 2

Otherwise all damage was between NPCs

None of the Dulat troops are outright dead, yet, but the following are on negative hit points:

D1 (stable)
D3
D4
D8
D9
D11
D16

Heroic D7 is on 1 hit point. He didn't actually wound 2 beastmen, that was a combination of Dulat NPCs, but it sounds better!

Of the penal legion troops,

P3 (Cassie) is on 2/13 hp

Skurgs S2 and S3 are wounded, as are the following beastmen

B18
B19
B31

and B37 (the "strange" one with the sword).
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Kaodi · Aug 14, 2012

Brother Comoray, now smarting from two wounds, is yet more concerned for the men under his care than his own predicament. The tide of battle favours House Dulat by a significant margin, but even though dying in this battle would be a suitably glorious end for any warrior, honouring the Lady Magnificent, holding this fort is going to require as many hands as they can muster, and that means that Comoray needs to switch into damage control mode as soon as possible.

The crusader switches his full attention back to the skurg in front of him. The quickest way to enable him to attend to the wounded is to fell one of the beasts doing the wounding. Gripping his sword tightly, Comoray looks for an opening before he attempts to thrust his blade into his enemies chest.

Axel · Aug 16, 2012

Sh'aah

Sh'aah turned his head as the soldiers came thundering past. Many were cut down by beastman, some looked like they had even forgotten to block with their shields. One was an honourable exception, felling two of the creatures. Weak. More for me.

Wrenching his axe out of the fallen beastman, Sh'aah strode toward the nearest beleagured soldier, relieving the man's left flank. Ducking beneath a wild swing from a beastman on his right the half-orc drove in a hard, low swing with his axe to his left. He was rewarded with another crunch, half-severing the creature's leg at the knee.

"Good," he grunted, using the momentum remaining from the swing to bring his double axe back up into the ready posture. Sh'aah was no longer smiling, despite enjoying himself immensely. Six on three was going to be tougher than it should have been when one of the three seemed useless and terrified.

[sblock=actions and ooc]
Moving in a generally south direction to reach Trooper #17 's left flank. 30' of move lets Sh'aah dodge around beastman #12 's threatened squares. End up between beastman #12 and #15 .
Attack (two-handed) vs #12 . Probably a hit, and kill.

Maybe...just maybe, he'll get to make a full attack next round.

Though, if Dr Si is like one of my RL DM's he'll have the beastman scatter away and make Sh'aah hunt them down one by one...
[/sblock]

Shayuri · Aug 22, 2012

Arcata pauses, assessing her options. Her magic was rapidly fading, and there were still a lot of powerful foes. She was no great shakes with a crossbow either. Still, there were weaker spells she could bring to bear, and which wouldn't exhaust her.

Magic skyfire danced around her fingers as she incanted, then sprayed out across the battlefield towards the closest foe not currently engaged in melee!

(OOC - Can't really use the map at work, even on lunch.

Using her attack cantrip.)

jkason · Aug 24, 2012

Bastian Sangue, human cavalier

"Is that a call for single combat to decide the battle, or are you just making more stupid noise like the rest of you dull-witted kin I'm slaughtering?" Bastian calls out to the nastily-armed skurg. He holds his position, however, not about to open himself up to further attack if he's going to have to keep wading through beast flesh.

[sblock=ooc]IF the guy calling for champion calls off the others fighting Bastian, I'll make him his Challenge target. Otherwise, I'll have him keep swinging away at the skurg he's hit twice. I'll hold off making rolls until I see how this little gambit works out for him.[/sblock]

Dr Simon · Aug 29, 2012

"Get out of way!" yells Aarach, although it's not clear if he's talking to Trooper Hexo, whom he tosses aside like a broken doll, or the other beastmen.

Comoray and Greg press the assualt on their skurk opponent whilst three more Dulat troopers close in behind. Together they hack down the behemoth, and the smaller beastman to the side of it is killed by Dack and another Dulat soldier.

The skurg facing Bastian moves away, trying to cut past the Dulat soldiers as it goes, fending off an attack by Trooper Dryzen. The two remaining beastmen in the melee turn and run off into the bailey of the keep.

Arcata's magic strikes Aarach but he barely seems to notice.

From the keep, there is a volley of crossbow fire aimed again at Arcata, which misses her even though she is sat like a prize target on her horse. Janson curses and returns fire, his bolt striking the parapet of the keep.

Off to the right, Tye takes cover behind the wall of a pigpen, trading crossbow fire with the beastmen on the keep, but nobody scores a hit in that tradeoff.

Brave Trooper Zeeben kills one of the beastmen facing him, but is cut down by the second. Sh'aah beheads another but opens himself up takes a powerful strike to the chest from his opponent. A volley of arrows from the three Dulat soldiers on the parapet takes down another beastman, and meanwhile Cassie has got herself up onto Sh'aah's horse and is riding into the fray.

[sblock=OOC]
Beastmen killed in that round:

Sk3 - killed by Comoray, Greg, D12, D13, D14 and D15
B12, killed by Sh'aah
B14, killed by D18, D19 and D20 (archers)
B19, killed by D7 (Zeeben)
B20, criticalled by Dack.

Dulat troops killed and injured:

B13 does 18 damage to Sh'aah (crit!)
B18 does 10 damage to D7
Aarach (Sk4) does 16 damage to D6.

D6 is the first outright Dulat casualty, the others are on negative hit points.

Bastian is yet to go, based on his assessment of the situation with Aarach.
[/sblock]

jkason · Aug 29, 2012

Bastian Sangue, human cavalier

As the others retreat, Bastian levels his blade to point at Aarach. The Last Lion's stare becomes cold and focused as Bulwark pivots under his master's kneed commands and the pair barrel forth at the skurg. Despite his training and focus, however, Bastian finds that the power behind his blade slices nothing but air.

[sblock=ooc]Swift Action: Declare Aarach his challenge target. Bastian takes -2 AC (16) vs. attacks from people other than Aarach, but gains +1 AC (19) and +2 damage versus him until he's dead.

Move / Full: Charge attack vs. Aarach:

Charge Bless High Ground Power Attack Challenge Greatsword attack; Damage w/power attack and challenge. (1d20+10=12, 2d6+8=16)

Sigh. I should probably have known better.

[/sblock]

Dr Simon · Aug 30, 2012

OOC: All those modifers as well...

So back round again, doesn't matter too much what order you post actions in as everyone is still fighting their own fight, pretty much.

jkason · Aug 30, 2012

Bastian Sangue, human cavalier

Refusing to acknowledge his poor showing, Bastian hacks at his opponent again. Though he manages to connect this time, the skurg champion's hide proves more resilient than his kin's.

[sblock=ooc]Bless High Ground Power Attack Challenge Greatsword attack; damage (1d20+8=22, 1d6+8=10)

blargh low damage roll. Phooey.

But, hey, at least he hit.

[/sblock]