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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grendel_Khan" data-source="post: 9389604" data-attributes="member: 7028554">LIEFLoping fast, surrendered to pure predator instinct, Lief hurls himself up and against the Bluffs. He digs his claws into fissures. Snarls when one claw splits like a dried corn husk. As he climbs he fills his mind with the trader's smug face and the mildew stink of the sellsword. Lief plays out the ritual he'll obviously conduct for a prey offering to the Mogul—the symbols he'll carve into them, the words he'll hiss into the fire and the sky—before remembering he doesn't do that. The Mogul's hot breath against his neck: Wouldn't it feel good, though?Taking the shorter, harder route.*Secondary Skill: Athletics r(8)+6 = 14 vs DC 10 to use Crane's Wings for +5 bonus to Endurance roll. Success.*Primary Skill: Endurance with +7 from Secondary success, +2 for Climber's Kit. r(17)+2+7+2 = 28 vs DC 21. Success (x2 against Hard DC).[HR][/HR]Complexity 1 SC, Level 4 (DCs 10/14)Goal (Staged): Stealthily scale the crag of The Bluffs and ambush the dairy trader caravan as they ascend the pack animal trail.2/4 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/0 Secondary Skills Available/Primary Skill Training exhausted; Endurance[HR][/HR]LIEF traverses the final sequence and lights down on the narrow donkey trail.  A look toward the ascent and the dairy trader on his horse is interceded by the mournful visage of the stag who stands between Leif and his prey.  Why?  Before that fragment of a thought can even fully materialize, the phantom totem dissipates and the clippety-clop of the trader's horse disappears around the bend. (1)A look back toward the descent and the even narrower, crumbling and precarious trail the sellsword and the hands navigate with the trader's cattle.  Again, the stag's drooping eyes stare at Lief.  Again it disappears. (2)<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A simple Stealth vs MEDIUM DC will slay the trader and drop his body from his horse and the trail.  Failure will mean the dark deed is done, but the horse gets out of hand, whinnying loudly and bucking.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There is little need for Stealth on the descent down the trail...or even really the prospect of it it given that its fully unobscured, unbelievably narrow, and the prey would be coming directly toward Leif.  However...if he could nimbly get around the sharp dogleg right that hugs the bluff, he could frighten animals by his abrupt appearance, which would surely sweep the lot of the caravan from from the cliff...</li> </ul>Also, there is an overhang above this section of the narrow trail down that intermittently spills rocks.  That plus the number of snaking fissures show the section looks like it might cleave right off onto the descending donkey trail with some sabotaging effort!What do you do?[HR][/HR]Lief waits just off the trail, laying flat among the rocks and scrub. He's smiling when he leaps over the horse, carrying the trader with him to the ground. "For the boy," he says—later he'll wonder if he spoke the primordial tongue or something the man would know—and kills him too quickly, takes his cloak and his coin purse and carries him, too gently, to the bluff's edge. Lief drops the body and wants to watch it land, but he feels the stag's eyes on his back. "What!" he hisses, wheeling. There's nothing there.*Primary Skill: Stealth r(9)+11 = 20 vs DC 14. Success.Has Lief's blood cooled? Hard to know. But he won't kill those hands—they didn't order the boy killed or cut him down. Lief hasn't claimed them. He walks down the donkey trail wearing the dead man's cloak until he can see the rest of the caravan coming up. He stands in shadow, and when the draw nearer he calls out quietly. "I beg your pardon, sirs. No need for alarm. This is a robbery," he points at the sellsword. "I want his sword, and the arm that uses it. Nothing more. Nothing less."[HR][/HR]Complexity 1 SC, Level 4 (DCs 10/14)Goal (Staged): Stealthily scale the crag of The Bluffs and ambush the dairy trader caravan as they ascend the pack animal trail.3/4 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/0 Secondary Skills Available/Primary Skill Training exhausted; Endurance, Stealth[HR][/HR]The sellsword pauses, leans in and squints to try to foil the sun’s glare to get a good look at whoever is bold enough to stage this assault. He half-cranes his head to assess the faces of the hands, but thinks again, given that even a twist of his body to that degree might unhorse him…to his death on this narrow trail.He wraps the reins around his hand, draws his blade, and signals the horse to charge up the trail that barely accommodates the beast…<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Given the dynamics here, the most important thing is either (a) controlling the horse (Nature to abruptly stop and spill the rider) or (b) managing not to be swept from this cliff due to the charge while pulling the rider from the horse to execute your dark deed (Acrobatics).</li> </ul>They’re both MEDIUM DC (all I have) It sounds like (b) is what you have in mind? Success and you do it; narrate the scene’s resolution.Failure and it’s severe. You’re swept from the trail to a lower section of the switchback; take a Healing Surge worth of damage that you won’t recover until after the next combat and roll +4 vs your Fort for a Hip Injury (Disease). The situation-state will also change pretty significantly as the rider will get to Kamroth Estate and we’ll put this SC on pause for later when you can pursue it[HR][/HR]LIEF closes his eyes. He imagines the horse's blood scalding his hands as it tramples him. He sees himself toppling off the bluff in an embrace with the sellsword. He hears the hooves thundering. He sees this man's widow, looking just like Renne's, crying over an empty coffin.He opens his eyes and kills the charging sellsword. Leaves whatever money he might have on him for the now out-of-work hands, but takes his sword. Throws it off the edge to shatter on the rocks below. Lief walks up the trail, out of view, before beginning his climb down the crags."Shut up," he says to the stag, wherever it is.*Primary Skill: Acrobatics r(12)+11 = 23 vs DC 14. Success.[HR][/HR]Complexity 1 SC, Level 4 (DCs 10/14)Goal (Staged): Stealthily scale the crag of The Bluffs and ambush the dairy trader caravan as they ascend the pack animal trail.4/4 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/0 Secondary Skills Available/Primary Skill Training exhausted; Endurance, Stealth, Acrobatics</blockquote>

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