D1: Ashin's Commission (El Jefe judging)

[El Jefe]

OoC: It's a simple matter of them taking double moves to Zaeryl's single move. They came at him from different sides and never completely converged into the range of a single cone. No matter how Zaeryl moves, if they stand right where they are, he'll never catch them both in a single blast.

And no, I didn't plan it that way. They have their agenda and Zaeryl has his, and it just all fell together that way.

One strategy might be for Zaeryl to "allow" them to herd him back to the group and hope they cluster together. But they way they've been moving, it should be obvious to him that there's no guarantee of that.

Really, it's a matter of herding one person with only two people. If they spread out just far enough but not too far, they can prevent him from moving in any one direction, but they really can't control which other direction he picks. If they spread out too far or bunch too close together, they can't even do that.

 

[Rystil Arden]

(OOC: It shouldn't matter--let's say they came at him from separate directions like this (E is for Evil Solider, Z is for Zaeryl). Zaeryl knows the initiative order of the two soldiers. Therefore he can move down or up past the one who goes second, knowing they can catch up to him (he doesn't care if they can catch up or not) and cone them both when the first one moves. See diagram below

          E

Z

          E

Z
        E


        E

Z 
   E    E

 

[El Jefe]

E
  Z

 E

Ok, you can maneuver to any square you desire, and you still can't catch that pair in a 15' cone. They just aren't close together enough to do that. Second, neither one has ever come closer than 10 feet. At the end of the round, what you see above is as close as they get to him. Zaeryl's stated action was, "backing slowly away, but now angling so that he can be sure that no matter way the two continue, they will both be fried by his readied crystals if one even begins to come closer than 10 feet". Well, that stated action was an impossibility. The way the two continued, they never got closer to each other than what you see there, and they never came closer than the 10' they are now from Zaeryl.

I mean, how do you ready a move action based on the move action of someone who follows you in the initiative order? Imagine that you're in a 100' x 100' room, all doors locked, and being pursued by someone who moves 60' to your 30'. You're first in the initiative order. Your action? "I ready an action to always stay 20' from my pursuer." If you were allowed to always move last like that, even though you're first in the initiative order, your pursuer could never catch you...you could always wait until they go first, then move to a square 20' from the one they ended their movement in and claim "they triggered my readied action to move, so they never got closer than 20' to me." Which is clearly absurd, since in a situation like that the pursuer should always be able to catch you (end up in an adjacent square) after a few rounds.

 

[Rystil Arden]

(OOC: One of the guards go first, though, right? Let's say south guy goes first. Zaeryl moves north of north guy. South guy goes. His only choice is to go north and let both be blasted or to not even approach Zaeryl. Admittedly, after north guy goes, he can either close or circle around again, but in between when south guy is moving, they should be lined up for the kill)

 

[B4cchus]

Hulgyr clearly hears what is discussed between Zearyl and private Stander.

 

[El Jefe]

(OOC: One of the guards go first, though, right? Let's say south guy goes first. Zaeryl moves north of north guy. South guy goes. His only choice is to go north and let both be blasted or to not even approach Zaeryl. Admittedly, after north guy goes, he can either close or circle around again, but in between when south guy is moving, they should be lined up for the kill)

OoC: Well, first, they're both on the same initiative, so for all intents and purposes they do move at the same time. But even if they didn't, I think the concept that you're missing here is that they are not trying to lay hands on Zaeryl or engage him in melee. Now, that could change (and depending on Zaeryl's actions, could change on the very next round). But for now, they're just trying to herd him along, as in, "Shoo! Shoo! Run back to your group now!". They're close enough that you can't run between them without picking up an AoO from at least one of them, but just far apart enough that you can't catch them both in a 15' cone. If you had more movement, or your power covered a larger area, or if they weren't as well trained or were a little stupider, you'd be able to work this as you described. But there are two of them and one of you, and they are willing to sacrifice some of their offensive ability to outmaneuver you.

As for, "the north guy goes first, then Zaeryl moves, then the south guy moves", I still think you're trying to have your cake and eat it, too. I mean, how am I supposed to move these guys? If we forget that you've got a readied action, then you move, and then they get to pick their spots...and you can't do this. If we allow them to go first and you to react, they move to positions where you can't blast them...and then what? You move to some other position where you still can't blast them? If we allow one to move, then Zaeryl, then the other, well, sorry, but the second one doesn't necessarily run up to the same square the first is in, put his arm around his comrade's shoulder, and "smile for the crystal shard blast". He'll try to move to flank you in some way, to cut you off so that you can't escape. Remember, they're moving 60 to your 30, the fact that you can play initiative games with them doesn't solve everything.

 

[Erekose13]

Eternity hears angry discussion errupting from the woods. She moves to help her fellow Elan, not wanting to go to jail any more than he does.

 

[Rystil Arden]

They're close enough that you can't run between them without picking up an AoO from at least one of them, but just far apart enough that you can't catch them both in a 15' cone.

(OOC: See, this statement actually is not true. The absolutely *only* possible use of their manoeuvre is to prevent them from being hit by a 15-foot-cone, which would be fine, I suppose, if they knew that's what Zaeryl was doing. That thing about the AoOs? Not actually true. I can show you a double movement w/ Withdraw (which makes moving out of up to one square not count as provoking) that will move through them just fine if they are spaced with exactly two spaces between them (it involves diagonals). If they were spaced with one space between them (and thus in a nice cone area) then they actually could prevent moving between them without an AoO from at least one (and both if not withdrawing), though anyone could always move around them)

 

[El Jefe]

(OOC: See, this statement actually is not true...)

OoC: Look, they are positioned as per the code in post 613. And no, I positioned them that way for a reason, and was rather surprised to find that I couldn't fit them both in a 15' cone template...not that it matters. You can pretty much beat any AoO with Withdraw, but as Zaeryl isn't exactly brandishing a weapon and the soldiers seem to have priorities other than running him through with a spear (at least, that's what it sure seems like to Zaeryl), it seems unlikely that they're thinking about AoO implications. Mainly, they just want to cut him off, and give that one approached from (Code directions, not true directions) the ENE and the other approached from the SE, I think they did a reasonably good job of that by positioning themselves as in post 613. They'd probably agree with me, given that they're not thinking in terms of movement by squares or AoOs or anything other than the lunacy of conducting a low-speed chase against a lone opponent through miles of forest.

 

[Rystil Arden]

(OOC: Okay, as long as it's clear that they are positioned too far apart to actually get an AoO in case Zaeryl chooses to run through them and past, I'm content)

*Zaeryl will continue to back away from them in a direction likely to provoke their clustering up and prepare to kill them if they get too close. If he ever does see Eternity coming after them in range of her energy rays, he will change this strategy, but otherwise, he can keep this up indefinitely if they keep using this unusual and highly illogical movement plan.*