Session 2b: Unlikely Allies

[Marullus]

Ulrich has a large sack. Can I transfer contents from both your small ones? Also, I give up the shield bonus if I carry a sack or torch, right? That is why Garden took my torch.

[Rusty Tincanne]

right. Patience.

It is a proposal,'but I will wait for everyone else to weigh in with opinions before committing. I was just trying to figure out the mechanics to see if was understanding the rules. I can wait.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Ulrich has a large sack. Can I transfer contents from both your small ones? Also, I give up the shield bonus if I carry a sack or torch, right? That is why Garden took my torch.

your character sheet indicates the sack is in your belt pouch and your hands are empty. Is that incorrect? And you are correct that you would lose the shield bonus if you were carrying a sack. But you lose assistance in the fight if neither of us can fight... I think that is how it would work at any Rae...

[C. Steven Ross]

You thinking of carrying that large sack with one hand or two?

[Marullus]

You thinking of carrying that large sack with one hand or two?

Right. I forgot that was a thing. Never mind.

[Marullus]

Ulrich takes the small sack from Rand with one hand, his sword in the other, as he goes.

Ulrich steps rapidly to the party's defense by interposing himself between them and the eels, stabbing it with his sword because the best defense is a good offense. He tries to drive the eels back to buy time for them to reach the door.

[C. Steven Ross]

Excellent! I declare a DRIVE OFF CONFLICT!

If you win, the dire eels swim away down the long, flooded corridor (far right).
If you lose, they beat you back, stop your advance, and you must think of another way to get past them.
Win or lose, if you end with HP damage, other bad things happen.

You should first declare a conflict captain. This is the person that makes all the decisions and kind of uses the other players as pawns. It is not a democracy. I think Ulrich makes sense in the fiction, but you can pick anyone you like.

Then the conflict captain rolls unopposed for disposition (do not mark advancement). The roll is Fighter and you add the number of successes to your Health score.

During the conflict, you can Attack and Feint with Fighter; and Defend and Maneuver with Will.

These creatures have a set disposition of 3 for drive off, +2D as there are two other eels helping the third one, for a total of disposition 4. One of the eels has 2HP, the others have 1HP each.

[2d6s4] = 1

Aaaaaaaaaand go!

[Rusty Tincanne]

I am happy with Marullus being the Captain again. He does have that Commander skill in case we get (a legion of) reinforcements.

Sgeven, if they have a set disposition, what was your die roll for?

[C. Steven Ross]

Set dispo for one creature, and there are three of them, so I added two helping dice.

[Marullus]

Okay. Ulrich has Health 3.
There are three companions, none Afraid, all have Fighter so can help with a skill, so that is +3D.
Ulrich has Fighter 3, so that is +3D. Ulrich is adding his Defender trait, per the narrative. +1D. Total for self, +4D.

Helpers [1d6] = 5[1d6] = 1[1d6] = 5
Fighter - [1d6] = 3[1d6] = 4[1d6] = 5 Trait -[1d6] = 3

Disposition: 7

[thesniperknight1]

Kill them all Ulrich!!

[C. Steven Ross]

Cool! Next we declare weapons for this round (set of 3 actions) of the Conflict.

One eel, lets call her Mama Eel, has 2HP and will use the weapon lithe body to gain +2D on Maneuver. The other two eels with use sharp teeth to gain +1D to Attack.

Now you guys declare what weapons you are using (mace, shield, sword, etc.). If you have a sword, you should declare what action type gets the +1D bonus for the Conflict.

[Enoch]

Norgrim brings his crossbow to his shoulder, a hungry grin on his face. "Piss on your 'humanity', Garen. I'm not even a human, an' your so-called morals don't bother me any. We're not much better than tomb robbers anyway, an' you're one of us. 'Sides, the strong take advantage of the weak--it's the way it's always been. I don't have to like it, but it does no good to hide your eyes in yer beard and pretend it ain't that way."

To be explicit, I'll be using my crossbow this round.

[Marullus]

Ulrich: Sword
Norgrim: Crossbow
Rand: Torch or Mace
Garen Torch or Grappling Hook

It says a Torch can be used as a weapon but doesn't specify how it helps in a conflict. Mace seems to specify that it doesn't help in a conflict, which is weird. What is the impact of a Torch-weapon? Can Garen provide creative use for a grappling hook for maneuver or feint?

[C. Steven Ross]

Torches and maces give the benefit of not fighting Unarmed, which would impose a -1D penalty.

Grappling hooks are not weapons, not much leeway there.

Maces are also better against chain and plate armor.

[Rusty Tincanne]

i recall that torches are basically jabbed at opponents, which carries the possibility of extinguishing the flame. And that is on dry land. I cannot see how the torch would last long if he was using it to attack under water. Maybe he should stick to maneuvering, using the torch to provide better light for us and blind the eels. Don't know if that would grant Garen a bonus to his rolls though.

Is there a way for someone to sit the conflict out?

Enoch, great retort!

Rand withdrew his mace, ready to club the beasts if the drew near him.

if someone can sit out the conflict and Superknight/Garen wants to have a go, Rand will be happy to hold the sack.

[C. Steven Ross]

Ulrich already enlisted the help of everyone in the group, so you are all in this.

If he hadn't, you could designate people to simply not participate. That happens a lot when you have a magician in the group and blades get drawn.

[Rusty Tincanne]

looking at the skills for a drive off conflict, I see hat defending and maneuvering use Will. Rand has a Will 5, so it seems better to use him for those actions rather than have Garen weaponless, using a Will 4. So if Steven is okay with that, I will change my weapon to nothing. (Holding a torch and a sack). I also have a -1D for the backpack when fighting.

Seeing Garen wading with both hands full, Rand grew concerned for the urchin's safety. He moved to his side, holstered his mace and took the sack. "You'll be wanting your knife here."

[Rusty Tincanne]

as an aside, next Ike we have a conflict, we should look more carefully at how disposition is generated. Enoch would have rolled 4D (fighter) and added 5s (Health 5), plus dice from three helpers.

Of course the roller seems to hate him at times...

[C. Steven Ross]

Backpacks increase the Obstacles in Fighter tests, but yeah we're good.

So we have Enoch with a crossbow, Rand going unarmed, and Ulrich using his sword.

What benefit (+1D) does the sword provide in this conflict? You can choose any, but you have to keep it for the conflict.

Is Garen going unarmed as well? Do we have two torches accounted for?