Actual Date: 1/12/2025
Game Date: 12/12/2024
Weather: Cold, clear, dry.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (301 points)
Brother Quinn, human initiate (125 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (335 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (316 points)
Amlaric, human squire (125 points)
Persistance Montgomery (303 point knight)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (306 points)
Leon the Eye, human archer (125 points)
Aaron, Brandon, Cedric, Dortmund, Ernie, Ferd, Grunlark, and Hansel, human guards (62 points)
Bullworth and Oxford, human laborers (62 points)
Honest Charles LeGrand, human squire (125 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (298 points)
We picked up where we left off.
Hannari opened up with first one, and then another, smoke nageteppo to mask the melee from the Iron Witch and the Stone Missile she was holding. The PCs kept banging away on the mechanical knights. The Iron Witch called, "To me!" and those knights that could disengage (most of them) just turned and ran back through the smoke to her.
The PCs formed a rough line . . . very rough. Hannari pushed around the flank along with Thor and they ate the blast effect of a 12d Explosive Stone Missile that dealt 60 damage on the impact hex. Then the knights were ordered to "Charge!"
After that, the PCs just kept fighting away, taking down a few of the knights. Thor and Hanari were pushed to one side, the others to the other side. Vlad decided to give up just causing minor damage (if that) to the knights and engage in melee, hoping to use up blocks and parries and force the knights to their (hopefully) lower Dodge. However, he immediately was hit in the hand and it was crippled. Brother Quinn healed it right up but the HT roll for recovery was a miss . . . it's a lasting (1d months) cripple. Unable to use his bow or his hatchet, he tried to just attract hits. He called for a couple of hirelings to come forward, and Chop called for everyone to come.
The brawl continued, and the Iron Witch moved closer. Duncan hit near her with a 4d Explosive Lightning that failed to stun her, just as Percy was rushing toward her. She kept her knights pulling back to fend him off, tossed a massive 18d Stone Missile into the back ranks of the PCs, and killed three of the guards and wounded Chop badly and finished off Honest Charles. Amlaric was badly wounded and kept fighting, but he can't hit hard enough to really bother the knights. He'd fall unconscious a few seconds later. But eventually the Iron Witch got off a successful Flesh to Stone on Percy and he failed to resist, and the knights pushed through.
Chop healed himself with a Gem of Healing, turned Percy back to flesh, then healed a bunch of the PCs at range, and then healed himself up to full.
Percy kept bashing the knights. Thor lost his sword to a critical block and swapped to his long knife to try to hack necks that way. Hannari used throws to put a few knights down, and then Hannari rushed the Iron Witch, only to fail to grab her as she put up Shield 6. Next, she cast Flesh to Stone and beat Hanari's resistance. Percy cracked her three times, missed once, was dodged once, and hit her on the right arm . . . for very little effect.
Shortly after she pushed out of the corner she was in and three of her least damaged knights formed an arc in front of her. Others are scattered around, in varying states of disrepair. One at least just froze up after briefly being stunned by Lightning. Still more have inoperable arms, legs, or feet. Thor is fighting one of the still-intact knights. Percy is moving towards the Iron Witch. Vlad is unable to fight at the moment, a couple of the NPCs ran off, Chop is low on power, Duncan temporarily out of ideas, and no one else up to fight.
That's were we left off, with both sides badly mauled, at the beginning of the 35th second of combat.
Notes:
- Loyalty rolls matter. A couple of the hirelings blew their rolls and fled . . . we'll see if they regroup and come back.
- The players are frustrated - that's a direct quote. The mechanical knights are fast, skilled, reasonably strong (2d-ish damage), lacking in vulnerable areas . . . they're tough to put down. The Iron Witch is fast, has solid DR, lots of power for spells, spells . . . not a "rush and kill" wizard. So the usual tactics aren't working, and bum rush the wizard isn't an option. They did a bunch of "mobility kills" on feet and legs, but the kneeling and sitting knights kept fighting.
- The PCs aren't in a terrible spot, but they sure aren't in a good one. A post-session debrief revealed an issue - they'd wanted to pile on one knight at a time, and literally only one knight in all of the turns of combat we played had to defend against two PCs at once. They'd wanted to form a line and force the enemy to come to them, and did not do that, either. It's too late for the latter but not for the former.
- MVP was Chop for Stone to Flesh and Major Healing a lot of fighters back into the fray.
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