Skirmish at the Steading - Round 8

[Eclecticon]

Situation: The Company brought a raiding party of orcs to bay inside the longhouse in an isolated steading, but their attack has gone disastrously awry... 

Combat Advantage dice:
• Grimbeorn 0
• Hathcyn 0/1

Situation Modifiers:
• The company has the initiative, as the orcs have had to scramble to arm themselves

Physical Modifiers (complications):
• none
 

PC/NPC		PARRY		ARMOUR		HOPE		END		STANCE
Grimbeorn Hathcyn		4 (shield +4) 4 (shield n/a)	• •	2d (helm n/a) 2d (helm n/a)	• •	4/12 13/13	• •	18/31 18/29 WOUNDED	• •	Forward Open

ENEMY		PARRY		ARMOUR		HATE		END		NOTES
Orcish Chieftain Orc Soldier Goblin Archer Orc Soldier Orc Soldier Orc Soldier Orc Soldier Goblin Archer Goblin Archer Goblin Archer Goblin Archer Goblin Archer Goblin Archer Goblin Archer Goblin Archer Goblin Archer	• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •	7 4 2 4 4 4 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2	• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •	3d 3d 2d 3d 3d 3d 3d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d	• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •	5/5 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1	• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •	0/20 0/12 0/8 0/12 3/12 12/12 12/12 0/8 0/8 0/8 0/8 0/8 0/8 8/8 8/8 8/8	• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •	DEAD DEAD DEAD DEAD fighting Grimbeorn fighting Grimbeorn (with a bench) fighting Grimbeorn (with a bench) DEAD DEAD DEAD DEAD DEAD DEAD fighting Hathcyn fighting Hathcyn fighting Hathcyn

STANCES

Forward - action order 1 Close combat TN 6+ parry Forward Stance maneuvers

Open - action order 2 Close combat TN 9+ parry Open Stance maneuvers

Defensive - action order 3 Close combat TN 12+ parry Defensive Stance maneuvers

Rearward - action order 4 Ranged combat Must be 2 other PC's in Close Combat May not use if outnumbered 2:1 TN 12+ parry Rearward Stance maneuvers

From any Stance Escape combat Must start in Rearward or roll TN 10 + highest attribute level of opponents Athletics roll. On success, may safely flee from the scene of combat

[GandalfOfBorg]

Grimbeorn is committed to ridding his land of these scum and lashes out in a final surge.

 
Stance: Open
Action: Sweeping Blow
 

Axes -  1d12 : 3, total 3
Rolled 3d6 : 4, 2, 1, total 7

[GandalfOfBorg]

 
Use a Hope and finish this.

[Telcontar]

Hathcyn makes pause in his desth song as the refrain fades into the night. His voice hoarse and dry calls towards the longhouse.

" grim... grimbeorn..."

The call is raw, but Longspear wishes to encourage any that live that he at least still stands and is keeping retreat from the house open. Sparing but a moment he draws another long note on his ram horn.

[Telcontar]

The blade of his spear stabbed yet again. Nothing fancy, nothing awe inspiring, just a man in a fight for his life as night fell.

Rolled 1d12 : 8, total 8

Rolled 2d6 : 2, 5, total 7

[Eclecticon]

With a mighty backswing, Bear Claw crashes through the bodies of three orcs, brasting flesh and bone asunder and bringing forth piteous cries from the sole survivor.  These mix with the wordless bellows of rage from the near-score of orcs remaining, though, and new enemies rush to take the places of the fallen.  Two orcs raise up a stout wooden bench and rush the Beorning, seeking to knock him down and pin him to the blood-slick floor.

In the deepening darkness, Hathcyn finds himself aiming his spear at the gleaming eyes of the goblins, who hiss and chatter with obvious glee as the sunlight vanishes.  His spear strikes swift as a serpent, but still they caper and prance, moving for the moment not to strike, but to surround and trap him.  He hears the sound of Harhold struggling to his feet, but what can a badly-injured man do against so many?  And what will it cost him merely to make the attempt?

From all sides, the susurrant hiss of the goblins grows louder. 


Matt, I'm assuming that you meant for Grimbeorn to be in Forward stance, to pull off another sweeping blow.   The orc that survived your previous attack will dodge out of the way this round, allowing the bench-rush to happen.  Grimbeorn needs to make an Athletics roll, TN 16, to keep his feet. 

The TN for him to escape is now 17. 

Tom, the goblins aren't attacking this round either, but they're being damn creepy.  Hathcyn needs to make a Fear test, TN 14. 

Just to make sure you have the same information that your characters do, there are between six and eight goblins surrounding Hathcyn, who is Moderately Hindered (+2 to enemy's Parry scores) because of the deepening darkness.  Inside the longhouse, Grimbeorn is nearly surrounded - he's outnumbered something like twenty to one, but an exact count is impossible under the current circumstances. 

[tomcat]

I think it might be wise to escape this one...but that's just me.  

It's true what they say - never split the party! If I'd known that there were like 30+ orcs for you guys to deal with, I would have not ridden off to find the traitor.

Dice rolls on attacks and Battle have been abysmal.

[Eclecticon]

I did make that pretty clear - 'two score', I said.  Did they listen?  Noooooo, they did not.

[Telcontar]

  i was focusing on the number of combatants opposing my guy, not the total number. I guess i thought my companions had done more. Either way, the dice will fall where they may.

[Eclecticon]

Yeah, you could reasonably have expected more from your followers.  The dice fell where they did, though...

[Telcontar]

In the round set up will you give us an estimate of how many of the goblins we see facing us. I was resding the description in a literary way and looking at the situation thinking I only had three more Goblin Archers to fight. Not that there was a hoard who were taking their place as I killed them. Changes my posture and technique.

[tomcat]

Two things really stink here...

1) I think Grimbeorn might lose a lot of credibility with his people if he retreats and returns to tell of so many fallen

2) His only option to the above is to see it through, and that might be deadly for the character.

Paul, are you sure there are no Eagles high above the field? 

[Telcontar]

  Who wouldnt want to go out like Hurin Thallion?

[Eclecticon]

It's true that Grimbeorn's prestige is unlikely to survive this intact.  There will be opportunities to restore it, though - there's always another battle.

[Telcontar]

  Hathcyn is determined to hold them at bay outside for as long as he can to keep Grimbeorn from being cut off.

Round 9 let's do this!