Orcs, Wargs and Stones - Round 1

[Eclecticon]

Situation: The Fellowship has run a raiding party of orcish warg-riders to ground, only to find that they have Beorning captives in their midst. 

Combat Advantage dice:
• Esgalwen 0/1
• Gwaithlim 0/0
• Hathcyn 1/2
• Luindîs 0/0

Situation Modifiers:
• The enemy has the initiative.

Physical Modifiers (complications):
• The stony ground rises up to the orcs' position several score paces away.  Ranged attacks against the orcs are at +2 difficulty. 
• The orcs are shooting from amid their captives.  Any on a ranged attack against them will hit a captive.

PC/NPC

PARRY

ARMOUR

HOPE

END

STANCE

STATUS

Esgalwen Gwaithlim Hathcyn Luindîs

• 6 ( n/a) • 7 ( n/a) • 7 ( n/a) • 5 ( n/a)

• 2d+1 ( n/a) • 3d ( n/a) • 3d ( +4) • 1d

• 14/15 • 10/13 • 10/14 • 9/12

• 17/27 • 30/30 • 27/29 • 20/27

Defensive Defensive Defensive Open

WOUNDED

ENEMY		PARRY		ARMOUR		HATE		END		NOTES
Sprinting warg Scar-nosed warg Large-eared warg Silent warg Gnashing warg Slope-shouldered warg Whooping orc Torn-mouthed orc Black-helmed orc Thick-muscled orc		• 5 • 5 • 5 • 5 • 5 • 5 • 4 • 4 • 4 • 4		• 2d • 2d • 2d • 2d • 2d • 2d • 2d+4 • 2d+4 • 2d+4 • 2d+4		• 0 • 0 • 1 • 1 • 1 • 0 • 3 • 3 • 3 • 3		• 12 • 0 • 3 • 12 • 12 • 0 • 16 • 16 • 16 • 16		vs Luindîs DEAD vs Hathcyn vs Hathcyn vs Gwaithlim DEAD vs Esgalwen vs Gwaithlim vs Hathcyn vs Luindîs

STANCES

Forward - action order 1 Close combat TN 6+ parry Forward Maneuvers

Open - action order 2 Close combat TN 9+ parry Open Maneuvers

Defensive - action order 3 Close combat TN 12+ parry Defensive Maneuvers

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

[Eclecticon]

In a panting, snarling fury, the wargs reach the warriors of the vales, the Beornings felling several with spears well-cast as the beasts leap for the kill.  Then the melee is all blood and chaos as each fighter struggles for their own survival and orcish arrows tear the air about them.  Esgalwen, half-standing, is forced to duck down again as the shaggy body of the lead warg sails over her head to land before Luindîs.  Barely have her hands taken up Nimronyn once again before another, its nose scarred from some terrible wound in the past, is upon her in a frenzy of fur and fang. 

Hathcyn finds himself forced some distance away from his companions, two wargs working with dark cunning to drive him from those who might aid him.  Gwaithlim is forced to set his bow hurriedly down between two stones and draw his sword so quickly that he cuts through his scabbard and it is only at the last possible moment that he saves his own thumb.  He steps aside just in time to save his hand from a gnashing, crashing bite that may have torn it limp and bleeding from his wrist.  Then, just as for the others, he is battling for his survival, each next heartbeat to be won from a relentless foe...


The enemies attack! 
Sprinting warg (TN 17)

1d12 : 8, total 8
Rolled 2d6+3 : 2, 5 + 3, total 10

Scar-nosed warg (TN 18)

1d12 : 10, total 10
Rolled 2d6+3 : 3, 6 + 3, total 12

Large-eared warg (TN 19)

1d12 : 12, total 12
Rolled 2d6+3 : 1, 2 + 3, total 6

Silent warg (TN 19)

1d12 : 8, total 8
Rolled 2d6+3 : 6, 5 + 3, total 14

Gnashing warg (TN 19)

1d12 : 9, total 9
Rolled 2d6+3 : 1, 1 + 3, total 5

Whooping orc (TN 18)

1d12 : 12, total 12
Rolled 2d6 : 5, 3, total 8

Torn-mouthed orc (TN 19)

1d12 : 9, total 9
Rolled 2d6 : 3, 2, total 5

Black-helmed orc (TN 19)

1d12 : 7, total 7
Rolled 2d6 : 6, 4, total 10

Thick-muscled orc (TN 17)

1d12 : 5, total 5
Rolled 2d6 : 6, 1, total 7

[Eclecticon]

There is no time for Esgalwen to stand before the scarred warg is upon her, and it is all she can do to raise her left arm so that the beast must take that in its jaws rather than her throat.  Her howl of pain as it bites down through her bow-arm bracer and sark of well-woven Dalish wool carry above even the clangour of the battle.  At the sound, Hathcyn risks a glance at his friend only for a warg, serpent-swift on silent paws, to find its way behind him and seize his booted ankle, nearly toppling him to the ground.  Stay up! is the only thing that he can hold in his head.  If you go down, they'll finish you!


Another bad round for Esgalwen, who loses six Endurance and has to make ANOTHER Protection roll (TN 14, though note that someone in Defensive stance - probably Gwaithlim per the narration above, could take the hit for her by spending a Hope point.  I'm going to make a provisional Protection roll for her - anyone who wants to try protecting her can re-roll for themselves. 

1d12 : 2, total 2
Rolled 2d6+1 : 5, 5 + 1, total 11

Hathcyn, meanwhile, just loses six Endurance.  Tom, I'll let you work his predicament into your narration.  I'm so generous. 

[Eclecticon]

That's so close!  She can make up the difference with a bonus die, or by spending a Hope point if you'd prefer to do that for some reason.  Otherwise, subject to someone else protecting her as noted above, she's going to be out of the fight and I'm sure I don't need to explain how perilous that'll be. 

[tomcat]

I will throw in the bonus die to succeed.

Fortunately for the woman of Gondor, the sturdy bracer holds against the wargs bite and she does not lose her arm. With Nimronyn gripped in her other hand, she stabs with all of her might into the beast's breast.

TN 17 longsword 5d

1d12 : 6, total 6
Rolled 5d6 : 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, total 30

10  edge: 8  injury: 16

[tomcat]

Holy wow! Or maybe that is an unholy wow!

She hits with a 36 success for 22 loss

[Eclecticon]

Say this for Esgalwen: when she stabs something, you know she damn well means to!  What a roll!

[Telcontar]

Hathcyn did not allow the immediate action to distract him from the battle at large. He knew these beasts, and while he observed how they tried to cull him from the group they would find him a difficult opponent. They also misjudged the wrath of the Beornings now that they had their quarry in their sites. Not only were the warriors of the vale springing into action, but the captives too sensed that this was their one chance at redemption.

The Longspear called out to the men and captives alike and his voice carried over the fray trying to direct the will of the fyrd into a collective being against the viscous orcs and riders.

(Spending a Battle Die to use the Command Action)

The Foresthelm was undaunted, and while the wargs tried to work him from his friends it also meant that his great spear had room to work without fear of hitting allies.

Command
Battle
This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d12 : 3, total 3
This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 3d6 : 5, 6, 1, total 12

Attack roll against the first warg
This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d12 : 6, total 6
This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 4d6 : 2, 1, 5, 1, total 9

[Telcontar]

  i was worming on the post when doug posted, dice roll was the original post

[Telcontar]

The Bannerman of Grimbeorn perhaps had tried to do too much at once. He focused his efforts on the immediate problem at hand, the two wargs before him that he had taken for granted.

[Eclecticon]

Luindîs, who had followed the Fellowship of the Helm on their grand adventure now does not see as Esgalwen spits a warg lengthways on the blade of her sword, and Hathcyn, perched on a single foot, drives his spear into the flesh of one of the wargs that beset him, the beast saving itself only by swerving sideways at the last moment so that the steel head scrapes along its ribs rather than breaking through them. 

Nor does she watch as the Beorning women, children and old men, new-roused from terror of their captors by the Longspear's words, now throw down their burdens and set upon the orcs, their hands clenched in fists or clutching whatever looted treasure is close at hand and heavy enough to bring harm. 

Rather, she uses her bow to clumsily ward away the wolf that leapt neatly over the Ranger, though it tears the weapon from her grasp just as she fumbles her sword from its sheath.  In her heart one single thought resounds: This is now how it was meant to be!  I would follow them upon their way and sing of their victories, but now the champion of the south is sore hurt and may yet die, and her friends are all of them beset!

A new and terrible understanding of her own nearness to death strikes her with enough force to chill her fingers, but still she stands, heedless of the blood that runs freely down her side.  To her mind now comes a lay of the Woodland Realm telling of the falling of Oropher upon the bleak plain of Dagorlad, and though his hasty attack upon the host of Mordor was terrible in its folly, still his words bring her courage as she bellows them as loud as her throat will bear:

   Awarthon Aman an nathad Mordor
   ah an gwedhed idh remmais Gardhon!
   Min had e-Chir Mor
   sevidh galad al-thinnassen!
   Ilphen telir ni nostad a gellad!


Luindîs is trying to Rally the companions with a Song roll:

1d12 : 5, total 5
Rolled 4d6 : 6, 2, 2, 6, total 16

And for those of you who've neglected your Sindarin studies of late, a translation would be:

I renounce the Blessed Realm to redeem the Dark Land
and bind the walls of Arda. 
In place of the Dark Lord
You shall have light undiminished!
All shall fear me and rejoice!

[Eclecticon]

Looks like bringing the Elvish had an effect!  Everyone who's injured regains four Endurance. 

I'm going to hold off pulling Gwaithlim's strings for a bit to see if Matt picks up the narrative. 

[GandalfOfBorg]

Gwaithlim, aware of the carnage and keenly aware of Esgalwen's injury, reined in his steed so as to keep his friend near at hand.  His feral attackers missing both of their strikes, he keeps them at bay as well, seeking an opening to strike at the mount, a warg of great mouthing and gnashing teeth.

 
Stance: Defensive, Action: Protect Companion (Esgalwen)

 

Swords -  1d12 : 11, total 11
Rolled 3d6 : 6, 3, 2, total 11

[Eclecticon]

Just a quick note that I've assumed you're dismounted - see here where I've described the horses being behind you.  The ground's too steep and stony for mounted combat, which is why the orcs aren't riding either. 

[GandalfOfBorg]

  Ah gotcha, missed that... yes unmounted.