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Situation: The company has entered the Hall of Ghosts

Encounter/Combat Advantage dice:
• Hathcyn 0/0 die

Situation Modifiers:
• The Hall has Initiative
• Encounter Tolerance is 1/5

Physical Modifiers (complications):
• none

PC/NPC		PARRY :+~:		ARMOUR :<>:		HOPE :vv:		END :<3:		STANCE
Anar Arbogast Grimbeorn Hathcyn	• • • •	5 (shield n/a) 6 (shield +3) 4/7 [giant strength] (shield +4) 4 (shield n/a)	• • • •	3d (helm n/a) 2d (helm +1) 2d (helm n/a) 2d (helm n/a)	• • • •	8/8 11/16 5/12 10/13	• • • •	12/30 WEARY 13/26 WOUNDED 15/31 MISERABLE 23/29	• • • •	Defensive encounter TN encounter TN Defensive

ENEMY		PARRY		ARMOUR		HATE		END	NOTES
Hall of Ghosts	•	6	•	2d	•	2/10	•	31/40	• none

STANCES

Forward - action order 1 Close combat TN 6+ parry Forward Stance maneuvers (http://rpg.avioc.org/webimages/lotr/tor/forward.jpg)

:<>:

Open - action order 2 Close combat TN 9+ parry Open Stance maneuvers (http://rpg.avioc.org/webimages/lotr/tor/open.jpg)

:<>:

Defensive - action order 3 Close combat TN 12+ parry Defensive Stance maneuvers (http://rpg.avioc.org/webimages/lotr/tor/defense.jpg)

:<>:

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 (http://rpg.avioc.org/webimages/lotr/tor/rear.jpg)

:<>:

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

---

Hathcyn entered the longhouse.

CLUNK!

And there it was - the sound he had faintly heard from without when each of his companions had entered. He was in complete darkness, but now there was silence. No longer did the cries of others whisper at his ears.

The Beorning staved around with his spear to see if he was in jeopardy of tripping, but the floor seemed bare. He made no sound as he moved forward into the dark, but his mind raced as to what was happening and where his friends had gone.

Slowly, before him, a faint lamplight began to grow. No...it was a hearth and a small fire burned within casting flickering shadows all around. In the light, he could now see furnishings scattered round. The figure of a woman was there - her back to him. She sat upon the floor and cradled something within her arms. Hathcyn heard her voice - it was familiar.

"Eat, baby, please." The voice was full of earnest and sadness. "It is not much but it is something. You must stay strong. It will be spring soon...the men shall return and they will have fresh game."

A heavy sob.

"Please...eat."

Hathcyn could see that her hand was filled with dirt, or sawdust?

The child's body stiffened with a spasm and she held it tighter as it convulsed. That was when the now stretched out form was visible - a small boy - and slowly it turned to look towards Hathcyn. The Beorning saw two, milky-white, dead eyes stare into his own.

The woman became suddenly aware of him, too. She turned towards him and he recognized her feral face. It was Ubhala, his Lady Thornapple, and she held her dying son, Roderic.

"YOU!" she hissed. "You left us! You left me to this! He is gone! I hate you!"

Letting the boy's body fall clumsily from her arms, the thing that was once Ubhala raced at Hathcyn with death in her eye.

:ooc: One quick test...

FEAR
TN 16 valour 1d

:ooc: Yikes! An :~~:!

Well, I hope you enjoy Iceland, Tom, because your boy, Hathcyn, is not enjoying his little piece of horror!  >:D  ;D

He cannot use any Hope in this encounter while he is daunted, and I think I am going to say he has a Bout of Madness in this particular instance.

 :ooc: yeah, that roll is wxactly what I expected.

Hathcyn saw the beast, he saw the vision, but he knew nothing. He descended into mindless wrathful violence. He tore at his clothes, he pulled at his beard, he foamed at the mouth near incoherant. Then the spear settled in both of his hands and he raged at any and everything without thought, without care, without reason.


 :ooc: take it away Doug!

Ubhala came at him and Hathcyn spat at her with words cruel, "When I found you, you and your whelp were lost with nothing! Woeful of a dead husband and father! Scared of losing thy precious animals! Nothing, I say! You were nothing! It was me that gave you back your life, wench!"

In his spiteful, feral, attack, Hathcyn could not hear Ubhala giggling to herself at his words. Nor could he see the boy sit upright on the floor and leer at them both with a horrid smile upon his face.

The spectral woman slashed at him, even as his spear stabbed towards her heart.

:ooc: Okay - the house will have initiative each combat round. Your punishment for this bout of madness will be that Hathcyn is in a Forward stance and he negates his first attack. It essentially is wild.

Also, he gains a permanent Shadow point and gains the Spiteful flaw.

Claws - the woman's hands are terrible claws...
TN 10 claws 1d+8

:dmg: 4   edge: :~~:  injury: 14

:ooc: Hatcyn suffers 4 :<3: loss

:ooc: ROUND 2

As the house has the initiative on everyone, let me do the next round of attacks and you guys can then give me your actions.

We will not be doing individual rounds in this thread, but I will header my post within each with the current round number.

Hathcyn has recomposed himself after his spiteful wrath, and you now have control again Tom. I am going to assume he moves to at least Open. Let me know if you want differently.

The ghoulish woman attacks Hathcyn again...
TN 13 claws 1d+8

:dmg: 4   edge: :~~:   injury: 14

Hathcyn feels the claws rake his leather shirt, even as he calms and and is able to understand his situation. This time the fiend was unable to draw blood.

Hathcyn may have been calm, but it was not the calm of reason it was the calm of battle. He guaged his foe oblivous of his surroundings or any other intellectual understanding of what was transpiring.
He stepped back, leveled his great spear and struck again.

:ooc: Hathcyn's strike would ordinarily have hit, but the Hall's Great Might ability reduces the level of success by one - a basic success becomes a miss - and the Hall suffers no damage. 

Hathcyn roars as he strikes, plunging his spear through the ribcage of the false Ubhala.  The ghastly spectre only laughs, however, the sound emerging as the unclean bubbling of foetid waters.  Holding the young Beorning's eyes, she takes a step forward, and another, the shaft of the spear jerking in Hathcyn's hands as she approaches, forcing her body further and further down its length... 


:ooc: ...and attacking once she's in range.
the Hall
TN 10 claws 1d+8

:00: 1d12 : 12, total 12
Rolled 1d6+8 : 1 + 8, total 9

:dmg:4 edge :g: injury 14

:ooc: No injury to Hathcyn, though.  Want to describe how he avoids it and responds, Tom?

:ooc: Another excellent set of posts.

I might just retire! ;)

As Paul said, give your return actions for this Round 3 and then I will start Round 4.

With the specter anchored to the spear he used his stance as fulcrum and launched her away from him. Her grasp reached out for him but missed. Tossed aside she sprung up with unearthly agility and throwing her head back laughed as she came at him again.

He squared off and slashed the blade of his spear at the spectre again.

:ooc: That's a hit that will stick... if you feel like spending A Hope point.

 :vv: probably should, this one may not go well for the fellowship.

:ooc: I am not seeing the need for a :vv:

The result is a 15 :%: success (Forward stance 9+ Parry 6), which becomes just a success for 9 :<3: loss to the Hall.

If you see otherwise, Paul, chime in and let me know.

:ooc: Whoops!  I missed the six that he rolled. 

ROUND 4

With a shriek Ubhala staggered backwards and fell to a knee. Her body now had a cruel opening just below her navel, and she held it with both hands.

From behind them a voice emanated from the child. It was deep and angry - a man's voice - and the hairs rose on Hathcyn's neck to hear such a voice come from the boy.

"Kill him! Kill them all! They must stay with us! They must be ours!"

Though it chilled his heart to hear, Hathcyn could hear an urgency in the voice. The man only barely noticed as the form of Ubhala jolted up to rake her clawed hands at his groin.

:ooc: I have moved Hathcyn into a Defensive stance

Claws rake
TN 16 claws 1d6+6

:dmg: 4   edge: :~~:  injury: 14

 :ooc: i thought due to the bout of madness he had to stay in an open stance?

Hathcyn heard the words and saw the action, but it was unclear if he really understood what was going on.

"Foul bitch and your whelp, it is only through the sweat of my brow and the work of my back that you have lived this long. You'll get no other kindness from this world and you'll be hungry and tired, and die early cruel deaths. Your husband was the lucky one when he died, and so escaped your vile grasping hands."