Session 9 – The Prequel Continues (Part 4)

The battle of the bandits continues ….

To distract the man with an axe from killing his friend, Harvee screeched loudly and just kept attacking Helder in the face. It kept him distracted and would leave a lot of scars. Eldaria kept going toe to toe against Raimun, and tried a fancy attack to his legs. It missed horribly, as Raimun was dodging both Eldaria and boar alike. After a few swings, Raimun’s luck finally wore out and Eldaria got in a nasty cut across his chest. Grainne was able to position herself behind Raimun and started burning his back with her Flame Jet. That boar not being told different, just kept biting and goring Raimun.

After a few seconds, Eldaria tried a new tactic – talking …. But for someone who spends most of their time out in the woods, and can speak to plants better than humans, it surprisingly did not go very well. Raimun was just too much in the middle of a battle frenzy, and just spit a tooth at them. Then things turned even worse for Eldaria as they slipped in some of Raimun’s blood and their sword flew from their hand. But before too long Raimun fell unconscious from all of his wounds.

After a few moments of bewilderment, Elzy was finally no longer stunned. He elected to stay prone as he saw that Sylas engaged Helder head on. So he just began to swing wildly at Helder’s legs.

Rules Break Out:

With the knockdown of Elzy, got to introduce stunning rules, which can be deadly, but by then the bandits were outnumbered and the odds were against them.

Repeat of the Bandit stats: Helder: ST 13; DX 12; IQ 10; HT 12; BM 5; Dodge 8; Parry 10; Great Axe-14 (2d+2 sw cut); DR 1/DR 2 Torso. Raimun and Alicidas: ST 12; DX 12; IQ 9; HT 11; BM 5; Dodge 8; Parry 9; Cutlass-12 (1d+2 sw cut or 1d-1 thr imp); DR 1.

Though all of this Sylas was remembering his time as a Knight Errant fighting Parduk along the southern border of Katen. He could remember a number of battles that almost did not go his way, but in this skirmish, he was never going to even get a scratch. There was a bit of disappointment in his voice years later when he told this story. But as memories faded, and the present returned, Sylas finally got in a solid blow on Helder. The others may have never faced such a strong foe, but Sylas knew the give and take of battle. Elzy, still prone on the ground, got in a solid strike to Helder’s vitals. Helder knew this battle was going against him quickly, so decided to end it quickly by attacking Sylas’ weapon arm, but there was too much blood on the cabin floor, that he slipped and his axe fell upon the ground, not far from Eldaria’s short sword.

Sylas then held his sword pointed at Helder and told him to surrender. Helder looked around and knew that what he was getting paid wasn’t worth losing his life over. He saw both Alicidas and Raimun unconscious or dead laying upon the floor, and his trusty axe was no longer in his hand. There was a pain of regret that he did not kill one of those pesky kids, but knew his options were limited. He offered goods that he had, but never said where they were, and tells them of a letter, if they will let him go. Elzy miraculously kept his temper under control, because if he hadn’t, things might have gone differently. Sylas was more interested in turning him in, than negotiating with him. He told Helder that the only option is a lesser sentence and believes that Helder understands this. The village of Araxi was not officially under Lord Mourava’s domain, but Sylas was loyal to his new lord, and knew Lord Mourava could sort out any issues.

Grainne decided that he did not want another death on his hands, and stabilized Raimun. Had they let him be, he would have eventually died. They knocked Helder out, tying him and the other two bandits up. They took a quick look around the cabin, now that the fighting was over. It was very much a one room building with a fireplace along one wall, with pots and pans hanging on one side, while some shelves with wooden plates and bowls were on the other side. There were three cots, and one remaining good desk, where there was a letter and other writing implements upon it. In one corner, there was a small work bench with some carpentry tools, including a very nice looking saw that clearly looks designed to cut down trees.

Rules Break Out:

The carpentry tools count as a Portable Took Kit (Carpentry) worth about $250 and weighing about 21 lbs. (from LowTech). The saw is very much a lumberjack’s saw and is worth about $150. There are also a few cheap quill pens ($1; 4 pens), about a pint of ink ($2.5; 1 lb.), and some parchment ($6; 10 sheets).

The letter read:

Helder,

The first attack seems to have not gone well. We are a little disappointed, but that was a very rich farm to attack. Try another farm. Remember our lord wants to sow discord. Tempore can only fall if cracks can be found. Keep up the attacks, create those cracks, and you will be rewarded.

Raule

While others were talking and looking around, Elzy calmed the boar in the cabin down. Eventually getting him to trust him, though it will take time to train him further. For the sake of everyone, Elzy’s newest boar friend went out to boar pen outside to sleep. Elzy then decided that he needed to go find the injured boar that he saved from dying. She was still there where he left her, and still alive. He slumped next to a tree and started snoring. Meanwhile, the others let the bandits stay unconscious on the floor, and took their cots to sleep in. It had been a long day.

Session 8 – The Prequel Continues (Part 3)

The Plan

There were many paths the Heroes could have taken, but what follows was the crazy plan only a bunch of young adventurers would even dare to try.

Eldaria scouted around the farmstead discovering that it was a single house with one door, windows on three sides of the house, a chimney along one wall, and a thatched roof. Inside the fenced area, there was also a small structure that clearly housed the boars, though the only one remaining was currently inside the house. The fields around the house have clearly not been used for a couple of years, though the house seems to have been kept up.

Then they had hushed conversations about what they should do next. Elzy was for just barging in, why would you wait to hunt down these obvious troublemakers. Sylas preached being cautious. Talk with them, used the power of his Status, or at worst, just arrest them. At least, get some sleep and approach this in the morning. Eldaria, though curious, was able to reign themselves in, and let a group decision be made. Grainne, who desperately needed rest, but had never paused long enough to recover from the fight with the boars some 4 to 5 hours earlier, was feeling quite overconfident, and felt now was the time to strike. Sylas let out a large sigh, and he began to maneuver himself towards the door, because if they were going to deal with the situation now, at least do it right and announce himself.

Noticing that the boar pen was big enough for at least one human, hunched down, Elzy decided that his plan was to sneak in and sound like a dying pig to lure them out. Grainne thought to hide behind the boar pen as this plan unfolded. Eldaria then snuck up on top of the thatched hut, bow in hand to shoot anyone that was flushed out.

Elzy’s sneaking succeeded well, his attempt at sounding like a dying pig was so unbelievable that at least one of the bandits knew something was up, especially as he saw Sylas walking up to the door. The bandits had actually gone to bed, thinking the coast was clear, but Alicidas woke up quickly and saw a shadow outside the window. He began moving furniture in front of the door as Helder and Raimun began stirring. Sylas realized that what could have been a decent plan was going south very quickly, so he rushed towards the door trying to break past. It took a few seconds, but he eventually overpowered Alicidas and the desk he was trying to bar the door with.

Elzy then decided to try something else and as he knew that there was a boar inside the cabin, grunted, and commanded it to attack. Well it did, and began trying to gore Raimun. It didn’t cause much damage, but caused complete pandemonium inside the cabin. Grainne then prepared a weak version of Flame Jet and snuck around to one of the windows, eventually breaking in. Eldaria realized that no one was going to come out, and their curiosity wasn’t going to let them miss all the fun. These bandits were up to no good, so there must be something worth investigating, So they hung their bow on their back, and cleared away the thatched roof and fell down into the thick of the chaos. Elzy after smiling that his brilliant spontaneous plan worked as well as it did, drew his rapier and advanced towards the now open door. Alicidas took the brunt of his vicious attacks. Eventually retreating into the house, it did him no good as by then Grainne had gotten in and used her Flame Jet to burn him. Alicidas took one look at his scarred belly and passed out.

Rules Break Out:

Getting spells to a skill of 15 is important in GURPS. It allowed the character of Grainne (Grace) to cast a 1 point Flame Jet ahead of time and just keep it powered up.

Eldaria, after crashing down, landed right next to Raimun and began swinging their shortsword. It was turning into a bad day for Raimun with a boar out of control, and now people falling from the roof. Helder, meanwhile, was not having any of this. He grabbed his battle ax that was next to his cot, and had originally planned to just take out this pesky boar. He then had to quickly reassess the situation, and began attacking his true foes. Slyas, though, drew out his broadsword and began moving forward. This bandit could take down his friends with one swing, proving this by knocking Elzy to the ground.

Rules Break Out:

The bandits were variants of the Mutineers faced earlier in the scenario. But in this fight, I wanted to show the destructive power of axes, but also remind them that they have to be Readied. So it will take tactics to take Helder down. Helder: ST 13; DX 12; IQ 10; HT 12; BM 5; Dodge 8; Parry 10; Great Axe-14 (2d+2 sw cut); DR 1/DR 2 Torso. Raimun and Alicidas: ST 12; DX 12; IQ 9; HT 11; BM 5; Dodge 8; Parry 9; Cutlass-12 (1d+2 sw cut or 1d-1 thr imp); DR 1.