Next are the archers. Since there are no enemy archers, we'll be skipping them and just focusing on our own. The royal guard will be shooting flaming arrows against the Hydra, which the Hydra will defend against. It doesn't get to counterattack this turn without sacrificing its action, so this will just be determining if it's injured or not.
Well, good to know. What are you rolling with? It does seem like elves should average higher than humans for the most part, though still using the Mortal rules, obviously.
Well, good to know. What are you rolling with? It does seem like elves should average higher than humans for the most part, though still using the Mortal rules, obviously.
Well, for an average elven commander, like a 50 or so, I would roll sets of 4d5, and then add 2 to the final result for each stat to represent their large pool of experience. It's what I did for Gwai, though obviously he's X - 5 for his bonus and they're generally X - 10 (X - 5 when spellcasting is involved, since they're so magically attuned as a race).
Once you get low enough to the point of this commander and his sorceress, I'm not adding that +2 at the end. And of course, if a commander were to have a higher quality, they would increase their stats by a larger amount than 2 at the end.
And now for the largest post of the turn, the melee units. Might need to split this up for readability's sake.
First on the docket is Rising Dawn and Innocent Songbird vs. The Sorceress. The Sorceress used her action to cast a spell this turn, so this will only determine if she dodges this turn. Rising Dawn has 4 Wounds, Songbird has 5 Wounds, and the Sorceress has 4 Wounds, law of averages I guess. Songbird will go first since her Combat score is higher, so let's do some calculations!
Songbird Roll: 30 + 74 = 104
Sorceress Roll: 54 - 3 = 51
Songbird Notably Succeeds, Inflicts 1 Wound onto Sorceress (3/4 Remaining) and via soul/spell feedback, inflicts -10 to the Hydra 's next action!
Next is Rising Dawn:
Rising Dawn Roll Bonus: 8 (1/2 Sango's Martial) + 8 (Rising Dawn's Combat) + 3 (Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style) + 15 (Ulric's Blessing) = 34 * 1.5 * 1.5 * 1.5 (Might 4 > 1) = +115
Sorceress Roll Bonus: 0 (Commander's Martial) + 2 (Sorceress Combat) - 5 (Poisoned) = -3
(QM's Note: Normally, this would be a complete victory without a roll, however, due to forgetting to add in the blessing before doing the rolls, I'm instead going to just use the result as-is, applying whatever result might occur. The same applies to every roll from here on out.)
Rising Dawn Roll: 97 + 115 = 212
Sorceress Roll: 12 - 3 = 9 ULTRA CRITICAL SUCCESS! Not only does Rising Dawn disrupt the Sorceress's spell, resetting her progress, she also inflicts 3 Wounds instead of 1! (0/4 Remaining). The Sorceress is knocked out and automatically taken as a prisoner!
I'll end this post with Sondok's rolls against the Executioners. She has a staggering 9 Wounds due to her high Essence and Combat stat. The Executioners meanwhile have 3/4 Wounds Remaining when fighting against her. I wasn't sure whether their Might bonus against Infantry would apply against single characters, I initially said no, and I'll stick with it this time, but in the future that might change.
Man, getting beaten by by the mild mannered apologetic exalt with a style partially based on how diplomatic she is has got to hurt for the sorceress. I mean just getting beaten by a human is bad enough
Sango: Sondok, what did I say about leaving some of them in one piece to capture? Sondok: *picking up a dead Executioner whose head is tenuously connected to their body* See, one piece.
Alright, so I'll be making a new post here, again to break things up. Things are already going really great, so let's see if the trend continues. Next up is Chinasa + the General Troops against the Commander + the Black Guard. If the Black Guard are eliminated, that will leave the Commander exposed. In the future, I might make it so that a battle group with a powerful Commander average out their Might, but that's a thing for future me. For now, Battle Groups use their Might alone.
General Troops Roll: 40 + 50 = 90
Black Guard Roll: 40 - 3 = 37
Notable Success! 400 General Troops kill the meager 10 Black Guard, leaving the Commander exposed. In addition, the Commander is intimidated by the sudden destruction of his entire force!
Now that we have all of the Heroes out of the way, we can focus on the other stuff. Next up is the Eidolons versus the Hydra.
Eidolon Roll: 75 + 40 = 115
Hydra Roll: 10 - 3 = 7
Eidolons Win! Critical Success! Hydra is slain, and thanks to fire damage this turn, it cannot regenerate from death! (This was a lot less climactic than I thought it would be). Even better, as natural crafters, they're able to begin skinning the beast and gather at least a portion of its undamaged hide!
Gained Magical Material: Hydra Hide x1
And now, for our last fight of the turn: the Blood Apes versus the Cavalry.
Blood Ape Roll: 83 + 45 = 128
Cavalry Roll: 2 + 0 = 2
Critical Success! Not only do the Blood Apes kill all of the Cavalry, they decide to not drink the horses to death, leaving you some free horses as a prize! (The Dark Elves are obviously not spared and the Blood Apes are happy to whet their appetites.)
This battle has gone disastrously for the Dark Elves, meaning that I now am going to need to do a Morale Roll for the entire army, which is... 2 units left? Just the two heroes? I'll probably need to revise the combat rules after this. If this roll fails, the enemies will not be able to immediately flee, they have to get out of combat first before escaping. And if it DOES fail, then all units suffer -1 Quality (to a minimum of -1, in this case).
Well, Sondok is as scary as advertised, which is excellent.
From the other rolls, I think the Commander is personally alive, if surrounded by an army, the Sorceress is alive, and I'd bet the Hydra is alive, though not in great shape. I'm not sure anyone else is.
Also, I think Ulfric's +15 has not yet been applied to anything. I dunno if that changes much, though, this fight is so one-sided already.
No, given the lack of additional Might or Quality (professional regulars instead of elites), I think the Dark Elf cavalry are horseback Dark Riders, not Cold One Knights.
No, given the lack of additional Might or Quality (professional regulars instead of elites), I think the Dark Elf cavalry are horseback Dark Riders, not Cold One Knights.
Critical Success! Not only do the Blood Apes kill all of the Cavalry, they decide to not drink the horses to death, leaving you some free horses as a prize!
We'd probably try and capture the commander and sorceress alive at this point. We do need information, after all. Them surrendering seems reasonable under the circumstances, honestly.
Malekith: "I sent this guy out so that he could stop parading around a barely leashed beast in my capital, I send my guards out as insurance to put it down, and he STILL lets me down."
