Man, imagine being such a dick that being kicked in the balls by a teenage girl in public is a tale they're going to keep retelling(thats the drip I figure) and also made the smith happy enough to give away some fairly valuable goods.
Also, judging by the Standstill, it was executed so perfectly, if it was a movie they'd pause the scene and pan around to get that single perfect moment on tape.
So, as an exercise, I decided to compare Halla (with a little speculation as to what she'll have by 16) to your typical 20 year old Norseman:
Average Stats: Hamr 5-6 (7 isn't terribly rare), Hugr 4-6, Orthstirr 40-60, very few have their Fylgja unlocked Halla Stats: Hamr 5, Hugr 6, Orthstirr 46 (at least 49 by 16, maybe more), Fylgja 4,
Here, Halla is about average, maybe a little higher but only a very little...more Hugr than Hamr focused, as one might expect, but solidly within the normal range. She does also have a Fylgja, which is rare and worth bearing in mind.
Average Combat Pool, Tricks, and Hugareida: 15-25 Combat Pool, 8-15 Tricks (not counting skill tricks), 1 Mastered Trick, 0-1 Hugareida (having one isn't uncommon, but isn't universal either) Halla Combat Pool, Tricks, and Hugareida: 26 Combat Pool (likely 27-29 by the time we hit 16), 13 Tricks (including Leaping Cleave and Halting Vortex...maybe more like 15 by the time we hit 16 years old, counting the hypothetical Dodge trick we're looking for and exploding charm), 0 Mastered Tricks, 1 Hugareida (Level 2),
Here, Halla looks significantly better. Her combat pool is well above average, she has the high end of total tricks, and she has a well developed hugareida. She is a well above average warrior even by the standards of those 4 years older than her. No Mastered tricks, but her good Hugareida and higher combat pool generally more than make up for it. Particularly our Hugareida, which allows some flatly broken defensive advantages that I think probably win most fights with our peers if we're willing to utilize them.
Average Skill Ratings: 2 in most combat skills, 4-5 in their highest, 3-4 in non-combat skills, maybe 5-6 if they specialize, 7 in Labor or Farmwork (which is just ludicrously high...as a PC, I will note that we should never try and duplicate that 7 at these stat ratings, raising a skill above the stat it is associated with is basically always a flatly terrible choice mechanically since the costs are the same...like, Hamr 6, Labor 7 and Hamr 7, Labor 6 are exactly the same number of successes to reach, and the latter is better in almost every way. This isn't a complaint about the NPCs, their priorities are different than ours, just a note we shouldn't follow in their footsteps). Halla Skill Ratings: 2 in most combat skills, 3 in the highest few, 1-3 in non-combat skills. 0 in Labor and Farmwork (though we may get Labor to 1-2 before we hit 16).
And finally, here, we see where Halla's inexperience comes to the fore, as her non-combat skill set is still much more that of a 16 year old than a more experienced person (she does solidly hit the 16 year old benchmark here, aside from in Farmwork and Labor). She's also actually probably on par with most Hugr 4-5 twenty year olds in most Hugr skills just due to stat advantage, so in practice she's at least average here if not exceptional, except for Sailing (which is at 0, though that's probably expected of a brand new raider) Overland (still only at 1), and Labor (a 0 at the moment), where she'll likely be the weak link in any warband she joins. We probably want to work on Overland and Labor once we have a few dice to spare from boss fight prep. She's also behind on Farmwork, but that's of limited use while raiding and we can work on it after we get back.
EDIT: Actually, speaking of which: Hefty-Halter Chop is basically a defense plus a disarm attempt of sorts, yeah? What happens if you use it on something without weapons like a bear? Do they take damage if it succeeds?
Oh, and importantly for turn planning, does putting orthstirr into the Fylgja Command skill help with our owl's spell-gacha roll? Like, is that roll raw Fylgja or is it a Command roll?
Right, that makes sense...but what happens when it's used vs. someone without a weapon? Like, it targets the weapon attacking you, but if a wolf is biting you...the weapon is their head. Do you hit them in the head for damage on a successful defense or what?
Cool. Just checking...I for one would've felt real silly if we could get 3 extra dice on all our spell acquisition rolls and just didn't get those because we didn't know.
It's going to be nice to have the bandwidth to start pushing our skills now that we've gotten our attributes up to the end of the low-hanging fruit tier.
Oh yeah, would we be able to commit to poking the pod next turn? Since we've gotten an omake writer to commit a bonus die to it, which means it cannot fail to get the +1 success needed?
EDIT: Oh yeah! Something else comes to mind @Imperial Fister , would we be able to use Standstill in order to develop a superior movement technique? If we can freeze the air or parts of the ground, we can use that to create platforms to bounce off of, allowing for double-jumps or improving burst movement by temporarily giving us greater friction, allowing for more power to be exerted safely. At the very least, a double-jump should be possible, right?
It's going to be nice to have the bandwidth to start pushing our skills now that we've gotten our attributes up to the end of the low-hanging fruit tier.
Sadly, for the next two turns, I think we need to focus on Tricks due to the boss fight. Specifically, I think we need to hit Refined in Halting Vortex with absolute certainty and it's still 5 successes away...I'm tentatively planning 8 dice into that this coming turn to try and ensure it (and as many as necessary the next turn if that doesn't work), and we want to get to at least Rough in Explosive Charm so that we can still improve our skill set beyond that even if we have to use it in that fight. So that's a fair number of additional dice.
We'll definitely also be raising skills, but I think we need to get through the boss fight before we can focus as hard on it as we'd really prefer.
Oh yeah, would we be able to commit to poking the pod next turn? Since we've gotten an omake writer to commit a bonus die to it, which means it cannot fail to get the +1 success needed?
EDIT: Oh yeah! Something else comes to mind @Imperial Fister , would we be able to use Standstill in order to develop a superior movement technique? If we can freeze the air or parts of the ground, we can use that to create platforms to bounce off of, allowing for double-jumps or improving burst movement by temporarily giving us greater friction, allowing for more power to be exerted safely. At the very least, a double-jump should be possible, right?
Right, that makes sense...but what happens when it's used vs. someone without a weapon? Like, it targets the weapon attacking you, but if a wolf is biting you...the weapon is their head. Do you hit them in the head for damage on a successful defense or what?
I'm gonna say yes, it does deal damage, but tentatively. On something like a animal or monster, sure, not so much on a Norseman (but only because they're not very likely to attack you unarmed)
Oh yeah, would we be able to commit to poking the pod next turn? Since we've gotten an omake writer to commit a bonus die to it, which means it cannot fail to get the +1 success needed?
...I'm gonna have to say no, it's already stretched a lot with letting you pre-emptively put orthstirr into your skills in the off-chance they rank up. I'll let you mess with the explosive script as a free action the turn after, though.
EDIT: Oh yeah! Something else comes to mind @Imperial Fister , would we be able to use Standstill in order to develop a superior movement technique? If we can freeze the air or parts of the ground, we can use that to create platforms to bounce off of, allowing for double-jumps or improving burst movement by temporarily giving us greater friction, allowing for more power to be exerted safely.
And yeah it does. But, of course, one of your tricks will also strip all of their Reinforce-Shield layers should they have it.
Whoops.
I'm gonna say yes, it does deal damage, but tentatively. On something like a animal or monster, sure, not so much on a Norseman (but only because they're not very likely to attack you unarmed)
...I'm gonna have to say no, it's already stretched a lot with letting you pre-emptively put orthstirr into your skills in the off-chance they rank up. I'll let you mess with the explosive script as a free action the turn after, though.
Absolutely. Other examples could include making a parachute-like trick or something to glide with
Nice, would those be Overland Tricks in general that depend on having a certain Hugareida or would it just be Hugareida? What kind of benefits would we expect from having improved mobility like that?
Glima and Throwing are both definitely on the list (Throwing because it applies to Inertia-Arresting Throw, potentially our axe, and our forthcoming grenades), yes. Tricks probably go on the back-burner a bit post boss fight, at least for the most part, so we can focus on skills, though we'll probably still work on a couple ad 1d6 a turn.
I'm gonna say yes, it does deal damage, but tentatively. On something like a animal or monster, sure, not so much on a Norseman (but only because they're not very likely to attack you unarmed)
...I'm gonna have to say no, it's already stretched a lot with letting you pre-emptively put orthstirr into your skills in the off-chance they rank up. I'll let you mess with the explosive script as a free action the turn after, though.
Nice, would those be Overland Tricks in general that depend on having a certain Hugareida or would it just be Hugareida? What kind of benefits would we expect from having improved mobility like that?
Just hugareida. And all kinds of benefits. I'll let you speculate and theorize on more !!FUN!! uses of the various movement tricks, but I'll supply one possibility; walls can kindly get screwed
Just hugareida. And all kinds of benefits. I'll let you speculate and theorize on more !!FUN!! uses of the various movement tricks, but I'll supply one possibility; walls can kindly get screwed
We do want that quite a bit, yeah. I'm putting it on the trick list for post boss-fight stuff (along with a trick to increase our eyesight...the'1 orthstirr Dodge trick' is also sort of on that list, though depending on rolls we may try and pick it up to at least Rough pre boss fight).
EDIT: Oh yeah! Something else comes to mind @Imperial Fister , would we be able to use Standstill in order to develop a superior movement technique? If we can freeze the air or parts of the ground, we can use that to create platforms to bounce off of, allowing for double-jumps or improving burst movement by temporarily giving us greater friction, allowing for more power to be exerted safely. At the very least, a double-jump should be possible, right?
If standstill can create solid spaces, that should be possible, but if it stays the inertia arresting stuff...
Well, we can still try going the Spiderman route with Karnax's idea of using a rope/chain to freeze it with standstill.
Sadly, for the next two turns, I think we need to focus on Tricks due to the boss fight. Specifically, I think we need to hit Refined in Halting Vortex with absolute certainty and it's still 5 successes away...I'm tentatively planning 8 dice into that this coming turn to try and ensure it (and as many as necessary the next turn if that doesn't work), and we want to get to at least Rough in Explosive Charm so that we can still improve our skill set beyond that even if we have to use it in that fight. So that's a fair number of additional dice.
Just hugareida. And all kinds of benefits. I'll let you speculate and theorize on more !!FUN!! uses of the various movement tricks, but I'll supply one possibility; walls can kindly get screwed
Parkour!!!
Joke aside, guess that's how Steinar jumped from home to Halfdan's as a fiery meteor, huh?
Gotta say though, wall running sounds interesting.
8 dice average just over 5 successes. 7 dice actually average less than 5. Also, this is definitely in our top two Tricks to Master along with Reinforce Shield so excess successes, if they occur, will get to be used fairly quickly in the grand scheme of things.
I wonder why the blacksmith sells raw materials and not just finished products. It sounds like a rather strange business model, more like the logic of a video game.
I wonder why the blacksmith sells raw materials and not just finished products. It sounds like a rather strange business model, more like the logic of a video game.
He may have to. It sounds like people do a lot of their own crafting, including smithing, which means you only go to the blacksmith for a finished product when you want a really well-made one (or one you lack the skill to make)...with a clientele of only a couple hundred people at most (the town is about 70...they may come a bit more often since it's more convenient) that doesn't happen often enough to support someone on its own, but the blacksmith presumably also has a hookup to get iron, so he also sells that at a markup, which is enough to keep him going between more expensive commissions.
Scheduled vote count started by Imperial Fister on Mar 13, 2023 at 8:34 PM, finished with 54 posts and 7 votes.
[X] Plan: Making Good on our Loans
-[X] Yes
--[X] Sell: 2 Basic Work Knives, 1 Decent Toolkit (+3.5 Silver)
--[X] 32 Oz of Bog Iron (2 Silver) (For feeding Sten's forge)
--[X] 48 Oz of Bog Iron (3 Silver) (for Personal Use)
-[X] There's somebody telling tales in the Headsman's hall, go listen for a spell
[X] Plan: Making Good on our Loans
-[X] Yes
--[X] Sell: 2 Basic Work Knives, 1 Decent Toolkit (+3.5 Silver)
--[X] 32 Oz of Bog Iron (2 Silver) (For feeding Sten's forge)
--[X] 48 Oz of Bog Iron (3 Silver) (for Personal Use)
-[X] There's somebody telling tales in the Headsman's hall, go listen for a spell
0~0~0
Drumming your fingers on the table, you quickly run through the financial calculations once more. Nodding, you fork over the five ounces of silver and shake hands with the smiling smith.
"Good doing business with you," he says as he finishes stringing the iron up. You slip the thread over your head and wear it like a sash of dangling iron bars. The iron will definitely draw the eye, but how else are you supposed to carry it? You need your hands free for violence!
Resting Sagaseeker on your shoulder, you stroll away from the stall with your purse five ounces lighter yet your burden eighty ounces heavier. It, of course, is a burden you are perfectly content with bearing. After all, you need to pay Sten back!
'Good thinking, Halla. Though he is your brother, he shouldn't be expected to provide for your every need.' You find yourself walking with a lighter step and a cheery whistle on your lips. The tune is familiar to your ears; the same tune that Jerasmus whistles whenever he works.
Now then, with your shopping done, what else will you do with your day?
Before you can start thinking in any real capacity, however, you pass by the Headsman's hall and find yourself listening to the muffled-yet-rhythmic sounds of a skald at work. Your heart skips a beat as your mouth begins to water at the scent of honeyed mutton filling your nose. You breath deep of the sweet smell and your feet guide you through the dark wood doors of the Headsman's hall.
The inside of the Headsman's hall isn't outstandingly grand, at least compared to the storied halls of the Warbands and Jarls, but it brings a comfortable, homey sense to those inside its walls. Six pillars keep the roof steady and a large, stone-based hearth warms the building with a crackling fire.
The Headsman, the uncle of the Jarl of Jurgdby, is a middle-aged man with streaks of gray in his braided beard. Wrinkles creep in the corners of his eyes, though they still hold the fierceness of his youth. A great cloak of bear fur is draped about his heavyset shoulders.
His name is Dorri Rattlespear and he and his sons are the sole members of Jarl standing in a village of Karls and Thralls. You can sense his eyes on you as you bathe in the warmth of his hall.
You take one of the seats at the edge of the hall, next to a younger warrior sleeping off more than a few horns of alcohol — no doubt one of Dorri's hirdmen. The hird, of course, being the armed men that accompany Jarls in their day-to-day lives as well as into battle. He must be relatively new and you expect that he'll be getting a chewing out once all the tales are told.
And speaking of telling tales, the skald launches into another story. Even though your seat is far away from the graybeard storyteller, you still hear his honey voice perfectly. It's your eyesight that suffers at distance, not your hearing, though his talent for speaking surely plays a role.
The tale begins as many tales do, with a man killing another man. However, the first man, instead of facing his punishment head-on as is expected of all men of standing, fled and ran from his righteous pursuers. He was declared an Outlaw and was now on the run.
The Outlaw retreated and ran like a coward, always staying just one or two steps ahead of the vengeful pursuers. He used trickery and hid from them wherever he found them, always refusing to stand and fight like a man.
Until one day he found a secret carved into the bones of the earth. A recipe for evil creations of malformed and warped form and demeanor. Using these secrets, the Outlaw crafted monsters from the flesh of animals to aid him in his endeavor.
The tale ends with the Outlaw harassing the heroes, only to be impaled on the horns of one of his own creations.
For some reason, you feel the skald's eyes on you as the final words are spoken. By the time the hall clears out, you fail to find the storyteller among those leaving or those who stay behind.
You're left standing outside the hall as snow begins to fall and the sun begins to shine it's evening glow.
What do you do now?
[ ] There's some kind of a commotion in the middle of Asvir, go check it out
-(It'll be nighttime by the time you get back home)
[ ] Go home
0~0~0
AN: Not a lot to say here other than offering a thank you to Alectai for adding in the listening in the hall part of the plan. A reward dice for you, as thanks for sparing me from having to write an extended shopping scene.
No moratorium and a short voting period.
Edit: Internal Screaming as I once again forget to correct the italics
Hrm. The use of the phrase "It'll be night time by the time you get back home" worries me, we definitely don't want to be caught out alone in the dark. I'd like to check out the commotion, but I want to risk a night battle even less.
