If we do it as part of the same thing, using the Stoked Strike as our counterattack that might work, though I don't recall it actually being confirmed. If it does, that might be a good call, yeah. Hmmm. I'll add that to my question list.
It may not be the best move this turn, since as you say, they're probably not dumping their whole Stoked Pool on a Contested Movement round one, and may require time to work out the technique.
However, as a general exploit it is a handy way of avoiding massively overcommitting to a CM, yes. For some reason I think I checked it before, or included it in a plan already at some point - worth checking again though.
1) Did you already tell Eric, Sten, Asva about Dorri and Drysalt's involvement in killing dad? With, I hope, Eyetalk or something.
a) Speaking of which, do your siblings know how to read runes?
2) How much can you modify your privacy wards? Could you, for example, make it so that an invisible Fylgjur in the same room as you be unable to hear or see what is going on?
3) Speaking of which, can you use Dressed in Rags on someone (or something) else? Can you Dressed in Rags a particularly nice sword?
4) Can you modify and cast a variant Weighted on the Scales to gauge trustworthiness and if/how people are trying to deceive you?
5) Can you use Sundersight.. conceptually, like 'Long term weaknesses of this village' or 'Fracture lines in this political alliance'?
6) Do you know if Sundersight would have helped with the runic puzzle on that Scorn Pole?
After the spar, i wonder if we can talk with Brimir in private and ask him abaout Odr Cultivation. Maybe he will be willing to share some secrets with us.
Have we teached Abjorn how to read yet? Because if we haven't we could do it during the journey.
Currently, the plan is to do a literacy class for at least Abjorn and possibly others as soon as we get home. Teaching literacy in just a few days on a ship strains my personal suspension of disbelief, plus we can do it with Research Dice rather than xp at home, and it's not urgent he know on the trip itself.
Probably not the turn after, but it's certainly something we can put on the itinerary as a possibility (well, getting the experience in the first place, anyway). I'm personally dubious we can actually manifest Experiences directly in our soulscape, but it's not impossible, I guess.
#1. As asked above, how does using a Perfected Ignition Trick against someone with higher Ignition work? Do we need to assign them to other Hugareida in advance for that to be effective or what? Or does them being Perfected just mean they're fine and can ignore the 'turn off' effect of higher Hugareida?
#2. Related to question #1, what are these folks Forgefire, Firestorm, and Emberwind Hugareida levels like? Rikard's Sword level would also be good to know, though I assume it's higher than ours.
#3. Also related, can we use Firebomb Strike with Forgefire, Firestorm, and/or Emberwind? I'd think Emberwind and Forgefire would work, just confirming.
#4. How exactly does Atgeir Counter-Stab work? Specifically, do you need to assign Combat Pool dice to its attacks? And do they get bonuses from the Atgeir Hugareida and whatever Hugareida the Trick is, or what?
#5: If we use Stoking Strike to counterattack with Contested Movement can we assign some Stoked Pool to the Stoking Strike and the rest to that same Contested Movement? Like, if we have 60 Stoked Pool could we add 51 to a Stoked Strike counterattack from Contested Movement and the other 9 to the Contested Movement itself?
1. You would need to assign them to other hugareida in advance.
2. There are so many overlapping shrouds that it is difficult to tell specifics, but nobody here has Forgefire. One has Firestorm at an equal rating and two have Emberwind—one higher, one lower.
3. Not Firestorm, but yes
4. You assign dice to it. They do get bonuses, but only from the Atgeir Hugareida
5. Sure
1) Did you already tell Eric, Sten, Asva about Dorri and Drysalt's involvement in killing dad? With, I hope, Eyetalk or something.
a) Speaking of which, do your siblings know how to read runes?
2) How much can you modify your privacy wards? Could you, for example, make it so that an invisible Fylgjur in the same room as you be unable to hear or see what is going on?
3) Speaking of which, can you use Dressed in Rags on someone (or something) else? Can you Dressed in Rags a particularly nice sword?
4) Can you modify and cast a variant Weighted on the Scales to gauge trustworthiness and if/how people are trying to deceive you?
5) Can you use Sundersight.. conceptually, like 'Long term weaknesses of this village' or 'Fracture lines in this political alliance'?
6) Do you know if Sundersight would have helped with the runic puzzle on that Scorn Pole?
1. Not yet
a. Sten does, Eric does, Asva probably does
2. If you were able to get a signature on the Fylgja, sure
3. You cannot
4. You can with training
5. You can sure try
6. Likely not
1. You would need to assign them to other hugareida in advance.
2. There are so many overlapping shrouds that it is difficult to tell specifics, but nobody here has Forgefire. One has Firestorm at an equal rating and two have Emberwind—one higher, one lower.
3. Not Firestorm, but yes
Scheduled vote count started by Imperial Fister on Nov 12, 2023 at 8:04 PM, finished with 65 posts and 7 votes.
[X] Plan Aggressive Opening
-[X] Invest 4 Orthstirr in Hugr, 1 in Composure, 4 in Tactics, 3 inScouting (-12 Orthstirr)
-[X] 97d6 Attack (97d6 tricks)
-[X] 40d6 Defense (40d6 tricks)
-[X] 0d6 Intercept
-[X] Important Note: All bonuses do not include our bonus specifically against Rikard from Frenzybane.
-[X] Important Note 2: Every successful defense with Standstill grants an additional 4 Stoked Pool dice. These are not listed because it's only on successful defenses.
-[X] Important Note 3: All uses of Perfected Ignition Tricks are instead powered by Forgefire where applicable.
-[X] Use Sundersight to gauge our opponents as we fight.
-[X] Put 5 Orthstirr into 10 layers of Reinforce Shield before the combat begins(-5 Orthstirr) and add an instance of Explosive Reactive Armor (-9 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool)
-[X] Activate Against the Odds (-35 Orthstirr), Slowing Slog for 9 levels (-81 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool), Stoker State 4 (-12 Orthstirr), Slipstream (-8 Orthstirr), Heated Shroud (-5 Orthstirr), and Ember-Wing Cloak to take to the air (No cost, +4 Stoked Pool) as combat begins, and Veto Motion (-3 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool) to maneuver precisely as necessary. All dice pools below include +2d6 from Sunshine and Skyfire.
-[X] Put up two 120d6+25 (w/Hugareida) Sword Guards w/ 2 Odr each (-122 Orthstirr and -2 Odr each), and a 15d6+25 Semi-Halting Vortex (-10 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool), use the Semi-Halting Vortex only against Basic Attacks, the Sword Guard only against Trick attacks, and neither against Fleinns. The Sword Guards will never engage with Rikard at all in melee.
-[X] Put up an Atgeir Counter-Stab with a pool of 20 Orthstirr (-28 Orthstirr) counterattacking with up to ten 6d6+16 Sharpened Lightning-Charged Firebomb Strikes (-2 Orthstirr from the pool each).
-[X] Make a Stoked Engage for fifteen 5d6+16 Sharpened Lightning-Charged Basic Attacks (-15 Stoked Pool, -43 Orthstirr, +5 Speed, +60 Stoked Pool) against Rikard. Then follow up with four Sharpenedx45 Lightning Charged Firebomb Strikes / Puncture 100d6+16 (-55 Orthstirr each). In both cases move on to targeting Forseti if Rikard has actually gone down.
-[X] If at any point anyone we are attacking has a Guard up (including before the Stoked Engage goes off, but not during it), or plant constructs or pollen clouds seem to be an issue, use up to three 10d6+16 Devouring Blazes adding 6 Stoked Dice to remove them (-7 Orthstirr and -6 Stoked Pool Dice each).
-[X] If it seems useful at any point (to remove, say, a cloud of pollen or seeds, especially ones that look flammable and would hit us with the explosion) use a 42d6+16 Sailwind (-7 Orthstirr) to blow things susceptible to that kind of thing away from us.
-[X] If at any point we are over our cap on Stoked Pool dice (and we don't think it'll kill our opponent outright) make up to two Sharpenedx22 Lightning-Charged Stoking Strike w/Puncture for 105d6+16 including 51 Stoked Pool Dice (-35 Orthstirr and -51 Stoked Pool Dice each),
-[X] If attacked in melee default to using Contested Movement (-1 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool, 11d6+16 Hamr Roll), counterattacking with Sharpened Lightning Charged Firebomb Strikes (-2 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool) unless attacked by multiple things simultaneously, in which case if the attacks look especially large, use Contested Movement with Fight of Our Life (-1 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool, 18d6+16 Hamr Roll), and counterattack with a use of Forceful Lever (-5 Orthstirr) to move one attacker into the way of the other attack. For smaller or subsequent simultaneous attacks use Contested Movement against one of them and defend against the other with the same priorities as ranged attacks (listed below). Because the Sword Guards will never engage with Rikard this means we will always use Contested Movement on him and the Sword Guards against others if he's making a Trick Attack (his basic attacks might still hit Semi-Halting Vortex). If he attacks them in melee, we respond to it as an attack on ourselves and use Contested Movement as above.
-[X] By default use the Sword Guards to defend against ranged Trick Attacks and Semi-Halting Vortex to defend against ranged Basic Attacks (except Fleinns, as noted above). In response to any ranged attack not a Fleinn or without Puncture or some other obvious ability to ignore Perfect defenses that gets through those use Halting Vortex (-2 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool), and if facing a fleinn or something with Puncture that gets through instead use up to three quick-drawn Shield Sacrifices (-3 Endurance on one Shield) and if that's not viable up to two 120d6+25 Reinforcedx100 Sway defenses(-102 Orthstirr each) as seems appropriate. If we have drawn a shield and defended against a Trick, always defend against the next Trick Attack with that Shield as well (-3 Endurance on the same Shield).
-[X] Tactics – Put up defenses, notably including Heated Shroud to burn away any plants in the immediate vicinity, and then go to town with Stoked Engage on Rikard, and have an Atgeir Counter-Stab ready to respond to his own attacks. Defensively, we're focusing on using Contested Movement, including using it with Forceful Lever to move opponents into the way of other opponents attacks, and using powerful Guards for ranged attacks or when we are attacked simultaneously. There are also a massive number of contingencies for specific situations in this plan.
And now my anxiety kicks in. We should survive the round, whatever else happens, which should mean we can use TSS next turn and get down at least one of the three before going down ourselves, which would be a respectable showing even if we don't manage to take out anyone else. If we get anyone down this round I'd be surprised, though pleased (it'd probably be Rikard).
Hopefully we can at least soften him up. 6 damage basic attacks are no joke and he's hopefully getting hit with a bunch. To say nothing of the 11-13 FBSs (that's lower due to using Forgefire and he has DR vs. those, but hopefully only DR 2, a 9-11 damage attack is still a lot).
I was thinking abaout Skavidr Skatasson offer to become our huskarl.
There is something really weird abaout the guy, before accepting we should make some Divinations to make sure he isn't a spy or intends to harm our Household.
I was thinking abaout Skavidr Skatasson offer to become our huskarl.
There is something really weird abaout the guy, before accepting we should make some Divinations to make sure he isn't a spy or intends to harm our Household.
Probably not worth burning an action on divination just for that...but we could use that as one of three questions, and we definitely have some others we could ask. A divination seems reasonable. Maybe if we get another offer or two we could ask about all of them with one question...
As you try and detect that fact, you find that, with so many overlapping shrouds, it's difficult to tell whose is whose. Suffice to say, one of them is stronger, one of them is equal, and one of them is weaker.
[X] Plan Aggressive Opening
-[X] Invest 4 Orthstirr in Hugr, 1 in Composure, 4 in Tactics, 3 in Scouting (-12 Orthstirr)
-[X] 97d6 Attack (97d6 tricks)
-[X] 40d6 Defense (40d6 tricks)
-[X] 0d6 Intercept
-[X] Important Note: All bonuses do not include our bonus specifically against Rikard from Frenzybane.
-[X] Important Note 2: Every successful defense with Standstill grants an additional 4 Stoked Pool dice. These are not listed because it's only on _successful_ defenses.
-[X] Important Note 3: All uses of Perfected Ignition Tricks are instead powered by Forgefire where applicable.
-[X] Use Sundersight to gauge our opponents as we fight.
-[X] Put 5 Orthstirr into 10 layers of Reinforce Shield before the combat begins(-5 Orthstirr) and add an instance of Explosive Reactive Armor (-9 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool)
-[X] Activate Against the Odds (-35 Orthstirr), Slowing Slog for 9 levels (-81 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool), Stoker State 4 (-12 Orthstirr), Slipstream (-8 Orthstirr), Heated Shroud (-5 Orthstirr), and Ember-Wing Cloak to take to the air (No cost, +4 Stoked Pool) as combat begins, and Veto Motion (-3 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool) to maneuver precisely as necessary. All dice pools below include +2d6 from Sunshine and Skyfire.
-[X] Put up two 120d6+25 (w/Hugareida) Sword Guards w/ **2 Odr** each (-122 Orthstirr and **-2 Odr** each), and a 15d6+25 Semi-Halting Vortex (-10 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool), use the Semi-Halting Vortex only against Basic Attacks, the Sword Guard only against Trick attacks, and neither against Fleinns. The Sword Guards will never engage with Rikard at all in melee.
-[X] Put up an Atgeir Counter-Stab with a pool of 20 Orthstirr (-28 Orthstirr) counterattacking with up to ten 6d6+16 Sharpened Lightning-Charged Firebomb Strikes (-2 Orthstirr from the pool each).
-[X] Make a Stoked Engage for fifteen 5d6+16 Sharpened Lightning-Charged Basic Attacks (-15 Stoked Pool, -43 Orthstirr, +5 Speed, +60 Stoked Pool) against Rikard. Then follow up with four Sharpenedx45 Lightning Charged Firebomb Strikes / Puncture 100d6+16 (-55 Orthstirr each). In both cases move on to targeting Forseti if Rikard has actually gone down.
-[X] If at any point anyone we are attacking has a Guard up (including before the Stoked Engage goes off, but not during it), or plant constructs or pollen clouds seem to be an issue, use up to three 10d6+16 Devouring Blazes adding 6 Stoked Dice to remove them (-7 Orthstirr and -6 Stoked Pool Dice each).
-[X] If it seems useful at any point (to remove, say, a cloud of pollen or seeds, especially ones that look flammable and would hit us with the explosion) use a 42d6+16 Sailwind (-7 Orthstirr) to blow things susceptible to that kind of thing away from us.
-[X] If at any point we are over our cap on Stoked Pool dice (and we don't think it'll kill our opponent outright) make up to two Sharpenedx22 Lightning-Charged Stoking Strike w/Puncture for 105d6+16 including 51 Stoked Pool Dice (-35 Orthstirr and -51 Stoked Pool Dice each),
-[X] If attacked in melee default to using Contested Movement (-1 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool, 11d6+16 Hamr Roll), counterattacking with Sharpened Lightning Charged Firebomb Strikes (-2 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool) unless attacked by multiple things simultaneously, in which case if the attacks look especially large, use Contested Movement with Fight of Our Life (-1 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool, 18d6+16 Hamr Roll), and counterattack with a use of Forceful Lever (-5 Orthstirr) to move one attacker into the way of the other attack. For smaller or subsequent simultaneous attacks use Contested Movement against one of them and defend against the other with the same priorities as ranged attacks (listed below). Because the Sword Guards will never engage with Rikard this means we will always use Contested Movement on him and the Sword Guards against others if he's making a Trick Attack (his basic attacks might still hit Semi-Halting Vortex). If he attacks them in melee, we respond to it as an attack on ourselves and use Contested Movement as above.
-[X] By default use the Sword Guards to defend against ranged Trick Attacks and Semi-Halting Vortex to defend against ranged Basic Attacks (except Fleinns, as noted above). In response to any ranged attack not a Fleinn or without Puncture or some other obvious ability to ignore Perfect defenses that gets through those use Halting Vortex (-2 Orthstirr, +4 Stoked Pool), and if facing a fleinn or something with Puncture that gets through instead use up to three quick-drawn Shield Sacrifices (-3 Endurance on one Shield) and if that's not viable up to two 120d6+25 Reinforcedx100 Sway defenses(-102 Orthstirr each) as seems appropriate. If we have drawn a shield and defended against a Trick, always defend against the next Trick Attack with that Shield as well (-3 Endurance on the same Shield).
-[X] Tactics – Put up defenses, notably including Heated Shroud to burn away any plants in the immediate vicinity, and then go to town with Stoked Engage on Rikard, and have an Atgeir Counter-Stab ready to respond to his own attacks. Defensively, we're focusing on using Contested Movement, including using it with Forceful Lever to move opponents into the way of other opponents attacks, and using powerful Guards for ranged attacks or when we are attacked simultaneously. There are also a massive number of contingencies for specific situations in this plan.
0~0~0
Sound breaks around you as you surge into the air on wings of crimson flame—the burst of raw noise so loud your body closes your ears instinctively. Three versus one is a losing game, so you'll have to even the odds as quick as you can. Fortunately, as the ground quakes from his leap, Rikard gives you just the opportunity you needed to do just that.
Just as you're about to meet his laughter-following swords with Sagaseeker, a star-crowned arrow comes streaking in from Audvin. Stars leak from the corners of his eyes as he draws another arrow back to his chest. (Trick Attack: 140 vs Sword Guard: 436+16=452, Defender Wins!)
Only for the star-tipped arrow to spiral off in two halves as your sword guard does good work. Sparks burst against your palm as you turn your attention to Rikard's laughter-roaring face—and the collection of ghostly swords floating about his form.
"Nice swords!" You cry as your hand flings forward, the flames in your grasp itching to feed, "Be a shame if something were to happen to them!" (Undefended)
Devouring Flames leap into action with glee as they wash over Rikard's laughing body. Magic vanishes as they gorge themselves on both the swords and the layers of Reinforce Shield defending his flesh.
Despite the stripping of his magical protection, Rikard is far from out of the fight. His hand bursts free of the cloud of raging flames, a handful of his own super-heated air in his palm. As his hand rushes towards your face, time slows to a crawl as you spy the glint of steel eyes in the flaming feeding frenzy. (Halla's Hamr: 32+25=57 vs Rikard's Hamr: 49+9=58, Rikard Wins!)
Just as you're about to cleave his jaw from his face, the super-heated air in his palm detonates. The raw wave of explosive force sends you sailing through the air and robs your ghostly atgeir of its chance to retaliate. Your natural heat resistance is more than enough to absorb the miniscule damage that such a move would generate, but the damage was never the point of that trick.
You put a stop to your flight with a Veto Motion—the momentary pause enough for sound to come surging back in sudden eruption of noise. Grunting off the slight pain, you grit your teeth as another arrow comes hurtling in and your swords move to guard against it. (Trick Attack: 37 vs Sword Guard: 412+16=428, Defender Wins!)
And guard against it they do as the broken arrow spirals towards the ground. But, despite having successfully defended, cracks spread across the surface of one of your spectral swords—the orthstirr injected into it having done its grim work. Regardless of the damage done, though, your sword is still perfectly serviceable—a fact that seems to irk Audvin to no end.
No matter your kinsman's annoyances, you've got another cousin to cross blades with as Rikard hurtles your way on a wave of explosive force. His swords lift high as he grins, "You're fast, cousin!"
"You think that's fast?" You return the smile with one of your own as your limbs pick up speed, "Than watch this!" (Stoking Engage Rolls down below)
If it weren't for his twin swords in addition to his own considerable speed, there's no way he would be able to defend as well as he does. His swords dart around like lightning as Sagaseeker moves even faster. Blow after blow falls down on him as he grits his teeth and swings ever-harder. Broken links of mail slips free of his body as blood trickles from a quartet of wounds. His body is tougher than you thought—thanks to a pair of arm rings and his own shapeshifts—but you manage to wound him nevertheless.
But even weathering the storm fails to wipe the smile from his face as he lets his heart sing his joy to the heavens.
"You're pretty damn strong, cousin!" He places heavy emphasis on the last word—a reminder of your shared heritage—as he draws back his bloodied sword-arm. "But can you beat this?"
As flames surge up and down his blade and his arm swings with the force of his heart's furnace, you realize your mistake. Just as you bear the Stoker State, so too does he!
...And you just fueled his heart's fire by a lot.
As his sword blurs into motion and time slows to a crawl, you resolve to at least make him work for it. (Halla's Hamr: 38+16=54 vs Rikard's Hamr: 69+9=76, Rikard Wins!)
It's only with time slowing that you're able to catch what he does. As his sword leaps into motion, he waited just long enough for you to start defending before fueling his body with the remainder of his heart's strength. (I don't feel like calculating the damage for this when it'll break RS anyways)
His sword cleaves through the air, dashing past your guard, and driving itself through a field of slowing force before finding a home in the shattered remains of your orthstirr-painted armor.
You hit the ground like a comet as the impact carves a crater thrice your height tall and eight times wide in the earth.
Climbing to your feet, your spit a wad of blood from your mouth as you eye your opponent in the sky. A grin spreads across your face as you ready yourself for the next round of combat. Boy oh boy, how you've missed this!
First things first, the ground is pretty heavily damaged. You breaking the sound-barrier, burning the plants, Rikard's own kickoff-crater, and then your impact site all did little to help the matter much.
Second things second, your opponents are tough as nails—but, then again, Hall did say that they were 'worthy.'
You've gained the most information from Rikard, as you've been up in each other's face the whole fight. The most important thing that you've found is that he's very intelligent. He realized that you had some kind of contesting move and tried something to counter it when you did it again. He won't be able to do it again, not all that quickly, as he had to spend his leftover Stoker State fuel to do so. He'll be focused on regaining his spent strength, you reckon.
(Sundersight says that he struggles to consider his allies, which forces them to work around what he's doing rather than them all working together)
Audvin has a lot of skill with that bow of his. He's also quite clever, as can be seen with trying to break your Sword Guards with a trick. However, it seems that he either lacks Puncture or decided against using it for whatever reason. He's very quick to act, though, and that's something to consider as you're fighting him. You get the sense that he's going to aim for disabling your magical defenses before doing anything else.
(Sundersight says that he's extremely self-conscious of his lack of beard. Target that and you'll draw him into a blind rage.)
Forseti, however, was only quick enough to do one thing before you got sent into the ground—which was to summon a cloud of pollen around him? You're not entirely sure what he's planning on doing with that, but your intuition says that it'll require more time to pull off properly.
(Sundersight struggles to work on him, but it does say that he has some kind of imbalance in his ears that leaves him earthbound, likely an inheritance of Blackhand)
Whatever happens next, you get the feeling that they're going to hit you with a big, coordinated attack.
Endurance: (16/16) | Frenzy: (7/7) (+7 to all Combat Rolls) | Armor: (42/42) (+9 to Defense)
Orthstirr: (907/1319) | Odr: (122)
( ) Frami: 440 | ( ) Virthing: 440 | ( ) Saemd: 439
Sagaseeker has 80 orthstirr in his reservoir.
Emberguard has 28 orthstirr in its reservoir.
Shapeshifting + Runes are granting you (+2 to Damage, +7 Attack-Speed)
Your combat pool is 137d6 and you have 91d6 Stoked Dice
What do you do?
[ ] (Plan Name)
-[ ] (Dice) Attack
-[ ] (Dice) Defense
-[ ] (Dice) Intercept
-[ ] (Dice) (Trick) (Orthstirr)
-[ ] Tactics Write in
0~0~0
AN: Well, then, looks like the party is off to a great start!