Probably for the best that. On the off chance Horra doesn't have some way of spying on this camp, we don't want him running off to tell our enemies what our capabilities are. Besides, as enjoyable as this fight is to Halla, this man is still a bandit.
NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)
- Thread starter I.F. Ister
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- Original Fantasy Action
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- norse mythology (mythology) original xianxia cultivation western cultivation ask sirihand did your mother tell you anything? discussion pleases yggdrasil farming gloating gets people killed granary management hubris is a coward's word you will die norsemen do not die when they are killed the qm has a bad memory the qm is bad at math viking courtroom drama (legal drama) vikings
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Nah, this is a good fight, and the Captain might still be watching, we want to save that little trick for the boss fight.
[X] Plan: Reclaim the Initiative
-[X] 40d6 Attack
-[X] 5d6 Defense
-[X] 0d6 Intercept
-[X] Use Ember Wing Cloak (12 Orthstirr) to close back into close quarters, and damage race his arse, a mix between 2 Honed Power Chops (6d6 + 1d6 Hone) (4 Orthstirr), 2 Kindle-Spinners (3d6 + 2d6 Ignition + 2d6 Extra Orthstirr) (8 Orthstirr) , and 2 Firebomb-Strikes (5d6 + 2d6 Ignition) (8 Orthstirr). Kindle-Spinners are prioritized if he tries to open the range again after we close in to keep him busy, but keep them under our hat unless we need a ranged option. Maintain a Contingency Honed Leaping Cleave (12d6 + 1d6 Hone) (4 Orthstirr) to close the distance if he uses some kind of Trick to create a gap again (Like a repeat of that powerful wind-ball) or goes for one of his Saxes to punish. Be willing to use EWC along with the Leaping Cleave if it's required to help it land home. (16 Orthstirr if required)
-[X] Maintain 5 Reinforced Honed Defenses (1d6 + 1d6 Hone + 3d6 Reinforce) (20 Orthstirr). Use Halting Vortex (4 Orthstirr) on any powerful Tricks, but be willing to Sidestep (2 Orthstirr) if he tries to repeat something like that wind orb, do not give him an opening to safely go for one of his weapons without having a punish on hand.
-[X] Overall Tactics: Regain the initiative using Ember Winged Cloak to close back into close quarters distance--this should make it easier to prevent him from using his Hugareida on you and he's not going to be able to wrestle well with two broken wrists. Maintain a solid defense against his counterattacks, but the priority is dropping him quickly to back up the rest of our elites against the Captain. Create a 16 layer Reinforce-Shield between defeating the Brute and engaging the Captain, unless the situation looks desperate enough that we need to join in now
The risk of the Captain pulling something is mitigated by the fact Sten and Abjorn are going to occupy him, so now we need to drop the Brute fast. This has up to 15-18 damage on the table and his armor's broken and so is both wrists, it should be enough to clean him up given his reduced dice pools from injuries and lacking weapons, he'll either be dead or surrendering assuming we don't get cheated by the Dice Gods.
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Sten is stronger than us, and Gabriel is tankier with his armor. Remember this is our second fight, though, and we took over from Stigmar.
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RIGHT, thanks. Forgot this was our second tbh. It's been an odd week for me.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Yeah, Halla's only been fighting this guy for two combat rounds, and she's got him on the ropes. He's good, but Halla just has more Tricks to bring to bear because her build makes her an omnitactical battle hydra, and that's backed by a damn near ocean of Orthstirr for her age. She only took one proper combat round after the ambush to drop the Sentry too. She's scything through opponents at a fearsome rate, and by all indications none of them are weak either, like how Sten and the other members of the advanced-party swept the scrubs in the surprise round.
But yeah, chances are good the Captain is better than all of them combined, so we really need to finish this up to back up our main battle line and treat the guy like a slightly weaker Knight.
EDIT: Made some adjustments to my plan--if he tries for a repeat of that knockback spell, we'll Sidestep it and pivot that into a Leaping Cleave, with a willingness to boost it with EWC. I really hope we can master EWC soon so we can make a formal Trick for this, because it's expensive to use this way. Good though, all of our Next Tier Tricks coming up the pipeline with our Hugareida Expansions are some top kekkery.
SON OF EDIT: Anyway, all this and we've kept our biggest tide-turners up our sleeve, IAT into Knee-Groin is the sort of wombo-combo that can't easily be shrugged off. He's probably figuring by now that we've displayed most of our arsenal at this point--and EWC and Kindle-Spinner will likely convince him we're out of capacity, so any further Tricks are likely to surprise him. Especially a complete combo-cascade that we haven't exhibited yet full of moves we've not used yet. One for each Hugareida, 4 displayed Hugareida Tricks, we're already at the capacity for a Hugr 6 fighter, and he's probably assuming we've got some non-combat Muna as well, which accounts for Wordcraft bonuses. I think he's likely going to think he's got our measure by this point, and won't anticipate us having yet more tricks up our sleeve.
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We should absolutely take a moment and add, like 10 Orthstirr into Reinforce Shield before charging. Our HP is bad and we have the opportunity to fix that here, I think. Yes, that gives him a moment but, like, nearly tripling our HP is worth giving him a moment.
Sadly, Reinforced Honed Defenses are not technically Tricks so you can't put 2d6 into them...they max out at 1d6 base (plus the effects of Reinforce and Hone). You could spend an extra Orthstirr on each of the five Reinforces and have the same effect a bit more expensively, though.
I'd probably add the extra 5 dice freed up by that to offense, and largely to the Leaping Cleave...Leaping Cleave is something he'll use an actual defense against and he's gotten 38 on those before...8d6 is not nearly enough to actually hit if he's defending hard. Maybe add a die to each Kindle Spinner as well.
I'm also still a little leery of Kindle Spinners, but it does make sense if we need a ranged option. I might specify we only use them if we need a ranged option to try and keep them secret, though.
That aside, I generally like the plan, for the record.
Sadly, Reinforced Honed Defenses are not technically Tricks so you can't put 2d6 into them...they max out at 1d6 base (plus the effects of Reinforce and Hone). You could spend an extra Orthstirr on each of the five Reinforces and have the same effect a bit more expensively, though.
I'd probably add the extra 5 dice freed up by that to offense, and largely to the Leaping Cleave...Leaping Cleave is something he'll use an actual defense against and he's gotten 38 on those before...8d6 is not nearly enough to actually hit if he's defending hard. Maybe add a die to each Kindle Spinner as well.
I'm also still a little leery of Kindle Spinners, but it does make sense if we need a ranged option. I might specify we only use them if we need a ranged option to try and keep them secret, though.
That aside, I generally like the plan, for the record.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
It's actually bait, I want the boss to think he's seen all of our Tricks and then surprise him with the IAT into Knee-Groin combo when we should already be at the bleeding edge of our Hugr Capacity with what he's seen so far. But yeah, fair cop, I'll adjust the plan accordingly.
I disagree that we should spend 10 Orthstirr into Reinforce Shield though, because that might give him a chance to recover one of his weapons, it requires an extended lull to do so, and if he re-arms himself, we're back up shit creek.
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Fair enough, I guess, though I'd still err on the side of keeping that secret, I think.
We should also Stoke something, thinking about it...we're not low on Orthstirr per se, but we're low enough for that.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I don't believe that's necessary, not for this round. I want to make this fight look relatively low-data, as part of the mindgames. We can stoke once we've engaged the final boss ourselves. We have more than enough to sustain this output for another round though.
Basically, I don't want to give this guy actionable data about how much gas we actually have in the tank, because I don't want him immediately turning on Sicko Mode himself while there's only two people fighting him and we care a lot for both of them. Best to keep that an unknown factor if we're not in any danger of running out of gas. As far as he knows, we might just have a couple Mastered Tricks and low-expense ones that we're maintaining. Not that we've only hit 3/4ths of our pool while spending liberally and that a single Stoke is enough to fill the complete tank of someone who's Ready for Raiding.
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Eh. Fair enough, I suppose, we're not gonna actually run out this round.
To be clear, I was saying we should use Reinforce Shield now, immediately. We are in a very fragile state in some ways given this guy's damage potential (even unarmed...I'm concerned about grapples in particular, as a bearhug, body slam, or headbutt is still doable even with broken wrists) and I think we have to prioritize that. But I think you're interpreting that as way more time consuming than I am...
@Imperial Fister how time consuming is using Reinforce Shield? My impression from previous fights was that it was, if anything, less time consuming than making an attack...certainly no more so. Is that correct, or does it take longer than that?
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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Layering low amounts of shielding is quick and easy, able to be done with a lull (like at the start of a round). It's when you get to stuff like 6 layers that it gets a bit tricky and requires a pause
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So could we do, say, 4 layers and not lose much in the way of momentum?
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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You'd still grant him an opportunity to do stuff at the start of the round, but yes.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Eh, I don't think we want to give him a moment to breathe, but I understand the risk of taking hits. I'll add another Reinforce die to our defenses? Doesn't make the risk of damage zero, but it should be a good counter to any further attack-spam until we've finished rushing him down.
EDIT: Done. We're at 5d6 for 5 exchanges, the fight should hopefully be done by the time we run out of that and other further defends. It's very unlikely that he can push through those with an attack-spam option, and we can Halting Vortex or Sidestep if he tries to nova. Since his armor is down and we've been maintaining the pressure, he shouldn't have more than 8 Endurance left, tops, and we've got potentially double that and more on the table for this round if we score further hits.
EDIT: Done. We're at 5d6 for 5 exchanges, the fight should hopefully be done by the time we run out of that and other further defends. It's very unlikely that he can push through those with an attack-spam option, and we can Halting Vortex or Sidestep if he tries to nova. Since his armor is down and we've been maintaining the pressure, he shouldn't have more than 8 Endurance left, tops, and we've got potentially double that and more on the table for this round if we score further hits.
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Fair enough. That'll probably work.
[X] Plan: Reclaim the Initiative
This is purely a legacy clerical error, but these should be 40d6 and 5d6 at this point. You could also spend extra Orthstirr on extra dice on the Kindle Spinners, if you want (any trick can have extra orthstirr added for extra dice, and they're a little low compared to everything else). It's not necessary but worth bearing in mind as an option.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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If we're gonna have another update today, I'm gonna have to call it in about 30 minutes. Is that alright?
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I'm all for it, we might need a good chunk of time to plan out the Boss Fight as it is, I don't think our opponent's going to survive another round of this given how hard we've stacked the deck by now.
Man, this fight is going to be big Orthstirr for everyone, but especially big for our rookies who were just getting blooded in what should have been a relatively routine throwdown but ended up an equal matchup--one badly tilted against us if we didn't have such a strong opening deleting half of their lineup with little cost.
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I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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I'll give you a small hint for the boss fight; don't hold back if you can help it.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I mean, obviously?
You've been hyping up the absolute terror that is a 30 year old Norseman for quite some time now. There is zero intention of holding back any scrap of treachery or talent I can muster here. We have to assume anyone who's lived that long as a fighter has no weaknesses that can realistically be exploited, even if their strengths haven't yet reached a point of being beyond approach.
If they had obvious weaknesses, they wouldn't have lived long enough to get that old. If you think you see one, chances are good that it's a feint.
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I suspect that includes "use our berry and possibly odr on tricks" among other things. We have 7 Exploding Charms too.
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Plausibly. Also 'burn orthstirr liberally on extra dice, you'll need them' and 'do not, under any circumstances try and hold some Tricks in reserve'.
But yeah, holding back is absolutely not an option vs. a legitimately superior foe, which I'm pretty sure this guy is. Hopefully, we'll have help against him, but we'll see.
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