Hoo boy, I hope our willingness to go to the wall and use even difficult to replace resources here pays off. Kindle-Spinner is fast to begin with and we're folding it this time, which is even faster, and the rest of the Wombo Combo should be good as well, since we've established previously that single powerful attacks are not a great choice against our lineup, which makes the reversal that much better.
It's a pretty good plan, especially since a drawn out fight favors this guy, but I'm still nervous. Still, I think we've forked him, if he pulls a contingency out on either Sten or Halla, it might not be available for the other attack, which is similarly deadly. Halla's pretty chonky between her Reinforce layers and her remaining armor and the Odr Infusion, and Abjorn is an absolute beast. He's also going to be so pissed off at Halla that he's unlikely to have Sten in mind too, especially if the Wombo Combo lands and we've successfully Nid'ed him with the ballbuster.
Basically, we'd have been absolutely fucked if he was halfway decent and attacked us with the rest of his Felag, but the fact he waited until everyone else was dead or otherwise beaten is probably going to be our saving grace.
This is an Ironbrother Tier enemy? What a fearsome introduction to the Second Tier.
Scheduled vote count started by Imperial Fister on Apr 27, 2023 at 5:57 PM, finished with 124 posts and 5 votes.
[X] Plan Trap, Stun, and Burn
-[X] Consume a Hearthroot Berry
-[X] Task Gabriel and the rest not in this specific fight with getting Stigmar and the two Ginat-Blooded brothers out of the cave in case of collapse
-[X] Warn Abjorn and Sten to avoid big physical attacks to avoid a cave collapse. Hopefully they listen
-[X] Stoke Saemd (+93 Orthstirr) immediately after using Inertia-Arresting Throw (or simultaneously with our Knee-Groin Trick if that looks cooler)
-[X] 58d6 Attack (all tricks)
-[X] 9d6 Defense
-[X] 0d6 Intercept
-[X] In response to his first attack use a 30d6 (w/Hugareida) Inertia-Arresting Throw to trap him in place,with its dice pool enhanced with 11 Orthstirr and its effects likewise enhanced with Odr (-17 Orthstirr/-3 Odr), followed up immediately with a 25d6 Knee-Groin Trick with its dice pool enhanced with 11 Orthstirr and its effects likewise enhanced with Odr (-12 Orthstirr/-3 Odr), and then while he is hopefully stunned hit him with a 25d6 (w/Hugareida) Threefold Kindle Spinner attack enhanced with 11 extra Orthstirr and its damage enhanced with Odr in each instance (-18 Orthstirr and -6 Odr), then three normal 14d6 (w/Hugareida) Kindle Spinner attack with 7 extra Orthstirr added into them and their damage enhanced with Odr (-9 Orthstirr/-2 Odr each) into him.
-[X] After our initial IAT, in response to any mundane attacks against us use up to 3 Reinforcedx3 Honedx3 Defenses (7d6 and -6 Orthstirr each) and use Sidestep (-2 Orthstirr) if we run out of those and our Reinforce Shield has been broken. If he attacks during our Fivefold Kindle Spinner somehow we use one 6d6 Reinforcedx4 Honedx4 defense (14d6, -8 Orthstirr). If he attacks either us or our family with a Trick Attack while IAT is not out, or any attack that looks likely to put them down (ie: they're on their last legs), use Halting Vortex to stop that attack dead (-4 Orthstirr), and if our IAT is still out and he's somehow attacking, or his attack gets through Halting Vortex use Sidestep to avoid it.
-[X] Tactics – Gabriel gets the wounded and captured out of the cave, Abjorn and Halla move to cover Sten, when the Captain goes for an attack on anyone, have Halla feint Halting Vortex, but instead use IAT to trap him in place, following up with Knee-Groin Trick and then unleashing our full burn chain in the subsequent opening, beginning with the Threefold Kindle Spinner.
I mean, we're punching up a full combat tier here, I'd be surprised if we killed him--the point is to play on his apparent confidence to set him up in a fork where he has no good answers.
But we might end up getting fucked in some other fashion. We're treating this dude very seriously at least, which I appreciate (Even if I'd have preferred if we spent more Orthstirr on our critical moves.)
Yes. We might kill him this round but we're opening with it so it won't be the KGT or the immediate follow-up that does it. The most likely scenario for his death this turn is Sten's finisher after we soften him up. And his death this round, while plausible, isn't a certainty at all.
Honestly, I think Sten finishing him off after we soften him up is actually Plan A, as in the thing we are hoping happens and is most likely to occur based on what we've done. Our plan being enough on its own (or, to be fair, with Abjorn's help) is more of a Plan B kinda thing.
[X] Plan Trap, Stun, and Burn
-[X] Consume a Hearthroot Berry
-[X] Task Gabriel and the rest not in this specific fight with getting Stigmar and the two Ginat-Blooded brothers out of the cave in case of collapse
-[X] Warn Abjorn and Sten to avoid big physical attacks to avoid a cave collapse. Hopefully they listen
-[X] Stoke Saemd (+93 Orthstirr) immediately after using Inertia-Arresting Throw (or simultaneously with our Knee-Groin Trick if that looks cooler)
-[X] 58d6 Attack (all tricks)
-[X] 9d6 Defense
-[X] 0d6 Intercept
-[X] In response to his first attack use a 30d6 (w/Hugareida) Inertia-Arresting Throw to trap him in place,with its dice pool enhanced with 11 Orthstirr and its effects likewise enhanced with Odr (-17 Orthstirr/-3 Odr), followed up immediately with a 25d6 Knee-Groin Trick with its dice pool enhanced with 11 Orthstirr and its effects likewise enhanced with Odr (-12 Orthstirr/-3 Odr), and then while he is hopefully stunned hit him with a 25d6 (w/Hugareida) Threefold Kindle Spinner attack enhanced with 11 extra Orthstirr and its damage enhanced with Odr in each instance (-18 Orthstirr and -6 Odr), then three normal 14d6 (w/Hugareida) Kindle Spinner attack with 7 extra Orthstirr added into them and their damage enhanced with Odr (-9 Orthstirr/-2 Odr each) into him.
-[X] After our initial IAT, in response to any mundane attacks against us use up to 3 Reinforcedx3 Honedx3 Defenses (7d6 and -6 Orthstirr each) and use Sidestep (-2 Orthstirr) if we run out of those and our Reinforce Shield has been broken. If he attacks during our Fivefold Kindle Spinner somehow we use one 6d6 Reinforcedx4 Honedx4 defense (14d6, -8 Orthstirr). If he attacks either us or our family with a Trick Attack while IAT is not out, or any attack that looks likely to put them down (ie: they're on their last legs), use Halting Vortex to stop that attack dead (-4 Orthstirr), and if our IAT is still out and he's somehow attacking, or his attack gets through Halting Vortex use Sidestep to avoid it.
-[X] Tactics – Gabriel gets the wounded and captured out of the cave, Abjorn and Halla move to cover Sten, when the Captain goes for an attack on anyone, have Halla feint Halting Vortex, but instead use IAT to trap him in place, following up with Knee-Groin Trick and then unleashing our full burn chain in the subsequent opening, beginning with the Threefold Kindle Spinner.
0~0~0
Dust falls from above as the Captain leaps from the crater and jams his atgeir into the ceiling. He points a hand at you and at Abjorn as he spins through the air. Lightning arcs as sparks dance around his palms, an arrow of electricity forming in each hand.
The air snaps as he releases hold and the arrows shoot out at breakneck speeds. They streak through the gloom of the cavern in a blur of crackling power, leaving trails of blue light in their wakes.
They fly with force unmatched as one bears down on you with lethal intent.
Your arm whips out, Halting Vortex raised, but even as you do a doubtful voice whispers wicked things in the back of your head. He pierced your shield once, he can do it again!
To your mounting horror, the doubtful snake in your mind is proven right as the Storm Arrow punches through the field of stopping force. Your foot digs into the ground as an instinctual Sidestep carries you to the side and the Storm Arrow explodes against the cavern wall in the distance.
Your hair whips in the wind as you dart to the side — directly into the path of another attack.
"Your reliance on perfect defenses is an exploitable weakness." The Captain's matter-of-fact words reach your ears just as his lightning strikes your legs. Electricity arcs as the Shock Shackles trigger, binding your ankles together and chaining them to the ground.
The Captain reaches up and plucks his weapon from the ceiling as he sends one last blast of lightning your way — another Storm Arrow.
Your mind races as explosive arcs of lethal intent-laden lightning sails your way. Is it another piercing arrow? Is it a bluff and he's expecting you to forgo Halting Vortex in favor of some kind of imperfect defense? Is it a double-bluff and you actually need to use an imperfect defense against it? If so, what would you even use?! Hefty-Halter-Chop can't hit non-physical things and it's not exactly a very speedy trick! There's nothing that Contested Movement can do, there's no one to attack!
In the end, you're forced to make a decision whether you like it or not.
Halting Vortex springs to life once more as the arrow makes contact.
Once more, it punches through and — unlike times before — there's nothing you can do but watch as the arrow hits you dead in the chest. (Layer Health Stripped)
The Shock Shackles snap as you're thrown from your feet by the blast. You sail through the air as pieces of reinforced orthstirr rain down around you like the remains of a shattered sheet of stained glass.
You hit the ground with a roll — your cheek pressed against the rocky floor. Getting a hand under you, force yourself up to your feet with a groan. You're gonna have some bruises in the morning...
If you live to see the morning at all. (Honed Attack: 17 vs Honed+Reinforced Defense: 29+7=36, Defender Wins!)
A bright flash of light and a shower of red sparks draws your attention back to the fight as Abjorn crosses blades with the Captain. Atgeir against sword, iron against steel. Each of Abjorn's blows gouges iron from the weapon — not even the Captain dares to put wood against steel. (Honed Attack: 4 vs Honed Defense: 4, Defender Wins!)
The atgeir slices through the air with tremendous force, Abjorn barely managing to dodge back in time as he brings Avow back up to bear. Stepping forward, he tries to skewer the Captain through the chest. (Honed Attack: 12 vs Honed+Reinforced Defense: 27+7=34, Defender Wins!)
Only for the Captain to bat his attempt aside with contemptuous ease. Off balance, Abjorn's left wide open for the Captain's return strike. (Honed Attack: 8 vs Honed Defense: 13, Defender Wins!)
But Abjorn twists and contorts himself at just the right angle for the atgeirr to pass by harmlessly — though it does take a lock of hair for the trouble.
Driving his foot into the ground, Abjorn finds his footing as he swings up with all his might. (Honed Attack: 11 vs Honed+Reinforced Defense: 18+7=35, Defender Wins!)
Try as hard as he might, Abjorn can't quite manage to hit the Captain as he dances back with a springboard dodge — a springboard that takes him away from Abjorn.
And into your range.
You step forward as you gather Standstill about you like the folded lengths of a cloak. Orthstirr flows through your body as you pump it into the trick.
But you're not done quite yet.
Glowing circles of red light float on a sea of steel as you fix the Captain with your best glare. Odr, red hot and divine, springs up from the depths of the well in your soul. It swirls about you in a bloodthirsty frenzy as you drive it into the folds of Standstill. With skill born from years upon years of housework, you weave the strands of odr into the trick just like you were making clothes for your children.
A crown of curving iron spikes sprouts from your head as the tips ignite with blazing fury. The Captain's head snaps to you as you meet his gaze with a stare of steel. His eyes widen in surprise as you whip Standstill above your head once, twice, before you throw it at him with force unmatched.
Standstill whirls through the air with a blindingly fast throw launching it forward. The Captain tries to defend, to do anything, but against an Inertia-Arresting-Throw that's been infused with odr?
It's like he's a child flailing about as Standstill wraps him in its folds.
Racing forward with all the force of a hurricane, your face is inches away from the Captain's struggling form — giving him a good look at your eyes of liquid steel and irises of shining red glory. Driving your foot into the ground, the earth shakes as you fling yourself knee-first into the air like a missile.
There are times in every man's life where he gets hit in his groin. No matter who it is, no matter their situation in life, it happens to everyone at some point without fail.
But what doesn't happen to everyone is being hit in the groin by an odr-empowered knee belonging to a battle-maniac of a woman named Halla Longstride.
Standstill shatters as your knee slips up and under a skirt of mail. You sail through the air with all the grace of an owl on the hunt as your knee makes contact with organs most delicate.
The poor Captain barely has time to breathe in before the pain hits him like a longship setting ashore. (You deal 3 Endurance Damage (6-1-2), but Countershock triggers. You take 4 Armor and 2 Endurance Damage)
Lightning arcs across his body as he spends orthstirr like water. Electricity sparks and springs from him to you as your steel-filled eyes open wide with fear and surprise.
Just as you hit him, he hits you back.
The tattered, smoking remains of your gambeson fall away from your body as you're sent hurtling through the air. Your ears ring from the world-shattering thunderclap as you strike the cavern wall on the far side of the cave.
Blood smears on the wall as you fall to the ground — face down and dazed. The world spins and pretty colors dance before your eyes. You sit up after a long moment of doing nothing but laying still on the ground.
You find yourself staring at your brother as he's roaring in rage. You can't hear what he's saying as your ears still ring from the thunderclap — or if he's saying anything at all — but what you do see is what he's doing.
Hundreds upon hundreds, maybe even thousands, of small shards of sharp metal — arrowheads — float around him like a cloud of looming death. Every passing heartbeat sees him add a dozen more arrowheads to the rapidly growing mass of iron-clad death.
Each glows white-hot as he draws tendrils of black dust from the earth around him. With all his aspects stoked to full power, he weaves the dust into the near-molten metal with all the skill of a master artist at work. Whether it was held in reserve or invested, every drop of orthstirr in his body is being funneled to this task.
There's a sick whisper in the back of your mind. It tells you of failure, of contingencies kept hidden, kept in reserve for a moment just like this one.
You decide, in that very moment, that you would not let your brother's efforts go to waste.
Rising to your feet, you turn your gaze to the battle between your husband and the recovered Captain.
Abjorn fights with tearful desperation in his movements and despairing rage in his eyes. He saw you be blasted away, hit the wall, and then not move. For all he knows, you're dead. He's not holding anything back, not when something like *that* just happened.
But even in the state he's in right now, he can't quite land meaningful blows on the Captain, who dances out of the way with his twirling atgeir blocking each and every blow. To Abjorn's credit, the mail covering the Captain's body has once more been pierced and his body exposed.
Fortunately, that's all you need.
Palms held open and Sagaseeker left where it fell, you breathe in and out as afterimages start to follow your every movement. In each hand, you call forth a Kindle Spinner as you fix the Captain with a piercing gaze.
Some sixth sense warns him of your imminent attack and he turns his head just in time to catch your eyes turn to steel.
Three Kindle Spinners race across the cavern floor as bigger and larger rocks fall from the ceiling. Abjorn leaps in — still blinded by grief and rage — only to be smacked aside and out of the way by the Captain as he raises an empty palm.
Silver orthstirr shines in his hand as he raises it towards the obscured heavens. Moments before the Kindle Spinners would've hit him, he clenches his fist and a wave of power crashes over the entire battlefield.
Where the once was fire, there now is nothing but extinguished smoke.
Sten starts to laugh as your hearing comes back just in time.
"You fucking idiot!" His maddened, frenzied laughter echoes all around the cave as the source of his humor reveals itself — the wave of power had cooled off the arrowheads, which had a significant effect on its time-to-ready.
He points his arms forward, wrists pressed together as his fingers curl into claws. His laughter turns to a deep, gritty growl as his eyes ignite with literal blazing rage.
"Steel take you."
His simple words are death's herald as thousands of steel arrowheads move as one towards a single fear-stricken target.
The Captain's atgeir spins at a furious pace as he bats aside arrowhead after arrowhead. But even as many of them fall lifeless to the ground, more yet break through his guard.
Missile after missile strikes the Captain's body, riddling full of holes and slamming him against the wall.
Sten's body hits the floor — unconscious, but alive, which is more than you can say for the Captain.
The battle is won.
Oh Gods you want to throw up.
(+45 Orthstirr)
(+1 to Nutcracker!)
(Feat: Battled an Ironbrother and won)
(Congratulations, you managed to defeat an Ironbrother-tier enemy! For this feat, you have gained *two* picks from the reward options.)
Pick 2 rewards;
[ ] Upgrade Twist: Punching Up (Cost reduced to 30)
[ ] Upgrade Muna: The Fight of Your Life. (2 uses)
[ ] Muna: Failing Vortex (Unlocks Twist: Puncture)
[ ] Odr Hint
0~0~0
AN: Good job, everyone. I was actually so excited to write this one that it actually caused me a bit of struggle to write.
For those curious;
Sten's Frami resembles the sparkler-like effect of too-hot metal in the forge.
His Virthing is a cloak of red-hot chains. A rope of blonde and red hair serves as the rope.
His Saemd is a crown of iron spikes that curve inwards. Candle flames burn at the tips.
No moratorium. I'll call the voting in an hour and a half and you'll see what the (???) you picked was.
Looks like I called the Lightning though! Fucking hell that thing was devastating.
Of course, apparently, we just found out that this guy was specced to fight Fire Cultivators, apparently the Soot had to do with Extinguishing Flame.
God, Horra's salty runback just keeps happening. Losing an Ironbrother tier Anti-Fire Cultivator is going to absolutely throw a damper in his plan I imagine.
Gotdamn. Was definitely feeling the tension there. Not surprisingly, Sten is a badass. Wonder what goes into a Finishing Move like that? Is it just a very potent Trick backed by a Twist, or something more?
[x] Odr Hint
We have so far to go, we can use more hints.
[x] Upgrade Muna: The Fight of Your Life. (2 uses)
Seems appropriate, if a bit lackluster.
