WFRP Chapter 76: (I Just) Died in Your Arms
Background: Rescuing a little girl at a very high cost.
Our Heroes
- Hayley (Elliot) - Human Nobel
- Morgan (David) - Human Battle Mage
- Tayy Whitethorn (Michael) - Halfling Trainee Assassin
- Zena (Oliver) - Human Bricklayer
Chapter 76 ~ Day two (evening)
Zena and Morgan sat in the Dogs Bark at the table next to Jarad and listened to his conversation with Boris Becker. We did not learn anything new Becker confirmed Jarad would get his daughter back once the taxation law was passed. We followed Becker back to his estate but that was just a dead end.
We discussed going to the theater and giving up on finding Odette but in the end agreed to go back to the bar and interrogate Steffi the owner as we knew she was working for Becker.
Unfortunately Morgan forgot to cast his protective auras before we entered the pub. He asked Steffi about Odette and could tell she was lying. He offered to show her and the other staff a magic trick. They gathered together to watch and he flung lighting over the bar in the group of them.
This was not as affecting as it sounded since almost all of them avoided the damage; the only thing that was achieved was to scorch the bar! Steffi and most of her staff jumped over the bar and charged into attack. Sabine on the other hand grabbed a bow from under the bar and started shooting arrows at Tayy, which mostly bounced off his tough hide, one found is mark. Tayy pulled the arrow out; his flesh knitting together as he regenerated.
Tayy tossed a couple of bola which entangled Tommy and Steffi but everyone else was engaged in combat and they were both able to get free before anyone could take advantage of their entrapment.
Morgan was in hand-to-hand with Nicholas. Steffi stepped forward and inflicted a grievous [15 damage] wound on him. Enraged Morgan retaliated with a double handed strike from his staff. This impacted on her temple sending brain matter splattering over everyone as she fell down dead.
Zena and Hayley were fighting Rainer. Hayley managed to stab her just in time for Zena to engage Tommy. As Hayley ran forward to support her friend Sabine dropped her bow and joined in the melee against the two girls.
With a little help from Tayy (he did a point of damage) Morgan finished off Nicholas. Tayy scooped up a bolas shouting out we needed one alive. Morgan stepped forward and tried to put Sabine to sleep but she shook off the magical effect.
Tayy tossed his weapon but Sabine ducked and instead of his intended target Morgan found himself wrapped up and unable to move! Not wasting the opportunity Sabine stabbed the fallen Wizard in the chest [16 damage]. This opened his abdomen spilling entrails across the floor. Tayy had been telling his friends all day the entangle/stab combo was deadly but he had not wanted to demonstrate with his friends life!
Tayy stepped up and, with Hayley's help, hacked Sabine down. This left Tommy against three opponents which would seem to be an unfair fight? Six rounds later the first blow landed and Zena killed him.
Having looted the bodies, including our fallen friend, we searched the pub and found Odette tied up in the cellar. Taking her to her father he was overjoyed and said he would organise to have her taken out of the city and would be voting against the tax change.
Returning to our digs we sorted through our loot. As well as one hundred crowns each Tayy got the magical cloak (that he failed to attune too). Zena pocketed the rings of protection from Goblins and Dragon as well as the regeneration ring. Hayley decided she would become a mistress of magic and attuned to the staff [+1 A; +10 WS; +1 S] and the ring of protection from fire. Unfortunately her mind was not strong enough to hold the gem of power or the boots of mind clarity and both vaporized.
Image Credits -
Art from briannacherrygarcia and Wizards end by Morgan's player David.
The death of a long term character often promotes some meta-game discussion. We have harsh rules for firing into melee but there was still only a 4.5% chance of hitting the Wizard. There was then only a 50% chance of him taking a fatal blow and it was only fatal because he had taken a serious wound two rounds before. The game is designed for combat to be deadly; about 1 in 500 blows is an outright fatal hit for an average character. Sometimes you can go for months without seeing a single one and other times you get two close together. Just one of of those things - extremely unfortunate.
ReplyDeleteThe GM did deduct XP for the fumble. I thought that was quite harsh; you would think he would want the stupid hobbit to learn from his deeds! Whether that is do not try and take prisoners or do not try and entangle people in melee remains to be seen. The main learning is using the delaying action option to throw a bola after the enemy has acted so should we hit a friend they at least have one action to try and free themselves before being auto-hit for double damage.