The three beetles scurry forward to 1008, 1107 and 1208. The latter two of these attack Aleksandra, each moving three hexes before attempting to give her a nasty bite. The third beetle moves adjacent to Lothar and Gudbrand (and Aleksandra too), but does not have enough AP left other than to engage the last two in melee.
Attacking Aleksandra twice, then, the beetle in 1107 rolls and hits with an 18, causing an unpleasant 5 damage. This potentially stuns anyone with up to 20 hit points, so Aleksandra is stunned (can take no action the rest of this round) and staggers back into 1109 (shown with a green arrow). The beetle does not have enough AP to rush into 1108 after her.
The beetle in 1208 misses with a 6.
Thus the arrangement now looks like this:
 |
| Whenever possible, I will be zooming in on the immediate action, but other hexes can still be seen on previous posts or other maps. |
The players, with the exception of Aleksandra, can take an action. Engelhart will finish his climb down (please indicate if he's in 0707, 0708 or 0608). Engelhart can only drop into one of those three hexes.
22 comments:
I've only just noticed a special ability on my sheet:
"composition: Character's reduces falling and impact damage by 1d6+1, twice per day."
May I elect to drop the remaining part of the way and thus preserve all/a part of my AP total as I rush in to aid my besieged comrades?
Either way, it's 0707 for my heavy-booted landing.
Nope, you may not, not in this case. But you can remember it for later and serve as an example for people to read their character sheets.
I am sorry that you seem to be taking the brunt of things lately; it isn't you, it is just the circumstances aren't favoring you just now.
[But DMs must be pricks sometimes]
You're down and ready to rumble for next round, Engelhart.
[I'm off for an appointment; I'll be gone about four hours]
May a ranged weapon be fired while in melee? If so, with what consequences? I could not find a ruling on the wiki and I don't wish to presume.
With Engelhart already headed down, I'll descend after into 0608.
If I have any of my 4AP remaining after descent, I'll lean over and collect my spear from 0707.
Under missile weapons on the wiki, you'll note that point blank range begins at a distance of 2 hexes.
You can't fire a bow while the beetle is biting your foot. You have to step back one hex (-2 AP, distance of the hex plus the penalty for retreating from a melee-hex) and then fire. Point blank gives you +1 to hit.
If you choose to do so, please roll a d20.
For anyone else, too. If you express an attack, please don't wait: roll a d20, then roll damage on the presumption you hit, then give both numbers. If you miss, I will simply ignore the damage roll.
Rowan, as the round ends, Engelhart is still technically descending the twine; he doesn't step off the twine until the moment the round ends.
The hole at the top is so narrow, if you try to jump this round, you'll land on him. You'll have to wait to take whatever action until round 3.
Ok, I thought that would probably be the case. I drop back one hex (to 0809) and fire at the beetle in hex 1008.
To hit: I rolled a 9, plus 1 for point blank, minus 2 for being sick makes a total of 8.
Damage: a roll of 4, minus 2 for being sick again, makes a total of 2.
Ugh.
That will be a miss, Lothar. You have 1 AP remaining.
The wait is acceptable, though I intend to descend via the twine like the others.
My associates don't seem to be too gravely imperiled just yet. Hopefully they won't hold it against their guide taking his sweet time.
Can I move up one hex and pick up my quarterstaff on the way?
Drawing a light weapon = 1 AP; moving a hex = 1 AP. Can't do both. The quarterstaff stays in 0908 for the time being.
Still waiting on Gudbrand's move. Starting work on Engelhart's image [went out for dinner ~ mm].
1 AP: walk to 1010
4 AP: load and aim my sling. I remember your answer to a previous question about slings, saying there's an additional 1 hex of movement which is part of loading and aiming, so with that 1 hex of movement I move to 1110 behind Aleksandra.
(ooc: my deadlines for my last final paper and the first chapter of my thesis are tomorrow and then I'm traveling much of Friday and Saturday, so I'll be a bit scarce these few days. I'll try to check in on evenings on hotel wifi those two days and should be back to normal sunday.)
You'll probably miss this, Gudbrand, but I'll try anyway.
You have completely forgotten that you're in a melee hex. I've mentioned it several times but you're understandably rushing, given your situation.
It will take you two AP to get out of hex 1009. Although the beetle did not attack you, it ENGAGED you, which means you must try to dodge, avoid, otherwise not let yourself be chewed into bits. Failing to do this would mean I automatically hit you and do damage.
You CAN'T load and spin a sling while doing this. I find I often have trouble with characters who can't understand that there is a time for missile weapons and there is a time when you MUST fight hand-to-hand. I blame games that treat combat so casually, it's presumed you can always fight with a bow while three inches from the enemy, a la the 'skill' of Legolas in Lord of the Rings (rule of cool). I don't use the rule of cool, so you can't use a missile weapon when engaged directly.
Sometimes, you have to fight. Missile weapons are used at a DISTANCE, and only at a distance . . . but I find that players ALWAYS suppose that in a tiny area, such as a dungeon room, when there's no blockers, that there's no trouble getting out the bow or sling and shooting off a few missiles. But it is a tiny area. If you don't want your kneecaps crunched between manibles, you're going to have to choose a different weapon.
You don't have enough AP to load the sling AND dodge the beetle. Sorry.
I was about to move forward and skip Gudbrand's turn ~ I don't want to throw him out, he's got a very good excuse; but I wish he had asked Rowan to go down in his stead and stayed up top until Friday, so he wasn't hanging us up right now.
I'll give him a bit to come back with an answer, during which time I will go be a Roman and do some bath lounging. I'll come out and start the next round.
Anyone see Engelhart's new image?
Re-reading your comment, Gudbrand, I realize there's another error in there.
Loading your sling DOES allow you to move up to 1 hex ~ however, that is a maximum of 1 hex per the round of you loading. Not 1 hex, then load, then move another hex. If you had 4 AP, you would still be able to load and move ONE hex. If you had 3 AP, you would be able to load and still move ONE hex.
Part of the reason this seems wrong and weird is that we are thinking of an "action point" as a fixed measure of time. It isn't!
A round is 12 seconds long: if you have 5 action points, then you spend ~ at maximum ~ one action point every 2.4 seconds. But if you have 4 action points, you spend one every 3 seconds. And if you have 3 action points, you spend one every 4 seconds. And so on.
I generously allow persons with less than 4 AP to load bows and slings, so long as they take the whole round to do so ~ and I also generously allow them to move ONE hex while doing so. But even if you have 5 action points, you still need the WHOLE round ~ the 4 AP cost is really saying, "your whole move minus 1 AP if you want to move one hex while loading."
It is a glitchy rule, but believe me it works ~ and once new players get used to it, they design their strategies to fit.
Okay, I don't want to punish Gudbrand. I'm going to just have him move to 1110, so we can move forward. I'll have him swing his axe at the beetle in 1008 ~ I roll a 17 for him, which will hit. He has a 17 strength, adding 1 damage; I'll roll a d6 and get a total of 6.
This kills the beetle in 1008; that will mean he doesn't need the extra point to get out of 1009 (killing the beetle changes the hex from a melee hex to an ordinary one) and I'll have him still move to 1110 with an extra AP. I'll leave the beetle carcass on the map meanwhile.
Sorry Gudbrand ~ I want to keep this moving.
I feel bad about imposing the deadline, but it is 11 pm here and I wanted to get at least one more round in today. The next post (round 3) is up.
[OOC: Tomorrow, I have a job interview with the Canadian Government. I know. Hard to believe. It is a HUGE thing, a potentially massive change to my life, so I am going to prepare for it tomorrow. I will also have some time to run a bit in the morning; it isn't until 2:30]
(sorry Alexis, I know I've read the melee-hex movement rule a thousand times. And I understand now how the sling loading works)
In that case, I'll redo my turn like this. I think everything checks out:
2 AP to move out of 1009 and into 0908.
0 AP: drop my sling
1 AP: pick up Lothar's quarterstaff for him (so next turn he can just grab it from me instead of spending AP to pick it up himself)
If it costs 1 more AP to hold it out for him I do that, leaving me with 1 AP unspent which I forfeit. If it doesn't cost any AP to hold it out for him, I spend my remaining 2 AP to move from 0908to 0808. (Still next to Lothar's new position of 0809 so he can get the staff.)
(Overall, I am trying to get to the twine to go up -- once the other guys are all down, I'll ascend the rope and get out of combat's way, if possible -- less slowdown for you guys.)
(ooc damn I didn't see the deadline posts unti after mine)
Sorry, Gudbrand; you didn't read. I already moved for you. The third round is up. Have a look.
It would have been 1 AP to toss the quarterstaff to Lothar, just for clarity's sake.
I am honestly sorry.
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