Symbaroum Combat Test

The Setup

 

Kvarek the Mercenary, Bartala the Magician and Ansel the priest find themselves beset by four 'self taught' Witchhunters who mistakenly believe them to be in the service of abominations:

Accurate:10 Cunning 10 Discreet 5 Persuasive 7 Quick 9 Resolute 15 Strong 11 Vigilant 13

Crossbow 5, Axe 4, Chainmail 3

Defense +3 Shield Tough 11, Pain 6

Initiative is set by order of Quickness

1.Kvarek

2.Bartala

3.Ansel

4.The Witchhunters

In a round, each character may perform one movement action and one combat action.

The combat action may be replaced by another movement action as well.

Reactions (free attacks, defense and the like) occur as often as needed.

Round 1

Kvarek draws his sword and shield and moves to engage two of the Witchhunters (two are on each side of the road, and this takes two actions: one move, and one to ready his weapons)

Bartala smiles grimly while muttering an incantation and extends her hand towards one of the witchhunters on the other side of the road and a gout of fire and brimstone consume him (Bartala rolls her Resolute modified by the target's Quick. In this case Bartala has a Resolute of 11, and the Witchhunter has a Quick of 11 which actually gives Bartala a +1. She has to roll under a 12 for the full effect otherwise he takes half damage. Bartala also has to roll a d4 to see how much temporary corruption she incurs, and gets a 2. If she exceeds her 'corruption threshold', varying degrees of bad things happen.)

She rolls an 8, which means he takes 1d12 damage, 6 points that are not reduced by armor. Given this matches the target's pain threshold, she gets to decide whether the Witchhunter falls to the ground, or if she gets another attack. In this case she states that he falls to the ground shrieking trying to put the fire out.

Ansel readies his warhammer and calls out to Prios to bless this weapon. (Ansel uses an action to ready, and another to cast 'Witch Hammer' which unfortunately also gives him 4 temporary corruption points. At ½ Resolute rounded up, the character reaches a Corruption Threshold and would become 'Blight Marked' at Resolute, the character is lost as an abomination. Temporary corruption clears at the end of a scene, and stigma incurred by passing the threshold disappear when the corruption goes below that level, however hitting that threshold also grants PERMANENT corruption. This can all be mitigated by

techniques by various schools such as Wizardry or Witchcraft, or you can be 'self taught' and deal with the consequences...)

Ansel's warhammer glows with the holy blessings of Prios.

The burning witchunter douses the flames and stumbles to his feet readying his crossbow, his comrade draws his axe and rushes towards Bartala, who is quite obviously in league with dark forces.

Bartala is wielding a walking staff, which is a long weapon. Long weapons grant a free attack the first time someone attacks the wielders if that person is also not wielding a long weapon. (And yes, you can disengage and repeat if you are particularly nimble.)

Bartala is not terribly skilled in melee combat however, and rolls a 20 which is a fumble. A fumble on an attack allows one's opponent a free strike on you.

(Yes Bartala's free strike opened her up for an attack she would otherwise not get this turn.)

In narrative terms, Bartala strikes, but the Witchhunter ducks under her blow and strikes at her while she is off balance.

ALL rolls are player facing, so Bartala rolls to defend herself by rolling under her Quick modified by the witchhunter's Accuracy, so she needs an 11 or less, but rolls a 12. the axe will do 4 points of damage modified by Bartala's armor which provides 1d4 defense... 2 in this case. This takes Bartala from Toughness of 10 to 8.

The other two witchhunters draw their axes and strikes at Kvarek, both missing.

Round 2

Kvarak has a really useful ability called Bodyguard that would let him take hits for adjacent friends... sadly he rushed away from them...

But not so sadly, Kvarek rolls a '1' attacking a witchhunter, which being an critical hit (optional rule) adds 1d6 damage which means he will roll 1d8+1d6, getting 10, minus the armor of 3 gives 7 points of damage to his opponent, as he staggers back Kvarek chooses to attack again, doing 5 points of damage after armor and felling his foe in a gorey mess.

Bartala streams fire and brimstone at her attacker, incurring 2 more points of corruption and setting him ablaze for 9 points of damage, exceeding his pain threshold and allowing her to followup with another gout of fire which barely grazes him, but is enough to extinguish his life. Sadly Bartala incurred a total of 8 points of corruption, which means that aside from the unfortunate birthmark in the shape of a pentangle that has appeared on her forehead, she now has 2 PERMANENT corruption points, for a scene total of 9... She is getting dangerously close to the edge.

Ansel casts a worried look at Bartala as he runs towards the smoldering witchhunter with the crossbow, and dramatically misses him with his glowing warhammer.

The crossbow wielding Witchhunter manages to fire a bolt into him after Ansel fails his Quick roll to defend, and Ansel also only rolls a 1 on his armor so he takes 4 points of damage, putting him at 6 points of Toughness left.

The other remaining witchhunter completely misses Kvarak.

Round 3

Kvarrak connects with a solid sword hit, inflicting 5 points of damage on the witchhunter

Bartala throws caution to the wind and sends another torrent of flame at the crossbow wielding witchhunter, glancing him for 6 points of damage, which is enough to burn him to death. Bartala now has only 2 points left before she completely turns into an abomination.

The last witchhunter is horrified, but only briefy as Ansel charges him and dealing 1d8 + 1d4 (for Witch Hammer' spell) , doing 10 points of damage and killing him.