1206 Spring - A Giant Problem

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: The Heir of Laimunt Valley
41

OOC: In the first round you can match and delay your actions, but since you are unlikely to one-shot the giants we will need the init anyway.

My math says init +0 for Dagny with longsword and -2 for Gwyneth with longbow, assuming they carry the combat equipment described in the Grogs and Covenflok page.

The assault is quick and thunderous. The mother jumps from her seat a Wolfgang's commands, but can't react in time as the massive linnworm darts from the treeline. While she is focusing in the winged serpent Wolfgang finishes his casting, and her skin cracks and splinters in perfect geometric lines as she screams. The sound is terrifying.

Kiefskala breaths, and all is death. Both giants are apart one another, but just in the range of his full breath, and black smoke surrounds them both for a short moment. The child (can we even call if "child"?) seems unfazed, but you all see the giantess getting dizzy, her eyes unfocused... until she roars, extending her hand towards the worm (rolled 1 then 8 in the stamina roll). As her hand approaches, her shoulderblade is suddenly hit by an arrow (rolled a 2 for Gwyneth, the enemy can't really defend herself, ATK ADV 14, +10 dmg, - giantess soak). Missing the head by little, the small woman manages to inflict a medium wound. She curses:

"F&ck, this would have killed a regular human!"
"She's not human!"

The giantess is clearly pissed, and now she realizes the serpent is not the only threat. With a menacing look, she grabs her cudgel and darts towards Wolfgang as Dagny gets ready to defend the magus.

OOC:
I'm assuming Dagny delayed her action to attack if someone gets too close to Wolfgang instead of going ahead with Kiefskala.

On the spirit of transparency: I rolled 2 1's followed by a 9 for the giantess initiative, for a total of 36. The child rolled an 8. So we have:

Giantess: 36
Child: 8
Wolfgang: 4
Kiefskala: 3

From my math the init bonus for Dagny should be 0, and for Gwyn, -2.

To make future attacks easier for everyone:
Giantess: DFN: 11, Soak 9 (this is already adding +5 for the defense roll instead of rolling)
Infant: DFN: 10, Soak 9 (again with +5).

I'll withhold info on their might, but with Wolfgang's casting totals and penetration he shouldn't have a problem unless he botches.

42

OOC: I'll assume neither Dagny nor Gwyn rolls higher than the giants. Even if they do this shouldn't change much.

The giantess tries to run towards Wolfgang, but she is stopped by Kiefskala. Giving a quick order "hold it" to the other giant, she ducks and runs.

The infant rises from the stone, scared, dropping the basket in his hands. Jumping to Kiefskala he gives a powerful hug (ATK total 13, against Kiefskala DEF 11, grapple strength 2), holding the serpent in place by the middle of it's body.

The giantess drags the cudgel through the ground, spinning it in an wide arc as she approaches the small mage. Before he can cast she is already at him, but Dagny swings her sword and rises her shield (I'll assume Wolfgang won't beat her initiative with his fastcasting. If he does I'll adjust the narrative, it should only apply a penalty to the attack, diminishing any damage. Dagny had already prepared to attack whoever approached Wolf, hence the attack).

Dagny's attack (assuming average roll):
ATK (13+5) - DEF (6+5 -3 from wound) = ATK ADV 10
ATK ADV 10 + DMG 8 - SOAK 9 = 9 (a light wound)

ATK 20 (-4 from wounds) - DEF (9+5) = ATK ADV 2.
ATK ADV (2) + DMG (17) - Dagny's SOAK (15) = 4 (a light wound)

Dagny holds her position under the strike, grunting a bit (and taking a light wound). That's going to leave a bruise. Fortunately, she inflicts a nasty cut in the giantess arm. All this manages to do is make the beast get even more pissed.

43

Wolfgang shouts, "Thank you, Dagny!" Then he takes a step back, and unleashes his magic, bombarding the giantess with flame, the spheres precise and placed so as not to endanger the grog.

Meanwhile, Kiefskala is quite happy to wrestle with the smaller giant,

[Since the rule is one spell around, there will be no fast-casting. I'm assuming multi-casting is allowed.

Multi-casting Ball of Abysmal Flame.

Ball of Abysmal Flame - Multi-cast 1 | 1d10+30 ⇒ 32 Pen 1

Ball of Abysmal Flame - Damage Roll 1 | 1d10+30 ⇒ 34

Ball of Abysmal Flame - Multi-cast 2 | 1d10+30 ⇒ 38 Pen 9

Ball of Abysmal Flame - Damage Roll 2 | 1d10+30 ⇒ 33

Ball of Abysmal Flame - Multi-cast 3 | 1d10+30 ⇒ 35 Pen 6

Ball of Abysmal Flame - Damage Roll 3 | 1d10+30 ⇒ 36

Kiefskala Grapple | 1d10+10 ⇒ 11
roll for doubling | 1d10 ⇒ 3

Grapple total is 16 - he actually wants to maintain the grapple, but be in control of it. If the smaller giant is no bigger than +3, he will be constricted, meaning he starts air deprivation.
]

44

OOC: For a brief, terrifying moment, I thought Wolfgang had just multicast 6 Balls of Abysmal Flame.

A small detail: since Wolfgang still has a long-term fatigue, each casting is reduced by 1. My mistake, at Winded there's no penalty.

The first spell dissipates as soon as it reaches the giantess, but the two that follow engulfs her in flames, leaving a medium and a heavy wound (since for defense totals we are using 5 in lieu of rolling I'm considering the same for her soak). She looks scared and angry.

The younger one screams and tries to jump towards her, but realizes that he can't anymore: Kiefskala is tightly wound around him. Worse, screaming was a bad idea, for he can't take air with the serpent's body around him.

It's Dagny's and Gwyneth's time to shine.

The giantess is currently at -12 (one light, two medium and one heavy).
Should I attack with the grogs?

45

[Well we're definitely killing mum. I thought about trying to recruit the smaller one but if we just killed his mum in front of him that's probably a waste of effort.

1 level of Fatigue means -0 Winded, right? Not sure if that made a difference for any of the spells.

I think grogs should attack, don't have a preference about who rolls.]

46

You are right, I forgot Winded. This changes things a bit and I'll edit my previous post.

Taking control of the grogs:

Gwyneth shouts "make her twist this way!"

Dagny grumbles a bit. Her shield arm moves a bit slowly, but she is as fast as always with the sword.

ATK (13 + (1|6->12) -1 from wound) - DFN (6 + 5 - 12 from wounds) = 25
ATK ADV (25) + DMG 8 - SOAK 9 = 24 (a heavy wound)

A quick move and a severed tendon bring the giantess to one knee, opening her chest to Gwyneth.

ATK (12 + 8 ) - DFN (6 + 5 - 17 from wounds) = 26
ATK ADV (26) + DMG 10 - SOAK 9 = 27 (a heavy wound)

The beast roars. Heavily wounded, she looks around for an escape route and sees the younger one in Kiefskala embrace. She tries to run towards him, but Dagny interposes, attracting her attention. The giantess tries to escape towards the young, but with this kind of wound she is only fleeing if Wolfgang and Dagny let her.

(Rolled a 9 for disengage. She's at -22 penalties due to wounds. Yeah, not gonna happen).

She drops, still trying to reach her child.

OOC: At this point I think it's best to wrap up combat. It's easy to finish the giantess, and the younger one isn't going to escape Kiefskala w/o help.

How will Wolfgang end this, and what he does next?

47

Wolfgang will do an inspection of the camp, starting with the bones, while the female giantess is unconscious but perhaps not dead yet, and the younger giant is trapped, just long enough to confirm that there are human remains here. If not, he will talk to the younger giant, but if he confirms they have been killing people, he has nothing further to say to either of them, and grimly kills them both.

He attempts to pull any remaining vis out of them, taking his time and resting between casts, and searches the camp to see if there is anything significant, or any sign that there were more giants about.

[

Mother: Gather the Essence of the Beast | 1d10+25 ⇒ 34
Rest for 10 minutes

Kid: Gather the Essence of the Beast | 1d10+25 ⇒ 32
]

48

Dagny and Gwyneth keep watch as Wolfgang inspects the camp. The giantess grunts as she observes, but is powerless to interfere. Kiefskala keeps his embrace until the younger passes out, and needs to be reminded by Wolfgang to not eat - yet, at least.

The pile of bones comes from different creatures, but soon becomes clear that at least some of them where once human beings. The meat at the bonfire is also has human origin, beyond any doubt. Soon both giants add to the body count of this place.

You see as the vis coalesces, coming from their skull, towards wherever you deem fit (a toe? A tooth?). You grab and store your trophies.

Exploring the camp the sense that this was, once, a fortress or castle of somekind, becomes more pronouced. You don't see traces of any other giant, but you do notice that both the ones you just killed have been occasionally coming and going to a large, flat boulder. With a practiced glance you notice it is about two Terram individuals. There are signs of them dragging the boulder across the ground, and you notice a small gap. There is a hole of some kind below.

49

Wolfgang severs the heads of the giants, to bring to the townsfolk; after pulling the vis into a tooth which he extracts. Then he invites his friend to feast on them.

He checks for the presence of an aura, as he realizes this was once some kind of building. [non-fatiguing, InVi smell/mom/per, no roll necessary]

"Fascinating," says Wolfgang, as he finds the hole, peering downward. "Kiefskala, when you're done with your dinner, can you move this out of the way, please?" he points at the boulder.

50

You don't identify an aura at this place. If there was one someday, it's long gone.

After eating and resting a bit Kiefskala tries to move the rock, but fails. It is too heavy for him.

51

Wolfgang sighs, he goes over to the rock, and tries to use magic to move it.

[
I'm interpreting "2 Ind's" as "A stone Ind that's between Size +0 and Size +1", so based on that attempting a spell at ReTe Base 2 (Slightly Unnatural Movement) Ind (since you don't need a higher magnitude until Size +2), Mom, Touch (+1), Stone (+1); so a level 5 spell (and with a decent roll with have a mag to spare for size).

Spont ReTe | 1d10+13 ⇒ 17

So that hits level 5, if it's not enough, will spend a confidence to get a level 10 spell.

Now at -1 from fatigue.]

52

I could have made it clearer.

It's a stone roughly 2 cubic paces in volume (a base Terram individual is 1 cubic pace). Somehow I found it easier than to say "roughly 1.5 x 1.5 meters, and 1 meter high".

You'd be looking at Base 2, +1 (Stone), +1 size (it's just big enough to require an additional mag, Animal and Corpus guidelines that have a specific cap at creature size +1), +1 Touch... and I think D: Conc at least. A lvl 10 spell.

You cast your spell under Kiefskala's gaze. When it seems it's just shy of moving you give the spell an additional surge of willpower and the stone begins to move (OOC: for the record, we are talking about 4 Ton of rock).

You see a slanted entrance, barely large enough for the smaller giant to squeeze through, to what looks like a small cave.

53

Too curious not to go first, Wolfgang casts a spell (non-f) that causes his robe to give off the light of a torch, and crawls down into the cave.

54

The room you find yourself in is small and partially ruined, smelling of human waste and fear. The walls to your right and left are about 2 meters apart; the same distance separates ceiling and floor. The room goes for not more than 4 paces before ending at a stone wall. Curled and trembling at the end of the room you see an emaciated man wearing rags. His hands shield his eyes from the sudden light, and you see they are dirty with soil and blood, his fingernails gone. You notice several bloody scratch marks in the wall behind him.

Scattered through the uneven floor, pieces of a chainmail ripped apart and a crunched helmet reflect the light of your robe.

55

Wolfgang makes a noise of mild surprise. "Oh! I heard there was a knight hunting those giants, I suppose that's you, eh? Well, you're safe now, this is officially no longer a pantry. What's your name, my friend?"

56

It takes some time for the man to look at you, and some more for him to answer.

"Brian is my name."

He looks around, still visibly afraid.

"Yes... I'm the knight." About this, however, he is lying. (OOC: Rolled really well (in secret) for Wolfgang and really bad for Brian. Enough to offset the Blatant Gift.)

"The... the beasts are dead? I'm no more at risk of being...?"

57

Wolfgang nods. "The giants are dead. Who is your liege? He'll be happy to have you back safe and sound. Did he send you to kill them? What happened to you?"

58

His face suddenly pales.

"Are you pehaps a saint, my lord? Oh, I don't deserve to look at you. Thanks for delivering me from this great evil."

He prostrates himself.

"I am... from far away, saint. I have been traveling to build my fame and honor. I heard about a giant around this land and came to slay it, but I was taken by surprise since there were two of them. They locked me here with other men, taking one of us out every day."

He rises his eyes, just a bit. "What kills you is not knowing when it will be your time."

Wolfgang, you are pretty sure this guy is lying about being a knight. You notice that he dodged the question about his liege, and his answer answers nothing. But you don't notice any malice (maybe just a bit afraid of you, but your robe is shining, and there's the Blatant Gift).

If this seems important to you, you can try to force him to spill the beans, or ask Gwyneth or Dagny to do so (avoiding the gift penalty). Depending on the approach this would be Intrigue or Leadership.

59

"I am not a saint, though I have faced trials of Satan and overcome them, and I have tamed a great serpent. Nor are you a knight, but you may keep your secrets. I am called Wolfgang. If you have need of a refuge, you may follow me, but you must be truthful. Otherwise, I will go out from this place, and you may go out and go on with your life."

Wolfgang looks around for any valuables, and if he finds none, crawls back up and out.

60

The man gets even paler, but after a few moments he sticks to his lie.

"No, no sir. You are mistaken! I AM a knight! I came here to destroy these giants, but by ambush and trickery they defeated me!"

He waits for you to leave and doesn't follow, either out of shame or weakness. You don't find any valuables on your way out.

Your journey back to Tugurium is quick and uneventful (probably). Do you pass by the villages to present the heads? And after arriving at the covenant, what?