The vanguard can only be changed when the group is not in combat. In order to disengage you will have to make a defense roll without attacking which the creature cannot hit and move far enough away to be effectively disengaged.
Ah. In which case, I will have to defend against this attack. Putting Carlos's +6 into Defence again.
Def roll (7) + 6 + 6 - 5 = 14. Attack advantage of 4, effective 0 after Soak. The next wound would be to Carlos, which won't affect our totals. I'm lacking my book here - with Carlos's small frame, how bad is an 11-point wound?
Carlos can't take the wound until you switch vanguards, which require disengaging, which requires not getting hit...
for either frame size it is a heavy wound.
I may be misremembering, but doesn't a group distribute blows evenly amongst its members, with the proviso being that the vanguard takes at least as many as everyone else? In which case, this blow would fall on Carlos.
In any case, I will spend a confidence if it reduces the wound to Medium for whichever of us is receiving it; if that's Bernat, I'll also spend Fortune to downgrade it to Light (and I wish I'd thought of that last round).
The rules distribute the blows evenly per combat round, with any 'leftover' going to the vanguard. Since you have one opponent giving one blow per round, it all goes to the vanguard.
[color=blue]Damn it! Toss that damn flower at the creature and let's run and get the $%^& out of here!
It takes Bernat a moment to process what Carlos has suggested; but once he does, he reaches in to his pocket. With a split-second decision, he pulls out one of the flowers and tosses it as far over the beast's head as he can. Assuming that takes the beast's attention, he and Carlos high-tail it out of the hole at the back.
((OOC: Fatigue! I knew I'd forgotten one of the combat-boosting options. Bah))
((Confidence: Bernat has 2 remaining))
As the flower flits to the ground the beast bats at it like a cat batting at dust in the sunlight, and the cave in the back grows larger. The two of you are able to disengage and head for the tunnel. Chi chi appears to be on her last legs and once the flower hits the ground the beast laps it up with it's tongue and starts after you.
Do we manage to get everyone out of the cave? If the beast comes after us, Carlos reorganizes with himself as Vanguard and Bernat covering his flank.
You can get out if you leave Chi chi behind, or probably if you abandon the second flower to distract the beast. Otherwise you will likely have to face the beast again.
I'm guessing Carlos isn't keen to leave Chi Chi; and Bernat would rather not give up both flowers if it can be helped. With Bernat suffering 6 points of wounds, taking him off Vanguard is sensible (he adds +3 to Carlos from his Single Weapon). As I understand it, neither of the girls is sufficiently combat-capable to join the group. Would we be better off as an untrained group with the more martial one (I forget which is which)? Otherwise, Bernat is happy to let Carlos lead.
((OOC: Can I, as a player, put XP into "effectively performing combat"? We could have done so much better...))
The beast has a size of 3 and a soak of 12, and the whole faerie "what, am I wounded?" thing, so with a dmg of +5 you would need an attack advantage of 32 to stop this thing.
Chi chi does suggest that the other flower would be able to heal her.
[color=blue]Toss the flower to Chi-chi! See if it will heal her and if she can get us out of this mess!
You toss the flower to Chi chi and she places it against her leg, which heals instantly. She then shows you a side passageway that leads you back to Fleur's garden, with Chi chi still there next to you. "My hero" she tells Carlos and throws her arms around his neck...
6 xp
Fortune:
Marko:3
Asilano:2
I vote that we should give Silveroak 3 points. I also would like to make sure that Bernat doesn't die, so maybe some triage is needed. Also, I would like to roleplay some resolution. Carlos is not the type to get to figure out the mystical metaplot. But he does want more information to take back with him, for he plans on getting the magi involved to see to this reoccuring problem.
Seeing Bernat injured in her garden, Fleur brings him inside and begins casting Assurance of the Eased Recovery (+15 to recovery rolls for a month, relaxed casting, Cr:12+Corpus:9+Sta:3+Aura:3+die roll:7 (invisible castle was down)=34 penetration:4
"I'll cast that again in a couple of weeks, and keep it going until you heal." She decides to wait until Carlos is done with Chi Chi before she sees if he needs attention.
Th... th... thank yyy you, mm..mm.mmistress. Then, to Carlos - I .. ... .. am ssss ssorry, ff ff friend. Iiii sss... still nn nnnneeed sss... some pp..p..practice w...w...with mmmmy s.s..sword!
So Chi-Chi exited Faerie with us, eh? (At least, Fleur can see her). That's... interesting.
[color=blue]You're alright with a sword. Just need better luck I suppose.
Okay, Chi-vhi, or Charro, or whatever your name is. This seems a bit over the top dangerous and we almost got ourselves killed. I blame Lucia for picking the flower in the first place. But whatever. This beast needs to be put down once and for all. I have some friends, wizard friends. I want to bring them into this and kill this monster once and for all.
Charra bounces up and down like... well something giddy and happy and very distracting as her bosom keeps coming out of her clothes.
"That would be wonderful! I bet daddy would let you keep all the flowers you want if you did that! but he comes after the flowers usually, and those bloom in the spring. Am I going to have to wait until spring to see you?" She gets very pouty at this thought.
Carlos was about to tell her off, but her bouncing soften his heart and hardened his resolve.
[color=blue]Perhaps, unless you would come with me to meet with these wizard friends of mine. They will need information and can understand the esoteric much better than I. And Bernat! Don't clean the blood from your sword! I've seen them use stuff like that in their magic.