Friday 6 October 2017

GURPS Free Cities Session 64: The Final Battle Part II

Damien - Human Infernal Sorcerer (300 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
  Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (333 points)

Day 196 (Cont.):
Amothius 36th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Virgil held his ground in the middle and switched targets to the orcs, now that the giants had been momentarily stunned, and were open to pot-shots from Morgan and Damien.  Sindri attacked the last giant standing and brought it down with a series of blows to the skull, and, though he turned his back on a pair of orcs, neither managed to inflict a serious wound.

The shielded orcs continued to protect the shaman, who threw out a bead which then exploded in a shower of lightning; Sindri and Virgil were badly burnt, but so were several orcs, and one of the giants was knocked out.  Virgil took a pair of blows from a flail orc, which he then slew after dropping his sword and picking it back up, while Damien's Lightning was proving quite useful at taking out the arms of the giants, thanks to its ability to penetrate the iron plates welded to their already-tough skin.

The party seemed to have won, with all giants either dead, unconscious, or missing both arms.  The surviving orcs began to retreat, but the shaman threw out another lightning storm, which burned Sindri badly enough to knock him out.  Virgil finished off the last, berserk orc, but then passed out due to his injuries.  Damien still had enough FP to cast Hawk Flight on Boras, who Awakened the wounded on the ground level.  The party then went to the church of Erathis to have Sindri's foot fixed.

While they rested for the next hour, they overheard several discussions about how the overall battle was going:
  • The northern garrison was fairing decently, though the Dragons of Carda had sustained too many casualties due to orc raids to be of much help.
  • Oryn Thain, the commander of the eastern garrison, had been badly wounded during a charge and would not be able to rejoin the fighting.
  • There were reports that some orcs seemed to be immune to holy powers that targeted enemies of the faith, which was strange.
Though it was more difficult to command away from the front lines, the party's efforts to kill the giants had helped the western garrison's efforts greatly, and they still held the walls, taking only light casualties while heavily damaging the orc force, thanks to Sindri's Strategic ability.  Once they had recuperated, the party set back out to see what they could do, and were again presented with a choice.

The drake-riders still flew overhead and bombarded the defenders from outside of range, but now a group of orcs had gained the walls, and might be able to establish a beachhead, given time.  The party decided to deal with the drake-riders, and, after waiting for them to cluster up, to take them all out at once, prepared; Boras was left on the ground, but the rest of the party were buffed with Hawk Flight and Armour 5 as they rose to meet the drake-riders.

Virgil flew around to try to flank left while Sindri went up the middle, and the orcs all readied arrows.  Morgan tried to close the gap to get a better shot, while Damien switched back to Lightning.  The leader, on a bigger drake, took a shot at Morgan, only for it to bounce off near harmlessly, while the rest loosed a volley on Sindri, who took only minimal damage from the bodkins, several of which didn't even penetrate.

Virgil had now flanked the orcs to the left, and took off a wing each from two drakes, but the rest of them flanked right, behind Damien, while the leader dropped his bow (letting it plummet to the ground, apparently) and switched to a lance while his drake tried to take a bite out of Morgan.  Sindri left the leader to Virgil and Morgan, choosing to follow the flanking riders.

Damien realized he was about to eat a volley of arrows, and decided to abandon the fight, dropping down out of range at terminal velocity.  Morgan landed a hit on the big drake's wing, but it wasn't enough to slow it down, and the leader skewered him with his lance, knocking him unconscious.  Virgil dropped down to catch Morgan, while Sindri, now outnumbered 6:1, followed him, leaving the orcs victorious.

In spite of their failure, Sindri's ability as a commander enabled the defenders to continue to hold the orcs at bay, while inflicting yet heavier casualties on the orcs.

Notes:
A combat heavy session.  They did very poorly against the drake-riders; this was only Risk 2, while the prior fight was Risk 3.  At least they escaped mostly unharmed.

Sorcery Shape Earth now affects 1m³, doubled every level after the first.

I realized that Sorcery Hawk Flight still requires acceleration, and doesn't grant a 3m step.

Both Sindri and Virgil completely forgot about Damien's Armour spell.  Had they remembered, neither of them would have ended up unconscious.

I gave them access to 100 total healing energy.  After 50 for Sindri's foot and some other misc healing; they're down to 34.

While discussing how useful Boras was, there was a suggestion that everybody buy a hireling cleric.  To match the naming scheme, one would be Barry/Larry/Carry, and the second Don/Jon/Ron.  Presumably the third would be Ed/Fred/Ted.

For the first time, enemy cavalry weren't immediately completely destroyed, and actually managed to be a threat!  Yay!

RAW, Power Parries can parry an attack of any weight.  I also don't like how they partially succeed, so I made the following changes:
  • Power Parries are always fully effective , unless they auto-fail due to weight.
  • A Power Parry against an attack weighing more than (Talent x 3)²/5 will auto-fail.
Morgan used Luck to reroll his Pyromania because he wanted to do crushing to the drakes, but didn't even get to target a skull before burning their only Tactics reroll when the drake slammed him, and then falling unconscious shortly after.

Current casualties:
Carda: 20%
Orcs: 45%

XP:
1 for partial success
2 for combat
MVP went to Sindri for winning the battle
Damien is no longer earning double XP

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