Round 5: The Mage Fights Back

Here are the results from last week’s poll:

Albrecht hacks with a long sword at Goblin 8 (62% of votes).

Cailaith attacks Goblin 5 with a dagger in each hand, suffering penalties of -1 and-3 to hit (54% of votes).

It’s only Cailaith’s 17 dexterity that allows for the practical use of two weapons … but I’m sure the gentle reader knew that already. I just felt the need to say it. It’s a DM thing.

Albrecht attacks and rolls a 19, modified to a 20 by the bless, and delivers 5 damage to Goblin 8. The Goblin has 1hp, and dies. He swings around and faces Goblin 6 … he technically has two moves left, but as long as he’s in combat he must surrender them; he could do something like pull another weapon, or throw the torch away (he can’t attack with it, as a fighter he only gets 1 attack at his level), but as these are useless. He could circle one to the left around Goblin 6, but he doesn’t want to desert Cailaith.

Cailaith makes her first attack with a dagger against Goblin 5, rolling a 16 on the die; this is -1 for using two weapons, but +1 for the bless spell , so it doesn’t change … the roll hits AC 5 for a mage, and Cailaith manages to cause 3 damage. Goblin 5 has 4 hp, but is stunned. He staggers backwards and to Cailaith’s right into the hex with Goblin 8’s body.

Cailaith could step forward and take her other attack, but here the smart player would turn and stab at either Goblin 2 or Goblin 10. Time to decide if it’s better to save an attack on herself, or free up Brønn, who is the better fighter, Cailaith opts (in my opinion) to attack Goblin 10. I know, I know, I should run a poll just for this, but there isn’t time.

Cailaith rolls a natural 20! I promise, not faked, I actually rolled it. First off, even with modifiers of -3 and +1, it hits AC 3. At present, then, her damage is doubled … but Cailaith immediately rolls the die again – if she rolls either a 19 or a 20, the damage is tripled. Normally it would only be on a 20, but the goblin isn’t wearing a helmet, so a 19 would be sufficient. Cailaith rolls an 18. Bad luck. Still, she rolls a 4, doubled to cause 8 damage. Goblin 10 had 5 hit points, and dies. Cailaith spins on Goblin 2 and readies for being attacked.

So now things appear as this:



Nice round.


The goblins have only lost two more of their brethren, so a morale check isn’t in the offing yet. That will take one more. So we’ll start with Goblin 1 and Goblin 11 attacking Darien.

Not surprisingly, one of them hits. Goblin 11 rolls a 14, which will hit AC 6. He causes 4 damage, dropping Darien to -4 hit points. Darien is automatically stunned … but now he must also roll a constitution check to determine if he’s still conscious. Because he’s at -4, his constitution is reduced to 60% of 11, his constitution when he is at zero hit points or greater. His constitution is at present, then, 6.6. He must roll a 6 or less on a d20 or fall unconscious. He rolls a 7, and passes out.

Goblin 1, when attacking Darien, had rolled a 1 to hit … this indicates that he’s dropped his weapon. It’s an average-quality weapon, so it rolls a d6 to see if it breaks. He rolls a 2, and since anything other than a 1 indicates the weapon isn’t broken, he’s merely put to the trouble of having to recover it. The DM rolls a d6 … a 3 indicates the weapon has dropped into the same hex as Goblin 1. If the DM had rolled a 1, the weapon would have wound up in a random hex around the goblin.

Goblin 9 attacks Englund, rolling a 12. This hits AC 8, which is sufficient to hit. He does 1 damage, but as Englund is presently at 3 hit points, he’s stunned. He staggers back one hex. Goblin 9 turns to face Brønn.

Goblin 9 attacks Cailaith, rolling a 9 and missing. It could shift one to the left, but it chooses to remain next to Goblin 6.

Goblin 6 attacks Albrecht, rolling a 19. This obviously hits. The goblin rolls 2 damage. This would stun an opponent with up to 8 hit points, but Albrecht has 17. He shrugs off the blow, and moves into the next round.

Brønn, stunned the round before, now recovers. He, Cailaith and Albrecht may take an action this round. As always, I’ll set up the polls in the next hour or so.  The updated characters are as follows:

Oh, and since I haven’t had one fucking comment about the shadows, I’ll assume people don’t care, and I won’t bother adding them today. Nor am I adding the wider dungeon shot. I’ll keep the shadow-circle provided by the torch, since that’s easy.  Here's how it looks:

Things are looking up.

UPDATED:

The remaining three characters not posted this week: