DTVS 1:4 Lone Wolves part 9: Dominance

[subplotkudzu]

Back at the Denneval Edwin is surprised at the lack of crew on the gangplank, but both Leet and Frost can confirm the smell of death coming from within, along with the scent of the beast. Their search of the upper levels reveals no crew, but when they activate the flickering electric lights of the hold they are able to identify the crew from their remains. The beast, Waheela, Amorak, is not present, but they see where it is bedding down inside it's old cage, the door to which has been snapped open and deformed by the beast's jaws. Edwin ponders, then informs the group that at this later hour whatever depredations the Beast may have planned for the city that night have undoubtedly occurred (and it has not taken a life every night) so their best bet now is to lie in wait.

Roger directs the others to roll in the beast's den, so that they might hide their scent with its own, muskier one. "How did I get myself into this again?" Helena mutters, but does as she's bid - they weren't good clothes anyway.

While Roger is putting on a good front Doris can tell that her friend is terrified of the sprit beast, so while the others scout locations to hide she lays her hand on his arm. Frost shakes his head, but does not push her hand away.

"I am not a shaman, I don’t know how to propitiate the Amorak, and it will kill us all."

"It's just an animal, Roger. It's not a god. What you see in this is like… how others first see Leet." Roger looks at his companion. "Leet? No…" But the dog bristles its fur, adopts a wide stance and growls fiercely to show how correct Doris is. "OK, perhaps they do."

"You can kill beasts, Roger. I have faith in you." She gives his arm a gentle squeeze and heads to her chosen hiding spot amongst the crates as Roger hefts his spear with a newfound sense of courage.[1] Shortly after that, Edwin kills the lights and the wait begins. Not too long after they feel the decks echo from the beast's weight hitting the deck. In the darkness they hear its shoulders scrape through doors on its way to the hold, and the wet musky odor announces its presence. They hear it sniff several times; Doris can smell its rancid breath as its snout comes within a foot or so of her position, but it then settles into what was once its cage. Edwin counts 10 heartbeats then flicks on the lights.

Doris is in motion at that second, leaping over the beast and delivering a nasty gash through the bars across its scalp. Roger leaps forward, stabbing his barbed spear into the creature's eye with a hunter's yell. Both youths fall back on the beast's blinded side with the cage between them as Helena's bolt strikes home, Edwin's, is deflected by the bars.

Edwin curses and takes more careful aim. Doris prepares for the beast to leap from the cage, but to her surprise the beast jumps directly through the cage, dodging Roger's spear and wrapping its jaws around the young hunter. A shake of the head and Frost flies across into a stack of crates, which promptly collapses onto him. Doris recovers smoothly, timing her leap onto the beast's back to avoid the pair of crossbow bolts - Helena's a hit, Edwin's a miss - and once she has a grip on the beast's spiny fur she drives the knife into its heart. It roars its rage at this and manages to toss her off, then leap to where she landed, bringing down a second stack of crates stop them both. Doris manages to roll clear from both the bite, but Edwin can't be sure of this as he fires with a calm fury, piercing the beast's other eye. As the crates descend Doris feels something bite into her skirts and yank her backward - the ever resourceful Leet pulling her clear.

Roger, meanwhile, finds himself possessed of a stroke of good fortune: one of the crates that shattered around him contained a weighted, barbed net, undoubtedly once used to capture the beast[2]. Grabbing it he hastily climbs to the top of the remaining piles of crates and readies the net to throw. The beast shakes free of its confinement - visibly smaller, Doris notes - and leaps for her again, shaking and twitching as it shrinks, only to be entangled by Frost's throw. The beast slams into the wall, destabilizing Frost's perch, but the hunter leaps to the ground without incident. Doris watches the beast as it dies, its body shrinking to merely twice Leet's size; Helena does the same, but to her sight she can see the spirit leaving the body, swirling around the room and vanishing.

---

[1] And Frost and Doris earn Drama points for generating and dissipating angst in true Buffy fashion.

[2] Can you say "Drama Point"? I knew you could.

 

To be concluded

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

So let me guess: Edwin put more of his points into scholarly stuff, and not so many into Dexterity or Getting Medieval, as Helena did? That's just how combat tends to go in Boca del Infierno: Catalina outdoes Francisco, who outdoes Malena, who outdoes Tomas and Esperanza. . . .

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, no; Helena had DEX 2 and Getting Medieval 2, Edwin had DEX 3 and Getting Medieval 3. However, Helena has a PER 4 and was scoring several successes when aiming to boost her accuracy. Edwin was rolling poorly whenever he tried to aim - lots of 1s and 2s. When he dispensed with aiming his attack roll came up a 10. The players decided Edwin just needed to be 'in the zone' when he was shooting and the aiming was messing him up.

If and when we come back to this, I expect Edwin to forgo aiming with the crossbow and 'shoot from the hip' while Helena continues to take careful, measured shots. It's a nice contrast in their combat styles and reversal of their personalities, since he's the calm rational one and she does best when she's emotional.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Is using successes on PER to boost accuracy in the published rules, or is it something you or your players invented? I don't recall seeing anything about using skill/attribute A to add successes to a roll against skill/attribute B. Of course I have the first edition, not the second.

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

The Aim maneuver is in the 2/e rules. The roll is PER + skill (Getting Medieval in this case, otherwise Gun Fu), and the successes are added to the shot, which is delayed to the end of the round. There's a smiliar Feint maneuver, but it's less useful because it counts as a full action rather than a delayed one and is resisted by the target's Brains.

In play Helena's +6 aim was racking up successes to boost her otherwise iffy +4 crossbow. Edwin's +5 aim produced a lot of rolls below 9 so it was just slowing him down - one of those bits were a string of dice luck was defining a new character more than the character sheet.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

It turns out they're both in the 1/e rules, after all. I just haven't been asking my players, "Do you want to pause to aim?" or "Do you want to attempt a feint?" Or having the enemy do either to their characters.

[evynrude.livejournal.com]

I finally found the time to go back and read this...Sounds like a lot of fun. I'm almost</> sorry I was on vacation when this happened.