The preliminaries are over. Many of immortal blood have fallen, but the strongest yet remain.
You and your fellow siblings are brought forth to a land encircling a vast fortress with a great roofed, windowless tower in its middle. The terrain around the area has clearly been shaped and formed to be uniform. Each of you is in a vast furrow, three miles long, with hills on either side, leading towards a small clearing around the fortress.
A herald reads out a message to your group. "Whoever is the one who currently holding a certain crystal located at the top of the tower eight hours from now shall be the winner of this tournament. It does not matter how long you have held it, but only who holds it at the last moment of the tournament. However, there are boons for moving quickly. Whoever reaches the top of the tower first, shall receive a boon to aid them. The two stairwells that lead to the top of the tower each have a boon. Each of the three gaterooms for the bridges from the inner keep walls to the tower has a boon. Each of the four gates of the fortress has a boon. These are the rules of the competition."
Lucielle tilted her head slightly as she heard the messages and nodded briefly. Well, that was nice and straightforward, at least - one could hardly complain, even if her mind was occupied with a few other details. With that, she carefully stretched, pondering her options and deciding how to best proceed with this.
Verix strolled through the trench, his Earthbreaker propped on his shoulder. He towered over the men around him, the tallest and strongest of those who came to this tournament for this pissing Throne. It was less about the throne for him and more about respect, the respect of the father he hated, the respect of the brothers and sisters he never knew and never wanted. If he could earn there respect, it would be all the sweeter and he twisted a knife in there guts.
He spat a wad of chewing tobacco on the ground before him, as his Lieutenant approached him at a trot. "News Corvin?" He tightened his grip and the haft of the hammer, staring at the man with eyes like flint.
"We are coming up on the clearing now Chief. What are your orders?" He did not salute, he did not bow, this was not the military, no matter the title the man held. This was a trusted adviser speaking to his Chief. They were both warriors and Verix owed as much to Corvin as vice versa.
"Proceed with the plan as we discussed it. We'll divide up like I said and see if we can't cause a little mayhem. If you do get in to a scrap with one of my brothers or sisters, don't hesitate to pull the f+!! back. Take the Hammer and the Scouts and push for a gate. I'll wheel the Anvil in after you. Don't fail me on this Corvin. If I win the old bastards Empire I will need people I trust!"
Corvin grinned viciously and turned, letting out a whooping call, as he swung his battleaxe over his head in a tight practiced circle, before pointing towards the way they were going.
On cue, part of the retinue dashed forward, whooping and singing loudly at the top of their lungs, followed by a smaller, silent element.
"WHO STANDS IN THE PATH OF THE CLAW?"
Commander Misthrax signals with his hands, whispers an order to his lieutentenant and, without words or fanfare, the Iron Legion moves forward through the hills at a brisk pace. Spearmen watch the hills for movement, while horsemen encircle the Iron Beast as it lumbers forward, pulling a gigantic cart. The commander runs forward at an inhuman pace, scouting slightly ahead.
Casting Longstrider to boost Runcible's speed to 50'
Harron looks around the furrow and then to the hills on his flanks. "It seems like they don't want any encounters before reaching the fortress." He starts walking forward before he hears a loud shout and he stops. He starts to grin. "This will be more fun that I thought" He continues walking forward with his armor clattering with each step.
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The others had started to move, and Lucielle nodded slightly as she picked up the pace and started moving at full speed forwards - keeping a careful eye on her surroundings as she did so, just in case there were any traps. It would be interesting to see just how swift the others had become - though unlike some, she felt no particular desire to try and intimidate others through noise. There were other ways of affecting their emotions.
Lucielle and Runcible are the first to arrive, spotting each other. If Runcible was 6 o'clock, Lucielle would be at the position of 3 o'clock, with a distance between them of approximately 425 feet away from each other. The fort was three hundred feet away.
Lucielle continued moving, relying on speed to help her reach the tower as quickly as possible - and when she ran flat-out, as she was doing now, she could move very swiftly indeed. It wouldn't take too long to reach the rest of the fortress, but she did keep an eye on Runcible as she moved, continuing to keep her thoughts to herself as she ran.
Harron continued his pace forward, until he slowed down and stopped. He points his hands forward, and the skeletons surrounding him started to run. He continued on, but this time he mounted his horse and began moving at a jogging pace.
Verix dashed in to the clearing, glaring around at the fortress ahead of him, before signalling and darting towards one of the unoccupied gates. "Storm the keep!"
As one, his men moved forward, rattling weapons and growling and whooping.
At the "when characters with speed of 40 arrive at the edge of the clearing" mark, my men should be arriving as well. Since that puts those characters 5 rounds away from the tower—or 10 if they're not hustling. And there will be some slowing down when they enter the keep; my large catapult should be set up within 10-15 rounds of them reaching the base of the tower, so I'll keep setting it up during those rounds.
For expediency, we'll say that the forces at 30 ft a round arrive now.
Corvin moved up beside Verix and stared at the Golem for a second, running through his memories for any possible helpful information he may have about the creatures.
He shrugged, he wasn't sure of anything and nothing he said would help. He patted the huge man on the shoulder and moved back signalling to the troops, as he began to hum and soon broke in to a full on war chant.
Verix sends up a prayer to the Destroyer, sending a flash of his inspiration through his weapon, causing it to glow and give off a twisted red and black aura, before he let his Lieutenants chanting wash over him, as he tightened his grip on the now glowing Earthbreaker. He began to smile viciously, before he let his head drop back and howled, a long, loud note of pure malice (that all of his family can probably hear). He dashed forward, sending himself cannoning towards the Golem, swinging his weapon with all of his might.
Verix swings his Earthbreaker with massive effect. aiming to cave in the breastplate of the large Golems chest, using all of his strength and skill to drive his weapon home.
There is a very loud BOOOM sound, followed by a lighter patter of small clacks and clangs of small metal bits pinging off the inner keep.
Verix stretches and yawns, cracking his neck, before waving his hand at Corvin to stop. He then reaches down and picks up the glowing piece, examining it thoroughly as he begins to move on through the gate and up the tower.
W.O.A- 5 minutes
Remaining- 48 rounds
The one behind you rushes up, attacking.
Verix tossed the glowing hunk of metally entrails back over his shoulder to Corvin, who plucked it out of the air and began to examine it closer.
W.O.A- 5 minutes
Remaining- 47 rounds
After scanning the skies, Commander Misthrax lands, with his men, at the edge of the clearing. Over the next two minutes his horsemen form a defensive perimeter around the heavy catapult that magically assembles itself, as the bowmen run to catch up and the lizardmen surround the engine, ready to reload it in an assembly line-like rapid fashion.
And then the elephant backs away, and the gargantuan siege engine begins to fire.
The gargantuan size of the catapult when assembled should allow basically the whole army to surround it, which I assume means enough Aid Another with taking 10 to get the thing reloaded and aimed in one round (can't be aimed and fired in the same round, which I believe means one shot every two rounds...)
Runcible casts Abundant Ammunition on a bag of hundred-pound stones, which should last for 30 rounds (15 attacks).
From 300 feet to the tower, it's a DC 25 targeting check to hit any square. Runcible aims the first three shots at the top square of the tower and then the two squares below it. He'll wait to see if that does any visible damage before continuing.
Suddenly, there are large crashes, as great boulders start slamming into the fortress, at an impressive rate of once every twelve seconds. After each impact, a rain of stones shattered away from the tower are rained downwards.
"If I catch that bastard who is pelting this f$!~ing tower, I swear I will insert my boot so far up his... Well needless to say I will be pissed!"
Verix pushes on, moving as fast and far as he can, paying attention to his surroundings as he goes.
W.O.A- 5 mins
Remaining- 47 rounds
It's a battle of skill and intellect as well as strength, Verix... and there's nothing in the rulebook that says a dog can't play basketball.
Now that the catapult is calibrated, Runcible casts Abundant Ammunition a second time (resetting duration to 3 minutes) and leaves his men with orders to fire at anyone who tries to enter or leave the tower (or any army that charges his), warning shots followed by targeted ones. Meanwhile, they are to target random spaces in the clearing to keep the catapult aimed (this should give a nice +10 targeting bonus to any of his men trying to fire the catapult)
With a hole in the top of the tower, Runcible attempts to take off again, leaping from the top of the siege wagon and taking to the sky.
And he flies towards the top of the tower, attempting to land either on top or fly into the hole he's made. I'll let the GM decide how long this would take.
He will start moving towards the catapult, with his skeletons in tow.
To the keen eye you can see a man clad in armor, a top a skeletal horse surrounded by 9 skeletons
W.O.A 5 mins
Remaining 46