Ironclaw: The Will to Power

Game Master UltraFennec

Come on! A plummet to the street below! How far up can we be anyway?
Adventure! Danger! Girl fight! What more can you ask for?
Besides, I could miss.

Come on! A plummet to the street below! How far up can we be anyway?

Adventure! Danger! Girl fight! What more can you ask for?
Besides, I could miss.

I did read your IC post and thought to myself: "That would be so epic."

Explosion, and possibly some racy cosmetic clothing damage! *IS CHEEKY*

EDIT: Though I suppose we already kinda jumped that shark. Explosion happened, Delroy and Rosza have both been running about naked for a little bit...

And here I was just planning for a boring but useful schmoozing party that happened to have debauchery on hand. This is probably more exciting though.

Possibly racy cosmetic clothing damage? Natalia is only in a towel! There is going to be racy clothing damage and/or loss!

I sort of have a feeling these two were supposed to be INTRODUCED at the party to be DEFEATED at some future date.

But then the player characters got into the act. All your cleverly-laid plans are belong to us.

I have to get some sleep, tomorrow's a work day.
I'll find out tomorrow what happened, I guess.

I hadn't really intended to bring them into play this early but it seemed like a good way to spice things up since it felt like the party was dragging a bit. This way things are shaken up, my other goals are accomplished handily, and assuming the Constabulary doesn't lock the place down (which won't happen because BRIBES) the party can still continue and you all can sort of maybe be heroic a bit!

Of course, the only witness to this depravity so far is kind of out of her gourd completely at this point but that's a problem for later!

Whether the bats are actually defeated or just "defeated" at this point remains to be seen...

So. Tie-breaking. This is sort of a sticky, roleplaying heavy thing in Ironclaw's rules. There's no real way to firmly say "I break this tie" while flying and using natural weapons for combat as far as I know.

No, tiebreakers are pretty much up to personal circumstances and inventiveness of each combatant, unless there's a mechanical something or other that would help. Retreating is the most common one, but you explicitly can't Retreat while Flying.

Unless you let Quinn go before Natalia, and possibly cause Natalia's opponent to go Reeling.

Quinn would be taking some pretty big range penalties at that point but it is a possibility one must consider.

EDIT: And the window frame is still on fire. So is the window seat. And the drapes. It's gonna spread pretty quickly if nobody puts it out. There's a lot of flammable goodies in the Three Spears.

I thought I left a post here, but I see it somehow got eaten.
To recap what I said: Tie breaking is listed in Comabt pg 123 (AFAIR), and it's defender wins if they can retreat (or come up with some sort of tie-breaker), otherwise the attacker hits.

Only if you has the Avatism Gift of Flying Fighter are you allowed to make a flying retreat. (Note: put on list of Gifts to get!)

Next: What is below us?
Are we going to splat on the hard, cold ground?
Are we over some rooftops, so the fall is shorter, and we can catch ourselves before we tumble off the roof and plummet to the ground?
Is there a cart full of straw, or rags, or pillows (someone has to sell pillows) below us? (I admit that it is not likely at this time of night, and I am assuming it is night.)
Or are we going to fall into Achmed's Open-Air Spear Shoppe, and overkill ourselves so much that even barbarian tribes in Zhoungo are affected?

Oh, and Quinn: Please put out the fire. Burning down the Three Spears would be bad for my (and Rosza's and Your) reputation, and be a hanging offense for poor Delroy.

As far as "this time of night" remember that Triskellian's inhabitants include plenty of non-bat nocturnal sorts. I dare say the big market never stops.

True, but I would think that they would be limited, because you need both a seller and a buyer that were nocturnal. And a lot of those (like Natalia) have had to adapt to a day cycle.

Not to mention that at night it is DARK.

And with buildings blocking out part of the sky, in a city it is really dark.

Triskellian's main inhabitants, more than any other species combined, are red foxes, which are naturally nocturnal. I daresay they're actually MORE active in Twilight and at Night than during the day!

To answer your question: That window south, toward the bay, so there's plenty of buildings, but most of them will only be one, maybe two stories, and the Market Plaza will come up soon. There's a rule somewhere for catching yourself on edges of stuff, but if you do go for the Grapple you'll probably void being able to do that very well. You're likely to take a decent amount of damage anyway, though not guaranteed because it's 1d6 v. 4 per "pace" of falling damage.

After looking around the rules at Falling and Damage, I've decided not to grapple.
Too risky for this point in the game, and there's still stuff left for tonight's party.
So let the dice fall where they may, but we're not going to fall out of the air.

But how far is a pace anyway? How many paces is a one or two story building?

You have a Combat Save, y'know. Just sayin. ;)

I'm not really sure how far a pace is, but Short altitude is considered 12 paces above the ground, which is around where that picture window was. You're still relatively close to the ground right now because she hasn't had a chance to rise higher. Going for distance first it seems.

You convinced me.
Let's go for the grapple!
And I hope that we don't fall that far, because this is going to hurt so bad if we go a long distance.
Fortunately, bats can try to minimize their fall. (Along with every winged creature, not that there are many of us...)

That's pretty much what Combat Save will help with. Even if I roll max damage and you botch your Soak roll entirely, Combat Save will keep you alive.

Wait.
Are you sure I have a Combat save?
Unless you gave everyone a Combat save, and I missed it, I don't have that Gift.

Wait.

Are you sure I have a Combat save?
Unless you gave everyone a Combat save, and I missed it, I don't have that Gift.

All characters automatically begin with a Personality and the Gift: Combat Save... Ye are HEROES!

Every character you make has that automatically, just like Personality and Local Knowledge. I'm sure I said that back when chargen was happening.

After looking around the rules at Falling and Damage, I've decided not to grapple.

Too risky for this point in the game, and there's still stuff left for tonight's party.
So let the dice fall where they may, but we're not going to fall out of the air.

But how far is a pace anyway? How many paces is a one or two story building?

A pace is a yard or meter. pg 155

So, depending on who built the biulding in question, a one story building is about 2 to 3 paces, and a two story is about 4 to 6 paces tall.
Combat Save: Somehow I had missed that. I'll add that to my character sheet at once.

So, onward with the falling and plummeting from the sky.
Hoping for a nocturnal booth selling pillows and matteresses.
Afraid I'll get a young man's bedroom as he's praying for a girl (smash, in through the ceiling and onto the bed come two girls...)

I'll take a little of the peril!

Huh, I missed that measurement completely. That'd actually put you closer to the ground than I'd thought, though Short altitude is pretty much anything higher than Near but not high enough to hit the next category.

12 meters? That's about 40'. (36' if you use yards.)
A fall from that height can kill (that's roughly 4 stories).

Natalia: We were in the nick of time, you were in great peril.
Delroy : I don't think I was.
Natalia: Yes you were, you were in terrible peril.
Delroy : Look, let me go back in there and face the peril.
Natalia: No, it's too perilous.
Delroy : Look, I'm a witch finder, I'm supposed to get as much peril as I can.
Natalia: No, we've got to find the Autarchs. Come on!
Delroy : Well, let me have just a little bit of peril?
Natalia: No, it's unhealthy.

@Natalia: You are one of my new favorite people.

Well according to Flight you only take 6 paces of falling damage from a Short altitude fall, and you get those Weather Sense dice added to Soak, which is uh...Speed and Jumping for some reason. IDK. Falling damage. WTF.

Because Jumping is your acrobatics skill.
Acrobat is a Gift.

Just like First Aid seems to be a stunt, unless you have the First Aid Gift.

That...sort of makes sense! I guess.

Either way, you've got at least two dice for soaking the damage.

"Stunned" isn't something I used to associate with being so mouthy, but clearly Madonna Z is made of stern stuff.

Well Reeling doesn't mean you're incapable of speaking. It just means you're off your good footing, so to speak.

I swear I'll try to think of something witty to say in reply but it might take awhile, I've had a bit to drink tonight.

Natalia: We were in the nick of time, you were in great peril.

Delroy : I don't think I was.
Natalia: Yes you were, you were in terrible peril.
Delroy : Look, let me go back in there and face the peril.
Natalia: No, it's too perilous.
Delroy : Look, I'm a witch finder, I'm supposed to get as much peril as I can.
Natalia: No, we've got to find the Autarchs. Come on!
Delroy : Well, let me have just a little bit of peril?
Natalia: No, it's unhealthy.

I watched that for the first time ever yesterday! Lol.

Congratulations, you are now initiated. Welcome to the fold. Your first mission briefing will be on the desk at 8 tomorrow.

Natalia and Rosza have such distinctly different ways of interacting with their foes...

Tiny conflicted batgirl is much fun to read.

Ah, and it's over.
I was sort of looking forward to a name-calling, hair-pulling fight with her, but I guess it's for the best.

Ah, and it's over.

I was sort of looking forward to a name-calling, hair-pulling fight with her, but I guess it's for the best.

Truly, my disappointment knew no bounds when the pair of you failed to land in a wagon hauling chocolate pudding.

Natalia Ivanova wrote:

Ah, and it's over.

I was sort of looking forward to a name-calling, hair-pulling fight with her, but I guess it's for the best.

Truly, my disappointment knew no bounds when the pair of you failed to land in a wagon hauling chocolate pudding.

And then fell off into a pillow seller's cart?

But we do get a bonus: Cute little bat sneeze.

Sorry for the lack of input, I've kinda lost where I was going with this in my head at the moment.

Well...I don't know where you were going either. Maybe time to do something new!

@Fight: She's technically Afraid, Hurt, Injured, etc. and out of Saving Gifts. Willful, driven, and condescending she may be, but not stupid. She wants to survive and just about any fight with Natalia has a chance to push her over that edge of injury into fatality.

And at that point Natalia would be brought in on principle at minimum because she killed a fellow noble, and the only evidence y'all have of her necromancy is circumstantial at best.

Pahdon me while I play the INQUISITION card.

Rosza: "...mumblemumblemumbleWITCH FINDERmumblemumblemumble..."

(Okay, she's NOT mumbling, but still. The hilarity. On the other hand she is implicitly stating her trust of Natalia and Delroy's judgement in the matter.)

And I answered your long post with a really short perfunctory one, but it felt like it was good just to let you succeed in your aim and see how the others react. :)

Not a problem, it was funny.

Rosza seriously needs to put some marks into Fast Talk.

You mean some XP? ;p

But yeah pretty much all the Claim a d12 social Gifts are crazy awesome to have. Fast Talk fits Rosza very well though. Maybe Carousing too given the references to taverns that we haven't seen yet.

Marks, XP, Gifts, Things...

Sorry I've been quite sick the past two days and am spending rather more time sitting up in bed coughing than sleeping, so I'm a bit fuzzy-minded.

Also,

Natalia has been working her wiles on all sorts of folk and now she's giving lengthy deputations all in one breath! She's clearly been hanging around the wrong sort of ermine. All she needs to do now is to start going out and getting drunk and rowdy with Guillaume, nights...

No, nights are for stargazing!

Wouldn't hurt to stare at the moon for a while.
And who says we can't get drunk and roudy outdoors?

Take a favored use? If you don't have one for Observation yet. Unless you don't actually have a Mark in it, in which case ignore me!

Actually, Rosza has "When in the City" as her favored use for Observation and Stealth, although I'm questioning that generality given that the campaign is 99% urban, apparently. Even if "When in the mountains" and the like are some of the suggested favored uses.

but if that's not horrifically cheesy, 1d4 ⇒ 3

Um...nope that's not really that cheesy, honestly. You have to roll a 1, not a two or three or any other non-successful number, and you can only re-roll the one die that came up 1, so Favor may not be enough regardless.

That said if you personally aren't comfortable with it then make it more specific somehow. Maybe pick a specific time of day (your natural cycle time maybe?) or a specific city or a specific part of a city or...something. *shrug*

I mean, if there's suggested Favored Uses for other Skills that are basically "urban environments" then why not Observation?