Raid on Chateau Fekenstein

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ashimbabbar
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Raid on Chateau Fekenstein

Post by ashimbabbar »

Hello,

I wondered if you’d be interested in playing, not a published gamebook, but an amateur one ? Specifically what I had in mind was the winner of the first Windhammer tournament, Raid on Château Fekenstein ( in my humble opinion it’s the only adventure ever submitted to a Windhammer that is worth playing ).

A rule of the Windhammer contest is that the adventures mustn’t exceed 100§, however as this created problems ( one § to describe two different occurrences… ) I had added a few § when I translated it for a French gamebook site I used to frequent. So that’s the version that would be used here.
As it is so short, I think it’d be better to restart it from the beginning every time we die, so we can try other options.

So what is it about ? basically it’s WWI – the mud, the trenches, the senseless deaths – in heroic fantasy. Rather low fantasy, but we get to play a wizard.
Success or failure is usually determined by rolling 2 die.
Here is the description of the character’s abilities.

As can be seen from your character sheet on the page following, your character has 4 attributes, Endurance, Mental Fortitude, Luck and Education. These four attributes start at the level indicated (although your choice of background skills may change the starting scores). Your current scores will almost certainly go up and down during your adventure, but cannot go above the starting value unless otherwise indicated. Mark any changes in the current score section in the box with each attribute. All your attributes start at full value, including any increases you may have from your background choices below. The attributes are as follows:

Endurance – this is a combination of your strength, hardiness and overall wellbeing. You start off with a slightly higher Endurance than an average person does, although this is almost certainly going to decrease as your adventure progresses. If your current Endurance score ever reaches 0 or below you are dead or dying, which usually means the end of your adventure unless otherwise stated.

Mental Fortitude – this is your ability to focus your willpower (especially useful when casting spells), your determination when faced with adversity and your ability to withstand shocking conditions or sights. Having trained so many years as an arcanist, your Mental Fortitude is unusually strong. Some would even call you a stubborn cuss. If your current Mental Fortitude ever reaches 0 or below your mind is shattered. Normally this means your mind is shattered by the hardships you have endured, plunging you into a state of non-functional insanity. If this happens under the strain of casting a spell the resulting backlash of uncontrolled magic is usually catastrophic. In either case, it typically means your adventure is over.

Luck – ever since Acais Notwen demonstrated via arcane methodology that personal luck is a quantifiable substance that exerts influence on the world, there have been spells and devices that can tap into this naturally occurring form of power. You start off with a normal amount of Luck, although one of your background choices may adjust this. Your current Luck will rarely change and cannot go lower than 0 but apart from having abysmal luck, having such a low score will not otherwise affect you.

Education – your Education attribute primarily measures the degree and depth of your magical training although it does give a general idea of your level of knowledge in other related academic fields. Your many years of study mean you are very highly educated in comparison to the general population. Your current Education score is unlikely to change significantly (if at all) during the adventure and will not be reduced to 0 or below.


Creating the character is made by a series of choices, so I’m posting here up to the first choice.

You were busily trying to fail your first year at the moderately prestigious University of Andringham through of combination of wine, women (at least, your mostly rebuffed attempts to get a woman even talking with you let alone anything further) and the study of the esoteric art of statistics (otherwise known as games of chance), when the lands that make up Talandtar, which is to say the entire world, went to war.

You had been brought up on a steady diet of war stories, like most of your peers. However, the absence of a father (due to a previous, smaller war) and the all too real tales told by your strange Uncle Phelpenton (Phelps to those that know him) had perhaps given your more insight into the realities of war than your classmates. Thus you didn’t cease study to join the war effort. No, in fact, for the first time in your life you started to apply yourself (which is to say you started going to all your classes and studying damn hard) and by dint of this unaccustomed effort (and a very humbling discussion with one, fortunately sympathetic, dean) you managed to pass the first year of your studies... and the second, in fact, all the way to the forth year which left you the proud owner of a Batchelor of Magical Arts (Arcane Theory) and what you thought was a clear path into post-graduate study.

At this stage the war was into its fourth year and your country was struggling; ongoing fighting on two borders, a tense state of not war on another and ongoing skirmishing on the last (although that was nothing new in the Province of Dacros, which had always had problems from the near-humans for as long as it had been established; it’s just that the problems were now worse – men and equipment being pulled out onto other fronts). But (even ignoring what the propaganda was saying for a minute) you knew that it was bad for every country, ally or foe. The countries of Talandtar had locked their horns in a death grip, each side having a greater understanding, ability and stockpile of magic than ever before in history. It was clear (to your young self at least) that even the surviving countries of this terrible conflict were going to be left terribly, terribly maimed. Not to mention the inhabitants and those that waged war on their behalf.

Thus your desire for further study (but not your only reason as the study was more than a little rewarding in itself), and thus both your excellent marks and your carefully cultivated contacts within the facility. You were sure to be able to go on and study for at least another three years (possibly as much as another five if you were to load the dice in your own favour) and by then, surely by then, the conflict would be over (one way or another) and if your county was not sacked and its people put to the sword, well, then you could live out the rest of your (long and surely prosperous) life. But you were not selected for further study, despite your marks (and your contacts). You even know (or think you know) the reason, rather the person, behind this (shocking, at least to you) decision. The facility second professor, Professor Gaulire, was in a position to influence the choice of student to go on and, well, it would be little surprise if he held a grudge against you for the little piece of unpleasantness you involved yourself in, the third year of your study. Thus you went to war.

At this point in time your skills consisted of the following:
BMA (Arcane Theory) – already included on your character sheet, the Batchelor of Arcane Arts gives you a very good understanding of the creation and formation of both spells and magical equipment. You have also mastered a number of small (generally not very useful) spells and rituals.

In addition to this field of study, you had an interest in two further minor areas of study. Select two of these skills and add them in the first minor and second minor areas of your character sheet.

Arcane Manipulation – this minor field of study taught you about the magical manipulation of objects (primarily objects as it is extraordinarily difficult to manipulate within the field generated by living creatures) from a distance. A very practical course of study, you learnt a number of moderately useful spells and rituals.

Divinatory Means and Methods – you were taught about many of the seeming endless ways with which you can magically sense your surrounding, determine the truth of what you can sense and divine both the past and the future. In theory this minor field of study should have been a great help with games of chance but it is almost impossible to use undetected amongst fellow students – they knew all the tricks also.


Elemental Studies – one of the easier and more practical fields of study and one in which you have quite some natural talent. This minor course of study taught you the basics about manipulating, refining and summoning the five basic elemental substances (and some of the lesser tertiary substances). You were also taught a number of not very useful spells and rituals.

History of the Arcane Arts – this minor gives you a good idea of where the magic that exists today came from and at which points in history major discoveries were made. A very studious course of study, selecting this skill increases your starting Education score by 2 (adjust your character sheet).

Life Systems – this minor specialization taught about using the arcane arts on living creatures. The skills you learned were the very basics of what arcane healer and changers are required to learn for their studies. Interestingly enough you learnt that even dead creatures contain living creatures inside them (you were given a very dead piglet to study, that is dissect, at the beginning of one term – those that were unable to arrest the decay of the piglet by mid term were very unpopular with the rest of the students). You learnt many spells and rituals, none of which were particularly useful except possibly the one that stops infections in minor wounds. You have used that.


So, if someone is interested…
Last edited by ashimbabbar on Mon May 29, 2017 9:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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SlyJohnny
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Post by SlyJohnny »

I am interested. As for skills, divinatory means and methods seems quite powerful, as we're obviously not a combat monster and we'll need to avoid surprises and otherwise know things.

Life Systems or Elemental Studies seem like they'd be useful. TheI description of it makes me think life studies will be good against zombies and Frankensteins, and lead to greater things.
Last edited by SlyJohnny on Tue May 30, 2017 12:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
ashimbabbar
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Post by ashimbabbar »

SlyJohnny wrote:TheI description of it makes me think life studies will be good against zombies and Frankensteins, and lead to greater things.
Actually, not exactly so; I don't want to spoil but it's about dealing with the living bodies, not the dead ones.
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Post by Thaluikhain »

I'm always interested in another gamebook.

Arcane Manipulation sounds nice, and maybe Life Systems or Elemental Studies.

But I'm not too attached to those, if it'd cause a deadlock.
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Post by SlyJohnny »

So curing infected people or parasites? I'm still in favour of it, personally.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

I think it would create a tie but I think that Arcane Manipulation and Divinatory Means and Methods sound the two most generally useful.
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Post by SlyJohnny »

I'll go with that, sure.
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Post by ashimbabbar »

Alright, Arcane Manipulation and Divinatory Means and Methods it is.
On to the next choice !
N.B. I'll only give the options we have access to because of our first choice :mrgreen:

Leaving behind your life at the University (and possibly you fear, soon to be life in general), you were trained as an officer (given your station) and as a battlefield arcanist (given your prior studies). Basic training was unspeakable. You don’t wish to remember the pain and exhaustion of those weeks. You started off (you thought) fit and ended up fitter than you had ever been in your life.

Officer training and studies in your specialty were difficult but interesting and you couldn’t do anything but excel at the arcane aspects of your training. One notable exception was flight. While you did not lack the ability to master flight spells and devices, you found the process of flying highly nauseating. Luckily for you, as you have found out since that the life span of an aerial arcanist is measured in weeks (3 weeks is what you were told was average).
However, after a much too short period of time (as the war was not going well and training times were at almost down to half what they had been at the start of the conflict) you graduated and were sent (with many other young men) to fight.
At this point, you had picked up some further skills as follows:

Basic Trainingalready included on your character sheet, the rigors of basic training increased your Endurance (also already included on your character sheet) and taught you the basic weapons of war; close combat weapons such as daggers and polearms, ranged weapons such as javelins and crossbows, magical implement, especially wands (given the strength of your natural talents) but also including devices.

Although training was short, you were able to develop one further skill in the time allowed. Pick one of the following and add it to the advanced training area of your character sheet.

Close Combat Trainingrightly or wrongly you decided to concentrate less on the magical skills offered and more on the martial training available. This rigorous course of study built up your strength and endurance even further (reflect this by adding 1 to the starting Endurance on your character sheet) and taught you the usage of many more hand-held weapons such as swords and axes.

Combat Manipulationyou developed your basic manipulation skills further, learning spells that allow you to throw objects, push aside (deflect) incoming attacks as well as learning the basics of creating shaped objects of pure force. By the end of your training, the strength you could manipulate through magic was greater than your own physical strength. You must be proficient in Arcane Manipulation to gain training in this area.

Combat Precognitionthis strange but highly useful skill allows to always have warning a fraction of a second before any event occurs (due to the large number of variables taking place at any time in a particular situation, it becomes extraordinarily difficult very quickly the further ahead you try and perceive). Mentally taxing, the spells taught do not guarantee survival on the battlefield (as that depends on your reaction time and the nature of the threat) but it will aid you to a large degree. You must be proficient in Divinatory Means and Methods to gain training in this area.

Dissipationthis interesting skill utilises your encyclopaedic knowledge of spell creation and formation to find fault in the casting of other magician’s spells and to quickly and subtly break down or warp their magic. This range of skills and spells used to be the definitive mark of a talented battlefield mage but is less useful in this modern age where devices (which are practically impossible to interfere with) are more common on the battlefield than cast spells.
Last edited by ashimbabbar on Tue May 30, 2017 5:54 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Post by SlyJohnny »

I feel like combat precognition will serve us better than moar better TK, at least initially, if character creation ends with us being a hurriedly-trained conscript rushed out to the meat grinder.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

I'd go for Combat Precognition (higher chance to not get murdered by ambushes) or Dissipation (higher chance not to get murdered by spells.) But I'll agree to the higher chance to not get murdered in close combat if need be.
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ashimbabbar
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Post by ashimbabbar »

Well, I guess it's Combat Precognition then.
I'm grouping the last two choices before the adventure begins.

Once you finished your basic training you almost got sent to the front. It happened like this. You got your marching orders (telling you to go to the front obviously) but somehow your Uncle Phelps (the crazy man he is) found out about these orders (in theory impossible as you didn’t tell him), who, through the miracle which is the ‘old boys network’, got in contact with the Matarkh of Personnel and told him in no uncertain terms that, “The last three battlefield arcanists sent to the front had been killed,” that it was, “A death sentence” to send you to the front and, “A waste of valuable talent in the war effort.” So given you families general social standing, the orders to send you to the front got scrapped and you were instead sent out as support.

This is not to say things have been easy for you. For the last three months you have suffered under almost constant aetheric bombardment, been sent forward to hold the line against determined assaults twice and have aided in turning a near rout into a more ordered retreat. You have suffered through the mud and rain, the lack of decent food and the constant stress. You know you have it easy compared to the men at the front but are sure only one thing has enabled you to survive this long.

Choose one of the following and add it to it to the combat experience area of your character sheet.

You quickly Learnt a Few Tricks – these tricks consist of (highly dangerous) magical shortcuts that boost the power of any of the spells you know, although not without cost. Any time you use one of your magical skills, you can add +2 to any roll you make, so long as you subtract 1 from your Mental Fortitude. Too many shortcuts will cause enough strain to break your mind, but using this knowledge has at times proven to be a (literal) life saver.

You have Seen the Worst war has to offer and it holds no fear for you – you are one of the ‘lucky’ few who is able to thrive in the high tension arena of battle. You found that horrific sights and being under attack did not cause you to freeze up or mentally break like many of your fellows. Your reactions in combat are swift and you will rarely lose Mental Fortitude due to unpleasant sights you may run into.

You found that Luck Favours You – it took being in extreme danger for you to realise just how naturally lucky you are compared to others. Sniper fire aimed at you instead strikes someone else who just happens to step in the path of the crossbow bolt at just the right (or wrong depending on perspective) time, the bunker holds out just long enough for you to get out, and many other such occurrences that have happened over the last months. Increase your starting Luck score by 2 on your character sheet.

Equipment
You start the adventure with your dagger, a multipurpose tool used for any manner of tasks including defending yourself, a chameleon cloak, which allows you to blend in with most backgrounds when still or (to lesser effect) when moving slowly and a wand, a device only trained arcanists (especially those with training in the elements or with manipulation) use to focus and enhance their natural talents. It is possible for a wand to burn out through overuse, but in that case the situation was probably so dangerous you would have died if you hadn’t have used your wand.

You are well enough regarded that you can requisition 3 points of equipment from the following list:

(1 point) Elixir of healing – a basic healing salve that restores 1 point of lost Endurance.
(1 point) Sword or axe – your choice of one of these two advanced weapons.
(1 point) Portable hole maker – a substance that dissipates unprotected stone creating a hole.
(2 points) Sphere of devastation – an unstable iron sphere that can be activated to explode with elemental fire after a (variably set) duration.
(3 points) Superior elixir of healing – like an elixir of healing but restores 2 points of lost Endurance.
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Post by SlyJohnny »

Luck Favours You.

Sphere of Devastation and Portable Hole Maker.

Out of curiosity, what basic training option would the history minor have unlocked? And Life Systems means you can be a combat medoc in basic, right?
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Post by ashimbabbar »

History just gives a bonus in Education - which is used a couple of times. However we already have a pretty high score in that - I'll give the definitive scores when the choices have been made.

Yes, being a medic is one thing Life Systems is good for.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

I'd take Seen The Worst, but agreed on the equipment choices.
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Post by SGamerz »

I'm so used to seeing "LP" or "Let's Play" in the title for these topics that I completely missed this one until I decided to check out Darth's thread of consolidated gamebook LPs.

I vote Seen the Worst for our ability. Agree with the others about equipment choice.
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Post by SlyJohnny »

I think ashim gave up. And I've read the book now.

I love the worldbuilding in it, but it seems bloody hard. So many save-or-die effects, targeting all kinds of abilities and stats. That ending is bullshit and I saw it coming a mile off, too.
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Post by ashimbabbar »

@ Slyjohnny: Yes, it's pretty hard. But for §99 it has to be, or there's no replay value. And we agree the world building is first-rate

At any rate, if there are players I'm playing !

So, here goes our character ( you may propose a name if you feel like it )

• Endurance: 6
• Mental Fortitude: 7
• Luck: 5
• Education: 9

• BMA: Arcane Theory
• Arcane Manipulation
• Divinatory Means and Methods
--> • Combat Precognition

• Has Seen The Worst ( so he thinks, so he thinks… :mrgreen: )

. Standard Equipment: Chameleon Cloak, Dagger, Wand
. Portable Hole Maker
. Sphere of Devastation


Every day near the front is different and on this day you are shaken awake after far too short a time sleeping and told to report immediately to First Sept Lokan’s bunker, deep within the trench complex.

The aetheric bombardment is light this pre-dawn but that is more than made up for by the light but steady rain which has long since turned the trenches into a slurry of mud. You are wise to the way of the trenches however, carefully selecting planks of wood that aren’t going to tip you into mud and taking a path which is longer but more navigable. With all this you manage to make your way to your destination only covered in mud up to your knees.
Inside the bunker, warmed by a small (woodless) fire, First Sept Lokan awaits. He gets straight down to business.

“The Chateau Fekenstein. We cannot bypass it and we cannot take it.” You had heard rumours. Lokan notices your questioning look.

“Yes, what you have no doubt heard is true. They have some sort of device shielding the chateau. A few of these devices have started to turn up at the front and we have nothing to match it; it takes an immense amount of bombardment to overcome the device and we don’t have enough here, not without stripping the entire front to overcome this one Zhan-cursed fortress. A physical assault against their bombardment, without support; it would take ten thousand men, and all to capture a place guarded by but five hundred.”

He looks at you sideways. “We would dearly love to get hold of one of these devices and where an army would fail, one man alone might be able to slip undetected through their defences...” You feel the blood drain out of your face and you hold the edge of the table for support. This is a suicide mission ! Lokan cannot control his face any longer and rolling laughter bursts from him like water through a broken dyke.

“Your face... your face !“ He struggles mightily against his laughter. “I was... I was just pulling your horns. Of course you’re not going in alone. You will be part of a small but highly skilled team. Your mission is to infiltrate the chateau, retrieve the shielding device intact, or at the very least disable it and then escape to give word so we can begin our assault. You will be the magical support. Come, I will introduce you to the rest of the team.

The rest of the team turn out to be just through the door, somewhat deeper into the bunker complex. There are six competent and fit looking men within. They are introduced as:

First Trooper Charl – the troop leader and second in command to yourself, Charl’s motto is to ‘be prepared’ and he does just that by packing away as many devices as he can (such as lockbusters, spheres of devastation and others) that only require minimal arcane talent to utilize.

Trooper Storn – this chunkily built man is one of the team’s two heavy weapon specialists and he has enough arcane talent to use his staff of fire with efficiency. A replacement troop for a man lost on the last mission, Storn has a friendly and ready smile.

Trooper Trihsder – the second heavy weapons specialist, Trihsder is a quiet man with a wine-stain birth mark covering one side of his face. In addition to his staff of fire he carries a huge, probably impractical but very impressive, battleaxe, slung across his back.

Trooper Valis – short and wiry with a slightly swarthy foreign look to him, Valis is the troop’s infiltration specialist. He has a tendency to fade into the background even in a well lit room and carries several razor sharpened knives for ‘close work’.

Trooper Rosenberg – this mean looking, scar-faced man is the troop’s close combat specialist. He carries two short swords and is able to use them in either hand with skill. He was rumoured to be a poet before the war.

Trooper Ringo – the sniper of the troop, Ringo carries a custom built overpowered crossbow with a range of arcane bolts. Tall and solidly built, he is the oldest of the troops and is a proven survivor who has been in the worst of the fighting since the wars inception.

As soon as you are introduced Lokan gets down to business. Each member of the troop, of your troop you suddenly realise, has a chameleon cloak. There is an extra one put aside for you (this is already on your character sheet). You note with pleasure that the cloak is made out of real chameleon hide so is far superior in function to a device made out of less suitable materials. Out of all of the many, many, forms of invisibility developed over the centuries, the blending-in properties of the cloak are the most subtle and certainly the least taxing for the user.

Lokan outlines two basic plans for getting to the chateau. The first of which is to leave during the day and slowly make your way there, relying on the cloaks to shield you. Constant bombardment of the chateau, while mostly ineffective, will keep the defenders’ heads down. The second plan involves leaving at night and making much faster progress. Although you will be impossible to spot by normal means at night, there are several devices which improve night vision. Thus, you would still be supported by bombardment of the chateau to reduce the chance of your detection.

Once there, you will enter the shield (created by the shielding device) and via use of rope and climbing devices possessed by your troop, scale the wall during this bombardment (hoping little of the energy form the bombardment gets through the shield around the chateau) and infiltrate your way in, secure the device, then flee either the way you came or through any other egress as the situation allows. You are unsure about the viability of this plan but your men seem confident enough. Unless, you reflect to yourself a little disconcertingly, this is just false bravado.

You snap out of your thoughts. The others are looking at you and you realise they are waiting for you to make your choice.
Turn to 1.


We turn…

You consider the two options given carefully, and then make your decision. No matter which choice you make, if you have skill with Combat Precognition, decide now if you want to activate it for the first part of your journey. Having the precognition spells active will help you avoid dangers but will be very mentally draining upon you.

If you want to make the slow, daytime approach, turn to 30.
If you want to wait out the day and start your raid at nightfall, turn to 86.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Start raid at nightfall, with our Combat Precognition on.
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Post by SGamerz »

Darth Rabbitt wrote:Start raid at nightfall, with our Combat Precognition on.
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Post by ashimbabbar »

The nightfall raid it is…

You wait out the day in nervous preparation, listening to the ongoing aetheric bombardment of the chateau. Finally night falls and you gather up your troop. You make your way along the trenches to the nearest point in the line to the chateau, then boost yourself up into no man’s land. Keeping as a unit you quickly move towards your destination, hampered by the dark and the drizzling rain. You feel horribly exposed, despite your chameleon cloaks, and struggle to make good time through the slicks of mud, broken and rusty lengths of barbed wire and the occasional rotting corpse.

The sky is lit by the flash of bombardment and you see a rise ahead upon which sits the chateau – you are getting near to your destination. As you think this, your foot sinks into the ground and a putrescent stench wafts out. Looking down in disgust, you realise you have stepped on the chest of a ripe corpse and your foot has broken through the ribs, releasing the pent up corruption inside. As you pull your foot free, trying to control your gorge, you notice a number of other corpses around; from what you can see they were all struck down by earlier bombardment. You go to move on when the corpses start to shift – some sort of necromancy is afoot !

As you hiss a warning to your troops, the dead men rise all around and lurch towards your badly outnumbered band. As you begin to form a plan, your legs are grabbed from below as the corpse you stepped on tries to drag you down.

Roll 2 dice and add your Endurance. Add a further +2 if you have Close Combat Training and carry either a sword or a hand axe and +1 if you have Combat Precognition active.
If the total rolled is less than 13, turn to 19.
If the total rolled is 13 or higher, turn to 29.


So, 6 for Endurance + 1 for Combat Precog active is +7, let's roll… 3 and 1. :confused: Bad luck.

You attempt to fend off the corpse but it forces you down and pulls you into a corrupt embrace, its rotting filth making you weak with nausea. The creature’s head lunges for your neck and you block it with an arm, which it worries like a dog with a bone. You cannot concentrate enough to cast a spell and you feel the strength in your arm draining, the creature is clawing at you and trying to work its mouth around your arm. It is inhumanly strong.

The creatures head suddenly shatters, Trooper Storn’s heavy sword imbedded deep within. As the animated corpse slumps down he pulls you free. Lose 1 point from your current Endurance due to your wounds and a further 1 point from your current Mental Fortitude unless you have Seen the Worst. Looking around, your troop is fighting desperately with hand weapons but are being pushed back into a circle. “We can’t use devices,” pants Storn, “Too much chance of them being seen from the chateau. Can you do anything ?”


Actually, no, we don't have anything that would help.

Here are our current scores
• Endurance: 5/6
• Mental Fortitude: 7/7
• Luck: 5/5
• Education: 9

You realise you are going to have to break out of the closing circle and, in a hissed whisper, order an attack before charging in the fray. Only a determined strike is going to get you free of this trap.

Roll 2 dice and add your current Endurance. Add a further +2 if you have Close Combat Training and carry either a sword or a hand axe and +1 if you have Combat Precognition active.
If the total rolled is less than 13, turn to 6.
If the total rolled is 13 or higher, turn to 55.


Basic score 5+1=6, let's roll… 4+5 :viking:

You troop tightens up and strikes as a focused unit, hacking through the animated corpses and out of the trap. You make speed till the creatures are out of sight, then Trooper Trihsder collapses, his leg a bloody ruin. You are surprised it carried him so far.

One of the other troops applies an elixir of healing to his leg but it is soon obvious that the healing power of the elixir is being negated by the taint of necromantic corruption left in the wounds the creatures inflicted. Trihsder’s eyes roll up and he drops back, unconscious from pain. If you were wounded by the corpses, your own wounds are starting to fester. Unless you possess the Healing skill, add infected to the notes section on your character sheet.


We can't do anything for Trihsder…
Last edited by ashimbabbar on Mon Jun 19, 2017 8:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
ashimbabbar
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Posts: 147
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Post by ashimbabbar »

The story goes on, it's just I wasn't sure if one post would accommodate the length of this dieroll-driven section.

You turn away. There is nothing further you can do; the magic continues to ravage his form but his body’s natural defence works to counter the magic as well as it can. You have no good options left. You cannot bring Trihsder with you. The mission is too important to abort even with such an early casualty. Talking with First Trooper Charl you come up with the following less than ideal options. Under the notes section of your character sheet, write that you have fought against corpses.

If you want to assign Trooper Rosenberg to escort the wounded member of the group back to your own lines, knowing it will weaken your troop still further, turn to 97.
If you want to leave Trihsder hidden here as best you can in the hope you can retrieve him on your return, turn to 11.


So, here is our current state
• Endurance: 5/6
• Mental Fortitude: 7/7
• Luck: 5/5
• Education: 9
infected

• BMA: Arcane Theory
• Arcane Manipulation
• Divinatory Means and Methods
--> • Combat Precognition

• Has Seen The Worst

. Standard Equipment: Chameleon Cloak, Dagger, Wand
. Portable Hole Maker
. Sphere of Devastation

fought against corpses
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Darth Rabbitt
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Now this is actually a fairly interesting choice.

On one hand, having Rosenberg take Trihsder back leaves us down two soldiers rather than one. And the infection might pass on to Rosenberg (and possibly others back at the base).

On the other, leaving a wounded soldier behind for necromancers to pick up might mean that they can kill him, Speak With Dead for information on our raid, and raise him as another plague-bearing zombie. Or they could just find his body and know that we're attacking them, which is still pretty bad for us.

Since the infection seems to be treatable I'd suggest taking the guy back. We're on a stealth mission so numbers don't matter as much as not being caught.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
SGamerz
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Post by SGamerz »

^Agreed.
ashimbabbar
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Posts: 147
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:54 am

Post by ashimbabbar »

There being no dissenting voices, we send back Rosenberg and Trihsder by 2 votes to 0

You send Trooper Rosenberg away, burdened by the form of Trihsder. He is moving clumsily through the mud, much more visible as he is less able to use his cloak to conceal his form; you can only hope they make it back to friendly lines. You cannot help but wonder if you have made the right decision, if the further weakening of your troop will not cause the failure of your mission in the times ahead. There is nothing for you to do now but go on.
Turn to 21.


You are almost at phase two of the raid – insertion into the chateau. As you and the remaining troops ready the equipment you will require for the infiltration, you keep catching a faint hint of magic that seems different from the background energies you are used to at the front.
If you want to take a short time to track down this out of place magic, while the troops are still readying themselves, turn to 36.
If you want to focus with you mission and ignore this strange magic, turn to 42.
SGamerz
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Post by SGamerz »

Check out the interesting thing.
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