Day 1
Post-Joust
The ShadowknightsThe Black Knight silently walks out, to appear mysterious. Hopefully this intrigues the nobility.
Automatic Action, Knight, Boast, rolling against Charm (1) ... 2 ... Failure!The black knight walks striaght out of the arena, and eveyone watches him go in silence. They expect him to turn and give a speech.... no .... nothing happens. Oh well, he did spear another knight rather well. They are not displeased nor overjoyed.
Automatic action, Squire Ophidia, Tend Knight & Steed, rolling against Medicine (3) ... 10 ... Critical Failure!((... ... Hmm... since the Black Knight & Tenebra are fine, I'll forgoe the medicine roll for Squires who don't need to. Seems a bit unfair since there is nothing that can be gained.))
Automatic action, Steed Tenebra, Victory Prance, rolling against Prancing (1) ... 1 ... Critical Success!Tenebra, overjoyed with victory, trots, hops, crab walks and does the worm to thunderous applause.
+1 Victory Point.Submitted actions...
As soon as the Black Knight won, evil ugly clouds gathered in the sky...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nzSmaFHnSU
...and suspiciously stock sound effect thunder and lightning begin to flash and and boom across the sky, respectively!
Ophidia removed the dirty shirt from her face and tossed it into the air, incinerating it with her demonic heat vision before facing the hopefully terrified crowd.
She cackled gloatingly, raising her arms.
"AHAHAHA! Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here? Does the scent of blood and pain excite you while you sit there?
Oh, your little hero Knight and his ugly horse and his inept squire have failed you-they lie broken and defeated, cringing and weeping. Did you really think they could win, did you pray to your Gods maybe? Perhaps so...but in truth, you want us to win, don't you? You want to see the great humbled, to fall, to die. It pleases you to see the blood of a noble on the ground. That is why the Good will crumble. For deep in the hearts of even the most virtuous man lies a hidden weakness...a need to make a Hell on earth, to blight paradise-for he knows he isn't worthy of perfection. Weakness...weakness of arm or of moral, it comes to the same. Limping away in defeat, waiting for he killing blow, or the kiss of the maesters lash.
Your kind...you yearn to be ruled-to revel in slaughter...to drink blood and howl at the moon...and rest assured, kind and gentle folk. We'll grant your fondest wishes in time. Sleep soundly and rest well. For the Shadowknights have only just begun the slaughter!"
And the Evil Demon band played an evil victory tune, as the evil Demoness Ophidia they led the evil Dark Knight off the evil field in evil victory.
EVIL.
Action: Engage Evil Gloating!
Speech +1 Victory point.Ophidia rolling against Eloquence (5+2) ... 4 ... Success!From her theatrical entrance, General Maximus opening to hellish Sideshow Bob Republican conclusion, Ophidia woos the audience like Armand the vampire and has them baying for their own blood!
+1 Victory point.
"My my, what is the world coming to? That wasn't sportsmanlike at all." remarks Anselm.
"Well, erm, I don't think demon ladies should be expected to be sports
man like, right my man? She isn't a man or a man." The Baron seems to be enamoured with Ophidia.
Scare anyone not impressed with my auto action(which, barring a 1, will be a lot.)
There was one girl in the audience, a ruffian thing of not yet ten years, who did not laugh and did not applaud or even break a smile when Tenebra strutted like a king.
Tenebra rolling against Violence (6) ... Success!Tenebra goes nuts. He acts like a rabid horse and froths at the mouth and bucks and cries and butts the girls friends, family and relatives to the ground in front of her eyes. She is pretty traumatised. Many years later she becomes
L'Assassine de Poney, the most famous horse hunter Europe has ever produced.
No victory points for scaring little girls, shame on you, Tenebra.The Shadowknights collect an impressive maximum score of
3 Victory Points. This is a mechanic I've just introduced as a means to measure the bragging (or pleading) success in the post-joust. The audience will reward the braggers thusly:
1 VP - Commonfolk throw a prize (e.g. some trinket or curative with a beneficial effect)
2 VP - Nobility throw a prize (e.g. shillings or some trinket)
3 VP - The host throws a prize (e.g. a weapon or some armour)
Baron de la Filly stands up and applauds Ophidia's speech, and in a moment of rash emotion, strips off his own head protection and throws it into the arena. "May young Tenebra wear this with pride tomorrow! Gooooooo Shadowkniiiiiiiiiiights!!" And the audience goes wild.
Baron de la Filly's German steel headpiece, Steed armour, -5 to damage rolls on horse's head.
House TinklebottomIf I can make an appeal before retiring to mend my wounds, do that, (can provide speech if yes).
Automatic Action, Knight, Appeal, rolling against Charm (4+2) ... 6 ... Success!Hemingsworth Norton Tinklebottom stands up holding his smashed arm. Grimacing he walks slowly before the Baron's box and drops to one knee. The Baron looks down and says nothing. Hemingsworth, in a long address that moves some to tears from the truth of what he says and some to tears from having to stare at his mangled arm for so long while Tristepin stands waiting with bandages, appeals for clemency, better pay and world peace. (No speech to go on, so I guessed as to what he would say here). The Baron is not without sympathy, and admires the nobility of this fine knight.
+1 Victory Point.
Automatic action, Squire, Tend to Knight & Steed, rolling against Medicine (4) ... 9 ... Failure!Tristepin leads Hemingsworth away to the tavern and into his room to begin treatment. He unfurls the two bandages he has, and decides, after rotating them a bit and looking down their length at eye level, that he hasn't the foggiest idea of how to mend a fractured bone.
Automatic action, Steed, Recover - No injuries.Submitted Actions...
try squire & go hospital if he fails.
Hemingsworth grits his teeth and leaves his bamboozled squire alone in the Tavern and walks to the hospital by himself. At the door he is greeted by Mother Agnes. "Please say a prayer for the Lord, thanking him that you have survived thusfar." Hemingsworth kneels down and shouts in agony before reciting the Lord's Prayer in French, English and Latin, the last one backwards. "Now twenty shillings young man." He pays. The Mother lets him in and the Nuns of the hospital tend to his wounds...
Hospital treatment roll ... 4 ... Success!Hemingsworth bounds out of the leprosy house at around midnight, fighting fit, and ready to hold his lance in his left hand or right hand!
Tristepin looks around to see if his knight impressed anyone and saw the fight for what it was... a fluke loss, and see if anyone's willing to provide equipment of any type, either for free or for a fair discount.
Tristepin rolling against Eloquence (6-1) ... 9 ... Failure!Poor Tristepin. He cannot find his poetry book anywhere around the stable, yet he was sure he left it there afore noon. In this melancholic mood he wanders the streets of Nantes, telling any who will listen of the plight of his master. Yet none do. He suffers his trials alone and retires to the tavern for the night.
Honour collapses in shock at the sheer unlikelihood of the events that just unfolded. She makes use of the rest to calm her nerves and gain a bonus to any other actions she gets to make.
Honour rolling against Sentience (3) ... 9 ... Failure!Honour is all a jitter at the shock loss and falls asleep dreaming of the knightmare moment when the Knightmare rider speared her master in the air like a flying lobster.
House Tinklebottom got 1 VP - The commoners throw an apple. +1 Stamina for tomorrow's Joust.
Team Uhh!Try to assist Bucephalus with gaining entry into the hospital. I shall appear sportsmanlike and gain favor with people.
Automatic Action, Knight, Aid gut-stabbed pony, rolling against Charm (5+1) ...
3 ... Success!
Antoine rushes over to Bucephalus and helps the horse up and leads him out of the arena, all the while smiling at the audience and waving. The horse skewerer's magnanimous behaviour is extremely endearing.
+1 Victory Point.
No Squire Automatic Action.
Automatic Action, Steed Antigones, Victory Prance, rolling against Prancing (1) ... 7 ... Failure!The brothers fall over again, but the audience is pretty used to this by now. "Don't look now! Antigones has fallen again!" They cry. Parents tell their children that if they don't become apprentices they shall end up like Antigones.
Antigones shall practice "his" fighting style.
Antigones rolling against Stamina (9+1) ... 5 ... Success!Back in the relative anonymity of the stables, the brothers practice running past stable boys and jamming the pole between their legs. They trip five and make one stable boy do a 180.
+1 to Spoke Jamming rolls tomorrow.
Team Uhh! got 1 VP - The commoners throw an apple. +1 Stamina for tomorrow's Joust.
Team EquineAntoine and Hephaestion lead Bucephalus to the stables first, one of them holding his gut in. A stable boy wanders into their bay with a cocked shotgun on his shoulder, but he is waved away silently by Hephaestion before Bucephalus can see him.
Bucephalus rolling against Stamina for Automatic healing (4+1) ... 5 ... Success!When Hephaestion's eyes return to the wound it's... it's healed! It seems to have healed perfectly! Bucephalus drew upon his marvellous skills of recouperation to effect weeks of biological action in seconds. Hephaestion is overjoyed, Antoine is freaked right out and goes to the tavern to forget this whole ungodly event.
Afterwards, eat the doctor.
Bucephalus rolling against Violence (6+1) ... 1 ... Critical Success!There is no doctor, but Hephaestion cuffs the shotgun-boy when he isn't looking and Bucephalus eats him instead, bones and all. The shotgun vanishes! Steed and Squire celebrate all knight in the stables and pray for luck tomorrow.
Bucephalus +1 Stamina and +1 Violence for Joust tomorrow.Other actions cancelled.
Team BraggadocioContinue chatting until Sir Stone locates me.
Anselm rolling against Sentience (9) ... 2 ... Success!Having spent all day with Anselm, the Baron has had a wonderful time and enjoys Anselm's company tremendously. He lets Anselm know that he has a few decent fillys in his stables in Burgandy and should Anselm ever be in the area he could, you know, wink wink. The two hoof bump.
Ursus will fashion himself a boa out of the purloined bandages and use it to impress the nobility into thinking that talking like Darth Vader while wearing a boa is highly fashionable.
Ursus rolling against Eloquence (5) ... 5 ... Success!At clawpoint Ursus forces a stableboy to tie four bandaages together in a loop. He slings it over his head and walks into the noble stands. He puts on a more gravelly and wheezy voice than normal and starts talking shit in front of everyone. In other words, he blends right in. The Baron catches sight of him and invites him up to the box. Ursus and Anselm fist bump and the three of them sip tea till evening.
Sam Stone Larynx damaged Charm +1.
Using my Darth Vader voice, I accost Lap, Squire of Team Uhh, and I convince him that I am his father. Search his feelings, he knows it to be true. If he falls for my confidence scam, I steal his knight's armour for the next round.
Sam Stone rolling against Charm (5+3) ... 9 ... Failure!Sir Stone Cold finds Lap wandering the city. He puts an arm on his shoulder and begins to talk honestly and disturbingly about Lap's past. Unfortunately Samuel hadn't read Lap's bio so he left out information about the nation of Jariss or house Umomen. Instead he seemed to be saying that Lap was the long lost son of someone called Bret Hart, whoever that is?
Later that night, Samuel finds Ursus and Anselm passed out next to the Baron. He swings one up on each shoulder and carries them back to the stables.