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[Sir Knight]

attempt to sew myself up quickly and stop the bleeding, then rejoin combat with my sling.

Argh . . . I don't know if "surgery" is a "fits into one combat round" sort of thing!  I mean . . . I was kinda thinking of giving you extra time, since I didn't know what you'd want to do last round if/when your opponent died quickly, but . . . surgery?

I guess I could allow it as your only action, but remember that using mere thread can wind up with a complete failure, and then you'd have lost time.

Run south, get out of the Cantor's line-of-sight

South?  Into the darkness?  Where you can't actually judge line-of-sight, since you won't be able to see anything, but they will?

Did you perhaps overlook the fact that there are two of them, and one is standing nearby you right now?

You folks are giving the ol' GM a rough time today!

I made a sheet because people is about to die. Put me in the waitlist for later please.

Name: Tohil
Icon color: Radiant Yellow
What you did before coming down here: Was a knight. I was kicked to the underground caves as an ironic punishment for being a high priest and worshipper of a pagan sun deity.

Welcome!  Got a question: knight and high priest?  Sounds like a bit much (see: everyone's giving the GM a rough time), unless by "high priest" you really just mean you led a bunch of worshippers, and not that you were a major public figure with magic powers or anything.

[randomgenericusername]

No magic (other than maybe creating light and heat? Probably only in special cases like while in combat or as a natural ability of the high ranking priests).
Totally not a public figure because it was a somewhat secret and private cult. Only those who could be trusted were able to join (otherwise everyone would have been executed or jailed because pagan illegal worship.)
He was one of many high priests and the worship of The Incandescent One (the sun deity, a golden feathered serpent covered by flames) was popular between knights, mercenaries and adventurers.
Even if Tohil was able to invoke the light of the sun during the day, any powers he had on the surface would be gone in the mines (underground = almost no direct sunlight.)
He is pretty much a paladin.
Praise the sun \[T]/

[Sir Knight]

Okay, I see more where you're going, and I'll just have to shape it a little to make it fit.

As stated at the outset, this is more of a "low-magic" fantasy world, so I'm not about to toss out magic powers willy-nilly.  The idea that you might have had a mystical connection to the sun on the surface, but not when underground, sounds okay!  We have two other religious characters; and, for reference, you can see just how much "magic power" Overseer (FallacyofUrist) is wielding today (i.e., not much, but he's learning the new underground rules).

The punchline of "paladin," though, only really works if you were culturally allowed to combine your knight career with your cult worship.  I propose a simple shortening of your initial post:

What you did before coming down here: Was a knight. I was kicked to the underground caves as an ironic punishment for cult worship of a pagan sun deity.

. . . And I await other responses from the active team, since I can't quite proceed without questions answered.

[Dustan Hache]

To be fair, proper stitching requires more than a minute worth of time, so trying to rush it (which I am) could potentially injure me further. That said, I am in no condition to remain in combat as is, and I have to do something before I get hit by a shadowbolt and die horridly.

Retreat is not an option since the only direction to go is south, where I would be unaware of positioning in the dark and even more likely to injure myself due to a lack of any lights at all. It can only bounce so far before it becomes too dispersed to see using.

[randomgenericusername]

Edited. I thought a paladin could be a "knight who uses clerical and religious powers to aid him in combat" but it doesn't matter. Just having knight training is good and enough at start. He might recover his link to the sun later with lots prayer and become living lantern but for now he has lost all of his mystical sun powers.

[Sir Knight]

To be fair, proper stitching requires more than a minute worth of time, so trying to rush it (which I am) could potentially injure me further. That said, I am in no condition to remain in combat as is, and I have to do something before I get hit by a shadowbolt and die horridly.

Eh, maybe I'll just roll without your usual benefit from being a doctor.  It could still be a terrible idea, and there are still approaching enemies who may or may not be deflected by your allies . . .

"knight who uses clerical and religious powers to aid him in combat"

Well, that assumes we go with (shall we call it . . . ) the hot-dogs-and-popcorn world of D&D or other mass-produced fantasy.  Those worlds that get farther and farther from any historical accuracy because it makes for fun stats and powergaming.  These things always bothered me, because even if you allowed for the idea that "true devotion to a calling could give you holy powers from your personal purity alone," that should be hard to achieve, so you can't just churn out paladins for every adventuring party.

(And I'm still bothered by that time, some years ago, when I heard people talking about grabbing "anti-paladins" in their collectible game.  Seriously?  What kind of practical life would you live to get that career path?  That sounds like the realm of a single unique archnemesis, someone whose personal story of tragedy could fill a novel, and not a commodity to be thrown around.)

Sure, I'm not saying I have much "historical accuracy" here (except I do for metalsmithing, brewing, meat curing . . . ), but still I figured that it sounded like a busy life.  So as it is now: you were a knight, and you just got kicked out because the powers that be disapproved of this aspect of your lifestyle.  You'll be another martial character like Alyssa Alpine (Rautherdir), then.

Speaking of whom, I'll want an answer from Rautherdir before I update.  "South" is bad . . .

[Rautherdir]

((East, sorry. Joining the group and trying not to die. Let me just type it out again.))

Run east to the rest of the group, try and pickup my Phasestrike Javelin.

[Starver]

If it weren't for the close quarters involved,, with our proximate cohort of foes, I would suggest that "retreat" for us would be dodging through the dark out of the western portal to the workshop, past the clumsy combatant, back into the pool of light we left behind and... then discover we're at the back of the cantor and his(?) cronies, hopefully before they or the pursuers discover us in the suicidal sandwich...

But I can't see much to do other than slug it out. (I thought maybe we'd done enough to sneak out again, ah well...)

But, if you can't fight, perhaps bdcome the bearer of light?

(Above to Dustan, pre-ninjaing. Please excuse the thoughts-out-loud.)

@RGU: You don't need to be full of holy power to be Lawful Good (for any given Law, and Goodness, which is thr trick with the palladin), just think you have holy power. I'm not sure I'm the best person to help, but I think you could pull off a low-magic/no-magic variation. In fact, being absolutely dead to "The Force" (or whatever it is we're on the edge of, in this setting) could be a subversive power all of its own.  Or it could be far more complicated. Or is that just what you think? Or is thinking that the lie?  Ach..  Not my character, not my world-of-creation. It's probably something else, worth discussing betwixt you both?

Side thoughts only, though, and not meant to intrude upon the still progressing game, further.ninjaing having taken place.

[randomgenericusername]

I mean, he is not going to have any powers. It's just backstory stuff. There is no sun underground, after all.

EDIT: Oh I see people misunderstood that I was agreeing with Sir Knight and that I know it's low-magic. I said paladin because my character was going to be religious and I thought paladin = knight + religion. Yes he is not going to use magic, just pray while in combat and such.

[Sir Knight]

With or without side chitchat about roleplaying games and life choices, I have the various replies.  I will update as I get things together.

[Sir Knight]

Did you know big fight scenes are complicated?  For the second time in this forum game, I've felt compelled to throw out and reroll everything.  It was just crazy the first roll.  Now things are still crazy, but hopefully it will end in a way that advances the scene once I'm done.

[Dustan Hache]

Lots of 1s and 2s? Seems like RNG is in a foul mood today.

[Sir Knight]

In this case it was completely one-sided.  I mean, so much for any drama.

[Sir Knight]

Previous -- Next

Such a complicated round.  Hope you can cut down on the count of baddies soon.

Spoiler: Combat round order(s) (click to show/hide)

I'll split these into groups for the main battle and then the batch with Overseer:

7, 3, 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 4

3, 4, 2, 1

. . . Hoarding wastrel cultist H, Alyssa Alpine, Dustan, John, hoarding wastrel cultist F, hoarding wastrel cultist G, hoarding wastrel cantor A, Dwain.

And off to the northwest . . . hoarding wastrel cultist J, hoarding wastrel cantor B, hoarding wastrel cultist I, Overseer.

Spoiler: Healing with thread only (click to show/hide)

Dustan's results table, actually a doctor but in a rush:

1: Fail
2: Succeed weakly
3: Succeed weakly
4: Fail by succeeding

Dustan's roll: 3, Succeed weakly!
Healing roll (1d4-1): 2-1 = 1!
Dustan, HP: 6/18

Spoiler: Hoarding wastrel cultist H and hoarding wastrel cantor A vs. John (ziizo) (click to show/hide)

Hoarding wastrel cultist H's combat table, iron dagger, target is wearing an amnesiac robe:

1: Fail terribly
2: Fail
3: Succeed weakly
4: Succeed
5: Succeed greatly
6: Fail by succeeding
7: Fail by succeeding (with paralysis)

John's combat table as before

Hoarding wastrel cultist H's attack roll: 3, Succeed weakly!
Damage roll (1d4-1): 4-1 = 3!
John, HP: 7/18

John's attack roll: 5, Succeed greatly!
Damage roll (1d6+6): 3+6 = 9!
Hoarding wastrel cantor A, HP: 0/14

Spoiler: Alyssa Alpine (Rautherdir) vs. hoarding wastrel cultist F (click to show/hide)

Alyssa Alpine's combat table, iron sword:

1: Fail terribly
2: Fail
3: Succeed weakly
4: Succeed
5: Succeed
6: Succeed greatly
7: Fail by succeeding

Hoarding wastrel cultist F's combat table as for plain iron dagger (enemy not armored)

Alyssa Alpine's attack roll: 5, Succeed!
Damage roll (1d6+1): 4+1 = 5!
Hoarding wastrel cultist F, HP: 2/10

Hoarding wastrel cultist F's attack roll: 1, Fail terribly!
Damage roll (1d4-1): 2-1 = 1!
Hoarding wastrel cultist F, HP: 1/10

Spoiler: Hoarding wastrel cultist G vs. Dwain (Starver) (click to show/hide)

Hoarding wastrel cultist G's combat table as before for iron dagger against armored enemy

Hoarding wastrel cultist G's attack roll: 5, Succeed weakly!
Damage roll (1d4-1): 4-1 = 3!
Dwain, HP: 4/12

Spoiler: Vile vial roll, 1d6 (click to show/hide)

Result: 1!

Spoiler: Hoarding wastrel cultist J and hoarding wastrel cantor B vs. Overseer (FallacyofUrist) (click to show/hide)

Hoarding wastrel cultist J's combat table as for plain iron dagger (enemy not armored)

Hoarding wastrel cantor B's combat table, iron mace:

1: Fail terribly
2: Fail
3: Succeed weakly
4: Succeed
5: Succeed
6: Succeed greatly
7: Fail by succeeding

Overseer's combat table, iron pick:

1: Fail terribly
2: Fail
3: Succeed weakly
4: Succeed
5: Succeed greatly
6: Fail by succeeding

Hoarding wastrel cultist J's attack roll: 2, Fail!

Hoarding wastrel cantor B's attack roll: 4, Succeed!
Damage (1d6+1): 5+1 = 6!
Overseer, HP: 3/14

Overseer's attack roll: 3+1 (meditation-related bonus) = 4, Succeed!
Damage roll (1d6+1): 5+1 = 6!
Hoarding wastrel cultist J, HP: 4/10

Everyone is running every which way!  In haste, Dustan, finding just a moment to spare, gets out a needle and thread from that surface kit and stitches together the worst injury.  Ow.  At least it kinda worked, but people are approaching . . .

The three newly-arrived hoarding wastrels are circling to the left of the room, but meanwhile Alyssa Alpine and John are effectively swapping places.  Alyssa manages to retreat to the corpse where you left that javelin--apparently your assailant was close on your heels, as John meets the cantor right at the edge of the light!

John is briefly inconvenienced by one cultist's dagger.  Ignoring it, you swing your pick at the primary enemy, the cantor.  By whatever mind-power is coursing through your head, you can see that your attack is on-target a split-second before it occurs.  The slain cantor falls back into darkness!

Hoarding wastrel cantor A has been struck down!

The cultists fan out, and one approaches where Dustan is wrapping up and Alyssa is wrenching out, respectively.  Alyssa has neither enough hands nor space to get the javelin into play, but swings a decent sword-blow; in response, the cultist manages a pathetic counterswipe, nicking his own neck!  He still has fight in him, but he's probably dead in a minute.

. . . Unlike the third cultist, running off after Dwain, who had drawn attention by slinging the first attack (thanks for that).  Dwain loops all the way to the far wall and goes rummaging through glass vials, eventually picking out and swigging something just as the cultist gets a stab in!

Whoa.  You . . . don't care?  You feel the sting, but it vanishes in an instant as you are filled with vitality!  You feel healthier than you ever have in your life!  Who knew you needed only to drink potions of terrible evil magic to get that effect?

Dwain is now at 15/12 HP!  (If you don't lose the bonus HP in combat, it still vanishes at the end of the day)

In the northwest, the other hoarding wastrels run towards Overseer.  The ravening hordes; you've seen bloodlust, but these . . . creatures are just despicable.  Whereas the ascetic from this morning seemed at least, in a way, "spiritual," these seem an even lower form of low.

The first cultist swings at you with a dagger and misses.  You retort with your pick and nearly penetrate from one side of the torso to the other!  The cantor, from behind them, comes at you with a blow from a mace that does just as much damage to you.

The remaining cultist, though, stopped a few feet away, and is crouching over the shapes you formed on the shale floor.  It seems to be . . . picking up armfuls of holy symbols??  What, is this strategic, or just weird?!



Alyssa Alpine (Rautherdir): You'd wanted to retrieve the javelin, and indeed it is right at hand.  It's just that you had a sword at the ready and became engaged in melee so I rolled for that.

Dustan (Dustan Hache): Like I said, I figured sewing an injury would take awhile, so I did nothing with your request to use a sling.  Besides, there's an enemy in melee range now.

[ziizo]

Attack Cultist wastrel H