Previous -- NextI made sure to warn people that the locals were restless knowing that if anything significant happened in this territory on this turn then locals would get involved. Therefore, there are more people to add to the combat round order.
. . .
Bob,
Gary,
Dustan, guard B (war hammer), someone who sent a private message, guard A (sword),
Tohil, guard C (battle axe).
Result: 3, Succeed weakly!
(Because why not throw in more rolls?)
Bob's much-more-blatant strategic roll: 1, Fail terribly!
Even though Dustan has to cross some distance, Tohil has to get up first, and Dustan is going much earlier in the round order, so . . .
Dustan's combat table as before
Dustan's attack roll: 7, Fail by succeeding! (Again?)
Damage to Bob (1d6+1): 6+1 = 7!
Bob, HP: 0/10
Damage to self (1d6+1): 1+1 = 2!
Dustan, HP: 11/18
Guard B's nonlethal-at-least-to-start takedown roll: 2, Fail!
Guard A's roll: 6, Fail by succeeding!
(Randomly targeting Dustan)
Guard C's roll: 2, Fail!
No one nearby is getting in the way, and so Alyssa Alpine, Dwain, and Louis reach the entrance of the lengthy westward tunnel without incident. Dwain noisily clears his throat and smacks the stone with that pick again, but . . .
With them leaving, violence continues! Bob goes for another splitter wand. You hurry to get it out of your backpack before Tohil can rise, but you fumble the thing and it falls harmlessly to the ground. Apparently, just falling onto the rock isn't enough to trigger the effect, as your opponent rolls away!
Speaking of getting away, Gary runs in a circle and heads right back after the others. Some of them are already gone down the tunnel, but you almost bump into Alyssa, who's turned back. Looking for targets in easier reach, Dustan lunges for the Bob/Tohil confluence with mason-murder in mind. Your workstone knife continues its treachery: your hand gets cut rather badly as it slides up onto the blade during use. The rest of the knife gets stuck going through Bob's ribcage.
Bob has been struck down!
By which point a number of armed-and-armored individuals have run up with weapons drawn. One tries to trip you before resorting to any hammer-violence, and misses. Another barrels straight into Dustan, overestimating and dropping the both of you straight down the pit! Oof! It's a miracle neither of you is hurt!
And the one with the battle axe tries to knock the mace out of Tohil's hand with her hilt, but also misses. You suffer nothing worse than a dark glare. Which is bad enough.
Meanwhile, Alyssa has retrieved dropped weapons and is headed back out. Hmm, Gary never retrieved his dropped pick.John's critically-assess-the-state-of-the-masses roll: 4, Succeed!
John has walked a short distance away. It looks like the fighting has drawn most if not all of "the guards," and although everyone else is armed too, no one without armor has any interest in getting into it. Conveniently, you're standing right next to Etrigan. You ask, casually, how common this sort of behavior is.
"Some people change when they're down here," he says. He continues to keep watch on the tussling. "Or maybe they just figure themselves out."I have wondered if and when
Dustan would die. Apparently not before getting at least one more player kill. Regrettably, the
soulshine lantern would provide no benefit here as
Bob didn't live long enough to earn level-up HP.
magmaholic: Do you want to go back on the waitlist?
Notes on that map: The little horizontal line is supposed to be the dropped splitter wand. Obviously, his whole inventory is "dropped," now. The downward arrow is because I tend to point to people who are one z-level away, and it turned out there was no simple place to draw it, oh well. And if you don't see yourself on the map, you're off the west end, though welcome to return.