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[dustywayfarer]

Hearing the commotion, Louis heads towards the sound, picking up suitable ammo along the way. Once in range, he starts pelting the ant lemmings. Should someone light a candle, Louis will retreat behind the column.

[Sir Knight]

Hearing the commotion, Louis heads towards the sound, picking up suitable ammo along the way. Once in range, he starts pelting the ant lemmings. Should someone light a candle, Louis will retreat behind the column.

Ah ha!  Good thing I didn't post last evening.  Since your character wouldn't have seen these things before, I now know to put more explanation in the update.  (And when you say "pelt," I see you do have a sling, so I'll get that out of your backpack.)

[Sir Knight]

Previous -- Next

I didn't know for sure that you'd kick the nest when I put together this little scene.  Let's get things started!

Spoiler: Some rolls (click to show/hide)

Somebody's observation roll, I wonder whose: 2, Fail!
Somebody else's: 3, Succeed weakly!

John's insight roll: 5, Succeed greatly!

Tohil's wake-'em-up roll: 3, Succeed weakly!

And a mysterious one: 3, Succeed weakly!

Dwain notices a fuss and begins sauntering eastward.  Dustan does too, and is gathering some slingable stones off the ground when you see it: the pattern of faint trails.  A shiny substance like snail slime.  The sign of the ant lemmings.  And these are new trails, too--though not nearly as many as when last you were here.  Are there fewer of the creatures, or . . . ?

Tohil is finally getting some results with Gary.  Could it be the prayer??  Gary silently opens his eyes and commences the slow process of getting his aching self off the ground.

Now about that fuss.

Spoiler: Alyssa Alpine (Rautherdir) and Louis (dustywayfarer) vs. ant lemming hive (click to show/hide)

Not much would change if I rolled for combat round order in these circumstances, so skip that

Alyssa Alpine and Louis's combat table, sling and rocks:

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

Alyssa Alpine's attack roll: 6, Fail by succeeding!
Damage to ant lemming hive (1d6+1): 6+1 = 7!
Ant lemming hive size: 18/25
Damage to self (1d6+1): 4+1 = 5!
Alyssa Alpine, HP: 2/12

Louis's attack roll: 2, Fail!

Louis approaches in concern, and is surprised to see these scrawny creatures: the size of a rodent, with unhealthy-looking skin and sparse hair, yet with the head of an insect!  You can understand not letting them live!

Alyssa begins projectile bombardment.  Smash!  Splat!  Ant lemming bodies fall from the walls.

Ant lemming has been struck down! x7

Louis joins in, but doesn't hit anything in the sudden chaos, as the horde swarms like an agitated hive.  Though it does not swarm in your direction; perhaps they have not pinned down the origin of the assault?

This gives John the chance to set up one of the unwise candles you were given by the Salt family, incendiaries with a colored mark on their side which notes when they will trigger.  Technically, they gave you these to go raid the Ugly Mug Outpost, but what do they know?  You were busy raiding the other malevolent humanoid underground beings.

A single spark lights the flame.  It doesn't give off much light, but whoa, the wax goes quickly.  It's not even melting, really; it's like the stuff is being sucked into the flame to vanish!  You realize you could "feed" the wax into the flame by tilting it, and thus hurry it to the mark faster if you wanted, but you just set it down and start backing away.

Suddenly Alyssa fills the air not so much with rocks as with nasty language.  Now you have discovered how difficult it is to "put away" a phasestrike javelin: any which way, the thing sticks out, and you just rammed the tip clear through your slingin' arm!  So much for that thing being "safe"; you're just about at the end of your rope here!

Well, maybe ant lemmings will be drawn into John's trap by the noise.  Or the smell of your blood . . .

Spoiler: Rambling on mechanics of unwise candles (click to show/hide)

I revised how these "candle attacks" work from the version previously in the item lists.  The plan was always that the blast would be treated specially, where results that make no sense just deal zero damage.  Like: how would it "Fail by succeeding" when it's a candle and doesn't know friend from foe?  So all those become regular "Fail."

But now, where the item list used to say "can be thrown at the risk of being extinguished," it says "can be thrown, but if not then you remove Fail."  That's talking about the one original "Fail."  So with that one gone, it's got better statistics when you set it down carefully, like is being done here.

Also, the whole point of an area-of-effect weapon is to be good against multiple opponents, which makes it weird that I'd only roll once for a whole group of ant lemmings--as opposed to how I'd roll three times for three human opponents, et cetera.  Recall how I make a flock or hive stronger based on how many are in it: I do this per each 5 members still alive, up to maximum strength at 15.  I think it might make sense, therefore, to roll one attack from the candle per each 5 members that are within the blast area and likewise max out at three times.

This could be stupid if I roll three "Succeed greatly" results.  But let's find out!

. . . Once the candle burns through!

Gary (Coolrune206): I was gonna give you some lingering combat penalty when you woke up, but we'll say Tohil (randomgenericusername)'s efforts obliterated that.

John (ziizo): Since you had the best possible roll, may as well reveal how long the candle burns.  It should last all the way through next turn and then detonate on the turn after that.  If you had manually shortened it, it would detonate next turn.  And I can reveal this publicly because you obviously have enough time to tell your colleagues.

[Dustan Hache]

I have an idea on how to deal with swarm rolls using unwise candles: instead of rolling for damage repeatedly, flip a coin for each of the lemmings. If they fail the cointoss, remove one from their numbers. Alternatively, flip one for every five, and if they fail it then that group is destroyed.
FIRE EVERYTHING!

[Coolrune206]

Gary rises to his feet and stumbles over to where the wheelbarrows are, surveiling the situation.

[Rautherdir]

"Okay. I'm going to retreat, anyone else want a good weapon for this fight?"

Retreat back behind the wheelbarrows, hand my sword off to someone else.

[randomgenericusername]

"Careful! Don't exhaust yourself so much again like that!"
Help Gary stand up and guide him to the rest of the group and wheelbarrows.

[ziizo]

"Everyone with a sling we have time for one attack before the candle explodes so retreat a bit after doing it"

use my sling to attack in the ant-lemming direction once then retrat

[Sir Knight]

I have an idea on how to deal with swarm rolls using unwise candles: instead of rolling for damage repeatedly, flip a coin for each of the lemmings. If they fail the cointoss, remove one from their numbers. Alternatively, flip one for every five, and if they fail it then that group is destroyed.
FIRE EVERYTHING!

Know what's funny?  My current method gets a mathematically similar result.

Really!  I've got a file over here where I've calculated expected values for the various weapon and armor combinations so far discussed in the game, and it occurred to me that I should just do the same for this blast.  So, for instance, I know that an ordinary 1d6 roll can be expected to do 2.96 damage to the enemy.  That includes the "Fail by succeeding" results where you have half a chance of damaging both yourself and the enemy.  In a situation where "Fail by succeeding" does nothing worthwhile (like here), it drops to 2.58 damage to the enemy.

Do that for every 5 enemies . . . and that's almost exactly the same thing as a coin toss.  How about that?

And then this whole deal with removing the "Fail" result brings it up to 3.1 damage, which is a big change.  Usually step sizes don't go up to 0.5 like this.  But I figure that's okay, since an individual candle is one-use and kinda expensive; wanna encourage gameplay, right?

So here the players get more benefit than a coin toss, and I don't have to sacrifice the 1dWhatever system.

. . . Whoa.  "The 1dWhatever System."  Should I trademark that?

[Dustan Hache]

Do it bro,  just do it. Don't let your dreams be memes.

[Starver]

Well, given this information, I have a sling and I still have some seekers, so might be worth firing one off. Take deliberate aim, don't want to suffer any more failure than I need to. I can think of some hilarious Succeed By Failing combos, that it might be wise to avoid.

[Sir Knight]

Well, given this information, I have a sling and I still have some seekers, so might be worth firing one off.

"Here, I think I've got something that belongs to you!!"

And with that, I can presume that Dustan (Dustan Hache) will sling a rock as he had been preparing to do last turn.

I could still use an action from Louis (dustywayfarer).  It's difficult to proceed with intermittent input; I don't want to get your character into danger if you're away from the computer for a bit, but it's also kinda artificial to ensure you always tag along in safety while waiting for the next action.

[Sir Knight]

Previous -- Next

Going off of last round's interest in retreating if a candle were lit, here I put Louis (dustywayfarer) back behind the column.  dustywayfarer: do let us know about your future intents.

Alyssa retreats to a presumed-safe distance.  You try offering your sword to anyone, but it looks like they're focused on bombardment.  Gary and Tohil approach to witness events unfold.

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

3, 4, 5, 1, 2

. . . Dwain, Louis, the ant lemmings, Dustan, John.

Spoiler: The GM rolls, mysteriously (click to show/hide)

Result: 6, Fail by succeeding!
Result: 1, Fail terribly!
Result: 2, Fail!
Result: 5, Succeed greatly!

Spoiler: Many thrown things (click to show/hide)

Dwain's combat table, sling and seeker skull:

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

Dwain's attack roll: 5, Succeed!
Damage roll (1d6+1): 4+1 = 5!
Ant lemming hive size: 13/25

All other combat tables as before for sling and rocks

Dustan's attack roll: 6, Fail by succeeding!
Damage to Dwain (1d6+1): 2+1 = 3!
Dwain, HP: 8/13

John's attack roll: 6, Fail by succeeding!
Damage to ant lemming hive (1d6+1): 4+1 = 5!
Ant lemming hive size: 8/25
Damage to self (1d6+1): 6+1 = 7!
John, HP: 8/19

Dwain lets loose with a seeker skull that sails unerringly to its target.  Targets.  Wow!  The single projectile tears its way through multiple foes!

Ant lemming has been struck down! x5

You're still staring, impressed, as Louis takes off (once learning about the dangers of the unwise candle), and the ant lemmings begin to leave their nest.  You're still staring, impressed, when a sling stone hurled by Dustan impresses itself on the side of your neck.  Ow!

John keeps making progress via projectile . . .

Ant lemming has been struck down! x5

. . . and what what what how did you not notice you set the edge of your amnesiac robe on fire when you were lighting that candle?!  Your friends could have warned you before flames were shooting up your side!  You cease all other action to extinguish it, but the burns are pretty bad.  Oh well, at least the garment was already damaged beforehand.

(He he he: I'm using the "you're actually on fire" thing as an excuse for why no one in the slinging group stood close enough to trigger the amnesiac robe's effect.  Players are reminded of this danger just in case you've forgotten.)



There they come!  Dustan realizes that they are traveling in a particular line, traversing the shiny trails on the floor in their efforts to locate you.  At a quick guess . . . yup, they're going to go right over the unwise candle.  He he he!

. . . I seem to be laughing a lot today.

[Dustan Hache]

raise my hand and signal the others to hold off attacking. Wait till the candle detonates, THEN mop up the remaining lemmings. Also, go make sure Dwain isn't horribly disfigured by that stray stone. How it flew sideways out of my sling is beyond me, but I don't want to be responsible for a second accidental death.

[Starver]

Well, given the various dangers (candles and Dustans, only the latter of which I warily note appears to want to move towards me) I'll take cover by moving back behind a wheelbarrow. On the principle that if it and its contents are heavy enough to do secondary damage if rapidly pushed onto me and does gets pushed onto me by the blast, the primary blast would likely have done me in on its own anyway. (I may be over-reacting. But

I probably can't do much about the approach of Dustan (especially if he turns out to be made of liquid metal), so just be on my guard.

After whatever-happens happens, with both 'threats', I'll by then have rumaged around and switched to the hammer and shall take a few good swings in on the periphery of anything antlike that looks like it's still more interested in us than in merely adopting the texture of the cave walls and oozing a bit without my assistance.

(I have some ideas regarding the slime trails, but they'll probably have to wait until after this encounter.)