Revision Phase 1
DesignRafal's oldest and most loyal allies, Witch Hunters are a caste who have struggled against the tyranny of Tales for centuries. They have no place in traditional narratives- defeating witches is the purview of small children and young princes, most of whom live Happily Ever After, and care not for the plight of anyone but themselves. A rare few, however, reject their Happy Ending, and join the Witch Hunters.
Despite the name, Witch Hunters do not solely hunt witches. Witches are merely their primary foes; they will happily hunt and kill anything that threatens the lives of common folk, regardless of their nominal vices or virtues; dragons, unicorns, evil knights, noble knights- it matters not. For this service to the common good, they receive little by way of thanks- indeed, they are often criticised-, yet they soldier on. Like Rafal, they care more about results than sentiment.
Witch Hunters vary wildly in their method and appearance, but most Witch Hunters who survive a few battles have the following things in common:
-A selection of charms and amulets that ward off dark magic; if you can't withstand a basic hex, you won't last long versus an angry witch.
-Good eyes and honed instincts; you need to be able to detect trickery to outwit witches and their ilk, and collect information rapidly to track them down.
-Speed, agility, and dexterity; while capable of taking a hit, most Witch Hunters rely more on avoiding them, and strike back using finesse rather than brute force.
-A grim demeanour; they've Seen Some Shit, and have little time for frivolity. When it comes time to fight, they shoot first, and don't ask questions.
-A sweet hat; it's not clear why, but all Witch Hunters wear a cool hat (typically of the broad-rimmed leather variety). Fortunately, there are many other people who wear cool hats, so it doesn't necessarily make them stand out.
However, everyone has to start somewhere, except for the bastards who were born with skills because they are part of some story that requires them. Fuck those guys. Where was I? Right, yes. Witch Hunter Initiates are novices, whose skills are considerably less honed than their seniors. That is, their skills and equipment are more like:
-One or two simple charms that ward off dark magic, or at least look like they might; warding charms don't grow on trees (most of the time), and it takes a Witch Hunter many years to acquire a full regalia.
-Decent eyes and budding instincts; while Initiates are at least trained enough to give them basic investigation skills, true mastery comes only from experience.
-Better agility than an average person; while it takes a lot of training- and natural selection- to make veteran Witch Hunters the agile experts they are, Initiates are at least tested to weed out those who don't have the necessary potential.
-An eager, if naive demeanour; many Initiates don't truly comprehend what lies ahead of them, and when faced with true adversity, some will break- and some will be hardened.
-No particular headgear; though some copy their elders by wearing broad-rimmed leather hats, others specifically avoid wearing a hat, thinking it a silly affectation. They always come around in the end, though.
Though the veteran Witch Hunters are for now confined to Ravenwood to ensure the 'truce' holds, Rafal has enlisted some Initiates into the Bookbinders. It serves as part of their training- those who survive a few missions may return to Ravenwood for further training, and emerge as fully-fledged Witch Hunters (though there will always be more recruits).
They will hopefully be better investigators than random Disgruntled Villains, and slightly better combatants.
Difficulty: Hard (First venture into magical troops)
Result: (4+2) = 6, Average
The royal squirrel slips into Rafal’s office, and he takes the nut from it’s tiny paws, gesturing for it to rest. Popping the message in his mouth, his normally silk-smooth voice is suddenly overtaken by the deathrattle of someone who’s eaten crow more than once.
“We have finished the latest class of initiates. The clan thanks you for your service.”
Rafal coughed the rest of the magic from his lungs, and pulled the string to summon his aides to the room. Patiently waiting for them to respond, he idly drew a swan on the spare parchment on his desk. He had always been told that his idle drawing was a bad habit by his parents, but he was never in the mind to listen.
The door opened, indicating that his aides had arrived. Among them was the dean of the Foxwood School for Boys, the main focus of this meeting. A thin wisp of a person, they bowed deeply to their patron. “What is it, Rafal?”
“The witch hunters have finished with the last group you sent them from Arbed house. It’s time for us to gather another group of recruits.”
The dean hemmed and hawed, frail frame tensing in concern. “While I appreciate the service these… ruffians have done for our school, I have concerns as to continually shipping the young people of the woods into the depths of Ravenwood.”
“I have it on good word from the head of the clan that they haven’t had many fatalities over the last several classes, and from what I’ve seen myself, those you send from Arbed house show great improvement. Trust me, dean.”
A moment of silence passed before the dean responded with a bow. Rafal turned his attention to his chief of guard. “Prepare new bunks for the new class of initiates, I want to begin them training with the Kobolds as soon as possible.”
Witch Hunter Initiates (B1, M1, 10 Units): Able combatants and investigators with some resistance to charms, freshly emerged from witch hunter boot camp
RevisionKobolds should not be seen nor heard
But wait upon their master's word
Out of sight shall they do their task
And ne'er will they for a boon ask
It pleased many 'owners' of Kobolds to order their slaves to stay out of sight at all times, considering the reptiles to be an eyesore. So it was that some Kobolds learned the art of stealth, in order to perform their chores without being seen. The best could even clear a table whilst guests were still seated and enjoying a post-meal drink. Unfortunately, those masters of stealth disappeared without a trace upon being granted freedom, but some of the less skilled joined the Bookbinders, and have been encouraged to share their experience around.
Being small and spindly, Kobolds can hide in places where a human could not, and their eyesight allows them to move in the dark more easily. In addition, they have an uncanny ability to be ignored by humans (and other races who consider themselves 'above' Kobolds). With proper training, then, a Kobold can be quite hard to detect indeed, making them more effective spies and ambushers.
Difficulty: Easy
Roll: (1+1)+1 = 3, Buggy Mess
The reporter kicked and screamed as she was dragged out of the building into the alley by two guards. “You can’t keep lying to the people of the woods! They will know what you’ve done to the King!”
The guards laughed, slamming her against the far wall. “And how exactly do you plan on doing that, girlie?” his voice a knife edge against the twinkle of the fairy lights.
“With this!” the reporter shouted, flinging a glowing blue orb against the ground. The other guard called out in surprise, choking, “Quick! Cut her off!” as the reporter fled.
The reporter for the Camelot Courier fled, dashing under carts and through alleys, until the Bookbinder guards were far behind. Minutes later, she stopped to rest, leaning back against a sack of flour. She slowly caught her breath, and made to stand up, pushin up off the scaly sack of- wait.
Seconds later, the reporter lay bound and gagged, a grinning Kobold silhouetted against the night sky. She had never seen it coming.
Rafal’s plan to promote the quietest and stealthiest of his recently acquired host of koblods sounds good in theory, but runs into the issue that noticing these notably hard to notice people is a very slow and annoying process. As such, recruiting is slow, and most of those recruited don’t carry much equipment due to often different backgrounds from some of their more mining focused brethren.
Stealthy Kobolds (B1/M0/5 Units): Stealthy former servants who weren’t quite fast enough to disappear, they don’t carry much. (BYOS)
DesignSome people think they can outsmart ogres. Maybe... maybe. I have yet to meet one who can outsmart club.
Ogres, as one of Rafal's oldest allies, are his default choice for when brute force is called for. They are big, burly, and have deep-seated grudges against most of the world (for good reason). Give them a tree branch or a big rock, and they're good to go.
Not much to say about them that hasn't already been said.
Difficulty: Normal
Result: (3+3) = 6, Average
Many Years Ago... Jack the Third stepped into the dark hut, listening carefully to the area around him. He had come far from Borna Coric, drawn to the tales of treasure hidden in the dim swamp. As he stepped through the door, he heard a pair of sharp voices approach. Quickly looking around, he saw few options as to where to hide, and so ducked inside the house. The space was large, but sparsely furnished. The dinner table, fashioned from fallen trees and fastened without nails, had nothing covering the cross-frame legs, and the fireplace only had a simple pot on a steel frame.
Jack kept looking as the voices grew closer, and finally settled on the wide, heavily built bed frame in the corner, sliding under it right as the voices came through the door and the heavy thud of the planks meeting the frame. Nestled in the shadow of the feather mattress, he listened keenly, as if his life depended on it. He had always heard tales of how his great ancestor, Jack, had evaded the evil giants in the citadel of clouds that he now called home, but he had no clue it would be this
stressful. The two figures sat in wooden chairs at the table, and he turned his ears to the conversation.
“Why do you come all the way out here, hunter? There’s no game this far out, and you have no royal quest to drive you.” the ogre asked, his bare feet as he brought hot tea for the two of them, sitting down with his back to the fireplace.
“That’s where you’d be mistaken, my dear colleague. There’s plenty of important game this far in the swamp. Take a look at this book, tell me if you see anyone familiar in here,” the man spoke, his voice gentle like honey. There was a gentle thump as a leather-bound tome was opened for perusal.
“Have you come to taunt me, human?! This is a storybook, and not one of my favorites,” the ogre raised his voice as he slid the book across the table.
“I would never taunt such an esteemed ogre as yourself. This is who I have come here to hunt.”
A pensive silence took the room. “Why would you hunt children? You look nothing like the murderers of Ravenwood.”
“And I am no friend of the witches, truly. Rather, I hold in disdain all the vagaries of the fairy tale. An old saying, you may recall, was ‘The only way out is through a fairy tale’, and I despise that. It removes all agency, all choices that I have made by it’s simple existence.”
“There’s a difference between despising those wild children who would steal from us, and despising the world we live in,” said the ogre, before the man cut him off.
“I said nothing about hating this world, I
love this world. I want nothing more than to-”
“Then why are you here to hunt the children who steal from me?”
“Because there’s
another way! We can put man before pen, ogre before thief! Too many have died already in this senseless cycle!”
“What can I do differently!?”
“End it quickly,” the man spoke, a dark chord in his tone. “You may be a vegetarian, but that doesn’t stop your kin from fattening up these children to cook. That’s where you die.”
The ogre stood, annoyed. “You really think that would stop the bleed!? Really-”
“YES, you fool! It’s in all the stories where they win! Jack was allowed in, he was allowed hospitality, but then he murdered his benefactors where they stood in the clouds!”
“I AM NOT THE GIANT!” the ogre shouted, and a large thud echoed through the hut as the ogre loomed over the man, casting a large shadow in front of the fireplace. Jack the Third shivered in terror where he hid from the two monsters, repeating the words in his head, the message from his ancestors. “Stand Still, Stay Silent, and you may yet survive”.
The man spoke, a rhythmic cadence to his honeyed words. “You’re better than the giant, most definitely. But do you really think that just chasing away children will save you from the one with blood on their mind and greed in their heart?”
The ogre started to speak, but the man cut him off. “Tell your kin. Think my offer over. Thank you for the hospitality.” A metal object clattered onto the table as he stood, and offered his hand for a handshake. Once the man was gone, long gone, Jack finally mustered the courage to make his escape. The ogre had gone outside, to use the bathroom he suspected, and he couldn’t bear to hide any longer. He ran, and kept running, all the way back to his home.
The ogre came back into the house, having finished his business, and noticed his mug of tea knocked over. He cursed to himself, and stared at the dagger on the table, the hilt marked with a book, bound in chains. Maybe something did need to change...
Rafal would see it ended once and for all. He visited the mourning relatives of slain ogres, collected evidence, and systematically set about arresting and executing the thieves. At the same time, he taught ogres to immediately kill intruders, rather than attempt to fatten them up and cook them, and to properly secure their prized belongings.
Ogres (B1/M0/5 Units): Strong, cunning, and tough, they carry only clubs and the clothes on their back. They remain unfortunately vulnerable to underhanded tactics.
Disgruntled Villains (B1/M0/50 Units) - a motley assortment of wronged pirates, bandits, and lawmen. Equipped with a variety of shoddy ranged and melee weapons. BYOS. (Bring your own sword)
Kobolds (B1/M0/50 Units): Cute little trapmakers and miners, wielding trapmaking equipment, and a light pickaxe/light hammer/hunting bow (BYOS)
Stealthy Kobolds (B1/M0/5 Units): Stealthy former servants who weren’t quite fast enough to disappear, they don’t carry much. (BYOS)
Witch Hunter Initiates (B1, M1, 10 Units): Able combatants and investigators with some resistance to charms, freshly emerged from witch hunter boot camp
Ogres (B1/M0/5 Units): Strong, cunning, and tough, they carry only clubs and the clothes on their back. They remain unfortunately vulnerable to underhanded tactics.
Crossbows: (M1/5 Units): Fairly average crossbows made by Camelot's smiths. Comes with a stylish, gilded B to boost morale.
Iron-Banded Cudgels (M1/50 Units): Simple and devilishly effective, these clubs work as good weapons to beat tales into submission. Works for any size unit.
Author
Topic: Fight for the Woods - Bookbinders (Read 3835 times)