He’ll shoot until he can’t. Then it’s tombstone piledrivers for everyone.
The plan;
Run to the western stairwell they found Eabd in. Yell in Anglish, “Retreat! Defent yirself in t’ rum!”
In Arabic, “Eabd! Priority: Protekt Blue Hawk!” (Poor Eabd is going to tear itself apart trying to do everything at once.)
If he can take a potshot at the new arrivals to draw them off he’ll do that too. It seems like a bit too much in the short intervals of the combats though. Anyway, the hope is to draw off as many Things as possible.
Couple of questions;
How fast is the water rising?
And, is it possible to attack two targets in one round? 'Cause it’d be handy to try and dust these things faster.
If not, could Nic hit thing 13 in the back (hopefully killing/rekilling it) and say slip around the one in his face? - to get a bit of space and a bit closer to getting out.
I thought, at the spell level he was casting at, the required ritual was merely a gesture and/or a word.
Hawk doesn’t have any spell at less than a 15, and:
Skill 15-19 - Ritual: You must speak a word or two or make a small gesture (a couple of fingers are enough), but not necessarily both. You are allowed to move one yard per second while making the Concentrate maneuver. Time: as listed. Cost: Reduced by 1.
No, no he can’t.
Neutralize Poison:
Time to cast: 30 seconds (beware fast-acting poisons!). ONE TRY.
Hawk can attempt to heal the damage as fast as it occurs, but it looks like he’s stuck with the poison.
Re: water. Nic isn’t in a position to see the entrance hall; there’s no water visible in the big chamber. It sounds like a lot of water coming in, though.
Attacking twice: yup, there are a few ways to do that. The first is an All-Out Attack (Double). Two full attacks, but no defences.
Or you can do a dual-weapon attack: hit with both rapier and dagger at -4 each, normal defences. But your left hand would have another -4 because you don’t have off-hand weapon training.
You can default Main-Gauche skill from Rapier, though, so the dagger is at skill-13 before the penalties. Still down to 5 after the -8, though.
The third (and probably best) option is a Rapid Attack: two attacks (can be with the same weapon) at -6 each but normal defences. Your effective skill is 16 with the new rapier (before the -6) and you still have -3 due to dazzle (so down to 7), but you could make them Telegraphic Attacks for +4. Or wait for the dazzle to fade and roll vs 10.
The stuff about the chant was just colour text; Hawk needed to roll vs 11 (-4 shock penalty from last round) and missed the casting roll.
Also, he wasn’t casting Neutralise Poison (as he doesn’t have thirty seconds to spare):
Huh. I need to keep a closer eye on my spell list.
Alright, Nic’ll take a metaphorical roll of the dice with rapid telegraphic attacks - and I’ll hope the more literal dice rolls go in my favour and Nic drops them both.
Since Thwip is one more swipe from being an unconscious meat pile, he’s going to make a blind grab for the gem of the head of his Thing. I figure he can find it by following up from the biting.
Since he’s no longer in a position to be clever about it if he can bite it off, he will. See how the Thing likes being gnawed on.
Ranar’s trying to break free; not sure if that can be combined with anything else like a punch or a headbutt (as an all out attack or whatever), but even if not, he still needs to break free.
All-out attack (thump & break free) can be very effective; the shock penalties from the attack help with the break free contest.
The downside, as always, is no defences (which includes defence against takedowns, arm locks, etc).
That’s exactly what he’s going for. Ranar’s still mostly in the “we have to bash our way through and get out of here” mentality and trying to push at the flank so the others can go around - or push it so the others can retreat per Thwip’s call. Not really a moment to be defensive yet.
In more meta terms, though: it means that if the one that ran into the wall tries to grapple, it’ll almost certainly succeed.
OTOH, he’d probably succeed if you’re still grappled by the other one, too.
BTW: apart from the initial roll to hit, most wrestling moves are quick contests of ST rather than skill checks. Skill of DX+1 gives +1 to effective ST in these contests, skill of DX+2 gives a +2.
The other thing to note is that all dwarves have Lifting Strength +2. Lifting Strength is basically cut-price ST that doesn’t help with weapon damage or hit points, but it does help with load carrying ability…and grappling.
All of that is a long winded way of saying that breaking free (and lotsa other grappling stuff) is a quick contest of ST, and Ranar is rolling vs an effective ST of 18. Ranar is a very good wrestler; getting knocked down earlier was the result of some very unlucky rolls.
However: grappling with both hands (as the thing is doing) gives a +5 to resist your grapplee breaking free. So it’ll be Ranar’s 18 vs Thing ST (whatever that is; they’re ferocious, but they don’t seem particularly strong) +5.
Also to note: damage on things like chokes is based on margin of victory in the quick contest. Assuming average rolls (11) from both players, a two-handed killing choke from Ranar on an average-ST human would deliver 10HP damage per second.
OTOH, Ranar’s axe and pick swings are often up around the 20HP mark.
Surprisingly clever Things.
I know there are a few grapping moves designed for defense when on your knees but for the life of me I cant find a good example. Teach me to google at 6am. But Thwip will be waiting to use it to continue the tooth and claw strategy until he can’t.
What do you mean they cut the power? How could they cut the power, man? They’re animals!
/Hudson
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Fighting from your knees gives a -2 to attack or defend, prevents retreating and makes it hard to attack the head. Plenty of options, though; sweep, grapple legs and takedown, uppercut to the balls…
Fortunately, you can go from kneeling to standing as the Step of another manoeuvre (attack, all-out defence, etc).
A much bigger problem is the -10 due to blindness. It’s possible to grapple blind effectively if you’re accustomed to it, but Thwip isn’t.
Well, not much choice. He last told Eabd to rescue Hawk and the others are cut off so he has no expectation of rescue now. He’s gonna turtle up and use whatever he can should a Thing hop on him. Wrestling skills or tooth and claw. Or both. There was some sort of college wrestling counter move they could use from that position…
Or he can get up and run into the wall. Hopefully they’ll laugh themselves into surrender.
