A volley of arrows flew out of the hills to the right, and slammed into the hastily assembled shield wall. Jóra’s eyes widened as an arrow winged its way towards her. She began to dodge out of the way, but was too slow to avoid it. A shield flashed out of the wall, however, and deflected it harmlessly away. Einar flashed a quick grin at his sister, and returned to the shield wall.
Jóra, her heart racing from the close brush with death, grinned as well. She glanced at the tree line where the archers had fired, and her sharp blue eyes picked out a grizzled sergeant shouting out orders to the archers. She nocked her arrow, drew back, and let loose in one swift motion. The arrow flew straight and true, tearing through the sergeant’s throat and thudded into the tree behind him. The enemy archers paused in dismay, and quickly turned to panic as the arrows from the six archers under her command winged their way towards their targets. Jóra’s next arrow slammed into a brave archer who tried to get a shot off, knocking him off his feet into the dirt. Her grin grew further, and her eye’s searched for the next target.
On the left flank, Frømund Thormodsson faced the footmen charging out of the woods, his men assembled the shield wall firmly, and each man was grimly determined to sell his life dearly, if need be. The footmen charging them wore gambesons, dirty and stained, and wielded a mix of spears and axes. Hardly better than peasants, he thought grimly. They had no idea what awaited them.
Once the footmen were 15 feet away from reaching the shield wall, Sihylde and her band of raiders burst out between the gaps in the shield wall. Each was armed with a battle axe, and each one a giant among men. But each eye was drawn to Sihylde. Screaming a war song to Crom, her long fiery braid flying behind her, she crashed into the suddenly faltering southerners. Her first swing of her war hammer crushed the head of a footmen, turning it into fine red paste. Her backhand smashed through a spear and crushed the chest of the man trying desperately to block her attack. She swung about her furiously, and with each swing death came crashing down. Next to her, an armored swordsman blocked one of her raider’s swings, and stabbed him through the chest. Screaming with rage, Sihylde launched a furious array of blows at the man. The swordsman desperately blocked each blow, and finally found an opportunity to deliver a counter attack.
Which was when Frømund and his shield wall arrived.
Frømund slammed his shield into the armored swordsman, knocking him into the ground, whereupon Sihylde took the opportunity to slam down her hammer into the swordsman helm. He screamed, but was cut short with a sickening squelch.
The rest of Frømund’s shield wall, advanced steadily into the footmen, laying about them with their spears, swords and axes. Frømund blocked a spear with his shield, brushed it aside, and stabbed his sword into the southerner. He tore it out of his chest, pushed his foes corpse back with his shield, and spun with his sword into the neck of the footman next to him, cutting it nearly off. With the counter charge and the shield wall advancing, the footmen were broken on the left flank.
On the right, the southerner’s charge crashed into Einar’s shield wall. Einar grimaced as a spear pierced his shoulder, but rage overtook his pain as he brought his axe down on the arm holding the spear, severing it at the elbow. The footman fell on his knees crying out in pain, but Einar’s axe quickly put an end to that. The charge brought the shield wall back a step or two, but they pushed back the southerner with determination. Einar swung his axe, seemingly unimpeded by the wound seeping blood from his shoulder, into the face of one footman, blocked the swing of an axe from another, crouching down to absorb the force of the blow, and took his axe and slammed it into the knee of his attacker, bringing him down.
The southerners struggled mightily against the shield wall on the right, but though they inflicted several injuries, the wall held firm, and the Vikings’ weapons ran red with blood. The footman then began to flee, their moral devastated by their casualties, and by the arrow fire from Jóra and her archers.
The remnants of the force that ambushed the Sea Wolves are fleeing to the monastery. Though they attacked with nearly 100 men, more than double your force of 40, they now have about the same amount of men as you do now.
Jóra Kolsdóttir: Cunning: (3,6,1)
Frømund Thormodsson: Resolve: ( 3,6)
Einar Kolsson: Resolve: (5,2,5)
Sihylde Norheim: Ferocity: (3,2,5) Resolve: (4)
Sihylde’s squad was the only one to suffer casualties, losing 3 men (1 dead and 2 severely injured).
Einar has a minor injury to his shoulder, he will have -1 effect in combat until it is healed, which will take a day or so of rest.
Captain Kejek was heavily wounded in the fighting, however. It appears an arrow pierced his lungs. He coughs up blood, and looks at the assembled squad leaders.
“One of you will have to take my place, this damn arrow is going to send me to the Allfather’s hall.” He looks at each one of you, blood beginning to pool in his beard. “Each one of you has the potential to be a great captain, so I’ll let you decide for now, and I’m sure Thane Evarson will confirm your position if you desire it. I ask only two things of you” He wheezes in a great gasp. “Three, actually. Set me over on that hill yonder, the one overlooking the monastery. Two, loot and burn this gods-forsaken place to ground. Three, once I pass into the Allfather’s hall, take this sword and give it to my son.”
How do you proceed?
A. Quickly rush into the town to defeat the remaining footmen (Ferocity, risky)
B. Reform, and march into the town in formation (Resolve, controlled)
C.. Sneak around the village and enemy position, and attack from the flanks (Cunning, risky)
D. Something else
Does Sihylde decide to resist the casualties? Does Einar decide to resist against his minor wound in his shoulder?
I am not always going to provide suggestions, you can take them or leave them. I’m just going to include them at the start to give you an idea of what you can do, your ideas can be just as good or even better than mine. Just tell me what you want to do, and what stat you are using to drive that action.
I’m going to offer the first Dark Bargain; which if you take will give you an extra bonus dice. This one is going to be for the whole group, so a majority has to say yes to accept it ( 2 yes and 2 no’s means no Dark Bargain; but 2 yes and 1 no, with 1 no vote, accepts the Bargain).
The Dark Bargain is: in exchange for 1+ dice on your next roll, a messenger will escape on horseback and warn the local lord of your presence.
Command: To command companies in battle effectively, I think that is more of a ferocity trait, as I also equated that with martial skill. But there are traits which you will be able to buy with skill points which will allow you to use your desired trait to command armies in battle
Resistances:The point of resistances is if something happens to you and/or your men, you can be like "No, that didn't happen". The injuries weren't as bad as they seemd, or the weapon was deflected by your armor. You were protected by fate. So to do that, you will roll the most relevant stat (like ferocity for commanding your men, and resolve dealing with personal injuries) and subtract that number from 5, and that is the cost to your fate points to resist damage. ( For example: Einar decides to resist the damage he took. He rolls his resolve and gets (2,3,4) 5-4 =1 so he spends 1 fate point, and since it was only a minor injury, Einar loses that wound. However, if he rolled (1,1,1) 5-1=4, so he would have spent 4 fate points to heal a very minor injury. So it can be a bit of a gamble, you just have to decide if the injury is worth the potential cost
If you decide to take a group action, the leader of the group (most likely the character with the highest relevant skill) covers for the entire group, and shores up where others are weak. All character’s roll their relevant dice, and if a character rolls below a 4, the group leader spends a fate point to cover for them. The action still succeeds, but it may cost a few fate points for the group leader. (Example, the group decides the best way to attack the footmen is sneaking around their positon, and launching an attack from behind. Jóra, with the highest cunning, is chosen to lead the group in the sneak action. Einar manages to roll a 4, but Frømund and Sihylde both roll a 2. Jóra spends 2 fate points, and covers up for their blundering around, and leads the group in a flanking position, and then they roll to attack and shoot arrows and what not.
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Topic: Viking: Sea Wolves-Chapter 1: Fur and Fang (Read 24845 times)