Massive Battle and falling outcomes

[castus nigh]

Background

Alregar- Priest of Kieranna
Khan- Human Slayer- Mortal Enemy - Trolls
Sienna- Human Thief - wielder of a 'bloodsighted' blade (magical item)

Town of Manacle
Seaport of 4000 peoples,  built upon the remnants of an ancient, yet abandoned, dwarven mine.  The upper levels of the mine are currently used as a multi-layered self draining sewer system for the town.  Recently, Manacle has be overrun by a massive humanoid army(orcs, gnolls, goblins and trolls.. but also a black dragon).

Unknown Twist-  Sir Tefful - Terror of Stryphe (paladin of the god of war) - who is and was ruling the town is also the one who has raised the army and invaded the town.  Sir Tefful has taken the townfolk as slaves/food for his massing army.  Tefful seeks to overthrow the current warking, Baracakus- Priest of Stryphe.

Party have been using Manacle as a base of operations but were at sea traveling to Isle au Mort during the invasion.  Upon returning to town they find the town razed to the ground.  The party seeks out Oostaag Keltborne (employer for the sea voyage) who lives on a manor outside the town, and has helped them in the past.  To their extreme fortune, the manor is not yet destroyed.  Oostaag is an Erulian or Master Runecarver.  Ostaag says he may be able to kill the dragon if the party is able to wound the beast with a specially crafted spear.  This spear will magically drain blood from the dragon which Oostaag can then use to craft a rune that will slay the dragon (blood, personal items and true names are very important in Medieval with regards to magic use).  The party agrees to attempt the mission and are traveling through the sewers in an attempt to reach the dragon in secrecy.  Dragon is in center of town at temple devoted to Stryphe. 

Sienna, a member of the Three Islands Thieves Guild (guild in Manacle) has a working knowledge of the underground sewers/tunnels as well as both exit and entry points.  Sienna knows there is an exit point inside the courtyard of the temple- where the dragon has chosen to nest. The sewers are very dangerous.  Firstly, the local clergy dump the bodies of the dead and then animate them, hence the sewers are inhabited by undead.  Recently, the thieves have been forced from the sewers because of a particularly powerful undead presence that has taken up habitation in the thieves guild.  It is believed that the humanoid army traveled through the ancient dwarven tunnels and came up through the mines to attack the town, so there will be many guards throughout the sewers.  A nice challenge! 

During their mission, the party was forced to take a deeper route along the edge of the mines (1000 foot chasm).  Blocking their passage along their forced path was a huge cave troll, working hard at a winch.  The party discovered the cave troll was lowering the bodies of the dead townfolk to feed the growing army below.

Khan, a mighty Slayer whose declared mortal enemy is none other than trolls, has decided he cannot allow this abombination to live.  Despite the parties protestations, Khan charges from the tunnel, salutes the troll, and draws the troll to attack  (actions all according to his personality traits- see previous discussion).  The massive cave troll (some 11 feet tall and 1600 lbs) tramples Khan in an attempt to get at Alregar and Sienna- hiding in the tunnel away from the chasm's edge.  The troll literally grabs Sienna and with a two handed slam crushes her against the tunnel wall.  Sienna, due to the force of the blow is momentarily knocked unconscious.  The troll, to this point has ignored the attacks of Alregar, who has backed up to use Faith Magic, and Khan has now regained his footing and is about to attack from the rear.  Khan strikes the troll, the troll savagely turns around and hurls Sienna at Khan.  Fortunately for Khan,  Khan is missed. Unfortunately for Sienna ,she is now sliding towards the chasm and actually plunges over the edge, unconscious!  Unbeknown st to both Khan and Alregar.

Despite the awesome battle that is raging, this is the part that is really cool.  In Medieval, whenever you are struck for a Mortal Wound you may loose consciousness, as was the case with Sienna, you must make a Mortal Attribute Check in an attempt to  avoid going unconscious.  She failed the check, hence Sienna was knocked unconscious for a number of second equal to the Mortal Attribute loss.  One second after plunging over the edge, Sienna regains consciousness.  Frantically she retrieves a Potion of Gaseousness, downs the potion and continues to fall.  Sienna made all the appropriate checks to be able to do this while falling.  Now, the potion only takes affect after 5 seconds.  By means of the second by second initiative system in Medieval, we were able to immediately determine that, upon imbibing the potion, Sienna would become gaseous a mere 50' from the 1000' deep chasm floor, floating harmlessly above the river of lava!

Meanwhile, Khan and Alrega manage to kill the troll, not before Alregar was likewise thrown towards the chasm!  It was determined that he stopped just short and did not share the fate of Sienna. 

It was a very unique battle, quite interesting.  The most interesting point was the initiative system allowed us to determine, at each second of freefall, how far Sienna had fallen, how fast she was traveling, exactly when she would meet here demise in the river of lava, and exactly when the potion would take effect and at what height Sienna would be when the potion took effect.  Hence, whether she lived or died!

It was a really awesome battle that devastated the parties resources (magic access and Damage Capacity (aka hit points) and allowed us, for the first time, to see the effect of size in battle and it gave us a unique situation to mechanically evaluate the free flow initiative for non-battle situations.  Wow, truly fantastic!

Castus Nigh