Stormbringer Wolves Upon the Coast Session 12

The session was short by the standard of normal sessions, with people late or having technical issues.

The party celebrated their success in Blulach and got ready to take Glas and his offer of a free snekkja for killing what he tried to explain were iron-blooded corpses, hungry for flesh and iron. He also called them orcneas and saying their blood corroded iron. Buying from and bargaining down an old woman selling betony to 5sp per ten springs. The party contemplated how to fight the iron-men then realised that if it rusted iron only, the bronze weapons of the undead would assist. A POW x 3 roll was needed to find a bronze axe for Sigmar. A fumble would bend a bronze weapon on top of a roll, requiring a turn to restraighten.

They sailed south, Sigmar managed to summon a Virtue but was unable to bind it into her armour. She did get better, rising to INT x 2 when communing with one when meditating. Passing into the river, through the miserable town of Killucan in 04.14, night began to fall as the karvi slowed. They decided the undead who were marching below the karvi could push it from below during the night. Passing through 03.12 at night, they heard a dog on the west bank and the sound of marching feet on the east bank. They stayed the course, and in the morning, they saw amid the fog on the moor that the marchers had kept pace with the boat. All while a squat tower seemed to loom out of the fog.

Like how Glas described the, they had black veins running through their bodies, greying skin and teeth the colour of rust as much as black iron. The party chewed their betony and ordered the dead pushers to run the ship into the bank.

Leaping off, only Althrow Tams passed an Ambush roll, but half the orcneas failed their sight roll and were stunned for 2 rounds. Leading to a fight where it was Althrow Tams, 7 iron-blooded, some of the party and then the rest when they stopped being stunned. The orcneas must not have been expecting the boat to ever change after a night of ceaseless drifting.

The melee was a hard fight indeed, the orcneas could parry not well, but in Stormbringer and other BRP games, parrying at all gives an edge on top of random damage vs AP (Armour Points). Half of the orcneas wore only leather armour (1D6-1) and the other half wore a mishmash of that was about as effective as chain (1d8-1). Yrestor and Milas Domonkos were hacking away, with Althrow Tams and Sigmar cutting down some, they had not seen that there were 14 orcneas in the fog but they were making good progress.

But it was the three javelins that were the most dangerous. A javelin does 1d8+2, a pip higher than an axe, so when a critical hit struck Yrestor, it did 18 damage and slew him outright. Sigmar’s player seeing this was unfair, wanted instead to impose her in front of the shot. I said make a POW roll and it was done.

Sigmar could take 18 damage and live, unfortunately for her, it severed her right arm, the iron head cracking the bone of her forearm almost completely in half and cutting the flesh and muscle. She fought on for the remaining two turns, a benefit of being a champion of Law.

It is fortunate that Hrafnkel had woken up (got to the session) a little before and was still gathering his wits. Seeing the fight, he jumped from among the rowers on the boat and began to swing his terrible axe, dealing critical and even his normal hits snapping weapons and slaying outright. There was a scary moment for him when he parried another critical hit and I had to explain how even demon weapons can break if a CON roll isn’t made. But he passed and knew to be more careful.

After the battle Sigmar received first-aid but the arm could not be saved. Sigmar had a brilliant idea, she prayed for some form of divine intervention, to sacrifice a working eye for restoring her lost arm. She prayed and they were answered, her vision growing uneven as the eyeball dried up and fell out and her flesh and bone reknitted. She put in the Pearl Eye and was deeply annoyed that it could not be seen through, merely granting visions to her mind. Somewhere in the higher planes, the gods laughed.

Sigmar went from -4 DEX to -2 CHA and -2 DEX, but could still use two-handed weapons, so something worked out.

Hrafnkel’s axe began to cough up the corrosive blood, it not being bronze but probably not being iron either. The secret, if there ever was one in-game was out. The constant Strength draining had made the axe power indeed.

Sigmar took advantage to see the tower more clearly and described the many holes in the drystone, covered in vegetation and filled with yellow eyes, at least a 100 individual orbs. The party debated retreating. Hrafnkel declared that 2 weeks ago, hew was a washed up drunk moping about killing his brother, now he is a mighty warrior and charges the tower across 200 metres of open ground. Google Dice were erratic, there were 4 critical fumbles from among the orcneas bows, 4 regular hits and 1 critical hit. Hrafnkel dodged them all, even scoring the critical Dodge.

He ran up to a vegetation-covered doorframe that might have been a postern gate. Athrow Tams shot a Melnibonean bone bow from 200ms away and hit someone through the mat. Hrafnkel decided to not just charge in, but hack the mat away, revealing some 30 orcneas awaiting him. Seeing how they recoiled from the dawn light, he used his axe to reflect the light, confirming it was the light itself they feared. He did not enter as he had to dodge a rock hurled from above. The challenge this, he attempted to scale the walls, but could not dodge the next rock which stuck him down to the ground (1d6 rock 1d6 fall and 1d6 from falling with banded armour). When the session ended, he was lying there while the party debated charging forth to help.