A Warrior In Action
The melon gave a satisfying POP! as it split. Thomas heaved a theatrical sigh. "Oh, well. I guess we'll have to eat that one. It shouldn't go to waste, eh?" The grizzled old friar flashed a large knife from beneath his robe and popped a bit of melon into his mouth. The scent filled the tiny courtyard. He stayed kneeling and held out a piece to the child still hiding behind his cart.
Elderman Ged's daughter Lira laughed as she closed the communal oven and skipped over to the child, wiping flour from her face and dusting her hands on her apron. "It's all right, Tee. Thomas won't hurt you." They were both beautiful, the one still young, the other just already old and worn. Soon the other children gathered and picked all the glistening pink down to the rind, but Lira walked a piece over to her father.
"I saved a bite for Pelly. Where…?" The question was cut short by his bare feet slapping the earth. He skidded around the milking shed in a flurry of disturbed chickens, wide-eyed and filthy from early morning work at the compost midden.
"Riders! One has a spear!" He gulped for breath. There was a moment of silence in the suddenly heavy air, broken only by his gasping and the grousing of the hen.
"Go!" the Elderman stage-whispered, ushering the children toward his own lodge, the only one in the little thorpe with a loft. Lira beckoned Pelly, but Thomas stopped her with a finger on her shoulder. Her attention snapped to his face, on high alert.
He flipped the knife around to present her the handle — the handle scrimshaw, wire-wrapped. "Hide it under your apron," he breathed, just loud enough for her to hear. He added nothing. Lira paled another shade, but she took it, the silent tears already in her eyes. Pelly saw, and his face showed too much understanding for a boy still more interested in frogs than girls. Thomas gave her a tiny nod, and Lira fled with all the children. Ged looked to the fields, but the women out there had already gone to ground, and all the able-bodied men were gone, conscripted.
The friar turned to the Elderman. "Be strong," he said simply. "Just see what they want." Thomas turned and cranked up a bucket of water from the well. He set the crank on the stone lip and the bucket under the ram still yoked to the cart, then knelt by the nearby shrine.
Three men rode past the midden and tanning racks. Two dismounted in mismatched armor. One tied both horses to the goat pen, the other stomped to Ged and pushed him to the ground. The still-mounted spearman spoke.
"Don't make this hard. If you waste my time I'll tie you behind my horse when I leave and drag you till the end of the rope frays loose the last bone." He tapped the man who tied the horses and pointed with his spear.
"Check the smokehouse, and that cart. Take the livestock." The man nodded and hefted a bronze-headed carpenter's hatchet. To the other, "You check the house." He pointed at Ged's lodge.
Thomas grunted at that last order and shook his head as he stood. "Nope." He turned to face the man who was already walking over, pointing the cudgel, apparently intent on poking the old friar hard in the chest with the end.
He's Level 4, Warrior 4, Performer 2, BeastHandler 2, a few more…
His Hook: Can't Let Obvious Injustice Stand Unchallenged 2
These men have stomped all over his Hook. The GM rules that the once-per-scene Hook bonus applies to the entire fight. This isn't normal, but it is appropriate in this situation.
"Oh, you —URK!" Thomas slipped a hand under the cudgel and he seemed to harden; his other hand fired out to grip the man's throat and he pivoted, driving the back of the man's head to the cobbles with a devastating crunch. Boots flew into the air, then dropped like wet laundry.
The brigand is Level 2 Warrior 1, with Intimidate 1 he uses as he walks up at EL4 for a 2.
Thomas is not impressed: Level 4 + Warrior 4 + Hook 2 = EL10, rolls a 4.
Thomas rolls to seem innocuous: Level 4 + Performer 2 + Hook 2 = EL8, rolls a 5.
The brigand doesn't realize, so resists passively: Level 2, EL2, rolls a 2.
Thomas wins a Tactical Positioning (5-2=)3 Boost which adds to his next action only.
The GM starts a new exchange; Thomas grapples him.
Thomas: Level 4 + Warrior 4 + Hook 2 + Tactical Positioning 3 = EL13, rolls a 7.
Brigand: Level 2 + Warrior 1 = EL3; a roll of 3 could save him if he invokes his once-per-scene armor bonus for +2, but the GM rolls a 1. He takes 7-1=6 points of Harm.
At Level 2, 3 will render him Down, and he is at twice that.
The GM points out Thomas used the cobblestones as an improvised weapon and declares the damage is not just explicit complication. Were he to grant the NPC a recovery, even if he got his best roll of 2, there would still be 4 points of real Injury, still twice his level, and he would be dead.
The GM uses that to confidently describe the sound of his skull cracking as dramatic license.
Thomas tested the balance of the cudgel he'd taken and scowled as if he smelled spoiled milk. The man with the hatchet charged with a roar.
The second bandit tries to charge as a Boost. He is Level 2, Warrior 2, with Maneuver ranks in Armor 1 and Axes 1. Neither Maneuver is relevant to charging an enemy, so he adds two dice of extra effort and rolls six against his EL4 and gets a 5 - too high!
He fails and gets no Boost, though he's still moving.
Thomas threw the cudgel. It rang off the dented pot helm and broke his momentum. The old friar quick-stepped to the well for the iron crank handle and launched that as well but the man deflected it desperately as he staggered to his knees, blinking and checking a bloody ear.
Thomas throws the cudgel to stop the charge. He rolls against Level 4 + Warrior 4 + Hook 2 = EL10 as an opposed roll and gets a 6! This is going to destroy his opponent, since the bandit's failed roll of 5 generates zero effect, so the GM spends a Luck Token to make the roll his best possible, a 4 that negates all but two points of the damage. He invokes the brigand's Armor 1 which is relevant against the incoming club. This raises his EL to 5, and counts as an automatic success, but still leaves one point getting through, which breaks the brigand's charge with a point of Harm.
With distance between them yet there's time for another action. Thomas grabs the iron well crank handle and throws that with the same EL10 for a 4. The brigand uses both Maneuvers and rolls against Level 2 + Warrior 2 + Armor 1 + Axes 1 = EL6 to resist, minus 1 for the point of Harm he has taken for a final EL5. He rolls another 5! The resistance is a passive roll since he's still out of range, so his extra point of effect is wasted.
"Hyah!" The leader spurred forward with his short lance. Thomas ducked around the well as the horse balked and danced, and grabbed the sturdy two-handed baker's paddle leaned by the oven doors before advancing around the other side of the well on the man trying to calm his horse.
The leader is Level 3, Warrior 1, with Dirty Fighting 1. The GM rules Thomas' history with horses and battlefield tactics is enough to negate the unskilled rider's mounted advantage, and the player agrees — they skip the dice and give him the exchange by fiat to grab the baker's paddle and round the well. They could have rolled it, but neither thinks it's needed.
He grimaced his first remorse as he swung the paddle flat across the animal's ear. The stolen farmer's nag screamed and reared, dumping the bandit leader onto his back in the lane before galloping off down the west road.
The brigand rolls base Level 3 alone for EL3 for a 2. Thomas rolls Level 4 + Warrior 4 + BeastHandler 2 + Hook 2 = EL12 with 4 points dedicated not for Harm, but to make the horse spook. His EL8 rolls a 1, which would lose the opposition contest. Rather than take a spear hit he spends a Luck Token for a best-possible roll of 8, which wins by 6.
The GM points out it's an optimal hit. The purpose was to not hurt the horse but make it spook. The player "pulls" 5 points of the hit and applies only the wagered 4 of the Called Shot + 1.
The horse rears. The rider has no relevant Roles or Maneuvers, so he rolls base Level 3 again for a 3 — this would be an extreme success, but still loses the opposition. The horse tumbles him off, but the GM declares his extreme result is that he takes no Harm from the fall.
Thomas turned to advance on the axeman and brought the heavy paddle down from the sky like a thunderbolt. The man scrambled onto his feet as he put up his axe to block it and tucked his pot helm into the way; the axe handle shattered under the impact, as did the hard oak paddle on the rusted old iron helm. The impact drove the man back but he shook it off, blinking in wonder at his luck and the assorted pieces scattered on the cobbles.
Thomas rolls EL10 to hit the axeman with the paddle and gets an 8! At Level 2 + Warrior 2 + Axes 1 + Armor 1 = EL6, minus 1 Harm = EL5, the man rolls a 3 — not nearly enough. He already used his armor invocation for the scene, but the GM spends a Token on Plot Armor! and all the damage goes to his equipment instead. His axe handle breaks, his helm cracks, and with such a stupendous hit the GM rules that even the paddle comes apart, but the man takes no damage from the hit.
Thomas sighed and glared. The man looked from one companion lying limp on the paving to the other unhorsed, and this grizzled old mendicant who had turned their day upside-down. He put up his hands to back away, but the friar slapped the gauntlets aside and punched him. He went down, moaning with feeble efforts to roll over.
Thomas, EL10, rolls a 4. The brigand, EL4, rolls a 2. At 3 total Harm, the brigand is Down.
As Thomas turned back the limping leader pulled a baselard. "Who are you?"
Thomas looked at it pointedly, and spoke with perfect calm. "I hope that's tasty, because you are about to eat it." The man swallowed, and glanced to the horses. "No," Thomas shook his head and began an implacable walk forward. "No running away for you. No coming back later, no terrorizing people elsewhere. No escape, no redemption. I end you today." The man dropped the knife, showed his empty hand as he backed away, but Thomas just shook his head and picked up the knife†.
† We leave the end for you to imagine as you like. Note Thomas had no armor, took no Harm, spent only one Token to get the horse out of the fight without really harming it.
Difference in EL matters more than difference in Level.