[Darkest Before Dawn] Eternal Torment

[solyrflair]

Jann stares in disbelief as the door bursts open and a glowing woman stands there. Freed almost instantly by the woman, Jann struggles to sit up. Pain sears her thigh where the spear lanced through, but she pulls herself to her feet. "Thank you. What is the best way out of this city? I'm not sure how fast or how far I can run, not without some rest." Though, if Jann were to be honest, she could probably go a long way if it meant escaping this place. She still had a city to rebuild and an army that needed her inspiration.

 

[Silent Wayfarer]

Heavenly Wind smiled, and for once in a very long time it was not mocking.
"Well, that is something."

"Damn right it is. Look - I'd love to exchange pleasantries, but when Mr. Two-Face shows up with his goons, life is probably not going to be very fun for you guys. I'll cover your escape and see if I can set any other prisoners free, that ought to fix his wagon," she grins.

Jann stares in disbelief as the door bursts open and a glowing woman stands there. Freed almost instantly by the woman, Jann struggles to sit up. Pain sears her thigh where the spear lanced through, but she pulls herself to her feet. "Thank you. What is the best way out of this city? I'm not sure how fast or how far I can run, not without some rest." Though, if Jann were to be honest, she could probably go a long way if it meant escaping this place. She still had a city to rebuild and an army that needed her inspiration.

"Uh," Jaleena pauses. "I never really thought of that. I figured that I'd just cause as much havoc as possible and get out of this shadowland as soon as I could. It's really not a good place for the living; especially Essence-users. Unless you're dead, of course. Or some asshole working for Two-Face oh no you don't!"


With a shout, Jaleena kicks a piece of shattered metal in the toady's direction. It sticks in the wall between him and the exit, cutting him off.


"So yeah, I hope you guys caused a whole lot of trouble for Two-Face and are secretly incredibly powerful badasses or something."

 

[Zachariah]

"I'm REALLY good at hiding, stealing, and assassinations does that count for anything?"

 

[solyrflair]

"It might serve to get us out of here. But outside of that, we are going to have to be very good at not being seen, in the city of the dead, who can probably sniff our souls. But she is right, if the Death Lord returns, we are in no shape to fight him." The talk of essence users was too much for her, she never studied who used essence and how, that was for the Dragon-blood to know.


"I can fight. I can't kick solid steel into solid stone, so not sure that we are even on the same level. But I can swing a spear, and I did learn some unarmed techniques." She looked for a way to bandage her thigh. Field dressing the would might keep her alive longer, but she still wondered how far they could get in this city.

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

The necrosurgeon grunted as he pushed some rubble from the door off of him, regaining his bearings. He glared at her, the sunchild, bearing the mark of the Anathema proudly, and, more aggravating, undefiled.


"You...but, how... NO!!!! MY MACHINE!!!"


The broken glass and soulsteel could no longer contain their prisoners, the small glowing essences contained within. They flitted around the room, desperately seeking a way out, but finding none in this cold retreat, a sorrowful chime coming from each as they tried to find a crack in the sterile fortress.


"You'll pay for this!!!"


He slammed his fist against a crystal and soulsteel console, channeling essence into it. Cages around the room came to life, opening, horrid experiments of dead flesh and iron coming out, and he grasped his soulsteel lance with deadly prowess. There were too many to run from, but, this room had many things that could be used as a weapon of almost any sort...


It seemed like the only option was a fight, but the soft glow of the singing shards seemed to rejuvenate the escaped prisoners, if only a bit. Hopefully this strange, glowing woman would prove to be an ally, and not a demon as the mark on her head made her to be.

Spoiler

Annnnnd now I wanna see all your combat styles before we buckle down all your stats. Feel free to grab whatever you want to fight with, and we'll go from there.


Also, we're going to do an incredibly simplified version of the combat system. I'm going to allow you all to rate yourselves personally on what you believe is your combat potential, on a scale of 1-10. 1 being a elderly scholar who has never so much wielded a butter knife, and 10 being literal mortal perfection in combat. Be honest here, when I make you the advanced sheets, the more combat specced you are, the less you'll have in other stats.


To start initiative, we are going to do a simplified Join Battle roll. Roll a number of 10-sided dice equal to half your self-assigned combat value, rounded up. Any number that is a 7 or higher counts as a Success. You want lots of these. if you roll a 10, it counts as two successes.


Once this is done, we'll walk through the next part of combat. Keep in mind, though, that this is me lumping multiple stats into very few dice pools for simplicity in the early part of this game. Things'll get more complicated as we move along, but for now, I figured this would be quick and easy.


So, recap: 1: Post (Obviously) Plot always comes first, dice rolls and mechanics can be attached. Definitely pick a weapon. 2: Assign yourself a combat stat 3: Roll Join Battle (1/2 your combat stat...for now)

 

[Exthalion]

Feng quickly snatched up some broken ends off the floor and lifted himself to the balls of his feet. He held each of the shivs like long scaples, lots of control over the tips. He had a surgeon's hand, but no training weapons beyond the play acting children did with each other when they pretended to be warriors.


The time it took to reflect on that cost him though, and he saw that battle was already joined by the time he looked up. Some hero I am

Spoiler

[dice]5094[/dice]


Even so, he threw himself into the fray, hoping to find a loose joint or piece of connective tissue to cut.




[dice]5095[/dice]

 

[Zachariah]

I just figured out I don't know how to delete my posts, I'm sorry, I am new to this.


[dice]6251[/dice]

 

[solyrflair]

Jann was a master at war. More than combat, her knowledge of how to win, what objectives were most important, and motivating her squad to perform above their individual talents. When it came unarmed combat, she wasn't likely to be taken down in a bar room brawl, but an established martial artist would be at a significant advantage. Where she really shined was with weapon in hand taking down one opponent after another. More proficient with spear and glaive than swords and clubs, there were few mortals than could consistently beat her.


When it came to archery, she left most of that to her lieutenants. She often left them to instruct and organize their own units, she preferred weapons in hand, working with spears and javelins. She had the strength to impale a warrior through his shield with a properly thrown javelin, though truth be told it was her accuracy as much as her strength.

Spoiler

Overall, I would put Jann at a 7 for her combat ability. Probably the better generals in the Threshold could beat her, and a good number of mortal champions on the Blessed Isle, but out farther from civilization, she is probably as good as most will see in their lifetime, unless they see someone of divine blood.


[dice]5135[/dice]