Felltower TPK: The Gnoll Story

We pick up where we left off, surrounded by attacking gnolls. This is going to be a slog and we know it. Hold the line, avoid grapples and slams if we can, and otherwise whittle down the opposition.

I come to the rapid conclusion that inactivity is going to get us killed. I wade into a Wait, defend against a morningstar, and chop a leg, crippling or knocking down one foe. I did 10 points of damage (one more than usual) which is neither good nor bad for damage (2d+2). Kaylee Waits again, which I counsel against because eventually the gnolls are going to gang-rush us, catching us all in multiple-on-one grapples. They’re lined up like they’re in gnoll Disneyland, and if we don’t start breaking that we’re in trouble. This is a cautious group, which can be good…but I think we’re playing into our foes’ strength. But I’m out there hacking, so we shall see.

A gnoll rushes at Ball-Peen, who’s waiting, and the gnoll crit-fails his block, and randomly hits him for 13 in the right leg. He’s crippled too. Another comes at me, in front this time, and things get tense as the enemies start to get several deep. We knew this moment was coming. We’ll have to be lucky and efficient. I strike to the skull of a gnoll, but he blocks. I don’t want to leg-hit leg-hit leg-it because it’s boring, but I think -2 deceptive (-4) and -2 for leg (-2) and +1 for SM for a total of -5 is probably better odds of reducing the number of combatants than skull no DA at -6.

Ball-peen rapid-strikes to the randoms, hitting for effectively two crits (he rolls one hit crit and the gnoll crit-fails his block). He hits torso and foot; doing some damage and crippling the foot. The gnolls have a rough round, we see five cultists enter the field (of course), and then Sigur barely gets dodged. Durinn nails the same one in the nads for a max damage hit, stunning them. Good.

I almost hate to write this…but things could be going a lot worse for us. We’re not dropping them to ineffective status as fast as we need to, but we’re not taking any wounds yet either.

…and that changes as someone lobs a 9d acid ball at Sigur, who blocks it on his shield. 24 hp in the impact hex, which completely eats my shield. Desmond is spared as I blocked it. Lenny takes some acid damage. Peter’s rules are full, 2/3, and 1/3 damage, so 24, 16, 8 damage. Lenny takes 13 injury and -3 DR to the back. A lot of gnolls get scorched too.

This is real trouble for us. There are five cultists, and if they’re all spellcasters, we’re deeply screwed. There’s some laughter, then “No, LOB IT” and an explosive fireball lands in Durinn’s hex. A 9d explosive fireball goes off near me, 31hp in the empty hex, 20 in my hex, 10 next. I just take it, I guess. 16 burning to me. Yeowch. So most of us are on fire, and only two of the five cultists have unloaded their spells at us.

We break for lunch. I’m fairly sure that for the third game in a row (or three of four?), we’re headed straight for a TPK. Being on the receiving end of a wizardly artillery battalion is going to end the way it always ends for infantry without counterbattery fire: poorly.

Sigur passes his KO HT check; Durinn does not. He passes out. Kaylee bends down and picks up their sword, and stands back up (she’s under Great Haste, the Peter Dell’Orto version). Lenny Ball-peen rapid strikes his foe with -1 deceptive. Both hit.

I’ll admit I stopped paying blow-by-blow attention as I expect to die at any time here. I turn my back on the fight because a foe gets behind me; I KO that guy, but then take a stone missile to my back and fall, mortally wounded but not instantly killed. Lenjamin Gundry succumbs to his wounds as well. Kaylee and Desmond are the only ones still up. Desmond casts a 4d explosive acid ball, presumably for the wizards. He’s got a perfect target-rich environment if he can live to fling the thing.

A cultist flings a lightning bolt and misses Kaylee but hits Desmond for 6 to the left arm. Now he has to roll vs HT-5 to  recover from stun, it’s a major wound but he makes that roll, etc. Also, he has a spell in hand, but he makes his Will roll so he doesn’t drop his acid ball. Yay? Kaylee casts Might +3, so is now ST 18.

It should be noted that the five cultist wizards are deep fat frying their own notional allies. Another acid ball misses us directly, but we take splash damage – a lot of it – and several of us have to make additional death checks. It’s all over but the bleeding, and we call it at TPK.

Ultimately, we rested and forted up when we should have run. And the addition of the spellcasters was just the end of the story.