Narative Report -November -Lileth vs Marcus

[Adran]

Marcus walked towards the slums

" So this is where you have found the artefact" he said to his silurid pack.

"Yesss master," they hissed in return.

I will also need you to light these candles in around the site of the artefact. It will allow me to complete the ritual without drawing on my own reserves.

With that his forces slowly advanced. The night terrors on his left lit the first candle and slowly walked forward to keep a building between them and other forces that might interfere. The Blessed of December travelled along on the right, stopping briefly to light a candle before leaping off beyond the buildings seen dimly in fog up ahead to start to light the last candle. . Marcus was not sure how much he could trust this pawn of December, or even if its betray would be for Rasputina or December, but it was useful in a pinch so he would use it.

The final member of his crew looked nervously at those he had allied himself with, still if they drove the neverborn menace from his home it would be worth the price. He bent over to pet a rabbit that bounded along. As his hand reached down the rabbit leapt at him and nearly tore a hole in his hand.

"Be wary, Around me even the Rabbits will bite back" Laughed Marcus. The Mercenary looked closely, and saw the rabbit had horns on his head, and shivered. What had he got himself into?

Lileth walked towards the slums. Her Neverborn attacks over the past few days had driven the poor from their homes in this little outcropping, but still the human taint masked her land. She came to reclaim this land, and the powerful artefact that the fools had built their homes above. On her right rode forth a monstrous rider. His sword was like the noon sun, and the armour gleamed with so much light it hurt to look at him.

On her left came the puppet master, Collodi, with his collections of marionettes, a wicked looking doll, and something that looked like a strange collection of clothing stitched together.

As she started towards her goal she spotted Marcus. "By the tyrants will, how did he find out about this place! Get me the head of that Silurid pack, and that pawn of Decembers." Then as she looked over the opposition, a smile lighten on her face "And bring back that mercenary for some sport after we are done..."

The Rider cleansed the human taint from the building in front of him, and slowly moved forward, keeping hidden from the forces heading towards him. Collodi sent his marionettes about the town, cleansing the taint from another 3 areas before moving him towards the treasure, with just a building between them. The Stitched together moved forward and called a fog about him to hide him from sight whilst Lileth moved towards the centre and called the very trees to return from whence they once were, and suddenly a forest appeared near the treasure between two dilapidated huts.

Marcus waited until the enemy thought it was safe before he pounced, calling upon the powers of the hare and the snake and the bear he shot past the treasure and into the fog that formed. He was able to walk far enough into the fog to catch sight of the Stitched monstrosity and charge into him, causing some of his toxic stuffing to fall to the floor and sizzle slightly.

Then the initiative fell to the Stitched, and it tried to hurt the beast master back in return but with no effect. Marcus used his powers to override the stitched mind and take control of it, forcing it to his will once he saw he could not kill it. The Stiched then gambled its life against Collodi and his marionettes killing a marionette, but not able to hurt the puppet master.

The blessed came in to attack the marionettes but was only able to dismantle one before it fell under the scratching talons.

Lileth called upon the power of the earth to aid her and drive her foes from the relic, and it drove all away except the silurid leader who was able to withstand the shaking as he tried to grab the relic. But before he could succeed, she ran into the leader of the silurid pack and sent him flying, just held back from the mortal blow, knowing she wanted to find out what Marcus knew, but there was no way he would recover in time to stop her.

The Hooded rider mounted a charge around the building and into the night terror. He ended the action in range of a silurid and both the terrors.

The Mercenary saw Lileth stride before him, and screamed as he faced the tormenter of his family. Alas, the lead he sent flying all missed the horror before him, and he fainted from the emotion of it.

The Jackalope charged into Lileth, hoping to hold her up. He nearly stabbed her on his horns, but at the last minute one of her soulstone glowed, and he just caught her cloak.

Marcus paused to view the treasure, and that was his undoing. Collodi took his chance and called his puppets to him to swarm him. The attacks were of little damage, and Marcus weathered the scratches from the hundred of puppet attacks, even with the aid they had received from Collodis spells until the last puppet struck. Though Marcus caught one of its feeble hands, the other slipped his guard and caught his neck, though it seemed no more than a scratch, fate must have guided it to catch an artery as Marcus fell from the blood loss, and was not to rise again.

The hooded Rider easily slaughtered one of the silurid and moved to threaten the last who firstly moved into Lilleth in a blood rage following the defeat of his leader, but the neverborn mistress was to swift and skilful for him to strike. It soon came round and saw it was out classed, so it managed to demonstrate its powers of self preservation to escape Lileth and the rider and leap off into the path they had come from. It took its time to travel but was eventually able to light the candles.

Whilst the Beast master might not be able to achieve his original aims, the power from this ritual should heal his wounds.

The swarm of Night Terrors likewise set off to try and impede the puppet master as they went to get the 4th candle lit, but the puppets were too swift, and seemed to fly about the land removing the presence of the human taint.

As lileth collected her artefact, and walked back from whence she came, the rider and the puppets focused on reclaiming this land. The Silurid and the night terrors tried to interrupt Lileth and make her drop the treasure, but it was too little too late.

[Pox]

Prefer this form of write up...one time we should do one each from our own perspective rather then you try and do both sides.

[Adran]

That requires co-ordination and planning doesn't it? Can we do that?

I would certainly have found it easier to only do 1 side of the story, its just making sure parts connect together (Like Lileth Killing Random Silurid 1 for Kidnap actually being described as stuning the pack leader...)

Happy to try, will talk more when I see you next

[FearLord]

Good job! I agree that the narrative suffered a little with perspective jumping around with little warning, but I could follow the action, which isn't always possible with Narrative reports, so that's a big positive!

One rules thing though - Collodi can't sac off the damage from Gamble your life, as it isn't a spell or a strike.

[Adran]

Good job! I agree that the narrative suffered a little with perspective jumping around with little warning, but I could follow the action, which isn't always possible with Narrative reports, so that's a big positive!

One rules thing though - Collodi can't sac off the damage from Gamble your life, as it isn't a spell or a strike.

Glad you enjoyed it. I'm always looking for ways to improve the reports to make them more understandable and enjoyable.

Obviously I'm looking at the battle from one side when I play it, so I'd expect the other side to suffer a bit from the perspective, but not sure if doing all from 1 side gives a good indication of the report. I'll experiment in the next few I get written up

Cheers for the rules, we played it right, I won the gamble your life against the Marrionette to kill it, then lost the willpower dual against Collodi when I targetted him

[FearLord]

Fair enough!

Maybe scene breaks and in each "scene" the action can be described from the point of view with the character with the best view of what's happening?

I think a really good narrative battle report is hard to do, as you either have to give too much information and the drama suffers, or make the story better at the expense of an over arching view of what happened.

If I were to do narrative reports, I think it would be in addition to the actual report, and I'd probably break it down into a few key scenes - Set up for the clash from one or both sides, 1 - 2 action scenes from during the battle (taking some artistic licence with the details to make it flow better) and then some form of conclusion...

In fact, talking about it has got the old creative juices flowing - I might try and do just that for my last report... ;-)

[dgraz]

I'm going to post one up....maybe today if I have time. I changed perspective each turn depending on who won initiative for the turn. It allowed the perspective to change but didn't jump around too much I think.

Your's was still fun to read. It did seem a little jumpy, but I didn't feel too distracted by it.

Edit: I take it back........I posted mine and re-read it. I started each turn with the person that won initiative, but I jumped around plenty during the turn. Oh well.

Edited November 26, 2012 by dgraz