This is insane, Maly thought, eyes wide, as she pushed her way through startled and confused ratfolk. Their fur was faintly oily and left an unpleasant residue on her skin. Her hands, arms, shoulders, and thighs all felt unclean and, she was sure, stank of the same animal musk and trash odor that filled her nostrils. Yet she had no time to linger upon the press of small, furred bodies pushing against her from all sides, nor the wave of chittering squeals of surprise. Maly ducked and wove deftly through the crowd’s backs, as though swimming upstream through a river of bodies. She hoped the shock of her presence would delay and confuse the ratfolk mob enough that her own back was free of claws and stabbing weapons. So far, it had worked. Just keeping moving, she goaded herself forward. Be gone before they register you’re there.
Get the box! a savage voice roared over her thoughts. Destiny the panther had never, in their short time together, sounded so feral and filled with battle lust.
But why!? Maly answered desperately, shoving a particularly big ratfolk out of the way and stepping into the resulting open space. She ducked forward through the press. “What’s the plan?” she said aloud, knowing the panther could somehow hear her.
Just do it!
“You’re not a very good guardian,” Maly muttered. “You’ve gotten me in far more danger than before I met you.”
I’ve never been your guardian, child, the voice grated in her skull. Is that what you thought?
“What are you then?” she panted.
Vengeance! Always vengeance.
Maly ground her teeth. What did a jeweled box have to do with vengeance? She’d made it deep into the crowd and could, from her ducked position, catch glimpses of the robed figure atop the dais. It had stopped chanting and was pointing a finger to the back of the room, where Maly’s companions, she assumed, still stood.
No time for questions. With a grunt she redoubled her efforts.
It’s Round 2 of our mega-temple-scene, and we have a new entrant into our initiative tracker. Tatter the High Priestess, who has the entire ratfolk crowd whipped into a frenzy, has spotted the group at the back of the room. When it’s her turn, things will get wild. Here are the current actors:
- Maly (Alertness 15)
- Tatter (14)
- Kami & Emah (each 13)
- Destiny (12)
- Ratfolk mob 1 (10, 3)
Maly will continue her press forward to the dais, rolling her 13 Prowess against the mob’s score of 10. That gives her a 65% chance to successfully reach her destination without incident. She rolls an 88, though, which is a critical fail. Well… poop. I’ll say that she must defeat a brute lieutenant (the larger ratfolk she just pushed) in order to attempt another move. The brute lieutenants have an Alertness of 12, so I’ll say Lieutenant 2 goes next while the battle is here. Maly normally has a 90% chance of dodging, but because of the fumble I’ll reduce that chance to 70%. Thankfully she rolls a 62 and still manages to avoid any harm.
Now it’s Tatter’s turn, and she uses her Emotion Control to unleash a wave of anger across the ratfolk in the room. Normally rolls in Crusaders are player-facing, but in this case it’s an NPC vs. NPC roll and her Psychic Attack has an 80% of success. She rolls exactly 80, and the remaining NINE ratfolk mobs, plus all the brute and robed lieutenants, now see the PCs and will be able to act in Round 3. Yikes! I will say, however, that Tatter’s focus is on the group in the back, and she has not yet seen Maly.
Kami and Emah act next and are aware that the room has turned ugly. They’ll use their turns to move out of range (a combat move in Crusaders called Disengage), from Center of the scene to its Perimeter. Destiny, in his bloodlust, wants to finish the first ratfolk mob, and rolls a 54 against a 60% chance success. The two remaining ratfolk of mob 1 are gone in a mist of blood.
Something clamped upon Maly’s bicep and spun her around. She gasped as she faced one of the hulking rat-creatures, like the one that had tackled her outside of the jail. It stood as tall as her, with broadly muscled shoulders, long and wiry furred arms ending in frightening black claws. In her brief battle with the other brute, those claws had torn through her leather armor. Maly jerked her arm free reflexively and pulled a dagger from its sheathe. The rat creature squealed hideously.
She was dimly aware that the mob all around her had turned in unison, their backs now to the nearby dais. An unseen wave rippled through the crowd, and they began chittering wildly. As a living tide, they swarmed past Maly towards the back of the room, even as she faced off against the large, primal ratfolk in front of her. The thing’s black eyes gleamed in torchlight as it lunged at her.
Here’s where we find ourselves in Round 3:
- Maly (Alertness 15)
- Brute Lieutenant 2 (14)
- Tatter (14)
- Robed Lieutenants 1-4 (14)
- Brute Lieutenants 3-6 (14)
- Kami & Emah (each 13 – Perimeter)
- Destiny (12)
- Ratfolk mobs 2-10 (10)
Maly’s up, and she needs to defeat the brute ratfolk lieutenant in front of her solo before she can make it to the dais. She’s more of a dodger than an attacker, but her 13 Prowess against the brute’s Alertness of 14 means she has a 45% chance to hit. She rolls a 98. No good. The brute strikes back and Maly has a 90% chance to dodge now that she’s no longer surprised. A 30 is a success. The two combatants circle each other but neither makes any headway.
Upon the dais, does Tatter notice Maly or is her attention focused solely on the back of the room? Her Alertness of 14 versus a Hard difficulty of 15 means she has a 45% chance. 04. Wow, Tatter is good at noticing things! She spots Maly and the brute fighting. Unfortunately, I think Tatter will try and deal with the closest threat, Maly, and assume the horde will handle everyone else. She’ll spend this round trying to create some confusion and fear with her Emotion Control. Tatter’s Psyche is 16 versus Maly’s 12, which means Maly only has a 30% to defend herself. She rolls… 26! Woot!
At the back of the room, the Robed Lieutenants can strike from range with their “spells,” which act as Psychic Attacks versus Alertness to dodge. I’ll say that two each attack Emah and Kami. Their Psyche for the attack is 15, which means that Kami can’t be hit with her Elasticity. It’s Emah who is more vulnerable. She can’t use her sword to parry, which means that her 13 Alertness only gives her a 40% chance to dodge. She rolls a 44 and 32, dodging one but critically failing the other. I’ll say the attack does an additional 10 damage and drops her from 39 Vitality to a mere 14. One more hit and she’s down.
Destiny didn’t retreat to the Perimeter, but it’s unrealistic to say that all the remaining enemies can attack him freely. I’ll say that two brutes can strike, their 12 Prowess against the panther’s 12 Alertness meaning a 50% chance for each. Destiny rolls 18 and 62, so a miss and a hit. Twelve damage takes Destiny to 18 Vitality. On the panther’s turn, then, he Disengages to the Perimeter.
Kami can stretch, but there’s nothing explicit in the Elasticity description about being able to make a ranged attack with her fists. It makes sense that she can do so. She’ll attack one of the brutes pursuing Destiny, and with a 10 Prowess and its 14 Alertness, she has a 30% chance to hit. 29 is a hit! With her Super Strength, she smashes one to a pulp. Emah then uses her turn to flip the curtains closed, preventing the robed priests (and Kami) from being able to attack.
One mob pursues to and through the doorway, taking up all the space to attack and creating a bottleneck for the others.
As I suspected, the PCs will absolutely fall if they don’t handle this situation quickly.
Maly sidestepped and swiped with her dagger, but the thing was as fast as it was vicious. Her blade struck only air, and she danced backwards to stay out of its reach.
Meanwhile, the mob of ratfolk had surged past the two combatants, ignoring them to rush the back of the room where Emah, Destiny, and Kami had been when Maly had begun this madcap plan. In shockingly little time, she found herself alone on the hard-packed dirt floor, she and the hulking ratfolk circling one another.
A flash of light drew Maly’s attention. The four robed creatures that had been nearest the dais now stood with their backs to her, behind the roiling mass of ratfolk. As they raised their arms, sickly green energy pulsed around their clawed hands. They lobbed glowing balls, like snowballs made of ooze, over the crowd’s heads and to the back of the room. Maly had no idea what the attacks were, but she knew that her time had more than run out. She needed to deal with this brute in front of her, get the box, and get out of here.
As if on cue, the creature dove at her, snarling, hands outstretched. Maly rolled to one side and rose onto one knee.
From the dais, the ratfolk leader was chittering madly, its attention now focused on her. It pointed a clawed finger in her direction. She swallowed. This was not good.
Let’s deal with the combat at the dais itself, with Maly first, then Tatter, then the lieutenant. Depending on how that round goes, I’ll decide what to do about the mess of the rest of the combatants.
Maly again has a 45% chance to hit and this time rolls a 14. Thanks to her dagger, she does 17 damage and kills the brute lieutenant. Tatter, however, gets another chance to induce fear in Maly. Can she again avoid the attack with only a 30% chance of success? She rolls… 03! Wow! Maybe Destiny’s shielding her mind somehow?
In terms of the back of the room, I’ll say that our three PCs have retreated again, and the mob is pushing their way towards them. For the purposes of this combat, they’re all out of the scene.
Which means that Maly has one big attempt to retrieve the box. Her Acrobat power says that she can “vault, somersault, walk tightropes, swing from rooftops, and perform other spectacular feats with no chance of failure.” She will, then, attempt to launch herself up to the dais and grab the jeweled box, escaping any further attack. Maly will be able to perform the feat, but whether she can escape will require a roll. I’ll give her a +5 Alertness roll against a Hard difficulty. If she makes the 75% chance roll, she’s out and the scene is over. If not, Tatter will get one additional attack.
Maly rolls… 78. Damn. That means Tatter gets one last chance, and she’ll try Mind Control on Maly. Against all odds, can Maly resist the high priest’s powers? Once again she has a 30% chance. She rolls a 42, and will immediately use her Hero Point for the Issue, switching it to a 24 and succeeding. WHEW! If she had failed, I think the rest of the Issue would have been a rescue of mind-controlled Maly. Instead, it’s a chase!
Growling, Maly used the ratfolk brute’s tactics against it, launching herself with dagger outstretched. The creature hadn’t anticipated the move and thus was too slow to prevent Maly burying her weapon into the thing’s throat. Hot blood spurted as she rode the ratfolk’s body to the floor, then rolled forward to the edge of the dais.
Without conscious thought, Maly leapt nimbly upon the raised floor. She had never been tall for her age, but she towered over the robed leader in front of her. In one fluid motion she sheathed her dagger and scooped up the jeweled box in both arms, her legs pushing her as fast as possible to a side curtain, which she desperately hoped was an exit.
“I have the box!” she panted to the empty room.
From behind her, the robed ratfolk let out a high screech, and for a fleeting moment Maly heard the word STOP! in her mind, the voice that of a teenage, panicked girl. Maly’s steps faltered, and then Destiny’s voice bellowed, filling her every thought.
Go, child! GO!
Maly blinked, shaking her head to clear it. Golden jeweled box clutched to her torso, she vaulted from the dais like a cat. As she landed, her legs were already pumping, her eyes wide in the fading torchlight.
Maly dove through the curtain in front of her, heedless as to what might be on the other side. As she tore through the hanging barrier, she could hear the fearful, urgent chittering of the ratfolk leader, alone at the foot of the rat-god statue.
Then the sound was gone and she was hurtling through darkness, panting and stumbling forward.
Next: Ruuuun!
My Hero Brain 
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