by Kris Schnee
[Your actions don't fit cleanly into the usual types of actions. We will treat the flame as a series of "create advantage" actions, resisted by the kobolds' attempts to douse the flames. Each success adds strength to a hazard that "attacks" everyone underground. The hazard is called "Fire", currently attacking at a flat strength of 1. Below 0 it will be extinguished.]
"Fine."
[Magic roll: skill 4, dice +1; defense 4. Hazard increases to 2.]
Next round. Any kobolds that couldn't handle a defense roll were taking damage. Miles called out, "How's the other exit?"
Thorn was keeping an eye on the group over there. "They've downed a lizard trying to get out. You may need to chase them if they scatter."
"OK, but keep the cavalry on duty." Miles kept up his attack.
A pair of kobolds burst up the tunnel in front of him, coughing and staggering. They brandished jagged stone knives. A third lizard struggled after them. The duo attacked Miles and paused, about to swing.
"Hold on," Miles said. "I should've seen them coming before picking my action. Can I change my move?"
Eva said, "Don't bother; we'll cover you." The other troops with them joined in.
[Abort your attack and go full defensive, or defend passively?] asked the GMs.
Miles gritted his teeth. "I'm keeping up my attack." He knocked the latest burning bale into the lair.
But the lizard duo invoked an aspect called [Tough Scales] to survive the troops' attack, and [Jagged Knives] to boost their attack against Miles. A message told him, [Incoming mob attack of power 6!]
Right; the enemy had a lot of fate points between the tribe's concession last time and the size of his party this time. "Defending with Magic," he said.
[Skill 4, dice -2.]
The kobolds moved again, exploding into action to leap at Miles. They gashed at his upraised arm and chest, knocking him to the ground and whooping ferociously.
Miles gasped in pain. "Use Dragon-Hunting!"
[Final damage of 2, expressed as 2 stress. Attack did not succeed with style after all; knockdown will not be considered a boost against you.]
The kobolds atop him rolled off and paused, grinning wickedly at him. Miles was about to swipe at them, but bided his time as the next round began. "Effect of my attack?"
[Tie. Hazard remains at 2.]
Miles got up. "The fire is working, but they've got a ton of fate points to spend."
Eva cursed. "One per group member, huh? What if we teamed up as a mob?" She paused. "The GMs say they'll reduce their available points if we do that."
The timer had paused. Thorn said, "You mean treat our infantry as a single unit with one attack?"
"It's a fair deal," Eva said.
Miles said, "Okay, do it." He glanced over at the men guarding the other exit. They were having a tough fight against an escapee group. "Maybe have them try it too."
The infantry teamed up and agreed to cover the front exit as one. Smoke was wafting up from it now. Miles kept up his stream of burning fuel. The guards in front knocked the next kobold back down into the dim tunnel of smoke and flame.
[Tie. Hazard remains at 2.]
There was screaming down below. It didn't matter that Miles wasn't creating a mighty blaze; he was forcing the entire population to make random defense rolls over and over, and soon they'd all fail. He hardened his heart and ignored the noise.
Four desperate kobolds burst out, already singed and reeling, one clutching an armload of eggs just to rub it in. The guards slammed and kicked the whole group back down into the flames with little harm to themselves, followed by Miles' next bale. The threat rose to 3.
The noise died down soon except for the crackle of flames and the whoosh of smoke. The GMs reported that there was no resistance anymore to his attacks. The human crew looked grimly down into the tribal lair. "Well," said Miles. "Let it be known that we don't like this kind of victory, but we're willing to do it."
The others mumbled assent. Miles capped off the entrance with a heavy curtain to smother the flames, and sent another one to the group at the back entrance. They waited. When nothing more emerged, he uncapped the front and let smoke waft out for a while. "GMs. Can we enter now without being suffocated?"
[Yes.]
They descended into hazy darkness. Miles lit a few more small fires, this time just for torches. The tunnel was just wide enough for two men abreast, so the guards went first. No sound but lingering flame on a crude wooden table.
"Anything?" said Miles.
"They didn't have much," said one of the guards.
"Pawns," said Thorn. "Don't let them guilt-trip you."
Johnson shone his torch on a metal-bound little box that was out of place, too fancy for this stone-age group. "This could be it."
Eva said, "Search for traps."
"Uh, okay. I don't see anything."
Together they poked the box with a stick, then gingerly opened it. Inside was a velvet lining containing a jeweled egg, seemingly made of diamond and decorated with threads of brass.
Eva hefted the egg. "Looks plausible. Can we get an official ruling on what this is?" She paused. Nothing happened. "Better search more in case this is a decoy."
They did, finding more dead lizards and nothing else of interest. Miles said, "All right, back to base. No. You know what? We've been trapped in here under rules that label things explicitly, that work on game rules. I think we're due at least a label for what this item does."
A message appeared. [This item is the Dragon's Death. The dragon Iskandar can only be slain by a group wielding it.]
Miles grunted. He'd given the aliens another data point.
* * *
Back at Hartstown, he called a public meeting. "Who's going?"
The southern Thorn said, "It seems you already have one of me volunteering. I'll stay here in case of attacks on this settlement."
There was a clamor of protest. "Why should we sit here like backups?" someone said. Another called out, "There's a job to do. This isn't a vacation."
Miles said, "We're already running into problems by bringing large numbers of people with us. If we have hundreds of people along, the enemy will have a massive pile of fate points. It's just how the rules work."
"No," said Thorn. "There's that mob concept we've seen a few times. We can tell our captors to treat a group as a unit that's at most a single character."
Eva considered the idea. "Or even as just a large advantage on our side. 'The army is my pants', as some rule systems put it. How about it, people; are you willing to organize as a unit?"
Thorn said, "Not for combat, though. That's the supposed heroes' job."
The crew argued, and a man came forward: Samatra, who'd had experience with Eva's game back on the ship. "If we're not going to directly shoot arrows at the dragon and get burned by its breath --"
"Frozen," said Eva.
"Then we can still play a role by doing what we came to the Edda star system for. Building."
* * *
There was a mass migration north. The Hartstown settlement emptied out, leaving the stockade behind in case the Star tribe wanted it. With nearly 200 people on the march, they'd announced to the GMs that they were organized into a group unit. Effectively one character, led by the southern Thorn and labeling themselves Hartstown. After some wrangling with the GMs, they ended up getting a character sheet describing the group like this:
Hartstown, Against the Dragon
Sheer Numbers** (two free uses per scene)
Combat Engineers
Magic Defenses* (one free use per scene)
Skills: Craft 4, Magic and Athletics 3, Survival 2, Shoot 1
Equipped with Armor 1 (1 less damage per successful hit)
The catch was that with so many individuals packed into a group, any attack was going to count those individuals like hit points: one person "taken out" per point of stress. Which could mean deaths.
Miles' full character sheet said:
Miles
Fate Points: 3 (Refresh 3)
Ambassador To the Hexapods
Engaged To Eva
Hunting the Dragon Iskandar
Fateweaver
Skills:
4: Magic
3: Mind
2: Craft, Survival
1: Melee, Athletics, Toughness, Charm
Stunts: Magic Bolt, Workshop Tent, Got You Covered, Stately Pleasure Dome, Magic Carpet
Stress: Body [][][], Mind [][][][]
Consequences:
2:
4:
6:
Eva's stats read:
Melee 4, Athletics 3, Healing/Notice 2, Magic/Mind/Survival/Toughness 1
Stunts: Battlefield Scout, Perfect Balance
Miles was by far the fastest available messenger. So, while Hartstown organized, he flew north to Fort Necessity and explained that Hartstown was coming. "Organizing in the same way might make the whole group safer."
Thorn, of the north, objected. "What good exactly will a military unit do, besides acting as cannon fodder?"
Miles grinned. "Captain, we're engineers first and foremost. We have access to infinite materials and some magic enhancements. I'm proposing to decorate the dragon's cave on a grand scale. Thick curtains, nets, ropes, maybe a fireplace. You can help think of some other possibilities besides direct attacks, for a large and well-equipped group."
"Against a flying monster, hmm... And you have infinite flammable material." The captain, who'd been sent to build a massive structure at an uninhabited world, looked thoughtful as he considered this much less conventional project.
11. Endgame
Hartstown drilled together for two days. It was a surreal and un-military experience considering that fighting was a game of dice. The crew had already trained together for their planned mission to operate the ship and build the gate, and only simplistic formations and maneuvers had any real effect here. Thorn seemed to know what he was doing, well enough that Miles let the man berate and harry Miles along with all the other "cadets".
"Are you sure you don't want to put more of the unit's points into Shoot or Melee?" Miles asked him, once Thorn had stopped pretending to be an Army man.
"It's a reminder. The crew are good men and women, but they're still not soldiers. They're here to hang back and build."
The town marched north, carrying with them a large stockpile of food. At this scale, Miles was at the head of an army and had to work at creating a fort each evening. There wasn't nearly enough room in his personal tent, but simple walls and a roof were easy to arrange for everyone. They moved slowly and halted for a day just beyond the Wind Shrine to grow extra crops.
The next day, they were attacked on the move. Fully twenty of the ice golems marched into view in line abreast. The battle timer appeared, and dashed lines on the ground put the enemy three zones away across open scrubland. The men and women shouted in alarm and turned to their right to face the enemy. They had their spears and swords, mostly not the metal ones that would give them a meaningful combat advantage.
Miles thought of the unit's "Combat Engineers", an aspect implying mediocre fighters, and swore. "GMs, how does such a large enemy formation work?"
The answer appeared in front of him, and it looked like everyone else was seeing it too. [This is a single unit with Melee 5, Athletics 3, and 20 one-point stress boxes that can have multiple boxes hit per turn. Melee falls by 1 for each 5 damage taken.]
These were just numbers, but they meant that the GMs were about to impose the same grinding casualties on his troops as he'd done to the kobold tribe. A standard fantasy warrior wouldn't mind losing a dozen hit points, but these were people. And the timer had begun, slowly, to count down.
Eva said, "Damn it, I should have read the mass combat rules!"
"There are mass combat rules?" said Miles.
"Not in the main book."
"Miles!" said Thorn.
Miles said, "Archery now, then full defense if they get close! I'll hold them back. Eva, light a fire." He ran forward and conjured the bulkiest roll of heavy canvas that he could to create a barrier to the golems' march.
The unit fired with their dozens of bows, but the GMs invoked [Combat Engineers] as a penalty. Despite the actual skill of many of the individual archers, the group had almost no offensive might. The arrows rained on the foes and bounced harmlessly off their icy hides.
I'm so glad we kept everyone out of harm's way, thought Miles, as round two began. The golems were now two zones away, where they'd have to struggle against or around the barrier.
He said, "They've got an aspect like Glacially Slow, right? Spending one of my points if necessary to block their Overcome Obstacle effort this turn." He needed to keep them from pounding his troops to death with that 5-point Melee advantage, but he was one of the only people capable of doing damage. "Retreat if you have to!"
Someone called out, "Retreat, hell! We just got here!" The crewman paused. "Guys, let's use that to give ourselves a 'Psyched Up' advantage."
Thorn drew a sword and ran ahead, saying, "I'll do what I can."
[You have not chosen an action], the GMs told Miles. Time had nearly run out.
"Summoning a heavy roll to drop as an attack." He was one zone in front of the troops, and one behind the barrier that the golems were struggling with.
Eva hopped toward the roll and clambered up its near side, saying, "Battlefield Scout to create an advantage!"
[You should abort your action to join her on the front line], the GMs said. [Gain a fate point or lose one?]
"Ugh, no! I'm helping by attacking."
[Fate point lost. Two remaining; your other point wasn't necessary to block the golems.] Miles hoped that Eva was getting one for helping him by charging ahead.
The actions resolved. The formation of golems seemed invisibly glued together, stuck behind the big canvas roll to preserve their formation. Eva bounced up onto the little wall, presumably giving her an advantage. The troops cheered to give themselves a +2 they could use for shooting better.
Miles' spell went off. [Magic 4, roll +1, versus defense 3 (Athletics) to dodge. 2 golems defeated.] A pair of them got crushed beneath the sudden weight, leaving 18.
Round 3. Miles said, "There's a ton of them, but we can whittle them down."
Thorn called out, "I can be in melee this turn."
Eva said, "Give me a distraction and I'll really nail them."
"Then, I... do this." Thorn climbed onto the barrier and shouted, "Come on, you icy bastards!"
Arrows flew from behind Miles. None were flaming; Eva had ignored his order to light a fire so she could charge in. The shots hung in midair. Miles grinned; this round was going to be devastating. "Repeating my spell to squash some more. Focusing on their left flank, in case that avoids interfering with the others' moves."
[Make a Mind roll, difficulty 2, to target effectively at the risk of wasting the attack?]
"Sure."
[Skill 3, dice -3.] His spell activated right away, dropping a rug to one side where it did no harm.
Even so, the rain of arrows slammed down into the golems, shattering three. Eva leaped down from the wall in a reckless downward slash, cleaving the arm off one golem. She paused, looking at some hidden message. "Really? Nice." A trio of additional foes flashed red, and she gleefully ran around to each one, slashing and crushing them to oblivion. She saluted Thorn with her sword, which dripped with slush. "They said I could kill four with that move, thanks to the distraction."
Then the other 11 golems mobbed her. She shrieked and fell, caught under their blows.
"How much damage did she take?" shouted Miles, starting toward her. An invisible force restrained him. "Did they lose Melee power before or after hitting her?"
The GMs said, [You don't have the Notice skill. Again, pay a fate point or come to her rescue.]
He strained against the game's movement limits. "I'll help."
Round 4 began with a timer pause, The air was split b
y a distant roar in the north. Miles went wide-eyed. Since there was an organized group of enemies attacking, he should've considered that the dragon might join them. "How... How many zones away?"
[5 zones. Movement 2 zones per round.]
"We've got to get out of here!" he said, shouting at the crew behind him.
Thorn said, "There's no cover anywhere but your security blankets!"
Miles swore profusely. The timer started, though it was generously slow. "Can I activate Magic Carpet and swoop to her rescue in one turn?"
[Difficult maneuver. It will work on a Magic roll of 4, if you're not attacking.]
Thorn stared down at the golem force that had pinned Eva. "Take cover under this barrier?"
"No, I... I'll conjure a big tarp text turn. Just let me pull Eva out. GMs, roll the dice."
[Skill 4, dice -1.]
"Spend a point. Fateweaver." One left.
He realized to his horror that he'd dropped his usual riding carpet. He threw off his coat and applied the spell to that instead. The long coat became a sort of semi-rigid sled barely large enough to brace himself on. It took him into the air and veered toward Eva.
In mid-flight he saw: [Now your Athletics roll to grab her, against active opposition and her Pinned boost.]
"You said it'd work if I passed the magic roll!"
[We said you could swoop to the rescue. Was the opposition not obvious?] The golems flashed, highlighted. [Skill 1, dice +2, versus defense of 6.]
Time slowed as Miles' carpet moved, unbidden, toward Eva. The GMs were telling him he was about to fail, 3 to 6. Even if he spent his last point, he'd fail. "That's cheap!"
He got to watch Eva fall away below him as his ride carried him to safety in an aerial zone above the fray. Then, what he'd mistaken for a small white cloud loomed closer.
The dragon Iskandar was the size of a passenger airliner, bearing white scales tinged with the blue of ancient ice. His horns were swept back behind his jaw; spikes like a line of icicles lined his tail, and his wingbeats made drafts of frosty air along the ground. Three zones away.
Round 5. Miles took his gaze off the dragon to see what had happened to everyone else. Thorn was shouting and waving his sword, saying, "Stay together! We've got advantages and Hochen will cover us!"
