'I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours'

Since she is still aroused and has met another attractive person, Claudia must roll a self-control will check to do anything but flirt with the most attractive character present. 1, 4, 2 = 7, a success.

Claudia cleared her throat and cursed Yvonne again for getting her worked up like this - she noticed that she'd been staring a little too long. Dressed the way she was, it was downright humiliating to be staring at HIS exposed chest more blatantly than the other way around. What had her mentor Prudence always said? 'If you're really pleased about how it's going, for Norvaskr's sake, hide it or pretend you're faking it... otherwise they won't want to pay!' And in this case, it was quite likely she would need to make these wretches "pay" for getting in her way. Of course, Claudia hated the sight of blood and didn't relish the thought of harming someone... not even those smelly little dwarves, much less a human being! But on the other hand, any kind of authority allowing a low-ranked individual, much less an outsider, to defy them openly was incredibly shameful. If the priesthood found out that she had scurried off when this brute showed himself, she'd be in for a scolding.

Normally, Claudia would just as soon make it known that she'd been menaced and wait for a chivalrous warrior to step forward to defend her. Ironically, the unusual spectacle of a woman arrogating such a prerogative for herself had drawn the attention of all the knights who frequented this pavilion, which... left two women needing to defend themselves, and no man around to stand between then and a giant, seemingly quite UN-chivalrous brute.

Well... that might not be true, depending on whether one wanted to classify Angelo as a 'man' or not. To his credit, instead of talking, the floppy-eared hound growled and took a menacing step forward, putting himself between Botha and Donna.

"You shouldn't even joke about raising a hand to me." Claudia said, smirking at him poutily and turning to give him a side-profile look at her, sticking out her hip in his direction and batting her eyes. "Forget about the consequences later... as you can see, my friend's guard dog is quite fearless, and I've been trained extensively in the arts of the sword."

Voggi broke in, chuckling and stroking his chin, nodding greedily. "Ohhh, you can polish my sword any time y'like, lass. Cousin," he said with a sidelong glance to the other dwarf, "I know ye claim ye don't like tall girls, but come, surely you'd make an exception for this one?" he threw a contemptuous glance over at Donna. "Why don't you send away your flat chested, water-drinking friend and we'll go... discuss what we want to do about this noble friend of yours, privately... Us dwarves are natural blacksmiths, you know? Maybe I can polish that 'armor' of yours a little, and I won't even charge you for the privelege, heh heh heh..."

One of the dwarves is 'lecherous' (Botha is not - as is typical for stoic, world-weary barbarian wanderers from the frozen north, he's too proud for that) and rolls a self control roll against his will. 5, 3, 4 = 12. Normally this would be a success (dwarves have high will) but it fails because of Claudia's enticing appearance. Because he is "unattractive", Claudia takes a -1 on the resulting fear roll. But first, before she can react, the dwarf will try to close the distance and grope her - this matters because it will give penalty on said roll if he does. Because he is more than 1 yard away, Voggi must make a 'move and attack' action, which gives him a -4 penalty. He rolls against his effective 'wrestling' skill of 8 (after the penalty). 4, 2, 5 = 11, a miss. Although his appearance gives Claudia a -1, she gets a +1 from "personal experience with this kind of threat", so her effective will is still 12. 5, 3, 6 = 14. She rolls on the fright table and adds 2 to the result (for failing the will test by 2). 3, 4, 6 +2 = 15. This is a... surprisingly strong effect. Claudia suffers 1d of fatigue damage (1d = 6) and is stunned for 1d = 3 seconds. This punishing fatigue loss puts her at 3/13 FP, badly out of sorts.

Since Claudia can't object while she is 'stunned', Botha takes this opportunity to try and intimidate Angelo. He rolls against his intimidation skill (14) and Angelo rolls against his will (11). 2, 6, 5 = 13, margin of success 1, vs. 1, 4, 1 = 6, margin of 5. Angelo isn't bothered at all, and tries to intimidate the brute right back. By showing his teeth and snapping (a 'display of a weapon'), he gets +1 for an effective skill of 14 vs a will of 14. 2, 6, 5 = 13 vs 2, 5, 3 = 10. As it turns out, neither dog or man scares easily.

As Angelo kept baring his teeth and bristling, Botha - taking his eyes off Claudia - bent down, furrowed his brow, and gave the dog a deep, animalistic growl right back! "Oh, I'm sorry, Mister!" Donna said sweetly. "I don't think you should try and pet him just yet, something must be bothering him! I'd love to properly introduce him to you some more after we finish Claudia's business though, he seems to like you!" She blushed and fluttered her eyes at him, giggling and cocking her head to the side in a cute pose.

Donna attempts to use sex appeal on Botha. She is "attractive", which would give her a +1, and her clothes are rather sexy in a cutesy sort of way (they give a large +3 bonus). However, this target isn't into 'cutesy', so her "pitiable" appearance modifier bonus doesn't apply, and her 'poorly endowed' disadvantage gives her an additional -2, for an effective skill of 13. 6, 1, 2 = 9, versus his will roll of 6, 1, 3 = 10. This is a tie (his will is 14), so although Donna fails, she can try again without penalty. Because Donna has the "confused" disadvantage, she must make a self-control roll with will before taking any decisive action in situations like this, since she is oblivious to dangers both because of her sensory impairment and naturally frivolous personality; she is likely to underreact to any threat more subtle than a swinging sword.

The two dwarves use Claudia's "stun time" to move into position. Voggi will "evaluate" (e.g. aim) for 2 turns. Bodur (the other dwarf) will move to confront Donna and try to intimidate her; however, the fact that she is deaf requires him to make a body language skill roll first! He actually has this (being a gangster) and rolls 3, 5, 2 = 10, a success. 2, 4, 5 = 11 (MOS 1) versus her will of 5, 2, 1 = 8, margin of success 2. Donna isn't scared.

Right before Claudia is un-stunned, Voggi will try to grab her. He has an effective wrestling skill of 14. 2, 2, 6 = 10, a success. Being stunned, she gets a -4 on her attempt to "parry" (slap his hands away in this case); normally she would need an 8, now she needs a 4. 3, 1, 4 = 8, a failure. Having got her, he attempts an appeal roll on her (since he has no ranks in the skill and a penalty for appearance, this represents making a crude pass and groping); his effective skill is 8 (health of 13, defaulting at a skill for -3, and -2 for ugliness). 4, 1, 6 = 11, a failure. He can still try intimidation, but doing so automatically shifts Claudia's reaction to "very bad" if he fails, so like any masher, he sees if the girl is receptive first.

Her talent meant that Claudia felt a strong wave of sensation when the lusty, stocky man looked at her like that - but from a source like him, it wasn't exactly pleasant and made her feel faintly nauseated and self-conscious instead. "Auuhhhhh!" she scoffed loudly, closing her eyes and holding up her hands as if a rat had scurried by her feet. But he was shameless, and before she could open them again she felt greedy hands clutching her hips, mere inches away from feeling up the curves of her backside. As if it weren't classless enough already, Voggi took the opportunity to spit at Donna's feet while he was still holding on to Claudia - of course, the latter seemed to be too occupied making eyes at the Northalkin man to notice.

Claudia cannot use her own sex appeal while she's already been grabbed - or rather, she can, but doing so will give whoever's got her license to start stripping her and going further and further, if they choose. Unfortunately, because Voggi grabbed her with both hands, he gets a +5 on his roll to stop her, so her chances of breaking the grapple are very low. Instead, Claudia will do the "ladylike" thing and slap him across the face! Normally, characters only have to make a test vs. knockdown if they suffer a major wound (half or more their HP value) from a hit, but if targeted at the face, even 1 point of damage forces a check. An attack to the face is at -5, and Claudia takes another -4 for being in a grapple, so she will make this an "all-out" attack for a +4 to get a modified skill of 6. Because he is using both hands, Voggi can't defend against this. 6, 2, 4 = 12; Claudia fails. Because his strength is higher than Claudia's Str. OR her Dex, he will be able to push her around wherever he wants to go as long as she's grappled.

Angelo backs up a step (putting him 4 meters from Voggi) and evaluates (aims) in preparation to charge. Seeing this, Botha will step forward and take a 'wait' maneuver to ready a blow if Angelo moves past him. Angelo does the same for 2 more turns - and Botha still waits, ready - before making a slam attack on Voggi, charging and headbutting him. By moving the full 8 yards before doing so he has a 'velocity' of 8. Botha makes a regular kick attack, not wanting to give up his defenses. He rolls 2, 6, 6 = 14, less than his skill (modified to 12 because kicking, though having further reach, is harder to hit with). Because he has a high skill Angelo will make this a 'rapid attack', taking -6 on his rolls in order to first slam into, then grapple his arm. The slam is a 2, 2, 3 = 7, success. Voggi takes a -4 to try and dodge and fails despite rolling a 6. The damage is 15 (Angelo's HP) x 8 / 100 = 1.2 dice of damage to Voggi (2d6-3), and due to similar HP value, the same 2d6-3 back to Angelo. Voggi takes (2, 4 - 3 = 3) 3 damage and is knocked back a yard. Angelo takes (1, 1, -3 = 0) no damage in return! Voggi must make a DX roll or fall down, taking a -4 because he is grappling. 5, 6, 5 = 16; because Voggi's effective DX is 6, he fails by 10 and thus this is a critical failure! He takes another 1d6-3 damage in the fall (4 - 3 = 1). Because he was knocked down he automatically loses his grip on Claudia. She makes a DX roll not to fall down. 5, 5, 3 = 13, a failure (her heels aren't helping).

Claudia spends one turn sitting up. Voggi, not wanting to let her get away, will try to grapple her leg before she can move. However, because he was sent down hard and took HP damage, he takes a -3 "shock penalty", so he waits a turn before acting. This lets Claudia draw her rapier; she is too tired to dodge anyway and it is her only real defense at this point. Voggi attempts to grab anyway. He makes a an all-out (long) attack to get a yard of reach, evaluated for a turn (+1) and will use a "telegraphic attack" option in addition to gain +4 to hit in exchange for giving Claudia a bonus to defend. Because he's trying to grapple, the location penalty for the leg is halved to a mere -1, but laying prone gives him a -4, so his effective skill is at the baseline of 10. 4, 3, 1 = 8, a hit. Note that grapples are not penalized by failing a self-control test for "lecherous" (obviously!). However, Claudia can now parry with her rapier. She gets -2 for sitting but a +2 because of the obviousness of Voggi's grab. Her effective skill for using the rapier in combat is 10, so her usual parry value is 7 (half of 10 + 3, -1 for being lightly encumbered). 4, 6, 5 = 15, a failure. Voggi has got her by the ankle.

During these 2 turns of action, Botha and Angelo confront one another. Botha evaluates, aiming a kick at the dog. Angelo takes a wait maneuver, readying for a "stop hit" (attacking at the same moment the opponent does to make it harder for them to defend) targeting the leg... both roll their attack skill simultaneously. Effective brawling skill of 12 for the barbarian (+1 aim, -1 kicking) and 13 for the pup. B: 4, 1, 1, margin of success 6. A: 1, 1, 1; critical hit, margin of 10. Angelo still gets to try to dodge the hit in turn. 3, 3, 5 = 11, failure. Angelo takes 1d6+2 = 6 damage, reduced to 5 by his DR. For Botha, we roll on the critical hit table (crit hits cannot be dodged, parried or blocked; they always get through). 4, 5, 6 = 15 - the damage dice are automatically treated as sixes. His bite usually does 1d6 damage, so it's a 6, and this is cutting damage, so a 1.5 wounding modifier is applied. The struck body part has only partial armor protection so we roll a 1d6 to see if it applies: 6, it doesn't. 9 points of cutting damage is a 'major wound' but all damage beyond the 50% of his max HP required to cripple the limb is disregarded. Normally, this would cripple the limb, but bite attacks specifically cannot cripple a limb unless they target specific points. Botha is at 8 of 16 HP. Botha rolls his Heath+3 to avoid being stunned. 5, 5, 6, a bare success despite a very bad roll; it's almost impossible for him to be stunned by an injury. However, he rolls a reaction check (morale), with a +1 modifier from Angelo's attractiveness; being mauled by a cute dog is more surprising and frightening than by a mangy one! 6, 4, 6 = 17 total. He decides to drop prone anyway so that he can tend the injury and effectively surrenders. Donna "charges" towards Angelo and attempts a grapple, both to hold him back from causing more harm and so she can heal him. 2, 1, 1, = 4, she easily succeeds despite her low skill and the -4 penalty for moving and attacking.

Doing what came naturally, Claudia tried to slap the completely shameless creature right across his face - but because of the awkward angle of the swing, when she tried, Voggi just pulled himself closer, and bringing his face disturbingly close to the exposed flesh of her upper chest. Sure enough, the thug made a loud smacking sound and leaned forward to get a lick - but just as his lips made contact, Angelo slammed into his side with such **** that the breath was knocked from his lungs and he went down, getting his face forcefully slammed into the steel plate of Claudia's raiment in the process. Wobbling backwards, Claudia tried to take a breath - her head was still swimming from the strain of that scrying earlier - and lost her footing, falling down with an unladylike "Ooof!".

"Back, creature!" the Northalkin's guttural voice snarled. Angelo flashed him a deadly look. Drawing back his foot, he threw a powerful kick into Angelo's side, hard enough to produce a cracking sound that everyone (except Donna, that is to say) could hear. But he'd left his leg open to a pair of divinely-sanctioned jaws built for dealing with demons, and as Angelo turned away, he tore a rather large chunk right out. This came as a shock to both of the girls, who shrieked loudly in unison. Botha didn't scream out in pain like one would inspect, but stood there silently agape, as if in disbelief that a medium-sized dog had such unnatural **** behind its moves. After experimentally testing his weight on that leg, Botha toppled over a few moments later like a felled tree.

Voggi, cursing, reared up and threw himself towards Claudia - though she tried to frighten him back with her drawn sword, he still got a hold on her leg with one of his hands. Bodur - the other brother, who'd been watching with amusement so far, was taken aback by this sudden **** and backpedaled five steps inside the edge of the tent, emerging a second later with a shovel in his hands and a scowl smoldering behind his scraggly beard.

"No, NO! BAD DOG!" Donna wailed haplessly, grabbing her companion and seeking to hold him back. "It's okay, I'll heal you, boy! Claudia! I-" she then stopped. "Oh, sorry, you said to let you do the talking, nevermind!" There wasn't even a hint of sarcasm in her words, and she immediately turned her attention to intoning an incantation... completely oblivious to the angry dwarf stomping towards her and her holy pet swinging a shovel menacingly. She even closed her eyes, so as to better focus on the chant!

Angelo will voluntarily allow himself to be "pinned" due to his sense of duty, so that he doesn't penalize Donna's spellcasting. She begins casting 'Major healing'. Because she can't take the time to diagnose she'll cast it at maximum power just to be sure, taking 4 turns and costing 4 energy points, half drawn from her golden holy staff.

Claudia must escape Voggi's grip. She tries to break free. He only has her with 1 hand now so it is her STR of 8 vs his STR of 12. 1, 3, 5 for Claudia, 6, 2, 4 for Voggi... she fails. He spends his turn getting up to a kneeling position, since she can't stand. Reflexively, Claudia will try something that probably isn't tactically wise - to try and kick him in the face with her free foot as she struggles. This is a hefty -8 modifier (-5 for face, -2 for sitting, -1 for kicking) on top of -4 for being grappled. She has to make it an all-out, telegraphic attack just to have a chance of hitting, giving him a +2 to defend. Because their penalties are so great, both sides will spend 2 turns evaluating (wrestling back and forth) before Claudia acts. Her skill is usually 12 (her dexterity), modified now to 10. 1, 3, 1 = 5, almost a critical, still a success. Voggi's dodge is extremely low so he'll try to parry with his free hand. Because it is his non-dominant hand he takes a -4, and kneeling is another -2. His usual parry of 9 is lowered to a 5, so he'll spend 2 fatigue points for a "feverish defense" to try and dodge as well. 3, 6, 1 = 10, failing to parry. 3, 1, 4 = 8, a fail (he needed 6 to dodge). Normally a kick does thrust+1 damage but the pointed heel adds +2 (it's not sharp or long enough to make the kick do impaling damage, though). d6-1 damage = 4. Voggi must make a knockdown check and rolls his will. 3, 6, 1 = 10, a pass. He is stubborn. But he was also dropped below 1/3 hit points by that making him roll another "morale check" (a reaction roll). This is the other advantage of being beautiful in combat - it makes bloodied-but-standing opponents more likely to back off or parley. The social status penalty is -2, the beauty bonus is +5, so a net +3. 6, 1, 3 = 13, "Good", which in combat means that he flees.

Bodr moves and begins lining up a shovel swing at Donna for these three turns. He is 4 yards away from Claudia. Botha is no longer fighting and obtains strips of cloth for bandaging his dog bite, which will take a minute. Claudia takes a turn to stand.

Now that one of the dwarfs has a weapon, we will compare attractiveness. The dwarves have a will of 11 and a base inhibition value of 6, so 17. Donna has a base sex appeal skill of 11 - she lacks experience, but bless her heart, she tries. She is attractive (+2), has an outfit with fashion sense (+1), and, for the purpose of causing enemies to deliver half-strength attacks, her +3 'pitiable' modifier always applies (unless the target has the "callous" disadvantage). Being 'poorly endowed' gives a -2. Her cute clothes give a +3. The total is 18. Just enough to soften Bodr's attacks, even when he is at full inhibition. That's good, because he intends to smack her right across the face! He uses his "two-handed axe/mace" skill with the shovel at a -1 penalty, giving him an effective skill of 10. Attacking the face is a -5, but he aimed for two turns to add +2. 1, 2, 4 = 7, just what he needed to hit. Donna tries to dodge, having a -2 for kneeling to grab Angelo. It's normally a 9, so she also needs a 7. 4, 1 5 = 11, she takes the hit. Normally Bodr has strength 12, but he only hits at strength 6. Even so, he's dealing 1d6+1 damage... if he was swinging at full **** he could've broken the poor girl's skull! Especially since he rolls a 6! Donna suffers a 'major wound' (7 damage) which means that she takes a knockdown roll with a -5. 5, 5, 4 - she fails badly, is knocked down and stunned. Note that Donna's clothing has an active protection spell on it, but it doesn't cover her face, so she has no DR at all. Incidentally, because the Northalkin barbarian is "very handsome" (a +8 bonus) and has a very high health attribute (14), as well as having revealing clothing (+2), both of the girls would have been affected by his appearance and **** to use low-damage attacks, so it is a good thing Angelo rushed in so foolishly to deal with him.

This causes Angelo to need to make a "stress atavism" (one of the disadvantages on his sheet) check; a self-control will test. If he fails it, he will temporarily lose his sentience and act as an animal would. 4, 5, 3 = 12, a failure. Unfortunately this actually decreases his loyalty rather than increasing it - even a well-trained dog is only so loyal to its master... and worse, it makes his decisions less intelligent. Since the shovel is being held out in front of him, Angelo instinctively tries to bite the stick instead of the man holding it. This is a disarm attempt, giving a -2. He rolls against his effective skill of 13 and gets an 11, passing, but Bodr gets to try and parry, retreating 1 step in the process. 5, 5, 5; a failure. A head-to-head contest of weapon skill is rolled. Angelo gets 1, 4, 4 = 9, a margin of success of 6. Bodr gets 1, 2, 4 = 7, a margin of success of 5 (he gets a +2 for having a two-handed weapon). The shovel is pulled from his hands.

Claudia finishes standing up. Voggi stands. On the next turn, Claudia evaluates, implicitly threatening him, and Voggi turns around and begins moving away, out of her reach. Instead of trying to get the shovel back, Bodr... takes his belt off, not because he's feeling excited by Claudia, but because he can use the heavy belt buckle like a flail with -1 to skill and damage. It takes him a turn to take it off before he can 'wield' it. Angelo snaps at him to perform a 'feint', so both he and Bodr roll a contest of weapon skill. 6, 4, 2 = 12, a margin of 3 for Angelo. Bodr gets 6, 1, 4 = 11, a margin of 0. Angelo wins by 3 so Bodr gets a -3 to defend against the next attack. Bodr readies his "weapon" with his action. Angelo makes an all-out attack (strong) to try and bite Bodr's foot, with a -4 to hit. 1, 2, 5 = 8, a hit. Bodr tries to dodge, and retreats 1 yard to get +3 to his usual dodge value of 7, canceling out the feint penalty. 2, 5, 6 = 13, a failure. Dwarves have tough skin (1 DR against non-crushing damage) and he is wearing leather shoes (1 DR). Unfortunately, Angelo rolls a 1, dealing a mere 3 damage. The 1 point of damage that gets through is too small to benefit from the x1.5 wounding modifier for cutting damage.

Since Angelo left himself open, Bodr makes a telegraphic, all-out (determined) attack (+4 to hit each) targeting the dog's skull (-7 location penalty) and has a -1 shock penalty, giving him an effective skill of 8. 1, 4, 3 = 8, a hit. Angelo can't defend. The damage is 1d6+1. It's a total of 5. Skulls have an extra 2 points of DR, so this is reduced to just 2, but all damage to this location has a x4 wounding modifier... a total of 8, dropping Angelo to 2/15 HP. As a major wound he must make a will test at a -5 penalty or be knocked down and stunned. 5, 2, 4 = 11, a failure. For the 2 rounds she's been down, Donna rolls health to try and wake up. Her first is a 12 (fail) but the second is a 9 and succeeds. However, she has to take a morale test. 4, 4, 3 = 11, -2 for ugliness = 9. For his part, Bodr (being a cad) decides to literally kick Angelo while he's down. 5, 6, 1 = 12. This is a 'telegraphic', 'all-out (strong)' attack. Angelo, being both prone and stunned, has a -8 to his dodge and fails with an 8. 1d6 damage: 4. Angelo is reduced to 0 HP. He isn't risking dying (you have to get to negative hit points equal to your normal HP max, for that to be a danger) but if he does anything but lay prone, he risks falling **** after every action. The fight has been completely knocked out of him.

Voggi moves away to a safe distance, then turns back around to watch. Claudia uses her 'combat art: rapier' skill to show off to Bodr. 2, 4, 1 = 7, a margin of success of 6. He watches (evaluates). Claudia gets a +3 bonus from her success to make an intimidate roll, and another +1 from having already defeated Voggi, raising her effective skill from a 7 to an 11. 5, 4, 1 = 10, a success. Successfully using a an 'influence skill' in this system (whether intimidate, diplomacy, fast talk, etc.) essentially allows you to make another character made an additional reaction roll. 5, 3, 2 + 2 from the intimidation, +5 from attractiveness modifiers, equals 17... which means that he flees. A hard-fought victory. Claudia, Donna, and Angelo each gain 3 character points.

"When a lady says no..." Claudia began, gritting her teeth. The rest of her retort was not spoken, but delivered by the point of her high heel right into the lecherous demi-human's cheek, bringing forth a howl of surprise and dismay, and forcing him to let go. By the time Voggi was up, so was Claudia - and with her rapier unsheathed and pointed at him. With Voggi's eyes re-focused from her backside to her blade-point, he re-evaluated the situation and turned to run away, clutching his face and cursing.

Donna remained oblivious to danger until it was far too late, and paid the price for her inattentiveness in the form of a blow across the cheek that produced a reverberating little "PING!". To her credit, she only spent a few moments rolling around on the ground and crying before starting to drag herself up. She spat out a little bit of blood and whined, clutching her already-swelling cheek. "I hope that waff a baby toof..." she moaned softly. "OH NO! DON'T HIT HIM, HE'S SORRY! ANGLEO, DOWN!"

Bodr no more listened to her plea than she had listened to Bodr's warning - and Angelo ignored her command even harder. Unfortunately, blind fury seemed to have taken the dog's intelligence out of the equation, and he bit the haft of the shovel to drag it out of Bodr's hands almost as if he were playing with a master. Boggling Claudia, Bodr stripped off his belt with one smooth, long, whipping motion - and she saw that the buckle was very thick and heavy, as was the strap. Angelo sank his fangs into boot-leather and was rewarded with a blow to the head that was painful just for Claudia to listen to. As she struggled to get to her feet, dearly wanting a nap, the caddish dwarf kicked Angelo in the side, drawing a piteous yelp.

"Enough!" Claudia squawked. "You acknowledge that I am a paladin, but you think you can threaten me and harm my companions?" She performed a quick three-point series of rapid thrusts in the air, following it up with a twirling moulinet maneuver. "If you hit that dog or that girl one more time, I'll drive this through your black little heart!"

There was a tense moment as Bodr twirled the belt and tried to look tough... but he thought better of it, looking at that silvery length of steel. And when he turned to run off after his brother, the shortsightedness of his maneuver became apparent as his trousers fell down. Unfortunately, this did more harm to Claudia (who had to look at his hairy, pock-marked backside) than to him. She groaned in annoyance mingled with relief and walked over to help Donna to her feet. "I am sure you know how to heal yourself?" she said to the strawberry-blonde initiate.

Still rubbing her cheek, Donna's blue eyes went wide again. "Feel myself? You mean... with my hands? I never..."

"NooooOOOO!" Claudia cried in alarm, having learned the tell-tale signs by now.

Claudia rolls a "Body Language" check to cover her ears before Donna can lie and cause her damage again. 2, 1, 5 = 8, success.

Before Donna could finish her sentence, Claudia had clapped her hands over her ears. Sweet, blissful silence - and no ringing divine voice of judgement filled her senses this time. Claudia pointed at Donna's golden staff, and then at the smarting welt on her cheek. Thank Jaris, that seemed to get the message across.

Donna does what every novice cleric girl with a holy magic staff and a blue/white/gold color theme, in every fantasy genre story since time immemorial, has done and heals like the apprentice heal-slut she is. Although she wasted a couple of FP due to being hit, she still has plenty. Major healing on herself (4 FP, 2 from staff): 5, 5, 6. Critical failure. ...oh, for fuck's sake, Donna. Looks like we get to roll on the critical spell failure table. 1, 6, 2 = 9: "Spell fails entirely, caster is stunned".

"Ithraim, irohiim, lilita- Oops, I mean lilitum- EEEEK!" Claudia heard a crackling and sizzling sound behind her as she knelt to inspect Angelo. The dog wasn't ****, but seemed to be whimpering and burying his face under his paws. "Good!" Claudia said with an annoyed sigh. "You SHOULD be sorry! Don't go and escalate things like that ever again, unless I say so!" in his beaten-down state, it wasn't clear that Angelo even heard her.

When Claudia turned back, Donna had knocked her cap back off and was picking herself up off the ground again. "I... I'm so sorry, Miss Claudia!" she whined piteously. "I need to focus my devotion for a minute before I can call on the magic correctly! And I need to help this poor innocent bystander. He is so ripped... I mean, his muscles are... Oh, my poor face... I mean, I'm just talking about the damage Angelo's teeth did, not anything else."

False. A little voice whispered in Claudia's ear this time, making her cringe yet again. Claudia flashed her an 'OK' sign and stepped over Botha. He didn't flinch away from her, but neither did he make any move to stop her. "If you try anything, barbarian," she said to him arrogantly, "you'll be as good as stepping into a noose. Consider yourself lucky for having gotten off so lightly!" He grumbled something, but dropped his gaze.

As she stepped inside, Claudia saw why no-one had come out to intervene in the scuffle - there were dozens of townspeople in here, crowding around a ring... so engrossed were they by discussing who was in it that Claudia's approach was scarcely noticed...