Resolution of combat; Sterling faces down the orc champion in the ring of honor

The orc's first priority is to try to kill the dwarf next to him. He has successfully grappled the dwarf attendant by the head - being surprised, the latter doesn't get to roll a defense. Seeing this, the warrior dwarf nearby uses his turn to draw and ready a throwing axe. Sterling spends her turn readying her shield. On turn 2, the orc performs a 'neck snap' maneuver on the grappled dwarf, an opposed strength check against the attendant's health. Because of his high wrestling skill, the orc champion's effective strength is 18(!), opposed by the dwarf's health stat of 13. 6,6,3= 13 for the orc, MoS 5. 4,5,1=10, MoS 3 for the dwarf to resist. This means that the orc deals swing damage (as opposed to the lower strength-based "thrust damage" value - normally swing damage is reserved for weapons) to the attendant's neck. 3 dice of damage! 1,6,1 = 8, multiplied by 1.5 for hitting the neck for a total of 12. This leaves the dwarf at 1 hp and he must make a stunning check for a 'major wound', rolling against his health. 5,3,2=10, success. It also inflicts a severe injury and rolls on a table. 4,3,2= 7: neurological damage, gaining the 'numb' disadvantage permanently. If he was a human, or the orc had rolled a little higher, he'd be dead. The warrior dwarf throws his axe at the orc to get him to let go. The range of 5 yards is a penalty of -2. 1,1,4=6, well below the dwarf's thrown axe skill -2, a hit. The orc decides to "dodge and drop", releasing his grapple and going prone to do so. 6,4,1 = 11, exactly what he needed to avoid the axe. On her turn, Sterling moves 3 yards forward (slowed down by her clumsy, yet sexy, footwear).

Turn 3. Orc begins to stand up, rising to kneeling posture. Sterling moves forward again and is now 6 yards away. Claudia reaches the gate. The crippled dwarf attendant begins staggering out of the ring at 2 yards per turn.

Turn 4. Orc finishes standing. Sterling moves up again.

Turn 5. Orc evaluates. Sterling moves adjacent to the orc and swings, a 'move and attack' that gives her a -6 penalty to her skill reducing it to a 10. 4,6,3=13, a miss. Claudia opens the gate.

Turn 5. To gain some breathing room to arm himself, the orc makes a "shove" attack against Sterling. This is a deceptive attack (-4 to hit, -2 to defend) and an "all-out (strong)" attack. 3,2,1=6, almost a critical hit (beating the target number by 10). Shove attacks can't be blocked with a shield so Sterling tries to parry. 6,2,4=12, a failure even with her shield bonus. The orc rolls thrust unarmed damage, but instead of dealing actual HP damage it is a knockback-only attack. 1d6+4 = 9, doubled to 18! Sterling's strength -2 is 7, so she is knocked back 2 yards and must make a dexterity roll at a -2 to not fall down. 4,3,2=9, a success even with the penalty. Instead of trying to move and attack again, Sterling breaks combat for a few seconds to turn and speak to Claudia, seeing her entering the ring. This gives the orc a chance to perform a feat of strength...

The orc put the dwarf attendant in a headlock and twisted until a disturbing pop made the watching crowd gasp in shock and back away. Several women and commoners fled from the tent right then and there, deciding this spectacle wasn't worth the risk. Most of the dwarves were shockingly unsympathetic, just grumbling or, in the case of one doughty warrior, casually drawing a hand axe and waving it at the brute's head. When the orc kept on twisting, he cocked his arm back and hurled it, forcing the greenskin to let go of his victim's head. The dwarf stumbled unsteadily out of the ring, head still swiveled too far to one side and looking quite lucky to be alive.

Sterling, in a show of either her bravado or her overconfidence, refused to let this brutal display dissuade her and marched right up to the orcish champion as he scrambled to his feet. She swung, but only the flat of the blade slid across the rippling green pectoral muscles, after which the inhuman warrior shouldered her away, making her stumble back four steps and almost topple over.

"Hey!" the ponytailed strawberry blonde woman said sharply, half-turning her head towards Claudia. "Get out of here! This is no place for a delicate little maiden." by her smirk, Claudia was pretty sure the noblewoman was intentionally adding a layer of playful irony.

"I'm a divine champion of Jaris, damn it!" Claudia said, face still red from her earlier exertion. "Neither you or that ugly little walking beard on his throne can tell me what to do! So you let me help protect you from that beast and I won't tell your uncle you've been volunteering to champion suspicious men and fighting with orcs!"

"Whatever, just stay out of my way!" Sterling said with a sneer.

Sterling's reaction roll: 2,4,1. Sterling does not have the 'homosexual' attribute so Claudia's beauty has half effect of +2 and her "well endowed" doesn't apply, plus 1 from fashion sense and +2 from higher status, total of 12, "average". Sterling will grudgingly allow her to help. Orc champion ("Mighty Tholk") rolls a will check for a feat of strength and succeeds, boosting his strength to 20 in return for an FP cost and allowing him to pull the heavy stake out of the ground to use it as a weapon! He grips the massive two-yard-long, 4 inch thick pole (with a weight of 20 pounds!) at one end to use his two-handed sword skill with it. Both Sterling and Claudia must roll morale checks (will rolls) for this display. Claudia: 2,6,3 = 11, a pass. Sterling 5,5,2=12, pass. Claudia draws her rapier. Sterling evaluates and takes a step closer, ending adjacent to Tholk.

Thok, no gentleman, swings at Sterling with a 'deceptive attack' (-4 to hit, -2 to target defense). 4,2,4 = 10, hit even with the -1 improvised weapon penalty. She retreats a step (+1) and rolls to block with her shield (the wooden pole is so heavy it would potentially break her sword if she tried to parry it - and in fact, because it weighs more than her basic lift, she can't parry it AT ALL with a one-handed weapon!). 2,4,1 = 7, success. However, since this is a block, damage is still rolled; 3d+4! 5,4,2+4 = 15. Because this is crushing damage, none will penetrate through the shield to hurt Sterling but the shield itself only has DR 7, so it takes 8 points of damage - 20% of its total hit points, and Sterling still suffers 2-yard knockback! She rolls dex to avoid tripping again. 1, 2, 2, success... She is now 3 yards away which means she has to 'move and attack', or slowly advance 1 yard per turn. Because this is an improvised wooden pole and not a weapon it has a 2 in 6 chance of breaking with each hit on a hard target. Rolls a 3. Sterling takes a step forward on her turn and goes all-out defensive so she can try 2 defense rolls against the next attack.

Claudia's parry is normally fairly good but parrying a weapon like this is impossible for her and a single hit from this weapon will be fight-ending - and if it hits her head or neck she's likely to die. She stays 4 yards away and moves to the orc's side. She makes an untrained 'gesture' roll to Sterling to communicate her intent to flank him. 4,6,2=12, failure.

Next turn. Tholk takes 1 step forward and swings at Sterling again (his reach is 2 due to the long weapon), deceptive again (so his effective skill is 10; his dex is 13, his two-handed sword skill is dex + 2 (expert level)). 1,2,1=4. CRITICAL HIT! Sterling cannot attempt to defend. Hit location roll is 9, torso (good thing, since a head hit would likely be instant ****). Critical hit roll = 5,5,5... "maximum possible normal damage". Which for 3 sixes is... 18 + 4, 22. Sterling's plate armor and padding reduces this to a "mere" 15 points. Her armor is severely damaged, losing almost half its HP, and she is reduced to -4 HP. Fortunately, since this is crushing damage to the torso, she doesn't have to roll for severe or permanent injuries and won't bleed out... but she does need to roll a consciousness check (health roll). 6,4,3 = 13... Sterling BARELY remains conscious but will need to roll this same check every time she wants to take an action. She must make the same type of roll again vs. stunning. 4,6,5 = 15, failure. She is sent flying 3 yards backwards and lands in a daze and can roll HT once per turn to recover from being stunned. Claudia must roll morale again. 6,2,4 = 12, pass. The only good news is that Tholk rolls a 1 and breaks the pole into splinters with this mighty blow. Seeing this, Donna runs into the ring through the open gate. Her move speed is much faster than Claudia or Sterling due to lacking armor or clumsy heels so she will reach her in 2 turns.

Because the orc is unarmored, if Claudia can land even one good thrust with her rapier he will likely suffer crippling damage. Because he stepped towards Sterling and Claudia was on his flank he'll have a penalty to defend against an attack coming from the side. Claudia swallows her fear and steps forward to thrust! Because she is using the "combat art" skill she is more of a show fencer than a real fighter and her effective skill is only 10. 5,2,4 = 11... a very ill-timed miss. Tholk moves into her hex and tries to grab her sword arm. 5,6,2= 13, a hit. Because she is exhausted, Claudia's dodge score is currently dismal and near-impossible to use. However, Claudia can retreat and parry, gaining a +3 on it because she is using a fencing weapon. 3,4,2 = 9, success! And because she parried an unarmed attack with a weapon, she gets to make a free attack against Tholk's arm. 4,5,6=15, a miss. Unfortunately Claudia is now backed up against the edge of the ring and won't be able to retreat again until she can reposition herself. She can sidestep, but if she keeps retreating from his attacks she will eventually end up trapped in a corner with no way out. Claudia steps laterally, remaining adjacent to the orc and facing him. This time she swings at him with the edge of the blade (she has to be 2 hexes away to thrust). 1,3,6=10, exactly what she needed to hit. Tholk must decide to retreat - putting him out of easy grapple distance - or wager on trying to parry a sharp blade with his bare hands (which carries a penalty, as you might imagine!). This time he dodges and retreats to get the +3, raising his dodge score to an 11. 5,1,3=9. At this point he evaluates for a turn.

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The next few moments had Claudia, in a moment of weakness, question whether or not being chosen by the god Jaris was a good thing after all, as she watched the hulking brute in front of her pull the massive wooden pole that he'd been tied to up from the ground, treating the three feet deep of tamped earth holding it in as if it were light sand to be brushed away. "I am Tholk. War chief and obedient to_ _Nazro'grah the Overchief! Don't need weapons! Don't need armor!" The crowd gasped in awe. If Graldir had brought this brutal warrior here to raise Alliance morale with the arena **** of a mighty horde chief it seemed likely to backfire at this rate.

Unfazed by this, Sterling stepped forward and began shifting her sword looking for an opening. The Griffinwald Theocracy, less martial than some lands, had a very distinctive style of swordsmanship: very formal, defensive, and deliberate, with an intellectualized emphasis on specific positions and sequences.

The orcs had no time for such niceties. He just swung the club at Sterling with breathtaking speed and suddeness. She was sent staggering backwards, nearly falling. Visible cracks showed across her shield from that single hit. The blonde ponytailed woman smiled with gritted teeth, looking like she was enjoying herself as she pressed forward, covering behind her shield to close the distance. Claudia tried to jerk her head sharply and point to indicate to surround and overcome the orc.

This backfired immediately. Sterling looked at Claudia, taking her eyes off the orc for just a moment. That was all it took for Tholk to step forward into a full-body lunging swing that came up from underneath. There was a thunderous crash and a spray of wooden splinters as tall, pretty blonde was sent hurtling backwards, the armor on her breastplate cracked over her stomach. Even plate armor couldn't withstand a blow like that - Sterling's mouth was wide open and she lay helpless, gasping in pain.

Donna yawped awkwardly in concern and started trying to run into the ring herself as Claudia did her best to now show the overwhelming fear she felt. Even though the orc was totally unprotected, with a single thrust likely to run him through, and he was now unarmed, she was not confident. Her first lunge was a failure and she very narrowly avoided having Tholk grab her sword arm before she could pull back. The paladin soon found herself being driven back, towards the edge of the ring...