Outracing the Flames Discussion Thread

[Child of the 7th Age]

Good evening, fellow RPGers. I have been reading your fine story from afar and am very glad to join it, if one for a short while. It appears I have seized one of the women by the hair and am attempting to yank her off her horse and drag her back to where the nasty guards wait. Who this woman is....I do not know. Nor do I know whether I will succeed. Perhaps you can tell me.

Oh, yes. I have taken the liberty of pushing forward time and distance for a bit. You are coming in to your chosen campsite. It is late afternoon and the sun is just setting.

Here are the rules for our little combat.

1. No one may kill Lord Calimehtar. You can beat up on him, but leave him live to struggle off the battlefield.

2. Remember these Easterling guys are experienced raiders. They will not make it easy. You can't just poke out your blade and kill them. Even if you prevail, make it sound hard!

3. Feel free to invent imaginery Easterlings to fight and include their actions in your posts. I will continue to post during the battle both as the Lord and his followers, and may pop up at unusual times. But since I'm only one person and there are lots of you, I can't do it all!

4. Last but not least...have fun.

[Nogrod]

A nice tone in the attack! So looking very good indeed.

But just two questions that bother me a bit (I would like to know, whether I have misunderstood something).

Easterlings hiding on the "far side" would mean the west side of the hill? That sounds quite reasonable. But as our scouts have come there first, it would have been very stupid from them indeed, not to have rode around the hill anyway - or at least have checked the top of the hill (where this Alinarmi & those easterlings that will be coming down the hill would be waiting?). And if they have been caught (who should they be then?), the party would be very alarmed as approaching the hill and seeing no sign of their friends.

Another thing: if they are to encircle us, how could they do it without us noticing it? Those spreading to our flanks and back could not hide themselves all the time as they move to their positions? And if they would have settled to their places prior to us coming to the foot of the hill, then shouldn't the scouts have noticed something - as their duty is to check all the suspicious places around the path?

All this is of course something to be lived up with quite easily - and I might have partly misinterpreted the post, or just not noticed something obvious (and my broken english might be a cause too).

I guess we just have to forget this scout thing, and just assume, that the encirclement was succesful. But if there is an explanation I haven't seen, please inform me anyone: it would make playing forwads - at least later on - easier (as we could for instance start jumping on each others throats about what went wrong!).

For Rohan!

PS. I'll leave a save with a short description in the thread. It will be filled later today (have some work to do first)

[Child of the 7th Age]

Nogrod,

You raise some good points. I do think there is a lot of scrub vegetation thick enough to provide some cover. But if you want to have some of the attackers or Alinarmi discovered, I certainly won't stop you!

The attackers would not have know all the ins and outs of you folk, including the scouts (much as mush brain Child managed to miss these points ). it is perfectly legitimate for someone to have nabbed one or more of our party.

Heck, if you (or someone else) wants to capture and question Alinarmi in this post or another, maybe you can get some information out of him (it won't be easy) that might be useful for the King of Rohan in combatting the hoarde of Easterlings and Orcs that are now pouring into his realm.

Child

[Valier]

hhhmmmmm Just checking in and it sounds great!!!! I am unsure where Vaenosa would be in this battle yet, because she was scouting ahead. But I think whoever was at the back of the group should be the one with their hair yanked....female I mean..... I will be back later after my exam and will begin to put a post together.

[Folwren]

Originally Posted by Child of the 7th Age

Heck, if you (or someone else) wants to capture and question Alinarmi in this post or another, maybe you can get some information out of him (it won't be easy) that might be useful for the King of Rohan in combatting the hoarde of Easterlings and Orcs that are now pouring into his realm.

Child

I don't think there'd be time for that. Not if the rest of the group is under attack and being slaughtered, or, in the girls' cases, being dragged off. (yick)

-- Folwren

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Folwren

I don't think there'd be time for that. Not if the rest of the group is under attack and being slaughtered, or, in the girls' cases, being dragged off. (yick)

I agree. It would take some time to go through that kind of twists in the overall plot - but maybe after the fight, we could have a prisoner or two?

But that brings me to the question of numbers, posed by Folwren. They shouldn't be under ten, I suppose, but twenty would be just a massacre... If this would be somewhat realistic, I guess they should be less in numbers than us for us to be able to put up a good fight (or win...), but then again, that would be quite bad from the storytelling point of view.

So maybe something between 12-16 (?) - and we as superheroes killing and driving away professional soldiers.

[Farael]

Alright!! And again, welcome Child! =)

First off, for the battle scene's sake, I was wondering two things. If Athwen is the one that was grabbed by the hair, Folwren and I have an understanding that Osmod will help her. If it's another girl, would you mind Osmod smacking the Easterling away? (I understand that some of you may not want your characters to be all sissy and scared and needing help).

Second, and still talking about the battle scene, I was wondering if perhaps Osmod, Raewald and Brand would go to protect the ladies first (Raewald and Brand have some interest on Mhegan) while Sythric, Fion and Dorran launch a bit of a counter-attack. Vaenosa and Eostre are a bit of a wild card in my scenario and can either choose to be with the other girls or go ahead and chop some Easterling heads.

I don't know what plans Undome has for Raewald, but if Osmod is to die I'd like him to die while defending the women... and even if he's not, that's what he would do. Plus, it's expectable that whoever is in between the women and the Easterlings will be facing the blunt of the attack and probably suffering the most casualties.

And finally on Osmod's death. I must say that I have some selfish reasons to stay in the game, appart from actually enjoying writing with you all. While there will be other chances for cooperative writing, I want to own a game after OtF is done (and possibly after a little while so I'm not jumping from one game to another) and Pio asked me to stick around this game until the end if I wanted to be able to own a new one.

I can promise you that while I'm here I'll do my best to post well and as often as necessary, but the key part is "I will do my best". There may be times when I'll be able to post well and often, there may be times when I will have time to post but not the right mindset to post well and there will be times when I'll have neither. If you don't mind that from time to time you may have to carry Osmod along a little bit with little or no help from me, I'd like to stay in the game. If you all think that Osmod may become a bit of a distraction and a burden to carry rather than a character to enjoy, he'll have a brave and honorable death. I promise no hard feelings if you think it'd be best to part ways, I can understand that.

Having said that, I await your answers with regards to the battle (and Osmod as well). I have a post cooking up but I need to see what we are doing first.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Farael

Second, and still talking about the battle scene, I was wondering if perhaps Osmod, Raewald and Brand would go to protect the ladies first (Raewald and Brand have some interest on Mhegan) while Sythric, Fion and Dorran launch a bit of a counter-attack.

This should be discussed. I have something quite ready in paper already, but can change it. I was thinking of Sythric asking for Brand to join an onrush against those easterlings that come rumbling downwards, and thence are the most dangerous, as they have both momentum and the height advance. Sythric wouldn't ask for Dorran or Fion (injured!) to that kind of job!

As my text is now, I have written, that Sythric didn't know, whether Brand was coming with him or not. So that's of course up to Arry...

Sythric has called everyone to form a circle as the rain of arrows ended. It's in everybody's hands, whether to think it a good idea (which it is) or not. S's idea is, that S, Raed, Brand and maybe Osm (in my post it's only S addressing Brand - S thinks, Raed has judgement enough on his own - and Osm is not to be seen near him)would try to distract the attackers by counterattacking them all over and not letting them to assault the ladies or younger men so fiercely...

[Folwren]

First off: Pio, please put this is Arry's considerate save that is turning out to containing several posts after all.

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POST PLACED ~*~ Pio

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Second...the battle...fun stuff.

Originally Posted by Child of the 7th Age

Good evening, fellow RPGers. I have been reading your fine story from afar and am very glad to join it, if one for a short while. It appears I have seized one of the women by the hair and am attempting to yank her off her horse and drag her back to where the nasty guards wait. Who this woman is....I do not know. Nor do I know whether I will succeed. Perhaps you can tell me.

...

Here are the rules for our little combat.

1. No one may kill Lord Calimehtar. You can beat up on him, but leave him live to struggle off the battlefield.

2. Remember these Easterling guys are experienced raiders. They will not make it easy. You can't just poke out your blade and kill them. Even if you prevail, make it sound hard!

Athwen can be the one he's got by the hair, if you like. She's a fairly good horsemen herself, actually, so maybe he won't be able to quite drag her off her horse as easily as he would like. However, she's probably not much of a fighter, which might explain why she was such an easy, unrestisting target to just ride up to.

I have a few questions myself.

How many Easterlings are there? The reason I ask this is because I'm wondering how much chance we Wulfhamers and Bregowarians really have in surviving.

And is Lord Calimehtar the chap who's got said girl by the hair?

Also - other girl RPers - if you want your character to be the one with the annoying Easterling clingining to her hair, say so. Athwen does not have to be her. I had something else in mind, actually, for the writing of this battle, and if someone else has an idea springing up into her head about what her character is going to do under such circumstances, take it away with you, because I'm not going to think about it until I sit down to write the post.

-- Folwren

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Child of the 7th Age

2. Remember these Easterling guys are experienced raiders. They will not make it easy. You can't just poke out your blade and kill them. Even if you prevail, make it sound hard!

Please friends... I think this is a noteworthy piece of advice. And I think also, that it's all the more rewarding, when you try to make it look like your character really earned the win.


I have written quite frequently lately. The main reason is, that I find this fun thing to do. But there is another reason also, and that's the nasty fact, that I'm going to have quite a busy weekend and Monday. So I won't be having very many chances to post... I'll try to keep up with the situation, and to steal some time to post at least once or twice during the weekend.

PS. Should someone keep count on the casualties? Sythric has killed one. Brand/Lady took two? Raedwald killed three? - that would already make 6 dead easterlings (from what? 12-16, more?). We seem to be really effective.

[Folwren]

Originally noted by Nogrod:
PS. Should someone keep count on the casualties? Sythric has killed one. Brand/Lady took two? Raedwald killed three? - that would already make 6 dead easterlings (from what? 12-16, more?). We seem to be really effective.

My dear chap, don't you know? When the good guys need to win, they slaughter at large. When they have to loose, they don't manage to kill anyone. Just watch the LotR movies!

-- Folwren

P.S. I hope ya'll know sarcasm when you hear it. But, actually, I think we're doing alright. It's hard, though, you know? Unless anyone wants to loose their character, no one can die. And if no one can die, the story telling has to be a bit unrealistic, doesn't it? Let it slip a might, Nogrod...it'll be fine.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Folwren

I hope ya'll know sarcasm when you hear it. But, actually, I think we're doing alright. It's hard, though, you know? Unless anyone wants to loose their character, no one can die. And if no one can die, the story telling has to be a bit unrealistic, doesn't it? Let it slip a might, Nogrod...it'll be fine.

Don't worry, I do. I happen to use it all the time myself - and wonder every now and then, whether others get it...

And yes, I know, we can't die... but maybe we should even have to struggle a bit to earn our win?

Maybe we all have just gotten our inner Orlando Bloom flourishing, skateboarding the baddies to their deaths - left-handedly and eyes shut?

But yes, it'll be fine. Don't worry about me. I've had a good time - and will have more!

[Valier]

I can be badley wounded if it helps with the realism....I don't mind....Vaenosa has yet to sustain any injurys. I was thinking she could be shot with an arrow as she shoots her own or by a spear from behind perhaps....I am sure she could kill a few before she goes down though I think it would help with her attitude as well, as she will need to depend on others for help (not her preference).

Let me know what you "guys" think and I will post something today or early tomorrow.

[Undómë]

Rædwald is now dead.

Meghan is unconscious and has been dragged off to the Easterling lord.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Oh, goodie! I've been waiting for someone to pay me a visit.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Undómë

Rædwald is now dead.

Meghan is unconscious and has been dragged off to the Easterling lord.

Poor Raedwald!

But where is Meghan exactly? Dragged to the Easterling lord? That's disobeying clear orders: the living-loot was to be dragged to the ridge - to this Alimari-guy (what was his name?). Child: you seem to be having a disobedient bunch of soldiers out there! Maybe that's the reason they keep losing?

But more seriously. If Farael wants to try some heroics here, he should know, where to go. Uphill - riding after the guy carrying Meghan (doable) - or down to the storm's eye - facing the lord himself (heroic, but suicidal?)...

Looking good, people! Enjoying your posts.