Temate, Toni, Pipuck and Surrender the gremlin all trudged along in silence. Temate looked over to Toni who was still pouting after he’d chastised her for talking again. He had to do it almost every hour since they’d broken camp, she liked to talk clearly. She hated silence, but they didn’t know what was out here.
Sure, Surrender was friendly so far, but what else might be around? Now that he had confirmation that there were, in fact, magical fantasy creatures in this world he was on high alert. The various nasties of every fantasy book, game or movie he’d ever consumed ran through his mind. Would they even get into a fight before they reached the town? If they did, what would it be?
Would it be a cliche? Goblins were a common first fight, and Surrender had mentioned that she absolutely was not a goblin. Which suggested to Temate she personal experience with the creatures, so some must exist locally. What about slimes? They were a fairly common beginner enemy as well.
Would it even be banced? Maybe it would be some nightmare wolf monster who would just tear through their little group? Maybe something like a trap spider hidden beneath the ground which lunges out at them. Something like an alraune, luring them in and trapping them? Hell it could be something mundane even, like a bear.
No, he could take a bear, a bck bear would be retively straightforward with a bde like he has. A rger bear, like a grizzly? That could be an issue. Some would say it was arrogance to cim he could take a bear, but then those were usually normal people.
People who didn’t tower over everyone they met, and people who weren’t used to deadly fights. Sure if he had to do it.. heh bearhanded, Temate wasn’t nearly as confident, but with a weapon? Then he thought about his weapon, a machete.
It was a good machete. High quality, expensive, built to st and chop through thick wood. He couldn’t help but wish he’d brought any of his proper swords along though. It was silly but the idea of using a machete seemed… brutish. Crude. Even though it cut just as well, potentially better, then most of his collection it still felt… strange. A machete as a weapon? Then he thought of the other abnormal armament he had.
Temate put his hand up to the two water bricks on his bag and pulled them off. They’d been strapped together, courtesy of Toni, the night before. She had the brilliant idea to use some of the rope from the spare gear to tie them together. She made certain it could be loosened to allow them to fold down and hang from the bag. Then if he strapped it to his arm, squeezing tight as he did now.
The two water bricks snapped into position, becoming what was essentially a very narrow, very heavy shield. Even for him it was a bit unwieldy, especially since a lot of the weight came from the sloshing water inside the two bricks. He examined the bricks, moving them around to get used to their weight. His mind, focused on that, triggered [Magic Eye] and what he saw was fascinating.
[Magic Eye] was an interesting skill, it happened passively whenever he focused on something. If he consciously avoided using it, it wouldn’t trigger, but otherwise it would. He could also pause it at any of its stages with a bit of conscious focus. It was a strange sensation each time it had happened as everything about what he was focusing on changed.
It became more vibrant and elements of it began filling his consciousness and his vision almost telescoped in on it. How magic flowed within it, how it swirled, how building blocks of magic helped define its nature. Eventually, what he was looking at was no longer the object, creature, or abstract concept he’d started looking at.
Instead it became something he could only describe as a mix between reading the matrix code, and looking at cells under a telescope. A prismatic kaleidoscope of shifting signs and sigils, each attached to each other and constantly moving. Each interacted with each other in unique ways, binding and unbinding, mixing together to make new signs and sigils. Breaking down into other sigils and signs.
It was a lot even for him, and it only sted until his focus was broken.
Sniff sniff
Like that. Temate looked up, the water bricks, no longer his focus, quickly snapped back into just hunks of pstic with water in them. He frowned at that, and at Surrender who was sniffing at something, her tail was quivering. Then she growled.
“What is it?” Temate asked as she stood up on his shoulders.
“Goblins.” She snarled and leapt off his shoulders onto a nearby tree.
Temate snapped into action, his hand stripped the machete from his thigh and brought his waterbrick shield up to cover vitals.
THWACK.
Just in time, it seemed, as an arrow deflected slightly off the edge of the shield. What would have been a harsh wound grazed across his shoulder instead. He shouted, “Goblins!” as he prepared himself. 6 goblins leapt out of the underbrush and charged at him, one with a bow hanging back.
“Wha’?! FUCK!” Pipuck shouted from off to his side.
“Stop or I’ll shoot!” He heard Toni shout from the same direction.
Temate stepped forward to engage the goblins, tilting his head slightly to check Toni and Pipuck. Four goblins, Pipuck had bolted between Toni and Temate’s positions, sliding behind a tree. No time to worry, the goblins were coming. All they had were crude sharpened stone knives and a spear. Nothing dangerous. Temate felt something rise in him, something he hadn’t felt since his teenage years. A fury, a fervor, the joy of the fight. The excitement of the kill. The goblins charged. Temate stood his ground, waiting.
Temate carefully measured the distance between himself and the goblins. There. Temate took a step bringing the goblins into his striking range and swung. One goblin head rolled, severed by his machete, and the bde continued.
It was not a [Vicious Strike], Temate didn’t want to drain himself immediately when they were so outnumbered. Yet with raw might his bde continued through the first goblin and into the neck of a second goblin. It dug almost halfway in and the goblin colpsed to the ground. Burning. Wait, burning?
Yes, it was burning. Temate caught it from the corner of his eyes. In the brief moments of him pulling his machete back, before the other three melee goblins leapt at him. The two goblins he slew were burning, but they did not ignite. It was a strange image as their flesh began to burn away into dust, he felt heat fill his body. It was like the memory of warm hot chocote after coming in from pying in the snow as a child.
He didn’t have time to dwell on it though, his focus remained on the three goblins in front of him. A spearhead bounced off of his shield while two others sought his neck, sliding harmlessly off the Barr threaded poncho. He lowered his stance for the next swing, as well as to evade a shot from the archer, the arrow flying well over his head.
Only 10 feet away Toni swore internally as the four goblins charged her and Pipuck. She didn't swear because of the goblins, but because Pipuck scrambled away and behind a tree!
“PIP YOU LITTLE-” She began to curse the spiras out, but there was no time. The goblins were coming and she needed to fight. She steadied herself, goblins. Monsters. They might be intelligent, sentient, basically people. But they were threats. Her dad’s instructions had come out on instinct, a shouted warning. One they had ignored.
Now she had to shoot. She. Had. To. Shoot. Her hands shook and she swore at herself mentally. She’d shot tons of things, killed tons of things. Never people though. She had to stop that. They. Were. A. Threat. Shoot Toni, SHOOT TONI.
Four goblins with green, yellow, brown and reddish brown skin were charging at her. Their pointed ears twitched with the delight of the hunt. Their eyes, their green greedy eyes, narrowed at her and they screeched a battle cry. That did it. She took a deep breath in.
BANG
Out, one dead. She turned, a quick but steady breath in.
BANG
Out, miss. She swore, the goblins reached her and two lunged. She kicked her front leg to push her weight allowing her to roll back and into another crouching position. She took aim.
BANG
Gncing shot, she took a chunk of a goblins head and its ear, it stumbled in its steps. The third goblin reached her te, having moved around her to come from the side. She brought a hand up, catching and spinning herself and the goblin pushing it next to its two friends. She leveled her gun, mentally counting her ammo. 3 shots on the Hedgeling. 3 shots here. 6 shots left.
She breathed in and prepared to shoot.
Temate’s machete sshed out from his lowered posture. Three goblins in front of him, one in the back with a bow. The [Vicious Strike] took the bde cleanly through all 3 of the goblins in front of him, shattering the one goblins spear haft. They began to burn too, he could examine that ter.
Temate lunged forward towards the goblin with a bow. It was scrabbling for its second arrow, screeching at watching 5 of its allies die in two quick blows. Its morale broke and it dropped the blow attempting to flee. Temate checked over his shoulder and had a wicked idea.
He spun the Machete as he approached the goblins fleeing back and plunged it into the ground. He reached out and grabbed the small goblin by the neck.
Toni was taking aim for three more quick shots as the goblins snarled at her, she gred back at them. They were goblins, but not completely stupid. They were wary of her gun now.
She paused, giving them a chance to run, hoping they would. They looked just about to when she heard a scream growing in volume. She turned to look and saw a goblin hurtling through the air! It smmed onto the goblin she’d wounded and both crumpled to the ground dead. She blinked. The two goblins blinked.
Then Temate was there. The two goblins blinked again. Toni blinked again. He was so fast! How was he so fast?! Was he really fast, or did he just seem to be in comparison to his usual slow, rexed pace? Toni didn’t know but something else caught her attention.
Temate was grinning. It made Toni shiver as she saw it, to her shame it wasn't entirely fear that caused the shiver. In fact she was fairly sure it wasn't primarily fear.
The goblins turned to run. Toni saw this and opened her mouth to shout, to stop Temate. Neither her mouth, nor the goblins feet, were fast enough as the gleaming machete bde swung and the two goblins colpsed, heads falling next to them.
Toni was dumbfounded. She watched as the two goblins who’s heads Temate had severed began to burn. There was no fme but there was no other way to describe the orange red glow which began to spread. It looked almost like the hot embers of a fme which spread fast as a fire itself. It started at their neck, where the bde had carved through their flesh, and as it went flesh turned to dust and smoke.
Toni saw that smoke drift quickly up Temate’s bde and into his skin. All that was left behind was bone, cartilge and a few internal organs. She was dumbfounded. How could he move like that, was it part of the Empowering thing he and Pip had done? But no, Pip had run and hidden. The spiras had only come out at the end and, after examining the battlefield, applied a small bit of poultice to a scratch across Temate's shoulder.
What was she watching? What did he just do? He’d killed two non-combatants. Sure they’d attacked with the others, but they were fleeing, that was… that was…
She watched, mind a mess of emotions as Temate stood slowly and took a deliberate, careful look around the battlefield. He looked at the bones of the goblins he’d cut, then at the bodies of the goblin he’d thrown and the two goblins she’d shot. He frowned thoughtfully, not with remorse or self-loathing.
Toni felt a heat rising in her chest, he had killed two fleeing combatants, two fleeing people, goblin or not. She watched as he brought his bde up and tried to flick off the blood, then frowned again, and flicked it again.
“Hmm, it doesn’t come off quite as easily as the movies and games make it seem.” He said out loud, leaning over to clean the bde on some rough shrubs. Toni’s mouth moved with the anger in her gut.
“You killed them!” She shouted the words and Temate looked up from cleaning his machete.
“Yes, I did.” He said it so… so… Temate-ee. So matter-of-factly
“You killed them!” She shouted again. Temate looked confused.
Then he shrugged, “they tried to kill us, they misjudged our strength.”
She stood up and marched over to him, gring into his face. Her body was shaking.
“You killed them.” She said it again, why did she say that again? She needed to add more... more... something! He looked towards the two she had shot, one dead and one wounded.
He waved his hand at them, “So did you?” He was confused, why was he confused?
“They were going to run away and you killed them.” She finally remembered to add the important detail. His eyes widened, not in surprise, but in crity.
“Ah, yes that is… it was for the best.”
“HOW” Toni was furious, some part of her felt guilty for being angry at Temate. They had tried to hurt them, so of course he killed them. But they weren’t fighting anymore, that mattered to her.
It was one of her dad’s most important rules, Rule number… she forgot, but one of her dads major rules was that you didn’t fight to kill. You fought to not fight. Once someone surrendered, or began to run, they were no longer a combatant and you let them go, or captured them. You didn’t kill them!
Temate looked her up and down and spoke as if reading her mind, “It’s not as if we could capture them. We can’t keep an eye on them and travel, nor could we afford to feed them.”
Toni scrunched up her face in annoyance, he had a point but still, they could have just-
“And if we let them go, they’re not mindless beasts. They’re intelligent, thinking, and likely vengeful. They would have come back with more. I’d rather kill a few now then risk killing more ter, or being killed.”
Toni flinched at that. Fight to not fight. Would her dad approve then? In these circumstances? Temate wasn’t speaking with anger. He was speaking soft and calm, like a parent lecturing a child. Toni definitely felt a bit childish now.
“Even worse, if they came back and found the town we’re going to and other people died because we intentionally let them go.” Temate shook his head slowly.
That hit her in the gut. Another of her father's rules, fight to protect others, and so others don't have to. She mellowed a bit, feeling a bit sheepish. It didn't help he was towering over her now, so big and imposing. He wasn’t trying to do that, she knew, but it still made her shrink in on herself.
“It’s still… wrong.” She said, anger and certainty gone from her voice.
Temate sighed and a big hand came to her shoulder. “You’re right, generally and idealistically speaking, I would prefer not to kill, but I made a choice in the moment. I won’t let myself regret that choice.”
Toni completely wilted at that. She wasn’t sure she wholly agreed, but she didn’t disagree either. She had been trained by a cop, to be a cop. Even if she never would have been one herself and her dad knew that. What would he have said? What would he have done?
She looked up at Temate, looked into his eyes. She saw no anger there, no frustration or judgment. His eyes were soft and kind, and he was smiling that soft smile. Her stomach did a flip. She smiled back, then she saw something move behind him. Toni's eyes widened at what she saw creeping out of the woods. She shouted, pointing back behind him.
“BEAR!”
Temate whirled, machete back in his hand. Pipuck, who had been examining the dead goblins, whirled around.
“Oh go’ damni’ all, no’ BEARS, I hate those guys! Fuck off ya bastar’” Pipuck shouted at the bear, making a shooing gesture with his hands. Surrender, who had finally started to climb down from above, made a noise which Toni thought was excitement.
Temate simply shifted his position to cover Toni, and stood at the ready. She wondered if he thought he could fight it. The bear reared up on its hind legs a good few feet away from Temate. It opened its mouth and-
“Well I do apawlogize, this is quite embearrasing no? To arrive te while others bear beardens of the battle is unacceptable!”
It spoke.
Force2reckon
I don't imagine I'll always include this, but yes when combat happens I do tend to emute it using pseudo homeruled ttrpg stuff. For right now I'm using pf2e as a base, so if you know that ruleset great, you know generally what I'm doing. I won't get too into the meat, but for those who are interested:
If you don't know the rules or just don't care for the changes, skip down to "Round 1"
A few special alterations to PF2e rules:1. Monsters get one attack, this could be a one action attack, or a two or three action activity that includes an attack.2. Damage cleaves, so if an attacks damage kills a creature and that attack could have hit another creature, it will carry the extra damage to that creature.3. Temate if he has his "shield" treats his shield as always raised.4. Toni's level 1 hp is cut in half as she has not Empowered yet.
Mechanical notes:1. Temate's three yers, particurly the Barr threaded poncho, are treated as Hide Armor2. The Waterbrick Shield is treated mechanically as a Hide Shield (Again, always raised)3. Toni's fur shirt is treated as leather armor4. Toni's gun is a Cn Pistol which deals +2 damage to emute a 1d8 weapon with a min 3 roll.5. Toni starts as a Master with firearms
Round 1Turn OrderTemate | 20 ac | 20 hp6 Goblins | 16 ac | 6 hp eachToni | 18 ac | 9 hp4 Goblins | 16 ac | 6 hp each
Begin Round
Temate | 2 actions | Vicious Strike hit for 13 damage | 2 goblins dead
Temate | 1 action | CRITICAL for 18 damage | 3 goblins dead
Fuck ME Machete’s have deadly so add 1d8 on a crit, 2d6+3 +1d8 with all near max rolls and the dude did more damage with a single normal crit, but imagine an *vicious strike crit* you'll also note, narratively, I inverted the vicious strike and critical strike, it just made more sense for the vicious strike to be the more deadly one with how it was built up. This will be my general choice whenever a vicious strike deals less damage then a normal strike (usually a crit)Goblin 1-5 | Dead
Goblin 6 | Strike hit Temate for 6 damage
Temate | Reaction | Shield Block | Hardness 5 reduces damage to 1 | Shield hp 19
Toni | 1 action | Pistol hit for 6 damage | 1 goblin dead
Toni | 1 action | Pistol MISS
Toni | 1 action | Pistol hit for 3 damage | goblin injured
Goblin 7 | Dead
Goblin 8-10 | MISS
Round 2Temate | 20 ac | 19 hp1 Goblin | 16 ac | 6 hpToni | 18 ac | 9 hp3 goblins | 16 ac | 3/6/6 hp
Begin Round
Temate | 1 action | CRITICAL for 11 damage | 2 goblins dead (st in his group + ? health in other group)
Temate | 1 action | Move to Toni+Goblin fight
Temate | 1 action | CRITICAL for 18 damage | All Goblins Dead
Fight End
I swear to GOD Temate rolled like a monster there wtf?! A review of PF2E rules, if you roll 10 over AC with a hit it’s a crit, or if you roll a 20 and it would be a hit it becomes a crit.
He rolled a natural 20 for the first critA 19 on his first swing of round 2 for the second crit (19+8 = 27, goblin AC = 16)And then a natural 20 on his second swing of round 2 for the third crit
My god my man, I expected that to go worse, even with the reduction of actions for the goblins and damage carry over. Makes up for him failing his athletics check to grapple Surrender in chapter 1 I guess xD
