Perilous Pirates & Privateers [Stepstones, Phase 2]

[Valar Dohaeris]

Perilous Pirates & Privateers [Stepstones, Phase 2]

EDIT: In light of the the low number of tier 1 takers, I am dropping the minimum Advances to compete for the 2nd Glory & P/Q point.
ANY Tier 1 opponent will qualify.

I will extend the deadline to lock selections to 10pm (2200) UTC tomorrow, Sunday March 4th.
If anyone wishes to step up to Tier 1, this is your chance.

It is well known that the Triarchy Navy are not the only danger to be faced in the Stepstones. The Kingdom of the Three Daughters ostensibly occupied the islands to drive out the pirates that had troubled merchants in the narrow sea. However, the pirates now operate under the auspices of the Triarchy themselves, forcing ships to either pay the Triarchy's exorbitant 'protection' fees or risk an attack. These pirates will no doubt defend their Triarchy allies when the Westerosi forces invade, so hunting them down under the guise of keeping the peace weakens the enemy without inviting direct reprisal.

There are many foes to choose from, so there are no restrictions on number of participants, opponents, etc.
Victory earns a reward based on the difficulty tier of the foe.
Being defeated will entail being publicly ransomed (a Wealth penalty to your house equal to your status-1 and 1 Influence).
Fleeing from combat will cause you to be shamed (an Influence penalty to your house equal to 1+ one half your status, round down).
Alternate penalties may be negotiated (such as gaining an appropriate drawback for no benefit).

Choose a tier. Your opponent will be built to suit. If you have a particular idea for an opponent or an interesting fight, pitch it in your private forum.
Note that these are not honorable duels. Your foes are not knights, they are murderers and thieves.

Note: in order to give you some additional control, if I present an opponent that you feel is too difficult, you may opt to weaken a tier 1 foe by a certain number of advances (to the minimum of its tier), or move to a lower tier. The idea here is to have interesting variety, not to create an unbeatable foe. However, for the sake of my sanity, you may only do this once. Your rewards will be based on your opponent's new tier.

1. The most dangerous foes.
   Built as a secondary NC, but with a minimum of three advances from the list below.
   Reward: 1 Glory and claim a bounty for your house (wealth points equal to half the advances, round down, minimum 2)
   SPECIAL: The character that accepts the most* advances (minimum 4) and defeats their foe gains an additional glory and can allocate one point to either the Princess's faction or the Queen's faction. For this reason, if you pick Tier 1, post your selected advances in your private forum.
   * In cases of a tie, I will choose based on which opponent I decide was more challenging relative to the player combatant.
   
   
2. Dangerous, but not extraordinary.
   Built as a secondary NC, but with one advance from the list below.
   Reward: 1 Glory and claim a bounty for your house (1 wealth)
   
   
3. Not overly dangerous individually, but watch out for packs. One or more Tertiary NCs, of an amount of your choosing. No advances from the list below.
   Reward: 1 Glory and claim a small bounty [5gp per opponent]
   

List of Advances:

• Opponent gains 1 DP, which may be invested in a Benefit [may be taken multiple times]
  
• Opponent gains 50xp for attributes or specialty dice [may be taken multiple times]
  
• Opponent may have an attribute at 6 [may be taken multiple times, requires 2 attribute/specialty increases each time it is selected]
  
• Opponent has superior weapons and armor
  
• Opponent may use particularly dishonorable or advantageous situation (poisoned weapon, an ambush, terrain favorable to the foe, etc.)
  
• Opponent has a Tier 2 ally or two Tier 3 allies (your choice) [may be selected up to twice]
  
• Opponent is upgraded to a primary character and therefore may take wounds.
  
• Pitch me something creative in your private forum.
  

EDIT: It seems i was unclear - for tiers 1 and 2, you get to pick which advances your opponent has. I'll be deciding how the XP/DP are spent, what equipment they have, etc.

Also, it was pointed out that Tier 1 opponents at their minimum of 3 advances had the same reward as a tier 1 opponents. A more difficult tier should always have a higher reward, and therefore I have put a minimum of 2 wealth on the ransom for tier 1 opponents.

[Loreia]

Tier: 2nd.
Advances: 1DP and poison.

[Valar Dohaeris]

Just an FYI, Tier 2 is only 1 advance. I mean, you can take a second, but it doesn't get you any additional reward.

[Loreia]

Alright then. I will knock off the poison.

[Jon Templeton]

Tier 2, Superior Weapons and Armor.

[Ereth Redwain]

Tier 2, Superior Weapon or Armor.

[Triston Tollett]

Tier 2 - Superior Weapons and Armor

[Ser Alfred Haigh]

I think I'm going to go on a dare and see how well I hold up against a tier 1.
Advances will go live in the private board as soon as I have had my sleep for today, which I'm aiming at in about 10 hours or so.

[Valar Dohaeris]

Bravery has it's rewards.

In light of the low number of tier 1 takers, I am dropping the minimum Advances to compete for the 2nd Glory & P/Q point.
ANY Tier 1 opponent will qualify.

I will extend the deadline to lock selections by 24(ish) hours, to 10pm (2200) tomorrow, UTC
If anyone wishes to step up to Tier 1, this is your chance.

Also, if it's reluctance to be injured/wounded, consider that this is the only official Stepstones event for Phase 2 - you will have the opportunity to heal prior to Phase 3, and worst-case scenario Milk of the Poppy and other medicines will be available.

[Darron Greyjoy]

Tier 1 for me advances in forum ASAP.

[Ser Walton Dulver]

will sign up for this one, let me find free while to get into it, please- hopefully sometime today.

[Valar Dohaeris]

Yes, I expected this one to by right up Walton's alley.

Maybe he can finally face a worthy foe?

Oh, and bounties are for dead or alive... so no problems with vicious weapons.

[Valar Dohaeris]

OK, Tiers are set.

Tier 2 opponents are developed, For Tier 1 opponents I am still waiting for advances from Darron and Walton.
Baqq the Black - Offers freedom to any captive if they can last a minute against him in a knife fight. None have ever survived even half that time.

Giant Moh - Very big but not very bright. Has served various captains, but tends to be dismissed for breaking off various bits of the ship or crew.

Serala and Aqil - Serala is a Myrish woman know for her propensity to train hawks to gouge the eyes out of her foes. Fast and hard to hit.

Trygar Drahar - One of the sons of Admiral Sharoko Lohar, his fathers death at the hands of Prince Daemon has left him more or less permanently enraged. Well armored, but otherwise pays little heed to defense.

Loreia: Tier 2 assignments: 1d4 2
Giant Moh
Agility 3, Athletics 4(Strength 2b), Awareness 3, Fighting 4(Bludgeon 2b), Endurance 5, Will 3
Warhammer, Shield, Ring Mail; Qualities: Massive
Attack: 6d6k4, 6 damage per DoS, Shattering 2
CD 10, AR 4, 15 health, Bulk 2

Jon: Tier 2 assignments: 1d3 2
Serala and Aqil (Aqil the Hawk will not be participating in this fight)
Agility 5, Animal Handling 3, Athletics 3(Strength 1b), Awareness 3, Fighting 4(Shields 1b, Spears 2b), Endurance 4, Will 3
Superior Frog Spear, Superior Large Shield, Superior Breastplate; Qualities: None
Attack: 6d6k4+1, 6 damage per DoS [7 if two hands on spear]
CD 14, AR 5, 12 health, Bulk 4

Ereth: Tier 2 assignments: 1d2 2
Trygar Drahar
Agility 4, Athletics 4(Strength 2b), Awareness 3, Fighting 5(Bludgeons 2b), Endurance 3, Status 3, Will 3
Superior Flail, Superior Full Plate; Qualities: None
Attack: 5d6+1, 9 damage per DoS, Shattering 1
CD  8, AR 10, 9 health, Bulk 3

Tristan:
Baqq the Black
Agility 4(Quickness 1b), Athletics 3, Awareness 3, Cunning 3, Fighting 5(Brawling 1b, Short Blades 2b), Endurance 4, Will 3
Superior Stiletto, Superior Gauntlets, Superior Breastplate
Attack: 6d6k5+1, 4 damage per DoS, Piercing 2
CD  9, AR 5, 12 health, Bulk 3

As stated in the opening post, if you feel your opponent is too difficult you may opt to drop to Tier 3. Otherwise, go ahead and make threads for your combat.
Creativity with setting the scene encouraged.  

[Darron Greyjoy]

Advances picked.

[Ser Walton Dulver]

I've found free while finally to post suggestions over here https://dragonsdance.rpg-board.net/t2481p25-my-stuff#98398

[Ereth Redwain]

Oh wow, was mine made intentionally the best fighter lol.

Best hope I have enough wealth for ransom, because that is just how it looks like so far, that is without even rolling dice yet which may or may not make this a one sided massacre and not precisely in my favor lol.

Wish me luck, orokos help me lol

[Valar Dohaeris]

No, I developed them all with one benefit, then randomized who got which one. Loreia's kept her benefit, the rest lost it and gained superior weapons and armor, per the selected advances.

Trygar is the most damaging, but has the lowest CD and Endurance. Also, with no bonus dice on his attacks (Because of the flail's significant training penalty) his attacks will be inconsistent. For Effective CD's less than 19 the others are actually better fighters. My design strategy was to give higher AR to those with lower Endurance (which is why Trygar has the best and Moh has the worst) and higher damage to lower accuracy. I actually think that Baqq is the most dangerous of the 4, despite the low damage.

If you want to drop down to Tier 3 instead that is an option.

[Ereth Redwain]

Never, I will suffer that unglorious amount of damage.

[Darron Greyjoy]

God speed.

[Jon Templeton]

I will get a thread set up Friday or Sunday (going on mini-vacation with family).

[Triston Tollett]

Jon, do you want to do something like we're back to back fighting? I think it would make sense ICly.

[Jon Templeton]

A 2v2 would be fun and RP appropriate imo.

[Valar Dohaeris]

Apologies to those of you with combat threads waiting; I should be able to start those now.
I would love to have some volunteers help run these fights, just send me a PM and I will give some basic guidelines to their tactics.

Here are the three Tier 1 opponents. For these I asked for a bit more input into a scene or type of opponent, so no randomized assignments.
As stated before, if you feel your opponent is too difficult you can decide the lower the number of advances (to the tier minimum of 3) or drop to a different tier.

For Alfred: Qos Lashhand, known for the unusual fighting style of paired whips.
3 advances (2 DP, superior weapons and armor)
Agility 4 (Quickness 1b), Athletics 3, Awareness 3, Fighting 5(Brawling 3b), Endurance 4
2x Superior Whip, Superior Breastplate
Weapon Mastery(Whip), Improved Weapon Mastery (Whip)
Attack: 6d6k5+1, 5 damage per DoS, Entangling, Reach
CD 9, AR 5, 12 Health, Bulk 3

For Darron: Alequo, a Tyroshi Bravo
Duel on the high seas, 6 advances (2 DP, superior weapons and armour, attribute at 6, 100 exp)
Agility 5(Agility 1b, Quickness 1b), Athletics 4, Awareness 3, Fighting 6(Fencing 3b), Endurance 4
Superior Braavosi Blade, Superior Left-Hand Dagger, Superior Breastplate
Braavosi Fighter I, Weapon Mastery (Braavosi Blade)
Attack: 8d6k6+1, 6 damage per DoS [7 with a 2-weapon attack]
CD 16 [15 after an attack, 13 after two-weapon attack], AR 5, 12 health, Bulk 3


For Walton: A tall and muscular man known only as Malice. Thought by some to a descendant of King Maegor the Cruel, though this is unlikely.
A monstrous opponent, 6 Advances (2DPs, 100xp, superior weapon and armor, attribute at 6)
Agility 4, Athletics 4(Strength 3b), Awareness 3, Fighting 6 (Bludgeon 3b, Shield 2b), Endurance 4
Superior Ball and Chain, Superior Large Shield, Superior Full Plate
Fury, Shield Mastery
Attack: 8d6k6+1, 7 damage per DoS, Shattering 1
CD 14, AR 10, 12 Health, Bulk 4

[Ser Walton Dulver]

Ok, I've already started the thread, rolled initiative for both and now I need volunteer to run Malice, The Opponent. That's great opportunity for everybody to fight Walton and not hurt Your own character!

[Triston Tollett]

Sure, I can run malice for you. I can get a post up later tonight. VD, just give me your guidelines.

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