The Lost City

Following the sounds of battle and the trail of Inokwu’s blood, you reach the large shady chamber with the pond of saber fish beyond which lies the throne room. It is much changed from before. A howling pack of berserk Tangani press hard to overwhelm a knot of embattled Xhotatse warriors who erected a makeshift barricade at the far end closest to the throne room. Bodies of slain warriors from both sides litter the bloody floor.

You spot young Jambi, the eager Xhotatse youth, among the desperate defenders. He, like the others, cannot hope to hold out for long. There is no sign of Queen Chitaka who must be in the relative safety of the throne room.

At the head of the Tangani pack is the unmistakable form of the Feathered Ape. With a bellow, its great metallic claws rip a screaming Xhotatse warrior from the barricade and toss him to the baying Tangani to be torn apart. To one side of the melee, near the ornamental pond, stands a Tangani woman who urges the Ape and the berserkers on to victory. Then, she spots the newcomers and reveals a little of her great plan.

"See, my brother! The outsiders have come to witness our triumph! Did you slay the degenerate Khenaton and his inbred spawn for us, fools? A pity you did not take more of these Xhotatse dogs along to die."

The Feathered Ape breaks off its attack against the Xhotatse barricade and muscles back to stand protectively at the side of Anepor as she exchanges heated words with you.

"Oh, these proud, glittering Xhotatse! See how they have paid for laying our forebears low. They and the filthy Mekutu! Now, Azar, my brother, my prince, send these interfering fools to hell and let us take this keep’s treasures and all of Zukundu as our own!"

At this, the Feathered Ape removes his exotic simian headpiece with a mocking laugh, to reveal the handsome face of Anepor’s brother Prince Azar. He sketches a warrior’s bow to the player characters and speaks in a voice as educated as his sister.

"Ho, you bold fellows! I rejoice to see you yet live. I enjoyed our earlier games of hunt and hide across the city-palace, but confessed to my sister Anepor here that I feared missing my chance to pit the Claws of the Ape against you in combat. I look forward to tearing your outsider heads from your necks."

Prince Azar, the Feathered Ape, leaps forward to do battle with you accompanied by a group of 5 berserker Tangani. He uses speed and agility to move around the combat, rarely trading blows toe to toe for long. The berserk Tangani accompanying Azar make a wild, frontal assault, fighting to the death as will proud Azar, unwilling to let his sister’s carefully conceived plans fail at the last. Princess Anepor slips away.

Since they're charging you, I'll let you be prepared and act first before or after they enter melee range.

There is a barricade at the far end, with the defenders holding that. You could attempt to get past the attackers charging you that with a successful test.

As to the princess has snuck through the barricade to a passageway behind it, while the defenders were distracted. So you would also need to get to the barricade to chase her.

Grappling is simply rolling Effects on the damage roll with as arson that had the Grapple quality, such as a whip.

So you would make an attack roll. If you succeed, you can roll damage. Remember you can spend a Doom to get an extra d20 (rolling 3d20 instead of the normal 2d20).

That's four successes. You need one to succeed, so roll 3d6 damage on the whip, and spend your three successes.

The whip has the properties: Fearsome 2, Grapple

The whip wraps around the "apes" legs and it crashes to the ground. The warriors with it stop, awestruck. The defenders rise and yelling jab at the distracted attackers with their spears.

Two attackers go down.

The rest of you can act.

Crom thanks you for your Doom, but Crom does not reward his servants.

Is Roderigo going to act?

The ape is on the ground, having been tripped by Cur. Roderigo gets right up to it, and attacks, striking for 7 damage. (1+6+6 = 3 plus 2 effects for the 6s, Cutlass has Vicious 1, so each effect does +1 damage, plus two Momentum which will be just an extra +1 each damage). The ape costume that the person inside is wearing (gasp!) provides 3 soak, so he takes 4 Stress.

Tenbo drives his spear into the ape as well... and hits, for 7 plus two effects (Piercing 1) which reduces soak by 1 each, so 7-1=6 net Stress. This also causes a Wound (5+ damage in one blow).

Feathered Ape: 10 Stress (17 max), 1 Wound

The ape, unbalanced by the attack, scrambles to its feet. The other warriors rush to support you, leaving you one on one with the ape.

You're all up again.