Mythras Combat Example from Monster Island campaign

The following combat example was from a Monster Island campaign I am playing in. The I in the text is my character Muammar al-Abbar – a 53 year old pirate using combat style Water Dancer from the campaign.

The example does not contain all the blows, rolls and tactics used.

The Combat from the Perspective of Muammar the Pirate

The lizardman brave had something to prove. He did not have as many
tattoos and scars as the elder warriors, but he had a very thick skin
and was larger than a big, strong man.

He seemed to think I had slighted some tribal more or something and
challenged me to the ritual 1-1 combat. When inquiring about this the
tribal champion named Ku told us that ritual combat would be to the
death.

To the death? The warrior seemed to be quite confident with his ritual
weapon – patu a kind of a club that I had seen in use by the island folk
in other places as well. Not that he needed the weapon, his claws looked
like they could rip a man a part.

A pirate at the age of 53 you have learned to pick the fights you join –
even if some would call Muammar impetuous or worse but this did not look
like a fight he would pick. If you happen to be in a fair fight you did
not prepare well enough. There was no way out – we were in the middle of
jungle in a village of savage lizard men and the only “friendly”
contacts were not keen to use their influence to stop the fight – the
shamans of the villages were divided in their opinion of what to do with
us.

Muammar entered the ring of lizard folk who had gathered to watch the
ritual combat.

Damn my eyes – the lizardman is fast. In addition to being bigger and
stronger than Muammar. I had to ask the gods some luck to be faster than
him, it has been awhile since I had to do that. My only option is to be
faster and get him handled as he surely will get better of me. My remise
worked perfectly – rapier went in fast and I followed with main gauche
and pressed him severely – his thick skin proved to be tough to pierce.
I pushed him hard and pierced his lungs with the Attabian steel of my
rapier with a close to perfect hit that would skewer any human opponent, still he stayed in the game. I could have used impale but did not dare
to leave the rapier in – the blow might have been of lesser quality and
the damage when drawing the blade out might still be too little to drop
the brute and would take my rapier out of use for a precious time that I
knew I did not have.

The sun was starting to bother me who had always
been proud of my slight frame but the warrior seemed to enjoy the heat.
Feint, blow, parry – repeat and a repeat. I am a bit faster and must stay that way –
he is just a tad slower but can match me blow for blow. My spider silks protect a bit but are soaked with sweat already.
His skin seems to protect more as even when I hit he does not seem to be bothered.

Must have used all my luck and the fight was far from over.

I managed to make him slip with a feint to
knee and he rolled to ground but he was too slippery and strong to stay
there long. Again – and same thing. He got me, oh no he got me –
Sarnai does something – brute is distracted – back in the game. Damn my
eyes and let the brute rot in hell, I could not resist his blow to my
rapier arm and my rapier flew behind him – I was left with my main
gauche to take him down.

I knew that I did not have time and opportunity
to pick the weapon up before I could slow him down. So main gauche with
my left hand, press him, main gauche again – disarm. He was really good
with his ritual club and way too strong and I could not disarm him no
matter what I did.

Damn the sun, damn the heat – sweat everywhere, thank
the gods for giving me the discipline to keep the morning regime to
endure – damn the brute – he got a hit in -lucky it was a glancing blow – this is starting to look unwinnable. Overextend – ok, disarm fail
again. Starting to run out of options – damn the sun – the brute seems
to enjoy himself. He is down. Up again.

Desperate times call for desperate measures – main gauche just does not cut it – outmaneuvre him to
get to the rapier – no – bloody no – he hit me, but got my rapier while
fending him off with main gauche. Down on the ground – Layla shrieks,
the brute is distracted – have to get up – HAVE TO GET UP.  Damn the
sun. Up – rapier in – down he goes – he is up again.

Disarm – did he finally lose the patu. Rapier, main gauche – feint – he
is down. “SURRENDER”” – he does not. He tries to get up. I see an opening –
remise – feint, rapier in, all in, now, NOW – aim for chest – hope it reaches
the vitals, push the blade hard. He is down but breathes. I look at Ku –
the tribal champion – he implies I need to finish what was started. I do
what is required. The ground gets red… It is over.

There was a feast for the victor.

Comment

This was a very long 1-1 fight with 3 crits on the lizardmen side and 2 on Muammar’s (at least). There were also fumbles.

Both sides had 3 action points.

Muammar the pirate had 4 point armor for the head (a helmet) and 3 points to chest/abdomen. Rest where 2. Lizardman was 3 points everywhere. Muammar has Do or Die as the Combat trait with the Water Dancer combat style.

I knew I was very likely to die if I did not take the lizardman out very very quickly so used my first luck point to reroll my initiative as the lizardman was faster. The part when I knew that this was probably going to be the end of the career was when my choose location max damage to the lizardman chest did not take him out. After that it started to be a bit desperate.

Will need to look at additional tactics for long fights…