Re: Thread #1c - Swallowtail Tales: The Fighter's Tale
Alergast smiled contentedly as his family, because they all thought of Kellan as part of the family, began to walk together down Tower Street towards Das Korvut’s Red Dog Smithy. Aeren ran ahead and played with one of the town dogs as they passed the Sandpoint Town Hall and between Savah’s Armory and the Pillbug’s Pantry, turning right onto High Street. In the distance they saw what looked like a couple of scholars making a right on Festival Street, which would take them to the theater.
But that wasn’t the way the Baretts were going.
Instead, the five took a left on Festival Street, leading them out towards the Turandarok River. As soon as they made the turn they heard a distinctive metallic clang and a raucous cheer from what sounded like a large group of people. As they got closer, they could see that Das Korvut had set up his bright red Ogre Stomp! contraption in a clearing next to the cliff.
The Ogre Stomp! apparatus was deceptively simple. It consisted of large metal base. In the center of this base was a small “target” square. If one hit the target square with an object, such as the huge mallet Das Korvut required his Ogre Stomp! contestants to use, it would cause a metal slug to rise up the twenty-foot high pole located further back on the base. At the top of this pole was a huge bell. If you hit the target hard enough, you could ring the bell with the slug.
This is much more difficult than it sounds.
But that wasn’t the genius of Das Korvut’s contest. No, the genius was that you had THIRTY SECONDS to swing the huge mallet as fast and as hard as you could. Once your time was up Das Korvut tallied the number of times you rung the bell and that was your score. Desna’s honest truth, only the strongest, toughest, and fittest of Sandpoint’s citizens had any real shot at ringing the bell more than once.
Last year Alergast had rung it seven times.
Das Korvut was a huge, bald, muscled man with a famously-tempestuous temper. But none of it was on display today; he was all smiles as he ran one of the Festival’s most-popular games. Almost every young man in the district felt compelled to prove his manhood by conquering Ogre Stomp! Few did. Alergast privately thought that Das Korvut found this hilarious.
One of the men in the back of the crowd briefly glanced back at the family, then did a double-take as he realized who was approaching. He quickly elbowed his companion, who also turned around. The word spread like wildfire through the entire crowd, the murmur growing into a roar as the Baretts drew closer and closer.
“Alergast!”
“It’s Alergast Barett!”
As they reached the back of the crowd, Alergast hugged Aeren, who was looking at him as if Erastil himself had come to life, then grinned at Kellan. “Better warm them up for you,” he said with a smile before heading towards Das Korvut’s contraption.
“ALERGAST BARETT!! MY FRIEND!!” Das Korvut bellowed with a volume normally reserved for waterfalls and rockslides. “CHAMPION!! YOU ARE BEING WELCOME HERE!!” The crowd roared. Something about the game turned the normally-taciturn smith into a regular showman. Or maybe it was the flask of whiskey inelegantly concealed in his belt.
“EVERYONE IS BEING QUIET!” Das Korvut thundered. “As you are knowing, the record for today is TWO! Now we are having Alergast Barett, five-time Ogre Stomp! Champion, take his turn! You are witnessing!” He handed the huge mallet to Alergast, who twirled it around as if it were no heavier than a conductor’s baton. Apparently the guardsman was a bit of a showman himself. He moved onto the contraption’s base, tested the weight of the mallet, and looked at Das Korvut.
“ALERGAST, YOU ARE BEING READY?!?” Das Korvut said this more to the growing crowd than the guardsman himself, but Alergast nodded anyway. “THEN READY . . . STEADY . . .STOMP!”
CLANG! The crowd cheered as Alergast’s first mallet blow easily rang the bell. But the first blow was always the easiest. Alergast quickly brought the mallet back, swinging it again. CLANG! The crowd was going wild now. Aeren, who was now sitting on Kellan’s shoulders so he could see his father compete, was bouncing up and down so violently and yelling so loudly that Kellan suspected he might never again have the regular use of his neck or his hearing.
CLANG! Alergast had broken today’s record! The crowd was really going crazy now. With 15 seconds gone, he wasn’t quite on his record-breaking pace of the previous year, but he was clearly in a rhythm.
Suddenly, tragedy struck! The crowd gasped as Alergast lost the handle on the huge mallet as he raised it and had to bring it back down to re-center himself. It wasn’t as bad as dropping it, but he lost precious seconds in the process.
CLANG! The crowd cheered again as Alergast rang the bell for the fourth time. Just a few seconds remained. With speed that seemed impossible given the size of the mallet, Alergast brought it into position and down again on the target.
CLANG! The crowd roared. Alergast Barett had lost his grip on the mallet and STILL scored FIVE! This was an Ogre Stomp! they would talk about for years!
But wait! Das Korvut was waving his arms and attempting to yell over the noise of the excited crowd.
“IS NO GOOD!!” Das Korvut yelled, bringing a shocked silence. “Bell is ringing AFTER sand runs out!” He raised the glass he used to time the contestants. “Barett is scoring FOUR!”
The crowd grumbled, but rules were rules.
Aeren was outraged as his father walked back to their small group, receiving handshakes, backslaps, and congratulations the entire way. “You should have had a FIVE, Daddy!” He was almost crying as Kellan handed him back to his father.
“Don’t worry, little man.” Alergast kissed Aeren on the top of the head as he buried his head in his father's chest. “It’s only a game. There are more important things. Besides,” he smiled, putting a finger under Aeren’s chin and bringing his gaze up, “I’m still winning!” Alergast looked over at Kellan with an air of studied innocence. “Oh, and Kellan, I hope you don’t mind that I gave him your name for next.”
“KELLAN STORVAL!!!!” The big smith yelled. “It is being your turn for,” he took a deep breath, “OGRE STOMP!!!!!!!!”
OOC: OGRE STOMP! RULES. Ogre Stomp! is Das Korvut’s ultimate test of physical conditioning. It requires a combination of Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity.
A character wishing to participate in Ogre Stomp! must first determine how often he will be able to swing the mallet in the 30 seconds provided. Given that this is a huge mallet, he must make a CON test to determine this number, which is d6 plus his CON modifier.
Swinging the mallet so often is not only a test of endurance, but a test of coordination. It’s easy to drop the mallet. It’s hard to quickly get the mallet back into a good position to swing without losing your grip. It’s hard to hit the target directly when you are swinging so quickly. To reflect this, the character must determine the number of times he will be able to hit the target with the mallet in the 30 seconds provided. This number is d6 plus the contestant’s DEX modifier.
The LOWER of the above two numbers is the maximum number of times a contestant can successfully hit the target during the time given. But not every hit will ring the bell! The bell is only rung when a contestant rolls a “6” or higher when rolling a d6 and adding his STR modifier. The contestant rolls this final test a number of times equal to the LOWER of his CON and DEX test results. The number of 6+ results he obtains is his final Ogre Stomp! score.
In this case, Kellan will make two initial rolls: a d6+2 CON test and a d6+2 DEX test. He will then roll a d6+3 STR test a number of times equal to the result of whichever of his CON and DEX tests were LOWER. The number of 6s or above that he obtains is his final Ogre Stomp! score. You can look in the die roller to see how I did it for Alergast. Can Kellan take Alergast’s title? The odds aren’t with him, but he has a shot! Good luck!
This message was last edited by the player at 15:41, Fri 30 Aug 2013.