Chapter One - Three successes, no crits or botches

"The Beastfolk Warrior lunges at you with rapier like weapon aiming to pierce your heart."  I watch the Storyteller select a number of Dice and roll them, "two Successes, no Crits and no Botches.  What do you intend to do about this Attack?"

"Alright" I replied, "Since it's a lunge, I'll sweep the rapier to the left side with Shadow Strike" this while I demonstration the move with my body so the Storyteller can see, "while side stepping to the right, then Counter Attack by suddenly slashing" with my right arm I slash towards the Storyteller making my point, "after the Parry with the aim to take the Beastfolk warrior's head off. So what the Difficulty?"

The story teller replies, "counter attacking always have a plus one to difficulty."

Ok, an eight, not too bad, my enchanted sword 'Shadow Strike' reduces the Difficulty to Hit by one so making it a seven.  Let see my One Handed Weapon talent is a three and my melee combat is also a three, so I select six dice and roll them.  The result is a nice surprise, three successes and even one a crit. "A crit and two successes" I called out.

"A crit? Nice!  Ok, you easily parry the attack and side step beautifully into position to launch your counter attack.  You notice the eyes of the Beastfolk warrior widen in surprise at your quick and smooth counter attack.  Your successful crit forces him to defend at a slight disadvantage", responded the Storyteller.

Ahh, that means the beastfolk difficulty to defend went up by one, good now if I can get a good hit in I might cause some Damage.  Since my one handed sword talent is a three, my chance to hit is a seven, then my sword Shadow Strike reduces my hit chance to  six.  Adding again the melee combat of three, my six dice roll result netted me three successes only so I respond "three successes, no crits or botches."

"Three huh? Good strike!"  The Storyteller picks up a handful of dice and rolls them, thinking a bit then says "because of your quick counter attack catching the Beastfolk warrior by surprise he manages only two successes while attempting to Dodge your attack.  If you didn't get that crit in that parry, he would have dodge that strike with four successes.  Alright then, let's see how much damage you can cause."

Great! Finally got a hit in!  Lets see, my combat strength is a three and Shadow Strike gives a bonus of plus one, and the single hit success that got though gives me a total of five dice to roll.  Selecting my five favorite colored dice and shake vigorously while praying 'Come on lady luck give me some crits!'  Looking at the five dice the result wasn't bad so I spoke up "three successes, no crit or botches."

"Three again?" I see the Storyteller pause to think for a bit before selecting another handful of dice, with a quick shake and toss and bending over the dice to check the results.  "Nice!" was his reply,

Damn I thought, the bastard soaked the damage!

I see the Storyteller looked up from his dice and smiled at me and states "one crit and two successes. Your amazing counter attack slams home on the the Beastfolk warriors neck!  However instead of your blade sweeping though the neck, it felt like it hit a iron block and Shadow Strike bounces off leaving only a small paper cut on his neck.  The Beastfolk warrior gives you an evil grin and prepares to launch another attack on you.

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"Johnbedamage, your up!  You took a hit from the that Beastgirl's glowing knife in the last exchange so your on the defensive as you clutch your bleeding side while trying to keep the her away with your sword.  The Beastgirl licks her knife with your blood on it and says 'your friend ain't bad with a sword, but his strength is too weak to hurt brother Ironfang.  Your even weaker, so now die!'  With a handful of dice the Storyteller shakes and rolls them, peering at the result and states with a disappointed expression "A crit but is canceled out with a botch, so the Beastgirl's Swift Slash attack only has a single success this time."

"Piece of cake to dodge that!" states Johnbedamage while selecting from his multi colored pool of dice before shaking and tosses, "Ha! two successes to dodge, since I successfully dodged I wont attack but drink a Healing Potion instead."

The Storyteller ask "what type of healing potion did you drink?"

"I took a lot of damage already so I'll use a Str 6 potion" answered Johnbedamage.

"Ok! the difficulty is four then, let see the results" replied the Storyteller.

I watch Johnbedamage carefully select six dice from the bowl of colored dice again and with a strong shake and his usual prayer 'come on baby, give me a some high rolls!" and tosses the dice. Quickly leaning over to count the results, he gives a quick jab in the air and yells proudly "One crit and three successes!"

The Storytellers eyebrow raises up and says "The crit seals that Critical Wound on your side and it stop Bleeding.  Your Injured status is returned to normal as the rest of your wounds heal quickly from the disgusting tasting healing potion that you cant get enough of.  The beastgirl frowns at you and complains 'that's your second potion you drank, I wonder how many potions you have left before I can kill you.'" With that the Storytelling shakes a handful of dice while grinning.

Then he looks over to Shadow and says "Your out of actions this Turn so you take a Free Hit from the Tigerbeast" then rolls the dice.  "A free hit ignores this one botch..." he pulls the offending die off to the side, after a bit of thought says "..so the Tigerbeast lunges forwards and swipes at your belly.  As the paw lands on your belly, you feel the claws dig in and tries to rip your belly open with two successes."  The Storyteller quickly select another handful of dice and rolls, quickly calculating the results and looking at Shadow "your in bad luck, four successes no crits or botches."

I see the half dead Shadow grit his teeth and begins counting his black and red dice.  With a long shake, Shadow let the dice fly.  Peering at the results, Shadow's face show a flicker of annoyance and says "I took another level of damage and now at Wounded."

"So you manage to soak three levels with your Toughness and Light Armor. Ok! Wounded huh? So you lose two Actions next turn as your battered body starts to reach it's limit.  The Tigerbeast claws dig into your side, but you manage to twist away so that the claws only managed to rip three inch gashes on your left waist thus managing to avoid getting your entire belly ripped wide open.  The Tigerbeast's eyes widen in surprise that you manage to avoid taking serious damage yet again," the Storyteller voice is tinged with disappointment.

"Blazing Glory! What are you going to do?" the Storyteller turns his attention last person playing tonight.

"I'm going to throw a Firebolt at the Tigerbeast." answered Blazing Glory. "But this time I'm going to use Added Effect for an extra duration for Burning Damage."

"Oh, finally getting a little creative," observed the Storyteller.

"Yeah, if I don't help Shadow soon he might die," replied Blazing Glory and then start selecting carefully from his favorite colored dice.  He quick slams down the cup and peers at the results and mutters "three successes, no crits or botches."

"What up with all with three successes, no crit or botches today?" remarked Shadow.

"Interesting, Shadow you can buy the Forbidden Knowledge Merit for 20 Souls."