Scenario: The Steel Chrysanthemum’s army has come to the gates of Nikesake! Two terrifying monsters lead the charge against the city, rampaging demons with flaming horns... oh, wait, no, those are just bulls with rolls of flaming, oil-soaked straw strapped to their heads.
Still, they're quite frightening, and the ashigaru defenders tasked with holding the gate have fled! It's up to you to step out beyond the gates and defeat these blazing bulls before they can batter the gates down and allow the Steel Chrysanthemum's army to enter the city!
Participants: Four characters.
Imperialist Victory: Defeat 2 Blazing Bulls within 10 rounds to allow the ashigaru defenders to regroup and hold the gate. Victorious characters at Crippled wound rank or above when the bulls are slain gain +0.5 Glory.
Imperialist Bonus: If both Blazing Bulls are defeated by the end of the fifth round, the ashigaru have plenty of time to regroup and force the Steel Chrysanthemum back. The governor rewards characters at Crippled wound rank or above with minor nemurai crafted from fragments of the bulls' horns
Traditionalist Victory: All characters have fled or are at Down, Out, or dead wound ranks, or the combat reaches the end of 10 rounds. The bulls smash through the city gates, allowing Hantei XVI access to Nikesake. He seizes the city, providing him with a stronghold from which to strike at the surrounding area. The Empire gains +50 Traditionalist Points.
Traditionalist Bonus: If both Blazing Bulls are still alive when this event ends, they rampage through the city of Nikesake, inflicting untold damage upon the city and its occupants. The tactic proves so effective that the Steel Chrysanthemum uses it again in the future; many future combat events in this game will include a Blazing Bull in addition to their regular opponents. The Empire gains +20 Traditionalist Points.
Rules: This is a combat thread. Characters should include their Initiative, Stance, and Armor TN in their first post; a character may not change their Stance on the first round of combat. If 30 minutes have passed since the last post and you do not show up as being online on the forum (and you have not contact the GM to let them know you are posting), your character’s actions will be ghosted by the GM to keep the event moving at a steady pace. Please do not join the thread if you cannot commit the time to finish it.
Every character has two rounds of prep time that they can use in their first post to cast spells that do not affect the enemy, activate kata, or so on.
All characters begin the battle 20 feet from the enemy. For the purposes of this event, every participating character is assumed to be in melee.
Characters may flee from the battle as a Complex Action, provided that they are physically capable of movement. Doing so removes them from the combat (and the thread) at the end of the current combat round. Fleeing characters lose Honor as appropriate. Characters with the Overconfident Disadvantage must pass a Perception Trait Roll (TN 20) before taking this action; if they fail, they must choose a different action and cannot further attempt to flee combat for any reason.
Fear 2: At the beginning of combat, each character must test against Fear 2 (Willpower TN 15, character may add their Honor Rank to the total; those who fail suffer -2k0 on their rolls, and those that fail by 15 or more flee from the encounter).
Gate Defense: A character that ends their turn more than 20 feet away from the enemy is pushed back from the battle lines and is removed from combat (and the thread). This counts as fleeing combat, and the character will lose Honor as appropriate.
Advancing Army: At the end of the tenth round of combat, the Steel Chrysanthemum's army will arrive at the gates of the city, forcing the defenders back as any surviving bulls break through the gates. Every character in this event suffers 2k2 damage is removed from combat (and the thread). This does not count as fleeing combat, so characters do not lose Honor for the retreat.