Carnage & Aether Playthrough: The Silent Gods, Part 2
Noa’s character sheet for this session: C&A: Noa sessions 1 and 2.
Time to see what Noa is made of! The first combat in Carnage & Aether is basically a tutorial. We go against x2 Skeletal Horrors, enemies that can only be found during this battle.
Setup
This will be in Deathmatch mode with no events. That’s the most basic mode–simply kill all enemies. To set up the arena, we place 3 pieces of cover anywhere we want, then put each combatant on one side.
Note: we’re actually supposed to roll opposed d10s to see on which side everyone starts, but I skip this during matches without points of interest. We’ll see those in the future.
That’s all the setup required. Let’s start!
Combat
First, we roll Initiative for both sides with an opposed d100 roll, and add the bonuses from each side. This is done only once and stays the same during all combat.
Initiative
Noa, d100 + 15: 21
Skeletal Horrors, d100+10: 31
Enemies go first.
Round 1
We start the round in the Action Phase. I’m assuming those covers don’t block line of sight, so they can see Noa and go straight at her. Their Speed stat is 2, which means they can move 2 squares before spending Stamina to do so. Extra enemy movement costs 2 Stamina (they all have 10 for now, this changes in higher Ranks). They use all their Stamina to get close.
My Speed is also 2. Extra player movement costs 3 Stamina. I’m moving down, away from the Skeletal Horrors, spending 9 Stamina. I wanna delay the engagement, so they still have to move on their next turn to approach, and I can freely attack without spending extra Stamina on movement.
I end my turn with 1 Stamina left. Whenever a character (player or enemy) ends a turn with any amount of Stamina (be it 1 or 100), their side gains a Momentum check. This is a usage die that starts at UD6. Whenever it activates (after a successful UD4 check), that team gains 10 extra Stamina to spend on the next round, then the UD resets to D6.
UD6 Momentum check = 6, no change
That marks the end of the Action Phase. We’re now on the Maintenance Phase, where any status effects, conditions, and general modifiers take place. Nothing to see here, so everyone just recovers Stamina and a new round begins.
Round 2
Each Skeletal Horror moves 5 squares.
We’re finally seeing some action. I move 1 square up and I’m now adjacent to a Skeletal Horror. Standard Actions cost 5 Stamina, so I’ll attack it.
The attack check is an opposed d100 roll. Attackers get a +10 to the skill, so that gives my Unarmed & Fists a score of 70. The enemy has a Combat Skill of 40, which is used to attack and defend. 70 vs 40.
Noa, d100 Unarmed & Fists (70): 86
Skeletal Horror, d100 Combat Skill (40): 91
Both miss! In that case, the higher Skill value wins the confrontation, so that counts as a hit.
Let’s check which part of the enemy we hit. Skeletal Horrors are Humanoids, so we roll on that table:
D20: 17, right arm
Normal hit here. My damage with the Claw is d6 + d4. The type is Slashing, and that deals +1 damage to unarmored body parts. Skeletal Horrors don’t have armor anywhere. Let’s roll it:
d6 + d4 = 2 + 4
Dice bonuses (the d4, for instance, which comes from my ability Iron Fists) are different from flat number bonuses (the +1). I roll the d4 and I get a separate number from the base damage, the d6. Flat numbers are added to the lowest number rolled, so I add it to the 2. That leaves me with a 3 + 4.
Damage is not done directly. We pick those two separate rolls and check the damage table:
A 3 and a 4 are 1 damage each, so 2 total. However, as we hit the enemy but missed the check, our damage is reduced by 1. So I deal only 1 damage this time.
Even though I hit, the check was a miss, so I rule that I gain 1 Determination point.
Determination is a type of resource pool. We can spend it on Desperate Moves, powerful attacks with drawbacks. We gain 1 point each time we miss an attack (melee, ranged, or magical).
I still have 5 Stamina left, so I’ll attack again. All subsequent defensive reactions from the same character get a -20 reduction to all skills. The Skeletal Horror is now defending with a score of only 20. As you can tell, it gets easier to hit as the turn goes by.
Noa, Unarmed & Fists (70): 84
Skeletal Horror, Combat Skill (20): 64
+1 Determination
The dice are annoyed today. Still a hit, so I’ll take it. I slash its left arm for a whopping 1 damage again.
Instead of ending my turn, I’m gonna accumulate some Exhaustion to get extra Stamina.
Exhaustion is another resource pool. Some situations force Exhaustion gain, but it’s mostly a player decision to do it, and it doesn’t cost an Action. At certain thresholds, the Exhaustion gained turns into Shock, which also has thresholds with bad effects. At 23 Shock accrued, we collapse and lose the battle.
I’m getting 5 Exhaustion, receiving my first Shock. We can make a Resolve check to reduce all Shock gained during an instance to only 1. I’m already gaining only 1, but I’ll make the check anyway because rolling doubles in this game marks the skill for improvement later.
Resolve check (60): 95, failed.
No biggie. With 5 more Stamina, I’ll attack the skeleton bastard again. This time, it has no skill value left, so its only chance is if I fumble (rolling doubles above the score) or miss and it rolls a 01.
Noa, Unarmed & Fists (70): 37
Skeletal Horror, Combat Skill (0): 77, fumble!
Well, look at that! I hit, and the enemy fumbles. That upgrades my attack to a critical hit!
Critical hits grant us Favor of the Crowd and +1 Material harvested after combat. Favor of the Crowd allows us to reroll any of our checks. It isn’t cumulative though. We can only have 1 at any given time, so if we get another before spending this one, it’s wasted.
Ok, let’s unfold this critical hit. First, hit location. I roll chest. Next, we roll a d10 on our Damage Type critical table. Slashing for us:
D10 Slashing Critical table = 10, **Decapitation**: The target receives triple damage instead of double.
Ohhh, I knew that these high rollers today would come in handy. That’s awesome. That leads us to the next part of a crit: it doubles the dice we roll for damage and all its bonuses. But it’s triple now. We’re rolling 3d6 + 3d4 + 3. Come on, Noa, show these undead bitches what you’re made of:
3d6 + 3d4 = 1, 3, 4, 1, 6, 5
A 1 doesn’t deal damage, so we take one out, and the other gets the +3. That’s 7 damage dealt! One Skeletal Horror dispatched in the glorious slash of a shoddy bone claw, used by hands abandoned by gods but blessed by fury.
That’s it for Round 2.
Round 3
The remaining skeleton acts. But what can it do against such reckless hate? It moves in and attacks Noa.
All enemies have an Action table. We roll on it to see what move they use.
D6 = 1, Cursed Slash
As you can see on its sheet, that’s a regular attack that deals d8 damage. My Dodge is 55, but I get a +10 bonus during this first one due to my Evasive Strike ability (when an attack hits, the next defensive check gets a +10).
SH, Combat Skill (50): 57
Noa, Dodge (65): 62
Dodged! When we defend an attack, we roll for a bonus on the Defensive Move table, but only when the check is successful.
Player Defensive Move table
D10 = 7, You gain Advantage on your next attack.
Awesome! Advantage gives us the option to switch the tens and ones of the roll if it benefits us.
The Skeletal Horror attacks again.
D6 = 5, Ethereal Grasp
That’s a magical attack. Magic doesn’t need a skill check to hit or to determine a body part. Instead, the target has to roll against Magic Resistance to avoid or reduce the effects. Magic Resistance works as a kind of passive skill. It’s static, meaning it doesn’t increase by rolling doubles, only by other means like gear and Masteries, and it isn’t affected by the -20 during consecutive reactions.
Noa, Magic Resistance (40): 59, fail
I’ll use **Favor of the Crowd** to reroll it: 28, success!
The skeleton grabs Noa by the throat to sap her life to itself, but she quickly dodges under the glowing hand.
Noa’s turn. Skeletal Horrors have the Frightening trait:
I make a Resolve check again, but no doubles. 1 Shock gained (2 total, first threshold is at 8).
Let’s attack the enemy.
Noa, Unarmed & Fists (70, Advantage): 17
SH, Combat Skill (40): 86
Hit location: Head
Finally, a true hit! And great news, I hit the enemy’s head, which is a weak spot for Humanoids. That means I cause double damage! I also get an extra Material.
Noa deals 5 damage! Huge hit. Let’s keep it going with another attack:
Noa, d100 Unarmed & Fists (70): 100, fumble!
SH, d100 Combat Skill (20): 87
+1 Determination
It was bound to happen, right? Unarmed & Fists gets marked for improvement (100 is 00, doubles).
Let’s roll on the Player Attack Fumble table to see what happens:
D10 = 4, A random item from your belt breaks.
Great! We don’t have any items on our belt–we don’t even have a belt!–so we move on.
Good round. Noa knows what she’s doing here.
Round 4
The Skeletal Horror hits a Cursed Slash on Noa’s abdomen. It deals 1 damage, which the Hide Scale armor absorbs. Armor covers all body parts except for the head, which is protected by the helmet.
All physical hits trigger a durability check for armor. The Hide Scale starts at UD8:
UD8 Hide Scale durability check = 5, resisted.
When a UD4 activates rolling 1 or 2, the armor is damaged. We lose its protection during the current battle. Its other effects, like the skill bonus it provides and the properties slotted into it, remain until combat ends. In future battles, however, none of its effects activate until the armor is repaired.
D6 Action table: 3, Cursed Slash
SH, Combat Skill (50): 36
Noa, Dodge (35): 82 > FotC reroll > 95
Location: Right arm
D8 Slashing damage: 5 = 2 damage dealt
Another Cursed Slash, this time dealing 1 damage after Protection. Armor durability decreased to UD6.
Ok, Noa’s turn. Another Shock accrued (3).
Noa, Unarmed & Fists (70): 50
SH, Combat Skill (40): 96
Location: Right arm
d6 + d4 + 1: 6 + 2 = 3 damage dealt
Noa’s bone claw tears the skeleton limb right off, and she finishes the enemy with a hook that sends its skull flying to the bleachers. The crowd erupts in uproar.
Arena Phase is over! The day is ours!
I have to say, this was a very clean fight, fumbles and all. Remember though, this is basically the tutorial. It’s unlikely that we’ll see Noa mopping the arena floor with the enemies like that.
I was gonna start the Downtime Phase here, but I’ll leave it for next session. This is already sitting at over 2k words. We’ll loot the enemies, choose a Patron, and craft some new stuff for Noa later.
As you can see, I wasn’t kidding when I said the game was crunchy. You get used to it, though. To me, the intricate mechanics, tables, and rolls make sense because the meat of the game is combat. The other huge part, build making, serves to feed the combat. This makes Carnage & Aether a truly focused experience. I’ve never tried such deep and satisfying fighting procedures like these.
And we haven’t seen a lot of what combat has to offer. There are fumbles and crits to every skill, Bloodied mechanics, tons of status conditions, and more. Hopefully we’ll see all that in the coming sessions.
I’m gonna leave a small fiction segment to inject some color into Noa and the narrative. I mean, like in the Monster Hunter games, I’m not into it for the story, but I like writing it, and a lot of people seem to enjoy it. I’m leaving it at the end, so like a good cutscene full of love and labor, it’s easily skippable.
If you’re familiar with C&A and noticed any mistakes, please let me know! If you have questions about procedures or rules, leave a comment and I’ll be happy to help.
I hope you enjoyed this first combat and it made you interested in the game.
The Last Defiance
The skeletons dragged their feet through the sand, coming at Noa. Their empty eye sockets burned with bloodlust, but they looked small, shorter than her. Were they… children? Were they mocking her? Was this battle arranged to humiliate her, exposing her failures and the lies that followed?
The bone claw bit into Noa’s palm as her anger spiked. It was a poorly balanced weapon, crude, barely more than a shard. She never relied on weapons, though.
In the dark places where rites were once murmured, Noa learned that weapons and tools failed. Knives dulled, icons shattered, and candles guttered. When things inevitably went wrong, it was her bare hands that finished the work. Hands that held the sacrifices still. Hands that broke bindings, dragged bodies, struck down those who resisted.
The Skeletal Horrors closed in, and Noa met them the same way she met clerics and zealots: fists up, shoulders squared, knees bent. Each blow was a reminder that she still stood, and the silence in her heart wouldn’t stop her.
Pain flared, and shock crept in. The crowd roared, but it sounded like faraway thunder. She didn’t care for them, nor for the gods who had forsaken her. She didn’t fight for their cheer.
Noa fought because surviving was the last defiance left.
When the skeletons fell apart under her fists, she stood amid scattered bones, chest heaving. She felt nothing.
However, someone in the crowd did.
From behind gilded railings, beyond the reach of the mob, a pompously dressed figure watched her.
Noa felt the familiar weight of interest falling on her.
The figure beckoned her closer and, unlike the gods, spoke to her.
Carnage & Aether is available on Itch, DTRPG, and as POD on Amazon.
I’m playing using some personal house rules: Carnage & Aether House Rules.
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