Carnage & Aether Playthrough: The Silent Gods, Part 3
Noa’s character sheet for the start of this session: C&A: Noa sessions 1-3.
Hey, everyone! After Noa’s victory against the Skeletal Horrors, it’s time to enter the Downtime Phase and prepare for our next encounter. The book says we fight a match once a month, so we have quite some time to recover.
Downtime Phase
Downtime Event
We start by rolling on the Downtime Event table to see what takes place during this stretch.
D20 Downtime Phase event = 4, **No event.** The Downtime Phase takes place as normal.
Good enough.
Loot
Now, we tally up the spoils obtained during the fight. First, a regular match gives us 5 Dedication points. Up to 145.
Next, components. Regular opponents drop x2 Aspects and d4+1 Materials. Each critical and hit on the head nets us an extra Material, so +2 for us.
D4+3 = 5 Materials obtained.
Let’s check which ones by rolling d6s on their tables.
2d6 Aspects: 3, 6 = x1 Chaos, x1 Shadow
5d6 Materials: 4, 3, 1, 2, 2 = x1 Mineral, x1 Metal, x1 Arcane Dust, x2 Bones
Patron
It’s time to choose our Patron. After the first match, we can pick one of three to pledge allegiance to.
Patrons provide unique gear, blueprints to craft items, and other benefits, like access to the Tattooist so we can ink Masteries permanently onto our bodies instead of slotting into gear and permanent buffs, in exchange of Favor (a resource pool, not to be confused with Favor of the Crowd).
Okla Ironworth is a Patron more suited to melee characters. Jharik Moorwood is the High Priest of the God of Magic, so he has a lot of benefits for magic users. Kyros Geromikos is more exotic, with benefits affecting a diverse range. I’d tag him as a utility Patron.
All three have benefits for all kinds of characters, really, but I think they lean towards specific builds.
For roleplaying and build reasons, I’m going with Jharik, the High Priest. I intend on using Aether and magical abilities, and I kinda like his rewards. Being the High Priest of a god also matches Noa’s lore, right?
Patrons offer a Request when first meeting them. Completing it grants us 20 Favor and 10 Dedication points. Let’s roll on the Patron Requests table:
D10 = 3, Deal 10 critical hits
This will take a while.
Requests don’t expire and can be completed across any number of battles. We can cancel Requests by spending 10 Favor points. Upon completion, we can roll for a new one.
Crafting
Now we can spend our components to craft new gear or insert properties into the pieces we already have.
Unfortunately, I’m not crafting anything or adding properties this time. My plan is to get another Fist weapon to dual wield, but as you can see, I’m missing a Bane Aspect, and I don’t have enough to exchange. I’ll save my components.
I also wanna get a Mastery for dual wielding and a couple others, but I’ll leave it for when we get to it.
My armor was damaged from UD8 to UD6. It uses x1 Material from its required crafting components to fully fix it (as you can see on the table, I can choose either Bone or Scales), but I’ll leave it as is.
At this point, we can also choose to train. Training grants 2 Dedication for every 4 Exhaustion accumulated, but we enter the next match carrying all the Exhaustion gained this way. I don’t know, this never seemed worth it to me.
Skill improvement
Finally, we increase all skills marked for improvement. We are supposed to roll a d100; if we roll over the skill, we increase it by d4. If we roll under, we increase it by 1.
With my house rules, I’m skipping the d100 pre-check and simply rolling my nemesis, the d4.
The only skill marked is Unarmed & Fists.
D4 = 2
Unarmed & Fists increased to 62.
And that’s it for the Downtime Phase.
Arena Phase
Let’s determine the match type.
D8 Match Type table: 4 = Endless Assault
Awesome! I’ve never played this mode before.
Now we roll for the Match Event:
D20 = 3, No event. The match takes place as normal.
The next step is to choose the gear. That’s right, we must pick our equipment before finding out who we’re going against. There’s a Patron Perk that allows us to roll for the enemy first at the cost of 20 Favor.
As I only have the gear I’m wearing, we can move on and check which enemy we’re facing first in this Endless Assault match.
D66 Standard Enemies table = 13, Blightfang Rats
Something new for me again! Never fought these rats.
Now we set up the arena and begin the match!
Combat
Initiative
Noa, d100+15 = 92
Blightfang Rats, d100+30 = 89
Initiative is mine.
Round 1
I move 3 squares east and wait for the rats to come to me. I finish my turn with unspent Stamina.
UD6 Momentum = 1, down to UD4!
Great! If it activates, it will come in handy against 6 enemies. One of them is already adjacent. 4 Speed is a lot!
Round 2
Noa, Unarmed & Fists (72) = 70
Blightfang Rat, Combat Skill (30) = 66, fumble!
Hit location: Right Front Leg
Yes, off to an excellent start! Attack upgraded to crit. We get a Favor of the Crowd, an extra Material, and that advances our Patron Request (deal 10 crits). Not bad, huh?
Whenever we gain a Favor of the Crowd, we also gain 2 Patron Favor. I didn’t mention this in the first fight because we didn’t have a Patron yet.
Slashing Critical Hit = **Flourished Taunt**: The target can only perform physical attacks towards the attacker for the next D4 rounds.
Meh, not very good for us since the rats only have physical attacks anyway. Now let’s deal some double damage. Slashing deals +1 to unarmored body parts, and Blightfang Rats don’t have any. With a crit, it becomes a +2.
2d6 + 2d4 + 2: 3, 3, 1, 5 = 4 damage
Yeah, I rolled two 1s, so one of those got the +2 bonus and became a 3 (remember, flat number bonuses go to the smallest value rolled). But 4 damage is enough to fell the rat!
Killing an enemy with a single strike also grants us a Favor of the Crowd. Since it’s not cumulative, it’s lost here.
I move east and attack the other beast.
Noa, Unarmed & Fists (72) = 62
Blightfang Rat, Combat Skill (30) = 21
Hit location: Hindquarters
We both succeed, but my roll is higher, so I win the confrontation. I’m gonna accumulate 5 Exhaustion (1 Shock) to gain +d4 damage to this attack. I deal 3 damage, killing another nasty rodent.
Note: As a reminder, we can make a Resolve check to reduce Shock accumulation to 1. I’m only gaining 1 here, but I’ll make the checks to try to roll doubles and mark the skill for improvement.
I trade 1 Exhaustion for 1 Stamina, then end my turn to trigger a Momentum check.
UD4 Momentum = 4, no change.
Damn it.
Enemies’ turn. The order of activation is bottom first, left to right, then the next rows. So the southernmost rat comes up and attacks Noa with a Bite, but she defends!
Player Defensive Move: Your opponent receives the Bleeding (1) condition.
Bleeding doesn’t cause direct damage. It also goes through the damage table, and a 1 on the table is 0 damage dealt. To start causing damage, it has to be at least Bleeding (2), so I’ll have to inflict another instance of it.
The rat Bites again. Its teeth only grazed Noa’s right arm, dealing 0 damage. Doesn’t trigger an armor check.
The second rat has to spend 2 Stamina to engage. It Bites, but doesn’t deal any damage as well. It can’t attack again as it only has 3 stamina left.
UD6 Momentum = 1, down to UD4!
Not great. The third rat engages and leaves me Surrounded, getting +20 to its attack checks.
It Bites, but my armor absorbs the damage. No durability lost. Another Bite, and this time I roll a 00, fumbling hard. The hit becomes a crit. I could reroll with FotC, but I want the improvement mark for Dodge.
Crits on PCs cause 2 Shock accumulation, deal double damage, and leave the target Dazed for d4 rounds.
Its damage type is Piercing, which causes +1 when the attack check succeeds and the defense check fails. Doubled, the total is 2d6 + 2.
Endurance check (50) = 53, failed. 2 Shock gained.
D4 Dazed duration = 2
Hit location: Right arm
Damage dealt = 4
Dang it, that’s high. My armor absorbs 1, but I still take 3.
Final rat also spends 2 Stamina to approach, Surrounding Noa as well. It Scratches at her, but deals no damage.
UD4 Momentum = 3, no change.
The tide is slowly turning.
Round 3
Dazed is a pain in the ass. I spend 5 Stamina to use Clear Mind, so now I can act. I hit the rat above for 2 damage. Getting 5 Exhaustion (11, another Shock gained) for 5 Stamina to attack again, I manage to kill the bastard.
Bottom rat Scratches for 1 damage, absorbed by armor. Durability down to UD4. I parry its second attack (Bite).
Player Defensive Move: Your next attack receives an additional +10.
Nice! Rat on the left Scratches for 1 damage. Armor absorbs and gets damaged. No more Protection this fight. With its second action, it uses Rally. Close Burst range means it doesn’t affect the origin square (itself). The other 2 Blightfang Rats gain +1 bonus damage for 2 Rounds.
Third rat Scratches and hits my head, dealing double damage! The Slashing damage type doesn’t activate since my light helmet provides 1 Protection. Base damage is d4 + 2. Rally provides +1. Total damage to roll is 2d4 + 6.
Damaged dealt: 4
Ouch. My helmet reduces it by 1 (helmets don’t have durability, by the way, so they can’t break). Still awful. I’m down to 13 HP.
Its second attack is a Bite, dealing 1 damage.
During this Maintenance Phase, my Dazed is reduced to 1 Round. Since the last rat got a full turn worth of +1 damage, I’ll reduce its Rally bonus by 1 Round. The other rat still has 2 Rounds left.
Round 4
Clear Mind action and I attack the bottom rat. The bastard rolled an 11 for a crit defense check. To hit it, I’d need a higher crit under my skill value.
Enemy Defensive Move: Reduce the PC’s Armor Integrity by one stage.
Well, that’s some relief at least, since my armor is already broken. I’ll rack up 5 Exhaustion to get 5 Stamina. Exhaustion goes up to 16, giving me 2 Shock (6). I hit the rat for 1 damage. Damn it.
Bottom rat misses the first attack and I parry the second.
Player Defensive Move: Your opponent immediately suffers D4 damage that ignores armor.
D4: 1 = 0 damage
Fuck the d4, man.
Rat on the left uses Rally, increasing its allies’ damage to +2 now, then Scratches Noa for 2 damage. Final rat Scratches twice for 5 total damage. I’m down to 7 HP, and I think I won’t make it.
My Dazed is finally gone, and the rat on the right gets its bonus reduced by 1 Round.
Round 5
I kill the bottom rat with my first attack. I slash the one on the right on the head for 6 damage, also killing it! Finally, some respite. And let’s do another 5 Exhaustion (21) for 5 Stamina. Shock hits the first threshold at 8: my movement is reduced to half my Speed.
Note: I rolled a 77 on the Resolve check. A Resolve fumble makes us gain d4 Shock.
D4 = 4. Of course. Total Shock 12.
Aaand that was totally worth it because I rolled a 55! Damn right, another crit. Double damage, FotC, 2 Favor, +1 Material, and Unarmed & Fists marked for improvement.
Slashing Critical Hit = Disembowel: The target is Bleeding (D4) and Dazed for D4 rounds.
D4 Bleeding: 3
D4 Dazed: 1
Damage dealt: 4
No need for status conditions because this nasty bitch is gone. First wave defeated! Holy shit, I did not think it would be this close. With 1 wave defeated, at least I’ll get the regular rewards from the match.
Let’s check what the second wave brings:
D66 Standard Enemies table = 24, Fleshmelt Slime
How long can Noa resist?
Initiative rolls
Noa, d100+15 = 25
Fleshmelt Slime, d100-20 = -9
Hah, I rolled 10 for me and 11 for the slime.
Round 6
I move 1 square to the left and use this turn to reduce my Shock by 2.
UD 4 Momentum = 2, Momentum gained!
The slime rushes forward.
Round 7
I have 10 extra Stamina this turn that I won’t be using, unfortunately. I’ll sit still and reduce my Shock for a further 2 points (down to 8), waiting for the slime.
UD6 Momentum = 6, no change.
The slime rushes again and ends adjacent to Noa.
Round 8
I hit it twice for 5 damage total. 5 Exhaustion (26, +3 Shock), and another attack, which I fumble (99). I spend a FotC to reroll it, getting a 04. I hit it for 4 damage! Rolled a 6 and a 4, not bad. This horrible thing is already down to 9 HP.
The Fleshmelt Slime uses Devour Essence. I pass the Magic Resistance check with a 07 and resist it! It follows with Putrid Eruption, but I pass the Endurance check rolling 06. Noa is on fire right now.
It’s funny, when things start going my way I keep double checking stats, procedures, and sheets to see if I’m not messing anything up. Blackoath games do that to a person.
Round 9
I whittle it down to 4 HP, racking up 5 Exhaustion (31 total) and +2 Shock, which hits the second threshold at 13: I have Disadvantage on all Athletics, Dodge, and Endurance checks. My weapon has the Parrying trait, so I’ll keep using Unarmed & Fists instead of Dodge to defend.
The Fleshmelt Slime uses Corrosive Touch twice, but I parry both times!
Player Defensive Move: You press your advantage, reducing your opponent’s next defensive check by -20.
Player Defensive Move: Your opponent immediately suffers D4 damage that ignores armor.
D4: 1 = 0 damage
Come on!
Round 10
Alright, two more slashes tear this abomination apart. Second wave defeated!
This is awesome, some more loot for us.
D66 Standard Enemies table = 31, Gimfang Wolves
Initiative rolls
Noa, d100+15 = 97
Grimfang Wolves, d100+30 = 118
Rounds 11
The wolves charge in. I just sit waiting and reduce my Shock by 2.
UD6 Momentum = 2, down to UD4!
Round 12
First Grimfang Wolf engages and uses Howl of Terror, but Noa resists. Then its Tearing Bite deals 2 damage.
Noa dodges a Tearing Bite from the second one.
Player Defensive Move: You gain Advantage on your next attack.
It then uses Venomous Bite, dealing 2 damage and causing Poisoned (1).
Like Bleeding, it’s not gonna cause damage now since it’s only 1.
I deal 3 total damage this round, getting 5 Exhaustion (36) and +3 Shock (14). The wolf dodged one of my attacks.
Enemy Defensive Move: The creature gains Advantage on its next attack. If the attack is a magical one, then the PC rolls its Magic Resistance with Disadvantage.
Round 13
I parry a Venomous Bite (DEF Move: Your next attack automatically disables an opponent’s limb, as if it were a targeted strike. This attack deals damage as well.), then a Howl of Terror leaves me Sickened (-10 to all my checks) for 2 rounds.
I fumble defending a Tearing Bite from the second wolf, and the critical hit finally brings Noa down, ending the match.
The crowd cheers and gives her a standing ovation, but she isn’t conscious to see any of it.
Arena Phase is over! After two waves, the day is ours once more.
Honestly, this went better than I expected. Two waves with no new gear or Masteries was pretty good for us. Also lucky that those wolves weren’t the first opponents.
As you probably noticed, things can change fast in the arena. A bad roll, a crit, or a questionable decision alter the course of the match. Nothing is guaranteed.
Downtime Phase next session. We’re definitely crafting some cool stuff and getting new skills.
Thank you very much for reading, and until next time!
Cutscene at the end. Press X to skip.
Spectacle
After her first fight, Noa was led away from the noise, through curtained corridors smelling of incense.
A man waited for her. He was robed in immaculate vestments of deep blues and golds. Rings marked with sigils of Aether adorned his fingers. His sharp eyes measured Noa as she approached.
“I’m Jharik Moorwood,” he said with a calm voice. “I’ve heard about you.”
Noa said nothing.
Jharik smiled. “I value someone who understands the power of silence.”
He offered patronage as one might offer a cup of water. Noa considered it. She would need all the help she could get if she was to climb the Ranks in the arena. She accepted.
Jharik nodded, satisfied. “Survive,” he said. “Do something remarkable. My god enjoys grandeur.”
“My gods demanded blood, but were never impressed. Their reward was abandonment. I’ll give you spectacle, Jharik, as long as you sponsor me. But I serve no god.”
A month later, Noa was led back into the arena.
The first wave arrived with a promise of death, and she answered it with fists raised and teeth clenched.
Fur and fangs swarmed her. Noa moved on instinct, lungs burning. Every breath scraped like broken glass. When the last Blightfang Rat fell bleeding and torn, pain became a distant thing.
The Fleshmelt Slime burst against her. She laughed, loud and hoarse, as her heavy and numb hands struck repeatedly at the creature. Noa had survived worse things in darker places.
When the Grimfang Wolves of the third wave circled Noa, her body betrayed her. Shock coiled her muscles, and as she stepped forward to attack, her vision swam. Her blows flew clumsily toward the lupine enemies.
The last thing she felt was the impact of teeth and weight on top of her. She hit the sand hard, blessed by unconsciousness, and lay still amid blood, filth, and scattered remains.
The crowd, however, stood and roared, stamping the bleachers.
Their voices echoed through Veldonia.
Unlike the gods, they shouted her name.
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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