Big Po - Hungry Hungry Sumotori
Michelangelo - Friendly Capoeirista
Roberto King - Murderous Dagger Fighter
Dan da Ying - Helpful Eagle-Stylist
Midnight Raid, Harris Farmstead
From the barn, the party watched the five riders on the hill as they approached the Harris farmstead, but nobody was able to make out whether they were Navajo in the darkness. Two of them rode forward and fell for the party's traps; one was clotheslined off his horse, while the other rode into a trench and was sent tumbling. Before the riders could regain their footing, Po and Roberto charged them; Dan and Mike still weren't sure they were hostile, and held back. One of the riders who had held back shouted "What's happening down there?" in English, and drew an arrow.
Po ran up to the guy who had ridden into the hole and grabbed him, and another rider started to charge his horse downhill. Mike ran to attack the other one, and Po threw his victim on the ground behind himself for "somebody else to deal with" and got ready to deal with the charge. With his comrade out of the way, the rider with a bow fired an arrow at Po, but missed, and the prone rider struggled to his knees and readied his spear.
The charging rider rode into another of the rope traps, and though he managed to stay on his horse, his charge was halted. Dan ran up to the guy behind Po and feinted, then kicked him unconscious. Mike held his ground and Evaluated, while Roberto charged with his knives at the spearman, but was parried. Po continued moving towards the horseman who'd been stopped by the rope trap, but their leader said something in a language none of them spoke (Mike figured it was Italian), and the three riders still on horseback turned and fled.
The spearman tried to jump onto his horse, but failed his Quick Mount roll, and ended his turn with his foot stuck in the stirrup, and his back exposed to Roberto. Mike shouted at the riders and asked if they were the navajo, then Roberto Giant Stepped behind the spearman and easily dispatched him; his horse ran away, but did not drag him along. Dan tried to chase after the riders, but was unable to keep up.
Interrogation
Mike went and grabbed a lantern to get a better look at their prisoners, and discovered that they were both Italian (which is to say, not Navajo). Roberto woke up "the one with the neck wounds", and asked him who he was, who he worked for, where their base was, and if he had any children who would miss him, but failed his Intimidation. In a heavy accent, the rider obviously lied that his name was Running Deer, that he was a member of the Navajo who lived in the valley to the north, and that he had many horrible children.
While the party argued over what to do, Mike headed over to the farmhouse and knocked on the door. In hilarious old-timey pajamas and holding a candle, Harold Harris came to the door, and Mike asked him if their prisoners' appearance matched the black riders. Harold said that yeah, they had heavy accents and tanned skin. Mike then asked him to describe the Navajo, and he replied that while he'd never seen one personally, he'd been told that they were 8' tall with razor-sharp teeth. He asked what was going on, and Mike said they'd stopped a raid. Harold gave him another squash as payment, then headed back to sleep.
Having failed with conventional means, Roberto tried Hypnotic Hands, but failed. Mike got the horse that had fallen into the pit out of the hole, and noticed that it had a spear and shield attached to the saddlebags. The party argued for a while about what to do with the prisoners, and ultimately decided to tie them to a tree (Dan's player wanted to kill them, but he has Charitable, and that swung the vote), then free the captured horse and follow it back to the others. They all mounted up, except for Dan, whose horse was sick, and rode/jogged out.
Recon
Just before dawn, the party crested a hill and saw a sturdy wooden fort to the north in the valley ahead, with a reinforced door facing them; Mike quickly grabbed the loose horse's reins so it wouldn't make it back to its masters. Except for a river that passed just a few metres east of the fort, the valley was completely flat, and there was no cover within 100m of the fort's walls. Roberto scouted around to see if there would be a better approach from another angle, but found that, unless they wanted to swim, they'd be running across open terrain.
The party debated whether it would be better to make camp now, and attack at nightfall, but decided against it, as they would likely be found if the black riders sent out any scouting parties (multiple PCs having Overconfidence was also a factor). The party tried to come up with a plan other than "run directly at them and climb the walls", and settled on having Po swim up ("Huh, I have Swimming 20"), Power Blow the door open, and then the others would charge.
Charge!
Like a stealthy whale, Po swam up to the fort unnoticed, and then snuck along the outside of the wall to the door, which he discovered was unlocked. As he peeked inside, the others saw that the door was open, and started their charge, Mike and Roberto on horseback, Dan on foot. Po heard guards on the walls shout out an alarm, and strolled through the gates, surprising three soldiers in black leather with spears and shields who had been running to reinforce the walls. Throwing his robe to the wind, he announced that their dishonest deeds had finally caught up to them, and charged.
From the walls, the guards loosed the first volley of arrows at the charging party; only one arrow was on target, and Mike dodged that with an acrobatic dismount. Po All-Out Slammed into the middle soldier, and knocked him out, then was stabbed twice by the others (one of whom crit), but didn't take enough damage to care. He then followed up by grappling the soldier on his right and throwing him to the ground with a Rapid Strike Takedown.
Mike reached full speed and overtook Roberto's horse, while Dan fell further behind, and the guards missed with another volley. Po made a Committed Kick at his prone foe's ribs, knocking him out, then narrowly dodged the last soldier's spear. He then put the last soldier into a bear hug, which was enough to end the fight. Another volley was loosed, and thanks to the party running closer, this time an arrow managed to hit Roberto, though he stayed in the saddle.
Despite an Acrobatic Dodge, Dan was hit by an arrow, but kept running, while Mike and Roberto made it within the walls just in time to see Po running up the stairs to their left. Roberto followed Po upstairs, while Mike decided to split the party and went to investigate the only wooden building inside the fort, figuring it important. Po made it to the top of the stairs, and the archers turned to face him, dropping their bows in favour of spears and shields.
Mike kicked open the door to the building, and saw two men readying sword and shield as well as a women in white leather behind a heavy desk grabbed her bow (Roberto: "Ah, she's one of the Weapon Masters" Me: "Yep! They're always in the fancy room."), then told anyone who was innocent to leave immediately. Dan dodged another arrow before making it inside the fort, and ran over to help Mike.
Upstairs, the two soldiers with shields ready held their ground, Waiting, while the third grabbed a spear in two hands, getting ready to stab over them. Po and Roberto figured they'd already lost the element of surprise, and spent a turn entering Teamwork. Mike moved in close and kicked at one of the swordsmen's feet, but his Rapid Strikes were parried and blocked. The woman readied and loosed an arrow in an instant, revealing that she was a Heroic Archer, but Mike managed to dodge out of the way, and it missed Dan behind him.
Dan moved up, careful to avoid line of sight to the woman inside, and Mike fell back to enter Teamwork with him. All of their foes held their ground, continuing to Wait. Mike walked in to the building again, dodged an arrow, then parried a pair of slashes to the legs, and Feinted one of the swordsmen for 5 degrees. Back on the walls, Po All-Out Dodged and charged in, taking two spear attacks, which opened the way for Roberto to Giant Step in and stab one of them in the neck.
Notes:
The PCs suspect that the black riders have the "Red Dead Redemption" Perk that lets them whistle and have their horses show up, no matter where they are.
In keeping with "this is a spaghetti western movie" logic, the black rider prisoners are extras, who don't speak English and had their lines dubbed over.
Someone mentioned that because the Black Dragons were evil, clearly the Black Riders was a fakeout and were good. As an aside, they were originally the Red Dragons, but Dan's player kept getting it wrong, and by the time they got to Three Trees everybody was calling them that, so I just went along with it.
While planning the assault, the following exchange occurred:
Mike: "Okay, so me and Dan can Acrobatic Dodge their arrows by running in circles. Roberto, you'll parry missile weapons, and Po-"
Roberto: "I don't have Parry Missile Weapons."
Mike: "What? Didn't you just say you did?"
Roberto: "No, look on my sheet, I don't have... okay, I can Parry Missile Weapons"
Dan has Delusion (I Can Outrun A Horse), so naturally I had to have that come up against the horse gang.
While Mike and Dan struggled with the elite swordsmen and Heroic Archer woman, Roberto's player noted: "We're both fighting groups of three people, which means our fights are equally hard!"
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