The Seasonal Arena - Winter

[Cyric the Mad]

Cold bitter wind pushed thin wafts of snow across the flat white plain. Winter’s hold on the land was firm, and already a blanket of thick snow prevailed as far as could be seen. Underneath this blanket of snow a figure shifted, and a thin elf rose.

Squinting against the sun, Thriidyn of Coeth-Mara tried to make some sense of his surroundings. Framing part of the horizon with his hands, he said, “It looks like someone’s face.” Finding his helm buried in the snow in front of him, he placed it gingerly on his head, questioning to himself why the helm seemed to be missing a horn. After his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the scene, he noticed that what once looked flat and featureless now seemed to be surrounded on all sized by high-sided walls and five tiers of stands – he appeared to be in an arena.

“I remember an arena such as this,” he said. “There were many dwarves and a lot of yelling.” Turning to face the head of the arena, he said “A skill of courage and of skill.” A vision flashed suddenly in his mind of combatants the world over fighting for glory and for honor. “Ah yes,” Thriidyn said to the wind. “It is beginning.”

At the head of the arena, two robed figures silently nodded.

*****************************

I am looking for sixteen characters maximum, places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. If there is an odd number then I will enter one to make up the numbers.

How to enter

You are allowed to use any Lord or Hero character from any of the current army books, this includes any official and legal supplements (ie SOC or Lustria). Below you will find a list of rules on how things work, however there are a few limits on your characters.

• Each character must be named
• They must be legal and cost no more than 250pts in total
• They cannot ride monstrous mounts (mounts with more than one wound)
• No special characters
• All Hero Choices may select 100pts of magic items, rather than the usual 50.

In addition, each one much be accompanied by a background and a description of them for my write ups. Failure to do so will result in myself taking liberties with your entrée – such as an ugly, hunchbacked elf for example. -__^

To enter you reply in this thread, along with:

• Name [of character]
• Background
• Equipment
• Total cost

[NB: DO NOT post rules for items. I have all current army books and can easily find out what each does myself. If I am unsure, then I will PM you]

Rules

Equalizers

• Tomb Kings: Tomb Kings and Princes get 25pts extra – they may not exceed their magic item limit.
• Strigoi and Blood Dragon Vampires get 25pts extra – they may not exceed their magic item limit.
• Von Carstein and Lahmian Vampires get 35pts extra – they may not exceed their magic item limit.
• Skaven Warlords may go up to 20pts over their magic item limit providing that they do not exceed 250pts in total. The Appendix Plague Lord is no longer permitted: he is replaced by the Plague Lord from the Lustria book. Those who want to use a Plague Lord but only have the Skaven book can PM me for the stats.
• Empire characters who do not take a Runefang may go up to 20pts over the magic item limit providing that they do not exceed 250pts in total.
• Wood Elf characters get 20pts extra – they may not exceed their magic item limit.
• Exalted Daemons get 40pts extra – they may not exceed their magic item limit. For the purposes of the Daemonic Aura, Daemonic Legion Exalted Daemons (with non-cancellable auras) are allowed.
• Chaos characters can take the marks of Tzeentch and Slaanesh for free.
• Bretonnians must pray to gain the Blessing, allowing their opponent to charge them and gain all the benefits thereof in the first round of each combat. A Bretonnian player who does not wish to pray should specify this before the match is rolled.

Against Incantations/Bound Items, you get 1 dispel dice (2 if you’re a dwarf or have the Mark of Khorne or an Empire Warrior Priest/Arch-Lector) Only bound spells allowed are those that are combat orientated, all others are banned.

Additional Rules

Gaze of the Gods - Same points cost, before the battle roll a D6 - 1 = you get a 6+ ward, 2-3 = you get a 5+ ward, 4-6 = you get a 4+ ward. Such is the fickle nature of chaos.

Warpstone amulet - Same points cost, but roll to see if you die BEFORE the fight instead of afterwards.

Killing Blow - If a character scores a KB hit then this is how damaged will be worked out: D2+n

(n stands for the number of original wounds the character had minus two. This gives a 50% chance of killing a character off.)

Empire Prayers - All prayers work as normal, but Unbending Righteousness is not available and the Soulfire pray does D3 hits, not D6.

Dwarfs – Any dwarf lord entered may be mounted upon shieldbearers, all rules and restrictions apply as per usual.

BANNED ITEMS

The following items are banned, they are found to be too powerful or have an unfair advantage in an Arena of Death game.

• Tress of Isolde
• Sword of Fate
• Van Horstmann's Speculum
• The Daemon Sword
• The Fellblade
• The Bane Head
• The Grudge Rune
• The Talisman of Saphery
• Kurbog's Curmudgeonly Klobbera
• Virtue of Confidence
• Annoyance of Netlings

Also, any item that includes in its rules "nominate one enemy character" is illegal.

How it works

If you have never fought in one of these, the point is to pit two characters against one another, one on one. In all essence it is a duel [challenge] in a normal game but with a few differences. Namely, they’re trapped in an arena with the only way out is to kill or be killed.

There is no magic phase or shooting phase, but bound spells are allowed if they are combat orientated. I [KU] will roll a match up between two characters until one perishes. The one who remains standing will be the victor and progress to the next round.

The battles will be represented by a ‘story’ format written by myself and following that will be a note of how many wounds were caused by each other in each round. For example:

[ (i) CA: # CB: # (ii) CA: # CB: # ] etc

[CA = Character A, CB = Character B, (x) = Round number (#) = Number of wounds caused]

Combat

- Strike First

- First round of combat
In the first round of combat, both warriors count as charging for the purposes of lances and other special rules. If neither warrior has a 'strike first' ability (or a 'strike last' ability), the person with the highest Initiative will strike first. If both warriors are equally entitled to strike first (usually because they have equal initiative), striking order will be determined randomly.

- Later rounds
In later rounds of combat, neither warrior gets charging bonuses (pretty obvious ). Strike order will be determined using the same system as in the first round of combat - however, in cases of equal initiative, the die to determine strike order is not rolled. Instead, the person who struck first last time will strike first again, combat alternating between each warrior.

- After the Fight
After the fight, the victor advances to the next round. Any wounds they suffer are healed, as well as any other effects (such as the manbane poison: or anything else that permanently reduces statistics). It is as if the last fight never happened!

Psychology

- Break tests
Break tests are ignored in the Arena (where are they going to run in a ring of death?). Other psychology that may force an opponent to flee from combat is also ignored. THERE IS NO WAY TO FLEE IN AN AOD. For this reason, panic, unbreakable and Stubborn also have no effect.

In addition, undead warriors ignore the rule that causes them to take wounds from combat resolution. In a similar manner, daemonic characters do not suffer from instability.

- Fear
Fear is handled similarly to normal. In the first round of combat, a warrior facing a fearsome foe will take a Ld test. If he fails, he will hit on 6+ for that round of combat.

- Hatred
Hatred is also handled as normal. The warrior will re-roll failed 'to hit' rolls against hated foes.

- Stupidity
Each turn the warrior will take a Ld test. If failed, a further die will be rolled. On a 1-3, the warrior will not strike, on a 4+ they will strike as normal.

- Frenzy
While there's nowhere to run, you can still have the confidence and fighting frenzy knocked out of you, and therefore models do lose frenzy as normal.

***** Organiser's Note *****

Alrighty, folks. As you all are aware St. Kuff is currently occupied with all of that "important" stuff that real life keeps throwing at him, and that I have volunteered to keep a couple of his projects running. And here we are. We missed the Fall arena, but oh well. My own planned start of this was delayed somewhat until I picked up the new High Elf book, but now we're off and running. I'll try to do this as well as Kuffy did, but no promises.

I personally will not enter, unless it is required to make the numbers up to sixteen but I thoroughly encourage you all to take part. I must point out, this is basically a "who can make the best and hardest character" event and is all in the name of fun. I will try to do all the rolling and write ups quickly, as not to keep you all stuck waiting.

I hope to see you there!

If there are any problems, then please use PMs to inquire and I shall try my hardest to answer them fully.

Most of these rules are taken from a great AOD based website: http://z13.invision free.com/Rezephua/index.php (remove the space to finish the URL) And so all are referenced in order not to confuse and make out they’re mine.

[mpdscott]

Groshnak Skulsmasha - Black Orc Warboss
Bored with following Grimgor, Groshnak has left to start his own mob, and has found his way to the Winter Arena.

Heavy Armor
Martog's Best Basha
Spiteful Shield
Warboss Umm's Best Big Boss's 'At
Boar

Cost: 245

(I know it's not much of a background, but I'm not an Orc player, so it's good enough for me)

[DavidVC04]

I'll play only if it's needed. I've participated in the last two and would prefer someone else get a shot to play.

[Demandred]

Hrothgar Mawseeker the Ever-Hungry

Hrothgar is by no means an intellectual, its actually quite surprising that he can even walk and breath at the same time, let alone the cunning way he fights. He has two focus's in life, to fill his gut with fresh meat, and to fight anything he comes across to fulfill his first focus. He was kicked out of his tribe years ago for being both too violent and moronic (even for an ogre) and has been wandering the old world ever since, terrorizing any settlement he comes across.

Don't let his drooling moronic look fool you, he is the veteran of many a battle and has a collection of "Shiny Fings," some of which are merely pretty bits of glass and metal, others of which are powerful arcane artifacts that lend him aid in a fight. He also wields a massive iron-bound tree trunk that he uses to smash the life out of his enemies.

Hrothgar has come to the Arena of Death on accident, before viciously attacking the arena organizers it was somehow made clear to him that if he participated in the arena there would plenty of both of his favorite things in life, fighting and fresh meat. Who knows, maybe one of the spectators will get too close and he might get a free snack....

Tenderiser
Heavy Armor
Greedy Fist
Wyrdstone Necklace
Mawseeker Bigname
Spiky Bits (Counts as 2 Sword Gnoblars)

Total: 244 pts

[Arklite]

Och! i be in for this battle of yours! i shall post up my character shortly.

[S-N]

Here's my Entry, I did the Spring one, and Reshep-Ka needs revenge...

Reshep-ka the Flayer
Tomb King

+Destroyer of Eternities
+Hand Weapon
+Light Armour

273pts.

Reshep-Ka was a rebel in his time. He led the fiercest, most blood thirsty band of Raiders south of the badlands. He was feared all across Khemri, his name was frequently used to scare children into obeying their mothers. For good reason to. He would spend hours, sometimes days, torturing the prisoners he caught alive, delighting in their pain. Every conceivable torture method was personally used by him. Racks, poison, even emotional pain. When the time came to kill his prisoner, he slowly flayed their skin, sometimes taking hours. It was said he had such a skill that he could keep them alive until the last bit was removed, at which case he would sent the locusts. After he was finished with this grusome task, he would drape himself in their fresh skin. Never a battle began nor ended in which there was not fresh skin. He carries a massive falchion, The Remover of Limbs, which is also draped in the Flesh of his enemies.

Note: He will only use his weapon's special ability if he has one wound or hits on a 2+ or 3+

[Blood_Blade]

++edit++

Right you are Cyric, thats what I get for trying out an army I know little about Here's my legal character

Kal'Rion (Wood Elf Highborne)

Son of Azamai and of noble blood, Kal'Rion was thought to have the potential for being one of the great warriors of his time. However it was not to be, Kal was a fan of wandering off when his father tried to teach him the elven ways, and spent much of his time talking to the tree spirits, of which many in the sacred woods of Althel Loren were always willing to spin a story for the young noble.

As Kal grew distant from his clan he began to improve his woodsmen skills (as all Wood Elves are want to do), and spent many decades secluded within Athel Loren. Over this time Kal grew tall and strong, reaching about a hand taller than a normal elf, and practicing weilding the Spirit Sword of his house, a departing present from his father. His clan, and the noble bloodline in particular, was well known for this legendary weapon, young nobles seen with a strong will and undieing determination would be taught how to use this fey weapon, creating a fearfully destructive syncronization of Elf and magic.

One evening Kal heard the sounds of battle comming from deeper within the forest, and rushed to help his bretheren. When he got there he found it to be non other than his clan, which he had left all those years ago. Shocked at this realization, Kal almost didn't recognize the invaders; twisted forms of man and beast that should never have been, Chaos was attacking his village, although it looked more like a slaughter. Kal rushed to help his people, pushing back the invading beastmen. Alas, Kal came too late, the only one left alive: his mortaly wounded fauther. With his dieing words Azamai charged Kal with the task of avenging his clan, and slaughtering the great enemy.

Deeply moved by these incidents, Kal's once childish houmor vanished, along with pity and fear. Now Kal is only in search for those responsible for the sacking of his clan, and believes Deceiver the Beast Lord to have been one of the Commanders of the raid. Armed with the treasures of his clan, Kal has set out from Althel Loren to compete in the Arena, with hopes of meeting the Beastman that is responsible for his endless hate.

++disclamer++ this is the first peice of fluff I have ever written, so please excuse any quirks or writing faults ++disclamer++

Highborne
-Spirit Sword
-Armour of the Fey
-Alter Kindred

Total: 270 pts

[Archnomad]

Right add me in, i will plonk up my character in a tad.

[Archnomad]

Grand Count Kheldar of the Knights of Blood

Count Kheldar had often heard of the Arena of Death. Yes, his master had constantly said it was a place of martial prowess. He has always spoken of how it was where any true Vampire would go. Except he never did, that lousy excuse for a Vampire now never would, not since Kheldar killed him with his own sword.

Stealing his masters Sword, Shield and Tome of Death, and map, he set off for the fabled Arena of Death......

Sorry about that:

BD Vampire Count
Crown of the Damned
Great Weapon
Heart Piercing
Shield
274

[Tyrannis]

Grimni Flamesword

Grimni was a mighty Lord, and he has often heard tales of a place known as the Arena of Death. It was said that anyone who won the tournament would be given enough mead and lovely lasses to last a lifetime. Of course, Grimni was encouaged by many to enter this Arena of Death, as he was a very powerful and fierce Dwarf, not to be judged by his shortness, but by the length of his beard and ways of battle.

Dwarf Lord
Hand Weapon
Shield
Rune of Might
Rune of Striking
Master Rune of Steel
Rune of Stone
Rune of Fire
Rune of Speed

248 points