Welcome back to The Side Event, the series of blog posts that strives to enrich your Nexus experience without selling you more stuff. That’s Scott’s end of the business. I’m the cheapo trying to squeeze the last drop of purpose from a box that’s already chock-full of goodies.
Tying up the Cred-centric trilogy, it is now time for…
The Bitvourer
A deafening metallic rasp rises above the arena’s regular cacophony of sounds. The eyes of Helots, Lanistas, and crowd members alike scan the area, looking for the origin of this strange new sound. Suddenly, it all becomes clear: one of the arena’s side gates has opened, and an avalanche of solid Bits of various sizes, shapes, and colours is now making its way through it, spilling into the combat zone. Few know what the construct even is, let alone its name, but those that do are giddy with anticipation at what the arrival might entail for the coming spectacle. And even those that don’t feel like something well worth the admission price is about to take place…
Trigger: At the end of a turn in which the Crowd Pile counts thirty or more Cred, the Bitvourer enters the arena.
Instructions: Take 30 cred that isn’t currently being used in the game. Roll 1d8 to pick a table edge: 1-2 – North, 3-4 – East, 5-6 – South, 7-8 – West. Place the coins in two equal stacks, on the two centre squares of the chosen edge, or pick two available squares if the centre ones are unavailable. If two adjacent squares aren’t available anywhere on the chosen edge, pick one edge square and one directly in front of it. These are the Bitvourer’s starting spaces.
Effect: After all helots activate, the Bitvourer activates. It aims for the helot with the most current HP. Ties are broken by the Lanista with the most current cred. Roll a die to break further ties. On its turn, the Bitvourer moves up to 4 squares along the shortest available path towards its target. When moving, the stacks pivot around (or jump over, whichever move makes more visual sense to you) one another in an orthogonal fashion (no diagonal moves). The Bitvourer ignores any and all tiles (Blood, Guts, Toxic Waste, Fire, etc.) when it moves, observing all other standard movement rules.
Modifier: Upon reaching its target, each stack that is adjacent to the target makes an appropriate attack based on the amount of coins currently in the stack. The attack is +1 SDS for every 5 coins in the stack. The stacks have no facing, and as such are not affected by attacks against them which require the attacker to stand at a certain spot, relative to the defender’s facing (Rear, Side, etc.). Both stacks need to be dealt 15 damage each in order for the Bitvourer to be taken out, and all damage is dealt to a single stack per attack. Damage dealt to the stacks that does not take the Bitvourer out is removed to the Crowd Pile. Whenever a helot deals enough damage to the final remaining stack in order to reduce it to 0 or fewer total coins, those coins that were dealt as damage during the final attack are awarded to the helot’s controlling Lanista. Then, the Lanista may also fill one TP counter of his choice.
That’s it for this time!
Let us know if you end up using these events in your games and how we can improve/clarify their effects for ease of use/understanding.
Hope it inspires!
Cozzy