Crapstorm: A New Game: Because... Why Not?

Day 2
Time: 6:57pm

You are fighting a pack of Yahtzee dice.

Round 8B
Melkor's Ghost catches the three.
A die rolls toward Ward. It lands on 3, bumping his arm for a loss of 2 life.
A die rolls toward Pikachu. It lands on 6, crushing his legs for a loss of 5 life.
A die rolls toward McGill. It lands on 5, dealing 2 damage to his head this time.
A die rolls toward Pete. It lands on 3 and he avoids it.

Round 8C
Ward catches a three.
Pete catches a three.
A die rolls toward McGill. It lands on 2, so he's all right.
A die rolls toward Pikachu. It lands on 2, bumping his head for a loss of 1 life.

Pikachu and McGill, having no dice in their possession, prepare to better defend themselves.

The captured threes take their place on the scorched sheet. Two more dice flee the area, leaving 60 left to fight.

Another pack charges forth to attack!

Round 9A
A die rolls toward Ward. It lands on 6, absolutely bludgeoning him for a loss of 6 life.
A die rolls toward Melkor's Ghost. It lands on 6, cutting into the mobility of his spirit for a loss of 1 essence.
A die rolls toward Pikachu. It lands on 4, bouncing well short of a place where it can do harm.
A die rolls toward McGill. It lands on 1, leaving him unscathed.
A die rolls toward Pete. It lands on 2, causing him no harm.

Status Updates
Everyone loses 1 energy from dice-wrangling.
Ward loses eleven life and takes 27 pain.
Pikachu loses six life and takes 11 pain.
McGill loses two life and takes 5 pain.
Melkor's Ghost loses 1 essence and takes 1 pain.

Used die slots: 1s, 2s, 3s, 5s, 6s, 3 of a kind, full house, seq of four
Remaining slots: 4s, 4 of a kind, seq of five, yahtzee!, chance

Safety Numbers
Ward: 0
Melkor's Ghost: 5
Pikachu: 6
McGill: 6
Pete: 2

The party is currently in the Game Preserve (the Mesa of Craps).

Keeping the 4 is playing it safe, keeping the 6s is going big

McGill attempts to teach Pikachu how to say other metric prefixes while also agreeing that the fours are a solid choice.

"Well, Pikachu, pico (or, in your pronunciation, pika) means 10 raised to the -12 power. The next largest prefix is nano, for 10 raised to the -9 power. Say it with me now: nano."

Haha! Great exchange, you guys. I'll try to think of an appropriate reward once you get back to safety. Moving on...

Day 2
Time: 6:58pm

You are fighting a pack of Yahtzee dice.

Round 9B
Pikachu catches the four.
A die rolls toward Ward. It lands on 3, ramming into his groin for a loss of 3 life.
A die rolls toward Melkor's Ghost. It lands on 3, doing no harm.
A die rolls toward McGill. It lands on 5, and he avoids it.
A die rolls toward Pete. It lands on 6, banging into four of his legs for a loss of one life per leg.

Status Updates
Ward loses three life and takes 3 pain.
Pete loses four life and takes 8 pain.

Used die slots: 1s, 2s, 3s, 5s, 6s, 3 of a kind, full house, seq of four
Remaining slots: 4s, 4 of a kind, seq of five, yahtzee!, chance

Safety Numbers
Ward: 0
Melkor's Ghost: 5
Pikachu: 6
McGill: 6
Pete: 2

The party is currently in the Game Preserve (the Mesa of Craps).

We should stay the course with the 4 and put it in chance if we don't get a pair of fours. So, we've been pretty beat up by these dice and more to come. I really have no clue how beat up, do we need to retreat?

My apologies comrades. I momentarily lost consciousness on account of intense pain. I do not understand why we would seek a pair of fours...

We want to get three 4s, taking the chance to roll a pair of them is better than getting a better Chance score because the bonus for scoring 63 or better on the top section of the sheet is pretty substantial.

Day 2
Time: 6:59pm

You are fighting a pack of Yahtzee dice.

The party chooses to wait for the dice's (that doesn't look or sound right) next move.

Round 9C
A die rolls toward Ward. It lands on 5, whacking his arm for a loss of five life.
A die rolls toward Melkor's Ghost. It lands on 4, failing to harm the ghost.
A die rolls toward McGill. It lands harmlessly on 2.
A die rolls toward Pete. It lands on 6, banging into his other four legs for a loss of one life per leg.

Status Updates
Ward loses five life and takes 8 pain. Usually, the pain at this point would completely cripple him, but the benevolent overseer, dissatisfied with his own rules, gives Ward the power to persevere.
Pete loses four life and takes 8 pain.

Used die slots: 1s, 2s, 3s, 5s, 6s, 3 of a kind, full house, seq of four
Remaining slots: 4s, 4 of a kind, seq of five, yahtzee!, chance

Safety Numbers
Ward: 0
Melkor's Ghost: 5
Pikachu: 6
McGill: 6
Pete: 2

The party is currently in the Game Preserve (the Mesa of Craps).

Ward places his bag of castle sand in front of him and props his bicycle wheel on top of the bag as a shield.

So, a high sum of the scores on the upper portion of the scorched sheet holds significant desideratum. I concur, but why attempt fours in particular when we had exactly zero of them? It seems that attempting to fulfill the large straight or four of a kind with threes or simply relying on the chance to begin with would give us better chances than letting all five dice re-roll...

What about now, though?

If I should perish...

Come on, we've dealt with enough drama queens lately.

Mainly because if you go for the long straight there isn't any chance that something good could happen (like rolling a bunch of extra 4s or a long straight anyway). Now we can just put this roll in Chance for an over 20 score which is pretty decent.

Day 2
Time: 7:01pm

You are fighting a pack of Yahtzee dice.

Round 9C+1
Ward catches the 5 in his net.
Melkor's Ghost catches the 4 in his net.
McGill catches the 2 in his net.
Pete catches the 6 in his net.

The captured dice jump at the chance to join the previously-captured dice on the scorched sheet. 21 points! Blackjack! 6 dice get scared away by the awesome power of the travelers.

Ward, having done nothing for the first 2/3 of last round, retroactively puts his bicycle wheel on top of his bag of castle sand. For whatever reason, this makes him feel safer.

49 dice remain. Another pack charges!

Round 10A
A die rolls toward Ward. It bumps into his bicycle wheel and falls over on 1. How oddly effective.
A die rolls toward Melkor's Ghost. It lands on 1, doing no damage.
A die rolls toward Pikachu. It lands on 4, failing to do any harm.
A die rolls toward McGill. It lands on ineffectively on 3.
A die rolls toward Pete. It lands on 4, crushing three of his legs for one damage each.

Status Updates
Everyone loses 1 energy from wrangling dice.
Everyone loses 1 fullness from the passage of time.
Pete loses 3 life and takes 6 pain.
The party acquires a black jack.

Used die slots: 1s, 2s, 3s, 5s, 6s, 3 of a kind, full house, seq of four, chance
Remaining slots: 4s, 4 of a kind, seq of five, yahtzee!

Safety Numbers
Ward: 1
Melkor's Ghost: 4
Pikachu: 5
McGill: 5
Pete: 1

The party is currently in the Game Preserve (the Mesa of Craps).

So 4s again.

Day 2
Time: 7:15pm

You are fighting a pack of Yahtzee dice.

Round 10B
Pikachu catches a four in his net.
Pete catches a 4 in his net.
A die rolls toward Ward. It lands on 2, knocking over his bicycle wheel and bumping his head for a loss of 1 life.
A die rolls toward Melkor's Ghost. It lands on 4, failing to make contact.
A die rolls toward McGill. It lands ineffectively on 2.

Round 10C

Melkor's Ghost catches a 4 in his net.
A die rolls toward Ward. It lands on 5, but does some sandbagging before nailing Ward in the groin for a loss of 4 life.
A die rolls toward McGill. It lands on 6, hitting him in the side for a loss of 1 life.

The five and six feel left out and wander away from the group. The captured fours take their place on the scorched sheet. The other dice look on in wonder and three of them leave the area. But what's this? The top of the scorched sheet is full and it totals 66 points. Ten more dice are struck with fear and leave in haste.

Ward and McGill, having no dice in their nets, find better defensive places.

33 dice remain. Another pack charges forth!

Round 11A
A die rolls toward Ward. It lands on 5, and he barely evades it.
A die rolls toward Melkor's Ghost. It lands on 5, hurting his ghostly brain for a loss of 2 essence.
A die rolls toward Pikachu. It lands on 2, leaving the Pokemon unhurt.
A die rolls toward McGill. It lands on 5, but he's prepared to avoid being hit.
A die rolls toward Pete. It lands on 5, smashing his head for a loss of 5 life.

The benevolent overseer assumes that the group will attempt to capture the 5s.

Round 11B
Ward attempts to catch a five, but fails.
Melkor's Ghost catches a five in his net.
Pikachu catches a five in his net.
McGill catches a five in his net.
Pete catches a five in his net.
A die rolls toward Ward. It lands on 3, doing no harm.

Round 11C
A die rolls toward Ward. It lands on 1, doing no harm.
Ward catches the one in his net.

The captured dice take their place on the scorched sheet. The remaining dice look up aghast and run away. Odd, considering you thought 33 dice were left, you captured five and six should have run away. I guess you miscounted. Try to be more careful next time.

The mesa is clear and the battle is won! The crap-flinging monkey looks on in fear and runs back down the mesa. Shortly thereafter, the king's man runs up with the monkey in his net.

"Great work, travelers! The last of the escaped animals has been captured. Oh goodness! You're quite injured. I'm no medical expect, but I can fix you up well enough to return to the castle."

The king's man uses his moderate healing skills on Ward, Pikachu, McGill and Pete.

"Finally, it seems that some of the fleeing packs of dice abandoned their young in their haste to leave. You may each take one baby die with you, plus some food for it. Remember to feed your dice every day and within a week, they should become powerful enough to help you in battle. So long!"

With that, the king's man travels back down the side of the mesa and heads back to the castle.

Status Updates
Everyone loses 2 energy from wrangling dice.
Everyone loses 2 fullness from the passage of time.
Ward loses 5 life and takes 10 pain. Then gains 49 pain and 8 experience.
McGill loses 1 life and takes 6 pain. Then gains 36 pain and 8 experience.
Melkor's Ghost loses 2 essence and takes 4 pain. He gains 8 experience.
Pete loses 5 life and takes 5 pain. Then gains 16 pain and 9 experience.
Pikachu gains 15 pain and 8 experience.

Each party member acquires a baby die.
Each party member acquires a bag of diced vegetables.

The party is currently in the Game Preserve (the Mesa of Craps).

Well, that was a dicey situation.

What?

Things were looking quite spotty for a while.

Sophia...

I for one, have had enough of that crap.

Do you mean "these craps"?

The reward was suitable, though. Now, I want all of you to be sure to take good care of your baby dice.

You can have mine.

Nonsense, Ward. I'm already loaded.

That is a bit of a stretch...

Face it...

Stop that!

...We don't want these little guys to...

Don't say it.

...die.

Once I recover, I am turning you into a newt.

Why not a snake?

Because...

...Because you'll already have snake eyes!

Enough, Sophia. We are done here.

Quite right. We need to head back to the castle. Ward in particular needs to recover from his injuries. He looks shaken.

Come on.

I wonder if there's a train that goes by the castle.

I will admit to not seeing where you are going with that one.

We could ride in the boxcars.

Dammit!

Oh, don't be such a blockhead about it.

Are you done yet?

Since Ward is obviously delirious from his injuries, I want all of you to know, as your leader, that I am really proud of how you have handled everything so far. We're really...

...on a...

...on a roll. Ignore Ward. Like I said: delirious from his injuries. I'm sure he'll be feeling much better once he is properly refreshed. I'll see if they have any cold lemonade at the castle. We could even put in some...

...ice cubes.

Beat me to it! You're feeling better just thinking about it.

Refrain from further dice puns.

Of course. Now it's back to the castle. Say goodbye to the mesa. So long. Farewell. Auf Wiedersehen. Au revoir. Vale. Bye-bye. Godspeed. Toodle-oo. Adios. Ciao. Hasta la vista. Bon voyage...

...You are doing that for a reason...

Pip pip, cheerio.

Sophia!