Combat Walkthrough

This chapter walks through a full structured play encounter using the pregenerated characters from the Ix Player Guide and the Anchor Dragon stat block reproduced below. The purpose is to demonstrate how initiative, adversary abilities, Peril, GM spend management, and role-based tactics work at the table from the GM's side.

The Situation

The party was hired by an Accord keeper to recover a stolen infernal contract that needs to be legally voided before it activates at next month's conjunction. An infernal operator sold the contract to a buyer who stored it in an Anchor Dragon's hoard: a form of extreme safekeeping, since the dragon's Mass Sense makes theft nearly impossible and its gravity field makes the hoard inaccessible without preparation.

The party has arrived at the edge of the dragon's territory on a highland plateau above Shoing. They know the contract is somewhere in the floating hoard above the lair. They have iron pitons, rope, and counter-gravity components Elariel prepared in advance.

The party's win condition: retrieve the contract and leave the plateau alive. Killing the dragon is not required.

Party at a Glance

Brek Brakond, Tank (Surface Dwarf Marine). MIG 4, AGI 2, SAV 2, WIL 3. Wounds 18, Strain 13, Resistance 5 (base 2 + Tough Frame +1 + chain hauberk +2), Melee Defense 1. Heavy Melee 2, Fortitude 2, Intimidation 1. Warhammer (Dmg 7, Pierce 2); chain hauberk worn. Talents: Hardy, Guarded.

Aldric Thane, Cleric (Human Temple Guard, Themela). MIG 3, AGI 2, INT 1, SAV 2, WIL 2. Wounds 15, Strain 12, Resistance 4, Melee Defense 3. Divine 2, Light Melee 2, Fortitude 2. Short sword (Dmg 4). Talents: Sacred Ward, Weight of Evidence, Hardy, Guarded.

Elariel Voss, Wizard (High Elf Scholar). INT 4, SAV 2. Wounds 12, Strain 14, Resistance 2. Arcana 2, Lore 2, Planar Lore 1, Perception 1. Dagger, component pouch. Talents: Specialist (Arcana), Keen Eye, Steadfast, Boon Reader.

Sera Kavan, Scout/Ranger (Human Planar Scout). MIG 2, AGI 3, INT 2, SAV 2, WIL 2. Wounds 12, Strain 12, Resistance 1, Melee Defense 1. Rifts 2, Stealth 2, Perception 2, Athletics 1. Dagger. Talents: Specialist (Rifts), Wayfarer, Cool Head.

Anchor Dragon (Nemesis)

MIG 5, AGI 3, INT 4, SAV 4, WIL 5, CHA 3. Wounds 45 | Strain 22 | Resistance 9 | Melee Defense 1 | Ranged Defense 2

Skills: Heavy Melee 4, Athletics 5, Fortitude 5, Perception 5, Natural Philosophy 3, Planar Lore 3, Intimidation 4.

Attacks: Bite (Heavy Melee; Dmg 12; Crit 3; Pierce 3, Vicious 5); Claws (Heavy Melee; Dmg 10; Crit 4; Pierce 2); Tail Sweep (Heavy Melee; Dmg 9; Crit 4; 2 = Prone).

Gravity Field (Passive): All non-dragon creatures at Short range add 1 Bane to Athletics, Reflexes, Riding, and Piloting checks. At Engaged range, add 2 Banes instead. A prepared character using anchors, magic, or specialized gear reduces this by 1.

Pinning Weight (Action): Target one creature or vehicle at Medium range. The target makes a Hard Athletics, Fortitude, Riding, Piloting, or Operate check as appropriate. On failure, it is Immobilized until the end of its next turn. On 2 Banes, it also suffers 4 Wounds ignoring Resistance.

Reverse Down (Action; once per encounter or spend 2 Peril): The dragon reverses gravity in a zone at Short range. Creatures in the zone make a Hard Reflexes check or fall upward to Short range, then crash back at the end of the next round for Damage 10. Anchored targets add 1 Boon.

Dread (Passive): Fear 3. The first time a character faces the dragon in a scene, they make a Fear check (GM Guide, Chapter Nine).

Mass Sense (Passive): The dragon detects moving creatures, vehicles, and heavy objects within Long range unless they are weightless, extradimensional, or deliberately shielded.

Peril: 2.

Tactics: First beat, the dragon increases field pressure and identifies the heaviest threats. Second beat, it pins the strongest melee combatant, mount, or vehicle. Third beat, it reverses gravity under clustered targets and closes only after formation breaks. It prefers to defeat morale before bodies.

Before Initiative: Setting the Lair

Always name three terrain features before calling initiative; the terrain defines the encounter.

Anchor Posts, iron rings sunk in the stone at intervals. A character who Maneuvers to an anchor post and uses a second Maneuver (2 Strain) or a free Action to secure can reduce Gravity Field Banes by 1 and adds 1 Boon to checks against Reverse Down.

The Stone Shelf: a low ridge at Long range from the dragon's lair position. Hard cover; can be moved behind with one Maneuver. Characters behind it cannot be directly targeted by Pinning Weight (no line of sight for the gravity sense above the ridge level).

The Hoard Orbit Zone, Short range above the lair position, overhead. Characters who reach this zone and spend an Action searching make a Hard Lore or Rifts check to locate the contract among floating objects.

Tell the players these features exist before initiative. Let them plan.

Initiative

On Watch pools: SAV + Perception rank.

The dragon goes first. Pool construction: the higher of SAV 4 and Perception 5 gives 5 total dice; upgrade by the lower value (4), so four become Mastery Dice and one stays an Ability Die. It has already been tracking the party since they entered Long range. Players arrange ties among themselves.

Round One

Dragon, First Beat.

The dragon has identified four intruders. The heaviest mass (Brek) is the tactical priority. It uses Pinning Weight on him.

The air above Brek folds. No sound. A sensation: an invisible weight locating him by the mass his body represents in whatever this dragon is sensing.

Brek makes a Hard Fortitude check (most characters would use Athletics or Fortitude). Pool: MIG 4 + Fortitude 2 = 4 Ability dice, upgrade 2 to Mastery dice, add 3 Trial Dice.

Result example: 2 net successes. Brek passes; he is not Immobilized.

GM Bane spend (1 Bane left over from the roll): Brek suffers 1 Bane on his next check: the pressure found his footing even if it didn't pin him.

Sera (highest initiative, goes second in player order).

Sera uses a Maneuver to sprint to the Stone Shelf. Action: Average Stealth check to move without being prioritized by the dragon. AGI 3 + Stealth 2 → 3 dice (higher), upgrade 2 to Mastery, add 2 Trial Dice.

Result: 2 successes, 1 Boon. She reaches the shelf unseen and untracked. The dragon does not prioritize her.

Boon spend: From behind the shelf, she can see one section of the hoard orbit clearly. She notes the outer ring contains something document-sized.

Elariel.

Elariel uses her Specialist (Arcana) talent, once per scene, upgrade one Ability die to Mastery on a casting check. She casts a counter-weight working to nullify the Gravity Field for herself and one ally.

Pool: INT 4 + Arcana 2 = 4 Ability dice, upgrade 2 to Mastery, plus 1 Ability upgraded to Mastery from Specialist. Average difficulty (2 Trial Dice).

Result: 3 successes, 2 Boons. Pays 2 Strain. The working holds.

Elariel nominates Sera as the second beneficiary, Sera is at Short range behind the shelf. Both are now outside the Gravity Field's effect.

Boon Reader (talent, spend 2 Boons): Elariel asks the GM one yes/no question. "Is the contract in the outer ring of the hoard?" GM: Yes.

Aldric.

Aldric activates Sacred Ward (once per scene): he designates Brek as the target: the next time Aldric assists or heals Brek, add 1 Boon. He uses his Action to position adjacent to Brek and brace for the dragon's next move.

Brek (last in initiative).

Brek uses a Maneuver to reach the nearest Anchor Post. Action: secure himself (uses the second Maneuver option, costs 2 Strain). Result: Gravity Field reduced by 1 Bane; Boon to Reverse Down checks.

Round Two

Dragon, Second Beat.

Brek is anchored. Sera has disappeared behind the shelf. The dragon's Mass Sense detects Elariel's working has disrupted the field around two targets. Someone is moving toward the hoard: the mass trajectory through the orbit zone has changed.

Second-beat trigger is met. The dragon uses Reverse Down.

The world exhales. Stone remains stone, but the relationship between down and up breaks. The plateau is still there. It is simply no longer below.

Target zone: the area between the party and the hoard, covering the direct path. Brek and Aldric are in range. Elariel is at the zone's edge (her counter-weight working is keyed to her; she manages the transition without falling).

Brek's Hard Reflexes check: AGI 2, Reflexes 0 = 2 Ability dice, 3 Trial Dice. Plus 1 Boon from the anchor post. Sacred Ward does not apply here: it triggers only when Aldric assists or heals Brek, never on a check Brek makes for himself. Result: 2 successes. He holds. The anchor post held.

Aldric's Hard Reflexes check: AGI 2, Reflexes 0 = 2 Ability dice, 3 Trial Dice. No bonus. Result: 1 success. He holds, barely. Spends 2 Strain to push through.

Dragon Maneuver: Steps from Long to Medium range. Gravity Field now applies to anyone at Short range.

Sera.

Outside the Reverse Down zone, behind the shelf, Gravity Field nullified. She uses her Action to make the Hard Rifts check to locate the contract among the hoard's floating debris. INT 2 + Rifts 2 → higher is 2, upgrade by 2 = 2 Mastery Dice, plus 3 Trial Dice for Hard difficulty. Plus the Boon from Round 1 (she noted the outer ring). Result: 2 successes. She has located it. It is attached to a floating door fragment in the outer ring.

Maneuver: Begin climbing the anchor ring chain toward the hoard zone.

Elariel.

Dragon at Medium range now. Elariel maintains Concentration (1 Strain). Uses Planar Lore to assess the contract's binding type while Sera approaches it. Average Lore check. INT 4 + Lore 2 = 4 Ability dice, upgrade 2, 2 Trial Dice. Result: 2 successes. The contract's infernal trigger has not yet activated: it can be voided by returning it to the Accord keeper with proper Nyxollox witnesses present.

This result gives the party their exit condition.

Brek.

Anchored and in place. Uses Guarded (talent) as a Maneuver: one Trial Die in attacks against him upgrades to a Crisis Die until his next turn.

Action: Intimidation check: not combat, but holding the dragon's attention. WIL 3 + Intimidation 1 → 3 dice (higher), 1 upgrade, Hard difficulty (3 Trial Dice). Result: 2 successes, 1 Boon. The dragon's tactical calculation locks on Brek as the priority physical threat.

Boon spend: Brek reads the dragon's intention. GM tells him: it's going to Bite this round. Brek uses his free reaction to prepare.

Aldric.

Upright from Reverse Down. Moves to Short range of Brek (Maneuver). Action: Divine working, invoking Themela's protective principle as a ward on Brek. Pool: WIL 2 and Divine 2 are equal, so the higher of the two sets the number of dice (2) and the lower sets the upgrades (2). Both dice upgrade: 2 Mastery Dice. Average difficulty (2 Trial Dice). Sacred Ward pays off here, because warding Brek is Aldric assisting Brek: add 1 Boon. Result: 2 successes, 1 Boon. Brek is still at full Wounds, so nothing is healed; the working adds 1 Boon to Brek's next Fortitude check. Aldric positions himself at Engaged range, preparing to intercept any move the dragon makes toward the party's rear.

Round Three

Dragon.

Moves to Short range (Maneuver). Gravity Field now active at -1 Bane (anchor post). Uses Bite on Brek.

Attack pool: MIG 5 + Heavy Melee 4 = 5 Ability dice, upgrade 4 to Mastery. Brek has Guarded active (one Trial Die in the pool upgraded to a Crisis Die).

Result: 3 net successes, 1 Boon, 1 Bane.

Damage: 12 base + 2 (two extra Successes) = 14. The Bite has Pierce 3, which ignores 3 points of Resistance, so Brek's Resistance 5 counts as 2: 14 − 2 = 12 Wounds. Brek drops from 18 Wounds to 6 Wounds. No Critical Injury is triggered: the Bite's Crit rating is 3, the attack netted only 1 Boon, and Brek is not Incapacitated.

Had the Bite netted 3 Boons instead, the GM could spend them for a Critical Injury. Roll d100 and add the Bite's Vicious 5: a 47 becomes 52, which is Cracked Rib on the Chapter Nine table. Brek would add 1 Bane to Athletics, Fortitude, and Might-based checks until treated, which would matter on his Round Three Fortitude check. Show the players the roll and the row name; a Critical Injury that stays on the sheet reads very differently from a Boon spend that expires.

GM Boon spend: The Bite caught Brek's off-arm. Add 1 Bane to his next attack check.

GM Bane spend: Guarded stance physically broken: the effect ends. Brek is no longer in a defensive posture.

Sera.

She has climbed to the hoard zone level. Action: Average Athletics check (Gravity Field nullified) to grab the contract from the floating door fragment. AGI 3 + Athletics 1 → 3 dice (higher), 1 upgrade, 2 Trial Dice. Result: 3 successes.

Sera has the contract.

Maneuver: Begin controlled descent toward the plateau and the exit path.

Elariel.

Drops Concentration (recovers 1 Strain per round of rest). Action: directional gravity working, creates 2 seconds of low-gravity between Sera and the exit path. INT 4 + Arcana 2, Hard difficulty. Result: 2 successes. Sera descends fast and safely. She reaches Long range from the dragon in one action.

Brek.

6 Wounds remaining. Dragon at Engaged range. His job: survive one more round. Guarded is gone but he can re-activate it.

Guarded (Maneuver). Action: Fortitude check to resist further wound deterioration. MIG 4 + Fortitude 2, Hard difficulty. Plus 1 Boon from Aldric's earlier divine working. Result: 3 successes. He holds.

Aldric.

Action: Second divine working on Brek, the same 2 Mastery Dice against Average difficulty. Sacred Ward is already spent, so no Boon this time. Result: 2 successes. Now that Brek is actually wounded, the working heals: he recovers 2 Wounds, from 6 to 8. The Accord keeper's documentation is complete.

Encounter Resolution

Sera is at Long range from the dragon with the contract. Elariel and Aldric are at Medium-to-Short range. Brek is at Engaged range, anchored, wounded but stable.

The dragon's third-beat calculus: the objective has left the hoard. Continuing to engage Brek yields no territorial gain. The dragon uses one final Pinning Weight: not to injure, but to force a choice. If Brek passes, the party retreats together off the plateau and the dragon does not pursue past the boundary. If Brek fails and is Immobilized, Aldric and Elariel must decide: stay one more round to help him free himself, or retreat and trust him to extricate himself using the anchor post.

Either outcome ends the encounter. The contract is out. The party has run a Nemesis encounter against a creature they could not have killed, achieved their objective, and survived through preparation, roles, and correct use of the terrain features named before initiative.

GM Notes

The dragon never acted randomly. Every action followed the Tactics block, identify the heaviest threat, apply Pinning Weight, watch for hoard movement, trigger Reverse Down when the second-beat condition was met, then lock on the primary physical threat while the objective was retrieved. Running smart adversaries means running their logic, not their damage numbers.

Roles mattered distinctly. Brek held attention and absorbed damage. Aldric protected Brek and generated institutional record. Elariel countered the dragon's defining passive and provided the intelligence that made the escape possible. Sera executed the objective. Remove any one role and the encounter fails at a different point.

The win condition was not reducing the enemy to 0 Wounds. Establish non-kill win conditions before the encounter begins. Ix is a world with real stakes: a party that retrieves a document from an Anchor Dragon's lair without killing the dragon has accomplished something permanent, not a dice-rolls exercise.

Call Peril visibly. The dragon had 2 Peril and did not need to spend it this encounter. If the combat had extended into Round 4, the GM would have spent both Peril for a second Reverse Down. Say aloud when Peril is spent: it signals escalation to the players and makes the third beat feel different from the first two.