Origin of the Chimera Legion

The Story

The year is 666. The Magi of Persia rebel against their Muslim conquerors. They call upon the Persian god of darkness, Ahriman, who gives them terrifying arcane powers. These Dark Magi raise up an army of ghuls and monsters, who shatter the Caliphate and drive the Muslims beyond the Nile. Then, the Dark Magi set their eyes upon the Empire.

But one legion stands in their way.

It is a new legion, made up of grizzled veterans, untrained farm boys, and the sweepings of Constantinople's back alleys. No one expects them to put up more than token resistance.

At first, things look bleak. One of the Dark Magi's monsters, a chimera, sweeps upon the legion and scatters its ranks. 

But one of the veterans, scarred soldier named Mercurius, remains unbowed.

Mercurius

He charges the beast and engages its goat head. It rams him, knocking him back and splintering his shield. Mercurius attacks more warily, avoiding those deadly horns. He dodges another ram, sidesteps, and attacks. His blow strikes true, slicing deeply into the goat's neck. Blood splatters over Mercurius. Again, the goat head tries to ram, but Mercurius again dodges and counters. This time, he plunges his blade into the beast's neck. The goat head shudders and then slumps to the ground.

Mercurius gets no respite. As soon as the goat head collapses, the lion head bites at him. It roars, momentarily stunning him. The lion head chomps into Mercurius's shield, breaking it. He counterattacks, drawing blood against the lion head. However, he steps too near. With surprising suddenness, the head lunges, grabbing Mercurius in its jaws. It bites down, rending into our hero's flesh, spraying blood across the field. It tosses Mercurius aside like a rag doll, then prepares to pounce and inflict a death blow.

But now Mercurius is not alone. His comrades, led to a centurion known as Rufus, rush to his aid. 

Rufus

Rufus charges the chimera. His flashing blade bites deep into the beast. It roars in pain and anger, then lashes out. Its claws rend Rufus's left arm, forcing him to drop his shield. Rufus responds with a mighty blow that nearly severs the lion's neck. One more head slumps.

Now Rufus must contend with the dragon head. It turns on him and breathes fire, but Rufus ducks out of the way. He grabs a spear that is lying on the ground and lunges upward. The weapon's point finds a chink in the dragon head's armor. Rufus drives the point in as deep as he can. The dragon head howls in rage. Shaking its neck, it breaks the spear and knocks Rufus to the ground. It then rears back and spews out a bout of flame the engulfs Rufus.

As all this was happening, a maester administered healing to Mercurius. He now returns to the fray. Dodging the dragon's deadly claws, Mercurius rushes forward, grabs the fragment of the spear still lodged in the dragon's neck, and thrusts with all his might. The point drives through the spine of the dragon head and out the other side.

As the beast crashes to the ground, dead, our bruised and bloody hero looks up to see a horde of ghuls advancing toward him.

Mercurius sighs as he recovers his sword and shield. "I'm getting too old for this s**t!" he exclaims as Rufus, healed by the maester, joins him ...

Ever since that day, this unit has been known as the Chimera Legion.

The Scenario

This story is a somewhat embellished telling of our scenario from Sunday. I decided that we would act out the reason why we are called the Chimera Legion.

Since we only had 2 people we improvised. One person was one of the chimera heads while the other played a hero from the Legion. Robb, as Mercurius, killed the goat head first. Then he died fighting the lion head. I stepped in as Rufus, and finished off the lion head. However, the dragon head fried me with a fireball.

At that point, I was too winded to continue, so I fictionalized the end. Given that the dragon had no armor left, I expect that Mercurius would have finished it off.

The Chimera

These are the rules we used to replicate the chimera. 

Goat head - 1 point of armor. Uses two swords which do great damage if they both hit a shield simultaneously (this represents a ram attack).

Lion head - 2 points of armor, Uses sword and board. Got 2 roar attacks (represented with spell balls); when hit with the attack, the target cannot move from his/her spot but can defend.

Dragon head - 2 points of armor. Uses great weapon. Got 3 fireballs (again, spell balls). Fireballs count as great weapons.

In addition, the chimera as a whole gets the Fly ability. It can announce "Flying," at which point it cannot be hit with melee weapons. While flying, it can move freely about the battlefield and can use its spell balls.

For bigger groups, I envision representing the chimera with a team of 3, each portraying a different head.

Happy Easter!

Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.

As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. 

He has risen!"

(Mark 16:2-6 NIV)

Good Friday

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24 NIV)