Perfect. As Arvus is heading up the flank, all of your stormtroopers can crowd through with Janus, Skrall, and yourself. Bracing themselves for an ambush, they charge through the doorway with blasters blazing, spraying indiscriminately about the room... only to be met with calculated blaster fire from the top of the steps.
Einar stands with a pair of Royal pistols in either hand at the top of the stairs, blocking the way on to the Throne Room with a group of Elite soldiers. Halfway up the steps, standard soldiers stand ready for action.
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BATTLE OF MAURENBURG
Doorway
Melkor: 7/60
Janus: 0/61 (1A)
Skrall: 9/59 (1A)
Stormtroopers x17: 0/59
Halfway up the steps
Erengardian Soldiers x15: 0/61
At the top of the steps
Einar: 0/59
Erengardian Elites x3: 0/60
-----
"This is where your rebellion against the Crown ends!" Einar proclaims.
This system gets older by the minute! Let's get on with it.
Skrall and his stormtroopers shoot first, pummeling everything in sight with excessive sprays of lasers. Skrall shoots one directly in the face as he leads his charge, dragging everyone into close quarters.
Quick to act, Einar whips his twinned pistols in the direction of the stormtroopers, acting before anyone else on the steps. Combining Both Guns Blazing with Carnival of Carnage, he rolls 17, 11, 16, and 20... and four stormtroopers drop dead.
Melkor gets an 18 and puts down his target easy. Janus doesn't.
The Elites go next, bringing down three more of your stormtroopers and wounding two with their heavy assault rifles, blatting out shot after shot after shot.
The Erengardians follow suit and respond to the charging troopers with a coordinated firing line.
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BATTLE OF MAURENBURG
Doorway
Melkor: 7/63
Janus: 0/64 (1A)
Turncoat Soldiers x12: 0/62
Halfway up the steps
Skrall: 9/62 (1A)
Stormtroopers x6: 0/62
Erengardian Soldiers x8: 0/65
Erengardian Soldiers x2: 2/65
Erengardian Soldiers x1: 3/65
At the top of the steps
Einar: 0/62
Erengardian Elites x3: 0/63
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The remainder of your forces have now entered, and everyone is engaged...
Skrall and his stormtroopers keep cutting down their targets in a swath of gunfire, now supported by your loyalists who, undirected, simply follow the stormtroopers.
Einar and his Elites, now standing amidst a pile of scorched corpses, stand bravely in spite of the mounting danger. Einar himself turns his attention on the turncoats; he kills four of them, barely spending any time aiming.
Deprived of your target, you quickly take stock of the situation...
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BATTLE OF MAURENBURG
Doorway
Melkor: 7/63
Janus: 0/64 (1A)
Turncoat Soldiers x8: 0/65
Halfway up the steps
Skrall: 9/65 (1A)
Stormtroopers x6: 0/65
At the top of the steps
Einar: 0/65
Erengardian Elites x3: 0/63
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You place your shot and it nicks one of the Elite for 8 damage. It does not phase him; he keeps up his rate of fire with the others, killing the remaining stormtroopers, leaving Skrall alone on the stairs.
Janus supports you but rolls abysmally.
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BATTLE OF MAURENBURG
Doorway
Melkor: 7/66
Janus: 0/67 (1A)
Turncoat Soldiers x8: 0/65
Halfway up the steps
Skrall: 9/65 (1A)
At the top of the steps
Einar: 0/65
Erengardian Elites x2: 0/66
Erengardian Elite x1: 8/66
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Continue we shall!
Skrall descends on a commando, putting a series of bolts into the commando's leg. He is being excessively violent; the deaths of his stormtroopers has upset him greatly. As it stumbles backward, a volley from one of the traitorous soldiers snaps through him.
A second is caught by stone splinters from the stairs as blasts happen about him.
Janus fluffs his shot again, but you hit spot on for 8 more damage.
Between Einar and the Elites, five of your loyalists are killed.
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BATTLE OF MAURENBURG
Doorway
Melkor: 7/69
Janus: 0/70 (1A)
Turncoat Soldiers x3: 0/68
Halfway up the steps
Skrall: 9/68 (1A)
At the top of the steps
Einar: 0/68
Erengardian Elites x1: 13/69
Erengardian Elite x1: 16/69
-----
Skrall does not mess around. He rushes in close with an Elite and pounds a shot into its stomach, taking it down.
Einar splits his attention, now. Without looking, he keeps squeezing off shots at the loyalists; he kills two. Then he double-shots at Skrall, who dodges and stays clear.
That last Elite takes a hit from Melkor, brings down the last turncoat soldier, then prepares to meet the White Wolf when Janus finally pulls through on his shots and puts a few into it.
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BATTLE OF MAURENBURG
Doorway
Melkor: 7/72
Janus: 0/73 (1A)
Halfway up the steps
Clear
At the top of the steps
Einar: 0/71
Skrall: 9/72 (1A)
-----
Outnumbered, Einar knows that the odds are against him. Instead of sticking around, he starts backing through the door into the throne room... but not before lining up both pistols on you, Melkor.