A empty Armor that wants to kill you

So, I search for ideas.

Basically, I play with my girl head-to-head. A little “Kingdom” in the border Kingdoms was invaded by an army from Cimmerien, consisting of all the surrounding cultures, the army came hidden by a magical mist. The town was slaughtered, she, a noble without lands, fled into the castle with the survivors and they are besieged by that army and the sinister warlord. Thing is, the Warlord is an old evil man from forgotten times who has gathered a sect of people, he´s a bit Colonel Kurtz Apocalypse now style messiah. But he is not there: The armor is empty and walks on his own, animated by foul magic. The evil Conan-Kurtz can look through it, speak through it, but is residing in the Mountains.

She, clever girl as she is, has spent a fortune point to decide that a secret passage leads out of the castle, and now she wants to lead a band of warriors through it to kill the Warlord, as she has deduced that this army is a band of lunatics hold together by this leader. She does not know that the armor is empty.

So, she will arrive in the tend and find the empty armor, which will then suddenly animate and speak to her. I can´t possibly know what will happen then, but of course it is a real possibility that she fights that armor. Has anyone and idea how she can destroy, rules wise, that armor. Howardian Sword-and-Sorcery-style? Something clever? The ideas that would be obvious would be:

  1. Inside the armor is a “presence” that has vigor, resolve and harm and can be destroyed the old fashioned way.
  2. Somewhere - on the belt, on the chest, on the helmet- is a magical stone that must be broken off.
    Both seem a little cheap, don´t you think?

Look forward for your ideas

I like to “play to see what happens.” In my experience, both you and your player will have more enjoyment if you discover the resolution together, in the moment, according to the terms of the fiction.

I think it’s perfectly acceptable for you to resolve that either of the ideas you gave is a possible solution, but it’s more important to listen to what your player thinks is the solution to the confrontation, in actual gameplay. Then, GM from that premise.

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Hi Gebir,

nice to meet again and I like it to hear some “Powered by the Apocalypse” ideas. As I´m an avid fan of Monsterhearts, I´m totally with you. Thing is, I like to make a mix. If she developes a good idea, I will always hear if I find it plausible and go with it. But, I also like to be prepared. Maybe she does something I never thought of, but maybe she says “I look at the armor/ on the desk etc., is there anything unusual”, and I like to have an answer than.

As said, I like to play to see what happens and I always go with the players ideas, if they are cool (and my players can surprise me a lot), but I think I should be prepared and have at least one solution on my own, for perception/ insight tests etc. I think she will be more likely broker a deal or something with him, but I don´t wanna go in there cold.
Thanks for your help!

Just as a thought I recall the bioware game jade empire and the enemy ‘deaths hand’ by memory it was a suit of armour that had a spirit ‘trapped’ in it. It was then a servant of the emperor.
Could go down the route of the warlord has trapped a spirit to this armour to carry out his will while he remains hidden and safe. Could open a whole side activity to help free the spirit. Perhaps everytime it is defeated it rises again to continue the warlords will?

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I believe Kriegs ideas are the most Howardian. That an big f!ckin snakes.