Rollohi-ep03-script

Rollohi-ep03

Last time in Rollohi, the eight-strong party dealt with a lowball offer from the young merchant Ajiwe, ending up accepting it. Ajiwe is bound east for a destination he relies on landmarks to find. Luckily for him, despite terrible weather, he does find two landmarks in succession.

Disaster in the form of a deadfall takes the life of Afanwe, Ajiwe's muleteer. Miraculously no-one else dies. In the aftermath as they load the corpse onto a mule, the halflings and Kylie the elf notice that the tree's roots were part cut through.

Ambush

Wilderness watch 3 

Weather: the sky now clears more than it has in the last few days. It is noticeably cooler. Moon, visible now through gaps in the canopy, is two days from full. 

Do they get lost (2 in 6 thanks to the above) no.  

Encounter check (3 in 6) Yes, and... (is it the false knight?) Yes and... he has set an ambush. 

Was he responsible for the tree fall? Yes but... he really wanted to jump the party when it fell. 

Thanks to the halflings there is a fair chance not to be surprised. D6, 3, not surprised  

Owing to the lighter sky, wilderness distance applies. 140yds

Kylie's distance from Xantu at the front is 100'. In her mail armor, her own move is 90.

CiedPod distance,150yds, off right (Kylie does NOT know where they are, nor does Jack! - their whistle of warning does not mean their exact location is known) 

Is the ground chosen for the war horse? Yes and... the other horses too. 

Bandit stats: they each have AC6 and 4 hp. Their leader is a 2nd level fighter, with 6 hp and AC5. He has a lance. His warhorse is barded equal to AC7.  

Has the bandit leader decided to attack immediately? Yes, and... throw all his men in too. The bandits are riding normal horses, and can loose crossbows with disadvantage.  

 

As noted above, no surprise. 

Round 1: Characters 5, bandits 3. Characters gain initiative. 

Declarations: Ingle's moving to cover. Umbert has Charm Person and he will cast it once an enemy moves to within 120', and after he moves to cover. 

Movement: Jack moves a short distance right, waving vigorously for the others to follow suit.  About 40' or so to the right, a stand of really solid timber offers some defense against oncoming horses. Behind him Xantu does the same: but he also advances and gets a good footing. Eryn skips around the mules to catch up to Xantu's position, and she sets her polearm. The cleric and magic user, who were walking between those points, scurry vigorously into cover and peer out beneath the leaves. The two handling mules, Ajiwe and Ygyourn, haul on the leads to get the mules away right. For the expert muleskinner this is easy, but Ajiwe is unable to persuade a remaining pair of mules to move at all.  

Well away to the right of the line of march the halflings pick up on what's happening. Another big stand of trees, below a knoll or tor, closer to where the danger lies, offers advantage. They half-move toward that but also ready shortbows to cover the open ground. 

Kylie, walking at rear sweep, moves swiftly forward and right to catch up to where the mules are swinging off. She has her longbow ready! 

The bandits shake out into a reverse wedge as they swing out of cover behind the tor and onto the open ground that their leader has selected for the attack. The bandit scum move at the same pace as their boss, and loose their loaded crossbows. Their target is the armored pair, Xantu and Eryn, and they are shooting with disadvantage because their horses are normal riding horses. One bolt hits Eryn! Luckily just 1 damage, but remember, she is fatigued, so 2 total hp down.  

Round 2. Both parties roll 3 and act at the same time. 

Ingle readies a sling. He will loose as the oncoming riders come into range. Eryn sets her polearm, and Xantu stands ready with shield and hammer. 

Behind the copse of large trees Ygyourn finishes running the mules into cover. By Ajiwe still struggles with two mules out in the open. 

On horseback bandits swap crossbows for sword and shield and move to a canter. 

Umbert uses Charm Person on the nearest bandit, who makes a SV v Spells of 11, nowhere near low enough. Instead of cantering he slows his mount, and regains his crossbow on its lanyard, and begins reloading it: his plan is to backshoot his erstwhile comrades. 

The halflings are now in handy dead ground about 60' from the brigands and loose at their flank. Both the halfling arrows are true and a bandit falls from his saddle – not the one Umbert just charmed, as the MU is able to spot the halflings and warn them.  

Kylie and Jack loose at about 40'. Jack's arrow breaks on the leader's shield but Kylie's longbow shaft slams home for 3 points. 

Round 3. Characters 1, bandits 5. 

Morale check. ML is 8. They roll a 7. they are in the fight! 

The bandit leader charges Xantu, lance thrusting, and his offsider urges his untrained mount into action against Eryn. The leader has advantage with d10s. Neither d10 works: Xantu's thick armor withstands both piercing and knockdown. Eryn's set polearm scores a 1 against the horse and it rears away, meaning the bandit cannot attack her. That's all for the bandits.

The halflings move closer and aim at the back of the bandit leader. Behind the combat, Ajiewe finally convinces the mules to move! Umbert is caught wondering whether his staff or sling will be more use, and readies neither.

Ingle looses a sling at the leader, doing 2 damage. That's already 5 damage of the 6. Kylie's longbow shaft, Jack's shortbow, and the halfling bows send arrows in but they glance off armor or stick in padding. 

Xantu steps forward and delivers a vicious warhammer spike into the bandit leader's knee. The man falls! Eryn wields her polearm like a great blade, slicing the remaining bandit's head off with maximum possible damage. Victory! 

 

Round 4. 

The Charmed bandit trots forward to see if he gets a share of treasure. Of course he can show his new allies where the hideout is.  

Is the hideout the exact same place that Ajiwe has been looking for? Yes. 

Aftermath

Pod and Cied make efforts to gentle the horses to get together again. Their new ally makes this an advantageous WIS check and it is accomplished quickly. 

One barded warhorse, two riding horse  with all tack. 

Two crossbow d6, three dagger d4, two hand axe d6, one sword d8, one shield, two buckler, two light armor, one chainmail. 

 

TT U: 160 gold coin in various coin gem and low value jewelry types. 

 

The lair lies at the third landmark but before then, Kylie has a cold-blooded proposal: 

[high elf female]

Unless this bandit fort has a well of life, we have four corpses. I propose we use them to bait monsters. 

 

Even though this gets a negative Ajiwe still registers general approval of the way things are being handled.  

 

[fat medium jaw] 

Looks like it's a plan. But we may be better off setting traps near the fort, or lair. 

 

[Oz crim]

"Funny ya say that, cos there's a nice hot spring in it" says bandit, angling his horse back to Kylie  

 

[raw Umbert]

By the way jack, umbert mutters, at some point that new friend of ours is going to remember he is an outlaw. What's your policy on executions? 

 

The weather suddenly turns for the worse again and in the downpour, bodies are heaved up onto saddles and the long train weaves back over the ambush field and along an outlaw path then through a concealed gate 

[neutral]

"Is there a cistern in the place?" 

[Oz crim]

Yep it's got a whole system of cisterns haha,  ya cn cool the pools from them. All fresh water. 

 

Behind them the renewed onslaught of rain smashes away the muddy scars left by the battle, until only the keenest of huntsmen could discern anything.  

Hidden Springs

As banditfriend has said, the fortalice is very close. Its entrance is hidden, but the captured horses are all used to the rocky path and the dogleg through what looks like a solid rock face. With them leading, the mules arent a problem.

There were once 17 in the band. Then the vicomte began clearing the wilds, and the four just dealt with are all that remains. Desperate, the leader figured that if he could somehow filter back through Best Pass in disguise, he would live to fight another day. Ajiwe's arrival seemed perfect: he could kill the man and his two drivers, and use the guild tag or letter. But the adventurers hiring on forced his hand.  

 

All this banditfriend, temporarily Charmed, explains cheerfully.  

 

[Oz ]

"Plenty of space, three flues for cooking, all mod cons" 

 

Cied is looking into each rock-cut chamber eagerly. 

[Highpitch rustic]

"I thought there'd be summat loik chest o gold or summat" 

Are there any other secrets here no 

Is there a rear exit yes but... foot only 

Down (12 level (34 or up (56  down 

Deep? No and... emerges to the level 

So its via a pool 6 yes and a hot one 

(Later, we'll learn more about the surrounds of Hidden Springs but for now, picture one of those really hard to spot canyon entrances in a Louis Lamour novel, hard by a plateau wall, with a runoff from north above somewhere that trickles south. It's not at all clear what lies eastward.)

 

The weary party place gear in one chamber, corpses in the coldest, and lay bedroll in the warmest. Rock paper scissors for meal prep! Ygyorn and Xantu come up the losers. 

 

Is Jack actually considerinkilling the bandit  yes and decides to do it that night 

He make an 06 cha check on his 07 cha and asks the bandit to help search the boss. Then backstabbing!

Excursus - thief's backstab

Let's take a look at backstabbing as I have it so far. "When attacking an unaware opponent from behind, a thief attacks with advantage, and gains a free Precision d4 to adjust either of the attack dice. If the result is a success, damage is doubled. If the result is double 1s, damage is double max."

I'm not sure about the latter clause, maybe I should still leave it at nat1s.