Rollohi-ch408-script

 It's a cold, cruel world sometimes. Sometimes you do your best to save civilization, and still the bad guys get away with your mounts, your baggage, and your hard-won treasure. 

By my best calculation, the party is six minutes behind Kopje. Less than that, behind KC at the rearguard of the Buccaneers. I'm going to roll 4d6 times 10 to determine how many yards the Buccaneers' very last few keelboats are away from the jetty as the characters impotently chase out onto it. That's a low roll. That's 100. After a bit of good-natured banter, Xantu has taken over the fancy crossbow from Jack, and that's within crossbow range. He's going to risk a disadvantage shot at the last few buccaneers who are jeering as they ply their oars. That is two fours, a buccaneer falls dead. Which reduces Kopje's following to twenty. That could be significant later on. But we'll see. Meanwhile, the party turns back to searching the tiny hamlet, or not even a hamlet, and studying the hulled keelboats and burnt fishing boats around the jetty. 

"There must be some sort of rowing boat," Umbert screams, waving his fist at the buccaneers. "Somewhere in this benighted place." 

"Something to get on the water with," Eryn ventures. Umbert wheels on her. "This is not a time for thinking about retreating and taking a good half hour, Erin. I want to get after my loot. I I mean our loot. And my spellbook!! I memorized my spells this morning, but my spellbook's aboard the ferry. Do you know how valuable that is?" 

"No, I don't," Erin says rather coldly. "But I do know how valuable my war horse and palfrey are. I think we do need to get after them. Let's have a search."

"I say... I found a couple of nippers," Jack calls from afar.

He's found a young girl and boy, but sadly, their parents did not make it among the refugees. They lie dead across the threshold of their place. 

"I suppose that means the buccaneers aren't all sordid blighters," Jack says. 

"Or they simply didn't have time," Ingle says more grimly. He looks up at the sky as though seeking some guidance from the Divine Eye. "We still have daylight. Let's get about finding some sort of boat." 

They do find a small jolly boat. It's made simply for plying between the shore and the fishing boats, and it's still laid up in its winter moorings. But it's no use, even with Eryn pulling and Kylie and Xantu plying the oars, the jolly boat is never going to catch up to the distant ferry. Aboard the ferryboat, as Kopje rallies his keelboats alongside, he has them lashed securely to the ferry so that each keelboat can add one oar to the ferryboat's speed. He's headed north back to his reed bound base. From there, he can make a report back to the bosses, the chaos dwarves, and judge his next move. It's a devastating loss by any means of reporting. The only thing he has to show for it is the ferry boat and the remaining ten crew on it. They can be held hostage, and of course, they have a bonus of a great deal of treasure and many fine mounts, obviously belonging to the adventurers. 

"Cap'n, an ill wind that blows nobody any good," Caxton rejoices as he thumbs through Umbert's spell book. "Yes, very interesting."

Did the party leave any link between they and the Viscount? No, and Kopje doesn't search that far anyway. But for now, let us return to the jolly boat. Ingle has at last had time to get his thoughts in order.

"Eryn!! This isn't working! Pull over to the spit... west!!" 

Eryn waves to show that she has heard Ingle clearly, and the jolly boat swings west, back towards their original keelboat landing. 

"The Divine Eye has blessed me with the obvious," Ingle announces as they all gather. "It's a fine day. The sun will be westering. It seems that the ferry is headed to the north. We just need a little bit of information as to exactly where they're headed, and we might be able to creep up using the west of this lake. Let's go up to the villa just quickly."

"If we return, I can regather my longbow" Kylie chants. 

"Aye, mistress Kylie, I know just where it is. Me and Pod noticed it as we were um treasure hunting and put aside where no big folk could see it. Din't we pet?" 

"It'ud be noice safely tocked asoide the wall." 

Indeed the two halflings, just as Jack did, made sure to fill their purses with battlefield trove. 

"I think I'm reading you, old bean," Jack trills. "You know, if we are going up amongst the dead there, we could gather some buccaneer rags and look, you know, like buccaneers. What?" 

"Good idea, Jack. Buccaneer clothes might prevent us from being spotted so easily."

"Well, I suppose since we're fighting people who slaughter innocent civilians, that's acceptable," Ingle decides. 

As we've previously noted, Sir Fuire's villa has a high point, excellent for making sure of seeing out right across the lake, and this now comes into play. The exact course of the ferry is marked. Ingle handles most of the diplomatic niceties speaking to Sir Fuire and his immediate family and retinue. He makes a nine, not too bad. His charisma is twelve, so a reasonably good score against that. 

I wish I had time to go into the exact details, but as noted, Sir Fuire is in his early thirties. He is a family man, although it would seem that his marriage is mainly for the purpose of propagation. As we have noted, he has two mistresses, and that's who he prefers to spend his leisure time with. I'm sure Jensen Justawake made things quite difficult for Ingle, but I'd say a 9 against a charisma of 12 will cover all that. And so, we move to a later scene. 

It is 40 minutes before the sun sets in the west. With Eryn still pulling the keelboat to make sure it has enough impetus, helped by the oars plied by Xantu and Kylie, who after Eryn are the two strongest, the keelboat slides among the northern reeds. And here we make a wisdom check for Eryn. It's a nat one, couldn't be better. Perhaps Eryn was raised among marshes or near marshes. In any case, she clearly understands channels through the reeds and what might lead to dry land. 

Have the Buccaneers left a rearguard? Yes. 

Now, as we've previously noted this episode, Kopje has only 20 Buccaneers, not counting himself, KC, and Caxton. Therefore, without further apology, I'm switching to the Goblin Dungeon Encounter Chances, which is 2d4. There are four Buccaneers in the rearguard. It may seem obvious to us from our attacker's point of view, but these Buccaneers aren't necessarily expecting attackers. They may well be expecting stragglers. Quite a number of Buccaneers were left to float slowly south, and may have been blown back north. (Although privately, off screen, I've rolled for that, and the answer was no. But they're not to know that.) 

So we're going to sum up the appearance of vaguely disguised characters bearing bows with a surprise check. Are the four buccaneers surprised? No, but hesitate, as they see what might be buccaneers. That's all the characters need. Eryn, who has no bow, has a shield up, and she is guarding Umbert and Ingle, but all of the other five have a missile weapon ready to loose. Well, apart from one shot that probably just wounded, all of the others are death wounds or crit. All four buccaneers collapse with a groan. Is KC left as the significant rear guard leader? Yes, but she's relying on patrols and pickets. She's not in a fortified position. Does the station that they've just captured lead directly to KC? Yes, there's no need to retreat to the keelboat and start finding a new channel. The five armed with missile weapons make sure that their bows or crossbow are ready and creep quietly forward or as quietly as Xantu and Kylie's heavy armor will allow. Although as a side note, perhaps I should stop referring to their armor as heavy. In terms of coins weight, it's more like medium. Plate is reserved as the heavy armor. Distance to the next picket: 70 yards. Buccaneer surprise? No. Character surprise? No. Is KC with these buccaneers? Yes, she's very intelligent and will be managing the Buccaneers accordingly. Therefore, I'm giving she and her 2d4, 6 Buccaneers, a chance to see through the disguises. A D20 for her and a D20 for a generic Buccaneer. She makes a splendid three. The Buccaneers fail completely. 

"Let them have it!" 

Initiative. Characters 1, Buccaneers 3. Range. 90 feet. That's not doing the Buccaneers any favours. Arrows bounce off Kylie and Xantu. But Cied, Pod and Jack each take an arrow. That's the first wound for Cied. She drops from 17 to 14 hit points. Pod drops from 12 to 8 hit points. And Jack drops from 11 to 8 points. For her part, KC orders one of her six to run to alert the boss in the next round, and she herself steps up, ready to do battle. And what the party doesn't know is that KC has a plus one longsword. In their bound, the missile users amongst the party move to good range, although in Xantu's case that's barely at all, and Kylie need only move 20 feet to bring her longbow into short range. The three shortbow users advance about 40 feet or so and use the reeds as some cover before loosing. For halflings and for Jack disguised in his elven cloak and boots, that makes them effectively invisible. Eryn, with her shield up, sheltering Ingle and Umbert has leapfrogged the rear positions and is roughly level to where Jack, Cied, and Pod are in cover. Xantu focuses on the obvious leader and scores a crit. Kylie, Jack, Cied, and Pod each accurately drop one buccaneer. That leaves KC fairly heavily wounded, dropping from 18 hit points to 12, and with only two buccaneers with which to resist the oncoming party. And one of those buccaneers will be needed to sound the alarm. It's time to withdraw. 

Round 2. Initiative. Characters 4, Buccaneers 5. One of the Buccaneers legs it, hollering for the boss. Morale. KC is still in control of her situation. Logically speaking, there ought to be 2d4 more Buccaneers patrolling or as pickets around her. And there are only two. They are arriving this round. KC is smart and realizes that three Buccaneers and herself are not going to turn the odds in her favour all of a sudden. It's a fighting withdrawal. Two more Buccaneers join KC and join in her slow retreat to the north. In her chainmail with a shield up, she could pull back about 45 feet. Character bound, the hidden archers continue moving at roughly their half pace, so about 45 feet, and loosing. Kylie and Xantu, what are they going to do? Continue loosing? Possibly. Move into shield and sword combat? Possibly. It's 50-50. It's shield and sword for them. They are taking a round which to stow their missile weapons and ready their shield, so they will be a little behind Eryn by the time she advances her move. She's gaining on the Buccaneers falling back, or at least on KC. I imagine the other Buccaneers are just keeping pace with KC, even though they're lighter equipped. But she's still about 15 or 20 feet shy. Here are the short bows. Are any of them aimed at KC? No. And the three just want to make sure the minor Buccaneers are put down. And so they are. There's even a crit from Cied. 

Initiative, Round 3. Character 6, Buccaneers 4. That's very bad news for KC. Still, one-on-one, she has a good chance against Eryn. She is fighting withdrawal, and Eryn has a shield up. So KC's chance of actually penetrating Eryn's defences are fairly minimal, but likewise the chances of Eryn finding her way through the doubled up defences of KC are even less likely. Eryn's attack on KC. It's two and a one, but with KC being at fighting withdrawal, or defensive fighting if you like, only the two will count. But Eryn is using a magic sword, making it three, and Eryn has bonus strength, making it four. KC drops from 12 hit points to eight hit points. She is in trouble. Meanwhile, Xantu and more particularly Kylie, who is slightly in advance of Xantu, have very nearly caught up to Eryn. How far away was Kopje when the Buccaneer fled? Two combat rounds north. So this round, the Buccaneer messenger will catch up to Kopje and sound the alarm. KC is withdrawing her half speed north, but she's in big trouble. She knows that there are hidden archers who can move in the marshes. 

Initiative. Characters 5, KC 3. This time, Kylie catches up. Xantu is still 10 feet behind. Moreover, Jack can use the reeds to pass KC and creep behind her, ready for a backstab next round, if need be. Let's start with Kylie's cut from the side. Excellent. 3 points damage. And of course, Kylie is strong, so that becomes 4 points damage. Next, Eryn's attack from the front. KC shields her off, the sword rattling harmlessly against KC's shield. KC continues to pull back. Jack is slightly ahead of her, depending on agility checks, and KC is one full sprint or two more of her fighting withdrawals from the Buccaneer base itself. She's well within missile range, in fact. Adding the runner who's just alerted him, Kopje has nine buccaneers of varying types and degrees, including his bugler. He also has Caxton, and Caxton has a scroll, in fact, two spell scrolls. For himself, Kopje has taken time to re-equip with heavier armor and a very magical mace.

Meanwhile, initiative. KC6, Party 1. KC is just one sprint away from some kind of cover, but she knows before she can get into that cover, there are numbers of bows and one crossbow aimed at her unprotected back. She'll play the odds and continue her fighting withdrawal. However, by this time, Jack is behind her. We reach the character bound. Jack's backstab is not fabulous, but his damage is doubled as a successful backstab, and that makes it 8 points. KC falls dead. Given the movement that's happened during that round, the front of the party, which is effectively Jack, is 80 feet from the ferry boat, the remaining keelboats and the Buccaneer base. Initiative. Characters 5, Buccaneers 1. Ingle urgently calls Jack back, but quietly. Jack makes a wisdom perception check, but he fails on a 16. Likewise, Cied and Pod make hear noise, and they also fail. Both of them. They will move forward. And of course, Jack is going to thread his way back into the reeds to spy out what exactly KC has been retreating to. From his perspective, it looks something like a low turf wall, but it's hard to make out because of the increasing shadow forced by the heavily westering sun and by the reeds themselves. Well behind him, Eryn, Kylie, and Xantu, all now with shields and weapons ready, hesitate. 

"We need to strike now!" 

At that moment, as we head to the Buccaneer Bound, Caxton's nerve breaks, and he hurls Lightning Bolt into where Jack was last seen. Those in the line of fire will take thirteen damage. Or if they make their save against spells, six damage. As a level four thief, Jack does not have good odds. He needs to roll a five or below. And he rolls a three! 

Can any of the other Buccaneers actually see any character to lose opposite? No, but they have a fair idea that they're very close. The cries of alarm are going out along the Buccaneer side. Three buccaneers are currently available to loose, and more cluster closer. The great problem that Kopje has, of course, is that those ramparts were made to be defended by eighty to a hundred buccaneers, and he has nine. Some of the Buccaneers, like Caxton, indeed, are wanting to cast off. Others are wanting to seize mounts and get out of the compound, riding far away. Either would take time, since they're yelling in a panic, having made a morale of nine. 

I'm ruling that the characters can easily hear these plans and counter plans. 

Ingle feels that he's overruled, and after all, he's not the party leader. He's just the wise head they all depend on at one time or another. 

"Alright, we will strike now. Let's move."