Rollohi-ch409-script

 Welcome back to what promises to be the death grip between the vengeful party bent on retrieving their loot and mounts and retaliating for the theft; and the remnant of the Buccaneers, under Kopje, who is currently stationed aboard the ferry, and Caxton, who has stationed himself up high, so that he can get a good line of sight. 

The characters have lost a round, save for the three scouts, Jack, Cied, and Pod, who have continued to thread their way right to the verge of the reeds, and they can now see the ferry, where, still firmly lashed around by keelboats, it is lodged right next to a low, simple fortification. 

A gangplank has been thrown down from the ferry, across the keelboats and into the compound. And amidst the compound there is a log bunkhouse, and they can also see the mounts. Presumably any prisoners must be safe inside the log bunkhouse. 

They can also see Caxton. Caxton's position in a relatively fortified lookout point atop the bunkhouse, from where he unleashed a would-be deadly lightning bolt, but managed only to score a nasty wound on Jack, has brought him within range of the short bows plied by the three scouts. 

Those three scouts, Jack, Cied, and Pod, are well ahead of their party. On their side, the Buccaneers are now well aware that the party has not paused or repositioned using the many paths available within the reeds. They are all coming from the expected direction, the south. And that means that, during the round, all nine of the available buccaneers will be available to launch arrows or crossbow bolts down at the oncoming characters. 

In terms of who is visible to those buccaneers, Kylie, Eren, and Xantu shields up, are a mobile armoured screen in front of Ingle and Umbert. 

Initiative. [Caxton wins, and has a fall-back plan, check for whether he can see Kopje] 

Yes, but he cannot currently see Kopje. He pulls out a second scroll, looking over at the ferry. 

The nine Buccaneers all unleash a stream of arrows at the visible targets. One arrow strikes Eryn. Technically, she could use a hit dice to try and parry it, but she has enough hit points. But she will need Ingle to heal her. Perhaps more importantly, the three scouts, well briefed by Ingle about the dangers of the spellcaster, and having just witnessed how deadly it can be, all direct their arrows at Caxton, who is a difficult target given his extra cover. 

Cied's arrow sinks into the woodwork, but Jack and Pod score true. Caxton's hit points drop from 12 to 5. 

Will Umbert deploy his last spell? No, and he's busy keeping in cover. 

Ingle uses his staff of healing on Eryn and she returns to 18 hit points. 

I can't quite visualize how the ferry itself is defended. And I don't believe the characters would necessarily need to vault the wall, but I imagine the Buccaneers have set up some kind of trap or defence. Has Kopje deployed traps to prevent the fairy being approached directly? Yes, but they're minimal. 

The range between the Buccaneers' fortification and the oncoming Swordswoman and Warhammer-Dwarf drops to short. 

Initiative. Characters three, Buccaneers two. 

Those first two arrows of Jack and Pod are already enough to kill, but I'll roll Cied's as well. And she also drills home a third arrow into Caxton before he can get fully undercover. Caxton is dead, and the scroll, unused, drops beside him. 

The Buccaneers once more unleash their hail of arrows, and I believe it is exactly the same Buccaneer, number three, who again tags Eryn. She drops from 18 to 16 hit points. 

For the melee fighters, it's a simple strength check. It is a low fortification. Eryn rolls a 12, 3 under her strength. Kylie rolls a 2 miles under her good strength, and Xantu rolls a 3, also miles under his very good strength. That therefore allows them a normal melee hack against buccaneers that do not have shields ready. Xantu has spare hit dice and he can use those to improve his hacking if he needs to. He kills a buccaneer. Eryn kills a buccaneer. Kylie crits, killing two buccaneers. Five Buccaneers remain at the end of that round. Aboard the ferry, Kopje begins lighting a fire. It will take three combat rounds for it to be fully set alike. 

Initiative. Characters five, Buccaneers six. 

Even within the nine that are there, they've lost more than 50%. Let's take a morale. 7. Seeing no place that they could possibly get away now, the Buccaneers drop their bows and draw scimitars. They do not have time to equip shields. I'll make an initial five d6 rolls, and anything that looks as though it might possibly succeed, I'll set aside and make a re-roll for the disadvantage of facing characters with shields ready. There are three that might succeed. The lowest score turns into a three, which is not enough to penetrate. The second lowest score also turns into a three, fails, and the other score turns into a six, which of course misses. 

I got those out of the way, but I'm also going to make a [WIS] check for Kopje, who, as noted, has begun to light a fire. With a six, he's aware of how the battle is going, even though he's slightly unsighted. On the character side, Ingle is available to heal, and it doesn't look like he's needed, so he might cast detect traps. Will Ingle cast Find traps? Yes, but on the ferry. Ingle cuts right, towards the water. He's decided to use Find traps. There must be a clear path up the gangplank or else it's trapped. The Find trap spell has a range of 30 feet that, with Ingle's arm extended, covers roughly from the end of the fortification next to the water and its crude barricade and up to the deck of the ferry. He has a nasty suspicion that the gangplank is too obvious an entry point. He calls out across the marsh, "Jack! CiedPod, don't try and use the gangplank. Use stealth." 

This presents Jack and CiedPod with something of a dilemma. As long as they use an extra turn, they should be able to slither over the wall and to the ferry, which is only 40 feet away in a straight line from Pod, further for Jack. Do they slither? I'll make two rolls since Cied and Pod will work together. Yes and, and yes and. 

Jack cuts across behind the magic user and he and CiedPod work their way quietly up the fortification but then hurdle all inside the fortification over into the water. With that manoeuvre, they're outside the melee. Umbert simply cowers close to Ingle, who in magic leather armor is better armored than he. 

Since she's the one always getting wounded, let's start with Eryn. Crit! Two buccaneers fall dead. Next, Kylie. [her d8 misses] She's going to use her last hit die. And she misses clean. And we move on to Xantu. It's a kill. Three of the five Melee-ing Buccaneers fall dead. 

During the round, the fire begins really taking hold aboard the ferry, and Kopje is satisfied that in one more round he can leave it. After that, it's a quick run to the mounts and away. Or, he might plunge into the lake, it's very shallow here, and he ought to be able to hold his breath. He's heard stories, of course, about the ferocious lake life that will tear a bleeding man to shreds, but he's not wounded. He should be alright. 

Both of those plans revolve in his head as he listens to the ebb and flow of melee. As an experienced fighter himself, he can tell that his side is losing badly. 

Two remaining Buccaneers. Their swords bounce harmlessly off the shields of the attackers. 

Initiative. Characters 4, Buccaneers 1. Jack and the Halflings cover the entire loop from the platform, it really is a low fortification, around to the ferry and creep quietly over the keelboats next to the landing. Let's make some agility checks. The worst of those is nine, well under Pod's dexterity. They make it silently across to the ferry boat and begin clambering. But to preserve the tension, I won't reveal their strength checks. Back to the malay. Erin kills a buccaneer. Kylie crits. It's not needed, since there was only the one left, and she shakes the blood off her long sword. Xantu glances around. 

"I don't see a captain. Ought to be one more heavily armoured type, don't you think?"

"Xantu, there's smoke coming from the ferry."

"Don't tell me they're burning our gear" comes from Humbert, and Ingle too yells: "run to the ferry! It looks like there might be smoke, but watch out for traps.

"If there are traps," he corrects himself, "the parts that are trapped ought to be glowing." 

During the buccaneer phase of the turn, Kopje completes the fire to his satisfaction and equips himself with his mace. Next round, if need be, he can leap across the keelboats to the shore. 

Initiative. Characters five, Buccaneers six. 

What happens next? For Kopjes perception check will decide whether he runs and dives, runs for the gangplank, or equips his shield. Here we go. Ten. Kopje's wisdom is nine. It's a miss. 

I'm aware that Jack has succeeded in his strength check and is sitting up ready to loose from one direction. And Cied and Pod also made their strength checks and are ready to loose from a completely different direction. Kopje steps out of the superstructure. There are three disadvantaged arrow shots coming at him. Two of those are potentially successful. That's a confirmed crit. It is Jack who has slipped aboard so far as to be at a half-kneeling position on the ferryboat's side. Kopje drops from 29 hit points to 23 hit points. And of course, as noted, the arrow stays there. 

Initiative. Character 6, Kopje 5. 

Cied  and Pod change positions, and each slams an arrow into Kopje. Jack, too, alters his position and now with a clear view of the Buccaneer Captain gets an advantage shot from behind. Four points damage. Sensing that the end might be near, Jack drops his shortbow beside him and draws his short sword. Her longer legs pumping, Eryn, seeing no telltale glow, runs up the gangplank and onto the ferry:

"Put the fire out! Put the fire out," she yells.

"Our loot!" Cied screams in horror, realizing what the fire must mean. She is completely distracted after this point. Kopje rises, limping, realizing that blood in the water may mean his only course of action is to bust through this one swordswoman and away to the mounts. He charges, wielding his plus three mace. And he crits. Eryn takes 10 damage. She drops to six hit points. Kopje loses a further hit point. He has 11 hit points left. At a slightly slower pace, by which I mean they didn't make great strength checks, Kylie and Xantu finish the section of the interior of the fort up to the gangplank. It's wide enough to permit the unloading of the ferry. Easily wide enough for the three of them. Now Kopje is up against three hardened fighters, shields up:

Initiative. Character six, Kopje two. 

Let's begin with Jack's backstab. Crit. Kopje can use three hit dice to try for a one, which would block that crit. He blocks it, whips back around. He parries Eryn off. Her sword clangs off his shield. Kylie, the same. Parried off. Xantu steps closer. It's a crit. Is there any chance that Kopje can parry this crit? He rolls a two. It's not enough. Xantu's crit is powered by his plus two strength, and Kopje drops to three hit points. It's Kopje's turn. He doesn't have any kind of ability to overcome the shields against him. No spare hit dice, and his mace, no matter how good, simply bounces off Eryn's shield. [though it will inflict 1 impact damage]

Initiative. Characters 2, Kopje 5. Desperation time. Kopje needs to dive sideways and get to the mounts in a lightning dash. Here's his strength check. It's a natural 20. I'm gonna say that is a Pratfall to end all Pratfalls. He dives, but somehow slips and ends up prone at Jack's mercy. Jack's short sword comes down. And that's the end of Kopje, the Buccaneer Captain. With a greedy glint in his eye, Xantu grabs the mace before it can roll off the gangplank into the water. "Fancy," he says approvingly. "Looks like he might have had a reason to wield this ancient Dwarven work," he says defensively, as the other two eye him. At this point, Eryn makes a stamina check and rolls a thirteen, two above what she wants, with her CON of twelve. Her face goes grey and she vomits a bit of blood. "Easy girl," Xantu growls. "I think ye might have a few busted ribs there. Tagged you a good one, didn't he?" He looks even more respectfully at the mace in his hand.

"Eryn, the breath of your horses! ...will cheer you," Kylie says, pointing back towards where the mounts are. 

Eryn staggers back down the gangplank. And at about the same time, Jack, who has only two hit points left, cheerfully makes a stamina check of four against his CON of fourteen. He's far more worried about the fire spreading than he is about nearly being dead. 

Over the next several rounds, as the scouts in front line see to the fire as best they can, Umbert and Ingle hurry across to the bunkhouse, checking that the mounts are alright and not stolen, and taking off the lock bar which has penned the prisoners in. But Umbert does at least have the chance to loot Caxton's body of spell books, plural, and the spell scroll. He tucks the latter back into its scroll case. He needs to study the magic languages that Caxton employed before he can read either spell book or scroll. 

As for those aboard, they do manage to put out the fire, although it takes 12 more combat rounds. The superstructure of the ferry is quite severely damaged, but the thick planks, of course, from which it is constructed, cannot be burnt. It will simply mean a very uncomfortable journey back to Lake Town. 

And lo, there is so much rejoicing. Eryn embraces her war horse and palfrey and says a few kind words for the other mounts. The other characters embrace their lost baggage. Cied lovingly runs her hands through the coins that she left here. By the time night has fallen, a merry bonfire is blazing. The ten ferryman survivors tell of the harrowing tale of the casual dispatch of their wounded colleague and thank the characters all for saving them. 

The loot of Kopje in particular bears some telling. The Horde of the Buccaneers included 7,000 gold coin, 1,000 ancient platinums, 31 pieces of great quality jewellery, and they have already purloined the Sword Plus 1, the Mace Plus 3, and the remaining spell scroll. That will become extremely valuable if they ever do manage to penetrate the hobgoblin levels of the plateau. 

But for now, their hard endeavours, mainly selfish, let's be honest, have won them further rejoicings and celebrations, but as Cied points out, "we got to go quickly back to the villa - there's ears left to be taken. Two gold apiece!"

The two halflings have taken relatively little hurt, and nothing will do for Cied but that she, with Pod fearfully holding a torch for her, goes back along the marshy path that they trod and claims all of the available left ears. "I bet you that there baron or whatever he is, th' senieur will be taking all the ears 'e can find," she frets. 

"Now, pet don't be saying that. Seemed like a right honourable gent to me." 

"You mark my words, Pod. Humans is greedy, not like you and me." 

"You never said a truer word, pet," Pod says soothingly, as his beloved partner lops off the final ear. 

"Everyone, please, give me your attention," Ingle calls. Several of the ferryman raise liberated wine in honor of his call. 

"We've been discussing our options, and we've decided that first thing tomorrow, after I finish my morning prayers and healing, we'll head directly back to the villa, and only then shall we go to Lake Town. The seigneur needs to hear our report above all things." 

This is definitely the truth, although Cied's earlier point about ears and gold bounty was also well made and heartfelt. 

So let us finish this session with a night encounter check. It's not a one, so the night will pass without event, and next session we'll deal with natural healing and the staff of healing being applied to all of our wounded friends.