Rollohi-ch502-script

 Last episode, season five of Rollahi began with a successful landing at north of the lake in an overly complicated plan for the company, numbering eight adventurous and twenty retainers, plus mounts, to start at the north of the lake, secure the road north, work its way all the way round, check out the southwest, and somehow also approach New Jay from the southeast. I'm sure that will work out splendidly. We followed the settling of a small rearguard, nowhere near enough to defend the perimeter of the fortification, at the abandoned buccaneer fort north of the lake, and traveled with our main company half a day east to the road. There, a small village is under attack by something that sounds giantish, and will rejoin our scouting force at that point. With a few whispers, these scouts debate their moral code. But luckily for our company, these are no shining paladins. Jack is a thief, Cied, a ruthless, greedy little lawful halfling, and Pod a cowardly little lawful halfling. They do not want to take on these three giants on their own. They sneak back towards the company, and Hilu rejoins them, pretending that he was scouting all along. "Oi'll have something to say to you after this," Cied tells him crossly. He shrugs. Since the scouts don't have to move discreetly, they jog quickly along the hedgerows and report back to the new position of the company. Umbert nods intelligently.

"I say, Ingle! This could be the chance for us to try out our best spells."

"Perhaps perhaps Kylie's new spell, but I feel we shouldn't be tossing great balls of flame around the country while we're trying to be discreet," Ingle urges. "Keep it in case of an emergency, alright? Possibly if these giants are as careless as Cied here says, ventriloquism could do a great deal in this particular position."

"These giants, I suppose, will have a great deal of reach if they're wielding clubs," Eryn muses. "I could try a lance attack." 

"Only as reserve and last resort, please, Eryn. Or try to bait these giants onto our line... I know! Since you're on a mount, you could challenge them and then ride back to us and be reserve behind our line. That would be alright, wouldn't it?"

"Oh yes. After all, we are here to win, not to put on a knightly show." 

There is a half suggestion in my mind that, had it not been for the malice of Justawake, the Seigneur's intelligence chief, Eryn would probably have been knighted after her services at the lake. It's just a passing thought. 

Let's see what happens. I think my initial roll of eleven for these particular giant kind indicated that they just weren't interested in some vague approaching force barely seen through the rain. But now they're challenged at reasonably close quarters, perhaps normal range for a bow shot, by a figure on a horse. Will they take the back? A roll of seven, indicating that they're semi-interested. Eryn is going to need to taunt. It's not something he's tremendously good at, but everyone develops that kind of ability over their young life. Let's have a try. Oh, that's okay. No, it's not. Eryn's charisma is ten. She failed to roll under charisma, so it lacked impact. Grinding her teeth, Eryn rides back to report. And worse:

"There are two more in the village sacking the place. Dead! I'm sure there are more dead. We need to help those people as soon as possible," she urges.

Umbert and Jack shake their heads. Ingle muses. "If we get these people," he says, gesturing at the retainers, "into a shapeless kind of formation in the village, they'll just be wiped out. We need to turn this to our advantage somehow. What do you think, Xantu? Kylie?"

"Still a long way off," Xantu muses. "What about it Eryn? See a good defensive field closer in?"

Kylie is focusing her attention on the wind and rain and doesn't currently respond. But Eryn has seen a good position off to her left or north. She says as much.

"Then, we should move north of east, grab the next paddock in.  Quietly. Can't save the village by throwing our lives away," Xantu asserts.

"First, let us use Haste. Then I can lure them... back... to the formation," Kylie asserts, then turns to Eryn:

"Eryn! No... beasts? Or stange... monsters?"

"No, these were giantish, Ten feet tall, one of them. Another one, perhaps eight. Huge, huge humanoids."

With a plan roughly ready, those who need to dismount dismount. The non-combat beasts are tethered where they are there, and Kylie raises her longbow to the air, up high, focuses on the group that she needs to instant spell, and casts HASTE! From that point, events move at double pace, if you'll pardon the expression. The two elves walk carefully so as not to make too much noise closer, within decent longbow range of the mighty humanoids. They seem to be enjoying themselves and have reduced the living cattle to one, one poor wretched beast, bellowing for help piteously, while the three laugh, dance, and caper around the paddock. Judging the wind to be as good as it gets and seeing Eryn's upraised lance as a signal. Kylie and Elion unleash. Ogres have four plus one hit die, and the nearest ogre is struck for 12 damage. Had 19 hit points originally, so now it has seven hit points. With a bellow of rage, it whips around and begins running after the retreating backs of the elves. And as I roll a three morale check for the other two, they leave off chasing the last cattle beast and join with bellows that also alert the remaining two ogres, terrorizing the village. From her vantage point top the warhorse, Eryn can report on good progress. The retreating, yes, and stopping to loose. There it goes. Indeed, those last seven hit points have been removed by the double-speed longbow of Kylie and Ilion. The next two ogres, ignoring their fallen lead, see what appears to them a puny gathering of humans. Cowering behind a fence. With bellows of rage, they do not wait for their remaining two mates. They just come on. As As Kylie and Elion quickly clamber over the obstacles in the way to rejoin the command behind the line, Ingle can safely give the 'loose' to the nine shortbow wielders. I'll be taking these off the dice table because there is a lot. I have to roll 18 archery shots at normal range. Moreover, archers who have a good dexterity will be treating the ogres as one armor class worse. Therefore, after much dice rolling, 34 damage is given to the ogres. A sheet of arrows, double speed, raining into them. One ogre begins with 21 hit points, and the other ogre probably with 28. Randomizing the distribution of arrows, it actually falls out evenly, 17 each. The lesser of the two ogres is now at 4 hit points, and the larger of the two ogres at 11 hit points. The two ogres began their round 100 feet away, and so as they blunder toward the ditch and the fence, Ingle can see that the plan is working perfectly. The only catch is that two more ogres are forty feet behind the heavily wounded pair in front. He turns to warn Eryn, but she's already signalling with a salute. "I shall ride out," she calls. "Kylie, I'm taking on the rear two." Kylie and Elion, seeing the way that Eryn has chosen to set her war horse, head in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, the two lead ogres stop just beyond the ditch and are met with another shooting volley. Ingle calling anxiously "Don't waste your arrows! Once they're down, turn your attention to the next two."

 So let's begin with Jack and the three halflings. It's up to the referee or DM to work out whether at short range a missile user has advantage. In this particular instance, I deem that the halflings loosing from somewhat off to the flank do have advantage. Jack crits, which drops the first heavily wounded ogre, and the arrows from the three halflings drop the massive lead ogre to two. Five archers firing from behind the spearmen, therefore, are barely needed. There's a couple of complete misses, but enough hits to assure me that the lead two ogres are well and truly dead. The next volley from all nine archers will be sent out at normal range against the rearmost two ogres. Since I've got them in my hand, here are the five... which is fair. One arrow slams into an upraised club. The other four arrows fall neatly into the correct targets, but without doing any appreciable damage at this stage. This next round will be fairly crucial. Kylie and Ellon can certainly support Eryn from the opposite flank. Eryn will be able to charge her warhorse at one of the ogres. And the ogres can charge home onto the line if they make a morale test. But first, let's test initiative. It's even. Characters 3, ogres 3. Everyone acts at once. Since her attack is a passing charge, Eryn needs to control her warhorse, and I'll take that into account first. Couldn't be better, a natural one. It's been a long time since a warhorse was used in a charge, and it's relishing the chance. Eryn's lance lunges at the ogre, and she fumbles with double tens, misjudging where the ogre is running. The lance reaches out... and falls out of Eryn's grasp. The war horse flashes by, the ogre swings its mighty club and misses, and the chance is over. Next, morale check for the ogres. They're not quite as bloodthirsty as before, but a five is certainly seeing them charge home. 

Next, we'll deal with the two longbows loosed from the other flank at the biggest of the two ogres. At this close range, Kylie crits and her second shot slams home for four. The biggest ogre is down to 11 hit point. As for Elion, nerves got the better of him. He flubs both shots. Next, the archers standing behind the spearmen. The ogre that Eryn whiskied takes nine damage, therefore dropping to nine hit points. And then with the second volley, takes a further six damage, dropping to three hit points. Biggest ogre takes five, dropping it to six hit points, and then takes only three, dropping it to three hit points. At the same time, the two ogres finish their charge, stumbling through the ditch and up into the fence and hammering at the two dwarves who are in their way. But - there is a rank of spears behind, acting as an extra layer of defence. It will be difficult for the ogres to make any impact on the dwarves. Let's find out. Ogre on Eryn's flank bounces off. And the biggest ogre also bounces up. Right, I'm not gonna jinx Xantu by saying that he's sure to destroy whichever three hit point opponent is in front of him, because he does have a mace plus three. He does have to connect, first of all. Is Xantu on the biggest ogre's side? No. This fits my mental picture. Xantu strikes at the slightly smaller of the two mighty ogres. And he makes a mess of it. His first blow is parried. His second blow misses completely. Here's Dorgun's attack. His second blow misses completely. His first blow would be a crit if he had any advantage. I feel in his defensive position he can't claim advantage. So, that mighty ogre drops to two hit points. There's nothing Ingle can do except argue Umbert down from using Fireball or some other spell that won't be particularly useful at this stage. So we will move on to the next round. 

Initiatives. Ogre attacking Dorgun. Dorgun takes one hit point damage from the impact as the Ogre's Club smashes onto the shield. That's all the Ogres can do. We move once again to Eryn, controlling her war horse for the next go round. This time it will be Sword. Winning the big horse around. Eryn comes in from the longbow side, which makes a mighty swipe at the biggest of the two ogres. And once again, no, the blade, despite being magical, cannot penetrate the ogre's thick collar. Eryn is going to expend one of her hit dice. And she flubs it. It's an eight. That's the only excess hit dice that Eryn has, of course, since she's five hit dice and these monsters are four. So that's all she can do. We can move directly on to Kylie. Kylie writes the finish to the big ogre. Elion can target the other one. It is so much larger than its targets that it's hammering down at, there's no danger to Friendly Fire. He fares no better than Eryn did. The arrow somehow lodging itself in the ogre's accoutrements. The other one flying harmlessly off in the general direction of away. In that case, it's up to Jack. He does it. He lands a very neatly placed arrow and then finishes it with the second arrow. The last ogre falls, crashing back into the ditch. And a cheer goes up from the spearman.

Eryn! Ingle calls, can you check with the village? See what's to do there? If there's more enemy.

Eryn acknowledges with her sword and the war horse thunders off down the lane into the village. 

Breaking out of the action, I have the chance to ask a couple of oracle questions. Is there any village hero? Yes. Number, two. Did either die? No. So picking a zero level character generator, I generate a couple of village heroes. The first, Lipmann, has plenty of personality, but is perhaps not the smartest. The second, Cannes, is very much a follower, but strong. He even has leather armor. So as Erin cautiously eases her war horse into the village so as to be able to look at the village square, she's confronted both by slain bodies, blood everywhere, and a defiant commoner wielding a mighty pitchfork and looking relatively dangerous, and as if he knows one end from the other. Erin has no hesitation in identifying herself as an adventurer with the favor of Count Yibh Espeque. Name dropping gets you advantage. And so, although I roll a six on his reaction, I can definitely promote that to an eight. Cautious distance. The verdict of he and his slightly faster thinking co-commander of the village defense, Lippmann by name, is that as long as the adventurers show respect and don't make any aggressive move, the village will welcome them. But that is all of the ogres that had been attacking the village. The death toll in the village is serious.