Rollohi-ch506-script

 Welcome back to Rollohi, and welcome back to the ongoing assault into the chasm attempt number one against the fierce halflings! 

The company descends, finding the approaches well defended by organized defenders who fire from thick loopholes in the wall, making them incredibly hard to retaliate to. However, the attackers, the company, has made good preparation and takes no permanent casualty, although several are hurt. Hilu, the halfling, probably the worst of those, taking green slime as well as a crossbow bolt. Although Dorgan, suffering from some poison and crossbow bolts, is also hard hit. Both of those have now been healed by Ingle. The company first dabbed off to the east and then to the west, finding neither a perfect approach. The west and south does seem to offer a door, but discouraged by the presence of suspicious amounts of water proceeding under it, the company now retreats again and tries back to its original direction, the east, and to a nook where quantities of stolen goods, mostly food, are stored. 

During turn 18, the company rests and withdraws. 

Turn 19, the company arrives at the storage nook and completes its rest. Unknown to them, and indeed unknown to the halfling Laird, four halfling defenders are now ready to contest the waterway south of that nook. The decomposing food, clearly looted off local farms and perhaps trading caravans, discourages the company from exploring very far. Checking the area with their infravision from dwarfs and elves, they simply move on, heading back into the stream and south, and into the arc of fire of the four halflings. 

The exception is Hilu, Pod and Cied, who clamber out onto the Nook, curious. During the first two rounds of the combat, the defenders do make four hits. They have run out of poison by this time, and so they are just raw wounds. The attackers in response, using Pavises to get close to the murder holes, kill three of the four halflings. Unwisely, the remaining halfling decides to stay to sell his life dearly and immediately gets critted. Meanwhile, Cied, Pod, and Hilu have disturbed a giant centipede. They are surprised. But Cied, though bitten, rolls an 03 against poison, resisting it. (This is a somewhat different venom from the Halfling Venom. There's no negative consequences for the save success.) Kicking the corpse aside in disgust, Cied checks whether it was lairing on treasure, and unfortunately it was not. 

The company pushes on south. Xantu at the forefront finds an access panel to what must be the narrow confines of the murder holes. It's trapped. He kicks the panel in and makes a Nat 1. Dorgan raising his shield in the nick of time to make sure that his mentor is fully protected. The dwarf pair signals the Brains Trust, who are cowering opposite in the water. "We have a way forward!" However, it's barely navigable for a dwarf. The question is, is it worth taking advantage of? Dorgan and Xantu shields up, squeeze slowly through the area beyond the access panel and into what for a dwarf is just about what could be called a crawl space, built for halflings or something smaller again. Eventually they give up and back out, and within less than a minute, Cied, Pod and Hilu are hailed from wherever they've been goofing off to bring their coracles down and try to use the passages beyond the access panel to turn the tables on the defenders. 

Turn 20. The first few elements of the company file slowly toward what appears to be another section of bench beyond the access to the access panel. The company returns to the water and advances past some pillars on the left to what appears to be a very broad bench further beyond. They're expecting trouble, and they get it. The area is defended, and it's by orcs. 

We pick up in turn 22 and dropping into Melee rounds. Xantu back with his crossbow, or perhaps I should say Jack's fancy ivory crossbow, is in the lead. The two sides head towards each other as fast as possible while taking advantage of cover. Xantu and Dorgan hit a pit trap, which is exactly where the orcs, or perhaps halflings, figured that attackers would come in. I give each a 50-50 chance of falling into the pit trap given that they're covering one another. Xantu no, Dorgan yes. 

Missiles are exchanged at normal range for crossbows and shortbows. Xantu nicks an orc for one. Elion hits that same orc for three, killing that orc. The next two crossbows repeat that effort. A second orc is down. Will Xantu switch to mace? No, not yet. He's going to try to retrieve Dorgan. The pit trap contained several spikes, some of which can be poisoned. Dorgan took four damage from two spikes and one was poisoned. Dorgan fails to save. He has enough wits and strength to grab shield and rope up, but he is badly poisoned. His Dex and Con are both down by four. 

The company, not deterred by the two dwarves falling into the pit trap, push on, seeking a better lodgement on the bench or ledge that the orcs are defending from. However, further south, four goblings are backing up the orcs, and they have a range of 100 feet at which they can see the company or hear them approaching. With goblings beginning to loose their own crossbows, the company falls back during round four. A gobling hits Kylie for two, and one gobling is wounded for three, then hit twice more and dies. Round five. The goblings have to make a morale check. They roll an eight and so pull back. The final defenders of that series of ledges are halflings, two halflings, and now the company is 90 feet from them. The goblings have to take to the water to retreat. Missiles hit them at their unprotected backs. Two die. An uncertain number of goblings remain. In round six, the halfling defenders loose at extreme range into the dark and miss. The gobling defender, the lone last defender, flees. Sadly for the halflings, loosing into the dark in large numbers favors the attackers. Archers and crossbows open up. Possibly Elion can see what he's doing, the others cannot. Both halflings fall. 

We move to turn 23. Cied Pod and Hilu have now made their way beyond the access panel and into the crawlways around the murder holes. They find at the very southern end the reverse panel of an access panel. As they work to disarm it, they meet a fleeing gobling! Inits halfling attackers two, gobling six. The goblin evades south. There is a pit trap that way, and I give the panicking gobling a 1 in 6 chance of forgetting that it's there. 1! Well, a gobling falling down the pit trap definitely reveals that pit trap. In effect now, the company have captured two further ledges or benches south of the first big bench. They now have time to evaluate what they have found. The first large bench contains more spoils of war, and unfortunately, spoils is definitely the right word to apply to anything that can rot. The flood has not been kind to goods that have been stored here. Still, there may be something that can be sold or returned to its original owners. The second bench is more perilous, it contains crumbling stone and little of interest. But the third bench contains a captive. As they ungag him and ask him what has led to him being imprisoned here, he explains that his name is Billy Udderbind, and the halflings attempted to persuade him to turn to chaos and join them. He declined and was imprisoned there. He explains that the main purpose of these ledges is to store loot and confirms that these are trade or town goods which ought to be returned to their rightful owners. 

Now I know what you're going to say, dear listener. Especially if you played modules like Secret of Saltmarsh. There's nothing that the forces of chaos like better than providing the party with what appears to be a poor imprisoned hostage or captive or the like, which they can take pity on and adopt. And almost inevitably later proves to be a foul chaos servant, dedicated to either killing a party member or betraying the party as a whole. But just bear in mind, our party is fully lawful. Even suspicious though they may be, it's not as though they can torture young Billy or lie to him to try and trap him. And besides, he could turn out to be genuine. 

His liberators, obviously, slightly suspicious, ask if he knows much about the complex, and the answer is just the obvious stuff. This will allow the company to accurately guess what comes next for the next few points of interest. 

Time to make a cresset light check. It's still okay, but another hour has elapsed and rest is required. The company defends as it dries out on that final ledge or bench, if you like, and assesses what it has thus far gained. Turn 25 is rest and planning. 

Turn 26. Dorgan is deemed far too sick to proceed, and this leads to a change of strategy. Is this the point? I wonder, at which the company entire decides that 240 minutes down below is plenty enough time for now. 

The company does slowly pull back out, feeling that it has learned that this is a big complex, not something that could be done in a day. Up above, the weather is as expected. It will be very cold in the morning, warming to late afternoon, as the company reforms its perimeter at the camp nearest to the chasm. Pod comes running back to the perimeter.

"Brigands no doubt. Stand to the defenses."

Lem is feeling very, very, very much like a thin line. After all, there are only eight of them. Archers behind them, crossbows behind them, or off to the flanks. He's not sure where the halflings have gone. He looks back. The adventurers seem to be heavily divided in their opinion. But as he looks back, he catches Seni's eye. And Seni grins, confident. Cocky even. Yeah, the guy can shoot, but it's not him in the front line, cowering behind a pavise, hastily stripped of its spear so that the spear can be set against charging horse. Lem tries to hear, as best he can, what the adventurers are saying. That scrawny robed wizard seems to be really keen on fighting it out. And of course Lady Eryn. The elf lady is saying something, but her enunciation is so all over the place he can't really follow what she's saying. Judging from the body language, though, she's on Eryn's side. Relief surges through Lem's veins as he sees the dwarf, Xantu, powerful, armed with that magical mace, shaking his head vigorously. No, this is not the time to try and make a stand against overwhelming numbers of brigands, surely. And then his blood freezes. Something that Lady Eryn and the Elf Lady have said has changed the dwarf's mind. He's nodding. No, we're going to have to make a fight of it after all. Maybe the worst of it is the wizard is grinning like a maniac. And he's headed to just behind the crossbowman. There's a slight movement. That must have been the halflings. They were there all along. Trust the halfling not to be seen. No matter what happens, they'll be alright. Lem fights down those unworthy thoughts. These are his employers. He's experienced in battle now. Ingle the cleric is there with the wizard, and he'll be able to heal people if they get badly hurt. Alright. He glances back at Seni. The two brothers nod. They can definitely do this. Then, from well out in the open forest. Must be over fifty yards away. A heraldworthy voice sings out loud and proud.

It says, Throw down your weapons. Prepare to be inspected.

Well, there's no way that this company will be doing that. They've just agreed to fight. In response, Lady Eryn paces calmly behind Seni and the other archers, telling them to wait until regular flat range, not to waste their shot trying to pick off riders where they can't be sure of making a shot. She checks on Rima and then a further look at Lem and an encouraging nod. She sure remembers him. He will fight. Horsemen, a lot of horsemen, begin filtering into sight. And there's a deep 'hm' of a longbow and then another as Elion follows Kylie's lead. And the flat snap of the three crossbows. That's why Eryn told the archers to wait. The longer range weapons are opening up. And it's working. A couple of riders fall. They're the lighter armored ones. But there's a glint of heavy armor on the three lead riders and they're carrying lances. Can a Pavise stand against a rider mounted on a barded horse with a lance? Lem finds that his bladder is full. And he really needs to visit the privy. But his loyalty oath keeps him there, standing firm. Kylie, in her strange voice, is explaining where enemy archers are hiding. Eryn is advising the archers now to focus on the less armored riders. More fall. The riders are getting closer. The pace of their horses is picking up. Agonized screams come from some of the bushes and trees out there. But then his fellows, Telu and Maru, also yell in pain. Arrows lancing through their flimsy pavises to stick at arms or shoulders. And the three lead riders have formed a wedge. This is it. A ball of fire suddenly envelops those three riders and the three behind them. Maybe more. One rider comes tearing towards the line. His face, a mask of hate. His fine horse, afire. His battle cry carries five more medium riders with him. They're all leveling spears. This is it. The next few moments are a blur. Lem feels a huge redness, almost like a star, opening up in his inside. He's lying on the ground. Seni looking at him. Seni's lying down too. It's getting dark early. Lem tries to reach for Seni with a grin that doesn't quite convey itself as blood gouts out of Seni's mouth. His older brother dies. And Lem follows him into the beyond.