rollohi-ch518-script

 Welcome back to the great company making its stand on the bank of a river, facing what appears to be a last roll of the dice by the Orc Chief as he commits himself and his hearthguard to one great charge. Is this like William the Conqueror's last cavalry charge at Hastings? Or is it more despot throwing his life away and that of his followers because he cannot bear to live defeated?

Round eight. Spell declarations. Umbert declares Ventriloquism. Kylie declares Web.

Initiatives. Even! Crucially, that means that the defenders with missile weapons can loose them. I'll allow one volley above the pile of dead into the hearthguard, though not the orc chief. And the halflings will also get their volley as the orc chief runs in. Halfling volley. 10 damage. Shortbows. Another 10 damage. Elion. 4 damage. Crossbows. 4 damage. That's a total of 28. The heavily wounded Hearthguard falls dead, leaving 7, and they have taken wounds. Their hit points are now 13 and 13, which is full. 9, 9 and 9, which is down 4 each. And 7 and 7, which is down 6 each. The orc chief is still healthy. As the huge red - mail- clad orcs run in, Umbert uses Ventriloquism to create a distraction on the two hearthguard closest to Eryn. They will have to save against spells. Definitely not. Neither saves. And Kylie uses Web. She is facing the Orc Chief and his Hearthguard. She catches three Hearthguard and automatically catches the Orc Chief since they are right there in the middle of the web. Now melee is even, so each side that can strike and is not webbed will be able to strike at one another. Let's deal with the two wounded hearthguard who are not on Eryn and Umbert's side of the fight. That's a miss. Pretty good hit on Xantu, but a shield takes it. At the other side of the semicircle we have the doubly affected Hearthguard, slightly distracted by the Ventriloquism and hurt by the daylight. They both clumsily strike at shields, getting nowhere whatsoever. Alright, since I'm on that side, I'll now deal with the Enonni and Rima strike back on those two. One is dead thanks to Umbert's distraction, and the other will be five of thirteen. At the other end of the fight, versus the remaining elite and Hearthguard, two light wounds each falls to seven of thirteen. And now since their opponents are webbed up, the spears in the center can also turn their attention to one side. And that will eliminate the last of the subchiefs' bodyguards.

Eryn sees no need for fighting, she will be scanning for a hidden threat. In my house rules, scanning for a hidden threat is rolling a hit dice. Low is good. If she rolls an eight, she can see nothing whatsoever. If she rolls a one, she has perfect battlefield analysis. Before we do that, we need to finish with Xantu and Dorgun. Pretty decisive, but one more. They finish the last opponents in front of their end of the line. Right. This is Eryn's battlefield surveillance role. It's a crit. She is perfectly aware of the dispositions of the tired and not quite tired halflings way out in front, who have turned in behind the line to riddle the attackers, and she is well aware that nothing has been creeping up on them from either the river or from either flank.

Round 9. This is a mop-up round. Both Jack and Kylie have heard Eryn's reassuring tone as she announces that the orc on the line and those in the web are the only foes remaining.

Kylie announces Magic Missile.

Jack decides not to announce Throw Oil Bomb.

Ingle announces Hold Fire Jack, which is pretty much what the thief had in mind anyway. Initiative. The defenders win. With arrows very low, only the crossbows have plenty of bolts to spare for the orc. Here are their three crossbow shots. Two hits. The orc sags and falls dead, slumping into the shields before the spears can launch their melee attacks. Kylie will waste her MM unless she uses it into the Web. And she may as well. To see if he has any particular protections against magic missiles, she throws the magic missile at the orc chief. Minimum damage. Two. But as it turns out, although his armor is awesome, he does not have proof against magic missiles. The Orc Chief speaks common and reasonably fluently, he speaks of being able to tell them much of what the Chaos Lords plan.

Ignore him, Ingle calls flatly. We have his papers.

The adventurers, pretty much to a man, ignore him, pretending that they cannot hear. Thanks to our halfling friends, Ingle says. At the moment, Eryn is waving the halflings in. Although the halflings seem to be busy looting corpses, it may take them some time. Kylie looks with distaste, perhaps, or disinterest, at the struggling four orcs. If they're pleading for their lives, she doesn't care. She probably doesn't speak orcish. Ingle looks back at the women, particularly the few women who are beginning to show an interest in their surroundings. There are four of them. He gestures to the oil bombs. I'm no expert, he says, but it may be healing for you to take direct revenge. There are those in other faiths that preach forgiveness is the best healing. That's not the way of the divine eye. If you feel wronged and you're able to take steps against it, then take those steps. Seeing his gesture, Umbert mimes trying to throw the oil bomb at the webbed forms. All four of the women accept a bomb, and the orc chief and the other hearthguard in the web die screaming.

On the one hand, this has been a spectacular victory. On the other hand, all of the defenders were already tired, some to the point where they couldn't keep going. Despite the stench of death that surrounds them, their instinct is simply to rest in place. I'm now going to check Eryn's CON O2 and Xantu's CON. Fail. 17. I already know that Kylie is tired, and Cied and Pod are tired as well. I have a feeling that Jack was tired, but I can't remember, so I'll check again. 14. Yes, he too is tired. Seated right beside the dead, still making peculiar settling noises, and occasionally twitching, the brainstrust, Eryn, Jack, with Kylie listening but not commenting, and with Xantu technically listening but not really, discuss the situation, particularly how proximate they are to the toll booth, and the difficulties in packing up all of the new loot. In the far background, cries of 'I saw it first' and 'it's mine' can be heard faintly. This battlefield has no villagers to come out and pilfer the dead before Cied Pod and the other halflings can do their work.

I see though, we really don't know anything about south of the river. Jack comments wearily, flapping his hand aimlessly to indicate the opposite side of the river they're beside, and which forms such a great bastion at their back.

That's very true. Otherwise I think I would begin moving the people across right now, Eryn confirms.

We do more or less know. Although when you came from the Whisperwood, uh you came from a different direction, did you not?

Yes, yes, uh well we were further f further north, Umbert stammers. He's not too clear on geography, but Jack nods as well.

Yes, yes, old sports. We we came from uh perhaps half a league north and over towards the road. On there, don't you know? He glances at Xantu, but the dwarf appears to be sleeping. And of course we had mounts. Things do look different from horseback.

Around the barricade itself, three of the spearmen, one of the archers, has enough energy to do that very hard work of pulling mail off huge corpses, checking weapons for quality, throwing purses onto the growing pile inside the circle. Some of the spearmen had had a very close-up demonstration of how good the orc swords are also in the growing pile.

We obviously have to camp near here, if not right on this spot. I would suggest moving right away from this particular spot. And there's a groan that meets that suggestion at the thought of lifting and carrying hundreds of pounds of baggage.

Eryn, you seem to be quite bright-eyed and fighting fit.

Yes.

Can you Oh, and I'd noticed that you're at home in lakeshores and reeds and so on.

Yes.

And could you look along the river nearby and see if there are any hm otters?

Yes.

If there are, Ingle continues, I can use my Speak with Animals spell. See if they'll deliver a note to the toll booth.

Ha! That's quite an idea you have there, Ingle. Suppose no harm in trying. Umbert sounds slightly dismissive, but on the other hand, he is pulling a sheaf of paper out of his kit and readying a pen.

And the basic question is, are there otters along the bank nearby? Yes. And number of, shall we say, half hours? It will take Ingle to do all this. Five half hours. That takes us to mid-morning, the battle having only lasted about ten minutes. Meanwhile, around the semicircle, things have changed. First of all, there are now two semicircles. As the minutes tick by, it becomes obvious that the women in particular need to be slightly separated from the men, and there also needs to be a latrine dug. Oddly enough, that also takes two and a half hours.

It's not that I'm expecting a great relief force, Ingle mutters to Umbert. But even a couple of fit hands would help at this stage. What was the name of that fellow? Jik? Night Jik or Geek. I'm not sure which, but uh he seemed a good sort and I dare say... here Umbert glances at Jack. The women folk behind the Tolbooth, uh at the inn, you know uh it, they seem practical sorts. And I wrote that we have some distressed women. Yes.

Now Noi Gik the new Tolbooth captain, or sergeant, has a very small force, only four men. He is definitely not going to be patrolling. The adventurers strategy is therefore twofold. Strategy one, rest. If it takes an entire watch to recover from their forced march, so be it. Strategy two, a message to the toll booth may result in a small relief force that can at least get some of the women and baggage moved to safety. It takes the friendly otter far less time to swim to the toll booth than it did for Ingle to walk to where the otters were nesting and playing and convince one of them to do something.

Is a note placed by the toll booth acted on immediately? No, but eventually. This has taken us to one full watch across the morning. And now we just have to ask, how many more watches will it take for a relief to return to the party? Four. That is, in other words, evening. Therefore, we can say that resting by watches, the adventurers and their retainers are halfway to full recovery and will have full recovery if they then camp here overnight.

During that time, there's some vigorous discussion about the effort needed to burn the carcasses of the fallen versus just pitching them into the river for the bodies to be carried down into the chasm again. Proponents of the first point out that bodies feeding monsters in the cavern is a bad idea generally, since it's almost certain that they need to go back into the chasm and take out all of the war stores that Jack found. And besides, it's pretty obvious that any necromancer is not present among the fallen. The logic of burning bodies is so great that gathering firewood from the nearby woods becomes part of each watch.

It is also possible that after watch one, which we already know was occupied by the battle, other random encounters, both positive and negative, may occur. Watch two. No encounter. Watch three. No encounter. Watch four. Encounter.

Scavenging big cats smell the dead and come a - calling. They stay well clear of the scent of burning. I'm not going to bother rolling up numbers.

During watch 5, I shall roll 2d4 for the number of individuals who appear. 4. That seems reasonable. Are any of them Noi Giik himself? Here I get a yes but. So I would say he comes incognito, just in case this is some elaborate trap. Are the other three all armed men? Yes but.

And here there's a plot element that's been waiting to drop into place since the 10th episode of season 4. Attentive listeners will recall that Enonni is a clumsy alias for the son of the Seigneur. Posing as an ordinary but longsword trained townsman, Enonni volunteered to become a retainer. No need to introduce a new character. That has to be the intelligence operative Justawake. Is it Justawake? Yes. Genton Justawake's message is simple. And it's to Enonni. Your father says, let you return, and no more will be said. Enonni looks crestfallen, and mutters some coarse oaths he may have learned from a certain filthy ditchdigger. The Glass Shields take this in good part.

However, I've got myself a little out of order. Let me go back to assessing what help has arrived. Number of beasts of burden. 5. We're talking oxen tame to the yoke and a couple of riding horses. No wonder it took them so long to get here. The presence of ox-drawn carts enormously simplifies the choices that the adventurers now can make. After all, they did not expect to keep their retainers much longer.

Men and Rima, Ingle announces to a few easy laughs, we find it our duty to return to the chasm and hunt down the necromancer. Of course, just ourselves. We cannot ask you to volunteer. Here there are many cries of what are you talking about? Of course we're with you, Master. And that kind of thing.

The process of gathering the stores may be onerous. You all remember the centipedes. Here shudders. But we can't just leave them there to be taken back out by the forces of chaos. We must strike while the iron is hot and the sweat of the miscreant orc still beads his throne. Ingle sounds a little uncomfortable as he says that line.

So please! Consider this volunteers only. There will be no shame if you don't care to come with us.

I make it very hard for people to volunteer. It's a loyalty test, but adding the difference between what their maximum hit points could be and their current hit points, and adding a further one to represent a general feel amongst the company that the cleric is being honest and he genuinely only wants volunteers. The exception is the three specially named retainers, Hilu, Elion, and Dorgun. In those cases, it's a straight loyalty test. It is evening, and perhaps it's the dark that permits several of the company to quietly say to their mates or in some cases explain to their particular mentors why they choose not to go back. Let me first deal with the three chosen by name. Somewhat to my surprise, Elion chooses to go with Kylie. I'm moving his loyalty from eight to nine. Dorgun, whose loyalty was seven, chooses not to volunteer. Whatever he says to Xantu will remain private between them. And thirdly, surprising no one, Hilu volunteers not to come with the other halflings. Eyeing him very suspiciously, Cied orders Pod to check his pockets while she keeps him covered. There's a slight rebalancing of loot taken on the battlefield after this procedure. Hilu will leave the company with plenty of personal wealth, but not quite as much as he dreamed. The list of volunteers is short. Bramley, or Bram, the halfling, has volunteered. Mesk, who's seen as the leading spearman, has volunteered, but none of the other spearmen. Eryn comforts Rima privately and assures her she's doing the right thing. Her health has not been great since she got wounded multiple times. This next mission should be just a cleanup, and she's better off heading home with wealth and fame. Jelu Varnath, the tidy crossbowman, has volunteered, and Truebrag, the braggart Crossbowman, has volunteered. There is one other missile man, Daro Kelmoth, the archer. He's a stoic type and doesn't really explain his reasons. These half dozen retainers will be going with the party into the chasm for a fourth time.