Allence's Last Hope

Game Master sarpadian

I forgot to answer the question about healing Sal. Yes, you may.
Chantif spends some time working on Sal before the party heads out.

Rhona without armor? But... but that's like asking her to walk around without her skin! Actually, if Chantif explains the situation to her, Rhona will retire the studded leather for the moment and travel in her civvies until we reach any interesting stopping point.

If I'm putting this all together correctly, Det and Chantif are getting Endure Elements, Det is wearing Rhona's studded leather, and Rhona is armorless.

There is a spring in the party's step as they depart, since they're looking forward to finally spending a night in an actual bed. Progress is unusually easy through the morning, though by the time the party breaks out of the grassland into what is obviously cultivated fields, Drexel is feeling pretty rough, and Umash and Rhona aren't in perfect condition themselves. As the party pauses for a rest break, they see smoke on the horizon.

I would use my own endure again

Duh. I totally forgot you had it. Never mind the nonlethal damage :)

Smoke on the horizon is not a good sign. I'll walk further ahead and make sure we don't walk into a mess. Chantif adjusts his armor straps and then moves forward to a position 1000 feet in front of the rest of the party.

That should give him enough space to quietly return and stop the party if he sees anything bad without using his whistle, while not making him too far away if he should get caught.

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Soon the party catches up to Chantif at the top of a small rise. They can see that the smoke is coming from a small house--little more than a hovel, really--that sits just north of the road about a mile further down. There are several figures outside (some bipedal, some quarapedal), but you can't identify them precisely. Chantif says that the he is going a little closer.

"Oh, brother," Rhona murmurs as she sees the shapes below. Even without confirmation, she has a pretty good idea of what lies in wait, and it's not good news for anyone involved. "Be careful, Chantif."

Now might be a good time to start putting my armor on, depending on what Chantif finds.

"10 gold says it's those gnolls and their pets we heard so much about." Umash comments before Chantif sneaks off.

Your armor is probably a good idea, Rhona.

Chantif moves quietly and carefully, trying to get just close enough to see what is happening at the hovel.

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Yup. Armoring up!

"Oy," Rhona says. "Anybody wanna help me get my metal on? Faster we can do this, the better."

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About an hour after he left, Chantif rejoins the party. He says:
"There are two Gnolls and a small, armored hyena down there. They've burnt a little home and captured its people. I didn't see signs of any more of them nearby. When I left they were eating the livestock." He takes a drink from his waterskin before continuing, "I propose an ambush if we can arrange it. They had nothing but axes and shields, so if one of us were to provoke them from a distance the others could pepper them with arrows and make a flanking attack. I could perhaps sneak ahead beforehand and lay some caltrops or some similar trap for them." He looks at each of them in the eye. "That is not the only way if course, but whatever we do we must decide and act quickly and decisively."

"Solid plan. Draw them to us and chip 'em away before they can get close. Now, who'll do the drawing? I'm the most heavily armored, so I'll volunteer for that role, but if any of you are lacking a bow, you can borrow mine until this is over. And Chantif, if you want to go ahead and lay out that trap, go for it."

I'm open to other suggestions, but with my plate and shield, I'm the one the gnolls will have the hardest time hitting once we've got their attention, so I'd propose we build our ambush around that.

"I don't have my bow, but the volatile concoctions here, which admittedly, I can't throw quite as far as a bow shoots an arrow, but I think they are a little more devastating. And I'm also not very good at shooting bows anyway." Umash says juggling a vial between her fingers.

Perhaps it would be best if Rhona, Drexel, and myself were to fire arrows at them and draw them to us. Umash and Det could lay in wait halfway between us and them. Once the dog-faces pass them by and get closer to us than to them, they could leap out and attack from behind. He nods slowly, Yes, that way they won't know there are more of us until it is too late for them to deal with us separately.

Point of order, since Chantif would have seen this: there isn't much cover around the hovel (that's why Chantif had such a good view from 1000 ft. out). It's a farm, and it's early enough in the growing season that the crops aren't very tall. I'm working on a map so that y'all will be able to see what's up.

"keep in mind they have hostages, they could just cut their losses, kill the family and flee. I would like to help but I am feeling quite weak currently."

Seeing the rest of the group start moving into position after a short discussion, seemingly completely ignoring my warning about hostages. I shake my head, moving the animals to the side of the road I tie the donkeys off on a small bush so they can graze in the tall grass and tell Sal to guard.

I then start moving toward the remains of the hovel through the tall grass so that I can come up behind where Chantif noted the hostages are. Before I get close to where I begin sneaking I cast Prestidigitation.

stealth: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Once I Reach the wall/fence, I look to see if there is any way to pass a knife to the hostages unnoticed.

Chantif gets as many arrows as he can from the mules, then moves stealthily through the tall grass until he reaches far bow range. Then he squats down and waits for Drexel's signal.

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Detskiye moves into position and crouches down, hammer in hand. This could be fun. he thinks to himself.

In the half hour that Chantif is gone, I will have put on my scale armor by then.

Drexel makes it around to the north side of the homestead, seemingly undetected. He notices that the northern wall of the homestead is just over head-high.

You can drop a knife over the wall, if you want. You'll need to make either a Climb check or an Acrobatics check.

Crap, I didn't realize the wall was so high.

Once I get close enough to the wall to realize there are no holes with which to slip a dagger to the captives, or get over it easily enough to use it to my advantage I let out a breath. Using prestidigitation I change the color of all my clothing and gear to black and then stand walking around the side wall to where it is open to the road. Facing them I call out with a sneer on my face. "What are you doing dogs? The master wants you. I will take care of the prisoners."

Bluff: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

The gnolls stare blankly at Drexel as he speaks. One of the hostages yells, "They don't speak the common tongue. We've been cursing 'em like the dogs they are, 'n they don't even seem to notice."

I let out a sigh, "So much for the tactful approach. I am attempting to save you." I say to the captives as I pull out my crossbow. Then I fire on the gnoll closest to the door guarding the captives and take a 5ft step up the road toward my allies.

Crossbow: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 7

Chantif shifts his weight and bites his cheek, wishing he could see the hovel better from his crouching, hidden position. I hope it's going well. Maybe that wizard put them to sleep or something.

Assuming that hiding in the tall grass precludes watching the action. Let me know if it is otherwise, because Drexel's firing will trigger Chantif if he sees it.

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If you're crouched down to remain hidden, then you can't see. The grass isn't tall enough to obscure things if you're standing up, but that's true in both directions.

That's the surprise round and the beginning of round 1.

As the gnoll I shot puts on his shield and gathers his ax, I let out an ear piercing whistle. To alert the rest of the party.

Perform (wind): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21

The party hears the piercing report of Drexel's whistle.

I just remembered saying before that using the signal whistle is a free action like speaking, so Drexel doesn't have to wait until his turn to blow it. Therefore, disregard what I said earlier about Rhona and Umash needing to ready actions. Umash, Rhona, Drexel, and Chantif are up for their turns (Rhona and Drexel, remember you have nonlethal heat damage, so you're fatigued).

Chantif stands up and takes aim at the first Gnoll he spots, letting an arrow fly. Now run Drex, run. He mutters under his breath.

Shortbow, attack, 360 feet over first range increment: 1d20 + 3 - 12 ⇒ (15) + 3 - 12 = 6

Umash readies an explosive vial and waits for the gnolls to pass to throw the volatile concoction into their backs.

Falchion drawn in the off-hand, ready a bomb with main hand to throw at the closer one as soon as both gnolls pass me

Readied Attack: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21
Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

Rhona nocks an arrow and prepares to open fire once the gnolls are in range, trying her hardest to aim well in spite of the fatigue.

Readied Attack (Shortbow): 1d20 + 4 - 1 ⇒ (9) + 4 - 1 = 12
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3

I cast expeditious retreat on myself and move down the road fast enough to be out of the gnolls' and hyenas' reach but close enough to entice them to continue following.

That's too vague, Drexel. We'll go with it for the time being, but in the future you should tell me what you're going to do without reference to information Drexel wouldn't have (like what it would take to get the gnolls to chase him or, for that matter, how fast they move). Casting the spell is a standard action, so you have a single move action available. I've moved you 60' due west on the map.

Drexel casts a spell and takes off towards the rest of the party. The hyena, having received no orders, simply raises up on his haunches and goes on guard.

Det and Umash are up.

I wasn't attempting to use info I didn't have. I shot one, I would assume they would chase me after doing such a thing. Expeditious retreat makes it so I can move 60ft in a move action. In real life it is a relatively simple thing to run ahead of someone and be able to tell if they are gaining on you or not, if you have had a head start. If I ran and they were gaining on me I would speed up, up to my max speed, until they were not anymore. Opposite would be true if I was leaving them behind. After all I don't want them to loose interest in the chase. But I will try and be more specific in the future.

I see what you mean now, but I think it might be helpful to remember that a round is only six seconds. You spent at least half that time casting the spell (the fact that you can substitute a move action for a standard action but not vice-versa indicates to me that a standard action takes more than half a round). Sure, you can tell if somebody's gaining on you and alter your speed accordingly, but it probably should be a thing that happens over multiple rounds instead of within one round. Two or three seconds of running (less really since they can't start chasing until their turn comes up) isn't much to base that on.

Maybe he meant as more of a general summary of his action in the coming rounds? Really, aside from Chantif firing arrows, there is not a lot of need to do round-by-round action until they get close enough to catch Drexel or to trigger our other actions. Even then it should be pretty easy to just repeat the same stuff until something changes and/or they reach the final stage of our ambush.

That is, once the Gnolls give chase you could probably "automate" at least a few rounds until one of our conditions triggers or something unexpected happens, etc.

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What chantif said, I figured it would take a few rounds of. "I double move down the road, the gnolls move after you/turn around and slaughter the prisoners." So I posted my plan to move down the road ahead of them to get past all that.

Fair enough, based on what you know. On that note, nothing Det and Umash are going to do is going to affect things right now, so I'll just put Det on delay until he posts (and leave Umash with her readied attack) and move on.

Drexel hears high-pitched yelping noises--much higher-pitched than the ones the gnoll made when he was shot--and the gnolls stop dead in their tracks at the gate. At first, the voice seems to be coming from the other side of the gnolls, but then he hears it again in the field. (Drexel doesn't understand the language in which the voice is speaking, but some of the words seem to have common roots with the Elven words for "staff" and "strong.") The gnolls drop their battleaxes and grab bows that must have been laying up against the gate. They each send an arrow in Drexel's direction. One of the arrows isn't even close, but the one fired by the gnoll whom Drexel shot, fueled by anger or maybe just luck, whizzes right by Drexel's head.

Drexel, you're up. The situation has changed, so I don't want to hold you to your plan. Chantif, go ahead and post an attack, but please specify which gnoll you're attacking.

Chantif swears under his breath at seeing arrows directed at Drexel. He draws back and lets another arrow fly at the gnolls.

Det pulls one of the javelins out of his and holds it over his head. I hope this works, maybe I should've actually thrown one of these things before...

Unless Det hears that the plan has changed, he is ready to throw a javelin at the nearest Gnoll.

Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17 Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

I start cursing, "Of all the rotten..." then I quickly cast mage armor on myself and move another 60ft down the road. Away from the gnolls and whatever else.

Drexel hears an "Umpf" behind him; as he turns to look at the sound's source, he sees a tiny figure toppling off the stone wall at the west edge of the field behind him. Apparently, the figure mistimed its jump. Once it falls into the grass, however, it is no longer visible. The gnolls shoot again. The gnoll that missed before does so again, but this time the gnoll that Drexel shot is able to return the favor.
It was a natural 20. There's no way he can confirm, though. Drexel takes 5 damage.