Echoes of Glory
Game Master P.H. Dungeon

Sounds good.

You saddle up and ride, Theodric leads you back towards the home where he last encountered the troll. Just outside the village you pass by the peasants that lived along the creek. They are travelling together to the village, and are led by Brother Agron, a brave old priest of Serenrae who helped Theodric during his fight with the troll. They have little to tell you, as they haven't seen the creature since it set to devouring farmer Brandor's pigs.

Sometime later, you are riding west in single file, following a narrow path that runs beside the south bank of the Eel creek. You are heading towards the freehold where Theodric fought the troll when up ahead you spot the creature come around a bend in the creek. It is staggering along, wading through the middle of the stream; the water goes to just below its knees. It is bleeding from a number of arrow wounds, and it is somewhat preoccupied with plucking the arrows out. Despite this, the troll notices you about the same time that you see it. It is currently about 200' away. The beast shrieks as it sees you and starts to bolt for the ridge line to the north of the creek. An arrow streaks out from a nearby copse of trees, just grazing the troll's ear.

I think initiative would be a good idea here as the chance of us stopping to parley is pretty remote.

Lance cradled under one arm and shield strapped to the other, Atayos spurred his mount on into a full gallop to get within seventy foot of the beast.

Mount run action.

Initiative

Troll: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9
Atayos: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Garret: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Theordric: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9
Vors: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (16) + 0 = 16
Grendal: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (15) + 0 = 15
Rando: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
Feldar: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
Torrin: I haven't seen much from Torrin, so I'll just stick him at the end for now.

Order

Fledar
Vors
Grendal
Troll
Theo
Rando
Garret
Atayos
Torrin

Another arrow comes streaking out of the woods grazing the troll. Vors holds for a moment, but once he sees Grendal kick his horse into action he spurs his horse on. The pair charge into the creek.

Grendal shouts out:

We'll come in on its right. You take it from the left!

The troll stumbles out of the creek on its north bank and starts loping towards the ridge, hoping to get away from the mounted riders.

You guys are up. If you take full run moves with your horses this round you can cross the creek and be baring down on the troll, which will set you up for charge attacks the next round- for all you lancers.

Lance and shield readied, Sir Garrett urges Argos toward the troll.

Mount Run

You guys are up. If you take full run moves with your horses this round you can cross the creek and be baring down on the troll, which will set you up for charge attacks the next round- for all you lancers.

Will do that with my run then.

Rando urges his horse on, hoping to close as much distance as possible, knowing he'd have to dismount before reaching the troll. Unlike his brother,he was more comfortable fighting with both feet on the ground.

Run action for the horse this round.

Torrin watches as the troll runs off and pulls his horse into a gallop. he plans to ride around the troll. he would probably take a little longer then everyone else to arrive at a place where he coould try to sneak attack with one of his daggers

Sorry for the delay it's been a busy day.

Another arrow is launched from the nearby copse of tree.

1d20 + 9 - 2 ⇒ (14) + 9 - 2 = 21

Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

It catches the troll in the leg, causing it to howl in rage.

Grendal and Vors continue spurring their mounts forward. They have crossed the creek and come in at from the left (east). Vors stays out trying circle around to cut off its retreat towards the ridge, but Grendal rides right at the beast. The thing's back is turned, as it is trying to get away, but once it hears the horses bearing down on it, it turns. It turns just in time to see Grendal leap off its horse and try and tackle it.

1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 8 + 2 = 19

Grendal is a pretty tough Kellid, but the troll is a hulking thing and even with the momentum form the horse

He fails to knock it down. Instead he bounces of the troll and lands on the ground

Balance Check: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (16) + 0 = 16

Fortunately, he lands on his feet. The troll turns towards Grendal and unleashes its fury on him.

Bite 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16, Damage 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9
Claw 1 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20, Damage 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
Claw 1 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24, Damage 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

The thing chomps at Grendal with his toothfillled maw, but the Kellid manages to dodge it, but then it starts tearing into him with its claws, and his chain shirt isn't enough to protect him.

Rend 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

NPCs for Round #2 are done, you guys are up

Grendal looks pretty hurt after being torn at by the troll, but he is a tougher bastard, and he's still standing.

RAW Troll's can be rendered unconscious with enough non-lethal damage- wanted to check we're in agreement on that. All damage except fire is obviously non-lethal.

Atayos looked on at the man's tactics distastefully. He spurred on Midnight, reminding his ward as he charged.

Stay close to me my lord.

Adjacent preferably. Can give your AC a serious boost if needed, or anyone else adjacent to me.

The powerful horse galloping under him, Atayos rammed his lance into the Troll's back, the momentum adding a great deal of force to the blow. He could not help but smile as the glory was so far his and his allies.

1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26 (Flanking, Charge)
2d8 + 6 ⇒ (1, 7) + 6 = 14 (Damage)

We're all good on that Atayos. One question. I'm not sure what the RAW is on lances. IMO when you make a mounted charge attack with a lance and land a blow, the lance would often be lodged in your enemy, and you would need to recover it to use it again, ie. it's a great opening attack, but not one you can necessarily do over and over again.

Agreed that is how lances worked sometimes IRL (believe it depended on the style of lance), but RAW you don't lose the lance. Would be quite crippling to a cavalier as people tend to end up with one or two powerful weapons. And even though its double damage on a charge, you usually have to withdraw next round to charge again the round after.

I can live with that. So Atayos is now beside the troll, correct?

Theo nudges his horse into a gallop. Drawing his sword he yells, Come on men, it's nothing but an over sized goblin

Inspire Courage round 4/10.

Atop his horse, yes. Atayos is quite low in the initiative though- he'll charge to end up beside Garrett.

2 more damage from Inspire Courage on Atayos' charge.

Remembering his training with his faithful guard, Garrett charges at the troll along side Atayos, at least until after the blow is struck.

Ride by Attack

Attack:1d20 + 5 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 5 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 27 (flank, charge, inspire courage)
Damage:2d8 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (7, 5) + 6 + 2 = 20 (inspire courage)

Rando closes on the troll to say within 50', and dismounts from his horse. He wonders if the troll will still be standing after the back to back crushing blows it took from the lances of his brother and the Golem.

Both Garret and Atayos ride in hard, and each one of them drives their lance deep into the troll. Between the arrows and the lances the troll is terribly injured, but still standing.

Atayos is on his horse behind the beast; his horse rears up as he's hauls his bloody lance out of its back. After landing his attack, Sir Garret's momentum and steed carries him past the troll. Grendal stands in front of the beast, wounded and unarmed, but beginning to draw his greatsword.

I'll assume that Torrin needs to use his round to keep riding to circle around the troll.

I doubt the troll will be around at the end of next round, but we'll see.

Round #3: GO

Grendal draws his blade. He goes into a sudden rage and viciously starts hacking at the troll with his great sword.

Is that all you got troll? I am Grendal son of Ceowulf. I serve Gorum and I will give him your head!

Raging Attack (with +2 flanking from Atayos) 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 12 + 2 = 23

Damage: 2d6 + 7 ⇒ (6, 3) + 7 = 16

Vors continues to hang back ready to cut the troll off should it managed to get away from Atayos and Grendal.

Grendal's brutal strike is enough to fell the already grievously injured troll. He lets loose a shriek of glee as he moves in to start hacking its head off.

GORUM!!!

Fear not, I have no intention of making a habit of NPCs stealing your kills.

Hmph, I weakened him for you.

Approaching the corpse, Rando pulls a torch. "I figure we should burn the remains to be safe."

Rando sets fire to the troll corpse.

Grendal looks to the party, his rage subsiding.

Well, that's one dead troll. Let's go kill some more.

"In due time, Grendal. There is no since going into their caves and fighting them on their terms. We will go toward their caves but wait for them to come out into the open and fight them on our terms."

As the troll's body burns, a grizzled man steps out of the tree with a long bow. An arrows rests casually on the string. He's a sturdy fellow with long grey hair and stubble. You recognize him as Feldar Stirling, Keldan's uncle and an old war buddy of Baron Albercroft.

Sir Garret and company, glad to see you come so quickly, although I'm not sure why you're here. His second comment clearly addresses Vors.

upon seeing the troll fall to the ground Torrin spins his horse back to the group and listens intently as they talk.

sorry im away from my personel computer. im visiting my family and wont be back to mine till sunday afternoon so posts will be sporadic

Feldar, glad to see you alive and well. How did you fare against these beasts? No, save that, more important issues. Is Fiona ok?

This is the first one I confronted. I found this bastard devouring farmer Brandor's pigs, while his barn burnt to the ground. The rest are holed up in some caves just north of the old quarry. I did a bit of scouting. There's 5 of them left. 2 are in one cave and 3 are in another. I didn't get close enough to see what Fiona's status was, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. I expect that they'll come out around dark and start seeking out other homesteads to raid. I was planning on returning to the quarry and setting myself up in a nice defensible spot to harry them with arrows. However, with you folks here to help we might be able to defeat them if we do things smart.

You notice that while Feldar is talking Grendal casts a healing spell on himself.

Spoiler (Grendal's healing)

The healing seems to help the Kellid, but he is far from fully healed.

He took 24 damage from the troll.

Rando observes Grendal's healing technique, while affixing his divine vision on the warrior.

Detect evil on Grendal. That'll determine how much assistance Rando offers the man.

Rando

"Let me see those wounds, Grendal. I think I can help a little," the paladin offers, knowing he needed the warrior to help against the remaining trolls.

Use two lay on hands ability on Grendal. That leaves two for the rest of the day.

Heal 2d6 ⇒ (5, 6) = 11

Rando after using your healing powers, Grendal seems nearly fully healed.

Thank you lad, responds Grendal gruffly.

Sir Garrett turns his attention to Feldar, "Good to see you again, Feldar, father sends his greetings. I assume you know the location of these caves? Which one is closest to the village?"

There's a "U" shaped cliff on the north side of the quarry that encircles it. There are several caves up there, and they are all pretty close to each other. There's an old road that enters the quarry from the south. It's a bit of choke point. The trolls will come out that way. We could set up for them there, but the road hasn't been used in years and its pretty overgrown. It isn't ideal for fighting on horseback.

Since I haven't heard from anyone, I'll assume you wish to proceed to the quarry.

It is evening when you complete the trek to the quarry. Feldar leads you to an old road that was once used to bring stone from the quarry to the Imperial road and the Singing Eel river. The road is overgrown with bushes and saplings, but you can still ride through.

The road approaches the quarry from the south, and it opens into a big open area that is now dominated by a small, muddy lake. A steep hillside encircles the quarry lake, and you can tell that the hillside has been shaped much by men who once carted stone away to build such structures as Albercroft Castle. The slopes are now covered with bushes and small trees, and you can see the entrance to about a half doze little caves on the northern side of the quarry. You don't see any trolls about yet.

Is anyone here skilled in tracking. I don't think it'll be that hard to track some over grown goblins

Untrained Survival 1d20 ⇒ 9

"Theo, I don't think we will have to find the trolls. If we head up there near the caves, I bet they smell us and come running. With the layout, I don't see any way to separate them, so we'd better be prepared to fight them all at once.". With that being said, Rando pulls out his magical wand, and applies it to himself, adding to his magical protections.

Use one charge from Mage Armor wand.

Hearing Rando, Feldar responds

The caves are pretty close together, but if we're smart about it we might be able to draw one cave out at a time. That would split them into a group of two and a group of 3, which would be much better than trying to deal with five at once.

You all know that Feldar is a pretty skilled tracker.

"While we are still all at our best, we should move into a position to deal with the group of three. Feldar, if you would be as so kind as to guide us."

Torrin rides along towards the back. "if you would like i don't mind trying to scout out whats going on in the caves before we go in." looks around. he thinks to himself that it couldn't be much different then sneaking around the castles trying to keep from being seen by the servants. its really quite fun.

Feldar looks to Torrin

Alright then the two of us will go check things out. Perhaps we can draw the first three out, without needing to deal with all five at once.

With that Feldar and Torrin set out in foot, using the rocks and bushes for cover they make their way along the bottom edge of the quarry to the base of the cliff where the caves are located.

You try to keep them in your sights, but loose track of them here and there. You don't see any sign of any trolls emerging from the caves. Dusk is quickly approaching though.

Once they make it to the north side of the quarry, you see Feldar lead Torrin up the steep slopes towards one of the caves.

[ooc]Torrin you need to make a stealth check, and you are welcome to try to check out the first cave if you wish.

Torrin

Torrin