Arlen replies to Brokk'r's question "Indeed I would love to enable further Brobdingnagian exploits by you but such things take planning ahead that I did not manage this time..."
Arlen decides to give his dwarven friend the next best thing he can manage and begins laughing maniacally while trying to keep himself in a safe position.
Sigurd's song really gets Brokk'r's blood pumping. The dwarf bashes the nearest bandit in the face with his shield, then follows with a right hook .
Recognizing the danger of the dual-axe wielding bandit leader, Ike lunges at her in a grapple! He succeeds!
ROUND 1 SUMMARY!
While Ike grapples the bandit leader, those around him do significant damage to the bandits front lines. Brokk'r ends one with a punch to the face! Sigurd crushes one in the chest! Pygmy and Diceros both end one of those injured by Rai's bomb!
Rai drinks an extract and Arlen hides behind a tree and laughs.
You nearly extinguished their whole front line!
ROUND 2!
Though entangled, five bandits draw back their bows and release! Yelling to each other, they coordinate their shots, and Pygmy, Diceros, Sigurd, Brokk'r, and Ike all get one arrow directed their way. Pygmy is hit for 3, Diceros is hit for 2 (crit did not confirm). Despite Ike's body being shielded some by Kressle, an arrow still finds him for 8 damage. Sigurd and Brokk'r block the hits with their armor, and the arrows bounce off harmlessly.
Unable to swing her axes, Kressle is left with no choice but to try to break Ike's grapple! She fails!
The final bandit follows Rai as he takes a step back, and swings at him. He misses!
EVERYONE GO!
Rai attacks the bandit with his curved blade.
Miss!
|
Diceros, annoyed by the arrow in his side, decides the best way to reach the bandits trapped in the weeds is to add a little surprise next to them. He spontaneously summons a dire rat right in the middle of some of the trapped bandits ().
The rat, of course, first has to avoid the weeds itself, which it barely does!
Then, it jumps at the back of one of the bandits and tries to bite his neck.
Then, Diceros tasks Pygmy with doing some more dirty work. "Attack Pyg!"
Rai attacks the bandit with his curved blade.
[Dice=curved blade]1d20+4
Miss!
Rai attacks the bandit with his curved blade.
[Dice=curved blade]1d20+4
Miss!
Arlen cackles at his comrades success and moves somewhat closer to the fray. He beams, showing his long, yellowed teeth as he grins at his slimiest friend. He attempts to join cheerily into Sigurd's song but doesn't know the words or tune so it ends up being
"HAHAHAHA! We smash the bandits because they're bad! HAHAHAHA! We will make them deathly sad! HAHAHAHA!
Ike turns his morphic weapon into a dagger form, and attempts to stab Kressle while maintaining his grapple.
Successfully holding the grapple, he stabs.
Brokk'r slams Kressle with his shield.
Brokk'r overextends to reach Kressle, and pulls his bicep muscle. He takes strength damage.
ROUND 2
Sigurd reduces a bandit to quivering jelly; Rai nearly decapitates a bandit, but it is hanging on by a thread.
Diceros starts to cast an elaborate spell, and in the midst of it, can't properly direct Pygmy, who just lowers his head to the stream and takes a big drink.
Ike continues his grapple and stabs the bandit boss. Arlen hexes and cackles.
Poor Brokk'r, in a fit of bad luck, badly injures himself.
ROUND 3
The bandits quickly realize that spreading their attacks apart is reducing their effectiveness. With yells, they communicate with each other and decide to all target Sigurd, in hopes to bring down their enemy one at at time. This works much better, as two arrows slam into Sigurd's chest, doing 11 points of damage.
Kressle does her best to escape from Ike's grasp. She doesn't feel like there are many other options. She succeeds and takes a five foot step back.
The final bandit squares off against Rai, but the blow clangs off of some invisible armor that surrounds Rai's body!
bandits
Diceros/Pyg
Sigurd
Arlen
Rai
Ike
Brokk'r
Go if you are bold! The rat appears and you can take its attack, Diceros.
Arlen calls out to his tall, strong friend while moving slowly toward him, having some difficulty moving and laughing at the same time.
"HEEHEEEHEE! I can patch you a little bit if you can get closer to me!"
Arlen then looks at the bandit south of Sigurd and grins while laughing. His laughing then reaches an absolutely maniacal and shrill height as he hurls his voice at the bandit.
|
|
Diceros smiles as the rat appears on the battlefield, causing the bandits around him to startle.
He says, "Hey Pygmy, I get it. You want a treat first!" and casts Magic Horn on him. Then he shouts, "Now attack!"
Now, the rat also leaps into action, actually attacking the bandit from behind, just like Diceros imagined last round.
The dire rat leaps clear of the vines and attempts to leap onto the back of the bandit.
But, it misses!
ROUND 3
Sigurd, with two arrows sticking out of him, is not slowed down, but swings again, ending another life. Pygmy, magically enhanced, runs a bandit through with his horn!
Arlen screams a magic yell at bandit #6, who reels from the sound, and stands there dazed!
ROUND 4
Kressle is mad! Free from Ike's grapple, she finally has a chance to do real damage. She steps forward and swings both handaxes at him! One hits for 4 damage.
Both of the remaining archers target Sigurd, seeing this beast of man so easily put down two of their friends in just two swings! They miss!
bandits
Diceros/Pyg
Sigurd
Arlen
Rai --can go twice
Ike --can go twice
Brokk'r --can go twice
Go if you are bold!
Arlen smiles, seeing Pygmy, Sigurd, and the team's magic doing such fine work. He looks over at Kressle and gives her a withering glare.
"Better surrender or you'll die horribly"
He then laughs uproariously at his own humor.
Rai comes out of delay and attacks his bandait with verve!
Arlen cheers as Rai's blade cuts deep into a bandit.
"Bravo! Bravo! Keep up the lovely work!"
|
|
Diceros tells Pygmy, "Go attack the leader! Gang up!"
Meanwhile, he ignores his own advice and instead drops the spear and draws another javelin from his back, throwing it at one of the bandits in the weeds.
but so far, Diceros has never been able to hit someone with a javelin!
He then watches as the rat at least grabs at the bandit's legs and tries to bite down.
Brokk'r grunts through the pain and continues the assault on Kressa.
ROUND 4
As Rai cuts through the dazed bandit, a one-two-three combination of Pygmy and Brokk'r finally brings down the female bandit leader. Seeing their leader fall, and with only two of them left, the other bandits hold up their hands to surrender.
But at that moment, there is a rustling in the bushes and shrubs and the three bandits come back, each holding an odd assortment of berries and twigs, looking nothing like the herbs they were sent to get. They gape at their friends, cut down and dying on the ground. The two entangled bandits yell out, "Run! To the Stag Lord! Tell him we were betrayed!" And they lift their bows and fire to hold you back.
ROUND 5
The two entangled archers fire at Sigurd. He is hit twice for 6 damage!
This does provoke from the rat.
bandits
Diceros/Pyg
Sigurd
Arlen
Rai --go twice
Ike --go twice
Brokk'r
Arlen snarls when the bandits appear from the woods then turns, smiling, to Diceros. "My dear friend, do you think that you and your companion could help deal with those? I'm going to tend to our singing champion." Arlen rushes over to Sigurd and lays a kind hand on his shoulder.
As Diceros (and Pygmy) get caught up in a trap of his own making, Sigurd ends another worthless bandit life.
Rai throws a frost bomb at the three new bandits aiming to hit all three if possible.
DC 15 reflex or 5 cold damage splash
DC 15 fort save or be staggered.
Brokk'r runs back to Gefjun as quickly as his legs will carry him.
ROUND 5
Rai lobs a bomb as far as he can, but the throw is a 100 feet if it is an inch, and he doesn't have a clear view on the bandits, either. The bomb goes off harmlessly well before it hits a target.
Brokk'r is able to get close to his horse...
Ike steps into the entangled area to help Sigurd with the last fighting bandit. He gets through with a double move, and gets two swings off at the smelly fool. And it proves sufficient! Ike downs the final archer, who was injured from Rai's initial bomb throw.
ROUND 6
The three bandits take off to the south! They wisely skirt the vines and weeds growing wild and attempt to reach the cover of the forest.
They disappear into the underbrush. If you want to pursue by mount with intent to overtake them, everyone pursuing will need to make a successful ride check (DC15) combined with at least one person successfully succeeding on an opposed survival check (you tracking, them trying to cover their tracks).
If you want to simply track them to their eventual destination, no ride checks are needed, but you will need to succeed on the opposed survival check. (No fortune rolls here, as the rolls indicate an extensive period of time passing).
Several of the bandits including Kressle are outright dead, but many others, including the one Ike just ended, are down and dying and could be brought back for questioning. They won't live long, however...
COMBAT OVER. FOR NOW!
Arlen shouts out to Diceros. "Dismiss the spell! Sigurd and I will deal with what's left here. The rest of you should give chase the best you can!" He turns to his large, solid friend. "What say you we learn some things about this Stag Lord?"
"HAHAHAHA!!! TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW BEFORE I START EXPERIMENTING!!! There's so much I've longed to learn about pain! HEEEHEEHOOHEE!!! But really it'd be more convenient if you just told us. Less mess."
Arlen smiles ingratiatingly.
Rai will get to the horses but will stop knowing his riding skills not up to standard and seeing Diceros struggle not wanting to split the group.
Ike immediately runs to the horses, aiming to quickly mount up and ride after the group of fleeing bandits!
Unfortunately, he forgets the he doesn't know how to ride a horse effectively, and instead of doing the cool mount he hoped for, he hits the side of the horse before falling to the ground with a *SPLAT!* Swiftly reforming and standing back up, Ike sighed, shaking his head before moving to the path the bandits ran through, getting on all fours and feeling the ground, trying to feel out their tracks through the earth...
|
|
Sigurd kneels down by the body of this still-breathing bandit and motions toward Arlen, who currently has crazy eyes.
"You might want to tell us what you know. You see, my friend here is more than a bit unstable. You felt some of his power already but look at him now. That guy is going to loose it here soon and I'm not sure I can stop him. You know, I've never seen him like this. There's no telling what he'll do to you. Why don't you tell us everything you know about the Stag Lord and I'll see if I can talk him down."
Unable to get his mounts through the woods, Diceros dismounts and is shortly joined by Ike. The two follow the trail for several hundred yards, but eventually, it is lost. The three bandits know the area and have lived in the woods for sometime. All you can really determine is that they were heading south before they disappeared. Diceros and Ike return to the group.
By this point, the one of the bandits is sitting up, with Arlen leaning over him and laughing, and Sigurd is crouched down with a friendlier posture. The bandit is looking at Sigurd but keeps the crazy old man in the corner of his eyes.
"The Stag Lord is a monster of a man. He’s a deadeye with the bow. He's human... I think...but he really hates other humans for some reason. He enjoys the company of his pet dwarf more, actually. Unless maybe he isn't human. I bet he is a devil, he has some uncanny strength, and I saw him crush a prisoner’s hand to mush in one fist. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen him without his creepy stag helmet on—some of the others think he ain’t got no face under it, but not me—I think that creepy helm is his face!” He is getting more and more worked up as he continues- scared. More scared of the Stag Lord than he is of you.
|
|
Sigurd pats the bandit on the shoulder and gives the man a drink of his ever-present jug of beer to calm him down. He then points to the rest of his companions who have just returned.
"Look now, our friends are back and they're ready to get going. This crazy guy here, he's about ready to loose it. If they distract him by trying to get our things in order, he'll go off like a bomb. You've got to tell us where the Stag Lord's camp is."
He motions for the map to be brought over.
Directing the man's attention once again to Arlen-Crazy-Eyes, "Here, mark the location on this map. Hurry, as if your life depends on it!"
"I... I don't know! Don't let that crazy old guy near me! Listen, I don't know, I've never been there. I know it is many many miles to the south, next to a big lake. I know it is an old ruined fort, not a camp. Walls and everything. But I've never been there! Listen, I'll tell you a secret, and you keep that old man away. Look under the our guard platform. The booze there is supposed to go to the Stag Lord. Everyone says he is a bloody drunk, and he is expecting this booze. Want to make him either happy or mad, either return it all to him or drink it yourself, your choice. Ok, that's my secret. Now could you tell him to stop laughing??"
|
|
Sigurd ties up the bandit so he can't run off.
Then he stands up and leads Arlen back to the others. He tells them what he learned from the bandit. When he's finished he says
"Ok. Let's check this place out. If that booze is where he says it is, then he's probably telling the truth about the rest of it too. Either way, what should we do with him? Take him back to Olegs?"