Mir

Game Master HarbinNick

--Well which side do we camp on, not even sure if it matters. We're only a day out of Rekagrad anyway?he asks.Vuk you seem the best man to ask, but I'll take opinions from everybody.
--Both sides of the river seem the same at a glance however

Strength check 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
Survival check 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
Perception check 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
Knowledge nature 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

"Let's bring the canoes up on the left bank. It's a better defensible location."

Vuk will navigate his canoe to the left bank and bring it on shore for the night.

Strength Check:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
Survival Check to aid Vuk:1d20 ⇒ 13

The bank doesn't matter to me. I'll follow Vuk.

Strength: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (11) - 1 = 10
Survival: 1d20 ⇒ 12
Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 12
Knowledge (nature): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

Xenarchy is at first reluctant to get into the boat, but does after a bit of preparatory spellcasting, evoking a cantrip to keep her things clean and dry.

Xenarchy casts prestidigitation; 1 hour duration.

Once she's in the boat with Vuk, she is initially uncomfortable with the idea of rowing but eventually manages an even stroke. "I will be glad to be on my own legs again. I always feel strange being moved by something else, even horses and carts. Though this craft is under our control, I feel a prisoner to it." Xenarchy shudders. "Never mind. Shall we continue?"

Upon reaching the camping site, a small miracle occurs: Xenarchy actually keeps an eye out. About the same time Vuk speaks, she says "The left - yes, that would be best. The conditions on the right look suitable to support at least one large predator. While we should not have to worry about especially large fish, I fear there may be other things in the water. To the left we go."

STR and Survival checks passed with out problem...
--The party begins to make camp, but there is little sign of anything to fear. You leave a party member to keep watch, but pass the night ok. The following morning, at dwan, you set up river. It begins to rain slightly. About noon, the rain stops and the sun comes out.
another round of STR, survival, and PERCEPTION checks please
1d20 ⇒ 14Isaak's STR
1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10Isaak's Survival, aiding Vuk
1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12Isaak's perception

Strength Check:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6
Survival Check aiding Vuk:1d20 ⇒ 11
Perception Check:1d20 ⇒ 13

--The boat with Roh Kai begins listing dangerously as the big Orc struggles to regain control.-Need an average of 10 or your boat drifts, the disadvantage of being in the boat with an elf.

Strength: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (13) - 1 = 12
Survival: 1d20 ⇒ 9
Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 20

Xenarchy is okay at the oar, although she'd rather not be doing what she considers arduous work. Her ability with the boat's handling is... below average.

What she does do usefully is use her eyes. The witch peers at the distance and raise a hand to shield her eyes. "There, I see something. It looks like a dock and a pair of ships. I can't tell their size but they are definitely larger than ours. If we keep this course, we'll meet them in less than an hour. Should we take to the shore and go over land instead?"

Str check:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9
Survival:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4
Perception:1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Garesh is no help in balancing out the boat. "Father we could use some help here, it seems the fates don't like me on the water." Focusing on the trying to get back control of the boat he ignores Xenarchy's comments.

Roh-Kai curses as he struggles to grab hold of the oar that slipped out of his hand.

"Do you think we have reason to fear these other boats, Xen? We could put to shore and take a closer look from the land"And then I can get out of this damned boat

Str 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15
Perception 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21
Survival 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

Sorry but I never thought that two people in a boat, one an orc, would average a 7.5 on a STR check...
--Paddles ripped from their hands, Roh Kai and Garesh stare at each other in disbelief. They are in no danger of sinking, but will soon be drifting downriver, opposite the direction you want to go.
Vuk passes the survival check, and so can prevent anything too bad from happening.
Vuk throws the orc the end of the rope they carry. The three of you, Vuk,Isaak, and Xenarchy are now towing the boat, and rowing. They can barely progress against the current.
Percpetion check for pirates to notice you DC 15, +2 because only 1 pirate would need to see you and they are many.
1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5 The drunk pirates have not noticed you, yet. Take as many social actions as you want.

We've got two boats, 5 people and only three paddles. What do we do?Father Isaak looks rather worried, and seems about ready to panic. We could land and make new paddles I suppose...

Vuk steers his boat towards the bank, leading the second boat close behind. "We should beach the boats until we are able to move both under our own strength. Perhaps the folks in the boats up ahead have some spare oars." Once beached, Vuk tries to hide the boats from site of the river. "Help me drag these up and out of site."

-Vuk will ask if anyone would like to go "talk" with the folks up river, but would emphasize that we take precautions and should see their intentions before communicating with them.

I agree. I'm sure we can convince them to spare us some replacements.

Coming from the large orc, this sounds far more menacing than it might otherwise.

"It would be unlucky of them not to help, I'll accompany any who want to go or if you wish for me to stay with the father I am okay with that." He gives a glance over to Xen, "But I think she would be most useful in this situation, I think it needs a woman's touch."

I don't think we should send a woman alone to the camp? What if they are the river pirates are something worse? He suggests. In any event I'd rather stay with the boats, and let the rest of you go on ahead. It's not as if I could row up river on my own and abandon you.

"No one was recommending sending her alone, priest. I think all garesh was saying is that we allow the witch to attempt and bewitch their minds if they prove hostile."

--Well to be honest, I will allow the 4 of you to decide our next course of action. I'm in a little over my depth at this point.

Xenarchy gives Garesh the glance back. "Are you suggesting it is merely my fantastic bosom that beguiles the unwitting? I am a woman but my skills are my own. I earned them regardless of what organs my conception blessed me with. If you keep thinking women alone are the masters of the tongue, you will be deceived by men. Do not underestimate either sex."

She throws this hazardous glance around and catches Father Isaak with it. "And while I am a poor example, do not think all women weak and unskilled at arms. I am sure Roh-Kai could tell you many frightening things about the women of his clan."

"Judge each man, woman and whatever else there is by their individual merits and flaws."

The sorceress straightens her clothes and tidies her hair once her minor rant is complete. "Hrmph. Now, let's see about these boats. Vuk, you look an able scout. Do you feel you could sneak up and take a count of their numbers and approximate capabilities, then return here undetected?"

Roh-Kai openly guffaws at Xenarchy's comment about orc women. "Our clan has a single female shaman who is deeply respected for her wisdom and counsel to the war chief. Other than that, our females have only the status of their mate and an unmated female of our kind has only the status of her father. We do not allow our females to take professions or even leave their own hold without their mate. Other clans are different, I have heard. Of course, there is clan bloody axe and their half-blood b****,"Roh-Kai spits on the ground in disgust"but those worms do not deserve to be called orcs."

Xenarchy looks glum. "Well, that is disappointing."

"We can discuss what women can and can't do at a later time. " Vuk turns to look up river, "I can certainly try and scout out the boats, but I will need to remove my armor to give myself a better chance of staying hidden." Vuk starts taking off his leather coat, "Give me a half hour before I return. Hopefully all goes well."

-Vuk will leave his armor behind and will travel in a curved line to come at the boats in a different direction. Using survival and stealth when needed.

Survival 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
Stealth 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Ouch... You didn't take ranks in stealth. Let's hope the guards are really drunk
Pirate Spot Check1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

--The camp, for that is all it is, is surrounded by a fence of wooden spikes pounded into the dirt. It's about waist high. There are two guard towers, more like raised platforms, 5 feet off the ground. There is a large building, a long house type cabin, about 30 feet long. There is also what seems to be a blacksmith, from the sounds of metal being hammered and the smell of coal smoke. The place bustles with activity, you count 10 men, but obviously there are more than this. You figure a camp this size would have been built by 20-40 men. You see no signs of children, and only 1 woman who is walking around the blacksmith area.
--The guard in the watchtower nearest you, spots you at a distance of 100 feet. You are still in tree cover, and he'd be hard pressed to get a shot off. Instead he begins banging a peice of metal with a hammer, raising the alarm.
--In the map the large building is the long house, the two small squares with an x the towers, and the other building is the black smith. The docks and boats are clearly visible. This is not a battle map,as the scale is huge.
--VukWhat do you do? You could easily lose them in the woods...

Vuk will run some switch backs to lose them in the woods.

Survival 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17The entire pirate fort is trying to get a glimpse of you.

And 3 of them take pot shots as you run through the trees. The cover gives you a +2 bonus to AC.
1st pirate 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16
2nd pirate 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21
3rd pirate 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12
possible crit hit on 2nd pirate rolling again for crit.
2nd pirate 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6 no crit
--Two crossbow bolts go through the air, smacking into the trees around you. You can hear the yells and curses coming from the camp. They are still sounding the alarm. As you turn your head to get a look over your shoulder, you feel a sudden terrible pain as a crossbow bolt slams into your spine...1d8 ⇒ 1 but it fails to penetrate your armor, and hardly bruises your skin. You manage to keep running, and you lose those chasing you, but become slighty lost in the process.
--The shock threatens to overwhelm you. For the first time in your young life, your fellow man has tried, and almost managed, to kill you. If they had been better shots, you'd be laying on the forest floor, bleeding to death. You realize the men aren't fools, and have no interest in tracking a single man through the forest, which is quite thick. You make your way back to camp in safety...but you are extra careful, and it is almost dusk by the time you are back...
Remember you docked around 1pm, and dusk is around 7:30pm. Current time in game would be about 6:45pm, so you found the camp, scouted it, and got back and got shot at and wounded in 5 hours. Not too bad, really.

--By the gods, what has happened to you, man!?Father Isaak looks worried. Are you hurt? Do we need to leave? Do you need me to look at your wounds? He quickly turns to the rest of the party and says Has this shaken your resolve? I'm so glad we didn't send the woman alone, they'd have done terrible things to her...ugh....what a terrible thing it is to study in the field...

Vuk stumbles back into camp, a trail of blood behind him. "Well, I don't think they're interested in talking." He goes to sit down near his gear, giving himself some much needed rest. "There's a whole fort of them up there, and they're pretty well armed. Multiple guard towers, and what I think was a blacksmith. We're definitely not taking our boats passed that without being noticed." Vuk describes the layout of the fort in as much detail as possible and will give a more accurate head count.

Waiting for the map from Nick to post for us

Father Isaak bows his head in prayer, a moment later he says Well, my son I can see you are not in any danger...but please try to be more careful...you could have been killed

"Sounds like there are too many for an assault. We may need to try and lead groups away and take them out a little at a time, or perhaps try and sneak in at night. From the sound of it, we won't be making more progress without dealing with these men and, even if we could, I would not care to let those who had fired upon us off so easily. Does anyone have a plan?"

"We could possibly try sneaking in at night like you said. Perhaps Xen could deal with the guards in the tower before they sound an alarm? I don't think trying to lead any away would work. They didn't seem interested in chasing me."

Maybe if a few more of us went, or we shot back, we could get their interest...

"That is a possibility as well. They hit me from just over a hundred feet away so I'm assuming they have longbows. If we sat back at around two hundred, I could take a few shots at their guards while remaining in cover."

Not that I know anything, but could we sneak by them in our boats at night? If it was cloudy and we hug the opposite river bank we'd be almost 200 feet away in the dark, by the time they notice us, we could have a major lead on them...and they'd have trouble hitting us. Father Isaak is desperate to avoid combat, but that is the way with these scholar priests.

"What do you wish to do with there intrest after we have it Roh? Cause I have many abilites to distract them while we have in them in the woods and I'm not as heavy booted as the two of you."

Aka I guess I should scout out next time since I have stealh hehe.

I'll have stealth next level. Didn't think I'd need it at level 1 :)

Survival can be used to help plan guerrilla tactics, and knowledge:local could be used to identify the pirates or gain information about their tactics and motivations.

I'll have stealth next level. Didn't think I'd need it at level 1 :)

Now we know we do, hehe.

Garesh moves closer to Xen and whispers, "Are all your ravings about your enchanting powers on the level or is it bluster. Cause they could be of some use, and I have methods of allowing them to take hold." He'll wait for a response then turn back to the big guys. "So what stragies are you all thinking, divide and conquer, cat and mouse, hit and run, distract a dissuade, or convert them to our cause." With that last suggestion he gives a week to Xen and the father.

I prefer as little violence as possible, but am quite willing to defend myself, should it come to that. Sadly, I'm not really experienced in such matters, but if they only have two or three boats, we'd only have to fight off two or three boats of them. If we attack over land, wouldn't we have to fight ALL of them?

"That is a possibility as well. They hit me from just over a hundred feet away so I'm assuming they have longbows. If we sat back at around two hundred, I could take a few shots at their guards while remaining in cover."

--You were hit by a light crossbow fired at range...light crossbow have a range of 80' to 800' at -20 to hit. However, you can only draw line of sight from about 100 feet away from the guards, due to the thick forest. At 100 feet you have cover, at more than that you have no line of sight to make a shot. At less than 100 feet you will be out in the open...Once you started running into the forest, the guards lost sight of you.

Vuk cracks a smile, "Or, we sink their boats, take their oars, and row right passed them. Or even just take their boats."

ah, so they have a -2 to hit me at 100'?

"That's a good idea, I do have a few points of oil and a nasty trick that sparks a fire. So we can sneak in and take the oars and cover the boats in oil. Then as we pass I can light it up using the confusion of the fire and cover from the smoke to get by them." He pats his deck of cards around his neck as he finishes his idea.

You forget, father, that we can't just row right past them. We are in need of oars, the whole reason we approached the camp in the first place.
As for tactics, we could sit at the edge of the forest and attempt to take out the guards with our crossbows. If we can get them to send out a group to deal with us then we could either begin to take them out in smaller numbers or even get a few hostages.

The burning of the boats is a good plan, I guess one of you can make fire? or would we shoot the boat with a burning arrow? We'd sneak in at night I guess, right?

"Garesh suggested using his oil and his create fire to burn the boats. Whatever our plan is, starting at night is probably our best bet. They are most likely going to have a guard posted who won't let us just sneak in, but we can catch some of them sleeping.

"I agree with the father on this. Burning the boats would prevent them from coming after us, and if we can avoid adding extra risk to ourselves then I'm all for it. I can put a couple of arrows into their boats, or over their wall if we want to cause a distraction."