The fairies follow you as you leave their area, but they don’t go past the large stone circle, except for one of them who comes up to Felix.
”Bye,” she says in his ear. The fairy gives him a quick kiss on the cheek, and then with a giggle, burrows underneath his shirt. Felix feels tiny hands running themselves over his shoulders and chest. They head further south before he’s able to whip up his shirt and shoo her away.
”Come back anytime, cutie!” she calls out as she flits back to the group.
"Whatever you do, don't tell Nerrisal. She might get the wrong idea and punish that cute little fairy." When you look at him, he seems totally serious about what he just said.
"... Sure. Then again, if it doesn't work out with the queen, you have another prospect. Let's make camp, shall we? Guard rotation as usual."
Felix blushes.
You settle down in an actually nice area for a camp a short distance south of the fairy ring. You heat yourselves and some supper with a small cozy fire and prepare to bed down, when a piercing silent scream cuts through the forest. It's hard to describe a sound you can't hear but still can, as if the sound is beyond your ability to hear normally, but you can still feel the vibrations in your bones. Whatever it is, the sound is filled with abject terror.
And it's coming from the direction of the fairy ring to the north.
"Well, bugger," Everard says as he lumbers to his feet, draws sword and unslings shield -- and sets off at a dead run towards the fairy ring.
Do you go as fast as you can, or as fast as Everard can?
Zayla gasps at the bizarre sound/not-sound and sits up. She grabs her bag, takes a moment to cast mage armour, then runs for the fairy ring. She goes as fast as she can, even if that means taking a substantial lead on Everard.
Initiatives
Felix gets up and goes with Zayla and Everard back to the fairy ring at his best speed.
Round 1
Felix moves up. He's now 10 feet away from Zayla and can see what she has seen (i.e. read all spoilers).
Everard I assume is moving forwards, which puts the rest of you up. If you can't move the tokens on the map, let me know which square you want. It will take Everard 6 rounds just to get close enough to see what's going on.
"Hey, dumbo!" Zayla calls out. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size? Which, preferably, would be another troll. Somewhere else!"
Felix inches forward, trying to get into position to attack the troll as it charges Zayla.
Stealth
Rapier
Is Zayla trying to draw attention to herself, or is she staying hidden so that the troll has to look for her?
Beyond any vegetation providing cover and the darkness of the night, she's not actively trying to hide.
The troll suddenly stops chasing the fairy as Zayla speaks out. It whips around, sniffing the air, peering into the darkness. As it steps fully into view, Zayla's dart of flame shoots through the trees and slams into the troll's shoulder...and though she singes its beard and rags, the troll doesn't seem to have felt it.
As the troll moves up, crashing through bushes, blindly moving towards the source of the flame, it steps past Felix who was hiding behind a tree. His blade barely manages to penetrate the troll's thick hide, but penetrate it does, and deeply. The troll roars in agony and rage as it temporarily forgets the little wizard and turns its attention to the rogue...
Party is up. Map is updated.
Everard arrives in 5 rounds (unless you manage to lure the troll towards him somehow).
"Okay, that was a bad idea," Zayla mutters as her spell has no effect on the troll. As it crashes towards her, she braces for its attack, but is relieved when Felix distracts it.
Since fire doesn't seem to affect it much, she decides to forego her remaining bolt of fire. She backs up a bit and recasts the spell, but this time forming a ball of lightning, which she hurls at the troll.
The lightning dart slams into the troll and has its full effect.
Everard continues to run, best as he can...
Perception
Felix takes note that the troll seems dazzled, presumably by faerie magic. Feeling emboldened by that, he jumps back into the fray. "Keep on him. The faeries have weakened him."
Rapier
Rapier to Confirm Crit
After striking out, Felix ducks back behind the trees to come at the troll from a different angle on his next attack.
Felix’s blade finds another weak spot in the troll’s hide and slides deep, soliciting another roar of pain. The troll reaches around the narrow tree trunk to strike at Felix with its big club.
If it weren’t for the dazzling effect of the faerie’s magic, or the presence of the tree trunk, Felix is pretty sure he’d be mostly dead right now.
Party is up.
Everard is still running and double-moving, hoping his friends will have the sense to lead the enemy towards him...
If I had any sense, I'd try to lead this thing to Everard and let him finish it.
Felix dashes back in and takes another stab.
Rapier
Rapier: confirm crit
"Maybe we should try to draw it away!" Zayla calls to Felix.
She lobs her second dart of electricity at the troll and then pulls back.
Felix sticks it to the troll again, wounding it deeply. Zayla’s bolt flies too high and sizzles a tree.
The troll, roaring in anger, steps clear of the interfering tree trunk and brings its club down on Felix.
The thick shaft of wood slams into the side of his skull making a rather wet crunch. Felix shakes his head and manages to keep his feet, but feels quite woozy as he watches the four trolls he now sees.
Everard’s only two rounds away at this point. Party’s Up.
Felix gives due consideration to Zayla's suggestion and decides that she might have a good idea. Felix tries to use the trees again to provide him some protection from the pounding the troll wants to give him.
Withdraw and move.
Zayla casts another produce flame , once again substituting electricity for fire. She lobs the electrical bolt at the troll and then pulls back another 35 ft.
Running running running running wheeze running running gasp running...
Edmund passed Zayla this round and he can see the troll, which has now seen him.
The troll moves up and swings at Everard, it’s club clanking off Everard’s shield.
Party is up.
Felix was still feeling the pain from the bashing that the troll had given him, but he still moved to an advantageous position from which to attack the troll (next round).
"" Everard bellows as he bounces the club off of his shield and sweeps his longsword at the Troll's ribs.
Zayla lobs her last bolt of electricity at the troll, but it goes way astray.
She'll hold her ground this time.
The troll takes another swing at Everard.
The troll's club leaves a nasty dent in Everard AND his armour.
Running tally of damage on troll so far:
VP: 25
WP: 18 (5 left)
The troll is bleeding from three deep stab wounds left by Felix the Crit-Maker. One good crit or sneak attack might take him down.
Party up. Map updated.
Everard grunts at the injury -- but swings again, undeterred!
Felix comes out of cover and limps up to the troll opposite Everard.
Rapier: flanking
"I hope this thing dies soon," Zayla says. "I'm running out of options!"
She switches to elemental ray, although visually there's not a lot of difference as more electricity shoots at the troll.
Felix ...just misses the troll, despite its slowed reflexes. Zayla’s electricity gives the creature another painful jolt.
The troll’s club slams into Everard again, severely wounding him. One more hit like that and he’ll be down.
Everard and Felix both have wound Damage now, which inflicts a -2 penalty to Strength and Dex. It hasn’t mattered yet, but please take it into account moving forwards.
Felix continues to harass the lumbering giant.
Rapier: wounded, flank
Confirm w/Rapier: wounded, flank
Everard roars as he stabs at the Troll. For a moment, his heavy longsword and Felix' rapier scrape each other, inside the monster's body...
Zayla sends more electricity at the troll.
The troll growls as the two blades pierce its tough hide once again. It staggers, catching itself on the nearby tree trunk, before once again bringing his great club down at Everard.
Fortunately, this time the troll's club deflects harmlessly off Everard's shield.
Felix can taste blood. His own for sure, but also the troll's. He redoubles his attack.
Rapier:flank, wounded
Felix buries his sword up to the hilt, and Everard sees the tiny point of metal poking out of the troll’s chest. The monster’s hands go numb, and it’s club tumbles to the ground as it drops to its knees. It stares blankly at Everard for several seconds, before slumping forward to bury its face in the dirt.
The troll lies still.
Once you recover enough energy, you can search the troll’s body. The troll is wearing an unfortunate lack of clothing (and more than its guts have spilled out onto the forest floor), but beneath its beard, it wears a backpack sized for a human, which it has crudely converted into a sort of sachet. Inside, you find a pouch containing 100 gold coins and 80 silver coins, a MW buckler, and a packet of poorly butchered rancid meat wrapped in paper. You’re about to toss that away before you realize that there is writing on the paper: magical incantations, such as those on a spell scroll. It will require some careful cleaning to determine what spell is on it.
When you finish your search of the body, a faint tinkling sound reaches your ears, which grows louder as the fairies approach.
”Thank you so much!”
”You saved us!”
”That troll was so icky.”
”It ruined our mushroom ring.”
”No more dancing.”
”The troll was a terrible dancer!”
”And it smelled bad.”
”You were so brave to fight it!”
”We watched you.”
”You’re both hurt so much.”
”We can help a little.”
”But we need our ring fixed or we can’t dance.”
”Dancing is magical.”
”Especially yours” one of them says to Felix. He’s pretty sure that’s the fairy that has a crush on him.
”Will you help us fix our ring?”
"Of course we will my Little Star." Felix says towards where he thinks he heard his crush speak from. "The world would be a darker place without your glorious dance. Though, I think, for now, we need to rest." Felix finds it hard to breath and he'd be on the ground if he did not have this fine tree to lean against.
"Y - yeah," Everard wheezes as he limps to the large mushroom that was knocked over. Clumsily, he holds it in place and looks to the faeries. "If you can magic it back together, I'll just go back to bleeding into my armour."
The fairies move to danc around the broken mushroom, singing and sprinkling fairy dust. The mushroom begins to regenerate and is soon as good as new.
Then they begin flying around the fallen giant rock.