Bartleby will kick a handful of dirt on the chimp corpses, also making sure they are all truly dead. He will do a little ritual, hopefully they won't haunt the place or whatever and menace next year's apple pickers. He isn't terribly concerned about such things, but monkeys are cool, even devil ones. He keeps his pony nearby, although he has a 40' move for a good hour, and always keeps his attention focused on the trees and the team. When he gets around to it, (probably after the apples are safely acquired), he will strap the loot to My Lil' War Pony.
Calling out..
"Hey guys, see any sign of a nest up there? Apes and Monkeys usually have a nest of some sort, maybe fashioned out of branches and leaves. Maybe there is more ill gotten gains and shiny things in their nest."
Their hands full of apples, the two adventurers suddenly hear the sound of rapidly cracking branches, and the almost human howling and utterly inhuman stink that has become all too familiar to you.
Both chimps are charging, leaping rapidly from branch to branch, but straight down rather than forward. With the agility that only an ape could have in a tree the devil chimps come rushing down at you.
Max is actually able to maneuver around some branches and avoid being pushed off the tree, the chimp coming to rest in the square immediately above him, but HEY YOU is not so lucky. He is knocked, violently, from the tree, apples and all.
HEY YOU gets banged up pretty bad, and will be hurting tomorrow, but he manages to avoid a potentially fatal injury by rolling with the fall. He is even able to save one of his apples in the process, although two of them are destroyed in the fall.
Depending on Surprise/Initiative ruling Bartleby will channel healing energy at first chance to heal HEY YOU. Thinking the chimps are still unwounded, even if they come down, we should be ok.
Holding aloft his somewhat-holy symbol, Bartleby channels...
" Argh!! More devilish monkeys!!!"
Pulling his magic endowed crossbow off his back, Elric sights and fires at the nearest of the two attackers.
Leena casts Magic Missile At the nearest living Chimp if any.
If both chimps are dead she sheathes her sword and draws a chakram.
Erlic takes aim and fires his crossbow up into the tree, shooting at the chimp that pushed HEY YOU, but the bolt embeds itself instead in the branch the chimp is perched on.
HEY YOU stumbles to his feet and hands off his only undamaged apple.
The chimp that attempted to push Max takes a 5 ft. climb down so he is directly adjacent to Max, then lashes out at the sorcerer.
Max is able to climb out of the way of the first attack, but he is not accustomed to maneuvering in trees and the second attack connects, the chimp's arm slamming into him and jostling the branch he is on.
The assault loosens Max's grip and he plummets from the tree.
Max falls to the ground in a heap, unconscious. His apples splay out everywhere and are destroyed in the impact.
Bartleby channels positive energy into the area, stabilizing Max's condition but still not providing enough healing to wake him up.
Leena flings off a magic missile at the chimp that attacked Max, and it screams in pain as the arcane attack hits.
Bartleby swing up on My Lil' War Pony attempting a Fast Mount (if successful this is a free action, if not this costs a move action).
If the chimps are within melee range of he and his mount, he directs My Lil' War Pony to pummel the chimps with his vicious hooves. This should be successful and also a free action allowing me to still act.
After this we will move Southeast towards Max as a 5' (putting us 1 to his left). I can do this as a free action with a DC 5 Ride check using my knees.
should auto-succeed barring any unknown penalties.
If any chimp attacks me I use an immediate action to drop to the side of my pony to provide cover (+4 AC bonus).
If a chimp attacks My Lil' War Pony I will attempt to negate the hit as an immediate action (Mounted Combat Feat), succeeding if my ride check exceeds its attack roll.
Having failed my rapid mount, that actually cost me a move action. If a chimp swung at me, and I had to use cover maneuver, it costs me a move action to return to the saddle so I have no remaining actions. If I was not attacked, I will fire my crossbow at a remaining chimp as long as I am not threatened by melee. My preference for targets is as follows:
first priority: A chimp not in melee ( so I don't suffer -4 to attack)
second priority: most visibly wounded if I can tell.
( possible -4 )
If the chimps stay in the trees, I will channel energy instead to heal Max.
Leena Draws a chakram and throws it at the nearby Chimp
Leena will move in and attack with with her longsword
Leena Sheathes her longsword and draws a chakram
Leena attempts to climb up the rope and then draws a chakram.
" Aggh. He fell n broke all the apples."
Grumbling in frustration, Elric will sling his crossbow and climb the rope.
Erlic easily climbs the rope to the upper branches.
Frustrated, HEY YOU throws a rock he never expected to hit, and it doesn't.
Bartleby against draws forth positive energy into this plane, and this time the healing is enough to bring Max around.
Leena flings a chakram at the wounded chimp. The chakram cuts deep into the chimp's back before becoming lodged in some branches. The blood loss causes the chimp to fall unconscious and loses it's grip.
It is unconscious and bleeding out, but there might still be some life in the dirty little thing.
Leena Draws a chakram and throws it at the chimp
.
Leena sheathes her longsword and and draws a chakram.
Erlic stands fast, holding on to the rope, he slowly begins to wind it up.
" Anybody else got any rope? I'ma use this here one up here..."
He will look around as he does so, looking for Devil Chimps and to see how far away the nearest other branches are.
Bartleby reloads his crossbow and fires into the trees.
Other rolls as needed:
Erlic sees a few suitable branches, but there's a perfect one just 15 feet above him. The only chimps he can see is the one to his immediate south west.
HEY YOU throws a stone up at this same chimp, and hits it hard.
The stone knocks the wind out of the chimp and even the expert climber loses it's grip. The chimps falls from the tree.
The chimp smashes into the ground, out cold but still breathing.
You know there is at least one other chimp up in the tree somewhere, but it hasn't shown it's face since their initial retreat.
Max, Bartleby and Leena hold off their attacks, having no targets. Leena sheathes her sword and draws a chakram.
Max methodically checks out the tree, but there's no sign from the ground of any chimps. He can see pretty high up into the tree so that last chimp must be hiding somewhere deep in the branches near the top.
Bartleby will reload his crossbow and take a look at the unconscious chimps on the ground.
"I may want to keep one alive for questioning. I can speak with animals, if they qualify...otherwise..." He makes a finger across the throat motion.
"I can channel again, but we may wish to save it in case someone falls from the trees."
If there is any free non-combat time, I will go around the group on the ground and give everyone resistance orison. ( +1 all saves for 10 rounds ).
Leena looks around for a suitable branch and casts mage hand on a branch containing apples. Then throws a chakram to sever branch
Leena is able to sever a branch and then, carefully catching it in her spell, lower the apple down.
You now have 4 apples, a third of the way to your goal.
While Leena does this, Bartleby casts Resistance on all of you.
"Hmm.hmmp."
Humming in concentration, Elric ties the rope to the branch he is standing on, then throws it over the branch above him. Taking his time (unless interrupted) he then ties it around his waist, untying some of the knots if needed to extend the length of the rope. Now when he falls he only falls about a foot or so. Sliding the rope along the branch above him, he walks outward to a fresh area and starts to pick apples, stuffing them into his pack worn on the front side, again he will stop and untie every so often to loosen knots and extend the length, then re-tie it around himself. .
If attacked or hearing sounds of attack he will grab his crossbow and load it.
The dwarf is able to securely tie himself to the tree so that he will now dangle instead of fall. He also picks a single apple and puts it away in his backpack.
There is no sign anywhere of the chimp.
Leena will walk around retrieving any chakrams she can and will again do the chakram and mage hand combo.
When free from casting, Bartleby will assist with raising and lowering of apples via the pulley system. We can also use My Lil' War Pony to tether a safety line to for the climbers. He always keeps his loaded crossbow ready and will scan the trees for chimps, a nest, or anything peculiar.
Working together with the set-up you rigged, you are all able to quickly gather the remaining 8 apples without further molestation from the devil chimp(s). It seems that even for such creatures, at a certain point discretion is the better part of valor.
Finally, Erlic and HEY YOU climb back down the rope with the last of the apples.
Once you're all finished, you can head back to the Elf King's palace tree (servant's entrance) and hand over the apples.
Other than the Living Steel Shield, the Nunchaku and the chimp-quality club, the filthy animals aren't carrying anything on them. That's actually more equipment than one might ordinarily expect to find on a chimp.
Loading up the precious apples and what little loot you could scrounge from the devil chimps, the group of slightly-bruised but successful adventurers begin the trek back to the servant's entrance of the palace tree to collect their reward.
End.
Woot. Much fun,
What are we selling the nunchuks for?