Seeing action taking place, Arwen moves quickly forward to secure that he is in reach of his allies. Air beginning to whirl around him and electricity hitting, a pure lightning revealing him for a second until lashing out of his hands towards nearest slaver if possible
Lightning Arc 5/6 left
Otherwise, Arwen takes double movement to get closer to slavers to use his abilities
Screaming defiantly, Hob sprints out of the forest at full speed towards the slavers, Pick axe swinging wildly as the runes on the haft start glowing with a dull red forge-glow.
Arwen's lightening bolt flies wide of the nearest slaver. Hob flies in to the opening created by the bolt, swinging his pick madly. The slaver deflects the blow with his free hand.
The slave driver shouts "You three! Take them! Elric, take one of the prisoners!" as he moves back to space V23 and readies his crossbow for when slaver 6 falls.
Slaver 6 strikes back at Hob with his dagger. Still a bit confused from the surprise attack, he misses by a mile.
Slaver 4 pulls slave 4 up to his chest and puts his dagger to the slave's throat, sneering all the while.
Slave driver
Slaver 6
Slaver 4
Samant
Hob
Arwen
Slaver 1
Slaver 2
Masao
EDIT: Map updated
Samant steps forward next to Hob (BB24) and takes a powerful swing (Power attack) at 6.
Chanting with a deep voice, Arwen moves forward and raise his hand to release another arc of lightning, this time towards the slaver who threatens one of the slaves
Lightning Arc hit + dex - to avoid slave? dmg 4/6 left
Samant's massive club comes cracking down on the slaver's skull, crushing it easily, and the slaver falls to the ground. As soon as the slaver falls out of the way, the slave driver fires his crossbow at Hob.
The bolt narrowly misses Hob, whizzing past his shoulder and into the dark of the forest.
New initiative order:
Slaver 6
Slaver 4
Samant
Slave driver
Hob
Arwen
Slaver 1
Slaver 2
Masao
Hob screams and attacks the next slaver.
"Better dead than Slave!" He roars
Arwen steps forward and fires a lightening bolt at Elric (slaver 4). The bolt zips past the slave's head and hits the brute square in the chest. He staggers, hair on end, dropping the slave at his feet and sputtering to catch his breath.
Slaver 2, obviously frightened by the fates of his allies, turns on his heels and runs, unfortunately directly towards Masao.
New initiative
Slaver 4
Samant
Slave driver
Hob
Arwen
Slaver 2
Masao
Seeing Hob charge into combat, Masao feels a sudden brotherly sense of concern for his friend. Hob is a great crafter but his combat abilities aren’t honed to any kind of perfection, he thought. Still the field of battle didn’t allow him to get close enough to help Hob, so he had to hope Samant being close would be enough to protect the wizard.
As he realizes that a slave is in danger as well, his attention is distracted a moment, but he’s gratified to see Arwen’s lightning arc strike the slaver holding a blade to the slave’s neck… Thank the gods, Arwen struck true and the slave was, well, not free, yet, but no longer held with a weapon to his throat.
He casts a quick spell and arcs frost at the slaver in front of him , then steps forward to the attack, .
Masao's icy blast strikes true, stopping the slaver in his tracks. Unfortunately, Masao's scimitar strike fails to make contact.
Slaver 4, now visibly enraged, rushes towards Samant.
His ire gets the better of him, forcing him to take careless, ineffective stabs.
Another broad sweeping swing at 4, just trying to swipe him away, and then moves to interpose himself between 7 and the slaves
Samant drops the last slaver, leaving only the leader standing in the clearing. The slave driver begins to move towards the slaves, but Samant blocks his approach. Wishing to live another day, the slave driver withdraws from combat to the North.
Screaming defiance Hob charges towards the slave driver, heedless of his own safety. Seeing the slave driver get away, he throws his pickaxe wildly, pumps his arms like crazy to run faster and attempts to tackle the slave driver.
The slave driver shakes off Hob's tackle, striking him with his now-empty fist.
The punch connects solidly with Hob's nose, sending him tumbling into the grass.
Seeing how the leader attempts to flee, Arwen once again gather the air around him into his palm, focusing and soon an electric storm of small sparks circles around his hand
Hitting his hand toward the slave driver, a thunderous lightning bolt flies towards the leader
Lightning Arc hitDamage
Masao, seeing the last slaver, the leader no less, withdrawing to the north, he wavers a moment between helping the slaves and stopping the last one from escaping. They needed at least one to question – where did they come from, where were they going, who was behind the slave shipment, and so forth. He moves to intercept the leader and with a shout of Ten’no Tsurugi! he takes a double-handed swing at the leader, hoping to stop him from escaping.
Fortune favors the last slaver, as Masao's blow chunks into the ground by his feet as he runs.
Seeing Hob get decked sends Samant into a fury and he screams in primal fury as his friend gets hurt and rushes the last slaver.
Seeing his comrades taking the fight to the leader Samant stays back and begins to check the slavers and clearing them of weapons and armor. "Don't worry, To the slaves , we're here to help you and we'll get you into town as soon as we've secured the prisoners.
Samant, enraged, thunders toward the slave driver, but he is able to edge himself just out of reach of Samant's club as he continues to retreat.
The slave driver withdraws further north. As he runs, you hear the thundering of horse's footsteps. A mounted man, heavily armed, races through the forest and grabs the slave driver's arm, hoisting up on to the saddle. The horseman takes a hard left and races up the road back toward Piren's Bluff. The slave driver yells back over the horse's hooves, The next time I see you will be in Hell!
Samant will sprint after the horse for the remainder of his rage screaming wildly after the man, then walk back breathing heavily.
Quickly outdistanced by the horse, Hob turns back, looking quickly for a discarded crossbow.
When he cannot find one in time his abger abates, his shoulders slump and he becomes morose.
"We're dead"
Masao, seeing the slave driver get picked up by the horseman, sighs and returns back to where the slaves were left alone. He thinks, I KNEW I saw more of them... more slavers, more mounted guards and more slaves. They must have another camp somewhere.
"Hob, we're fine... there are more of them out there- I knew I saw a larger force. They must have another camp. But we've got to deal with these captives first... and see if any of the slavers are still alive."
He turns to Arwen as he begins to work at ropes, chains and shackles to free the captives. "Arwen, can you see if any of the slavers live? We might be able to question one or two of them for more information."
As he works at freeing the slaves from whatever bonds hold them, he speaks to them softly. "My name is Masao and my friends and I are here to set you free. We have a priest with us if any of you are in need of a healer."
He pauses for a moment for any response, calling Arwen over if a healer is needed. "I know this has been difficult for you, but this is important. What can you tell us about these slavers and the other slaves I saw earlier? Where did you all come from? Where did the others go?"
The slave, a square-chinned man, says "I am fine, but please tend to my wife" as he indicates to the woman the slaver grabbed earlier. "I don't know if she is hurt, but she is shaken. As for the rest of the group, all I know is that the slavers took them West from that last town we passed. Judging from the chatting I overheard, this group was intended to shake off anyone following us. I guess they were planning on cutting through the woods to catch back up. I fear that we slaves were not intended to follow along with them.
Masao seems at a loss as to what to do for the woman. He looks her over to see if she's wounded...and asks "Are you hurt?" but in truth this is Arwen's bailiwick. "Don't worry, you're safe now. We won't let them hurt you anymore." He turns to Arwen for assistance with a helpless look on his face. It's no wonder Master Hiro barely spoke to me for three days after freeing me from the slavers. He probably didn't know what to say either, he thought.
He looks to the newly freed man who spoke up earlier and asks, "If we set you on the road, do you think you can lead the others on to Piren's Bluff? If so, we can go after the others and try to free them. If not, we will escort you to town first, and then go after them. Your safety is important, but so is freeing the other slaves."
He looks to his companions and shrugs, as if to ask 'what now,' then turns his attention back to the ex-slave, awaiting his answer.
Hob, still morose grabs his pick axe and walks over to the first slaver
"You still want to question one?" he asks Masao
Masao nods to Hob. "If we left any of them alive, best find out what we can from them. The one that got away clipped you good, Hob... are you okay?"
"Yeah" Says Hob, blood pouring down his face "I've had worse"
Hob seems to tune out the world for a minute
"I remember one time when the raiders caught a man from our village... He didn't know where we were hiding, but... he screamed for two days."
Hob looks at Masao, trying to send a mental message to Masao
I won't do that. Even to these.
Masao smiles at Hob... "Yes, I'm sure you've had worse just working at the forge, but I need to know if you're good to go on, if that is what we do... As for these slavers, if any of them are alive, I don't really care what it takes to get the information out of them, get it we shall." He doesn't sound like he's even trying to bluff, he simply sounds determined.
He mutters something under his breath in Minkaian. It doesn't sound particularly friendly. But then, Hob has heard him speak this tongue before, and it never sounds like a really friendly or soft tongue.
He then whispers softly to Hob in Common, just loud enough to be heard, "We do what we must." He sighs and shrugs. Hob has seen him wield his scimitar with bloody abandon, but he's never known Masao to be deliberately cruel.
Arwen nods and approaches the woman who appears to be in pain. Blessing himself for the guidance of Shelyn, Arwen examines her all over for apparent wounds.
If nothing particular is showing, he prays for his goddess and green light covers the woman and fade away
"Ah, thank you, Arwen. Poor woman has been through enough for one day, that she has. Now for dealing with the slavers."
Masao turns his attention to assisting Hob with the unconscious or dead slavers. He checks each one in turn, to see if he's still breathing and removes any weapons they might be carrying, dumping these in a single pile. Any who are still alive, he drags back over to the firelight for Arwen to bandage up so they can be questioned. Any dead slavers he drags to a separate pile.
The living he sees if he can rouse, if he can't he turns again to Arwen for help.
The woman slave appears grateful, but refuses to make eye contact with anyone. Her husband begins to comfort her, whispering softly in her ear.
The team thoroughly picks over the fallen slavers, finding that all of them are dead, save the one who was struck by Masao's ray of frost. Upon being dragged closer to the fire, he defrosts and sputters awake, stammering nonsense, but quickly takes in the surroundings. You quickly see how young he is, barely 14 or 15 years old. Please don't hurt me! I was shanghaied into this mess by that Ethed fellow. I'm the only reason my parents weren't killed. Looking around, he notices the husband and wife amongst the slaves. What's wrong with Mum? Is she hurt?
Also, from the remains, you are able to recover 5 daggers, a light mace, 4 suits of leather armor, a total of 11gp, and several days worth of food. also, hanging from a tree branch just outside the firelight, you notice a ruddy shortbow. Unfortunately, there don't appear to be but 3 arrows left.
Go, lad, be with your family, Masao tells the boy, glad now he didn't kill him, but worried that the others that were killed were barely more than slaves as well.
To the ex-slaves, he again asks, "If we set you on the road to Piren's Bluff, do you think you can make it there without escort? I'm sure when you're there, you'll be able to get help, just tell the townsfolk what happened to you and they'll offer what assistance they can. We have to go after the rest of the slavers if we can."
Masao turns to the rest of the party and asks, "Can any of you use these things?" He points to the pile of arms and armor and the shortbow, which he pulls down and adds to the pile, with the arrows.
The young former slaver pipes up I can take them back to Piren's Bluff so you can chase after the other group. But, please, don't kill Jermaine, the slaver with red hair. He is my cousin, and is surely as regretful as I am. I know that the boss said we were going to the Asphodel mountains, to work in the tunnels, whatever that means.
Masao adds the dropped crossbow to the pile as well. It might not be something we need to carry with us, since we have no bolts, but it will certainly be sellable somewhere.
He nods to the boy, and tells him, Thanks, lad, for taking charge. You take them to Piren's Bluff, then. He hands him one of the daggers from the pile. "You shouldn't go unarmed. I know it's not much, but better than nothing."
As Masao looks to his companions: Arwen, Hob, and the newly-returned Samant, he asks, "Are you all ready to press on and take down these slavers?"
Hob walks over to Arwen,
"I never know how bad cuts and bumps are. What do you reckon?"
Arwen treats all the slaves and make sure that they all are in condition for him to be able to send them off with the young boy back to Piren´s Bluff.
Nodding back to Masao while on his thoughs and looking after the "ex"-slaves he turns back to Masoa I am ready but would just like to remind that my spells are not endless. I have couple usable spells and the basics I can keep using all the time although not sure how helpful they will be in the end... but the love and care of Shelyn will surely assist us as a final statement to the end
Samant finally catches his breath and makes it back to the group, hearing Masao, Do we have a course of action?
Noting and turning to Hob, he comes closer Can you take your clothes little bit off so I can see it more clearly as he begin first examining it by touching
Heal
Masao nods to Samant as Arwen tends to Hob. "Yes, I think we do. It seems the bulk of the slavers and captives were taken to the west while these few were left here to distract us. We are going to send these folks on to Piren's Bluff while we follow the rest of the slave caravan. Apparently they are being taken to work in something called 'the Tunnels' in the Asphodel Mountains. We need to put a stop to this practice if we can. This might be much bigger than just one caravan of slaves, too." He sighs and shakes his head slightly. "This might turn out to be bigger than we can handle alone, but we won't know until we check it out more thoroughly."
He takes the opportunity to clean his sword before sheathing it. Then looks over at Samant and the others. With a fiercely determined look on his face, he says, "Let me know when you're ready to move on."
Samant nods at Masao, trying not to look at the bodies of the men he just killed. I am ready
With a puzzled look, blood streaming down his face, Hob complies with Arwen's request and starts to unbuckle and unlace his forge-gear.
Suddenly he pauses, and closes his eyes as if concentrating.
Kin? Where are you? I need you, friend.
The moment gone, he resumes undressing.