With no room to maneuver in Garim reaches his hand forward, ribbons of steel shooting forth, wrapping around the legs of the bandit directly in front of Ofelio. Garim pulls back with his arm and the cords tighten, then break, pieces of metal tinkling to the floor.
"Cooled it to much. Master Beden would not be pleased", Garim mutters. "Going to have to practice with that."
The half-Orc finishes his climb up the ladder and disappears above.
Up next: Genisen, Laya, Bandits, Ofelio, Garim, Half-Orc
"I wouldn't worry too much." Ofelio chuckles wetly.
Genisen attacks the archer he designated last round as his bane.
The second archer goes down, leaving spearmen, only one if whom has a very minor injury.
Laya is next.
"There really is no learning," Laya says quietly with a sigh. She casts flare on the closest opponent.
No penalty, their Will saves are +0.
The three bandits attempt to take down Ofelio.
Bandit 1:
Bandit 1 confirm:
Damage:
Despite Ofelio's best defenses, and the interference with the wall, Bandit 1 finds a lucky opening and takes down the paladin...again.
Bandit 2 and 3 stay where they are, seemingly waiting for something. Bandit 2 snears as Ofelio goes down, saying, "Man! His insides are as ugly as his outsides!"
Up next: Ofelio (to stabilize), Garim, Half-Orc, Genisen, Laya, Bandits
Retrieving a stored item is a move action, administering a potion (apply an oil) is a standard action, and you're out of weapon's range, so no AoO on you. There would be three on Ofelio if he attempted to stand up.
Riiiight! You can still take it out and drag Ofelio back. Laya can then take it and administer it herself.
Panicking rising, Garim grabs a hold of Ofelio and drags him back a few feet, then begins searching through his bags trying to find one of the potions. There is a faint sound of sinister whispering as he fumbles in the bags and at last is able to produce one of the potion vials, "Laya, take this." he calls out. As soon as the halfling grabs the vial from him he stands back up straight, hoping the bandits don't get more bold or ruthless.
The half orc is gone, bringing us back to Genisen. I'm assuming Laya will administer the potion on her turn, as otherwise I think Ofelio is dead.
Genisen shoots at his chosen bane from last round (lead spearman) hoping to give some cover for Garim
Genisen's arrow flies true and embeds itself deep in the man's gut. He grunts, snaps the arrows shaft in half, growls, "Screw this! Scarblade can kill them himself if he wants to," and starts climbing up the ladder. He makes it up the ladder. His friend heads for the ladder, too, though he can't make it all the way up.
The third bandit looks at the occupied ladder, back at your group, drops his sword, and throws his hands up in the air.
Do you wish to pursue the other two bandits or let them go?
Bump!
Genisen will designate the one going for the ladder as his bane and tell him to stop and throw down his weapons. He will ready a shot if he decides to ignore that command.
The bandit ignores the warning, and takes an arrow in the leg. He continues to scurry up the ladder.
Laya administers the potion to Ofelio. Once he's stable, she sits down on the floor. "I really must stop trying flare," she mutters. "Clearly they're immune." She looks up at the others. "I get the impression this is going to be long and drawn out. They ambush us, we remove one or two of them before they fall back. Repeat until we run out of resources or they run out of people. The question is, which will happen first?"
Healing:
"I can help," the bandit says hopefully as he cowers on the ground.
Garim retrieves his shield from the ground where Ofelio had fallen. He looks to his companions then back to the bandit, "And how is it you can help?" He uses his feet to shove the various weapons that have fallen to the ground away from the man.
The bandit looks unsure. "I...well...I can tell you how many there are. I can tell you...where that other tunnel leads! If you give me my sword back, I'll help you fight them!"
Garim frowns, "Well let's start with the first two then. How many of there are you left? And where does the passage lead to?" Give him his sword and he's just as likely to turn on us as help us.
"Well, there's Scarblade, of course, and I think Jigs and Scurry are still alive. The east passage leads to the east tower. See? Very helpful."
Bump...
Who still has potions left?
"And what's in the east tower?" Garim asks dryly while he fishes into his bags for another potion, handing it to Laya. "Will he live?"
"The east tower? Just like the west one. Some beds upstairs, a couple chests. Scarblade lives in the north tower. He has nicer stuff there. All our loot is back in that room in the middle."
Garim moves back to where Laya and Ofelio are. "Is there anything among your ill-gotten gains that will help to defeat Scarblade? I don't fancy climbing the ladder there only to find him waiting up top to behead me."
Garim again digs into his bags. It takes him a moment but he at last pulls out the third potion. Speaking more quietly so only those nearby can hear, "This is the last one. I'd feel better if we holed up to rest for a while, or make Scarface come to us."
"Healing draughts? We have a few down here!" the helpful bandit exclaims.
The ladders are attached up top, but knocking one loose shouldn't be too hard.
Ofelio, meanwhile, opens his eyes a crack and sits up shakily.
A flash of disappointment flashed across his face, but at what, exactly, it's hard to know. Losing, maybe? Repeated failure? Being a waster of resources?
He shifts to confusion as he realizes they're not currently in a cage.
"If you have some healing draughts, then by all means tell us where they are!"
Seeing Ofelio opens his eyes, Genisen lets out a sigh of relief, knowing it was a close one in that last fight.
"Let's go and fetch them then." states Garim. He looks at the tattered ends of his sleeve, the remnants of his oracular gift and curse. "Do you have any shirts in there too?"
The bandit, seeming very eager to please, leads you back to the central area. He opens a box, and suddenly looks stressed. "What? They were here! Three little bottles Scarblade said were healing drinks. He must have taken them. All that's left are these stupid bundles of paper." He pulls three scrolls out of the box and shrugs.
Ransacking the stores, you find: a small-sized suit of masterwork studded leather armour (?gp), a small-sized masterwork short sword (?gp), a masterwork backpack (?gp), three scrolls (cure light wounds, obscuring mist, and gravity bow, all at CL 1), two crates of fine linen cloth (?gp), and various other trade goods (?gp).
"Paper is never stupid," Laya says and grabs the scrolls. "In fact, paper can be very, very useful sometimes." While the others ransack the stores, she spends time studying the scrolls.
"Aha!" she exclaims. "All very useful. This one, in particular, will do just as well as one of those missing potions."
They are arcane scrolls, including the cure light.
Laya uses the cure light wounds scroll on Ofelio.
"What is your name? And how long have you been working with Scarblade?" Garim asks. "Is he likely to come back down here after us? Or is he likely to hope we come up after him?"
"I'm Timbur, and yes, I've heard the joke. I worked for Scarblade about six months. I don't know what he'll do now. No one's ever lived this long after the ambush. Normally, we get our products from merchants on the road, like this stuff from the little guy that sang, and his friend with the magic. Lost two guys that day. Magic guy kept making these little darts of light, and no matter where we hid, they kept coming for us and hitting us. Fortunately, he ran out of light darts before we ran out of arrows!" He laughs at the memory before realizing that his current audience might not appreciate the humor of the situation.
"Like I was saying, don't know what he'll do. Don't think he'll come down, unless you stay for days. Even then, he'll probably starve you out. He's probably waiting topside, maybe got some heavy stuff on the other doors, and take you when you come up this one. Course, he might have just run off, wait until you leave, and then come back."
Ofelio shakes his head again and stumbles to his feet.
"The thing we started seeing... with the dogs... was that... completely staged?"
The bandit nods. "Yeah. The dogs were hungry though, so they went a little overboard and actually tore Jib up pretty bad. We saw you guys coming, and when anybody who looks like they have money comes by, one of us goes out and pretends to be attacked by the dogs, and when they come to investigate, we take 'em out with arrows."
Garim crosses his arms as Timbur speaks, his expression growing more grim with each word. "Are there any other ways out of the towers other than the ladders?", a slight edge of anger in his tone.
"Nope! Say! We never thought about trapping some idiots down here, but it works pretty well, don't it?!" He laughs at the joke, then suddenly remembers that he's now one of the "idiots", and sobers up.