The people flitting through the shadows on both sides of the road are humans, by the look of them. Tal will surmise that, judging by local conditions, they are likely more bandits. Whoever they are, they are tense with anticipation and have clearly seen you on the road. You are just within bowshot, but they clearly want to wait until you get closer to spring their 'trap.'
On all sides of the road stretch the dense foliage of the Forest of Hope. The road is dappled with sunlight. Birds rustle uneasily as they realize something is happening below.
The dwarf whistles a tune as he walks down the road. Noting the obvious ambush, he grins.
Me Tanglefoot Bomb could delay da second group fer us ta deal wit da otter.
Anzath nods to Tal’s plan.
“Ve shall sneak behind de right flank if ve kan. Use treez az kover. Attack vid bowz and vhat magik you have. Dat vill be our signal to strike. Brand, you are feeling up to diz, yez?”
"I could blast one group with particles that may blind them for a few moments. I could actually use that against each group in turn. I would probably start with the group we are going to attack first, to minimize any chance of catching one of us in the blast radius. The spell fills a sphere that is about from here"he says, indicating where he is standing "to there." he finishes, pointing at a tree about twenty feet away. "I'd have to be closer, though. Maybe forty yards or so."
Bedlam grins wider.
Mees Tanglefoot Bomb left side; yous blind da otter. Brand and da elves clean up.
Bedlam: again, if they don't know they have been spotted, you can walk right up to them. Just act natural.
That goes for everyone: I'm assuming that you're playing it cool, continuing to walk forward while maybe slowing down a bit. You don't want to look like you know you're heading into an ambush. When you have a plan worked out, set the range you want to be as of first action. Possible ranges are "within bowshot" to being actually between the two sides of the ambush.
Aurora tilts her chin up and scrunches her nose, "This place truly has an overabudance of criminal scum... have they some hidden hive-city, somewhere here?"
As per usual the cleric has her quarterstaff in-hand, using it as a walking stick as they make their way back to the Ferry.
"I can provide the blessings of the All-Seeing Eye before or after we engage, as you fancy."
"Let us begin magic with the beginning of hostilities."
When everyone is ready, Anzath drops back a bit from the group, then darts into the trees. Slowly and carefully, she creeps forward, trying to get into a tactical position behind one half of the ambush.
Once in place, she crouches and waits for the fireworks.
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Brand chuckles as he walks, pulling out a fruit cake from a vest pocket and snacking as he does. Turning, he quietly speaks, "I'd been 'opin' fer a quiet walk back, but seems dat won't be deh case. Aye, Anz an' I 'ill scamper in teh de trees on deh roight, as ye engage. Dare's a lot o' dem, so it'd be best teh gang up on a few, put 'em down fast. Moight scar de udders off." Turning to Elma's guards, "Dey's gonna try teh get 'round us, don't let 'em. Oh, an' e'ryone, I got an' idea. Just play along..."
When they are about sixty feet from the ambush point, Brand loudly blurts out, "Blast it, Bedlam. What'ye put in deh purridge dis mornin'?! It's tearin' me up! I gotta find me a tree 'efore I shart meself!" Brand starts tugging at his belt as he walks into the woods.
The dwarf looks at the Halfling, as he hurries off into the woods. Bedlam just keeps walking; a grin on his face.
Gelver walks along whistling and muttering, blissfully oblivious of the danger and the party's preparations for responding to it. The masterwork chainmail from his prior party's cleric now rattles on his shoulders, although he's refused the offer of her masterwork warhammer ("I'm just used to swords, ya know? HA! Haha. Hmm... was that funny?").
For the journey back, he and the mercenaries have upgraded their kit with some of the goodies you found in the dungeon--Sarge and the Private are squeezed into ill-fitting full plate from an era when people were just a little smaller than they are now. Sarge accepted the loan of the skeleton's armor and mwk longsword with professional good grace, happy to be using decent equipment again. The private keeps his battered longspear in hand, but he has a falchion scavenged from the orcs on his back.
All three have longbows, arrows, javelins, daggers--they are generally bristling with offense. Even Elma has grabbed a suit of studded leather and a few spare daggers.
You're going to need all the help you can get. Everyone but Gelver has a sense of what's about to happen--Elma and her men nod when Brand gives his orders. When Brand jets off into the woods, though, Gelver laughs and laughs--shrieking with laughter. This behavior would normally be a big issue. Instead, it's keeping the bandits distracted from the party's adjustments to the situation.
With the bandits in two clumps, Tragershen targets the group that is closer to Brand and Anzath, hoping to keep them from getting overwhelmed in their assault. He runs quickly, getting just into range of his spell and stopping abruptly to cast.
Hold on to your buttz.
When she sees Brand in position, and sees ALL those bows drawn and aimed at her comrades, without a word, without a breath, Anzath moves up to her marked target and attacks in a sudden flash of purple light.
As he walks into the ambush site, Talathel smiles a little, and nods a little, spear in hand...
And charges the nearest bandit!
His ploy having allowed Brand to slip into the woods and disappear, he makes his way alongside Anzath to an outer member of their would-be ambushers. They pick targets that are close, knowing they will need to support each other in the ensuing battle. damn, there's a lot of them... he ponders as he readies his blade, trusting that his luck will guide the strike true.
Tragershen's glitter bomb hits three brigands:
They are blind for four rounds. He shot just ahead of where Anzath and Brand had begun their stabbings...
Brand gets a good shiv into his target, who reels but remains on his feet.
Anzath's foe is more substantial, a terrifyingly huge man who can't twist out of the way of Critfisher in time.
He turns on her and laughs in her face: "You think you can defeat us, dark one? HAHAHA."
...Anzath remains unfazed.
Brand's bandit gasps with pain, then pulls a rapier and lunges in at the halfling. One of the bandit's associates scrambles closer, places herself in a flanking position, and does the same.
Elma readies her crossbow, waiting for a clear shot at a bandit in the road...
Bedlam rubs his hands together eagerly.
Anzath sneers at her foe, responding in Aklo, "Ve kan and ve vill."
She feints with her off hand before cutting the fool.
Hedging his chances, and the quality of his first blow, Brand decides to try and stab both assailants, then steps diagonally across the second man, making it harder for the first to get back around him should he survive the second thrust.
Anzath manages to fool her opponent, catching him with a backslash he wasn't expecting.
Brand stabs the woman rushing him in the neck. She falls over, dying. And that's when Brand stabs the other bandit he was working on. He's done, too. But both scream a lot as they go down.
A commanding voice from across the road yells, "C'mon, lads! Sounds like Bill and his gang need a hand!
The instant the leader steps into the road, a crossbow twangs:
...but Elma misses her target.
Instead the man darts across the road, followed by one of his men. They close with Anzath and Tal after wading through some intervening underbrush. The first leader, seeing his squad in dire straits, yells back,
"Holy hells! They got Pete and Annie! Uh, do something, ma'am!"
The newcomers engage Anzath and Brand.
The underbandit attending his boss in the attack scores a lucky (but not critical) hit on Anzath, doing a pile of damage by nearly running her through with his rapier.
The leader misses.
Gelver starts shrieking at the top of his lungs. The forest echoes with his mad anguish. He draws his blade and runs to help his friends, setting up a flank between Brand and the second Leader "DEAADDD MEAAATT!! EEEEEEAHH!"
He hacks his foe with an expert slash.
The blind bandits mill about, falling back towards the big oak tree, moaning and rubbing their eyes.
Aurora moves up twenty feet, then casts Bless! Take that sweet, sweet miniscule buff, which effects every ally within fifty feet of her.
Bedlam takes aim at a grouping of bandits, after moving 20' closer.
You are adept at increasing the range, area, and accuracy of splash weapons.
Benefit: When throwing a splash weapon, you act as if you had the Far Shot feat. When you hit with a splash weapon, select one additional square adjacent to the splash area; creatures in this area also take splash damage. When you miss with a splash weapon, you may adjust the miss direction on the grid by +1 or –1. This feat counts as Far Shot for the purpose of qualifying for other feats, but only in regard to splash weapons
Before Bedlam launches his bomb, one bandit darts across the road and stabs at Gelver:
Gelver's new chain armor barely manages to turn the blade, and he is unharmed.
Then, Bedlam whips a bomb at the closest pair of bandits.
Bedlam catches two bandits in the blast--they are entangled in goop.
Before Bedlam launches his bomb, one bandit darts forward:
Another bandit runs into the road, stabbing at Bedlam:
...drawing a little blood?
As Tragershen scans his foes for someone... some dangerous woman... the enormous oak tree suddenly vanishes. In its place stands a grinning young woman with green skin and brown hair.
"Nice glitter. See you later."
She vanishes.
When the green skinned woman appears, then disappears, the blood drains from Tragershen's face. "crap" the normally eloquent elf mutters.
As Talathel begins to move, he calls to the trio near him.
"Move with me! We must focus our efforts or fall!"
Hwk! Anzath takes a rapier to the gut. A burning pain eminates from the wound as a warm trickle of blood flows down her abdomen. She grimaces from the pain, and uses that to focus her anger. Someone’s gonna pay.