Bedlam will ready to toss his last Bomb at the remaining Footmen; unless they surrender.
Tragershen's centuries haven't slowed down his legs much--he quickly clears the meadow in pursuit of the horseman. His whip uncoils and, aided by his supernatural magic, he places it perfectly between the legs of the horse. It comes crashing down.
The knight attempts to fall with style:
...instead, he ends up in the dirt, prone and hurt.
Vael follows in Tragershen's wake, ending up adjacent to the wizard. Without a whip, she can't join in on his destruction of the knight--but she can be ready for next turn.
The footmen, realizing that they've lost, throw down their spears. As the pit spell ends its duration, the ones underneath burn away the webbing. They quickly assess the situation and join their comrades in surrender.
Aurora pants just looking at the distance between her and the knight who has just been sent sprawling from his steed. She glances sidelong at the fallen woman knight's horse. Still, she sucks in another deep breath and breaks into a jog across the field to close some of the distance.
Bedlam begins tying the prisoners.
Caught off guard by the mages use of a whip. Strange group. Moving to the other side of the knight before lashing out again with her scimitar.
Sir Manlius waits until his destrier has regained his hooves. With his horse discombobulated, he stands up and tries to leap onto the animal's back, cowboy style!
Somehow, despite his shield and lance, he manages to vault onto his steed. "What ho! I'm back in the saddle!"
Bedlam arrives to tie the prisoners only to find Ippolit expertly slamming them into their own manacles. He tosses Bedlam a couple sets, so in two rounds they'll have the prisoners secured. Private Jones hangs around awkwardly. The refugees are already cheering, even though combat hasn't quite ended yet.
Tragershen drops his club, and pulls a scroll from his pack; how fortune that the exact right parchment was right at the top when he reached over his shoulder! With a snap of his wrist, he unfurls and reads it. He knows it contents well; he scribed it himself. As he reads, he's disappointed in the power contained therein. Have I really progressed that much since then?
When he finishes the spell, he drops the slip of parchment and stretches out his hand. A gout of flame bursts out, though not nearly as intense as the one that engulfed the insect horde earlier.
Ready scroll, then cast it. Burning Hands, caster level 2. Getting the knight and his mount. Damage . DC 12 reflex save for half damage.
He waggles his whip at the knight and says "Try to flee again, and I will merely bring you down again."
Anzath stows Kritfisher and picks up a crossbow dropped by a slain soldier.
Aurora sucks in another deep breath as she charges across the final stretch, quarterstaff a-ready for a thrust at ManKnight.
Talathel runs up behind the knight, intent on returning him to the groun.
Violently.
As Aurora rushes the knight, he stabs at her with his lance:
Aurora's headlong charge leaves her juuuust vulnerable enough for him to sneak in his lancepoint. But Aurora clocks him, hard.
Vael darts forward and slashes the knight badly:
Talathel's attempt to trip the horse fails--the beast is just too big, and he doesn't have Tragershen's magical boost.
Bloody and dented, the knight bellows, "My family motto is 'never surrender!' But not 'never retreat!' I'll be back and I'll have my revenge!"
As he spurs his horse, Talathel's AOO trip attempt fails to sweep the quadruped to the ground.
3 damage
3 damage
The scorched, battered, and slashed knight slumps in his saddle, staggered by the damage he's taken. Instead of scooting 100 feet into the forest, he makes it 50 feet down the path.
Talathel refuses to give up either and runs down the staggered knight and horse.
The knight is on the ground, finally.
Bedlam and Ippolit have secured the remaining three footmen. The refugees quickly strip them of their arms and stand guard.
The remaining footmen are dead. Gelver is stable, as is the sheriff.
After a few moments, Sir Manlius will also be stable. Talathel may end him discreetly, if he wishes. He ain't no paladin.
And you've got a lot of people on your hands.
In sign language, she rapidly makes a set of gestures to her group. Liability alive. Kill? before gesturing to their new footmen prisoners.
Aurora will then take a moment to start gathering up the horses, if they have not already fled, or at least try to.
Bedlam also helps gathering the horses.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
In plain sight of the captive soldiers, and the paladin, Anzath cooley walks over to the helpless sheriff and tests out her new crossbow.
"I say ve pack up and leave for town now," she proclaims, "Take dem vid uz," she waggles her crossbow at the tied up soldiers, "and leave dem for de volvez." indicating the knights.
Her peace said she checks on Gelver.
Talathel stands over the knights for a moment.
With a neutral expression on his face, he signs.
"O strongly recommend that we eliminate them as a threat. I am willing to do it, but I would have others say their peace first."
He looks to his companions expectantly.
Bedlam takes his heavy pick to the next one.
The pragmatic dwarf then salvages her equipment.
Tragershen watches on, looking to see what the divinely motivate have to say.
"That appears to be a majority vote for eliminate."
Talathel eliminates the manknight with a strong thrust through his knightly neck.
“Kan ve go now?”
"I see no reason to remain here, so I imagine yes.", replies Talathel, deftly pulling his spear out of manknight.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Watching Talathel cut down the coward with a small and violent grin. And that grin widens at Anzath's display. Quietly standing and watching her new companions remove the remaining threats. Glancing at the little bird that takes her place on her shoulder. Moving her head to rub her cheek against the tiny avatar.
Flicking some of the blood of her blade and seeming to realize people are expecting her to complain. Even though she rushed out to the fight rather quickly. Taking a breath and making sure her voice carries to the scattered group, "The Dawnflower only ever demands I offer my foes a chance. Those fools had a chance and spat at it."
Offering a violent grin at Anzath, "I would have to follow a different and less entertaining Deity for that to have crawled under my skin."
Aurora offers a surprised look to the paladin of Sarenrae, but she isn’t complaining about Vael’s decision
”Are you sure we should take the footsoldiers with us? I don’t want them running back to Riddleport or spilling what happened and bringing more trouble upon us.”
Anzath offers Vael only a shrug. In answer to Aurora, “Dey surrendered, dey should at least get chance. Diz one stays vid me,” she concludes, pointing at Jones. She hasn’t forgotten he swore allegiance to her in the heat of things.
“I dink Gelver needz your help.”
Aurora nods and sighs. "Everyone injured, gather up," she calls as she picks her way over to the sad heap of maniac on the ground.
Bedlam grins.
Mayhaps, we be gitt'n dem to be our hires?
The dwarf nods his gratitude at Aurora.
Gelver opens his eyes, coughs, smiles, accepts a hand from Ippolit, who pulls him to his feet.
He snarls, snatches up his sword, and attacks the restrained footmen. "DEAD MEAT TRIED TO STEAL CHILD AND OLD GUYS!"
The soldier screams "URRRK DAMMIT YOU MANIAC!" But ol' Gelver missed the jugular.
You may stop Gelver if you'd like.
Bedlam frowns.
May be a bit tougher now.
The dwarf marches up to the crazier than normal human. Tapping on his shoulder, the dwarf points back to the Mouth.
You Be need'n ta go guard da Mouth til morning.
Tragershen grimaces when Gelvar goes after the guard, but does not interfere.
Gelver whirls on Bedlam, sword in hand... and lowers it. He goes and stands in the cave mouth, twitching and hollering echoes into the maw.
Bedlam then patches up the newly wounded footman.
The dwarf then leads the restrained footmen back into the camp. He places the directly in the center, only 10' from the fire pit.
Yous Be need'n ta pray ta yous God's, so dat we decide not to have ya lead our next expedition.
The dwarf grins.
He then gathers their people.
We Be resting and recovering fer da night. Sum of us may be venturing inta town, so ye be on guard duty.
The dwarf stares at each refugee.
You Be hav'n sum skills dat can help dis camp's security and survivability, so hop to it!
Anzath impatiently paces about while Bedlam takes control of the camp. She’s more than anxious to return back to town and unload the burden of refugees and prisoners of war on Bristleback.
Furthermore, although she made it through the battle unscathed, and Aurora’s channeling healed up her scrapes from the dungeon, she still has this nagging cough. She remembers to hand over the scroll she found in the monk’s quarters to Aurora.
Among all the commotion, she finds the boy child and checks on him, “You are ok, yez?”
Talathel turns to the others.
"That was a solid display of martial ability. I am glad of our individual and group competence. Any further healing, magical or mundae, would be appreciated."
He decides to cover the rear, in case of...difficulties.
"It is getting late, but we should get some distance between ourselves and this battle site. A few hours of movement, then we can find a spot for the night."
Aurora accepts the scroll from Anzath with a nod and a small 'thank you.'
"I'm not sure moving is wise while half of you look like you've caught a plague," she chides. "Or while our resources are so depleted."
Aurora accepts the scroll from Anzath with a nod and a small 'thank you.'
"I'm not sure moving is wise while half of you look like you've caught a plague," she chides. "Or while our resources are so depleted."
At the cleric's words, Tragershen looks around the tattered and beaten gathering.
"True enough. Then let us settle in. Tomorrow, we can get an early start."
In the aftermath, Tragershen will cast detect magic and detect poison on all of the possessions of the sheriff, knights and footmen. If anything comes up poisonous, he'll bring it to Anzath's attention. If it is magical, he'll try to identify its properties.
After that, if the sheriff or knights had any documents on them, Trag will go through those.
Then, sleep. He doesn't think twice about using his blanket for himself, despite the ragtag refugees present. He also wraps his pack with him in the blanket to minimize the chances of theft.
Talathel tries to optimise the impromptu camp site's defensibility, then begins a watch.
The army group you've defeated has precious little in the way of magic. You find two potions of Cure Moderate Wounds on the sheriff. That's it. They were woefully underequipped and undermagicked for this kind of mission.
You do get a whole kit of knightly weapons and armor. Three sets of mwk full plate. Three warhorses. Three mwk lances and swords. You get piles of equipment off the footmen and three warhorses. Further, you find their provisions wagon on the forest trail. Rations for weeks, tents, sundries, fodder, and a mule!
Bedlam supervises the supply carts. The dwarf will take a watch before laying down to sleep.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
After taking a moment to prepare the scrolls, Aurora immediately sets to work. First target: Bedlam. Perhaps she doesn't trust the dwarf to not spread the contagion to the uninfected, or perhaps--no, no, it's definitely just not trusting the dwarf to not spread the disease through carelessness.
When the dwarf's rash seems to have subsided, she moves on to Tragershen.
"The Church of Sarenrae truly have some talented scribes," she comments. She stretches her arms over her head and then to her sides, wrists rolling, before letting out a sigh. She wanders over to the horses to remove their tack for the night; assumably among the assorted equipment looted are the appropriate halters and lengths of rope or leash for tying the horses for the evening.
She even goes so far as to make kissy noises at the steeds while she works.
As the party settles down for the night, the nocturnal denizens of the forest awaken.
Anzath loses 4 hit points between 4 PM and 7 AM.
Talathel loses 5.