You spend another day sticking close to the river, heading upstream towards the mountains. By evening the next day, you hear the cawing of birds ahead over the sounds of the water. You figure there may be hundreds of them if not thousands.
"We should stay firm. If it appears to be beyond what we can handle, then we can skirt around the area. Otherwise, we should try to deal with it, as it is our civic duty to remove public menaces..."
Manus moves slightly closer to get a better view, but stays within the forested cover. A large clearing in the forest, apparently damaged by fire during the goblinblood war lies littered with remains, mostly likely dating back to a battle in that war. Some of the bodies (likely goblins based on the size) are fresher, along with some large animal carcasses. Hundreds of surprisingly large crows feast on the remains.
perception dc15:
Although not much is left of the goblins, you spot traces of purple goo on several of the corpses.
planes dc12:
These crows are tainted by demon bile consumed from the goblin corpses, and are now fiendish.
Manus gets a good look ahead, and sees Galahad striding forward. Crowes leer at you from every direction. Rocks on every nearby hilltop and branches of every tree seem to house more or the black birds. Your ears are filled by the sounds of cawing in every direction as Galahad heads towards a group of the birds on the ground feasting on the body of a dead goblin.
Map is updated. Birds on trees are 15+ feet up in the air, and the two cliff faces you can see are 15' of climbing to ascend them. If you choose to engage, you all can have a surprise round before initiative. Have fun. :)
Galahad charges into the larger birds Big enough for weapons that feed on the dead goblin, cutting into one and leaving it dead. Around you, dozens upon dozens of birds take to the air, taunting Galahad with their caws and swirling about menacingly. The birds closest to the goblin, not wanting to give up on their meal, instead ready to swarm about Galahad, obviously more aggressive and bloodthirsty than normal birds.
You may all still take surprise round actions, you are only fighting 6, now 5 birds, as the others swarm high in the air.
Bani manages to injure another of the Ravens as they prepare to fight back and protect their meal. The fact they haven't fled after such actions is very strange.
Initiative (bold may go)
ROUND 1
Bjorn
Tanin
Galahad
Bani
Manus
Helios
Ravens (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue (1 dmg))
Note, I gave Helios the tie, to group all the player easier.
AC 22/T12FF21 HP 17/58 F+8 R+4 W+5 Init +5 Perception +10
Fighter 6
Taking a step in the correct position he is last, so I guess some may be dead before his turn Helios hammers the closest raven.Attack:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 201d12 + 12 ⇒ (7) + 12 = 19
Searching the goblin, you find that it's studded leather armor is of very good quality (masterwork) and it's composite longbow has strong pull (+1 str). Both of these items and the broken horse chopper he carries are all sized for goblins (small).
Finding your way back to the river, you once again pick up the trail of the goblins. [ooc Take 10 is enough up this way.[/ooc] Your trek continues uphill, and the forest begins to thin out more as you find yourselves in the foothills. You can smell traces of smoke of fires burning somewhere beyond the tree line, and you think you can make out what sounds like voices, although the actual words don't carry this far into the forest. You believe you have no more than about 50 feet of tree cover before things open up ahead, with sheer stone wall of a mountainside not far beyond that.
As you approach the forest edge, a volley of arrows comes out of nowhere, raining from within the trees. Two arrows strike Galahad, but are unable to penetrate his thick armor, and go scattering off into the underbrush. A pair of arrows also strike at Helios, and although one fails to penetrate through his armor, the other catches him squarely and sinks into his shoulder. A final arrow strikes Tannen, but his armor holds as well.
Before you are able to react to the arrows, a shout of "Kill the longshanks! Bash them! Stab them! Bleed them dry!" echos through the forest as several goblins come crashing through the underbrush slashing with dogslicers. Two strike at Galahad, but he is easily able to fend off their attacks. One goblin pops up from the underbrush, slicing Bjorn across the thigh as it rises to fight the large man. Two more pop up and attack Helios. He fends one off, as a second gets a solid hit on him, taking advantage of his injured shoulder.
Conditions
All ground with trees is difficult terrain due to underbrush
20% cover on all ranged attacks
Tree trunks on maps are impassible and block line of sight
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
