Ready ranged weapons! Concentrate your fire, follow the first mark!
Thallan prepares his new longbow.
Lorkan maneuvers to be close enough to Thallan, and provides Thallan with a touch of divine Guidance as he watches on.
Lacking a significant long range weapon, Uther stands next to a horse, somewhat concealed, and readies his greatsword. If he sees an opportunity to move to attack, he plans to take it.
initiative:
(put Uther on the map; did not see a way for me to save it? Not that familiar with Google Docs so let me know if I am doing something wrong)
Once again, in hopes of avoiding the rain of fire arrows, Shandor focuses his concentration and calls out an arcane command word. “Vaspar,” he says while holding his hands out in a fan like embrace. As the old wizards words trail off, a twenty foot wide and twenty foot high vaporous cloud engulfs the lead wagon.
Recap of the Story So Far
The party had been recruited to escort a caravan through hostile territory straight from a night in a common bar in Greatwall. Not overly experienced adventurers, maybe novices, they were given a good payment to escort what was a crucial caravan to a series of military outposts. After fighting off an orc ambush, they realized they were attacked after the orcs had hit an earlier caravan killing a man resembling Jasmalus, one of the three leaders of the caravan. Making a fort under siege and delivering crucial supplies, Jasper and Jasmalus had disappeared for a time. Jasper, the scoundrel and native of Greatwall, informed you two distinguished companies were escorting two earlier caravans. He mused that you might be decoys. Now, short of the second crucial destination, the caravan is ambushed again.
The orcs fire a volley of fire arrows.
One arrow strikes the forward wagon and two the second wagon. The wagons quickly begin to burn as all three arrows ignite quickly.
ORDER OF ACTION
Gilbert
Thallan
Lorkan
Uther
Emerald and Jasper
ORCS AND OROG
Shandor
Teamsters
Gilbert
Thallan
Lorkan
Uther
Lorkan frowns at the sound of the arrows. "Perhaps it's time I invest in some longer ranged weapons." He stays close to Thallan, ready to supply him more divine guidance from Sarenrae.
However, upon seeing the flames ignite, Lorkan instinctively calls forth water to help douse the fire.
Gilbert moves forward . He'll get there in three rounds.
Uther hoists his sword and runs forward following Gilbert.
At 'em, lads! They won't be so happy when we're in on them!
Thallan targets an archer.
A well placed arrow takes an orc in the throat and down. The other three concentrate fire on Thallan.
With the help of the caravan masters, the teamsters, and especially Lorkan, the fire is barely under control. Thalan takes a single fire arrow, and his clothes smolder a bit as it barely misses a vital area. The orog fires a large crossbow at Thallan, missing badly, and he quickly reloads.
ORDER OF ACTION
Shandor mist???(Stated action)
Teamsters
Gilbert
Thallan
Lorkan
Uther
Emerald and Jasper
ORCS AND OROG
Uther continues to run forward (faster this time as I remember run is 4x speed)
Seeing the wagon set ablaze so close to his position, Shandor begins to put out the fire.
"These blasted orcs seem to have a disposition for fire that is worse then any goblin I have ever known!"
I can't take much more of that!
Gilbert moves south sixty feet.
The fire and the volley fire split the cleric's attention, and he frowns as he ponders which to respond to first. The call of Sarenrae wins out, and Lorkan reaches out and touches Thallan, causing a wave of healing energy to wash over the paladin.
Lorkan heals the holy warrior as the fighters advance.
Emerald shouts out:"Pit trap on the rise!!"
The ambush averted, four orcs leap out of a pit dug in the road with long tubes they must have been breathing with.
The front two have halberds, the rear ones glaives.
As Thalan is healed, the orcs fire and he has some cover, but a single arrow hits him again and he falls at the cleric's feet.
The orog fires a crossbow at Gilbert and it hits and sinks deeply.
Emerald, Malik, and Jasmalus put out the fire as Jasper sprints to your aid. Jasper huffs as he pulls up to Gilbert.
"Should we head back to the wagons? There are more of them greens."
ORDER OF ACTION
Shandor
Teamsters
Gilbert
Thallan
Lorkan
Uther
Emerald and Jasper
ORCS AND OROG
"For Sarenrae's sake! Stop doing that Thallan!" The cleric looks at the poor fallen paladin, and draws forth more healing energy from his quickly depleting divine reservoir to try to pull his comrade back to the conscious.
Wishing to provide some concealment for the rest of the group to approach, Shandor moves up and reinstates his command over the environment. Issuing the arcane command, "Vaspar!" Shandor summons forth a large cloud of mist in front of the caravan.
"Lorkan! Those boys on the front line are going to need your healing skill, right quickly! I will try and place another cloud, which should give you some concealment a portion of the way there!"
Gilbert charges the nearest orc with his temple sword.
Uther charges the orc next to Gilbert!
attack to hit; damage of
AC 15 until Uther acts again due to charge.
Gilbert and Uther deliver what seem to be deathblows. But the orcs seemed poised to deliver an attack before they fall unconscious!!!
Thallan looked bad, but never went down... What choice do I have?
The question surprised Lorkan. The cleric of Sarenrae stays by Thallan's side for moment, and wonders. Thus causing him to give himself a headache.
Thallan targets an archer, not in melee.
Jasper throws a dagger and misses the orc and runs up to Uther's side as he falls stricken twice with polearms. Seeing the orcs with glaives strike and move back to higher ground with reach, Jasper shouts: "A little help here, we got casualties."
From Jasmalus' wagon two magic bolts strike an orc with a glaive and he drops to the ground bleeding:
The archers respond and target the wagons with another volley.
One fire arrow strikes the lead wagon and begins to burn again. The orog pulls out what appears to be an axe on a pole and begins to stalk down the hill.
Another group of four orcs rushes from behind the hill and closes on the rear wagon!!! Emerald shouts a warning: "We got this!!"
Ivan and Shandor prepare to deal with the new threat.
ORDER
Party and caravan
orcs and orog
On hearing the sad news, Lorkan begins his lumbering trek up the road and into the billowing fog. He makes steady progress right up and past the elder wizard, nearly running the old man over in his haste.
Hearing the commotion from behind, Shandor diverts his attention to the wagons and begins moving in that direction. After reaching the edge of the obscuring mist, he observes the new arrivals to the combat. Focused on the closest orc he invokes an arcane word of power. "Mordock," He says while holding his hand out and pointing at the on coming orc. Without delay, a light blue bolt of energy flies out of his hand, striking the closest orc.
From next to Ivan, Laro speaks up, "Boy you guys sure know how to attract trouble. I thought this was going to be a nice quiet ride out of the fort but man you got me into it big time. Last time I follow a pretty girl." He then ducks under the wagon to the other side.
Gilbert moves up to the orc, avoiding the pit, and makes his attack.
Uther lies there and bleeds a bit.
-2 of 13 hp.
Ivan barrels towards the closest orc. (Youd think he'd learn.)
Shouting. YE BLOODY GREEN TURD, LET ME AXE AVE O TASTE O YE UGLY ARSE FACE! I GOT ME SOME PAYBACK WAITIN' FOR LAST TIME.
Uther was hit twice; AC was down to 15 due to the charge, so he took 15 points of damage. But he has a while before he bleeds out. His con is 14.
Shandor's mist has been highly effective. Only one of three arrows hit the wagons from blind targeting. Though the higher ground has aided the orcs.
Gilbert closes to the last of the four orcs with a glaive. He tries to dodge the glaive with timely acrobatics.
Gilbert barely avoids the reach weapon and strikes the orc down.
The orog stands up on the hill and swings his massive pole axe at Gilbert without moving. The massive axe has about 20' reach!!!
The orog bellows as he swings a massive blow at the dodging Gilbert. Jasper decides to take the left side of the road away from the massive monster.
Three fire arrows miss Lorkan as he runs to engage and the massive axe swings over Gilberts head. The force behind the blow was massive. Three of the four orcs attacking the rear wagon fall asleep from a spell. Two force bolts hit the remaining one and he barely keeps his feet.!
Ivan has dropped back to help and finds himself confronting an already injured orc and three sleeping.
ORDER
PARTY
Jasper
Orcs and orog
RECAP
Ambushed by what the party knows now is three small forces of orcs, one led by and orog, the party rushes to engage the archers. Confronting four more in a pit and four coming from behind, the party concentrates on the forward orcs while magic is taking out the rear orcs. The mage Jasmalus may be responsible for this, his travel journal looking much like a spell book in Shandor's opinion.
The ambush appeared just as the party dropped into a valley between two hills. The caravan fights fire while the party takes their guarding duties seriously.
One of their number has fallen, but the others fight on. Gilbert is confronting an orog, a orc ogre hybrid with an axe the size of two men!!
After watching most of the orcs fall victim to the sleep spell, Shandor pulls out his crossbow and moves to the opposite edge of the mist.
Fight smart!
Gilbert approaches the Orog.
The arrows cause Lorkan to flinch instinctively. "Sweet Sarenrae of the Dawn. Please protect me." The cleric chants as he continues running toward his fallen comrade.
Laro runs along the wagons to the edge of the mist where he can see out but can't be seen.
Uther continues to bleed (@ Lorkan - no worries, have many rounds left)
-3/13 hp
Thallan rushes inside the lethal axe and dodges a nasty blow!!
Then Thallan and Gilbert miss after Gilbert rushes in. Jasper races quickly to the orog's blind spot.
A huge swat of the orog leaves Jasper's ribs cracked and he screams.
Three fire arrows arch toward the lit wagon. One strikes true, and all three crews rush to put it out.
Ivan dodges a two handed swing with a hand and a half sword@!
Party is up in any order
Shandor moves five foot to the edge of the mist and loads a crossbow bolt into his light crossbow. he takes aim aim, then fires the bolt directly at the orag.
Finally, Lorkan reaches his destination. He stops past the fallen body, making sure he's between the comrade and the enemy fire. Once there, he takes a glance at Uther's breathing, and sighs in relief that the man is not yet dead.