Kimberly tries to see if the spearmen near the carriage are closing, Once they look close together she yells out to them STOP!
and the word echos out creating a reverberating sound burst rattling the spearmen to the very bone.
The one of the spearman looks startled by the voice but not really discomforted.
AoO 1
AoO 2
Centered where it will not hit Anna or Danica.
Tolvans blast incinerates the men where they stand.
The spear men threatening the carriage run... moving away from the vehicle as fast as they can and into the woods and brush along the side of the road.
Oathar and Danica up.
Oathar uses his extra move from haste to move to help Anna flank the other spearman. He power attacks
And kills him.
Dancia left with one crossbowman holding a sword.
Danica deals two unarmed blows on the swordsman.
"Do you yield or would you prefer death?"
If there are still spearmen threatening Kimberly, Tolvan will target them with Magic Missiles next round, casting defensively if need be. The configuration of the coach and benig inside might provide partial cover from those outside, which I believe means the enemy would not get AOOs.
The remaining man cannot respond he is pummelled unconcious.
The spearmen who were threatening you (they used their action specifically to do that) ran away already after you fireballed the road ahead. They used their AoOs on Kimberly.
End Combat...
You have one live, very much unconcious prisoner, the trees and bushes on one side of the road near Anna, Oathar and Dancia are on fire and your coachman is nursing a bolt to the shoulder, slumping slightly in pain.
All in all a good warm up for the group.
I wanted a simpler fight so no maps this time - next time you'll have maps.
Oathar will pull out the bolt and lay on hands on the coachman.
Anna walks back to the carriage, tut-tutting at the highwaymen. Then she remembers Giovanni, and goes to help him down and brings him around the coach to Kimberly. Next time, duck, she says in an effort to make the situation light.
Giovanni responds well to the healing touch of Oathar and you are able continue on without issue.
On the trail of the Whispering Way, you continue your journey to Ascanor Lodge, deep in the heart of the Shudderwood. Leaving behind the Dippelmere Swamp and Vieland, the PCs cross the Troll’s Tail River into the neighboring Palatinate of Lozeri. Ahead, a dark shadow rises on the horizon, which soon grows into a massive forest of towering conifers known as the Shudderwood.
Standing at the edge of the Shudderwood is almost like staring into another world. Ominous, towering pine trees blot out the sunlight, allowing only occasional splinters of light to pierce through. Within this dimness, broken branches and occasional shrubs growing up through fallen trees create shadowy illusions both wondrous and haunting. Apart from pallid lichens, colorful fungi, feathermoss, and wintergreen, little else grows in the forest. The Shudderwood possesses an eerie stillness only occasionally lifted by the sounds of passing birds and small animals scurrying across the dry pine needles littering the forest floor.
This way is known as 'The Silent Way' M'lady, Giovanni says. It's an ancient and rarely used hunting trail that is one of the most direct and covert routes through the Shudderwood. Marked in places with strange bone fetishes, the trail runs several hundred miles through the forest, crossing both the Beustral and the Calscroix rivers, before passing Ascanor Lodge, and finally ending at the town of Chastel on the far side of the Shudderwood. His manner is grim and a little shaken.
Many an unsavory story about this place M'lady but... with your friends along? I think we can make it.
Oathar will stay alert to any dangers on the road keeping his sword drawn and next to him.
What are the rest of you doing in the long boring and some times bumpy wagon ride?
Tolvan will ride in the carriage with Anna and Kimberly, choosing a seat to allow the best view possible of the road ahead. He will study the flora and fauna during the initial part of the ride. If the road is not too bumpy he may try to scribe a scroll to pass the time.
Danica will ride up on top if possible, if there is enough room. Her high perception will make her a good scout for the time being. She will dismount during time of uncertainty, to move ahead to scout the area to determine if the road has been travelled recently. She has the high Perception and fairly high Survival skills. Try to use that to our advantage.
The start of each day Danica will have Tolvan cast Mage Armor on her using one of the Pearls of Power. I believe off of Tolvan previous posts we can have Mage Armor active on her for almost the entire day. Going forward we will be using this tactic at start of day.
I believe this is multi-day travel so Danica will take the watch prior to Dawn. Taking advantage of her Darkvision trait. During dawn, she will take the time to witness the rising of the sun; typical practice of whorshippers of the Dawnflower (Sarenrea).
Others, please offer anything that Danica can assist with.
Kimberly ends up falling asleep during the ride.
The ride through the woods is spooky. Stops are frequent to manuever the carriage over some particularly bad sections where the road, such as it is, becomes no more than rutts in the ground left by other wagons.
Sunlight through the woods is patchy and you journey through a verdant gloom.
Anna, looking through the window, angling through the window on search of direct sunlight is startled to find that you are being watched from the under boughs near the top of one tree by some weird fanged aberrant creature that clicks and whistles as it disappears into the canopy.
At that point others notice the trees rustle unnaturally near the road ahead, as if throngs were leaving the trees ahead and moving away from your carriage.
Anna identifies the creature as an Ettercap.
Guys, bring us to a stop, Anna says, dropping the pretense of being the lady. Watch the trees. We've got spider-kin watching us.
Oathar Detects evil on a 60' arc toward the front.
There is movement in the trees away from the road and the carriage.
The cause of this is out of range of Oathar.
Anna grabs up her large crossbow and pulls herself out of the carriage and onto its roof. She cranks it up while watching the spot of movement, but also mindful that threats could come from other directions.
Well, they know we're here, and they know we know about them, she mutters to herself and whoever might be close by.
Raising her voice so the ettercaps out in the woods can hear, she yells, Okay, we know you're there. If you want to talk, we'll hear what you have to say. If you want violence, know that we're well-armed, and can defend ourselves quite well. How about backing off and letting us pass?
Andjela would be proud, Anna thinks while she waits for a response.
There is silence for a long minute... then a scream. It it off in the direction the movement of the creatures left when they left.
Anna quickly counts heads, making sure everyone is accounted for.
Oathar draws his bow and aims in the direction of the scream.
Anna quickly counts heads, making sure everyone is accounted for.
[dice=Sense Motive?]1d20+9
It is possible someone is in trouble, or just as likely some sort of trap. I would suggest we be very wary.
Danica prepares her longbow. She then looks at Oathar and says, "Oathar, take the right upper section of the wagon, I'll take the left. Someone keep an eye out for our flank."
The wizard tries to spot the creature when Anna points it out and then considers the danger for a moment.
Kimberly woke up shortly after the initial announcement of the creature's presence.
We should stick together, i don't think its a good idea to split up.
she pulls out her dagger in case there is close by danger.
Anna stands up fully straight on the roof of the carriage, trusting in her reflexes to defend her should an arrow or something else come streaking out of the trees. Absolutely,[/i] she agrees with Kimberly. [b]We're not going to get baited into their territory. She gives a sidelong glance at Oathar, wondering if the valiant knight agrees with that.
She hefts the heavy crossbow up as she scans the trees, looking for signs of the ettercaps. We've fought spider-monsters before. And regular spiders. And a nasty promethean that spun webs, for that matter, she reassures Giovanni. She shrugs a bit, then speaks to Tolvan. We've really seen a lot, haven't we?
There is another scream, this time faint and gurgling, from a few hundred feet off in that direction.
Any movement seems to be away from the road now and not near you.
Can they imitate human voices Tolvan?
He will hold position next to Danica.
Ettercaps are spider ken and spiders love them. They are masters of setting traps and any path to them will certainly be trapped. They have good vision and see well in the dark. They climb as fast as they run and can spin a web like a spider. Their bite is poison and drains manual dexterity. But they are not generally brave and will run from a fight if they can. I suspect this is a trap and they are trying to lure us into a field of their traps, or something worse. But they are not known to mimic human voices that I know so they may indeed have hostages that the will harm. And even if they do not, we would be doing the world a favor to rid this forest of their presence. I say we should go after them, using appropriate caution.
Responding to Anna Tovan confirms and comforts Aye. we have dealt with much worse than Ettercaps and spiders, even in their own wood. Come. Let us walk with our eyes open into this den of spiders.