Bree finds a good blind in which to wait for the patrol.
Lily gathers her disguise and prepares herself for the ambush. She waits along side the road and pretends to be a "victim" of a human attack.
Cedric is impressed by how well the others have set up a game plan for this ambush, and worries that the best he can hope for is to try not to get in the way and give up the plan too early.
Thorek lays out the bear traps along the gully. Once their iron teeth are pried open and set, Boudra then covers the traps with a camouflage of leafy branches to disguise them.
However, when it comes to disguise, there is little hope of competing with Lily, who once again weaves a nigh impenetrable illusion around herself.
With the preparations made, the rest of the party sits in hiding among the trees, bushes, hanging roots, and other natural concealment lining the shallow pass. Unfortunately, you find that hours pass with nothing larger than a ringhorn ibex approaching the ambush point. The animal notices the dulled shine of Cedric's armor and flees before it can stumble into the bear traps.
Near dusk, just as you're about to give up and retire to Hidden Hope, you hear the groaning grind of wheels coming down the trail. Lily renews her magical disguise and the rest of you slip back into hiding to await this approach. In short order, a heavily laden supply wagon rumbles into view. A pair of underfed draft horses pull the wagon along, chafing against the heavy yokes around their necks.
Two heavily armored Ironfang troopers ride upon the wagon itself, while a quartet of hobgoblin recruits follow behind on foot.
Watching tensely to see how Lily's deception plays out, Thorek keeps his breathing deep and even with dorn-dergar carefully coiled to prevent the chains from rattling.
Bree's eyes had kind of adjusted to the foliage after being out there all day. Fortunately, it allowed her to just make out the last member of the caravan. Marveling at the convenience of a sign-language, she quickly alerted (whoever she can) to his presence!
Lily just lays there quietly. Hoping that her friends will protect her once the ruse is discovered.
Cedric can't see anything else, but makes note of the signed warning. He tightens his grip on the spear and readies himself for things to start happening quickly, invoking a mental prayer to Erastil for guidance and success on this mission.
One of the heavy troopers atop the wagon yanks on the reins, forcing the horses to come to a halt. The other one barks orders to the grunts, who circle out from behind the wagon.
One of the grunts edges towards Lily, disguised as a hobgoblin upon the trail.
He lowers the haft of his spear, about to gingerly poke the body with the butt of the weapon.
As much as she hates to ruin a good ambush, it looks like the bugbear is about to find Cedric. Bree sends an arrow to start the melee.
Bree's arrow sails out from among the underbrush, whistling above the Ironfangs' heads, and sinks into the bugbear's stomach. The burly, goblinoid hunter howls in pain before raising his own bow to return fire.
The foe's arrow only thunks against a stout tree trunk near Bree, however.
Thorek rises from his hiding place and advances, dorn-dergar swinging in his hands.
After what happened last time they ambushed Ironfangs, and with the surprisingly close bugbear practically breathing down his neck, this time Cedric starts things off with a defensive buff to himself instead of the offensive buff he used last time. Thankful to Bree for alerting him to the danger, he invokes a quick prayer to Ol' Deadeye for protection, feels his skin begin to thicken and roughen, and then gets ready to threaten as many enemies as he can with the reach of his spear.
"You know that could have gone better," she says while blinking out of sight of everyone.
Cyrioul's magic causes Grease to seep forth from the pebbly forest trail, causing one of the Ironfang recruits to slip and fall upon his rear.
Boudra looses her crossbow bolt, but the shot whizzes past the bugbear bearing down on Cedric.
Now that Cedric at least knows the bugbear is there, Bree focuses on the closer foes. She fires at the one near Lily (purple).
Bree's arrow pierces the recruit's thick leather armor, burying deeply in its side.
Lily gets up without fear of reprisal and focuses her attention at the closest one.
Lily's arrow also plunges into the hapless recruit, leaving him bloodied and gasping for breath. His hold upon his spear becomes nearly a death grip. He steps forward and thrusts the weapon towards Lily, but she manages to evade the attack.
The recruit in the grease stands up and carefully edges towards Thorek, keeping his spear leveled and ready. The heavy trooper at the rear jumps down from his seat and skirts the melee unfolding in the gully. He trudges up the slope into the copse of tree, marching towards Cedric.
Displaying a new trick, Cyrioul steps towards Bree and touches her arm, giving her a mote of prescience.
The hulking bugbear raises his thick longbow again and takes aim at Cedric from point blank range, hoping to keep out of reach of his enemy's spear.
The arrow plunges between a gap in Cedric's armor but leaves him with only a flesh wound, albeit a bloody painful one.
Cedric grimaces at the arrow, and doesn't want to let the bugbear keep peppering him. He tromps his way closer to the foe, also bringing him into closer tactical positioning with Thorek. Then he thrusts forward with his spear. He considers growing in size, which he's come to think of as his signature move, but thinks that might be better to avoid until there are less of them to target him at once.
Invoking the blessings of Angradd to strengthen him, Thorek launches a clumsy swing as a stone tunrs underfoot. Cursing floridly in Dwarven the warpriest sidesteps toward the wagon, gathering himself to lash at any pursuers.
[dice=Damage]1d10+4+3[dice]
Cedric's spear skewers the bugbear in its broad belly. The hunter is gasping for breath, clearly on death's door.
One of the heavy troopers charges at Thorek, clearly not expecting the battle-aware dwarf to turn and whip around his chain weapon, nearly cracking the trooper's jaw with the head of his dorn-dergar. This painful blow does not turn aside the Ironfang's scimitar, however, which nearly manages to clip the dwarf's throat. Although not a dire wound, it is still painful and draws blood.
Boudra steps to the edge of the ridge overlooking the trail, and she invokes a spell calling a Bane upon the foes' strikes. All four of the Ironfang recruits fall prey to her magic, tampering with the aim of their spears.
Already proving provident, two of the recruits rush forward and jab their spears at Lily, but she handily evades their attacks.
Likewise, Thorek's attack fails to land upon the armored hobgoblin before him.
Bree pulls out a thunderstone and throws it just behind the 3 troopers menacing Lily.
(just behind the pink, vs AC5, 10' radius, should hit blue, pink and yellow, DC15 fort or be deafened)
Lily steps back and carefully lines up a shot at one of her attackers less hitting her attacker and more scratching them.
Lily's feint works, and her target is unable to avoid the arrow that soon strikes him, permanently ending his service to the Legion.
The crack and report of Bree's thunderstone echoes through the forest, but the two recruits standing near its impact seem to have been sparred its full, deafening toll.
One of the recruits slides up behind the cover afforded by his heavy trooper officer, protecting him from an opportunistic swing of Thorek's chain weapon, and stabs at the armored dwarf with his spear - it is a futile effort.
The other heavy trooper interposes himself between Cedric and the wounded bugbear, suffering an opportunistic spear wound for his trouble. Unfortunately for the Ironfang officer, his own scimitar attack is deflected by the cleric's spear haft.
Cyrioul steps forward to the edge of the rocks and shouts "Chwistrell! at the closest hobgoblin, sending a shower of light and sparks at the creature, hoping to lay it low.
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Cedric sees the rough shape that the bugbear is in, and wants to put it down. But he also doesn't want to ignore the more active threat right in front of him. It's a tough question of priorities for a moment, then he remembers that he prepared a sound burst for this encounter and this is the perfect time to use it. He steps back and invokes the power of Erastil to bombard both of his foes with intense sound.
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rounds
rounds
Cyrioul's magic utterly overwhelms the recruit below him, and the Ironfang grunt falls to the ground, deep in the grasp of stunned unconsciousness.
The bugbear tries to slink away, taking cover behind his armored comrade. However, Cedric's spell overwhelms him and the pain caused by the pounding sound in his head and the pressure of the burst upon his weakening muscles plunges him into unconsciousness - leaving him bleeding out upon the moss-covered hillock. The spell also injures the heavy trooper, but he remains in fighting shape.
The heavy trooper standing toe-to-toe with Thorek realizes how futile it is to keep chipping away at his sturdy armor with his scimitar. Setting his eyes upon the spellcasters on the hill, he withdraws from the dwarf and skirts around the magic Grease on the ground. He draws a flask of alchemist's fire, getting ready to hurl the combustible oil.
Boudra winches back the string on her crossbow and loads another bolt, but her shot goes over the head of the recruit below.
Finding himself outnumbered and under fire, the recruit turns to flee - but he runs right into the Grease and falls to the ground at the feet of his armored officer.
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Bree tries to take the big guy down before he can make his attack.
"You'll not escape me that easily!" Thorek grits his teeth and ignores the wound along the side of his neck and sends his dorn-dergar crashing right between the eyes of the nearest hobgoblin. With a satisfied grin the warpriest pursues the heavy trooper around the wagon.
Thorek's latest swing of his dorn-dergar crumples the recruit's helmet and crushes the skull beneath, dropping the hobgoblin to the ground.
Bree's arrow lands near the trooper's armpit, piercing a point where his armor is thin. The trooper is badly wounded but still in fighting shape.
Lily winces at Thorek's wounds as she fires an arrow into the heavy trooper.
Still stunned and deafened by Cedric's spell, the heavy trooper on the sharp knoll never even hears the twang of Lily's bowstring. The arrow lands beneath the rim his breastplate, landing in the small of his back. This wound is finally too much for the trooper, and he topples, rolling back down the slope towards the wagon.
Cedric, now all alone on the ridge, wishes he had another sound burst prepared. It's a bit awkward with him being up here and all of the enemies being down below. He takes a deep breath, steps up and over the edge and flails his arm and his spear to try to keep himself from going heads over tails all the way down.
Upon reaching the bottom, he dusts himself off and then starts breathing again once he realizes he was holding his breath. He grows in size and then thrusts his spear at the hobgoblin with the alchemist's fire, intending to put it down with prejudice before it can set his friends on fire. It goes a lot better in his head, though.
Cyrioul whips out the wand he keeps at his belt, and fires off a bolt of force at the hobgoblin with the alchemist's fire!
As he slides down the incline, Cedric's aim is off kilter, and his enlarged spear fails to strike the heavy trooper. The bolt of magical force from Cyrioul's wand is unerring and strikes the armored foe, but it does not lay him low.
The heavy trooper takes a step forward and tosses the flask of alchemist's fire, just barely strike against Cyrioul's foot. The flames are feeble, though, and only cause minor burns to him and Bree.
As the last moving recruit struggles to stand among the Grease, opportunistic attacks from Cedric and Thorek immediately return him, unconscious, to the ground.
Cringing from the flames, Bree looses another arrow at the menacing hobgoblin.
Advancing on the surviving Irongfangs around the grease, Thorek releases the dorn-dergar with one hand and draws a throwing axe with the other, loosing it at the less heavily armored hobgoblin.
Cedric shrinks back down to his regular size, feeling more than a little embarrassed by the last showing. Resolved to be more stable this time, the tip of his tongue pokes out in concentration as he edges closer to the last remaining conscious hobgoblin and thrusts with his spear, aiming for the center of mass and not trying to do anything too fancy.
Perforated by Bree's arrow and Cedric's spear, the last Ironfang standing is brought down. Most of the convoy lies dead, although there is one unharmed recruit still in the depths of magic slumber.
The supply wagon is filled to bursting with enough dried meat, ale, and fruit to feed Hidden Hope for days, if not weeks. There are also two mail shirts of skilled dwarven make, likely plundered by the Legion, long lengths of silken rope, a cache of bandages and medicines, and a crate containing several more flasks of alchemist's fire. Furthermore, beneath the wagon's seat, you find an oaken lockbox that rattles heavily, likely containing the payroll destined for the Ironfang camp.
Wagon:
40 Provision Points of supplies
2 MWK Chain Shirts
300 Feet of Silk Rope
1 Healer's Kit
10 bottles of Alchemist's Fire.
Ironfang soldiers:
48gp
16 Provision Points of trail rations
4 Potions of Cure Light Wounds
2 Potions of Endure Elements
3 flasks of Alchemist's Fire
2 vials of Antiplague
2 vials of Antitoxen
2 Scentcloaks
2 MWK Breastplates
2 MWK Bucklers
2 Daggers
2 MWK Cold Iron Scimitars
2 MWK Light Crossbows
40 Bolts
6 Backpacks
6 Bedrolls
2 Compasses
2 Crowbars
2 Sets of Manacles
2 Signal Whistles
2 Small Tents
4 Spears
4 Longswords
4 Longbows
80 Arrows
4 suits of Studded Leather Armor
4 Small Steel Shields
The two horses yoked to the wagon are malnourished and exhausted, almost too tired to be frightened of the chaos that just unfolded around them.
Thorek consigns the slumbering hobgoblin to the Boneyard and lets out an impressed whistle at the haul. Then he disarms and gathers up his bear traps.
Bree is too busy checking out what the hobs were carrying to notice Thorek finishing off the sleeping one. "We could have interrogated him, Thorek," she says with a sigh.
Still, all things considered, this was a successful raid. She was glad these things would never make it to the hobs camp. "Quite the haul. Well done, everyone. Let's get this stuff back to base."
"Sooner or later we're going to have to attack that base," Lily says while dusting off her outfit.
"Sooner than later. I don't know what they've been up to in the last few weeks but I'm sure it bodes ill for Hidden Hope and other decent folk around here."
Cyrioul does his best to quench the fire as quickly as possible before standing to help the others gather up the materials. That's quite the supply wagon! They'll be missing that almost instantly. We're going to have to cover our tracks really well - can we even lead the horses and wagon back to Hidden Hope? he asks, still wincing at his singes.
I suppose it's just as much trouble to have everyone from the hideout come out here to help us carry it back... I have a spell that will let me carry a few hundred pounds of gear, and can cast it a couple times, but those provisions are simply too big for anything but the wagon.
He thinks for a moment. Here's a radical thought - we torch the provisions, and walk off with everything else of value. Thus far, we've been able to supply ourselves, and come up with a stable food supply for all the people by making sure everyone is pitching in. This would be a good backup supply for us, but if we should ever have to leave Hidden Hope, it would be too much for us to carry ourselves.
If it burns, then the Legion doesn't get it, either, but maybe they won't be able to follow us back home. He throws his hands up. Just a radical thought - I don't want to waste good food more than anyone else. Also, I can cast a spell to help us carry a few hundred pounds of gear, if needed - I think it could help us get back to the hideout.
Cedric looks horrified at the idea of simply torching the provisions. On the other hand, he's also horrified at the clarity of a trail trying to bring horses and a cart back to their hideout might create. Neither one is a good option. He tries to wrack his brain for a third alternative.
He can't come up with one.
"I think it's probably worth the risk to bring the whole cart and its load back with us. We can do our best to disguise the trail and hope that there's enough time between when this group goes missing and when they search for it that the elements help us in that regard.
"Furthermore, if we resolve ourselves to attack the camp immediately, say tomorrow or the next day, they may be preoccupied by that enough fora missing caravan might be lower priority for just long enough that the trail gets hidden by time as well. Also in our favor, the camp may be less well defended without this group and will surely be more heavily defended the longer we wait once they notice this caravan has been taken." He takes a deep breath.
"It's a much larger risk than we've taken thus far, but we can't afford to be timid. If we don't start making big moves, they'll be simply able to search until they find us and they have the overall advantage in numbers."