Round 3__________________
Players take their turn in order of posting, enemies will go last.
Voren glares at one of the tieflings as his eyes glow green. The enemy instantly falls asleep.
Jokum threaded his way through the webbing to engage the next tiefling soldier as Voren made one of the archers in the rear fall asleep.
Karthak is distracted as an arrow from below ricocheted off his armor.
Looking down, he sees that the first tiefling knocked off the trail has impacted among the soldiers eighty feet below. They are all looking up at you now.
At this point Danua has squirmed her way through the webbing and to the alcove where a staff has been thrust into the rock crevice; a half dozen ropes under tension are attached to it.
It's been weeks, let's bot her, cut the lines and get the attack underway.
Danua, now at the lever grabs hold and uses all her might to try and get it to break free...
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Danua struggled with the lever as more missiles flew up from the enemy company below you. But with Jokum's scrambling up to add his strength, she finally threw it forward.
With a series of small pops, the ropes suddenly went slack. There is a moment of tense silence, then the logs holding back the rubble groan, then suddenly topple away from the cliff as if in slow motion.
And then, with a shockingly loud roar, the rubble held back by the barrier collapsed and flowed down the cliff towards the valley floor.
The vibration and dust obscured your view of what happened next, but it seemed to you as if the cliff face overhead toppled forward, it's inexorable fall passing you by inches as it finally crashed to the plain below with a titanic crash!
At this point no one can see the results due to the cloud of dust shrouding the area.
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At this point every eye in both armies was gazing north to the cloud of dust.
Irabeth nudged Nurah, who started pounding the war drums.
By this prearranged signal, the Crusader decoy force marched forward in full panoply, magically lit and glittering as if in parade march. They moved forward to the riverbed in front of the old town, then stopped and milled around as if in confusion. Many gesticulated towards the dust cloud to the North.
"The stage is set, now let's see if the enemy has read my script. Either way, the battle has begun."
"Aye," Jokum growls, "And best we get back down there!" He starts making his way back toward the descent point.
Voren turns to Jokum. "Agree! I just need to occupy the enemies here!" He then uses his slumber hex again at the nearest non-stuck enemy.
Suddenly, a figure scuttled out of the wrecked town towards the milling decoy force. Than another. Than a handful came out all in a frenzy!
Not as many as you thought though.
With superb discipline, the decoy force fell back in milling disorder before the little figures.
With a collected shout and pounding of drums, two organized companies of tieflings surged out of the town after the decoy force as well.
It is at this time that Nurah gave the signal. A blare of trumpets calling charge! Company A and Company C charged (Company B held in reserve), swinging north and south in a loop to catch the enemy in the middle.
"Dretches," Jokum grunts, squinting down at the scrum. "Not too many, though...come on, let us to the slaughter!"
Voren really can't see down into the canyon. But, he hears Jokum say what's down there. He looks at the webs before deciding to run and join the others on the way to the battle. "It'll take me too long to try and put them all to sleep! Let's get moving!"
Arthas activates his Righteous Medal of Valor. At the beginning of battle he seeks to use his Calvary. Seeing the battle momentarily stall (second roll) he personally takes to the field risking himself to rally his troops.
"Rally! . . . Rally my bannersmen! Crush them, run them down, drive them out! They seek to stop us here, let us be the Hammer of Justice raining down blows of divine retribution upon these demonspawn!"
"I'll take your word for it, Jokum... I'm with you!" Says the swarf as he advances with Jokum...
Danua readies her bow and Whisper quips about her slow reactions as of late.
Up on the cliffside the cloud of dust and crushed rock swirls and settles a bit. It's still too thick to see down where all the rubble fell, but the heroes on the pathway can see down into the river valley.
Suddenly the horns of the army blared, and their attention shifted towards the thundering of hooves!
They have a birds eye view as the shining host of the Knights of Kenabres sweep forward in a glorious charge!
_______
Company A charged around the north side of the decoy force, then swerved south to crash into the surprised Tiefling Army Group North.
The execution was perfect, and screams howled through the air as the crusaders crashed into the infantry and utterly crushed them.
Any semblance of organization disintegrated, and all that was left were individuals easily ridden down with a thrust of a lance.
_______
Company C charged around the south side of the decoy force, then swerved north to crash into the Tiefling Army Group South.
But this Army, either more cautious or better led, hastily formed a square bristling with longspears, and when the charge struck it was bloodily repelled!
_______
The Decoy squad recoiled and fell upon the demons pursuing them. It is more of an even fight here, the mounted smites tangling with the demon's evil magics.
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When the charge stalled, the tiefling Army Group South counterattacked!
Company C DV: 18
But the cavalry swirled away to regroup, taking no casualties.
Up on the cliffside...
Dretch demons! Many many more than you thought there were; and the remaining tiefling army (Army Group Centre) seems to be hearding them towards the flanks of your cavalry!
"Let's take the fight to the dretchd coming from the ruined to town! With our strength we could strike a blow at the teifling company as well." Danua looked ready ti mix it up as the battle below appeared to be intensifying and soon...
Voren can barely see what's going on down below. However, he hears Danua's words and nods. "Right! We need to turn the tide of the battle! Let's go!" He moves with the others to get down to the ground.
Danua points out the new movements as the enemy is attempting a possible surprise attack on the scattered regiments of their forces. She points this out to their commander Artahs especially as her keen eyes detected the movement quickly.
"Let's engage them!" says Karthak to Danua's as she explains about the dretches' ambush.
Voren nods at Karthak's words. "We need to help!"
"Good eyes Danua! I had felt their presence, but hadn't located them. Let us smash their ambush!"
Jokum nods. "Let's go!" He leaps down the roadway toward the ropes to descend to the battlefield.
Voren follows Jokum, moving as fast as he can.
Danua, with bow drawn, follows after Voren. Notching an arrow in preparedness for the fight ahead! XD
Jokum, Voren, Danua and I presume Karthak run down the road to the ropes and slide down to where the command tent is and where Company 2 is saddled and ready to go.
At this moment, Company 1 and 3 are flanking the enemy Army Group South. You anticipate they will crush the enemy there with minimal difficulty.
Arthas, you know from reports that the enemy tiefling Central Battalion leading a bunch of Dretch demons that are maneuvering in the old town to come out into a flank attack against your Company 1 and 3. This is a fairly serious threat to them, especially if they attack when they're fully engaged with the South force.
What do you do?
Let's go with A.
"My bannersmen are back! We must carry the fight to the Dretches and Tieflings in the old town before they have a chance to form an organized attack. It will be a brutal fight, but otherwise they will flank both the first and second companies."
"Let's smash these vermin!"
Arthas leads his men with Radience held high blazing with holy presence and trailing divine brilliance.
When Company 2 charges into the fray, Voren runs in and joins them, prepared to cast hex and what spells left that he has. He focuses on putting enemies to sleep and healing injured allies. He also gets close to either Jokum or Arthas and uses enlarge person on them.
At Arthas' signal, Nurah sounded the horns.
Company B started walking all together, then smoothly raised the tempo to a trot, then as they passed Company A to their South rolled smoothly into a charge! With a roar they charged to the edge of the old town in an unstoppable wave!
At that point they perforce had to jostle and readjust to fit into the roadways and alleyways of the dead town, robbing them of some of their momentum. But despite all that, they managed to crash into a company full of Dretch demons, barely under control of another unit of tieflings.
Despite the broken terrain and demonic magics, the paladins Smite tore through the enemy demons like a hot knife through butter. In that one minute, the Dretch company ceased to exist entirely!
Company B's casualties, already remarkably light, were quickly cross healed by their fellows.
As the dust settled, Arthas and Company B found themselves face to face with the fresh Tiefling company that had been wrangling the demons.
Back on the plain, the Tiefling central command realized what would soon happen and tried to run back to the town. The crusader Company A to the north and Company C to the south together charged to completely destroy the Tieflings between them on the old riverbed. Despite their infantry square, not one escaped.
The tiefling Eastern command, shocked at the sudden appearance of the crusaders, quickly rallied to take advantage of the terrain and attacked! The crusaders were forced to dismount to defend themselves, and quickly found themselves in a real fight.
But the crusader lines held on and took no casualties in the desperate fight.
You who are riding with the scouts are in a group of about a dozen. You are out in the open, as the last quarter mile is grassy plain. Behind you down the trail is a series of low grassy hills which serve to conceal the rest of your army from visibility by the fort.
At this point you are about a hundred yards away from the ford. The sentries there are certainly aware of you.
Ahead of you you see the trail turn towards the Sellen river. There is a wide place in the river where a shallow ford allows passage to the north side, where the Fort is. On your left, downstream, the river flows over the ford and then a short waterfall into rocky rapids and on down south west. On your right the river flows into a wide pool behind the ford.
Across the river you see three company sized units of infantry camped outside of the Fort; each one you estimate 100-200 troops. One is directly across the ford, with a narrow way between the tents for passage. One is to the south of the fort. And one to the north of the fort sitting on the roadway blocking passage there as well. You cannot see inside the fort itself, but it’s a good bet there are troops inside there as well.
At a distance they are crusaders, but the sharp eyed among you have already spotted them as Tieflings wearing Crusader uniforms.
When Company 2 charges into the fray, Voren runs in and joins them, prepared to cast hex and what spells left that he has. He gets close to either Jokum or Arthas and uses enlarge person on them. He focuses on using his sleep hex on as many enemies as he can. He also curses one of the most powerful looking enemies with bestow curse and another with blindness/deafness, trying to blind them. When someone is severely injured and within his range, he uses his reach cure moderate wounds spell. He also conjures up some eagles to aid them using his summon monster spell. He engages in melee when there's no other option.
After the battle, Voren is running around, using his healing hex on all of the soldiers.
Voren figures that his skills wouldn't be any use to the scouts. So he stays behind with the caravan, talking to Aravashnial and some of the other soldiers.
Doh!
Cancel that last post! That was for the other game. Sorry about that; You guys are still in mid fight.
Arthas felt the destruction beneath the iron shod hoofs of his steed crushing the evil life from the foes that fell dying from the deadly gleaming arcs cut by the holy sword blazing in his hand. Spears, arrows and axes splashed off his shield and armor, where they did bite Arthas gladly bled for the Holy General and the Lords of the Seven Heavens. He repeated the Litany of Divine Deliverance in Battle for his men and the fallen of his order that looked down on him now.
"You didn't kill the Great Silver Dragon! You smote one head and now we have grown back like a righteous hydra sent from the heavens! See us flow through you like a river! We are a flash flood of holy vengeance upon you! We shall flush this evil before us. Nothing can stop this crusade, Gods' willing!"
During a pause he looks proudly at his company maintaing composure and deadly efficiently.
"Maintain rank and file, cover your brother's and sisters, you are of no good to us dead sell your lives dearly!"
"Shield our wounded that they might fight another day!"
As the Companies clashed with the enemy Danua took up position somewhere high among the ruins. Wielding Whisper, she struck at any enemy commander that presented itself. Using her spells to ensure swift death was dealt to them.
Karthak joins the fray swinging at the enemy tieflings with his axe while keeping an eye out for potential spellcasters to engage and remove from the battlefield...
Quickly sizing up the enemy forces and terrain, Arthas considered calling up Company A and C before proceeding forward. But a quick glance at the river plain made clear that they were pursuing the large number of stragglers, and would arrive too late. He saw how effective this built up area was on the defense, and he knew that if given enough time the enemy could set up very strong defensive arrangements and hold him up long enough for their leader to call for reinforcements.
Making a decision, he decided to go forward with what he had right now.
He shouted ”Advance!” and Nurah sounded the horns. Company B gave a great shout and surged forward…
Due to the difficult terrain, the crusaders are forced to proceed on foot. Lines of troops, solidly regimented, are soon broken up into knots of troops fighting house to house and alleyway to alleyway. The fighting is bitter now, and no quarter is given or received.
ARTHAS
Moving through a battlefield shrouded by fields of Darkness and Fog clouds, Arthas is jostled back and forth.
Losing his escort, he stumbled out into an open area right when a field of inky Darkness is dropped on him.
Radiance reacted instantly. It's golden glow muffled somewhat, it still overcame the darkness in the 5' space immediately around Arthas.
But out of the darkness beyond came the grunted orders of tieflings and their thrusting spears.
for a possible piercing damage.
for a possible piercing damage.
for a possible piercing damage.
for a possible piercing damage.
for a possible piercing damage.
for a possible piercing damage.
for a possible piercing damage.
Arthas' turn now.
TACTICAL OVERVIEW
They have AC18 and are concealed by darkness. (Perception DC15 to target the hex they're in, 50% miss).
DANUA
Up on a third story deck with a crumbling wall for partial cover, Danua manages to shoot down several officers and a Cult caster of some kind before she becomes the subject of attention herself.
A group of crossbowmen target her.
for a possible piercing damage.
But the shot hits the wall.
for a possible piercing damage.
But the shot hits the wall.
for a possible piercing damage.
OK
for a possible piercing damage.
But the shot hits the wall.
for a possible piercing damage.
OK
for a possible piercing damage.
But the shot hits the wall.
The caster, his image distorted by five mirror images, shoots three magic missiles at her, dealing force damage.
Danua's turn now.
TACTICAL OVERVIEW.
They are 200 feet away, have AC18 and have partial cover (20%).
JOKUM
Jokum, separated from the others in the tumult, ducks into an alleyway and runs into a column of Tieflings. They freeze, eyeball to eyeball, but Jokum unfreezes first.
Jokum's turn.
TACTICAL OVERVIEW
They have AC18.
KARTHAK
Karthak took a wrong turn and came face to face with a Dretch demon that had escaped the Crusaders initial charge.
Seeing a lone enemy, it gibbered with happiness and belched out a cloud of noxious fumes.
Fort save DC14 or Nauseated.
Karthak's turn.
TACTICAL OVERVEIW
It has AC16, DR5/cold iron or Good, some elemental resistances.
VOREN
Voren is tending to a number of badly wounded Crusaders at a forward triage site when a squad of enemy tieflings stumbles over them.
Spotting you, they charge to the attack!
Voren's turn.
Their AC is 18.