To Hank, she replies, "Turn the wagon around so they are away from those archers, then join in this fight with that crossbow. These guys have to be liars and criminals with how they are acting. A guardsman would have readily declared themselves at the first sign of trouble. I'm fighting to the death here. I suggest you do the same."
Once that is sorted, she yells to those doubting their foes.
"I will not relent!" she states in alliance with Ivar. To Nash, she directs, "You're just trying to cause confusion while your archers pick us apart. Now die, bandit scum."
Nempura will begin to sing again in an effort to aid her allies. She will pull her bow and notch an arrow, meanwhile kneeling for that perfect shot to present itself.
Ewan steadies his rapier again and moves in towards Nash and the remaining fighter, trying to dodge and weave from behind Helgar to move into place so he can attack either of them.
Then he tries to attack the swordsman if he still stands after Ivar's attack.
"If you're in-no-cent, st-stop f-fig-fighting th-then."
Hank nods at Nempura; “Just have to get a little more turning room and I’ll get there.”
Ewan and Helgar combine their efforts and the last of the swordsmen fall leaving Nash, and the archers on the far side of the bridge. Nash yells out to his men; “Fall back! To the safe house, the bridge is lost!” and with that Nash tumbles away from the party and double moves through the horses.
Initiative
Arren
Men
Ivar
Ewan
Nempura
Merion
Helgar
Nash
Arren shoots a Ray of Frost at Nash. Nash ducks his head as the ray goes wide and he looks down at Arren as he runs past.
Two of the bowmen move forward and kick/push to boards to a point where they fall down into the water below. The final bowman takes a shot at Ewan but misses and he turns to retreat.
Initiative
Arren
Men
Ivar
Ewan
Nempura
Merion
Helgar
Nash
Ivar makes his way to follow Nash and lands a blow that leaves him bleeding on the ground.
Initiative
Arren
Men
Ivar
Ewan
Nempura
Merion
Helgar
Nash
Merion's mind burns with intense curiosity as to where the safe house Nash mentioned is. Robin hears this empathically from the treetop where he has been perched, and begins to flit from tree to tree in the archers' wake.
Then, caught up in the adrenaline of combat, Merion rushes the archers before they can completely deplank the bridge. Fighting defensively, he attempts to draw their attention from that task, stabbing at the one who seems most focused on the planks.
With the fighting dying down, Helgar moved over to Helgar and traced a rune in the air over his wounds. Doing so caused the worst of it to close.
To further aid her companions, and with Nash their leader bleeding on the ground, she now feels confident she can hold her tone while using her bow. She takes aim for the fleeing bandit archer.
"If this archer gets away, his blood will lead us right to the stronghold. If he dies, fine."
*-1 from range increment
She looks to Hank, who should have had a chance to turn away the horses to now join in on the combat with his handy crossbow.
In an excellent show of acrobatics, Merion rushes the planks that are being pushed off the bridge, two already down and one inches away from dropping. He makes crossing look like a breeze, but he is met face to face with two men without any room to move. On the edge of this broken bridge, pebbles falling into the waters below, Merion attacks and lands a blow.
Helgar moves up and heals Ivar a substantial amount. Wounds closing up, Ivar can feel the mobility coming back to him.
With a release of the string, the arrow finds its home in the shoulder of the fleeing archer’s back.
Initiative
Arren
Men
Ivar
Ewan
Nempura
Merion
Helgar
Nash
Ewan walks up to the the rickety bridge, aiming to cross it just like Merion, but sees that there is almost no room on the other side.
Instead Ewan looks down at the bridge, trying to discernwhat exactly made the bridge collapse. Instead he peeks too much down into the river.
But the sight of such a possible fall down, makes him dizzy, especially when he sees the bandit swordsman laying broken on one side of the ravine.
Stopping at the edge of the bridge, Ewan freezes.
Seeing that the scene on this side of the bridge has changed, Hank jumps down from his seat and fires his crossbow. But it flies wide.
You notice that Nash has stopped bleeding, but he continues to breath.
Initiative
Arren
Men
Ivar
Ewan
Nempura
Merion
Helgar
Nash
"When someone gets a chance, would they mind helping me up?"
The two archers push forward against Merion to push him off the bridge. Swinging out with his blade , Merion’s attack misses. The successful Bull Rush pushes Merion backwards and off of the bridge. Unable to catch his balance, Merion falls down into the water below.
The two archers move away from the bridge to retreat. The third one continues to run away.
On the far bank you see the swordsman who fell to the waters below climb ashore.
Initiative
Arren
Men
Ivar
Ewan
Nempura
Merion
Helgar
Nash
Using the last of her divine magic, Helgar prayed for the worst of Ewan’s wounds to heals.
[ooc]DC 10 Acrobatics check required to jump the space of the downed bridge. This will clear the gap and the rough rocky edges that could cause you to fall. Failing the check would cause you to slip and fall. [ooc]
"Th-thank you H-Helgar. G-guess I got a b-bit c-care-less st-still."
Ewan took a deep breath, a very deep breath and tried to leap over the gap in the bridge as well, hoping to give chase before the archers disappeared.
In a singsong voice, continuing her enchantments, she replies to Arren, "I'm sorry, Arren! I'm taking shots! I'll get you up in a second." A moment later, as if she had been busy doing something, she asks "Can you climb?" Arren will hear the powerful snap of a bowstring as Nempura takes a shot at the furthest from them.
She will then move to the edge of the cliff to see how far down Arren is and if she can help her up.
Merion struggles to get his balance in the water and reach the far bank. He also keeps a look out for the planks that were dumped in, to see if they can at least be nudged to catch on the side rather than float away entirely.
Luckily, he can swim a little, because he's disoriented from his unexpected landing, and can't do more than flounder.
Helgar moves up to heal some of the damage Ewan faced from the archers. Once healed, Ewan puts that fire under his feet. Running, he jumps the chasm and uses the rest of his double move to catch up with the archers.
After sinking his bardiche into Nash’s body, Ivar turns and runs after the fleeing foes. Jumping and landing, he sees Ewan running past him to catch the archers.
Nempura moves to check on Arren, she is still alive. Turning she takes aim and loosens an arrow. Unfortunately the only home it finds is the hard packed dirt near the archers.
Merion tries to swim but is unsuccessful. The current at the path bottle neck of the bridge is strong and pushes Merion under the bridge and further. As Merion makes his way through the water, the current lightens up as the stream widens.
Initiative
Arren
Men
Ivar
Ewan
Nempura
Merion
Helgar
I may be able to climb adequately, but what I'm truly not comfortable with is my ability to swim. Besides, I lack the range to be effective at this point. Leave me, and catch the rest."
Seeing Ewan approach on their tails the two archers flee [occ]Withdraw[/ooc] in different directions. The swordsman that was in the water, climbs up the steep bank and leans against a rock; “I give up!” he says as he tosses his sword to the side towards Ewan. Leaning back against the rock he closes his eyes and catches his breath.
Initiative
Arren
Men
Ivar
Ewan
Nempura
Merion
Helgar
Nempura sees the archer in the distance still going and takes aim where she thinks he will be. It is hard to judge given the wind and distance, but she lets loose a shot.
Once she shoots, she bends down an arm to help up Arren.
"Nonsense. Get your cute butt up here!" she says with a tension-relieving joke and will pull up the mage. "We work as a team."
Initiative
Arren
Men
Ivar
Ewan
Nempura
Merion
Helgar
”Stop, let them go!” Helgar called out. ”We’ve won, but if we get separated then they can turn around and pick us off.” And, she thought, it wasn’t like she was going to be able to chase down a gangly-limbed human anytime soon…
Ewan intends to chase down the other archer on the left, but seeing as the archer darts away everytime he gets near, Ewan eventually turns back after one round of giving chase.
"I don't th-think I c-could c-catch him, I th-think we w-would at least two peo-ple." Ewan says as he returns to the group.
"Has Ivar re-tur-turned y-yet?"
Apparently, Merion is still trying to swim against the current to reach the opposite bank.
How far am I washed each round?
Ivar and Ewan take off after the archers in hot pursuit. Ewan is able to get closer to the fleeing archers, but Ivar still has them in sight.
Merion’s first attempt to swim is unsuccessful and it pushes him 10-feet downstream. At this point the waters open up and slow down. He tries to swim again, and is successful.
Helgar holds her ground as she sees the battle is won.
Initiative
Arren
Men
Ivar
Ewan
Nempura
Merion
Helgar
Before climbing, Merion looks to see if any planks that went into the water can be shoved against the bank to be recovered.
If those are successful, he will climb up and look out visually for his companions, and empathically for Robin.
Arren begins trying her best to climb up the side of the slope, but even with Nempura aiding her she is unsuccessful.
The archers on the run continue their flight. One of which is no longer in sight of Ivar and Ewan who are following the other two. The swordsman who climbed up the slope sees that the man he surrendered to has ran away. Seeing that no one is around him, he picks up his blade and flees up stream in the cover of the trees.
Merion climbs up the slope to the far side of the bank and sees that everyone has left the immediate battle scene. Looking west (down) he sees Ewan and Ivar running.
Initiative
Arren
Men
Ivar
Ewan
Nempura
Merion
Helgar
Helgar shook her head. What a cluster-f***. ”Regroup!” She yelled out. She hoped that they would listen. Running in opposite directions was just asking for the retreating bandits to converge on them.
"Come on, climb. Put some fire in them bones!"
As she rights herself, the archer sees most all of her targets gone.
"Well...at least they got the message!" she announces promptly. "Don't mess with us, eh, Hank?"
Looking to the bridge, she wonders and goes to inspect the body of the leader.
"He was a conniving bastard, wasn't he? Had our heads all sorts of mixed up. I wonder where their stronghold is..." she flops her arm a bit at her side, as it is tired from firing. "He probably would have rebuilt this in some ramshackle way and then charged people to cross it." "No guards live in strongholds. No guards get into altercations or stop people without identifying themselves as guards. And no guard watches his friend die and doesn't announce he is a guard. He was either the biggest, most moronic leader in the world, or a liar. Just remember that..." she thinks to herself with a sigh at the sight of death.
"Anyone good at first aid? We should heal this horse and take out the arrow."
Merion hopes that Robin is smart enough to follow the right one, and looks around to see what happened to the boards that were dumped in the water. Making his way back over to the bridge and preparing to carefully cross on the remaining board, he calls across, Guess we have to put it back together ourselves.
He shakes his head, standing in the same spot that he was pushed into the water from. So this is a battle. Not for the faint of heart, for sure. I hope I acquitted myself well. He rubs the cut he received, whose bleeding has been stanched by his now-ruined shirt. Far enough from a tailor or laundress...no need to look presentable either. And things will get dirtier even, for sure.
Arren finally is able to climb up the dirt wall with the aid of Nempura. Once she is up top, Arren sees the scene of the four fallen swordsmen and Nash laying dead. Or she would assume they were dead.
Rounding the cart, Hank heads to tend to the horse; “That’s right, Nempura. We showed them. Those who ran off will hopefully hear of what happened here and think twice.” he says as he tries to hide a little bit of embarrassment.
As Nempura turns to look at Nash, cursing his name, she pauses in her inner monologue “Just remember that…” when she sees Nash’s chest rise and fall as he is breathing.
Over the course of three rounds the guards scatter in different directions. Almost as if they knew not to stick together when trying to lose a tail.
Ivar’s guard is able to shake him. Looking around, Ivar does not see a sign of the fleeing guard. Blood pumping, the rage swells at the thought of a man trying to hurt him and his new friends is still out there. Will he regroup and bring a bigger threat? Will he since his close step with mortality and live a clean life?
Ewan is quickly able to gain ground on the guard he was chasing down. The man he is following turns his head and sees this and tosses his bow to try and trip Ewan and a few steps later draws his short sword turning to fight; “Don’t think you want this fight… I’m willing to die to not get turned in. Are you willing to die trying to bring me in?” He pauses for only a moment to give his pursuer a chance to flee.
Round 1
Ivar: 4
Guard Ivar is after 21
Extra Guard: 7
~~~~~
Round 2
Ivar: 8
Guard Ivar is after 4
Extra Guard:10
~~~
Round 3
Ivar 7
Guard Ivar is after 15
Extra Guard: 4
1= Ivar's Track, 2=Ewan's Track, 3=Solo Guard
Noticing Ewan gained ground on the man he was pursuing, he doubled down and persisted in his chase.
"I... I w-will not die," Ewan says as he draws his rapier to take the archer on, "If you don't want to surrender, then I'll fight you."
With that said, Ewan engages the man with his learned swordplay.
Ivar begins looking for tracks, but the ground here is hard packed and well-traveled. Unsure of where he snuck off to.
Jumping back from Ewan’s rapier stab, and quicky steps forward with a slash of his longsword. Ewan is able to tumble to the left with the slash and causes the attack to miss. The two of you continue to attack one another. Ewan jabs out once again with his rapier, the guard perries the attack and turns it into an open slash of his own that falls short.
R1
R2
As Nash tends to the lead horse, she asks him why the embarrassment.
"What's going on in your mind?"
"Thank you Nempura, climbing is not exactly my forte." Arren goes to retrieve the potion she had thrown to the bandit leader. "I have a spare one of these, do you think we should give it to the horse?"
Hank continues to look over the horse as he turns to Nempura; “I feel like I let you down. You kept calling for me to help in the battle, but the horses were getting spooked. Can’t really turn around the best here, and I sure didn’t need them running forward towards the bridge.” looking over at the bridge; “Though I do think they could make the jump, but the wagon is a different story.”
As Arren comes forward and offers a potion for the horse, Hank looks at the wound and shakes his head; “No, I think this little injury can just heal on its own. Good on you to offer though.”
Making his way back, Ivar sees that the bandit that surrendered is no longer there. Ivar didn’t see him flee in the direction that he came from.
The bowman takes a few steps backwards, holding his short sword between him and Ewan. “Let’s be done with this, go your own way and I will go mine!” Ewan still fighting defensively steps forward and catches the bowman in the abdomen with his rapier. With a cry of pain, the bowman lashes out at Ewan and misses with his shortsword.