Council of Thieves

Game Master Mug

-9hp to Jaiyana, crit but not confirmed

YIKES!

Quick question. Is Shanwen on top of the carriage, or beside it?

He's on top, and has a high ground advantage

I can hop up there...or Lucon, would it be crazy to knock the carriage on its side? It wouldn't hurt Arael, but it would get those guys off the carriage and neutralize that huge crossbow.

Jaiyana, ouch! We need to find some mithral for you.

I was thinking that. Strength check? Can you delay and aid another? The dice will have to really love us, though. If we can't topple it in one round we might be able to unbalance it for the next. Can't say I envy Arael though. :P

Corneleous, you can tell it seems to take as much time as it'd take for you to load two crossbows. Lucon, it would be a str check, and you can use the check for your second option. But you must choose which action you want to take. Rather than, 'if it probably won't work ill do something else'. What do you want to try!

Just waiting for the mid-round update. ;)

Excellent! I'll attempt to topple the carriage, then.

I highly debated greasing the crossbow ;)

Arael's Rescue - Round 4, started

The Viscount grabs the floating crossbow and turns it on the leader, the bolt taking the injured man beneath his armpit. Shanwen gasps, "How..." before slumping over and falling into the fitful sleep of the injured.
Hk1 is still down.
Hk6 make another attack on the monk, swinging a powerful overhand slash from right to left. The elusive monk just turns his body at an angle and leans back slightly the blade whistling harmless past the length of his body, before Enko straitens up once again. "Help us Shanwen! We are losing!" the Armiger shouts, and it's easy to hear the uncertainty and fear in his voice.
Hk8 remains down.
AC shoots once more, but misses Hk5.
Hk3 doesn't move much from the ground.
Hk5 swings a hard blow, trying to finish off the ranger, but it misses by quite the margin. "Can't you use some magic sir?! Our situation is dire!"
Hk2 moves past the river, moving slowly and with much splashing, nearly drowning himself in his haste.
Tavi fires off another arrow, this one at Hk3. It sticks deep into his abdomen, and the knights bends at the waist to clutch the shaft protruding from him, looking at Tavi with a hateful gaze, before topping soundlessly to the side.
Jaiyana hisses through her teeth and reels with pain, trying to keep a cool head for battle despite her terrible wounds, knowing the surest way to prevent for would be to end the battle quickly. She drops into a defensive posture and sets her flail spinning in a wide circle to keep her foes attacks at bay, taking a quick swipe when she can. "You're just mad that I slew your friend, aren't you?" She spits at the duo who just attacked her, speaking even the unconscious one on the ground in her anger. Despite her anger, probably due to her massive injuries, she's only able to keep the on remaining knight at bay, and doesn't cause any actual harm to him.

That's 'Round 4 - Started' I just need Amons actions to get it finished. Below show's who's left this round. I do have Enko and Lucon already.
Amon
Enko
Hk 7
Shanwen
Lucon
Hk 9
Hk 4

Can we bot-request that AC shoot at HK2 in the next round? 'E's gettin' away!

Fine by me, request granted... Next round.

Arael's Rescue - Round 4, finished
Botting Amon reaches out and puts his hand on Jaiyana's back, and releases a flood of energy into her. Life Link: -5hp Amon, +5hp Jaiyana. PLUS CLW: +1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6 hp to Jaiyana Many of her cuts and wounds heal up in those few seconds of interaction before your eyes.
Enko moves towards the carriage, trying to push it over, and Hk6 attacks reflexively - nearly cutting the distracted monk across the back.
Hk 7 remains out-cold on the ground.
Shanwen continues to bleed heavily from his bolt wound.
Lucon throws his shield arm against the side of the carriage, gripping the underside with his right arm and slipping slightly in the mud, gritting his teeth and in a strained voice calling out to Enko. "...haaaaaaAAAUGH! Put your back into it!" His effort, with no help from the monk who was almost sliced open, is enough to lift the side of the carriage off the ground almost six inches. Almost this is a small amount, it is enough to cause the whole carriage to rocking from side to side.
Hk 9 tries desperately to keep his balance, even clinging to the crossbow for assistance, but falls hard onto the carriage-top, and see's his leader Shanwen keeled over, possibly dead. He takes a quick look around and seems to recognize his plight. He looks to the horses and stands - too high for Lucon and Enko to attack him as he does so, he seems ready to bolt.
Hk 4 lies still at Jaiyana's feet.

Sorry Amon, I'm too impatient. On the bright side, On to Round 5!

Init Next Round
Corneleous
Hk 1
Hk 6
Hk 8
AC
Hk 3
Hk 5
Hk 2
Tavi
Jaiyana
Amon
Enko
Hk 7
Shanwen
Lucon
Hk 9
Hk 4

"Lucon, I'm more effective up top--my apologies! Take the others on the ground!"

Lucon nods breathlessly, apparently muted by the effort. Seeing we've a fraction of the hellknights left I'll take my action now.

Edit: Spoiler should be round 5. For some reason I can't go back and edit it!

Edit: Spoiler should be round 5. For some reason I can't go back and edit it!

You only have a 1 hour edit window.

Why does it look like there is a HK in the river?

That's HK2, I think, the one that AC (and you?) need to take down!

Let him run! Weren't we trying to spare lives?

Arael's Rescue - Round 5

Corneleous says to the area, "Madam, I am not an inexhaustible font of power, but I shall endeavor to please you as best I can." Turning to the weeknight on the wagon, "Young man, if you lay down your arms we shall spare you the fate of your peers." Even as he speaks to the one on the wagon (Hk9) he raises a hand at the one to the east (Hk6) and release a blast of acidic energy, which catches the knight full in the face, and Hk6 passes out as acid burns his skin.
Hk1 is still on the front of the wagon, unmoving.
Hk6 lies still as the acid blast from Corneleous fizzles out.
Hk8 is under Lucons feet, unmoving.
AC shoots the last bolt before he needs to reload at the fleeing form of Hk2.
Hk3 lies still just on the north side of the wagon, previously laid low by one of Jaiyana's chakram.
Hk5 looks around, not getting a response from his fellows, and see's Hk2 alone on the carriage, and his other fellows laid low. Turning an angry face towards the rebels, "You sneaky scum, die!" and takes a few short steps at Amon, aiming his blade at the halflings head. It sails wide by a large margin.
Hk2 continues to run away, with all haste, already across the river.
Tavi shoots at Hk9 at the mounted crossbow, trying to take him down. The arrow catches the frightened man in the shoulder, as he was looking southward at the disembodied voice of Corneleous coming out of the fog moments before.
Jaiyana winces as her many wounds knit and heal in an instant; she feels cracked ribs mend and bruises disappear, and makes mental note of how she will never get used to such magics. With a growl through gritted teeth the ranger brings down her flail with all her might atop the standing foe before her. It connects with a sickening crunch, and the Hellknight (Hk5) is knocked violently to the earth from the strength of her blow.
"Auuuggghhh!" Amon cries out in pain as he continues to take damage vicariously through Jaiyana. He casts a healing spell on himself to lengthen his ability to keep the warrior woman alive. -7hp to Amon, +5 Jaiyana
Enko says, "Lucon, I'm more effective up top--my apologies! Take the others on the ground!" before vaulting off the wheel of the carriage with his arms, flipping in the air to land on his feet on top of the carriage and lashing out at HK9. The knight falls prone to the top of the carriage, the monk standing over him.
Hk7 remains unmoving near Lucon's feet.
Shanwen doesn't move, body still crowing the top of the carriage.
Lucon nods breathlessly, apparently muted by the effort of lifting the carriage. Taking a moment to heave himself over the top of the carriage to join Enko, he gives the prone Hk9 a solid crack with the truncheon, knocking him out cold. That was the Hellknight by the mounted crossbow, closest foe still conscious.
Hk9 moans pitifully and lies still.
Hk4 remains motionless at Jaiyana's feet.

As Tavi pointed out, there's only 1 Hellknight still moving. It's Hk2 (as Enko said) and he's fleeing with all the haste a staggered man can towards the citadel. His action is pretty much set. If you want to take him down you can continue to post in spoilered combat. What are you going to do?

Init Next Round
Corneleous
AC
Tavi
Jaiyana
Amon
Enko
Lucon

I'll begin acting out of count. If the others want to take potshots, we can delay this. As a side note: Holy mother of god, we took down an entire prisoner escort in 30 seconds. Go team!

Lucon's chest heaves breathlessly, and he stumbles slightly, rubbing his back with a slight wince. "Not one of my better ideas." he says, with a sheepish grin, sweeping off his hood and jumping, ungracefully, down from the carriage with a thud. "Those were some impressive acrobatics, Enk..." he begins, cutting himself off and making a face, glancing at the bodies around him. "...my friend. It reminds me of my first carnevale. There was a Varisian tumbler. Most magnificent show I'd ever seen..." he says, rubbing his neck gingerly as he lumbers towards the back of the wagon. "Until my purse was cut, that is. How is your wound?" he says, trailing off and sliding his truncheon into his belt, nursing his stiff fingers before drumming on the door. "Arael? We have come to rescue you. The door is locked. Just hold tight, milord."

He walks over toward Jaiyana, grimacing at the bloody mess and brow furrowed with concern. Ay me, how much of it yours?" he says, queasily and examining one of the caved in helmets, pressing his hand to the recruits chest and mouthing a silent prayer. He stares up at his companions wearing a troubled expression plainly on his face, but he doesn't speak his mind.

Lucons only response is a low moan from inside the carriage.

We'll treat any further attacks on Hk2 as flex time, so label the spoilers as such. We'll have Lucon's post be the present. Nicely done all of you. You know if you keep wiping out my baddies so easily they're going to have to get tougher. ;) *GM carefully avoids looking at the horrible wounds on Jaiyana*

Good point, Lucon--someone needs to go tell the tale. -double take- oh snap! I said your name. Um...can we Flex Time the mention of Lucon's name out? Eesh.

Enko removes his kama from its holder on his back and cuts the string off the mounted crossbow, using it to bind the wrists of the fallen Hellknight behind his back. Satisfied, he tears a strip of cloth from Shanwen's clothing and uses it to gag the possibly dying man. "I apologize for the indignity," he says, "but we cannot risk you using spells. I am sorry for your death and that of your companions. Bad deeds lead to suffering.'

He turns to Lucon. "I am untouched, friend, and your actions were extraordinary. They came from the heart, and when the heart is pure, it can shift mountains with the slightest of effort." He leaps down smoothly to join Lucon. "We need a door opened--can you help?" he calls to Tavi's direction. "Use caution--there may be a guard inside the wagon."

I watched SHAOLIN last night, as I have gotten monk-obsessed lately. Now that's a movie. Clearly monks should be proficient in meteor hammer as well.

@Enko - Umm, no. Flextime is for doing things in the past, not un-doing them. Sorry. :)

Huh, I could've sworn you were hit up there, but turns out all of these times you've provoked they havent hit your AC. Nothing to post from me until things develop. ... and Enko, definately get to the Drunken Master movies soon. Even if you've sen them I could re watch the original forever. Somehow I lose it every time at the god-awful dubbing. Also I promise the name of the taekwondo practiconer villain won't fail to please.

I love martial arts movies. Drunken Master is awesome. Hero is pretty good. 5 Deadly Venoms is sweet (but the sequel is terrible). Of course their is Crouching Tiger. Forbidden Kingdom is a solid american one...damn it! Enko, you need to teach Jaiyana kung fu so she can take a level of monk! ;P

"The blood or the bodies?" Jaiyana responds. "I'm fine thanks to Amon. And most of them will live; with something to think about in the future," she says, bending down to stem the flow of blood from the last she felled (assuming he is still alive). "This was a lesson well worth teaching." As she tended to the man's great wounds (caused by none other than herself) it struck her that she never expected that she'd be providing first aid to Hell Knight scum.

Heal (DC 15): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
Then she will move to the next nearest (likely HK 4) and work on saving that one: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13
6 healer's kit uses left after this.
Second try on HK 4; if this fails he can bleed out for all Jaiyana cares: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
5 uses left.

Jaiyana stems the flow of blood from Hk5, and her skills allow her to see the others she tried to work on were already stable.

Keep the last two uses of the healers kit. So you have 7 uses left. Your base check and skills bonus was enough to see they were stable without the kit.

Seeing the Hellknight's wounds as grievous yet survivable Jaiyana grimly nods to herself. It was an embarrassing defeat for them; they'll be none to pleased. She wanders to her thrown chakram and retrieves them, wiping the blood and gore on the nearest soldiers' garb, giving a fleeting glance to the fleeing warrior. "Coward," she mutters, but lets him run. He won't be getting anywhere quickly and his superiors will surely punish him worse than Jaiyana's flail upside his skull. After gathering her weapons she heads beside the carriage to aid with the disposal of any guards left inside.

Ah, I have seen Drunken Master II at least; not sure about I. I think I have. I am a big Jackie Chan fan. One level of monk dip is great for IUS and bump in saves. I suppose I have to teach Lucon Stunning Fist in a few levels--although I don't know it myself! :D

"Aid to our enemies is a true sign of compassion," says Enko approvingly.

Lucon, sorry to mention your name! I hope I didn't jeopardize your family... And yes, Enko is built to never get hit, ideally. Soon comes Crane Style, Flowing Dodge, and blocking weapons.

No worries, Enko. I hadn't really thought of it either, to be honest. (And perhaps Mug hadn't until you pointed it out! :P) That said though, in the confusion I doubt it'd mean much, and I'm not expecting TOO much trouble this early in the path. If there's a sign of trouble I'll try to move them somewhere safer, I think, but we'll cross that bridge when they come to it.

Flextime combat
On her third arrow Tavi manages to sink an arrow into the Hellknight's back, over sixty feet away. He plunges face first into the dirt and lies still.

Realtime
Now the battlefield is truly quiet, the large fog cloud covering the bridge, and bodies all around you. The carriage lies still in the sunlight, locked tight. Between you and the others who took down the escort, a total of 16 Hellknights were overcome, 10 of which were taken down by you seven. The remaining 6 are somewhere over a hundred yards away, and can't even be seen through the fog cloud on the bridge.
If anyone tries to take a look you see at least 4 prone Hellknight bodies, and half a dozen horses milling around.
While you decide what to do about the carriage, some of you might decide to look around.

The Viscount suggests that we strip and bind the knights, check the keys, and examine whether or not we can decipher the origin of the sealed envelope without opening it. Is the wagon marked or identified by its looks. Oh and detect magic.

Enko hands the keys to Lucon and carries some potions to Amon and Jaiyana, and busies himself with trussing up the nearest knights that are still breathing.

He then takes a look at the horses, gathering them and harnessing them together, patting their withers and backs and uttering soothing words. He takes a look to see if they have been branded or otherwise marked in any way. Takin' 20.

Lucon dutifully fumbles with the keys in his too-large hands until he finds the one that fits the lock, swinging the door open without hesitation.

Corneleous notices the envelope is addressed to 'Captain Morlier' in small flowing script. The seal has a very unique stamp in it. As he detects magic he senses a strong aura of magic coming from inside the carriage, and also a magic aura from the Hellknight referred to as Shanwen.

Enko manages to get close enough to see each horse has a brand on it's rump, "OtR", written in big block letters. They don't come with him if he gets too close, some even rearing up or biting at him, seeming loath to leave the area or possibly the Hellknights. Gonna need a Handle Animal DC 18 to get these well trained, Hellknight owned, animals to come along quietly.

As Lucon swings the door open it reveals a dark, hot interior and a badly beaten half-elf on the floor. He is shackled on his hands, and feet, and his feet shackles have been looped around his hand shackles, causing him to resemble an animal, trussed up as his is. When the light hits his face his eyes squint against the sudden glare from outside, and another groan issues from cut and swollen lips. The man has been severely worked over, several times.

Enko leaves the horses be and rushes to help Lucon with the prisoner, bringing out his waterskin to give him a drink. "You are safe now," he says.

Corneleous can memorize mending tomorrow, and repair the note if it is important. He'll hand it over to be cut it open, and suggests that instead of cutting the seal, we cut it open at the at a crease (leaving the seal fully intact). It's better to know what the letter says now; we don't know if we'll need it resealed. The Viscount just wants to be able to copy the seal as a forgery later!

As the waterskin touches the prisoners lips he cries out, "No more! No more please!" but as his parched lips and tongue taste the water he begins to drink, taking a long draught. He peers up through bleary, swollen eyes, "...Thank you, I was afraid it was another potion, they kept forcing me to drink them after they'd beat me too badly or broke too many bones." As his eyes adjust he takes a look at those gathered outside the carriage doors, and not seeing any familiar faces, "Where are the Hellknights? What is going on?"