I'm going with a human formless adept psychic with the blight-burned trait, who I'm now working on.
Personally I'd prefer current character.
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I have two potential builds I'm trying to decide between, a pyrokineticist and a psychic with the formless adept archetype. I'll settle on one tonight and finish the character within the next few days.
I'm inclined towards recruiting a replacement, but I could certainly be convinced otherwise.
As Alezandu stumbles and it becomes clear the bugbear's blow will strike home, he stares over Scarvinious' shoulder at Shadow. The eagle meets his eye for a fraction of a second. Go. I saved you once, I shouldn't drag you into pointless death now. The morningstar slams into Alezandu and he collapses. With a fierce, keening cry, Shadow pushes off from Scarvinious and climbs quickly away with a series of powerful beats of her wings. Alezandu's last, jumbled thoughts are of those still hiding back in the caves and just how bleak their situation now seems, before his consciousness finally fades.
Sounds good. I'm thinking some variety of arcane caster (or potentially a kineticist) from outside Nirmathas who happened to visit right before the Legion's invasion and runs into the Phaendar group while trying to hide from the hobgoblins.
Heedless of the enemies closing in around him and the blood soaking his front, Alezandu continues shooting single-mindedly at Scarvinious.
Shadow likewise continues to slash furiously at the bugbear leader with her talons and beak.
Barely maintaining consciousness as blood rushes from his wound, Alezandu staggers away from his opponents. He nocks an arrow with obvious difficulty. "Not... coward," Alezandu gasps. "This... forest, will be... your grave. He releases the arrow at Scarvinious.
Shadow flies after the goblinoid leader, harrying him from behind.
Hearing Scarvinious' pronouncements, Alezandu looks in time to see Falcon fall. This is really it, isn't it. Another Ramgate. At least I won't be left to mourn. Pulling a bundle of arrows from his magical haversack to restock his quiver, Alezandu steps sideways in an attempt to put the tree between himself and the bugbear next to him. He glares at Scarvinious. "Some day your skull will hang from Phaendar's gates, and your vile legion be scattered to the winds!" He lets out a harsh whistle, and Shadow launches herself from her perch and dives towards Scarvinious, raking her talons at his face.
Alezandu follows up this attack with an arrow thrumming through the air at the enemy leader.
Alezandu probably has the speed to escape, but at this point I think it would be quite difficult to convince him to flee.
Alezandu steps past the tree to stand over Claustipher's body, quickly sending the last two arrows in his quiver flying towards the bugbear.
Alezandu continues firing as quickly as he can at the archer nearer to the cliff, switching to the goblin and then the wolf if his target falls.
Alezandu steps further around the tree to get a better shot just in time to see two of his companions go down. For a second, he freezes. Can't let these murderers win again. Abruptly moving again, Alezandu whips out his last two magical arrows. He sends one at the goblin and the other towards the archer who felled Claustipher, the projectiles bursting into flame as they leave his bow.
Taking cover behind the tree trunk, Alezandu opens fire on the two hobgoblin archers above the camp, targeting the one on his left first.
Reinvigorated by Elyas' burst of positive energy, Alezandu steps partway around the tree next to him and snaps off two shots at the hobgoblin alchemist.
Hoping that Falcon's success with the tower will prevent the hobgoblins from making full use of their numbers, Alezandu decides to stick it out a little longer and take advantage of the tail end of the enchantment on his bow. Stepping sideways to get a clear shot past Elyas, he sends a pair of arrows whizzing down the line of foes emerging from the stairs.
Shadow relocates away from the archer entering the trees.
"I think now might be the time to retreat!" Alezandu shouts after taking an arrow to the arm. He snaps a shot off at the hobgoblin archer that managed to hit him, then pulls back to a somewhat less vulnerable position behind a tree.
Alezandu calls urgently for Shadow to retreat after she is engulfed in flames, prompting the eagle to wheel around and ascend out of the ravine to a perch in the trees near Elyas' summoned wolf. Turning his attention back to the warg, Alezandu steps away from the cliff and begins firing rapidly at the creature..
Lacking for targets visible from his current position, Alezandu uses his magically enhanced speed to quickly advance to the edge of the ravine and shoot a flaming arrow down at one of the hobgoblin archers.
He then whistles for Shadow to attack, prompting her to dive from her perch and swoop over the lean-to to come at the last archer with talons outstretched.
Alezandu continues to target the warg, trying to thread another pair of arrows through the trees obstructing his view.
Alezandu hunkers down and takes a second to catch his breath, then prepares to shoot at the first target to present itself, whether from the stairs or the hillside.
Alezandu doubles over in pain as the hobgoblin's arrow strikes him, but quickly returns fire after Olivia heals him. He first targets the sentry who shot him unless Falcon has already thrown them from the tower, switching to the hobgoblin with the horn if the first one is eliminated.
Shadow flaps over to a closer tree to intervene if necessary.
Trying to stay hidden in the underbrush, Alezandu shoots an arrow at each of the hobgoblin sentries atop watchtower.
Yeah, that works.
Makes sense. I'm still fairly available, but I'd be okay with pausing if others are busy.
Alezandu offers the gallon of oil in his magical bag to anyone who wants to use it to set the watchtower afire, then waits 60 feet back from the edge of the trees until everyone is close to ready. He then enchants his bow and advances into position.
"I didn't see any patrols, no."
"Alright. If we're going with hit and run, I say we attack the watchtower from the trees above the ravine and then either rush forward to use the stairs as a chokepoint before pulling back or quickly make a fighting retreat into the forest, depending on how they respond." If everyone agrees, Alezandu leads the group around the camp by the route he and Falcon took previously and finds a position from which to fire on the tower.
"We could, and it might give us an advantage, but it would also give them time to mobilize all their troops and come after us as one big group instead of being spread throughout the camp and unprepared for a fight. What does everyone else think?"
Alezandu returns to the others and reports the state of the camp. "I doubt we're going to be able to take out the sentries on the watchtower without alerting the rest of the hobs, so we should probably just ignore it and rush the camp as quickly as possible. I guess we could also try to get to the bottom and light it on fire to prevent them from descending. Anyway, we should decide if we want to attack down the stairs and up up the ravine simultaneously, or if it would be better to concentrate on one route. I see it as a tradeoff between ensuring they don't escape and keeping our forces concentrated, so it depends on how difficult a nut to crack we think this camp will be."
Alezandu weaves a minor spell to enhance his speed, then begins circling wide around the camp to reconnoiter the watchtower. His bow drawn, he tries to stay within the cover of the trees while getting close enough to see the top of the tower. If the tower is built in such a way that his view of whoever might be stationed there is blocked, he waits for a while for any sentries to hopefully peer over the edge.
"Going around and attacking from the above is probably the best approach, I agree." Alezandu responds. "We should try to remain undetected for as long as possible though. I would suggest trying to draw them out of the camp and fight in the forest, but given the advantages of preventing anyone from getting back to Phaendar with news of our presence our best bet is probably just a concerted surprise assault."
After checking the hobgoblins' bodies for any useful or informative items and waiting for any healing to be completed, Alezandu presses onward. He keeps his bow drawn and looks for signs of other guard-posts while trying to remain inconspicuous. Shadow continues to watch from above.
Shadow gives up on finding any more foes further down the path and flies back to cut off the fleeing hobgoblin, slashing at them with a talon.
Relieved that he finally managed to hit something, Alezandu turns and opens fire on the hobgoblin attempting to escape.
"Gods damn it!" Alezandu exclaims as the hobgoblins continue to outshoot him. Moving closer in hopes of improving his accuracy, he takes a deep breath and lets fly another arrow at the archer he has missed so many times.
Alezandu snorts in frustration as his own arrows miss and the hobgoblins' strike home, then continues his barrage.
Shadow continues to search down the path for whoever made the earlier bird calls from that direction.
Dropping to one knee behind a tree, Alezandu looses two arrows at the hobgoblin to the left of the trail.
Shadow dives and begins weaving her way between the trees, heading further down the trail and looking for the source of the bird call that signaled the archers.
"Either some poor bird is incredibly off-course or that was someone signaling," Alezandu quietly informs the others. "They may have noticed us, so get ready for a fight." Readying his bow, Alezandu creeps a little ways off the trail to get better cover and cautiously continues moving north. He listens for answering calls and scans the forest for enemies while Shadow takes flight and scouts ahead from above.
"We should make camp just close enough to this path that whoever's on watch can see if anyone uses it, and then follow it north in the morning," Alezandu suggests.
"I'll take the arrows and one of the potions. We should hide whatever we're leaving in the forest somewhere so it isn't recovered if the hobs get back here before us for some reason." Once everyone has taken whatever they want Alezandu moves the remaining equipment into the trees and sets up a concealed cache. He carefully notes its location relative to the camp for future reference. "I think we should probably leave it intact for now, though I can definitely see the potential benefits of sabotage. We can always rig it to break after we cross on our way back. Either way, let's use it to get over the river now and head west to keep looking for Scarvinious."
"Good to know," Alezandu responds to Falcon. "I'll see if I can figure out where Scarvinious went and how big of a force is off with him right now." Starting withe the path, Alezandu searches around the campsite for tracks and if he finds any tries to determine how many creatures left them and when they departed.
Alezandu keeps his his barrage, sending two more arrows whizzing past Olivia at the goblinoids.
Mentally cursing his two successive misses, Alezandu continues firing at the two hobgoblins at the palisade's opening.
Alezandu crouches behind some underbrush, nocks one of his remaining flaming arrows, and slowly draws it back. After confirming that everyone is in position he looses it at the nearest hobgoblin, prompting Shadow to take flight.
Advancing diagonally at magically enhanced speed, Alezandu ducks low and shoots again at another foe. Shadow settles in the branches above the hobgoblins, waiting to intervene if any of them seems to escaping.
"I'll stay on this side and help out from a distance if a fight on the bridge becomes necessary. One of my flaming arrows can be the signal to attack unless anyone else has something more dramatic." Alezandu invokes a minor spell to augment his speed, then begins moving into position once planning is completed. He tries to get within 100 ft of the hobgoblins if that's possible while maintaining good cover, but if doing so would require him to venture into the open he simply moves to the edge of the forest. Shadow perches in a tree above him.
Before opening fire, or if he sees any sign that the hobgoblins have detected the group, Alezandu makes sure to augment his bow with another enchantment.
Alezandu returns to the party and reports his findings. "This seems like a perfect opportunity to strike back at the hobs, given their apparently small garrison," he says. "Even if Scarvinious isn't there right now, we can steal and torch his supplies and hopefully force him to pull back, or even track where he went from this camp. Unless anyone has a better idea, I say we surround them and launch a surprise attack from all sides to cut off their lines of retreat. I suppose I could try to take down the bridge with my fire arrows, but do we have any other ways of destroying it from a distance so they don't flee that way?"
"I say we camp here and wait for light to search for the camp. The hobs' darkvision puts us at too big a disadvantage at night. We'll just have to keep a very vigilant watch now that we're probably so close."
Unless anyone objects to the delay, Alezandu leads the group back to where Elyas first smelled the smoke, and then around 1000 feet to the north and and then the south, trying to trace the smell. Meanwhile, Shadow circles farther out, looking for any visible sources of smoke in the surrounding area.
Alezandu stops for a second to sniff the air, then replies, "No, but you're probably right. I'll scout ahead as we go and try to get the drop on them." He nods to Shadow, who takes flight and begins circling above and ahead of the group, scanning the forest below. Alezandu himself draws his bow and sneaks out in front of the others, looking for any sign of the hobgoblins.
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