3.0 The road to Elkridge

[harknail]

Marching out into the countryside as night is falling it soon becomes hard to see the trail. Laira can see just fine in the starlit night, but the rest of the party does not have such good eyes.

In the distant past Harknail would have pulled out a torch and mounted it in his shoulder. He still had some of those ancient torches, but it would take a wizard to light them and they no longer had a wizard. But the grateful people of Moonhaven had given him a Moonlight shield. While not as bright as the magical mirror upon the light house, this magical shield was as bright as any torch. Since they weren't sneaking up on a Dragon and his minions this time, there was no reason to travel in the dark, so Harknail activated his shield as soon as he had trouble seeing the road. The shield didn't provide as much light as a sunrod, but it could shed it's light forever.

There is bright light within 5 squares of Harknail. Does anyone want to use a sunrod to push that out to 20 squares?

I'm assuming a close packed marching order of:
H A
L X
If you want to change that, let me know.

[Deekin]

If no one else does, Xi will strike a sunrod.

[harknail]

With a sunrod glowing the area around the party was brightly lit for quite a distance. Harknail left his shield glowing as well, both to fill in shadows and so that the party would not be plunged into darkness when the sunrod eventually expired.

The party continued to make their way to Elkridge, more or less following the ridge separated the Ridge Woods from the plains.

After several hours they came to the first place where the trail crosses a stream. Just before the stream were some burnt out and fallen trees, an erect statue about 20' from the path, and some small bluffs in range of the sunrod's light. On the other side of the bridge was a live tree and a fallen statue about 10' from the path.

When the group was halfway across the bridge, a man popped out from under the bridge and said, “Stop right there! This is a toll bridge, the price is 50 GP per group.” The man appeared ready for an argument, dressed as he was in leather armor and with a mace hanging from his belt, along with a couple of dagger scabbard's.

Not being familiar with prices, Harknail looked to the others to see if this was a reasonable price for using a small bridge. Meanwhile the man stood at ease awaiting his fee.

Just in case it isn't obvious, the price is indeed exorbitant. You could pay for building a bridge for much less than the price of a single toll. Also, Norhand didn't mention any tolls when he was giving directions.

The group is tightly packed in the middle of a 20' x 10' bridge that is crossing a 10 foot wide stream, with a small pond to the right. No one has weapons drawn or implements in hand while traveling except for Laira who's using her halberd as a walking stick.

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[similar]

Abraxus whispers to the others "Back me up and stay alert guys".

Only slowing enough to give the Tollman a chance to reconsider Abraxus moves toward the man who had the nerve to ask them for money.

"Go back to bed friend!" Abraxus growls, "We march to Elkridge to save them from a drake attack! We don't have time for this nonsense!"

Intimidate [dice=20] +11[rand=3023254406410307300759664706534329874744025651582768219336788266021]

[Deekin]

Xi pipes in Don't forget to mention the trolls that were haunting this bridge. I mean the occasional corpse floating down the river . I wouldn't want to hang around the bridge for long. Unless I had plenty of fire or acid.

[dice=20]+13 Bluff Check [rand=6450194535162364965825619183136476377407043471767289194302492122]

[Michael]

Lairaunwen Elereth tosses a bag of coins at his feet.
"Fine we don't have time for this."
Bluff 31

SPOILER: Click to show

Bluff: [dice=20]+15=31

and then puts the edge of her halberd up to his neck when he bends over for the coins. [rand=811624569119885695187598420307042795812517870217601697428454644978]

[harknail]

Only slowing enough to give the Tollman a chance to reconsider Abraxus moves toward the man who had the nerve to ask them for money.

"Go back to bed friend!" Abraxus growls, "We march to Elkridge to save them from a drake attack! We don't have time for this nonsense!"

The toll collector stood up to Abraxus, seemingly impassive as he responded, "It will only take a minute to pay the tool sir." and stretched out his arm to block the dragonborn from leaving the bridge. Seemingly impassive to Abraxus that is, the rest of the party could tell that he was not as calm as he was pretending to be.

Xi pipes in Don't forget to mention the trolls that were haunting this bridge. I mean the occasional corpse floating down the river . I wouldn't want to hang around the bridge for long. Unless I had plenty of fire or acid.

The toll collector gave Xi a "huh? what?" expression, before responding "There're no trolls around here."

Lairaunwen Elereth tosses a bag of coins at his feet.
"Fine we don't have time for this."

"Thanks," the toll collector responded to Laira. To Abraxus he added, "See how easy that was?" as he bent over to collect the pouch of coins.

and then puts the edge of her halberd up to his neck when he bends over for the coins.

"Urc." There's nothing like a blade to the neck to let someone know that you're displeased with them. But from the tree ahead came a dagger to remind the toll collector that he was not alone. The dagger flew past Harknail and sliced the side of Laira's neck before the dagger fell into the pond by the bridge. It wasn't a bad slice as such things go, but it hurt! (Hit AC 24 for 8 points of damage)

Encouraged by the show of support, the toll collector dodged the blade and stood straight again, leaving the pouch of coins on the ground. "We outnumber you more than two to one," he said. As he spoke other men rose from behind the fallen statue and arms waved from the tree before disappearing again. Glancing back the group could see soot covered figures rising from behind the burnt trees. Another "Toll collector" leaped from under the bridge to on top of it. Half were armed and armored like the toll collector, leather armor, mace and daggers. The rest had only a club.

After they surveyed the situation the toll collector then continued, "Your money or your lives. It's your choice."

Harknail moves back and issue a Divine Challenge to the "toll collector" near Xi (#2), but waits to see what the others do before actually attacking.

Still not in combat quite yet despite the attack on Laira. The toll collector is trying to bluff that he and his men can easily take out the party using shear numbers and is waiting for the Party response before making further attacks. No one in the party is fooled. So it's take him up on his offer, or role for initiative to see who gets the first blows in before they react.

I'm trying images instead of just letters and numbers this time to represent the party and monsters. The monsters with a white background have just a club, the others have the mace and daggers.

Current Map:

SPOILER: Click to show

Status (must be logged in to see combat status): Moonhaven

Special conditions: Bright light (thanks to the sunrod Laira dropped on the bridge to wield her halberd). The tree squares are difficult terrain and offer concealment (-2 to hit). The squares marked with white triangles are difficult terrain but do not provide cover. Under the bridge provides superior concealment vs. those on the bridge but requires squeezing. The stream is an unknown hazard, but if it were safe for wagons to cross there wouldn't be a bridge here.

And finally, ignore the figure on the bluff, he's not there...

[similar]

Abraxus shakes his head. "We have more important things to do then let you kill us and I really do not think you deserve our money now you have hurt the poor lady here."

"It's a shame there are so many of you. I am going to feel so bad for killing this many people just to cross a bridge. We'll understand if some of you at the back decide to run away once it starts getting messy."

To Abraxus it seemed clear they were going to have to fight their way across the bridge.


Initiative

[dice=20]
+4

Note that he grants +2 to everyone elses initiative too
[rand=819737310213735188474747433295956197581100056668321829143439095]

[harknail]

Harknail inititive: [dice=20]+2+2=23[rand=942680782871320820059247291646898901692421408370108961990592069924]

[Michael]

I was planning on using a combination of bluff, intimidate, and diplomacy to get by the group of 8-12 bandits, but since they already started attacking, there is no chance of that now.

SPOILER: Click to show

initiative: [dice=20]+1=10

initiative 10

[rand=40446926676668227683729995507746951831721235066658082951090764254]

[harknail]

Mar 20, 2011 1:52:04 GMT -5 Michael said:

I was planning on using a combination of bluff, intimidate, and diplomacy to get by the group of 8-12 bandits, but since they already started attacking, there is no chance of that now.

Just to be clear, the attack on Laira was in response to her perceived attack on the toll collector. After that single attack the bandits have gone back to trying to bluff the group into paying without a fight. The bandits are ready but not attacking, so bluff, intimidate, and diplomacy are still open as options as long as someone else in the group doesn't attack. And as long as the efforts don't look like an attack.

I expect that the party will respond to the attack on Laira with force, But if they don't it won't be the first time I was surprised by the players

Harknail is following the others lead in determining if this is a fight or not, so he won't be starting the fight. His Divine Challenge does nothing unless #2 attacks someone other than Harknail.

So if you want to try to talk your way past them, go ahead. Tell them stories about how the group wiped out an entire tribe of Goblins. Tell them about how you killed a dragon. Whatever. But I suggest Laira start with a free action to restrain the others if she still wants to talk.

[Michael]

No chance.

If Lairaunwen Elereth tries to threaten the bandits again, they can make another free attack for 8 or more damage. It won't take too long to kill her this way while the party stands around not fighting. And if she responds to attacks for that kind of damage with just words, I doubt they would be stupid enough to pay them any attention.

[harknail]

As the injured party, it's Laira's call to make. Either way she can use a free action to keep high init members of the group from attacking or wasting their action not attacking (like Harknail would do).

[Michael]

Okay.

Free action:
Laira Elereth (ignoring brigand 1 who is the least important enemy since they set him up to get killed), points with her halberd to the south, and says, "Kill these ones first, since they were stupid enough to divide their forces across the river."
intimidate: 16

SPOILER: Click to show

[dice=20]+10=16.

[rand=26291054394096136709628623910248328395746508613237776486447546631]

[harknail]

Rolling init for Xi to get things going:[dice=20]+0+2=10

And the bandits: [dice=20]+3.5 = 19.5

Initiative Order
Abraxus 21
Harknail 20
Mystery man on hill 20
Bandits 19.5
Laira 10
Xi 10

A review of how initiative works in this game for those who are new here:

In order to keep the game going as smoothy as possible we use Player turn vs. Monster turn, but don't worry about initiative within a turn. The monsters use an average initiative so that they all move at once. Then the players all move in the order they post. That way we wait for the slowest player, rather than waiting for player 1, then the Gm, then player 2, then the GM, then player 3, etc.

Initiative is still important however. The monsters get a single initiative roll. In order to act at all in the first player turn you have to beat the monsters initiative. So the players always (well almost always) go first, but only those players that won in initiative get to act. Then all the monsters go. Then all the players go. Repeat till one side is out of action.

Most of the time it doesn't matter much which order the players go in. The exception is with buffs and debuffs. The way we handle those is that if following a strict inititive sequence would allow you to make use of a buff/debuff once, then you can take advantage of the buff/debuff once regardless of the order of posting. Some examples:
1)
Druid grants combat advatage till end of her next turn
Rogue uses this to do a sneak attack.
Monsters go
Rogue goes again, can no longer use Druid granted combat advantage because he already benefited from it.
2)
Rogue posts
Druid grants combat advantage till end of her next turn
Monsters goes
Druid posts first, does something esle
Rogue can still use Druids combat advantage because he hasn't benefited from it yet and normally would be able to do so.

Hope that all make sense!

Tag Abraxus, Harknail, and man on buff[rand=3807403764221817616007950855419727777548134326938788407226093113]

[harknail]

Harknail was just waiting to hear if they were still talking. When Laira said to kill the ones to the south, he was already in position. Harknail attaches his sword, than lashes out with his enchanted weapon and divine energy in a Holy Strike on the bandit next to him (#4).

SPOILER: Click to show

[dice=20]	+8=23
[dice=8]	+6+2=11

The bandit tried to avoid the blow, but ended up with a bloody gash in his side right though the leather armor.

When rolling dice, you can either use the built in dice roller (as above) or Invisible Castle's dice roller here.[rand=7604029052890837921190619468689226020167116075757612643458414823]

[namklim]

Or is he?

The Mysterious man, seeing the bandits prepare to attack, decides to lend a hand. Quickly, he stands up from his prone position. Noticing he is in prime position, decides to fire upon those closest to him first.

SPOILER: Click to show

Minor: stand Agile Recovery
Minor: declare hunter's quarry on closest target (#7)
Standard: (quick draw to pull out bow) twin strike against #7 and #9.
Against #7
13 v AC
<a href="http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2944720/">1d20+9=13</a>
for 7 damage
<a href="http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2944723/">1d10+2=7</a>

Against #9
Natural 1
<a href="http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2944722/">1d20+10=11</a>
miss

Following his two quick shots, the Mysterious man quickly falls prone again, hoping the bandits do not notice him.

SPOILER: Click to show

Free: fall prone
Stealth check of 16
<a href="http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2944725/">1d20+10=16</a>

Edit: Add action breakdown.

[similar]

Worried for the safety of those behind him Abraxus decides he had better try and hold the Northern end of the bridge. standing firm he keeps himself between the group and all the men on the northern bank.

He swings at their negotiator (#1) with his longsword

SPOILER: Click to show

[dice=20]
+9 vs AC=26

[dice=8]+4=8 damage

"Get ready with that Halberd Laira!" he cries over his shoulder.

Planning on using Vengeance is Mine on any adjacent grey opponent who hits Abraxus. Nominating Laira as the ally who also gets to attack.

Always active:
Bravura Prescence: When an ally who can see you spends an action point to make an attack, before they make the attack roll they can choose to use this feature. If the attack hits, the ally can either make a basic attack or take a move action after the attack as a free action. If the attack misses, the ally grants combat advantage to all enemies until the end of his or her next turn.[rand=8391422214698874939157156944403923985289741350725052547037288353]

[harknail]

Due to the complete surprise of popping up unexpectedly (combat advantage), the archer on the bluff hit his first target, though was trying too hard to get out of sight again and missed his second target. But his first target collapsed face down with an arrow sticking out of his back, an arrow that went right though his heart (#7 is dead).

Meanwhile Abraxus sliced the "toll collector" (#1) with a painful arm wound.

Monster turn soon

[harknail]

"They killed Keneth!" cried out the archers other target (#9). One of the bandits that had been hiding behind the fallen statue lucky enough to have been facing that way added, "There was an archer on the buff."

The "Toll Colector" (#1) issued orders, "Frink, Sem, go get the archer. The rest of you, kill these toll jumpers. We'll collect the toll from their dead bodies." Suiting action to words he shifted further onto the bridge (to K4) as he drew his mace. He then tried a Dazing strike against Abraxus, but Abraxus just knocked the blow aside with his shield (AC 8 = miss)

The other two on the north side with daggers (#2 and #3) drew and threw. The one in the trees threw another dagger at Laira, grazing her arm even though she had cover from Abraxus (Hit AC 23-2 for 7 damage). The other (#3) hit the warlord, but his dagger failed to find a chink in Abraxus's armor and bounced harmlessly off (AC 15 for miss)

On the south side the one challenged by Harknail (#4)tried his Dazing Strike on the construct, striking a ringing blow that left Harknail dazed (Hit AC 23 for 3 damage, dazed till end of #4's next turn). He then stepped out of reach of Harknail's counterattack (shift S to K8).

Taking advantage Harknail being dazed, the other dagger armed bandit to the south (#5) threw a dagger at Harknail. But though Harknail was too dazed to dodge the incoming dagger, it bounced harmlessly off his steel plated chest (Nat 1 = miss)

Back to the north those armed with clubs (#6 and #10) swarmed Abraxus though only one of them connected a solid blow (hit AC 23 for 4 damage, AC 16 = miss)

Finally Frink (#9) and Sem (#8) tried charging up the back of the buff at the archer. Only Frink was able to reach the archer, but although the archer was laying prone before him, he wasn't able to muster a blow after charging up a hill (#9 had to turn a corner to get up the buff, so double move instead of move and charge).

Current Map:

SPOILER: Click to show

Tag all