(Casual D&D III) The Man in Black

Raven nods at the Rogue, and follows him upstairs, his face like a mask, not showing any emotion at the grim task at hand. Faugh, this is murder, not battle. Poor basterds. They'll never know what hit' em. Better them then us I guess.

Move silently 12+6=18
Hide 12+16=28

(Not clear on the intended chronology of these actions, so I'm going to assume they occur pretty much simultaneously...)

Oliver and Raven make their way upstairs unhindered... They find the orcs sleeping in separate rooms, and encounter no trouble in dispatching them silently. (I went ahead and rolled, since there was only a small chance of anything going wrong, and you ended up well outside any margin for failure...)

--

As Nurthk opens the door to the cellar and heads down, he sees through the darkness (a darkness substantial enough to hinder the others, were they to come) two orcs: One lightly armored, pacing about the center of the room with a short blade on his belt; the other, a large fellow with a scarred face and a pale gleaming glass eye, sitting on a crate, with an exotic-looking double-axe propped against the wall beside him. The latter wears a breastplate painted in orcish design... Faux orcish design, it seems -- the orcish-looking tags and symbols have no real meaning.

Both react to the door opening: "Thurgash?" the leader calls out -- not an orcish word, probably a name.

--

Meanwhile, Hiritus mis-step seems to draw attention from the others. You can hear voices of mild alarm and movement from the room at the back of the house; out front, it appears that the orc you can see through the window is being alerted of something from the other.

You have only a moment to react before he turns around; to hide, to move, to attack, or what have you.

Shavah remains outside the back window at Tatlock's side.

Hmph, wonder what his story is, an orc wearing fake stuff? Pity that one of us will probably end up dead, I wouldn't mind knowing.

Nurthk gives no response to the orcs' enquiries, creeping down the stairs to locate the girl.

Hide: 22
Move Silently: 14
Listen: 20
Spot: 17

As Hiritus attempts to hide himself from the orcs in the front room, Fendric readies Silence to cast at the first orc to spot them.

OoC: I am back, posted in all of my DMed games. I will read this entire thread tomorrow after i wake (I work late nights, remember) and post then.

IG


Niccolo comes to from his reverie, shaking his hea to clear his thoughts. It seems as if he had been in a coma of sorts, like all the World had been outside of whatever bubble he was caught up in. Well, things were aright now.

(Edit: Welcome back Uriel! It's good to have you here again... Short version of the situation is, some orcs have the mayor's daughter hostage in a town you're passing through, and you're heroically going to kill them all. And try to not get the girl killed. That should cover things for now.)

Nurthk heads down the stairs, managing to step aside just in time to let the other Orc up the stairs, to investigate. As he reaches the top, he looks out: "Ranzic?" You can hear footsteps from the room on top of the stairs, but they go silent before any response is given. Between two stacks of crates, you can see the girl you've come here for: Bound, gagged, and wearing miscellaneous minor wounds, she lies on the ground, apparently unconscious.

As Hiritus dives behind a chair, Fendric can hear those same footsteps -- after some chatter, it sounds as if only one of them has come out to investigate. Meanwhile, the front door opens, as the front orcs head in to investigate...

(Surprise Roundish thing) Fendric drops his silence upon the frontmost orc, as Hiritus attempts to remain hidden. (The others are collectively out of range to react to the same thing Fendric is reacting to; they become aware of the situation about the same time the orcs do, effectively at the start of regular combat.)

(Roll initiatives... Orc initiative is 21, so I'll assume they come first... If anyone rolls higher, feel free to backtrack.)

Both orcs attempt to call out something, seeming a bit surprised at the silence, but not so much that they don't attack... One steps past his silenced ally, taking a shot at Fendric with his longbow (Attack 19, Damage 8), while the other simply drops his bow, and steps forward to attack -- perhaps still too startled by the silence to judge properly, as his attack is placed several feet short of his actual target. (Fumble.)

Meanwhile, the orc from the back room comes in the side door, and surveys the situation.

Nurthk can see that the orc at the top of the cellar stairs is attempting to call something down to his leader, but he is utterly silenced. The stair orc's gestures don't indicate too much concern, but still wary, the large orc stands and grabs for his double-axe.

(Initiative order:

21 Orcs
20 Oliver
14 Shavah
11 Raven
11 Hiritus
9 Aerda
8 Tatlock
1 Fendric
? Niccolo
? Nurthk

Map attached.)

OoC: I came back toENWorld and rolled....a 3.
:|

Initiative is a 6.

Surpise Round: Nurthk creeps over in front of the unconscious girl (square above), and waits for the nearby orc to make a move.

Init: 13

Round One: If an orc moves adjacent to Nurthk before his action (if the one just up the stairs comes back down priority goes to whoever is adjacent to the girl), he will make a full attack action on his turn. If the nearby orc doesn't move, or Nurthk acts first, he will take a 5 foot step to get between the nearby orc and the girl, then make a full attack action.

(+2 to hit for being invisible and bull's strength already factored in)

Attack 1: 15 (damage: 7)
Attack 2: 31 (damage: 5)
Attack 3: 20 (damage: 14)
Attack 4: 14 (damage: 8)

Hiritus: Init 11, AC 17, HP 37/37; longsword (mw) atk +9, dmg d8+2

[Minor note, in case it helps: I think the basement radius of F.'s silence should be one more square 'up'; i.e., the square Nurthk occupies should be fully under the radius of effect, as well as the square Nurthk has indicated he's moving to. If the stairs to the basement are fully within the radius (as indicated on the ground floor of the map), they should also be within the radius as indicated on the basement.]

Hiritus marches up, longsword drawn, to the orc still wielding the bow, and drawing upon the Power of the Holy Radiance, attempts to smite him. [Attack: 11 +9 +2 (opponent w/ ranged weapon) = 22; Damage: 10 (woohoo!) +8 (Smite Evil) = 18.]

Raven takes a 5' step ending at the top of the stairs, shooting an arrow down at the orc standing on the carpet, if he's within sight and stuff. If not, then he'll follow Oliver down the stairs untill he can get a shot at any enemies.



(12+9=21 dmg 7+3=10)