Adventure:-- LPNN (Manzanita Judging)

two · Jun 22, 2005

skirmish 2

After huddling and discussion, the party agrees to continue making for the rising slope/hill that is now about 400 feet away.

The party also agrees with Vargo’s scheme to “run” and surround, if possible, a ratman or two, stopping them from leaving if at all possible.

The party collectively girds their loins (even Juliana!) and heads forward, into the dark forest.

After about 100 feet, there are two more twangings, of the sort that the party has grown very tired of dealing with.

(Refer to attachment for graphic).

This time, like last time, the RatMen lean around a tree and squeeze off their shots. Everyone has cover, naturally, but only Almayce sees their shadowy forms via low-light vision.

1: Ogrin
2: Rasereit
3: Vargo
4: Wolf
5: Hallidor
6: Juliana
7: Zaeryl
8: Almayce

This time it’s Raz and Zaeryl who inherit shots. Rat rolls are “8” and “2”. “2” is a clear miss. “8” managed to hit his flatfooted -- NOPE sorry this misses too, due to the +4 cover bonus. My bad. Raz missed.

Rat initiative is rolled for round1 of skirmish2. “15” and “18”, i.e. 18/21.

The only party member that can match this is the wolf, who goes before both. The wolf huln bares his teeth and wants to charge, but can’t. Too many trees. So runs over and gets up close and personal to a rat. However the rats retreat into the night at the start of round1, disappearing from the party’s view (including the wolf).

“These ratmen are bothing me,” Hallidor states matter-of-factly, “anyone up for a good old-fashioned sprint through the darkened forest making for yonder hill? If we all run, maybe they won’t keep pegging us. Quite as often.”

{note that by the rules, run is a straight line; you can't easily surround something on all sides when using the run action}

Bront · Jun 22, 2005

"I think a good sprint would be the thing to do"

OOC: Figures someone's interested in Juliana's loins

And I think we were thinking more of a double move than a true run given the terrain.

Xael · Jun 22, 2005

"Sure, let's go.", Almayce says and immediately cheats by climbing to the back of his horse, having no intention to start doing something as exhausting as running. He wont ride ahead of others though, and instead tries to stay as middle of the group as possible.

two · Jun 22, 2005

Double moving through the woods -- and a critial hit. PC down.

The party double moves through the woods, in an attempt to ward off further Ratman Attacks. You manage to go 40' a round, the speed of your slowest double-mover (Ogrin).

To cover the distance (350') it takes about 10 rounds, given some slow-up in the dark and adjustment towards the objective.

Due to the party's speed, the ratmen are somewhat at a disadvantage; they can't do their normal thing every other round, and get in only 1d3 attacks before the party reaches the rise.

"2" attacks, as it turns out, aiming for:

1: Ogrin
2: Rasereit
3: Vargo
4: Wolf
5: Hallidor
6: Juliana
7: Zaeryl
8: Almayce

6/8/6/1, or Juliana, Almayce, Juliana, and Ogrin.

Attack rolls are: 10/9/20/12 -- all missing except for the natural "20" and the attack on low -AC Almayce. Almayce takes 2 points of damage.

Is the attack on Juliana a crit? "14". Juliana's AC is 16. Uh oh.

Juliana takes "9" points of damage, dropping her just below zero given the previous damage.

When this happened the party was within 50 feet of the hill, which now rises up before the party.

It's time for the well-documented "defensible hill position quality" roll. Meaning, you found a nice hill, but what are its defensible qualities? Given that you have a Druid with excellent outdoorsy skills, you get +9 to the determination roll -- meaning, the druid will find them if they are there, most likely. However, what's there to begin with? High rolls are better.

The roll.... is... a.... "19". Holy Christ you got lucky.

Ok looks like I'll have to cook up a "hill graphic". Next post in a bit.

(refer to http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=&u=LPNN&limit=on for roll details as usual).

two · Jun 22, 2005

Boothill

The hill does rise rather sharply, and Vargo manages to notice – just manages – the projections of solid rock rising up above the ground near the middle and top of the hill. The forest trees are quite thick at the base of the hill, not having been cleared much for cultivation anytime in the distant past, but the trees as the slope increases are much smaller; the soil is bad, and likely water isn’t as plentiful. Near the top, where there is more rock than soil, only scrub bush and grasses grow (unpictured).

The hill rises a total of 50’ or so; the party is currently at the bottom of the hill with an unconscious Juliana to deal with, and RatMen rustling around in the forest.

The blobs in the graphic (in the middle) are the projections of rock. Between them is a crevasse between 3 and 7 feet deep; it varies somewhat. The precise center of the hill, surrounded by rocks, is lower than the rocks which rise above it by 4-6 feet on average.

The tallest part of any rock projection is about 10’ above the soil; the lowest point of one of the rocks is just at soil level, i.e. even with the soil level. The rocks are of varying height, obviously.

Hallidor states, as he views the hill, "Wow. I wasn't too sure about this late-night jaunt, but you certainly know your stuff!" -- with quite an admiring tone.

(it's a little like the picture, but with more scrubby shrubs and less broad)

Sorry, should have added this originally: WHAT DOES THE PARTY DO, Post-Haste?

Xael · Jun 22, 2005

Almayce uses his casts Cure Light Wounds from his wand at Juliana as soon as he has the opportunity, healing 7 points of damage. "Good, this should even the odds a little. Let's go.", he says as they arrive at the hill.

Bront · Jun 22, 2005

Julian nods to Almayce and quickly gets back up and moving. She manages to get out a "Thanks"

two · Jun 23, 2005

What is the party gonig to do, individually and collectively?

The party runs, stumbles, and on-the-doubles it up the hill and between the series of rocks which, together, afford both cover and concealment. With some effort, the party members (not the horses) are able to wedge more-or-less comfortably into the cracks, either standing or sitting upon the grass and brambles that grow there.

Behind you, you are aware of the RatMan in the forest, who seem to be circling…but not at a particularly close range. The night is otherwise silent, dark, and full of those woodsy smells that might otherwise accompany a pleasant and uneventful sleep-beneath-the-stars. Not in this case, alas.

The party has nearly an hour of this sort of time with which to heal themselves, talk, ponder, and do whatever it is they wish to do. It’s currently, roughly, 2:15am in the morning, and the first light of dawn is sill 2 hours off at least.

{Party does stuff, let me know if there is something specific desired}.

About an hour later, members on watch hear a curious sound. A distant chittering call is heard, roughly 600 feet away. Then suddenly two chittering calls answer, from much closer, one on either side of your hill (Boot Hill I’m terming it). The distant cry is repeated, but closer this time; the RatMen surrounding Boot Hill answer once again with abrupt screeches. This happens three times.

Then there is, again, silence. For a little while. Silence that is broken in a none-too-subtle way.

From about 200 feet away, you hear, dimly but distinctly, the following conversation being held in Ratish (a debased variant of Verminish).

[Loud, angry voice]: “Blah blah blah… blah BLAH BLAH BLAH”

[Softer appeasing Ratman response]: “Blah Bl…”

[Louder, more angry voice]: “Blah BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH blah BLAH.”

[Softer appeasing Ratman response]: “Blah Blah blah BLAH…”

[Very loud, very irritated voice]: “BLAH BLAH BLAH @#!@#!@#!!!@! BLAAAAH!”

The latter said in the same tone of aggravated resignation which a harried and harassed mother uses after her child fails to do what is asked, and mutters angrily, “If you wanna do something right, I guess you gotta do it yourself.”

The conversation stops at that point, and rustlings are heard in the forest.

The moon now is visible to all; the cloud cover seems to have blown away. Across the lunar face, dark shapes flit; bats, probably, chasing night insects. There must be a lot of the insects around, because there seem to be a marked increase in the number of shapes flitting about in the air. In fact, now that the party members are paying attention to it, there is a very significant number of bats spinning around in the air above Boot Hill; what were taken at first to be hundreds might in fact be thousands. They spin in a circle, clockwise, swirling around the circumference of the hill’s base, flying en masse, their squeaking high-pitched cries far above your ear’s range of hearing, except for occasional bursts of sound: dry wood scraping dry wood under high pressure. Their wings, beating the air, together create a whirring noise, like the sound trees make in the late Autumn when a wind rattles through their branches and shake their dry, withered leaves. The flying speed of the bats, if anything, seems to be increasing in speed, even as the radius decreases; they are flying in a tighter and tighter circle, perhaps better yet described as a spiral, the point of origin (or terminus) of the spiral being, roughly, the position of the party huddled between the rocks.

Around the hill, three shadowy ratty shapes can be seen detaching themselves from the edge of the forest and, moving from rock to rock, making their way up Boot Hill.

Xael · Jun 23, 2005

"So, their boss came over and now there's three of them.", Almayce mubles. "I think it's about time we killed them. No sense in holding back, if they all die, then they all die, but with luck one of them will live and we can ask some questions. Start shooting if you can, but we have a nice position here, and no reason to abandon it.", he continues. *Yet at least. What are those bats doing?*

Almayce tries to find as much cover as possible, and unless someone objects, tries to shoot at one of the ratmen with his crossbow (preferably when they're not in cover).

OOC: Light Crossbow +2 Ranged (1d8/19-20), Range Increment 80ft.

two · Jun 23, 2005

Please place your PC's on this map; I just plopped them down randomly, but you can move them where you want before anything "real" happens.

(describe where you want them, what you want their first/second actions to be given likely upcoming melee)

Note that the rocks block line-of-sight unless your PC is on top of the rock.

RL = RatMan leader, R1 and R2 you already are acquainted with.

Also please specify the type and size and number of your lighting sources.

Adventure:-- LPNN (Manzanita Judging)

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