"Maybe we should catch one of them? Not to have tea with them, but to find out more about what that nasty bugbear leader is doing by making everyone thirsty. Is he wanting a ransom?" says Belisha. She notes that the dwarf looks much stockier than before.
Slyfen gets out his potion of invisibility and an oil of magic weapon. He opens the bottles, and sneaks back into the beginning of the cave, near to where he listened before. When he gets there, he drinks his potion of invisibility.
For Slyfen’s eyes only. The rest of you can read it when you reach the chamber.
You then draw your rapier and, rapier and oil in hands and signal whistle at your lips, you sneak around the corner to check out what is beyond. As you move around the corner, you see another stretch of tunnel, about 45’ long. What little light there is rapidly diminishes down this tunnel, which curves back to the right at the end. You creep down to the end of this hallway, then taking a deep breath, turn the corner. The tunnel continues on for another 10’ before opening into a large room in near total darkness. Sneaking to the opening, you can just make out that the room is approximately oval, 50’ long and 35’ wide. About 10’ in front of you, someone has constructed a low, loose stone wall. It is about 4’ tall and 5’ wide; it spans the room, leaving only a 5’ opening between each end and the cave walls.
More disturbing, however, are the creatures you see taking cover behind the low wall. To the far left and right, near the ends of the wall, stand 2 green orcs. They have unkempt black hair and are wearing dirt-smeared, garish red studded leather armor. Each carries a falchion. Between them, kneeling behind the low wall, are 2 gnolls in leather armor. Each has a shortbow with an arrow nocked. You hear a short bark of a whisper that appears to be coming from the gnolls’ area, but is in a language you don’t understand. And for some reason, though they are all clearly expecting something to come through the entrance, the gnolls seem more frightened than the orcs.
After Slyfen uses his potion of invisibility, the rest of the party gets to work. Eolan, straps his shield to his back, then lights a torch. Carrying the torch in his off hand, he draws his sword and takes up a spot at the entrance to the cave. Right behind him stands Hardin. The dwarf gives his everburning torch to Belisha, who accepts it graciously and takes up the rear with her dog. Hardin then gets out a potion of enlarge person and prepares to start casting spells on himself for the anticipated fight ahead. He begins with bull’s strength and shield of faith. With personal strength and protection granted from his deity, he then turns to his weapon. After a quick prayer to Moradin, the finely crafted warhammer takes on a soft blue glow. He grins to the others, saving divine favor and the potion until just prior to entry.
It has now been about 30 seconds since Slyfen disappeared, and the party waits anxiously in the heat, hoping the next 30 seconds pass without the sound of Slyfen’s signal whistle.
OOC Notes:
Hardin, beginning now, you will have 30 rounds of magic weapon left, 29 rounds of shield of faith left, and 28 rounds of bull’s strength left
Vigwyn only for now: Slyfen creeps forward, trying to avoid making any sound. He moves very deliberately and slowly. (moving at 1/2 speed over a full round, moves N, N, N, E, N, NW, which should put him just past the opening in the wall.) If undetected after that, he continues by taking a 5' step N and applying the oil to his weapon very carefully (he'll use a full round to do it if that helps to keep it quiet. He then waits there hidden unless he can see more in the room in which case he might do something else. If nothing happens, he will wait there until his friends come into view and then sneak attack the orc he is next to.
Two things: First, I'd like to quickly use my protection domain power (which I forgot about) to give me +3 to all saves for an hour.
Second, when there's only 10 seconds left before the minute is up, Hardin will cast the spell (standard action, round 1) then drink the potion (standard action, round 2) so that he can head in as soon as the minute's up.
Hardin, once again calls on his deity’s power and activates a protective ward on himself. This power should help him avoid the next danger he faces in the next hour.
Belisha and Eolan wait patiently, if nervously, as the seconds tick by.
Slyfen only until later in the post:
As you move forward you are given a momentary start. After moving only five feet, you see that there is a third gnoll behind the wall. It is crouched very low behind the wall, but is now in view as you are closer. That must have been where the barked whisper came from a moment ago. After giving your heart a moment to slow back down, you carefully creep around the end of the wall. You then stand to the north of the closest ogre, and prepare to oil your rapier. You take one last look at him before you make the attempt. His chest rises and falls with shallow, fearful breathing. You can smell the fetid sweat trickling down his green skin. You begin to pour the oil onto the rapier. Your hear a noise and your heart races! Looking up you see that no one is alerted to your presence—it was simply the creaking of one of the gnolls’ bow strings. You finish the application, and carefully slip the empty vial inside your clothing so it won’t become visible.
In retrospect, you decide that this group must have heard the noise of the battle outside and lain in wait for you and your comrades.
You study the orc’s back for a few seconds, and raise your rapier so that it will strike the vile creature’s black heart when you bury it there. Thus poised, you await your friends. Long seconds stretch by before they come. They are preceded by their torchlight. You momentarily worry that you will be seen in the light. Then you remember that you are invisible in any amount of light—and, these beasts can see in the dark any way. As the light brightens with your friends' approach, the orcs shift busily on their feet, and the gnolls draw their strings back to fire. All they need is a target. You briefly consider blowing your whistle to warn the rest of the party. But that would merely alert this band of brigands to your presence, and bring your friends charging even more recklessly into this danger. You hold your ground and wait.
After waiting another quarter of a minute, Hardin casts divine favor on himself, girding himself with the wisdom and strength of Moradin for the expected battle. Finally, with only seconds left before the minute is up, he gulps down a potion of enlarge person. He rapidly doubles in size, and now rivals the recently defeated ogre in stature and surpasses him in presence.
With the designated minute up, the party heads into the cave entrance. However, they are slowed by Hardin’s newly massive body, which he has to squeeze through the narrow tunnel. He must position himself awkwardly, and they all hope that he makes it out of the tunnel before facing any opponents. However, with Slyfen waiting on them, they forge ahead.
Making it to the bend, they turn the corner to the left. To their surprise, they are confronted with another length of corridor, this one longer. Doing their best to hurry to the battle, they move down this section as well. At the corner, they pause long enough to take a deep breath in their guttering torchlight, and lunge around the corner! As soon as Eolan makes it around the bend, he is beset by the enemy.
Please go back and read all of the blacked out text from the past couple of days now to get up to speed on the situation. Also, check out the maps. Note that the green bars represent a 5’ opening between the low stone wall and the walls of the cave. Both squares connected by each bar are considered open.
Surprise Round
The first thing the knight notices is a scream of agony from the right hand end of the low stone wall. There, over the wall, an orc is falling dead at Slyfen’s feet. Slyfen smiles, as he pulls his bloody rapier from the orc’s lifeless body. Eolan barely has a chance to notice this as three arrows whiz toward him! They have been loosed by the gnolls kneeling behind the wall. One flies astray, and one is thankfully stopped by his chain shirt just under his ribcage above his left hip. But the third lands with a thwunk! in his left shoulder. Of even more immediate concern, another orc bears down on him from the left, falchion raised!
OOC Notes:
To simplify and speed combat, when you have more than one opponent, I will make one initiative roll to count for all of the opponents that have the same initiative modifier.
It took Eolan, Hardin, Belisha, and Rufus about 3 rounds to get to where they are when the surprise round started.
Hardin
Activates a protective ward on himself
+3 bonus to next saving throw up to 1 hr from now
With 2 rounds before minute is up:
Casts divine favor on self
Drinks potion of enlarge person
Now Large with space/reach 10’/10’
AC 17
Warhammer 2h Atk +8 Dmg 2d6+9
Warhammer 1h Atk +8 Dmg 2d6+7
While in the tunnel -4 to Atk and -4 to AC
Beginning with Round 1, you have: magic weapon for 22 more rounds shield of faith for 21 more rounds bull’s strength for 20 more rounds enlarge person for 7 more rounds divine favor for 6 more rounds, and protective ward for almost 1 hr
Slyfen
Opposed checks
Slyfen Move Silently 20 + 9 = 29
Again, no point in rolling Listen checks!
Gnoll 3’s Hide check last post was 20 + 0 + 2 = 22; as your distance decreased, he became visible to you
I put you just to the north of Orc 2, because the square you wanted is mostly wall, so I’m considering it an unavailable square
Your Dmg rolls with rapier will be 1d6+1 for 4 more rounds, beginning with Round 1
Belisha gasps in surprise at Hardin's sudden enlargement. She wonders if she should try some of that stuff herself, but thinks 'Naaaah'. She prepares to cast a Summon Monster II spell behind the Gnolls...
