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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vigwyn the Unruly" data-source="post: 1705964" data-attributes="member: 20345">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:[spoiler]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.[/spoiler]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 RoundThe 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.HardinActivates a protective ward on himself+3 bonus to next saving throw up to 1 hr from nowWith 2 rounds before minute is up:Casts divine favor on selfDrinks potion of enlarge personNow Large with space/reach 10’/10’AC 17Warhammer 2h   Atk +8   Dmg 2d6+9Warhammer 1h   Atk +8   Dmg 2d6+7While in the tunnel -4 to Atk and -4 to ACBeginning with Round 1, you have:magic weapon for 22 more roundsshield of faith for 21 more roundsbull’s strength for 20 more roundsenlarge person for 7 more roundsdivine favor for 6 more rounds, andprotective ward for almost 1 hrSlyfenOpposed checksSlyfen Move Silently 20 + 9 = 29Again, 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 youI put you just to the north of Orc 2, because the square you wanted is mostly wall, so I’m considering it an unavailable squareYour Dmg rolls with rapier will be 1d6+1 for 4 more rounds, beginning with Round 1Initiative rolls for surprise round (Slyfen, orcs, and gnolls aware):Slyfen 11 + 7 = 18Gnolls 13 + 0 = 13Orcs 12 + 0 = 12SlyfenRapier sneak attack (Orc 2 FF AC 13, Atk roll 20 + 6 = 26)Critical threat roll 8 + 6 = 14Critical Hit! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /> 19 damage (Dmg roll [2d6+2+2d6] 4 + 3 + 2 + 5 + 5 = 19) Orc 2 is deadSlyfen now visibleGnoll 1Shortbow misses (Eolan FF AC 14, Atk roll 7 + 1 = 8)Gnoll 2Shortbow hits (Eolan FF AC 14, Atk roll 17 + 1 = 18)6 damage (Dmg roll [1d6] 6) Eolan reduced to 11 hpGnoll 3Shortbow misses (Eolan FF AC 14, Atk roll 10 + 1 = 11)Orc 1Moves 20’Initiative rolls for Round 1Rufus 17 + 3 = 20 (is Guarding Belisha, will Delay until she is threatened)Slyfen 3 + 7 = 10Eolan 4 + 5 = 9 (has higher mod)Hardin 10 – 1 = 9Orc 1 8 + 0 = 8Belisha 3 + 2 = 5 (has higher mod)Gnolls 5 + 0 = 5So, I need to hear from Slyfen, Eolan, and Hardin. I will then post with the action through the orc’s turn.</blockquote>

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