GREYHAWK CY 576: GREAT LEGENDS RETOLD -- CAMPAIGN THREAD

[Tellerian Hawke]

You follow the animal handler about 150 yards to the southwest, and you can see that there is a corral area, with a crude, wooden fence, where 4 other horses (besides the 12 that he is leading) are kept. The handler is very tall and stout; he wears simple, hide armor, and carries a large, one-handed club, as well as two, short javelins in a quick-draw rig on his back.

GM: DM INSTRUCTIONS: Ok, Sphynx, make a Hide check and a Move Silently check, and post the results in LINE chat.

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

AMBUSH!

GM: Sphynx: Hide: 18, Move Sil: 18. Nomad's detection: Listen: 21, Spot: 15. Wisdom check: 6 (fail.)

Sphynx, judging by the fact that the Nomad animal handler followed the brush trail to the corral, you estimate that he will also follow it back, out of habit. You locate a good ambush point, and move into position.

You manage to move into position without being seen, but at the last second, just as you move out of his field of vision, you step on a small twig. The "snap" is not sharp, but rather, muted, because the twig is old and rotten. The Nomad's sharp ears notice the noise, but his attention shifts to the opposite side of the trail; he has apparently mis-judged the direction that the sound came from. He carefully slides one of his javelins out of the back rig.

Nomad (Speaking in Eryptian): "Come, come, my furry little friend, show yourself. You'll make a fine addition to the stew pot."

The Nomad creeps down the trail, looking on the opposite side, apparently expecting the source of the noise to be a small animal. He is completely unaware of you. He passes directly in front of you, at a distance of less than 5 feet!

GM: Surprise Round: Sphynx, go ahead and state your intentions and list your attack rolls. Your opponent is unaware, surprised, and flat-footed, and is therefore subject to Sneak Attack.

 

[MacConnell]

With his best chance of causing physical harm being to throw a dart, Sphynx launches one at his unaware opponent, hoping for the best.

OOC: Attack: d20+4 = 19, DG: d4 = 2, sneak: d6 = 4

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

Meanwhile, back at the mouth of the ravine...

Hawke approaches the far end of the ravine, quietly making his way up the gentle slope, so as to be able to peek into the cave.

GM: Hide: 10, Move Silent: 23; Track 19.

Although there aren't any convenient landmarks to use as cover to hide behind, it is a moot point, since there is no sentry at the mouth of the cave. Hawke approaches, silent as death, thanks to training he received growing up from his mother. ~"You'll make an excellent scout one day,"~ she once told him.

As Hawke gets closer to the mouth of Cave #11, he can see many tracks, not booted, but rather, sandals, the wooden kind, judging from the way they smoothly displaced the dirt. Hawke estimates there are tracks from at least 30 different sets of sandals here, many being a few days old, but 12 of them being fresh. Hawke's guess is that 12 people left on the raiding party; and from following the Nomads since, he knew for sure that 4 of them had died in the skirmish.

Hawke muses inwardly, ~Hmmm. Only 4 died, taking out a patrol of 20 men. The patrol had the advantage, but the Nomads came out on top. These are veteran warriors, to be sure. Caution should be taken.~

Hawke quietly pads back to where Nimbar is hiding, near the mouth of the ravine, and relays the information. Nimbar nods.

Nimbar comments, "Now we wait for Sphynx. I hope that he can handle himself. That animal handler looked pretty sturdy."

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

GM: Nomad's AC: Normal: 14, Flat-footed: 13. Sphynx's attack roll: 19 (hits.) Damage: 2+4 (+1 PB Range) = 7 pts. total. The Nomad is significantly injured.

Your dart flies true, despite not having enough distance to tumble. It strikes the nomad in the upper right shoulder, and sinks into the fleshy part. The Nomad lets out a surprised grunt, which is not loud enough to attract attention. As he turns to face you, he winces in pain. His javelin drops from his hand, due to the pain now shooting through his arm!

GM: INITIATIVE ROLLS: Nomad: 15 Sphynx: 26

The Surprise Round is over! IT IS NOW SPHYNX'S TURN!

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

GM: Posting on behalf of Sphynx, who submitted his rolls and intentions in LINE chat.

Sphynx throws another dart at the Nomad, nearly killing him!

GM: Attack roll: (18) hit. Sneak attack still applies, since opponent is still flat-footed. Damage: 4+4 (+1 PB Range) = 9 pts. total. The Nomad has taken 16 points of damage in total; he is CRITICALLY INJURED!

Now that the Nomad is facing Sphynx, it is an easy matter to bury the next dart in the small of the Nomad's throat!

The Nomad gurgles in surprise, unable to scream. By some miracle, however, he is still standing! You are impressed by his tenacity; instead of fleeing, he brings his club to bear with his left hand, swinging ferociously!

GM: Attack Roll: 1d20+7; (4) + 7 = 11 (Miss.)

In his desperation, the Nomad swings wide, missing Sphynx completely. Though he is an experienced warrior, he was not prepared for someone of equal skill to get the drop on him. And he certainly wasn't prepared for such a ruthless and methodical opponent!

SPHYNX: It's your turn! What do you do?

 

[MacConnell]

Sphynx draws his dagger with his right hand. He curls his left like cupping a stone, turns it palm up, and points his first two fingers of the hand at the Nomad. A streak of light flies from the hand into the enemy.

OOC: cast magic missile: d4+1 = 3

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

GM: The Nomad has taken a total of 19 points of damage; the Nomad is Disabled!

The Nomad falls to his knees, as if the wind had been knocked out of him. He places his hands in front of him, and begins crawling on all fours toward the part of the trail that leads back to the ravine. Though he is near death, his will is unbroken. He is trying to warn the others, despite his critical condition. His determination is admirable, perhaps even a bit astonishing. Yet, he is almost completely helpless; dispatching him would be easy at this point.

SPHYNX: What do you do?

 

[MacConnell]

"No. No." Sphynx Whispers. "Your friends cannot know of us yet."

Sphynx walks up on the man and pushes his dagger into the spot where the skull meets with the spine, offering an instant death. He then attempts to drag the man into the brush to hide his remains. He will exsanguinate him if he has to in order to make moving him possible. He will then calmly approach the mounts and open their corral, hopefully without spooking them. He then slips away to join his friends, allowing the mounts to wander away on their own.

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

Back To The Party

It is an easy matter to drag the dead Nomad into the bushes. After letting the animals loose, it is a matter of less than a minute to rejoin the party.

Upon seeing Sphynx return, Hawke says: "I assume that your meeting with the handler went well? I followed the others, they're in that cave over there, way across the other side of the ravine. It's despicable that they are living here like this, among the monstrous kin, murdering and raiding indiscriminately. They are not men; they have no honor, and no moral core. Please tell me that you were able to kill your target. These cretins do not deserve to live. We should see to it that they are all put to the sword."

Nimbar says, "If we can wait a day, I could memorize more sleep spells, and we might have a chance to take out many of them very quickly."

Hawke adds, "If you want to re-memorize, we should either leave, or hole up in the empty Ogre cave; the handler will be missed soon, and when they find him, they will probably scour the area for intruders."

SPHYNX: What are your thoughts?

 

[MacConnell]

Sphynx smiles at his taller friend. "He's dead. It was not a once and done situation, but I his the body after the deed. I loosed the mounts from their corral. We will likely see them wandering around, which is going to make the nomads suspicious."

He switches his gaze to Nimbar, then back to Hawke. "We can take the day. Let's hole up in the ogre cave. I had to spend a spell on that bandit. We need to keep an eye on the nomad's activity, too. If they split off into smaller groups, we should lay into one when convenient for us to do so."

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

Hiding Out In Plain Sight

The party makes their way to the Ogre cave without being spotted. The cave is of an unusual shape, which is to the party's advantage. Until a person is almost completely inside the mouth of the cave, they cannot see very much of the interior. Hawke suggests a 2 rest / 1 guard rotation, in the positions noted. Everyone agrees to the wisdom of the plan.

Spoiler: Map of the Ogre Cave

The green dashes indicate the field of view that someone coming into the cave would have; until a person actually gets all the way into the cave, they will not be able to see the party members.

The red R's indicate the position that resting members will take.

The red G indicates the position that the guard will take.

The yellow S indicates the position of the secret door which leads back into the Goblin area.

There is much tree cover in front of the Ogre's cave on the outside, so aside from the cave being hard to see into, it is also well-hidden in the first place. If the denizens of this place do not yet know of the Ogre's demise, then it is doubtful that they will come anywhere near the cave to begin with.

The party is able to rest a full 24 hours undisturbed. During the rest period, shouts of Human voices speaking in Eryptian can be heard nearby, as the missing tribesman and the loose horses are discovered. The voices are far away, and their exact conversation is hard to discern.

GM: Sphynx, if you'd like to try, make a Listen check, and tell me what DC you make.

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

An Overheard Conversation

GM: Sphynx's roll = 16 (success.)

A Man's Voice (Speaking in Eryptian): "Grethek has vanished. Vode and Dorek are out looking for him. The horses got loose as well. It will probably take a few hours to round them all up again. Hopefully, most of them will just come back on their own when they get hungry. But the newer horses aren't used to being fed yet, so they will constitute the majority of the problem."

Another Man's Voice (Eryptian): "The Priest Mother will not be pleased when she hears about this. She'll blame us, because Grethek's our little brother, and it's our responsibility to keep him in line."

First Man: "Maybe we can blame the Kobolds. Those little cretins are the least cooperative out of all the Priest Mother's allies. She knows that they can't be completely trusted. If she blames them, it will give us the excuse to go and kill them. I like those swords they use; they're the perfect size for a brush knife, and they keep a clean edge."

Both men laugh greedily at the thought of depriving their Kobold allies of both their lives and their equipment.

SPHYNX: Your Thoughts?

 

[MacConnell]

Sphynx translates in a still, quiet voice what he hears from the men who are speaking. "If the opportunity presents itself, I would like to see if we could eliminate those other two who are out looking for the one I already killed."

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

GM: Since this thread was so "young" I went ahead and edited all the posts with SBLOCKs in them, changing them to SPOILER. But unlike the old forum, I am unable to edit your posts, @MacConnell so you will need to edit your own posts by yourself.

 

[MacConnell]

OOC: Looks like l can make a post from this wonderful new device a great friend purchased for me.

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

Sphynx, it quickly becomes obvious that the two tribesmen who went to look for their missing kinsman have probably traveled far past where you killed him; they probably failed to notice his body, hidden in the bushes, and went further in that direction, heading away from the ravine.

After explaining this to your comrades, Nimbar says:

Nimbar: "We should go back near the corral, and wait for them. When they return from their scouting, their guard will be at its lowest as they are approaching the perceived safety of their home. I think we could deal with two of them quite quickly. What say you?"

Hawke nods, "I'm in. I'll drop on one of them (the one on the right) from a hidden perch above, and at the same time, you two should rush out from the bushes, and attack from the left."

SPHYNX: Do you go along with the plan?

 

[MacConnell]

Nimbar: "We should go back near the corral, ... What say you?"

Hawke nods, "I'm in. ..."

Sphynx rolls his bottom lip under his upper teeth and nods twice. “That sounds like a good plan. I’m all for it.”

He then looks for a good place to conceal himself for the ambush.

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

GM: Wendol: Listen: 19, Spot: 19 Conditions: 1d6 Rounds To Prepare Ambush: (Roll = 6) (The PCs receive a +6 bonus to Hide/Move rolls) Hawke: Move: 17+6 = 23; Hide: 25+6 = 31 Nimbar: Move: 13+6 = 19; Hide: 22+6 = 28 Sphyx: Move: 25+6 = 31 Hide: 22+6 = 28 Wendol WIS Check (Tied Listen Roll): (Vs. DC 15): 19, 11 One makes it, one fails. ONE OF THE WENDOL IS COMPLETELY SURPRISED AND WILL NOT ACT IN THE FIRST ROUND; THE OTHER WILL ROLL INITIATIVE NORMALLY.

The ambush is prepared perfectly; all of the party members are nearly invisible among the surrounding foliage; no one is making a sound, and all is ready.

At the last moment, as the two Wendol tribesmen are coming into view, Nimbar shifts his weight, preparing to spring up; the sound is very subtle, and almost imperceptible, except for the fact that the woods are almost completely silent. Both of the Wendol register the noise, although it seems that only one of them realizes the danger. As the ambush is sprung, the alert Wendol is moving to defend himself.

GM: SURPRISE ROUND INITIATIVE: Sphynx: 24 Nimbar: 18 Wendol #2: 13 Hawke: 10

SPHYNX: You anticipated such an event; these tribesmen are very aware, but you have the advantage of speed! You will strike first, while both of them are still flat-footed! What do you do?

 

[Tellerian Hawke]

GM: SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION: A = Ambush site.