Pre-combat Primer
At the sound of the beating leathery wings, Cruendithas slides off his horse and yells a warning to all around him. In a moment of fight or flight, he looks to the rooftop and begins to cast a spell. Meanwhile, having heard his warning (and the screaming in the background), Mystie and Wahyu both beginning casting spells of their own, Hawk, Joren and Jonas all dismount as quickly as possible, and Dunkels merry tune finally comes to an end as he realizes that something is amiss.
Suddenly, over a dozen small, reddish insect creatures come flying over and between the buildings, held aloft by leathery wings and kicking up dust over the rooftops as they fly. Their most notable feature is a long, nasty looking proboscis which looks like it could easily drive several inches into a victim. A blob of acid flies from Cruendithas' outstretched hand and splats into the one of the leading creatures, burning it, but not stopping it. Judging from the way it eyes him, it's thinking gnome is what's for dinner.
Already agitated, the 3 animals in the stable directly to your left (large birds with a powerful looking beaks) cry out in pain as several of the flying monsters flit inside with ease and stab in their feathery victims. Additionally, the screaming of whomever it was that tried to alert the compound to the danger continues, and perhaps another stablehand is there as well--it's hard to tell.
[sblock=Notes]Still taking initiative rolls. Remember, your individual rolls merely contribute to the group effort--it's going to be group initiative. Dunkel has already supplied his intention for the next round, and I'm inclined to let him go first of the players since he lost the preparation round entirely due to the bad perception check. And… I think you'll all be happier with a Bless spell. I'll also include the (crappy) map so you can get a feel for what the layout is.
Notes:
(1) There are 4 'bays' in the stable with the large, flightless birds. The empty bay is furthest to the East, close to Mystie and Hawk. All the monsters currently noted on the map are in front of, or over, that building--once they have cleared it I can put in the giant birds and the little monsters inside.
(2) Players and Bubba are blue, Equines are Grey, Monsters are Red. Monsters are numbered, whereas players are lettered with the first letter of the character's first name. Exceptions: JP=Jonas, JS=Joren, M/B=Mystie/Bubba.
(3) There are a LOT of little monsters out there, and you're hearing the entire complex rise to the emergency, which lots of shouting and animals carrying on. We're going to focus on you guys, naturally, as you are the center of my little world.
(4) Cruendithas: There isn't a lot of room for options in a reserve action, so I gave you: Dismount, and ready attack for first leathery winged monster over the lip of the building. I hope that preserves the spirit of your initial reaction best while making best use of your full round Round 0 action. By the way, you hit for 3 pts. Considering their size, that's not easy--touch AC is high.
(5) The swarm mechanic is *not* in play, no matter what mechanically illiterate NPCs would have you believe. These are individual monsters.
(6) I'm not really playing the third dimension, unless the monsters try to escape or something like that. You can assume that they come down to melee distance right as they clear the building.
(7) The monsters are Tiny creatures, so we're gonna be seeing players and critters in the same square.
(8) As near as I can tell, nobody has drawn a weapon yet. Let me know if this is not correct for your character.
Questions? Just ask. I ran out of things to say.[/sblock]
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