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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Skyscraper" data-source="post: 3329542" data-attributes="member: 48518">Revenge is sweetSo... the PCs fled a castle from which they managed to free a few friends, although leaving behind some other (non-player character) friends there too.Bolstered by their success (?) against their enemies and by their recent kill of the expert ranger-rogue archer that they've been hearing about and even crossing for a while, they figure that entering the castle again and freeing the last prisoners will be easy.  Man, those players <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />Before they set out in yet another trek through the castle grounds, they wisely decide that they need rest to cure their wounds and prepare some spells and re-arm themselves.  Indeed, most of their weapons have been confiscated by their enemies and are presumably still inside the castle. They do have a few spare weapons on their horses however, so the newly freed prisoners take up arms again, and they let the remainder of the night pass, and during the day they continue to rest, setting up some sentries to check what's going on around the castle from afar.  The sentries saw a few persons leaving (i was surprised that they didn't try to catch up on them), and then a few hours later several wagons and mounted soldiers too.  The enemy was leaving the castle! (Insufficient manpower to efficiently guard the place.)The PCs decide to follow the group from afar, and wait until the evening, at which point they realize that a storm is brewing.  Not any type of storm, but a sand storm!  (They're near a desert, and i've pre-rolled on which days sand storms occur.)  They decide to take "advantage" of the sand storm to attack the enemy encampment.I was almost forgetting to summarize the group composition. The PC group consist of (level 6):Thorak: male dwarf fighter (with one level of barbarian)Krapounia: female human sorceress 3-barbarian 3Yorrick: male human rogue (with one level of fighter)Milfin: male halfling cleric (new character for the player who lost the previous cleric)And one NPC:Veonia: female halfling rogue 6 (freed from the castle prisons)Their enemies, seeing the storm coming, halted their procession and tied up their horses, protecting their heads with air-permeable bags, and then put up their tents.  The PCs start out as the storm is beating down on them.At this point, it's already dark outside since the sun has just set.  Add in the sand storm, the PCs cannot see the tip of their nose, apart from the dwarf who has darkvision and who can see 5 feet away and somewhat guess what's ahead 10 feet away sometimes.  They cast magic light spells that allow some indistinct vision up to 10 feet away, although everything is under partial concealment for everyone.  Every PC tries to cover his face to minimize the effects of the sandstorm, but it has little real effect.  It is not easy to move, see, fight, talk, cast, or do anything in those conditions!So they set out against the encampment, and almost miss it as they accidentally walk by it. However, they finally manage to move back at 120° at the last minute, and come up against the other side of the camp, not knowing what it looks like. The camp is in fact composed of five carts (two larger covered ones with prisoners inside and two guards in each, and three with equipment) and four tents (two for soldiers, one for the heads, and one for the cooks and maids and servants). The horses are tethered in the middle of it all.The PCs randomly fall upon the serving staff first, and even blindly kill two of them before they realize what's going on. They then leave the other serving staff alone and continue searching for more important foes.  As they slowly make their way to the wagons, one of the cooks sets out to warn the wizard baronness and her bodyguards of what's happening.Meanwhile, the PCs find the wagons with the prisoners, and throw smoke sticks inside, getting the guards to jump out, to their quick deaths at the hands of the ambushing PCs. They then move towards the other wagons until they find another tent. (Their movement is really random as they do not see far enough.)Eventually, it's among the horses and the tents that two combats occur - the PCs having separated along the way. The dwarf and the barbarian-sorceress engage a few captains of the guards and some soldiers, while the halfling cleric, the halfling rogue and the human rogue engage the enemy cleric with some soldiers (he's a second one of their recurring enemies).  The baronness, her strong old fighter bodyguard and a couple of other soldiers are searching elsewhere for the PCs but they don't see anything either so they're out of it for a while, until they join up against the dwarf and the sorceress.The combat that then ensues is really chaotic due to the sandstorm.  Anyone moving 10 feet away from an opponent essentially disappears from his vision. Those that don't have a light source simply can't see anything. There are two casters on each side (the sorceress and the halfling cleric for the PCs, and the enemy cleric and wizard baronness on the other side) that have cast light spells on themselves, and the dwarf can see in the dark, but otherwise... complete darkness.  Then, anyone trying to cast a spell has to successfully roll a concentration check, or else the spell fails. Most casters have invested in the concentration skill, apart from the sorceress who relies mostly on her barbarian combat skills during melee anyway.  And everyone, with sand blowing in their eyes and strong winds making even movement difficult, his hindered in whatever physical action they try to undertake.  Movement is made at half speed, no running is possible, charging is out of the question, penalties are present on all attack and skill rolls... the combat becomes a missing theater!  The PCs also decide to partly unhook the tents before attacking their occupants, so two tents are flapping wildly around them as they are trying to combat their opponents, further increasing the chaos.The enemy cleric ends up being the tougher foe in this case.  His high concentration skill modifier added to lucky rolls allow him to successfully cast most of his spells (i think he had time to cast about 12-15 spells in the combat, and all but one or two were successful). One of the most dangerous spells cast was Summon Monster IV, which allowed him to conjure a Dire Wolf, quite a challenge in itself when combined with allies for three six level PCs! (It almost killed the NPC halfling rogue who tumbled away.)Meanwhile, the wizard baronness was not so lucky, having her stronger lightning bolt and empowered magic missile spells disrupted as she didn't manage to keep her concentration in the storm. That was fatal and the dwarf fighter killed her rather easily.  Her strong old fighter bodyguard eventually found himself against the wounded dwarf and sorceress, and decided to flee when the latter cast a darkness spell around them, preventing him from seeing anything.Everyone finally ganged up on the evil cleric, and they killed him.They then freed the prisoners, waited for the storm to die down and took all the wagons and horses (minus those that managed to break their tethers during the storm) back to the now abandonned castle, that they decided to make their own (ownership issues to be addressed later).  The old fighter finally joined them - he was a weak link among the enemies, the wizard baronness had been possessed into a Lost Sould and he did not like at all what she had become.Sky</blockquote>

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