RED OAK: Return to the Pass of the Hounds

[Longman]

Abigall replies - I don't know for sure. Two or three maybe, and a wolf. But it ran off! Then she scoots up onto the roof.

Kilian shoots a bugbear and misses!
Talin shoots a bugbear and misses, narrowly!
Bruce throws at a goblin and hits, thank Christ. It takes damage but it not dead.

I think the dice are telling us that five people shooting weapons in a small tower with a dodgy floor, is really not ideal.

One of the bugbears gets itself free and runs out of the compound the way all the others came. The other is still stuck. The two goblins are stuck fast and calling out in goblinish in hideous pitiful voices.

Please lose all those bolts and arrows - and the ones from down below as well. This is important.

Tiana can act. Either she can cast again, or reload the other crossbow.

Next round you win int again. You have two hopelessly trapped goblins that you will kill eventually - one is already injured. You have one remaining bugbear that will probably free itself within the next 4 rounds, given law of averages.

Everything else has gone quiet and you can't see where the rest have gone.

[Woe]

Is the fleeing bugbear out of sight? If not, the ones with the best chances will shoot at the fleeing bugbear (in the back yes I know!) and the others will shoot at the entangled bugbear. Otherwise, everyone shoots at the entangled bugbear.

If it's ok with you, I'll take care of arrows at the end of combat. I have bunches right now and shouldn't run out before the end of combat, unless it turns into a two day siege.

[Longman]

According to the rules, you get a full go and then they do. So the bugbear runs at 60' and is totally out of sight by the time you can fire again. Just the way it is.

Freya shoots the trapped bugbear and hits for 1.
Talin hits the trapped bugbear and hits for 2.
Bruce is now 'reload guy' as his crossbow doesn't work and he doesn't want to throw any more hammers out the tower window. He reloads.
Kilian fires out Bruce's window to the south, and hits for 3.
Anna fires and gets a nat 20 and then a 19 as follow up roll. That's double damage (12). It dies with Anna's arrow in it's throat.

Tiana is assumed to have reloaded last round.

I'll post my critical rules later on today.

You now have 2 goblins entirely at your mercy and let's not bother rolling for those. The combat is basically over if you stay in the tower and just shoot them.

The question is, what do you do? If you want your arrows you'll have to go fetch them. Bruce has only one functional hammer left, and his xbow is damaged from before.

[Woe]

Yes, the party has decided this is too hot to rest right now, especially with Freya tending her wounds. The party will pack up and look to go elsewhere to hole up for a few days. Hopefully the goblins will stay away as well. How unnerving was Fido's yelling? Was it gump-grade shrieking?

A bit of gruesomeness: after dispatching the goblins, Kilian will behead everything all and stick the heads in highly visible locations. The bodies can rot. What tribes do the goblins belong to?

Tiana and the NPCs will gather the arrows they can from the encounter, as well as Bruce's hammer (half ok?). They will also search the slain.

The torch didn't look to be too far away. Freya and Talin will head over there, because they both want to what was the torchbearer. They won't want to track it, but they do want to know whether they can determine the type of creature. Their suspicion is nisha (weasel or human). ed: oh wait, I think you may have said they know it's a goblin. I'm phone right now; if it was confirmed as a goblin, ignore this part.

Someone will always be on watch. It will vary based on what's happening in the camp. Ideally it's an elf (less often surprised) but think of it more random unless you want to figure out how long the various actions take. I'm hoping it doesn't matter.

Did that lone tower look to be defensible? Was it sturdier? I'm torn between being trapped in the tower and being trapped underground. Kilian has stories about dwarves from Moria who were trapped underground and the whole tribe was slaughtered. Freya starts to talk about some elves besieged in a tower, but Tiana cuts her off with a quick shake of her head. It's worthless to argue with a dwarf.

There's some irony there, the dwarf not wanting to be trapped underground. I'll claim it's about defensiveness and not subterraneophobia.

[Woe]

Aha. You did say goblin torchbearer. Ignore the part about Tallin and Freya.

[Longman]

The combat is basically over if you stay in the tower and just shoot them.

This means if you go outside the tower, we might still be in combat. It's pretty quiet out there but you never know...

I'm going to say you bead arrows on the stuck goblins for a round and dispatch them easily. Freya and Talin, lose another arrow each. They are dead.

But after that, I need to actually play exiting the tower. The main exit is to the east, but there are also holes in the walls of the ground floor that Kilian has barricaded a bit - or there is the northern arch on the 2nd floor, which is also partly barricaded. You think the north is fairly safe - safer than west, for sure.

How do you exit? Who goes where?

[Woe]

The sharp eyes with darkvision (elves+dwarves) will look east and north. Do they see anything? Abigall will scan west. The humans can pack.

What's lurking in the trees?

[Longman]

Anna hears nothing.
Freya hears some rustling sound over to the east across the moat, maybe movement of some kind. You can't see what it is, it's too far away.
Tiana is aware of some movement and noise from the west, maybe over behind the walls at E12 and F12 (where they ran away).
Talin can hear that too, but nothing to the south.
Bruce, Abigall, and Kilian can hear nothing at all.


You are packed.
It's very quiet now, and seriously dark. The little 15' wide room is quite crowded. All that happened on Bruce and Kilian's watch. I estimate the time to be about 3.30 or 4 am. Light in a few hours.

[Woe]

I've lost track and you can probably answer this quickly -- how far from the tower opening to the wizard-locked door?

[Longman]

Down to the 1st floor - about 4 rounds for the whole party, taking into account getting the dog down, and the bad climbers. Or moving the ladder, which would still be the same length of time.

Then out the eastern door to the stairs - 10 feet. Easy.

Or you could go out the north archway, run on the bastion where the dead goblin is at, and then though into the ruins of the main tower. About 3 rounds for all of you. More likely to be seen from the north and east, doing that.