Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

You are currently in J01 (in the smaller map, above). Each of these squares in 800 feet wide. The 'hill' icons give a rough idea of the layout of low hills in this hex. The behir lair is somewhere around K10. Tracks from the behir have been seen radiating outward in all directions from the ring of hills around there. The terrain inside that ring of hills is a bit marhsy, and contains a few poplars and willows, not just pines.

The area directly in front of you is the 'gulley' you followed before, until you decided to turn around. (It looks 800' wide, but it is in fact only about 150' wide in some places.)

The other scout, Welsley 'Warmhearth' Onxybreaker, suggests waiting in the gulley, using the bugbear carcass as bait. The beast will smell it out, he thinks. Then, you pelt it with missiles, and even drop rocks on it from higher parts of the gulley. He thinks he could rig up a decent rockfall trap.



The two Ironshield brothers think this is crazy talk. "It will smell us out, too!" they say. "We're better off attacking it while it sleeps. We can see in the dark! Maybe it cannot, which is why it hunts in daylight. Let's go in there at night!"



Everyone else waits for Chevo to make his mind up...

Meanwhile, Milly tries to concentrate on a vision that will have some bearing on the situation at hand. But instead she keeps having these strange visions as though she was looking down on the party, from up in the trees above their heads, like she did before. In one of these visions, she is pretty sure she can see a tiny violin, resting on a pine branch. She does not know what this means, and hasn't told the others yet.

(That is her deliberate casting for the day.)

"Well..." Chevo thinks hard. But when it comes down to it, he's got a little more faith in the Onyxbreaker boys, and marching into the Behir's lair sounds rightly dangerous, at least out in the open there's a chance of some of them escaping.

"Cholum and Welsley. You two advance on the gulley from a down-wind direction. Find a good spot to set up the trap. Don't take any risks, make sure someone is watching your back in case it happens to be further down wind from ye. Set up your rock slide trap. "

Once you get it set up, Toby will take the carcass' arm and make a blood trail out the gulley, maybe the thing will think the bugbear crawled in here and died. The rest of us who have missile weapons will spread out on the down wind side and open up once we loose the rock slide on the beast. "

"After a good volley the beast will probably climb up after us. We'll need to pick a spot that'll be easy to flee from, and set up an ambush at the bottom where we can surround the beast and drive our Onyx blades into it. Cholum, Welsley and Toby, go find us a good spot, then send Toby back to collect Raddus and Arntsy. Then the rest of us will set up. Milly, see if you can find the beast somehow"

Though Milly will be lost in her own world. Trying to maintain her vision. The violin will definitely have intrigued her.

This is going to end badly, isn't it?

That's possible, yes.

There is no prevailing wind. It is moving around a lot. No luck there. Tiana's vision ends. No luck there either.

But, your preparations seem OK otherwise, so I am going to say you can end up in the following situation - -

The scouts have laid a rockfall trap above the carcass, in the gulley. It will hopefully do about 5d6 damage depending on how well timed it is. Welsley needs to spring it. He has trapping as a skill.

The arm of the bugbear is about 1600' from the body, further to the north, with a blood trail leading to the body.

Everyone is waiting, hidden, about 30' uphill from the place where the body is at. This will allow close range missile fire. It will also allow the dwarves to charge in and attack straight away, as soon as the trap is spring, with higher ground advantage. (The axemen and the pikemen are far better at this than they are with missiles.) Everyone else can be using missiles in the first round. You may get a surprise round. From either your hiding place or the place where the body is at, you can run away in a number of directions if it all goes badly.

Is that OK? If so, I can let you know how long you wait around in suspense before something happens...

"listen Welsley,don't go pulling yet trap too soon! We'll need all the help we can get!" Chevo pats the dwarf on the shoulder before they get into position.

The setup sounds good. Cue suspenseful music...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQoVrFe1GZ8

After a couple more hours, everyone is starting to feel a bit impatient, slightly silly, and more than a bit hungry. No sign at all of the creature. It moves on into afternoon. The scouts are beginning to realise that like many creatures, this thing probably hunts morning and evening. When the deer are around. It's territory is also huge, so it could be anywhere around here...and there are not many signs of animals around here, only a few birds.

It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Still windy and a bit overcast.

DM deliberately ratchetting up the suspense before you go into battle with the horrible monster...

Milly has vague flickers of something moving through trees, something big, but she can't focus on them for any longer than a second at a time. She cannot see where it is.

(You sitting tight or changing plan?)

"trees..." Milly whispers hoarsely to whoever is nearby and can hear her. "It's in the trees!"

Im assuming there are trees pretty much everywhere? The dwarfs who hear her will get nervous and watch the trees, trying to stay quiet in case the trap still works... They will try and pass the message on by whispers if they are hiding near enough to each other (hopefully they aren't).

Indeed, trees all about. Not a helpful flash, and nothing she can lock onto either. Still, the word goes around that the thing might be near.

More time passes. Then, around five o'clock in the afternoon, a roaring sound is heard coming from further down the gulley. Welsley thinks it is in the exact location of where you left the bugbear arm.

At this stage no one is sure what is making this noise but you can't think of any animal big enough to do it. If Welsley is right, it is a full 800' away. It is echoing along the gulley. The wind is from the north, at this present time.

Thann pales noticeably at the sound from the north. When he catches that one of the nearby Dwarves notice his discomfort, he puts on a strong face and whispers: "Enjoy the free meal beast. It is to be your last..." He scowls as anxious sweat drips down his forehead.

Welsley flexes his hand around the trap trigger in anticipation - One job - he thinks to himself.

Cholum will mutter a quick prayer to the Very True God that the winds are in their favour at the moment, then buckle down, waiting for the mayhem that is forthcoming.


Good choice on the suspense music btw, I was in bed with my tablet last night so couldn't enjoy it or risk waking my wife up, but I'm catching up on the tension now

The growling noise stops.

Silence falls on the gulley.

After a few minutes, Welsley (who is rolling well today) thinks he can hear something moving towards you. But it isn't down in the gulley. It is up the hillside, higher than your current level, and on your side of the gulley. He thinks it is 400 feet away, roughly.

If it comes upon you from there, the rockfall will fail, and you will lose higher ground advantage.

"Damn it all!" Welsley whispers hoarsely. "Be ready, it might be slipping up the high ground." He'll then indicate to anyone who may have heard to be quiet... Maybe they'll get lucky.