RED OAK: ARCHIVE

[Woe]

I need to know if the others have started firing already, or if they wait til now, or let her sneak even further. You all have the ivy mass in your sights. Even Bruce although he's not sure how much good a throwing hammer is going to be.

"Wha?" Kilian growls. "Ye dunna know 'ow to use a crossbow? Now 'ush mate, ye need to be quiet." Kilian looks down below him, and regrets it. Climbing has never been a hobby of his, and definitely not on the back of an elf scuttling through the trees.

The archers will fire only after Tiana is above/behind the line of sight of the inside badguys -- she'll be on the opposite side and above before they lay down some distracting fire. Ideally they do it when she's almost within casting range of the fort with her web.

Freya is most likely going to be torchbearer. How far away is she from the tree?

[Longman]

Tiana scuttles to the trunk of the target climbing tree, preparing to cast her imaginary 2nd level web spell.

She then climbs up 80' and across to the fort tree, until she is 40' above the fort. Again, she makes it...

She (and the crouching dwarves in the disc) can now see the top of the fort and yes, it does have a roof. In fact it looks quite well built and extensive. Designed to live in. It wraps right around its tree, with several extensions to the east side. The ivy makes it hard to tell the layout.

Her sharp ears pick up a human voice below, saying something like: "They've gone. Relax.....This stuff will....for days."

It doesn't seem like they are looking up, right now.

[Woe]

Uh oh. How many people does Kilian guess are below?

Plan on hold in case you say "a lot"

[Longman]

At least 2 crossbow men. There could be a third guy with now bow. If there's 4 or more, they sure are being quiet. Safest bet is 2-3.

[Woe]

Ok, just wanted to make sure the fort was really a fortress and the dwarves go charging in just to find out there's a lot more of them than there are of the dwarves.



You didn't mention a trap door on the roof, or a guard. Do either exist? If there's not a trap door, the dwarves aren't sure how they're getting in beyond torpedoing through the roof.

It also seems like Tiana is now beyond any angle of observation?

Charging in really soon! Just want to make sure they live as well.

To answer your original question, the archers will fire arrows to "wake up" the baddies but take really good cover behind some hard cover (trees or a palisade... how's Tiana coming along with that?). The dwarves can dispatch the baddies when they hopefully will be caught unaware.

[Longman]

Tiana can see what she thinks is probably a roof trapdoor - just an area where the ivy on that part of the roof has been lifted up a few too many times and has gone a bit brown. The dwarves can't see the difference.

No guard on the roof. It seems you are now out of their line of sight. Tiana can still hear there them in there, whisper-chatting about what to do. This is likely a big reason why they didn't hear her coming.

[Woe]

How thick does that roof look? If it's a normal roof and not paper-thin...

CHARGE!

Dwarves draw their melee weapons, and Tiana will drop down like a spider onto her prey.* If she can land silently onto the roof, she'll do that. Otherwise, the dwarves will drop onto (or through?) the roof with her. If nothing comes up from the trapdoor, both dwarves will stand on it (haha) to make a giant immovable object for the trapdoor.

There! That should keep the baddies from escaping via the roof.

Now, it's up to those groundspeople to do something interesting. I'm guessing that the archers don't have a target, so I have an OCD question about that. At least we have half of the party in action now.

* I have no idea whether that's the right simile, but it sounds good.

[Longman]

Tiana scuttles the remaining 40...this part is through some fairly serious foliage and it was always going to be tricky.

This time they definitely hear the approach, and you can hear one of them say: "What the #@%^ is that?"

At this point, the archers go for it. Talin's arrow thunks into the fort, firing from the north side. Freya's arrow lands near to it, but doesn't strike wood and must have gone through an opening. Those descending from above can hear someone say "Hey!" as the arrow whistles into the ivy. Anna's arrow is low and hits the tree.

After that, there is some movement inside the fort as at least one of the people move over to the northern side. Tiana realizes that they must still have been concentrating on the western approach, looking out over the cleared area where they shot Talin a few moments ago.

The dwarves are now on the roof on the east side of the fort, on the trapdoor - yes, there is a trapdoor. You are now confident there are three people in the fort and that it is only one level. It goes all the way around the tree. Kilian thinks it is probably divided up into two roughly equal sized rooms but the interior walls will be quite flimsy. He also suspects one trapdoor on the eastern side, on the bottom.

Your go.

[Woe]

Ok, now comes the easy part.

Once on the roof, the dwarves change their plan. They'll hide behind the door waiting/hoping someone comes up. They'll stay very quiet though. Maybe someone will come up. Or if nobody does, they'll do something in a round or two. In a perfect world though, they'll bushwhack the first one up the ladder.

As for the archers, they'll keep up a slow and mostly useless suppression of arrows -- just enough to keep them from remembering to check the roof before they come up.

At least, that's the plan. If something comes out of either trap door, funtime! Otherwise, probably about two rounds before we go with plan B: Tiana casts her token net into the trap door room and the dwarves drop down to incapacitate whatever she catches.

[Longman]

Tiana has no 1st level spells left. She has 2 for being 2nd level plus 1 for Int. You really gotta keep track of that stuff.

Her and the dwarves are on the roof on the east side when the firing starts from the north and they can see the arrows come whipping out from behind the cover of some beech logs where the archers have located themselves.

Now that the archers know where to fire, Talin's arrow flies straight through a hole in the north side of the fort and you hear a grunting noise as someone tries to get out of the way - maybe they succeeded, maybe not. Freya's goes high and whizzes past Bruce, about 5 feet away. Anna sticks one in the boards of the fort.

Those on the roof can hear a human male voice with a southern accent - the same one that has been speaking before - call out: "There's too many! Kill her, and then we'll go." This is from the west side.

Another human male voice, sounding breathless, says: "What? You kill her, if you want it done!" This voice is from the north side, the one who just dodged Talin's arrow. You see a big hole appear in the ivy screen as he falls into it. The archers now have a pretty clear view of that window opening. Those on the roof hear a crossbow misfire, and the thud of something falling to the floor.

The "her" in question speaks up for the first time and says: "Hey! I thought I was one of you!" She seems to be in the middle of the treehouse, close to the trunk, on the east side. This means she is pretty close to the trapdoor. If you opened it and jumped down she'd be no more than 5 feet away.

She sounds scared, and not just of you.