Erudisia’s blast goes wide, blasting another tree limb above the rat-man. Airy contemplations (yes?), the horse, whinnies in terror as the limb cracks like a shot, and Rat-man only barely manages to drive the beast out of the tree limb’s path as it drops with a “Whoosh!” over Bell’s lit stone, throwing jagged shadows everywhere. But rat-man kicks and the paltry leaps ahead, and rat-man reaches out and grabs the floating headband from the Unseen Servant. “I’ll take that, pall-i-o!!”

But now, Little One also sees the headband.

“THAT MINE!!!”

He shoves Bell and Meredith out of the way to be able to reach the rider, picking up the fallen tree limb if he reaches it.

(Bell & Meredith: please roll Athletics or Acrobatics vs Little One’s STR roll of 17 to avoid being knocked into the side wall of the enclosure for 3HP damage. You can choose to automatically fail and be knocked aside. In that case you are shoved out of the way, and can roll Acrobatics vs DC 17 to avoid taking the damage.)

Bell will take the shove... after all, she was busy firing her magic missiles.  Now, as for being acrobatic... ?   {game log} Acrobatics:  10

Little One's sweeping of an arm sends Bell boots over hair pins; tumbling backward into the wall of the overhang.   She spends a moment thanking the Gods that she had her Arcane Ward - which took the brunt of the damage from being shoved by an ogre into a rock wall.    Taking a deep breath, Bell gets back on her feet and looks to Erudisia...

Acrobatics- 10

Meredith gets knocked down by Little Ones passage and hits the ground with a painful thump...

She yells out to the panicking horse, in a screaming whinny. 

 Speak with Animals is still up.  Animal Handling- 5

(OOC: All, roll Nature to identify rat-man as a wererat)

Bell’s Magic Missiles strike the rat-man, to his astonishment, and he yelps in pain, gnashing his teeth. Meredith commands the horse to stop, and it turns to look at her with one crazed eye. “ARE YOU CRAZY, THE OGRE’S GONNA EAT ME!!,” the horse whinnies in response, bucking and kicking. Little One now stands immediately in front of the horse, grasping a huge fallen tree limb like a club.

(It is Erudisia’s turn, then rat-man, then Little One.)

Bell - Nature Check:  A Nat freaking 1 + 3    == 4              Just bite me now and get it over.

Erudisia barely has time to think. She sees the Rat-man on his saddle. Little One standing tall, log-club in hand. Her palfrey. The Rat-man’s whiskers are frozen in the moment, his human fingers curled around the reins. 

Nature: 10

She thinks only of action, not reaction. Consequences are for after. 

Another Eldritch Blast flies from her fingers toward the Rat-man. 

‘Pull at the reins, away from Little One,’ she commands her servant. 

Action: Eldritch Blast, Attack Roll - 10. Uses heroic inspiration. Reroll - 12. 

Damage: 15 (13 force, 2 Thunder).

Bonus action: commands Unseen Servant  

No movement. 

Erudisia's spell drills into the bandit, making a clap of thunder that rocks the little clearing, shaking old twigs and seeds from the trees above which rain down dryly. But by the time they fall to earth, they are raining upon rat-man lying straight out on his back, for Erudisia has blasted him out of the saddle to crash to the ground. But not before, at the moment  of impact, his arms flailed, throwing the Headband of Intellect high in the air where it twirls among the branches and loosened twigs, the light of Bell’s illuminated stone flickering upon it, before it drops again, directly into Meredith’s hands.

Rat-man has plummeted down through Erudisia’s unseen servant, which pulls uselessly at Airy Contemplations’ dropped lead rope. Uselessly, for the palfrey rears up, whinnying, terrorized, and kicking. 

From the ground, rat-man moans, “Rats! There’ll be no bread for me after all, my disloyal pall-i-os!” Before your eyes, he changes shape from a rat-man into a giant rat and darts out of the clearing, into the underbrush, following his better-fed companions.

Airy Contemplations’ kick misses Little One. The horse now turns, heedlessly, and at a gallop leaps away across the clearing, dragging the hapless unseen servant with it, a storm pulling a light breeze in its wake.

But the ogre’s rage has only just awakened. “MINE!!,” shouts Little One, and he grabs at the Headband of Intellect. (STR vs. STR opposed check. He rolls 18. Does Meredith put up a fight?)

Whether or not he is able to take it, Little One glowers at Bell, Meredith, and Erudisia. Some light of recognition seems to tamp down his rage, but it is a battle of equals. He raises the tree limb single-handed, as if to bat at all three with a single massive strike, but instead, he roars fearsomely.

(Erudisia identifies rat-man as a Wererat. PCs may now take turns in any order.)

If Bell can get in a parting farewell to the giant rat - Mind Sliver      1 pt psychic dmg

and with that, her shoulders drop and she heaves a huge sigh to let go of the pent up stress she held.

Meredith does not resist at all allowing Little One his crown....she waits for the blow to come....looking up at Little One.

Erudisia watches as the Wererat disappears, but chooses not to fire a parting gift toward it. The sentence would not match the crime. 

If she is able to, before the servant reaches 60 feet from her, she commands it: ‘We are not mummers. Slapstick is beneath you. To me, if you have had your fun.’

”Little One, be calm. You are safe now. You are yourself. Put your headband on and let us carry on together. We are your true friends!”

The wererat in giant rat form squeaks in pain at Bell’s parting shot, but continues to rustle away through the underbrush and is gone in another moment. 

Erudisia’s horse continues its flight from the clearing, and you can hear its hooves when it finds the road, clattering into the distance.

Little One’s heavy breathing slows a notch as Erudisia speaks to him. The tree branch lowers a few degrees. Snorting, he places the headband on his head, and in just a moment, the intelligence returns to his eyes and he pulls his slack, angry features into a civilized frown.

“Oh no. I am sorry. Thank you.”

He turns in horror to Meredith and Bell and falls over himself trying to see to their comfort. He is rather devastated and apologetic. “That too easy. Need to make theft harder…,” he ponders.

The rest of the night passes without incident.

(Erudisia’s horse is not lost forever. If someone wishes to track it with a Survival roll, that may not be too difficult).

(Just thinking, Little One has presumably large ogre nostrils. Is he quite good at catching a scent and general ogre-adjacent survival skills? If not, I imagine neither Belle nor Meredith are any better than Erudisia?) 

Quote from NycrolB >>

(Just thinking, Little One has presumably large ogre nostrils. Is he quite good at catching a scent and general ogre-adjacent survival skills? If not, I imagine neither Belle nor Meredith are any better than Erudisia?) 

 (It seems that natural selection among ogres has left them with little need to sniff out prey or enemies. Little One is often the last to notice scents, changes in weather, or other things that humans and elves hold dear among survival skills.)

(Incredibly reasonable of Ogre-kind.) 

Erudisia casts Gust to draw the leaves back and allow a moment of still wind to her ears as she listens closely and looks for track or scent of her mount. She is not sure exactly what anything other than a shod hoof mark may tell her, nor the smell of her horse or how to account for wind. But, she had seen her elder brother and sister do this sort of thing from time to time, and perhaps it was simple.

Survival: 19!

Bell reaches out and pats Little One's massive hand.  "This was not any fault of yours, Little One.   It was all mine.  I fell asleep on watch which let those rats and their leader walk freely into camp and steal your headband.  All that followed is on me." 

She looks about at her friends, "I am sorry. I failed as a watch guard and protector.  I swear, it will not happen again."

Meredith smiled wanly at Bell, " I was no better and I cannot promise it won't happen again.....we need to get a watch-beast.....like a crag cat or an ocelot......or a displacer beast!  No......probably not a displacer beast.......tressym? Lynx?"

" I should really do a study on rodents....those giant rats were actually quite nice considering their rather abusive home life..."

The following morning, Erudisia locates her palfrey, which had fled a mile northward up the Coast Way before stopping to graze upon wild celery beside the road. It responds and accepts its saddle without complaint. If anything, it seems to credit Erudisia with its morning meal, blowing cheerfully. The group makes good time throughout the day, clear skies and a warming sun brightening spirits after the night’s surprises.

It is late in the afternoon when road traffic increases with merchant carts and lone riders running errands or carrying missives, as the party passes through several miles of cultivated farmlands and woods rolling easily over the coastal hills which completely cover the land up to the River Chionthar. Soon, under wheeling gulls calling from the skies, you reach Rivington, the first outskirt of Baldur’s Gate itself, the only neighborhood of the city on the south shore of the river. Cresting a ridge within the town, you look down to the causeway to the Wyrm’s Crossing -- a tall, arched bridge over the River Chionthar – over which the Coast Way passes before circling around a tall mound or hill on the far shore, then turning toward the sea until it strikes the Basilisk Gate from the east. From this vantage point, you look across the river and down to the great port, famously covered in fog most days, but today, unlike most days offering of itself a clear view as the river water sparkles blindingly under the light of the sun, hanging low in the western sky.

And there it is. Baldur’s Gate, the Halfway to Everywhere. One of the largest metropolises and city-states on the Sword Coast within the greater Western Heartlands.

It is a crowded city of commerce and opportunity, and one of the most prosperous and influential merchant cities on the western coast of Faerûn. Despite its long-standing presence as a neutral power, the leaders of Baldur's Gate are known members of the Lords' Alliance, a force for good as you understand it. The strong peace-keeping force known as the Watch, along with the presence of the powerful Flaming Fists mercenary company, is said to keep the city generally peaceful and safe. This inherent sense of security allows the Gate to keep a tolerant and welcoming attitude towards outsiders, whether they are wealthy merchants, poor refugees or the less-scrupulous individuals such as pirates and smugglers whose machinations the fog famously conceals.

(Do you want to do anything in particular before crossing the river and approaching the city proper?)

(I guess I kind of forgot/forget that Baldur’s Gate 3 is Baldur’s Gate. How closely might geography/citizens cleave to that alternate universe? Should we fight the temptation to pretend things are in places, or lean in to it?) 

(I haven’t played the game, so I’m sorry to say it will not play a role in this telling except insofar as it has influenced the Forgotten Realms Wiki.)