As the town guard get themselves prepared, the caravan folk do so as well. The two carts and the wagon are drawn into a wide, rough circle, and the animals are unhitched and placed in the center of the vehicles and made to lie down. The traders who are noncombatants grab their shields and kneel or sit down behind their respective carts and wagon (the half-elves behind their wagon and the dwarves behind one cart each), using them as cover.
As she stands with arms folded, waiting for the party to exchange as many of their weapons as they need to, Kaylessa begins explaining the scenario to everyone. "The premise a' this trainin' exercise is simple enough. Since Goblins are cowards who don't like ta attack anyone without th' advantage a' numbers, a dozen a' our fine patrollin' friends have agreed ta 'ambush' us at 'camp'." she states, gesturing towards the guard, who are spreading out to surround the mock "camp" from two opposite sides. "Now, as ya might be thinkin', due ta th' sheer numbers we'll be bringin' along, quite a few ne'er do wells will likely give us a wide berth on account a' not wanting ta be involved in a tangle with eleven armed an' armored travelers, many a' which have the look a' knowin' how ta use their arms. On th' flip-side, any a' the ones who still DO attack us however will likely outnumber us or fancy themselves skilled fighters, or even have somethin' that they consider enough a' an advantage to risk tanglin' with a group our size, such as traps an' th' element a' surprise. Perhaps even a pet owlbear or th' like." Kaylessa continues explaining.
She pauses for a moment to make sure everyone's keeping up before speaking up again. "Thankfully for us in this particular exercise, our fine friends will also be simulatin' traditional goblin cowardice as well. Only half a' them will come in at first, an' th' other half will wait ta see how they're doin'. Once th' first group's mostly done in, th' second will come in and join th' fight too." Kaylessa says, looking from face to face to check to see if everyone is paying attention. "Now in th' wild, if there really were a dozen goblins attackin' in two waves, if ya took down th' first group fast an' hard enough, the second would probably scamper off an' flee out a' fear, but for th' sake a' challenge, our guardsfolk will all stick with th' plan an' keep attackin' until they're all 'downed' or we are. Better ta sweat in peace than bleed in war, eh?" she concludes, shrugging slightly at the last statement.
Kaylessa stops at that point, then turns to walk to the area with the racks full of practice weapons, and exchanges her twin shortswords (of apparently Dwarven make and decoration) for wooden ones, and her quivers of live arrows for blunt training ones. She places her real weapons on an empty table placed for that purpose and saunters back to where the party is when everyone's done preparing. After a moment, she speaks up again. "Rules are simple. We all use trainin' weapons an' spells that don't hurt too much, an' if ya get a solid hit on a guard, they're out. If any a' us get three solid hits on us however, we'll be marked as out, which accounts for th' difference in skill between us an' lowly bandits. Any questions?" she asks, idly pulling out a practice arrow to inspect it.
(OOC: Part 2 / 2, Part 1 is on the previous page. Basically, for this combat, damage doesn't need to be rolled, and only hits need to be counted for both players and NPC's. Also - sorry for the long posts, I just realized after finishing that it's probably getting to be a bit much, and I'll make sure to make them shorter and more to the point in the future.)
Thurgar snapped a solute back to Kaylessa almost out of reflex. It seemed some of the old days still flowed in his blood. It was the unquestioning way that one was expected to accept the hierarchy that left a bad taste in his mouth, but he would be lying if he said he did not miss the camaraderie that military life offered.
The corner of his eye managed to catch Durgan leaning in to whisper to young Oria, but his ears could barely make out the words as there was too much other noise around. He guessed it was about him, though he couldn't imagine why. In Thurgar's experience, women typically ignored him, and even if they took an interested stance, he preferred the ladies with a bit more hair on their chins, as a rule. Oria and her brother had asked where he lived earlier, and he had mumbled some non-committal response about being in the general area. In truth, even at his slightly more experienced age, Thurgar was still a bit nervous around women outside of the battlefield, though on the battlefield, he was happy to have them as they tended to be just as fierce and cunning as any foe he'd ever faced. Not wanting to be rude a second time, he smiled and nodded briefly at Oria before turning his attention back to Kaylessa.
Once Kaylessa had finished explaining the rules of scrimmage, Thurgar moved quickly to the table, to place his identical handaxes and sling bullets on the table. It felt a little strange to part with his favored weapons, but he was in trusted company and let the feeling slide. Moving to the racks, he began checking over the selection of handaxes, looking for mock weapons that would come as close to the heft of his own. Weight and balance were important factors in anything with an edge. After muttering to himself about a matching pair of faux handaxes that would do, he took a bag of soft rubber sling bullets. They wouldn't be breaking any bones, but were certainly enough to leave a smarting bruise. Moving into position, he readied his sling and kept the handaxe's loose in their belt loops. Standing on the side of the attack, with a wagon for partial cover, he figured he would likely get one or two shots off with the sling before needing melee weapons.
Initiative: 4
Action Summery
Reaction: Attentiveness
Move: Position near the wagons with partial cover
Free action: ready sling and rubber bullet
Action: none
Bonus Action: none
OOC: I thought I would experiment with better formatting for combat posts while we do the mock battle, so apologies if this changes until I get something that "flows" a bit more for easy reading. If anyone has any ideas about how to use the formatting tools, or a better way to arrange things, let me know!
Edit: Cripes, that initiative roll. Anyway, I just threw that out there in case you needed it, Arcel. If not, just ignore it.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Rolling her eyes at the further delay, Umbra impatiently waits until the guards arrive and Kalyessa explains the rules. She then exchanges her rapier with two pairs of wooden daggers. No point in taking a weapon that does much damage, if all it took was a hit. No point in exploiting weakpoints either. Or flanking together with her team mates. This was just a huge waste of time. For them and the guards. Umbra halfheartedly moves into position and lets out a sigh. "Let's just get this over with."
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
DMG/HP: 0/17 | AC: 15 | PP : 15
Not wanting to give up his staff, which was already wooden an blunt, Aldarin gathers some cloth and wraps it tightly around the end of the weapon. Then he settles himself among the wagons, as if they were setting up camp for the night, but with an alert ear for any robbers or bandits.
Initiative: 12
Donutbeard: I'm shameless stealing your damage counter in the top right corner. That's a cool idea.
"Yes, this should be quite fun!" Belview walks over to the table and sets down a pair of daggers, he then picks up a pair of wooden ones and tests their weight with a couple of swings. He then puts them in their sheaths and grabs his quarterstaff. He then opens his spell book to go over his spells and come up with a plan of action. He walks to the middle of the makeshift arena, while still looking at his book."Ah, I've got it!" He begins to start a spell and his staff begins to glow a deep purple. He touches his hand to his chest and energy flows across his body. (Mage Armor) At the same time, he traces an arcane symbol in the air, it hangs in the air and stays floating around Belview. "There we are, hopefully this helps!"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
HP: 20/20 | AC: 18 | PP: 13
Jim is now full on teeth-chattering shivering as you hear under his breath he begins to mutter: "Not again. Not again. Not again. Not again..." However as his compatriots arm themselves the amulet and gauntlets he's wearing suddenly glow as once again he goes rigid, only to twirl his staff around and bang it on his shield, his face utterly blank. Suddenly he shouts in a strange, almost-Jim voice: "COMBAT MODE ENGAGED. TRIGGERING ATTACK AND DEFENSIVE PROTOCOLS." His head then begins to swivel around, pointedly looking for danger.
Initiative: 19
OOC: Since everyone seems to be joining on this, why not (although I like the descending amount of HP vs. ascending, it's just how I've been playing ;-) )
EDIT: Welp, a decent way to start out combat Jim I guess...
(OOC: The HP on the infobar is great, but for this first tutorial mission, we'll be using 3 "hits" for the party an 1 "hit" for the guards. Also, I'd like to try putting that info on the upper left or middle for readability if that's alright with everyone. My eyes tend to gloss over the information if it's on the upper-right)
After everyone gets situated near the wagon circle, Kaylessa raises her right hand in a signal to the leader of the guards and nods, and in return, the bow-carrying leader (who looks to be a thin, male human or half-elf) returns the signal and nods right back at her. Around the perimeter of the clearing, a group of other guardsmen and women carrying shields but no weapons have set themselves up as "judges" and motion with their free hands that they're ready to call out good hits as they see them if there are any disputes.
The guards actually participating in the fighting have decorated their helmets and armor with various leaves and twigs (which look like they were scavenged right off the ground) to mark themselves as "Goblins" and have surrounded the "camp" from 2 sides from the east and the west in a sort of pincer attack. Each side has 2 guards with spear and shield in the front, and a shortbow holding guard further back providing cover fire. The spear guardsare fairly close, roughly 30 feet away, but the archersare further back, almost 75 feet away from the carts and wagons. Thankfully the clearing is fairly wide, and none of the guards have cover.
"Everyone's ready. GO!" What looks to be the head "judge" (a white-haired elven man in armored robes) shouts, announcing the start of the war game.
(OOC: if you're okay with having your attacks / actions redirected towards the closest enemy if another player or allied NPC takes out your target, feel free to post out of order, and I'll resolve the action when your turn comes up on the initiative table. Merrok's first so I'll handle his action in the next post)
Edit: Rough Diagram of the battlefield (I'm looking into mapping software to model fights, but haven't committed to anything yet. Let me know if you have suggestions)
<W> - Wagons
S - Spear Guards (2 on each side)
B - Bow Guards (1 on each side)
B S <W> S B
Note: If you want to use the wagon / carts as cover, for the purposes of this fight, they count as Half Cover, and provide +2 to AC (from ranged attacks) and Dexterity Saving Throws.
Merrok, strangely enough, has actually centered himself in FRONT of one of the carts facing the western group of guards. He adjusts his helmet, a steel spangenhelm with a built-in combination visor/nose guard, and sullenly readies a large wooden shield and handaxe as he waits for the signal to start. The dwarf sighs deeply right before the signal to start is yelled, but nonetheless bolts quickly into action and hurls his hatchet at one of the spear and shield wielding mock "goblins" and then runs right towards them while drawing a larger wooden battleaxe.
Move: 25 ft towards Spear Guards
Action: Hand Axe Throw
BonusAction: None
Reaction: None
(Attack Roll - Hand Axe: 9 )
(OOC Note: "HA" in the header stands for "Heroic Action", Merrok and Kaylessa always have 0, Players start with 1, and get an additional one every ten rounds after the first (11, 21, etc.) you can add it to your own headers if you want. If you need a refresher on what these are, you can check page 1)
The spearman targeted by Merrok looks shocked at the speed of the attack, and frantically lifts his shield to cover his face as he suddenly sees the wooden axe flying towards him, but it narrowly goes past the edge of the wooden bulwark and nails him cleanly on the shoulder. He winces a little, but dutifully raises his hand slowly and calls out.
"Hit! I'm out!" he shouts, then turns away to jog off of the battlefield. On the way out, he picks up Merrok's thrown axe with his good hand, and returns it to the weapon racks on the side. Further away, the judges nod their agreement with his call, and say nothing.
Noticing that Merrok seems to have one side covered, the strange version of Jim leaps into action as it makes the quick calculation that in a pincer attack both sides need to be defended. With that the human moves with a speed and strength that was clearly not present in any of the interactions any of you have had with him in the past. Then with a quick, fluid motion he raises his quarterstaff over one of the "goblins" and brings it down with a strength that would most surely knock said "goblin" unconscious, but suddenly the glow from his equipment momentarily falters as the quarterstaff stops right over what probably would've resulted in the guard being knocked out. You hear a feeble: "Th-This... is... a-a... mock... battle." As then the glow resumes as the staff simply comes down with a meager *tap*.
Move: 30 ft. towards the opposite group of spear guards to try and draw fire from the other archers.
Action: Quarterstaff attack, let's spend a heroic action, why not (usin' cool new homebrew rulez).
"AGH!" the slightly elven looking woman Jim is attacking yelps in surprise. She fumbles, and brings her spear up in a vain attempt to parry, but stabs the air where the man's quarterstaff WAS, while the staff itself comes down swiftly towards her head, then suddenly stops and taps her helmet instead.
The woman drops to her knees, wide-eyed, but limply raises her spear-hand into the air to signal the judges despite her shock. "...it's a hit. I'm done." she half-mumbles dejectedly, acknowledging that it was a good blow that was just pulled at the last second rather than just a simple weak tap. Noting that his partner spoke too softly for everyone to hear, the other spear-wielding guard shouts, "Hit! Toranna's out!" out to the crowd, loudly enough for the judges to hear.
As Toranna trudges off the field, some of the onlookers start whispering amongst themsleves, and the judges exchange a few words as well. "...doing better than I thought. 2 for 2, and in SECONDS." someone says. In the center of the wagons, Kaylessa sharply raises an eyebrow in surprise, practically staring at Jim, but saying nothing for now.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Seeing Jim and Merrok take out the front guards, Belview decides to close in on the bowmen. He runs over to the wagon to attempt to gain some cover. As he is running, he begins to make arcane gestures with his hands, and his staff glows a deep blue. Upon reaching the wagon, a ray of energy flies towards a bowman. (Ray of Frost) He aims for the feet, not wanting to do to much damage, but still wanting to get the hit.
From the cover of the wagons, Aldarin utters a phrase to himself, and the unicorn totem around his neck appears to glow a faint green. Then, reaching out with his quarterstaff, a vine shoots out from the end of the weapon, 30 feet at the nearest spear guard. Where you might expect such a vine to be interspersed with thorns, this one seems smooth, and the vine is malleable, allowing for as little damage as possible to be done to the target. A slight variation that Aldarin was able to speak into the spell.
Umbra runs towards the remaining spear guard. Before reaching him however, she shoots one of her daggers at the last archer. Then she closes in, ducks under the spear and uses her other dagger to stab the guard in the chest.
(OOC: I'm assuming the two remaining guards are on the same side, if not i'll just attack the archer)
Move: 30ft towards the guard.
Action: Heroic action: Throwing a dagger at the archer
Bonus Action: Melee Attack with dagger at the spear guard: 18
Thurgar dropped a fresh bullet into his sling, having fumbled loading the first. He wanted to blame the strange weight of the toy weapons for throwing him off, but he knew too well that his skill had gotten rusty. With the battle nearly over, and Thurgar's pride being the only real injury, he let fly a rubber bullet it hopes that it would strike true at one of the incoming reinforcements that seemed to be raring to go.
OOC: I am genuinely not sure if the reinforcements are starting to come in or not, and thus do not have a precise target since, as far as I can tell, the first wave is down. If anyone wants to clarify, let me know and I will edit the post accordingly.
(OOC: Just a quick note everyone. Had to go to the Eye Doctor today and get my pupils dilated. Can't see straight, and I won't be able to update this combat for a while or post in Sunless Citadel. I'll update all the combat, but it'll just be delayed)
(OOC: Just a quick note everyone. Had to go to the Eye Doctor today and get my pupils dilated. Can't see straight, and I won't be able to update this combat for a while or post in Sunless Citadel. I'll update all the combat, but it'll just be delayed)
(OOC: Thanks, I'm good now. Let me start running through this combat in Initiative Order... which oddly enough, everyone followed -exactly- this time)
Initiative 17
What looks like an elven bowman far off to the west is kneeling down, in the middle of knocking an arrow when he suddenly shivers, jumping to his feet in shock as he feels something cold hit his boot. He looks up just in time to see Belviewquickly dash back into cover before anyone can do anything about it, and then slowly raises his right hand, still holding the un-launched practice arrow. "...solid hit, I'm out." he can be barely heard calling out from the distance. The bowman takes a moment to shake his foot out and rub his boot a bit before walking back into the audience, apparently having decided to return his practice items later.
Update:
_ SM <W> JS B
2 spearmen (one on each side) and west bowman out.
As the town guard get themselves prepared, the caravan folk do so as well. The two carts and the wagon are drawn into a wide, rough circle, and the animals are unhitched and placed in the center of the vehicles and made to lie down. The traders who are noncombatants grab their shields and kneel or sit down behind their respective carts and wagon (the half-elves behind their wagon and the dwarves behind one cart each), using them as cover.
As she stands with arms folded, waiting for the party to exchange as many of their weapons as they need to, Kaylessa begins explaining the scenario to everyone. "The premise a' this trainin' exercise is simple enough. Since Goblins are cowards who don't like ta attack anyone without th' advantage a' numbers, a dozen a' our fine patrollin' friends have agreed ta 'ambush' us at 'camp'." she states, gesturing towards the guard, who are spreading out to surround the mock "camp" from two opposite sides. "Now, as ya might be thinkin', due ta th' sheer numbers we'll be bringin' along, quite a few ne'er do wells will likely give us a wide berth on account a' not wanting ta be involved in a tangle with eleven armed an' armored travelers, many a' which have the look a' knowin' how ta use their arms. On th' flip-side, any a' the ones who still DO attack us however will likely outnumber us or fancy themselves skilled fighters, or even have somethin' that they consider enough a' an advantage to risk tanglin' with a group our size, such as traps an' th' element a' surprise. Perhaps even a pet owlbear or th' like." Kaylessa continues explaining.
She pauses for a moment to make sure everyone's keeping up before speaking up again. "Thankfully for us in this particular exercise, our fine friends will also be simulatin' traditional goblin cowardice as well. Only half a' them will come in at first, an' th' other half will wait ta see how they're doin'. Once th' first group's mostly done in, th' second will come in and join th' fight too." Kaylessa says, looking from face to face to check to see if everyone is paying attention. "Now in th' wild, if there really were a dozen goblins attackin' in two waves, if ya took down th' first group fast an' hard enough, the second would probably scamper off an' flee out a' fear, but for th' sake a' challenge, our guardsfolk will all stick with th' plan an' keep attackin' until they're all 'downed' or we are. Better ta sweat in peace than bleed in war, eh?" she concludes, shrugging slightly at the last statement.
Kaylessa stops at that point, then turns to walk to the area with the racks full of practice weapons, and exchanges her twin shortswords (of apparently Dwarven make and decoration) for wooden ones, and her quivers of live arrows for blunt training ones. She places her real weapons on an empty table placed for that purpose and saunters back to where the party is when everyone's done preparing. After a moment, she speaks up again. "Rules are simple. We all use trainin' weapons an' spells that don't hurt too much, an' if ya get a solid hit on a guard, they're out. If any a' us get three solid hits on us however, we'll be marked as out, which accounts for th' difference in skill between us an' lowly bandits. Any questions?" she asks, idly pulling out a practice arrow to inspect it.
(OOC: Part 2 / 2, Part 1 is on the previous page. Basically, for this combat, damage doesn't need to be rolled, and only hits need to be counted for both players and NPC's. Also - sorry for the long posts, I just realized after finishing that it's probably getting to be a bit much, and I'll make sure to make them shorter and more to the point in the future.)
DMG/HP: 20/20 | AC: 14 | PP : 11
Thurgar snapped a solute back to Kaylessa almost out of reflex. It seemed some of the old days still flowed in his blood. It was the unquestioning way that one was expected to accept the hierarchy that left a bad taste in his mouth, but he would be lying if he said he did not miss the camaraderie that military life offered.
The corner of his eye managed to catch Durgan leaning in to whisper to young Oria, but his ears could barely make out the words as there was too much other noise around. He guessed it was about him, though he couldn't imagine why. In Thurgar's experience, women typically ignored him, and even if they took an interested stance, he preferred the ladies with a bit more hair on their chins, as a rule. Oria and her brother had asked where he lived earlier, and he had mumbled some non-committal response about being in the general area. In truth, even at his slightly more experienced age, Thurgar was still a bit nervous around women outside of the battlefield, though on the battlefield, he was happy to have them as they tended to be just as fierce and cunning as any foe he'd ever faced. Not wanting to be rude a second time, he smiled and nodded briefly at Oria before turning his attention back to Kaylessa.
Once Kaylessa had finished explaining the rules of scrimmage, Thurgar moved quickly to the table, to place his identical handaxes and sling bullets on the table. It felt a little strange to part with his favored weapons, but he was in trusted company and let the feeling slide. Moving to the racks, he began checking over the selection of handaxes, looking for mock weapons that would come as close to the heft of his own. Weight and balance were important factors in anything with an edge. After muttering to himself about a matching pair of faux handaxes that would do, he took a bag of soft rubber sling bullets. They wouldn't be breaking any bones, but were certainly enough to leave a smarting bruise. Moving into position, he readied his sling and kept the handaxe's loose in their belt loops. Standing on the side of the attack, with a wagon for partial cover, he figured he would likely get one or two shots off with the sling before needing melee weapons.
Initiative: 4
Action Summery
Rolling her eyes at the further delay, Umbra impatiently waits until the guards arrive and Kalyessa explains the rules. She then exchanges her rapier with two pairs of wooden daggers. No point in taking a weapon that does much damage, if all it took was a hit. No point in exploiting weakpoints either. Or flanking together with her team mates. This was just a huge waste of time. For them and the guards. Umbra halfheartedly moves into position and lets out a sigh. "Let's just get this over with."
Initiative: 9
DMG/HP: 0/17 | AC: 15 | PP : 15
Not wanting to give up his staff, which was already wooden an blunt, Aldarin gathers some cloth and wraps it tightly around the end of the weapon. Then he settles himself among the wagons, as if they were setting up camp for the night, but with an alert ear for any robbers or bandits.
Initiative: 12
Donutbeard: I'm shameless stealing your damage counter in the top right corner. That's a cool idea.
"Yes, this should be quite fun!" Belview walks over to the table and sets down a pair of daggers, he then picks up a pair of wooden ones and tests their weight with a couple of swings. He then puts them in their sheaths and grabs his quarterstaff. He then opens his spell book to go over his spells and come up with a plan of action. He walks to the middle of the makeshift arena, while still looking at his book. "Ah, I've got it!" He begins to start a spell and his staff begins to glow a deep purple. He touches his hand to his chest and energy flows across his body. (Mage Armor) At the same time, he traces an arcane symbol in the air, it hangs in the air and stays floating around Belview. "There we are, hopefully this helps!"
Initiative: 17
HP: 20/20 | AC: 18 | PP: 13
Jim is now full on teeth-chattering shivering as you hear under his breath he begins to mutter: "Not again. Not again. Not again. Not again..." However as his compatriots arm themselves the amulet and gauntlets he's wearing suddenly glow as once again he goes rigid, only to twirl his staff around and bang it on his shield, his face utterly blank. Suddenly he shouts in a strange, almost-Jim voice: "COMBAT MODE ENGAGED. TRIGGERING ATTACK AND DEFENSIVE PROTOCOLS." His head then begins to swivel around, pointedly looking for danger.
Initiative: 19
OOC: Since everyone seems to be joining on this, why not (although I like the descending amount of HP vs. ascending, it's just how I've been playing ;-) )
EDIT: Welp, a decent way to start out combat Jim I guess...
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
COMBAT
Initiative Rolls:
Kaylessa: 9
Merrok: 20
Guards: 2
(OOC: The HP on the infobar is great, but for this first tutorial mission, we'll be using 3 "hits" for the party an 1 "hit" for the guards. Also, I'd like to try putting that info on the upper left or middle for readability if that's alright with everyone. My eyes tend to gloss over the information if it's on the upper-right)
Turn Order
Merrok (20) - Hits 3/3, AC 18, PP 13, Spd 25, HA --
Jim Dirk (19) - Hits 3/3, AC 18, PP 13, Spd 30, HA 1
Belview (17) - Hits 3/3, AC 15, PP 11, Spd 25, HA 1 (AC is 15 with Mage Armor, 12 without)
Aldarin (12) - Hits 3/3, AC 15, PP 15, Spd 30, HA 1
Kaylessa (09) - Hits 3/3, AC 15, PP 14, Spd 30, HA --
Umbra (06) - Hits 3/3, AC 15, PP 09, Spd 30, HA 1
Thurgar (04) - Hits 3/3, AC 14, PP 11, Spd 25, HA 1
4 SGuard (02) - Hits 1/1, AC 16, PP 12, Spd 30 (Use Spear and Shield)
2 BGuard (02) - Hits 1/1, AC 15, PP 12, Spd 30 (Use Shortbows)
The Fight Begins (Round 1)
After everyone gets situated near the wagon circle, Kaylessa raises her right hand in a signal to the leader of the guards and nods, and in return, the bow-carrying leader (who looks to be a thin, male human or half-elf) returns the signal and nods right back at her. Around the perimeter of the clearing, a group of other guardsmen and women carrying shields but no weapons have set themselves up as "judges" and motion with their free hands that they're ready to call out good hits as they see them if there are any disputes.
The guards actually participating in the fighting have decorated their helmets and armor with various leaves and twigs (which look like they were scavenged right off the ground) to mark themselves as "Goblins" and have surrounded the "camp" from 2 sides from the east and the west in a sort of pincer attack. Each side has 2 guards with spear and shield in the front, and a shortbow holding guard further back providing cover fire. The spear guards are fairly close, roughly 30 feet away, but the archers are further back, almost 75 feet away from the carts and wagons. Thankfully the clearing is fairly wide, and none of the guards have cover.
"Everyone's ready. GO!" What looks to be the head "judge" (a white-haired elven man in armored robes) shouts, announcing the start of the war game.
(OOC: if you're okay with having your attacks / actions redirected towards the closest enemy if another player or allied NPC takes out your target, feel free to post out of order, and I'll resolve the action when your turn comes up on the initiative table. Merrok's first so I'll handle his action in the next post)
Edit: Rough Diagram of the battlefield (I'm looking into mapping software to model fights, but haven't committed to anything yet. Let me know if you have suggestions)
<W> - Wagons
S - Spear Guards (2 on each side)
B - Bow Guards (1 on each side)
B S <W> S B
Note: If you want to use the wagon / carts as cover, for the purposes of this fight, they count as Half Cover, and provide +2 to AC (from ranged attacks) and Dexterity Saving Throws.
Merrok - HP: 3/3 | AC: 18 | PP: 13 | SP: 25 | HA: n/a
Merrok, strangely enough, has actually centered himself in FRONT of one of the carts facing the western group of guards. He adjusts his helmet, a steel spangenhelm with a built-in combination visor/nose guard, and sullenly readies a large wooden shield and handaxe as he waits for the signal to start. The dwarf sighs deeply right before the signal to start is yelled, but nonetheless bolts quickly into action and hurls his hatchet at one of the spear and shield wielding mock "goblins" and then runs right towards them while drawing a larger wooden battleaxe.
(Attack Roll - Hand Axe: 9 )
(OOC Note: "HA" in the header stands for "Heroic Action", Merrok and Kaylessa always have 0, Players start with 1, and get an additional one every ten rounds after the first (11, 21, etc.) you can add it to your own headers if you want. If you need a refresher on what these are, you can check page 1)
The spearman targeted by Merrok looks shocked at the speed of the attack, and frantically lifts his shield to cover his face as he suddenly sees the wooden axe flying towards him, but it narrowly goes past the edge of the wooden bulwark and nails him cleanly on the shoulder. He winces a little, but dutifully raises his hand slowly and calls out.
"Hit! I'm out!" he shouts, then turns away to jog off of the battlefield. On the way out, he picks up Merrok's thrown axe with his good hand, and returns it to the weapon racks on the side. Further away, the judges nod their agreement with his call, and say nothing.
Updated Battle Visual:
B SM <W> S B
M = Merrok
Noticing that Merrok seems to have one side covered, the strange version of Jim leaps into action as it makes the quick calculation that in a pincer attack both sides need to be defended. With that the human moves with a speed and strength that was clearly not present in any of the interactions any of you have had with him in the past. Then with a quick, fluid motion he raises his quarterstaff over one of the "goblins" and brings it down with a strength that would most surely knock said "goblin" unconscious, but suddenly the glow from his equipment momentarily falters as the quarterstaff stops right over what probably would've resulted in the guard being knocked out. You hear a feeble: "Th-This... is... a-a... mock... battle." As then the glow resumes as the staff simply comes down with a meager *tap*.
Quarterstaff: Automatic Hit
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
"AGH!" the slightly elven looking woman Jim is attacking yelps in surprise. She fumbles, and brings her spear up in a vain attempt to parry, but stabs the air where the man's quarterstaff WAS, while the staff itself comes down swiftly towards her head, then suddenly stops and taps her helmet instead.
The woman drops to her knees, wide-eyed, but limply raises her spear-hand into the air to signal the judges despite her shock. "...it's a hit. I'm done." she half-mumbles dejectedly, acknowledging that it was a good blow that was just pulled at the last second rather than just a simple weak tap. Noting that his partner spoke too softly for everyone to hear, the other spear-wielding guard shouts, "Hit! Toranna's out!" out to the crowd, loudly enough for the judges to hear.
As Toranna trudges off the field, some of the onlookers start whispering amongst themsleves, and the judges exchange a few words as well. "...doing better than I thought. 2 for 2, and in SECONDS." someone says. In the center of the wagons, Kaylessa sharply raises an eyebrow in surprise, practically staring at Jim, but saying nothing for now.
Battle Update:
B SM <W> JS B
J = Jim (of course)
Seeing Jim and Merrok take out the front guards, Belview decides to close in on the bowmen. He runs over to the wagon to attempt to gain some cover. As he is running, he begins to make arcane gestures with his hands, and his staff glows a deep blue. Upon reaching the wagon, a ray of energy flies towards a bowman. (Ray of Frost) He aims for the feet, not wanting to do to much damage, but still wanting to get the hit.
Move: 25 ft towards wagon.
Action: Ray of Frost
Bonus Action: None
Reaction: None
Ray of Frost: 16
Aldarin - HP: 3/3 | AC: 15 | PP: 15 | SP: 30 | HA: 1/1
From the cover of the wagons, Aldarin utters a phrase to himself, and the unicorn totem around his neck appears to glow a faint green. Then, reaching out with his quarterstaff, a vine shoots out from the end of the weapon, 30 feet at the nearest spear guard. Where you might expect such a vine to be interspersed with thorns, this one seems smooth, and the vine is malleable, allowing for as little damage as possible to be done to the target. A slight variation that Aldarin was able to speak into the spell.
Umbra- HP: 3/3 | AC: 15 | PP: 9 | SP: 30 | HA: 1/1
Umbra runs towards the remaining spear guard. Before reaching him however, she shoots one of her daggers at the last archer. Then she closes in, ducks under the spear and uses her other dagger to stab the guard in the chest.
(OOC: I'm assuming the two remaining guards are on the same side, if not i'll just attack the archer)
Thurgar - HP: 3/3 | AC: 14 | PP: 11 | SP: 25 | HA: 1/1
Thurgar dropped a fresh bullet into his sling, having fumbled loading the first. He wanted to blame the strange weight of the toy weapons for throwing him off, but he knew too well that his skill had gotten rusty. With the battle nearly over, and Thurgar's pride being the only real injury, he let fly a rubber bullet it hopes that it would strike true at one of the incoming reinforcements that seemed to be raring to go.
Reaction: none
Move: none
Free action: load sling
Action: attack reinforcement (heroic action; automatic hit)
Bonus: none
(OOC: Just a quick note everyone. Had to go to the Eye Doctor today and get my pupils dilated. Can't see straight, and I won't be able to update this combat for a while or post in Sunless Citadel. I'll update all the combat, but it'll just be delayed)
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
(OOC: Thanks, I'm good now. Let me start running through this combat in Initiative Order... which oddly enough, everyone followed -exactly- this time)
Initiative 17
What looks like an elven bowman far off to the west is kneeling down, in the middle of knocking an arrow when he suddenly shivers, jumping to his feet in shock as he feels something cold hit his boot. He looks up just in time to see Belview quickly dash back into cover before anyone can do anything about it, and then slowly raises his right hand, still holding the un-launched practice arrow. "...solid hit, I'm out." he can be barely heard calling out from the distance. The bowman takes a moment to shake his foot out and rub his boot a bit before walking back into the audience, apparently having decided to return his practice items later.
Update:
_ SM <W> JS B
2 spearmen (one on each side) and west bowman out.