Gunnar checks himself for wounds and secures his equipment.  He thinks about dismissing his battleaxe, but with an uneasy glance at the door to the east decides that it is best to keep it close for now.  He sits quietly and gathers his energy for the unknown challenges ahead.

"Are we all accounted for then?" Olivier says, making one last check on his gear. "Nowhere to go but through."

Gathering yourself, you move to the door to the East.  As you leave the bloody bodies of ten hulking bugbears behind, you step forward into another chamber.

This chamber is large, about the same size as the last. Where the previous room had tapestries covering the walls, this room has what look to be crawl tunnels leading into the north and south walls.  These holes are at knee height on the human-sized people of the group.  You hear high-pitched voices speaking so quick that you cannot even tell what language they speak, coming from inside those tunnels.

Roll initiative.

Initiative for Keye (who has opted to have his quarterstaff in hand rather than his longbow): 17

T.A.N.K.: 20

Aruzhal: 4

Gunnar initiative 7

Buni's initiative: 13.

Still waiting on the final initiative.

((Apologies, weekends are mostly playing with the kiddo.))

Olivier readied sword and shield, before moving into the next room, keeping his bow handy.

Initiative: 8

The high-pitched voices are clearly excited, and four blurred shapes come streaking out of tunnels, wizzing across the room so fast they can barely be seen. Each of the figures sends three daggers flashing towards the group though...

Dagger Attack vs Buni: 9 Damage: 8
Dagger Attack vs Buni: 24 Damage: 10
Dagger Attack vs Buni: 14 Damage: 10
Dagger Attack vs Buni: 25 Damage: 10
Dagger Attack vs Buni: 21 Damage: 10
Dagger Attack vs Buni: 26 Damage: 10
Dagger Attack vs T.A.N.K.: 22 Damage: 9
Dagger Attack vs T.A.N.K.: 22 Damage: 9
Dagger Attack vs T.A.N.K.: 24 Damage: 8
Dagger Attack vs T.A.N.K.: 17 Damage: 7
Dagger Attack vs T.A.N.K.: 22 Damage: 10
Dagger Attack vs T.A.N.K.: 10 Damage: 10

No surprise this time around, so you are fine to react normally to the above. The figures wiz back into tunnels on the far side of the chamber from the ones they came out and disappear from sight.

Map is below. I did not include the holes, but there are likely a dozen small openings in both the North and South walls.

Map

T.A.N.K. is up.

T.A.N.K. hunkers down and recovers a bit from the attacks. 

Second Wind: 11

Dodge Action

Going into defensive battlefield positioning, T.A.N.K. catches its breath after the first flurry of daggers.

Another form zips across the chamber, sending three more daggers flying at Buni again...
Dagger Attack: 9 Damage: 8
Dagger Attack: 16 Damage: 8
Dagger Attack: 20 Damage: 9

Keye is up.

((These zippy little bastards are able to go from one tunnel to another on their turn, so we don't ever (so far) have an opportunity to do anything to them on our turn? TANK is of little use here other than tanking, hope someone has something to help deal with them!))

(Ready action... They have a movement speed of 120 feet.)



Also, if you do ready an action, your attack rolls need to be with disadvantage, as they have a blurred-movement trait that makes all attacks on them have disadvantage. These are only CR2 creatures though, like the bugbears, and are considered a medium encounter for your level.

Quote from Spiderwrangler >>

((Yes, Ready Action can let us do something on their turn, but that is not as good as being able to do something ON our turns! :D Extra attack doesn't work on a Readied Action, and it takes your reaction to trigger it. Melee attacks are basically out, so hoping someone in the party has something that can change the conditions of the fight!))

 

  Yep, I get it. That's the reason, or at least part of it, why these are on this list. They are only #9 of the character-killers though, so what does that say about numbers 8 - 1? quickling Have +8 to hit, three attacks per round, a movement speed of 120 and all attacks on them have disadvantage. They will go down with a single hit, with very low HP, but they can do lots of damage before you even get a turn, with their +6 to initiative.

(Well, I have a plan, depends on how bad we want to meta-game it. I'd have Buni do it regardless, but offering it to others...)

Also, since Buni is down and Keye can't heal him, I'll just roll the death save in advance: 4.

Keye steps to his right, widens his stance, and readies himself for the next appearance of the quicklings.

• Movement: 5' to B7
• Action: Dodge
• Reaction: Deflect Missiles and Deflect Missiles Attack

Deflect Missiles

You can use your reaction to deflect or catch the missile when you are hit by a ranged weapon attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 +9. If you reduce damage to 0 and have a free hand, you can spend 1 ki point to make a ranged attack (as with a monk weapon) with a range of 20/60.

Deflect Missiles Attack

If you reduce damage to 0 and have a free hand, you can spend 1 ki point to make a ranged attack (as with a monk weapon).