Keashirryl takes a position out of the manticore's immediate reach, but close enough to keep an eye on the others. She holds sacred flame, releasing it as soon as the creature attacks someone from the group.

[Sorry for the late post again, things just turned out to be more busy than expected.]

Droknin's aggressive stance and the subtle motions of Keashirryl gathering divine magics to prepare a spell are too much for the already agitated Manticore to ignore.  It spreads its wings and prepares to take to the air.  "Rawr!   You want to fight me for food!?   You will be food!"

Initiative:

Manticore:  12

Keashirryl:  1

Mud:  22

Droknin:  4

Olan:  5

[Mud is currently hidden in the bushes to the left.  No one else is hidden, though the Manticore's attention is focused on Droknin at the moment.  No readied actions outside of combat, though you are welcome to hit the Manticore with sacred flame as soon as your initiative comes up, Keashirryl.]

[Oops, sorry about that, I mixed stuff up. What is the scale of the grid on the map (just to calculate spell range)? If the manticore is within a 60 ft range or can be with 30 ft of movement, then sacred flame it is for now (dex save against DC 12).]

[Thanks for reminding me.  Grid is 5ft squares.  Keashirryl is just barely within 60ft of the Manticore so sacred flame is in play.]

Manticore DEX save:  13

(I am digging this cool battlemap. BTW)

[Not an original map, I'm sad to say.  I will usually make my own but have been pressed for time.  DM had to just rip this one off of a google search.]

Garrin initiative 12 

[OK!  I am putting the halfling brothers into the initiative order (they'll share the roll from Garrin).  They are presently inside the windmill and will need to decide if they are coming out the front door to fight, or if they join the fray from the upstairs window.]

Round 1

Keashirryl responds to the Manticore's aggressive posturing by letting loose with her sacred flame, but the monster shifts on its feline paws and sidesteps the descending mote of holy fire.

• Keashirryl
• Mud - you're up!
• Manticore
• Garrin
• Bert
• Droknin

Ok.  Mud will remain hidden in the pushes and hold any other action for now.

The Manticore snarls, its eyes fixated on the Leonin in front of it.  It unfurls its reddish-orange wings and takes to the sky, flying 25ft up and 25ft to the northwest [putting it approx. 15ft to the left of Droknin on the map and 25ft above the ground].  It flicks its long tail, sending three barbs hurtling toward Droknin!

Attack: 12 Damage: 8

Attack: 20 Damage: 5

Attack: 8 Damage: 6

You hear a tinny, weathered voice come from within the windmill, calling out with the volume of the hard of hearing: “Dag nabbit! I told you a hundred times to just leave it be and it would go away on its own. Now look what you done!” 

A staff reaches out to poke open the window, and a face appears, aged but bright. He swings back and then forth with the staff as a streak of green leaps towards the manticore, as he casts eldritch blast at the monster 

Attack: 21 Damage: 6 

(I'm back, thx for doing the turn for me to save time, Bartjeebus.)

The green ray smacks into the Manticore's flank as it flutters in the sky like an enormous bat.  It snarls in response,  "Not now, food.  Busy!  Will eat you later, once these others leave."

Another disgruntled voice calls out from the second story of the windmill, "No, Dag nab you, Garrin. We'll talk to whomever we please, thank you very much" (Inside the windmill, Bert casts magic stone on 3 pebbles from the windmill's grindstone.) An arm pulls the staff out of the window opening and a plain-faced, middle-aged Halfling sticks his curly, greying-blonde head out in its place. He shouts down to the group outside, "Here, make yourselves useful, at least!"

He uses his action to scatter 3 glinting pebbles onto the battlefield then retreats inside the windmill for cover.

((If you pick up a pebble, you can throw it up to 60 feet. They use my modifiers, so an attack roll is always 1d20+4 and damage is always 1d6+2))

(Droknin Raged just before entering combat. He takes only half damage.)

Droknin hears additional voices coming from the tower, but he is not sure what to make of it. One of the barb from the Manticore’s tail strikes him. “Hey!! What’s the idea? Come down, and face me like a warrior you coward!!” He moves to a spot under the monster, and throws a javelin at it.

Javelin Attack: 19 Damage: 7

(Not sure I got the banner. Roll was 19 and 7 damage)

[DM:  I saw the post before the red banner.  Those rolls are what I remember.  However, for future reference, hold the rage until combat starts.  You noted raging in a post, and then several other posts occurred threatening and posturing with the Manticore.  Rage is supposed to drop if you don't attack or get attacked on a turn.  In the future I'll enforce this so I'd strongly recommend you wait until combat begins before you start to rage, unless you are OK burning one for roleplay purposes.]

Droknin's javelin becomes lodged in one of the Manticore's paws, and it howls in fury and pain.  Olan dashes toward one of the magic stones tossed from the mystery halflings in the windmill, recognizing their usefulness.  He doesn't quite reach the nearest one.

ROUND 2

• Keashirryl  - you're up!
• Mud
• Manticore
• Garrin
• Bert
• Droknin
• Olan

[Droknin is directly below the flying monster, which is still 25ft off the ground.  The three magic stones are the three grey dots on the map.  Mud is still hiding.  Bert and Garrin presently have full cover inside the 2nd floor window of the windmill.]

(Sorry. It was actually both. Wanted to use for RP purpose, but didn’t realize about the attack part. Will keep that in mind going forward. Thanks.)

"Miserable" Keashirryl mutters, seeing that her attack missed, and shakes her head angry, forcing her mind to focus. She moves closer, quickly pacing towards Olan (around 15 feet), and she notices the shouting while approaching the tower. "It must be very convenient to give orders from up there!" she answers, raising her voice, lest her damaged pride would remain unrepaired.

Not being able to get close enough to the pebbles, she reaches for her holy symbol, moving her fingers as if gathering an invisible source of energy, and releases a guiding bolt. 

Attack: 21  for 17  damage in case it hits

As soon as the spell leaves her palm, she shuts her eyes for a moment. "If you don't aid me in this, I swear I'll get a new spellbook and go back to..." she says, seemingly to noone, and shakes her head again, knowing how bad she is at bluffing.

A bolt of power sails forth from Keashirryl and slams into the flying Manticore, illuminating it briefly in shimmering light and drawing an "Oof!" from the monster.  All the others who observe this are possessed of an instinctual understanding of how to strike the monster, though this feeling is fleeting.

[Thanks to guiding bolt, the very next attack roll against the Manticore has advantage.]

ROUND 2

• Keashirryl 
• Mud - you're up!
• Manticore
• Garrin
• Bert
• Droknin
• Olan

Mud ponders what to do as he watches his companions fight. He figured he might as well do something other than hide in a bush, so he Dashes to the nearest Magic Stone and tosses it as hard as bast as he could at the Maticore.

21 16 to hit (with advantage), 7 damage