(“I don't understand why the oil flasks exploded. Fireball specifically excludes worn or carried items.” It’s true. I forgot that when I started to think about how oil would normally behave in a fireball. I offered to retcon because of my error, but we have decided to go a different route.)
(“I don't understand why the oil flasks exploded. Fireball specifically excludes worn or carried items.” It’s true. I forgot that when I started to think about how oil would normally behave in a fireball. I offered to retcon because of my error, but we have decided to go a different route.)
(Very well, I suppose I'll accept your excuses. But from here on out, I'm watching you like a hawk, mister!)
Searching through the camp, you find some ledgers indicating financial transactions, including notations for the previous day for a large sum. However, there are no names written; Torrga must keep it all in her head. You do find a chest in the most finely apportioned tent. Otherwise, you see the materials for a small trading company. Tools for maintaining the sleds and doing small repair jobs for clients. Food for the dogs. Footlockers with spare clothes and personal items. One unusual thing you do notice is a small cage in, what you presume to be, Torrga'stent. It sits on a desk with ink, quill, and paper, and it is roughly 2 feet cubed. There is an opening on the side and the copper latch to keep it shut is decorated with a symbol of a dragon in flight. Inside, there is a shallow saucer of water and a dead rat.
As Aubinand Blackberryare looking through the tents, Sabethaand Naraeld hear a voice shout from the east. "Oi! Who's this here, preppin' my sleds and strappin' girls to 'em? Come on, explain yourself!" Torrgaapproaches the camp.
(Naraeld: Eva and Greth'g'kareeare, at this moment, tracking the bandits to their meetingplace. You are now about 15 minutes ahead of them. The Evasplosion is coming, but not quite here yet.)
Greth'g'karee:
Seeing no sign of Eva and her familiar, and assuming the worst, you stand and aim at Jotann. He screams in pain and anger, looking at Zara'sdead body and the shambles of his gang. He yells, "One of them is on the ridge! Go kill them!"
Before Greth'g'kareeducks completely behind cover, he notices movement where Mallifyr lay. He had thought her unconscious or dead, but apparently she survived the explosion better than others.
Jotann'smen have worries of their own. The oil is still spread over most of them and it still burns. Four more of the men fall from the flames and those that remain do not look much better than the dead. One turns to protest and Jotannsilences him with a word. Grimly, they prepare themselves and start to climb up the little cliff face to get to Greth. Three succeed and gather at the top of the ridge, ready to attack Greth'g'kareenext round, their burnt and ruined faces looking like masks from some hell.
Sabetha stands straight, her face still expressionless and her scarf dark.
"You'll have to ask the ice-man who leads your crew, Torrga.Seeing as he kidnapped our friend Eladrin where she lay insensate in the healer's home on the outskirts of Good Mead and carried her here, attacking one of us in the process. All in the Frostmaiden's name, he said. Strange, that."
Sabetha's voice is calm and pitched loud enough for Torrga and those in the tents to hear but no louder. "I wonder where he was going with her tied to the sled? But no worries. He's gone now. And you and I both know that an upstanding citizen like you would never be complicit in anything like that."
She maintains a neutral posture and tries to keep awareness of the surrounding woods in case the other thugs are flanking them for a surprise attack.
The agony of searing flesh gives way to a wave of searing memories as life ebbs from Mallifyr.
"They're outsiders. They can't be trusted. Don’t go." "Don't be silly, Gwebona, it's all in good fun. And it's a chance to throw a scare into those snobby do-gooders in Good Mead with their honey and their money—think they're better than everyone else—put them in their place." "I have a bad feeling about this, Mal." "You always have a bad feeling," Mallifyr smiled, "but you never regret our deeds of derring-do. If it weren't for me, you'd have no fun at all." "Hurting people is not fun." "You heard Zara. No one's getting hurt. Besides, we'll earn some gold. Now, come on!" "Steal some gold, you mean." Mallifyr turned her back to Gwebona and prepared to depart, "Fine, stay here.” She paused before adding: “Coward." "I'm no coward!" Reluctantly, Gwebona relented and grabbed her gear, "I can't let you go alone. You know that. You never give me any choice."
If only Mallifyr could return and undo those moments. By evening, her younger sister lay dead, cradled in her arms, murdered by a glowing sapphire ring. By that woman! But, above all, by Zara and Jotann. May they all burn in hell...
Memory fades—and, with it, thought. The Great Sleep, enveloping all, comforting Mallifyr. Darkness. Utter darkness, and silence. Emptiness. For the first time in her short, shitty life, Mallifyr would find peace. Or so was her final hope. But alas, peace would be denied.
Her soul adrift, she finds herself aching in the void, calling out for Gwebona, and for Karstun, who had raised them, and for their long-dead parents, also outsiders when they first set foot in Dougan's Hole. Her grief and her regret are absolute. How did that ballad go, the one played by that traveling minstrel who called himself Nin?Everyone I know goes away in the end.
Something grips her. Mallifyr resists. No. Her back arches violently, contorting and lurching upward. Yes. It is insistent, and the seizure grips Mallifyr’s entire body. No! Against her will, she bolts upright. We open our eyes. We rise. She tries harder to resist, but Mallifyr is no longer in control. She nods. Yes, we see. She assents. We rise. We stand.Gwebona, is that you? In response, they command themselves in unison: We destroy him!
Her longbow snapped in two by the blast, Mallifyr heaves up a heavy crossbow lying forlorn on the ground, its erstwhile owner still smoldering a few feet away. She gets within sight of Jotann, loads a bolt in place from the case at her waste, points the crossbow at him, shaking a bit as she struggles to steady her aim: "I mark you as my quarry." She fires.
▪ Movement: 15 feet standing from a prone position, 5 feet diagonally to the SE, 5 feet to the south, 5 feet diagonally to the NW into the trees for half or three-quarters cover, depending on the size of tree she can get behind (DM's discretion), interrupted by the following:
▪ Free interaction with an object: pick up a heavy crossbow
▪ Action: Attack, heavy crossbow: 22, 12 piercing damage
Total: 14 piercing damage
After firing, she shouts across to Greth'g'karee: “Take one alive!”
[Note that drawing ammunition is part of the attack, and Mallifyr has a hand crossbow with bolts. As discussed with LtG in PM, she finds the heavy crossbow on the battlefield. I swapped out her longbow for a heavy crossbow during character creation. So, to rationalize her having a differemt weapon than the one she had fired as an NPC, I'm RPing that she found one.]
Mallifyr unsteadily stands from the snow, looks around her, sees her bow broken, and picks up a crossbow that another dead Dougan's Holer had. Immediately, she steps forward and takes aim at Jotann, firing the weapon and hitting him in the back. He bends over, crying out in pain and spins to face her. "You survived, did ya? But got all your friends killed, didn't ya? Between my fire, my men, and whatever exploded, all your family and friends are dead now. They stood up to me, and now they're dead. And now you are there standing. So let's get you dead as well, shall we?"
He points a finger at Mallifyr and begins to shout a spell, but as he does so, he begins to cough powerfully, bending over again with the effort. Pulling his hand away from his mouth, he sees blood on it, his own. Mallifyr's bolt must have punctured a lung. (Also, he got a nat 1 on his attack).
Initiative order is now: 20 - Greth'g'karee 9 - Mallifyr 8 - Thugs 3 - Jotann
Map!
Torrga's camp:
At Sabetha'swords, Torrgastops and stares. She looks at Sabethaand then at Naraeld, wounded and panting. She looks at the sled. "Bruenor's tits! I told that damn fool to stop running off alone. Always had things to do. He was the best team lead I ever had and now," she spits, "lies dead in the snow over a chit of a girl."
"Well, go on then." She points at Elk Running. "Collect yer friend and get going. When my crew returns and I tell 'em Sephek's dead, they'll be out for blood and I think enough's been spilt for one day." She starts to walk to her tent (where, I believe, Aubinand Blackberryare still located).
Sabetha:
Your medicine check reveals that she is still unconscious, but breathing steadily. She has a bit of a fever, but seems unhurt. You don't detect anyone else unaccounted for around.
"NO." Sabetha's voice is as rough as gravel, but her body is relaxed and ready for an attack.
"I have a better idea. I cannot prove you and Shander set up those murderous raiders to make him look good and throw the election, though we both know you did. But I do know your right-hand man kidnapped Elk Running and attacked Naraeld. So now you are going to do the least you can do and accompany Naraeld and me as we return Elk Running's body to the healer's home on your sled. That way you know we are not making off with it."
Sabetha nods at the sled as if Torrga has already agreed. "Then you can ride it back here or into a crevasse for all I care."
(Sabetha does not have to fake any of her disgust for the worthless excuse for a dwarf that Torrga is. No lies spoken. But she is hiding the true reason for her demand to have Torrga come with her and Naraeld on the sled. Not only that it makes transporting Elk Running's body easier. She also wants to allow Blackberry and Aubin the chance to walk out of the tents unnoticed, and Torrga not to discover that the tents were searched.)
Torrgasnorts, but then stops to consider Sabetha's words. "Fine. I'll do this. Then I never want to see you three again."
She directs Sabethaand Naraeldto sit on the sled, alongside Elk Running. Once everyone is situated, she cracks the reins that the dogs start running for town. She shouts over the wind, asking for directions to the herbalist's house. Once she gets them to the house, she tells the companions to get off, take their friend with them, and then drives with the dogs back to her camp.
Just after she drives off, there is the crack of a loud explosion and a fireball is visible to the southwest of Good Mead.
(First of all, two nat 1s in a row. I'm firing my random dice roll generator. Second, Aubinand Blackberry, what are you doing while Torrgais away?)
Greth'g'kareeignores the three figures in front of him, moving 10' south along the ridge (incurring opportunity attacks from one of the enemies) and fires another arrow at Jotann. As he does, his deep sonorous Goliath voice, eerily calm, calls out, "You cannot hide behind them. If our deaths are linked, so be it."
Aubin eyes lock onto the symbol of cage. Hmm...I know this symbol. He will take the cage with the dead rat with him and exit the tent to see Torgga. "Can you explain what this is"says Aubin in a calm tone.
Greth'g'karee'sarrow flies through the air and pierces Jotannat the back of his neck, severing his spine. He collapses, attempting to call out, but his mouth is filling with blood. And so he dies, drowning on his own blood.
The remaining wounded bandits see their leaders gone, survey their own wounds, and decide discretion is the better part of valor. They all take off running through the trees (if you'd like to take a shot, they are about 60 feet away at the end of their turn).
The lone remaining thug looks at Jotann and Zara dead, his compatriots dead or run off, and drops his weapons. He says, "It was their idea. The whole thing. I didn't want to take the kids. I was just doing my job. Don't hurt me." The children, seeing an opening, begin kicking the man.
Torrga'scamp:
(Aubin, did you do this before she left with Sabethaand the others? Or did you wait for her to return? If the latter, Blackberry, did you wait with him?
The fireball looks to be about a half mile out of town to the southwest.
The thug attempts to stand, but is immediately knocked over again by one of the children. The other has found a knife and is advancing on the hapless thug.
"Children, back off! If you want to find out who was really behind this, we need him alive." Mallifyr fires a bolt before the feet of the knife-wielding child. "I said back off!" A twisted smile conceals her inner anguish. Her voice is not her own: "Besides, he deserves a slower death."
Aubin helps Blackberry help search the tents.
(“I don't understand why the oil flasks exploded. Fireball specifically excludes worn or carried items.” It’s true. I forgot that when I started to think about how oil would normally behave in a fireball. I offered to retcon because of my error, but we have decided to go a different route.)
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
(Very well, I suppose I'll accept your excuses. But from here on out, I'm watching you like a hawk, mister!)
Torrga's camp:
Searching through the camp, you find some ledgers indicating financial transactions, including notations for the previous day for a large sum. However, there are no names written; Torrga must keep it all in her head. You do find a chest in the most finely apportioned tent. Otherwise, you see the materials for a small trading company. Tools for maintaining the sleds and doing small repair jobs for clients. Food for the dogs. Footlockers with spare clothes and personal items. One unusual thing you do notice is a small cage in, what you presume to be, Torrga's tent. It sits on a desk with ink, quill, and paper, and it is roughly 2 feet cubed. There is an opening on the side and the copper latch to keep it shut is decorated with a symbol of a dragon in flight. Inside, there is a shallow saucer of water and a dead rat.
As Aubin and Blackberry are looking through the tents, Sabetha and Naraeld hear a voice shout from the east. "Oi! Who's this here, preppin' my sleds and strappin' girls to 'em? Come on, explain yourself!" Torrga approaches the camp.
(Naraeld: Eva and Greth'g'karee are, at this moment, tracking the bandits to their meetingplace. You are now about 15 minutes ahead of them. The Evasplosion is coming, but not quite here yet.)
Greth'g'karee:
Seeing no sign of Eva and her familiar, and assuming the worst, you stand and aim at Jotann. He screams in pain and anger, looking at Zara's dead body and the shambles of his gang. He yells, "One of them is on the ridge! Go kill them!"
Before Greth'g'karee ducks completely behind cover, he notices movement where Mallifyr lay. He had thought her unconscious or dead, but apparently she survived the explosion better than others.
Jotann's men have worries of their own. The oil is still spread over most of them and it still burns. Four more of the men fall from the flames and those that remain do not look much better than the dead. One turns to protest and Jotann silences him with a word. Grimly, they prepare themselves and start to climb up the little cliff face to get to Greth. Three succeed and gather at the top of the ridge, ready to attack Greth'g'karee next round, their burnt and ruined faces looking like masks from some hell.
Mallifyr, you are up.
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
Sabetha stands straight, her face still expressionless and her scarf dark.
"You'll have to ask the ice-man who leads your crew, Torrga. Seeing as he kidnapped our friend Eladrin where she lay insensate in the healer's home on the outskirts of Good Mead and carried her here, attacking one of us in the process. All in the Frostmaiden's name, he said. Strange, that."
Sabetha's voice is calm and pitched loud enough for Torrga and those in the tents to hear but no louder. "I wonder where he was going with her tied to the sled? But no worries. He's gone now. And you and I both know that an upstanding citizen like you would never be complicit in anything like that."
She maintains a neutral posture and tries to keep awareness of the surrounding woods in case the other thugs are flanking them for a surprise attack.
Passive Perception: 17
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
The agony of searing flesh gives way to a wave of searing memories as life ebbs from Mallifyr.
"They're outsiders. They can't be trusted. Don’t go." "Don't be silly, Gwebona, it's all in good fun. And it's a chance to throw a scare into those snobby do-gooders in Good Mead with their honey and their money—think they're better than everyone else—put them in their place." "I have a bad feeling about this, Mal." "You always have a bad feeling," Mallifyr smiled, "but you never regret our deeds of derring-do. If it weren't for me, you'd have no fun at all." "Hurting people is not fun." "You heard Zara. No one's getting hurt. Besides, we'll earn some gold. Now, come on!" "Steal some gold, you mean." Mallifyr turned her back to Gwebona and prepared to depart, "Fine, stay here.” She paused before adding: “Coward." "I'm no coward!" Reluctantly, Gwebona relented and grabbed her gear, "I can't let you go alone. You know that. You never give me any choice."
If only Mallifyr could return and undo those moments. By evening, her younger sister lay dead, cradled in her arms, murdered by a glowing sapphire ring. By that woman! But, above all, by Zara and Jotann. May they all burn in hell...
Memory fades—and, with it, thought. The Great Sleep, enveloping all, comforting Mallifyr. Darkness. Utter darkness, and silence. Emptiness. For the first time in her short, shitty life, Mallifyr would find peace. Or so was her final hope. But alas, peace would be denied.
Her soul adrift, she finds herself aching in the void, calling out for Gwebona, and for Karstun, who had raised them, and for their long-dead parents, also outsiders when they first set foot in Dougan's Hole. Her grief and her regret are absolute. How did that ballad go, the one played by that traveling minstrel who called himself Nin? Everyone I know goes away in the end.
Something grips her. Mallifyr resists. No. Her back arches violently, contorting and lurching upward. Yes. It is insistent, and the seizure grips Mallifyr’s entire body. No! Against her will, she bolts upright. We open our eyes. We rise. She tries harder to resist, but Mallifyr is no longer in control. She nods. Yes, we see. She assents. We rise. We stand. Gwebona, is that you? In response, they command themselves in unison: We destroy him!
Her longbow snapped in two by the blast, Mallifyr heaves up a heavy crossbow lying forlorn on the ground, its erstwhile owner still smoldering a few feet away. She gets within sight of Jotann, loads a bolt in place from the case at her waste, points the crossbow at him, shaking a bit as she struggles to steady her aim: "I mark you as my quarry." She fires.
▪ Movement: 15 feet standing from a prone position, 5 feet diagonally to the SE, 5 feet to the south, 5 feet diagonally to the NW into the trees for half or three-quarters cover, depending on the size of tree she can get behind (DM's discretion), interrupted by the following:
▪ Free interaction with an object: pick up a heavy crossbow
▪ Bonus action: hunter's mark: 2 piercing damage
▪ Action: Attack, heavy crossbow: 22, 12 piercing damage
Total: 14 piercing damage
After firing, she shouts across to Greth'g'karee: “Take one alive!”
[Note that drawing ammunition is part of the attack, and Mallifyr has a hand crossbow with bolts. As discussed with LtG in PM, she finds the heavy crossbow on the battlefield. I swapped out her longbow for a heavy crossbow during character creation. So, to rationalize her having a differemt weapon than the one she had fired as an NPC, I'm RPing that she found one.]
P.S. Initiative 9
Band camp:
Mallifyr unsteadily stands from the snow, looks around her, sees her bow broken, and picks up a crossbow that another dead Dougan's Holer had. Immediately, she steps forward and takes aim at Jotann, firing the weapon and hitting him in the back. He bends over, crying out in pain and spins to face her. "You survived, did ya? But got all your friends killed, didn't ya? Between my fire, my men, and whatever exploded, all your family and friends are dead now. They stood up to me, and now they're dead. And now you are there standing. So let's get you dead as well, shall we?"
He points a finger at Mallifyr and begins to shout a spell, but as he does so, he begins to cough powerfully, bending over again with the effort. Pulling his hand away from his mouth, he sees blood on it, his own. Mallifyr's bolt must have punctured a lung. (Also, he got a nat 1 on his attack).
Initiative order is now:
20 - Greth'g'karee
9 - Mallifyr
8 - Thugs
3 - Jotann
Map!
Torrga's camp:
At Sabetha's words, Torrga stops and stares. She looks at Sabetha and then at Naraeld, wounded and panting. She looks at the sled. "Bruenor's tits! I told that damn fool to stop running off alone. Always had things to do. He was the best team lead I ever had and now," she spits, "lies dead in the snow over a chit of a girl."
"Well, go on then." She points at Elk Running. "Collect yer friend and get going. When my crew returns and I tell 'em Sephek's dead, they'll be out for blood and I think enough's been spilt for one day." She starts to walk to her tent (where, I believe, Aubin and Blackberry are still located).
Sabetha:
Your medicine check reveals that she is still unconscious, but breathing steadily. She has a bit of a fever, but seems unhurt. You don't detect anyone else unaccounted for around.
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
"NO." Sabetha's voice is as rough as gravel, but her body is relaxed and ready for an attack.
"I have a better idea. I cannot prove you and Shander set up those murderous raiders to make him look good and throw the election, though we both know you did. But I do know your right-hand man kidnapped Elk Running and attacked Naraeld. So now you are going to do the least you can do and accompany Naraeld and me as we return Elk Running's body to the healer's home on your sled. That way you know we are not making off with it."
Sabetha nods at the sled as if Torrga has already agreed. "Then you can ride it back here or into a crevasse for all I care."
(Sabetha does not have to fake any of her disgust for the worthless excuse for a dwarf that Torrga is. No lies spoken. But she is hiding the true reason for her demand to have Torrga come with her and Naraeld on the sled. Not only that it makes transporting Elk Running's body easier. She also wants to allow Blackberry and Aubin the chance to walk out of the tents unnoticed, and Torrga not to discover that the tents were searched.)
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
(Sabetha, please roll Intimidation or Persuasion, whichever you like)
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
Sabetha Persuasion: 20 (dirty)
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Torrga snorts, but then stops to consider Sabetha's words. "Fine. I'll do this. Then I never want to see you three again."
She directs Sabetha and Naraeld to sit on the sled, alongside Elk Running. Once everyone is situated, she cracks the reins that the dogs start running for town. She shouts over the wind, asking for directions to the herbalist's house. Once she gets them to the house, she tells the companions to get off, take their friend with them, and then drives with the dogs back to her camp.
Just after she drives off, there is the crack of a loud explosion and a fireball is visible to the southwest of Good Mead.
(First of all, two nat 1s in a row. I'm firing my random dice roll generator. Second, Aubin and Blackberry, what are you doing while Torrga is away?)
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
(I suppose we finish searching the camp. How far away is the fireball?)
Greth'g'karee ignores the three figures in front of him, moving 10' south along the ridge (incurring opportunity attacks from one of the enemies) and fires another arrow at Jotann. As he does, his deep sonorous Goliath voice, eerily calm, calls out, "You cannot hide behind them. If our deaths are linked, so be it."
(( Crit! 27 to hit, 14 to damage - in log! ))
Aubin eyes lock onto the symbol of cage. Hmm...I know this symbol. He will take the cage with the dead rat with him and exit the tent to see Torgga. "Can you explain what this is" says Aubin in a calm tone.
Band camp:
Greth'g'karee's arrow flies through the air and pierces Jotann at the back of his neck, severing his spine. He collapses, attempting to call out, but his mouth is filling with blood. And so he dies, drowning on his own blood.
The remaining wounded bandits see their leaders gone, survey their own wounds, and decide discretion is the better part of valor. They all take off running through the trees (if you'd like to take a shot, they are about 60 feet away at the end of their turn).
The lone remaining thug looks at Jotann and Zara dead, his compatriots dead or run off, and drops his weapons. He says, "It was their idea. The whole thing. I didn't want to take the kids. I was just doing my job. Don't hurt me." The children, seeing an opening, begin kicking the man.
Torrga's camp:
(Aubin, did you do this before she left with Sabetha and the others? Or did you wait for her to return? If the latter, Blackberry, did you wait with him?
The fireball looks to be about a half mile out of town to the southwest.
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
Switching her aim to the remaining thug as she advances, Mallifyr whispers: “Now, you are my quarry.”
▪ Movement: 15 feet SE diagonally and 15 feet E (Jotann’s corpse is 20 feet to the E).
▪ Bonus action: switch hunter's mark from Jotann to the remaining thug.
▪ Action: Ready to fire heavy crossbow at the thug if he disobeys.
“Arms in the air,” Mallifyr hisses, “and not a step.”
The thug attempts to stand, but is immediately knocked over again by one of the children. The other has found a knife and is advancing on the hapless thug.
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
Aubin would ask this before they left.
"Children, back off! If you want to find out who was really behind this, we need him alive." Mallifyr fires a bolt before the feet of the knife-wielding child. "I said back off!" A twisted smile conceals her inner anguish. Her voice is not her own: "Besides, he deserves a slower death."
Greth fires at the closest retreating enemy. His range is 120', so he will do so again next turn, barring cover on their part.
Attack 17, Damage 6
2nd round, crit, damage 10