Avaria has little trouble sneaking up on the two squabbling chickens. She scoops one up quickly causing it to squawk loudly. Wings flap and it almost slips out of Avaria's grasp but she manages to hang on just enough.  The crowd laughs and applauds, though you're not sure if they applause is for the chicken or Avaria.

She starts back to the cage on her side of the arena, but before she gets back and before the others can call out a warning, she feels strong arms grabbing on.

The dreadlocked orc has grabbed a hold of Avaria to try and wrestle the chicken free.

Grapple Check Athletics or Acrobatics to break free - vs DC17.

The crowd cheers as the orc grabs Avaria.

One of the other orcs lunges forward and dives on the other chicken in the middle of the arena. It lets out a loud screech as the orc appears not to care whether it gets hurt or not. He squeezes hard as he turns to take it back to the orc cage. But the chicken flaps its wings, catching the orc in the face and leaps free, hovering for a moment in the air before coming down for a less than graceful landing in the sand.

Ula's up.

Dang!  Orcs don't play nice.

Avaria athletics check  10

Ula is not an expert in herding chickens, but sees Avaria’s valiant attempt at dives right in with the same enthusiasm! She moves to the recently-dropped chicken in the centre of the arena, and attempts to grab that one straight back up and manoeuvre it to the party’s pen… ‘medium’ squeeze pressure!… Somewhat firm, somewhat gentle… The whole time making soothing ‘chuck chuck chuck’ sounds!!…

Strength ‘grab’ attack (+6): 20 

Athletics check: 9 

"Oh this is um, really, er lovely," Gertrude calls from above. "The nice dwarf is trying to um, calm the chicken. Oh dear. That's er, um, unfortunate."

Ula scoops up the chicken with ease and holds it in way that there's no chance for escape. But as she turns back towards the cage, she notices the chicken is very still, and its head hangs at a fairly alarming angle. While she didn't go in as hard as she could have, it seems that perhaps the combination of the orc catching it and then Ula was too much. Ula's no farmer, but this fowl looks pretty dead.

Before she has a chance to drop it though, she finds arms engulfing her and making a grab for the chicken.

Orc 4, seeing the success of their leader grabbing ahold of Avaria attempts the same thing on Ula - Grapple Check - DC18.

Orc 3 bolts off after one of the chickens that went to the south side of the arena. The orc pounces and the chicken looks like it almost slipped free but so much pressure is applied that it can't break loose. The orc stands up and starts back to the cage only to lose control of the chicken. It hops off and lands on the sand.

"Very um, feisty chickens today." Gertrude adds.

Jan and Marrin are up.

As a recap - Avaria is grappled, while still holding a chicken about 5'-8' from your cage. The dreadlocked orc has her.

Ula holds a dead chicken, which won't be counted in the final tally. Orc 4 is trying to grapple her.

Orcs 2 and 3 successfully grabbed chickens but both escaped.

Jan shakes her head at the whole thing, but the faster the chickens are caught, the faster this can be over. She'll try to snare one by the legs as it darts or flaps past, relying more on her quick hands then the brute force otherwise on display.

Chicken Grab: 23
Chicken Run: -1

Ula’s grapple escape (athletics DC18): 10 

Ula doesn’t make it out of the grapple this turn, but she will attempt (with her remaining bonus action) to heal the chicken she holds(!)…

Bonus action (healing word): 10 hp back

Marrin stands back and watches, unsure of where to go.

To Avaria she calls,

"Shake him loose!"

((D6 of bardic inspiration to Avaria))

Marrin will shift to helping Jan keep her chicken rather than grabbing another one and run it the rest of the way back to their goal ((since I am guessing that 4 means the chicken gets loose otherwise?)). As Jan has the legs, she will firmly, but not crushingly hold the chicken's body steady as they go and deposit it.

((Since Marrin is just helping Jan, I am not sure I need these rolls but here they are just in case

Chicken grab: 6

Chicken run: 20 ))

Jan makes it look like she's been wrangling chickens her whole life. She scoops up the bird gently by its legs. Feathers ruffle and a loud cluck echoes across the arena. No sooner has the chicken been caught than it slips free of Jan's grasp, fluttering in the air, almost as if it might learn to fly, but before it can plummet or defy the laws of chicken physiology, Marrin manages to get a hold of it. 

The chicken's not grappled, but it's not free either as Marrin is able to grab it but lose it then grab it again. It's putting up quite a fight.

(The chicken is essentially corralled against the wall of the arena by Jan and Marrin but they don't have enough control of it yet to actually bring it to the cage).

You can all hear clapping and cheering.

"Oh this is, um, just lovely," Gertrude says. "See, we don't need a lot of, er, messy fighting to entertain."

The last orc to move, races towards the other chicken along the northern wall, not far from Jan and Marrin. He leaps with abandon and almost smashes into the wall. The chicken pecks the orc on the hand and dashes around the wall of the arena.

The crowd cheers for the chicken, louder than any other event so far. They may have found their favourite.

Ula hasn't had a lot of practice healing chickens, but she knows the difference between mostly dead and all dead. She can see there's no point wasting a spell on this chicken. It's going to take more than a healing word to bring this bird back.

Ethel's up.

Ethel surveys the field.  

I'm useless for trying to catch these things.  

Marrin had the right idea, but with everyone chasing chickens it is hard to settle on a target area.

Trying to time it just right, she fingers a pinch of sand and whispers "Iriad Somnum."

[Ethel casts sleep, looking to target a point in space that has at least two of the smaller Orcs, preferably three, within 20'.  If any chickens get caught in that space, so be it.  Her spell will effect 23HP worth of creatures.]

Everyone is quite spread out around the arena. The only place that Ethel spots more than one orc close enough together to both be affected by the spell are the dreadlocked orc and one of the other quick orcs (#4). The only problem there is that they're currently holding on to Avaria and Ula. Her best guess is that maybe she could catch one of the orcs but there's an equal chance that Avaria or Ula might be affected first.

Another orc is near Jan and Marrin on the northern side of the arena so she quickly ignores that one as well. That leaves Orc 2 near the center of the arena, a little towards the orc cage, but with no chickens near him, and Orc 3 near the southern wall of the arena with two chickens to himself.

That looks like the best option for Ethel. She directs her energy towards the southern wall and to her satisfaction she sees first one, then the other chicken slump down on to the sand, fast asleep. A moment later Orc 3 falls to his knees then topples over into the sand near the chickens, eyes closed.

"Oooh. Clever, clever, that one," Gertrude says.

Gertrude might have liked the casting of the sleep spell but the audience is more amused by the chickens on the northern side racing about and the wrestling match between the orcs and Avaria and Ula to really notice.

The chicken in Avaria's arms squawks loudly, looking directly at Avaria. It struggles but Avaria still has a grip on it. The all dead chicken in Ula's hand stays dead. The chicken corralled by Jan and Marrin pecks at their hands and flaps its wings. The other chicken along the northern wall keeps running, heading towards the side with the orc cage. The last two chickens doze peacefully along the southern wall.

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Avaria is still grappled and has bardic inspiration (d6) available. Ula is grappled.

Initiative Order Reminder - Chickens, Avaria, Haguur and Orc 2, Ula, Orcs 3 and 4, Jan and Marrin, Orc 5, Ethel.

And again - if going for a chicken roll a catching attack (strength or finesse with light, medium or hard pressure - which affects the AC) and an athletics check to hold onto the chicken

Avaria is up.

(Sorry - was pretty busy IRL, should be back to normal though...)

Avaria smiles at Marrin, and then attempts to break the grapple from the orc.

Athletics check  8

and with the inspiration, since the orc may roll low...

5

Haguur Grapple to maintain hold on Avaria: 8  

Avaria slips out of Haguur's grasp.

The wiry orc leader decides against trying to grapple Avaria again, but instead lunges forward and grabs at the chicken directly. He recklessly pulls at the animal, seemingly uncaring about any damage he might do to the bird in an effort to grab it.

Chicken Grapple Roll: Attack: 23  - Avaria can contest it (w/ advantage if she holds on tightly, increasing chance of chicken being torn apart)  

Orc 2 looks around for the bird that leapt out of his hands only to realize it's the one that Ula grabbed and inadvertently killed. He spots the sleeping chickens along the southern wall. He races down to those and scoops one up and runs back towards his cage. He makes it within a couple of feet of the cage.

Ula's up (still grappled).

Still grappled, Ula calls to an orc with an alive or sleeping chicken, and uses command to suggest they “Swap?”, holding the dead chicken aloft for them…

If it works… and if she’s still grappled… Ula will try and ask one of the party (who might be les grappled than her) to come and get the swapped/alive chicken from her while she tries to occupy as many of the orcs as she can!…