Evergreen Hollow, 5R DMless

Unable to make a stealth approach, Tesco is ambushed by 2x scouts. Not the encounter he was expecting, but backup was called. With this wrinkle in his plan, he does get to start 30 feet from their longbows. However, they are getting a surprise round. Note: 5R surprise is disadvantage on initiative. So Tesco disadvantage 4 or lower 13

Round 1
scout S1 targets Tesco, longbow Attack: 22 Damage: 5 
scout S2 targets Tesco, longbow Attack: 6 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll. 

Tesco uses a reaction to cast shield from a daily origin slot. AC 17 becomes AC 22
Tesco uses a bonus action to cast shillelagh on his club, then moves to engage in melee with S1
Tesco targets S1, shillelagh Attack: 25 Damage: 17 

Round 2
S1 drops her longbow and switches to shortsword,
scout S1 targets Tesco, shortsword Attack: 18 Damage: 5 

S2 moves to 60 feet away and continues to attack with her longbow,
scout S2 targets Tesco, longbow Attack: 21 Damage: 8 

Tesco uses a reaction to cast shield from a spell slot, if necessary, AC 17 to AC 22
Tesco uses a bonus action to cast hunter’s mark on S1
Tesco targets S1, shillelagh Attack: 25 Damage: 25 

S1 takes a lucky crit and dies. Tesco moves 30 feet at the end of Round 2, to try and bridge the gap to 30 feet from S2.

Round 3
S2 moves 30 feet away to create a 60 foot gap,
scout S2 targets Tesco, longbow Attack: 18 Damage: 10 

Tesco uses a reaction to cast shield from his last spell slot, if necessary, AC 17 to AC 22
Tesco uses a bonus action to cast hunter’s mark on S1
Tesco will dash and move 60 feet, catching the scout in melee.

Round 4
S2 drops her longbow and switches to shortsword,
scout S1 targets Tesco, shortsword Attack: 14 Damage: 8 

If spell slots remain, Tesco uses a reaction to cast shield from his last spell slot, if necessary, AC 17 to AC 22
Tesco targets S1, shillelagh Attack: 21 Damage: 14 

S2 takes 14 damage. S2 (2/16)

Round 5
scout S1 targets Tesco, shortsword Attack: 15 Damage: 7 

Tesco targets S2, shillelagh Attack: 12 Damage: 11 

Round 6
scout S1 targets Tesco, shortsword Attack: 16 Damage: 3 

Tesco targets S2, shillelagh Attack: 15 Damage: 15 

Tesco takes 5 damage, Tesco (15/20). S2 takes 10 damage and dies. Searching the bodies, he finds a map to a secret location. Instead of going in alone, he decides to bring the map back to Liam.

Liam studies the map carefully. Commits it to memory, then lights it on fire from a candle. "List here Bub!" Liam speaks slowly and quietly, so only Tesco can hear, "Just forget what you saw on that map. I know that location and something isn't right here. Don't tell anybody what you found today."

Tesco eases back from Liam, a bit startled and confused. He takes his bounty and adds it to his ever increasing gold stash, and says to himself, "I've saved up enough for new armor."

On a quick visit to Evelyn's Shop, Tesco trades back his chain shirt for 25 gp and his backup armor, scale mail for 25 gp, and pays 400 gp to buy breastplate.

2x Scouts Rewards
2x leather armor 10 gp
2x shortswords 10 gp
2x longbows 50 gp
10x arrows
bounty 60 gp
200 XP (total 950 XP, Level up, now 3rd level)

Dak was thankful that Varnak Ravenwind was able to save him after such a brutal beat down.

Rewards
20 gp
25 gp
10 gp
50 XP

Dak takes a long rest and is rejuvenated in the morning gaining a level.

 Yuno continues walking through the cave alone, armed with her bow and her twin swords. She muses to herself as she walks in the dark, "Demon Cave huh? I haven't seen any actual demons here." She then hears a howl from the darkness.

Yuno Initiative: 18
Black Bear Initiative: 12

Approach: Default

From the darkness runs in a black bear.

Round 1:
Yuno charges the bear to meet it half-way, claws vs her swords.

Bastard Sword : 19 Dmg: 10
BA Bastard Sword: 23 (Vex: 7) Dmg: 4

As the bear leaps forward, Yuno shoves her swords to the front, stabbing the bear in the shoulders and keeping it away from her as it tries to claw and bite her.

Rend: 19 Dmg: 6
Rend: 16 Dmg: 7

The bear chops down on Yuno's shoulder making her scream in pain and lose strength in her arms, preventing her from holding the bear back. The bear then slashes with its claws, raking Yuno's bare belly and almost causing her guts to spill.

 Yuno staggers back,. clutching her stomach and bleeding heavily from her gut wound, her shoulder and her mouth. Panting she says, "Nice... shot" Slowly she lets go of her wounds, letting her blood pour to the ground as she menacingly approaches the bear with both swords held at her sides.

Bastard Sword: 14 (Vex: 14) Dmg: 8
BA Bastard Sword: 20 (Vex: 19) Dmg: Dead.

Even mauled as badly as she was, Yuno leaps into the air and then runs both her swords straight through the bear's head. The bear goes still and then collapses as the serial killer leaps back away from the bear corpse.

Reward:

100 XP. Leveling to 2
20 GP.

Yuno places her hand on the wound on her stomach and gasps in pain. She turns back and heads to the inn to rest up. There is more places she wants to visit. After her 2 day trip to the forest, Yuno is looking forward to her next adventure back to the canyon. It is going to be her most dangerous yet. (6 SP to rest up and get food)

In the morning, Cor has more time to speak to the dwarf behind the bar. They, however do not have more time for him, giving little more than one word answers if the discussion does not concern payment of breakfast. 

Barely a decade into his second century, Cor still finds himself surprised by the differences of the people of the world. 

Still, he learns that the skeletons he fought yesterday are part of a recent uprising around and ancient Elvish burial site. 

Normally, he might ignore it, go about his business seeking out the fey around Evergreen Hollown to bargain for their knowledge with his familiar — he is not an adventurer, but yet…

His mind keeps returning to the human on the floor, the clear age-weathering of the Skeleton, and the nature of its eternal malevolence. 

He will return. He will stop more horrors. 

Encounter 101: 61

Perception: 4

He is on them before he realises, only sixty feet from the undead horrors. These two are newer, Cor realises in a brief moment to think. There is still a few small dangling pieces of dried flesh hanging from their bones. 

Skeleton Initiative: 14, 5 

Cor Initiative: 19

Familiar Initiative: 4

Cor takes the opportunity to direct his Familiar to ready its movement and a distraction, for after the first shot. 

He fires a first Eldritch blast towards the nearest Skeleton. (AR: 13, DR: 7) it hits well, punching against its armor. (HP: 6/13).

Cor ducks behind the nearest tree for Half cover from the return fire.

One shot hits the tree solidly (AR: 12), and Cor peers around the tree at the wrong moment. 

Everything goes black. (AR: Nat 20. DR 11)

Cor goes down, unconscious.

Death save: Nat 1 — two failures.  

It seems that the Elvish burial ground will soon have one more skeleton. 

 After recovering from her injuries (she heals quite fast), Yuno heads out back to the Canyon. She didn't bother looking at the bounty board this time. Instead, her goal was to check and see if she can find something interesting in the caves that dot the canyon. She buys 5 extra rations (25 SP) before heading out. She also buys a lockpick (25GP) since she is going to go dungeon diving.

It takes her 2 days to get to her location.

Now Yuno stands, clad in her armor of gold and purple in front of an ominous cave. The encounter with the bear plays in her mind. She nearly died to the bear and now she is going somewhere far more dangerous. It's no fun killing things if there is no risk to herself. With full confidence, Yuno descends into the cave. Soon she finds herself in front of a (29) Wooden Door carved into the rock. It is locked.

"Glad I bought those lockpicks" Yuno says gleefully as she takes out her tools and gets to work on the lock.

Thieves Tools (DEX): 12 (Inspiration: 21)

After messing with the lock for a bit, the door clicks and slowly opens to a (5) huge room with no one in it save for some made of stone. (17) Including the wooden door that Yuno came from, that was toward the southwest (6), there were two more doors in this room; (59) one was a strong wooden door to the (5) south; to the (3) East, was another strong wooden door but this one was a sliding door (94+56). The room itself is empty but (53+100) Yuno notices some words carved into the side of the room. The words are next to the east door and written in dried blood.

Yuno luck roll + Language: 9

Yuno stares at the words but she can't tell what it means.

Perception: 22

While Yuno didn't know what the words meant. She decides to move on. As she is about to go down the east path, (61) she feels a bit off about the door. She notices a trap door, positioned directly above the east door. It's a trap. She is going to have to try and disarm it if she wants to go through. Yuno steps away from the door. She instead decides to try the south door but realizes that it is stuck. It is stuck too much for her to go through. Having no other way forward, she tries to disarm the trap.

Thieves Tools (DC 16): 14
CON16 save: 2 Damage:6

Yuno fails to disarm the trap and instead ends up triggering it. The trap door above her opens and a hail of needles shoot out from her. While some of the needles clang off from the armor, a lot of them embed themselves into Yuno's skin. She hisses in pain and steps away. "Oof, Ouch, Oh, Ah!" Yuno makes cartoonish pain sounds as she pulls the needles out. "Well... that's one way to deal with the trap. " Yuno quips and continues onward through east door, sliding it open. 

Encounter (201): 82

The east door leads to a U-shaped hallway that goes around. As Yuno turns the corner though, she encounters a Hobgoblin Scout.

Initiative:
Yuno: 6
Scout: 7

Short Sword: 20 Dmg: 3
Short Sword: 21 Dmg: 6

Yuno Bastard Sword: 18 Dmg: 6
BA Second Wind: 8

Yuno was caught off-guard by the sudden Hobgoblin. The scout acted quick and plunged her short sword into Yuno's belly. Yuno hunches over in pain clutching her wound. Acting fast, the Scout places her foot on Yuno's shoulder to pull the sword out of her and then brings it down in an arcing cut, cutting into Yuno's cheek. Yuno takes a knee to compose herself. Then as the scout moves in to finish her off, swings her sword, cutting across the scouts face. The scout yelps in pain and clutches her broken and slashed nose as she steps back and gives Yuno an opportunity to recover.

Round 2:

Scout Short sword: 4 Dmg: Miss
Short Sword: 23 Dmg: 4

Yuno Bastard Sword: 8 (Vex: 14) Dmg: 8 + Sneak Attack: 6
BA Bastard Sword:6 (Vex: NAT20) Dmg: Already dead.

The two swordsmen face each other, each ready for the other to attack. The scout is the first to move she tries to cut open Yuno with a horizontal swing but Yuno steps back and dodges. The scout follows-up with a lunge at Yuno's head. Yuno tilts her head to the side. The dodge isn't perfect the blade grazes her cheek deeply, drawing blood. But now that the scout is so close to Yuno, the serial killer simply brings her sword to the scout's throat. "Game Over" She says before a side way movement of her right arm cause her bastard sword to slit the scout's throat. The hobgoblin scout falls to her knees before collapsing on the ground dead. Yuno looks at her fallen foe, slowly healing herself before she starts looting.

BA: Second Wind: 4

Rewards:
100 XP
Scout: 60 GP
Trap (3d6): 10 GP
Leather Armor
Short Sword
Long Bow
1 Arrow (refill)

Yuno continues her adventure through the dungeon. As she walks the long U-shaped corridor, she thinks, "Hm... That was a Hobgoblin Scout. This must be some kind of goblin strong hold. Either that or the goblins are working with the bandits. Hey, stranger things have happened OUCH!" Yuno's train of thought is interrupted by her bumping into a wooden door.

The door rattles as Yuno's body crashes into it. Yuno sighs in relief. "If this door was trapped too, I would be dead." She looks up at the door and tries to open it but realizes that it is stuck. She steps back and then points to the door with her golden gauntlet clad finger. "Alright door! It's you and me now, En Garde!"

Yuno Fights the door (DC13 STR): 11

Yuno kicks and punches the door for a while but all that does is leave her exhausted. That door is not ******* opening. And with that, Yuno's journey to the dungeon comes to an end; not marked by meeting her end at the hands of traps or monsters, but by defeat at the hands of a rickety stuck door.

Grubling and cursing, Yuno heads back. On her way she stumbles on to the corpse of the scout once again. Yuno tries to console herself, "I guess it could have been worse. Instead turning back because I can't open a stupid door, my journey could have ended with me lying dead on the floor in my underwear."

Yuno takes another 2 days to get back to town. She will sell the extra loot for more gold. Before going to tavern to cheer herself up with more cake (6 SP for food + Room)

Leather Armor 10 GP
Short Sword: 10 GP
Long Bow: 50 GP

Quote from NycrolB >>

Death save: Nat 1 — two failures.  

It seems that the Elvish burial ground will soon have one more skeleton. 

Fuifui moved swiftly through the underbrush, her steps light and deliberate. She had woken late, but finding Cor's tracks had been easy enough. The warlock wasn’t one to conceal his trail, especially in a place like this—Silverwood Forest, where danger lingered in every shadow. He had saved her life, and the least she could do was return the favor, even if she had only known him for a brief time.

She felt the familiar weight of her training settle in her mind as she tracked him deeper into the woods. Her eyes darted around, every sound and shift in the shadows keeping her senses on edge. When she spotted Cor’s owl familiar circling anxiously above, her pulse quickened. It wasn’t a good sign.

Breaking through a thicket, Fuifui froze at the sight ahead. Cor lay motionless on the ground, an arrow jutting from his shoulder, and just beyond him were two skeletal figures, their ancient bones rattling as they advanced. Without hesitation, she slid into the shadows, her breath steadying as she planned her next move.

Stealth: 16 versus perception (best of two): 19
Initiative: 23

Fuifui crouched low, her body blending into the dense shadows of the forest, moving silently until she was close to Cor. The skeletons hadn’t noticed her yet, their focus entirely on the downed warlock. She could feel her heartbeat pounding in her chest, but she steadied herself.

From the safety of her hiding spot, she reached for Cor. Her hand hovered just above him, barely touching his shoulder as she drew on her focus to slow his bleeding. She pressed her fingers gently against his pulse, murmuring a soft prayer to the gods she no longer fully believed in—just enough to stabilize him, hopefully. 

The skeletons were getting closer. Fuifui couldn’t move him, not without drawing attention, so she melted deeper into the shadows, waiting for the right moment to strike. If she could distract them long enough, she could buy Cor the time he needed to recover.

Medicine check to stabilise Cor (DC10, using heroic inspiration): 18