Aspiring Heroes of Faerûn

"Wow, Chrys, you're giving him the lucky moonstone? That's very special. Keep that close, Krackle. And just get some rest. We'll have you back to normal as soon as we can."

With Lumen carrying Krackle all swaddled up on his back, you're able to keep up a decent pace along the well-traveled Evermoor Way, and for the first part of the morning, you're able to cover quite a few miles. The time seems to pass rather quickly, partly because it's just a beautiful summer day here in The North, and probably because things seem a little more calm and comfortable. 

After a couple of hours, you pass by a familiar location, and you realize that it's the place where you had encountered the stirges. Seeing the area, Krackle remembers the pain and terror of having one of the little beasts stab into his arm with its needle-like proboscis as it sucked his blood.

The memory is short lived, though, and you walk past that place and brush those thoughts from your mind. Much has happened to you since then...

You continue to march on with as much speed as you can muster without tiring yourselves too much, paying mere passing attention to the vast fields of grassland that stretch on either side of the you. As the morning progresses, the heat of the sun beats down on you with surprising warmth, but by mid day, the sky slowly begins to fill with clouds and as the afternoon hours wear on, you can see the telltale signs of possible thunderstorms. What began as innocent, small poofy clouds have transformed into large, billowing thunderheads that continue to grow, until the entire sky above your head becomes a heavy blanket of dark gray. 

Shortly after that, you begin to hear the faint rumbles of distant thunder, that seem to get close with every crack. Soon, the first drops of rain begin to fall and spatter on your skin and armor.

Chrys takes out her waxed raincloth and affixes it over her head.  She also takes Lumen's from him and arranges it in such a way that it will cover Krackle on his back.  "Right 'bout now I'm glad we got these.  I say we push on through this storm much as we can, though."

Lumen nods a quick thanks to Chrys, sets his jaw, and pressed forward, looking for the lights of Yartar ahead of him.

"Maybe I should try to turn into a duck... ducks like the water" The kobold would say from under the rain cloth before letting out a few loud sneezes. "I guess it is good that i'm not the one that is healthy and you all arn't sick... I don't think I could carry you guys." he would add while still wrapped in the cloak behind the half-orc.

Vesper continues to push on through the storm. She mentally adds an umbrella to the list of things to purchase. 

"We should find a copse of woodland and hunker down the next chance we get; walking into an open field during a thunderstorm is only going to invite danger."

"I don't mean to contradict you, but I think that we should keep going. We've been going fast for most of the day, Yartar can't be much further. We'll be safe there and I'm sure that Krackle would recover quicker indoors than outside in the rain."

DM Rolls

 You stop briefly to retrieve your wax cloths and cover up as best you can before the rain picks up, and then continue on. Being surrounded by open grasslands, you spot nothing that would offer you any kind of shelter, so at Vesper's prodding, you keep moving. Within minutes, the spatters turn into a downpour, which is accompanied by thunder, and even bolts of lighting that strike off in the distance, slightly to the northwest of your current position. A count of about 5-10 seconds between each flash indicates that the lightning is indeed close, and with a few striking at shorter intervals, may even be approaching. 

Being directly under the thick of the storm, the sky above is now dark gray, and the ambient light all around you has dimmed considerably. Between the low light and the heavy rain drops, your visibility is reduced even more, but even as you try to hurry along, in the interest of safety, you allow your eyes to do a quick scan of the areas around you every few minutes, just in case...

...and as it turns out, your vigilance pays off. 

Just as a lighting flash strikes nearby, you see movement off to the side, about 150 feet off the road to the right. Three creatures rushing quickly through the grass... humanoid size, but as far as you can tell, not human. From this distance, it's hard to see exactly what they are, but they look to be larger than goblins. (perception checks to try and identify them.)

You can see that the are armed with longbows, and it appears that they definitely see you, in fact, both of them look to be pulling arrows forth and taking aim in your direction. 

Before you can act, though, you suddenly see an arrow fly out of the grass, but not from those two creatures. There is apparently one more that you didn't see, and with next to no warning, you do your best to dodge the missile, which hits Kess right in the thigh: Attack: 6 Damage: 8 

(Dice changed when I edited the post. Original attack roll was 20 for damage of 2 to Kess.)

You then see one more of the humanoid sized creatures rise up from the grass and give away their positions. All four of them are about 150 feet way, spaced about 10 feet apart.

Vesper will lift the bag that she's carrying with Mage Hand 30 feet up. "Hopefully if the lightning comes towards us, it'll hit this bag instead. And maybe if we're lucky, it'll fry the mask too. But what should we do? I don't have any spells that will create light and a regular torch will burn out, unless someone has some oil to burn. Unless we want to risk getting hit on the way to Yartar, we might need to see if Krackle's got enough energy to create a burrow tonight."

Need Initiative and actions from everyone. 

Lumen starts singing in a low bass rumble that cuts right through the rain and thunder an orc marching chant that he’s of course made into his own rousing, inspirational ballad. He inspires each one of his companions in sequence to keep marching along. He also begins using prestidigitation to clean the rainwater out of everyone’s clothes and to warm them. He will also light some impromptu campfires along the road (looking for some small shrubs or piles of twigs, saturated as they may be) with the understanding that the rain will douse it in a few minutes, but with the hope that it helps buoy everyone along and light the way in the low light.

(I changed Chrys's prepared spells to Bless and Cure Wounds because I figured she would no longer have Ceremony and Protection from Evil And Good prepared after the last long rest, if she had no components to cast either of them.  If this is not ok, that's fine, I can switch it back.)

Chrys growls low in her throat and pulls out her hammer.  "I ain't in a good mood, and someone's gonna pay for this interruption."

Initiative: 3

Whoops disregard the last, was reacting to an old version of the DM’s post.

Initiative: 15

Vesper: 7

"On second thought, I think that we might need to see if Krackle has enough energy to help us fight right now."

"I understand your concerns, Vesper, but lightning has a tendency to strike the tallest object in an area, and it tends to discharge from its point of impact. That would include ARGH!" Kess shrieked in pain as she heard something whoop past her thigh and felt an arrowhead's edge dig into her dress and into her flesh, Kess biting off an even louder scream of pain as she hints of warmth begin to run down her leg.

"BANDIT AMBUSH! Longbows! Stay low!"

Gritting her teeth in mix of pain and anger, Kess would reach for her own longbow and return fire at the first archer she could see before lowering herself into a kneeling posture to use the grass to her advantage.

Kessdarra rolls for Initiative: 20

Kess returns fire with a shot of her own!

To hit: 11

Damage: 12

((Well... it makes sense she'd roll so low on initiative, she was the first one hit, lol))

Krackle would hear Kess cry out in pain, completley oblivious to what was going on around him as he lay in the cloak under the waterproof cloth. "What is going on!?" The tiny kobold would shout as he claws his way up and out of the warm cloak and falls into the cold wet mud behind Lumen.

Initiative! 8

DM Rolls

22, 3, 19, 5