The Wildemount Irregulars (2020)

Silent looks to Balassar. Guess that depends on how they wanna move forward. He looks back at the bugbears. What brought you all out here, then? You piss off the wrong bigwigs from Den Olios and have to make a quick exit? 

There's a war, the female bugbear begins, and we didn't want to fight.  And usually that's not a problem, there's no conscription, except my idiot brother signed...

They don't need to know the details, the male bugbear replies, looking angry.  We just... I wanted out, and then we had to find a place to hide from...

3

His eyes grow wide at something he sees behind you.  You turn, and there's a group of five large gnolls wearing chain armour, about a hundred feet away but moving purposefully towards you all.

From them, the male adds with resignation.

Silent curses. Great. That makes three of us Xhorhasian deserters. Well, wouldn't be right for me to ditch fellow outlaws, eh? 

He removes the handaxe from his belt again and looks at Alton and Balassar. What's our next move? Balassar, looks like you might get that fight you wanted. 

Alton looks at the gnolls and watches them approach, "Are they coming to take you back or worse?"

Worse, the female bugbear answers Alton.  They don't send gnolls to take you back.  She winces at Silent's use of the word 'deserter', but doesn't attempt to counter it.  I know this isn't your fight, she begins, but trails off, seemingly unsure how to continue.

Alton checks his hand crossbow to make sure it is loaded and gets into a spot behind Balassar and Silent, "Well, in that case, you two should head back to the cave and get ready to either protect anyone else that might be inside or get them ready to run." He will also dig the lute out from his bag and makes sure it is tuned up. "It might not be our fight, but if they are here for that. I doubt they will just let us go."

Balassar smiles looking to the Gnolls and then to the Silent "Luckily I'm ready for a fight. Hopefully they won't recognize you. Let's get into position. Silent, the bugbear, and myself will hold the line." His attention focuses on the male bugbear identified as deserting "It's your lucky day. Normally I'd say throw trash like you at them and let them leave the innocents alone. You dragged your family into this mess so at least do the right thing and help us keep them safe." with that he looks to the rest "Wash and Alton can provide support from behind and act as a secondary buffer should any get through us." his attention set on the remaining Bugbears "Can the rest of you fight if anything makes it through Wash and Alton? It's unfortunate you were dragged into this mess and just don't want to see someone die who didn't want to be involved in war in the first place."

While Balassar speaks, Silent comes up with and decides to attempt a cockamamie scheme. He stills his mind and summons his Echo to stand 10 feet directly in front of him and calls out to the gnolls loudly, speaking the Xhorhasian dialect of Elvish. 

Slow down there, friends - got it on good authority from Lady Zethris herself that there's a band of outlaw gnolls helping deserters escape the law, looks like you fit the bill. Nothin' personal, but I'm gonna have to ask you to leave this interrogation and execution to us - the Aurora Watch has taken over this investigation. Can't take any chances with deserters. And if you're loyal Dynasty soldiers, I'm real sorry for the suspicion. 

Alton, the two bugbears make a start back to the mouth of the cave, and the goblin standing there steps a little way out, eyes fixed on the approaching gnolls.  They talk quietly together for a few seconds.

Balassar, the male bugbear looks at his feet, but the female responds:  You don't know what you're talking about.  He...  The male bugbear touches her arm, and she falls silent, glowering at you.  It's the goblin who responds to your question calmly, but in not very good common.  Not fight.  Never fight.  Can run?

Silent, make a Deception check.

Deception 18 

The gnolls seem to snicker to each other as four of them run forward, three brandishing spears and the apparent leader wielding a large glaive; one of them holds back, drawing a longbow.  There's no doubt about their intent, and the bugbears and goblin back away into the cave mouth.

Roll initiative please.

Wash and Trogdor have moved behind Silent and Balassar, as Balassar instructed.  I assume Alton is moving too?  Please let me know if you're happy with the starting position on the map.

Also, I think I kept forgetting to ask, but if you want new tokens for your characters, please make something (on http://rolladvantage.com/tokenstamp/ or elsewhere) and post it in the DM thread, and I'll add it to the maps.)

Alton's initiative: 7

Silent's initiative: 10 

Balassar just smiles as he looks to the Gnolls.

OOC:

Balassar's Initiative: 4

Sorry, Balassar’s roll isn’t showing for me.

Should be fixed. It's a 4 on my screen just in case.

6 
17
12

Round One:
Alton
Gnoll Leader
Silent, Wash and Balassar
Gnolls 1-4

Alton is up first.

With his lute in hand, Alton will move up to the next tree (K9) to get closer to the gnolls and hopefully get some cover from the tree. Once in position, he will start to play his lute with a country like tune and sings, "I just set that chainmail on fire. It glowed red-hot and set that gnoll's fur on fire. And it burns, burns, burns. That chain of fire, that chain of fire." Casting Heat Metal on the armor of the Gnoll Leader. With a final flourish on his lute, Alton will give Balassar some bardic inspiration.

Movement: Move the 25ft to get behind the tree at K9
Action: Casts Heat Metal on the armor of the Gnoll Leader for 13 fire damage.
               Must make a DC14 Con save or drop the object, if it can, and on a fail have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
Bonus Action: Bardic inspiration to Balassar, he can add a 1d6,once, to one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw in the next 10 minutes.

Gnoll leader's save:  There isn't one.

The gnoll leader's armour glows hot with magic and power, and the creature howls in fury.  But it isn't panicked, and cries out something in a language that none of you understand.  It then charges towards Alton, intent on killing him first.  His massive glaive swings and is able to reach Alton's space from ten feet away:

Two attacks with disadvantage from the Heat Metal spell:

Attack: 7 Damage: 5
Attack: 17 Damage: 5

The first is a savage stab right into Alton's chest; you just manage to pull away in time to stop it going right through.  Alton needs to make a concentration save to keep the spell up, the DC is 10.

The second attack misses.

Silent, Balassar and Wash are up.  

Wash shoots an Eldritch Blast at the gnoll leader:

Attack: 21 Damage: 12

And misses.  He also sends Trogdor to flutter about the creature's head, distracting it.  The next attack against the gnoll leader has advantage from Trogdor's help.

Balassar and Silent are up.