Tales from Talaveroth

 Si' Juul, as you fly up into the sky after an hour or so on the road, you can make out a group of about half a dozen individuals coming towards you on the road checking with the scope, you can tell that one of them has either a heavy crossbow or a rifle slung around their shoulder, while a second person looks like they carry either a wand or a pistol on their hip.

Down below, your group is joined by Barrelgut, the jovial halfling.

(Have they seen me in the air, or just coming our direction?)

As far as you can tell, they don't seem to have spotted you yet.

Si'Juul will just keep watching them, letting them pass, confident his allies will see them and hide or just stroll past them, believing them to be safe as they carry no firearms.

Just as you're about to descend, you see that one of the group points upwards towards you, and you can tell that the entire group has seen you now, and is pressing forward, rapidly advancing into the forest.

Si'Juul will maintain his 200ft height, keeping watch on them.

"Not even going to try to talk to me first?! Just right to it, huh?!", he shouts to the people running towards the forest, definitely loud enough for his allies to hear and react as they may.

Please, everyone roll for initiative!

(So, does that mean they're running down the road toward us?  Or running off the road into the forest?)

Ponki initiative 16

(Running in the direction of the light house, which happens to be where you are coming from. Unsure whether they know of your presence, they certainly saw Si'Juul though.)

Initiative for Oleg and Twitch: 11 and 9

Initiative: 11

Initiative:14

Initiative 7

“Si’Juul, what’s going on” Elhanna call out to the birdman

Si'Juul just cringes when Elhanna reveals herself. He had hoped the others would have kept themselves hidden for a bit longer. But now that the cat's out of the bag...

"I want one of them alive! You know which one! Do as you like with the rest!"

(Not sure if I am ahead of the enemies in initiative, so I will wait to roll my attack.)

Even with Ehhanna shouting up to Si'Juul, the approaching enemies have no clear idea of where you are, so you each get to tell me where you are positioned within the Northwestern quadrant of the map. SI'Juul, you get to land and position yourself, otherwise I'll have you hovering 200 feet above the center of the map. 

Everyone of you gets a round to make preparations, try to hide, or make perception checks to determine where the Black Brand mercenaries are at. For those of you at the top of the initiative order, you can immediately add your first action. 

Specifics of the battlefield: Trees and bushes can provide cover and obscure vision for the purposes of line of sight. The Patches of water count as difficult terrain. If dashing through them, they will require a Dex 12 check to avoid slipping and falling prone.


The Initiative order is:

Poinki, Paren and Si'Juul
Oleg, Twitch, and three of the Black Brand Fighters
Elhanna
The remaining Black Brand.

Si'Juul will move 50ft down, at 150ft up now, and fire upon an enemy just about to get behind a tree with Bad News.

Attack:27

Damage: 18

Second attack: reload Bad News

"It's clear now you put a hit out on me! You should know trying to collect from me is going to be the most difficult thing you'll ever do!"

Paren removes a vial of poison from his belt and takes a moment to coat his shortsword. He says a few words in elvish, which causes a flash of arcane ruins to wrap around his legs. expeditious retreat He then takes off at a full sprint towards and past the direction Si'Juul is hovering, dodging around the rough terrain. Once past the centre he keeps heading southeast, looking to come upon the group of whoever he's yelling about and take them by surprise. He vears off to the first bandit he finds and slashes out at them with the sword, following it up with a punch to the jaw. His fist glows with a black energy as it hits.

 "Stay safe," says Poinki to Elhanna as he runs forward.

In his old goblin tribe, their tactics were to sneak and hide and set ambushes. Even if he still wanted to fight like a goblin, the fine mail shirt Helga gave him clatters and makes stealth nearly impossible.  So he charges toward the group, muttering prayers to Ilmater, and when he is in range, he will cast Hold Person on the enemy with the heavy crossbow/rifle. (Wis save DC14)

On the preparation round Elhanna summons her spiritual weapon amd loads her crossbow, then hurry after ponki. Paren just disappear from her side in a flash. 

She remind herself that her place in battle is in the back line, trying to pick off enemies from afar while healing her team. 

 Poinki, you spot the man with the rifle slung across his shoulder and notice that the others in the group seem to look to him for leadership and commands. You unleash your spell, but the veteran has seen some stuff, and is able to shrug off the effect of your spell.

Paren's movements are like a flash of colour, before you can see him emerge from behind a tree to attack one of the pistol wielding novices. His sword connects, but the heavy leathers the novice is wearing are enough to keep them protected, but Paren uses the momentary distraction of his sword strike to double up with an open palm strike right between the eyes of the gunslinger. The black energy emenating from his fists seems to seep from his hands and through the eyes of the novice, in a very distrubing display of malevolent magic.

SI'Juul meanwhile has lashed the strap of his new rifle around his feathered elbow to allow for a good solid position even while flying in mid air. You've got a bead on the veteran with the rifle, but then see another novice attempting to hide behind a tree. From your vantage point though, you can clearly see him, and as you fire, you can see the spray of blood, as your shot pierces through their shoulder, just below the clavicle.

In the middle of this carnage, you can all see Elhanna's spiritual weapon appear, and she sends it forward, right into the middle of the battlefield.

Somewhat stunned by the ferocity of your attack, you can sense that the novices are caught off guard, but even though, one of them wades into a pool of murky water to get in cover behind a half-sunken tree trunk, before turning his pistol up towards the sky and firing at Si'Juul, but the shot goes wide.

Oleg meanwhile is casting Bless on Twitch, Poinki and Elhanna, before getting back into cover behind a tree. The perceptive among you hear him in prayer, asking his god for strength.

Paren, the Novice you attacked spins towards you, and draws a rapier in one fluid motion, swiping at you. The blade connects, leaving a small gash (you suffer 5 slashing damage).

The Veteran himself spots Si'Juul on overwatch, and draws a bead on him, before firing. The first shot goes wide, he fires a second time from the second barrel, but the second shot misses too.

Twitch meanwhile is trying to figure out what the sixth person in the group, a stout dwarf with two saddlebags slung around their shoulders but only a war pick as a visible weapon, is there for. You see her puzzle for a bit, but then she flings a dagger at him, and as it pierces his side, you can see that he is less well armed as the others.

Elhanna, as you get yourself and your spiritual weapon in place, you see one of the gunslingers rush towards Poinki, and you let fl one of your bolts, which strikes him just above the knee. You hear a flood of curses, and something about him having wanted to become an adventurer, but likely having to serve as a guard now instead. He immediately turns to fire towards you, and although you duck out of the way, the bullet grazes your arm (You suffer 4 points of piercing damage).

In the middle of all the mayhem, the dwarf reaches into one of his saddlebags and produces a small flask, which he hurls towards Paren. 

The last of the gunslingers, with a shattered left shoulder, leans agains a tree and draws a bead on Paren before her, now clearly illuminated by the flaming cloak he's wearing, and fires at him, but weakened by the blood loss, the shot hits a nearby tree instead.

Poinki, Paren and Si'Juul, you're back up after this first round of carnage!

Si'Juul shifts his attention towards the veteran leader of this group.

"Sending rookies to come after me? Either you all are very desperate, or very idiotic!"

He takes aim down his scope, seeing the look of anger in the man's eyes, his fingers find no hesitation as he pulls the trigger.

Attack: 23

Damage: 20

Second attack: reload