Aldarin'sspikeless thorn-whip catchs Jim Dirkell's opponent completely by surprise. Focused as he is in facing down (and glowering at) the half-elf, the Dwarven man facing Jim looks caught off guard, and starts slightly as he finds himself on the receiving end of a blow from an unexpected direction. Feeling a fairly solid strike, he reaches behind himself to touch the back of his helmet.
"Aye, that's it for me. Not a blow from the opponent I was expectin', but..." he says, raising his shield arm to signal his defeat, then looking towards the wagon briefly to try and figure out who tagged him. The Dwarf looks from Kaylessa, to Aldarin, to Thurgar (all the ones that look in touch with nature) and then briefly back to Aldarin and his unicorn-pendant, but then shrugs and decides to walk off the field and return his gear to the table.
The crowd surrounding the clearing begins to start murmuring a bit more at this point, talking to each other and pointing at the adventurers locked in combat. Most of them seem to be murmurs of approval as despite the well-known prowess of Elventree's guard, so far this seems to be a one-sided fight favoring the members of the caravan. Overhead, windows and doors begin to crack open, and pedestrians walking in the bridges and platforms of the trees seem to be stopping to look down to see what is happening.
Kaylessa has been spending most of this time looking back and forth between both sides of the caravan, as rapidly as she can without dizzying herself. She mostly seems concerned with measuring the skill of the party rather than fighting herself, but apparently decides that it's time to act. Realizing that her longbow outranges the guards' shortbows, she takes a knee by the side of the Elven wagon, and leans around the corner to take a shot at the remaining bowman to the east.
(Longbow Attack Roll - 15)
(OOC: Skipping the action breakdown box here, as her action's so simple it just takes up space)
Kaylessa smirks to herself as her arrow solidly thumps into the middle of her rival archer's knee, causing the guardswoman to misfire and shoot her own arrow straight into the dirt. The guardswoman (who appears to be a Moon Elf to those with vision good enough to see that far) stumbles a bit, and takes a step to recover her balance. "Thanks, Kaylessa." the woman spits sarcastically, frowning as she leans over to nurse her wounded left knee. "That's NOT a funny joke you know!" the guardswoman shouts as a followup as she winces in pain.
"Hey, at least yer evened out now. It was th' OTHER knee I hit last practice." Kaylessa cups her hands over her mouth to shout in reply. A judge close to the wounded guard-archer steps forward to raise his right arm and his shield to signal a hit. "Guardswoman Lirelle is out!" the long-haired man announces, afterwards leaning down to offer Lirelle his shoulder to help her limp away.
"...which was why I was never an adventurer. And furthermore, if you really did get a serious knee injury, how would you even qualify for guard service anyway?" Lirelle can be heard muttering to herself as she exits the training area.
(OOC: Since the Archer was already taken out because everyone is rolling well even without Heroic Actions, I just changed things to target both attacks at the spear wielder if you don't mind. If you want to change your mind though, I can just edit this post)
Locked in combat with Merrok, the brawny human man fighting the Dwarf doesn't notice Umbra'sthrow until it bounces off his neck. Pushing his shield off of Merrok's own, he barely turns aside in time to intercept her second dagger with the bottom of his spear before he realizes that there's no point. "Graagh!" he grunts, throwing his shield down to the grass. "Damn girl, you're a quiet one." he says admiringly, lifting a hand to hold the side of his neck. "And pretty too." he adds, with a roguish half-grin and a wink. "Takes th' edge off th' sting a'defeat." he sighs, before sucking his breath and bellowing, "Ah'm out, t'was a good stick in th' side a'me neck."
The guardsman retrieves his shield, turns to give Umbra a courteous bow (smiling at her the entire time), then gives her a final glance over his shoulder as he walks away.
At this point, poor Thurgar seems ready to take action, but appears to have unfortunately run out of opponents for now, and readies his sling to engage the inevitable second wave of guard reinforcements. As if on queue, 6 more of the guard rush in to take the place of the ones that were taken down. There are 3 on each side again, but this time all 3 on both sides seem to be pushing what appears to be an oversized empty mining cart with swiveling wheels on the bottom.
The guards appear to be pushing the carts into place as a sort of mobile cover, but before the ones on the east side can fully get into position, the one on left edge of the cart is struck in the ribs by Thurgar's rubber bullet. Surprised, he trips and falls in the middle of running and then just lies there for a few moments, with a look of utter shock in his eyes. The other two stop in their tracks a little further down after they've finished setting their cart up, and look to the fallen guard as one, checking on him.
"...it was... actually a hit." the guard on the ground mumbles into the grass, not bothering to get up yet. "What?" one of the guards behind the replies, looking to her fallen companion to try and get clarification. Slowly rising to his feet, the pale young man dusts off stray blades of grass on his armor, picks up his bow in his right hand, and then raises his left in a signal. "Point! I'm off the field." he says again, loud enough for people to hear.
"What? But this is bow range, how could you get someone with just a sling, isn't this too far to use those?" one of the remaining guards (a bearded gnome) behind the cart ponders aloud. "And he was mostly behind the cart too." the thin dwarven girl beside him adds. "This is highly irregular." the gnome agrees.
Cheers and applause swell up from both the crowd on the ground floor of the clearing and from the walkways and bridges up above in the trees. What was once a simple training exercise appears to have turned into something of an impromptu spectator sport for the residents of Elventree, and most of the people watching seem highly entertained and impressed.
The white-haired elven man in armored robes that appears to be the head judge however, seems furious. "Pathetic! PATHETIC, all of you. Extra training for everyone. EVERYONE!" he shouts, red-faced. "Even YOU!" he practically howls, throwing his arms out to point at the guards acting as judges. Groans and sighs sound all around as the head judge continues ranting. "Seven guards taken down without even a SINGLE hit in return? UNACCEPTABLE!" he roars.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Initiative 02
The anxiety surrounding this second wave of guards is almost palpable. The entire first wave was taken out seemingly almost without effort, and one of their own second wave was forced out even before they were finished setting up. Nonetheless, like the trained and disciplined professionals they are, they move into action.
This time, the "ambushers" are made up of 2 shortbow wielders and 1 guard holding a javelin and shield (with 3 more javelins on their backs) on the west, and 1 shortbow user and 1 javelineer on the east, with the additional archer having already been tagged out by Thurgar. All of the new guardsare 75feetaway and behind half-cover.
Battle Update:
2BS<C> MU <W> J <C>SB
B = Bow, S = Spear (Javelin), M = Merrok, U = Umbra, J = Jim, <C> = Mine Cart (Half Cover)
Thinking quickly, both archers and the javelin wielder on the west side all peek out around/over the cart and shoot arrows and hurl a javelin (respectively) straight at Umbra, realizing that she looks less well armored than Merrok beside her.
(Attack Rolls - Bow: 15, Bow: 18 , Javelin: 14)
On the east side, the remaining archer and javelin-user slip briefly out of cover to shoot and throw their respective ranged weapons at Jim.
(Attack Rolls - Bow: 4, Javelin: 6)
(OOC: note that Umbra and Jim took 1 hit each out of 3, but it's up to Synthil and Zingbob to describe reactions to those hits, if they want to. I'm not going to take away player agency by describing hit reactions for anyone unless they don't feel like it and want me to do it instead. Also, if you want your heroic action to play out a certain way, particularly the instant-death "executes" feel free to coordinate over PM to plan out what those might look like later on in a real fight.)
Merrok (20) - Hits 3/3, AC 18, PP 13, Spd 25, HA --
Jim Dirk (19) - Hits 2/3, AC 18, PP 13, Spd 30, HA 0
Belview (17) - Hits 3/3, AC 15, PP 11, Spd 25, HA 1 (AC is 15 with Mage Armor, 12 without)
Aldarin (12) - Hits 3/3, AC 15, PP 15, Spd 30, HA 0
Kaylessa (09) - Hits 3/3, AC 15, PP 14, Spd 30, HA --
Umbra (06) - Hits 2/3, AC 15, PP 09, Spd 30, HA 0
Thurgar (04) - Hits 3/3, AC 14, PP 11, Spd 25, HA 0
2 SGuard (02) - Hits 1/1, AC 18, PP 12, Spd 30, +3 Dex Saves (Use Javelins and Shield, AC 16 w/out cover)
3 BGuard (02) - Hits 1/1, AC 16, PP 12, Spd 30, +3 Dex Saves (Use Shortbows, AC 14 w/out cover)
(OOC: Let me know if my combat descriptions are getting too long and spammy. I'm trying to make them exciting, but can easily see how it's too much. Also, nice use of heroic actions. As I suspected, they can really speed combats up mechanically if they used to just autohit or eliminate enemies. I'm also impressed at how Umbra and Thurgar "broke" the rules (or at least tried in Umbra's case) by using the autohit property of heroic actions to completely eliminate the disadvantage to rolls you'd have to take if you were attacking beyond the "normal" range with ranged weapons)
Seeing arrows and a javelin headed toward Umbra, Merrok moves to try and intercept, but is a bit too late. "Y'should prob'ly head back to th'wagons or stay behind me." he says, before turning to raise his shield and charge full tilt towards the western cart.
Move: Run 25 feet
Action: Dash 25 feet
(50 feet moved total)
Update:
2BS<C> M U <W> J <C>SB
Merrok moved closer to the west cart.
(OOC: If your character moves, feel free to copy and paste this little diagram and put your character on it too)
The strange robotic version of Jim takes the wooden arrow shot in stride, not even pretending that it hurts him, as he then whips his head towards the overturned minecart (I assume that you mean they're 75 ft. away from the wagons so 45 ft. away from me). He then rushes forwards, shield stuck out right in front of him and a blank face. He then kneels down behind his shield, seeming to use it as protection against the incoming shots.
Move: Move 30 ft. towards them (so I'm 15 ft. away)
Belview Copperfoot- HP 3/3 | AC 15 | PP 11 | SP 25
"These guards stand no chance against a Master of the Arcane! Muahaha!" Belview sprints from the wagon, disregarding any type of defense. While he is running, he takes out his water skin and pours some water out. "Glacium Aquos!" As the arcane words flow from his mouth, the water begins to crystallize. He then throws the ice shard at the guards feet, the shard misses all of the guards. Just as they breathe a sigh of relief, it explodes, but instead of ice shards piercing their flesh, they are simply doused with water.
Move: 25 feet towards the three guards to the west
Aldarin follows Jim, bringing his shield in front of himself as he leaves the cover of the wagons to about 30 feet out. He then again utters a soft word, gripping his quarterstaff in his other hand, and points it towards the group of guards ahead of them. A mass of vines rise up around the guards, gripping at their feet and legs, attempting to pull them down against the earth.
Move: Move 30 ft. towards Jim Action: Cast Entangle on as many guards as I can get in a 20 foot square. Strength Save (DC 13). On a fail they are restrained
"Damn girl, you're a quiet one." he says admiringly, lifting a hand to hold the side of his neck. "And pretty too." he adds, with a roguish half-grin and a wink. "Takes th' edge off th' sting a'defeat." he sighs, before sucking his breath and bellowing, "Ah'm out, t'was a good stick in th' side a'me neck."
"You have good taste." Umbra returns the wink and laughs. "With certain men I can be a loud one, too."
The white-haired elven man in armored robes that appears to be the head judge however, seems furious. "Pathetic! PATHETIC, all of you. Extra training for everyone. EVERYONE!" he shouts, red-faced. "Even YOU!" he practically howls, throwing his arms out to point at the guards acting as judges. Groans and sighs sound all around as the head judge continues ranting. "Seven guards taken down without even a SINGLE hit in return? UNACCEPTABLE!" he roars.
"You know, if the whole troop is underperforming, it's usually because of a subpar commander," she says and flashes a mocking smile at the elf.
Before she can even reply to Merrok, Belview takes out the guards with his spell. "So much for that. Poor things." She shrugs and strolls back to the wagon. Trying to see how the other half is doing.
(OOC: Skipped 19/Jim because he's just defending, no need for NPC reactions)
Hiding behind the repurposed mine cart, 2 moon elves and a halfling huddle together, trying their best to all stay behind the cart as much as possible, when all 3 are unpleasantly surprised by the explosion of water. "Ack, my hair!" one of the moon elves (holding a bow) cries out, turning to the the other moon elf (holding a javelin) who looks similar enough to the first to where they could be sisters. "Ack, my EVERYTHING!" the female halfling holding the other shortbow laments, trying her best to shake herself dry. The two moon elf sisters look to the halfling, who due to her smaller size, was much more easily covered by the blast of water than her taller companions.
Realizing what all that water meant, the 3 raise their hands one by one, all with various expressions of disappointment. The moon elf with the bow sighs, and grabs her bangs and squeezes, draining some water out. Her sister shakes her head from side to side rapidly, but briefly, sending droplets flying everywhere. "Hey, watch it! What are you, a dog?" the halfling exclaims, shielding her face with her palms and turning her head away to protect it from the flying droplets.
"We're out, the spell got us all." the javelin-elf announces after a moment, lifting her hands to pat the other 2 guardswomen on the back and push them gently away towards the equipment table.
Update:
<C> M UV <W> J <C>SB
V Belview, Both bow-guards and 1 spear-guard taken out by Belview's spell (and the last heroic action).
(OOC: Wasn't sure how the heroic action was supposed to be applied to that spell at first, but after reading the description, I figured that the first attack roll was supposed to be skipped with an intentional miss to make the aoe bypass saving throws. Due to balance issues, I may have to put limitations on heroic actions with AOE spells (particularly higher level ones) in the future, but for now, I think there's no issue with this usage given that it's only a level 1 spell in a training scenario)
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Initiative 12 - Aldarin
(Guard saves - Spear Guard 7, Bow Guard 13)
The thin dwarven girl (who could almost pass as a large human child) holding a javelin, and the gnomish archer behind the mine cart are caught unaware by the sudden burst of vines and are restrained. "Ach, what is this, I did'na know they could do that!" the female dwarf cries in shock. "Yes... this is highly irregular." the gnome replies after some thought.
"Nice one, half-human!" turns and half-cups her mouth to shout to Aldarin. Seeing that the last 2 guards aren't much of a threat to anyone anymore, Kaylessa quickly dashes out from the safety of the carts and wagon and moves north to try and get a better shooting angle that can bypass the cover of the mine cart.
Not even bothering to take a knee this time, she squints as she carefully pulls an arrow back and fires at the Dwarf.
(Bow Attack - 12)
The arrow ricochets slightly off the side of the minecart, but thankfully straight into the side of the Dwarf's chest-armor, doing only slightly more than just grazing it, but it's apparently enough of a hit for a judge nearby to raise her hand and call it. "Jarona's out!" the judge declares loudly.
Update:
K
<C> M UV <W> J <C>B
K = Kaylessa, Javelin-thrower out, 1 bow-gnome left.
Realizing he was too far away to do much good, Thurgar began a sprint to join Jim, though more so out of curiosity than want of finishing the practice exercise. At the rate his new mates were bringing down these guards, he wasn't sure if he'd even get the chance to land another blow. Part of him worried for the town's safety, given their performance. Still, despite the battle, Thurgar could not help but be a little distracted by Jim's behavior. He'd seen battle rages and blood trances in his day, but Jim was acting almost like a golem or puppet in some way, which made Thurgar wonder who, or maybe what, was pulling the strings.
Move: 25ft toward Jim
Free action: stow sling, draw handaxes
Action: Dash as much as Dwarven legs can toward Jim's assailants
OOC: Pretty sure I am not ending close enough to hit anything with melee, so if he takes one or two hits in the meantime, so be it. Thurgar is quite distracted by Jim, and senses something odd about him, so I imagine he'd seem more concerned with that, this being a mock battle. The HA really did make that first round fly!
Also just realized I posted out of turn. Sorry, I saw an Umbra post and my brain just clicked this morning.
"You have good taste." Umbra returns the wink and laughs. "With certain men I can be a loud one, too."
The burly guardsman catches Umbra's suggestive aside as he turns his head over his shoulder to look at her one last time, but blushes and looks away and at his feet as he walks away in response. Apparently, for all his muscles and bravado, he's more shy than he seems.
Afterwards, a thin, feminine hand can be seen lobbing a rock in Umbra's general direction from somewhere in the middle of the crowd, but it lands both far away from and far short of where Umbra is. Apparently, Umbra's stepped on another woman's toes and provoked some jealous wrath.
"You know, if the whole troop is underperforming, it's usually because of a subpar commander," she says and flashes a mocking smile at the elf.
At the mocking comment, the armored elf turns his head momentarily to look briefly in Umbra's direction, but simply gives her an impassive glance before turning right back to the remaining guards, and narrows his eyes. He seems much more upset at the performance of the Elventree guard than he is at anything Umbra has to say.
Initiative 12
Aldarin's spikeless thorn-whip catchs Jim Dirkell's opponent completely by surprise. Focused as he is in facing down (and glowering at) the half-elf, the Dwarven man facing Jim looks caught off guard, and starts slightly as he finds himself on the receiving end of a blow from an unexpected direction. Feeling a fairly solid strike, he reaches behind himself to touch the back of his helmet.
"Aye, that's it for me. Not a blow from the opponent I was expectin', but..." he says, raising his shield arm to signal his defeat, then looking towards the wagon briefly to try and figure out who tagged him. The Dwarf looks from Kaylessa, to Aldarin, to Thurgar (all the ones that look in touch with nature) and then briefly back to Aldarin and his unicorn-pendant, but then shrugs and decides to walk off the field and return his gear to the table.
Update:
_ SM <W> J_ B
East Spearman facing Jim taken out.
The crowd surrounding the clearing begins to start murmuring a bit more at this point, talking to each other and pointing at the adventurers locked in combat. Most of them seem to be murmurs of approval as despite the well-known prowess of Elventree's guard, so far this seems to be a one-sided fight favoring the members of the caravan. Overhead, windows and doors begin to crack open, and pedestrians walking in the bridges and platforms of the trees seem to be stopping to look down to see what is happening.
Kaylessa - HP: 3/3 | AC: 15 | PP: 14 | SP: 30 | HA: n/a
Initiative 09
Kaylessa has been spending most of this time looking back and forth between both sides of the caravan, as rapidly as she can without dizzying herself. She mostly seems concerned with measuring the skill of the party rather than fighting herself, but apparently decides that it's time to act. Realizing that her longbow outranges the guards' shortbows, she takes a knee by the side of the Elven wagon, and leans around the corner to take a shot at the remaining bowman to the east.
(Longbow Attack Roll - 15)
(OOC: Skipping the action breakdown box here, as her action's so simple it just takes up space)
Kaylessa smirks to herself as her arrow solidly thumps into the middle of her rival archer's knee, causing the guardswoman to misfire and shoot her own arrow straight into the dirt. The guardswoman (who appears to be a Moon Elf to those with vision good enough to see that far) stumbles a bit, and takes a step to recover her balance. "Thanks, Kaylessa." the woman spits sarcastically, frowning as she leans over to nurse her wounded left knee. "That's NOT a funny joke you know!" the guardswoman shouts as a followup as she winces in pain.
"Hey, at least yer evened out now. It was th' OTHER knee I hit last practice." Kaylessa cups her hands over her mouth to shout in reply. A judge close to the wounded guard-archer steps forward to raise his right arm and his shield to signal a hit. "Guardswoman Lirelle is out!" the long-haired man announces, afterwards leaning down to offer Lirelle his shoulder to help her limp away.
"...which was why I was never an adventurer. And furthermore, if you really did get a serious knee injury, how would you even qualify for guard service anyway?" Lirelle can be heard muttering to herself as she exits the training area.
Update:
_ SM <W> J_ _
Eastern Bow-guard out, 1 Spear-Guard remaining.
Initative 06
(OOC: Since the Archer was already taken out because everyone is rolling well even without Heroic Actions, I just changed things to target both attacks at the spear wielder if you don't mind. If you want to change your mind though, I can just edit this post)
Locked in combat with Merrok, the brawny human man fighting the Dwarf doesn't notice Umbra's throw until it bounces off his neck. Pushing his shield off of Merrok's own, he barely turns aside in time to intercept her second dagger with the bottom of his spear before he realizes that there's no point. "Graagh!" he grunts, throwing his shield down to the grass. "Damn girl, you're a quiet one." he says admiringly, lifting a hand to hold the side of his neck. "And pretty too." he adds, with a roguish half-grin and a wink. "Takes th' edge off th' sting a'defeat." he sighs, before sucking his breath and bellowing, "Ah'm out, t'was a good stick in th' side a'me neck."
The guardsman retrieves his shield, turns to give Umbra a courteous bow (smiling at her the entire time), then gives her a final glance over his shoulder as he walks away.
Update:
_ _MU <W> J_ _
U - Umbra by Merrok
All Guards defeated, good job!
Initiative 04
At this point, poor Thurgar seems ready to take action, but appears to have unfortunately run out of opponents for now, and readies his sling to engage the inevitable second wave of guard reinforcements. As if on queue, 6 more of the guard rush in to take the place of the ones that were taken down. There are 3 on each side again, but this time all 3 on both sides seem to be pushing what appears to be an oversized empty mining cart with swiveling wheels on the bottom.
The guards appear to be pushing the carts into place as a sort of mobile cover, but before the ones on the east side can fully get into position, the one on left edge of the cart is struck in the ribs by Thurgar's rubber bullet. Surprised, he trips and falls in the middle of running and then just lies there for a few moments, with a look of utter shock in his eyes. The other two stop in their tracks a little further down after they've finished setting their cart up, and look to the fallen guard as one, checking on him.
"...it was... actually a hit." the guard on the ground mumbles into the grass, not bothering to get up yet. "What?" one of the guards behind the replies, looking to her fallen companion to try and get clarification. Slowly rising to his feet, the pale young man dusts off stray blades of grass on his armor, picks up his bow in his right hand, and then raises his left in a signal. "Point! I'm off the field." he says again, loud enough for people to hear.
"What? But this is bow range, how could you get someone with just a sling, isn't this too far to use those?" one of the remaining guards (a bearded gnome) behind the cart ponders aloud. "And he was mostly behind the cart too." the thin dwarven girl beside him adds. "This is highly irregular." the gnome agrees.
Cheers and applause swell up from both the crowd on the ground floor of the clearing and from the walkways and bridges up above in the trees. What was once a simple training exercise appears to have turned into something of an impromptu spectator sport for the residents of Elventree, and most of the people watching seem highly entertained and impressed.
The white-haired elven man in armored robes that appears to be the head judge however, seems furious. "Pathetic! PATHETIC, all of you. Extra training for everyone. EVERYONE!" he shouts, red-faced. "Even YOU!" he practically howls, throwing his arms out to point at the guards acting as judges. Groans and sighs sound all around as the head judge continues ranting. "Seven guards taken down without even a SINGLE hit in return? UNACCEPTABLE!" he roars.
Initiative 02
The anxiety surrounding this second wave of guards is almost palpable. The entire first wave was taken out seemingly almost without effort, and one of their own second wave was forced out even before they were finished setting up. Nonetheless, like the trained and disciplined professionals they are, they move into action.
This time, the "ambushers" are made up of 2 shortbow wielders and 1 guard holding a javelin and shield (with 3 more javelins on their backs) on the west, and 1 shortbow user and 1 javelineer on the east, with the additional archer having already been tagged out by Thurgar. All of the new guards are 75 feet away and behind half-cover.
Battle Update:
2BS<C> MU <W> J <C>SB
B = Bow, S = Spear (Javelin), M = Merrok, U = Umbra, J = Jim, <C> = Mine Cart (Half Cover)
Thinking quickly, both archers and the javelin wielder on the west side all peek out around/over the cart and shoot arrows and hurl a javelin (respectively) straight at Umbra, realizing that she looks less well armored than Merrok beside her.
(Attack Rolls - Bow: 15, Bow: 18 , Javelin: 14)
On the east side, the remaining archer and javelin-user slip briefly out of cover to shoot and throw their respective ranged weapons at Jim.
(Attack Rolls - Bow: 4, Javelin: 6)
(OOC: note that Umbra and Jim took 1 hit each out of 3, but it's up to Synthil and Zingbob to describe reactions to those hits, if they want to. I'm not going to take away player agency by describing hit reactions for anyone unless they don't feel like it and want me to do it instead. Also, if you want your heroic action to play out a certain way, particularly the instant-death "executes" feel free to coordinate over PM to plan out what those might look like later on in a real fight.)
(Updated) Turn Order (Round 2)
Merrok (20) - Hits 3/3, AC 18, PP 13, Spd 25, HA --
Jim Dirk (19) - Hits 2/3, AC 18, PP 13, Spd 30, HA 0
Belview (17) - Hits 3/3, AC 15, PP 11, Spd 25, HA 1 (AC is 15 with Mage Armor, 12 without)
Aldarin (12) - Hits 3/3, AC 15, PP 15, Spd 30, HA 0
Kaylessa (09) - Hits 3/3, AC 15, PP 14, Spd 30, HA --
Umbra (06) - Hits 2/3, AC 15, PP 09, Spd 30, HA 0
Thurgar (04) - Hits 3/3, AC 14, PP 11, Spd 25, HA 0
2 SGuard (02) - Hits 1/1, AC 18, PP 12, Spd 30, +3 Dex Saves (Use Javelins and Shield, AC 16 w/out cover)
3 BGuard (02) - Hits 1/1, AC 16, PP 12, Spd 30, +3 Dex Saves (Use Shortbows, AC 14 w/out cover)
(OOC: Let me know if my combat descriptions are getting too long and spammy. I'm trying to make them exciting, but can easily see how it's too much. Also, nice use of heroic actions. As I suspected, they can really speed combats up mechanically if they used to just autohit or eliminate enemies. I'm also impressed at how Umbra and Thurgar "broke" the rules (or at least tried in Umbra's case) by using the autohit property of heroic actions to completely eliminate the disadvantage to rolls you'd have to take if you were attacking beyond the "normal" range with ranged weapons)
Merrok - HP: 3/3 | AC: 18 | PP: 13 | SP: 25 | HA: n/a
(Initiative 20)
Seeing arrows and a javelin headed toward Umbra, Merrok moves to try and intercept, but is a bit too late. "Y'should prob'ly head back to th'wagons or stay behind me." he says, before turning to raise his shield and charge full tilt towards the western cart.
Update:
2BS<C> M U <W> J <C>SB
Merrok moved closer to the west cart.
(OOC: If your character moves, feel free to copy and paste this little diagram and put your character on it too)
Jim Dirkell - HP: 3/3 | AC: 18 | PP: 13 | SP: 30
The strange robotic version of Jim takes the wooden arrow shot in stride, not even pretending that it hurts him, as he then whips his head towards the overturned minecart (I assume that you mean they're 75 ft. away from the wagons so 45 ft. away from me). He then rushes forwards, shield stuck out right in front of him and a blank face. He then kneels down behind his shield, seeming to use it as protection against the incoming shots.
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
(ooc: Correct, they're 45 ft away from Jim, and that's a valid move.)
Belview Copperfoot- HP 3/3 | AC 15 | PP 11 | SP 25
"These guards stand no chance against a Master of the Arcane! Muahaha!" Belview sprints from the wagon, disregarding any type of defense. While he is running, he takes out his water skin and pours some water out. "Glacium Aquos!" As the arcane words flow from his mouth, the water begins to crystallize. He then throws the ice shard at the guards feet, the shard misses all of the guards. Just as they breathe a sigh of relief, it explodes, but instead of ice shards piercing their flesh, they are simply doused with water.
Move: 25 feet towards the three guards to the west
Action: Cast Ice Knife, Heroic Action
Aldarin - HP: 3/3 | AC: 15 | PP: 15 | SP: 30 | HA: 0/1
Aldarin follows Jim, bringing his shield in front of himself as he leaves the cover of the wagons to about 30 feet out. He then again utters a soft word, gripping his quarterstaff in his other hand, and points it towards the group of guards ahead of them. A mass of vines rise up around the guards, gripping at their feet and legs, attempting to pull them down against the earth.
"You have good taste." Umbra returns the wink and laughs. "With certain men I can be a loud one, too."
"You know, if the whole troop is underperforming, it's usually because of a subpar commander," she says and flashes a mocking smile at the elf.
Before she can even reply to Merrok, Belview takes out the guards with his spell. "So much for that. Poor things." She shrugs and strolls back to the wagon. Trying to see how the other half is doing.
Initiative 17 (Belview)
(OOC: Skipped 19/Jim because he's just defending, no need for NPC reactions)
Hiding behind the repurposed mine cart, 2 moon elves and a halfling huddle together, trying their best to all stay behind the cart as much as possible, when all 3 are unpleasantly surprised by the explosion of water. "Ack, my hair!" one of the moon elves (holding a bow) cries out, turning to the the other moon elf (holding a javelin) who looks similar enough to the first to where they could be sisters. "Ack, my EVERYTHING!" the female halfling holding the other shortbow laments, trying her best to shake herself dry. The two moon elf sisters look to the halfling, who due to her smaller size, was much more easily covered by the blast of water than her taller companions.
Realizing what all that water meant, the 3 raise their hands one by one, all with various expressions of disappointment. The moon elf with the bow sighs, and grabs her bangs and squeezes, draining some water out. Her sister shakes her head from side to side rapidly, but briefly, sending droplets flying everywhere. "Hey, watch it! What are you, a dog?" the halfling exclaims, shielding her face with her palms and turning her head away to protect it from the flying droplets.
"We're out, the spell got us all." the javelin-elf announces after a moment, lifting her hands to pat the other 2 guardswomen on the back and push them gently away towards the equipment table.
Update:
<C> M UV <W> J <C>SB
V Belview, Both bow-guards and 1 spear-guard taken out by Belview's spell (and the last heroic action).
(OOC: Wasn't sure how the heroic action was supposed to be applied to that spell at first, but after reading the description, I figured that the first attack roll was supposed to be skipped with an intentional miss to make the aoe bypass saving throws. Due to balance issues, I may have to put limitations on heroic actions with AOE spells (particularly higher level ones) in the future, but for now, I think there's no issue with this usage given that it's only a level 1 spell in a training scenario)
Initiative 12 - Aldarin
(Guard saves - Spear Guard 7, Bow Guard 13)
The thin dwarven girl (who could almost pass as a large human child) holding a javelin, and the gnomish archer behind the mine cart are caught unaware by the sudden burst of vines and are restrained. "Ach, what is this, I did'na know they could do that!" the female dwarf cries in shock. "Yes... this is highly irregular." the gnome replies after some thought.
Update:
<C> M UV <W> AJ <C>SB
A = Aldarin
Kaylessa - HP: 3/3 | AC: 15 | PP: 14 | SP: 35 | HA: n/a
Initiative 09 - Kaylessa
"Nice one, half-human!" turns and half-cups her mouth to shout to Aldarin. Seeing that the last 2 guards aren't much of a threat to anyone anymore, Kaylessa quickly dashes out from the safety of the carts and wagon and moves north to try and get a better shooting angle that can bypass the cover of the mine cart.
Not even bothering to take a knee this time, she squints as she carefully pulls an arrow back and fires at the Dwarf.
(Bow Attack - 12)
The arrow ricochets slightly off the side of the minecart, but thankfully straight into the side of the Dwarf's chest-armor, doing only slightly more than just grazing it, but it's apparently enough of a hit for a judge nearby to raise her hand and call it. "Jarona's out!" the judge declares loudly.
Update:
K
<C> M UV <W> J <C>B
K = Kaylessa, Javelin-thrower out, 1 bow-gnome left.
Realizing he was too far away to do much good, Thurgar began a sprint to join Jim, though more so out of curiosity than want of finishing the practice exercise. At the rate his new mates were bringing down these guards, he wasn't sure if he'd even get the chance to land another blow. Part of him worried for the town's safety, given their performance. Still, despite the battle, Thurgar could not help but be a little distracted by Jim's behavior. He'd seen battle rages and blood trances in his day, but Jim was acting almost like a golem or puppet in some way, which made Thurgar wonder who, or maybe what, was pulling the strings.
Move: 25ft toward Jim
Free action: stow sling, draw handaxes
Action: Dash as much as Dwarven legs can toward Jim's assailants
Initiative 06 - Umbra
The burly guardsman catches Umbra's suggestive aside as he turns his head over his shoulder to look at her one last time, but blushes and looks away and at his feet as he walks away in response. Apparently, for all his muscles and bravado, he's more shy than he seems.
Afterwards, a thin, feminine hand can be seen lobbing a rock in Umbra's general direction from somewhere in the middle of the crowd, but it lands both far away from and far short of where Umbra is. Apparently, Umbra's stepped on another woman's toes and provoked some jealous wrath.
At the mocking comment, the armored elf turns his head momentarily to look briefly in Umbra's direction, but simply gives her an impassive glance before turning right back to the remaining guards, and narrows his eyes. He seems much more upset at the performance of the Elventree guard than he is at anything Umbra has to say.
Update:
K
<C> M V <W> J <C>B
Umbra moves back to the wagons.