Defenders Log Entry #4: The Masters of Disaster meet Disaster!
Darellon, 1st level woodsman, 20 hp, played by Joel
Drew, 1st level ranger, 15 hp, played by Jack
Ethan, 1st level woodsman, 13 hp, played by committee
Grison, 1st level fighter, 11 hp, played by Sean
Soldan, 1st level cleric, 9 hp, played by Alex
Morgan, 1st level fighter, 7 hp, played by Alan
Quentin, 1st level druid, 6 hp, played by Jeremy
The party quickly paid salvage tax on the items we found, including giving up the magic ring, stored its remaining items in the castle, and set out to catch the bandits. We approached the cairn cautiously and discovered that two different groups, one of 6 and one of 7 had passed by it and dug up the bodies, despite the _Ceremony_ cast by Soldan. We followed the fading old tracks of the six that we routed two days earlier.
Tracing this for two days, we reached an area which had clearly hosted a battle between the bandits and something else-- perhaps insectoid, such as the beetles. We followed the single trail leading north from it.
We traveled for a few hours before running into a far better ambush than before. 11 men, many with longbows, one a crossbow, and some flail users. Darellon turned to run and the party backpedaled away from the ridge with some of the longbowmen on it. The thought was to escape the range of the bowmen and fight a more even battle. It didn't work out that way...
As we got out of short range, a _Hold Person_ spell hit Darellon and Ethan, who froze instantly, while Quentin escaped its effect. Things suddenly looked incredibly bad. And they were.
Grison pushed Darellon over and Quentin knocked down Ethan, while the rest of the party hit the dirt. So Quentin and Grison were up in front together in the grass, while Soldan, Morgan, and Drew were in the back together. Soldan peeked up for a moment and got shot at, taking minor damage. But it was enough of a look to prove that the flail people and longbowmen were advancing really slowly.
A desperate plan began to form. Grison was only somewhat injured from the initial volleys, so he planted Darellon's large shield in front of him and drew a volley of shots. As soon as the volley fired, missing him repeatedly, Quentin threw an _Entangle_ catching 5 men. Meanwhile Grison skewered one that had been missed before he could reach the dwarf. But they were being pressed quickly. Drew rose and started firing, shooting down one before getting bogged into a long series of misses with the people on the ridge. Quentin was shot and dropped to the ground, unconscious.
Morgan slew several as well, with a combination of long sword, followed by a salvaged longbow from a body. The archers in the entangled area continued firing at Grison, who slowly continued to weaken. Grison took down one with his throwing hammer, but it was too late-- he was slain by a flail hit moments later.
Drew finally dropped the longbowman on the hill, and was free to concentrate on the local battle.
Worse still, there were still perhaps four men left in the entangled area, two with longbows, and to compound things two men with flails were approaching. Worst of all, one of them appeared to be in heavy armor, though a cloak obscured it from view. Concluding that was the mysterious cleric, Drew shot but to no avail. The cleric revealed himself with the command, "Die!" which Drew obediently did.
It was a desperate moment. Soldan rose out of the grass and threw a command at the cleric-- who dropped! Given that he was wearing FULL PLATE ARMOR that was VERY GOOD! For his heroism Soldan was repayed with a horrendous barrage which dropped him to the ground in bad shape.
At the moment, Morgan was the ONLY one standing. He had dropped the cleric's escort, and sliced his throat open while he was commanded.
Then began a low quality archery contest, as Morgan attempted to drop the men in the _Entangle_ before it ended. Finally Drew reemerged from his catatonic state and shot one longbowman. Unfortunately, Drew was dropped unconscious right after. That left Morgan alone once again.
Fortunately, at that moment Ethan and Darellon were able to move! Ethan was unentangled and moved to quickly skewer the last flail man before the entangle ended moments later. Finally, Morgan shot the last man while nearly down his knees himself. Darellon rose and immediately everyone rushed off to heal people.
Darellon was able to save Drew, and Morgan saved Quentin, but unfortunately Ethan was unable to save Soldan.
We were in poor shape. Ethan and Darellon were uninjured, Morgan was BARELY standing, and the other two living party members were incapacitated. Suddenly there was a loud drumming sound from over the ridge. Morgan went to investigate, and neatly dodged an arrow from the battlements of some small stone structure below.
It appeared that there was a single bandit still remaining and putting up an annoying effort. Deciding that if reinforcements were to arrive we would all be dead, we gambled-- Ethan, Darellon, and Morgan attempted to storm the small fort.
The plan, which was executed perfectly, was for Ethan and Darellon to draw fire while Morgan split-fired and shot the man from the roof. Unfortunately Morgan was unable to penetrate the battlement defenses. Ethan and Darellon charged to the wide wooden door. Darellon slammed into it hard, but it did not give. Unfortunately, he then heard a cranking sound. Instinctively the two backed up-- right into the range of the ballista.
Poor Ethan was blown apart by the force of the shot. Darellon cried out and smashed down the door-- facing another smaller wooden door. He crashed through that and charged straight at the flail man who had come down the stairs to meet him. Darellon missed and was hit for minor damage. He then dodged two arrows from the bowman behind. Darellon chopped up the flail man and charged up the stairs after the fleeing bowman. Darellon caught him at the top of the stairs. Ick.
Morgan entered afterward. Darellon smashed down a particularly tough lock, and discovered a room with four prisoners, two barely alive, from a merchant caravan led by the merchant Thaddius. We collected a cart from the nearby corral, and 6 horses. We loaded as much as we could possibly carry, perhaps 2000 pounds, into the cart and saddlebags along with the four reviving people. Then we set off for Restenford.
It was an uneventful journey other than a botched meeting with some elves, thanks to Darellon's overeagerness. Five days later we stumbled into Restenford.
Quentin healed up the first night, thanks to the druid Almax, who received a 200 gp donation, the best we could do.
The party then cashed in everything it had found, and became FILTHY RICH (for a first level party). In the end we had 2000 gp in ready cash, plus a set of full plate valued at 3000 gp!
And some magic items. A gold bracelet, silver pin, a belt, 11 magic crossbow quarrels, a potion, and a scroll. We gave the silver pin to the church of Phaulkon to dispose of since it was an unholy symbol. There was also some holy water, which we kept. The quarrels were paid in salvage tax.
The scroll turned out to be of Dimension Door. While Drew rested for 35 days, we decided to spend some of our newfound wealth and construct a house! A modest dwelling for about 350 gp, on the eastern end of Restenford-- this was done during May 2172. It can hold 8 people comfortably, and has some storage, though it is sparsely furnished.
We received rewards and credits from the baron and other grateful citizens for returning stolen goods from the storeroom.
We then headed to Barnacus by caravan-- uneventfully. We sold the full plate for 1350 gp sage credit and 1500 gp. We then let Ogman the Sage identify the items we had found. Interesting stuff:
* Short sword +1, +2 vs. metal-armored people!
* Bracelet of defense AC 9 (oh well)
* Potion of Gaseous Form
* Belt of Levitation (12 charges)
Not bad for one adventure!
On our way back into Restenford we picked up Celeste (human cleric of Phaulkon, sling user, 6 hp, played by Sean), and the yet to be named half orc fighter (short sword specialist, 10 hp, played by Alex).
The short sword has been assigned to the half-orc for obvious reasons!
We also paid to upgrade everyone's armor-- we are a party of people in banded mail except for Quentin, who now wears scaled leather armor.
A grim and tough adventure, but the rewards...!
Log Supplement II: An Omission
In all that slaughter, I almost forgot the funniest part! After the stone building was cleared, we found several boxes of valuables, one of which the merchant claimed was his. Fearing that the others were insidiously trapped, Darellon went to great lengths to avoid being killed. He picked up a 100 pound box, and threw it at a wall. Three times. When all it did was scratch, he attacked it with a borrowed flail. He fumbled, the weapon swung out of his reach, bounced off a wall, hit him in the head (one point of damage!) and bounced damaged onto the ground. Whee!