Defenders Log Entry #9: A Plan is Implemented, For Once
Felix, 2nd level fighter, 24 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 2nd level ranger, 19 hp, played by committee
Morgan, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Alan
Tyveris, 2nd level cleric of Nevron, 12 hp, played by Joel
Quentin, 2nd level druid, 10 hp, played by Jeremy
Gaston, 1st level fighter, 6 hp, played by Sean
We discussed many plans, and eventually settled on the conservative plan:
1. Take down a sentry
2. Take down the search party, hopefully dramatically reducing the number of people remaining
3. Storm the area in the middle of the night.
Part 3) was certainly a desperate option. Hopefully, instead of holing up they would attack us, which would allow us to meet them on our terms outside.
As planned, we landed at 2 AM with eight marines and the major in tow, though Quentin was still at Carse for the duration of the isle adventure.
We marched up the beach and into the copse of trees a few hundred feet up the hill. We set up camp and waited until morning.
When morning arrived, Morgan took up a forward scouting post. He warned us when the first sentry came... and we sprinted out of the bushes at the scout!
Seeing three crazed lunatics, one beginning a spell, the cleric/scout surrendered. We bound and gagged him, and hauled him off to camp. A few hours later, another cleric scout emerged, who fell similarly quickly (none of this even involved a spell!).
Then Morgan got bopped on the head by a seashell from his hidden location. He discovered a scroll tube in the bushes. Upon opening it, it made a decently loud bang, easily heard within a hundred feet. Inside was a message:
Bayleaf was offering to leave the island for 500 gp. Yes!
Morgan took our response back, and Bayleaf (who has unbelievable stealth abilities, probably a combination of being a wizard and an elf) agreed to meet us on the beach when the boat arrived.
Bayleaf must have encouraged another foray with false information, because the next morning, three warriors in banded mail came tromping down the hill. We failed to surprise them, and one shot Drew badly, though he still stood. Crossbow shots came from the marines, lightly damaging two of them. The third, a huge fighter with sword and shield, who we correctly identified as Ogmund, fell to a _Command_. Upon attempting to tie him up, Tyveris screwed up the knot and Ogmund reared up and quick-drew his weapon... only to get knocked down by another _Command_. Tyveris also botched this knot really badly, but fortunately Gaston was able to secure it before Ogmund awoke. Ogmund started beating his head on the ground and crying out about not being taken alive... until the major bonked him on the head.
We shipped the five prisoners out on the ship that morning. There were no further forays that day, and we settled down to wait.
Unfortunately, that evening things took an ugly turn. A beaten up sailor stumbled into camp, saying that Ozymandius and the remaining three men had given a false signal, lured the longboat to shore, and boarded it, _Holding_ several men and dropping them into the water.
We arrived in time to save one more, so three of the original six were still alive. What had happened to the longboat was anyone's guess.
In the morning, the truth was revealed. The drowned bodies of Ozymandius and his men were found on the beach. They had crashed the longboat trying to cruise past the reefs at night.
Bayleaf appeared from thin air. We then made a complex series of deals, but managed to get our magic shield back. In addition, though we traded away the scroll of Dimension Door, we were able to get Leather Armor +1, and a healing potion. We retrieved our equipment from the ruins, and actually salvaged quite a bit of stuff, little of it directly valuable to us. In addition to the 1000 gp reward, we still got about 1200 gp worth of salvage back after taxes. Furthermore, we obtained a scroll of Light, a scroll of Bless x2, and two Continual Light orb things. Our home is going to look really spiffy now, with Continual light orbs lighting it up (they're really not combat things, but pretty house items), plus some weird lawn statues-- we're still undecided on which ones. Tyveris is absolutely disgusted with the statues of the Grim Reaper and Medusa-- bad taste for a cleric of Nevron, he thinks.
Felix, however, may have other ideas. This remains undecided (we'll deal with it later!).
In addition, the Petethalian navy recently became much more flush with funds after Sark decided to fund their navy rather than create a new one. So we got a bonus 500 gp.
Also, in true Stone Soules tradition, we found 5 devil-worshipping books (non-magical). We burned 'em. We also found some general religious manuals for Hindus, which we gave to the Navy for 200 gp credit.
Finally, upon returning home, we settled some accounts. We identified the leather armor as +1. We purchased higher quality weapons.
Tyveris and Felix trained to 2nd level!
Tyveris gained 2 hp and is at 12 hp max. Felix, has just become the party tank. He gained 14 hp! Now his maximum is 24 hp, passing even the durable Darellon's total!
Overall, a very successful adventure. While we could have done more, it's not clear it could have turned out much less violently than it did.