Chp. 4: Wagons, Women and Wizards

[AleBelly]

Seeing three fighting Boc, Wulfhart decides to aid Groyn. While advancing on Idonea, he points Porevit, now thick with blood and tissue, towards Gus, Clement, Florence and Razmus. "Don't worry, we'll save some of this for you!!" He then slashes at Idonea.

Attack w/Luck Blade [1d20+2] = 18+2 = 20 damage [1d8+2] = 3+2 = 5

[Hotgoblin]

Groyn

Attack w/ Battle Ax [1d20+2] = 6+2 = 8 Damage [1d8+2] = 5+2 = 7

Groyn gets flustered whilst watching Wulfhart slice Idonea, he misses dreadfully!!

[Zhym]

Boddin tries to sneak up behind either remaining active enemy and attack with Beninu.

Beninu (Axe +2) (THAC0 18): [1d20+3] = 8+3 = 11, Dmg: [1d6+3] = 5+3 = 8

[OGRE MAGE]

Fingal the Thief

Fingal has just about had it with this Boc guy and his hard armor and awesome defensive tactics. He wants to use his boots of jumping one more time to get an advantage in this fight. He elevates straight up into the air and comes down directly above the fighter, his blade pointing straight down for the full stabbing effect. Time to end these here fools fer good!

Attack w/ +1 Short Sword [1d20+1] = 19+1 = 20 Damage [1d6+1] = 6+1 = 7

[doughx99]

Niles against Boc

Attack w/ +2 Longsword [1d20+2] = 20+2 = 22 Dam [1d8+2] = 6+2 = 8

finally hits!

[Dizlexus]

Foracor

Foracor yells Finish him! and charges into the melee with Boc.

To Hit: [1d20] = 19 Damage: [2d4] = 3

Bad Tooth Bene
Foracor inspires Bene to bite well:

Attack[1d20] = 19 Damage [1d6] = 3

[Grognardsw]

A Roadside Scuffle – Round 11

The heroes turn the tide. Garbanzo the Cruel and Ramrod Queerstaff lie dead. Idonea and Boc Maxima face high odds.

Wulfhart the fighter joins Groyn the dwarf in battling the vexing Idonea. The girl blocks Groyn’s axe again, but that leaves her open to Wulfhart. He cleaves through her defense with his magic luck blade Porevit, cutting into her shoulder! Boddin the hobbit tries a sneak flank attack but Idonea shifts and he rattles armor. Brother Bayard swings his staff but the dexterous dame ducks.

Niles, Foracor, Fingal and Bene gang up on Boc Maxima. Fingal leaps straight up with his Boots of Jumping, pointing his sword down, and lands on top of Boc. The thief’s blade pierces his shoulder!

Niles the fighter takes advantage of that distraction and delivers a debilitating blow to Boc, skewering into his left underarm. Foracor the elf charges in, bastard sword Orcslicer slashing Boc’s leg. Boc staggers to his knees. Bene the dog leaps and chews out his face.

Boc Maxima is dead.


Idonea draws back, aware she is the only one left. “Mercy!” she cries.

Actions for Round 12!

- Initiative: Monsters [1d6] = 2, Party [1d6] = 4 Party wins
- Idonea sword on Wulfhart [1d20+1] = 12+1 = 13, damage [1d8+1] = 5+1 = 6 Miss
- Boc sword on Niles [1d20+1] = 13+1 = 14, damage [1d8+1] = 5+1 = 6 Miss
- Boots of Jumping: There’s probably a chance Fingal could stumble when he lands, so going forward I’ll use the “springing” portion of the rules from the Boots of Striding and Springing, 1e DMG p. 139, since LL doesn’t explore that.

[AleBelly]

Wulfhart maintains his battle stance. "Mercy? Why should we show you mercy? You ambushed us, taking the head of one of our elven friends and the life of our cleric. If we spare you, we let you attack us another day. Sounds foolish to me."

He looks quickly at the rest of the party.

"Well, friends, what shall we do with these villains? I do not favor sparing the life of Razmus or any of the others. What say the rest of ye?"

If Idonea makes even a hint of an aggressive move, Wulfhart will move to finish her off.

Attack w/Porevit the Luck Blade [1d20+2] = 1+2 = 3 damage [1d8+2] = 2+2 = 4

I hope she behaves

[Zhym]

Boddin rummages around the belongings of the dead and paralyzed on search of a rope. When he finds one, he ties up Idonea and the paralyzed.

"Well, sirs, I confess that I must fight the urge to destroy the rest of these ruffians," says the hobbit. "But these are not goblins or bugbears. They are people, evil though they be, and should be brought to the proper authority to face justice for their crimes under due process of the law."

He looks at the two men he killed. Killing a goblin was troubling enough, but now he has slain men! He frowns.

"Our need for self-defense has passed, I believe. Let us question the survivors and return them to the Keep."

[OGRE MAGE]

Fingal the Thief

While Boddin is messing with the rope, Fingal takes matters into his own hands. He calmly walks up behind Idonea without hesitation and attempts a backstab to finish her off . Making sure that the paralyzed Razmus and his cohorts can see him as he does so.

Backstab with +1 Short Sword [1d20+5] = 3+5 = 8 Damage [1d6+1] = 2+1 = 3 x2 Wow, he cant even hit a prone target?

Boddin!!! What er ya saying little fella? These here evil bastards attacked us! And KILLED sum of us!!! Now, I aint evil and I don't exactly take pleasure in killing but, to let these bastards live would surly spell disaster for us down the road.

Besides, how do we know these pukes weren't sent here by Mentzer hisself to do away with us for interfering with his operations? If we brings em back to the keep alive, we risk him finding out everything we've been doing out here. Then who's ta say he don't just release em so they can come after us again? Next time we might be in a much worse situation and may not fare as well as we did here. Do you want the deaths of MORE of you friends to be on your conscience?

Fingal looks to his deceased comrades Celest and the headless Tharandir. He takes off his helm out of respect to the fallen and says grimly Aint no way in my opinion that we should let ANY of these evil curs live! If anyone else has an opinion, speak up! Otherwise......if ya cant stomach the killin, ya best walk away fer a bit. He then looks to Wulfhart and nods his head in agreement to what the northerner is thinking.

[AleBelly]

Wulfhart thinks, then speaks. "We offered them no quarter, so I don't feel obligated to spare their lives. As Fingal says, we can't be sure they'll face justice at the Keep, and if we encounter any more enemies on our return these ruffians may escape. Razmus needs to die - his past treachery means we can never trust him, and if he escapes he'll round up another group of thugs to kill us again. I might be willing to let the others speak before we send them to the next life, but I think the risks are too great to let them live. But not matter what, Fingal, let's wait until we all decide before we start slashing throats..." Wulfhart cracks a smile "...or denting armor."

[Hotgoblin]

Groyn

Me thinks we get rid of them all!! Razmut turned on his own group, without any hesitation...me poor Celeste.
As he glares with insurmountable hate toward Idonea.

[OGRE MAGE]

Fingal winces a bit at Wulfhart's jab about the dented armor but then manages a bit of a smirk. Before anyone starts spewing about humanity....... if we do it now, while they are still paralyzed, it couldn't be any more humane.

Fingal holds up 3 fingers on one hand and 1 finger on the other, waiting impatiently for any other opinions.

[Zhym]

Boddin stands aghast at the blood lust on display. "Haven't enough people died?" he asks. "Will you really murder these people, who pose no current threat to us, in cold blood? Yes, they attacked us, and killed good men. But that's over now. If we simply cut their throats out of vengeance, or because it is convenient and we're afraid they might attack again, we are no more than the common cut-throats that they are. You can't kill a man just because you think he might try to kill you another day." His tiny hobbit voice grows shrill. "You just can't!" he insists.

The hobbit pauses and checks that the bonds tying the paralyzed foes are secure. "If I cannot appeal to your decency, think of this," he says in a calmer voice. "If you kill them, we can't question them. Aren't you curious who sent them, and why? We think we know, but we have no proof. I doubt these bandits will tell us anything if they think we would just kill them anyway.

"I offer one more argument for their lives, if I may. No one but us and the ruffians know what happened here. If we slit the throats of these paralyzed fiends and return to the Keep having killed their entire party, it would be easy for the unscrupulous and powerful to claim that we were the aggressors, that we attacked these people. I dare say we would have their valuables with us when we return to the keep, would we not? If, as we might suspect, they were sent to kill us, why wouldn't the person who sent them claim that we went outlaw, and use that as an excuse to lock us up? But if we return these few wretches alive, we can truthfully say that we were only defending ourselves, and point to their survival as some small evidence that our intent was not to kill them."

He looks up at the others. Blood still drips from the axe he named after a fallen party member's fallen comrade, a reminder of the death toll of the past few days. "I beg you, gentlemen and lady. Please stop the bloodshed here. Let the law deal with them. Show that we are indeed heroes, not murderers."

[AleBelly]

"Sorry, Fingal, just having a bit of fun with ya there" replies Wulfhart. "As I said earlier, I will vote to allow our foes to speak." He looks at the paralyzed thugs. "But I have a hard time imagining they'll convince me to spare their lives. And what of you, Idonea? Who put you up to this? Again, why should we spare you?"

Wulfhart looks expectantly at Niles, then turns to Boddin. "My dear little friend, I admire your passion. But I'm not going to risk my neck for justice that may never come, when we can administer it out here ourselves."

Finally, an idea dawns on Wulfhart. "While we're waiting, we should at least collect their weapons just to be safe." He moves to do so.

[OGRE MAGE]

Fingal

Slapping his own forehead at Wulfharts suggestion to disarm the captives, Fingal snaps out of his battle rage and lends his friend a hand with gathering up the weapons. He will do a full search on each of the captives, gathering up everything and anything on their persons.

He does this in plain sight of his comrades so as not to cause suspicion about him pocketing anything for himself. When the items are all gathered, he piles it all away from their group and folds up a cloak or other article of clothing and gently slides it under Easia's head to make her more comfortable while she waits out the duration of her paralysis. See, I told you he isn't evil.

He then spits on the prone Razmus while he lays there. Dang traitorous coward!

[Grognardsw]

The prisoners are secured, their equipment put in a pile.

The paralysis wears off after 75 minutes. Easia stretches her muscles, hefts her big twin hammers.

The dead are mourned. Celeste and Tharandir are buried. Brother Bayard says holy words.

Gus the thief, Clement the Cleric, Florence Mage with Flair, and Razmus look on, wondering what their fate will be.

It starts to rain.

[doughx99]

Niles

I can live with whatever the majority of the party is,however maybe we can get some useful info out of them first.

[AleBelly]

Wulfhart turns to the enemy, anger in his face. "Speak! Who ordered you to attack us...and why should we spare your miserable lives?"

[Dizlexus]

Foracor

Agreeing more with Fingal, wishing to see them all dead, Foracor gnashes his teeth and considers slaying them outright.
He waits for how they respond to Wulfheart.
Bene
Spins in a circle, chasing his tail.