Counting Halflings, Round 4 Results, Combat Map, Archives Introduced
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
(OOC-- For a little DM-lovin'- Ty, this was a great write up.)
Out of the corner of his eye, Mission finds himself most impressed by Garyth's defensive sword-work.
Mission will stick here for the next round and continue to lay crossbow havoc on the halflings around Rennick. He will, however, take note of where Farron is, and will try to be aware of any ranged attacks directed toward the wizard.
If Rennick gets hit again next round (round 4), Mission will run to assist him in melee combat the round after that (Round 5).
If any archers move to attack Farron this round, or if there is any threat AT ALL to the wizard, Mission will
attack that threat in Round 5, via crossbow bolt. The wizard takes precedence over Rennick.
(OOC again: I include instructions for round 5 because it looks like everyone is online at the same time but me. Don't want to hold the game up. . .)
Where exactly IS Farron in relation to Mission? If I read things right, Mission is 160 feet out from the battle; Farron is 130 feet out. If our Dear Little Friend (100 no-points if anyone can guess the literary reference) pops back into existence in front of Farron to smash him with a mace, could Mission run to him and attack him all in 1 round?
From: Scott
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
Just a quick count of our enemies:
1 Dear Little Friend DisApparated or Otherwise Missing;
5 (1 wounded) around Rennick
4 around Garyth
That's 10 total that our characters know about-- there are 12 total in Ty's initiative run down.
Tricksy little halflingsss.
From: Karl
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
(OOC-Is Farron closer to Rennik's battle or Garyth's? If he is equidistant, he would fire at the nearest halfling attacking whichever of his friends is in most apparent trouble. If this is a wash, then he will fire on the halfling nearest to himself.)
From: Karl
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
I'm for staying with email, really. In the other game I'm playing, we toyed with a forumn briefly, but for some reason it didn't seem to work very well for everyone. (Truthfully, I can't remember why, exactly.) I'm easy, though, so I'll go with whatever the group wants.
From: Karl
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
I'd like to take this opportunity to say that Matt has done a really cool face pic of Farron.
From: Scott
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
Matt:
My apologies for getting the wrong artist. . . what can I say? I'm an idiot.
You, however, are a supremely talented artist, whose art supplies I am not worth to jam into my eyes.
:)
From: Scott
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
I cast my vote for staying with email. . . I fear change. . .
From: Raja
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
The four Sa'ids will keep running toward the battle.
(OOC: I'm happy with how email is working.)
From: Matt
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
Yeah, I'm pretty much for email, but I could always give a forum a shot.
As for art supplies, feel free to jam mine or anyone else's into your eyes at any time... ;p
As far as the original count of halflings goes, Rennick already killed the first one we saw, who had his bow trained on Bright-Shiny-Boy-Who-Likes-to-Charge-Blindly-with-No-Regard-for-Numbers (three guesses who that is, and the first two don't count). So..
1 dead with three Rennik arrows in him (he was their bowman, it seems)
1 dead from Garyth's sword
1 guy we've forgotten about (leader boy)
4 crosseyed ones on Garyth
1 wounded guy on Rennik who doesn't attack
4 more on Rennik
That's 12 for ya.
From: Scott
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
Math was never my strong point. . .
From: Dan
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
Cadfael silently hopes that the runty little wizards who took off past him don't get themselves whooped before he gets to the battle. Other than that, he continues running toward the battle and vows to lay off the doughnuts. For real this time.
OOC -- While the forum is an interesting idea, E-mail is probably better. We all check our E-mails more than we'd check a forum, don't we? And as far as archiving goes, the only problem I've had is not having a record of all the thing my character has said. Which is something I might ask for eventually, because it'd be nice to see how I've been developing the guy.
From: Mike
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
Sounds like the consensus is to stick with email, which is cool. Just thought I'd throw the idea out there. Regarding archiving: I have been logging almost all of my received messages in daily digest form. I'm missing a few messages here and there, though. Some I deleted because they were OOC, some are because I forgot to save a local copy of my own posts and some I don't know why they're gone. I could post those to my web site if you like.
From: Raja
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 3
Sounds good to me. And that way you'd start getting more traffic right away ;)
:-D
From: Ty
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
Rennik lets out a roar that is loud enough to have come from the great cat whose pelt he wears. The five halflings facing him look stunned for a second as he becomes a whirling dervish of death, swinging his heavy axe like it was a twig. This second of hesitation proves to be the first halflings death, as Rennik's axe smashed down on top of his head [Attack 26], and doesn't stop until it exits out just below his left arm [Damage 19].
Mission quickly reloads, and decides that his safest shot is at the wounded halfling he already hit. That one has started to get up, and despite his wounds looks more than willing to get back into the fight. Mission utters under his breath, "No. Stay down," and fires a second bolt at him. Just as he pulls the trigger, he sees something horrifying out of the corner of his eye, and his discipline breaks just enough to pull the bolt to the right [Attack 8] where it flies harmlessly past its target.
Garyth has begun to feel more confident about winning this fight, but at the same time, more confused by the fight itself. Why are these halflings, who are clearly outclassed, continuing to press the fight? He has known quite a few of the small folk in his time, and none of them were battle maddened suicide fighters like this. Again though, his thoughts are swept away by the need to keep these confusing halflings from poking holes in his well cared for armor. He takes a swipe at the opponent who tripped, but his confusion has taken away his concentration, and the attack [Attack 10] doesn't even come close. He curses under his breath and tries to clear his head and focus.
Farron has all the focus he needs. After a couple of quick deep breaths, he opens his eyes and raises one hand. A few perfectly enunciated arcane syllables bubble from his lips, and three impossibly fast shards of light streak from his hands to strike one of Rennik's opponents in the back. The halfling gives off a gurgled yell [Damage 2, 4, 5] and staggers forward. He turns around and looks for whoever did that to him. Seeing Farron standing there with his finger pointed, he taps a companion on the shoulder and the two of them run down the hill toward him.
The thing that drew Mission's attention makes its appearance. A grotesque spider several feet across is running rapidly down the slope in Farron and Mission's direction. At it's current speed, it could reach either of them next round.
The two halflings fighting Rennik cast an irritated look at their companions who have taken off after the mage, but they show no sign of giving up. Both let out high pitched screams and lunge at Rennik with their short blades. Now facing more reasonable numbers, Rennik is able to easily turn them both aside [Attacks 8, 6].
Garyth is having his own troubles managing the four fighters that still harass him. They have begun to use quick feints and flank attacks, much like the tactics that worked so well on Rennik last round. [Attacks 13, 10, 18, 19] Two of them land solid blows, and one of the two finds an open spot in his armor to cause a serious wound [Damage 5, 3 + 1d6 flank attack for 4; total 12].
Cadfael lumbers up to within 180 feet of the main fight, and within 30 feet of Mission.
Sa'id runs past the casting Farron, still trying to get into his spell range, he is now 110 feet from Garyth's fight.
(The appearance of the spider reminds everyone who saw him of the vanishing guys existence, for some reason, though he remains vanished)
From: Raja
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
(OOC: I've finally caved in and drawn up a sketch of where I think everything is. Feel free to correct it, Ty. Downed halflings are not shown.)
Sa'id slows as he approaches and passes Farron. He grimaces at the sight of the two oncoming halfings, realizing he won't be able to lend any aid to Garyth without dealing with these two first. His grimace turns even more dour as the giant spider materializes on the scene, and he realizes what the tickle in his mind means. Flicking mentally through his options one more time, he regretfully puts the Fireball incantation, that had been primed and ready at the front of his mental queue, aside. As much as he would like to use it on the spider, there is no certainty that the blast would also hit its master.
Sa'id's eyes flick back to the closing pair of halflings disdainfully, and he mentally recites the incantation of Scorching Ray.
(OOC: As soon as they are in range, I will loose the ray at whichever one is closer. My primary goal is still to get close enough to Garyth to cast Colour Spray, but I also don't want the halflings to get to Farron. I want to cast Scorching Ray on one of the two approaching halfings this round, on whichever one has been hurt the least, then I'll keep going toward Garyth until I'm in Colour Spray range.)
From: Ty
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
The map isn't bad, and I am going to steal the idea and use it going forward. The one change is that the spider is much closer to the mages than the map shows it. It is actually on the OTHER side of garyths group.
From: Matt
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
The edges of Rennik's snarl turn upwards into a growling smile as the shower of blood from the shattered halfling splatters across its two companions. Further pressing his advantage, he swings at the midsection of the halfling already wounded by arrow and bolt. (normal attack, no Power Attack, but still in rage)
Seeing Garyth's trouble, he tries to maneuver his way in that direction, directing the dance of death with the other two halflings to draw himself closer to the other fight and more targets.
From: Karl
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
The map helps a lot. However, shouldn't it also show the other three
Sa'ids?
From: Karl
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
Farron will cast Summon Monster III to summon 1d4+1 fiendish monstrous scorpions. (OOC - I'm not exactly sure how this works. Do I tell you where? If so, place them so they are between the spider/halfling attackers and Sa'id/Farron/Mission to the degree that is possible.)
From: Karl
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
(OOC-actually, I just noticed something. . .how small is "small"? I think I'll change that to 1d4+1 of Celestial Giant Fire Beetles)
From: Dan
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
Seeing the spider Cadfael calls out, "Mission, remember you're carrying antitoxin!" and continues at a run. He's going to move his Maximum 80 feet to place himself between the oncoming Halflings and the mages. Along the way he's going to pull out his mace, as the party is far too spread out to gain any real benefit from his boosting spells and he's not close enough to use any touch spells that he might want to use.
If the halflings beat him to the mages (which they probably will) he'll simply get close enough to engage in melee combat.
From: Mike
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
How close is Garyth to the two halflings approaching the magic users?
From: Ty
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
Right now about 80 feet. But 150 feet by next round.
From: Scott
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
There HAD been a halfling. Mission curses his lack of concentration as a creeping spider appears from nowhere-- the rush of memory and its appearance startle him into misfiring his crossbow.
The runes on his wrists pulse within his shirt sleeves.
Mission will move to attack the spider with flurry of blows.
From: Mike
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
Garyth grits his teeth in pain as the halflings' blades find their marks. A moment of fear passes over him as he sees the two halflings break off to attack the magic users, but they are too far, and he cannot risk disengaging from those already attacking him. He snarls and continues to attack.
From: Mike
Subject: Game Archives
I've posted the first four days of archives to my website. You can find them at:
http://www.sakeriver.com/game/
There may be some posts missing, I'm not sure. I'll post the remaining days as I have time to convert them.
From: Dan
Subject: Re: Game Archives
Sweeeeeeeeeet!
There are a couple of omissions that I can see, but nothing important. :)
On reading the stuff over, it seems I was given a potion of moderate healing but didn't notice. I've updated my equipment. :)
Thanks, Dan. :-P
From: Karl
Subject: RE: First Day: the hunt; Battle is Joined 4
Ty, can we get a Hit Point update after the next round? Is anyone is serious trouble yet?