An Arl's Ransom

[spyguy1503]

Wallace readies his staff and follows Simone.

[mgbevan]

Davne too readies her crossbow and follows in 2nd position

[JadedDM]

The four press onward, following the tracks eastward toward the higher ground. When they are about half way there, they can all easily hear a chilling scream pierce the night air. It's coming from ahead, to the east.

[HorizonsDream]

Simone quickens her pace. "Hurry up," she says to the others. "Davne, if you can, take the lead."

[mgbevan]

Davne steps up to the front, finger ready on her crossbow. Was she able to discern what kind of scream it was, male, female, adult, child, pain, terror?

[spyguy1503]

Wallace hurries after Davne

[JadedDM]

Rushing in the direction of the scream, the party emerges from a thicket of trees. They find themselves halfway up a steep hillside. Ahead, they see an outcropping of rock just a big higher than they are on the hillside, at the top of a switchback trail but on the other side of a treacherous-looking, washed out gorge.

There's a leather-armored Fereldan on the outcropping, in cover, a crossbow in his hands. One the trail below him are the bodies of more fallen guardsmen, more genlocks, more blight wolves. At the bottom of the trail is a knot of darkspawn in cover, but as the party watches they emerge as one and charge howling up the trail. One falls, a crossbow bolt in his eye, but the others (a wounded hurlock and three fresh genlocks) surge on.

Behind the man are three other humans. One is a woman wearing plate mail and carrying a bastard sword. She stands in front of the two others, protecting them should any darkspawn breach the defenses.

The other two are younger. One is a lad of about 13 years, wearing light leather and holding up a short sword inexpertly. The other a young woman, perhaps a couple of years older than the boy. She also wears light leather but is only carrying a dagger.

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(OOC: Crossing the gorge will require either a STR (Climbing) test or a DEX (Acrobatics) test, both at TN 13. Success means you get across with no problem. Failure means you move at half speed and take 1d6 damage from cuts, bruises, and so forth. You can also choose to try and run around the gorge by heading south, although this will take longer, obviously.)

[mgbevan]

"Look!" Davne points and calls out to the others as she spots the scene as the front of the group. "It must be the children, they're under attack!"

Assessing her options, Davne decides the most direct route will get her to protect the children the quickest, "I'm taking the gorge to get up there, I'll stop them from getting into melee with our charges. If you don't think you can make it, you's best hurry and close in from behind!"

With that Davne does her best to slide down the ravine and begin climbing the other side, grabbing onto whatever she could amongst the crumbly earth and roots.

[HorizonsDream]

Simone follows after Davne, deciding that it was the quickest way to get to the children. Though, instead of climbing, she relies on her dexterity to get her across.

[spyguy1503]

Wallace uses his cunning to get across, figuring out which stones are safe.

[JadedDM]

Simone moves fastest, reaching the ravine before Davne does and tries to quickly descend it. But she comes in too fast, trips and hurts herself in the process. Davne follows, but manages to climb back out without a problem. Wallace goes next, joining Davne. Alenka, however, stumbles and joins Simone at the bottom of the gorge, scraped up.

Once on the other side of the gorge, Davne and Wallace can better take in the action. The hurlock and genlocks run up the hill, gaining ground fast--but they probably won't reach the top for a few minutes. The man in leather, presumably Ser Blaker Corbin, reloads his crossbow while the female knight behind him stands watch over the two youths.

Unfortunately, none of them notice a pair of blight wolves sneaking up on them from the north. Like the owl the party faced before, these wolves have been infected by the taint and are now effectively darkspawn themselves. Wallace and Davne spot them coming and realize they will soon be upon the young nobles.

Blight Wolves.png (397.9 KiB) Viewed 6438 times

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Initiative Order
Simone (3d6+3): 6+5+4+3 = 18
Hurlock (3d6+2): 4+3+6+2 = 15
Genlock 01 (3d6+1): 6+2+5+1 = 14
Joseph (3d6+1): 6+6+1+1 = 14
Davne (3d6+2): 4+6+1+3 = 13
Wallace (3d6+1): 3+4+4+1 = 12
Alenka (3d6+1): 1+3+6+1 = 11
Blight Wolf 02 (3d6+2): 3+4+2+2 = 11
Blaker (3d6+3): 1+2+3+3 = 9
Genlock 03 (3d6+1): 2+5+1+1 = 9
Knight (3d6+2): 3+1+2+2 = 8
Hana (3d6+0): 2+1+4 = 7
Genlock 02 (3d6+1): 2+3+1+1 = 7
Blight Wolf 01 (3d6+2): 1+1+1+2 = 5

Round 1!

Simone uses a minor action to cross the ravine. She makes a DEX (Acrobatics) test [TN 13] (3d6+3): 3+5+1+3 = 12, fail. She takes (1d6): 4 damage and moves 6 yards. Simone is now lightly wounded.
Hurlock uses a major action to run 20 yards up the hill. It then uses a minor action to move 10 yards up the hill.
Genlock 01 uses a major action to run 14 yards up the hill. It then uses a minor action to move 7 yards up the hill.
Joseph does nothing.
Davne uses a minor action to cross the ravine. She makes a STR (Climbing) test [TN 13] (3d6+3): 6+5+6+3 = 20, pass. She takes no damage and moves 10 yards.
Wallace uses a minor action to cross the ravine. He makes a DEX (Acrobatics) test [TN 13] (3d6+1): 5+5+4+1 = 15, pass. He takes no damage and moves 11 yards.
Alenka uses a minor action to cross the ravine. She makes a DEX (Acrobatics) test [TN 13] (3d6+1): 1+4+2+1 = 8, fail. She takes (1d6): 1 damage and moves 5 yards.
Blight Wolf 02 appears to the north.
Blaker takes a major action to reload his crossbow.
Genlock 03 uses a major action to run 14 yards up the hill. It then uses a minor action to move 7 yards up the hill.
Knight does nothing.
Hana does nothing.
Genlock 02 uses a major action to run 14 yards up the hill. It then uses a minor action to move 7 yards up the hill.
Blight Wolf 01 appears to the north.

(OOC: WASD refer to Wallace, Alenka, Simone and Davne. B1 and B2 are the blight wolves, H is the hurlock, G1, G2 and G3 are the genlocks, C is Blaker Corbin, K is the female knight and the kids are h (Hana) and j (Joseph).)

[HorizonsDream]

Simone tries to climb out of the ravine.

[spyguy1503]

Wallace runs toward the top, gesturing that they should look behind them.

[mgbevan]

Davne calls out to alert the part and aims he crossbow while moving towards the children and ser blaker

[JadedDM]

Simone manages to climb up the other side of the ravine without difficulty this time.

Davne moves forward, readying her crossbow and calling out a warning. Wallace runs right past her, not saying anything, but waving his arms wildly. Blaker turns his crossbow upon the mage, who as far as he can tell, is attacking. "Incoming!" he warns. Before he fires, though, he spots Alenka climbing up out of the ravine, getting further scratched up in the process. "Alenka! By the Maker, you sure took your sweet time getting here!" he calls.

"Behind you!" Alenka calls out.

The warning comes too late. One of the blight wolves has sneaked forward and it quickly leaps at Joseph, knocking him down and tearing into him. "Shit!" swears Blaker. "Ser Bridget!"

Hana screams and the female knight turns and leaps at the attacking wolf. With the vicious savagery of a mother bear protecting her young, she slices into the blight wolf and kicks it off the boy. It tumbles backwards and then moves no more. Hana rushes over to Joseph to check on him. The boy was already wounded, but now he's in really bad shape.

"Another one!" Bridget warns, standing before the two. However, in a surprise twist, Hana shoves the knight out of her way, points at the incoming wolf and screams again--this time with fury, not fear. Some sort of invisible shockwave blasts from her, travels across the plain and strikes the wolf, knocking it to the ground. Blood trickles from Hana's nose at the untrained magic use, then she sways and collapses.

Joseph gets to his feet and stands over his sister to protect her, while Bridget stands between the dizzy wolf and the kids. Blaker, who fired a bolt at the hurlock climbing the hill, hits him squarely in the armor, but the bolt doesn't sink in deep enough to reach its putrid flesh. Swearing again, he quickly grabs another bolt before they arrive.

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Initiative Order
Simone (3d6+3): 6+5+4+3 = 18
Hurlock (3d6+2): 4+3+6+2 = 15
Genlock 01 (3d6+1): 6+2+5+1 = 14
Joseph (3d6+1): 6+6+1+1 = 14
Davne (3d6+2): 4+6+1+3 = 13
Wallace (3d6+1): 3+4+4+1 = 12
Alenka (3d6+1): 1+3+6+1 = 11
Blight Wolf 02 (3d6+2): 3+4+2+2 = 11
Blaker (3d6+3): 1+2+3+3 = 9
Genlock 03 (3d6+1): 2+5+1+1 = 9
Knight (3d6+2): 3+1+2+2 = 8
Hana (3d6+0): 2+1+4 = 7
Genlock 02 (3d6+1): 2+3+1+1 = 7
Blight Wolf 01 (3d6+2): 1+1+1+2 = 5

Round 2!

Simone uses a minor action to climb out of the ravine. She makes a DEX (Acrobatics) test [TN 13] (3d6+3): 4+1+6+3 = 14, pass. She climbs out the other side.
Hurlock uses a major action to run 20 yards up the hill. It then uses a minor action to move 10 yards up the hill.
Genlock 01 uses a major action to run 14 yards up the hill. It then uses a minor action to move 7 yards up the hill.
Joseph does nothing.
Davne uses a minor action to move 10 yards northeast and then uses another minor action to aim her crossbow (+2 to hit at next attack).
Wallace uses a major action to run 20 yards northeast.
Alenka uses a minor action to cross the ravine. She makes a DEX (Acrobatics) test [TN 13] (3d6+1): 6+2+1+1 = 10, fail. She takes (1d6): 3 damage and climbs out the other side. Alenka is now lightly wounded.
Blight Wolf 02 uses a minor action to move 14 yards south. It then uses a major action to attack Joseph with a bite (focus) attack [TN 11] (3d6+4): 6+6+6+4 = 22, STUNT (6 points)! It uses lightning attack, knockdown and pierce armor. It deals (1d6+4): 2+4 = 6 (-1 armor) = 5 damage. It then attacks again while Joesph is prone (+1 to hit) [TN 11] (3d6+6): 2+1+5+6 = 14, hit for (1d6+4): 1+4 = 5 (-3 armor) = 2 damage. Joseph is now seriously wounded.
Blaker uses a minor action to aim at the Hurlock (+1 to hit) and then a major action to fire his crossbow (focus) at it at short range in the dark (-1 to hit) [TN 12] (3d6+5): 5+1+2+5 = 13, hit for (1d6+4): 1+4 = 5 (-5 armor) = 0 damage.
Genlock 03 uses a major action to run 14 yards up the hill. It then uses a minor action to move 7 yards up the hill.
Knight uses a minor action to aim (+1 to hit) and a major action to attack Blight Wolf 02 with her bastard sword (focus) [TN 12] (3d6+8): 5+5+5+8 = 23, STUNT (5 points)! She uses pierce armor and lightning attack. She deals (2d6+6): 6+5+6 = 17 (-1 armor) = 16 damage. She then attacks a second time (3d6+7): 1+6+4+7 = 18, hit for (2d6+6): 5+6+6 = 17 (-3 armor) = 14 damage. Blight Wolf 02 dies.
Hana uses a major action to cast Mind Blast at Blight Wolf 01 [TN 12] (3d6+2): 6+2+5+2 = 15, pass. She consumes 3 MP. Blight Wolf 01 makes a Strength (Might) test [TN 12] (3d6+2): 3+3+2+2 = 10, fail. It is knocked prone and cannot take a major action next round. Hana passes out.
Genlock 02 uses a major action to run 14 yards up the hill. It then uses a minor action to move 7 yards up the hill.
Blight Wolf 01 is knocked prone.

(OOC: I'll go ahead and point out that Joesph, Blaker, Bridget and Alenka show no surprise whatsoever of Hana's use of magic. Remember that in this setting, anyone who displays magical ability is supposed to be shipped off to the Tower for training.)