[Night of May 22 – Expected Ambush - Part 1]
[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened January 29, 2024.]
[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea. The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]
Player Characters
Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)
Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally
Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon
Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)
Via Roll20
Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer
Spring
Sunday, May 22, 56 I.C.
Dawn
After an eventful night, the caravan mounted up to leave the campsite and make the second half of the trip to Grizano. The adventurers spread themselves among the nine wagons that made up the caravan.
- Sorvia was on Wagon 1.
- Anomin (in crow form) and Kadruth were on Wagon 5.
- Tharduk and Inserrant were on Wagon 7.
- Islo was on Wagon 9.
Space was made on Wagon 5 for the three captured bandits. Kadruth cast his Force Wall spell over the prisoners to keep them alive. He then sat on top of the crates in the back of the wagon so he would have a good field of view. The pace of the caravan was noticeably faster than the previous day.
Late Morning
The caravan passed the fork in the road that heads south into the Ygro Dasos Barony. The hired caravan guards became particularly vigilant at this point as the caravan entered the area where the bandit attacks happened. Sorvia regularly watched the signaling hill that the bandit prisoners talked about, hoping to catch sight of a heliograph in use.
While the adventurers and the guards were all alert to the possibility of attack, when the bandit surprise attack happened, it was in an unexpected way. Rather than step out of the tall grasses on either side of the County Road and demand surrender like attacks in the past, four archers attacked from hiding on the south side of the road, all targeting Kadruth on top of the crates in Wagon 5.
Kadruth saw the arrows and attempted to avoid the shots [he aborted his action to perform a Dodge maneuver] but was hit anyway in the left arm, the shoulders, and twice in the chest, triggering his teleport spell, which dropped him onto the Wagon 7 driver’s lap, much to the driver’s surprise. These shots also knocked Kadruth unconscious, dropping his Force Wall spell, but just failed to kill him. Sorvia caught sight of where the attacks came from and shot an arrow back, hitting her target based on the cry of pain that resulted [solid hit in the chest for 9 BODY and 27 STUN].
Islo could not see any of the attackers to the south and held his fire, hoping they would show themselves. He and Inserrant also noticed movement in the grasses north of the road that were not caused by the wind. Inserrant called out a warning about attackers to the north while climbing to the front of the wagon to render Kadruth some first aid.
Tharduk exhorted the wagoneers to go faster while also warning of bandits to the north. Not actually seeing the bandits, he held at the ready for the bandits to show. Sorvia hopped off Wagon 1, looked for a target and shot at a bandit to the south, hitting them in the shoulder. Anomin, in crow form, flew south, trying to find the concealed bandits to no avail [the bandits were very well concealed]. Suddenly 20 archers volley-fired from the grasses to the north, all targeting the prisoners in the back of Wagon 5. The entire back of the wagon was pin-cushioned by arrows, killing all of the prisoners. The wagon drivers sped their wagons up as fast as the horses could pull the heavily laden wagons. No shots came from the south.
Islo held for counter fire while Inserrant continued aiding Kadruth.
Tharduk moved to the front of Wagon 7 and prepared to block any incoming attacks against Inserrant or Kadruth. Sorvia moved into the tall grass and hid herself to avoid becoming a target for the archers to the north. Anomin finally located the blind the camouflaged southern archers were hiding in. She could see one of them doing first aid on another and decided to land behind the blind. Once there she shifted back to human form and then changed into her Cougar form. Luckily for her, all the bandits were either watching the first aid being applied or keeping an eye on the caravan attack. [Anomin made her Stealth check exactly but the archers all missed their Perception rolls entirely.] The north archers fired again on Wagon 5 and Islo counterfired at them to little effect [hit his target in the ankle, a reduced damage location, and rolled minimal damage on top of that]. The southern archers started to flee south and ran into Anomin in cougar form instead. They loaded their bows. The wagons continued to move through the ambush area.
Islo shot again at the northern archers but missed. Inserrant continued aiding Kadruth.
Tharduk held his position over Inserrant and Kadruth, ready to block any attacks against them. Anomin attacked the fleeing southern archers, hitting the lead archer in the vitals, stunning the archer. Islo held his action. The obvious leader of the southern archers, an arrow in her chest, demanded her shield and gave orders to the other archers to flee back the other way. Inserrant continued to aid Kadruth, who appeared to be slowly regaining consciousness. Sorvia advanced towards the blind holding the southern archers. The northern archers retreated, heading north, away from the ambush. Islo, seeing this, attempted another shot, hitting one of the archers in the hand. One of the southern archers, clearly ignoring the order to leave, shot Anomin in a forelimb for low damage. The Wagons continued fleeing the ambush site. [The wagon train was 80 hexes in length and only moved 5 hexes at a time, so it was taking them time for it to clear the area.]
Islo held to see what the northern archers were up to. Inserrant aided Kadruth, who was regaining consciousness. Tharduk continued defending Inserrant and Kadruth. Anomin attacked the archer who shot her and raked their legs. The leader advanced with sword and shield, attacking Anomin but failing to connect. Sorvia, hearing the sounds of fighting ahead, advanced on the blind. [She started far away and was moving at half rate to stay hidden, so it was taking time to close in.] The first southern archer recovered from being stunned while gasping for breath. The second shot Anomin in a back leg as retaliation for the rake across her legs. The carts continued forward. Kadruth opened his eyes, consciousness fully returned.
Islo, satisfied no further attacks would happen from the north and hearing the sounds of fighting to the south, hopped off the last wagon and moved through the tall grasses to the south.
Tharduk held to protect Inserrant and the reawakened Kadruth. Anomin switched to attack the archer leader and hit her in the chest, discovering the leader had better armor. The archer leader slashed at Anomin, hitting the shapeshifter in the foreleg. Sorvia finally reached the blind and observed three camouflaged archers fleeing south through an alternate exit from the blind and the fight between Anomin and the other two archers. The second archer fighting Anomin shot the bloody cougar in the foreleg again with her bow. The Wagons continued fleeing while Kadruth took some time to catch his breath [took a Recovery action].
[Combat Paused]
End of session
Commentary
[We did not want to stop the session mid-combat, but it was well past our normal stop time and the combat was not resolved, so we paused here.]
[This took longer than anticipated to get typed up. To be honest, I’ve been prioritizing work on my new novel over writing here. I’ll do my best to wrap up the last two session notes this month and then start talking about the science fiction novel I’m outlining.]
Sudden Sea Adventures
Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign
Last session: Session 18
Next session: Session 20
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