Keep on the Borderlands - The Path of Evil - Session 53h

SESSION 53h: DAY 23 – THE CAVES OF CHAOS 

Malandir adds, “I wouldn’t want to leave five enemies at our backs. I think we should deal with the second group of bugbears while we have the advantage. It can only be a matter of time before one or more of them discover what we have done here.”

With this new intelligence, Per reconsiders his previous choice and states, "It would seem to be prudent to deal with the five bugbears that Malandir has spotted. They are distracted and unaware of our presence. Now is surely the time to attack when we have the element of surprise on our side."

"As I said, if there were lurkers, they would have attacked. The prudent route is of course for us to capitalize on these new developments..." Lucien's half-hearted rationalization an obvious attempt at saving face.

"We should definitely seed the other opposing approach with caltrops, it would not be much effort to brush them aside with a cloak or blanket after we defeat this latest clutch of bugbears."

"My worry is that room might be larger than Malandir could perceive without being detected,” says Talmark. “There could be another gong in there and if we can't win speedily we might find ourselves in trouble. Maybe we just blitz them, though quietisly. I'm sure our men-at-arms would like to get some payback licks in."

"Just to check the plan," Kord asks, "we'll place caltrops to our north and then we'll rush the bugbears? Try to get as many of us in there as quickly as we can and overwhelm them with numbers? Try to sneak as far as possible, see if we can get amongst them before they can react."

“Sneak until we can charge them. And when we charge, don't do it screaming. Just rush in and slay the daylights out of them,” responds Talmark. 

The party forms up into its normal combat formation and moves up to the corner. Malandir quietly plants some caltrops in the passage to the north (he had one lot of caltrops). 

SURPRISE ROUND #1

The plan is to sneak around the corner and a little way down the hall to get close enough to charge their opponents. 

The party will need to make a stealth check against its worse members which are the men at arms. They have no stealth skill, -4 penalty check for armour and no bonus for dex giving them a total of -4. However this is offset by distance to the monsters of 20ft, which is a +4 bonus, and the monsters are distracted, +5 bonus. All up there is a net bonus of +5. 

The check is a roll = 13 + 5 net bonus = DC of 18. 

The bugbears have a perception skill of 8. They roll 8 + 8 = 16 < 18 and don’t notice the party. 

SURPRISE ROUND

·        Talmark rushes forward 20ft (the most he can move in a surprise round and still attack) and swings Felldrac at the first bugbear.  Brushing his foes defences aside with overwhelming strength, his weapon is able to dig deep without mercy as it delivers 10pts of damage. (12/20)

·        Per follows Talmark’s lead and charges the wounded bugbear. His daring side trust connects, shanking deep into his foe delivering 16pts of damage. (20/28) (7/15 – doesn’t confirm the possible critical hit)

·        The rest of the party move up ready for the next round. As they do they notice that there is a passage way leading to the west and another leading to the east, but they don’t have the time at the moment to check where they go.

·        The assault, thus far, has been silent, and there is no chance that any other monster in the complex may have heard it.

ROUND 1A

Party initiative: Roll = 14 + 0 = 14

Bugbear initiative: Roll = 19 + 1 = 20

·        The bugbears must make a morale test for having taken their first casualty. They roll 8 on 2d6 vs a morale of 9 and will fight on.

·        Shocked to have seen the large male killed in front of her eyes, the quick to react female grabs her longsword, 5ft steps to the north west and attacks Per. She pursues Per’s death with great vigor, chopping and slashing along the way as she delivers 14pts of damage. (20/24) (18/22 possible critical confirmed)

·        Following her lead, the remaining female at the head of the table picks up her long sword and 5ft steps towards Talmark. Slashing at him, her fierce hit grates across his armour leaving lacerating wounds behind as she delivers 6pts of damage. (19/23) (5/9 possible critical not confirmed)

·        The remaining male grabs his morning star and advances 10ft to the north west and attacks Talmark. The spiked morning star leaves a perfect imprint in Talmarks armour where the weight of the mightly blow landed and delivered 11pts of damage. Whilst not downed, Talmark is heavily wounded by the two blows. (12/17 – Talmark’s AC at the moment is 16 as he charged in the surprise round)

·        The remaining female advance 10ft to the north to attack Per. As she does, she triggers an attack of opportunity which she narrowly avoids. She swings her long sword at Per but fails to connect. (Per’s attack of opportunity = 8/14) (1/5 the female fails to hit Per)

DEW