Thursday 12 July 1280, Morning (Getting Ready)

After some discussion a plan begins to form for dealing with the bandits, by using Flox to lure them out in small groups to be dealt with piecemeal. The consensus is that as the bandits have a lot of men it is important to try to whittle them down little by little.

Varros suggests leaving the tripwire be, with the idea that the bandits, as they are lured out might trip it by accident, and he raises the possibility of using oil at the cave mouth with a fuse ready in case we get a large group comes out at once.

Duran and Gaven add that it might be a good idea to figure a way to intentionally trigger the falling rock trap if a large enough number of bandits come out at once. Gaven offers to perform that task. Close examination of the thin rope, and confirmation from Flox, indicate that either pulling on the trip wire or cutting it should cause the rocks to fall – though Gaven realizes he'll want to be some distance from the wire, and not pull it by hand, lest he get crushed himself.

Oloc approves the basic outline of the plan: "Sounds like we are agreed then," the Mage says before turning to Flox.

"Friend, we would like you to go in any bring out a few of your friends. But only a few, no more than three. Can you go in and quietly bring them out without alerting the others? Tell them you have found something special and wish to keep it a secret, but that you need their help. Tell them their is gold, but not enough for all."

Flox's long bow is returned to him, so as not to raise any suspicion amongst the other bandits.

With Flox ready to re-enter the cave, all that remains is to iron out some of the plan's specifics.

Bandit Cave Entrance Close-Up

(North is at the top*)

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OOC:  Just need a few details on the execution of the plan.

So it looks like:

1. The main idea is to rearm Flox with his longbow and send him in to lure three of the bad guys outside (this seems agreed upon and ready to go).

2. Gaven (who volunteered) will trigger the falling rock trap (by pulling or cutting the trip wire in some way) if/as needed springing it on the bad guys as they come out.  I'll need to know specifically how this will be done (I'd say any plan that has Gaven 10' away from the falling rock zone would have 0% of  Gaven getting hit by accident by a falling rock; at 5' from the falling rock zone, I'd give 20% chance of an accidental hit, with an addition 20% for each foot closer than that.

3. Pouring oil (perhaps with some sort of makeshift fuse?) on the floor/ground to supplement the rock trap. I'll need to know again exactly where, who will light it, and how that character intends to do so.

Also, I've numbered the various terrain features so you can easily let me know specifically where each PC will be (and where each hireling should be posted) once the plan starts moving forward.

#1 is the low wall of rocks just inside the entrance, with the trip wire running along it the width of the cave entrance, and also where the rocks will fall if/when the trap is sprung.

The other numbers are rocks/boulders (gray) and trees (green).

As before, olive is forest underbrush; the black area is steep slope extending up around the cave mouth.

The scale bar is again marked for 70 feet. Additionally, the grid just visible in the cave entrance can be used for scale (1 sq = 10'). So for example, rock #3 would easily be in the > 10' safe zone for triggering the trap.

To facilitate estimate of shooting ranges, I put 70' and 140' arcs in red extending out from the cave entrance (i.e., from where the white of the cave grid meets the olive of the forest underbrush).

*North is at the top; I thoughtlessly just placed the direction you were marching (east) at the top of the last map I posted without specifying directionality. It shouldn't actually make a difference, but I just wanted to clarify why the orientation had changed.