Thursday 12 July 1280, Afternoon (Pale death, with impartial tread)

Breathing heavily, Gaven says to Karnak, "Thank you Karnak, You are a worthy companion..."

Hearing the commotion and seeing Oloc running towards him, Gaven hides himself with his back against a tree. Now comparatively safe, he rips his cloak and begins to bind his wounds.

Varros continues to attack Anders with his sword, calling out to Karnak to attack as he does so. Karnak immediately dives to Varros' aid. Anders presses forward, but the combination of Varros' flashing steel and Karnak's slashing talons is too much for him, and the hobgoblin is soon lying lifeless on the ground before them.

Oloc runs past his comrades in the hope that they can draw off the chasing hobgoblin, causing him to stop short and deal with them, giving him the time to prepare his spell.

Meanwhile, guessing where Swede is headed, Duran slings his bow over his shoulder and draws his axe rushing towards Oloc and Gaven in order to meet the hobgoblin with his axe when he appears.

Oloc dashes past Gaven and Varros and takes up a position in cover beyond them, just as Anders breathes his last.  The mage turns to face the oncoming hobgoblin; Gaven and Varros follow his gaze.

From the west, they see Swede rush out toward them, and then from the south Duran appears unexpectedly, axe raised to intercept. Swede is quick to react, but with Duran coming to his right, there is no way he can turn and shoot his crossbow in time. Instead he thrusts the butt of the weapon at Duran's head, but to little effect. Duran makes a clean cut with his axe, catches only Swede's leather vambrace, which glows slightly and sparks as the axe hits it. Swede, however, seems unharmed by the blow.

As Duran engages the head bounty hunter, Oloc draws the scroll tucked into his belt. He focuses his mind and reads the writing upon the parchment. As he does so, the parchment begins to burn with a red flame that consumes each word as the mage gives voice to them.

As Oloc speaks the final syllable, the flame expands into three swirling crimson spirals that wind and writhe around his entire body. With a violent gesture Oloc points his hand directly at Swede, and the summoned energy gathers itself into a single searing beam of light that strikes the hobgoblin full in the chest.

The hobgoblin is kicked backward a good five feet by the blast, and lands hard on the ground. Winded and barely able to speak, the bounty hunter raises a hand and gasps: "No more, I yield."

Three bounty hunters lie dead, Gaven is wounded but has stopped the flow of blood, and Swede is lying on the ground, slightly dazed, but still with a loaded crossbow.

Thin rays of sunlight filter through the trees, catching the last of the dust in glittering sparkles as it settles around the dead.

*************************

OOC:  Actions?

Note: due to binding (which restores 1d4 hp), Gaven is now back up to 6 hp.

Time now is 2:30 p.m.

Reminder: your reinforcements are expected around 6 p.m. As I mentioned in the post before this encounter began (http://westkingdom.blogspot.com/2012/10/thursday-12-july-1280-midday-patience.html), if your plan is to wait for the reinforcements, we'll go to one WM check per hour; if no WMs appear, we'll just jump ahead to when the reinforcements arrive (once any interactions with Swede are done, of course – though your interactions with Swede will just be counted as part of the first hour, in terms of WM checks).

Reminder: your hirelings are scattered and have no weapons; Oloc has no weapon either (the weapons are held by the dead hobs).

*****

Combat Details:

A. Varros/Karnak vs. Anders

Initiative: Varros/Karnak – 1; Anders – 5

Anders:

Attacks Varros: d20 = 10 + 1 (normal to hit bonus for his HD) = 12 (miss)

Varros:

Attacks Anders: d20 =14 (hit); d6 = 5 (Anders killed)

Karnak:

Attacks Anders: d20 = 18 + 1 (normal to hit bonus for his HD) = 19 (hit); d6 = 5 (Anders very definitely dead).

B. Duran vs. Swede

Initiative: Duran – 1; Swede – 2

Swede:

Attacks Duran (butt of crossbow): 2 + 2 (normal to hit bonus for his HD) = 4 (miss)

Duran:

Attacks Swede: d20 = 13 (miss)

C. Oloc:

Casts Magic Missile at Swede: auto-hit, d6+1 = 6 (Swede wounded)

D. Gaven:

Binds wounds: d4 = 4 hp regained.

*****

Note on initiative (just for transparency): normally I've been doing group initiative; in this case (the last few posts), since the party was so dispersed, I broke things down into what seemed like logical groupings. As a rule I'll use group initiative unless it seems to really make more sense to split it up for some reason (as here). In some extreme cases I'll just assign positions in the sequence. For example, here it just made sense to me that Gaven's unopposed action of getting to cover and binding would really be immediate, and therefore first, no initiative rolled. Similarly Oloc taking a move action and then casting a spell seemed to be a "lengthy" full-round kind of thing that would logically just come at the end, again no roll.

One question: I tend to put these explanations in the end of posts where I make judgment calls that depart from or bend the rules as written. I'm not sure whether you guys are really interested in the explanations or not. If you find them distracting, I'll stop including them. If you're interested in seeing my rationales, I'll be happy to keep putting them in. I'm okay going either way. Let me know your thoughts please?