A Sneakthief Appears ~ Round 5

The frogling in 1307 will suddenly emerge, having made its way stealthily through the bush.  I rolled 3d6 for this creature and miraculously (or demonishly, I suppose) rolled a 4.  With its level, this makes a 2 - so it isn't detected in 1307, and is free to emerge now and move into 1108, attacking Oddsdrakken.  It rolls a 15 against the halfling with its bite, causing 4 damage (stunning); because the halfling is so small, the frogling sweeps it aside into 1007.  It then progresses on Lothar and uses the spear to attack Lothar from behind: and I roll a natural 20.

I am sorry about that.

The second roll does not make it triple damage.  And I roll minimum damage, which is 4.  At this point, I'm not certain of Lothar's hit points, so please let me know if that stuns.

The arrow shows this surprise creature's full movement this round.  It moves 1 AP, hops 10 feet for 1 AP, attacks with bite (1 AP), moves forward 1 AP, then attacks Lothar (2 AP).  And yes, that is six total.

The frogling in 0807 attacks Fjall with the spear and then bites at Pandred ~ I roll two natural 18s.  Fjall will take 7 damage and Pandred, 1.  This will stun Fjall but Pandred is still active.  The follower falls backwards into the bush, in 1006.

Engelhart missed his target, so the frogling in 0607 will roll a 10 with the spear and a 15 with its bite.  Engelhart is AC 3 in banded mail and shield and is missed.

The last frogling, in 0710, was missed four times last round; it has bled a round from its wound but it is still active.  It swings at Embla with its spear and attacks Valda with its bite.  I hit AC 2 with the spear, before smacking its face against a tree instead of Valda.  It was a fumble, but the creature cannot drop its mouth; it does miss and it succeeds in not breaking its head.

Embla takes 6 damage from the spear.  That will stun her, tossing her into the bushes of 0909.

That's the creatures' round.  Here is how things stand:

Following the party's move, here are the positions:

And here is the x.p. updated:

The Froglings Falter ~ Round 4

The frogling in 0807 attacks Lothar again, but sadly rolling a 10 and a 7 for spear and bite.  The ranger is unscathed this round.

The frogling in 0707 advances on Pandred and hits her again: the spear hits AC 6, the bite hits AC -1.  Pandred is at AC 3, in plate mail, but without having had time to strap on her shield; so I hit only with the bite.  And luckily for her, I cause only 1 damage.

That, apparently, is their round.  The map looks like this:

Following the party's move, here are your positions.  At this point, I can now give full disclosure: can you find Waldo?

And the experience earned by the party:

The Froglings Give a Beat Down ~ Round 3

The froglings in 0707 and 0807 atttack Lothar and Pandred, while the frogling in 0610 will leap and attack Valda with spear.  Each creature attacks with spear and teeth.

0707 is enormously successful, hitting AC 1 and AC 3 with Lothar.  The spear cuts Lothar's shoulder for 4 damage, while the creatures' teeth grab his sword and give his sword-arm a wrench, for 3 damage more.  Although the spear point is clearly made of stone, the blow felt like sharp metal to Lothar's skin.  Because the blows are treated independently, neither are enough to stun the ranger.

0807 does just as well against Pandred, this time hitting AC 3 and then AC 1 (I rolled exactly the reverse on both dice).  And then I rolled the precise same damage, causing 4 damage with the spear and 3 damage with its teeth.  This time, Pandred felt the creature's teeth on her knuckles, while she was hit with the butt-end of the spear.  Again, she isn't stunned.

0610 leaps from the tree, gaining +1 to hit attacking from above, and hits Valda twice also: AC 3 and AC 0.  Valda takes 6 damage from the creature's bite and then 2 more from its spear.  The first hit will clearly stun the follower.  She is thrown back into Bergthora's hex.

Here is the present position:

Willa and Petar would have loaded their bows last round.  Willa can't fire from 1 hex away, however, and she has nowhere to step back to.  So she must pull a weapon and attack, else she will have no armor class against the creature when it attacks again.  So, being an NPC, this is what she did.  Petar can fire from 2 hexes away.  Embla and Bergthora are engaged; Bergthora will pus Valda into 0711.

After the party has moved, here is the position:

And here is the earned experience, thus far:

The Froglings Engage ~ Round 2

The froglings are not surprised; I have given the party the initiative, but the creatures are able to react fast and move ~ though the frog targeted by Willa and Lothar has fallen out of sight behind the log.

Froglings leap onto 0707, 0807 and 0906, the last one diving into the space low, to keep under the tree.  A frogling speeds down the path before leaping up into a tree above her, in 0510; the creature is about 8 feet above Valda.  The last one disappears into the bush; you're not even sure which side of the path it dives into, as you're distracted by frogs leaping at you.

None of these frogs are able to attack, however, as they are somewhat slowed by their spears (they'd have time to slash with a claw, but they're holding the weapons instead).

Here's their position:

Following the party's action, the map appears as this (two froglings unaccounted for):

And the experience so far earned:

A Patrol Wanders Along

You can see a group of bright blue frog-men moving towards you, carrying spears.  In keeping with the party's message (and Engelhart's encouragement to let them pass), I'm depicting them just now before the climb over the log in the middle of the trail.

There is a small chance that they will see you as they approach.  I'm discounting armor and weapons, but giving -3 for the forest and a bonus of -5 to the stealth distance on account of your cover.  That put you at -8 overall.

At the moment, they definitely don't see you, though they are clearly patrolling the path, checking left and right as they move along.

UPDATE:  From the lack of comments below, I'm going to assume now that the players have no intention of changing their positions or taking any other actions until the froglings (good, we'll call them that) get a lot closer.  Therefore, I'll post another image, hoping to get a response.

On the right, you'll see that the frogs have dropped into single file as they cross the log.  The lead frog moves up to 0507 [I'm sorry, some of these numbers are difficult to read, I'll see what I can do for the next image] and stops.  It turns, sniffs the air, and looks directly at the rock edge at 0707, which you'll remember is 7 feet high from the creature's perspective.  It is quite evident at that point, particularly to Embla, who is flat on her belly and looking straight at the creature, that the party's presence is, at the very least, firmly suspected.  The frogling leader looks back at its companions and raises an arm.

It is the player's move at that point; act, do nothing, let me know.

Oh and PLEASE, people, Read the Comments of Your Fellow Players when picking targets and entering hexes!!!

Atop the Rocks

As you discuss with Embla what her mission will be, without coming to a conclusion, you're standing near the ambush site you've chosen.  The party is back from the ledge outcropping, with is about SEVEN feet above the path below, so not very high.  Still, low enough to lay upon and be hidden.

The three hexes that are best for seeing the trail as it approaches from the top of the map (the direction of the fires), are 0709, 0707 and 0807, the latter two offering the best line of sight.  0808 can see the trail up to the log that is laying across it.

The trees are thick, but not so thick they can't be moved into.  I've depicted the party standing above the branches for ease of viewing.  I could hide you all under the branches, but that's not exactly desireable.

Please assume that any hex that is more than 1/3d hidden by trees will require 2 AP to enter.

Right now, Willa and Petar are watching the trail.  They will tell you right now that they've seen a creature coming, about ten feet beyond 0401, at the top of the map, just before the path turns into view (for the game's purposes, presume that any shot off the map is impractical].  You're not surprised.  Presume that you have initiative.  What do you want to do?

Scouting Ahead

It is still the afternoon of the 5th and the weather is still brisk, even a little less pleasant as it goes.  The sky is virtually clear, with just a wisp of cloud, and there is no rain, so you can be thankful for that.

I'm going to try and do as much as I can without drawing a map; please, let's imagine that Embla is moving out ahead of the party, some two or three hundred yards ahead, then circling back and signalling all clear to Lothar.  Now and then Embla should come all the way back to the party to get information from Lothar on finding direction through the wilderness, so she doesn't get lost.  Lothar will then indicate forward movement to the party.  This takes the best advantage of Embla using her stealth and Lothar using his pathfinding skill.  Don't take this as my running the party's actions ~ you'll simply find this the best way to operate.

Rolling for Embla, I start with 3d6 for full daylight, -3 for heavy forest and -1 for her level.  She's wearing soft armor so she suffers a +1 penalty for that.  The roll indicates the number of hexes from another creature that she'll be detected, not that she detects.  Thus, if I make a judgement that she will be able to see a creature at 8 hexes, and the roll comes out above 8, then she will be detected before she discovers what is out there.

At the same time, this finally gives me a solid number for hear noise.  Because she should be able to hear a creature at a distance greater than what she can see . . . let's say +3 hexes/level above normal sight range in the open and +1 hex per level when listening through an intervening object, like a door.  If she were, at first level, standing behind a door, with her ear pressed to it, she could hear someone at 1st level that was within 5 feet of the door.  This is a loose reckoning, we can test it a little and tighten it up later.

For the moment, let's say that Embla will see a creature at 8 hexes in this forest (a reasonable reckoning), if that creature is not attempting to hide, and hear the creature at 11 hexes (which doesn't seem like much better, but consider how much better it will be when she is 7th level).

Without revealing my roll, Embla moves close enough, within 11 hexes, to where she can hear something moving out there.  She should not be sure that moving closer won't reveal her, but at the moment what she hears gives no indication that she has been discovered.

She can smell fire in the far distance, but it does not smell like a forest fire (she's from a forest culture so she would have smelled such a fire before).  This is more like fires she has smelled outside of forges and such.  She would guess, right now, that she is about two or three hundred yards from the nearest part of the "fire," judging by the smell and the amount of smoke in the air.

She can hear the movement of feet and legs moving through brush, about four or five she would guess.  They are making a steady progress from her left to her right.

What, Embla, do you do?

Return to Store Stokka

With no real change in the weather, it being still cool, and coincidentally also being May 5th like today as I write this, you begin to lead the Captain and his soldiers into the forest.  Engelhart, I expect, will keep a running conversation going with any of the Captain's questions and we don't need to go into that.  The party marches along, with the players taking note that the followers are, occasionally seen talking privately to soldiers as you're moving along [presuming we haven't reached the peak of your paranoia, yet].

About half a mile from the lake camp, you come to the top of a rise, with Store Stokka a mere hundred yards towards the right.  Reaching this point, you get a surprise.

Somewhere in the direction of Mimmarudla, you can see a great amount of smoke rising.  You would guess this is a part of the forest that is burning.  It is sending a long and thick plume that is skirting across the tops of the trees towards the lake, a distance of at least a mile, before the smoke dissipates.

As well, not far from where the lake camp would be, you can see a forty foot tower emerging to the tree-tops.  Even with a glass, it is difficult to see if there is anyone on watch.

Apart from this, you're not close enough to see anything else that is unusual.

Four Miles South of Stavanger

Come the 5th of May, a Thursday, the party heads out on a brisk, nearly cloudless day, with a fresh wind blowing hard out of the south and only high stratus clouds to be seen.  There is nary a sign of rain.  Moving south along the road out of Stavanger, the party sees some preparations to the defenses of the city, mounds of earth and ditches being built by labor gangs.  As they progress south, for the first two miles they encounter a spattering stream of refugees who are moving north along the road with their belongings, about thirty families altogether.  Then, nothing.

The road is empty by the second hour.  Steadily you near the crossroads between Hole and Verdelen, to the south (and beyond Verdelen, Egersund).  Reaching the crossroads, you find yourself facing a large number of guards who are commanding a gang of laborers to hastily construct a palisade surrounding a small post that is there.

Naturally, a group of three guards will see you moving south along the road and will lift themselves up from their rumps to come speak with you.  The largest one, apparently a commander in the King's army, raises a hand and says, "God be with you, travellers."