Against the Cult: Party at the Mill (1.1)

As they burst through the doors, Xana just notices another figure slipping down the stairs.

Shiztik weaves through the bushes and Durren bounds over them in his silent pursuit of the kobold, gradually gaining on the little reptile. The copse ends and the creature rushes across an open green towards a row of houses; Durren can see the bridge across the Realstream river at some distance off to his left; there is some traffic on the bridge heading west into town: a bunch of wagons, arriving from Hookhill or Orlane, possibly.

The kobold dodges in between a gap in the fence behind the houses, and Durren vaults the fence with ease. The kobolds slips under some washing hanging on a clothesline to dry, startling a woman and child who are preparing to clean a rug with a rugbeater.

Durren, roll an acrobatics check to somersault under the clothesline and avoid colliding with the people cleaning.

ROUND ONE

Thacogygax and Aanbo are astonished at Sara's speed as she blurs into motion, rushing up to the cover of the mill's walls, just to the right of the right set of doors. Glancing inside, Sara sees the two men flip over the table next to Klak and Quest.

Aanbo, you give me a perception roll with disadvantage, and/or tell us what you're doing, as you're at the top of the player initiative list.
Thacogygax may also do a perception check with disadvantage.

Xana sees movement and instinctively jumps after it, running down the stairs on the right. She comes down into darkness, and her eyes adjust. The room is filled with the motion and noise of the mill works: giant gears turning, groaning with the torque of the water wheel outside, which in turn spin connected gears and the vertical shafts connected to them. A door on the wall to your right is open. A large pipe or shaft descends in front of you into a U-bend and then rises back up into the ceiling. The man you've followed has ducked underneath this and calls into a passage in the far wall, shouting above the noise. "Get out here, skinks! We've got trouble!"

Upstairs in the mill room, the wrestlers do a double-take, seeing that the doors have bashed open. Two of them toss aside the third man, who falls weakly to the floor, and they circle around the mill wheel on either side to flank Ogbar. Just before they get there, a pair of large shaggy war dogs come snarling down the stairs from above, one leaping for Ogbar, the other continuing down the stairs after Xana.



Ogbar takes 3 HP damage as the war dog sinks its jaws into him; he must also roll a STR save.


In the office room next door, the thugs on the right make it behind the table and prepare to flip it over.

Actions can be declared in any order, so you don't have to wait for someone before you in initiative, but the actions will occur in initiative order.

Complete initiative order:
War dogs
Aanbo
Men in mill room
Xana
Men in office room
Thacogygax
Man downstairs (and whomever he's calling to)
Ogbar
Klak
Quest
Sara

OOC: I'm waiting to see what the men in the office room do (since they act before me) I'm hesitant to start hacking at strangers with my axe unless they're obviously bad guys.

OOC: Like Klak(Falryx), Quest will need to see what the men in the office intend before he takes action...I mean there is still a chance they will surrender right?

ROUND ONE, CONTINUED

Initiative order:
- War dogs - moving and attacking (done)
- Aanbo prepares to fight anyone leaving the mill to the north. He thinks he hear a strange clicking noise for a moment, but when he tries to listen more closely to determine a direction, he doesn't hear it again.
- Men in mill room - tossed victim aside, moving to flank Ogbar (done)
- Xana is within 10' of the man she chased downstairs, and realizes that a dog fully as big as she is charging up behind her. Having moved, Xana can do her action later in the round and move to that point in the initiative, or wait until next round.
- Men in office room - flipping tables for cover (done). The tables are 4' deep (now tall); characters can reach, climb, or vault over but these men have half cover while the table is between them. Klak sees that the men are armed with clubs and sneering, hostile expressions.
- Thacogygax is up; in addition to whatever move/action, he may do a perception check with DISADV.
- Man downstairs (and whomever he's calling to) ran down the stairs and has not noticed Xana behind him (done).
- Ogbar is a rock, and remains standing as the dog hits him at full speed and rips into his forearm. Ogbar stares at it mutely for a moment as the dog bounces off of him. He still has a move and an action as the two men move to flank him and the dog develops a taste for barbarian.
- Klak can declare move/action. Klak may also roll an Insight check to grok the intentions of these bruisers.
- Quest may declare move/action, and roll an Insight check similarly.
- Sara thinks she has a shot, though the men behind the table on the left have half cover. If she wishes to figure out the intentions of these men, she may also roll an Insight check. She also has the normal move/action.

Note from DM: Stealth to avoid detection. I'm using your first roll, still - the kobold has not detected you yet. Survival is not used for avoiding detection, though it is used for a bunch of things, such as following a trail (part of tracking). You already have successes at Survival, Athletics, Acrobatics, and Stealth.

ROUND ONE, CONTINUED

Thacogygax is enjoying the peace and quiet, water bubbling over his claws, but then he hears a series of crashes from the mill, as of breaking furniture (really just the tables being flipped), and he also sees glimpses of movement through the half-open shutters. He can still move/act in response.

Ogbar is also up now.