2. The First Delve

Brawling with the Beggars - Round 1
The Beggars win initiative 5 vs 3.

The two Beggars advance 30’ east to engage Gabbro and Fenwick in melee. Both attack with their short swords …

Brawling with the Beggars - Round 1 (continued)
The Beggars’ attacks are clumsy and the two elves sidestep them easily.

The Hellions are up. We’ll work through the round in the proper order: movement -> missiles -> spells - > melee.

In terms of movement:

Gabbro and Fenwick remain where they are, engaged in melee.

Pickles doesn’t need to move. The Beggars have already moved within short range of his bow.

Jessica advances. Her encounter movement (30’) is insufficient to allow her to reach the Beggars (40’ away), so she can’t attack this round.

Luther hangs back in a support role.

Waiting for Ricard to declare his actions.

Thanks for all the attack rolls … we’ll resolve those once the movement phase is complete.

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Day 2, 2:40 pm
Fenwick, Elf 1: 5/5
Gabbro, Elf 1: 7/7
Jessica, Cleric 1: 5/5
Luther, Cleric 1: 5/5
Pickles, Halfling 1: 4/4
Ricard, Fighter 1: 5/7

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

I will move close enough in support so I can attack if need be.

Brawling with the Beggars - Round 1 (continued)
OK, to keep things moving, I’ll assume that Ricard advances 30’ alongside Jessica to close to within 10’ of the brigands.

Missile attacks …

Pickles fires his short bow. He gets +1 for his dexterity, +1 as a halfling and +1 for short range. However, because there are so many Hellions between him and his target, there will be a -4 penalty due to "cover". So the net bonus is -1. Nevertheless, his modified roll of 15 hits. The arrow embeds itself squarely in the chest of Ghost Beggar 2, killing him outright (it’s not possible to "subdue" with an arrow).

There are no spells so we’ll move on to melee …

Gabbro strikes the remaining Beggar with the haft of his spear. The blow catches the brigand on the side of his head, causing him to stagger backwards.

Fenwick follows up with Druin’s Bane, but his attack is wide of the mark (I wasn’t sure whether Fenwick was striking to subdue or not, but as he missed it didn’t matter).

That concludes Round 1. End of round summary:

- Gabbro and Fenwick are engaged in melee with the remaining Ghost Beggar, who is slightly subdued.
- Ricard and Jessica are a further 10’ back, with Luther just behind them.
- Pickles is 40’ back at the kink in the passage.

Someone please roll The Hellion’s initiative for Round 2 and everyone declare their actions.

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Day 2, 2:40 pm
Fenwick, Elf 1: 5/5
Gabbro, Elf 1: 7/7
Jessica, Cleric 1: 5/5
Luther, Cleric 1: 5/5
Pickles, Halfling 1: 4/4
Ricard, Fighter 1: 5/7

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

Luther looks on ready to spring into action as he hears a solid impact and sees the protruding from the chest of a beggar as they slump to the floor. Nice shot Pickles but no more we are after answers. Subdue the remaining no slashing or stabbing.

Brawling with the Beggars - Round 2
Initiative is tied, 3 vs 3. So both sides act simultaneously.

However, let me first check the brigand’s morale as that might bring the combat to a swift conclusion...

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Day 2, 2:40 pm
Fenwick, Elf 1: 5/5
Gabbro, Elf 1: 7/7
Jessica, Cleric 1: 5/5
Luther, Cleric 1: 5/5
Pickles, Halfling 1: 4/4
Ricard, Fighter 1: 5/7

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

Seeing his comrade fall to the ground courtesy of Pickles' deadly bowmanship, the remaining Ghost Beggar drops his weapon and raises his hands in surrender.

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Day 2, 2:40 pm
Fenwick, Elf 1: 5/5
Gabbro, Elf 1: 7/7
Jessica, Cleric 1: 5/5
Luther, Cleric 1: 5/5
Pickles, Halfling 1: 4/4
Ricard, Fighter 1: 5/7

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

Gabbro keeps his spear poised to club the upright Ghost Beggar in case he tries anything. "Who has some rope?"

Luther goes trough his pack real quick to get rope. Here you go. Tie him up and lets move to a different room

Jessica kneels beside the fallen Ghost Beggar and checks for a pulse, to no avail. She closes his eyes and stands grimly. "At least he didn't suffer."

Luther comes up behind Jessica thinking to himself his sect would never waste a prayer on a purveyor of evil. We should also stash this body out of sight somewhere if possible.

"Lucky for you we're in a merciful mood, " Fenwick tells their captive, keeping her sword leveled at them. She kicks the dropped weapon away toward one of the other Hellions, but leaves the rope work to someone stronger or at least better with knots.

Ricard stands above the captured Beggar and draws his small utility knife from his belt. He checks the edge of the blade with his thumb absentmindedly.

"Should have let me buy you that drink."

Ricard kneels in front of the Beggar and looks him in the eyes.

"I heard you were looking for something down here, what is it?"

"Well...I know of a pit really close by..." Gabbro winks as he takes the rope and ties up the surviving Beggar.

Luther nods A pit would do very well especially if it is a pit trap. We should get moving though before any of his friends wander through.

Pickles keeps an arrow notched as he moves to join the others, he waits patiently about ten feet from them as they tie the Bandit up. He keeps guard until they move. His senses keen after such a clean strike, his eyes wide and observant, his breathing surprisingly calm and controlled.

The one that is still breathing.
The Ghost Beggar stares back blankly at Ricard, a look of terror on his face. Shaking his head, he replies "We weren’t searchin’ for nuthin’, honest. Just on the lookout for a couple of people, but they weren’t there. S-s-sorry about earlier, didn’t mean any offence."

You drag the trussed-up brigand and his dead colleague through the portcullis and into the Chamber of the Woods.

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Day 2, 3:00 pm
Fenwick, Elf 1: 5/5
Gabbro, Elf 1: 7/7
Jessica, Cleric 1: 5/5
Luther, Cleric 1: 5/5
Pickles, Halfling 1: 4/4
Ricard, Fighter 1: 5/7

Link to Gabbro's mega-maps ...

As we move into the Chamber of the Woods Luther will move to the south entrance and take up guard keeping alert for any sounds coming from that direction.

"Who were you looking for, and why?" Fenwick asks sharply

Gabbro will check the killed Ghost Beggar for valuables or useful items, and wad the corpse's cloak to try to sop up the blood. ::It'll be better if there isn't an obvious blood trail to the pit when we dump the body.:: The elf studiously tries to ignore any self-evaluation that would notice how far he's fallen, and how coldly he now looks at murder.