OOC (HitH)

It's hard to judge on the spot, but it's certainly not just a few seconds. Five minutes is probably in the realm of possibility.

And no, you're in farmland. You'd be easy to surround. You can conjure some low walls or a small building if you'd like but you were a fair way from that little copse of woods when you met Rory - you left the road about a third of the way to Rivervale.

Actually that's right, Lan has no armour right now. His usual stuff is being repaired at Halfday.

Well, the fact that there's no chokepoint takes all the fun out of a last stand. No point dying if the enemy can just make a slightly wider circle around you!

So much for the thrilling heroics lol. To be honest, with the Exhaustion on us all we actually probably have a better chance prepping for a fight and drawing this out than we do on making that last round of checks successfully.

Wide open farmland, you say? Which way is the wind blowing and how gusty is it? 🔥

1d8 starting at north going clockwise, and 1d4 from still to windy (no extreme gales or anything like that, it would have come up).

Roll for windnitiative.

Do keep in mind I've explicitly said there are no consequences for the next failure.

Are we making a stand here or not?

If not, let's get moving.

If we are, let's plan IC.

I think running is only chance

I don't think 5 exhausted characters can defeat 20 fresh mercenaries and we'd certainly get captured.

We'll make our best speed & hope we arrive at the road before getting caught.

I'm keeping that in mind, I just don't like our chances. This is all contingency planning :)

What direction are we traveling again?

Nor-nor-east.

Okay, so, with a 2 and assuming 1 is North that means we're running into the wind?

Final question: can I take an additional point of Exhaustion in order to cast a second level spell? I'm open to negotiating for this.

Well, you're on a horse so Exhaustion 2 isn't really a penalty. How about 2 for a point per level?

You drive a hard bargain, but I'll take it.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I have a plan! Do you want to hear it here or in character?

Ooh, in character sounds grand!

IC please.

We really do only have one tool in our kit, don't we? 8]

Run away, run away!

I was going to say 'burn it all down', but that's a close second.