Chapter One: The Iron Sphere of Sthombo

Leth is the first to catch sight of the men: a stocky fellow clad in the same sort of black oilskins as the ambushers, and behind him a taller man in a long gray cloak with a pointed hood. The shorter one throws a quick glance behind him as Vad and Felor round the corner of the longhouse.

Everybody who hasn't already, roll initiative. The men are still running away at this point, through heavy, wet vegetation. They have about a seventy foot lead on Leth; with Vad and Felor a little ways behind.

The men start to gain ground as they reach clearer footing, but Leth looses an arrow that flies long and true, sinking deep into the tall man's thigh and pinning his cloak to his leg. He lets out a sudden shart grunt of pain and stumbles, falling to his hands and knees. His companion stops, looks at him, looks at his pursuers, then makes the decision to keep running. The wounded man hisses something unintelligible at him and tries to get up, but immediately falls back down to his knees. He turns to face the oncoming party and draws a long straight knife from his belt.

How far away is the fleeing man? Can Felor reach the injured man in this round?

The fleeing man is about 80' ahead of you. You can reach the injured one this round.

Vad's bolt whizzes past the fleeing man's head as he bounds over a fallen branch.

OoC: Little bit of confusion here for me; the play-by-post system I've used before didn't really use an initiative system, but rather had everyone post what their character was doing whenever they got the chance, and when the DM replied, he/she would take the first three character actions, then an enemy action, then the next three character actions, and so on and so forth until all the character actions had been addressed in the DM's post. Obviously, we're not doing it that way here since we're using initiative, but how exactly does that work in the play-by-post structure? I know Leth just attacked, but then the enemy took a turn, so can I attack again now or do I need to wait for everyone else to take an action?

Typically, we're gonna do group initiative: one roll for the enemies vs average of players' rolls. In this case, all the enemy wants to do is flee, so when Vad rolled a hit I called it on the spot. You can take an action.

Leth's second arrow thunks into one of the trees the running man is now weaving through. Barring a dedicated pursuit, he seems to have successfully made his escape.

The wounded man does not drop his knife at Felor's command, but raises his other hand slightly. Thin, brightly-colored tendrils of purple mist coil up from his fingers. "Step back," he hisses. "All of you. Stand clear of me. Or the next breath you draw will be your last."

The wounded man flexes his fingers, sending out swirling puffs of purple mist. "Further back! And lower your bows. Do as I say."

Tzipporah steps from the ruins and takes in how things have unfolded. Seeing the other man disappearing into the forest she burst into a run hoping to get close enough to unleash a blast of Eldritch energy.
[Sorry guys been sick and bogged down with work]

The man closes his fist; the cloud of mist contracts into a thick, dark sphere around his hand. "Cease your spellcasting! If I release this gas your friend here will be first to die," he says, nodding at Felor. "Throw your weapons on the ground and place your hands behind your head. I will be the one to ask the questions."