Game: Meet Me in Phandalin

Feel free to introduce your characters and come up with how you met this dwarf patron, Gundren Rockseeker. Also, come up with a marching order. Who is where, who is driving the wagon of supplies?

And most importantly, what do you do?

Greetings fellow travelers. My name is Ruthann Stormborn, once a soldier turned monk. I spent 4 yrs in the military, ending as an officer, where I lost a brother and many comrades. After a disastrous battle where our forces were nearly wiped out, those of us who remained, including myself and Mel returned to our camp. I was blamed for the disaster, branded a deserter, and thrown in prison. A little while later, a passing monk negotiated my release and I began my training under his care.
I happened to run into Mel and she told me about what really happened at the battle and that she discovered later who had been blamed and punished for her failures. In a rage I struck her in the face and stormed out of the establishment.
After I finished my training with the monk, I returned, where I again met Mel. We talked and hashed out our differences; deciding instead to band together since we couldn't return home and had no one else to rely on. We formed a kind of kinship and have stayed together since. Mel told me about the ad on the notice board for an escort job and we decided to check it out. We met up with the ones interested parties and began our trip.

Greetings fellow travelers. I am Laucain Laidon, a Wood Elf Ranger, from Agatha. As the youngest of three to a well know blacksmith, I never enjoyed tending to my fathers shop while my older brothers, both in the military, leave the city when needed. Prior to leaving his home in search of a better life, I had gotten into an argument with my family and left on bad terms. My travels led me to Gundren where I had been offered a job to good to refuse.

Very nice so far.

I can see the thread between the fucking worlds.

The way I do initiative for the games I run is molded to better fit the PbP nature. Instead of asking everyone to roll initiative and waiting a day to just determine combat order, I will roll your initiative to speed things up; this will be the only roll of yours that I roll for you.

Another thing that differs is you may act in which ever order you please within your initiative group.

Those bold may act now:
Ruthann
Laucain
Valius
Mel
Goblins

For example: even though Mel is near the bottom, because she is before the monster, she doesn't have to wait for Ruthann to finish his turn. Again, this is a change from the normal way in order to help speed up PbP and adjust to people's different posting availability.

He has advantage for being a ranger and they have not gone yet.

Still missed.

we are extremely competent it seems

Hey! I saw them coming a mile away man.😉

Oops, I sometimes get ahead of myself and forget to post thing. Mel would of spotted those as well and more than likely called them out. Valius can still take his turn, I won't count the perception check against him.

The goblin is prone, so he'd be at disadvantage (straight roll because ranger advantage), you'd be at advantage.

Also, unless I'm missing something, Laucin's damage modifier should only be +4.