The Cranstonian Expedition (RPG)

[Poli]

Originally Posted by Raven Hawk

Dola,

Not sure if Reod was aware or not, but Jadrich's horse is unoccupied.

Unless the horse is nearby, I doubt Reod would go for it though.

[Raven Hawk]

Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast

Unless the horse is nearby, I doubt Reod would go for it though.

From my understandings, if Reod is close to Dereth, he is close to Jadrich's horse. Dereth should have been riding up to Jadrich and pretty close to him.

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Raven Hawk

From my understandings, if Reod is close to Dereth, he is close to Jadrich's horse.

Aye. It would be a small matter for Reod to mount Jadrich's horse. Just be sure to go back and edit the post accordingly, Ardent.

We can all then delete these posts to clean up the thread! (no big deal either way).

[Poli]

Edited.

[Vince]

Originally Posted by Raven Hawk

From my understandings, if Reod is close to Dereth, he is close to Jadrich's horse. Dereth should have been riding up to Jadrich and pretty close to him.

Can we have another installment of Jadrich's stock? Is it still below 'dead horse?'

[Poli]

Originally Posted by Vince

Can we have another installment of Jadrich's stock? Is it still below 'dead horse?'

Good one.

[Blade6119]

Dereth saw Reod jump on Jadrichs and move forward, and that was all Dereth needed. He gave his horse a slight tap, and it was off right with Reod. "Do we go to cut off their retreat or their heads?" Dereth hoped it was the latter, as seeing Jupps body had enraged him, then to kill like that and run when others showed up was about as cowardly as it could get. Dereth got ready for his mounted combat feats, and figured with the charge being from the backs of the hill people he hoped to get two of them in the ride by. Then he could react to what reod had done with the third and hopefully finish them all off.

[Blade6119]

Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast

Good one.

not his stock

[Raven Hawk]

Bump.

[Poli]

I fear we have a few disinterested members.

[Vince]

Who are we waiting on?

[Raven Hawk]

Brayden (indoorsoccersim) and Nightion (JeffNights) have not chipped in on the latest event.

[WSUCougar]

With little time to waste, the two Rhyllans bolted down the small slope on horseback, moving in on the escaping hill-folk on the right as Xypheus the elf-mage trotted off on the left side to close the range.

Amidst this flurry of motion, the closest hill-man spun his head about as he was released from the enchantment that held him. He turned and shouted something undecipherable to his comrades amidst the barkeep’s soft dirge. His snarling yell was cut short, however, as Jadrich’s Sleep spell washed over him. His knees buckled, and he went down like a falling tree. Kallash promptly stepped closer and unleashed his crossbow bolt into the brute’s throat.

Seeing the two charging Rhyllans, the other three foes lost interest in the pack animals and instead spread out and took up fighting stances with their crude spears. One stooped to pick up a sizable rock, and threw it quite accurately toward Reod.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FYI, Xypheus is still out of range.

[Raven Hawk]

Jadrich grinned slyly at the hill man laying at his feet with a crossbow bolt sticking out of his neck. Jadrich wished that he could taunt the dead some more, but he realized that his friends were in the midst of an assault upon the remaining three brutes.

Jadrich quickly spun on his heel and sprinted in toward the action, drawing a throwing knife on the way, when he got into range, he picked an open target, crow hopped in order to plant his back foot and threw a dagger at the hill man that he had chosen. He continued to advance more slowly through his throwing motion and drew another knife just as the first had left his hand.

[Vince]

Just out of curiousity, what time of day is it?

[WSUCougar]

Afternoon

[MacroGuru]

Man, I feel like an arse not responding.

In what seemed ages, Brayden finally wakes out of his battle fog, and steps toward the closest foe, managing to coordinate with any others in the party near him, knowing that none have fought together in battle.

Brayden will work on parries getting his opponent into a rythm, then attack.

[JeffNights]

Nightion watched as the nasty looking rocked soared toward Reod, The Ranger brought his longbow to bear as quickly as he could on the rock, Reod has saved his life and now it was time to return the favor....Leading in the rocks path, Nightion loosed his bow, then quickly started advancing on the hillmen

[Vince]

Hmm...they're not advancing upon us, I presume? This might make my Grease spell rather useless.

Xypheus continued his advance on the left flank of the hill men, hoping that Jadrich or Brayden would be willing to provide a bit of muscle on his side. Unsure now of the advantage by casting the grease spell, he decided to stall a little longer in his casting to see how the Rhyllan charge resulted. "Kallash, Brayden, Jadrich [if he's still within speaking range] -- if we stick to the left flank, and allow the Rhyllans to finish their charge, we can have these hill men surrounded, the Rhyllans in back and our advance in the front."

[Poli]

Reod's eyes lit up when he saw the rock on its way towards him. He tried his best to evade the large object, but it was unclear if he would be successful. Reod wasn't exceptionally skilled at riding a horse into battle. While this clearly wasn't a battle, the rock headed toward him would be challenging enough.

[WSUCougar]

Directly in front, Nightion's arrow narrowly missed the object hurtling through the air at the mounted Rhyllan, but Reod successfully evaded the rock with an awkward turn of his horse. This took much of the momentum out of his charge, and he promptly found himself with his horse sidling slowly toward the three hill-people. Dereth, however, plunged ahead with great force, and the scraggly woman that proved to be his target had little chance against the impact of his passing attack. Apparently used to ambushing unwary travelers, she feebly held her spear out, only to be struck full bore by Dereth's sword and then partially trampled. She spun to the ground beneath the passing hooves, out of the fight if not already mortally wounded.

Jadrich's thrown knife was on target, and the sizable hill-man's attention was drawn away by the charging Rhyllans. The knife struck home, low along what would have been the belt line if there had been a belt amidst the hill-man's mass of animal skins he wore. The resultant growl of pain verified the impact, although the man redirected his attention toward Jadrich with seemingly little regard for the pain the wound must be causing him.

With deliberate motions, Kallash began stalking toward the remaining enemies as he cranked his crossbow once again. He nodded toward the elf-mage, and edged toward the left flank. The Azaran, Brayden, followed closely. The hill-people were oblivious to their advance, given the other opponents closer at hand.

[Vince]

Xypheus, not one for close range fighting, slowed his advance to allow the fighters to take the lead. Giving up on the Grease spell completely, he readied another instance of Magic Missile, ready to spring in an instant if the hill-men turned out to be more than the fighters could easily handle.

[Raven Hawk]

An eyebrow raised over Jadrich's left eye as he realized that he had successfully drawn the attention of the hill man. Not being accustomed to being in an actual fight, since he employed large bruisers at his bar to do that type of fighting, Jadrich was a little confused as to what he should do next. The advancing hill man quickly helped Jadrich make up his mind.

Jadrich began back-pedalling as he threw another knife at the brute of a hill person. It was quite obvious that Jadrich's plan was to keep this hill person occupied, while at the same time staying out of melee range of the brute.

[Vince]

How far are Kallash and myself away from Jadrich?

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Vince

How far are Kallash and myself away from Jadrich?

Jadrich is "center front" with Kallash close behind. The two Rhyllans are engaged on the front right. You are toward the left middle, approximately 20 paces from Kallash, with Brayden nearby. Nightion is toward the right rear.

[Vince]

Xypheus continued the Magic Missile incantation, firing it at the hill-man currently attempting to engage Jadrich. Afterwards, he hung back, trying to avoid physical confrontation.

[Blade6119]

Dereth turned his horse at a close but safe distance...he hoped he had enough room to charge through the remaining hill person with a ride-by attack, but if not be was confident he would at least be able to bring the hill person down by attacking normally on foot....if he did not have the range to gain enough speed on horse, no reason to endager the horse with the spear the brute had. Dereth figured Reod could aid the others with the larger brute chasing Jadrich...or continue to aid him with the other and then turning on the last one. Dereth just knew he had to take down the one left in front of him, then make sure the large one didnt hurt his friends.

[Poli]

Reod was anxious to get moving again. He tried to catch both his and the horse's balance, and went after the nearest opponent.

[WSUCougar]

In the brief pause in the party’s advance, the two remaining hill-men moved to attack. One spun around to engage Dereth, who promptly dismounted and brought his sword to bear against the aggressive spear-thrusts of his crazed assailant. The other snarled like a mad dog at both Reod (on his horse) and Jadrich, who was backing away. Jadrich launched the second knife, but the hill-man batted it away with a violent swipe of his arm, then pivoted to attack Reod. The Rhyllan struggled to defend himself on the horse, who nervously whinnied and shied away from the hill-man’s advance. It was then that Xypheus’s magic missiles arced in and impacted on the brute, knocking the enemy to the ground and causing Reod’s horse to rear.

From just behind them on the rise, Kallash and Jadrich heard a sudden gurgling scream, and turned quickly to see the gruesome image of Nightion impaled on a spear, which poked out through the middle of his chest as the raging hulk of a man who wielded it continued to thrust it forward with great force. Behind the blood-frothing visage of the ranger, a wave of four more hill people charged over the crest. Kallash knelt swiftly and fired a bolt, which pierced into the lead hill-man’s thigh, then tossed his crossbow aside and drew his short sword.

[Raven Hawk]

Jadrich pitched his ear towards the hill where he had heard the gurgling scream. Content in the belief that the mage's spell had disabled his immediate concerns, Jadrich spun on his heal to look for the source of the scream. His heart sank for a moment as he saw his ranger skewered and four more hill people coming over the hill.

Jadrich barked an order, "Mage! Help Dereth and Reod finish of these foes. Khallash! Catch any of these bastards that make it through my spell."

"Brayden!" Jadrich continued as he looked around briefly for the Azaran. "Brayden?!"

Realizing that the new set of hill people would be on them soon, Jadrich began singing a song to them . . . an old Scallan lullabye.


Vun nas aeoli, nas aeoli,
Ush ven luminai
Arro cosh sen verili
Ush ven alvenai.

Vun nas pulimi, nas pulimi,
Ush ven luminai
Arro cosh sen caroli
Ush ven alvenai.


Ven alvenai . . .


Edit:To fix formatting of song.

[MacroGuru]

Waking from his trance of seeing everything happening, Brayden quickly steps up to accept the charges yelling loudly.

"Gentlemen, help!"

Brayden sets himself, rapier drawn, hoping his speed, will beat out some of the spears, and larger attacks of the hillmen.

[Poli]

Reod tried to calm Jadrich's horse down so he could dismount. His intentions were to ensure the fallen hill man in front of him was dead and to assist Dereth in any way.

Getting off the spooked horse, though, may have been his greatest obstacle.

[Vince]

Ok...I'm trying to figure out how to post a picture, and I'm failing miserably. I want to know if the image I have in my head (and now in a crappy MS Paint file ) is accurate.

[Vince]

Originally Posted by Raven Hawk

It will be accurate if it shows that Jadrich's stock has once again fallen below "Dead Horse."

I believe this time it's Nightion who has fallen below 'Dead Horse' Seriously though...I have this picture that I really want to hear opinions on, so if someone can host it somewhere, I'll e-mail it to them.

[Blade6119]

No, nightion is still alive i presume....just kinda in a bit of a bad situation with the whole spear through his chest thing.

[Blade6119]

Dereth entered into combat with the attacking hill man, and decided to use skill to kill the hill man who didnt display much talent with his spear. He would then move to aid the others by mounting his horse and charging to the others aid if time permitted.

I would like to use my combat reflexes to parry with the man for a minute, and when he gives me an opening id like to use my power attack to finish him off.

[Raven Hawk]

Here's Vince's drawing:

[WSUCougar]

Pretty close, Vince - nice work.

Put Brayden up above left of Kallash in the pic, and move Xypheus left a smidge. Impaled Nightion should be farther down, about where the lowest of the four new hill-men is located, with the others positioned accordingly.

Edit: Can you guys please delete the excess posts above the image post to clean up the thread a tad?

[JeffNights]

With speed he searched for his next target, drawing a bead with his longbow, focusing on the nearest Hillman...He readied his shot...

But it was not to be, It felt like being knocked with a mason's hammer in the middle of his back as his head head snapped upwards, all he saw was sky, the pain was hot and burning is his chest..He would have cried out more, but his lungs could not draw the breath to do so....To Nightion it was happening in slow motion. His vision turned to the ground, his chin hanging on his chest..incoherantly his arms had dropped to his sides, limply hanging there...falling to his knees he fought once more to try have some control...some feeling to resist...but there was none...the pain, the confusion, the denial of what was happening to him...it was purely hidieous....but that wasnt the worst of it at all.....

He Could Hear It.

The Tip of the spear breaking through the skin of his back, penetrating the soft flesh ripping into layer and layer unitll reaching the outer cage, protecting the lungs..the bones snapped as they were struck through, then the spear and its staff wrenching through his internals..then violently cracking out the middle of his chest......

The spearpoint was covered in what he could only fathom as part of his veins, engulffed in his blood..sticking out maybe a foot. It was the last thing he would see, with silent defeat, the Ranger closed his eyes and tumbled forward.........
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."Flash" In his mother's arms, being sung to about the woods, the mysterious legends of the forrest..the ways of the river, the secrets in the water....

"Flash" His father teaching him as a young boy to hunt, to fight, demanding he know the honor and history of his family and people.

"Flash" his last image of his own wife and son, on the clearing of his own house, waving as he set out to this fateful quest....
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.And now he would die here, like this. Like this? To be struck down from behind from a savage's spear? There was no honor in this! He was a Ranger from the Northern Woods! His last moments were not to be spent lying in the mud, facefirst waiting for death. No, not like this.....His death rattle would be with his bow in his hand! Staring down at the enemy!!


With great effort, Nightion hunched himself upwards, his eyes looking for his longbow, he was gasping for breath, blood pouring from his mouth as his arms found thier treasure...Summoning all his will, he placed his quiver on its string, and turned to rise to his feet....bracing his legs he set himself to draw his bow...his target was the hillman now not too far from him...his last clear sight was the point of his arrow, lining down the center of the Savage's head.....one final loose of his bow......hoping it would fly true..

[WSUCougar]

In what under different circumstances might look like a comical dance, the hillman lost his grip on the spear-shaft and shuffled awkwardly around as the ranger fell forward to the ground. His eyes went to his three comrades running past, and then back with a look of puzzlement changing to dread as Nightion struggled up, clutching his bow. The ranger was a nightmarish mess of his own blood and gore, the spear-point protruding from his torso and his eyes already glazed over with shock from the mortal wound, and the hill-man – now alone with this ghastliness – began to back-peddle away in terror.

Somehow, the Rhyllan was on his feet…somehow, with an almost mechanical quality to it, arrow was nocked and bowstring drawn back…somehow…

Like it was flung forth by a vengeful god, the arrow seemed to explode off the longbow. With freakish speed and power it reached across the short gap, passing through the right eye and into the brain of the retreating foe, whose shriek faded to a gurgling death-rattle as his face frothed open like a bursting crimson bubble.

Nightion was on his knees now, hands at his side, longbow dropped into the puddle of blood beneath him.

~ ~ ~~ ~

With a moment’s pause, Reod was able to successfully dismount from the shying horse. The hill-man at his feet was not quite dead, but lingering and trying to reach his weapon. The Rhyllan warrior stepped forward to end it.

Nearby, Dereth was engaged in a close fight with the last of the original foes. Clearly outmatched, the hill-man was exhausting himself with thrusts of his crude spear while Dereth easily parried them.

Xypheus remained nearby, watchful of what was happening all around him.

The Azaran, Brayden, stepped forward with rapier extended to meet the new threat. Not far, Kallash steeled himself for the enemy’s attack, short sword in hand. Jadrich’s lullaby, strangely sweet in the midst of this chaos, danced softly upon their ears, yet onward came the three wild men…

[Poli]

Reod dispatched the Hill man that lay beneath him, and looked towards Dereth. Reod had the impression that Dereth was toying with his prey.


Reod turned around to see what the commotion was about behind him. Reod was shocked to see a number of hill people advancing on the others. Nightion, though impaled, just took care of one, but three others were advancing.

Reod did the math quickly; it appeared his side had a numbers advantage. He turned around to see if he could possibly see any other hill people advancing. He was tired of the ambushes.

"Darn Dire Badgers," Reod thought, "look what it did to us."

[Vince]

Not willing to risk losing another party member to a freak accident, Xypheus ignored the fact that Dereth seemed in control of his battle. Readying his Cone of Cold spell, he manuevered into position to get a clear shot at the hill-man's rear, and let fly as soon as possible.

Sorry guys...should have had that posted before today. Also -- if Dereth finishes him off before I can finish, and I'm still able to back out of the spell, I'll do that instead.

[Raven Hawk]

Jadrich looked dejected as his enchantment failed. Yet, there was no time to lose. With lightning reflexs, Jadrich pulled another knife from the folds of his cloak and threw it at the nearest oncoming hillman.

As he tossed the knife, he yelled out loud, "Nightion! Don't you die on me! Hang in there!"

[Vince]

I'm going home for the weekend starting today guys. I'll have internet access, but I'll be spending a lot of time with the fam, as I haven't seen them in months.

[Vince]

Tasteful early Tuesday morning bump...

[WSUCougar]

Okay, guys...roll call. Let's see if everyone is still on board and then we'll get things moving again. Please check in.

[Raven Hawk]

Check-a-roonee.

[Poli]

Reporting for duty. Let's hope this is the only duty I'm reporting for.

[JeffNights]

I'm here! Spear sticking through me and all!

[Blade6119]

Dereth is ready to keep going