Chapter 02: At Great Cost

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Session Number: 2
Date: Sunday 21st December 2014
Venue: Densial's
PCs & Players:

Balassar Brb1 (Tammi absent) (kills: 1 kobold)
Besheeba Wlk1 (Alain) (kills: 1 human)
Johnny Rog1 (Craig) (kills: 1 human, 1 kobold)
Nicolai Clr1 (Fergus) (kills: 1 human, 1 kobold)
Oskar Mnk1 (Ash) (kills: 3 humans, 2 kobolds)
Vincent Ftr1 (Yeran) (kills: none)

XP Awarded: 30

Johnny and Balassar are evacuating, about 100' north of Besheeba near the crossroads. Nicolai and Oskar are in combat with the four remaining humans. Vincent lies dying on the road.

Initiative:
Besheeba: 20
Men: ??
Balassar: ??
Nicolai: 14
Family: ??
Oskar: 12
Johnny: 4
Vincent: 1

TOR1
Besheeba moves to the house on the southwest corner of the crossroads and peeks around the corner to the west. She sees Vincent's body on the road; the kobolds are gone. She ducks back around to the south and casts Eldritch Blast, targetting the closest human. AC17 hits for 2 force damage. She then moves 30' around the building's northeast corner. One of the men facing off against Nicolai attacks him with his scimitar: AC19 misses. Another does the same: AClow misses. A third joins in, misses. The fourth attacks Oskar: AC10 misses. "I'll thee you a bit thouth of here," Balassar says to Johnny, then dashes south towards the crossroads. Nicolai casts Sacred Flame on the man hit by the strange bolt of lightning earlier: the man sidesteps nimbly, avoiding the flames. The father continues shepherding his children south. Oskar attacks the man in front of him: punch AC12 hits for 3 damage in the chest: a rib cracks and blood leaves his mouth. Another punch: AC14 hits for 6 damage, uppercut to jaw, eyes roll back into his head and he sinks to the ground. He then moves to stay between the enemy and the children. Johnny dashes and keeps up with Balassar, swords out. They are both at the crossroads. They see Besheeba up against the side of a building, heading west towards a body further on, face down. Vincent fails his first death save.

TOR2
Besheeba dashes over to Vincent. "Mister Johnny! Mister Johnny! Help me with Mister Vincent! Please! He is too heavy!" "Crikey," Johnny says. "Nobody's ever called me Mister Johnny before! What's up?" "It's Vincent! Our companion!" "Is 'e dead?" "I don't know!" The three men attack Nicolai, all missing. "I'm going to go help Vincent," Balassar says to Johnny. "Are you a healer?" Johnny asks. "Not really." "Good show, cos I can't either," says Johnny. "Look south!" Balassar says. "Our comrades are in combat! Help them! I will head west and help our friend." "Are you sure you don't want to switch those roles?" Johnny replies. "Since you're the big meaty muscle head, you should be attacking the bad guys down there while I go and pick 'im up. Go on, what ho, an' all that! You're a soldier, go on and soldge!" "I'm good," Balassar replies. Johnny shrugs and looks south. Balassar runs over to where Vincent lies, with axe drawn. Nicolai casts Sacred Flame on the same guy as last time, and he again dodges out of the way. "Why attack?" Nicolai says. "These are precious children! Help me save them!" "We need slaves for the mistress, and we need gold for the god!" is the response. "Slavery and the love of money is evil!" Nicolai says. "Repent!" "No it's not. You're wrong! And you too are going to be one of the slaves of the mistress." The father starts heading west. Oskar moves next to Nicolai and engages one of the men: AC9 misses, AC21 hits for 3 damage - a solid blow to the side with a crunch of bone. "I'm glad to have you with me, Oskar," Nicolai says. "I am making no headway with these evildoers!" Johnny dashes south to where his two allies face off against three opponents. Vincent rolls a 20 for his death save and regains 1hp. "Aargh, what happened?" "You were ambushed by kobolds," Besheeba says. "We need to go!" Vincent starts getting up, woozily.

TOR3
Besheeba moves south and looses an Eldritch Blast against one of the humans before Nicolai. AC15 hits for 6 damage, catching him in the back and travelling up his spine and light spills out from his eyes and mouth - but he does not go down. "Goodness gracious!" says Nicolai. A man attacks Oskar and misses. Another, the hurt one, decides to leave towards the north. Nicolai takes an opportunity attack: AC17 hits for 1 damage, enough to kill him. The remaining man misses. Balassar waits for Vincent. Nicolai Sacred Flames the human previously hit by Oskar. The flame descends upon him, his clothes and hair catch alight. His head burns brightly and blisters appear on his face and arms and he screams as some of the flesh dribbles away. "Good grief," says Johnny. "That's rather full-on for someone that I would describe as 'booky'." "I'd much rather not do this," Nicolai says. "Kneel and be saved! I will heal you!" The father leads his family further along the path, looking back and urging the others to follow. "We are going to the keep, you must come with us! There is safety there." Oskar hits the one on fire in front of him: AC15 hits for 4 damage, reaching out and grabbing him by the neck and smacking him once in the face. Bone crunches and he sinks slowly to the ground. He steps towards the next one and attacks: AC19 hits for 6 damage - a solid kick to the leg that cracks bone. He then heads towards the children. "Crikey," Johnny says. "My mate said dwarves were made of stone. I thought he was joking." He closes with the stricken man and sneakattacks: AC21 hits for 7 damage - slicing open his other leg from top to bottom and he falls, unconscious. "May the gods have mercy on your soul," says Nicolai. Johnny just spits on his body. Vincent gets up and follows Besheeba, sees the others and moves towards them. Balassar follows Vincent.

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Besheeba follows Vincent and Balassar. She catches up with the family.

"Go on without me," says Nicolai. "I want to check this body. One of them mentioned something about a mistress they were collecting slaves for." Vincent, Besheeba, Balassar and Oskar head off towards the family. Johnny waits at the crossroads, with Nicolai in sight to the northeast and the others to the west. "Oi Nick!" he says. "C'mon! We gotta get in!"

"I want to check these bodies! I'll catch up!"

"Like hell you will! C'mon!"

Nicolai rifles through the belongings of the human he believes to be the leader, but finds nothing of note.

"C'mon!" Johnny yells. "They said they wouldn't keep it open forever! There's f^(%ing kobolds everywhere, c'mon, let's go!"

Nicolai heads towards Johnny. The family head off into the distance, the adventurers in a line behind. As the family come to a crossroads, they come to a halt and start looking around them. Humans and kobolds are spilling out of houses at the corner with armfuls of stuff. The family come to a halt; the parents place themselves between their children and the antagonists. Oskar notes that both humans and kobolds are behaving the same.

Initiative:

Johnny 21
Vincent 20
Kobolds ??
Humans ??
Oskar 18
Besheeba 14
Father ??
Kobolds/Humans ??
Balassar 11
Human/Kobolds ??
Nicolai 5
Human ??
Family ??

TOR1
"Nick!" Johnny yells. "Coming?" "Yep," is the answer. Johnny dashes towards the others, closing the gap. Vincent readies his shield and warhammer and dashes towards the family. They are opposed by 6 kobolds and 4 humans. One of the kobolds spies trouble, drops its armful of loot and draws its dagger as it closes with Oskar. AC19 hits for 3 damage. A human follows suit with a scimitar: AC17 hits Oskar for 7 damage. Oskar faces off against three enemies, badly hurt. The family is on the other side of his opponents. He disengages, running past Besheeba and stops near the large dragonborn. The girl tiefling is now in front! Besheeba stops, whispers something dissonant and unnerving, eyeing the human ahead that faced off against Oskar. The human takes psychic damage but shucks off the fear effect. She then telepathically screams "Run away!" at her opponents. She then moves closer to the dragonborn. A kobold closes with the family and attacks the father, hitting and doing some damage - a solid hit from a scimitar. A human attacks the wife, missing. A kobold closes and strikes the father, who looks very much the worse for wear. Balassar throws a javelin, hitting a kobold squarely and killing it. Another human steps forward and attacks the mother, hitting nastily. A kobold joins the fray with the family, missing. Another kobold closes with Vincent and attacks: AC19 hits, dropping him. Nicolai dashes closer but is still a fair distance away; he however now sees that the family is engaged in combat. Another human attacks the wife, killing her.

TOR2
Johnny moves towards Balassar. "Alright, I'm 'ere. It's OK." He readies a melee attack in case an enemy closes with him. Vincent fails his first death save. One of the kobolds in the front line closes with Balassar and attacks him, missing. A human does the same, hitting with his scimitar for 6 damage. "We picked the wrong town, guys," Johnny quips. Oskar moves towards the injured human facing off against Balassar: AC13 hits for 5 damage - a roundhouse kick hits its ear and it drops. He closes with Balassar's other opponent, a kobold: AC20 hits for 6 damage, dropping it. Besheeba casts Eldritch Blast: AC14 hits for 10 damage - a force effect hits her enemy in the face; he falls to his knees and then to his face as his entire head glows with eldritch energy.

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The father swats at a kobold with his stick, hitting for a small amount of damage. A kobold retaliates, missing. Another attacks and hits, dropping him. The kobold then moves towards Oskar. Balassar throws a javelin at the nearest kobold, hitting but not killing it. He then takes several steps forward, covering Oskar. A human moves towards Balassar, hitting him for 8 damage, dropping the dragonborn. Several other kobolds close with Oskar but miss. Nicolai moves 35 feet closer and casts Guiding Bolt on a kobold near the children: a flash of light streaks towards it and hits (AC16 hits for 18 damage), killing it.

TOR3Johnny stows a sword, pulls a dagger from its sheath and hurls it at a kobold beside Oskar. AC22 hits for 9 damage in the chest to the hilt; it looks surprised and falls to the ground. Vincent fails his second death save.Oskar kicks the kobold next to him: AC20 hits for 6 damage - kick to the chest, bones crunch and it drops to the ground struggling to draw its last breath. He walks the ten feet between himself and his next victim: AC13 hits for 4 damage. It survives. Besheeba Eldritch Blasts a human that is marching the children away, but it misses. He continues moving the children north. "Save the children!" yells Nicolai. "Don't let them take them!" A kobold rushes to the human and grabs a child's arm roughly. The last of the humans yanks the child out of the kobold's grasp and holds his scimitar to the kid's throat as he backs away. The kobold loads its sling and starts spinning it menacingly."Back off, man, back off!" yells the human that threatens the child. "Drop the child, or you will die," Nicolai says. "Back off! Back off or we'll kill them!" They continue to back away. Nicolai puts down his mace and shows his hands. "Don't harm them… Please. Just let me tend my companion," he says, slowly moving forward. "Stop!" yells the man. "Stay where you are, or we'll kill them!" Nicolai stops.

TOR4Johnny moves 10' and crouches down beside Balassar. The two humans scream at him to stop, but he already has. "Shit," he says under his breath. "This is bad." He applies pressure to Balassar's wounds, stemming the flow of dragonborn blood. Vincent rolls a 20 on his ultimate death save and regains regains consciousness. Oskar eyes the humans 25 feet away, studying the faces of the children and their captors. "Wait!" yells Besheeba. "I'll buy them from you! You forgot one child, the richest of the lot." She then starts clinking coins together in her belt pouch. "Nobody will know… And you will have more from me than you will have from your mistress!" Persuasion Check 16: the lead human's panicked grimace softens. "Come here and we'll let these ones go. The rest of you, stay where you are!"

"What happened?" Vincent says, groggily raising his head off the ground. "Where am I?"

Besheeba moves slowly towards the men with the children. Nicolai cries out, "Make an exchange, Besheeba! Leave your money half way and get them to come forward, leaving the children behind!" The kobold puts its sling away and draws its dagger, beckoning for Besheeba to approach. She moves to the road junction where bodies are strewn "I have money, come and get it!"

"No, bring it here!" the kobold says.

"Leave the children!"

"Bring the money here!"

"OK, but leave the children!"

Vincent drags himself to his feet. The men start screaming and gesturing at the movement. Vincent stops. "Don't panic anyone," says Besheeba. "I'm just a little girl." Johnny uses the confusion to duck behind the building and disappear from sight. Besheeba takes a gold coin from her purse. She throws it in front of the human. "You want the fourteen others, you'll have to compromise a bit."

"Come here, we'll let one child go. You bring that gold here." He gestures to the kobold who pushes the child it is holding roughly to the ground in front of it, then moves forwards. The child gets up slowly and shuffles towards the party, in shock. Besheeba places one hand behind her back very slowly as she walks forward. "Let the other go." The kobold senses movement from the other party members. "All of you, stay where you are!"

Johnny circles around the east, using buildings and fences for cover, aiming to get behind the captors. Besheeba and the kobold now stand a handful of feet apart. Besheeba holds out the purse of gold, just out of reach. The kobold reaches out for it. Besheeba clamps her other hand down on the kobold's outstretched forearm. "Let the other kids go and I let you go."

"You let go!"

"Fifteen gold and life, or you will die!"

The kobold stabs upward with its left hand. Besheeba lets go and throws the open purse towards the man holding the child; gold spills over the ground. The kobold's dagger misses. Vincent stands, arms held up. The men scream at Vincent, then the one holding the child lets his scimitar blade steal away his captive's life. He then turns and runs, as does the kobold. The other human turns to flee, still dragging the last remaining child. Nicolai casts Sacred Flame on the human that killed the child. Flames descend upon him, burning him but he survives. Johnny sneaks behind a stone fence, dagger and short sword drawn. Besheeba removes her cloak, revealing her unnatural origin, and casts Thaumaturgy and walks towards the enemy, saying nothing. But in their heads the humans and kobold hear, "Leave the child. Don't you think I will not find you. For when I do, you know that there are things that are worse than death." The ground then begins to tremble. Persuasion Check 13: they all look horrified, drop their weapons and the child, turn and run.

Nicolai runs to the side of the fallen child, but there is nothing he can do. The parents are also dead, leaving two orphaned children. Five kobold and two human bodies litter the crossroads, along with the innocent.

"Just remember, fellas," Johnny says, surveying the carnage. "Better that they died than gone into slavery."

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