Haversill III: Return of the Donkey

[kariokie]

Getty

Getty's eyes light up. "That I would pay to see."

[Hzurr]

Mallain

"Getty, please by seriou-" Mallain pauses "Actually, I would pay to see that as well."

[kariokie]

Getty

Getty, channeling Zott, begins chanting at Tom as she dodges the acorn bombardment. "Do it, do it, do it!"

[Eratosthenes]

Tom

Grinning from ear to ear, tom touches the tree that he thinks houses the squirrelly squirrels producing the acorn avalanche, attempting to will it into movement...

{
Animate DC 5: 1D20+2 = [9]+2 = 11
Have the tree animate and flail away at the squirrels, to scare them off.
6/7 SP
}

[mdsoze]

Allard

Allard smiles and laughs.

Now how long will it stay animated?

[dauphinous]

Some of the upper branches of the tree begin to wave around under the influence of Tom's spell. Allard can hear some confused and angry chitters and cheeps as the animals try to deal with the new situation. Six furry lumps fall with six individual thuds to the ground. The barrage does not, however, cease. It does lessen and you can deduce that the animals above are in the branches of more than one different tree.

Within a few moments, though, four tiny arrows come flying out of nowhere. One sticks into Tom's arm, one lands in the tree directly behind Getty, another sinks into the meat of Allard's leg, and the fourth grazes Mallain's neck.

{
Tom: 1 point of damage + Fort save
Allard: 4 points of damage + Fort save
Mallain: 2 points of damage + Fort save
DC is 15. If you fail, you fall to the ground unconscious.
Anyone still up can roll initiative if you want.
}

[mdsoze]

Allard

Fort Save (1d20+3=12)

Allard get hit by the arrow and slumps.

[Eratosthenes]

Tom

Tom grins, as the tree begins waving. "Only a minute or two. Not lo-OW! Hey, who...shot me...with...a...zzzzzz" Tom slumps to the ground, snoring loudly.

[Hzurr]

Mallain

"That was awesome! I-"

Mallain cuts short as the arrow slices his neck.

Fort - (1d20)[4]

"OW! THAT REALLY HU- oh my... Mallain's eyes glaze over slightly, and a small smile creeps across his face. "Look at all the pretty colors! They're everywhere! They're like little fireflies...." Mallain stumbles to his knees, then falls over

[kariokie]

Getty

"That was astounding, young Tom- my word!" The arrow wings past her. "Cease your projectile barrage forthwith or I will indeed combust this environ!"

Noticing her three companions are now asleep, Getty pulls out a flask of acid and gracefully tosses so it lands adjacent to them, splattering them lightly with acid. "Up and run, gentlemen. Ambulate, ambulate!" She then peers around, crossbow at the ready, before running back out of the forest.

{Initiative! (1d20+2=22), so 32.
Throw! (1d20+4=18)
(Tom, Allard and Mallain should take 1 point of damage and hopefully wake up.)
Spot! (1d20+7=12)}

[dauphinous]

The damage does not wake anyone up. Finding herself under the threat of a barrage of arrows, Getty still cannot see her attackers, and the nuts and sticks falling from the trees above aren't helping. All four arrows aimed at her miss, but she can now tell which direction they are coming from, which is deeper into the wood.

[kariokie]

Getty

Getty chucks a smokestick ahead of her, further out of the forest, and then runs into the cloud it generates. "Obfuscation goes both ways, mysterious woodland creatures!" she yells as she runs.

{Throw a smokestick ahead around 25', run into the cloud. They need to guess which square she stopped in, and then still have a 50% chance of missing because of concealment.}

[dauphinous]

It sounds like at least two arrows zip through the cloud, but Getty doesn't actually see them. She cannot hear anything moving in pursuit. The tossing of forest detritus has stopped fully.

Belle, having grabbed a mouthful of Allard's clothes, tries to drag him away, but takes an arrow in the shoulder and slumps over.

{
Belle took 3 damage and failed her Fort save.
}

[kariokie]

Getty

Well. Let me consider my options in a scientific manner.

First, burn down the forest. Pros: The little bastards deserve it. Cons: I happen to be in the forest I plan to combust. Additionally, I have the feeling that would sour any future attempts at negotiation.

Second, run away. Pros: By running away I would be, by definition, away. Cons: I can't leave the boys. Also, I might get shot in the back and that just seems downright unheroic.

Third, outwait them. Pros: At the very minimum, it will be frustrating to them. When you cannot win, sometimes it's fun just to be as irritating as possible before you lose. Cons: It does not actually solve the problem. Pros, part two: Still, irritating.

Option three, then. Getty chucks another smokestick a short ways behind her, so it is adjacent to the cloud she's currently in. Quietly, she moves into that cloud.

{Move Silently! (1d20+8=20)}

[dauphinous]

Getty is fairly certain this time that she heard only two arrows. She is also fairly certain that one shot at the new cloud, while the other shot at the first one. There is a huge cacophany of squawking, chittering, cheeping, and squeaking back where the rest of the team is.

[kariokie]

Getty

Oh, that cannot be good.

Using the smokescreen as a... smokescreen, Getty quietly moves out of the back of the second cloud, trying to keep it between her and the direction the arrows are coming from. She tries to find cover and get a view of what's going on.

{Hide! (1d20+8=22)
Move Silently! (1d20+8=9)
We'll reroll that!
Move Silently! Take two! (1d20+8=14)}

[dauphinous]

Hding behind a largish tree trunk, Getty watches as a quartet of centaurs clop up to where the rest of the group is. One leans down and picks up Mallain, another picks up Allard, and a third picks up Tom, while the fourth holds a longbow with an arrow nocked. He seems to be listening to the animals and looking off generally in the direction Getty went. All the centaurs are male and look to have bows and clubs, but nothing else.

A couple of arrows go whizzing through the smoke cloud.

[kariokie]

Getty

What I would not give for some magic right about now. The odds of freeing her three -- no, four, there was Belle -- companions were astoundingly low. She had an alchemist's fire, a couple of sun rods, and two tinder twigs.

She was outnumbered, and while she was equipped to start a war of attrition, she still felt that resorting to violence would ruin any future negotiations. They were taking her companions alive, meaning they were either needed (so there was a plot she could disrupt) or there was room for negotiation (meaning, well, a chance to negotiate).

Stay hidden, then. Follow them and see what opportunity presents itself. It seemed risky, the animals would be looking for her.

Getty moves further away from the smoke clouds slowly, still remaining hidden.

{She'll move as far as she can off to the side while still watching the centaurs.
Hide! (1d20+8=22)
Move Silently! (1d20+8=23)}

[dauphinous]

The centaurs take the four unconscious forms, slinging them over their shoulders and start trotting away, deeper into the wood. The direction they are heading, providing they do not dramatically change course, should take them straight to the dryad. It is fortunate that this can be ascertained, as they are moving much faster than Getty. Their casual trot sends them out of sight in less than a minute.

Getty can hear a small, quiet voice coming from somewhere not far away as she creeps through the trees. "You should just leave, miss. We don't really want to hurt you."

[kariokie]

Getty

Getty turns slowly in a circle, looking through the trees, trying to spot the source of the voice. She lowers her crossbow to seem less threatening. "Well, I certainly do not wish to be harmed. However, my friends have been taken captive. As to escape his previous incarceration Allard felt the need to gnaw off his own appendage, I do not believe the dryad to have good intentions."

{Spot! (1d20+7=15)}

[dauphinous]

The source of the slightly squeaky voice is not apparent, but it does sound very close. It giggles. "Awww. She doesn't want to hurt'em. She just wants you all to leave. The centaurs'll be dumping them outside the forest. I think she just wanted a lock of hair or something." Another similar voice nearby giggles.

[kariokie]

Getty

"Then she should have requested such. By not making clear her purpose, even to a druid, she causes me to suspect her motive. If she did not intend harm in some fashion, she would have shed illumination on her plot." Getty begins sneaking towards the dryad's grove once again. "I will not be dissuaded from seeking my companions."

{Is Heecor around, or was he taken?}

[dauphinous]

"Oh bollocks. Come on, just turn around, leave the forest, and wait patiently like a good little girl, eh?"

Heecor is there, having been the last the enter the forest and the first to bolt at the merest hint of trouble.

[kariokie]

Getty

"You may have a point." She walks to her donkey on the edge of the forest, seeming like she might indeed intend to leave. Looking as if she is simply replenishing her goods, Getty grabs some items from Heecor. Taking the various alchemical contraptions, she bundles them together, and holds them in her left hand. "I am quite tired of denizens of the forest making demands with little explanation. I have created a... dead man's switch, as it were. If you assault me in any fashion, such as placing me in a state of slumber, the items will drop from my hand. That will cause a conflagration like none you have ever witnessed, burning this forest and all of its inhabitants to cinders."

"I do not wish to cause any of you harm. However I have no reason to accept your word and you are reluctant to give me any such reason. Therefore, I must assume you, and the dryad, are up to nothing good."

Once again Getty sets through the forest towards the dryad's grove, leaving Heecor at the edge of the forest.

{Spot! (1d20+7=23)
Bluff! (1d20+1=17)}

[dauphinous]

"Okay! Okay, fine. Have it your way." The disembodied voice uses that tone one uses when addressing an intractable crazy person. "We'll watch your donkey. Just don't blow us all up. That would, uh, really suck."

"Hey! Don't fall for her crap!" This is a different voice, but still small sounding.

A little quieter:
"Shh! Just let her go. I believe her."
"Me, too."
"Dumbasses, the lot of you."

Incredulous shout:
"What are you doing, Keeyan?!!"

An arrow flies out of nowhere and sinks into Getty's arm.

{
Fort save DC 15, as before
4 damage
}

[kariokie]

Getty

She looks down at the arrow in her arm, more annoyed than anything else. There's some sort of substance coursing through her veins, however she's had enough stiff drinks in her life to shake off its effects.

"That is IT! I didn't want to do this, but you have left me a minimal number of options!" Getty takes her remaining alchemist's fire that is not in the bunch and chucks it in the general direction of the arrows, not trying to hit anyone in particular. "You projectile-happy $%^&s can extinguish that while I ambulate." Getty once again runs through the forest, heading in the direction of the dryad's grove.

{Fort Save! (1d20+3=23), so a 33.
14/18 HPs}

[dauphinous]

"Dummyhead! Now she's running."
"Oh, screw it. Just help with the fire."
"Fat chance of that! Now I'm mad!"

Two arrows come shooting at Getty, one hitting a tree she runs past, and the other sinking into her leg.

{
4 points of damage, Fort save DC 15
}

[kariokie]

Getty

Even as she falls, finally taken down by the second arrow, the lively rogue continues speaking. "I consider this a moral victory, at the minimum, as you have expended far more resources to apprehend me than I have spent to frustrate you." Mathematically, Getty was rather satisfied with this outcome.

{Fort Save! (1d20+3=11)
10/18 HPs}

[dauphinous]

Tom wakes up to find himself hanging upside down, looking at someone's back. The back seems masculine and is bare, and the torso part ends in red-brown hair. A little bit of looking around, and he can see that he has been slung over the shoulder of a centaur. There is something gripping him tightly around the midsection, and his legs are dangling on the other side of the centaur's torso. He is moving at a fair clip. A clippety-clop, actually. Allard and Mallain seem to be in a similar predicament, but both still out cold. A fourth centaur is carrying an unconscious Belle in his arms. They are armed with longbows and longswords.

----

Getty awakens lying on the ground, tied up from her head to her toes with her own rope. She is outside the forest, maybe 60 feet away from the edge, next to Heecor. Her hands are tied together at the wrists, and her feet together at the ankles. Aside from her head and neck, she is otherwise completely bound.

[Eratosthenes]

Tom

Groaning, Tom comes to, but quickly settles down. He tries to feign unconsciousness, while getting his bearings. After identifying his captors, and verifying that they are, in fact, still alive, Tom taps the centaur carrying himon the back, saying, "Um, pardon me...you mind setting me down a moment, sir? This hain't a terribly comfortable position, you know."