Let's get marching order set. This is what I think we have...
Val.............Des....................Frank <---NPC
Eodrien.......Magdal.................???????
??????..........???????...................Darian/Kazan
PC's who haven't responded as to location in the marching order:
Callista,
Jameson (<--might have lost his player)
I'll give BobK and NJWillian a little bit of time to respond before things get really serious. However, it won't hurt for you to march to the bend in the road and see what's laid out there...
The party moves forward cautiously, to the bend in the trail to the right and pauses.
Ahead the trail drops about 30 feet to a fairly flat area. To the left(north) and right(south) of the trail are boulder fields. Crossing the trail you are on (you are heading straight east at the moment) is another trail running north and south. Beyond the boulder fields to the left and right are notches in the ridges where the cross trail disappears. From your 30 foot height advantage you can see down into the boulder fields clearly.
Lying on the main trail you see a donkey with an arrow in its side and 6 green skinned creatures...Goblins. The donkey appears to be alive, the Goblins do not.
To the left (north) are, at least, a dozen Goblins...maybe more. There are also five brown skinned Hobgoblins. The Hobgoblins have bows and are occasionally shooting arrows across to the other side of the trail. The Goblins all have swords, but are trying to keep hidden behind rocks as they are being pelting with stones.
To the right (south) is a group of four small men...Halflings you think. One is lying behind a boulder with an arrow in his chest. Two of the Halflings are using slings to rapidly launch stones across the trail at the hiding Goblins. The fourth is popping up from behind a boulder and pointing his finger at the other side...a flash of energy leaps from his finger and slams into boulders with a loud "POWS" and "PINGS" as bits of rock fly off. Occasionally, an energy missile will hit a Goblin with a softer "THUNK!" knocking the monster back.
The energy missiles and sling stones are missing more often than they hit, but even the misses are making the Goblins keep their heads down, for now. The Hobgoblins are getting off arrows occasionally, but they too are mostly staying under cover.
Although, for the moment the stones and...?Magic Missiles?...appear to be keeping the Goblins at bay that won't last forever! As the party watches, the Goblins are being harangued by one of the Hobgoblins. It looks like he is trying to get them riled up for a charge. Surely, if the Goblins and Hobgoblins charge, all together, they will
overwhelm the Halflings!