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drpete wrote:Fane and Theglid move a bit into the northern hallway to guard the others from the beetle. The beetle scampers up to the intersection, and Theglid tosses the food to it. The food lands right in front of the beetle, which starts to tear into it.

The beetle is standing in the intersection eating Carling's food. It is distracted, but you don't have a *huge* amount of time before it will be finished. What would you like to do? There was a suggestion of dragging Carling's body out of the tomb... if you want to do that, explain how you would manage to get it up the rope, etc.

Betdas the Bold

"Let's drag the body to the ropes, then ascend one at a time. The last one up can tie the end around Carling's corpse and we'll pull it up last."

Theglid

Fane, you climb up first and ready your crossbow. I will go last.

Alright, so moving ahead a bit...

The group drags Carling's body over to the rope, and ties him to it.

Everyone shimmies up the rope, into the darkness of the barrow above. Everyone, that is, except for Theglid.

Theglid finds that he is having trouble, in his armor, getting up the rope. He's able to get a few feet up, but is finding it very hard.

He notes, from his position at the bottom of the rope that the beetle is finished eating, and is starting to move around. To add insult to injury, his torch is starting to sputter out.

Up above, Boldar rushes over to the group, glad to see them, with the still burning torch he was holding from earlier.

Betdas the Bold

Betdas flexes his panther-like thews. "Come on!" he exclaims, "let's grab hold of this rope and haul him up!"

As Theglid's torch sputters out, the group, led primarily by Lhainor's strength, pulls Theglid and Carling's body up out of the darkness.

The beetle, meanwhile, wanders off.

Ok, you guys are out safe, but exhausted.

Did you want to do something with Carling's body? Head back to town?

drpete wrote:As Theglid's torch sputters out, the group, led primarily by Lhainor's strength, pulls Theglid and Carling's body up out of the darkness.

The beetle, meanwhile, wanders off.

Ok, you guys are out safe, but exhausted.

Did you want to do something with Carling's body? Head back to town?

Betdas the Bold

"Let us salvage what we can from the corpse, then take it outside, douse it in oil and create it to prevent its restress spirit from wandering the moors."

Theglid

Theglid will say a few words over the body, commending his soul to St Ygg for protection.

Okay let's get back to town.

Exhausted, you drag the corpse out into the light as Boldar's torch sputters out.

As you come out, you see a gang of about a dozen rough men, standing at a distance. They are wearing leather armor and watching you from about 50 yards away. They look like they are considering what to do about you.

Betdas the Bold

"Ho there!" he calls out, trusting in his innate charisma, "I am Betdas, known in these parts as 'the Bold'!"

One of the bandits steps forward, and calls back to you, indicating Carling's body... "Having some trouble ...?"

"We are happy to help..." He says, in a way that seems strangely threatening. "I'm sure you folks are just looking to get home safely..."

The cruel laughs of some of the rough men confirms that this isn't a legit offer. It's some kind of shakedown.

Ugh okay well I'm not fighting twelve bandits. Give them Carling's things?

drpete wrote:One of the bandits steps forward, and calls back to you, indicating Carling's body... "Having some trouble ...?"

"We are happy to help..." He says, in a way that seems strangely threatening. "I'm sure you folks are just looking to get home safely..."

The cruel laughs of some of the rough men confirms that this isn't a legit offer. It's some kind of shakedown.

Betdas the Bold

"Nah, we're good. Thanks for the offer, though."

leafcutter wrote:Ugh okay well I'm not fighting twelve bandits. Give them Carling's things?

Unless they have an obviously higher-level leader, we should be able to take them with a little guile. Have our weapons ready but inconspicuous (don't brandish them), let them close to take what we're offering (or "close around us" like a wolf pack), then have at them. Their AC should give us an advantage (AC 8, maybe 7), and we don't have to kill all of them. Kill a few and the rest should flee. Just don't act all tough from the get-go or they may pepper us with missiles first. We should try to surprise them with resistance if possible.

Fane's thinking about our options:

1. I have a flask of oil in his pack, and we still have a lit torch. We could pretend to surrender, Fane will dig around for his "gold" and douse whoever's in charge of the bandits
2. Try to lure the bandits back into the tomb and release the skeletons on them. This seems unlikely to work; the bandits would have to be pretty dense to fall for it unless we came up with something really convincing
3. Surrender our goods and track the bandits back to their base. Scout it for vulnerabilities and take action accordingly (where do they get water from? Do they go off by themselves to piss?)
4. Surrender our goods and watch this area from cover. Wait for them to jump another returning party and then counter-ambush them.

He'll bring these up if there's time to whisper, but he'll fall back to option 1 if the party decides to attack.

If we're going to do this, I think the "let them close and then attack" plan sounds good.

Theglid will get ready to draw his mace (assuming he's already holding his shield).

Dig out the oil anyway. We were going to burn Carling's body, so I assume we were getting ready to do that when we were interrupted (thus the continuation of action shouldn't seem suspicious). Let them come close to "help" (themselves to our stuff), then douse the toughest-looking one with oil, torch him (touch attack in melee), and let's cause some chaos. A quick rout is our only chance of getting them to flee unless we get lucky with the dice and drop 2-3 in the first round. After that it will take a few more rounds (though we should be able to do it), which puts us at greater risk of injury.

The bandits advance toward you, spreading out and generally forming a bit of a wall, but not moving into melee range, or to attack. They are more or less forming a wall about 30 yards from you that would prevent you going south, in the direction you entered the moor from.

The spokesman (who doesn't appear to be significantly higher level than the others to the extent you can tell those things... he just seems to be one of the thugs) calls out "I think we can all be reasonable... there are many more of us than there are of you, and you're in our territory... friends. Let me suggest a token of your esteem... a toll... and we'll be on our way and you can be about your business. Twenty gold ought to do it. What do you think... friends?" As he says this, a big grin on his face, the men that are more along the sides of the walls are starting to move around, to encircle you.

drpete wrote:The bandits advance toward you, spreading out and generally forming a bit of a wall, but not moving into melee range, or to attack. They are more or less forming a wall about 30 yards from you that would prevent you going south, in the direction you entered the moor from.

The spokesman (who doesn't appear to be significantly higher level than the others to the extent you can tell those things... he just seems to be one of the thugs) calls out "I think we can all be reasonable... there are many more of us than there are of you, and you're in our territory... friends. Let me suggest a token of your esteem... a toll... and we'll be on our way and you can be about your business. Twenty gold ought to do it. What do you think... friends?" As he says this, a big grin on his face, the men that are more along the sides of the walls are starting to move around, to encircle you.

Betdas the Bold

"Does it look like we've got twenty gold, mister? I know if I did I sure as shit wouldn't be risking my life in some godsforsaken demon haunted hole under the ground. All I want to do is burn this corpse here so it doesn't come back as a ghul and slaughter us all." Betdas slouches forward slowly, waiting to see that his companions are ready for a counterattack.

Lhainor will keep an eye on anyone who moves to the sides (thus could move to flank and get a backstab).

I don't know if we're using the rule about needing to rest for X amount of time after being active for Y amount of time, but I am happy to let the bandits dither for a few rounds to let us become less exhausted. Eventually they'll close and attack or withdraw, or maybe give us an opportunity to attack them. I'm still all for killing them when the opportunity arises.

Lhainor has a low DEX, so he will be slow.

We are using that 'need to rest' 1 turn after 5 of activity rule... Since there was a wandering monster on that rest turn, and you've been on the go since, you haven't gotten a chance to rest, so you'd be at -1 to hit/damage.

Though the men are threatening you, something about the situation... perhaps your better armor, your ready for war demeanor, or the presence of your dead comrade keeps them at bay. They lurk around you, watching, but they do not move in to attack.

You are able to dispose of the body and strip it of valuables, and catch your breath. When it is time to go, the thugs part to let you pass, trying to look tough, but keeping their distance. You are able to head out.

Please let me know what you take from Carling's body, and how it's carried (considering the encumbrance rules) so that I can figure out how long the trip back will take...