My Red Hand of Doom journal!

[Fooliscious]

Hullo folks. I recently started a Red Hand of Doom campaign with some of my pals. I have decided I want to chronicle it and this seems as good as any place to type things out.

It's set somewhere in Faerun under Pathfinder rules, a few house rules here and there. All the dragons I kept as their 3.5 forms instead of rebuilding them. Pathfinder dragons seem to hit much harder but are much squishier.

I've taken several suggestions from the excellent handbook here on the forums:
-Most of the hobbo's have Phalanx Fighting(3.5 feat) instead of Alertness to make them seem more organized and give them a defensive boost. The sergeants and bladebearers each have a single martial maneuver to give them some flavor, again instead of Alertness.
-Rebuilt the wyrmlords to their Pathfinder equivalents, at least.
-Rest will be posted in their relevant chapters.


The cast(All level 5, 20 point buy)

Kiri:Human Woodland Skirmisher Ranger, daughter of Jorr the huntsmen of the Witchwood. Fights with a goblin-bane heavy crossbow. REAAALLY doesn't like goblins. No animal companion. Childhood friends with Savoy and Tim

Slim Tim:Halfling rogue. Part of Lady Kaal's cabal of thieves. Standard rogue for the most part, carries a goblin-bane dagger. Like playing really dumb tricks on people. Born and raised in Drellin's Ferry, moved to Brindol after Savoy takes off.

Savoy:Human Magus. Recently returned from a journey out of Elsir Vale. Is a grumpy smelly fella. Played by a power gamer who I am afraid is trying to break me. Dual-wields a rapier and magic. Likes to electrocute...well...anything.

Maruko:Haunted Tengu Oracle(Shigenjou) of the Flame from the Far East. Quick, likes fire, honorable, and a heal bot. Came into the Vale with a small tribe who were in turn massacred by goblins. She is out for revenge and carving a new home out for the remains of her people. Fights rather poorly with her ancestral katana. Fights a lot better with evil slaying spears of light.

The Hook
Savoy sends word he is returning to the Vale. Kiri takes a break from bushwhacking the increasing amount of goblins in her forest to come visit. Tim comes over from Brindol to meet his old friends. A few days earlier Maruko's surviving tribesmen were forced to flee, she is out for revenge. The meeting point? An abandoned farmhouse a few miles west of of Drellin's Ferry, their childhood play place.

[Fooliscious]

Session 1

Day 1

We begin with Tim and Kiri walking out to the ruined farmhouse a few miles outside Drellin's Ferry, at the appointed time to meet their old friend Savoy. Savoy is walking east down the Dawn Way. Maruko is perched up on the remains of the house, observing the cleric and bladebearer.

As soon as the old friends see each other, Kiri sees that a few goblins are hiding amongst the trees and shouts a warning. Savoy is a fairly oblivious fellow and spends the suprise round dodging arrows coming from the tree lines. Kiri jumps into the trees planning to use them as cover while she returns fire, only to find herself face to face with a draconic hell hound staring her in the face. Timmah jumps behind the curve in the round, being short enough to hide behind it.

Kiri spends a majority of the encounter playing tag with the hellhound, crossbows not being conducive to close range tree fighting. The only real damage she takes is from its breath weapon, which I gave the clinging quality.

Maruko pulls a card out of Darkwing Duck's hand and casts Concealing Mists into the house, surprising the 3 inside. She can see through the mists due to her class and jumps down and starts lobbing Spears of Purity at everything she can see. The bladebearer eats one in the face, figures what the hey, I'm blind anyway, and charges in trying to find his assailant. The cleric turns invisible and spends most of his time doing nothing other than summoning another hellhound from its scroll. Tim notices the commotion in the house and figures he likes that more than being riddled with arrows. He sneaks through the woods up to the house and throws his dagger at the bladebearer for nearly all of his hp after he was flatfooted from eating another spear. Maruko finishes him off with a final spear.

By this time Kiri has finished off the hellhound and starts picking off the hobbos one by one. The hobbos decide the arrow idea is a bad one and jump down on the road, locking shields and charge spamming. Savoy's hp drops steadily, as do the hobbos due to his ridiculous crit range and shocking grasps. The hellhound on his end does pretty much nothing and dies in a single electrically boosted hit.

The cleric reappears and hits Tim with a Hold Person and he goes to pound away as Maruko deals with the other hell hound. Fortunately everyone finished mopping their stuff up and manage to pound the cleric down before Tim gets hurt.

The three friends were at first suprised and somewhat hostile towards their new ally(Tim mentions cooking and eating her)but introductions and whatnot are properly made. Kiri insists that she can get the strange tengu into Drellin's Ferry, so Maruko tags along. They loot the bodies and head to town. They chat with the guards and let em know whats up. Speaker Wiston and Cap'n Soranna ask the pc's to go talk to Jorr. The town had hired him to investigate the goblin presence, but haven't heard from him in a while. While Kiri's relationship with her father is estranged, she decides to check up on the old fart. No one thinks to ask for payment, much to my suprise, so they spend the day trading their loot for other loot and meeting some of the townsfolk. I gave the halfling wizard MAJOR little man syndrome, and the party spent as much time getting info and items out of him as they did laughing at him. Savoy heads to the brewhouse, finds out they have gutbuster, tanks a fort save, and spends the rest of his night puking and sleeping. The rest turn in early. The next day(after dunking Savoy in the river a few times) they set off.

So, thoughts. The goblin-bane weapon metagaming nonsense irked me a bit, usually this group is better about that. Especially the ranger. She gave up ALL her other favored enemies for more casting. Plans on snagging a wand of Instant Enemy. Not sure if I should allow access to one though.

After subsequent sessions I've realized that its going to and currently is biting them in the ass. I just need to retype the wyrmlords so they don't die so easily. The hobbos are dying really fast it feels too. In combat they are pushing 20+ ac most of the time, and still drop like flies. Probably the bane weapons. Oh well.

Savoy's damage output is absolutely insane for a level 5. I need to figure out how to counter his shocking grasp crits.

[Fooliscious]

Session 2. Being Haunted sucks. Being Blind sucks.

Koth was fully converted to pathfinder for this. I made his bloodline draconic, which gave him claws, some bonus electricity damage, and freed up a spell known. I put Enlarge Person in there. He got a bit beefier in the process too.

Karkilan was fun to redesign. I gave him a level of barbarian, and redid his feats to have Die hard and Impaling Charge, to good effect.

Day 2
After some debate over which would be the best route to get to Jorr's house, they decide on the Dawn Way(road) over the Witch Trail(a trail). Reasoning stems from hearing about the increase in goblin activity in the forest. They don't wanna be ambushed on a tiny trail that may or may not still be there. They travel for a few hours along the road at half speed and scouting, reducing the random encounter chance to 25%. Too bad.

A girallon beats Tim's perception as it hides in the canopy of a particularly large tree. It tries to lug a good sized boulder at Tim for it's surprise round, rolls a 1 and just drops it accidentally. It rolls harmlessly across the road. Kiri gets intiative and tries to shoot it, only to roll a 1. Her crossbow cord unstrings itself, and she's stuck with a full round action to restring it next turn. Savoy runs directly at the tree the ape is in while casting shield on himself, and waits for it to come down into range. Tim whips out a Javelin of Lightning and lights it up pretty good, but stands in the road. Maruko fails her knowledge check and flings a Spear of Purity at it. Since it's not evil it just kinda tickles. The girallon flings itself outta the tree, eating an AoO from Savoy for a good chunk, lands and grabs Tim in two arms. Kiri restrings her bow, Savoy obliterates it with a channeled shocking grasp crit. 72 Damage. Ow. They find a potion of Resist Energy(Acid) for their efforts.

After that underwhelming encounter, the continue up the road another few hours, still moving slowly. They make it to the causeway. I had drawn out a grid map for this and of course everyone zones in on the wagon. Nevermind it was 200 feet away. They party spends 20 minutes obsessing over this wagon before they realize Jorr's house is along the bank, not across the causeway. I also point out they can't see the stupid wagon yet. So off to Jorr's!

I played Jorr as a crotchety old man who directly blames Tim and Savoy for stealing his daughter away from his hermitness. He backhandly insults them the whole time, and tricks Tim into drinking some rotten water in a rotten stump pretending its moonshine. Anyways. They follow the flooded area's bank til they get to Jorr's. The dogs pounce on Kiri and attempt to drown her in drool, and Jorr comes out snarling. His leg is wrapped in bloody bandages and a splint. He can't move much. He goes onto explain that his plot armor failed him and he got jumped by some goblins, which is why he hasn't reported back to town. His disposition improves upon a healing touch from Maruko(who he nearly skewered). He lets em know about the increased goblin activity along the Way, and how it seems to be centered on Vrath Keep. Knowledge checks around and they know the story of the keep. He reluctantly agrees to let the party crash on his cleared out booby-trapped plot of land, after telling everyone to sleep in seperate tents. Tim of course gives a lewd wink to Jorr and Kiri. By the time they wake up in the morning Jorr is gone.

Day 3

They wake up bright and early and head back towards the causeway. The rogue takes out his 10 foot pole once they get there and probes the water and decides he never wants to be in it. I can only assume that explains his next actions. He straight up Usain Bolts across the causeway, clear to the other end. In the mean time, the rest of the party has been drooling over the wagon. Kiri notices the serpent like head and pretty much writes it off. Maruko notices that there seems to be a current in the water next to the wagon and crossing the causeway. No one puts 1 and 2 together and just assumes its snakes. Maruko heads over to one side of where the current crosses the causeway, and Kiri to the other. Tim is still off a ways. Savoy Mage Hands a rock at the snake head, forgetting that he could easily, ya know...throw one at it. It slithers away under the water. The hydra starts making its way to the causeway in the deep water. Seeing nothing happening, Savoy jumps into the water with a rope tied around him and starts trucking over to the water.

The hydra erupts outta the water and three heads each of the girls on the causeway. Does 10~ to each of them. Kiri backs up and starts Vital Striking heads, telling Savoy to grab whatever's in the wagon and book it. Maruko shrouds herself in mists and hides in it. She spends her next turn drawing her sword. She then spends her next turn drawing her bow when the hydra peels off towards Savoy. Savoy has tied the loot up and lights his sword on fire and sears off a stump. By this time the hydra is down to two heads, and Timmah decides to do something. He jumps onto the hydra, Sneak attacking it for the rest of its hp. Sadly he doesn't fall into the water. In the wagon I redid the treasure some. There was a coat of Mistmail that went to Maruko to make up for her awful AC(was a 13). The other big item was a +1 Adamantine Earthbreaker, which got stored in Maruko's haversack.

After the party berated Tim for doing **** most of the fight, they make their way up to Vrath keep. They spend an hour or so doing recon, the only notable thing happening was a worg noticed Tim sneaking around. He barely made the check, so the worg gets up and starts sniffing around, following Tim's scent. Tim runs to one of the ruined guard towers using the boulders to hide behind and waits for the worg to come through the door. It pokes its head through and gets sapped for like 40 damage. He hauls the unconscious thing in and slits its throat. They manage to spot the 4 hobbos and Karkilan and the two goblins and now one worg in the stables. They completely forget to check the manticores room. They set up an elaborate ambush plan that all gets spoiled when Tim bombs another stealth check. they were in position at least outside the hole in the wall leading to Karkilan's room. The two awake hobbos notify Karkilan that something is up, and go to the hole in the wall to check it out, spears and shields ready. Karkilan wakes up the two other hobbos and starts walking over to Koth's room. As soon as the hobbos get to the whole in the wall they see both Tim right next to them, and Kiri with her bow cocked and aimed and with Gravity Bow cast on herself. A bolt lances into one hobbo and the fight is on.

The hobbos actually get initiative, and yell back to Kark. He calls for the manticore to aid them and goes into Koth's room. The hobbos try to hold the line in the hole in the wall, aiding and shieldwalling. Kiri slams another bolt into the one she hit before and it falls over dead anyway. Maruko and Tim manage to shank the second hobbo when the door, the frame, and a good chunk of the wall to Koth's room EXPLODES. Karkilan is much larger now, getting an Enlarge Person from Koth, and upon seeing the dead hobbo flies into a rage. Savoy had been back buffing and runs in to finish off the last hobbo in the way. On the way he sees the massive minotaur and more importantly massive axe. He finishes off the hobbo anyway. The Manticore by this time was up on the ceiling just watching. Maruko runs the hell away, towards the hole in the south wall. The two sleeping hobbos hurried grab their weapons and try to put their armor on, giving up shortly after. Karkilan lowers his head and charges the only thing he can see. Even with 24 ac Savoy gets wrecked, but gets a good AoO in. He fails his subsequent CMD and gets impaled on Kark's horns and dangles there(35~ damage and grappled). Koth moves from his room into the map room, grabbing one of the unarmored hobbos to guard the door. He also tells the manticore to get in the fray, which he does. In the charge Kark took out the wall Tim was hiding behind, and seeing the massive cow charge into Savoy he books it towards the gate house. He eats an AoO from Karks axe(30ish damage) and gets noticed by the two goblins poking their heads out of the barracks. One mounts up and the other charges out after Tim. Kiri backs up out of the south wall and shoots Kark, landing a crit. Maruko runs around the keep to the front to try to help Tim. Savoy manages to get off the horns and goes and hides in a giant skull around the corner, nearly dying from manticore spikes. Kiri finishes off Karkilan and starts working on the manticore. The goblin and worg rider do diddly, and one goblin is disabled and captured. Kiri solo's the Manticore before it can get away and Maruko starts patching people up, namely Savoy.

Koth finishes rolling up the war map and stashes it. He and the now armored hobbo leave the map room and see...nothing but corpses. They move near the hole in the wall Koth yells for any remaining allies to him, and Savoy convices Koth that vocally he is a hobbo. Meanwhile Kiri is crawling up on the parapets while Tim hogties the captured goblin. Savoy and Maruko charge at Koth and his lackey, Savoy rolling a 1 and doing diddly to the lackey, Maruko being likewise ineffective. Koth charms Savoy into letting him hold his sword and convinces him he is going to go polish it up. He backs up some and lightning bolts Savoy in the face. Savoy really likes his sword, so he runs up to Koth and tries to fry him with a Shocking Grasp. Hobbo gets a hit in as an AoO and Koth hits him with Blindness, effectively ending Savoy for the rest of the fight. Koth hides his sword under a bed. Savoy also tries to hide under a bed.

Poor Maruko keeps wailing away on the hobbo to no avail, until Kiri makes it to the roof and one shots him. Tim had snuck around to the other side of Koth, and with Koth not being where Tim thought he was, he was way outta position when he opened the door into the room. So...he throws his sap at Koth as an "oh ****" moment. Koth laughs and claws him in the face. Kiri was lined up for a shot by this time and pretty much ended Koth in two rounds. Koth managed to get another lighting bolt off for about 20 damage to 3 of the party before dying.

Lots of healing ensues, they discover the map and the vault. Again I redid some treasure. I knew they had a random encounter coming up as soon as they traveled again, and with Savoy being blind they had no chance. So i redid Koth's scroll of mount into a restoration, and he got fixed up. He also found his sword, sadly. The vault had a Vicious Starknife, a +1 mithril shirt, a Blinding Heavy Darkwood Shield, a ring of spell knowledge(empty) and a ring of feather falling. And the staff. The thing they were most excited about was the deed to the keep oO.

Thoughts
Maruko's curse is eating up a LOT of her time. Her combat is already really weak as it is, and there aren't many offensive options for oracles at this level. I'm doubly concerned about her healing ability. A standard action to pull a healing anything out is gonna suck

Kiri is an absolute monster, and now she's level 6. Multiple attacks. Oi. Even without Bane she tore through Kark and the manticore.

Savoy did some dumb stuff, paired with some horrible rolls, and was pretty much neutralized the whole fight at the keep. He was the only one who got close to death, like 2 hp close. I don't count on that to continue.

Tim has a problem being in the right place at the right time it seems. He also only has one weapon, which I keep telling him to fix.

Hydras are really wimpy in Pathfinder. I was really surprised how easily it went down. Their damage is less and their fast healing is waaaaay less.

Overall I was pretty happy with the night, minus how fast Koth went down. I did NOT realize Blindness was permanent. Sounds like they are heading back to town next week to restock and resupply. They haven't looked at the map quite yet though. I get the feeling Ozy is going to wreck them. They are also damn keen on selling that hammer. I'm tempted to start breaking/stealing weapons.

[Fooliscious]

Session 3, when not much gets done.
We were out our rogue Tim today, and for various reasons didn't get a whole heck of a lot done. The PC's hit level 6 at the beginning of this session.

I restatted Ozy as a pathfinder dragon after all, makes him a bit more interesting, and he is large by default. Entangle should be entertaining with all the brush around the road near the bridge.

Day 4
So the pc's picked up right after they smoked Koth. After re-going over the treasure, they decided to murder/torture interrogate the captured goblin worg-rider. Maruko wanted to kill it in various creative ways(crucifying him to the frame that the farmers body was on was her favorite), interrogating it somewhere in the process. Kiri just wanted it dead, and Savoy was the only one who was willing to kill it quickly or jail it pending cooperation. They learned a bit of what was going on, namely the Red Hand was a thing and that there would eventually be an attack on Drellin's Ferry. After that Maruko and Kiri tried to come up with the most creative way to kill it. It took nearly a half hour before they put the poor thing down.

They hoof it back to Drellin's Ferry(interrupted only by a tendriculous, nothing really happened there, Maruko just levitated up and fireballed it to death. Savoy thought it would be funny to get eaten and nearly die...it was actually) to restock and chat with Soranna, who wanted more info before she took action mobilizing the town and causing a general panic. This peeved Maruko a lot, and she ended up storming off because they wouldn't take her word. All they had was the map to go on, so it didn't seem unreasonable that she would want more info, but /shrug. They turn in early after getting healed up at the Shrine of Pelor.

Day 5

They wake up to lightning bolts and thunder! I rolled a thunderstorm for the days weather. They spent the day commissioning potions and scrolls. Mostly healing ones. Tried to hint that they were going to want some utility, but no bites. They decide on Skull Gorge Bridge for their next scouting mission.

Day 6
They buy some horses this time around, and travel the full day up the Dawn way, only stopping to observe the giant effigy for a few moments. They notice the forest thinning out and hobble their horses, while Kiri goes to scout ahead. She takes in the scene at the bridge and comes back to report what she saw, as the last bit of daylight fades. They notice an odd glow beyond the bridge and down in the valley, so Maruko levitates up a few hundred feet and takes in the site of hundred of tents and campfires. There be the horde.
They spend an hour debating wether they should run back to the town to grab someone who knows something about bridges(none of them do) and somehow causing a distraction and pick off guards from the forest. They are more worried about what's in the tents on the other side of the bridge than the large dragon flying around. Not sure why. They decide to wait the night out so Savoy can prep new spells.

Day 7

Savoy preps a bunch of invisibilities, blows one on Kiri, and she sneaks in to investigate further. At this point I completely forget the hellhounds have scent, but oh well. She manages to notice the weakspot on the bridge and relays that info to the group. Savoy debates going in invisible and trying to dual strike the spot with the Adamantine Earthbreaker they found earlier and a shatter spell. I rolled a percentage to see if Ozy was off hunting, and he was. This gave the group a bit of bravery but it faded as they see Ozy coming back with a cow in his claws. They have an extra round before Ozy takes action. They start working on a plan to bum rush the weak spot and blow the bridge before anyone can do anything. Then it was quitting time.



Thoughts
Not a super exciting session. Most of it seemed to be item bargaining and figuring out the best way to skin a goblin. The tendriculous nearly one shot Savoy, between a bite and a swallow whole. Maruko nearly finished the job with a fireball to finish off the plant too. Fireball has helped out Maruko's damage considerably.

I'm really afraid that they are going to wreck the bridge in about 3~ rounds if their plan goes properly. They are going to buff Savoy to hell and back and just have him pound away, bypassing pretty much the whole encounter. Remembering the hellhounds have scent might screw them up though. Will see how it goes next week!

[Siolfur]

Ejoyable reading so far, looking forward to the next part(s).

[Axinian]

It's probably okay if wrecking the bridge goes well, that can be very cinematic. But what you could do is sort of ad hoc a hobgoblin seeing them, and have reinforcements start to come across the bridge, giving them a bit more of a time crunch and incentive to direct resources elsewhere.

No what I'm more worried about is Kiri. As you've seen, rangers can be freakin' buzzsaws at range in pathfinder, so you might want to give Ozzy some sort of bonus HP or something. Keep him out of range of Savoy also.

[old school man]

I am liking this so keep it going.:smallcool:




John

[Fooliscious]

I'm thinking I'm definitely going to have the hellhound smell Savoy. I want Ozy to get a few licks in, but as soon as the bridge goes down he is gonna bail. His tactics call for mostly strafing with his breath. I gave him lingering breath. Unless Savoy wants to eat more breath damage he will have to bail. At the same time being acid its going to hurt the bridge's weak spot. Oh well.

Kiri is doing a helluva job optimizing for this level, more so than I thought. Gravity Bow + Heavy Cross Bow + Vital Strike HURTS. 4d8+1 damage base a bolt. Throw in some random +1's and it adds up. Vital Strike will be a wasted feat soon though.

Any thoughts on how a Haversack will interact with Maruko's Haunted curse? I can't really decide on anything.

Also, inclement weather is a good way to slow the PC's down if they are way ahead of schedule. I rolled two months worth of weather, getting 5-7 t-storms, 2 days of rain, and 2 cold snaps that I put all day dense fog in. The vale is big enough that you can reason thunderstorms and other weather are isolated in the pc's area. Once I told them the penalties of traveling(and more importantly fighting) in the heavy rains they decided to stay inside. I also decided on fog for part of the day after every storm.

[Fooliscious]

Session 4! Dwarven Bridge is falling down!

Late update, some memory will be fuzzy. We didn't get past the bridge encounter, some people showed up a bit late. So I will do a turn by turn more or less for those interested. If ya don't wanna read the details, summary will be at the bottom.


Day 7, continued

So after a bit of rehashing and refining of their previous plan, everyone suddenly remembers Maruko can fireball. Remember that crazy fear of whatever was in the tents? Turns out I had scared them with the minotaur and Koth earlier, so they weren't going to take any chances on anything they couldn't see. After buffing, they opened up with Maruko fireballing the ever living hell out of the tents(stupid 600+ foot range -_-) from the tree line, Savoy running invisible up to the weak spot which the hellhound happened to be standing next to, and Kiri rolling a 1 and failing the save which left her scrambling for bolts as her quiver's buckle came undone and fell into some bushes. Tim had snuck invisibly up one of the towers and on cue from the fireball saps one of the archers for like 40 nonlethal damage, dropping him. Tim kicks him off the tower. Just now realized he is still alive. Oops. Ozy sees the commotion, drops his cow and flies back to his perch to see what's up. He sees Tim kicking the hobbo down the tower and screams for his men to go to attention

Surprise round over, init rolls go out, and...they all roll 18+ and get to immediately go again. Another fireball this time to the opposite towers, catching both hobbo archers and Ozy, none of whom took much damage. Kiri picks her stuff back up and tries to full attack the three hobbos still on the tower, but with their cover she only hits one for medium damage. Savoy pounds on the weak spot with the massive adamantine hammer he had picked up from the hydra, eating a lucky AoO from the hound and dishing out 12 or so damage to the weak spot. Then queue a 10 minute debate on wether attacking an inanimate object counts as an offensive action. I gave up arguing and let him have it. Tim whips out a Javelin of Lightning and chunks it at Ozy, doing a nice bit o' damage. Baddies turn!

Bad Guys
The hobbos stumble out of the burning tents, putting out flames and picking up their weapons as they do so. The archers light Tim up, whittling him down pretty good, not seeing anyone else to shoot at. The other hellhound had been running down the bridge and ran smack into invisible Savoy. I had em both roll reflexes or something to remain standing, both succeeded. The hellhound near savoy takes a step back onto the weakspot and breathes where he thinks Savoy might be and nails him, doesn't do much other than light him up. Ozy chugged his potion of invisibility and flew up over Tim to prepare for a snack. Tim makes a perception roll and hears the wings above him...

Good Guys
Maruko whips her bow out seeing nothing else to blast(hobbos were behind a tower gathering themselves up) and waits. Kiri rolls yet another 1 but not before getting an arrow off into the closest hellhound for nearly all it's hp. She doesn't fail her save, ending her turn. Savoy seeing the hound on death's door(and it's on the spot where he is supposed to be manly mining) whacks it and it collapses. His invis ends. Tim uses a hide in plain sight trick to crawl down the tower. Ozy isn't fooled though, but is now focusing on a now visible Savoy and more importantly the stone chips and gravel that is at Savoy's feet.

Bad Guys
With a yell from Ozy the hobbos at the far end of the bridge line up with bows and start lighting up Savoy, with the hobbos on the tower doing the same. Most miss, but he does take some damage. The sergeant busts his slow ass down the bridge to engage with his big ole meat cleaver, doesnt make it all the way this turn. Ozy flies down to the bridge level and breaths down the entry corridor and beyond, filling it with a cloud of acid(5 rounds for the next one...balls). Savoy manages to make his save, but is now standing in an acid cloud that isn't dissapating(lingering breath!). Ozy flies up over the cloud, scanning the treeline for other invaders. Both Kiri and Maruko make their stealth and remain hidden.

Good Guys
Maruko can't resist fireballing the clumped hobbos at the far end of the bridge and drops all of them. Kiri launches a bolt at Ozy, doing some nice damage as well, then runs out of the trees towards the towers so she can see around the cloud. Savoy smacks the weak spot and runs around the cliff-side of the tower, getting out of the acid. Tim is still trying to hide from the dragon, and scampers underneath the wooden walkways that go up the tower. He also pulls out some rope and ties a lasso...

Bad Guys
All of the hobbos on the ground are cinders, except the sergeant who makes his way past the weakpoint, screaming challenges. I gave this guy a couple of maneuvers in place of his stupid feats to make him a bit more fun, but I don't think I've ever had a more useless mook. The archers on the towers really can't see anything so they ready actions to shoot the first thing they see. Ozy hears the ground pounding and flies down to bodily protect the weak spot as the acid disappates. He casts entangle to restrict access to the bridge and starts roaring how mighty he is etc.

Good Guys
Maruko blasts Ozy with a Spear of Purity, doesn't manage to blind him though. Kiri starts firing at the archers on the towers, skirting the entangled area for line of sight. She is doing rather poorly tonight, which is odd. They lose some hp, but not much. Savoy throws a friggin snowball at Ozy, doing like 20 damage and staggering him. This proves to be his death sentence. Tim...spends the one hero point he got from somewhere to book it up the tower and jumps off it...onto the dragon...and fails to lasso its head. Yeah, I dunno. He lands on Ozy's back at the very least, eating a painful AoO bite from Ozy, and getting sickened in the process from Noxious Bite. The archers let loose as well and damn near murder Tim, leaving him with like 3 hp.

Bad Guys
The archers turn is toast(I almost let them go again, forgot how readying an action worked for some reason) and the sarge fails his save in the entangle. I cannot remember what Ozy does here, but I know its not run, which was a bad idea. Healing potion maybe?

Good Guys
Maruko wails away with another spear for near max damage(her damage rolls are on fire tonight), Kiri gives up on the archers and unloads into Ozy, Savoy does runs up the tower since he is outta magic juice and tries to gank the archer there. Ozy has a whopping 1 hp at the moment, and Tim...saps Ozy. With a sap. A tiny halfling sap. I have issue with this, but just laugh and let it go. One unconscious dragon that Tim promptly uses for cover against the archers. He also notices the dragon's bling. I left the treasure the same here, 6 pearls, bracers of armor +3, con amulet +2.

The combat is pretty much over at this point. Kiri plunks away at the archers without much trouble once she gets on a tower, and Savoy smashes the weak spot a final time. Tim had been tying Ozy's mouth shut when the bridge starts to rumble. Ozy is still on the bridge. Maruko and Tim (the two scrawniest members) grab onto the rope and hold on, trying to drag him off. Too late. The bridge goes and Ozy goes with it. An archer on the far side too. ALLLLLLLLL of their loot plunges into the rubble and water below. I decided to give Ozy a chance to not be washed away. 1-20 he lands on some rubble, 31-50 he is buried in it, 51-100 he is washed away. I roll in the teens, so Ozy lands on some rubble! Still very dead however. Maruko levitates down and loots his destroyed corpse. Savoy is foaming at the mouth to go down there and bash some scales off for armor, but he ends up not doing so.

After a description of the bridge epically collapsing they pat themselves on the back a bit and head back to their horses. They again pass the giant trail marker and again decide to ignore it, after I give out all kinds of info on them. They seem to think the giants are there, and allied with the Horde. They book it back to town, staying the night at Jorr's since they can't quite make it.

Summary
Hobbos fireballed to death before they could do much, archers on towers pretty effective, Ozy dies in defense of weak spot, Savoy destroys bridge with a big hammer.
Thinkings
Was a fun combat. Ozy didn't do near as much as I was hoping. I think I focused too much on defending the weak spot. He had the oomf to massacre someone, he just never got the chance. That stagger from the snowball was what really killed him though. The archers were pretty effective, damage output was pretty good throughout.

I have also found Kiri's weakness! COVER!!! WOO.

Maruko was dropping 20+ on a 3d8 spell all night, was a lil shocked.

Since they have a new day coming up on them, I think I am going to have the town raid in progress when they arrive back. I've blatantly stole a build for a mounted skirmisher from kjones(I think, bookmark is on another computer) that will be replacing the riders, and a dire wolf or two are going to show up. I'm going to play it out a little differently. I am going to give the raiders a turn count. At the end of the count they are going to run back into the woods. Their goal is to burn stuff and cause mayhem, not fight a pitched battle. Any ideas on how many rounds it should go? And how should I handle the 2nd wave showing up?