The Ballad of Echo Company - Episode 1A - Two Hundred Yards Of Nightmare

[Cavir]

The heat from the plane's explosion washed over Sgt Xilo, followed by the bunker's blast much closer to him. He hopped into the trench with the dead enemy to get cover. He looked in Sal's direction. "Excellent work Private! Get in here and help me find their teleporters from their shoulder patches." He took a moment to look back towards the water. He didn't know if anyone had remained behind and was hit by the plane crash.

His eye was drawn to the three out in the open. "JUKEBOX! SPADE! CARRY HIM TO THE TRENCH!"

Xilo glanced back to the cliffs to see if there was anything coming at them then focused at the dead enemy. He wanted whatever teleporters they still had and needed a resupply of grenades.

Spoiler: OOC

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Hop into the trench for 3/4 cover then dipping out of sight to quickly search the dead. Working teleporters and grenades (not limited to 2) were priority but if something else seems useful too it'd be welcome.

Would we be able to use the shoulder patch scrolls?

Are the machine gun nests bunker style or more like an enhanced fox hole? Are they level with each other or is one higher up and can look down at the other?

[JbeJ275]

Got it Sarge! Yells Salamir, as he too ducks into the best ccover availible to him, finding it in the remains of the bunker he just blasted. With Xilo having salvaged anything in his trench, and the Grabenkämpfer in the other having withdrawn in good order he instead investigates the ruins of this bnker, hoping to find similiar patches there, or perhaps some sign as to how they entered without just trapsing over a minefield whenever maintinenece needed to be done.

(1d20+8)[25]

Meanwhile, the shielding construct skittered over and crawled down into the trench they'd just taken, ready to refresh the shields of anyone using that as thier rallying point before pressing on.

(1d10+5)[8]

[stanleyindraven]

Bruce finally breaks the hold of the spell and stumbles into the sand. He looks over at the broken bunker, then at the bomb under his arm. "Well, here we are," he says to himself. He pulls himself quickly to a trench.

[Awful]

Lt Bathory
HP 30/32, ARCANE WARD 3/15, THP 11

Gritting her teeth, one hand upon her helmet, Bathory darted toward to leap into the forward trench. She tapped the sand and it surged up, making a higher protective barrier to give more cover.

That done, she sat with her back against the damp earth wall, ignoring the corpses at her feet.

A vampire always had death as a cousin, after all.

"Good work!" she called to the tattered squad. "But its not over yet. Any ideas on taking those nests out? While I could clear a path through the minefield, it'd be far too slow to do while I'm being shot at all the while."

[MrAbdiel]

Spoiler: OOC Mines!

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Rolled everyone's mine checks to hustle up to the trench line, and (sadly) no one kicked a 'sploder. We're sort of our of immediate combat time, so everyone can consider themselves to have crossed that 100ft dash with no mines triggered, and now taking cover in the trenches or behind the ruined pillbox.

Spade and Jukebox begin the awkward but valiant process of tilting the paralyzed goliath over enough they can begin to drag him, but movement returns to Pvt Gamble's limbs and he and the color party are able to proceed to the regroup under their own respective motion. "Godsdammit, Gamble!" Cpl. Spade half laughs, half growls; "I'd say you were dumb as a bag of rocks, if you weren't so clearly as tough as one."

Sal sifts through the smoking rubble, a mess of reinforcing bars and concrete chunks; Pvt Ordo moving up to give him a hand in the investigation. They clear enough to see what the rough insides of the pillbox were like. Interestingly, most of the rubble has falling in large chunks on a steel grate designed to prevent that collapsing rubble from plunging into the space below - though enough has gotten through that there have been clear repercussions for the Kreig soldiers who were once here.

There must have been two operators, one feeding ammo belts, one swiveling the guns back and forth in their tracks. But the design is either excessive, or ingenius. The pillbox sinks down like a silk ten feet into the sand, and the ammo feed is on a long, now mangled mechanical sprocket system that hoists it up in good order to the side mounted heavy machine guns. The narrow sit from which they fired would not be enough to sight out of, even if the operators were on the same level as the weapons; but instead, a pair of steel mirrors mounted along side each gun reflect their images down to a matching set of mirrors below. Those mirrors are part of a mechanically rigged set up where the firer may use this 'periscope' to get a sense of the battlefield he is ten feet below. The gunner would stand on a swivelling turntable and turn a mechanical wheel which rotates the guns along their rail, along with turntable. The design is imperfect - Sal can immediately see ways it could jam up, or be vulnerable to malfunction; but its existence suggests no shortage of technically adept minds working in the Vult's engineer corps and development pools.

The two operators have mostly escaped - through a heavy steel hatch in the floor that leads, presumably, to some kind of tunnel that either connects to other pillboxes or, less likely, all the way back to the Defiant Wall. The second of the two gunners to have attempted their escape has done so a touch too slowly - a gnome's arm has been sheared off just below the elbow when a concrete slab fell through the grate above and hammered the closing hatch shut prematurely. You wonder if the solider on the other side of that misfortune survived; but there's no way to answer that speculation. The hatch is closed, and apparently barred, from the other side, now.

Interestingly, the HMG fire that was peppering Gamble and the others dries suddenly up, harassing no more as they move to cover.

Spoiler: Perception 16

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Most allied squads are relying on the fact that mines cannot be placed too densely over such a large area as the Defiant Wall covers, and are surging forward with the blood-freezing knowledge that some of them are just going to die as a result. You can see one pair of engineers about a hundred feet up the beach desperately arguing with an officer, gesturing with their mine-sweeping gear with tearful alarm.
They're getting stonewalled, and perhaps with good reason - there's no use doing careful minesweeping work while the battle's ongoing.
That work comes after the beach is captured, to make it safe to reinforce.

Most of the tanks that have been deployed with the invading troops have met with disaster, with amphibious modifications made failing, or leading them into submerged tank snares, and the hulls of a few Archon class Amcaran tanks are visible in the surf, monuments to the price of military gambles. One Archon, a Dumathoin class variant with a huge forward mounted rack of chains designed to be spun by connection to the driveshaft specifically for the purpose of mineclearing in combat,
, sits idle and smoking about 50ft back and 100ft up the beach from you.
It main cannon has split open from some ammunition misfire like a twisted metal flower, and the coaxial machine gun now warped off true; but a couple of the tank's crewmen are visible behind it every now and then, popping up and arguing with each other as they try to figure out what's gone wrong with its motive systems so bloody early in the invasion.

Far up the beach, you see some creative magicians doing their best in a bad situation; one elven sorcerer casting a lightning bolt low enough that it detonates a handful of mines along its 100ft path, glassing the sand as it goes; but the likelyhood that physically marking out the path that squad intends to take across the intervening ground will draw enemy fire seems high.

[Cavir]

"LT! I have one of their teleporting scrolls. It's in Kriegspiel. Can you use it to get us inside one of those nests? From there we can take out the other one. There's a small copper ball here with a button on it if you know what that is."

Xilo pops his head up to do a 360' scan of the situation. The tanks weren't going to be of help anytime soon.

"Sal. Is there a tunnel entrance in there? LT, if we can go underneath we may get lost in a a tunnel complex that they know better and may be heavily barricaded. On top, it's the mines and gun nests. Mission is the mages up and over. Let the groundpounders deal with the tunnels? We can engage the gun nests from here and or charge."

[stanleyindraven]

Bruce drops into the destroyed structure and starts clearing rubble from the hatch and looks for a lever or button that will make the hatch open.

[Awful]

Lt Bathory
HP 30/32, ARCANE WARD 15/15, THP 11

The LT took a momemt to once again recharge her barrier. It had certainly proven its worth over the frantic charge over the beach.

"I don't like the idea of the tunnel, but depending on how things go, you ​might have to risk it. One good trap and everyone down there is buried... Or a choke point could shoot you to pieces.

OK, here's what we're doing.I need a volunteer. I can take one person with me using that teleporter paper you got. We'll take out that HMG nest still shooting. Then engineers can clear the mines, or hell, maybe enough rounds from the MGs might clear a path.

Anyone got a flag? Pass it here. I'll hang it out the bunker if this works. If it doesn't... Well, then it's up to you, Seargeant. Maybe get our engineer to take a look at the flail tank. "

When someone volunteered, she examined the paper with one hand and placed the other - admittedly while standing on tiptoes - on their shoulder.

Damn, but she wanted a cigarette.

" Good luck, " she said, and teleported with her bonny brave meat shield, aiming to be near the door to the bunker up there.

[JbeJ275]

Bruce, you glorouis dummy, they're not gonna have a button for it. It's a damn blast seal hatcch that's barred from the other side. Let me at it.

With that, in an Inspired feat of engineering Sal takes a small metallic tool and levers the hatch a quarter inch open, then slides another one into the gap which prompty starts spinning, running against the bar and removing it from one side of the hatch. The whole process is the work of perhaps thirty seconds, during which the shield construct skitters down into the buker and wraps back around Sal's armoured bracer.

There. You ready to go clear out the rest of these bunkers? Let boys at least get to the minefields before they bite it?

[Cavir]

Sgt Xilo hands the scroll and small copper sphere to the LT. "The bunker up high seems stopped for now. Maybe a gun jam. Take the nest on the left and we'll keep the right one busy from here. Once you have one use it to take out the other with the machine gun and grenades. Using the machine guns to make a path for us through the minefield would be appreciated."

Xilo shouts down into the broken bunker. "Stop lollygagging down there. Get up here. Gamble, I've got just the job for you. You'll teleport with the LT right into the nests and you can smash them up close. Then take out the other nest. The rest of us take out the right nest from here before the LT has to do it herself." He takes as much cover in the trench as he can as he aims up to the right side nest.

[stanleyindraven]

"Yes Sir!" Gamble shouts as he clambers out of the hole.

[MrAbdiel]

"Here!"

It's Cpl Spade, limping over on legs of steel and wood toward the LT. Hunkering low in the trench, he takes a moment to detach the flag from his rifle - careful not to let it touch the ground - and rolls it up quickly for the officer's keeping. "Good luck, LT. Hey, if my flag's the first to fly on top of the Defiant Wall, it'll be a national treasure. My old man'll be tickled."

Spade, Warforged as he is, does not have a biological father; but the corporal has oftentimes piped up about patriarch of the human family that 'adopted' him; his 'old man', that served in the last Grand War and whose service inspired Spade himself to enlist. "That old rag was the first Amcaran flag to make it into Orgueil du Aquiteaux, last time. Don't lose it!"

As the group splits into the tunnel team and the dimension door team, there's a clatter of reloading and checking of supply. Jukebox gives his lungs a rest, and leans shivering against the trench wall. Ordo snags a Kreig pistol for a souvenier, and heads over to the hatch; Cpl Spade a few strides behind him.

The Warforged, battered but in much better spirits with this small victory than they they first regrouped, taps his helmet and looks back at Pvt Gamble, and Lt Bathory. He taps his helmet with two fingers mischievously.

"Don't-"

And then he's gone. Particularly perceptive eyes might see the shell actually cleave through his metallic frame before detonating on the ground beneath him; a sighting round for a coming barrage of field artillery that have not failed to notice the daring little salient produced by the displaced Skyknives.

The transition from living, talking comrade to crater, and shrapnelized fragments of brass, steel and wood is so quick and shocking that it's almost comical. There's nothing left that is discernably the corporal at all - scraps of blackened metal that might have been from the munition, or a mine, or any other part of this gods-awful debacle of a war.

No time to mourn - with this round comes the telltale whistling of others, and all that remains is to rush onward with the plan.

Spoiler: OOC: INCOMING!

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I want DC15 Reflex saves from everyone as they desperately get away from the incoming artillery barrage. Lt Bathory and Pvt Gamble can have advantage, since the teleport is a much quicker way to leave than funnelling madly in to the tunnels. Successful saves mean you avoid damage entirely; failure means you're clipped with fragmentation for (8d6)[30] piercing damage.

The hatch leads to a ladder which, slid down with all haste, the soldiers find a concrete walled, sealed tunnel that angles off to a horizontal after about fifty feet of drop. Yellow, electrical lamps are fixed to the ceiling at regular intervals, all intact, all casting the same jaundiced illumination over the sterile interior. You can still hear the thumping from above, and dust shaking free and pouring down; but it seems the structure beneath is well suited to holding against such suffering. The tunnel proceeds for another 30ft straight ahead (toward the Defiant Wall), before terminating in a T-Junction whose branches are presently hidden from you.

Spoiler: OOC, Tunnel Team:

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I'm gonna need good ol' fashion marching order from you, Sgt Xilo. If anyone wants to do anything as/before you move up, like searching for traps, healing after that barrage, or making any other preparation, now's the time to do it. Past that, I want stealth checks from everyone (DC 13, but advantage because there's a war going on.) Whoever is on point can make me an open Perception check as you sneak forward, too.

If you decide to slow down to check for traps, that's an investigation roll you can through out too. Anyone who is trained in Theives Tools or Investigation (or something close enough) can make that check; but naturally, if you're marching last, you might not notice the thing until the guy at front has kicked it.

Meanwhile, Gamble and Lt Bathory vanish through the flickering magics of the combat scroll, leaving the storm of shrapnel behind. When they reappear, they're precisely where the Lt targetted them - standing behind the machine gun nest halfway up the ramp on the cliff wall. From here, you see the madness of the war sprawling away up and down the beach; tanks churning the sand and struggling in the surf; the silhuoettes of big ships in the gloomy west as the sun begins to rise in the east; the thousands, and thousands of men and women rushing selflessly on into the lead and fire of history's ravenous maw. And just infront of you, a team of four operating the large, heavy machinegun mounted on a pintle sunk with a concrete footer into the ramp's edge. A human man with short blonde hair is feeding the ammo belt into the gun, chattering away under the skillful direction of a goliath woman - the vibration of the powerful weapon barely shaking her powerful arms and shoulders. Her hair, like the hair of the dwarf woman peering through binoculars to her right, is woven close to her scalp in a combat-capable Aquiteauxan braid. The fourth member of the team, marked as a krieg Oberleutnant, is an awkward looking halfelf with the most awful, hunched posture you've ever seen on an otherwise elegant people; crouched uncomfortably, scouting, hair greasy, short and black beneath his cap.

All four are facing forward as they pour fire out on the advance below. And not one of them seems to have noticed your arrival.

Spoiler: OOC, Teleport Team

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We're gonna call that a surprise round for you guys! All the targets are relatively close - but if you're planning on making use of the concrete skirting wall and the sandbags to cover your ambush from outside fire, it'll be hard to use explosives without threatening yourselves here too. But then again, fortune favours the bold!

[JbeJ275]

Sal doesn't play witness to the thoughtless impersonal murder of his warforged comrade above, insead stepping neatly into the grate just as the first artillery shells impact into the bunker system above him, one particularly large piece of metal shrapnel flying just above the tips of his horns as he slid down the ladder to below. The construt unwinds itself from his arm, and lathes onto the topmost rung of the ladder. Sending out shielding pulses to anyone who get within ten feet of the hatch and trying to somewhat extend the safe area, or at least ensure those hit can make it to safety before the barrage finishes them off.

Once down, he immedietly sinks low, and starts down the tunnel. Watching to determine the path of the soldiers that beat their retreat here and looking for any traps they either wound around or may have stopped to activate. He also keeps a general eye ahead of him for unexpected visitors in these tunnels, or the sounds of ambush. And fiddles with healing syringes on his belt that he'd personally cooked up after "borrowing" the morphine and herbal tinctures from Doc, hoping anyone wh needs one will stay intat long enough to recieve it.

[Cavir]

Something inside Sgt Xiloscient's head told him to move or be dead. He desperately jumps out of the trench then down into the busted bunker but it wasn't fast enough to fully beat out the speed of an incoming artillery shell and it's death boom. The blast catches him just entering into the bunker, bouncing him around in the concrete and rebar rubble, before falling down through the hatch. He's able to grab a rung and catch himself before some body part gets tangled up and broken. The rest of the way down is controlled but not as quick as usual since he was feeling like a rag doll in a pinball game.

He shook himself to get back into the moment and took in the surroundings. "Only one way to go for now. Jukekox, keep up with with Sal. Ordo, you're with me. Keep your intervals. Expect company up ahead." Once Jukebox is moving he nods to Ordo to follow. Xilo takes the rear for now to fully regain his senses.

Spoiler: OOC

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I think it's just the four of us left. If wrong I'll updated the post. Are Jukebox and Ordo Riflemen?

At 22/51hp with 8 temp hp
Second Wind, healing (1d10+5)[15]

[stanleyindraven]

Private Gamble pulls his weasel bomb from his bag and tosses it into the midst of the four operating the gun. Then he puts himself between the explosion and the Lieutenant.

[Awful]

Lt Bathory
HP 26/32, ARCANE WARD 0/15,

Even as she was whisked through space, shrapnel raced towards her and won. Her shield cracked and shattered, its energies spent, and red-hot metal clawed at the vampire's flesh.

<Head down, you big lug! >

Even as the giant hurled his bomb, the ground between them and the enemy heaved itself up in an ungainly heal to shelter the pair from the explosion. Behind layers of mud and meat, Bathory ducked and covered her head.

[MrAbdiel]

On the ramp...

Gamble throws his Weasel, and covers Lt Bathory; Lt Bathory manipulates the earth to cover them both; and with a quartet of alarmed shouts, the gunning team lurches into panicked action. The goliath woman and the dwarfess are both in motion as the human ammo-feeder shrills the alarm. The hunched, ugly looking officer blinks in bland surprise, caught entirely offguard. In a moment of something like heroism, the ammo-feeder dives at the bomb, snatches it in one hand, and pitches it up - but too slow. It detonates in the air above him, catching him, the dwarf spotter, and the Oberleutnant in the blast, with the goliath woman just able to hurl herself over the sandbags in time. There's a deafening boom, (this one a little more co-ordinated, so no deafening occurs), some mortal screams, and the twisted metal sound of the machine gun blasted into several large pieces, hailing down on the field below. The dwarf's body is mutilated, the humans rendered to portions none larger than a man's fist; but the Oberleutnant staggers back, and remarkably, doesn't fall. What does fall is the guise he wore, the shape melting away with the damage dealt, and giving rise to an entirely new frame. Still hunched, still lank haired, still ugly as sin, but now green-grey skinned, with fields of gnobbly warts and scars; huge, long limbs invested with bone-twisting power and jaundiced yellow eyes... And all this, in a tailored, if not especially clean, Vult Oberleutnant's uniform. The troll gives an offended, barking shout, wraps its great, long fingers around the hilt at his hip, and draws a gleaming cavalry sabre large enough to be anyone else's falchion. And far at the top of the ramp, you see the other HMG team beginning a well earned freak-out, and preparing to remount their gun facing down the slope.

Spoiler: Ramp Team!

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I'm going to need Initiatives. The Kreigers here are going on a 16, so if you beat that, you can take another action before they go!

Oh, and while we're rolling, I'm going to need Dex saves against that blast!. It's 27 damage, and the DC is 15. You can both have advantage from the canny use of Mold Earth. There's no real provision for body-blocking increasing a reflex save... but I like to reward cool stuff, so here. The DC is going up by two for Gamble for being a meatshield, and down by two for Bathory for being meat shielded. That's DC 17 and 13 respectively, with advantage, or suffer 27 thunder damage.

Down in the Tunnels...

Jukebox and Sal moving up first, with O'Hara hustling along in the middle, and Ordo and Xilo at the rear, the squad begins to move through the tunnel. The T-Junction ahead provides no clues as to which way is best - and after some deliberation, you choose once, and move on. This, in turn, leads to another T-Junction, where you are confronted with a similar problem. This you bypass in a similar way, down another corridor of sterile electric lights with the sound of the war overhead bleeding through the earth. Then another; and another. And at about that time, at the fourth junction, it begins to become clear you are not experiencing the world, precisely, as it is. The corridors are identical. Backtracking does not yield a return to the shaft leading back to the surface. Rapidly, the tunnel stops seeming like a way to navigate the hazardous battlefield, and more like some purgatorial trap from which there may be no escape!

Spoiler: Rolls I require from the damned herein!

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1. A DC 10 Wisdom save. One again, against generalized fear of death. You can remake the failed save at the end of your turn. If you roll a natural 1, you should consider that your character may take his time in this place as an ongoing source of haunting dreams and trauma.

2. A DC 17 Perception check.

Spoiler: Perception Success:

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There's someone breathing in this corridor. Or, more specifically, there's two sets of breathing in this corridor that do not track to any of the soldiers you have with you. You're being watched by something or someone capable of being unseen even in this well lit empty hallway.

3. A DC 17 Arcana check, if you're trained.

Spoiler: Arcana Success:

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This is some kind of illusion trap. There must be some way to navigate it, perhaps with a magical talisman or known pass phrase or some other action or thing to pierce the illusion. But without some kind of inside knowledge as to what it is, you might be here for days trial-and-erroring - or you might simply starve in the attempt.

4. A squad initiative check, using Sgt. Xilo's initiative.

There's 5 of you there - O'Hara, your tortollan light machine gunner and cleric of the Almighty, is present, if a little quiet. And still in need of making his save against the artillery, I think. Ordo and Jukebox are both riflemen.

[Cavir]

Sgt Xilo got the other attention with barely a sound then kept his voice low. "Hold up, gather in and keep alert."

"There's something not right here. Must be some magic. Fix bayonets. Keep in physical contact with the one in front of you. We stay in a group at least."

He suddenly stops and raises a fist. Slowly he points to his ear, signals two, then points in the direction that he heard the noise. Keeping his ears focused on triangulating the noise he quietly draws his bayonet and affixes it. A basic skill any skyknife can do in pitch darkness without a thought. Once everyone is ready he has the group move toward the sound with whoever closest leading, whether it's himself or not.

[JbeJ275]

"It's some illusion glamer. Maybe a fey thing I dunno. Leaves this area unmapable unless you have the right phrase or some sorta physical key. Anyone loot the ones we got and see anything likely? It seems unlikely the guys who ported in would be left totally unable to retreat in case their scrolls were targeted. Or if it's a phrase keep your ears out, with the wedge we put in that bunker line we might be hearing a few more of them attempt to retreat soon and if they're yeling a passcode it'll be good to know. Or if anyone is kitted out with illusion popping magics you might be able to save us a lot of trouble.

[Awful]

Lt Bathory
HP 26/32, ARCANE WARD 0/15,

<Up and at them, Skyknife!>

She snapped off a hasty firebolt towards the troll officer, but her head was still ringing from the blast; the shot went wide.

[Cavir]

"Illusion. Right. Need to keep in contact with each other. Even if they seem to become some a monster, keep your head on straight."

[MrAbdiel]

On the Ramp...

The goliath woman peeks over the sandbags, ears blinking and drawing her sidearm with one hand; but forced out of her cover, she's just desperately trying to understand what has just transpired and how to avoid small arms fire from the beach, and the sudden attackers on the ramp.

The Oberleutnant troll, blood pouring from one ear, totters for a moment with the LT's fireball ripping past his shoulder; then he lunges forward with regathered fury, slashing out wildly at the raging Pvt. Gamble and intending to make a quick, messy end of this ambush. Further up the ramp, the other machine gun team is shouting and reacting; but it's hard to discern their motion with such frantic danger so much closer.

Spoiler: Bad guys on the Ramp!

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Goliath-frauline uses the dodge action; she's exposed from all angles right now and doesn't like it. The Oberleutnant troll slashes out with his sabre, however, at Gamble.

Sabre attack 1 (1d20+7)[24], for (2d8+4)[12] slashing damage.
Sabre attack 2 (1d20+7)[20], for (2d8+4)[14] slashing damage.
Bite Sabre attack 1 (1d20+7)[25], for (1d6+4)[10] piercing damage.

And, if you care to roll as a free action...

Spoiler: Perception DC 15 to interpret what the other gun team is doing!

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Based on the tone of their shouts and the fact that you're not getting shot right now, they've deemed the tight melee too close to fire into. If they see a target on the ramp that isn't in close with one of their own living troops, they're lightly to swivel the gun and start hosing down the ramp. A pair of offsiders from that team are squinting down their ironsights on their rifles, trying to track a shot on Lt Bathory, who isn't absolutely adjacent to the melee just yet.

The LT went, the bad guys went; now we're back into the easy cycle of all-you, all-them. So Gamble and Bathory can take turns before the enemy attacks again!

Down in the Tunnels...

Pvt. O'Hara, hearing the warning about glammers and interpreting the handsign about enemies unseen, lets his machine gun sag to the side in one arm and extends the fingers of the other hand to gesture lambent gold symbols in the air. "What is done in the dark will be brought to the light..." He murmurs. A burst of swarming golden motes, like fireflies of divine energy, whirl from his hand and over to the indicated zone. A flicker of irregularity in the light indicates two shapes moving hastilly away, man-sized, but too quick to be caught in the burst; but a third, not so quick, is suddely outlined in golden accusation. A clear, golden silhouette of an invisible stolder holding a pistol in one hand and some kind of upraised baton in the other suddenly jerks back in its place some thirty feet away, looking down at its revealed self, and hoarsely whispers in panic to some other party in the room - someone to his immediate right, based on the inclination of his head. There's an angry shushing from the empty space, and then the golden-outline points its baton at O'Hara with some desperation. There is a swirl of wind, as something approaches; and combat is joined in this desperate place.

Spoiler: Gasp! Enemies here? In enemy tunnels? Unthinkable!

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Autopilot-O'Hara flings a divine faerie fire at the place Xilo indicated, and is rewarded by catching an invisible enemy in the burst! If he'd failed, the enemy would have a surprise round. But since he didn't, combat joins all at once!
Roll initiatives! Anyone who beats or equals a (1d20+4)[14] can take an action right away; then it's the enemies; then we'll be back into a comfortable cycle of all-you, all-them.

There's one 'visible' faerie fired enemy 30ft away, and you're pretty sure there's atleast two more nearby. You have advantage to attack the target who is lit up, though!

[stanleyindraven]

"Bring it!" Bruce shouts as the troll lays into him. Bruce pulls the a large bat from its resting place in his pack and brings the fight back to the troll.

Bat swing one (1d20+7)[12]
damage (1d8+6)[14]

Bat swing two (1d20+7)[15]
damage (1d8+6)[7]

Check that perception (1d20+2)[5]

[Cavir]

Sgt Xilo steps to the side to not be in the line of fire from his small squad behind him. "There's at least three. Use grenades, I'm out." He shoots twice at the outlined enemy.

Spoiler: OOC

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Next time, requisitioning more grenades
Two shots, with advantage.

Shot1: (1d20+10)[13] or (1d20+10)[26]
Damage (1d8+5)[6]

Shot2: (1d20+10)[14] or (1d20+10)[20]
Damage (1d8+5)[11]

The maneuvers (PHB p 74) talk about using superiority dice with weapon attacks. Does that include ranged weapons? I have Commander's Strike, Precision Attack, and Rally.

[MrAbdiel]

Pvt Ordo pulls the pin on a grenade with his teeth, and flings it down the corridor at the golden-lit shape. The figure itself throws itself clear, tumbling and getting up holding its head as it covers from the blast and the shrapnel. But another figure, previously unseen, is thrown back, suddenly visable, to skid bloodily to a halt on the ground, lifeless. Mangled by fragmentation, a black uniformed Vult soldier lies - a half-elf male, blond of hair and tan of skin. The left eye is covered with a black patch, partially skewed by the killing blast. Jukebox burbles out a warning - "Use grenades," the snatch of sound replicating the order given; but with his shattered arm, the little kenku awkwardly fumbles one handed to stow his weapon under his arm and draw a grenade, the window to use it without endangering his comrades rapidly closing.

The other isn't fast enough to avoid Sgt. Xilo's bullets, however; splashes of blood painting the walls behind the golden outline, the air filling with sourceless, pained cries. The figure gestures with its baton, and fires with the shape of a sidearm in the other hand; both pointed at the sergeant. The sounds of the pistol are a muted clap in the ear-ringing aftermath of the grenade... but then there's another assault on the sergeant, coming from the empty air with malice unseen, but certainly felt; slamming, buffeting force trying to thrash the elf with skull-cracking force against the walls of the tunnel.

Spoiler: Attacks on Xilo!

Show

Pistol shots: (1d20+5)[16] for (1d6+3)[6] damage.

Invisible Assailant attacks:

(1d20+6)[10] or (1d20+6)[14], for (2d6+3)[11].
(1d20+6)[19] or (1d20+6)[14], for (2d6+3)[12].

Ordo tossed his grenade, which killed one invisible guy and missed the others. Jukebox fumbles to produce a grenade one handed. The enemies gang up on the sergeant. Then it's your turns again!

[JbeJ275]

Salamir is in motion as the bullets begin to ring out towards the commander, moving towards him and sighting his Hellfire rifle at the invisible disturbance, from one arm a fire bolt seeks their uninjured assailant. From the other arm a now familiar shielding pulse emits from his other arm to once more cover his squad.

To Hit: (1d20+9)[22] or (1d20+9)[21]
Damage: (2d10)[4][3](7)+ (1d8)[8](8)=15

[Awful]

Lt Bathory
HP 30/32, ARCANE WARD 0/15,

Concious of the enemy machine-gun position, Bathory pulled on the energy stored in her ring to knit together some of her scrapes. As she did so, she tossed up a grenade. In mid-air, her familiar caught it and let it drop smoothly onto the position of the goliath soldier. The grenade fell much as the skyknives had; ready to bring an end to one of the Volk's trained killers.

[MrAbdiel]

On the Ramp...

The grenade is deposited with tandem precision, mistress and minion working together. The goliath woman scrabbles back as the grenade drops, but then she's at the edge of the cliff - and there's nowhere to go. The grenade bursts with a bang! and the Kreig woman goes down, howling in pain, contorted in agony as the right side of her body is a mess of blood and fragmentation.

The Oberleutnant swats aside the heavier of the bat's blows, and catches the second on the temple; but even as Pvt Gamble goes toe to toe with the monstrosity, it seems to be recovering from damage as fast as it can be dealt to him. This seems to occur to the troll too, who sheathes his sword, and lurches forward attempting to grab both Private and Lieutenant, in left and right claws respectively.

Spoiler: Rolls!

Show

The goliath woman is extremely badly injured, though not dead. The Troll-Oberleutnant is regenerating, and looks barely scratched! He makes two grapple attempts, one on each of ya.

Bathory - (1d20+7)[13]
Gamble - (1d20+7)[24]
If he hits your AC, you're Grappled. You can spend your action rolling Dex/Acrobatics or Str/Athletics to break the grapple, if you so wish; and he'll oppose you with Str/Athletics.

Bad guys, done, it's your turn!

[Cavir]

The pistol shot cleanly misses Sgt Xilo. The invisible attacker manages a glancing blow mostly deflected by Sal's shielding. Xilo responds with a bayonet stab and issuing orders. "Sal, keep up the firing."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

One hit for 12 but 8 is absorbed by the shielding, which is then refreshed back to 10. At 33/51hp, AC 17.

Attack with disadvantage.
Stab: (1d20+6)[26] or (1d20+6)[9]
Damage: (1d8+4)[12]

Use a superiority die for Commander's Strike. Sal gets to attack again with (1d8)[3] extra damage.

[JbeJ275]

Sir Yes Sir!!! Barks back Sal as his fingers dance over the hellfire rifle, attempting to empower and discharge it beyond it's usual rate of fire, spitting further flames at the enemies surrounding them.

Spoiler: Rolls

Show

Attack: (1d20+9)[29]
Damage: (2d10)[10][7](17)+(1d8)[4]