Sigil

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Guard 1

Location: J12 -> Off The Map, West

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Fun, so much fun to be had later. This was not exactly part of it. A fair fight was to be avoided if at all possible and this exchange of hurt wasn't the ambush/quick kidnapping that they had expected. The order came from the Constable, who so far had kept their loyalty well enough by various means and, most importantly, it make sense. There was a good chance, in Guard 1's estimation (despite the harm that had come to him so far), that they could still pull a win out of this. The cost might have been too high, factors considered. So he did as ordered.

A hissing sound escaped his lips as his features shifted slightly. Still grasping his spear with one hand, his fingers elongated slightly and came to end in short, wicked claws. Eyes became beady and reflective of a distinct redness common to rodentkind, and he bent lower to the ground. These changes were in detail purely; the Guard did not fully take a different form. But he did use his newfound low center of gravity to scramble backward, carefully but quickly, as he roguishly Disengaged from the fight in front of him. When out of immediate striking range, he burst away into a dead run, Dashing as fast as his feet would carry him. He ran to the west, along the main road as he looked for a good evasion spot.

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Guard 2

Location: K12 -> Q4

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Guard 2 went through a similar transformation, slight but easily notable from this close distance. Rodent-y features scrawled themselves across his previously sneering but otherwise average looking face. Between the three-armed Dragonborn and whatever the hell was staring at him beneath its burlap armor that followed the violinist, he wholeheartedly agreed with the order to scatter. Also as with his colleague, he took part in a very roguish Disengage before sprinting away in a different direction than Guard 1 - hence the command of scatter - at a Dash.

Right as he rounded the corner of the building nearest him with the intent of heading south, his slowed just enough to look back at the rest of the people in front of the silversmith's place. Guard 2 even seemed to intentionally take the turn wide, as if to telegraph his intended destination. A ploy or a just the consequences of taking one last look back was open to debate, but he wasted no further time, pouring on the speed after.




@Arty Fox Baronfjord is up next.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Victoria Belmont Half-Elf, Bard, Level 3 HP: 23 / 23 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: M15 -> K14 Action: Casting Minor Illusion Bonus Action: Morty Reaction: N/A

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Victoria's song continued to play, with those around to hear it making interesting and unexpected moves. This was not exactly the grand and sweeping circular movements of a formal ball, complete with curtsies and bows to accentuate the occasion before one sets off, but the end result of those feeling the melody of her music was sweet enough to count as a rousing success around the comparative peerage of this Township. Music amid blood and magic, Victoria had to admit, was exhilarating. A singular feeling she so rarely experienced unless something tragically eventful was afoot. In this way, the adventuring life had been good to her.

The abrupt exit of Cavendish took her by surprise. This probably did would not bode well in the coming future, but precious time might have been brought if only they could capitalize upon it. Along with this assumption, another came in the form of the flash of magic coming from the window above thanks to Marita. Was this an all-out attack, or a means of interrupting the sniper shots coming at them? If it was the latter, she intended to help. If it was the former, she might owe the Cleric an apology later.

A swift mental command changed the standing orders of her meaty bodyguard, Morty, who began to move toward its master with its uneven gait. Victoria let the music take her into graceful, dancing steps into the rain, immersing herself into the melody as it opened her to temporarily rewrite the complexities of the Weave around her (and closing distance to spell range). In this instance, the image of a brick wall formed over the window which Guard 3 was standing behind, cutting off his line of sight. Merely buying time, if this was the goal. Hopefully it would make the man behind the crossbow think hard if he intended to loose his weapon one last time before following the Constable's orders. At the very least he would have to waste time puzzling out if it was a solid conjuration or the illusion that it really was.

Diligently, Morty placed itself between Victoria and Guard 2 (at K13) to prevent an immediate attack on her person and potentially flank for her allies. The expression on the poor, dead beast was unreadable, thanks to the layers of burlap wrapped about it. And the fact that it was a mindless slab of animated meat.

@rivaan Kosara is up next. TAG!

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Battle Map

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Cavendish

Location: L16 -> H22 -> ?

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Hoarse laughter followed the tall woman's plea for their surrender. It was damn near adorable if it wasn't such a pitiful attempt at appealing to some sense of something that likely wasn't ever in his character int he first place. Such a naive young warrior. No, Cavendish was going to be quite content to insert his very painful looking shortsword into various places of her anatomy until any concept of mercy or goodwill in combat was cut out in the same manner as a novice butcher might hack apart his first lamb - messily and without any particular plan.

Maybe it was a joke. Yes that must be it. No one would actually spout that nonsense seriously in the middle of mortal combat in a rainy street. The Constable eyed Kathryn and opened his mouth to speak, a sneer forming on his lips, but he paused. The sound of one of the guards in their makeshift murder-hole above calling out gave him a split second to think. A quick glance around gave him as much of an assessment as he wanted. Then he spoke. "Nothing changes! SCATTER!" It was apparent that he was speaking to his Guards at that moment, but the next words were for Kathryn alone, "I'll have that hammer back soon enough." It carried the weight of a promise from a dedicated man. Something which bothered him in this moment was that Kathryn would probably believe that his coming course of action had something to do with her speech about surrendering.

He sidestepped and broke into a run with remarkable agility, tearing off in a generally northeastern direction toward a side street. A mist, thick as any fog that ever was, formed around him and dissipated in an instant, leaving nothing of itself nor Cavendish remaining.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Guard 4

Location: D17 -> B17

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Oh, that woman who stepped out of the silversmith's place had royally screwed up now. She was manifesting something that was obviously magical, and that was Guard 4's cue to insert a crossbow bolt into one part of her skull or another. This was coming. She had to realize this by now. He took careful aim and exhaled slowly. This was going to hurt.

It turned out, it did hurt. Very, very much. The Guard hadn't quite noticed that a painful looking dagger comprised of spiritual energy had manifested right next to him until it sank heavily into his gut. This was the opposite of what he intended to happen over the course of the next few moments. Pure, dogged determination saw him squeezing the release mechanism and firing off his weapon in Marita's direction, but the shock and pain of the attack saw the bolt fly wide.

"Back! Back!" exclaimed the Guard to his companion in the raised bailey, as he himself scrambled out of sight of the fighting below. The hope was that the weapon needed to be guided by an unbroken view and was not fully autonomous. It had been a while since he had been hurt like this.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Guard 3

Location: D12

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His orders were simple, and simply put. There were only a few things that could hurt them now, and magic was one of them. The crossbow wielding Guards were there purely as a deterrent should the unlikely event of the odd magic user be present. It looked like there was more than one. At this point, he couldn't be sure how many of them there were, or even if they all were. So he had to make his decision on who to shoot at based upon which of these people were actively showing magical effects.

The first, and most obvious one was the reptilian fellow missing an arm (in the traditional sense). Big, glowy arms were a dead giveaway, even if he didn't seem to be using magic in a traditional sense. There was a woman who didn't seem to be doing anything obvious in the way of sorcery, but looked suspicious. Then another who was, for whatever moronic reason, playing a damned violin in the middle of a fight. But nothing obvious from her except for apparent foolishness. But there was one who was out in the open and cast a spell with which this person was quite familiar.

The two Guards in their elevated locations glanced to one another, with the same thought in mind. But the one who took aim was the only one who spoke:

"Tiefling." the crossbow twanged once, propelling a bolt in Kosara's direction. It scored a respectable enough hit before he ducked back to reload.


@rivaan Kosara has taken 5 points of piercing damage.

@Dragoknighte Your turn. Huzzah!

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Guard 1

Location: J12

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The Guard was obstinate. He had no intention of dying on this rainy autumn day, though he had to admit that getting knocked around by magic - magic, of all things - frigging hurt. This most recent attack slammed into him with less force than before, but still, OUCH. This was not his favorite way to spend an afternoon, and to be quite frank, those attacks were piling up to a very negative outcome.

This was rural living; the only practitioners of the arcane were supposed to be the occasional Cleric (and there really wasn't much of a religious presence in this town) or a hedge magician of some kind who stumbled onto a useful trick or two. Hells, the last person of any magical ability who lived here left this place a while ago for bigger and better things. Now there were a group of them and one in particular was giving him a hard time. Well, no matter. She had sealed her fate the moment she openly cast an attacking spell in front of the crossbowmen. Then blatantly taunted them. Then didn't bother moving or taking cover. All he had to do was hold on for a liiiittle longer.

But first! He really, really wanted to stab her. His spear was still in hand and he intended to use it. Teeth were bared, slightly elongated incisors in view and lisping out a hiss of aggression as he spiraled the weapon in his hands, looking for an opening. It was an easy find, as it turned out. The tip of the weapon pressed against Kosara's flesh. It met unexpected resistance at first as the woman's mage Armor held, but a concentrated shove helped to get past it, barely. Blood was drawn. It was a minor victory at best. He wrenched the spear free and made for the same spot again, hoping that he had found a weak point in her defense, only to pass his spear through empty air. Full miss.

@rivaan Kosara has taken 5 points of piercing damage.

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Guard 2

Location: K12

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Guard 2 had a decision to make. None of his options were particularly great at this time and it looked like the two opposing forces were more or less evenly matched if his allies in more elevated positions got a couple hits in. But this was all wrong. This was supposed to be an easy, overwhelming win for them. There weren't supposed to be this many people capable of using magic. There weren't supposed to be this many people here at all. And the Constable? Either he was the one being overwhelmed, or he was holding back for some purpose unknown to him. This was not exactly going to the battle plan. But they could still pull out a victory. This was far from lost.

Between himself and the other Guard next to him, they could probably both gang up on the slender Tiefling and fill her full of holes before she could compensate for the rush. But this would place his back to the strange Dragonborn with three arms, two of which were ...interesting... at best. And painful. The Guard to his side was damaged but not down yet. No, he would go by the ancient and well-polished art of looking after his own skin. Be it that their orders were to concentrate on the tall woman, they had to get by these two to get to her.

Baronfjord it was, then. This was an unusual opponent, and he hadn't his spear on his person. Maybe if he could dip low and snatch it up, he could attack under the magic appendages and hit the scaly flesh behind them. If he was able to strike a final blow, he might even claim the unorthodox combatant's shortsword for his own. Yeah, they would turn this fight in their favor, and this azure outsider would go down first. The crossbow bolt had already done an remarkable job, all he had to do was finish it. The Guard made his move.

The low assault of a matter of a couple of feet was executed flawlessly as his boots shuffled in exactly the right balance of speed and coordination. No jerky movements were these, but the practiced steps of a men intent on skewering his prey like one might a charging boar. His lithe, strong fingers wrapped around the haft of his dropped spear and his other hand touched the ground briefly, giving him the exact balance necessary to insert the point of his weapon between the ribs of his enemy. His thrust was executed without tangible flaw to his martial technique, and he was in the exact position to put this person down.

Then he missed. Utterly. TWICE.

Looking very foolish, the Guard righted himself and stepped back, sighing as his own ineptitude, and breathed out a quiet, "...well, shit."

@Arty Fox Your turn!

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

@Dragoknighte@rivaan@Remipa Awesome@Sigil@Arty Fox

And we have our newly updated "Initiative Order:"

Cavendish
Victoria
Kosara
Guard 1
Guard 2
Baronfjord
Guard 3
Marita
Kathryn
Guard 4

In the previous round, the two hidden Guards were given an end-of-round action because of circumstances. Now that they are active and in play, they join in in the proper Initiative, which admittedly looks a whole lot like the way it panned out this time, except that Guard 3 got just a little luckier than Marita and Kat.

Anyway, I would like to bring up some header issues - make sure you are updating this. This includes Location, including the format for movement on the map. Don't put unnecessary things into it unless previously approved. These things make my job tracking stuff easier.

And as always, please remember to tag the next person in Initiative order. Thanks!

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Victoria Belmont Half-Elf, Bard, Level 3 HP: 23 / 23 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: P17 -> M15 Action: Casting Healing Word for Kathryn Bonus Action: Bardic Inspiration on Kosara Reaction: N/A

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This was not going exactly as hoped. But when blood began to flow, can it really be said that things were precisely hitting the plan? Unless one was the aggressor, probably not. The thought of being the aggressor wasn't far-fetched, in Victoria's mind, though she took some satisfaction in the knowledge that they were defending someone from the onslaught of villainy. Especially since the object of their defense was fixing up her sword for her (for five gold coins she rightly pocketed earlier), though such materialism was not completely the issue. Either way, Victoria was who she was, and today she was on the side of righteousness.

The purple-clad Bard took her first steps out into the open of this brouhaha, violin in hand. It was time to fulfill her established role in this, or really any adventuring group, rather than act in substitute to another. So she lifted bow to strings ans started playing. It was spirited and demonstrated talent; likely also a lot of chutzpah to play a song in the middle of a mortal struggle. But as notes filled the air, the effect of it was palpable.

To start, Victoria looked to Kathryn and softly vocalized a note. A single, melodic syllable escaped her lips, washing over the stalwart warrior with a minor amount of soothing, healing energy. Secondly, the song from her violin became recognizable to those who had heard it previously. This played in The Infamous Pear back in Darenby, when she and Kosara put on a performance for the people gathered. The message passed along was a supportive, "You've got this," at that time, and the song's meaning carried through on this occasion as well. Kosara looked like she was ready to perform some manner of combative action and Victoria wanted to give an advantage, considering she was out in the wide open, more exposed than most in this fight.

@Remipa Awesome Kathryn gets 6 points of heals.

@rivaan Kosara is now Inspired, 1d6 that can be added to one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw. Additionally, it can also be added to a spell that restores hit points or deals damage. ALSO - TAG, you're up next!

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Battle Map

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Cavendish

Location: L16

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This was unexpected. Damn these people and damn his cousin Gregory for sending them. By no means was this the end of the discussion. If Cavendish had his way, they would set fire to the silversmith's after every one of these people were tied up inside. Including that fly-in-the-ointment Jacques Mallard. Needless to say, he had to turn this fight around, and quickly.

Cavendish righted himself with a remarkable demonstration of dexterity. It still cost him a precious moment, but this was not his place to fall and people would know it. As he rose, the Constable's fingers closed around the hilt of a vicious-looking shortsword at his belt. He kept low, and set himself to the utilitarian labor of a simple and unrelenting series of motions designed to aerate someone's midsection. He was aiming to cripple and set an example of this tall, critically annoying woman.

The first such blow landed in what might have been a critical spot, were it not covered with stout (enough) armor. The shortsword clanged and turned, incapable this time of penetrating Kathryn's physical defenses. He was so flustered by what had transpired that his second attack was even more poorly executed. Even if Kat were wearing no protection at all, this wouldn't have been effective.

Such failure was unacceptable. Perhaps it was nearing time for other methods to be implemented.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

"...MAGIC!"

The cry went up mere seconds prior and a lot seemed to happen in that time. From the direction which Cavendish had been looking before this meeting turned to violence (and by extension the same direction the guard yelled his proclamation after Kosara cast her very painful cantrip), a quick flutter of movement could be seen. Across the street from the silversmith's shop stood a building with a double-peaked roof, each peak bearing an attic window, and each shutter attached to these attic windows suddenly flung open. Others under the command of the Constable knelt behind these windows bearing crossbows, keyed into the threat of magic users. And so the conflict continued.

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Guard 3

Location: D12

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The utterance of that word, "Magic", in a loud voice was all the prompting necessary to put these Guards into their pre-decided roles for the conflict. But when shutters opened and the time to drill someone to death with a crossbow bolt from afar, no one was actively priming a spell. Sure, there were two people who were mostly unarmed which were visible, but only one with big, nigh spectral arms floating around themself. He took aim at the Dragonborn with a simple and effectively crafted light crossbow and depressed the trigger mechanism.

The bolt flew unerringly, nigh perfectly with just enough of a spiral, riding the wind like a leaf upon the surface of a river. It was almost poetic in its travel across the thoroughfare. A critical success, one might say. The bolt found a new home with Baronfjord. One might suspect that it was an unwelcome tenant.

@Arty Fox Baronfjord has taken 10 points of piercing damage.

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Guard 4

Location: D17

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Emboldened by his colleague on the other side of the attic, Guard 4 let out a mighty "AHA!" and took aim for himself. Yes, the blue lizard-fellow was going down, and he would be the one to take its skin for a charming belt and boot combo. Maybe some gloves if there was enough left over. Or a vest. Definitely a vest over the other selections. Okay, vest if nothing else. Ah, the plans he had.

His crossbow twanged with fury and the utmost of stabbiness, releasing its payload into the air. If intent could be weaponized, this fine device would be throwing boulders as the stoniest of giants might. Yes, this was going to hurt.

Unfortunately, the bolt flew so wide as to be laughable, causing the ranged antagonist to facepalm. This was an almost utter failure.