SESSION 50: DUE DILIGENCE
Trone asks Lothar to secure the eastern passage whilst he and Lamarr go and quickly check the rat cave and the guard area. "There are so many of these little monsters. We don't want to get surrounded on the basis we didn't do our due diligence."
As Lothar forms up with the party they take a quick look down the passage to the east where one of the cowardly kobold had run off too. It goes to the south east at least 40 or 50 feet.
Meanwhile Trone and Lamarr make sure that the cave behind them is still uninhabited, which it is. They quickly check for secret doors and find none.
They come back to the guard post and similarly check it for secret doors. It's a quick check (they don't want to take that much time to do a Take 20) and they don't find any.
"Lothar," Trone directly addresses the cleric to get his attention, "the guards poor armour is not protecting them enough. They're getting hit too easily and it's wearing down our resources. I'll go in the front rank with one of the guards and then you back me in the front rank. We'll have to rotate the guards if they or I get wounded. Agreed?"
Lothar agrees and they quickly re-organise their formation with Georg at the front with Trone.
As they move down the long south eastern passage they notice some unfinished works.
"What's that?" asks Lothar.
Lamarr answers "They're building traps. Shoring up their defences."
Trone adds "Looks like we've interrupted them before they could finish."
They come to an intersection with one corridor heading due east and the other heading due north.
As they stand in the intersection deciding where to go two arrows are fired into the group from the north. One thuds into Trone's shield but is harmless. The other barely misses Georg.
Peering into the inky darkness they can see two big kobolds re-loading their bows to fire another round.
ROUND 1A – INCOMING
Initiative: Kobolds d20 = 11 + 1 = 12. Party d20 10 + 0 = 10.
• The western most kobold fires another arrow at the flat footed Trone but it misses.
• The eastern kobold fires at the flat footed Georg but it too misses.
ROUND 1B – RESPONSE
• Trone immediately charges the western kobold. He critically hits it as he maliciously twists the blade of the longsword as it enters the kobolds shoulder and does 14pts of damage. The kobold yelps in a cry of pain as it dies of shock.
• The more lightly armed Georg tries to follow suit and he charges the eastern most kobold but he misses.
• Lothar is worried about being attacked from the rear. He uses one action to Handle Animal to try to get Luther to guard the intersection. He needs to roll a DC 10 – 3 Handle Animal skill = 7. He rolls a 12 and Luther looks up and immediately understands the orders of his master and moves to the intersection. Lothar uses his remaining action to move up in support of Trone and yells to Lamarr to guard the intersection with Luther.
• Luki naturally follows Lothar and defaults to Guard mode, guarding his master.
• Tedrick follows up the assault.
• Lamarr guards the intersection, glad to have the vicious guard dog Luther with him for company.
[DM'S Note: I've been struggling a bit to work out what to do with the guard dogs when they don't have an order and they've defaulted to a guard order, ie to guard Lothar their master. Do they just stay stationary or do they go somewhere random or do they follow Lothar? I think I'll interpret the default guard order to mean that they'll follow Lothar and will attack anyone who attacks him. After all that's what dogs do, follow you around unless you stop them.]
ROUND 2A – REDEPLOY
• The remaining kobold must make a morale check as it's the first casualty in combat. He rolls 7 on 2d6 and passes his morale of 8.
• The kobold makes a Withdrawal move and skitters down the corridor to the east.
• Another arrow thuds into Trone's shield. Trone looks up from the direction from which the arrow comes and sees there is another kobold.
ROUND 2B – THINING RESOURCES
• Trone gives chase, double moving down the corridor after the kobold but he's not as fast as the little beast and he can't catch it.
• George keeps pace with Trone. He could probably catch it but wouldn't be able to attack and so figures it's better to stay in formation.
• As Lothar rounds the corner he sees that there is a door to their rear. He doesn't like this one bit. They're getting strung out and could be attacked from the rear. He uses his second action to order Luki to Guard the intersection. He needs to roll a 7 and rolls an 18. Luki diligently runs over to the intersection and sits down ready. He shouts to Tedrick to guard the intersection with Luki.
• Tedrick duly moves up alongside the big hound.
ROUND 3A – IRONTOOTH
• The withdrawing kobold turns and fires another shot at Trone and again misses.
• As Trone dodges the arrow he looks beyond the bodyguard kobold and can see a harem of ½ a dozen or so female kobolds and a massive old grizzly kobold in their centre. This must be King Irontooth he thinks to himself.
• The other bodyguard kobold fires an arrow at Georg and hits him in the face. It is a grizzly wound, opening his cheek and dealing 3pts of damage. Being the first time wounded in this combat, Georg will need to test for morale at the start of the next round.
• King Irontooth shouts out "Yippped, yap..yapie yap yip humee!!!"
• One of the females yells "Soon you die humees!!!"
DEW