(079) What a Gnome Knows

[acodispo]

"Check that iron door and watch behind!" the little man mutters to no one in particular.

Then Wetzel looks at Zax, his eyes showing the whites.

"More?"

Assuming an affirmative, he starts off down the corridor, keeping to the right, watching the side passages, and advancing cautiously but firmly toward the sunlight. He hopes to leave room for Akbar to get off missile fire before they close.

[Tonneau]

"Hmm...sounds complicated," whispers Zax in reply to The Herald's scheme, "I was thinkin' just ta bust their heads in."

He nods to Wetzel, and lines up the goblin on the left.

As soon as he is in range, Zax lobs a hand-axe at the greenskin, then closes with ice-pick and shield

[waysoftheearth]

It's very obvious that the guards have just seen you all tramp into the corridor and murder one of their kind. There's every possibility the little fellow could have been a son or nephew, or second or third cousin to one of them...

[Tonneau]

Hrmph

Zax doesnt care how aware they are, they are still going to wear his throwing-axe

[flightcommander]

Surely Akbar, who's been at the ready with his arbalest, can get a clean shot at one of the buggers before melee is engaged?

[waysoftheearth]

The sunlit portal must be a hundred feet off if it is twenty, well too far for any throwing axe; but Akbar's arbelast is a more suitable tool...

He sidles to a wider position that he might fire past his advancing fellows, aims for but a squint of the eye, before loosing his quarrel. Far up the passage, one of the two hobgoblin guards is going for a small gong that dangles there just inside the door, but the moment before he sounds it, he is shot dead--right through the chest--spins fully around with the force of it, then flops in a discordant heap.

Seeing this the second goblin hurries back, making to strike the gong with his axe.

Akbar's shot (FC Man+1) d20 + 1 → 11. Ah, now this throw would hit AC 8, but the damnable arbelast ignores armor, punching through mail as though it were tin foil. So Akbar hits his mark, and d6 → 5 tis a solid hit too.

The ref dices for hobgoblin hp d6 + 1 → 5, so one fellow is slain.

The ref dices for the second fellow's morale: 2d6 + 1 → 10, but he is a hard and loyal goblin, and won't be giving up easily...

Your orders?

[coffee]

Karl's inclination is to hit them hard with everything we've got.

Can he get his bow up and fire an arrow fast enough to stop the other goblin banging the gong? (Does he even have a clear shot through his comrades?)

[sully]

The Herald stays away from the corridor, wanting to give his comrades a clear view for ranged attacks. He'll examine the room from which the torch-carrying goblin emerged. If time permits, he'll look at the dunjon door on the other side of the corridor as well.

[Tonneau]

Zax follows through with his intended scheme of planting an axe in the greenskins head.

100 feet or no, Zax wonders if this ref realises this is a gnome we are talking about here, not a mere standard stunty. Presumably if he was moving forward last round he can be within (gnome) axe range this round?

[waysoftheearth]

100 feet or no, Zax wonders if this ref realises this is a gnome we are talking about here, not a mere standard stunty. Presumably if he was moving forward last round he can be within (gnome) axe range this round?

Rest assured that I presumed Zax used his last turn to move toward the hobgoblins. In plate armour with a 100 lb load a gnome moves under 7" per turn, so he has made about half the distance; a throwing axe has 3" range. Yes--unless the hobgoblin flees--Zax will come within throwing range in the upcoming turn.