The First Adventure

[ehiker133]

Dougal flicks a stone at one of the ants. It strikes it sharply just below the head, partially severing it.

Dougal fires off a stone from his sling at the fleeing ants.

Dougal's sword slices behind the abdomen, severing legs along with the bulbous black thorax.

That's one heck of a sling-shot!

Oh, sh*t! Haha. Sorry. How about this?

[acodispo]

I laughed out loud at the image of Dougal slinging a stone so hard that when it hit it allowed him to cross the intervening space instantaneously and deliver a sword blow.

That's Chuck Norris territory right there.

[waysoftheearth]

Tet huffs from the rear and hurls his javelin/spear mightily at the fleeing monsters. "Take that!"he glowers with the missile still in flight...

Apologies Team; been under the hammer at work recently

[mushgnome]

No worrys, @waysoftheearth, I've been tied up myself.

Next update coming soon... the ant pursuit!!

[mushgnome]

Exploration Turn 15, Combat Turn 1 continues

Tet lobs his spear and kills a third ant.

The final ant drops its burden and scurries off unencumbered to the west. The Hobbets give chase! We switch back from combat to exploration timekeeping.

The tunnel twists and forks and turns. At the end of Turn 15 our heroes reach the point marked 'X' on the map below and find themselves at the edge of a 30' drop. The ant climbs effortlessly at full movement rate down the steep slope, and soon vanishes to the north, past the edge of the party's torchlight.

Thus concludes Turn 15. What will you do next? You are getting tired from all this fighting and running. You feel like you could keep up pursuit if you wanted to, but after that, you'll need a rest. The drop-off slopes at a 60 degree angle and is rough with hand and footholds. Let's rule that non-thieves can safely climb up or down on a roll of 4-6, and success is automatic if a fixed rope is used or for a thief character.

I'm making Tet's spear-toss retroactive to Combat Turn 1 and assuming he joins the pursuit.

I'm also ruling that, because the combat was so short, the pursuit will take place on the same exploration turn.

Tet's attack roll = 19 for 6 damage.

"Flight and pursuit speed is four moves per turn with no mapping possible."

"Two turns of rest are required after flight or pursuit."

Your torches will burn out at the end of Turn 17.

[Ebon Hearted Soul]

Chegs says, "Though I hate the thought of not finishing off the ant, by the time we get down to the bottom the ant might already be at its hive. Maybe we can leave a short trail of food going back the way we came and sneak around the bend into the section of tunnel...if it leads anywhere or we can follow it after all. What suggestions do you lot have?" . Chegs rests the head of his hammer upon his right shoulder gazing into the darkness below.

[acodispo]

Willie catches his breath after the chase & looks around.

"Nah, let's just let it go," he pants in response to Chegs' question. "I'm more worried about where we've gotten ourselves to!"

"Anybody have an extra torch I could use?"

Putting his hands on his hips in "thinking posture" he surveys the two possible paths behind them.

Any idea which way we came from?

If we choose not to pursue, when's our next required rest?

[mushgnome]

1 rest turn is required after combat.
2 rest turns are required after pursuit.

I'm flexible how we handle the rest turns.

On the one hand, we could just skip through them as quickly as possible and get back to the action.

On the other hand, the players could use the rest turns for non-strenuous exploration of their environment, role-playing, team-building, etc.

Whichever the players think is more fun.

[acodispo]

I gather then that we're due for at least 1, possibly 2 rest turns at this point. My suggestion: we use the turn(s) to take stock of the surroundings, and give some serious thought to whether we arrived here from the right or the left.

[waysoftheearth]

Whew! exclaims Tet, puffing hard and privately amazed at his own spear throw, That's how you do it!

If his spear can be retrieved easily, he does so.

I reckon we could use some oil to burn that there ant trail so more o' 'em don't come following it back to find us, he suggests.