Immersive Ink

eris wrote:

waysoftheearth wrote:Dieter finishes another of the hobgoblins with a sickening crunch of bone, gore and gristle as Ulric slips back into the keep and Pelenwin moves out of it...

Up above, Olaf and Highbough spy the line of hobgoblin troopers mounting a row of three crossbows along the tops of their shield wall...

Olaf shouts down to the men below, "Yo! Crossbowmen at the shield wall! You might be in range of them where you are!"

eris wrote:
From atop the battlements, Olaf thinks his range might be a bit longer...especially if he angles his shot up in an arc to let it fall among the goblins, so he will draw back his bow and take a shot...

If his shot falls short, he will only have lost one arrow, but if he has the range, he can drop arrows down on the hobgoblins. That might move them further back...maybe back beyond crossbow range of Dieter and the others.

tonneau wrote:
"Dieter!", yells Gustave, nodding toward the evolving crossbow structure, "time for a break old chap".

With that he moves swiftly back to the cover of the walls, and squeezes again through the gate.

"A fine mess this is turning into", he mutters.

danhem wrote:
Ulric finds some cover behind the wall next to the portcullis, but he keeps an eye on the proceedings beyond the gate.

coffee wrote:
Dieter looks hard at the hobgoblins as he moves to his next victim. Are they really going to shoot?

"You haven't got the guts!" he roars. "I've killed ogres, me! You're nothing!"

And with that, he plunges his sword into another of their brethren.


(All the while he's ready to utter the command word and leap to safety. But it's always nice to rattle your enemy!)

tonneau wrote:
"The line between bravery and insanity is a fine one indeed", observes Gustave in the shadows of the gateway.

waysoftheearth wrote:
On the Battlement

The range is rather extreme -- perhaps 40 or 50 yards -- but Olaf is willing to try his seventh last arrow. He strains his short-bow to its utmost and aims high into the dreary sky... and at last fires away his arrow, punching the bow forward with grunt as it launches...

the missiles flies in a high arc, all but vanishing from sight at its apex, and the then turning downward...

waysoftheearth wrote:
At the Front Gate

Dieter bellows his challenge! He is the Ogre Slayer! What are they but pathetic fodder for his sword? The yellow-skinned goblins spit, and hock streams of phlegm and snot from their knobbly noses, and train their beady red and black eyes on him down the sights of their crossbows...

...there is movement right by him, and Dieter notices his yelling has roused the slumbering goblins, who are now shaking the heads and looking about them in some confusion.

Dieter finishes roaring as he stabs his sword deeply into the guts of the nearest hobgoblin, who squeals like a stuck pig as Dieter drags a viscious slash through his bowels, finishing his sorry existence in a ghastly gout of blue-red guts and black gore.

As his rips his bloody sword free they fire.

(2d20; 8, 17)

Dieter dodges hastily as a black missile tears through the air beside him, but cannot evade the second which was aimed with evil cunning. The bolt punches into his upper body like a horse kick!

(3dd=3,3,2 for 6 hit points; will Dieter sacrifice his shield?)

waysoftheearth wrote:
...and then Olaf's missile rushes earthward from the sky (1d20=13), sticking into the ground a few yards short of the goblin shield wall.

mushgnome wrote:
"Stand with me, brothers-in-arms! We will hold this keep against this hated foe, or else die a Hero's death. Though I tire of this world, my frail bones have one more battle left in them yet!" urges Highbough trying to rally his comrades. "Hold the gate, and if the courtyard be overrun, join me on the battlements for our courageous last stand!"

Secretly he thinks, I wish we had a catapult...